Chapter 5 A Memory Between Us

Ana's POV

"Ana Moonvale?"

I hated the way my heart reacted to the sound of my name coming from his mouth. Five years had passed, yet apparently that still wasn't enough time for my body to forget Theo Silvershade.

"Theo."

His eyebrows lifted slightly as he studied me, as though trying to decide whether I was really the same girl he remembered from the university.

I folded my arms. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I'm standing inside my family's shop."

"I meant Moonhaven."

"I know what you meant."

Surprise flickered across his expression. The Ana he remembered probably wouldn't have spoken to him like this. She had been too busy pretending his insults didn't hurt while secretly caring far too much about his opinion.

Fortunately, five years had cured me of that.

His gaze dropped briefly to my black dress. "I heard about your grandmother. I'm sorry."

My irritation softened. "Thank you."

The sincerity caught me off guard, but whatever goodwill it created disappeared when he glanced toward the shelves.

"I need something she kept for me."

"Of course you do."

His eyes returned to mine. "What does that mean?"

"It means you magically unlocked a closed shop on the evening of my grandmother's funeral because you needed something."

"I didn't break in. The lock was simple."

I stared at him. "That really isn't the defense you think it is."

"I wouldn't have come tonight if it wasn't important."

"Then come back tomorrow."

"I need it tonight."

"And I need you to leave."

His jaw tightened, an expression I remembered from whenever someone refused to do what he wanted. Being born a Silvershade had probably convinced him the rest of the magical world existed for his convenience.

When he stepped toward the counter, I moved in front of it.

"I'm not here to cause trouble, Ana."

"Then explain what you want instead of breaking into my shop."

He stared at me for several seconds. "A memory. Your grandmother preserved one for me."

My irritation gave way to curiosity. "When?"

"Years ago."

"How many years?"

"Does it matter?"

I gestured toward the hundreds of bottles surrounding us. "Unless yours has your name glowing across it, yes."

His mouth tightened. "Seven years ago."

Seven years ago meant we had still been at the university.

"What memory?"

"Mine."

"Very helpful."

"You don't need to know what's inside it."

"Then how am I supposed to find it?"

"Your grandmother kept records."

I glanced toward the desk covered in papers and ledgers. Apparently, Theo knew more about how the Memory Shop operated than I did, which was mildly insulting.

"I'm not searching through all of that tonight."

"Ana."

I pointed toward the window. "See that sign? It says CLOSED. Big letters. Very clear. I know the University of Magic may have lowered its standards over the last five years, but surely Silvershades can still read."

Something dangerously close to amusement flickered in his eyes.

"You've changed."

I hated how easily those words affected me. "That generally happens when five years pass."

"Where have you been?"

"None of your business."

His eyebrows rose. "I heard you left."

"Then apparently you already know enough."

"Why?"

I stared at him. Of all people, Theo Silvershade did not get to ask me that.

"You really don't remember?"

His expression shifted. "I remember you left the university."

"After failing second year for the third time."

"I remember."

"Wonderful. Then mystery solved."

I turned away and gathered the papers scattered across the counter.

"You disappeared."

I looked over my shoulder. "Was I supposed to send you a farewell letter?"

"No."

"Then why do you care?"

"I didn't say I cared."

There he was. That sounded more like the Theo I remembered.

"Good. Then come back another day."

"I can't."

"That sounds like your problem."

Silence stretched between us until his attention shifted toward Grandmother's reading glasses. The faint golden glow remained inside one lens, and his expression sharpened.

"You were casting."

I moved the glasses behind me. "None of your business."

His gaze returned to mine. "You?"

That single word tightened something in my chest, dragging me straight back to our university days and all the things Theo had said when I was still desperate to prove I belonged there.

"Maybe practical magic just isn't your strength, Moonvale."

"You know every spell in the book, but somehow you still can't make them work."

"How many times are you going to keep trying?"

Maybe he hadn't meant anything by that single word now, but after years of hearing things like that from him, it was difficult not to hear the same judgment behind it.

My fingers tightened around Grandmother's glasses.

"Get out."

His brows drew together. "Ana, I didn't mean—"

"I buried my grandmother today." That stopped him. "I came back to a shop I haven't stepped inside in years. I don't know how to run it, I don't know where she kept half her records, and until a few minutes ago, I didn't even know whether I could perform memory magic. So whatever incredibly important memory you suddenly need after seven years is going to have to wait."

"It can't."

"Then you have a problem."

His jaw tightened. "I'll come back tomorrow."

"I didn't invite you."

"I don't need an invitation to retrieve something that belongs to me."

"You apparently don't need permission to enter locked buildings either."

He ignored that. "Find the record before I return."

My eyebrows rose. "You don't get to give me orders."

"I'm asking you to locate something that belongs to me."

"No, you're telling me."

His mouth opened, but I held up one hand. "Don't."

He actually stopped, which might have been the most successful magic I had performed all evening.

I walked around the counter, opened the front door, and gestured toward the street. "Good night."

Theo looked from me to the doorway. "You're throwing me out?"

"Very observant. Maybe the university hasn't lowered its standards after all."

His eyes narrowed as he walked toward me. My confidence became slightly harder to maintain until he stopped directly in front of me.

I had forgotten what standing near someone with that much magic felt like. Power seemed to hum beneath his skin, controlled but impossible to ignore. Everyone at the university had known Theo would become one of the strongest mages of our generation.

Apparently, they had been right.

"Tomorrow, Ana."

"Maybe."

"I need that memory."

"Then maybe you should learn some manners before you come back."

Amusement flickered in his eyes. "You really have changed."

"And you're still annoying."

The corner of his mouth almost moved before he stepped outside.

"I'll be here at ten tomorrow morning."

"Did anything about this conversation make you think I agreed to that?"

"No."

"Then don't come at ten."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"Theo—"

He walked away before I could finish.

"Unbelievable," I muttered. "Arrogant, intrusive, impossible, and still extremely annoying!"

Without turning around, he lifted one hand.

I slammed the door, making several memory bottles rattle on the shelves.

"Sorry."

I locked the door again and added the second lock, although neither would stop Theo if he decided to magically invite himself inside.

"Show-off."

I returned to the counter and dropped into Grandmother's chair.

Of all the witches and mages who could have walked into the shop tonight, it had to be Theo Silvershade.

I hadn't thought about him in years.

Fine. I hadn't thought about him often.

Occasionally, something would remind me of him. A silver crest, someone with dark hair, or a particularly arrogant customer could bring back a passing thought of our university days.

I knew better now.

My gaze drifted toward the shelves. Theo had entrusted a memory to Grandmother seven years ago, while we were still students. Why had he left it with her, and why did he suddenly need it now?

"Not my problem," I murmured.

One bottle flickered, and I pointed at it. "Don't."

It dimmed, which was probably for the best because I wasn't ready for the bottles to start having opinions too.

I reached for Grandmother's notebook, intending to put it away, but my gaze fell on the faint glow still trapped inside her glasses.

Maybe the spell had worked by accident, or maybe memory magic was simply different from everything I had tried at the university. Grandmother had always said magic didn't come to everyone in the same way.

I just hadn't believed her.

I opened the notebook to Memory Preservation: Basic.

"One more try," I murmured before reconsidering. "Actually, tomorrow."

Tonight had already contained a funeral, unexpected magic, and Theo Silvershade. That was enough disaster for one day.

I closed the notebook and picked up Grandmother's glasses. At the bottom of the staircase, I looked back at the hundreds of softly glowing memories filling the shop.

Theo would return tomorrow whether I wanted him to or not, and before he did, I was going to find out whether what happened tonight had been an accident.

Not because I had anything to prove to Theo Silvershade, but because for the first time in years, magic had answered me, and I wanted to know why.