Page 97 of Love Spells: And Other Non-Refundable Magic

“Wait. Is that from the witch?”

Apparently, my face answers for me.

“Merryweather, please.”

“Keep your voice down.”

“Why is your witch sending things to Briarwood?”

“She isn’t sending things to Briarwood, Dani. She’s sending things to me. I wasn’t about to give a stranger on the internet my home address,” I blurt, and that finally seems to satisfy her, or at least it replaces the amusement on her face with something closer to approval. “She’s already cosmically intervening with my future, I don’t want to take any other risks.”

“That’s actually smart.”

“Thank you.”

“Although I’d argue the smarter option would have been not ordering mysterious objects from an internet witch in the first place.”

“Oh my god! You told me to order a spell from Whisp!”

“And look at where it’s brought you.”

The corner of her mouth tips upward. I hate that she has a point.

“So what is it?”

“Just a bracelet.” I slide my thumb beneath the edge of the tape and lift the bracelet out of the box. “Oh, wow.”

I expected some sort of pink stone, obviously. The Third Fairy told me as much when she sent out that first message. What I didn’t expect was to look at it and immediately think that it looks like me.

I couldn’t begin to explain why one stone belongs beside another or why the colors feel right when I’m not even sure I would have thought to put them together myself. But I know instantly that if I’d passed a table covered in bracelets, this is the one I would have picked up.

Something flutters beneath my ribs at how easily this woman I’ve never met seems to know me.

“Oh, that’s pretty,” Dani says.

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

“I’m not surprised. I just wasn’t sure what custom witch jewelry looked like.”

I smile and slip the bracelet onto my wrist. It settles against my skin so naturally that I turn my hand once, watching the stones move⁠—

“Merry?”

I look up. Phillip is standing on the other side of my desk.

My gaze drops immediately back to the bracelet. Oh, for fuck’s sake.

No, this cannot be a sign.

This is a man who works in, and possibly owns, this building. Running into him here is probably not statistically remarkable. There are mathematical models capable of proving that, I’m sure.

“Merry.” Phillip smiles as he says my name again. “Good morning.”

“Hi.”

Beside me, Dani has gone suspiciously quiet. I catch her taking a step backward and narrow my eyes. She gives me a tiny, apologetic shrug and points in the general direction of her desk, as though some urgent corporate matter has suddenly materialized there and requires her immediate attention.

Coward.