Chapter Twenty-Three

That was bad.

But good, too? Ed, Paulette, and Devon were still here. Moaning, but alive.

It was mostly bad, though. Probably.

My head hurt too much to figure out where to land on the whole thing.

“Tamsin,” Mom gritted out as she staggered to her feet. “What happened?”

“Backlash.” Tamsin groaned.

“So, it didn’t work.” I flopped back on the floor. Now what?

“It didn’t just not work.” She shuffled over to sit closer, examining me. “Something in you repelled the spell.”

Six pairs of eyes locked on to me.

“Not on purpose!” I exclaimed.

“What do we do now?” Devon asked as he slid off the tray.

“I’ll see if I can detect a cause, but . . .” Tamsin trailed off with an apologetic shrug.

“We need to be prepared in case you can’t,” Alex said. “What do you think?” He looked over at Mom and she pressed her lips together before huffing out a breath.

“That’s our best bet,” she said. “I’ll stay down here with Tamsin and Kimmy if the rest of you can work on identifying the witch.”

“We’re on it,” Paulette declared, waving a finger in the air and leading the way upstairs. “Come on, boys. Back to the murder board!”

Ed and Devon fell into line behind her while Alex brought up the rear. Mom caught his eye before he left and mouthed “good luck.” He flashed a little heart with his fingers in return.

Then Mom, Tamsin, and I were left, surrounded by crystal shards, painted rocks, and a cloud of uncertainty.

“I wish we had our own whiteboard,” Tamsin said, breaking through the silence. She clapped her hands together. “Possible reasons why the spell was repelled. I think option number one is that the wild magic of your power is lashing out. Your aura—” She waved a hand in a loose circle in front of me. “It’s distinctly brighter and starting to spike a bit.”

That didn’t sound like an option with a solution.

“What else could it be?” Mom came down to sit beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

Tug, tug, tug.

I grimaced a little, rubbing a fist against the phantom ache the tugs left in my chest. Mom jumped right on me for it.

“What’s wrong? I thought you weren’t hurt. Did the spell do something?”

“No.” I waved her off. “Remember how I told you I get those tugs sometimes now? From the power?”

Mom whipped her head up to Tamsin. “Is that the wild magic? Could it be damaging her heart?”

Tamsin sat down cross-legged in front of us, a small frown on her face. “You mentioned these tugs before. When did they start exactly? Describe them?”

“After Grandma died,” I said. “That was when I first noticed the power getting stronger—even before I broke the cap. The power was always more of a vibration before, but then all of a sudden, it was these tugs. Right here.” I pointed to the spot. “Really insistent and intense sometimes. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“Hmm.” Tamsin hummed to herself, eyeing me carefully. “Let’s try something. Sit like this with your hands on your knees and close your eyes.”

I had no idea where she was going with this, but I was on board for anything that might get us answers. In position, I waited. “Now what?”

“Breathe and reach for your power,” she said, voice calm and even. “Seek out the open connections you have.”

Taking a few centering breaths, I focused, reaching for that connection to my power within myself.

“Tell me who you find,” Tamsin whispered.

Deep breath in. Sending the power out. Searching. Finding the connections.

“Devon,” I said, recognizing the first one and then seeking out the rest. “Ed. Paulette.”

And—

“Kimmy?” Tamsin prompted.

“Grandma,” I admitted. “But I always do. It’s a leftover of the family connection, right? Like an echo or something? It’s not really there.”

Not anymore.

“See where it leads. Please.”

I found the faint connection again and pulsed my power into it, exploring the shape of it. It was a small thread, like the one I used to feel when I was training with her.

I followed it. Twisting back around deep, deep into the center of my power.

There at the core.

A spark.

I held my breath

“Grandma?”

Tug, tug, tug.

“Bev?” Mom stared incredulously between me and Tamsin. “How—I don’t understand. What’s happening?”

“My best guess is that during the attack, Bev was able to use their connection to send her spark to Kimmy before the witch could capture it all,” Tamsin said. She turned to me, regret filling her face. “We didn’t meet until after that, so I didn’t clock it as a change to your power.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said faintly, trying to wrap my brain around this.

Grandma had been here with me the whole time.