by Amy Boyles
"You're welcome."
Sera dug her fingers into the back of my seat and leaned forward. "What are you saying?"
I took a deep breath. "I'm going to try it on my own."
"Here?" she asked.
"Here. I'm going to sneak behind the house and levitate."
"And what? Look through her windows?" Roman asked.
"Exactly," I said. Butterflies tangled in my stomach.
Roman pushed the release on his seat belt. "This has trouble written all over it. I'd better follow to make sure you don't kill yourself."
I bristled. "I don't need you to keep me safe."
He gave me a doubtful look and opened his door.
"If he's going, I'm going," Reid said.
"Great. Let's make it a party, shall we?" I said.
Sera grinned. "Yeah, let's see how far we can get before Milly finds you and spells you."
"What? That's a terrible thing to say." I bit my lower lip. "What do you think she'd do to me?"
"You saw how she vanished that tea set. She'll probably send you to another dimension."
I pressed her forehead with my finger. "Very funny. This isn't Superman."
"Good thing. I'd hate for her to replace you with Bizarro Dylan." Sera puffed out her cheeks. "Me Dylan. Me make beautiful dress for you."
"Shut up and come on." I opened the door and stepped into the night. A cool breeze lifted the ends of my hair. I glanced up at the old home, the unsettling house that looked almost nightmarish in the dark. I clenched my hands and, without a word, stalked toward the back.
Everyone followed. "Reid, you and Sera stay here."
Reid kicked a pebble across the road. "But if you fly, I want to see it."
"Me too," Sera said.
Roman yawned.
"Let's go," I said.
We sneaked to the back. Thank goodness no one giggled, though it shocked me that not even Reid snickered. Light shone through the bottom windows. Living room and kitchen, presumably. A single light illuminated the top half of the house. Bedroom. That's what I wanted. That's where I needed to be. If the old witch was hiding anything, it would lay in there.
I glanced at everyone and nodded, signaling it was go time. Closing my eyes, I turned my thoughts toward levitation and being light, about lifting up.
"Will it help if I throw you in the air?" Reid whispered.
"Shut it," I said.
I wrung out my hands and focused on that room on the second floor, about how much I wanted to see what Milly had up there. Less than a second later, I became weightless. Yes! I cracked one eye open, then the other. My feet hovered only a few inches above the air, but it counted. I was officially floating. I smiled widely at Sera and Reid, who smiled back, and at Roman, who scowled at me. Sourpuss. Who cared about him, anyway?
I focused on reaching the window, and in two seconds flat I floated outside it. Sweet! This was a heck of a lot easier than I expected. My chest expanded. I considered floating to the moon, but realized that one, I'd run out of oxygen, and two, I didn't have time for all that crap. I had to get on with this.
After saying a little prayer, I grasped the bottom of the window and pulled. It gave enough for me to wedge my fingers beneath. I inhaled. My ribcage inflated, and with my not so Herculean strength, I cracked it enough to heave my body through.
I heard Roman mumble something about breaking and entering, but I ignored him. The way I figured it, assassins didn't have room to judge.
I landed with a plop atop orange shag carpet. A fine cloud of must puffed up, irritating my sinuses. I coughed up half a lung, mystified that the witch didn't vacuum more. After wiping tears from my face, I peered into the room and came face-to-face with a pair of black orthopedic shoes.
"You're lucky I don't turn you into a toad," Milly said.
I sat back on my haunches. Milly's silver hair stuck out every which way. She looked, shall I say, fearsome. Perhaps this hadn't been a good idea after all. "Are you going to turn me into anything?"
She smacked her lips. "As tempting as it is to get some practice in, I think the important thing is that you've finally unlocked your magic. Call your sisters and that bodyguard of yours and invite them all in."
I rubbed my forehead. "I thought we'd done such a good job sneaking."
Milly cackled, truly a witch-like sound. "First thing you need to learn—you can't sneak up on a powerful witch. Now get them all downstairs and we'll have a little chat without that nosy Queen Witch listening in."
Five minutes later my sisters and I sat in Milly's living room. Roman remained outside, saying he didn't want to be locked in a room with witches. Whatever that meant.
After a round of magicked hot tea—yes, she did the whole vanishing-act thing again—I cut right to the chase.
"You're hiding something."
Her lips curled. "What makes you say that?"
"There was something you almost said today, but didn't. Do you know who wants us dead?"
Milly stirred her drink. "Sometimes when a witch uses her power, I feel the ripple. For instance, when you finally figured out how to fly, I felt that."
"I didn't fly," I corrected. "I floated."
She dismissed the difference with a wave of her liver-spotted hand. "There's no difference. If you can do one, you can do the other."
"Cool," Reid said.
"You have no power," Milly said.
"Ah, poop."
"I have felt something recently," Milly continued. "A ripple near here."
I exchanged confused looks with Sera. "Why didn't you say something when Em was here?"
"I hate the council," Milly snarled. "Those nosy ninnies always want to know everything. They come in, stir up trouble, and then leave the rest of us to clean up the mess."
Sera rested her tea cup atop the saucer with a clink. "Didn't Em say you were queen before her?"
"Yes," Milly said. "That's why I don't like the council, because I used to be one of them. I know how it works, and trust me”—she wagged a finger at us—"you're better off without them."
"If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't even know we're witches," Sera said.
I scowled at Milly. "You knew we were witches, but you didn't come to help us. Em's the first person who bothered teaching us any of this stuff."
Milly clamped her mouth shut so tight deep creases molded the corners. "I told Hazel to teach you. She didn't listen. What was I supposed to do? That's what ruined our friendship, you know." She thumped her fist on the side table. "Our disagreement ran so deep it caused a rift neither one of us wanted to mend."
"Too stubborn to mend, more like," I said.
"Yes, we were both stubborn," Milly grumbled. "What's done is done. I'm not happy about it, but it's the way things are." She stared at the clock on the wall, then vanished our half-finished cups of tea. "If that answers all your questions, I'd like to get some rest. It's eleven o'clock, two hours past my bedtime."
We thanked her for the tea and left. Roman leaned against the SUV, apparently waiting for us.
"Everything go as planned?"
I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "Yes. Everything went great. I have a new fairy godmother."
"Good," he said. "I feel better."
"Why's that?"
He waited for Reid and Sera to get in and shut the doors behind them. Roman grasped the handle of the passenger door as if he was going to open it for me. Apparently some assassins had manners. Keeping his voice low, he said, "Because once Em finds out you've done magic that can be witnessed by regular people, you're going to need all the godmothers you can get."
"Oh. Is that wrong?"
He scoffed. "It's a rule of witchcraft. Don't let anyone see you do magic or else you run the risk of a fate worse than death."
"All these blasted rules. I wish someone would just give me a pamphlet with all of them listed and be done with it."
He said nothing. His quiet, assassin-like silence bothered me.
I sighe
d. "And what could be worse than death?"
He opened the door. As I climbed into the SUV, he whispered in my ear, "Being boiled alive."
Roman shut the door.
CHAPTER TEN
I tried not to think too much about being boiled alive the next morning as I sat down to breakfast with my sisters. Calico Kitchen, a local meat and three, also happened to serve a fantastic biscuits-and-gravy breakfast, which I now stared at on my plate. All of us must've needed food therapy, because our dishes were piled high.
"I tried levitating this morning," Sera said over a heap of pancakes.
I sipped black coffee. "And?"
She shook her head. "I may have raised up an inch at most. I'm really bad at this stuff."
"We're all bad," I said. "We've never had formal training."
"And let's face it, Queen Witch isn't the best teacher," Reid said. She drenched her waffle in syrup and cut it into itty-bitty bites.
"What makes you say that?" I said.
She pointed to both of us with her fork. "Case in point. Both of you are terrible at this stuff."
"Excuse me," I replied. "I am not terrible."
She shoved a bite in her mouth. "Not last night, no. But you were before then, and as far as I know, you still are. It's like she doesn't want you to get any better."
I set my white ceramic coffee mug on the table. "What did you say?"
"Hey, y'all!"
I tilted my head back and groaned. No. Not now.
Jenny Butts popped into view, her blonde curls extra tight this morning. She wore a white halter top, white skirt and red heels. I'm pretty sure every male head in the diner had pivoted in our direction.
I scooted to the edge of the booth, hoping to discourage Jenny from asking to join us. "Morning," I said. "To what do we owe this honor?"
Jenny swatted my shoulder. "You're so funny, Dylan. 'To what do we owe this honor?'" She snorted. "Well, silly, I'm just stopping by to wish you good morning."
"Sure you are," Reid mumbled.
Jenny's head swiveled in my sister's direction. "It's just that some of us have noticed you've closed your businesses this week since…well, since poor Reagan died."
"We're opening back up in a couple of days," Sera said. "We wanted to give Reagan's family some respect."
"I figured you'd closed the bakery because you'd heard about Tim."
My eyes fused on Jenny. Blood pounded in my ears.
"Heard what about Tim?" Sera asked. So sweet. So innocent. She didn't deserve to have that wretched Jenny break her heart.
I grabbed my purse, shoved past Jenny and hauled Sera out of the seat. "Heard that Tim's gone skiing in the Alps for the rest of the summer."
"Skiing?" Sera asked.
"Yes. It's the newest thing. People ski on the grass. New type of blades someone invented. All the rage." I pulled her toward the door, but she stopped stone still.
"What is it, Dylan? What about Tim?"
I gave her my biggest doe eyes. And lied through my teeth. "Exactly what I said."
She whirled toward Jenny. "What about him? Might as well tell me before I find out from someone else."
Jenny scoffed. "I don't want to be the bearer of bad news—"
"Sure you don't," I said. It wasn't ladylike, but I saw no point in hiding my feelings from the Mouth of the South.
Jenny flashed me a fake smile. "Hon," she said to Sera. "It seems that Tim and Olivia Helm have gotten serious."
Sera swallowed. She pursed her lips and jutted out her chin. "So?"
I grabbed Sera by the elbow. "So nothing. It doesn't mean anything."
Jenny smirked at me. "They're engaged."
I'm very nearly certain that somewhere a whistle blew while smoke launched from my ears. Sera stumbled back. She grasped the edge of the speckled table, gripping it so hard I thought for sure it would crack. I mean, she's not Superman powerful or anything, but let's face it—we are witches. Not that we know how to use our power, but if she wanted to, like, split some wood karate-chop-style, I'm sure she could.
"Son of a—"
At that moment, sure as shinola, Tim strutted past the window. I wanted to slap the smug look from his face. Thirty years old and the guy wore slouchy brown pants worthy of a fraternity house. He must have thought this was college, not real life. Honestly I don't know what Sera saw in that fool. At some point you had to decide to grow up, and wearing adult clothing needed to be part of that journey—not old man pants or lazy pants—actual slacks. Just my two cents.
Sera clenched her fists. She started for the door. I pulled her back.
"He's a jerk. Leave him alone," I whispered through gritted teeth.
Her face softened. "You've been telling me to stay away from him."
I grasped her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "I know. I didn't want you to get hurt again."
I held Sera until she leaned out of my embrace. She sniffled and swiped a finger under each eye. Tim stood outside talking to a local. I nibbled my finger as I watched my sister, waiting to see what she would do next.
She noticed me staring and laughed. "Don't worry. I'm not going out there."
"You're not?" I asked. This was a surprise. I mean, they'd broken up six months ago after dating for two years, and now the guy was engaged. I figured if anything, she wanted to wring his neck.
Sera shook her head. Her shimmering tendrils swayed from side to side. "No." She threaded her hands together and cracked her knuckles. "In fact, I'm ready to work some magic."
***
"I want to learn fire," Sera said to Em.
Queen Witch snorted. "We'll talk about that later." She fixed her steely gaze on me. Flames burned in her eyes. I dipped my head, hoping they would go away. I glanced up. No luck.
"First, we need to discuss somethin' I apparently forget to mention," Em said in a cold, distant voice.
"What's that?" Reid asked.
"Absolutely, on no condition should you ever, and I mean ever, perform magic where humans can see you."
I gulped. "Oh. That was me. Sorry about that."
"What's she talking about?" Reid asked.
"Me. Levitating last night. Outside."
Oh, she mouthed.
Em tittered. "Sorry? You're sorry?"
Come on. Don't try to punish me for something you didn't say. "Yes. I'm sorry. I won't do it again, but in all fairness, you never told us."
Her face puffed into a red, angry ball. "Take this as your warnin', chicklet. If you ever let a human see your abilities again, you'll face a nasty punishment."
"And what would that be?" I wanted to see if Roman had told me the truth.
"You'll be boiled alive."
"Boiled alive?" Sera said. "That's horrible."
"Ew. Double horrible," Reid agreed.
"That's why you don't break the rules," Em said.
Sera glanced at me. "Did you know that?"
I scratched at my hairline. "Yeah. Roman told me after y'all got in the car last night."
"And you didn't tell us?" Reid said.
"Was I supposed to?"
"It would have been nice," Sera said.
Ready to change the subject, I turned to Em and rested my forehead in my palm. "How'd you find out what I did?"
Em pulled an elastic from her purse and tied back her hair. "I wouldn't be Queen Witch if I didn't know things. Anyway, am I understood?"
I hung my head like a chastised elementary schooler. "Yes."
She smacked her lips. "Good. Now let's get cookin'."
"I want to learn fire," Sera repeated.
Em froze. "You ain't jokin'."
"I'm not joking," Sera said. She stood stock-still, her shoulders back, her jaw and fists clenched. Anger rolled off her. Evidently she wasn't over the whole Tim thing. I took a step back. I feared she might set the entire store on fire. My beautiful dresses.
No. She wouldn't do that. My sister wouldn't turn all Firestarter on me and cause my shop to explode.
S
he wouldn't.
She couldn't.
Could she?
Em cleared her throat and cast a nervous glance toward me. I shrugged. The girl wanted to learn fire. Who was I to stop her?
"Have you mastered levitation?" Em asked Sera.
Sera exhaled loudly. Her nostrils flared. She tilted down her chin, staring at Em. "I want to learn fire."
"I suggest you teach her fire," Reid said, “before she explodes."
Em rose, clasped her hands together and said, "Link hands."
"No," Sera countered. "No linking hands. We can't work magic that way. Show her, Dyl."
I bit my lower lip. "Maybe now's not the time."
"Show her."
Okay then. I closed my eyes and thought weightless thoughts. A split second later, my feet lifted from the ground.
Em clapped. "Wonderful."
"Fire," Sera said.
Em cleared her throat. "Ahem. Fire. Lift your hand in front of you." Sera did so. "This is easier if you start with a match, but since I ain't got one, we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way. Stare at the tips of your fingers. Focus on the space right above them, and imagine a small flame appearin'. Nothing big, now. Make it small. Manageable."
I did as she said, imagining flame the size of candlelight above my fingers. Nothing came. I knit my brows together, concentrating, focusing. Finally a small wave of orange and red glowed. I pushed harder, forcing the blobby mass to take shape. After several seconds the colors streamed together, creating a shimmering flame. I beamed. Awesome! I could fly and make fire! The world was my oyster. Insert mad scientist laugh here.
Just kidding.
I glanced at Sera. Beads of sweat lined her forehead. She stared at her fingers, every ounce of focus aimed on them.
"Concentrate, Sera," Reid said.
"I am," she snapped.
Reid closed her mouth. She gazed at me. I shrugged. Sera's bad moods were legendary. Hopefully this one would pass soon.
Sera tipped her head down. A loud whoosh filled the air. My jaw fell. Hovering above her hand sat an orb the size of a softball. It bobbed in the air, its tendrils of flame cracking as if it were waiting to be told what to do.
"Holy cow," Reid said.
I swallowed.
