Recover: Book 2 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

67: A Blighted Bottle Break

As it turned out though, while Olivia calmed down on the bewitching front, she still hadn't lost sight of her mission to 'make up with me'. At first she wanted to sit in the back with me. But hating how much it hurt that she had instilled all this hope in me only for it to disappear with one spell... I shook my head and her face fell before she got into the front of the car with Ben.

Olivia tried to make chit chat the whole ride back to Windeck, doing her best to rope me in, craning her neck here and there to see if she had roused any reaction.

But I barely heard a word she said most of the time.

Gaze fixated out the window, watching the thickets of forest fly by as we zoomed down the autobahn, I kept playing and replaying how tonight would go in my head.

Once everyone arrives... We serve up dinner and I'll quickly mix her blood into the gravy. Then I'll pour it over his. And if we make sure he's distracted in conversation, he shouldn't even notice or suspect anything is wrong...

The moment we pulled up to Stephen's, I was determined to get this plan underway. To stay focussed on the mission, wary of every step from hereon and the potential watching eyes around us.

Unloading the groceries from the car, I took them inside, setting them down on Stephen's kitchen bench with a gentle thud—as though the force at which I placed the groceries could alert Rüdiger.

Ben's dad offered to help, but I shooed him to the couch. He was a guest for this dinner event... and he was about to take part in hosting a murder, so he needed a load off. With Ben accompanying him in the living room for entertainment, Olivia joined me in the kitchen, helping me peel and chop potatoes, prep the meat (though she wouldn't touch it, of course), and assemble all other sides.

"Should we do this another night?" Ollie whispered as I glazed the meat, almost ready to pop it in the oven. "Ask everyone not to come?"

My head whipped up in shock that she'd offer such a thing.

You want to draw this out more? Keep us here longer so that we run the risk of revealing our plans? I quickly shook my head. "I want this over with tonight." Then, for good measure, I added another truth as to why. "Then we can go back to England... and I can go clear my head." I needed my past in the past.

"Clear your head? With her?" she pressed.

"I think it's time I travel," I confirmed, knowing she'd not fully understand what I was saying about us. The glisten no longer appeared in her eyes like the parts of my Ollie still in there was understanding what I meant... Even she was long gone now. And maybe mum could reverse it, maybe Olivia could look at me like that again... but she'd live a happier life tied to Ben than with me. Even if he does 'smother her'... she'd learn to love him again once I'm not around.

"Lukas... you should still try to tell her—"

"Butt out, Olivia," I snapped, freezing in preparation. Do you not get how much your insistence is hurting me?

Her head lowered and she muttered a hesitant, "Okay."

An uncomfortable silence swept through the kitchen as we continued to prep dinner, the only sounds being the peeler slicing the skin off the potatoes or the steady thwap of the knife against the chopping board as I finished helping Ollie prep the vegies.

Breaking the deafening quiet though, a phone began to shrill loud rings.

"Stephen speaking," Ben's dad said after bringing his phone to his ear. "Seriously? Okay. Yes. I understand. I'll be there shortly."