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We watched as the girl waited for me to enter the shop. Then she sprayed something in my direction, and I fell to the floor. If that wasn’t scary enough, what was even more horrifying was watching her drag my body into the back alley. It was then that Finn came onto the screen. What in the world was he doing here? I didn’t know Finn all that well, but I knew he was one of Dad’s trusted soldiers.
The video stopped, and the old lady turned to me. “I don’t know who she is, but Miti said she looks like someone Claudia was training. We’ve sent the video to Claudia to verify.”
“You know Miti?”
“I was Ray’s mentor. Of course I know Miti.” She shook her head like that explained it. “Keep up, young man. You must find your mate soon. Miti said she flushed your system, but I don’t believe you are fully healed. Add on the effects of the spray you got, you might . . . well, you saw what they tried to portray you doing in the alley.”
“I can’t believe I got knocked out. Why would they do such a thing?” I ran a hand across my face. One thought was racing through my mind—I had to find Lira. If Finn was involved . . . I groaned. Our pack was strong! How could this happen?
The front door chimed, and the old lady went out into the shop. She came in shortly after with Miti in tow.
“Grandma, of course you’re here,” I said, relieved to see her.
“Don’t ‘of course’ me. You should be glad Waverly woke up in time to scare Finn and the girl away.”
“What would they have to gain by knocking me out and covering me in what I hope isn’t blood?” I looked down at my shirt pointedly, still feeling dazed this had even happened.
“We think they were trying to use you to get to me and Bubbie.” Miti looked at me, and it seemed like she was ageing right in front of me. “They know how much we love you boys. You’re the only one not mated out of the four of you.”
“What about Dredge and Sandy?”
“We’re not sure why they are not being singled out like you are, or why they’re not showing any signs of being affected.” She sighed.
No answers then. Best move on to ones we had. “Has Claudia figured out who the person with pink hair is?”
Miti’s brows scrunched together. “She says they modified the video with magic, so she can’t tell if it’s one of her students, but she said she’d dig into it more. In the meantime, take this.” She shuffled through her bag and handed me a bottle.
“Is this what I think it is?” I grimaced at the thought of my insides getting scrubbed clean again.
“It is, and you must drink all of it. Every last drop. Then you must get to your mate. Stop diddle-daddling.” With that, she left before I could throw a few choice words at her.
Lira
I glared at Charli, who just stared at me with a stoic expression, as I said, “I’m doing the best I can. I’ve relaxed so much, I’ve laid down on the floor and almost fell asleep!”
“Not good enough,” she said, floating over to me. “You need to be so relaxed that when I speak to you, you don’t even notice. It’s not a sleep kind of relaxation either, it’s a meditative Zen. You need to be able to hear your heart pumping; feel the calmness settle around you.”
“Ugh! I can’t do this!”
“Keep trying.”
I scrambled to my feet. “I’m going to the kitchen to grab lunch. You might not have to eat, but I do.”
“Come back in an hour. We must keep practicing.”
I stomped my way to the kitchen, making sure she heard every footfall, but by the time I entered the room, which was on the other side of the house, I sank into a chair, defeated. How was this my life now? My family had money; I could do whatever I wanted. I could be the top curator of all time for my dad and travel the world, living a life of luxury. But instead, I’d found my way to this house and was now taking lessons from a ghost on how to hone my skill in visions—something I really didn’t want to be doing.
Charli had said the meaning behind the visions could be about the future or the past. What if it brought back memories I didn’t remember I had? Not that I thought anything bad had happened in my past, but the movies I’d seen of people predicting the future or seeing into the past always contained something dark and dangerous. I wanted nothing to do with danger. I liked being the one that was the life of the party or, according to my sister, the one with a lack of responsibility. It meant I could just hide from everything.
And there it was, wasn’t it? I was hiding. Charli had been trying to tell me this in various ways over the last month. She knew I didn’t want to face my fate, that I didn’t want to take responsibility. I was going to let others down, especially myself. I was just a girl who had no idea what she wanted out of life and definitely did not ask to be a witch or have any powers whatsoever. If anything, Millie should be the one here. She would take these gifts and run with them, experiencing visions left and right and fixing peoples’ lives. Then she’d win a gold medal from the president and be known as a hero of all mankind.
I thunked my head onto the kitchen counter. Why me?
There was only one thing for it. Standing up, I went into the freezer and pulled out a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia. Feeling happy it was a full container, I grabbed a spoon and sat at the table. I was halfway through the pint of ice cream when I remembered why I had been mad at Charli before training. Taking a bigger bite, I fumed at the memory of Charli chiding me for going to the family grove too early. She was a ghost from eons ago. I sat up a bit straighter. I was the new witch of the family; I could go to the grove whenever I wanted.
Getting up, I headed back to the library to give her a piece of my mind when I felt my phone buzz. Pulling it out of my pocket, I looked down to see Mod’s number.
As soon as I put it to my ear, Mod was already talking. “You know how you fainted at the grove?”
