A hush blankets the room. The hairs on the back of my neck prickle as I feel my sisters’ gazes on me. I don’t have magic, they’re thinking. How would marrying me off help the family line?
Ovie answers their silent questions. “Sometimes magic jumps a generation, you know that. So Addie is first. End of story. There won’t be more discussion.”
“But Addie just go—” Blair starts.
“Didn’t you hear her?” I interrupt, not wanting anyone to know that Blair was about to say I’d just gotten engaged. “We’re all going to a witch ball.” I swallow down a knot of sorrow at the thought of Edward. “Ovie, when’s the dance?”
She takes each of us in, making sure that we’re giving her our undivided attention before saying, “Tomorrow night.”
Which gives me exactly one day to find a way out of this.
I manageto avoid everyone as I leave the room through the open pocket doors that lead to the den. Then I wind my way back to the living room and up the narrow staircase that’s butted up against the wall.
The steps creak as I clomp to the second floor and then to the third, where my old room is situated. It’s technically the attic and has the exposed beams and large round window to prove it.
As soon as I step inside, fairy lights flare, bobbing up and down, illuminating my old canopy bed, the wizard pop-band posters that are still pinned to the walls, and my vanity.
Dad had magicked the lights for me when I was young. They turn on when I arrive and off when I leave or snap my fingers.
A wave of nostalgia sinks in deep, and I lean against one of the beams, drinking it all in.
“Why didn’t you tell her?” Blair’s voice sounds from behind me.
I sink farther onto the pole. “Because he didn’t ask.”
She sucks in a breath. “I’m sorry, Addie.”
I flick my hand. “No big deal.”
“No big deal?” A whoosh of air blows my hair off the back of my neck and into my face. Blairs stands in front of me now. “You love him.” She says it like it’s a demand. Knowing her, it probably is.
I lift one shoulder. “Love doesn’t matter when you’re a witch without powers. Just one more notch in the old belt of heartbreak.” Then I smile tightly. “But it’s okay. I’ll be fine. I’ll go to the ball tomorrow.”
“No. You won’t.” She takes my hand. Even though Blair’s my younger sister, she’s always been my fierce defender,punching anyone in the face who dared make fun of my magic-less status. “You shouldn’t have to go.”
“You heard Ovie. We don’t have a choice. Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay.” Besides, there’s still time for me to find a way out of it. “As soon as the wizards and werewolves at the ball realize that it’s me who’s being pawned off, they’ll all turn to you.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true.”
With her chocolate-colored eyes and dark hair, Blair’s a beauty, just like all my sisters.
“And the shop?” she asks.
“What about it?”
“Yes, what about it?”
The new voice comes from the direction of my vanity. I peer around Blair and see a familiar face grinning at me from inside the mirror.
“Elmore!” I lift my hands in glee and rush over.
He cocks his chin. “Missed me?”
“So much.”
He smooths a hand over his white pompadour. “Seeing as you decided to abandon me for the human world, I should be hurt, but I’ve decided to forgive you.”
