Isabella sat in my bedroom, staring idly at her reflection in the mirror, lost in thought. I decided now was as good a time as ever. “We’ll be gone for a few days, at least until Henry or Sylvia tell me I have to come back to work.”
“What? Oh yeah, right.”
Earlier I’d read an interesting spell on levitation and had been toying with Sylvia’s Rubik’s cube ever since, though without much luck. I was on my back as it floated two feet over my head. Getting it up there was one thing, but rotating it to solve the puzzle was giving me trouble, and it kept bobbing up and down. Plus, it wasn’t the only thing above me. Lacy hosiery was caught up in the chandelier, and tubes of lipstick and hairbrushes were floating in the air. I tried hard to focus on the puzzle, but Isabella’s tone was so uncharacteristically nonchalant that my concentration wavered, and the cube fell and smacked me square on the forehead.
Isabella didn’t even notice. She continued to stare into the mirror.
I swung my legs off the bed. “Is everything okay? You sound a bit funny.”
“Oh yeah, I suppose.”
“Jimmy coming over later?” There was no reason to suppose he wouldn’t be. My brother couldn’t seem to leave her alone now—there was a new notification from him on her phone every few minutes.
“Err, no, not tonight. I, uhm, well, I have an old friend coming into town, so I put him off. I’ll see Jimmy tomorrow I think.”
“Oh, right.”
Isabella swung round, picked up the Rubik’s cube, and fiddled with it. “You doing anything fun with Henry tonight?”
I shook my head. “Not that I know of. I was thinking of just having a quiet night in. We’ve been eating out quite a bit lately, and I need to watch my funds.”
“I hear ya. Well, I had thought about bringing my friend back, but since you’ll be in, I’ll make myself scarce—give you a bit of room. You’re probably tired of seeing my face night after night.”
Hungry, I pushed myself up off the bed and sauntered over to the door. “Don’t be silly. I’m gonna fix myself a PB and J. You want one?”
Isabella shook her head and stood up. “No thanks, I’ll be eating out. In fact, I’d better get a move on. Clock’s ticking.”
I had to admit, I wasn’t sad to have a little me time. There were some complex spells I wanted to practice, and though Isabella and I both regularly practiced magic, I felt self-conscious over some of the trickier stuff. Henry had tasked me to practice a calling spell, somewhat like the magic I had used on the red squirrel. Since we were in an apartment building, I thought I would try it on a starling: they were common enough in New York.
So while Isabella strolled into the bathroom to dip her wings in cold cream, I grabbed a loaf and some jars from the refrigerator and set about making my dinner. I would save some of my bread to offer to the bird.
Ten minutes later, Isabella emerged from the bathroom, and I caught my breath.
“Holy Gaia! You look stunning! This must be some friend.”
A wry smile twisted her glossed-up lips. “You could say that.” She removed her coat from the back of the door, and before I could ask any more questions, she pulled it on and turned, her hand already on the handle, ready to go. “Ciao, bella.” Then she blew me a cute kiss and was gone, leaving only the whiff of her captivating perfume behind.
If she wasn’t seeing Jimmy tonight, I wondered who she was seeing, dressed as a goddess like that. More importantly, my tummy was gurgling, so I focused on my dinner and forgot all about her.
It was the perfect night. Snuggled cross-legged under Sylvia’s oversize throw, I ate a whole plateful of PB and Js and read this new summoning spell most carefully. When I had summoned the squirrel at the Allen’s house, all I had to do was put my hand on Sylvia’s spell book and think of a squirrel. My text made no mention of putting my hand anywhere. The incantation looked very unfamiliar, and everything felt—well—just different.
There was nothing for it. I would have to trust that Henry wouldn’t lead me astray and that this was the correct spell.
I’d had no idea how the magic worked, and suspected that in some part, Sylvia had helped me when I was with her. This was confirmed when I first spoke the words written in the book:
“Hrînan ðêon me.”
At first, I heard nothing, but then I could hear a chaotic whoosh of air as a ton of birds flocked to the window of my apartment, their tiny wings beating frantically as they reached the glass.
“Shoot.” I stopped concentrating, and the birds flew away. Thank Gaia I hadn’t opened the window, or I’d have been cleaning up bird poop for the rest of the evening.
Still, there had been some success, even if on a larger scale than I’d desired. I shouldn’t have been surprised—I’d had the same problem with the Necromancer’s Stone in Times Square. I read the text again, but there was nothing in the words to focus the energy on an individual subject. I flipped through the pages of my book, looking for something smaller that could help me, but found nothing…at least, nothing I could practice without considerable risk to myself or the apartment.
After about an hour, I gave it up as a bad job and decided I would ask Henry about it in the morning. That was the sensible thing to do. My father would approve.
Since I was all caught up on all my other studies, I put my book aside and settled down in front of the television and watched the season finale of The Warlock Bachelor. I went through a whole box of Kleenex as Dexter and Julienne broke their disguise enchantments, proving you couldn’t deny true love. Somehow it always found a way. Still sobbing tears of joy, I scrambled off the couch and hit the sack sometime around midnight, thoroughly exhausted.
In the middle of the night, I woke with a start. The walls in the apartment were thin, leaving me in no doubt what was going on in the next room. It seemed Isabella had hooked up with Jimmy after all. The two of them were going at it like stoats. I picked up my phone. Oh Gaia, three a.m.?
I flopped back on my pillow and tried to get back to sleep, but it was hopeless. The giggles and thumping were just too loud—they were having way too good of a time bonking next door. I thought about Henry and wondered if we would ever get that far? Praise the day. I was too tired to cherish such thoughts for very long.
I thought about banging on the wall. Indeed, my fist was literally in the air, and then I thought of Jimmy and how he wouldn’t thank me for interrupting him. Whatever he was doing. Tired beyond belief, I whispered “Rîm scêap,” mimicking the counting sheep spell Mom had taught us all as kids—only she’d used a sparkling powder. A burst of green light exploded over my head, and around a hundred or so tiny green sheep were skipping through a meadow. After counting at least thirteen little furries dancing in the air, my eyelids grew heavy, and I was out like a light. Thank Gaia.! I didn’t want to stay awake through that.