Enchantment Read Online Free PDF Page B

Hannah said.
    “Such splendors; I ought to get my heart
broken more often,” Gray said, a bitter edge to her words.
    “Your heart isn’t truly broken?” Will asked.
His forehead wrinkled. “Is it?”
    “Hardly.” Gray rolled her eyes in a way that
must have been reassuring, for Will smiled and nodded, and Hannah
went back to identifying tourists and locals as they passed.
    Carlo had not broken Gray’s heart. Not even
close. Her heart was already broken. He’d merely walked over the
shattered fragments and crushed them to splinter-sized slivers that
stabbed at Gray’s insides.
    Well, no more! She’d sworn off magic for the
summer, and she’d swear off men, too. S eñora Contreras didn’t need a man in her life. The
witch ran a successful retreat in the heart of Barcelona and was
never without company. Maybe Gray could come up with her own way to
live independently while providing sanctuary for the gifted. She
would talk to Señora Contreras before the
summer was out. Perhaps the Spanish witch would agree to take her
on as an intern.
    Gray’s shoulders relaxed.
    Later that afternoon, with a belly happily
filled with wafer-thin pizza, and a wrist adorned with a new woven
bracelet, Gray consented to follow her friends to the Teatre
Poliorama. Before they rounded the corner to the theater, Hannah
put her hot clammy hands over Gray’s eyes.
    “Hannah, what are you doing?”
    “It’s a surprise. You’re going to love
this!”
    “So long as it’s not a comedian.”
    “He is not a comedian,” Marco said. He
sounded excited, too.
    “He?” Gray asked.
    “Just wait and see,” Hannah said.
    “I can’t at the moment—your hands are
covering my face.”
    “Patience. We don’t want you to see the
playbill.”
    Gray tried not to sigh as Hannah kept her
fingers pressed over her eyes. They were sweaty and smelled like
pizza. Conversations in Catalan surrounded them as they inched
their way through a line then made their way presumably inside the
theater. Gray caught snippets of Spanish while they waited, but
mostly Catalan. She was surprised to hear English as well.
    “Can I look now?” Gray asked after her
friends maneuvered her inside the theater. Cool air prickled her
bare arms as they moved inside.
    “I think it’s safe,” Hannah replied.
    Gray was not only grateful for the return of
her sight but for the free use of her face now that Hannah’s hands
weren’t clasped over her.
    Marco led the procession down the theater
aisle. Down, down, down they went until they approached the edge of
the stage. Gray’s eyebrows shot up as Marco turned to grin with
self-satisfaction. “Front row.”
    Gray followed Marco into the aisle and took
the seat beside him, Hannah on her right. “How did you manage
this?”
    Marco stretched his legs out in the space
between his chair and stage. “My contact saw to it.”
    “I thought we agreed no contacts.”
    “You. Not me.”
    Marco tapped his foot on the floor and began
humming softly. Hannah turned toward Will, who whispered, “They say
he’s one of the best, if not The Best.”
    Gray sighed. “You brought me to see a
comedian, didn’t you?”
    “He’s not a comedian! Just wait and see.”
    Gray slouched in her chair and stared at the
curtain.
    Marco poked her in the shoulder. “¿Cómo te
sientes?”
    “ Mucho mejor ,” Gray replied. And it
was true. Carlo had just been a distraction; at least it helped
when Gray explained it to herself that way. Even when she had been
with the Spaniard, there had been a clock ticking in the back of
her brain, causing her to wake early each morning with worries
about the future.
    If Señora Contreras
agreed to let Gray stay longer, she could settle in. Barcelona
could become her home for a time.
    Gray didn’t realize she and Marco were
conversing in Spanish until Hannah leaned over and asked, “Why are
you speaking in Spanish?”
    Gray shrugged as Marco answered, “We should
all be speaking together in Spanish. English is