Magica quietly entered Gladstone's bedroom. A soft snore came from underneath the piles of blankets that covered him. The only evidence of anyone under the blankets was a single bandaged foot atop a mound of pillows. She grabbed the velvet pouch of potions on the nightstand and opened it, pulling out a pink vial. She nudged the sleeping pile gently.
"Hey, wake up. Medicine time."
He groaned. "I am done with the potions. Can't I take an Advil or something?"
Magica rolled her eyes. "It's a healing potion, dumbass."
"They all taste like cinnamon. I'm sick of the flavor." Gladstone pushed the blanket off of him. "Can't you put it in something for me to eat?"
"That would require cooking. And we are out of groceries until we can go to the store." Magica uncorked the vial. "But unless you want me to go outside and get possibly kidnapped again or seen, I suggest we stick to chugging potions and pizza deliveries."
"You can go out in another disguise. Just make it different." He took the vial and drank the potion. He cringed as he handed back the vial. "Can you use your magic to make them taste different?"
"You do realize that's not how it works, right?" She looked into the pouch. "And besides, you have only one vial left." Magica pulled out the last vial. The potion inside was much darker, and magenta-colored. The liquid swirled inside. "Wait…"
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Nothing. I'm just gonna make sure this was strained properly. I'll be right back." Magica turned to the door and went into her room, her hand shaking.
"Lena Minima De Spell!" She whispered furiously.
"Yes?" The teen sat on the bed, tarot cards laid out. She looked at the vial in her aunt's hand. "Oh shit."
"'Oh shit' is right!' What the hell do you think you're doing?" Magica ran up to her niece and pushed the vial into her face. "Do you know what this is?"
"It's a love potion. Specifically for love at first sight." Lena gathered the cards together. "I know you're planning to use it on Rosolio to make him fall in love with a stranger to get him off your back."
"How did you-"
"I can read Theban, Auntie. You taught me. I read the book you got from Angelo's shop. And I read your scheme in the margins of the book."
Magica stepped back. "And what are you gonna do about it?"
"Obviously help you." Lena dug into her sweater pocket and pulled out a vial with a blue potion in it. "Look, I don't know alot about potions, but I do know that love potions are tricky. So, I made the cure for that specific potion. We could just test it on Gladst-"
"Oh, no. We are not using him as a guinea pig for this, especially a love potion."
"Why? Afraid you'll fall for him again?" Lena smirked. Magica's cheeks flushed. "All we're doing Auntie is just…giving your potion a little test drive. What if you calculated the ingredients wrong? What if I let it boil for too long?"
Magica bit her lip. "I am not gonna use Gladstone. Not like this. It'd be different if I asked him permission-"
"You know damn well that he wouldn't let you come near you with any type of love potion. He'd think you're using him for the dime." Lena held out the blue vial. "How about we pretend that I screwed up and 'accidentally' put the love potion with the batch of healing potions. Just blame it on me."
She tossed the vial to Magica. She caught it in the air. "That way, you know your brew was a success-"
"And what do you get out of it?" Magica rolled the blue vial in between her fingers. "You obviously want something."
Lena shuffled her cards, taking her time with each movement. "Satisfaction…well, more like...validation."
"What do you mean?"
"I read Gladstone's cards." Lena pulled out three cards and placed them face down. "About you and him...as a couple."
"Excuse me?" Magica's voice squeaked. "You did wha-"
"It was stupid and just for fun…and then...I got a really intense answer." Lena looked at her, her eyes filled with guilt.
"Well…" Magica said, her face growing hot. "What was it?"
"Three card spread. Devil in reverse, Ten of swords in reverse, and…" Lena sighed. "Four of wands."
Her aunt's face went red. "Four…of wands?"
Lena nodded. "Look, I just need to know if the cards will change. If anything, this also lets you explore your feelings a bit too."
"I don't have any feelings."
Lena flipped over the three cards. "Seven of swords, Three of pentacles, and…" Her eyes went wide from the last card. "Four of wands. Again."
"Gimmie that!" Magica lunged for the card. Lena shoved the card in her sweater pocket.
"For all we know it could mean that you two would finally get along. Or become less of enemies and more of friends." She gathered the rest of the cards into a stack. "Wouldn't you rather be able to try to work toward a healthier relation- I mean, friendship?"
Magica sighed, tossing the blue vial back to Lena. She took the magenta vial in her hand and pressed her other hand over it. The potion glowed. Magica moved her hand, revealing the potion to be a bright pink color. Lena smiled.
"So you're gonna do it?" She said, excitedly.
"Only to see if it really does work." Magica gripped the vile tightly. "Love potions are complicated brews…"
"There you go. See, its just common sense to test it." Lena put the blue vile in her sweater pocket.
"I'll do it tomorrow. It'll be the 'last dose' of the healing potion." Magica looked at the vile and rubbed it between her fingers. "I really didn't want to use him like this…"
"Like they say: 'Its better to ask for forgiveness than permission.'" Lena shrugged.
Magica sighed and left her room, still looking at the potion with guilt. The teen waited until she heard her enter Gladstone's room. She laughed to herself as she pulled out the last tarot card from her pocket. The image of two people being bonded in marriage by an angel was displayed upon the top half of the card. She smiled and held the card up to her face.
"The Lovers. Upright."
A/N: So just to clarify time line wise, this chapter takes place about 12 hours later from the last chapter. Idk if it made sense, but I just threw it out here to clarify...
BUT OOOOOHHH DAMN THING ARE HEATING UP.
Like, c'mon guys, Magica is wayyyyy to smart. Y'all didn't think she would "accidentally" give him the love potion. I am gonna tell you guys to re-read the past few chapters of Lena's scheme carefully. I have a scheme going on and if y'all miss the hint, y'all gonna miss it! Huehuehue
I hope you guys are having fun with the story, and thank you for any suggestions you might have that you wanna see!
Please review, follow, favorite and all that crap!
~Alex