Read Online A Taste of Magic by Tracy Madison - Free Book Online

Your great-great-grandmother. My grandmother. And so she didn’t.”
    “She should have cursed him.” I scowled. “I would have.”
    Grandma regarded me silently for a moment, but then she said, “Maybe so. Maybe Miranda would have if she hadn’t felt her daughter at that instant. But, if she had, it may have cursed us all, as we have as much of his blood in our veins as we have of hers.”
    “Good point,” I realized.
    “What she did instead was cast a spell in the form of a gift. This gift has been handed down daughter to daughter, and now it’s your turn. It’s only skipped one generation, and that was your mother.”
    “Why did it skip her?”
    “I passed it to Isobel when she was your age. I don’t know what happened, but it didn’t take hold. I got it back.” Grandma tipped her head, eyes on me. “I think because she doesn’t believe in magic. Even as a child, your mother had no affinity for anything make-believe. Even the Tooth Fairy was nonsense to her at an age when she should have been pure enchantment. Too much of your grandfather in her. Practical to the core.”
    Reaching over, she stroked my cheek. My face warmed at her touch. “Open your heart, Lizzie. You are the descendent of a powerful gypsy. I gave you Miranda’s gift on your birthday. It’s your turn now. You have magic at your fingertips!”
    “How does it work?”
    “Well. It’s different for each of us. But simply speaking, it’s all about wishes. My magic has always been in my writing, which is how I passed the gift on to you—through your birthday card.”
    Ah. The glowing writing. I hadn’t imagined it.
    “And my grandmother was an artist, just like Alice, and that’s where her magic came through. What about you?”
    If what my grandmother was saying was true, I knew how my magic manifested. Seeing as I baked for a living, this could pose a rather large problem for me in my day-to-day life. I thought again of Marc and the honeymoon wish. “Fuck,” I whispered.
    “Lizzie! Watch your language.”
    “Oh, sorry Grandma.” My mind flipped through the conversation we’d just had, trying to find holes and gaps. Anything to put my worry to rest. I couldn’t have really done that to Marc, could I?
    “You said something happened. What was it?” Grandma asked.
    I conjured up the scene at A Taste of Magic and whispered, “I was baking Marc’s wedding cake. I was upset.” Everything I’d experienced came back at me. The anger, the hurt. My whispered wish. I’d never thought in a million years I would share that moment with anyone, let alone with my grandmother. “And, well, I wished he wouldn’t be able to have sex on his honeymoon.” I rushed the words out, not sure how she would take it.
    “Why do you think it worked?” Her matter-of-fact tone settled me.
    “Alice said. She heard it from someone else. Or, at least, the same thing I wished for happened.” I peeked at Grandma. She was smiling, so I figured she didn’t think I was too small-minded for the wish I’d made.
    “Did anything happen when you were making the cake that was odd or different?”
    “There was this energy in the room and kind of a static electricity thing I can’t explain. I didn’t know. I thought the mixer was acting up.”
    “That’s it! I knew it. I’m so happy you’re able to carry on the gift.”
    Inhaling a breath, I pushed the surreal feeling away. As out-there as this was, I’d experienced too many unexplained instances with my grandmother to doubt her story. Plus, I couldn’t deny the truth. Not when it sat inside of me and was as clear as day. I had brown eyes. I had freckles on my nose. I had magic.
    See? That simple. But also, more than a little scary.
    “So, when I bake wedding cakes, I can cast a spell? Or is it with anything I bake?” Kind of a rhetorical question. The glimmering wooden spoon proved that.
    “Anything, probably. Baking is your specialty. You’ll have to practice to be sure, but my guess is