Page 99 of Boss Witch

That soul magic thing? It’s real. I felt it with him.

Ethel caught Clem’s arm as she was headed behind Danica to the car. “From what I hear, he’s nearly done with his work for the council. And once he’s released, he’ll be free to do whatever he wishes. Life’s too short, my dear. If you regret how things ended, you can always begin again.”

“It’s already over,” Clem muttered.

“Not because either of you wanted it to be. Yes, you met under the wrong circumstances, but think of it this way… Gavin was essentially raised in a cult. He’s been through deprogramming now, and he’s made amends. Only you can decide if that’s enough for you to feel safe giving him another chance. A real one this time.”

With that, Ethel patted Clem on the arm and hurried after Vanessa in a swirl of filmy chiffon and floral perfume. Danica was driving tonight, so Clem hopped in the passenger side, feeling pensive. Her cousin glanced at her as she started the car.

“What was that about?”

Quietly Clem summarized what the older witch had said on the drive home, with Danica listening in silence. “Thoughts?” Clem asked, as Danica pulled into their driveway.

“I agree with her. To me, it seems like you’ve simply been…waiting. I didn’t say anything because you get prickly when I offer unsolicited advice.”

Clem brought her shoulders up, silently acknowledging the charge. “It’s because of Gram. No matter how smart or well-­intended the suggestion is, I have this knee-­jerk ‘you’re not the boss of me’ reaction.”

“Yeah, and I have the tendency to panic and expect you to fix the shit I’ve broken. We’re both works in progress.”

Impulsively Clem hugged Danica across the small car console. “As long as you know,” she muttered.

“We’d be lost without you. Hell, you’re the one in the coven we call when shit goes sideways. Like, if there was a body to be buried, you’d be all, ‘Okay, we’ll need a tarp, a shovel, some bleach—­’ and we’d follow your plan, whatever it might be.”

“Love you,” Clem mumbled.

She’d probably never be as open about these things as Danica.And that’s okay.

Smiling faintly, Clem climbed out of the car, but she still heard her cousin’s cheerful call of “love you too.”

At the front door, Goliath was waiting for them. She smirked. “Seriously, what’s your secret? What’d you do to this cat?”

“I’m a pussy magnet, what can I say?” Danica sashayed into the house, not even seeming slightly sorry about that pun.

“You’ve been waiting your whole life to use that, haven’t you?” Clem called.

Danica grinned over her shoulder. “The last one too, probably. Do you ever wonder about that?”

“Reincarnation? Sometimes, but I have enough problems in this lifetime, so I don’t linger over it.” She hesitated. “You really think I should contact him?”

There was no question who she was talking about.

“Totally. If you want. If you miss him. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?”

Since Clem had a tendency to get in her own way, she refused to overthink this. She marched directly upstairs, opened her laptop, and brought up the last email from Gavin, the one that broke her heart, even if she’d been pretending otherwise for the last year and a half.

Time didn’t heal all wounds. Some you just learned to live with.

She took a deep breath, typed three words, and hit send.

***

I MISS YOU.

The email popped into Gavin’s inbox at the perfect moment, just as he was packing up his life as a council healer. Benson was perched on his shoulder, nuzzling into his neck.It’s from her, isn’t it? You already smell happier.

“Quiet, you.” The words lacked heat because Gavinwasbursting with excitement, practically beside himself with glee.

With the records retrieved from the now-­defunct order and the support of the council’s best diviners, he’d not only restored every witch he’d ever located, but he’d also tracked down others who needed help as well. Finally, it felt like some of the weight had lifted from his soul, but it wasn’t enough. He didn’t want to live like a nomad anymore, and St. Claire had been calling from the moment he’d left.

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