BEWITCHED & BOTHERED

28 ✰ Night, October 15th

When I got the text for another follow-up meeting at Damiano's, I almost didn't show.

Not just because Magnus and Tara were going to be there. Something more alarming had popped up in the morning and ruined my day—as if my day had not been sufficiently ruined enough already.

After rolling out of bed dejectedly, I dragged my feet to the bathroom to brush my teeth, but what I saw in the mirror made me shriek my lungs out. For the record, I was never the type to shout, let alone shriek.

I had to look away and do a double take to see if I was imagining things, but upon a second look, another blood-curdling scream slipped out of my throat.

The purple was gone in my left eye, now cool dark brown in hue. The right was still normal, although the colour had deepened considerably. In another life, I would've thought it was pretty sick to have two different coloured eyes. 

In this life however, I thought the opposite. 

My powers were diminishing, and now there was physical proof to go with it.

So when Damiano texted the chat group for a follow-up meeting, it took me more than an hour to confirm whether I'd be attending. 

The Curse would be complete in fifteen days—the same date as the Ball. I was rapidly running out of time to muck about with the two, so reluctantly, I pulled up to the vampire's mansion at precisely ten past nine in the evening.

Th last thing I wanted was to field questions from the other committee members, so I popped in a brown contact lens into my right eye to make them uniform in colour. 

Once I reached Damiano's place, Morris the Butler barely acknowledged my presence before he led me to the drawing room, either not noticing the colour of my eyes, or not caring altogether.

My gaze flew to Magnus almost immediately, like a moth to flame, scanning his tall frame as he hunched over on the low settee next to Tara. Upon meeting Tara in the eyes, I ripped my gaze away, letting it fall to an indistinct area over the fireplace instead.

"Ah, Lady Winterhaven," Damiano said, rising politely. No red overcoat today. Just a bland, oatmeal sweater that did his colouring no favours. "I was afraid you wouldn't make it, but I'm happy you're here."

Kaiser whistled at my slinky ensemble, a dark purple maxi dress that cinched at the waist with a dangerously low décolletage. "Looking good, baby cakes."

My hair was pinned into a romantic loose bun, and I wore beige Chloe platform sandals on my feet.

Smoke and mirrors, that's all they were.

My outfit was meant to prevent Magnus from discovering how tortured I was on the inside over him.

My eyes darted to every corner of the room, except for the low floral settee. Genevieve and Ylvaine were seated on another sofa on the opposite end of the room. I smiled at the Tree Nymph, who was clad in all black today (hmm), and she returned it with a shy quirk of her lips.

"Finally, it looks like we have our first complete committee meeting. Everybody's here," Genevieve uttered in her snooty voice.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," I heard myself say blandly.

I joined Nicky on the bench beside the window, right behind the settee where the werewolves sat. At least, I wouldn't have to make eye contact with them. I found Nicky's smiling face and grinned along, clouds of familiarity blooming in my chest.

"What do you give a witch who's always fashionably late?" Nicky whispered in my ear.

I sent him a mock glare. "What?"