A shower and comfortable pajamas do wonders for my stress level. It feels like the last week and a half has been months, with so much happening that I can barely stop to breathe.
“Jo! Hurry down here!” my dad calls frantically as soon as I shut off the shower. I sigh. From one crisis to another.
He’s at the front door, seeming perplexed. “So I can hear a knock, but when I open the door no one is there.”
I laugh. “It’s the other door. One sec, let me change it over.”
Nana seems impatient when I enter the apothecary to grab more frog eyes, but she says nothing. She taps her fingers on the desk, and the sound makes me pick up my pace. I put my hand to the front door, and my father watches with curiosity.
“There we go,” I say when the Main Street one appears.
He touches it. “That is incredible. It’s like you’re a witch.”
“You think?” I open the door, and our visitor makes my jaw drop. I thought it’d be Kat or Gwen. Maybe Winn, though he said he had plow duty again. But never in a million years did I expect to see this.
It’s a cable guy.
“No freaking way,” I say.
The man looks between us. “Did I get the wrong house? I’m looking for Joseph Johnson?”
“Right here.” Dad raises his hand. “Do you need any help with the equipment?”
“That’d be great. The TV is pretty heavy.”
“Thanks for hauling that out for me, by the way. We’re so far from everything here, and it wouldn’t have fit in my car.” Dad follows him to the big white truck, and I stand there in total shock. I don’t know how he did it, but I’m so excited I can barely contain myself. They lug a huge rectangular box through the front door, and he smiles at me. “Where should we put it?”
“Oh, um, the living room, probably,” I say.
The cable guy brings in a bunch of other stuff and gets to work. Dad looks at me nervously. “You like it?”
“Uh, heck yeah. I can’t even believe it.”
He laughs. “We should be online in a few hours. I hope you don’t mind, but I bought you a laptop, too. I don’t know how you’ve been writing your school papers, but I figured it would help to have one for next year.”
“Are you serious?”
He nods.
“So . . .” I gulp, suddenly nervous that asking will jinx it. “Does that mean you’re staying?”
He winces. “Not completely sure yet. My company said I could telecommute for a couple months as a trial. Don’t tell your grandmother, though. I only convinced her to let me have this stuff because I’d be here permanently.”
Before I worry about what he thinks, my arms are around him. “You’re the best.”
He puts one arm around me, like he’s unsure of how to do the parental-affection thing. “I can’t wait to see your reaction when I buy you a car.”
I pull away, eyes wide. “Don’t even kid about that.”
“Can’t have you dependent on a boy for transportation.”
I roll my eyes. “Seriously, Winn should be the least of your worries at the moment.”
“Perhaps, but you’ve never been a teenage boy.”
“Thank goodness.” A sudden burst of worry rushes over me. “Does he really bother you that much? You bring it up like every time we talk.”
He shrugs. “I suppose it’s another reminder that you’re already grown up, and . . .” He looks away, his eyes sad and distant. “I missed everything.”
I bite my lip, unable to say how much I wish he had been there, too, now that I’ve met him. “We have photo albums. Maybe later we could watch something on this awesome TV, and I’ll show them to you.”
He smiles my smile. “I’d like that.”
“I better talk to Nana. She’s waiting for me.”
“Right, of course.”
Nana almost glares me to death when I enter the apothecary. Maggie is cradled in the small window seat, seeming positively bored. I sit in the chair and give Nana the run-down on Levi and Rose. When I finish she just sits there for a moment, her hands clasped.
“It seems very strange that he would not Curse you,” she says. “Is he toying with us, or is he someone we can trust?”
“I don’t know.” I wrap my arms around myself. “Trusting him seems like a really stupid idea, doesn’t it? He has magic when he shouldn’t, and we don’t know anything about him but his name.”
“And the fact that he sounds like a total jerk,” Maggie adds. “He almost killed Kat. How did he even know she was bound to you? That is super fishy, if you ask me.”
Nana sighs. “He could have sensed it. If he can sense Josephine’s magic, it must be a skill of his. Maybe that’s how these men have been able to hunt down witches for centuries. And I do not like how he said he doesn’t take what isn’t offered . . . why would a witch offer to be Cursed? It makes no sense.”
“Nothing makes sense anymore,” I say.
“I know, dear.” Nana looks so sad, so filled with regret. “But that boy has answers. I think he does know who killed Carmina, and he certainly knows how the Curse works. We need that information desperately to even stand a chance.”
Levi’s smug grin flashes in my mind. “I think he knows that, too.”
“Certainly.”
“Which means there will be a steep price to pay if we risk seeking his help.” I put my head in my hands, unsure of how much I’m willing to sacrifice to survive.
TWENTY-FIVE
Friday evening, Gwen rummages through my armoire as I carefully apply a layer of eyeliner. I don’t wear it often, but it’s my first real date with my boyfriend. It seems like I should kick it up a notch. She pulls out my blue sundress, the one I was wearing when Winn saw me at the county fair. “You have to wear this.”
I blink several times, my eyes itching from the extra makeup. “I don’t know. Isn’t that a little cheesy?”
“A little?” Kat sprawls out on my bed and opens her notebook.
Gwen puts her hands on her hips. “I think it would be romantic.”
“It’s stupid.”
“Is not!”
Kat rolls her eyes. “Whatever.”
I head over to Gwen. “It doesn’t matter, because it’s not what I want to wear anyway.”
She hangs it back up with a huff. “Then what do you want to wear?”
I stare at my clothes, pursing my lips. “I don’t know.”
“Well, you better decide soon, because we have fifteen minutes to take out those hot rollers and get you ready.” Gwen pulls my shoe organizer from under my bed. It kind of sucks not having a closet in my round room, but it has helped me learn organization. “Maybe picking shoes will help you narrow it down.”
“I’ll know it when I see it.” I scan my clothes yet again, and nothing seems good enough. I wish I could have bought something new and perfect, but the closest mall is too far outside the barrier to risk. At least I have internet now—hello, online shopping. “Why are all my clothes so ugly?”
“They aren’t!” Gwen holds up gold flats and red sandals. “Which ones?”
“Gold. I think?” I put my hand on my head, only to get burned by the curlers. “I don’t know! I’m freaking out here.”
“You two are ridiculous.” Kat slams her notebook shut and stomps over to my armoire. She pulls out a pair of apple-green leggings and a short black dress, then points to Gwen. “With the gold flats.”
I raise my eyebrows. “I . . . love that, actually.”
Gwen folds her arms, probably hurt that I picked Kat’s choice over hers. But Kat kind of has an advantage, since she can basically read my mood. I throw on the clothes and plop down in my vanity chair. “Gwen, please make my hair look good. I beg of you.”