“Three, two, one,” Sadie said, and they both drank the elixir.
A few moments passed.
“Do you feel any different?” Sadie asked.
“Yeah, like my insides are trying to claw their way out.” His skin went white, and before Sadie could ask another question, he leaned over the circle of salt and vomited into the tomatoes.
“Okay,” she said, trying to hide the disappoint in her voice as she rubbed a hand up and down his back. “One down, onto the next.
Seth was still too ill, so she left him on the couch to recover and made her way to the Delvaux family’s house on her own. They lived on the opposite side of town, in an all-white manor house with marble columns and a sweeping front porch. Adina answered the door in a long, flowing dress, her green eyes soft with concern as she pulled Sadie into a hug.
“I have a spell,” she said, cutting right to the chase. Adina was a few years younger than Sadie and though she didn’t know the girl well, Sadie liked her no-nonsense manner.
After explicit instructions and a detailed lesson in how to pronounce the French portion of the spell, Sadie left. The spark of hope was small, but it was there, and she let it fuel her as she went to the café. Seth wouldn’t be ready to try the spell for another few hours, and she needed to be somewhere familiar, keeping her hands and heart busy.
It was the lunchtime rush, and Ayana was refreshing the pastry case while Gail rang up customers. Sadie slipped behind the counter, tied an apron around her waist, and slid into the swing of things. She cleared tables and refreshed coffees, delivered orders and stopped to chat with both familiar and unfamiliar faces. There was a tall, blond woman sitting by the window and a cherubic little girl in a high chair next to her.
“And who’s this?” Sadie asked, smiling at the girl. She thought of Jake and Bethany, and her smile froze in place.
“This is Grey,” the mom said, her eyes brightening as she said her daughter’s name. Grey’s blonde curls looked like golden wheat swaying in the summer sun, and her caramel-colored eyes were flecked with green. “She’s only fifteen months old, but she’s so tall people always think she’s older. This is our first time here. We’re from Aurelia and my girlfriend kept raving about this place, and I just had to get out of the house, you know? So, here we are,” she said, and laughed self-consciously. “Sorry, I haven’t been talking to a lot of adults lately.”
“I’m so glad you came,” Sadie said warmly. They continued to chat while Grey pulled things out of her mother’s purse, until the bell over the front door rang and Sadie’s neck grew warm. “Can I get you two anything else?” Sadie asked the woman, whose name she’d just forgotten. The woman smiled and shook her head.
“I’d do just about anything for a cup of coffee,” Jake said as he followed Sadie to the counter. She felt lighter in his presence, like the spark of hope she had when she’d left Adina had grown to a small blaze in her chest. It felt like a betrayal, knowing he belonged to Bethany, but flames were tricky things that eluded whatever might put them out.
“It’s your lucky day,” she said, busying herself with his order. She didn’t ask what he wanted. She already knew. A vanilla cappuccino with nutmeg and cinnamon on top.
“I just got off,” he said. “And wanted to see—”
“How I was doing?” she finished for him. “I’m fine,” she added with a smile, pushing the cappuccino toward him and then turning to package up a piece of honeyed peach and lavender tart with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. She pushed the tart toward him.
“Hey, Sade?” He paused at the door.
“No, you may not have your dog back, Jake. But if you’re on your best behavior, I might let him have a sleepover.”
His laugh trailed after him down the street, leaving little starbursts of light in the air.
“Can’t we wait until tomorrow?” Seth complained.
“Absolutely not,” Sadie said, scandalized. “Excuse me but I hardly think this is the time to lollygag.”
“Who even uses the word lollygag anymore?”
“I have another choice few words I could use instead.”
“Alright, alright, I’m coming.”
“Outside,” she said. The aunts and Florence were in the kitchen, pouring over Gigi’s journal and old recipe books, still looking for any clues they’d missed, anything that might set them on the right path for saving Seth. And she preferred to do this in nature, anyway.