“We have enough people to man six bonfires,” Jordan said. “One in the center and one at each point. We could…. God, if I could only figure out what kind of spell to cast, we could cast a monster of a spell.”
“Enough to get our friends back?” Alex asked hopefully.
Jordan closed his eyes and breathed. “Simon’s right. We’d need to ask for help. I—I’ve got some ideas. Let me research for a couple of days—till Monday night, maybe. And instead of casting a free-Dante-and-Cully spell, we can do a help-us-out-of-our-mess spell and see if we can get a sign.” He opened his eyes and focused on Simon. “Simon, I hate to ask you, but, uhm, is there any way you could, you know… clear a spot on each hill for a smaller bonfire and—”
“And a big one in the middle? Yes. No problem.” Simon gave such a warm smile that Alex was suddenly taken back to their conversation earlier that week when Simon had confessed to being a vulnerable outsider who had been working most of his life to be let in.
Maybe not so much anymore. He had his friends—like Alex did—but now he had Alex’s people as well.
Simon was well and truly included—and respected—in the middle of two large families, when he’d never expected to even have one.
“Is there anything we can do for you, Simon?” Jordan asked, bringing Alex’s attention back to the here and now. “Anything? You just offered us something we need really badly, and we’re so grateful. Is there—” He grimaced and looked around. “—anything you’d like from a semicompetent group of fledgling witches?”
Simon cocked his head, as though thinking about what could be in it for him, and he gazed at the table for a moment before his brown eyes widened and he gave Alex a really excited look.
“In fact,” he said, practically dancing in his seat, “maybe you could. This table—this lie-detecting table. How hard would it be to produce an item that would make someone tell the truth?”
They all met eyes and hmmd.
“Who do you want to tell the truth?” Alex asked.
“Chris’s soon-to-be ex-wife,” Simon told him softly.
“Oh.” Alex knew this story, knew that Simon’s business partner—his friend—was about to get taken for a whole lot of money. “This will help him?”
“Oh, it would.” Simon breathed out, closing his eyes. “Oh, Alex, this would be such a gift for him. I swear we wouldn’t misuse it. We just need… we need some truth at his alimony hearing. He’s a good guy. I promise. What’s happening to him is horribly unfair.”
Alex looked at his coven, getting excited. “Can we?” he asked, almost plaintive. “It would be great if we could… I don’t know. Do some good.” He smiled at Jordan, knowing that Jordan was the one of them who needed it most.
“I’ve got wands in my truck,” Lachlan said thoughtfully. “They haven’t been consecrated or anything, but if we’re looking at something we could give to somebody, that might work.”
Bartholomew started to hum to himself. “Bittersweet, chrysanthemum, snapdragon, rue… truth is a real thing, root out the lie that grew….” He glanced up as though from a trance. “Paper? Does anyone have paper?”
Lachlan went running for paper, and Kate and Josh started planning candle colors and thread, and Alex kissed Simon on the cheek and told him to sit tight.
“You’re all going to do it now?” Simon asked, obviously surprised.
“You gave us a purpose,” Alex told him. “Something we can do while we’re figuring out the other thing. You’re a genius. Goddess, we needed something like this.”
Simon caught his hand and brought it to his mouth. “So, uhm, Lachlan and Bartholomew—are they staying here tonight, or are they going back to Jackson?”
Alex smiled slightly. “I can make a schedule,” he said. “We can get together and decide who gets to sleep here or with Jordan or somewhere else.” He bit his lip and studied Simon hopefully. “We’ve got sort of an end date now. Is that okay? Can we… I don’t know, play musical beds and temporary situation until we get Dante and Cully back?”
Simon’s grin seemed to sprout from nowhere—like a bonfire for Alex’s heart. “I have no problems with that,” he murmured. “None whatsoever. Now tell me what I need to do.”
Alex was going to tell him to stand back and stay out of the way, but Simon looked so interested, Alex couldn’t brush him off like that. “C’mere,” he said, moving to the bookshelf he and Bartholomew kept next to the entertainment center. He snagged one of the books he and Barty had borrowed from Helen’s cottage and used often.
Silly String and Magic Things—Colored Threads and Necessary Knots. The volume was old and well thumbed, small, and much of what he and Barty had learned, they’d picked up from notes in the margins.
“There should be a chapter in there for truth-telling spells,” Alex told him. “I’m going to run around and fetch ingredients—Barty and I keep almost everything here—but you look up knots and colors and see which ones would serve our purposes best. And when you’re done, look up candles in this book here.” He handed another volume—this one much bigger, bound in leather, and more ponderous—to Simon, who took it with the air of a new recruit who wanted to impress an older general.
“Look up the spell in there too. I’ll be right back.”
Simon nodded and then caught Alex with a hand to the wrist. “Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
Alex kissed him, there in the living room in the middle of all sorts of bustling activity, because he’d never been happier in his life.
HE and Simon got the house to themselves that night, and Alex learned more about lovemaking—all of it good. Of course, Simon had to leave the next night, and it was Alex’s turn to sleep on Jordan’s couch, but as he kissed his lover and waved goodbye to Simon’s trusty little fuel-efficient car, he felt a hum of anticipation in his chest.
They’d be eating lunch the next day. And dinner together, over the course of the week. There would be scrambling to find time—but there was hope that the scrambling wouldn’t last forever.
There would be tomorrow, and more tomorrows, and maybe a thousand tomorrows for the two of them.
And there would be the moment in Simon’s office, two days later, when Alex handed Simon the long, thin piece of wood in a clever green velveteen case and smiled.
“This is it?” Simon asked, pulling it partially out of the case.
“Willow, cured with bittersweet, chrysanthemum, peony, and rue,” Alex told him, grinning. “Bartholomew cooked the potion to cure it with, I came up with the concept, Kate and Josh helped me assemble, and Jordan—”
“Pulled up the cone of power and executed the spell,” Simon filled in, smiling. “You’re a very functional team, you know.” His tone softened. “And Jordan’s a very adept leader, even though he’s had a few setbacks recently.”
Alex nodded. “He… he pulled us together. Made us family, then made us a coven. I hope this works. It would give him such a shot of confidence to know that he helped Chris out.”