Page 30 of The Magic We Made

“No,” I said to Haley. “It’s better if we can get the whole tick and save it so if Meg does start feeling ill, we can send it out and have it tested for Lyme disease, or even worse, babesiosis.” It’s not Haley’s fault she doesn’t know these things. She’s not from Connecticut. “We need some rubbing alcohol—”

“Enough!” Haley cried. “None of you are going to get Lyme disease. Haven’t you been listening to me? We’re special. We have the blessing of Hecate!”

But apparently Hecate’s blessing doesn’t protect us from the rain. And neither, as we quickly find out, do the plastic sheets Haley’s given us.

“Ugh,” Trina says, as she squats beside me. “My sleeping bag is soaked.”

“So are my shoes.” I look down ruefully at my Silver Stars. I know I shouldn’t be so attached to material things, but I saved for a long time to be able to afford these shoes, and now they’re ruined.

I’ve given Haley all the money that was left in my savings account. So have the other girls. Haley said she would use it to make sure we were safe from Gaia, who will surely want to exact revenge for our support of her rival, Hecate.

“Your things will dry,” Haley snaps from the unzippered entrance to her luxury tent. “Can’t you see this rain has been sent by Gaia to distract us from our mission? We need to double—no, triple—our efforts to find it. We’ve got her running scared!”

I peer out at the holes in the dirt all around us—holes we spent the whole day digging, and which are rapidly filling with rainwater. It’s raining so fiercely, every single one of them is already overflowing, sending a stream of muddy water in our direction.

“She doesn’t seem very scared to me,” I can’t help murmuring. Fortunately it’s raining too hard for anyone to overhear me.

“Get back to work!” Haley commands us. “This rain might have been intended to keep us from our goal. But the truth is, it’s a gift—a gift from Hecate to help us!”

I look down at the rapidly overflowing holes. “Help us? Help us how?”

ThisHaley overhears.

“By softening the earth for us.” She gestures toward the holes through the flaps of her tent. “It will be much easier to dig now!”

She’s right. But it will also be much messier.

No one mentions this. Or maybe they do, but I can’t hear them over the rattling of the rain on our plastic sheets.

“Get back to work,” Haley commands.

But I notice she still hasn’t come out from her tent. Haley never helps us dig. She says that’s because she’s busy praying.

Except I can’t help wondering if it’s really because she doesn’t want to get dirty and then have to bathe in lake water, which never quite seems to wash anything clean.

Also, I know she has a mini fridge in that tent—along with a microwave and portable AC unit, all powered by a generator. Even though she says it’s wrong to use fossil fuels, Haley makes an exception for herself because she needs to eat Greek yogurt every day. The probiotics help prevent gastric bloating caused by her IBS, so the moon goddess doesn’t mind her weekly runs into town for Chobani and gas for the generator.

“This is our chance!” Haley cries. “Hecate is blessing us with this rain!”

I can’t see what anyone else is doing—it’s raining too hard, and the plastic sheets are over everyone’s heads. But I can see that no one moves.

So I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to ruin her shoes any more than they already have.

Haley seems to notice this, too.

“What are you all doing, just sitting there?” she demands from her tent.

When still no one moves, Haley glares out at us. It’s difficult to see her face through the rain, but I can tell by her voice that she is furious.

“Emma,” she snaps. “Meg. I know you can hear me. Grab your spades and get back to it while the earth is soft and yielding.”

I look around. So does Trina beside me.

“Uh,” Trina says hesitantly. “I’m Trina, not Meg.”

Haley sounds impatient. “Fine. Get back to work, all of you. Meg? Where are you, Meg?”

I glance around. We’re squatting at the base of the roots of an enormous oak tree. We’ve dug here before, but this time, Haley had assured us, we were going to find it.