Chapter 3

“How did I screw up Laurel’s education so badly?” Clover asked her husband as she got ready for bed. James was already in bed reading.

“Come on baby, you can’t be so hard on yourself,” James responded. “We didn’t see the signs in time. She’s just one of those kids who needs more socialization. We’ll fix it.”

“It’s just, she was so interested in magic - so eager to soak it all up,” Clover explained as she crawled into bed with James. “After Hunter’s complete disinterest, and all my mom’s talk about the family legacy, I thought ... I thought Laurel could be one of the greats if I could just spend enough time with her.”

“Maybe she still can,” James suggested.

Clover shook her head. “She’s pulling away from me. Pretty soon spending time in the garden with mom will be the last thing she wants to do.”

James held her hand.

“She wants me to teach her glamours,” Clover announced.

“You don’t think she’s good enough yet?” James asked.

“She’s more than ready on a technical level,” Clover explained. “But she’s not mature enough. I don’t trust her to be responsible.”

“I don’t get it,” James said. “Isn’t it just like magical makeup? What’s the big deal, we let her pierce her ears years ago.

“Makeup. Photoshop. For someone who really knows what they’re doing, it can approach a love potion or almost even mind control. Honestly I’d be a lot less concerned if she weren’t such a good student,” Clover said with a frown.

James put his book on the nightstand. He kissed his wife on the cheek and then the neck, and wrapped his arm around her waist - his unspoken code for asking if she wanted to fool around tonight.

“I’m really excited about this workshop, but I feel like this is the worst possible time in Laurel’s life for me to be away from her,” Clover continued, ignoring James’ advances.

“I’ll be here for her,” James explained soothingly. He withdrew to his own side of the bed and held Clover’s hand again. “You’ll go to Portugal, and you will help teach the next generation of master witches. And you’ll learn all kinds of exciting new techniques yourself. After a week, the kids will go out of their way to talk to you on FaceTime. And after a month they’ll be begging you to tell them stories about all of the people you’ve met. And after two months, we will all meet you at the airport and make all the other travelers jealous with how much we’ve missed you.”

Clover squeezed his hand, and then turned out the light on her nightstand. James followed suit. “I love you James,” she said.