Page 38 of A Witch in Notting Hill

I said the words loud and clear and with a slight rhythm, the way Granny Annie had taught me, believing every one of them. I envisioned Vera speaking, put all my energy into doing something for her, all my energy into that moment, the moment she opened her mouth and—

“Thank god,” she said.

My eyes sprang open, and I collapsed onto my knees on the floor. “What? Was that you? What did you say?”

“I saidthank god. I was getting so sick of listening to you ramble to yourself and not being able to say anything back to you. And if you didn’t get your shit together and find some conviction to get this done, I was prepared to start shredding the curtains.” She stretched out her paws and admired her nails. “Quite the manicure, don’t you think?”

“You can talk,” I cried, pulling her into my chest and resisting the urge to sob. “Oh my god. You can talk.”

“But I can’t hug, and you’re crushing me,” she said.

“Sorry.” I laughed, holding her out in front of me. “I’m so relieved.”

“Put me down, you psycho,” she said. “Well done, Willow. I knew you had it in you. Thank you for this.”

“Please don’t thank me ever again,” I said with a shudder. “I haven’t exactly done anything good. Just made the horrible situation I put us in slightly less horrible.”

“At this point, we’ve got to take what we can get. Especially since it’s going to be another six months before I’m a person again.”

“You’ve been able to understand me this whole time?” She nodded. “Oh god, Vera. I’m so sorry. I had no idea I’d have to wait for another solstice to do the spell again. I wish there wasanother way out of this. I’m going to keep looking. I can’t leave you like this until December.”

“Willow, I’m just glad you’ve foundanyway out of this,” she said. “What’s important is you do what you need to do between now and then so you can reverse the spell when the time comes. We have plenty of time to prepare, and we need to make sure we use it to our advantage. Do things right.”

“But, Vera—”

“I’ll be okay until then,” she said. “I’m getting used to being off the grid, spending all my time in a luxury hotel in a beautiful city with nothing to do. That’s what all celebrity managers dream of, isn’t it?”

“You’re being such a good sport about this,” I said.

“I’m always a good sport.”

“You’ve never been a good sport.”

It felt good to laugh together.

“I know you didn’t do this on purpose, Willow. I just need you to be ready to get me out of this when the time comes, okay?”

“I will be,” I said. “I promise.”

That promise was either going to hold me accountable or eat me alive, and there was only one way to find out which.

“But in order for me to do that, we need a plan.”

“Beyond the obvious?”

“Beyond the obvious,” I confirmed. “I need Oliver to, uh, keep his distance. Or maybe I need to keep my distance. Either way—”

“I saw the whole thing,” she said. “Burning hair and all.” I collapsed onto the mattress, properly mortified. “This is what we’re going to do.”

“Talk to me,” I muttered with my face pressed into the sheets.

“We’re going to make it seem like you and Kit are seeing each other. Nothing serious, still early days. Just enough to make Oliver think you’re involved with someone else, so he doesn’t godoing anything else sexy like... checking your forehead for a fever.”

“What if you just killed me instead?” I asked, face still shoved into two-thousand-thread-count Egyptian cotton.

“Have you forgotten I’m a cat?” Vera said. “Besides, this is going to be a piece of cake. No killing necessary. Right before the summer solstice party I saw a fan edit of the two of you on Instagram. Photoshopped together, you know the deal. Let’s find it again, set it as your phone wallpaper,et voilà. That’s all you need to do.”

I might not have liked it, but it was a plan, and I was desperate. Besides, when had Vera failed me before? There was a reason she was one of the most coveted managers in the industry, and it wasn’t lost on me how lucky I was. I needed to trust her.