Page 84 of The Magic We Made

“Hey!” I yell. “Stop that!”

All the girls stop laughing, then turn their heads to look at me as I thunder down the steps to the dock.

“What the hell are you doing?” I roar.

I can’t believe this. The Jet Skis aren’t all they’ve destroyed. They’ve sunk my boat. My twenty-two-foot Chris-Craft Deluxe Utility I bought for Gaia. And they’ve sunk it! I can see the nose sticking up from the surface of the water. “What the fuck!”

As soon as I reach the dock, I snatch an oar from the grip of one girl just as she’s about to use it to swamp another kayak.

“Stop it,” I cry. “What do you think you’re doing? This is private property, you know.”

“Oh, we know.” One of the girls, her hair longer than the others—all of them seem to have weirdly cropped hair, like Meg’s—smirks at me. “We know who owns it, too.”

“Me.” I glare at her. “Iown it.”

“Uh, excuse me, but the property records say it was purchased by the Olympus Foundation.” The girl steps more fully into the circle of light thrown by the lamp overhead, and I finally recognize her.

Haley.

“Right,” I say, wondering what she’s up to. “That’s where I work. What’s this—”

She takes a step closer to me. “So then you must know Olympus’s chief executive officer.”

My gut tightens. “You mean...”

“Samantha. Samantha Stephens.”

I nearly sigh with relief. So Haley doesn’t know. She doesn’t know that Gaia—my Gaia—istheGaia. She only knows the fake name Guy’s been using for the last half a century, a fictional character from an old TV show she loves.

But howcouldHaley know? Sure, she’s got some magic. That’s undeniable. But no one except family—and now Frankie—knows who Guy really is, and even then, only our very closest family members. Emma and her parents certainly don’t—

It’s all right. It’s going to be all right.

“You could say that we’re acquainted, yes.” No need to tell her Samantha isn’t only my boss but also my grandmother. “Why?”

“Because we have a message for her.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Tell her,” Haley says, “that we’re sick and tired of her sitting around and not doing anything as the world burns—literally burns. She could stop it, if she cared. But she doesn’t care, does she?”

“I know for a fact that shedoescare.” I try to subtly check out the other girls to see if any one of them might be Emma. It’s hard to tell, though, since, except for Haley, they’re all covered in so much grime, it’s difficult to see their faces. Their legs—bare beneath the white robes—are covered in scratches and bites, and one of them has a gash that looks like it might be infected. “She’s always recognized the urgency of climate change. In fact, out of all the business leaders I know, Samantha Stephens is probably themostcommitted to sustainable practices and climate action—”

“Oh my God.” Haley is laughing. “Shecreatedclimate change. That’s why we’re here. We know who she really is... and what she’s taken from us.”

I stare at her, the sinking feeling I’d had returning in full force. She can’t mean what I think she means... can she? “What she’s taken from you?”

“What we hold most precious: our future.” Her smile vanishes. “So we’re going to take from her whatshemost holds precious. Get him, girls.”

And before I know what’s happening, the witches are on top of me. I’ve been tackled by girls before, but never quite like this. The last time was during that threesome in Berlin, but those girls weren’t that interested in me. These girls are, but not in a fun way.

“Hey!” I cry in surprise as the girls swarm over me, shoving me to the hard wooden dock. I won’t lie—at first it’s not unpleasant.It’s kind of like being tackled by puppies. They’re soft and squirmy and it doesn’t really hurt that much.

At least, not until one girl roars very close to my ear, “Get him in the dick!”

“What? No, don’t—”

Fireworks explode in front of my eyes as searing pain courses through my body. I think I might pass out.