Page 56 of Everything She Does Is Magic

I give him a warning look, and he lifts his hands from the steering wheel for a moment. “Hey, hey. It’s not a problem. Just a fact.”

“She is,” I tell him, softening.

“Did she tell you she almost failed gym class last year?” he asks.

“I’m sure that was your fault.”

He seems to really think on this before he says, “Damn. Maybe it was. Anyway, seems like she kind of makes you braver.”

I’m ready to make another argument, but in his weirdly sage Kyle way, he’s right again. Shedoesmake me braver. Even this act, sneaking out to see her. All the changes I’ve made since that night she first showed up at the art shop. She’s been the one encouraging me when everyone else has been reminding me over and over of the risks. The consequences. The ways it could all go wrong. She’s always pushed me toward the good.

I ask Kyle more questions about his Lego collection, learning he and his little brother, Karl—the Holtzenbergs are very committed to theK-name theme—have built up quite the dynasty.

As he tells me about all the sets they’ve built together over the years, and the reasons they picked each one, I realize this is probably the most earnest conversation Kyle and I have ever had. He says random things a lot, but he’s a good guy. There’s surely a girl out there for him who can appreciate his musclesandhis mind. He can be someone else’s charming prince.

It’s nice to have him finally recognize that girl will never beme.

“Anya and I aren’t really talking right now,” I say.

For whatever reason, it’s easier to confide in Kyle than it ismy parents. He knows me in such a different light. Even though his parents want my family’s empire, Kyle just wants to be Kyle. He has never seemed to care that dating me could grant him access to the keys to our Halloween kingdom. He is so exquisite in his simplicity sometimes that I find myself actually wanting to know his take on this situation.

“What did she do?” he asks.

“It’s my fault too,” I say quickly. “I didn’t listen to her when she told me something about herself. And when that turned out to be true, I realized that she had this whole plan for me that she hadn’t asked about.”

“Is it about her being a witch?” he asks. I turn my head to him, trying to see if he’s kidding. “I mean, isn’t her whole family?” he follows up, another lifting of his hands from the wheel, forever playing defense.

Ignoring this is my only solution. It’s not the point anyway. What matters is that we didn’t talk about her plans for me in her initiation.

“Okay, sorry, yeah,” Kyle says, reading my silence as anger. “I know we’re, like, not supposed to bring up the actual magic here. Right?”

“I guess,” I say weakly.

After another bout of silence, he says, “Maybe that’s why she did it. Made a plan without asking. Because she knew it’s all this big secret thing already, and she was stressed about whatever plan she’d made for you. Don’t we all kind of do that when we’re stressed? Tell ourselves lies to get through it or sometimes lies that make it worse, you know?”

Never in my life would I have expected this conversation tobe so revelatory. I’ve been heading to the carnival for a lot of reasons—tradition, enjoyment. And, yeah, maybe to see Anya and figure this whole thing out between us.

Now I feel this need to apologize too. Like when she had the cut on her hand, I want to be the one who makes sure she’s okay.

“Kyle, it’s time to floor it.”

28

Anya

The haunted house looks like a night at Aunt Cal’s after she’s turned off most of the lights. Dark and a little strange, but not very frightening. There are the famed bedsheet ghosts, who chase you through the first three rooms. There is a fake clown dummy that pops out of a closet at what Grace estimates to be seventeen-second intervals. She has a very strong internal clock.

There’s a motion-censor skeleton that sits up in bed and lets out a moan of agony when you pass. Some ominous noises playing on a loop. And another fog machine again at the very end, carrying the weight of the world on its cloudy back before returning you to the rest of the carnival.

Gracedoeshave a plan. It’s wild and way too ambitious, asking more of me than just my magic. But it exists, and it could be a good one, if we can pull it off. Very heavy emphasis onif.

To get the lay of the land, we go through the haunted house four more times.

Our last round catches the Holtzenbergs’ attention, Kyle’smom whispering to Grace, “Is everything okay?” like we might be here doing a quality control check on behalf of the Fableview Fall Planning Committee.

That’s when we decide it’s time to move into phase two.

Grace has packed a lot of stuff in her backpack. At first glance, it all seems random and excessive. She has four flashlights that she’s covered in blue gel sheets. A bunch of plants, from flowers to succulents to vines, all in various states of distress. A bag of fake blood. Two costumes that look like cheap Victorian gowns. Random accessories, like necklaces, rings, and wigs. A rubber snake.