He glanced at Calisa.
Auntie Zee leveled a gnarled finger at her. “Explain, girl.”
And so Calisa did, starting at the moment she realized this was not an ordinary inn. Halfway through the retelling, she felt Jack take her hand. She left nothing out, except for the details of the kiss. She glossed over that with just a mention—enough of a hint that Auntie Zee rolled her eyes. When she got to the part about how they searched the realms for Auntie Zee, the eye roll became a full-out scowl.
“You shouldn’t have risked yourselves like that,” Auntie Zee said.
“We needed you back,” Calisa said. “The inn needed you back.”
“Bah, the inn is doomed anyway.”
“It doesn’t have to be.” Calisa didn’t know why she was feeling so angry, but she was. Furiously, incandescently angry all of a sudden. It felt as if the frustration and disappointment andfeelingsthat she’d been shoving down since the start of the summer were bubbling up into her throat and popping in her brain.
“You know nothing about it, child.”
“You could have explained that sometimes you get stuck as a cat,” Calisa said. “You could have told me how it worked. And what to do.” She’d been lied to again and again, her questions unanswered, so little explained, when she could have been trusted to make her own decisions about her summer, her life, her future. She could have been told she had this portal magic, trained to use it, warned that it could cause her to faint…or become acat?
The glare hardened. “It’s not your problem or your responsibility. I would have recovered enough to transform back eventually.”
Calisa crossed her arms and glared back just as hard. “And what would have happened to the B&B in the meantime? What about the guests that are still here? They’d just have to fend for themselves? Do you think they’d ever want to stay here again after that?” If she’d just trusted Calisa…or Jack! He hadn’t known that Auntie Zee was here all along, or that she was trapped in feline form, or that his father had gone to search for a cure for the overuse of portal magic. All of that would have been useful information for him to have.
“It’smybed-and-breakfast.”
“You still need help,” Calisa said. “If not from me, then from someone. Thomas. Or Jack. Or whoever. But you don’t need to do it by yourself.” Shecouldn’tdo it by herself.
“I always have.”
“So? Things change.” It was a cliché, but the truth of those two words hit her like a fist to the stomach. She thought of Ethan. She’d wanted that to be forever, but now that it wasgone…He was the past, and that was okay.Thathad been her epiphany in the closet doorway while she’d kissed Jack.Everything changes, and it’s okay.And a huge reason why it was okay: she hadn’t had to go through it alone. She’d had Jack. And Steve. And her moms and Crystal and Maddy back home. Even Melidor and Mulligan and Kendra had helped in their own ways. “There’s nothing wrong with asking for help. Or not even asking—you don’t have to ask. There’s nothing wrong withacceptinghelp.”
“You don’t know what it’s like—”
Calisa cut her off. “To feel helpless? Powerless? Sure, I do. Anyone who’s been disappointed by someone knows that. You don’t have to be a thousand years old to discover that people can suck.”
“I amnota thousand, and it is my own self that’s disappointing me. My own body.”
“How’s that different?” Calisa countered.
“Because it means that I’m dying.”
Thomas and Jack both gasped.
Narrowing her eyes, Calisa crossed her arms. She wasn’t buying it. Yes, she could believe Auntie Zee occasionally turned into a cat, but dying? She was too stubborn for that.
Auntie Zee waved her hand at Jack and his dad. “Not right this second. But I’m far closer to death than any of you. My strength—it’s not what it used to be. I recover slower than I used to, if I do at all, and I have to accept that. I am old, Calisa. Old. I won’t be around forever.”
Calisa wondered if Auntie Zee had always been thisdramatic. Sure, she was older, but she wasn’t dead yet. How could she abandon all of this, everything she’d worked for and built? Just because she didn’t want to accept help? “You’re here now, and you can’t give up.”
“It’s not giving up to accept the inevitable. It’s practical. I am slowing. Someday I will be gone. Someday this inn will close. Perhaps it’s reached that point. I remind you that it’s my inn, my decision.”
It was her decision, but it was so hard to watch her make what was so obviously the wrong one. All she had to do was accept help! How was that so terrible? Three people were right here, ready to help. Plus the statue. And the ladder. Even Steve, in his own way. Probably not the mirror, but everyone else.
On the other hand, she did have the right to retire. People did that. Calisa felt a tickle of doubt. What if Auntie Zee had reached that point? She knew her own limitations. Every business owner probably did reach the point where they were ready to quit.But she shouldn’t leave carnage in her wake.If she were to retire, she should do it in a way that didn’t destroy the inn. Sell it to someone who could keep it magical. Ensure that Jack and his dad weren’t instantly homeless. Create something that lasted. Retire happily, not in defeat.
“Do youwantit to close?” Jack asked.
“Of course not, silly boy,” Auntie Zee said. “This is my life’s work. I wanted it to outlast me, but I know my limitations and it’s foolish to continue on—”
Calisa cut in. “Did you ever think that the B&B isn’t justyours?”
