by J L Collins
“I really don’t like the fact that Queen Mabily knew so much about you. What did my dad say when you told him all this?” Erie rinsed her plate off in the sink, glancing back at me. “You did tell him, right?”
I sighed. “In a way. I mean, I told him about her knowing the stuff about the Athenaeum.”
“Sounds to me like she knows more about the library than she’s letting on,” she muttered.
“I got the same impression. So, I don’t know whether to be worried or not. Uncle Gardner didn’t seem as surprised, but I think he caught on about the Queen having more than one source for her information. It’s no secret the Royal Court deals in information.”
She leaned up against the counter, drumming her fingers along it. “Maybe. But her knowing about Adam is something else entirely. I don’t get why she’d keep tabs on you like that. I’d be cautious about her wanting to snoop around in your personal life.”
Not that Adam Pecora had been around much in my personal life since before Fiona-Leigh was born. Knowing that I’d left Spell Haven hadn’t surprised me. But the Queen knowing about what happened to Adam… my skin crawled as I pushed back against the thought.
Washing the pan and plates, I busied my hands in the water. Erie was quiet though I could feel her eyes on me.
“Now I know you’ve seen a sink full of dishes,” I smiled. “We may not have magic here to help speed up the process but I seem to remember many a time where your mom made us wash dishes by hand as punishment.”
“Mmhm. That’s true. But I was just waiting to see when you’d finally tell me about this boyfriend business Osh was talking about earlier. What? You thought I’d just let that one go?”
I flicked the sudsy water on my hands at her. “He’s not my boyfriend! And since when do you listen to that furball?”
Shoving her hand in the sink, Erie laughed and splashed the entire front of my shirt. I shrieked, returning the favor, both of us going back and forth until we were pretty much drenched from the waist up.
“Good going,” I said, wiping away the tears that had sprung up in my eyes from laughing so hard.
“What? All we have to do is—”
I flung the nearby dish towel at her. “Dry ourselves off without magic?”
Erie groaned. “Ugh. Being a human sucks. We really can’t even do a simple drying incantation?”
“Really. You know as well as I do that magic doesn’t work here. At least it’s not supposed to.”
I reminded her of the magical leaks Fiona-Leigh and I had dealt with recently. Erie seemed just as mystified as I was.
“That doesn’t sound good. Especially if a human witnesses it. I can just see Dad’s eyes bugging out of his head, can’t you?” she said, wringing the hem of her shirt out.
I dried off my arms, glad that there was a leftover clean load of laundry in the dryer. “Here, take this,” I said as I handed her a t-shirt. “I’ll just throw our shirts in and they should be done in about twenty minutes.”
“Thanks,” she mumbled, peeling her own shirt off to toss it to me. “But I haven’t forgotten about the whole not-boyfriend thing. Spill the cauldron.”
“There’s really nothing to spill. He’s just my neighbor. Who happens to be incredibly handsome, incredibly kind, funny, and a fantastic cook,” I finished off, the smile on my face making my cheeks burn.
Erie chuckled, shaking her head at me. “Wow. You’ve got it bad.”
“No way. I mean, he’s all those things, but I don’t have time for dating. I’ve got a job and a kid. Not to mention the investigation in a completely different realm. How can I have a relationship with a human, anyway?”
It was something I’d laid in bed at night and thought about more times than I cared to admit. Even if Sully felt any kind of romantic way about me, there was the whole magic thing to consider. I refused to put another human in a potentially harmful position—it was bad enough that Fiona-Leigh was already involved.
But she just waved me off. “Who says you have to have some epic romance? It could just be some fun on the side, right? I’m not saying you have to marry the guy.”
I chose to ignore her, hoping the conversation would end right there. Though I didn’t begrudge anyone else for wanting to hook up with other people in a casual way, that wasn’t really my cup of tea.
Sunlight broke through the patchy clouds and filtered into the kitchen window, warming my skin. How late was it, anyway?
“Shoot. I meant to come here and check up on Fi.” I narrowed my eyes at Erie. “You can come with, but you are not going to embarrass me. Deal?”
She held up her hands in false surrender. “Me? Embarrass you? I would never . . . Where are we going, again?”
I blew damp lilac hair out of my face. “To her best friend’s uncle’s. Who may or may not happen to be my hot neighbor.”
To say Erie was excited to meet Sully was an understatement—I practically had to hold her back as we crossed the street. Glancing around to see if he was maybe working in his garden again, I walked up to the front door and knocked.
“Act natural,” I whispered to her, giving her the look.
She pretended to zip her mouth shut, still grinning from ear to ear.
The door opened, and it was Marina standing inside, her short blonde hair peeking out from under her usual beanie. “Hi, Ms. Brady. And Ms. Brady’s lady friend.”
I coughed, doing my best to cover up Erie’s indignant noise. “She’s ah, actually my cousin, Erie. Erie, this is Marina—Fiona-Leigh’s best friend.”
Marina nodded, looking about as interested as her first period teacher at school. “Mmkay. Fi’s in my room. Y’all can come in. I think Uncle Sully is in the garage or something.”
She moved past to let us in and I shut the screen door behind us, nervously assessing the look on Erie’s face. I didn’t know why I was anxious to see what she thought of Sully or his house, because it wasn’t like it mattered or made a difference.
“Gwen, hey!” Sully’s deep voice yanked a tight knot in my stomach. He came out of the door that led to his garage. From the grease smudges on his cheek and hands, he was tinkering with his truck.
He smiled sheepishly, smearing at the grease even more. “Sorry. Was putting in a new timing belt. I’m Sully, by the way,” he said, acknowledging Erie by giving a little wave. “I swear this place is usually cleaner. And me too.”
She threw her arm around me, squeezing me a bit too hard and grinning a bit too widely. “I’m Erie, her cousin. It’s nice to finally meet you. Gwen’s told me so much about you.”
I jerked away from her, stammering, “Fiona-Leigh too. We’ve told her how nice it is to have a great neighbor like you!” My cheeks were burning hot. So much for her not embarrassing me.
I could just make out the dimples under his beard as he smiled. There was a tinge of pink in his cheeks, though it was probably just a reaction from the oil on them.
“If you two haven’t eaten, I was just getting ready to get some brunch going for us. The girls got up pretty late this morning. Right, Marina?” he said, raising a brow in her direction.
“It was an all-nighter. Mainly working on our projects . . .” she squinted. “There may have been an anime and some late-night fridge raids involved as well.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, Erie and Sully too. Of course my kid was up late working on schoolwork and stuffing her face. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in that instance.
“And on that note, I’ll go grab her,” Marina said, trudging away.
Erie placed her hands on her thin hips, smiling sweetly at Sully who was now turning on the faucet in the kitchen sink. “So, Sully. I hear you’re an excellent cook. Have you had a chance to give Gwendolyn here any tips? She can use all the help she can get in that department.”
I grit my teeth together.
“Actually yeah,” he chuckled over the rushing water, scrubbing away at his hands. “I’ve offered to give her some more cooking lessons just to kind of help out. Her
cookies are pretty good though.”
“Cooking lessons, hm?” Erie looked between the two of us. “How generous.”
“Mom? Erie!” Fiona-Leigh burst into the room, making a beeline not to me, but to Erie. Naturally ignoring me like chopped liver.
“Yep, I’m here too,” Erie laughed, hugging her back. “I thought I’d come for a visit.”
Fiona-Leigh accidentally bumped into me as she pulled away, nearly sending me toppling over the sectional marking the space between the dining room area and the open living room. “Sorry, Mama.” She leaned over and gave me a quick hug, giving me an exaggerated smile as I rolled my eyes at her.
“Hey. What’s that thing?” Marina asked, coming back out from her room.
I looked down and my heart caught in my throat. My wand was lying on the floor for everyone to see.
Fiona-Leigh, Erie and I all started at once. “Uh . . .”
“Well that’s just . . . um,”
“—it’s mine! Actually, um, I wanted to show it to you but I left it at my house. Thanks Mom, for bringing it over,” Fiona-Leigh shouted a little too loudly to be all that believable. She bent down, very carefully picking it up by the handle.
Marina snorted. “A wand? Were you planning on doing some cosplay or something?” She held her hand out. “Let me see.”
Reflexively I wanted to reach out and grab it, but I kept my hands to my side, watching the curious look on Sully’s face as he dried his hands and edged around the kitchen counter to see what we were talking about.
“It’s just, you know, wood or whatever. Nothing too crazy.” Fi nervously looked at Marina’s waiting open palm. “Maybe I should just keep it in its case . . .”
Erie quickly nodded. “Right! Me and your mom can just take it back for you and put it away. We don’t want it to get dirty or anything.” She practically lunged for the wand, and Fiona-Leigh anxious to hand it over, accidentally let go before Erie could grab it.
The wand landed on the floor and propelled backward from the bright blue sparks emanating from its tip. A magical flame licked across the floor, spreading out dangerously close to our feet.
Everyone’s mouths dropped open all at once. Quickly thinking on my toes, I stomped out the little fire with my boot, wincing at the charred mark on Sully’s wooden floor. Even with the fire out, my heart raced even faster in my chest.
I looked up slowly, my mouth dry as a desert as I took in the look on Sully’s face first. “Whoops. Um. Maybe we could buff it out?”
13
Into the Woods
It didn’t take Marina muttering “Whoa,” to herself for me to understand the consequences we were dealing with. I gently picked up my wand, my hands shaking. Not ready to let it out of my sight, I held it tightly in my hand. What the heck just happened? Another magic leak?
Erie seemed to be wondering the same thing, her eyes steady on me as I stood back up. “Gwen—”
“—was that . . . was that like, real?” Marina asked.
Fiona-Leigh looked to me, biting her lip. The air was thick with the words I wanted to say. The incantations I knew I could say and make all of this magically go away. But that was just it. No magic was possible here—at least not controlled magic.
Mentally, I was smacking myself for not having a better back-up plan ready to go just in case. Being out of the academy this long was starting to become a real pain in the butt.
Sully took a few steps forward before bending down to inspect the charred spot caused by the blue flames. It was like time stopped, waiting for him to say something.
“Okay.” He cleared his throat and stood up, running his hands over his head until they were splayed across the back of it. “Okay. So. As someone who’s studied physics pretty thoroughly in college before going down the whole mortuary science road, this is either the best theatrical cosplay toy that’s ever been created and therefore probably worth way more than a kid in high school has access to . . . or, what? Somehow that wand just lit my floor on fire?”
I quickly shook my head. “It works like a lighter—you know, you can push a little button and colorful flames appear? I’ve seen Zippos that can do that.”
Sully didn’t look even slightly convinced. “Uh huh.”
Marina wasn’t really buying it either. “Then why didn’t the flames stay put at the end of it? They like, expanded or something. Like they had a mind of their own.”
“That’s not how fire works,” Fiona-Leigh said.
“Well duh, Fi! I know that! That’s what I mean. That,” Marina said, pointing directly at my wand, “isn’t some fancy lighter. A lighter wouldn’t do that. So maybe someone will explain why you’re acting so weird about it.”
Fiona-Leigh took a step backward and closer to me. The tension thrumming in her to just lay it all out for them was almost tangible. I could see how badly she was wanting to tell the truth.
I nudged her, and widened my eyes as she looked at me. “Maybe we will.”
“What?” she and Erie replied in unison.
“Maybe we can show them the truth about the wand,” I said. What I wouldn’t give for Aunt Bee’s telepathic ability right about now…
“Gwen? You know the rules,” Erie leaned in and whispered as softly as she could.
Even Fiona-Leigh looked completely confused. I couldn’t exactly blame them—what I was about to say was going against everything I’d ever told her before.
I took a deep breath, keeping my cool as I looked straight at Sully. “It’s not some cosplay toy.”
“I put that together,” he said slowly. “So, what is that thing?”
Erie yanked at my arm, shaking her head. “Maybe we should come back later. We could find a way to get that mark off the floor for you. I’m sure my cousin wouldn’t mind handling it herself!”
I wrenched my arm out of her grasp. “I wouldn’t, but first I need to show you something. Both of you,” I added, looking between Sully and Marina.
Fiona-Leigh let out a soft gasp, her dark blue eyes wider than ever. “Really?”
“What is it?” Sully repeated; his voice low. “Tell me the truth, please.”
“It’s a wand.” The truth, simple as that.
“Is it . . . real?” Marina asked again, staring at the wand as if it were going to talk back to her.
My mind was reeling, still trying to put a plan in place as quickly as possible. A magical leak was the only real explanation I could come up with, but it wasn’t something I really had a way of explaining to Sully and Marina—there wasn’t any time. The truth was that the longer we stood there, the harder it would be to pull off what I was planning.
So, I had to bite the bullet. “Yes. It’s real.”
“Gwen, no!” Erie groaned, her arms falling to her sides.
I threw her the most apologetic look I could. “Erie, just trust me, okay?” Turning back to Sully, I sighed. “I’m a Witch. And I know that’s a lot to take in, and I don’t expect any of this to make sense to you but this is who I really am.”
He studied my face carefully, probably to see if I’d crack a smile and admit to the whole thing being a joke. When he saw how serious I was he let out a long whistle.
“Oh. My. God! Are you freaking serious right now? Like a full-on Witch? Pointy hat, broomstick?” Marina shrieked, grabbing hold of Fiona-Leigh’s hands and jumping up and down. “This is so sick!”
“I’m not a Witch, dude,” Fi shouted over the thudding of Marina’s shoes. “Just my mom. And whoa . . . I cannot believe I just said that.”
“Neither can I,” Erie mumbled behind me.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I silently begged my head to stop pounding as hard as my heart in my chest. Looking at Sully certainly wasn’t helping things. He looked like he was working out a difficult puzzle in his head.
“I can explain more on the way,” I offered, gesturing toward the door. “We can show you what I mean.”
I don’t know how I managed to get everyone buckled up in the old
beat-up Jeep, but we were turning onto the main road that led out of Midnight Pitch, Erie in the back with the girls while Sully was riding shotgun. Part of me wished he would say something—anything, really. He was so quiet that I thought for sure he was going to lose his temper or even his mind at some point during the long drive over the state line into Tennessee.
Of course, the gateway couldn’t be located any closer to me for convenience or anything…
Once we were parked along the side of the two-lane road cutting through the thick of the forest at exactly the right spot, I did my best to explain to them just where we were going and why.
“There’s a gateway inside the forest here,” I said, shoving my wand in the back pocket of my jeans as everyone else climbed out of the Jeep. “It’s a little bit of walk, but it’s not too strenuous.”
“Are you telling me we have to follow you in there?” Marina said, raising a pale brow. “This is usually the part where serial killers use chloroform to drug their victims and take them to some creepy abandoned old shack to murder them.”
Fiona-Leigh let out a nervous laugh, clutching at one arm with her hand. “Ha-ha. Creepy abandoned shack. That’s funny. Isn’t that funny, Mom?”
“Hilarious,” I replied, thoroughly unamused.
Erie caught my gaze, her dark blonde eyebrows knitted together. I pulled her a few feet ahead of the others. “I know this whole thing is crazy but just go with what I say, okay? I promise I have an idea.”
“If you say so . . .” She took the lead, her leather boots crunching over leaves and the not-so-worn path.
I glanced back at the rest of them. “Come on, guys. It’s really not as creepy as it seems,” I said, trying to hide the crack in my voice.
We trekked on, Marina and Fiona-Leigh’s voices carrying over the sounds of the forest.
“Dude, I cannot believe you didn’t tell me about any of this! You’re the worst at keeping secrets—how the heck did you pull this one?” Marina sounded more in awe than angry with Fiona-Leigh.
Fi laughed. “I don’t know. I didn’t really have a choice, I guess. Mom only just told me the whole story at the beginning of the summer. Well, she didn’t really tell me. I sort of accidentally found out when my Great Aunt Bedelia kind of magically teleported into our living room right in front of me. Then Mom told me the truth.”
