Chapter Eleven

4.30 p.m.: saturday 30 october

Nr. Rembrandtplein, Amsterdam

330 miles and 22(+1) hours and 30 minutes until the wedding

The alleyway was too narrow for even one car to pass down. They stopped before a single shopfront, with vibrant purple and yellow writing spelling out the word ‘Abracadabra' over the window. Kay flicked a glance at Harry and wondered if she was about to walk into another place like Madam Hedvika's, set up to hide in plain sight. She still hadn't asked him whether his friends were witches or not. She'd barely said a word in fact, like her brain had grounded her tongue for its terrible behaviour of late and wasn't going to give it free rein again until it was very sure she wasn't going to say something stupid.

Now they were here, she no longer had an excuse to cling on to his arm and unwound it as they stepped inside. What she was not expecting, when they walked through the door, was to find out it was more of a coffee shop than a café. And not the latte, Frappuccino kind – although they obviously did serve beverages – but the kind Amsterdam was famous for. The aroma of nutty coffee was undercut with an earthy scent and the room hazy with smoke, even though it was only about half full.

‘Harry …' she started.

‘Don't worry, we're not going to be hanging out in this part …' He sent her a sly smile. ‘Unless you want to?'

She wrinkled her nose. ‘No. Thank you. Probably wouldn't be the best idea when we'll be going through customs in a few hours.'

‘Good point.'

There was a huge man behind the counter, with shoulders the width of a doorway, long, wavy, dark-blond hair, a beard, and eyes a pale, icy blue. He did a double take as they grew closer to the bar and then slammed his hands down on the counter, leaning forward with a wide smile.

‘ Snoepje !' he boomed. ‘Leon, Leon, Harry is hier !'

‘ Hallo .' Harry laughed and started to respond but was interrupted by someone else calling his name from the other end of the bar.

The man had just come into the coffee shop via another door, holding two plates with steaming toasties on them. Smaller in height and build than the Thor lookalike, with long locs pulled back into a ponytail and covered at the front of his head with a bright red bandana, he moved through the gap in the counter and started towards them. Then, he remembered himself, backtracked and slid the plates in front of a couple sitting at one of the small wooden tables. Once he was free of the food, he was bounding again towards Harry, grabbing him in a huge hug, and placing three smacking kisses, alternately, on his cheeks before leaning back.

‘What the hell are you doing here?' he demanded, with a huge grin. ‘You should have told us you were coming.'

‘I was in Prague for a signing and the storm came in. It screwed up all the flights and we're trying to get home.'

At the mention of a ‘we', Harry's friend looked over at Kay.

‘Hello.' She gave a little wave.

‘Hallo there,' he had a barely noticeable Dutch accent. ‘Are you going to introduce me? Are you together-together, friends, or work colleagues?'

Well, here was a man who didn't beat around the bush with his questions.

‘This is Kay. An old friend. We bumped into each other in Prague and teamed up, I suppose.' Harry looked over at her, his cheeks a little flushed. ‘Kay, this is Leon—'

‘Don't you dare call me an "old" friend.' Leon raised his eyebrow at Harry and moved around him to hold out his hand to Kay. She shook it and raised a tentative smile in the face of all this enthusiasm and familiarity.

‘And Alex, his husband,' Harry continued, as Alex leaned down from his great height, offering her a hand the size of a pizza box.

‘Nice to meet you, Kay. You are from England too, I take it?'

‘That's right. Harry and I grew up in the same village.'

Leon gave a gasp. ‘You're that Kay.'

‘Leon …' Harry started, but Leon just gave what could only be described as a roguish smirk.

‘Relax, H. That's great. It means you can both come through to the back.' His brown eyes twinkled as they studied her, and Kay's feeling of being all at sea only increased. He threw one arm around her shoulders and the other around Harry's waist and turned them towards Alex. ‘Join us when Marje arrives for her shift?'

‘As soon as I can,' his husband agreed.

‘Perfect. Let's go through.' Leon continued to steer them.

‘I've got a favour to ask actually,' Harry commented as they walked across the wooden floor towards the back.

‘Sure, sure.'

‘You don't even know what it is yet,' Harry said with a laugh.

‘I know you'd never ask for anything unreasonable.' Leon shrugged as they came to the far end of the bar and a full-length tie-dyed curtain in shades of sunset red, orange and yellow. Beneath it was a pair of narrow wooden doors which looked like they had been crafted from pieces of driftwood but lacquered to a smooth-honeyed finish, with an all-seeing eye painted on each.

A faint tingle of magic touched Kay's skin, but nothing more, and Leon held the curtain back and ushered them through. There was a moment of coldness on the back of her neck, as though someone was watching her as she passed through, and she hesitated, but Harry was right behind her. The warmth of his body simultaneously reassured her and made her want to leap away in an act of self-preservation like that morning in bed.

At first, the other side just seemed like it was an even prettier extension of the coffee shop. There was a small stage in the back right-hand corner, carved wooden booths with embroidered cushions surrounding the tables, swaths of gauzy fabric hanging tepee-style over each, decorated with what looked like fairy lights but on closer inspection were glowing gems sewn into the weave of the delicate fabric.

That kind of enchantment could pass in the non-magical world, but of the two tables occupied, Kay noticed something openly magical happening at each. One group were playing a card game where the pack dealt itself according to raps on the top of the deck and a woman at the other was absently changing the colour of the petals on the flowering plant on the table as she talked to her friends.

Everyone in this room was either a witch or aware of the witching world. That was what Kay had felt as she'd come in through the doors – the all-seeing eye was infused with magic to dissuade non-magical people from trying to enter, and if that didn't work, there was a charm to repel them. It was a witches-only club.

Kay frowned and stuffed her hands in her pockets – wondering if Harry had felt the same coldness, the way she had – or if she'd noticed it more because of her magic going haywire.

Had she ignored her magic for so long she was beginning to lose it? Maybe all the mishaps were just the first symptom of it dying away completely? A soft ache of sadness closed up her throat. She knew she'd always thought of her gift as useless, but if she no longer had any magic, because she'd stopped using it voluntarily or because she was obligated to in order to protect others, would that mean she was no longer a witch?

‘Right, let's get you some food,' Leon said, providing a blessed interruption to her fretting. ‘More people will start arriving for dinner soon, but you can grab whatever table you like. Which calls to you?'

Kay looked at Leon. ‘What's the difference? Are there charms on them or something?'

‘So suspicious, Smurfette.'

‘Smurfette had blonde hair, not blue,' Harry pointed out.

‘Did she? Ah well, in answer to your question, Kay, yes, they are charmed, and whichever you pick helps to guide me when I'm cooking your meal.'

‘Oh, you're an influencer too. With food.' She flicked a look at Harry, who chewed on his bottom lip in a way that made her think he was both nervous of how she was going to react … and ridiculously sexy. Blinking the lust away, she asked, in as neutral a tone as possible: ‘What if I don't want influenced food?'

Leon frowned at her. ‘ Dropje , I'm not trying to poison you.' He looked at Harry for a moment and they seemed to communicate something without speaking, which irritated her.

She took a deep breath, because getting irritated with the man you were hoping to borrow a car off, and who was offering to feed you in his beautiful and cosy restaurant, wasn't exactly a great move. Also, what if it was like Harry with his artwork and he had to try really hard not to infuse his food with his magic? Was she just being awkward for the sake of it?

‘All right, all right.' She held up her hands and looked around the room, examining each of the vacant booths. They all seemed equally lovely, but, as she let her eyes wander, the one farthest away which had a stained-glass window inset into the wall, bathing the table softly in different coloured light, struck her as the one she most wanted to sit at. ‘That one, please.'

Leon sent her a grin. ‘OK then. That totally makes sense.'

Kay stifled another sigh. Why? Why did it make sense? She was getting kind of tired of the way most of the witches she was meeting this weekend seemed to understand something about her and her magic that she didn't understand herself.

But if she'd been learning anything about herself recently, it was that there really was a lot she didn't know, magical or otherwise. So, as they walked over, she tried again to leave her prickliness behind. Leon had been nothing but welcoming to her, and this was his business. He'd thought up a clever way to use his gift within the witching community; all the patrons would fully understand what they were getting when they came here, and it offered them a safe place to relax and freely use their magic which wasn't just the privacy of their own homes.

‘What happens if someone wants the table where someone else is sitting?' she asked.

‘Then they can choose to wait. Or their second choice is just as revealing.'

‘And what if other people in the party want to sit somewhere else?'

‘Generally, there is either a dominant member in need of something or a wavelength the group are on. I can tell the difference.'

‘How?'

‘Can't give away my secrets.' Leon tapped the side of his nose where a diamond stud glinted at her. ‘That's what makes the place unique.'

She'd chosen the table, so did that mean she was the one whose needs were the most dominant or that she and Harry were on the same wavelength? She supposed the latter would make sense – they were both desperate to get home, worn out from the journey and trying to get along.

Leon settled them in the booth and left to grab drinks and menus. As Kay took off her coat, some of the tension immediately loosened from around her neck and shoulders. The cushions were softer than they looked, most likely because they had been fabricated with the magical equivalent of memory foam.

Harry was sitting opposite her, a lopsided smile tugging at his mouth as he tilted his face up to examine the stained-glass window. Kay's breath grew shallow as she tried to figure out why seeing the slope from the underside of his chin to his exposed throat gave her the same sensation as finding a rare piece of vintage jewellery; wanting to trace her fingers over it to learn every unique millimetre; wishing others could understand how precious it was without needing to touch it themselves, so she could keep it safe.

She blinked as he turned his head towards her, catching her staring. She tried to clear her throat and it came out like a little dry cough. ‘Leon won't take offence at my questions, will he?' She chewed on the edge of her fingernail. ‘I don't mean to sound so suspicious. Or judgemental.'

Harry raised his eyebrows. ‘You don't mean to sound it, or don't mean to be it?'

A hot, uncomfortable emotion swirled in her chest, and she parted her lips, unsure how to answer that.

Harry shook his head. ‘It's OK. Leon would much prefer to know if you have a problem with anything upfront. He's all for informed consent and he'll appreciate the way you want to examine things from all angles to make sure they're ethical.'

She blinked. ‘Was that what I was doing?'

She might have been imagining it, but it seemed like his eyes warmed as they coasted briefly over her face. Or, it might have been a trick of his influencer eyes. ‘Sure. It's your thing, Kay. You're Lawful Good. It's important to have people like you prompting regular healthy debates, making sure our powers don't get used for nefarious purposes.'

She couldn't tell whether he was teasing her or he meant it. Either way, the awkward burning sensation inside her eased. ‘Was that a Dungeons and Dragons reference?'

‘Yeah. You can blame Alex for getting me into all of that.'

‘So, how long have you all been friends?'

‘Well, I met Leon first, when we were both living in Edinburgh.'

‘Oh, when was that?'

‘I went to university there. We met in my second year.'

Kay's mouth fell open again. He'd gone to Edinburgh University? She'd thought he was going to go to the University of Arts in London. That had always been the plan. When had he changed his mind? Obviously before he decided he wanted to become an illustrator, as he'd said on the train that he'd decided that while studying for his degree. She bit down on the desire to ask a million follow-up questions that would lead to a conversation she wasn't ready to have yet. ‘Leon was studying there too?'

‘No. He's a couple of years older than me.'

She crossed her arms on the table, with a smirk. ‘Is that why he's a bit sensitive about being called an "old" friend?'

Harry laughed. ‘Probably. He was already through catering college and working at a restaurant I went to. I could tell there was magic in his food—'

‘And when he said he wanted to give his compliments to the chef,' Leon appeared back at the table with their drinks, ‘I walked out and saw this face.' He leaned over and tilted Harry's chin up at him, smiling down with affection. ‘Who could resist? Had me cooking for him for three years.'

‘You make it sound like I used you purely for your cooking skills.' Harry blushed and pulled his face away but gave Leon's hand a quick squeeze as he did so.

‘Oh no, it was definitely a give-and-take relationship.' Leon winked at him and then pulled his notepad from his back pocket and took their orders. ‘I'll go get that food cooking for you.'

Kay bit the inside of her cheek as she took the empty glass and bottle of chocolate milk Leon had brought out for her. She'd not ordered it, but it actually looked like the perfect thing she needed right at that moment, to wash away the taste of jealousy in her mouth.

Don't say it, don't say it—

‘So, you and Leon were together?' she asked in a ridiculously high pitch, regardless of her better judgement or whatever passed for her self-respect these days. She poured the glossy brown liquid into the glass, watching it coat the sides and settle thickly at the bottom.

‘Yes. Like he said, we were together three years. My first – only – long-term relationship, I suppose.'

Kay was nodding like a marionette. She was fine. Totally, totally not seething with envy that Leon could reach out and touch Harry's chin that way, with total confidence. Had been able to do so for years and years. ‘Why – er – why didn't you say we were coming to see your ex, rather than your friend?' Why didn't you warn me?

‘Because he is my friend. We've been friends for longer than we dated, so …' he shrugged. ‘That's who he is now in my life.'

Kay took a sip of the chocolate milk. Sweet and creamy. The hit of comfort she needed at that moment. ‘I guess that makes sense,' she managed when she realised he was watching her. He nodded slowly and his eyes caught hers, filled with some emotion she wasn't sure she understood. ‘And I only thought it would have been good to mention that we were coming to ask a favour of your ex because it's a bit awkward,' she added.

‘Why does his being my ex make it awkward?' Harry was studying her with the intensity of cat who had noticed a rustle in the bushes and was not going to miss the opportunity of an unsuspecting bird. She could tell a small smile was threatening his mouth, not because of his lips but because of the laughter lines deepening at the corners of his eyes.

‘It's not. I mean. Not for me .' She rolled her eyes. ‘But surely for Alex. It might have been nice to know you were dragging me along to a three's-a-crowd situation.' She raised an eyebrow to show she was mostly joking. ‘I don't think you can even class me as a third wheel – I'm more like a deflated tyre that's been forgotten in the boot.'

‘This kind of talk better not be premonitory of the next leg of our journey.'

‘Goddess, you're right. Quick, give me the salt.'

He pushed it across the table towards her and she sprinkled a little in her hand, whispered some cleansing words and dabbed her tongue to it before she remembered she wasn't supposed to be doing any kind of magic whatsoever. Being in this restaurant, relaxing in a community of witches who didn't have to hide what they were, had made her forget herself. Kay tensed up, half expecting something awful to happen because she'd broken Madam Hedvika's instructions, but all she felt was the fizz of the spell erasing some of the negative energy she might've invoked.

Harry laughed and she cocked her head to one side. ‘What?'

‘I feel like maybe it's too little, too late. We should have cracked out the cleansing rituals in Prague.'

She laughed too. ‘We would have died of kidney failure by now.'

He smiled back at her, his eyes scanning her face and landing on her mouth. Her heartbeat fluttered. She remembered that look. He'd looked at her like that when they were teenagers too. Like her laughter was fascinating. Or that's what she'd hoped it meant back then. Now, it was probably more a case that she'd not allowed herself to laugh much in his presence over the last twenty-four hours.

‘Alex and I genuinely get along,' he said, when she looked away from him. ‘There's no third- or fourth-wheel situation. I promise.'

She nodded quietly.

Hearing Harry talk about this grown-up relationship he'd had, and how they were all able to stay friends, which she could see with her own eyes was true – no magic gift necessary for that special insight – just threw into contrast how she'd been dealing with relationships in her adult life. Like a really depressing spot-the-difference. Avoiding serious relationships with witches and non-magical people alike because they were too complicated. Sure, she dated non-magical people, she'd even had a couple of boyfriends make it to the six-month mark, but she'd never considered committing enough to tell them about the witch stuff.

It was a little like that moment in films – the one Spielberg used in Jaws – where the camera went from doing this wide-focus shot, to narrowing right down on the man's face. All the hubbub and chaos on the beach, fading into the background to highlight this pinprick of horror-filled awareness.

‘Are you OK?' Harry leaned towards her across the table and she realised she'd been having her ‘ Jaws ' moment right in front of him.

‘Oh, yeah, sure.' She nodded again and sent him a smile. Just having an epiphany about how I've been making myself an emotional cul-de-sac since I was sixteen.

Leon appeared then with their food and her mouth automatically filled with saliva at the mind-blowing aroma wafting over to her.

‘Enjoy. I'll leave you to eat, and then I have a favour to ask of you , H.'

‘Of course. Anything.'

‘Not a fan of your own advice, are you? You should know by now I will ask for unreasonable things.' Leon laughed and slid two deep white and blue striped dishes before them. They were heaped with a vegetable mash, slivers of beef and doused in a glossy tan gravy. It smelt like cosy afternoons in winter, windows steamed up and fire roaring as you snuggled up under a fleece, reading.

And it tasted even better. The mash wasn't completely smooth, so the textures of the onion and potato and carrot caught occasionally on her tongue before they melted away and the tender beef soaked in gravy added a rich umami flavour to it all.

There was silence as they ate, and Kay realised how much she'd needed the simple contentment of eating a lovingly prepared meal and being somewhere comfortable where she was welcomed. Conferences were such a rush, and it had all been buffet foods or working meals, with colleagues or clients, where you couldn't exactly relax. Then there was the travelling. The last time she'd felt even a smidgen this relaxed was on her impromptu spa evening with Ilina and that had been missing the nourishing, tasty food.

Was that the magic Leon had infused it with? Both she and Harry could probably do with the comfort of being at home after all the travelling. She supposed she'd have to wait and see once her body started properly digesting; at the moment, all she had was a tingle of magic on her tongue where it was beginning to enter her bloodstream.

Harry was already scraping the bottom of his dish. He licked the spoon and let out a groan of satisfaction and Kay felt a dangerous leap in her tummy. He caught her eye and then checked out how she was progressing with her own meal.

‘He's good, isn't he?'

‘ So good.'

‘To think, you wanted to wander the snowy streets and buy a random bagel somewhere.' He gave a faux-despairing sigh and a little shake of his head.

‘I'm sure the bagel would have been adequate,' she said.

‘You deserve better than adequate.'

Her hand trembled a little as she lowered her spoon. He was just bantering with her. To prove it to herself, she ignored the warmth his comment filled her with and continued the sallying instead. ‘So, did you worry it was a little bit Freudian, you shacking up with someone with the same gift as your mother?'

‘Kay, no,' Harry clapped his hands over his ears and shook his head, but he was laughing.

‘Sorry,' she said, laughing too.

‘You're not sorry,' he accused, dropping his hands.

‘Well, it must have crossed your mind,' she protested. Why hadn't she done this earlier? She should have known that the best way to pretend she wasn't jealous of his history with Leon was – bizarrely – for her to tease him about it.

‘OK, yes, it did. But obviously it wasn't what attracted me to him, because I'm not a character from a Greek tragedy. If anything—' he broke off, pressing his lips together and rubbing his finger over them.

‘If anything …?'

‘If anything … it was like jumping in the deep end. I had to learn to trust him, despite it. Leon proved to me that not everyone with the same gifts or affinities will use them in the same way. It's down to the person. Not the magic.'

Kay transferred her attention back to depositing the last of the delicious food into her mouth. As she chewed and swallowed slowly, she counted up the truths he was telling her. Even as an influencer himself, he'd had to learn to let his guard down around others of the same affinity. Maybe he hadn't been teasing her earlier when he'd said they needed people like her to question the ethics of magic.

Did his own parents lead him to feel that way? She'd seen his dad use his gift on Harry when he was underage, and now Harry was implying he hadn't been comfortable with the way his mother used her gift either.

‘Did she use it on you a lot? Your mum?' she asked carefully.

Harry pushed a hand through his hair and tugged it a little. ‘I think she meant well, but both my parents … they have such a responsibility. To Biddicote and all the witches that live there. They're used to employing their magic in a way that … They're looking at the big picture. For the greater good. And it didn't always … gel with what I felt I needed from them.'

‘Like having their support for your career choice?' Kay shifted on her seat, hating the way that he was deliberating over his words. Hating the way his shoulders were hunched in.

He attempted a laugh, but she knew it wasn't genuine. His hand slipped to the back of his neck and squeezed. ‘That sort of thing, I guess. They just wanted me to understand and were trying to prepare me for what was to come, I think. Like schmoozing with the Witches Council. It's not my favourite.'

‘So they used their gifts to make you do it anyway?'

Harry exhaled slowly from his mouth. ‘It's complicated.' He shook his head, all the humour of their banter having evaporated. ‘Families, eh? D'you mind if we talk about something else?'

‘Of course,' she murmured and then Leon came back over and saved her from dropping her face into her bowl and trying to drown herself in the leftover gravy for her unfailing ability to make things awkward again.

Harry shook off his mood almost immediately as Leon proceeded to ask him if he would complete a mural with runes that a local artist had left unfinished because he got a chance to exhibit at some fancy museum in Paris.

‘That sounds a bit out of my area,' Harry objected. Rune magic was a complicated matter; the smallest deviations in design, intention or magical infusion caused big differences in their effects. They tapped into something ancient and drew a lot of energy.

‘It's not. At all. They're not tricky runes. Very simple. He was the one that didn't really want to do it. It wasn't his thing and he's not done the greatest job with what little there is. I've had to cover it up because it's unsettling, left half-done.'

‘What is it?' Harry asked.

‘I actually spoke to you about it before, remember? It's a tree, over there by the stage.'

‘Oh, yeah. Infused to do what again?'

‘To encourage kindness. We have these poetry slams and guest musicians in sometimes and I just want to discourage hecklers. But the witch I had work on it – well, you'll understand when you look at it. Come over.'

When Kay stayed sitting, Leon made it clear he was inviting her too. He led them over to the stage and lifted a swathe of green velvet that had been tacked at door height on the right hand of the stage, where it would be visible to everyone. Beneath was the outline of a tree, in hyper-stylised lines of silver paint, limbs reaching out like fingers, curled subtly into rune shapes. Immediately, Kay felt a grip in her gut of shame.

Independent to the slow build-up she'd been experiencing over the last day, that was.

‘Ugh,' Harry said and then coughed. ‘Sorry – it was clearly going to be a beautiful tree; I'm not being critical of the art.'

‘You can see my problem, though. It's in no way conditional to you borrowing the car by the way. But can you fix it, Harry? Please?'

Harry chewed on his bottom lip and then reached out, running his fingers over the paint. Kay found herself mesmerised by the way he used just his index and middle finger, such a light touch, skimming over it, while his eyes followed the line intently.

Artist-porn. Was that a thing? No sex, just watching a beautiful man with long fingers and lots of talent be all intense and precise.

She blinked and forced herself to look away, finding Leon watching her. He smirked a little but didn't say anything.

‘Yes,' Harry said finally, dropping his hand, oblivious to the silent communication going on behind him. ‘If you have paints. And some turps.'

‘He left a bunch of stuff in the office. I'll go dig it out. Thank you. I wish you could have come out to do it in the first place. Your magic is always beautiful.'

‘I'm sorry.' Harry rubbed the back of his neck, still talking to Leon. ‘It's difficult at the moment.'

‘Hush, hush. I know.' Leon took Harry by the head, bending it down so he could plant a kiss on his forehead before he went off to the office.

What was difficult for Harry at the moment? Kay wanted to know, the way Leon knew.

There was a blush on Harry's cheeks, but he was getting on with unbuttoning his cuffs and rolling up his sleeves. The rhythmic twist of his wrist as he folded back the material was hypnotic. ‘This won't take long, I promise. About an hour.'

The truth was, she hadn't even thought about the time or the ferry or the journey. She'd just been thinking that she couldn't wait to see him at work on the mural.

And his forearms. She'd been thinking about those too. In detail. The lean, firm muscles, decorated with fair hair and freckles. She wanted to trace them with her fingertip like she was mapping constellations on his skin.

Making some kind of noise at him, which she hoped passed for calm and collected, she retreated to their booth in the corner to finish her drink and watched as Harry set to work once Leon brought the paints out. He started by getting the turps and mixing it in a bowl with a tablespoon of salt and fresh sage which Leon supplied from the kitchen. Then he took a rag and carefully scuffed it over the outline of the top of the tree, while whispering a charm – probably something similar to the cleansing spell she'd used just before. The paint faded some but didn't get smeared or wiped away and then he started mixing his own paint.

With the comfortable seat, twinkly lights, warm, delicious food in her stomach and view of Harry, Kay was beginning to wish she could stay at Abracadabra's for far longer than a few hours. She didn't even need to worry about her magical mishaps so much – she was surrounded by witches. And when had the last one happened anyway?

Time slipped around her like a gentle river, tables filling up, Leon and another waitress bringing out food. Alex came in too at one point and Harry sat up on the edge of the stage, taking a break to have a drink and chat to him, their ease with each other obvious.

Kay hadn't even realised that she'd finished her drink until Leon slid a big cup of coffee in front of her. She thanked him, sitting up from the slouch she'd sunk into.

‘Figured you could do with a cup of solace. Sounds like you've been having an exhausting journey and these seats will have you falling to sleep if you're not careful.'

‘Is there an influence charm on them to make people want to stay?' she asked, lacing her hands around the warm mug.

Leon raised an eyebrow. ‘Since that would be exploitative, I will choose to take that as a sign that you are enjoying your visit, rather than an accusation.'

‘Could it be both?' she dared to say and was rewarded by Leon's laughter. Harry was right. Leon did appreciate candidness.

‘It appears so. May I?'

‘Sure. It's your place,' she pointed out with a laugh.

‘I think customers would stop coming altogether, let alone want to stay, if I sat myself down beside them, uninvited.' He slid in opposite her, setting a thick earthen plate loaded with large cookies down. ‘I'm enjoying your visit too,' he said, propping his elbow on the table and resting his chin on his knuckles. ‘It's great to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you.'

‘Have you?' she tried to keep her voice light, even though the simple statement sent everything inside her up in a flurry.

‘For sure. When we first got together, he'd always mention you. "Kay has this theory about Leonardo da Vinci." "Kay cracks up at this movie, even though it's terrible." That sort of thing.' Leon grinned at her.

‘Oh. That's really … weird?' she blurted out. It was weird though. Unless … it kind of proved that Harry had liked her as a friend, but never had any romantic feelings towards her. Surely he wouldn't have chatted to his new boyfriend about her if he had?

‘Is it? You were important to him.' Leon glanced at Kay as her heart betrayed her with a painfully hopeful flutter. ‘It took his seer ability, sending him after you , to prise him away from Ashworth Hall.'

Kay took a sip of the frothy coffee, licking foam from her lips, to buy herself a moment. ‘What? No. He was in Prague doing a signing. It was just a coincidence that we bumped into each other.'

‘Sure,' he snorted. ‘Witches' lives are just full of "random coincidences". He's been asked to do a lot of signings over the last couple of years. He said no to all of them. Then the one he finally says yes to has him bumping into you when you're about to be stranded and need some help getting home.'

Leon was great, but he was obviously deluded. There was no way Harry's itchy magic compass had sent him all the way to the Czech capital, just to help her get back to Joe's wedding. She wasn't going to argue about it, though. ‘Why has he been saying no? He loves travelling, doesn't he?'

Curiosity killed the cat, Kay. But she couldn't seem to help herself. Was it something about Leon or something he'd put in her food that was making her lose her brain to mouth filter?

‘He hasn't told you about his dad?'

‘What about his dad?' Had he been demanding things from him? Getting him involved with the business when Harry had his own career? Influencing him to stay at Ashworth Hall to represent the family?

‘It's not really my place to say. I'm surprised you don't know, though.'

Kay's inner hedgehog quills flared. That wasn't her fault. And also … she hated the implication that Leon knew Harry better than she did. Even though it was inescapably true. They'd had a relationship. They were friends who shared the details of their lives with one another. ‘We've not exactly been on talking terms for a long time.'

‘I know.' Leon glanced over his shoulder at Harry, drumming his fingers on the table for a moment. ‘I'm glad you've forgiven him.'

‘I … I don't know that I have forgiven him yet,' she told Leon, an almost complete stranger, with a surprising amount of honesty.

‘Why not?' Leon frowned at her, but she could tell it was more curiosity than censure.

She mentally smoothed her quills down. ‘Because I still don't know why he did it.'

‘Oh, OK.' He lifted his head from his hand, waving it in dismissal. ‘That's an easy fix. You've got a tongue in your head, haven't you?'

She made a choked little laugh. He made it sound so simple.

The funny thing was, for a moment, it did seem pretty simple. Just ask Harry what happened.

But then a wave of fear crashed over her again as she imagined what he would say. Answers she probably didn't want to hear. But how would she ever move on if she didn't at least try to find out?

She took a deep breath. ‘Are these for anyone in particular?' she asked, pointing to the plate of gooey cookies in front of Leon.

‘Complimentary for everyone after their dinner,' he explained, sliding it over to her with a gentle magical push. ‘Help yourself but—'

She'd already picked one up and taken a huge bite. The melt of the fudge chunks inside was heaven.

‘Er, slow down a sec, there. I was about to tell you. They're space cookies.'

Kay was in the middle of swallowing and almost choked. The marijuana-laced food made it down her throat and settled heavily in her stomach. Another time bomb to add to her collection. ‘That'll teach me for trying to self-soothe, won't it.' She placed the rest of it down on a napkin. ‘It was only a bite, right? I should be fine.'

‘Erm … yeah?' He winced in a way that wasn't exactly reassuring.

She shook her head. ‘Don't worry about it. It's pretty standard for this trip, believe me.' Getting arrested at customs and excise was probably going to happen right on schedule. She started laughing, imagining them looking for her drugs stash and finding the battered corn husk doll. And once she started, she could hardly stop. There was no way it was anything to do with the cookie she'd only just eaten. The laughter was because, well, what else could she do at this point?

Across the room, Harry looked up from his painting, straight over to her, like her laughter had called to him. She took a deep breath and met his gaze.

Leon was right. It was time to get answers.