“Fine, thank you. And yours?”
Raya casually dropped her arm around Erin’s shoulders. “Absolutely great. In fact, my friend Erin and I”—she paused to aim a grin at Erin—“were just finishing up our lunch when—”
“Yes!” interrupted Erin. “When I had to go get something from the car.”
“Yes,” Raya drawled. “She had to get something from the car. And—look at that—Erin, did you find my lost hair stick?” She reached behind Erin and pulled the wand from Erin’s unresisting hand, tucking it securely into her own pocket. “Thank you so much. I’ve been looking for it everywhere.”
Erin could do nothing but smile even as she wanted to scream in frustration.
“Well, we should get back to it. Have a nice summer, Mrs. C,” said Raya. Keeping her arm around Erin, she steered her back to the library, closed the door, and locked it.
Embarrassment mingled with Erin’s despair. She faced Raya. “I’m sorry I grabbed your wand,” she said. “I don’t know what got into me.”
“Demonic possession?”
“No, that was all me,” said Erin ruefully.
“Sit down,” said Raya. “Stop being crazy. I have more questions to ask you.”
Erin, heavy with misery, sank into a chair.
“Did this demon have some kind of control over you?”
“I—” Erin swallowed and considered her next words. “No. I don’t think so. He—it was more like he did what I wanted.”
“He was helping you.”
“With a lot of things.” She didn’t elaborate the point because she didn’t trust herself not to start crying on the spot. “Why?”
“Okay. I’m going to overlook the fact that you nearly got me in big trouble with the boss—”
Erin wanted to disappear on the spot. Instead, she briefly covered her face with her hands. “I’m so sorry. I panicked.”
Raya waved away the apology. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about Mr. New Hot Friend. He is pretty hot, by the way.”
Erin couldn’t help but smile, just a little.
Raya continued. “You seem to have some kind of—I don’t know—something. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to call him up in the first place. Maybe we can figure this out. If we work together.”
Erin sat forward in her chair. “Can we try to call him up now?”
“What, now? You think it’s a good idea to do that in the middle of my library?” said Raya, helping herself to more goodies from the basket.
“It’s not?” said Erin.
“You mean besides the whole getting-fired-for-witchcraft-at-work thing? No way.” She bit into a sandwich. “We’ll go to my house later.”
12
Erin sped home with the empty picnic basket in the backseat and Raya’s rather unusual shopping list tucked into her purse. As she drove down her street, she spotted a car in her driveway.
It was her mother, of course. Never content with a phone call, Joyce would turn up on her doorstep at any hour of the day.
Erin parked the car and got out. “Hi, Mom,” she said as her mother exited her large sedan.
“Were you at school, darling? Did you move your classroom all by yourself?”
White lies were often easier than the unvarnished truth. “Yup,” said Erin, unlocking the front door and letting her mother precede her into the house.
