“Okay, okay,” Katherine said. “Can we get Lily some real food from someone who can actually cook, then?”
“Absolutely,” Tess said. “What do you want, Lily? Anything in the world. Give me your dream meal and I can make it.”
“Um… filet mignon. And mashed potatoes.”
Tess sighed. “Okay, obviously I can do that, but think bigger. This is a magic restaurant. Sky’s the limit. Gimme a challenge.”
Lily thought for a moment. When she pictured magic food, her mind went straight to apples with worms in them, mysterious drinks that turned you into a frog. But here was this nice woman, telling her she could make her anything in the world, using this power that Lily now had. She might as well put it to the test.
“Okay,” she said. “I want, uh, Gordon Ramsay’s beef Wellington. And curly fries. And a red velvet cupcake filled with a red wine reduction—I don’t know what that is, but that—topped with caramel cream cheese frosting. Oh, and also a root beer float in a Wendy’s Frosty cup.”
Tess grinned. “Give me five minutes.”
Lily watched in awe as Tess disappeared into the kitchen. A burst of light filtered through the window, followed by the banging of pots and pans.
“She can’t seriously do all that, right?” she asked.
“Of course she can,” Fiona said. Katherine settled at the bar, patting a stool for Lily to sit next to her.
“So you’re all witches?” Lily asked. She was still getting used to the word, to the different way it fell off her tongue when she was treatingwitchas something real.
“Yep,” Fiona said. “Just about everyone who comes into Sunspot is. Ordinaries—that’s what we call non-witches—are allowed in, but the place is warded so they get bad vibes from it and stay away.”
“Are there other magic things? Am I going to meet a Cullen?”
Katherine chuckled. “Nope. Just witches. All the other ones are the products of overactive human imaginations.”
Lily nodded, absorbing. “Were you guys all… What was the word again?”
“Unsettled,” Katherine said. “And no, they weren’t. Only witches from non-magical families are unsettled. I was, and the head of our coven, Sylvia, who you’ll meet later, was too. Fi comes from a magical family—”
“A magical family of total hippies,” Fiona chimed in. “They’re still confused why I’m out here in LA ‘working for the man’ instead of living in a trailer doing magical LSD.”
“Please don’t talk about drugs in front of the teenager,” Katherine said.
“Sorry. Eating magical candy.”
Lily smiled as Fiona winked at her.
“And Tess was born to a magical mother and an ordinary father,” Katherine explained.
“When that happens, you can be born either with settled magic or with no magic at all,” Fiona added. “She’s one of the lucky ones.”
“Lucky,” Lily murmured. “I don’t see myself as lucky for having magic.”
Lily pulled the string of beads out of her pocket and started to spin it around her fingers again. She couldn’t stop wondering why this had happened to her. If unsettled magic was random, couldn’t it have chosen someone else? Why was she the one being thrust through this door into a new world, a door that she’d never be able to close again?
“Come on.” Katherine pulled Lily up, then gestured for Fiona to come with them. Katherine walked them to the empty space by the door, then took Lily’s hands in hers.
“I want to let a little bit of your magic out,” Katherine said.
Lily shook her head so hard her neck hurt. “No, I can’t do that! I’llsnap. I won’t be able to control it, and then I’ll hurt you just like I hurt Noah.”
“You won’t,” Katherine promised. “Letting out your magic in a controlled way will help relieve some of the pressure. Make you feel a little bit lighter. Do you trust me?”
No, Lily thought, but she didn’t say it out loud. She had no choice but to trust Katherine. There was no one else. No other way out but through.
“Okay.”
