Page 702 of Love Bites

Their magic just didn’t work right, and no one could figure out why.

Bethany smoothed her dark hair and adjusted her blouse, which had blown halfway around her. “It’s such a mess in here. I just hate messes.I hate them.”

Ember turned to Bethany, her eyes wide. “Beth, don’t compound my error in judgment.”

“It’ll take just a minute, and then everything will be cleaner.”

“No,don’t!”

Bethany didn’t bother with her usual spellcasting crutches—paint pots and runes—but just composed a quick rhyme and punched a hole in the magical ether and summoned helping spirits. “Come, spirits. This place is a mess. Help clean it up before I crack, I guess.”

Later, she figured out that she shouldn’t have saidcrack.

Strings of firecrackers popped on the floor at her feet and ignited around the room, sparking and leaping off the industrial carpet. She jumped, and most of the people in the crowd did, too. A few dove for cover. A little kid started crying.

The spirits dissipated.

Bethany shrank in her skin. She couldn’t even apologize to people because she couldn’t admit to practicing witchcraft. Half the naturals in the room wouldn’t even hear her because they were so deeply in denial about the existence of magic. The other half would think she was a lunatic.

The other supernaturals in the room would know exactly what had happened and were probably laughing behind their hands at her.

Bethany bustled around the room anyway, straightening up after the elemental and brushing firecracker ash off of plastic tables and chairs. “Well, Willow will be here any minute.”

Ember sighed. “I’ll bet she knows we’re here now.”

Through the crowd, Bethany could see Willow’s bright blonde hair, now shot through with bright pink streaks, weaving through the crowd. She’d piled it on top of her head in a complicated braided, cone-shaped updo. “Willow! Over here!”

Their friend shoved her way through the crowd and grabbed both of them around their necks, hugging them hard. “I am so glad to see you guys.”

Bethany hugged her girlfriend. “We’ve never been separated so long. It’s weird to be without you.”

Ember asked, “And what am I? Chopped unicorn liver?” Her voice sounded strangled from where Willow was hugging her, too.”

Bethany said, “You know what I mean. It’s always been the three of us.”

Ever since they had started kindergarten together and then discovered that they were also in the same Saturday morning magic class for supernaturals, the three girls had been best friends.

Willow whispered, “I saw the air elemental that got out of control. I assume that was Ember?”

Bethany said, “Well, whenever there is a magical disaster, one of us is sure to have caused it.”

Ember straightened and peeled Willow’s arm off of her neck so she could speak. “I think we’ve just gotten into a negative mindset. Maybe our magic is going wrong because we expect it to go wrong. Maybe we need to visualize harder. Maybe we just need to be more positive, all the time, no matter what happens. I think we need to stand up, whenever we can, and say yes, I can do it, and then show them that we can.”

Willow said, “Maybe that will fix us. I mean, my parents sent me all the way to Paris for that three-month course in remedial potions, and I don’t think that improved my magic any.”

The hope for a Parisian miracle drained out of Bethany. “I was really hoping that you learned something, that there was some trick that we are missing, and all we had to do was just figure it out.”

Willow sighed. “No. I learned new potions, but they blow up half the time, same as always.”

Ember said, brightly, “Then we have nothing to lose. From now on, everything we say is positive. We are going to hold our chins up and we are going to say, yes we can.”

Bethany could see that this was going to end just like all their other tries at becoming competent witches like everyone else, but it was no use arguing with Ember when she got an idea stuck in her head. “Okay, I’ll try.”

“Not try, do! We can do this, if we try hard enough. Before, we were kids, and we just didn’t apply ourselves.”

Bethany had studied as hard as she could and applied herself every day until the veins in her eyes had popped. “Okay.”

“Positive! We will be positive! No matter what happens, we will be positive in all ways and at all times!”

Willow glanced at Bethany, her side-eyed look full of trepidation. “Didn’t we try this when we were sixteen?”

“But this time it’s going to work! Because we’re older, and smarter, and more determined!”

Bethany nodded. It probably wasn’t going to make anything worse. She asked Willow, “Did you check in some luggage?”

“After a three-month course in potions? I have so many liquids in those suitcases that I’m surprised TSA hasn’t pulled me aside to ask just what I’m doing. But I’ve also got French chocolate, so let’s go get my bags and eat all of it.”

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