Page 12 of Sweet Nightmare

Me: What kind of spell is it?

Serena: It’s for luck. I still haven’t found a new job, and rent is coming due

Me: Why don’t you just cast a prosperity spell? Then you can take your time finding something

Serena: All the books say not to do that. Prosperity spells always backfire. But I’ve got an interview tomorrow, so I’m hoping the luck will help me get the job

Me: You’ll do great, with or without the spell. Send me pics of the circle you cast!

Serena: I will! Wish me luck!

Me: Always <3

I think about calling Serena and telling her about what happened with my mom, but she sounds so happy that I don’t want to kill her mood.

The front porch light comes on, and the moths immediately flock to it. A second later, Eva sticks her head out the door. “You coming in?” she asks. Then she takes one look at my face and says, “Uh-oh. Bad Conclave?”

“Bad everything,” I answer, heading inside.

She’s watching Wednesday on Netflix, and there’s a half-eaten bowl of M&M’s on the coffee table. “Apparently I’m not the only one who had a bad day.”

“Guys are dicks,” she answers.

“So are mothers.” I flop face down on the blue velvet sofa that takes up most of our sitting area and bury my face in one of the bright-purple pillows.

“And English teachers.”

She settles down at the end of the sofa, and a few seconds later, I hear her rattling the bowl of M&M’s next to my ear. “Chocolate makes everything better.”

“I’m not so sure it can fix this,” I groan. But I reach out and take a few anyway. “What’d Amari do?”

She snorts. “Cheated on me with a mermaid.”

“What an asshole!”

“It’s not like it was true love or anything,” she says with a shrug. “But I did like the big jerk.”

The leopard shifter does have a reputation for being a fuck boy, unfortunately. “How did you find out?”

“She was in the theater, bragging to her friends about their hookup and how I ‘didn’t have a clue.’ She didn’t know I was painting sets backstage.” She picks through the candy bowl until she has a handful of green M&M’s, then starts popping them in her mouth one by one. “For a minute, I really wished I had access to my magic.”

“I can punch her for you,” I offer. “I know it’s not the same, but it could be satisfying.”

Eva shrugs again. “She’s not worth it. Though I did think about punching Amari when I confronted him and he tried blaming it on me.”

“On you? Why?”

“Because I don’t ‘understand him.’ And because he thinks with his dick, obviously.” She reaches for the bowl of M&M’s again and this time starts picking out all the orange ones. “Now tell me what happened to you?”

“Caspian got into U of S.”

“What? I thought you couldn’t—”

“Apparently that rule only applies to me. Caspian is free to do whatever he wants.”

“Wow. That’s not cool.” She hands the bowl back to me. “So what’d your mom say?”

“Nothing. She wouldn’t even look at me.” I flop back down on the sofa.

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