Bran reached out to stroke my hair.
“We believe you, Emma,” he said simply.
“Thanks. But now I need to know if it will last,” I told them. “I mean, is this change permanent? Will she stay better like Spike did when I cried on him and healed him, or will her, uh, non-addiction disappear like the gold coin I accidentally conjured?”
“Wait—you healed Spike?” Avery asked.
“This was before her transformation,” Bran said, jumping to defend me. “Morganna Starchild nearly killed him and Emma got very upset. But when she cried on Spike, her tears seemed to heal him.”
“Well, you are just full of secrets, Emma,” Avery said, frowning.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Kaitlyn wanted to know.
“I convinced myself it was nothing,” I admitted. “It’s weird to suddenly have magic when you never did before.”
“Well, I can certainly understand that.” Megan nodded sympathetically.
“But you still should have told us,” Avery added.
“I promise no more secrets.” I turned to Lachlan appealingly. “Please tell me it will last! I’ve been wanting my mom to quit smoking for years.”
“It depends,” Lachlan said slowly. “Certain types of magic require a price. In a way, when you un-addicted your mother, for lack of a better term, you were lifting a kind of curse. That requires a payment—unless you can deflect it, and I don’t think you’re sophisticated enough magically to do that yet.”
“Payment? I didn’t make any kind of payment!” I exclaimed.
“Are you sure about that?” Avery took one of my hands and nodded down to my severely bitten nails. “You never used to bite your nails,” he pointed out. “But this past week it’s like you haven’t been able to stop.”
“Maybe you got rid of your mom’s bad habit by picking up one of your own?” Megan suggested.
“Maybe so,” Lachlan agreed. He shook his head. “We have got to find a way to focus your magic, little one. Starting tomorrow, you and I are going to begin lessons.”
“Will you teach me?” I asked, feeling immensely grateful. I looked at Bran. “Both of you?”
“I think Lachlan is better suited,” Bran said graciously. “He’s extremely talented magically—much more than I am.”
“Well, you always were more of a warrior than a wizard.” Lachlan shot Bran his one-sided grin. “I wouldn’t want to come against you if the weapon of choice was swords.”
“True.” Bran nodded and smiled back. “Just teach her quickly, all right? I hate to say it, but neither of us wants to end up like Groperson.”
“I would never do that to either of you!” I exclaimed.
“Of course not—not on purpose,” Lachlan remarked. “But it seems to me that your magic comes out in a very haphazard way when you feel strongly about something, Emma. I’ll try to teach you everything you need to know to avoid doing accidental magic from now on.”
“That would be wonderful,” I said seriously. “So…you think my mom is really cured?”
Lachlan took one of my hands in his very gently and looked at my ragged nails—which caused me to blush in shame.
“I think so,” he said, nodding at last. “It seems to me that Megan is right—you paid for curing your mother’s bad habit by taking on one of your own.”
“Fae magic is so strange.” Megan shook her head. “I guess you don’t get your power from the Goddess?”
“Not directly,” Lachlan told her as I took back my hand and shoved my fingers in my jeans pockets to hide them. “We draw our power from Nature, which is a force in itself. But Nature demands balance above all things, which is why most Fae magic is very transactional.”
“That’s fascinating!” Megan exclaimed, but just then her phone rang. “Oh, hold on—that might be Aunt Deli.”
Kaitlyn’s phone rang a moment after and she looked at the screen. “Oh, Shady Pines is calling me back!”
She spoke into the phone for a moment and then hung up, a sad look on her face.
“I’m so sorry, Emma, but they don’t have any openings.”
“But Aunt Deli does!” Megan exclaimed triumphantly, as she hung up her own phone. “She says your mom can move in anytime—providing that she really has quit smoking.”
“She has,” I said firmly, feeling a sense of relief.
Megan frowned.
“But will you have to keep chewing up your nails forever in order to keep her smoke free?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But if I do, it’s a small price to pay. I’ll take a ruined manicure any day over my mom getting lung cancer!” Then I remembered that Megan’s mom had died of cancer. “Oh, sorry, Megan. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, don’t worry about it.” She shook her head seriously. “You’re right, Emma. If I could have made some kind of bargain or payment to keep my mom from getting sick, you bet I would have. You’re really lucky.”
“We’ll work on your payment for the magic you did for your mother later,” Lachlan promised me. “For now, maybe your mother would like some help packing?”