Page 5 of Haunt Improvement
“There you are!”Glinda stormed through the gate, green electricity crackling in her short hair and at her fingertips.Worry creased at the corners of her eyes and mouth, clashing with her skintight leather riding suit.Her broom was gripped in one hand, and a wicker basket looped over her opposite wrist.
“You’re early,” I noted with surprise.Glinda was more of the fashionably late kind of witch.That way everyone could admire and envy her shoes before she dropped in.
“Here,” she said, thrusting her basket at me.“Give this to Roger for me, would you?”
“You mean he didn’t hitch a ride with you?”I asked, lifting the lid for a peek.“I thought he was your date for tonight.Did something happen between you two?”
“No—well, sort of, but he’ll get over it.”Glinda chewed her bottom lip.“Something came up, and I have to bail.Sorry, cuz.”
“Oh?”I lifted a brow, waiting for an explanation.She seemed entirely too frazzled for it to be something as simple as a hot date or a better party.
And it was highly unlikely there was a better party going down in Assjacket tonight.Nathan was setting up a barrel for pawpaw bobbing, and Bob the beaver Shifter had chiseled up a fancy trophy for our costume contest.We even had a mini haunted hayride set up for the little Shifters through the pawpaw orchard.
“It’s Emmy,” Glinda finally blurted, pinching her eyes closed.The ends of her electrically charged hair crackled and lifted with the admission.“She asked me to terrorize a village with her tonight, and I know it’s wicked, and probably just a scheme to grill me about Gran’s lost fortune, but she’s never invited me to doanythingbefore, and I swear I’ll only zap the villagers that look like jerks—”
“YoursisterEmmy?”I asked, still not sure I’d heard Glinda right.“The one who hexed you with a mustache our freshman year of high school?”
Glinda rolled her eyes.“Only because her boyfriend called me cute, and it only lasted until homecoming.”
Toto shitting in a cyclone.
I harumphed, recalling the horrific acne Emmy had hexed me with throughout my freshman and sophomore years.I was constantly running to Gran for a potion fix, but Emmy never left me alone for long.I hadn’t found lasting relief until she’d broomed off for college abroad.
“You’re going to miss the costume contest,” I reminded her.Roger had gushed about their matching attire at my lastthreetherapy sessions.
“I’ll be back in time for brunch tomorrow,” Glinda promised, mounting her broom.I grabbed her wrist before she could take flight and waited for her to look at me.
“Be careful.”
Glinda’s tense expression softened, and she nodded.Then she glanced at the basket gripped in my other hand.“Tell Professor Horny Hops I’ll make it up to him tomorrow night.We’ll bust out the velvet-lined top hat and vibrating carrot—”
“TMI.”I shook my head, trying to dislodge the image she’d put there, and released her arm.“Watch out for falling houses!”I shouted after her as she ascended into the dusky sky.It had turned purple along the eastern horizon.A nearly full moon slowly crawled up to join the few stars that dotted the sky as I watched Glinda’s inky silhouette fade from view.
I had a terrible feeling in my gut, and it wasn’t just cookie cravings this time.Glinda was still struggling to find her place.She had a job bartending at the Assjacket Country Club.She’d even bought a house and had a...questionablelover or two.
But wicked ways die hard, and family ties were complicated.If our grandmother were alive, I’d probably be more upset about the West family disowning me, too.Not that Gran would have stood for such a thing.She’d been an outcast among the West witches in her youth, as well.But wicked witches have shorter life expectancies, and she’d inherited the family home and fortune—and Almira’s legendary broom—after her two sisters had met their ends.
I hoped Glinda didn’t meet a similar fate, associating with the likes of Emmy.Angry villagers wielded more than pitchforks these days, and the good witches far outnumbered the wicked.
The party wouldn’t officially begin for another twenty minutes, so I had just enough time to dash inside and change.During one of my shopping excursions with Zelda, I’d found a super cute maternity top that was perfect for tonight.The stretchy fabric hugged my middle, giving the cauldron print a 3D effect.Frog toes and eyeballs floated in the bubbly green soup, and even a little bat wing broke the surface.I paired it with a glittery black tulle skirt and matching flats.I’d promised Dylan no more heels until after bitty bat made her debut.
Glinda was still weighing on my mind when I returned to the backyard to finish winking the final details in place.But my worries soon shifted to the backburner as excited chittering echoed from the belfry and a few bats flittered around the roof.Asher was here.
I didn’t speak the language, but lately, I’d begun to recognize the nuances of the batty noises the colony made whenever familiar faces came and went.I’d been here for several years now, so I tried to chalk it up to that and not dwell on it any further as my nephew bolted through the garden gate in a scarecrow costume.
“Auntie M!”Asher squealed, his cheeks swelling with his wide grin.He wrapped his arms around my belly but was careful not to smudge his face paint.“Do you think I’ll win the contest?”he asked eagerly.
“You’re the best scarecrow I’ve ever seen,” I said.“I’m not a judge, but I could award you with a candy apple—”
He tore off before I could get another word out.
“Just one!”Daisy shouted after him, readjusting a fluffy lion-mane headband over her blond locks.“Kids and their lollies, eh?”
Bitty bat delivered a kick of agreement, and I tilted my head toward the buffet table of sweets, inviting Daisy to join me as I took full advantage of my cheat day.Unfortunately, Dylan intercepted my hangry plotting.
“Nice repurposing of Ash’s costumes of daydreams’ past,” he said, nodding at the fluff-tipped tail dangling from Daisy’s snug leggings.When the sky grumbled, he shot me a cautious frown.But it had been months since my pregnancy hormones set off the storm cauldron over Dylan’s white knight treatment of his brother’s widow.I returned his inquisitive stare with a tight smile.
“You’re standing in front of the pretzels, honeybat,” I said through clenched teeth.
