Page 47 of The Magic We Made

But my hair. I see what Angie was talking about now. My split ends are ruining the whole look. And there are definitely a few strands of silver in there—not that silver can’t look beautiful.

But mine definitely doesn’t.

“Even Jessica’s parents have flown in for the party.” Angie is babbling away like she thinks I’m listening. And in a way, I am. “And Derrick’s dad is coming all the way from Montana.”

But mostly I’m just staring at my own reflection. I love this dress.

And I love the way I look in it.

It’s time, I decide. It’s time to show the dress to Angie.

“There might even be some eligible men coming,” she’s saying in the other room. “Derrick seems to have a ton of cousins. I think Jessica said that one of them has major bucks. Like, a place in the cityandhere in town—but maybe I’m getting that wrong. Who in their right mind would want to live in—holy shit.” She breaksoff as I step into the doorway, her dark eyes going wide. “Holyshit,Frankie.”

I don’t have to ask what she thinks. It’s written all over her face.

“Oh my God, Frankie,” she gushes, her fingers flying to her mouth. “You look amazing.Morethan amazing. You look beautiful. Jessica was right, youhaveto buy this dress and wear it tonight.”

I rub my fingers against the feather-soft material. “Do you really think so?”

“Iknowso. Jessica is magic when it comes to dressing people. I know several of her customers who would pay fifteenthousandfor a dress if it made them look as good as you look now. And Jessica’s only charging you fifteenhundred—andoffering you free beer and nachos at her party tonight.”

“I don’t know about that.” I don’t believe in magic but there’s no denying there’s something magical about the way this dress looks—and feels—on me. “But I definitely like this.”

With the razor-sharp instincts of a true middle child, Angie senses my resistance to attending the party has weakened, and leaps in for thecoup de grâce.

“I’ll do your hair for free,” she says. “Ordinarily I’d charge three hundred bucks for a touchup, highlights, and trim with a blowout. But today, I’ll do it all for you free of charge, if you just promise to buy that dress. Youneedit, Frankie. More than that, youdeserveit. You deserve to look this great after what Richard did to you.”

I look at my younger sister’s face, at the love shining through those dark eyes, and feel something inside of me soften. Angie’s always been the most difficult of my siblings to get along with, not least because of what she did to my Barbies after I passed themdown to her. I didn’t give them to her so she could chop most of their hair off and then color what remained with Magic Marker.

But beauty is Angie’sraison d’être. Herikigaiis hair. She truly believes in the transformative power of a good haircut and style, just like Jessica believes in the transformative power of the perfect dress.

And so far, neither one of them has ever been wrong.

“Okay,” I say. “I’ll take the dress. And you can do my hair.”

“And you’ll come to the party?” Angie cries, jumping up and down with excitement the way she used to back when she was little, before she became a wife, mother, and successful small business owner.

“And I’ll come to the party,” I promise.

Never could I imagine how much I would come to regret this decision later.

Emma

Meg is gone. So is the boat.

Haley is furious. She keeps asking me, “Did you know? You and Meg were close. Did she tell you she was going to do this?”

“No!” I can’t believe Haley would think this of me after everything I’ve done for the coven. “And if she had, I’d have told you right away.”

Haley looks like she believes me—for now.

Still, she called for an emergency manifestation ritual around the fire last night—a fire we actually needed for once because it’s gotten so cold out since that big storm. I only brought one fleece and my puffy vest from Uniqlo, so I was especially grateful for the fire since I was freezing.

And I guess all our intentions were aligned, because this morning when we woke up, Haley greeted us with the news that Hecate had granted us a new boat.

I didn’t believe it until I saw it for myself. It’s not that I thought Haley was lying, but she has been known to exaggerate... like how she said we wouldn’t be hungry living only off the food we forage because Hecate will shower us with her abundance.

But she wasn’t exaggerating this time. The new boat is much better than the last one because this one can hold more people and also has an engine.