Page 88 of Hopelessly Teavoted
From the eager expression on Priscilla’s face, Vickie knew what her old friend was rooting for.
“You don’t have to,” said Azrael, looking embarrassed. “She’s not suggesting we have to.”
“Azrael,” she said. “Iamserious about you. I want to hear what it would be like. How it would work.”
He pressed his lips together, emotions at war on his face. “Would you really want to bind yourself to me? A soul-binding is forever. Do you realize what it would mean?”
Vickie turned to Priscilla. “Explain it so he knows I understand.”
“There is some spell work, and some plant craft. Nothing simple, but also nothing beyond what we have in the greenhouse. Myrtle. Rue. Honey, harvested yourself from a wild beehive. You work the spell, clear whatever lingers between you untold. You set a magical seal, with Az. A permanent magical seal.”
“It cannot be undone,” he added. His eyes clouded.
“What does that mean, exactly?” Vickie’s voice sounded reedy and desperate, and for a moment Priscilla’s eyebrows furrowed, her head tilting to the side, mouth drawing into a tight line.
“It means that there can be no lies between you, first of all, and then, you set the seal upon your heart. Upon your souls.” Prissy looked at her brother. “It’s serious enough that most witches don’t do it.”
“How does the seal work? Literally, I mean. What do we do to set the spell?” She hoped it wouldn’t be painful or bloody. It didn’t sound like it.
“We kiss,” he explained, a muscle in his cheek twitching. “But it’s a… significant kiss. A soul binding. It means we will always be bound to each other.” Az looked at Vickie, and then looked away.
“Az. We are bound to each other already, with or without a spell.” Vickie hoped he would hear the honesty of her words and take heart, but the weight of the attempt was terrifying. She knew they were tied to each other now, again, even with a curse keeping them physically apart, but they hadn’t been back in each other’s lives for long at all. She wasn’t sure how things would turn out this time around. And she had other concerns too.
“If we did it, and I’m not saying we should do it, just that I want to know all our options. If we did it wrong, or if it didn’t take. What would happen if it doesn’t work?” Vickie whispered, though part of her already knew the answer.
He shrugged, snapping his ungloved fingers, on the hand opposite the one touching hers. The music picked up again, louder, and their drinks refilled. Wreaths of flowers settled around them on the table and danced into the air. He scattered a few purple lilies around her table setting and drink with another snap, as though sensing how nervous she was about this new information.
“If it doesn’t work,” he said, running a gloved thumb over her own, “then I die.”
“Oh.” Vickie bit her lip. “So, no pressure, then.”
“It will work,” said Evelyn, confident. All business. “If you decide to do it. If you love each other completely, and without reserve, it will work.”
That was the catch, then. There could be no reservations. And just as she was finally sure she didn’t have any, she had the awful sensation that maybe, just maybe, he did.
Azrael didn’t meet Vickie’s eyes, and her stomach lurched.
What reserve was he hiding behind that sculpted face? She could keep going as they were, pretending when she needed, until she was sure that reserve wasn’t, well, deadly.
“Take some time,” said Priscilla, snapping her fingers sothat the chicken appeared on their plates, garnished with fingerling potatoes and fresh herbs. “You two should talk about it after dinner. For now, let’s all go around the table and say things we like about one another.”
Azrael’s smile curled up, his eyes still crinkled in slight distress.
“Hart family grace. Like Mom and Dad used to do.”
“Yep. I’ll start. Evelyn,ma chérie, I love that you are as exquisite in the Council room as you are in my foyer. Fucking perfect, everywhere.” Prissy winked, her hand resting on Evelyn’s back and the necklace there. She and Evelyn smiled at each other, unspoken words passing between them. “Az, I love that you are a good brother, despite never being as enthusiastic about my pranks as I want. And now that you’re back here, you always show up. It means a lot. I know I could count on you to drive a getaway car if I ever needed it. Vickie, I love that you bought Hopelessly Teavoted and stopped it from becoming bougie and boring.”
Evelyn leaned in and brushed a kiss along Priscilla’s jaw that would have been too much for most dinner tables.
Not the Harts’, though.
“Priscilla, lovey, I worship that thing you do—you know which one. We’ll go to my place tonight.” Evelyn winked, and Vickie was startled to see unflappable Priscilla blush, actually blush, and Azrael look like he did not want any further information. “Azrael, I love that you are both a powerful witch and a high school teacher. You’re exactly the sort of absurdly noble combination I want in my chosen family.” He smiled at this, clearly relieved she had shifted the subject. “And Victoria, I simply love that gown. The corset is giving me Swiftie.”
“Thank you.” ShelovedHart grace, and it was the perfect relief from the tension of discussing forevers. “Well, Evelyn, I love your entire vibe. The outfit, your condo’s decor, the fact that you’re the president of the Witchery Council. All of it. And Priscilla, I love that you don’t take any crap from anyone, including Azrael.”
Vickie swallowed, looking across the table. Deciding between the smutty and the silly, the absurd and the thigh-clenching.
“Azrael Ashmedai Hart,” Vickie began. “I love that you’re willing to raise the dead with me if that’s what it takes to solve a mystery.”
