Recover: Book 2 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

35: Spying and Spells

Spying on her felt wrong. Nonetheless, there I was, a few steps away down the street, watching her wait for the 8 o'clock bus at Highgate station. She had her headphones in, avoiding everyone around her, while her eyebrows furrowed like she was deep in thought.

As the bus pulled up and she forwarded on, I quickly ran for it, jumping on just in time before the doors closed. She had stayed on the bottom level of the double decker, taking a seat towards the front part of the bus.

Meanwhile, I took a seat up the back, eyes locked on her, trying to figure out whether she had taken the potion—as though it could somehow be in her posture.

In this enclosed space with her, a reality began to dawn on me—one I had been too distracted about when she came to the house yesterday. There was no buzz in the air between us alerting me to her presence. But my bond was still there, clinging onto my heart, burning bright—the last remnants of us.

She continued to stare out the window the whole ride, eyes vacant despite looking at the city passing.

But as we pulled up at the British Library and she began to forward out—me tagging behind her—she came to a stop on the footpath, fishing in her bag to pull out her phone.

As I quietly shimmied out behind her, I saw what she was doing.

A text was open on her phone to Ben. She didn't drink it, I thought.

"Consider this as me giving you permission to do whatever it takes to break me up from whomever tries to take me from you in the periods between our check-ins," Ollie's words echoed in my brain.

I shook my head of the memory as soon it came, telling myself, But would you really deem us worthy of that? Breaking your heart and Ben's just for the memory of us? When all you wanted was just any guy who met you in a library?

"No. I choose you. The me who has her memory wiped for the time being gets no say."

But Ben will get hurt, I thought back. Our plans were for any humans getting in the way... not the person who is like a brother to me.

"You better promise me right now that you will make sure that you and I end up together. No matter what."

I closed my eyes as her words rang through my head. And when I opened them, she had almost finished her text to Ben.

Begrudgingly, I grabbed the first guy passing by me, heading towards the waiting bus.

Calling the magic to my eyes, I spun him to meet me. "Forget I told you this. Bump into that girl with the red hair on your way onto the bus." I released him, feeling my eyes stinging with tears, my heart throbbing with guilt. And the man ran for the bus, doing as I said and hitting Ollie with his shoulder on the way.

I watched the phone fall from her grip onto the ground, the screen cracking on impact, but still on.

It's not enough, my heart whispered.

Unclenching the fist by my side, I pointed my fingers towards the phone, before it had time to properly settle on the pavement, and forced it aside onto the asphalt under the bus.

Ollie turned, watching it go, her brows shooting up in shock.

And then, as she bent down to reach for it, I quickly forced the doors to close and lurched the bus forward, her phone making a crunching sound under its weight.

She retracted away from the moving vehicle, her mouth falling open, horror masking her face.

And when the bus was out of the way, she picked up the remnants of her phone, eyes glistening with wetness as she realised it was broken beyond repair.