“I don’t know. That’s one of the things that’s made all of this so hard to talk about, besides worrying you’d all think I’d lost it.” I nibble on my cupcake. “Now that there’s magic on Earth, we should be able to use our powers.”
“What kind of powers?” Kayla narrows her eyes.
“I don’t know!” I hate not knowing things, and it feels like it’s all I can say today. After a fortifying sip of my drink, I say, “Naomi’s witch powers are tied to a crystal pendant that glows every time she does magic.”
Violeta asks, “So if we get crystals, we’ll be able to use our magic?”
“Maybe?” I shrug, losing some of the chocolate crunchies from the top of my cupcake before I jerk to stillness again. Oops. I’ll vacuum the floor after the meeting.
“I’ve got one!” Autumn sets down her food and digsinto the necklaces she wears, teasing out a silver chain with a crystal pendant. “What do I do?”
“Hold it and call on your magic,” I say.
Autumn grips the crystal and closes her eyes, frowning with so much effort her red eyebrows draw together. She strains for several moments, then relaxes with a whoosh of expelled breath. “Nothing.”
She peels the necklace over her head, untangles the chain from her wavy hair, and hands it to Jasmine.
The crystal pendant goes around the circle, each of us trying. When it gets to me, I close my eyes and strain with everything I have, even whispering abracadabra and bippity boppity boo under my breath, in case words help. Nothing.
I hand it to Skye, who’s the last to try, but it doesn’t work for her either. She gives the necklace back to Autumn.
“Okay, so it’s a no on crystals.” I tap my finger against the side of my cup. “But I bet we don’t need them. Someone made the tulips walk without a crystal. Severin says it wasn’t him, so it must have been one of us.”
Murmurs and head shakes as we all look at each other.
“Talk to your mothers, your grandmothers.” I glance around the room, catching everyone’s eye. “See if you have any family history of being witches. Maybe old spell books or something.”
Autumn nods. “I’ll also talk to some of my parents’ friends from when they were all in a commune.”
“I’ll use library loan to order books on magic,” Skye says.
“I can do some internet deep dives.” Kayla pulls out her phone and types a few notes.
“And I’ll talk to Naomi in the morning. Since she’s ableto use her witch powers, maybe she’ll know something that can help,” I say. “With the group of us working together, I know we can figure it out.”
“Our group needs a name,” Autumn says. “We could call ourselves the Ferndale Falls Coven.”
“Maybe not coven.” Violeta frowns. “Too many people are weird about witchcraft being evil instead of something wonderful.”
“Let’s keep saying we’re a book club,” Skye answers, the librarian in her ever hopeful.
“The Witch Bitch Book Club,” I say.
“No.” Skye wiggles her eyebrows. “The Witch Bitch Spicy Book Club. It’ll keep people from asking questions about what we’re reading.”
A laugh bursts from me. I’m as delighted as ever when my friend’s naughty side shows. “I love it! Is everyone in?”
Nods all around.
“Let’s start a group text chat.” I pull out my phone. “If anyone finds anything, I need you to let me know right away. It can’t wait.”
Jasmine asks, “What’s the rush? We’ve all made it into our twenties without witchy powers. We can take a little time figuring this out.”
“You can, but I can’t.” I give a pained smile when they all look at me. “So my marriage to Severin…”
“The scorching hot shadow daddy who picked you up and flew off into the sky?” Violeta asks with a knowing grin, and everyone laughs.
“Yeah, him.” I twirl my cup back and forth. “He asked me to marry him, but it’s not as simple as that. I have to proveI’m worthy of marrying him by doing these magical bride trials. The key word being ‘magical.’ I’ve got less than two weeks to figure out my magic.”
