“It’s not the growing that’s the problem,” said Calli. “I can make one big enough just fine. It’s the rest of it that’s an issue.”
“Let me guess. At that size, the shell is barely strong enough to hold itself up.” Malcolm seemed to seriously be considering the issue.
“For starters, yeah. And even hollowed out, it’s going to crack with people inside. Then there’s the matter of the wheels, and the seats, and a working door…” She remembered Sage had tried to get in the one Calli attempted last year, and the coach had almost collapsed on her.
“I get the idea. You might be approaching it the wrong way. I have some thoughts, but it’ll take both of us to pull it off.”
“Okay… We can add that to our to-do list then.” Calli took another bite of her toast mulling over the project with fresh excitement.
When breakfast was over, she and Malcolm drove into town, stopping in front of the town hall. On the street, dozens of shops were setting out festival decorations. Pumpkins, hay bales, skeletons, flying bats and other decorations added to the holiday flare of Main Street. The trees that were planted in the beds running next to the sidewalk were all brilliant shades of gold, red and yellow. The leaves never fell until mid-November. It was everything Calli loved.
For Calli, Halloween wasn’t about magic or dressing up for the night. It was about being close to those she loved, close to the souls that had passed through the veil of the living and the dead. The nights grew longer, and the darkness held more domain over the day. It was like heading into the woods at twilight on a moonless night, and the spirits of the ones she’d lost shone bright enough to show her the way home. At the height of summer, she could not see or feel the pearlescent glimmer of those spirits. It was only in the darkest nights of the autumn and winter. It was a melancholy feeling, but she wouldn’t have given it up for anything.
Halloween also reminded her of how her grandmother always built a bonfire at the edge of the woods behind the house, one that many years ago would have used old bones to burn dark spirits away.
Malcolm stepped close to her, watching her gaze at the town.
“You really love this time of year, don’t you?”
She nodded and smiled, but her expression was tinged with sorrow. “When you’ve lost as much as I have, you don’t feel that loss as sharply this time of year, because the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest. I feel closer to my family because of that. I can’t see or talk to them, but it’s just a feeling that they’re somehow here… I can feel them.”
“I’ve never thought about it like that. I stopped celebrating Halloween when my magic abandoned me. But now…? I feel like I need to reconnect with that part of myself again.”
Hope blossomed in her chest at the thought that Malcolm could find his way back to his magic by spending time in Moonstone with her.
He turned his gaze to the town hall and was quiet for a long moment before he spoke. “So our answers are in there?”
“They should be. Even though my grandmother didn’t like prophecies she would have reported a prophecy if she’d seen it.”
Malcolm had Hades wait for them over at Mystic Mornings café. The giant schnauzer had gently scooped up Persephone by her scruff and carried her away to the coffee shop.
Calli led him to the old Tudor-style structure that was their town hall. It looked more like a home one might find in England than on the East Coast of America.
Inside, there was an information desk for tourists to retrieve pamphlets on the town’s various festivals since they celebrated more than just Halloween. The information rack had been bewitched to hide the pamphlets designed for supernatural creatures that visited.
Calli watched Malcolm pick up one information booklet and open it.
“Swamp Monster Manual: A Guide to Moonstone for those Yearning to Reconnect with their Boggish Origins. You have swamp monsters here?”
“A few. They live on the other side of the woods down by the lagoon. Grandma forbid me from swimming there after I turned eighteen because they tend to get a bit too excited when they see girls in bikinis.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope,” Calli chuckled. “They really are nice, though. It’s like how female werewolves go into heat, male swamp monsters tend to do something similar.”
Just then, an elderly man appeared at the top of the stairs behind the information desk. “Calli Wynter! To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Calli grinned. “Mayor Thornfield.” He must have come from his office upstairs.
He was a non-magical human, but like all the non-magics who lived in Moonstone Falls, he loved and accepted his magical residents and fought to protect all of its inhabitants. He, like the other non-magics that lived here, fell exempt under the protective wards and could come and go from the town as they pleased and never forgot that it existed.
The mayor hugged Calli before turning curious eyes on Malcolm.
“You must be Malcolm Wellesley. I’m Richard Thornfield.” He held out a hand. “I heard you saved Jack Hollow’s son.”
“It’s nice to meet you, sir.” Malcolm took the mayor’s hand and shook it.
Richard chuckled. “News travels fast, or rather, Ms. Sinclair’s owl does. Most of the town has heard of you thanks to her familiar. A handsome warlock visiting our little town definitely stirs up some gossip especially when he saves a child’s life.”
