immediately took my hand. I trembled and prayed that he didnât notice. Alyssa took my other hand, then Dean and Amelia closed the circle.
It felt appropriate to say something, but I wasnât sure what. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, hoping to summon up something profound. Magic is the art of creating change with will . As I remembered those words from the book, suddenly the right words just poured out of me.
âFor the good of all and with harm to none, I now declare the magicâs begun,â I said.
I looked around and saw that everyoneâs eyes were closed. I could feel my hands tingling. The energy grew stronger and stronger, moving through me, coming and going â like a stream of light was being whisked around us by a giant egg beater. I could hear buzzing in my ears.
Alyssa gasped. âCan you feel that?â
The twinsâ fiery red hair was floating up and away from their shoulders. They started laughing.
âAwesome,â Bryce said.
The slightly nervous look on Deanâs face had transformed into a big smile. âWow!â he exclaimed.
âVania, your eyes have changed colour,â Bryce said, looking at me with a shocked expression.
âWhat?â I said. âWhat do you mean?â
âTheyâre brown.â
âNo way,â I said, dropping everyoneâs hands and running over to the mirror above the cash register.
They were plain green, same as always.
âThatâs not funny,â I said. âTheyâre green like they always are.â
âActually, they did change,â Brenda said, coming to stand by me. âYou just broke the spell when you got distracted. And if thatâs what you kids can do on your first meeting, I canât wait to see what you get up to next.â
That night when my mother and I were washing up after dinner I noticed that the pot of herbs she had on the windowsill were growing like crazy. Normally I would look at the pot and wonder why Mum bothered to have it there at all. Usually there was a sad little plant struggling to stay alive. But now the rosemary was cascading over the sides, almost like an alien life form.
Mum had seen what I was looking at. âThat rosemary just started growing all of a sudden,â she said enthusiastically. âI seem to have suddenly developed a green thumb! â She laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
I thought of the fertility cookies Iâd bought her for her birthday. After what Iâd just experienced in the cafe, I had no doubt they were truly magical. I went to the pantry and there was the box. I took a peek inside. All the flower-shaped cookies were gone. Yes, the magic had definitely begun. Now it was time to put it to use.
It was Thursday afternoon, the day after our meeting, and we were in our group elective class. The group elective course was actually pretty cool, especially because it meant that the coven could hang out together and get graded for it. This semester the elective choices were âSolve a Mysteryâ or âSurvive a Disasterâ. We were all drawn to the mystery topic; we just had to choose one. We already had a mystery to solve, of course â working out what Mr Barrow was up to â but I didnât think weâd get any marks for solving that one.
âWhat about the woman of Queenâs Cross?â Bryce asked.
âSounds interesting. Who is she?â I asked him.
âWell, according to this article from the Summerland Star , she died fifteen years ago in a house-fire on Queenâs Cross Road. No one has ever been able to solve the mystery of who she was or how the fire started.â
âOoh, you could use your ghost-communicating skills with this one, Bryce,â Amelia said.
âYou know, I think we could cream this mystery with some magic,â said Dean enthusiastically.
We scanned the article. The photocopy was smudged and some words were hard to read, but the overall
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