by Wendy Knight
Cauldron Bubble
by Wendy Knight
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.
CAULDRON BUBBLE
Copyright © 2016 WENDY KNIGHT
Cover Art by C.S.A. Book Cover Designs
To the 2015 MMA Cross Country Team.
You were an inspiration every day!
PROLOGUE
HER ENTIRE BODY SHOOK SO HARD, she was positive she could hear her knees knocking. Her best friend whimpered next to her, clutching her hand so tightly she’d lost feeling several minutes ago. The other girls huddled close as they made their slow way through the dark forest. The witch’s house stood in the dead center.
And that’s where they were trying to go.
Rumors swirled through the town about these witches. They always had. No one could actually say they’d seen them for sure.
Or at least no one wanted to admit it.
The forest itself was terrifying. The trees were so thick, they blocked out the sun, and the undergrowth sucked at their feet as if trying to pull them into the abyss below.
“Are you sure this is worth it?”
“Do you want to be ignored by all the boys for the rest of your life?”
“No.”
“Then it’s worth it.”
The house loomed up in front of them. One minute there was only fog, and the next, the house was just there. An old Victorian-style mansion, by the looks of it. Gray wood and a foreboding dark, dark front door. With shaking hands, the girls raised their hands to knock.
The door swung open beneath their touch.
Someone screamed. Someone else sobbed.
From inside, a voice. “So… are you just going to stand out there or what?”
****
FATE LOOKED UP FROM her crystal ball, pushing her pure white hair away from her face. “Seriously, you’re letting mosquitoes in.”
The girls tumbled through the doorway, clinging to each other like that could possibly save them. Fate looked up at Destiny, who’s black, black hair hid her in the shadows. Destiny rolled her huge blue eyes.
Winking at her sister, Fate stood, ushering the girls toward her. “I swear, I’m not going to turn you into a frog if you just come in and close the door. I hate mosquitoes.”
The girls inched forward. The bravest of them, a tall girl with bright red hair, finally spoke. “We heard you can make love spells.”
Fate smiled over her shoulder at her sister, but Destiny was gone. Turning back to the group, she nodded. “We can.”
Eyes widened as the girls spun around, looking for another witch to make Fate a we. But if Destiny didn’t want to be seen, they weren’t going to find her.
Stammering, the girl turned back to Fate. “The boys at our school ignore us. No matter what we wear or how we act or—or anything—they won’t even give us the time of day.”
Fate frowned. “Did you ever think maybe you should stop trying to change who you are and—”
The girl sighed. “Spare us the lecture. Make us into something the boys will want.”
“Should I make you into a truck, then? Or a gun, maybe? A video game?” Fate came out from behind the kitchen island. “No girl should change who she is for love. But…” she felt Destiny’s eyes on her, and she met her sister’s gaze from where she stood in the shadows with a wicked smile. “—for the right price, I can give you a little something to get their attention.”
Behind the group, Destiny slammed the door. The girls screamed, and Destiny smiled. “Mosquitoes.” She came around them, her dark hair and sapphire eyes hypnotic as she picked up the crystal ball. “Here’s how it works.”
She rolled the crystal ball from her hands to Fate’s, and Fate shook it. Like a magic 8 ball, but instead of words, a boy appeared. “Get him to take the potion. Just one drop is all it takes. Repeat the spell—carefully—and voila! You’re done and he’s in love.”
Destiny took the crystal ball and tossed it to the girl in the front. The girl scrabbled backward and the crystal ball fell to the floor and broke. “That went well,” she muttered.
“I’m so sorry. I’m—I’m a little nervous.” The girl was babbling like a monkey, on her knees, cutting her fingers on the broken glass.
Destiny swirled her finger in a circle like she was stirring a drink. The pieces of the magic ball caught in an invisible tornado and fit themselves back together, landing lightly in the girl’s hands. The rest of the group gathered around her, peering inside. Fate had a boy by the hair, lightly, of course, and dropped the magic potion on his lips. She sealed it with a kiss and pulled him to his feet. “We’ve been together ever since,” Fate sighed.
The girls clamored for the potion. Fate and Destiny took their money and waved them off. “That was easy,” Destiny said as she watched them in her crystal ball. “Do you think they even noticed that we go to their high school?”
Fate shook her head. “Somehow, they did not.”
“Your white hair is hard to miss.”
Fate nodded. “This is a lot of money. We should buy more shoes.”
****
DESTINY DROPPED INTO THE chair next to Fate, watching silently for a few minutes while Fate poured over the spell book. Finally, she spoke. “So…the girls couldn’t get the boys to take the potion.”
Fate looked over, frowning and completely losing her place in the book. “Not even one drop? That’s all it takes.”
Destiny shook her head. “Not even one drop. They’re on their way now. One of them seems to have captured a boy and is bringing him to us.”
Fate shut down her web browser. “You saw all this in your crystal ball?”
Destiny raised her sparkly pink phone and wiggled it in Fate’s face. “No. They sent me a text.” At Fate’s confused frown, she shrugged. “One of them noticed me at school and asked for my number.”
At the door, someone knocked.
“We have a doorbell, you know,” Fate muttered, waving her hand toward the front entry. The door swung open, and in tumbled the same group as before. But this time, they came with a very… unattractive, rather small, and somewhat angry teenage boy.
“You got my text?” The girl with the strawberry blond hair asked, pushing the boy forward.
Destiny nodded slowly. “I did.”
“Why didn’t it work? Your spells didn’t work!”
“Well, for one thing, you said the spell wrong. For another, no spell on earth is going to work if you don’t actually get them to taste the potion.” Destiny crossed her arms over her chest and glared. Fate had seen the force of that glare send demons running, and the girls all whimpered and stumbled back.
Fate grinned.
Sighing, Destiny dropped the glare and waved them forward. “Bring him here.”
Strawberry blond pushed the scrawny boy into the kitchen, toward Destiny. “He’s not what I want.” The girl behind her handed over more money, and they watched Destiny with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
Smiling, Destiny raised her hand. With a wave of her finger, the boy fell forward. Destiny raised her hands and bright purple and blue sparks leaped from her fingers, covering them all. The boy, stunned, forgot to move when Destiny dropped the potion on his lips. Speaking quickly
to the strawberry blond without taking her eyes from the boy, she said, “Quickly. Say the spell.”
The girl tripped over the words in her haste. “One drop, one heart. One beat, one love. Remember me with every breath until I forget or until my death.” Without warning, he changed before their eyes. No longer scrawny or unattractive by any sense of the word, he rose to his feet and held a hand out to strawberry blond. Giggling, she took it before turning to Destiny. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”
Destiny waved them away with a wink. “See what my potions can do? Go get those boys, ladies.”
Without another word, they escaped through the door and through the forest. Watching from the porch, Destiny asked Fate over her shoulder, “Do you think we should tell them there’s a road that leads here from town just right there?”
Fate grinned. “Nah. They need the exercise.”
****
DESTINY LOOKED UP AS Fate stalked into the room. “They’re coming back.”
Leaning away from her history homework to stretch, Destiny asked around a yawn, “Oh, did they text you?”
Fate sighed. “No. I watched them in the crystal ball like a real witch.”
The girls pounded on the door. As Destiny pushed herself to her feet, she muttered, “Texts give us more warning, but whatever.”
The door was barely open before the girls flooded into the kitchen. There were more of them, this time. Lots more. Strawberry blond was conspicuously absent, though. Apparently, she’d gotten her happy ever after.
“We need your help. We have the potions—”
“Some of us have the potions. The rest still need to buy them—”
“—but we can’t get the boys to pay attention. We tried mixing them with sports drinks for the football team—”
“And in soda for the gamers—”
“But they won’t even look at us!”
Destiny met Fate’s eyes. Silently, Fate nodded; an unspoken conversation between twins. “We’ll come to school tomorrow. Meet us in the commons. Bring your potions.”
Girls who hadn’t gotten potions yet waved their money, practically throwing it at Destiny. Fate waltzed into the kitchen behind her, pulling a new bubbling batch out of the fridge. As Destiny took their money, Fate handed out vials. Before dark, the group of girls were on their way back to the village.
“We haven’t done a big spell like this for a while.” Destiny said as they watched the girls who were fast making them rich run through the darkness. “What are you going to wear?”
“I’m thinking black. You?”
Destiny nodded. “Black is good.”
****
MOST OF THE GIRLS from school were waiting in the commons when Fate and Destiny showed up the next morning. Since the bell would ring in less than a half hour, there was no time for small talk. “Here’s what we’re going to do.” Destiny climbed the stairs so she could be seen above them. “You—all of you—repeat the spell. We’ll back you up with another spell that will bring the boys here. Then, you’ll have enough time to give them your potions before they snap out of their trance. Easy peasy.”
She met Fate’s eyes, and Fate smiled and nodded.
Hesitant at first, the girls started singing. “One drop, one heart.”
Raising her chin, Destiny sang around them. “Adina didna. Adina didna,”
“One beat, one love.”
“Remember me with every breath.”
Fate joined this time. “Don de donde de da.”
“Until I forget or until my death.”
Again and then once more, they sang together. From beyond the commons, boys came. From early morning football practice, they wandered through the halls toward the singing. From band practice and debate and from their lockers and cars, the boys of the school came. Laughing, Destiny raised her hands, throwing her bright purple and blue magic over them all.
The girls wasted no time. Potion was given, and boys were captured. Fate watched in amusement as Destiny, using her magical fingers, made the boys carry books or share their jackets or help girls to their feet. Basically, she made them gentlemen. Grinning over at Fate, she nodded. “We should do this more often.”
Fate draped her arm over her sister’s shoulders, admiring their handiwork. “When should we tell them this doesn’t last forever?”
Destiny shrugged. “They’ll figure it out.”
“Destiny, Fate, in my office. Now.”
Fate swallowed hard, “I don’t need my crystal ball to tell me we might be in trouble.”
Destiny winced, nodding.
The principal didn’t yell. He didn’t even threaten them with detention. Instead, he expelled them.
That was their third time now.
CHAPTER ONE
QUINLAN MADE IT TO CHEMISTRY JUST before the bell rang, dropping in his seat and putting his feet up on the empty chair in front of him. He loved chemistry. It was his easiest class since he’d grown up helping his mother make potions.
It was a witch thing.
Mr. Zornes waited at the front of the room, scrubbing at something on the stainless steel counter top. Aaron leaned toward Quin. “They had an explosion two classes ago. Some kid thought she knew it all and mixed the wrong amounts. Last class got to hang out in the commons because of the smoke in here.”
Quin raised an eyebrow. Yeah, he could smell the lingering hint of smoke, but he’d thought it was coming from the cafeteria, which was right down the stairs. “That sucks.”
Aaron shrugged. “Let that be a lesson to you.” With a pointed look, he leaned back in his chair.
“Right. Like I ever make mistakes.” Quin grinned and tipped his chair up on its back legs, arms behind his head.
“It only takes once, dude.”
Before Quin could respond, the door opened and Mr. Zornes cleared his throat, looking up from his scrubbing.
And then he cleared it again.
The front legs of Quin’s chair thunked onto the laminate tile as he sat forward to get a better view.
In walked the most gorgeous girl Quin had ever seen. Long, long black hair fell in waves to her waist, huge blue eyes, and the body of a goddess. He heard Aaron make a strangled noise next to him, but he couldn’t take his eyes from the girl who now stood next to Mr. Zornes, waiting for him to be able to speak.
He had to clear his throat twice more before he could make any words. “Destiny. Hello, I’ve been expecting you. I had your sister in here a couple classes ago.”
“She has a sister!” Aaron whispered, too loudly.
The blue, blue eyes turned toward him, a perfect eyebrow arched. “Yeah. But she has a boyfriend,” she whispered back.
The class erupted in laughter while Aaron smiled like an idiot. “It’s okay. I still got you.”
She smirked. “You really don’t.”
“Thank you, Destiny. Take an empty seat anywhere. We’ve got some experiments planned, but feel free to watch for today.”
Destiny moved away, starting for the only empty seat in the class— right in front of Quin. Suddenly, he loved his life.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Zornes,” she said as she dropped her bag next to her chair. “I’m much more responsible with chemicals than Fate is.”
Quin leaned forward. “Is Fate your sister?”
Destiny glanced at him and back down to her bag, but her eyes jerked back up, widening. Her cheeks pinked just a bit.
Quin smiled.
Another arched brow, and she nodded. “Yes. Fate is my sister.”
“The heavens saw fit to grant us two of you,” Aaron crowed.
She frowned. “No. There is only one of me and one of her. We’re not clones.”
“Is she the one who blew up the classroom?” Quin asked.
Destiny sighed, finally freeing a notebook and pencil from her bag. As she slid into her seat, she nodded. “Probably. She thinks it’s funny.”
“She—what?”
“Okay, class, quiet down. Let’s make Destiny feel we
lcome, but let’s also get on with class. Gather your supplies and let’s get started.”
Destiny stood with the rest of the class, biting her lip and frowning. Quin walked past her, nodding with his head toward the cupboards at the side of the room. “This way.”
“Thanks,” she murmured, following him, and he was pretty positive he could feel those dark blue eyes boring a hole through his skull the entire walk across the classroom. It made him jittery, which annoyed him. Girls never made him jittery.
It made him drop his first beaker.
She caught it before it hit the ground. Smirking, she handed it back to him.
“Thanks,” he muttered, annoyed. He wasn’t sure if it was at her or himself.
She followed him down the line, gathering her supplies and talking to every guy in the class, all of whom were somehow right there every time she moved.
“Yeah, we’re twins.”
“No, we haven’t moved nearby. We just transferred schools.”
“No, I haven’t had a tour of the school.”
“Yes, I managed to find my way here with no problem.”
And that smile. She smiled at everyone, and it was devastating. Like she was flirting with every single one of them while simultaneously mocking them, and they didn’t even care.
Quin clenched his teeth and resisted the urge to growl. “What kind of parent names their girls Destiny and Fate?” he asked brusquely as they made their way back to their seats.
She didn’t look directly at him, instead glaring at him out of the corner of her eye. “Hippies, gypsies, and witches, most likely.”
Witches?
Quin stopped, surprised. “What?”
She shrugged, walking away from him. “Stupid answer to a stupid question.”
From that moment on, Quin realized he didn’t like her.
But still, to be nice, he offered to help her with her experiment while they set up. “I’m kind of his star student,” he said, motioning to Mr. Zornes with his head while he measured out liquid with barely a glance at the beaker.
