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CIARA WENT STRAIGHT home from the meeting. She shrugged off her coat but didn’t bother hanging it. Kicking off her shoes along the way, she walked to her bedroom. She went straight to bed to warm up under the duvet, because it was still freezing cold.
Just when she was comfortably snuggled inside the duvet, her phone beeped. She grabbed it from her bedside table. Seeing Liam’s name on the screen, she opened the message.
Do you think we could go to Ollie’s Pub for drinks tonight? Let’s say at 7? It’s the one I got wasted at when you and Jesse came to the rescue.
Ciara had been planning to stay in bed for the rest of the day. She was still hungover, and it was too cold to do anything in her flat.
But she was willing to change plans for Liam.
Meet you there at 7!
Ciara sent the message, and she didn’t have to wait long to hear from Liam.
Great!
She jumped up from the bed and hurried to get ready. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, and she needed to change her clothes.
***
CIARA WAS READY TO leave at half past six. Her jumper warmed her even in the cool flat. Her trousers hugged the curve of her bottom nicely, and her boots looked fabulous.
She was about to walk out of her bedroom when she realised her bracelet was on the bedside table. She pondered if she should wear it.
Liam had only asked to meet her as friends, no matter what his actual feelings for her were. Even if there was a hidden meaning behind the bracelet, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to find out yet.
Still, she wore the bracelet. But she hid it under her jumper’s sleeve.
On her way out, she grabbed her coat from the floor and threw it on, then locked the door and left.
She didn’t walk to the pub. Instead, she used magic to teleport nearby. Otherwise she would have been late.
It wasn’t seven yet when Ciara made it to a spot near the pub. It was more remote, so non-magic humans didn’t see her when she appeared out of nowhere.
Ciara walked the rest of the way. Her hand was on the door handle when she halted.
She could see Liam through the window. He was already sitting at the bar.
But he wasn’t alone. Iris was sitting next to him, and they were laughing together. The scene looked cut straight from a romantic comedy, and it made Ciara’s stomach twist.
Something invisible tightened around her chest. She was no longer excited about spending time with Liam. It would be the three of them—not just her and Liam.
It was enough of a confirmation for Ciara. The two were a couple again. Perhaps Liam had even invited her to tell about their reaffirmed wedding.
Ciara hadn’t expected Liam to ask her out on a romantic date, but seeing him and Iris together hurt. Her heart ached as if someone was carving it with a knife.
She turned around and walked away. She was acting like a ridiculous teenager with a stupid crush on a guy who liked someone else, but she didn’t care.
It had already been a bad day, and it was only getting worse. Ciara couldn’t have made herself act happy, and she didn’t want to walk in there and make a fool of herself.
She messaged him an apology, telling him she couldn’t make it because of a sudden flu. Then she prayed he wouldn’t be angry about it—even though she wasn’t sure he even cared.
Ciara teleported to the first place she could think of.
It wasn’t her flat. She had hated the flat ever since Liam had moved out. It was too big for her to live there on her own.
The place she had thought of was a beach.
It was ridiculous. She and Liam had gone there when he had first visited England since he had moved to Peru. It had been their first official date.
The beach looked different. Last time, it had been summer. In the winter, freezing wind blew across the beach. Ciara had to use a heating spell, despite her thick coat.
She sat down onto the sand, for once not caring if her clothes got dirty.
There was one place she would have preferred over the beach—Theo’s grave. But it was an ocean and a continent away, and she wasn’t strong enough to teleport that far. The longer the distance, the more exhausting the teleportation was. And teleporting across a continent or across the Atlantic was simply impossible.
She grabbed her phone from her pocket. There was already a message from Liam, but she swiped it away without reading it.
She had never felt so alone.
She had talked to Liam about a lot of things when they had lived together, but she couldn’t confide in him anymore. He made her feel the way she used to, even if he didn’t know that.
She couldn’t call Henry either. Not to talk about Liam. He would eventually mention it to his brother.
Ciara couldn’t call Jenna either, because she couldn’t risk Henry hearing. She also didn’t trust Jenna not to tell Henry.
The downside of her best friend being her ex-boyfriend’s brother. It was no surprise Henry had felt shut out when she and Liam had been dating. But she had never realised it. Not back then.
Evie and Mia were out of question, too. Evie and Ciara hadn’t talked in a while, and Mia loved gossip.
As for Jesse, Ciara hadn’t talked with him since she went back to work. He was keeping distance from her, and she had no idea why.
Ciara had never missed her own mother so much. She was dying to call her, but she couldn’t risk her wellbeing like that. Her mother was the only person she could still keep safe.
It was nearing eight in England, and Ciara was still staring at her phone screen. As she noticed the time, she realised it was nearing noon in Vancouver.
She hadn’t talked to Estella—Theo’s mother—in a long while. But she didn’t know who else to call, so she dialled her number.
It took a while before Ciara heard the first beep. By then she already regretted calling Estella.
After the second beep, she wondered if Theo’s mother would even pick up.
Just as she was about to tap the red phone icon, Estella picked up. “Ciara, hi!”
“Hi.” Ciara hadn’t realised she had been crying until her voice broke. She was shaking, and her cheeks were wet from the tears.
“What’s wrong, dear?” Estella asked, her voice rising with worry.
“I...I’m sorry for bothering you.”
“Nonsense,” Estella scoffed. “I told you to call me if you ever wanted to. It’s great to hear from you. But I can tell something is wrong right now.”
“I just...I fear I made a mistake by moving here,” Ciara said shakily.
“What makes you say that?”
Ciara laughed humourlessly. “It’s stupid.”
“It’s not stupid if it makes you cry. Now, tell me.”
Ciara hugged her knees with her other arm. Even with the warming spell, she felt cold. “I told you about Liam last time, remember?”
“Yes.”
“I think my feelings for him are back. Or I-I know they are. At first, I refused to get my hopes up, but then his fiancée cheated on him and they broke up. He...he moved in with me for a little while after the break-up and I...I...” Ciara stayed silent, fighting back the sobs. It was ridiculous to cry over Liam and Iris’s newfound relationship. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
And out of all people, Ciara was crying about it to the mother of her deceased fiancé.
“What did he do?”
“I think they’re back together. Liam and his ex-fiancée. Or fiancée now,” Ciara said, and her voice broke again. “I feel so stupid! I don’t know if I should even be over Theo yet and—”
Estella shushed Ciara. “There’s nothing stupid about love. Don’t you dare think your feelings are ridiculous. And as for Theo, I’d be worried if you weren’t moving on. He’d want you to move on.”
“I just feel so alone here,” Ciara said, swallowing down her tears. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I keep snapping at people. I-I cried in front of my boss and—”
Estella shushed Ciara again. “You’re stressed.”
“I...went back to work.”
“You’re still trying to find the rest of the witch hunters, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“It’s no wonder you’re stressed,” Estella said. “It’d make anyone stressed with your experience. And yes, I heard about Doherty. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
Ciara shuddered. “I just want this all to be over.”
“Oh, Ciara! If I were there, I’d give you a hug.”
That made Ciara smile briefly, but the tears were still streaming down her cheeks.
“I know you feel weak right now, but being sad doesn’t make you weak. It shows you care.”
Ciara gritted her teeth. “Caring as a hit witch isn’t an option.”
Estella sighed. “You’re being too hard on yourself. And I’m sure you’re not as alone as you feel. If you spoke to your friends about this—”
“They all know Liam too well.”
“Then you must call me every time you need someone to talk to about this.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t called you often enough,” Ciara apologised guiltily.
“It’s alright. But it’s nice to know you haven’t forgotten about me.”
“That could never happen.”
“Good,” Estella said. “Now, tell me about this boy who broke your heart again.”
Ciara looked at the crashing waves and sighed. “It was just a stupid misunderstanding. He gave me a love bracelet for my birthday. I didn’t even realise it at first, but then someone pointed it out to me.”
“He gave you a love bracelet?”
“Yes.”
“Is the gem still attached?”
“Y—” Ciara placed her phone down and put it on speaker. She pulled her sleeve up to see the bracelet. She touched the gem, and it instantly shattered into tiny pieces in her hands. “N-not anymore.”
“Oh.”
“What does that mean? I didn’t even know love bracelets did that.”
“I’ve heard the gem breaks if your heart breaks.”
“Wonderful,” Ciara said, sarcastically. “A broken heart wasn’t enough, so now I have a broken bracelet.”