“Rude,” Oatmealsays. “Derogatory.”
“I’m not sure that was much help,” I say, smoothing out the letter agin.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Hazel asks quietly. She sounds so young.
My memory flickers back to her holding Mr. Bunny, crying quietly while I held her against my chest.
But she’s not four anymore. She’s grown; we all are.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I guess I thought I would protect you by not telling you about that day. Not reminding you… I should have.”
Gunner whines softly and presses against my legs.
“You should never think you have to protect us from your own hurt,” Posey says gently. “We’re your sisters. We understand you better than anyone.”
“Almost anyone,” Caleb interrupts.
Posey laughs, and I can’t help smiling even though my chest still aches.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to talk about what happened that day without wanting to cry,” I say.
The weight on my shoulders isn’t quite as heavy now.
“So you’re telling me we baked all that bread for nothing?” Rose asks.
This time we all laugh, and some of the sadness dissipates, because it is the past.
And no matter what, the four of us still have each other.
“I love you all so much,” I tell my sisters. “I should say that more.”
“Don’t go getting all cinnamon roll syrupy sweet on us now, you loser,” Posey snaps. “We have work to do.” She holds up the giant leather-bound spell book she grabbed from the basement. “I say we find this goddamn incantation. We call the corners again. And we figure out whatever pact we made with the guardians.” She points at me. “I think I already know one of the guardians you called.”
“The kraken.” Rose nods.
“I agree,” I say. “I definitely managed to call a kraken when I was like twelve years old.” I roll my eyes.
“You always were a freaking prodigy,” Rose says.
“I’m going to make some tea,” Caleb says. “While the four of you figure out the incantation, I’ll make sure everyone eats lunch. That okay with you all?”
“Really nice,” Hazel says. “Maybe I should help, they don’t need me?—”
“Don’t you move a muscle,” Posey tells her, pointing menacingly.
“She’s absolutely right,” Rose says. “You’re part of this, Hazel. Whatever magic you have, you pushed it down after that day. We’re going to find it again. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t you think if I still had magic I would have a familiar by now?” Hazel says. “It’s not like I haven’t tried. We would know.”
Something tickles at the back of my mind, but I ignore it. Instead, I nod toward the spell book Posey is holding. “Let’s open the book and get to the bottom of this,” I say. “And Hazel — we’re going to figure you out too. If you want your magic back, we’ll make that happen.”
“As a family,” Rose says.
“As a coven,” Posey adds, doing a hand gesture I assume is supposed to look mystical but just looks like bad jazz hands.
Hazel snorts and rolls her eyes. “Fine. But I’m not getting my hopes up.”
“As if,” Rose says. “Your hopes are always up.”
