Page 85 of A Witch in Notting Hill

“Terribly.” She smiled around her straw, and I almost collapsed into the dirt.

“Gross,” Lola said, ruining what might have been a nice moment, if a little sarcastic.

“Ignore her,” I said. “She may wear a lot of things well, but jealousy isn’t one of them.”

“You lost me after ‘she may wear a lot of things well,’” she said, and Willow laughed. A relaxed, melodical laugh that made me grateful Lola was here, even if she drove me insane. If she could get that uninhibited laugh out of Willow, she was welcome around any time.

“So, what’s the plan?” Min asked, ever the leader. Without him, we’d likely still be stuck on the isle. If we even made it that far.

“There’s a meditation later we could try,” Lola said, flipping through a brochure she must have grabbed when we walked in. I reminded myself to keep an open mind. “And a moon water workshop. And a lantern walk through the park—that might be nice.”

“Where to first?” I asked, trying to throw myself into it before I could run in the opposite direction.

“Moon water, for sure,” Lola said, and Willow nodded in agreement. I hadn’t the foggiest what made that the obvious choice, but who was I to argue?

The workshop was being held in an open part of the park, which I quickly learned was so the water could absorb the moonlight without being obscured by a tent. We listened as the woman running the workshop, Aurora, explained the importance of moon water rituals, reminding us of the divine femininity of the moon goddesses.

She read some poetry or spells or something about the water acting as a catalyst for the moon’s power, before distributing vessels filled with water and instructing us to place our meaningful objects inside. It seemed like everyone else had come prepared with all sorts of things to put in the water: herbs, dried fruit, crystals. The four of us looked around, somewherebetween bewildered and self-conscious about our lack of preparation.

“What the hell are we supposed to put in there?” Minho asked, holding the water up to the moonlight and peering through the glass.

“Whatever this is?” Lola asked, pulling up a small weed and dropping it into her glass.

“So meaningful,” Min said.

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“I have a lavender perfume?” Willow said, rifling through her bag. “Maybe a spritz of that?”

That bloody lavender perfume. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it since the first time I got close to her, and now I was supposed to actually bottle it? Maybe I wouldn’t trash the moon water as soon as we left here after all.

“Now it just... sits and waits?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Gets charged by the moon.”

“Then what do we do with it?”

“Sometimes you can drink it, but I hardly think with the perfume and the weeds any of us plan on doing that,” she said, and laughed. “But you can water plants with it, clean with it, whatever. You just have to, uh, put an intention into it for it to work. You don’t have to say it out loud or anything. Or I guess you don’t have to say it at all. But if you wanted to, you could think something you wanted, and the water would sort of help you achieve it.”

I hated the way her sentences sounded like questions even though she knew exactly what she was talking about. She was softening her beliefs for me, which made me an arsehole. And I needed to snap out of it. Fast.

“Right, then. I can just think of something and it’ll go into the water?”

She smiled, and I stopped caring if I sounded like an idiot. “Yep,” she confirmed. “Just close your eyes when you do it. And make sure you really mean it.”

“And it can be anything I want?”

“That’s the beauty of it. You can ask for healing, clarity, growth, whatever.”

“Can we ask for love?” Lola asked.

“You don’t want love,” Min said. “You’d rather ask for a good shag.”

“I don’t have to ask for that.” She wiggled her eyebrows, and Minho pretended to gag himself.

“Don’t ruin the moment,” I said, and they both snapped their heads to me, as surprised as I was.

“Yes, sir,” Minho said. “Let’s set our intentions, then.” He and Lola immediately closed their eyes, leaving Willow and I to linger a moment longer. The way she was smiling at me, soft and hopeful, I thought I’d never close my eyes again.