Page 60 of Practically Magic

Eleanor doesn’t seem to notice. She absentmindedly pulls a candy bar from her pocket and takes a bite. “I wish I remembered our row. Maybe I’ve been wrong all this time and my sister really did have my best interests at heart.”

Like Harry, I realize.

The clock in my parents’ office chimes. It’s 8:00 p.m. Time for the first spell. Please let this work, even though I’m alone, I pray, suddenly overtaken with terror that I’m about to ruin everything.

“You better hurry,” Eleanor says, forcing me out of my spiral. “I’ll stand here with you the whole time.”

I pull all the spell supplies out of the cabinet and cram my hat on my head, leaving Harry’s in the box. Eleanor nods encouragingly as I step outside and walk down the back steps. I look around for gnomes, but there are none, so I pull out the supplies.

Will fresh flowers even burn?

“Focus on your intentions.”

I inhale slowly, lighting the birthday candle. Its flame is weak and small, but that shouldn’t matter. My intentions are big.

Protect my friends. Protect my family. Protect my home.

I hold the blue petals to the flame, but all I can see in my mind’s eye is Harry’s face. I don’t have a sister anymore.

“Focus!” Eleanor reminds me.

I bite my lip. Right.

Cast out the creatures who would do us harm. Protect this town. And don’t let the Headless Horseman rise out of his grave and try to eat us all.

The flowers flare to life and I gasp as the fire consumes them, the tingles in my hands growing into something more—something that feels like power.

I stare at Eleanor in surprise.

“Did I just do it?” I ask, my voice catching.

Eleanor doesn’t look elated. Instead, her eyes are wide in panic. “Kat,” she says. “What did you do?”

“The protection ritual!” I say, but my heart is suddenly beating in my throat far too fast. “To keep us safe. To keep the Headless Horseman from—”

But my words are swallowed up as the ground begins to shake violently both inside and outside the house. Eleanor and I look at one another in a panic as everything around us starts to sway. I rush inside with her and see the books in my parents’ office falling from shelves, the lamp tumbling off the table and crashing. Garden gnomes pop up from holes in the baseboards and cracks in the wall and scatter, screaming their little heads off as they run full tilt. Then there is an ear-piercing crack that sounds like lightning, and a gaping hole appears in the middle of the office floor.

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New post from Anonymous: Anyone got the details on the silent rave happening at Mystic Hollow cemetery? Lots of people wearing glow-in-the-dark costumes. But no music?

Smoke rises from the hole in the floor, obscuring my view, but I don’t need to see to know what’s down there.

“What in the blazes is that?” Eleanor panics. “You don’t think . . . it can’t be . . . is it . . . ?”

“The Headless Horseman’s grave opening?” I whisper, my heart pounding hard. “Yeah, I think it is.” Because I cast a spell to close it.

And magic is still backward. I’ve just unearthed the monster who wants to end my town.

“What about the rituals?” Eleanor exclaims, her eyes wide as saucers. “Your sister—you must try again!”

“I know! I know!” I say, standing at the edge. “How did Beatrice send him to the grave the first time?”

“She beheaded him!” Eleanor snaps. “But something tells me that won’t work this time!”

“Thanks for the reminder,” I say, starting to sweat. I need to do something. Normally I have all the answers. To calculus. AP Language essay questions. But right now, faced with an undead Headless Horseman rising and wreaking havoc on Mystic Hollow, I have no clue what to do. I’m in a full-blown panic. And then my phone starts to ring. I pick up without looking. “Harry?” I say, hoping.