Page 25 of Wickedly Ever After
Ida dove into the nearest rhododendron bush. She crouched, trying not to breathe herself.
Hector came into view. His hair and beard were more silver than black now, but his green eyes were as vivid as sheremembered. Even in ratty old trousers and a weathered and ridiculously outdated red tunic, he still impressed her as he had so many years ago, back when his hair was the color of midnight and the startling green eyes stared out of a younger man’s face. He leaned on his blackthorn staff, gazing at the vivid red and yellow goldfish and their fabulous tails with interest. “These are lovely. I’d like a fish pond in our courtyard, but with razor-toothed redfish. I always wanted a pool of redfish.”
“We’d have to put in a heater. They’d freeze in winter,” said a disembodied voice somewhere on Hector’s right.
“Maybe I’ll buyThe Quintessence of Beingfrom Alistair. It would go some way to getting him to forgive me for insisting he do his dragonly duty.”
Great. First a poet and now he sends a sculptor. What is it about dragons and fine arts?Ida leaned into the bushes, trying to see the other speaker.
Hector sighed. “Tinbit, come out of the daisies. He’s not here.”
“What if he’s in that rhododendron, watching me? That thing’s so huge you could put a whole family of gnomes in there.” A wild, disheveled little gnome with black hair and flame-colored eyes appeared, brushing a forest of leaves from his gray overalls.
Hector shook his head. “You told me you couldn’t wait to meet him.”
“I did, but I didn’t know I’d be sick to my stomach about it! I can’t take any more of this. Let’s go back. He doesn’t want to see me. If he did, he’d have come out to meet me.”
“Oh, for mermaid’s tears, Tinbit! Something must havecome up, that’s all. I’m sure he’d be here if he could.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Tinbit relaxed a fraction. “Can we go back anyway? If I saw him now, I’d have to explain this.” He gestured to his clothes.
“I could say I pushed you into the leaf pile,” Hector said. “I am a wicked witch after all. I’m supposed to mistreat my servants.”
“Yeah right,” Tinbit said. “He’d take one look at you and know you never did. You couldn’t keep a straight face.”
Hector chuckled. “You’re probably right.”
“You really think he couldn’t come? He didn’t stand me up? Because I don’t think I can take it if he doesn’t come to dinner on Moonsday. Oh, Gods, Hector, what if he doesn’t? Maybe I should just say I can’t make it, send him a letter—”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Hector said. “I’m going to the game, you are going to dinner, he will show, you’re going to have a great time, and I’m not coming back early, in case something happens.”
“Nothing is going to happen,” Tinbit said, blushing furiously.
“Well, if it does, I’ll be out of your way.” Hector strolled around the pond and set off across the lawn.
Tinbit kicked a hazelnut that rolled almost to Ida’s feet. “I swear, Hector, you’re enough to make me want to thump you.” He trotted off after his witch.
So that was Tinbit. Hari had said the name, but it hadn’t meant anything to her. Hector had never mentioned him before. Of course, he hadn’t. He’d set this up. More payback for his scalded behind.
“Of all the reprehensible, vindictive, petty…” She crawled out of the shrubbery on all fours, shaking with rage.
Well, she’d just have to put a stop to it. Hari wasnotgoing tofall in love with Hector’s gnome.
***
For the rest of the evening, it was all she thought about—how best to thwart Hector’s diabolical plan. Hari styled her hair for the dinner, valiantly prattling on about how it was okay, he hadn’t promised Tinbit he’d come to the garden and maybe they had just missed each other. She fumed, hearing the heartbreak in his voice. It made her want to stomp out of her room, go find Hector, and scream in his face about just how much he couldn’t take a joke. But that would mean admitting he’d gotten her with his spell, and she would never give him that kind of satisfaction. No, she’d have to get Hari out of this carefully, or more things than Hari’s heart could be hurt.
“I may be back late,” she said. “Annabeth hinted at something like a palaver afterwards and you know she can go on and on when she’s in the mood. Are you sure you won’t come? The castle library is one of the finest in the world, and it might take your mind off…things.”
“No, I’ll be okay,” he said. “Now you, I worry about…”
“I can control my temper,” she promised.With Annabeth.But if Hector so much as showed his long nose tonight, she wasn’t sure she could do the same with him. Then again, he never went to these things if he could help it. He hadn’t cared about her end of the magic almost since the inception of it, so why would he change now?
Glumly, she opened her valise and pulled out a slender glass vial adorned only with a golden stopper made in the shape of a rose to identify it. This was the second half of her part of the Happily-Ever-After, a love potion brewed from rose petals, thesame rose that the Common Princess had crushed under her heel when she left. She gave it an experimental shake, and all the gold and red within swirled inside like a romantic dream, or a freshly opened wound.
There were times when she was sure that love magic should never have been the province of a good witch. It looked too much like poison.
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