Page 24

“Yes, well, we do like to have a happy family. The house has been empty for thirty years?”

“Until Ray started working on it, gaining its trust, clearing the ivy off everything, working on the roof, you know, the outside until it finally started letting him in. He’d still come home with injuries sometimes when it got mad at him.”

“The house actually hurt him?” I looked around the cozy kitchen. It was so nice, with golden light thrown over everything and the steam curling up from the pot. That reminded me, my tea was probably steeped. I took off the plate then sipped the fairly vile liquid.

She followed my example and blew on the liquid before she looked at me with big eyes. “I think so, but he never said so explicitly. He didn’t talk about it. He doesn’t talk a lot. I’m surprised he gave you the flier. I’m actually really surprised that he warmed up to anyone.”

“I wouldn’t call him warm.” Although I had kissed him, and he’d definitely kissed me back. And I would never forgive myself for it. Shudder.

“Donny said something about Ray threatening you when that whole altercation between the kids happened. How did you stop him from hurting you?”

“No, he was mostly holding me upright when my legs stopped working.”

She blinked at me like an owl. That’s what she looked like, a sallow owl with a mop of dark feathers on top. “You lost a lot of energy pulling the wound out of Donny? And Ray was holding you up?” Her frown of confusion was probably adorable, but I was starting to get itchy. I wasn’t really a people person, and she was clearly sweet and helpless, but I wasn’t the type of person who knew how to help people without hurting their feelings.

I sipped my decaf green tea and gave her a slight smile. I focused on my tea, and after a few minutes, she followed suit. “Is necromancy a real thing?” I asked after my tea was almost gone.

“There are different kinds of undead,” she said, which wasn’t a real answer. She cleared her throat. “But the kind of necromancy a dark witch could do would be to animate a corpse. To really make it alive in any way, you’d have to imbue it with some creature’s life force.”

“Like steal a soul from someone and stick it in a corpse? That’s…” I shivered. “Disgusting.”

Her big eyes were sympathetic. “Agreed. Necromancy’s always been my least favorite brand of witchcraft. Happily, it’s incredibly difficult to do. Impossible for most witches.”

“That’s a good thing. You say there are actual other types of undead?” I asked, not sure if I was mentally prepared to believe in anything that ridiculous. There couldn’t be vampires. Or zombies. Certainly not werewolves.

She shrugged and finished her tea then stood up. “I need to get going. Thanks for the talk. I feel much better.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” I said, carrying my cup to the front door with her. “I’ll see what I can think of to make Sage and Donny less antagonistic towards each other.”

“Or they could avoid each other,” she said, with a frown. “In fact, doesn’t that seem like the best solution?”

“We’re neighbors. They will run into each other, and when they do, they’ll get along.” I said it like an oath.

“I guess that makes sense. Thanks for the green tea.”

I stood in the doorway and waved as she crossed the porch and headed towards the dark woods then I closed the door firmly and went back to dusting.

eight

. . .

I moved to the parlor, which was a pretty room in shades of periwinkle and purple, with lots of empty pots that had probably had plants thirty years ago. I should get plants. Or I could just grab some from the woods. A fern? An ivy? I didn’t know much about plants or gardening. Our yard had always been maintained by a landscape company. I liked flowers, though. No landscaping company would want to take on a yard like this. And I couldn’t afford anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.

There were several curio cabinets with interesting things from all over the world: figurines, boxes, bottles of dried plants, and some bottles of animals. I picked up a bottle as long as my forearm and stared at the creature inside. Some kind of serpent?

I watched the creature float around then the eyes flashed blue and it was glaring at me, opening its large jaws to show me its serrated teeth. I quickly put the jar down, and it went back to sleep. Or I’d just imagined that.

I opened the bottom cabinet, and there was the square alligator book I’d left in the kitchen.

I pulled it out then my phone buzzed with a message from the school. I checked it, putting the book on the small, round gaming table on the side while I frowned at my phone. Midterms for Sage’s school. Finally, something normal. I checked, and her grades were the usual As and A+s, but there, in the middle, was an F.

“You got an F in Geometry? Oh, no you didn’t!” I called Clark without realizing what I was doing. For once, it didn’t go to messages.

“Marigold! Your phone’s working now?”

My heart stopped. Clark. I needed him. How was I supposed to deal with all of this on my own? Not that he had the slightest idea what to do with magic. “For the moment. Did you get the midsemester reports? Did you see?”

He was quiet as he checked. His sharp inhale was every bit as shocked as mine had been. I felt so validated that he cared exactly as much as I did about my daughter not failing some class she should’ve been flying through easily.