Gretel and I were both up early the next morning for work. I was taking a quick shower with soft music playing on the little speaker in our bathroom, trying to relax as I got ready for the day. Our shower wasn’t great, nothing like the ones we had at The Landmark, the boutique hotel I’d worked at for the past six months. But Gretel and I had carefully styled this bathroom and made it ours in a way that was so cozy and comfortable that I never wanted to get out. And hidden by the sketched fish on the blue shower curtain, I was protected from the bullshit of the world beyond. 

But I had to be at work in an hour and Gretel was going to need the shower in a few minutes, so I guess I had to finish up. The bathroom door opened as I was shaving my leg, propped awkwardly on one foot with the other foot up against the shower wall.

“Just me,” Gretel said, as though maybe someone else would have been confident enough to stroll through our bedroom and go into the bathroom while I was showering. Joel, while arrogant, was not suicidally so.

“Hey,” I called over the hiss of the shower and the guitars coming from my speaker. “I’m almost done.”

“Take your time,” she said. “Do you mind if I brush my teeth?”

“Not at all.”

The curtain rustled as Gretel walked in. “No peeking,” I teased as I ran the razor up my shin. “I’m not pretty yet.”

“Bullshit, you aren’t,” Gretel said with a laugh. “But I’ll let you shower in peace.”

We were quiet for a moment as I heard the faucet turning on, then off. It was peaceful here, an ordinary start to an ordinary day. And maybe I didn’t have to lie to myself about that. Maybe we really could just have an ordinary day together.

As ordinary as being on the lookout for an evil wizard could be. But I had my event planning job at the hotel and she had her receptionist position at the dentist’s office. And I’d been there to drop things off. While I couldn’t lie to myself about the fact that she used magic while she was there, it truly was a regular-looking office with a page on the Salem Chamber of Commerce’s website and everything.

I hissed as I nicked my knee with my razor. Blood welled up and immediately washed away as the shower spray hit it, stinging even as I moved out of the way with a murmured swear.

“Are you okay?” Gretel asked.

“Fine,” I said. “Just a nick.”

A bad one, apparently. The tiny cut kept stinging as I shifted to stand on both feet again. Bloody water washed down my leg and I reached for a clean washcloth to put some pressure on it.

My legs were mostly shaved, and that was the last thing I’d needed to do, so I turned the water off and got my towel. Once I was wrapped, I pressed the washcloth against the cut again. It wasn’t awful, but I wanted it to stop bleeding before I put my work pants on.

Gretel had been washing her face, but now looked at me with concern as I got out of the shower. “Let me see,” she said.

“It’s no big deal,” I protested as I set the bloody washcloth down and got another towel to wrap around my blonde hair. “It’s just annoying.”

“Hang on, let me heal it.”

She moved toward me, and I flinched before I realized what was happening. Gretel froze, and I saw the hurt on her face before she quickly hid it. “Sorry,” she said. “I was just thinking it’d be easier…”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I can just put a Band-Aid on it.”

I didn’t want magic on me, in me, or anywhere near me. And if I couldn’t have the last one, at least I could keep it off my body. Even if it was Gretel, who otherwise had a completely open invitation to my body. 

Maybe I was overreacting. After all, I’d managed to forgive Joel for the way he’d treated me at the end of our relationship. And that had been the catalyst for my hatred of magic. I didn’t need a therapist to dig into that one. It was obvious enough. But his magic had always put him a little above me. He made the calls, since he had the ability to do things the easy, effective way, while anything I ever had to offer would be slower and inferior. 

But that was what I’d always loved about my relationship with Gretel, the fact that we were equals. And yeah, a lot had happened in the past few days since I found out she’d been hiding her own abilities. But those little power shifts since then had been obvious to me, at least, if not to her. 

“I’m sorry,” Gretel said again.

“It’s alright,” I replied, wrapping my hair. “I just don’t want to heal magically. It’s just a nick, not a…”

I trailed off, the image of Joel’s cut, bleeding throat still far too fresh. I knew Gretel was thinking the same thing. “I’ll be more thoughtful,” she said, then turned back to the sink.

Something was in the air now, and I wanted to exorcise it. But she didn’t seem to want to as she very deliberately washed her face without catching my eye in the mirror, and I had to get ready for work. So I walked back into the bedroom to get dressed while she started her shower.

I needed to get my shit together. I’d told Gretel I wanted to be with her and I meant it. The thought of a life without Gretel hurt and I’d come too close to choosing that life last week when I left for the night. Which was something I’d needed to do at the time. But then I’d come home. I’d made the decision to return to her, then invited Joel into our home. That all came with accepting the fact that there would be some magic. I just needed to get used to it. 

This one was on me, I could get used to it. I just needed to work harder.

And maybe I could have my own little non-magical sanctuary in the house. Neither of them did anything in the garden and they’d understand that I need that place for myself. If the kitchen dishes were going to dance and sing, having space to decompress from it all would help me be more accepting. 

And eventually maybe I could embrace it. After all, Gretel’s magic had saved Joel’s life twice already. And he was pretty stupid, he’d find a way to get hurt like that for a third time. 

It was a part of her. And I loved all of her. So I needed to get over the feeling of betrayal and learn to love the magic as well. 

***

When I got downstairs a few minutes later, Joel was already in the kitchen sipping coffee out of an old mug I’d had since college. He was reading the paper at the counter while breakfast made itself behind him. And if I had any thought that exposure to magic would help me accept it in my life, then this was the perfect time to explore that theory. I walked in and he looked up with a wide, gleaming smile.

“Good morning!”

“Morning,” I replied as a mug of coffee poured itself and floated over to me.

Joel had always been handsome. When I’d first seen him outside the Landmark the other day, his looks had clearly been magically enhanced, just a little too slick and gleaming. That was mostly gone, but the wide smile and sharp eyes under messy hair were comfortably familiar from college. The messy hair wouldn’t last. He’d spend at least thirty minutes styling it later today before leaving the house. 

A sip of coffee later, I was already feeling a little better after the tension between me and Gretel. Joel, for all his faults, always made the best coffee. And I knew it had magic, but for the sake of the coffee, I’d ignore that fact. 

See? Progress.

“What are you up to today?” he asked, buttering a piece of toast as the newspaper flipped itself to the next page.

Way too much magic in my kitchen right now. But exposure. And breakfast.

“Work,” I said. “Like always. You?”

“I’ll find something soon,” he said confidently, pushing a plate of toast in my direction. 

This was too familiar to be comfortable, but I let it slide. He’d already applied for that short-term gig in Kittery, which was more than he’d done in those entire final four months of our relationship.

Joel and I had been young when we got together, dating through college and for a few years afterward. But when he’d left me to go to the greatest magical training in the world (or so he claimed), that had been the end of anything between us. Reg claimed Joel was still in love with me, but that was pretty ridiculous. If he loved me so much, he wouldn’t have left.

And the fact that he’d come back meant nothing, and I’d continue to tell myself that. I was happy with the life I’d built in his absence.

“I figure, especially around here, there has to be plenty of openings for magical work. And I’ve got the skills, they’ll have to hire me.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. The openings. The skills, that I couldn’t argue with. While most magical people, like Gretel, had one main ability, Joel was among the few who had several. So not only could he brew slightly magical coffee and make my whole kitchen dance like something out of a Disney movie, he could also teleport and scry for the future in whatever shiny surface was nearest. Among other things. 

The teleporting thing made my stomach flip a little, remembering how he’d done it to keep me safe and completely without my consent days earlier. But we were moving on. There were bigger things to focus on than my hopefully lessening resentment toward either of them and magic in general. I needed to get out of my head about all of this.

Dammit, I needed more coffee.

The coffee maker hissed, and I suddenly prayed Joel hadn’t developed the ability to read minds. Could anyone actually do that? If anyone could, it fucking would be him.

“Sure, right,” I said, finally remembering we were actually having a conversation.

Glancing at the clock, I realized I needed to leave in a few minutes. “I packed you a lunch,” Joel said, waving toward the refrigerator. It opened and a brown bag came soaring out toward me.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said.

“You didn’t have to let me stay.”

Wow, that kind of humility had been unheard of in the past. I peeked inside and saw a turkey sandwich, an apple, and a cranberry muffin. It was sweet, but unsettling.

“Thanks,” I said.

Gretel came into the kitchen as I was putting on my shoes. “I’m out,” I said, kissing her softly.

The way she stiffened was tiny, but I couldn’t help noticing it. My heart sank, but there really wasn’t anything to say about it, was there? “I love you,” I said instead.

“Love you too.”

I smiled as authentically as possible, then picked up my (actually kind of cute) brown bag lunch. “Good luck on the job hunt,” I said to Joel.

He waved me off with a smile and I waited until I was out of the house to roll my eyes. But the muffin I was carrying did smell really good. 

---

Continue to Chapter 3