Page 76 of This Witch Is Not Wicked

“What about your daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter?” Nevan asked.

“Eh, I could do without them.”

I laughed again. I’d never laughed this much in my life.

“All done.” Nevan said, tying off the thread. “Now I’ll bandage it. Just make sure you keep it away from water for a few days. And no more knives.”

Ms. Carragh raised her chin. “Can’t make any promises.”

I blinked, unable to believe he’d done that so quickly, and I kicked myself for missing most of it.

Nevan stood, medical bag already packed, and Ms. Carragh finally let go of my hand.

We said our goodbyes, and once we were out in the stairwell, I grabbed Nevan’s shirt and pushed him into the wall, kissing him thoroughly. When we finally came up for air, he stared at me with a dazed expression.

“What was that for?”

“Just saying thank you.” I turned and began walking down the stairs.

“Thank you for what?”

“For showing me that.”

“So it wasn’t boring after all?”

“No.” Not in the slightest.

He caught up to me and threaded his fingers with mine, and we walked out the door as I thought about all the ways my bog might actually help someone.

CHAPTER 30

Nevan

Enid leaned over a petri dish that bubbled with blue foam. “That’s from my pantilian?” she asked, staring at it in awe.

I let out a soft laugh. “It is. Though it’s harder to see without daylight.”

Sconces flickered on the walls, setting the room in a dim glow. Stars twinkled outside the window, and moonlight poured into my lab.

Enid turned, and I wasn’t even sure she’d heard me, her deep umber eyes alight with excitement. “So you really think you can use this as an antidote for certain poisons?”

“We’ll have to see,” I said, not wanting to get her hopes up too much. “But that is the idea. It’s going to take some time and⁠—”

She threw her arms around my neck. “But that’s amazing. You can do all that just by mixing different magical properties?”

“Well, yes,” I said. “That’s what alchemy is.”

She pushed away from me and walked toward my wall of shelves that held the potions I’d created over the years, just sitting and collecting dust. She picked up a bottle of a dark blue liquid that could be poured over ice to melt it in cold weather.

“What’s this one for?” she asked, nail tapping against the bottle.

“I noticed a lot of older residents couldn’t get out during the winter. The streets were so icy that they’d slip and fall. They couldn’t even walk out onto the sidewalk. So I created a potion that melts ice in cold weather.”

“That’s brilliant.” Her eyes crinkled. “How you take bits and pieces of the godwitches’ magic and blend it together to make something new, something powerful.”

I rubbed the back of my neck, my cheeks heating. “It’s not that powerful,” I said. “Just potions I hope to be able to sell one day.”

She put it back, studying my other creations. There weren’t nearly enough of them, but I hoped to keep adding to the collection. Especially now that I could work with Enid and learn more about her bog, about all the possibilities. The potential.