Chapter Twenty

Magically Induced or Not, Unrequited Love Sucks

MILA

Riley was taking the news that he’d been cursed into loving her fairly well. Which was good. And he was also saying he wouldn’t kiss her again. Also a good thing, probably for the best.

Technically, theoretically, because right now, as he gently circled his palm over her back in a soothing gesture, all Mila wanted to do was tilt her chin up and pick up where they’d left off on the bed not five minutes ago.

Or at least the influence of the love potion wanted her to. Right. This feeling, this craving that had been building inside her, wasn’t real. It was magic. The byproduct of an incantation she shouldn’t have used to influence somebody else’s emotions and her own. Suddenly, all her father’s cautionary tales about the unethical misuse of magic made total sense.

When she’d brewed the potion, Mila had thought she’d give herself a meet cute, and instead, she’d scrambled with the Chief Inquisitor’s heart and her own.

“It’s getting late,” Riley said, in that low tone of his that now had become torture to hear. “I should take you home.”

The low caress of his voice grated against her heart like a blade. His scent, his voice, his body, his heart, all things she could almost touch but never have, not now that everything had been tainted by her stupid potion.

Her feelings felt real, but she’d never taken a love potion before, so she had no way of assessing how love enchantments worked, how good they were at making feelings that weren’t really there feel real. Whatever she had with Riley would forever be tainted by doubt, by the shadow of her spellwork. Even if they somehow decided to ignore the facts, she could never fully trust anything they’d build. And so, as hard as it was and contrary to every last one of her instincts, she pulled away from him, putting a healthy amount of physical distance between them.

“Actually, can you bring me to the station?”

Riley frowned. “To the station, why?”

“My broomstick is still impounded. I’d like to get it back.”

He stared out the dark windows where the wind could be heard howling between the tree branches. Snow was still falling. “There’s a storm outside. You’re not flying in this weather.”

Right now, she wanted nothing more than to fly right at the center of a storm, but Riley’s tone was so final she knew there’d be no point in arguing with him.

“Come on, let’s go. I’ll take you home.”

She nodded.

They moved back into the living room. Mila, taking in the mess of discarded take-out boxes, offered to help him clean up.

“Leave it,” Riley said. “I’ll take care of it tomorrow.”

Guess he couldn’t wait to be rid of her. And how to blame him? If someone had bewitched her, she’d feel the same.

He grabbed a thick, brown wool coat from the closet and he put it on while she did the same with her red one.

Outside, the snow was falling thick and fast.

Riley turned up his collar, and they walked to his car, the windshield already covered by a thick white blanket. A snap of his fingers, and it was gone.

Ever the gentleman, he circled to her side of the car first and held the door open for her. She slipped in, noticing that he didn’t shut the door right away, and she caught him studying her face through the reflection of the window as if he were memorizing her features. Dread twisted inside of her.

Magically induced or not, unrequited love felt awful. She hoped Riley wasn’t experiencing the same intense misery. Mila couldn’t bear to have inflicted such suffering on another person.

Riley closed the door and got in from the driver’s side. The proximity of sharing a car felt suddenly unbearable. Then they were moving.

The ride to her house was a quiet one.

She turned her gaze toward the window, to the night outside, watching the snow swirl around and tumble down the glass.

They were already on her street when he finally broke the silence. “I should probably pick you up early tomorrow if we want to interrogate all three suspects,” he said. “Eight o’clock?”

Right. Because they were still stuck together until the murder case was solved. For a second, Mila hated the professional detachment of his words. Despised it with every fiber in her soul.

But what other choice did they have if not to distance themselves?

She sighed, feeling a lump form in her throat. “Yeah, eight sounds good.”

Riley pulled up to the curb and parked. They sat in silence for a moment, staring straight ahead, the only sound the whistling wind outside. At least she hoped he couldn’t hear the disappointed pounding of her heart in her chest.

“Well,” he said finally. “Goodnight, Mila.”

“Goodnight, Riley.” She opened the door and stepped out into the snow, her heart heavy.

Mila ran up her driveway. She let herself in, and keeping shelter behind a curtain, watched his car still parked outside. It was a few long minutes before he drove away.

Only when the taillights of Riley’s car disappeared down the road, did Mila let herself cry.