Chapter 1
Sarah
snuggled into her jacket and relished the slight sting of the cold on the tip
of her nose. Autumn was washing Witchland in rich oranges, browns, and yellows,
and little frost crystals coated the ground in the morning. The scent of
pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice espresso treats wafted continuously out of
Javacadabra, where Susie and Karen worked tirelessly to delight the taste buds
of the town with the help of their familiar, a talking white cat named Zeva.
Holding
her tea latte between her palms to warm them, Sarah kept pace with Eli as they
began the trek up the Mount Katribus trail. Sarah’s canine familiar, Addie,
padded along at her side. “I wonder why I love autumn so much.” Sarah sighed
contentedly.
“Because
you’re a witch,” Eli teased, his gorgeous blue eyes twinkling as he smiled at
her.
He
wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she snuggled in close. Addie looked
up at them, love in her soft brown eyes. “I must say your warmth for each
other is keeping me warm,” Addie joked.
Though Eli
couldn’t hear her, he was starting to get to know the loyal collie mix well,
and he asked her, “Where is your boyfriend, Kelvin, huh, girl?”
Addie barked happily when she heard the name Kelvin.
“He’s in the woods, hunting rabbits,” she answered, which Sarah repeated
to Eli so he could hear.
“Girls always love the bad boys. Or, in your
case, the bad wolves,” Eli said.
“So Jenna did the rounds this morning? There’s no
sign of Madras?” Sarah asked as the trail they were walking on began to incline
up the mountainside. Eli Strongheart was the police chief of Witchland, and
Jenna Mora was his deputy.
“Not a sign,” Eli replied. “Tonight is my turn .
. . I imagine these woods make you a bit nervous now, don’t they?”
Sarah shrugged. “Not at all, actually. I love the
woods so much that I won’t let my wicked great-great-great-whatever-aunt ruin
them for me. Besides, I feel so much more confident knowing that I defeated
her. That she’s banished for good.”
Eli smiled. “We always try our best to keep these
woods safe. Even the greatest demon witch of all time can’t defeat our team.”
“So . . . I was thinking. I invited my parents to
my house for a little dinner in two days. Would you like to join us?” Sarah
went on. She had felt slightly apprehensive about inviting Eli, since they were
a new couple. The last thing she wanted to do was scare him off. But she knew
in her heart that Eli was in it for the long haul, and that made it easier to
come out and say things, even things that made her nervous.
“Of course,” Eli said, looking slightly taken
aback. “Any weird quirks I should prepare for?”
“Um, definitely don’t talk politics with my dad.”
Sarah laughed. “It could get pretty heated. Also, let’s keep the magic talk to
a minimum.”
“I thought you told them that you’re practicing
witchcraft?” Eli said.
“I did. But it’s a touchy subject. You know that
my father tried so hard to put distance between himself and the Spellwood
legacy.” Sarah shrugged. “They’re accepting, but I just don’t want to make them
super uncomfortable.”
“I think you should just be yourself,” Eli said
gently. But then he added, “Although, I probably wouldn’t talk about witchcraft
to my mom, either. She’s probably a far worse denier than your parents.”
“Well, my parents don’t deny it. They just don’t
practice it. The last time was at my aunt Beth’s when we visited her, right
before she passed away and I started seventh grade.” Sarah suddenly stopped in
the middle of the trail. Addie, who was wandering slightly ahead, turned back
and looked at her expectantly. “Let’s go visit Aunt Beth’s. I haven’t been able
to bring myself to go since I moved here,” said Sarah.
“Your aunt Beth’s house? Well, sure,” Eli said,
again taken aback. He laughed as they changed course and began to walk toward
the small goat farm Beth Spellwood ran. “I love how spontaneous you are.”
“I haven’t seen her farm in so long, and I really
miss that place. That was where I first discovered I had powers, and I was very
close with my aunt.” As Sarah attempted to remember her way through the maze of
trails to the farm she had not visited since she was twelve, she regaled Eli
with tales of Aunt Beth, including Aunt Beth’s talking pet goat.
“So that was the original Addie,” Eli commented.
“Hey! No one is like me,” Addie protested.
“That is true. You are one unique dog,” Sarah
assured Addie, who blinked at her happily.
They finally broke through the tree line and came
upon a fence, which was sagging with the weight of the ivy growing on it. It
enclosed a generous pasture with a goat shed in the center of it. Now, in place
of the milk goats Aunt Beth had raised, there were two cows chewing cud
listlessly. Beyond that, stood the modest farmhouse where Aunt Beth had lived,
and where she and Sarah’s father had grown up. Smoke curled from the chimney.
“So many memories.” Sarah exhaled, feeling both
joy and sorrow at the sight of her long-gone childhood. “I hope the family
living here is happy.”
“Too bad we can’t go inside,” Eli commented.
“I suppose we could always knock and ask.” Sarah
shrugged. She glanced at Eli, and when he agreed, she led him around the fence
to the front door of the house. “Ah, I forgot about this knocker,” she said,
tracing the bronze gargoyle knocker with her fingertip after knocking. “I
always thought it was so cool, but now I realize how out of place it was
against this modest little house.”
A woman carrying a baby on her hip opened the
door. The minute she saw Sarah, her face softened in recognition. “You must be
the little girl in all of those photos we found in the attic,” she cried. “Beth
Spellwood’s niece?”
“Yes,” Sarah said happily. “You found pictures?”
“Well, yes, we did, and we have them. We tried to
send them to family, but we couldn’t find an address. Come on in!” The woman
stepped aside and ushered Sarah and Eli into the house. “Oh, hello,” she
greeted Addie, also welcoming her inside.
“Puppy!” several kids cried as they flocked
around the dog. Addie rolled on the floor and showed her belly happily as the
kids scratched it.
“My kids love dogs, as you can see.” The woman
laughed. “I’m Meg, by the way.” She set the baby down and shook Eli’s and
Sarah’s hands as they introduced themselves. Then she excused herself to
retrieve the pictures. “You can take a look around, if you want,” she called
over her shoulder.
Sarah stepped into the kitchen. “The cauldron is
gone.” She sighed, noticing the open fireplace with its hanging cauldron was
now replaced with an oven. The fridge was also new and covered in kids’ art,
with none of the strange recipes and spells that Aunt Beth kept on it.
Eli placed a comforting hand on her elbow. “You
can’t expect it to be the same.”
“I know. It’s just so different.” Sarah sighed,
breathing in the smell of the macaroni bubbling on the stove for lunch. “Well,
actually, it seems like a happy home, and I’m just glad these people love it.”
Meg reappeared with the photos. “Here you go!”
Sarah smiled as she sifted through them. “That
was my goat!” she cried, showing Eli the photo of the black-and-white goat
hanging his head over her shoulder.
“You were cute,” Eli said. “So many
freckles.” Teasingly, he touched her cheek, pretending to count the freckles
she still had.
“She sure was,” Meg said, nodding her head in
agreement. Then she added in an undertone, “Do you want to go upstairs? I have
to ask you about some things about this house . . .”
Sarah and Eli followed Meg up the narrow
staircase to a landing. Meg paused in front of a door. “Um, I hate to mention
this, but . . . I know the reputation of Lativia Spellwood.”
Sarah smiled and nodded. “That is my ancestor,
and the founder of Witchland.” Then she narrowed her eyes knowingly. “Let me
guess, weird things happen around this house?”
“Yes, well, Neil and I don’t—well, we didn’t
believe in that stuff. Not at all. But after moving here . . .” Meg bit her
lip, looking nervously from Sarah to Eli.
“We don’t think you’re crazy, don’t worry,” Sarah
assured her. “Weird things happen in Witchland, and especially in this house.
It did house three generations of witches.” She and Eli exchanged knowing
glances and then laughed, sharing memories of the many magical misadventures
they had been on together in their efforts to protect Witchland from both
Madras and greedy developers.
“Oh, good. I wasn’t sure where you stood with all
of that.” Meg laughed nervously and gathered her hair into a ponytail. “Well,
you see, we took the master bedroom here and . . .” She opened the door and
pointed within.
Sarah stepped into her aunt’s old bedroom. As if
she were a child again, she could remember the four-post bed that took up most
of the space, and the rolltop desk where Aunt Beth sat to pay her bills and
write letters. Though the décor was different, the atmosphere of the room still
felt like Aunt Beth: calm, sweet, earthy, loving. Tears welled up in Sarah’s
eyes.
“We keep cutting them back.” Meg led them to the
window, where several flowers emerged from the wooden frame, vibrant and
colorful. They were growing without soil and without water. “We’re not really
sure how they keep growing.”
Sarah touched one of the blue flowers gently. “My
aunt Beth loved her flowers, her garden, her goats. She was part of nature—so
it seemed.” She turned to Meg. “These are enchanted flowers that she grew
because she thought they were pretty. The only way to remove them would be to
break the enchantment.”
“Oh.” Meg looked worried. “I have no idea how to
do that.”
“I can bring some friends of mine by who can do
that. If you don’t mind, can I have them?” Sarah imagined planting them in her
own room and always having a piece of Aunt Beth near her.
“Of course! I would hate to kill them, but it’s
just, well . . .” Meg shrugged haplessly. “Not our choice of décor. I hope that
doesn’t offend you.”
“I get it.” Sarah nodded. “It is your home now.”
“Um, there’s one other thing.” Meg led them into
the bathroom next and pointed to the blue tiles over the clawfoot bathtub,
where Sarah had spent many afternoons pretending she was a mermaid in a frothy
ocean of soap bubbles, with an army of rubber duckies to do her bidding.
Sarah smiled softly as she ran her fingers along
the porcelain of the tub, entranced by her memories. Eli watched her,
vicariously enjoying her reminiscing through the expressions on her face.
Meg turned on the shower. Gradually, words began
to form across the tiles as the steam started to bloom from the water. Sarah
squinted and realized that it was a spell for making the room smell like roses.
Just as soon as she read the spell in her mind, the bathroom flooded with the
flowery scent. “Aunt Beth’s scent,” Sarah murmured. “I always just thought it
was a perfume.”
“It’s strong, like Margaret and Hua’s
greenhouse,” Addie complained, backing away toward the door.
“Any way you can break this enchantment? We love
this scent, but . . .” Meg again looked hapless.
Sarah acquiesced and said a quick spell to erase
the enchantment.
Spell be gone,
You have grown wan.
You have done well,
But it’s no time to
dwell.
Instantly, the words began to unfurl and stretch
until they made a popping sound like bubbles and ran down the walls in streams
of black ink. Then the ink grew clear and disappeared. The rose scent began to
gently fade. If only I could capture that scent in a bottle, Sarah
thought. I have to enchant my bathroom to do that so that I can always smell
Aunt Beth’s rose scent.
“I’m so sorry, and thank you so much,” Meg said
profusely as she showed them out. She handed Sarah the pictures in a bundle.
“Thank you for letting us inside and these
pictures. I’ll definitely treasure them. I’ll come back with my friends,
Margaret and Hua, later. They will transplant the flowers for you and remove
the enchantment,” Sarah promised.
As she, Eli, and Addie walked back into town,
Sarah sighed. “It’s so hard to let go of the past and watch things change. I
sure miss my aunt Beth.”
“Can you visit her, you know, in that ghostly
clearing?” Eli inquired. He was referring to the place where ghosts communed
with Lativia Spellwood’s ghost on the top of Mount Katribus.
“She moved on to the other side,” Sarah said
sadly. Then she interlaced her fingers with Eli’s and cuddled against his
muscular shoulder. “I miss her, but I know she’s in a good place. And I’m very
happy with how my life is now. I can only embrace the present.”
Eli kissed the top of her head, and Sarah felt
happy. “I think Aunt Beth would have adored you,” she told Eli.
