Page 32 of Summer Solstice

Wanda snatched it away from me, rolling her eyes. “Vampires can’t go out during the day, of course. So, I have to keep myself covered.”

Another reason why I was so confused as to what she was doing in my living room at nine in the morning. “But why are you here?”

Wanda just tossed her hair back over her shoulder and looked down her nose at me.

“Hello?” The front door opened again, and a plump, gray haired woman bustled in carrying a big box. “Vere should I put zis?”

I blinked, surprised into speechlessness for a second. “Oh, hi Olga. Um, what is it?”

She beamed at me. “Supplies!”

Her familiar, Franz, a racoon in surprisingly accurate lederhosen, gave a creepy little laugh as he scuttled through the door and into the kitchen. A tall, slender woman with graying red hair carrying another box sidled in sideways.

“Olga, grab the door, would you?”

Olga set her box on my coffee table and hurried to grab the door to let Betanya in. Betanya’s familiar, a skunk named Willie Ray, was right on her heels.

I hovered, still not quite sure what was happening. “Um.”

Maverick came in next, carrying about three boxes, a scowl twisting his handsome face. “I really don’t see why I had to come. I have things to do, you know,” he said to Wanda and then gave me a nod, which I returned.

“Aw, Mav.” The coven’s newest member, a witch named Imani, caught the door with her hip before it could swing closed again. “We needed someone to complain, and since we couldn’t bring Hellcat, you were our only other option.”

He glared at her, but his lips were twitching like he was fighting a smile. “You’re insufferable.”

Imani flashed him a winning smile and tossed her braids back over her shoulder. “Takes one to know one,” she sang as she brushed past him.

Maverick snorted, looking around my house with his nose wrinkled up. “Do you have a kitchen in this… place? Or just some kitschy easy bake oven stashed out in the barn?”

I pointed a slow finger towards the kitchen, and Maverick hauled his burden through the doorway.

I still wasn’t sure why most of Scapegrace Coven was standing in my living room with a bunch of boxes, and I was almost afraid to ask. Gingerly, I lifted the flap of one of the boxes and found dozens and dozens of bottles, some filled with liquids, some filled with dried herbs.

“What is this?” I asked slowly.

Wanda crossed her arms over her chest and cocked one hip to the side. “What does it look like? Honestly, I worry about you sometimes, Poppy.”

“It eez a potion making party! Ya!” Olga clapped her hands, looking more like a teenaged girl than a seasoned witch. “Ve are here to help you make ze potions!”

My heart gave an extra hard thump. “What?”

Wanda scoffed, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes. “You were being all mopey and pathetic the other day and that’s not a good look for a coven member, so... we’re here to get you back in stock and back on track.”

“Wanda, that is so nice—”

“—so you can start representing Scapegrace the way it deserves to be represented,” she interrupted, giving me a look. I swallowed what I was about to say and just gave her a smile to let her know how much I appreciated her help, whether or not it was disguised as something else.

“We brought supplies, and between us, we should be able to get a bunch of potions made, at least,” she continued. “I, of course, will not be making anything but I will be drinking—heavily—and I’ll assume the mantle of quality assurance.”

I laughed at that before I faced everyone around me. “Thank you all... so very much. I don’t even know what to say. I’m so surprised and touched.”

“It’s what a coven does,” Imani answered.

“Not in my experience,” Olga said cheerfully, as she rooted through one of the boxes.

Wanda made a face like she’d bitten into something sour. “Well, it’s what they should be like,” she muttered. Her hand whipped up and she pointed a dramatic finger at me, still scowling. “But the deal is off if you get too emotional. And don’t even think about crying.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to sniff back the tears that threatened to spill down my cheeks.

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