Page 96 of The Magic We Made

I will be the first to admit my plan was not very well thought-out.

I don’t think I evenhada plan, which is part of the problem. I acted emotionally, with my heart instead of my head. I saw Haley hurting Ash, and my only thought was,Get him out of there.

Big mistake. I, more than anyone, should have known better. I know how groupthink—the desire for cohesive harmony in a group—can lead to dysfunctional, even disastrous decisions.

And when those group members are vulnerable young adults who have been fed inaccurate information and are too hungry—for both food and the approval of their leader—to think objectively for themselves, the outcome can be a thousand times worse.

Still, I couldn’t just stand there and let them kill him any more than I planned on killing him myself.

Tightening my grip on Ash—he weighs a ton and seems as incapable of operating his limbs as he does his mouth—I warn, “I’ve called the police, and they’re on their way. So unless you all want to get arrested, I recommend you leave here immediately.”

Haley only laughs at this warning.

“Leave?” She looks back at her followers, all of whom are smiling. None of them seem the least bit worried, maybe because Haley herself doesn’t seem worried. “Why would we leave? What can the police do to us?”

“Arrest you for kidnapping and assault? And that’s just for starters. Destruction of private property? Camping without a permit? Starting fires in a nature preserve? Stealing?”

Ash adds something, but because his tongue still isn’t working properly, it comes out asUmma Bye Bell, so I ignore him.

“But I’m happy to talk to the police for you when they get here,” I go on, using my kindest, most professional manner. “I’m sure I can make them understand that—”

“The police aren’t coming,” Haley interrupts coldly, holding up her hand. A small round object is nestled in her fingers. The girls all stare up at, rapturously. “We are protected from the laws of man and their enforcers bythis.”

On the wordthis, Haley unfolds her fingers, revealing what appears to be a thin, white twig, barely an inch long.

But the way the girls react to the sight of it lets me know this is no ordinary twig. Their eyes wide, they gasp and sink to their knees once again. A few audibly murmur, “Hail Hecate.”

This is weird enough. But even more weirdly, the bonfires and the flames on the torches the girls are holding seem to leap at the exact same time, suddenly burning more brightly, almost as if some unseen wind—or invisible mystical force—is at work.

“Oh, Hecate,” Haley intones, holding the object high. She’s got her back to the flames. She hasn’t noticed them. “We thank you for this reminder that death is nothing to fear, for when we are stripped of our flesh, what remains is bone, like this one. Fromthis bone of a humble cat, we can still channel the magic of the ancient ones—”

“Sorry,” I hear myself saying. In the sudden burst of light, I got a good look at the object in Haley’s hand and finally recognized it for what it is. “But that’s a chicken bone.”

Haley doesn’t even glance my way. “This is the bone of ablack cat.It was placed here by Gaia over a thousand—”

“Excuse me,” I interrupt again. “But that is very clearly a chicken wing. And it is not a thousand years old. Maybe if we lived in a dry, arid climate like Arizona, a bone that small could last a thousand years. But there’s no way that a chicken wing buried in the moist, bacteria-rich soil of Connecticut could last any more than a few weeks before decomposing—”

“This isnota chicken wing!” Haley whirls toward me to scream. I see several of her followers’ heads pop up from their prayerful position to watch our exchange. “It’s Gaia’s witch’s bone! We spent weeks looking for it, and Hecate was finally able to guide us to it!”

“Okay.” I’m aware that all the girls are now looking at me. This is good. I want them looking at me and not Haley. “But my brother-in-law is a park ranger, so I can tell you that littering at Satan’s Seat is a real problem, and that bone looks like it came directly from a bucket of KFC—”

“Silence!” Haley screams and points up at me. The flames leap once again, and this time, everyone notices... including her.

“You see!” Haley cries triumphantly. “Hecate is waking! She knows... she knows I have Gaia’s bone, and soon she’ll join us for my ascension!”

I’ve really had about as much as I can take from this girl.

“That was the wind,” I say. “Not Hecate.”

“That wasHecate!” Haley yells back. “She’s rising!”

And the flames leap again, more violently this time—violently enough that one of the girls below shrieks and drops her torch in alarm. The leaves on the ground are still so wet from the fog and rain that they don’t immediately catch fire, but a smoke plume begins to rise from the forest floor. It’s only a matter of time before the entire island goes up in flames.

“You see?” Haley shouts. “She’s heard us! She’s coming to join the fight against Gaia!”

Ash looks alarmed—but not as alarmed as I am. We’re standing on a rock formation six feet above the ground, he’s leaning hard against me, and I can barely support him. It’s going to be a rough landing for both of us if I lose my balance, and that doesn’t even include what these girls might do if they get their hands on us.

“Can you walk?” I whisper to him. “We need to get out of here—”