Page 126 of This Witch Is Not Wicked

The healer. It still didn’t feel like a real title. Like a real job. I got to do this for a living. People came to me to fix them.

“I’m just saying that the purse-string suture is a little sloppy.” Fiona crossed her arms, and I raised a brow at her.

“I’m not going to let you shadow me if you keep criticizing everything I do.”

She rolled her eyes and stepped away from the patient chair. “Fine. But you should listen to me. I’m smart.”

“A little too smart for your own good,” Harriet mumbled, and I hid a smile.

“All done.”

“Vine, can we get a bandage?” Fiona asked.

Vine slithered up the counter and to the shelves and returned to my assistant with the requested material.

Harriet stood and stretched out her hand. “Like new,” she said.

“No more combat training with the Fair Folk,” I said. “I’ve had at least ten guards in here over the last few weeks.”

Harriet shrugged. “We have a lot to learn from each other. Besides, my royal guard could use the practice. It’s been so quiet since we moved here.”

The captain of the guard stared out the stained-glass window wistfully.

Fiona wrinkled her nose. “You’re not supposed to want to be attacked, Auntie.”

Harriet scoffed. “I don’t. I just miss the excitement sometimes.”

“You’ve got problems,” Fiona said.

Harriet grabbed her shoulders and steered her toward the door. “Okay, and that’s enough out of you. It’s time for school.”

Fiona groaned. “I want to stay here.”

Vine wrapped around her waist, and she hugged it in return. Harriet shot me a smile over Fiona’s head. Fiona and Vine had become best friends over the last few years, and it was a very sweet relationship, even if she’d reduced my python vine to a cuddly little teddy bear.

“Vine, why don’t you just walk her to school? That way you two can have a little more time together.”

Vine unwound itself from her waist and slithered up to hang over her shoulders.

Fiona pointed a finger at me. “Don’t mess up any more sutures!”

“I didn’t mess it up.” I rolled my eyes. “Now get out of here.”

Harriet shoved her niece out the door right as Nevan was arriving.

“Tell your wife I’m better at sutures than her,” Fiona said.

Nevan raised his eyebrows. “Not a chance.”

Harriet, Vine, and Fiona disappeared, and Nevan shut the door behind him. “All done with patients for the day?”

I sighed, exasperated. “It’s first thing in the morning. Shouldn’t you be opening your apothecary shop?”

He strolled forward, a heated look in his eyes. “I decided to open a little late this morning.” I snorted as he swept me up into his arms and kissed me. “You left before I could give you a morning kiss.”

“You were still sleeping, and I didn’t want to wake you.”

“You always wake me for a kiss.”