Page 40 of That Ain’t Witchcraft

“I mean unless you have a secret squad of lawyers in your hall closet to double- and triple-check the wording of your wish, you’re really unlikely to wind up when and where you want to be, even if you’re using the original bargain. It’s best to assume that any plan that depends on time travel to make it work is not going to work.” I paused. “But it’s possible a variation might. You’re talking about getting the crossroads to manifest in this reality, instead of the reality where they spend most of their time. But there’s a third reality in play. The place where the crossroads ghosts take you when you want to finalize a deal. It exists outside of time.”

“Really?” His gaze sharpened. “How can you be sure?”

“Because I was drowning when my Aunt Mary took me there, and I stayed there a lot longer than I should have been able to without finishing the job.” I shook my head. “If we can get there, it’s possible something could be done that would disrupt the connection between the changes and the crossroads themselves.”

“I told you, I have a plan.”

“A plan, and a spell only you can currently cast. Can the plan also involve a lot of C-4? Because if it can’t involve a lot of C-4, it might be time to rethink things.”

James looked at me, eyes glittering with irritation. “I promise I won’t attempt to destroy the entity that has done unspeakable damage to our world without running my plans by you. Now, what have you found?”

“What makes you think I’ve found anything?”

“You’ve been hugging that book since I started talking.”

“Right.” I relaxed my grip. “There’s a way to call an audit. If you have a crossroads bargain in your past, and you feel like it wasn’t upheld, you can call a crossroads ghost and demand they take you to the crossroads themselves for an audit. I could do it, except for the part where I’m not dead, which means they’ve kept their side of the bargain so far.”

“Ah.”

“You could do it.”

James stared at me.

“You said Sally’s note said she was going to the crossroads to get you out of this town. You said she wanted you to be free. Well, you’re still here. They took her away, and whatever they left in her place wasn’t enough to get you what she wanted you to have. I’d say that’s plenty of cause for an audit, wouldn’t you?” I offered him the book. “Read it. Tell me if you think it’ll work. If it will, we start figuring out what comes next, and we go for it.”

“I … okay. I’ll read it,” said James, taking the book.

I nodded, and stood. “You do that. I’m going to go check on Sam.”

James didn’t say anything as I walked out of the room.

The house was quiet. Everyone else was off doing whatever they found more enjoyable than sitting in a room with a grumpy semi-stranger and reading. I felt more awake than I had in weeks. I had a problem to solve; I had books to use while I was solving it; and most of all, I had a grumpy semi-stranger. Someone to study with and snipe at was basically my idea of a day at the spa.

Studying had always been the place where my brother Alex and I came closest together, no matter how far apart our interests were. We could sit side by side and argue about things that didn’t mean a thing to anyone else, and when we were done, it always felt like we were … friends. Like we had found something beyond siblings to be for one another.

As I descended the stairs, I realized I missed him. Really missed him, in a small but painful way. I wanted my big brother. He would have loved this, like a word problem that didn’t use math for its solution, but some bizarre combination of philosophy, economics, and applied backstabbing.

When this was all over, I was going to ask him to come over and spend a day learning about something stupid, just to have an excuse to sit next to him with one of Grandpa’s journals in my hands and nothing pressing on my schedule.

I was still thinking about how nice that would be—some old books, a few free hours, my brother, and me—when I stepped out the front door onto the porch and froze. Bethany, still in her letter jacket and spirit bows, now matched with blue jeans and a red crop top, leaned against the rail and smiled at me through lips lacquered red as a poisoned candy apple.

“What’s shaking, Annie?” she chirped. “What’s the news, what’s the haps, what’s the status of you winding that boy around your finger? Because I gotta tell you, management isn’t happy with how fast you’re working. And when management isn’t happy, nobody gets to be happy.”

Crap.

Eleven

“Family doesn’t always make things better. Sometimes family only makes it worse.”

–Mary Dunlavy

On the front porch, wishing it were easier to hit a ghost

“IT’S BEEN LESS THAN a day,” I said stiffly, drawing myself up to my full height. At least I was taller than she was. Ghost or not, she looked like she’d been human before she died, and humans are still primates. We like to be tall. “No one gives away all their secrets in less than a day. Tell your ‘management’ that I’m a sorcerer, not a miracle worker. I’m not even really a sorcerer right now, since they’ve got all my magic.”

“You gave it to them,” said Bethany. “They might not be so cranky if you hadn’t spent the morning having coffee with your boyfriend.”

“Sam wasn’t anywhere ne—ew.” I wrinkled my nose, my disgust causing me to briefly forget the threat Bethany represented. “That’s vile. Go tell your bosses that they have filthy minds, and I’m not my sister. I don’t date Covenant men. The genocide never scrubs off of them.”