Shanna opened one eye and looked at Gran, standing on the other side of the circle. “You’re disturbing the spell.”
“Pish-posh. The spell knows exactly what we’re doing. As do you. I can sense it.”
“I did have a lot of practice recently.”
“Mmm, but it’s not just that. I can feel your energy. Your charge. You’re blooming, and I think I know—”
“Whispers of the past, hear us,” Shanna chanted, hoping to drive Gran away from more relationship hinting.
They’d been going at it for about an hour when the laptop pinged. Like two starved dogs being offered a plate of food, Shanna and Gran both charged for it, Shanna getting to the desk first. “It found her! We did it!”
The genealogy website showed a profile of an older woman. No picture, but the data was there.
“Frances Kerby,” Gran read. “She lives in Sacramento.”
“That’s not too far,” Shanna said. For once, has she been lucky?
“Another sensing spell should help you narrow down the location when you get there,” Gran said.
“You’re not coming?”
“Ah, no. This is matter for a young witch, not these old bones …”
“Gran, you’re more flexible than I am.”
“All right, all right, I admit,” Gran said in a mock-grumpy tone. “I wanted to have the pie to myself. But you and Jinx should go. Quickly.”
“You’re really rushing me out without a single piece of pie, huh?”
Gran turned Shanna to face her, cupping her face. “You know you have to go. You’ve no time to lose.”
Shanna averted her eyes. “Gran …”
“What are you so afraid of?”
Shanna traced the silvery dust kicked up from the floor, swirling in the sun. “That he’s forgotten me already. That it never could’ve worked in the first place. That if I go now, I’ll only make it worse for myself.”
“So you’d let all my hard work go to waste, huh?”
She looked back at Gran. “What do you mean?”
Gran pursed her lips. “You didn’t think those pre-ritual conditions needing to be fulfilled were real, did you?”
“Wh-what?”
“You having to go on a date? And the ‘basic instinct’ one?”
“I thought them odd, but then, I’ve seen stranger requirements.” Shanna gasped. “You lied to me?”
“Of course I did! I saw you liked him, and he wasn’t oblivious to your charms, either, despite his constant grumbling about wanting to have the bond broken. So I did a little magic of the other kind.”
“You told me to go on a date …”
“I thought you’d ask him, not some random other guy! So when that didn’t work, I had to get more specific.”
Shanna covered her mouth. “Gran, that’s disgusting!”
“It’s a normal, natural thing. How do you think you came to be?”
