Page 69 of Everything She Does Is Magic

“It was the vision I had when your parents came,” Cal tells me. “I saw you holding her. Darcy watching. At the time, I hadn’t seen you with that girl before, so I knew you were still keeping something from us. I also knew you needed to be in charge of your own decisions. Telling you would just confuse you, make you think you should do something else.”

Aunt Cal opens her front door. It feels symbolic, this moment, ushering me into the house. It’s a gesture of kindness as much as it is a confirmation:You are welcome here. You belong to us. You’ve always belonged to us.

“So I’m not, like…banned from joining?” I ask, still afraid to move. “I interfered with death.”

“I think we’d all quit the coven if that was what made it so you couldn’t be one of us,” Mom says, walking down the steps. Meeting me where I am, then helping me move forward.

Inside the house, Aunt Cal gives me tea. Dad rubs my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to push my luck, but did I or did I not break the number one rule?” I ask.

“Personally I’d say what you did was more of a helpful boost for the paramedics than a complete changing of her fate. I think it’s a gray area,” Cal says.

She’s lying. Stern, serious Aunt Cal is lying.

For me.

“For safety’s sake, we will keep it as our little secret,” she continues. “Just don’t bring it up around your Uncle Edward.”

This gets a snicker out of Mom and Cal. He’s their younger brother and, judging by my time with him, kind of a prick.

“Okay,” I say, taking a sip of the concoction Cal’s made. It’s perfect, all the herbs she’s chosen designed to steady my nerves.

I thought this would be my undoing, but instead, it’s given me the strength to do what’s needed.

I’m ready to choose my protector.

Halloween

33

Darcy

When I come down the stairs into the art shop the afternoon of Halloween, the last thing I expect to see is my parents putting the finishing touches on Anya’s costume.

“You’re awitch,” I say with delight.

My mom’s putting a red lip on Anya as my dad lowers the signature pointed hat onto her head.

“I hear I’m supposed to sprinkle another year of good fortune atop Fableview today,” she tells me.

My mom heads into the supply closet, then pops back out with the glitter vial.

“You know, that myth is true,” Dad tells Anya. “It’s based on your grandmother.”

“She could fly on a broomstick?” Anya asks, sounding, for once, as skeptical as me.

“I don’t think so. But it felt like it,” my mom tells her. “She was a special woman. You have her eyes, you know.”

Anya’s eyes fill with tears, quick and unexpected.

“She always wanted to keep this town safe,” Mom continues. “And she wanted to make it as magical as possible. She’s the one who came up with half the things we do throughout the month. And now you and Darcy have worked so hard to make them even better.” Mom hands Anya the glitter, completing the look. “To sprinkle,” she says with a wink.

“We heard about the haunted house,” Dad says. “You really shook the Holtzenbergs up. They don’t want our job anymore.” He’s grinning big, hugging the straps of hisGhostbusterscostume.

“Good,” Anya says to him conspiratorially.

“We just need to find someone we like who can take the reins for us someday,” Mom says. It’s hard not to hear it as one last little dig about my planned departure. But it’s also true. They’re in their sixties now. They deserve to retire. They deserve nights in front of the TV falling asleep to old movies.Someonehas to take their job.