Just this stupid cold coming on, I told myself. Although it did seem strange that I still hadn’t started to cough or sniffle. My throat hurt though and I felt horribly thirsty—I had already drunk three glasses of water and was wondering if I would have any room for the roast beef Avery was presently turning on a spit over our small fire.
“The roast will be done in a few minutes,” he told Megan, getting up from the fireside and dusting his hands on his immaculate maroon smoking jacket. “It’s still too rare right now—it’s practically still bleeding.”
At that, my ears perked up for some reason.
“Um, Avery?” I asked, looking up from my corner of the couch. “Could I have some now anyway? I want mine rare.”
“You do?” He looked at me, clearly surprised. “But Katydid, you always ask for yours well-done,” he protested.
“Yeah.” Emma snorted and looked up from her notes. “Kaitlyn only likes beef if you serve it extra crispy.”
“Well, I don’t tonight,” I insisted. “Tonight I want it rare. Please, Avery?” I gave him a pleading look from behind my curtain of hair and he sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
“Anything for you, Katydid. But don’t blame me if it bleeds all over your plate.”
He went back to the roast turning on the spit and got out a large carving knife and one of the lovely china plates from the set he kept in the little cupboard on the wall. He sliced me off a few thin slices and plated them carefully before turning his head.
“Do you want some of the roasted potatoes too? I think they’re done enough.”
“No thanks.” I shook my head. “Just the meat, please.”
“All right.” Avery brought the plate over to me and made a knife and fork appear magically in one hand. He delivered the whole meal to me with a flourish, as though he was a waiter at a five-star restaurant determined to impress a picky guest.
That’s one thing I love about Avery—he doesn’t do anything halfway.
His presentation made me smile and I thanked him as I sat up and took the plate. Avery got me a wooden tray to sit it on and then looked at me expectantly.
“Well? Go ahead and taste it and then ask me to cook it some more,” he said, grinning at me.
I looked down at the long, bloody strips of beef on my plate which were indeed oozing pink and red juices over the white china. In the past, such a sight would have nauseated me but now it looked delicious. The meaty, nearly raw scent of the barely-cooked beef hit my nose and suddenly, I was hungry. But not just hungry—starved—ravenous.
Quickly, I cut off a chunk of the bloody beef and popped it into my mouth. The taste was heavenly. As the juices squirted across my tongue, I felt as though my taste buds were waking up for the first time in days and finally I could taste something.
I chewed and swallowed, cutting another chunk and then another, eating as quickly as I could get the food into my mouth. I was dimly aware that my Coven-mates were staring at me with surprise but I couldn’t make myself slow down until the last little bit of the extremely rare beef was gone. And, before I could stop myself, I even licked the plate clean. Somehow the bloody juices were the best part of the meal and I couldn’t help smacking my lips in delight.
“Oh my God, Avery—that was so good,” I sighed, sinking back into the couch in contentment. “I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything even half as delicious.”
“I could tell,” he said flatly. “By the way you ate every bite of it in five seconds flat. Katydid, are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I said, and it seemed to be true. The worn-out, tired feeling I’d been fighting all day had finally dissipated and I felt more energetic than I had in hours. “I think I just needed to eat something,” I told Avery and the rest of my Coven-mates, who were still staring at me uncertainly.
Even Griffin had put down his book and was looking at me with a worried frown on his face.
“I didn’t have much breakfast and lunch was disgusting and I skipped dinner completely, you know,” I said, by way of explanation. “So I was really hungry.”
“Well…all right.” Avery nodded reluctantly. “Although even if you didn’t want to eat, you should have come to see Nasty Nancy and her crew serving everyone their food,” he added with a grin.
“While wearing hair nets, I might add,” Megan put in, laughing. I shared a smile with her, glad to hear that Nancy was getting a taste of her own medicine. “She got Mrs. Hornsby to make Kaitlyn and me wear hairnets in Home Ec,” she explained to the rest of our group.
“Oh dear.” Emma looked concerned. “That must have been…hard for you, Kaitlyn.”
“I survived,” I said as lightly as I could. They really had to stop treating me like I was made of glass!
“I just wish our grades could have survived,” Megan said, the smile melting off her face. “I don’t know what I’m going to do if Mrs. Hornsby won’t take back that F she saddled us with!” She looked at me apologetically. “I’m so sorry about that, Kaitlyn. Bad enough for her to ruin my GPA—I didn’t mean to take you down with me.”
“It’s going to be okay,” I said, with more certainty than I felt. “The next unit is sewing and my mom and I used to do that together so I already know what I’m doing.”
“Really?” Megan looked at me hopefully. “You think you can teach me?”
“Absolutely,” I told her. “You’ll be a whiz at the sewing machine in no time and we’re both going to ace this next unit. You’ll see.”
“Goddess, I don’t see why anyone would bother learning to sew the old-fashioned
