Chapter Eight
Before they went to sleep, Logan cast several spells of protection around his room and Elise’s. He casts spells to detect an unwelcome presence and to detect any magic being done.
By the time they lay down to go to bed, most of Thea’s boils had cleared up. She took a long shower and put on scented lotion. She brushed her teeth carefully, and swirled a bit of Logan’s mouthwash in her mouth. She brushed her hair and made herself look as presentable as possible. There was still some redness and splotches on her face, but Logan applied a fresh layer of paste and she hoped that, by morning, her face would be back to normal.
They hadn’t slept for more than a few hours when Logan sat up suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” Thea whispered.
“Someone is here. The spell was set off.” He crept out of bed and she got up, too. She cast a spell of silence so they could move through the house without being heard.
They snuck together down to the kitchen, where the dim light of the refrigerator illuminated the room. The refrigerator door was open and several containers sat on the counter.
When they were just a few feet from the door, the person behind it stepped back.
“Sophia?” Logan said, in obvious shock.
She let out a squeal and jumped back in surprise. “Logan! I didn’t even hear you.”
“That was the point,” Thea said.
“What is wrong with your face?” Sophia asked, holding back laughter.
Thea glared. “Shut up.”
“What are you doing?” Logan asked.
Sophia tried to stick something in her pocket, but it was too late. Logan reached out and grabbed her hand. He took a long test tube from her and held it up.
“What is this?” he asked.
Sophia crossed her arms. “Why don’t you drink it and find out?”
He sniffed at the potion and handed it to Thea. “Do you know what this is?”
She recognized it immediately. “Yes. It’s the love potion I brewed months ago. How did you get this?”
Sophia glared at her. “You might want to take better care to lock up important things. And maybe don’t label your potions. It makes it very easy for someone to steal them.”
“You broke into my room?” Thea asked.
“No. I happen to be friends with your roommate. I can’t help it if she had to go to the bathroom, and I took the opportunity to go through your things. I never in a million years would have guessed you’d be into this stupid fake magic stuff. So lame. But then I got to thinking that maybe it worked after all. There are certain foods that are aphrodisiacs, and I knew that there was no way Logan would dump me to go for you, so it made sense that you must have drugged him into wanting you.”
“So you stole my love potion and did what exactly?”
“Spiked his favorite orange juice,” Sophia grinned and held up a carton of orange juice.
Thea’s heart sank. All this time, when they both thought he hadn’t been taking the potion, he actually had been. Was it the only reason he was feeling something for her now? She wanted to cry again.
“Except that’s Elise’s, not mine,” Logan said.
“You didn’t drink out of it at all?” Thea asked. Her heart tottered on the edge of hope, ready to fall either way.
“Nope.”
“That’s a lie,” Sophia said. “I saw you drink it! You drank like three glasses of it that one day.”
“When I was sick?” Logan said. “Yeah, when I have a cold, I’ll drink it, but that’s it. Elise drinks a glassful every morning. I can’t stand the stuff.”
“So then…” Sophia looked at them both. “Are you saying Elise has been drinking the potion I put in here?”
Thea shook her head and laughed. “Don’t you even know how it works? You idiot. I made the potion. It has my essence in it. So that means whoever drinks it falls in love with me. When did you steal it from me?”
“After the first time Logan broke up with me,” Sophia said. “When he slept with your slutty ass.”
Logan gasped and turned to Thea. “Think about that. It explains everything.”
It took a minute for it to set in. “Elise is in love with me?”
Logan nodded. “And she’s acting in extreme jealousy against me. Much like Sophia is now.”
Sophia gritted her teeth and scowled. Her voice was small when she spoke again. “So if I gave Logan this potion, it wouldn’t make him love me?”
“No,” Thea said. “It would make him love me. And besides, it’s just for fun anyway. There’s no such thing as magic.”
She squeezed Logan’s hand. They may have said too much already. There was still a secret to be kept, and if Sophia thought the potion was real, it could cause trouble. She needed to think they were full of it.
Logan reached out and took Sophia’s hand, stepping closer to her. He leaned down to whisper into her ear. Thea could barely hear, but she knew what he was doing. He was casting a memory charm to make Sophia forget what had happened. Then he stepped back and took Thea’s hand as Sophia blinked at him.
“I can’t believe you thought love potions were real,” he said. “It was just a joke.”
Sophia glared at them.
“I’m sorry I hurt you, but I’ve known Thea for years. It took me a while to see my feelings for her, but now I know. I love her. I know you’ll find someone great who will love you.”
“Whatever. You’re a jerk anyway.” Sophia pushed past him, shoving his shoulder hard as she went. She slammed the front door on her way out.
“That was nuts,” Thea said.
Several doors upstairs opened. Minutes later, everyone was in the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” Steven asked.
“Just my jealous ex-girlfriend breaking in to poison me. I’m going to check everything in the fridge. If you have any food or drinks in your room, I’d check them.”
“You’re a real ladies man,” Steven said.
They all headed back upstairs to their rooms, but Logan reached out a hand to stop Elise.
“One second,” he said. “This involves you, too.”
When it was just the three of them, Logan lifted his hand in a sudden movement and cast a spell that hit Elise square in the chest.
“What the hell was that for?” she asked.
“You were drugged,” Logan said. “That spell undid the effects of the potion.”
Elise looked from Thea to Logan. “What? By who?”
“Sophia,” Thea said. “I made a love potion a while ago. She found it and didn’t know how it worked, so she spiked Logan’s drink, thinking it would make him love her again.”
“Except that she didn’t know it doesn’t work like that,” Logan said. “And she spiked your orange juice.”
“What?” Elise poured a glass of the juice and held her hand around the glass as she cast a spell to reveal magic. The juice glowed faintly. “What the hell?”
“Yeah.” Thea sighed. “So it seems that all your recent anger over us being together was really only your jealousy toward me because you were in love with me.”
Elise spun and pulled her eyebrows together. “That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t have feelings like that for you.”
“I’ve been wondering about that,” Logan said. “It must work even if you have loving feelings that aren’t of a romantic nature. But that could be why you were angry instead of just all gaga in love with her. Your friendship type of love was even stronger than normal and it made you crazy with worry for her.”
Elsie shook her head. “I guess this explains a lot. I wasn’t even sure why I was acting that way.” Then she gasped and put her hands to her mouth. “Oh, no. Logan.” She gripped his arms. “I did something horrible.”
“What?”
Elise dashed up the stairs and returned a moment later, holding his bottle of mouthwash. “I poisoned you.”
“You what?” Logan snatched the bottle from her and cast a spell on it. “Oh. It wasn’t a deadly poison. Still. It would have made me really sick. Why would you poison me?”
“Just to get back at you. I don’t know. It didn’t really make sense, I guess.”
Thea put her hand to her stomach. She’d been using Logan’s mouthwash for weeks. She’d assumed her sickness was all just morning sickness. But maybe it was more.
“Good thing I don’t use this stuff anymore.” Logan opened the cabinet and dropped the bottle in the trashcan.
“You don’t?” Elise asked.
“It makes my mouth burn,” he said. “So I stopped using it.”
“But I didn’t,” Thea said.
Logan’s head whipped toward her. “What?”
“I’ve been using it for weeks.”
His eyes widened and he went to her side, putting his arm around her. “It won’t kill you or anything, but…” He put his hand on her stomach. He looked at her and gulped.
“It might hurt the baby?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he whispered.
“The baby?” Elise asked.
Thea nodded. “I didn’t want to tell you when you were so mad. I thought it would make things worse.”
Elise stared at her with a horrified look etched into her face. “You’re pregnant. With my brother’s baby.”
“Yes.” Thea put her hand over Logan’s. “Would that potion do anything?”
“I’m not sure,” Elise said.