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Prologue
Eighteen years ago…
Kay dropped a tote bag with a thud and let out a big sigh in the stifling air of their attic. It had to be a hundred degrees. But Amelia, her older sister, wanted to perform a spell her mother never would have let them do, and they needed secrecy. Her twin and older sister were boy crazy, and they’d somehow managed to rope her into a stupid spell to bring love into their lives. "I don't even like boys. Why do we have to do this?"
"Really?" asked Corinne, Kay's twin. She set down Bri, their baby sister, and the toddler rushed over to the trunk full of old clothes they used to play dress up. "So, you don't have a crush on Tucker? Because your face turns—"
Heat rushed to Kay’s face, and she smacked Corinne on the arm. "It's not like that!"
"Uh-huh. Didn't you just tell me he looks like Zac Efron? You are into him, and you know it."
"Am not." Kay crossed her arms as she let out a huff. She was, of course, and she wasn’t sure she liked it. She knew she spent way too much time staring at Tucker in English class, but it was hard not to. He was perfect. His hair was always combed, his shirts always ironed, and he even lined up his pencil and notebook on his desk the exact same way every day.
"Youdowant to get married one day, don't you?" Corinne asked. She and Kay were watching out for baby Bri, and Corinne stooped down to begin collecting the items Bri tossed on the floor while in search of something that caught her eye.
"Sure. But I don't think we need a spell to make that happen." Because even though she was crushing hard on Tucker, she was sure she’d die if he ever made a move toward her. She was perfectly content to just look at him and fantasize about her first kiss for now.
"Well,I'msure we do," confirmed Corinne. "I'm not taking any chances and ending up a single mother. What happened with Dad could be a family curse, you know."
Kay didn’t like to think about that. Her stomach still rolled when she recalled the way her parents had fought before her father finally left them.
"Kay, would you pour the juice?" Amelia asked her.
Salt rushed out of a cannister as Amelia poured it in a line to form a circle, and Kay removed the heavy glass goblets from her tote bag and filled them with the grape juice she’d carried up.
Sweat dripped down Kay’s face. "Ugh," she said as she set down the last goblet of juice. "Can we open a window? It's so hot."
Amelia glanced over at the two windows that overlooked the backyard. "Sure. Corinne?"
"So, on it."
Kay inhaled deeply when a breeze wafted through the room, and she noticed the earthy odor of the gardens she’d been helping her mother cleanup to prepare for summer.
Once Corinne lit the three candles set in a triangle in the center of the salt circle she said, "Everyone in their places, please."
Kay and Corinne sat with baby Bri between them to keep her safe from the candles. There was a glass of grape juice in front of each girl, and they’d drink it after Amelia had recited her spell. There were a lot of things Kay liked about being a witch. Magic was fun even when she screwed up and her mother had to fix your mistakes. But she had a sinking feeling in her stomach about what they were about to do. She wasn’t sure spelling some guy into becoming her husband was a good idea. But she was also fairly sure the spell wasn’t going to work. It was a complex spell only the smartest of witches could pull off. And while Knight witches were some of the most powerful alive, Amelia was only thirteen. But still, it wasn’t something they’d want to screw up, and Kay intended to do her best to get things right.
"Join hands," Amelia commanded.
Kay’s heart flipped at the finality of choosing a husband at the age of twelve. She asked, "So, we just think about who we want to marry as you do the spell?"
"You should state it out loud," Corinne said with an evil smile.
"Fine." Kay gave her a mischievous smirk. No way was she admitting who she really liked to her twin. "I want to marry a famous wizard. So famous we'll have a fancy wedding written up inWitch Times. And he has to have a cape. A black one with a purple silk lining."
Corinne snorted. "Giving up on Tucker already?"
Amelia let out a huff of annoyance and said, "You can just think it if you want to, Kay."
Corinne said, "I'm going to marry Noah Wilson."
"No surprise there," Kay said. "You might want to branch out a bit, though. Live a little."
"Live a little? What are we, forty? Noah is all the man I'll ever need."
"Man?" Kay asked. "He barely has peach fuzz."
Amelia spoke loudly over their bickering. "My intentions are for James Foster." She glared at the twins, and Kay knew it was time to keep her mouth shut.
