Page 23 of This Witch Is Not Wicked

We sat in silence, looking at the view of the bog with the city of Fairwitch in the background. My mind turned over this entire ridiculous scheme. “Instead of going to all this trouble, why not just tell your mother you don’t want to court anyone?”

He sighed. “Because it’s not that easy. I don’t want to disappoint her. She’s been through a lot.”

He didn’t elaborate, but sadness filled his eyes, a heaviness I didn’t understand weighing down his words.

“She worries about me. She worries about all her sons, and if I can make her happy by courting someone, then I will.”

“But we’re not staying together forever.” Panic filled me at the thought. Godwitches be. We hadn’t even discussed the details.

“No,” he said quickly. “You have eight weeks, right? Eight weeks until this vote. We’ll wait until after the vote happens in your favor, and then you’ll break up with me.”

I raised a brow. “I will?”

He put a hand to his chest. “And I’ll be so heartbroken I won’t possibly be able to move on.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Won’t that make your mother worry even more?”

He snorted. “Tell me how you really feel. And no, I think it’ll make her realize what I’ve known all along.”

“Which is what, exactly?”

“That I’m not relationship material. She’ll see how I throw myself back into work, how happy it makes me, and she’ll stop bothering me about finding someone to settle down with.”

“I suppose it’s not the worst plan in the world.”

He barked out a laugh. “Thank you. I think that might be a compliment.”

“Don’t stretch it.”

He stuck out his hand, and I looked down at it, then up at his face. “What is this?”

“We shake on it,” he said. “We make a deal and shake?”

I hesitated a moment but reached out, grasping his hand. His grip was firm and strong, his palm warm despite just being in the frigid water. “You’ve got yourself a girlfriend.”

“I’m going to tell my family tonight at dinner. Are you free tomorrow to talk more about the details?”

“Fine.” I hesitated. “Don’t you have work to get back to?”

He leaned back on his hands and took a deep breath. “Yeah, I was just enjoying the view. I’ve never been all the way out here near the border. It’s breathtaking.”

We fell into silence again, and while Nevan enjoyed the view, I worried over what I’d just agreed to. We were really doing this. I only hoped I wouldn’t regret it.

CHAPTER 10

Nevan

My family sat around the long rectangular table in the dining hall, a roasted chicken in the middle, surrounded by small plates and side dishes. I took a bite of my sautéed cabbage, barely tasting the food as I thought about that morning, how Enid had saved me from drowning, how her robe had barely covered her body, exposing her thick thighs and smooth stomach, the swell of her breasts. Her green skin had glowed, dewy and flawless. I hadn’t been able to stop staring, and I could’ve sworn I’d caught her staring at me.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about any of that.

My father cleared his throat from across the table, nudging his head toward my mother, who sat next to him, chewing a bite of her chicken and pointedly staring at me.

Cillian sprawled back in his chair at the head of the table. “Well, this isn’t awkward at all. We’ve only been sitting in dead silence for a quarter of an hour now.” He took a drink of wine from his goblet. “Nevan, you said you wanted to tell us all something, and yet you haven’t spoken a single word this entire dinner.”

The jug of wine lifted from the table, Castle’s white glittery magic swirling around it, and topped off his goblet. He raised it in a toast and took another drink.

Wolfe sat next to me and Niamh across from him. Her gaze kept darting to me, far too conspicuous.