Page 72 of Enchanted to Meet You

A True Witch acknowledges that evil exists, and does their best whenever possible to combat it.

Rule Number Seven of the Nine Rules

*World Council of Witches*

Derrick had witnessed magic in all of its many forms around the world. Nyama in West Africa. Kotodama in Japan. Seiðr in Iceland.

But he’d never witnessed anything quite like what was happening in West Harbor, a place where magic seemed to be emanating from everywhere and everyone—even from the people he least expected.

The second Jess’s friend Mark mentioned the word “muffin,” Derrick glanced back toward the high top at which Rosalie and her husband were sitting and saw what he’d failed to notice before: the basket sitting on the floor beside them... a basket that was the twin of the one Rosalie had dropped off at Jessica’s house.

Only the cellophane wrapping around this one had been broken open.

And on the table in front of the people sitting around Rosalie were crumpled cellophane wrappers and strings of raffia . . . the remnants of the muffins they’d consumed.

“What thehell,” he heard Jessica mutter. She’d just noticed the same thing.

“You guys.” Yasmin turned around, pen in hand, to whisper to them urgently. “You guys, which country executed the most people for practicing witchcraft, and how many people was it?”

“Germany,” Derrick said. “Forty thousand.” But the response was automatic. To Jessica, he said in a low voice, “Rosalie’s used a friendship spell.”

“Love muffins.” Jessica’s normally warm brown eyes were blazing with anger. “I can’t believe it. She’s handing out love muffins. What is shethinking?”

“That she wants people to like her.”

Jessica snorted. “She’s not a kid anymore. What kind ofadultwould resort to a friendship spell to get people to like them?”

One who is up to no good. But aloud, he only asked, “Has she ever done anything like this before?”

“Aside from the love spell she tried to do on Billy? Not that I know of. Baking is more Dina’s thing, really.”

Dina, meanwhile, was still trying to figure out what was going on with Mark.

“What do you mean, Rosalie gave you one of her muffins?” If Jessica’s eyes were blazing, Dina’s were twin nuclear warheads. And detonation was imminent.

“It was so good.” Mark was smiling amiably in the direction of the Veuve Clique Ohs. “How come you never make muffins that good, hon?”

“That’s it.” The legs of Dina’s stool scraped noisily against the cement floor as she pushed herself away from the table. “Whereis that witch? I’ll show her what happens when you give my boyfriend a muffin—”

But when the diminutive brunette jumped off her stool to storm away in Rosalie’s direction, Derrick caught her arm.

“Hold on,” he said. “Violence is never the answer.”

“Are you serious?” Dina wrenched her arm from his grasp. Her gaze had gone from DEFCON Five to One in seconds. “Lookat him. She’s going to have to pay for this.My boyfriend is high on magic.”

“He isn’t high.” Derrick steered Dina gently back into her seat. He was trying very hard to make it look as if everything was normal over at the Get In, Losers table, even though of course everything was far from normal—starting with the fact that their team name was so terrible. “It’s only a friendship spell.”

“Afriendshipspell?” Dina spat. “I’ll show that witch some friendship. My foot’s about to getrealfriendly with her—”

“I don’t know where all this hostility toward Rosalie is coming from,” Mark said, holding out his hands in a helpless gesture. “She’s never been anything but nice to us.”

Dina stared at him in horror. “What theactualf—”

“Hey.” Yasmin tapped urgently on the carafe of wine to get their attention. “How many people accused of witchcraft were burned at the stake in Salem?”

“None,” Sal said, and all eyes went to him for a change.

“What?” He shrugged his large shoulders. “It’s a trick question. I saw it on the History channel. No people accused of witchcraft in Salem were burned at the stake. They were either hanged or crushed to death beneath stones.”