Lost Magic (The Swift Codex Book 3) by Nicolette Jinks Read Free Book Online Page B

fowl, the other way flattening out to a very formal Victorian garden with manicured hedges and precisely placed annuals. The glimpses of the activity I saw going on within the formal gardens made the grounds a decidedly ironic choice of venue. We headed towards them.
     
    “Where are we going?”
     
    “To find Nest,” Mordon said.
     
    “Agnes is here?”
     
    “I'd be surprised if she wasn't selling some feel-goods to the crowd. She and Denise have been practicing that thing you call the Loopy Potion.”
     
    I nodded and had to slow my pace, mindful of the lightly sleeping thing bound in a tight swaddle in my arms, feeling the too-slick grass slip beneath my feet. The traffic had bruised the lawn in paths, rendering it a pulpy mess of sludge. As soon as Mordon noticed, he took us off to the side where traction was better.
     
    I had a part-time potions business which was blooming and consuming more time with each day. Agnes, or Nest, as the colony called her, made no waste of selling my talents and Denise had come to me for her fourth lesson yesterday. With baby Anna now in my care and needing everything that a baby needs, I was wondering about expanding my student and product list.
     
    Loopy Potion, more properly called by the name Mother had given it, Mandrake Potion Number 1, did pretty much what the common name suggested: it made the consumer feel mildly hallucinogenic. That is, if the potion was done correctly. Done incorrectly, it gave a whomping headache. Like Mother's formal name suggested, it was the first mandrake potion a new brewer ever made. I hoped that if they were selling it, they'd tested their results out first.
     
    The memory of Mother cut. It brought back the memory of Wildwoods, of the fight, of the way they disapproved of Mordon, and how they'd tried to get me to ditch him by offering up a ready-made life in the woods complete with house, job, and presumably a love interest to replace my old one. They'd thought Mordon was leading me around by the nose. Look at him now, and see if they'd say the same thing. On second thought, they probably would. I felt like our relationship was one of those Escher paintings where you could see the black figures or the white figures but not both at the same time.
     
    “If you want to write a letter to them, I'll burn it for you,” Mordon said. Some days it was like he could read my mind.
     
    “It's not me who has to apologize.”
     
    “No.”
     
    “But what?”
     
    “But your parents likely don't think they have to, either. And they'll be hurt if you don't tell them about your ward.”
     
    “But I might not have her by the end of the week.”
     
    “Do you still think they wouldn't care to know?”
     
    I tugged him to a stop beside the first flower bed we encountered, a rectangular thing with cornflowers and marigolds. “Don't. Not now, please. I don't want to talk to them, in any manner. I'm too...raw from our last encounter.”
     
    “That's because you're hiding from them, not facing the issue.”
     
    I squared up my shoulders and stood to my full height. Without heels, the crown of my head came level with the bottom slope of his neck, and my usually stocky width seemed diminutive by comparison to his chest. Despite being fairly short, I had always felt big in presence and in overall dimensions, but when I was with Mordon, I felt feminine. It was one of the nice aspects of being with him.
     
    Mordon touched his forehead against mine. “Write to them, for my peace of mind. They'll think you left the woods just because I coerced you somehow.”
     
    I wanted to cross my arms, but the baby—Anna—hindered that motion. I bounced her instead and she opened her mouth in what was either a yawn or the beginning of a smile. Though I didn't want to admit it, Mordon had hit the nail on the head. “Fine. I'll write something. Might not be much. You can send it tonight.”
     
    “Perfect, thank you,” he said and took me by the elbows. I thought he