Effie understood, because she too knew that she was missing a small, treasured part of herself.
‘It’s okay,’ Effie promised her sister. ‘We’ll make new memories.’
Chapter 36
IF THE BROOM FITS, RIDE IT
Bonnie
The beaded strands that covered the door to Behind the Curtain clicked as Bonnie shoved through them, Theo and Effie right on her sparkly heels.
‘Ouch,’ muttered Theo, as a bead whacked him across the cheek. ‘Solid security system.’
‘Luckily I find welts becoming,’ whispered Effie.
At any other time, Bonnie would applaud her sister’s sudden facility for witty repartee. Only the stars and moon themselves understood how diligently Bonnie had been trying to school Effie in the art of flirtatious conversation. But right now, it was Bonnie’s own gift of the gab that was needed to save the townsfolk of Yellowbrick Grove from the threat that Uncle Oswald represented.
‘Where is he?’ Bonnie’s words bounced off the multifaceted stones and metallic incense lamps that cluttered the shop, hiding the leaky bits and the bowed sections of floor that Uncle Oswald tried to wave off as being examples of ‘character’.
Seen in the sharp light of her new-found awareness, the shop had lost whatever charm it had held in Bonnie’s eyes. The string lights screamedscam. The giant amethyst chunks bellowedone thousand per cent markup. The alluring scent of vanilla and sage reeked of the off-brand plug-in air freshener she could see peeking out from behind a $300 broomwith apparent aura-cleansing properties. And that damned Enya playlist...
How had she been taken for such a fool? Bonnie had been known to play the guileless ingenue, sure, but only when she had something to gain. And not in abadway. Just, say, when an extra piece of Toblerone was on offer, or a movie discount. Not when it came to fleecing people. Or wiping their memories. Bonnie had worked so hard to hold on to the fading mental snapshots of her mother, and the thought of someone siphoning them from her mind for the sake of a quick buck filled her with a boiling rage.
‘There’s a sale on those at the pharmacy,’ Bonnie told a wide-eyed tourist frowning at the price tag on one of the wire-wrapped crystal mushroom charms that Bonnie knew in her heart had been ordered in bulk from an online vendor she absolutely wouldn’t trust with her credit card details. She nodded at the door.
‘Good to know!’ The tourist dropped the mushroom with a plink and hurried off into the misty night in search of a more affordable trinket, leaving just Bonnie, Effie and Theo in the shop.
Impressed, Effie raised her eyebrows. ‘You’re good.’
Pride bubbled up amid Bonnie’s rage. A compliment from Effie was a rare thing. ‘I might not have your spell skills, but I have my own magic.’
Effie’s eyes sparkled. ‘That you do. Oof!’
She grabbed at Bonnie as Theo stumbled into her, having tripped on a tasselled rug that stuck out from a fake tree-stump display. The display had, until a second earlier, sported a bowl of yellowish crystals that looked an awful lot like glass beads that had been sitting for decades in a pack-a-day smoker’s house. These were now all over the floor – along with a hand-scrawled sign that read ‘rare yellow obsidian’.
‘Sorry. I swear that rug jumped out at me,’ said Theo,rubbing his shin. Effie was giving him a slightly hungry look that suggested he was welcome to stumble into her any time.
Bonnie, meanwhile, was tapping one of the stained crystals with her sharp heel. Yellow obsidian. There was no such thing as yellow obsidian!
She clenched her fists in renewed fury. Every hanging trinket basket, every artfully arranged display on a mirror-studded wooden elephant, was a lie.
As Bonnie’s manicured nails dug into the soft skin of her palm – it had been a while since she’d made a fist – the air crackled with the electricity of a coming storm.
‘Wow, your hair,’ marvelled Theo, pointing to the gold-rimmed Medusa mirror leaning against the wall opposite.
Wow, their hair indeed.
Bonnie and Effie were quite the sight. Their hair had risen up under the invitation of magic in the air, revealing all the ways they were alike beneath their vastly different hairstyles. Their cheekbones, their lips, their strong don’t-mess-with-me-buster chins – she and Effie were just as similar as they were different.
She met Effie’s gaze, and though unspoken, their words fizzed across the room:Let’s do this, sis.
‘Uncle Oswald!’ Bonnie shouted. ‘Get your—’
‘—fatuous butt out here!’ yelled Effie, looking very proud of herself for speaking up.
Theo gave her a thumbs up.
‘I mean, let’s not fat-shame,’ said Bonnie.
