Pumpkins and Potions

by Tegan Maher

  “Because the nymphs are here and I’m not sure we can completely trust the younger ones.” He paced across the room. “Ash mentioned they’re known for causing trouble. Having everyone hide their true identity will make it more difficult to keep track of their movements. It’s a security nightmare to be in costumes.”

  “It’s just a dinner, Amaranth. And maybe a little dance after. My intentions aren’t to make your job any harder.” I straightened my hat and gave him a wink before sticking my wand in my pocket. “I’ll save a waltz for you if you can stop scowling at me long enough to enjoy the party.”

  “And now it’s become a party.” He stood and crossed the room to stand in front of me. His features relaxed as he brushed the back of his hand against my cheek. “I just want to keep you safe.”

  I clasped his hand and gave it a squeeze. I wished he understood me a little better.

  Voices drew our attention to the corridor and he pulled away his hand.

  “I’m late.” I walked ahead of him through the door and into the hallway. “This is going to be fun. I guarantee it.”

  I lived for the opportunity to prove him and my father wrong about letting some human influences into the kingdom. After all, we spent our evenings bringing them luck. Why shouldn’t we be able to try on some of their more fun activities?

  Amaranth pulled my arm through his and escorted me to the main dining hall. Iris had insisted on being in charge of decorations so nothing would look “cheap or child-like,” as she’d put it.

  Orange twinkle lights hung from the ceiling. A few black candles adorned the long rectangular dining table. At least the table runner had a few pumpkins on it. Where were the monsters and skeletons and cauldrons? Overall, I hated it.

  When Leaf saw me enter, she bounded toward me, her grin wide. She twirled in front of me. She wore a hat with bells on it, a purple and black corseted top, and a bright yellow dress. She’d drawn what looked like seeds beside the predominant scattering of freckles on her cheeks. “Do you like it?”

  “It’s the loveliest of costumes,” I replied even though I had no idea what she’d chosen to dress up as.

  She giggled. “I couldn’t decide on just one, so it’s a combination of three. I’m part witch, part court jester, and part sunflower.”

  Leaf twirled again.

  “I will say,” she said and pulled a makeshift wand from her pocket, pretending to zap the twinkling lights. “The decorations are a little…”

  “Lackluster,” I supplied, not having a better description.

  Her sister, Indigo, floated into the room in an emerald gown shaped like a mermaid’s tail. It accentuated her dark green eyes and the gems she wore across her forehead. She blinked hard at both of us. “What are you supposed to be?”

  Leaf’s happy expression dimmed.

  “Fun,” I answered with a firm nod. “We’re supposed to be fun.”

  Never having had siblings or even cousins to deal with, I wondered at the way the others looked down on Leaf. Wouldn’t they be more protective of the littlest of their family? I know I would have been. Because of that protectiveness, I moved a little closer to Leaf’s side.

  Indigo shrugged and moved away from us toward Amaranth. He’d warned me that he’d have to keep an eye on the mischievous twins, but the way Indigo fluttered to his side and giggled at his every sentence, I doubted he’d have any trouble keeping her within his sights.

  He spoke with Ash who had also chosen not to dress up. Party poopers. I wouldn’t allow their negative energy to spoil our fun.

  “Why don’t I redecorate before Iris returns?” I asked. “I’ll turn the decorations into the tackiest of tacky with fake fog, green monsters, and maybe a werewolf or two. Spiced pumpkin punch would be a delicious addition.”

  “And we’ll eat those weird confections called candy corns?”

  “I don’t see why not,” I said and raised my wand. Time to show the fuddy-duds how to have a proper Halloween party. First, real jack-o-lanterns on the table. I tapped the table with the end of the wand. “Jack-o-lanterns with candles.”

  Each picture of a pumpkin on the table runner popped into physical existence with a carved face lit up by a candle. There were seven total. So cute.

  “Is that how a godparent wand works?” Leaf asked.

  “A tap and a focus of magical energy is all it takes. Anyone can do it, really.” I walked over to the window and gave it a little tap. “Fog.”

  The windows cracked open and wisps of fog filtered through, giving the entire dining area a London at midnight effect.

  “What else?” I asked, glancing over at a beaming Leaf. Is this what it would be like to have a sibling?

  Amaranth approached me and gave me a stern look. “Please remember what we discussed earlier about security risks.”

  With a cackle and in my best witch voice, I replied, “Take care, for I am wicked and fierce.”

  Leaf danced around me in a circle. “The candy corns next.”

  “Certainly, my pretty.” I danced along behind her, caught up in her enthusiasm. When I got to a glass dish at the end of the table, I tapped it three times and said, “Candy corns.”

  The dish immediately filled to the brim with the oddly shaped candies.

  Leaf took one and popped it in her mouth.

  “Can I try to fill a bowl?” she asked after she swallowed hard.

  I’d never been asked to share my wand before. That’s what a sibling would do though, wasn’t it? If I could pretend to be a witch for the evening, I could also pretend to be a fun-loving older sister.

  “Sure.” I handed her the wand.

  She gripped it tight and gave me the largest grin ever bestowed on me. My heart beat a happy rhythm.

  “I knew you’d be an easy target. Sucker.” She tapped the top of her head three times. “Hide.”

  With a poof, she disappeared from the room.

  With my wand still in her hands.

  3

  “Leaf?” I called out to the air she’d recently vacated. The next breath of air I sucked in hurt my throat. What had I done?

  Amaranth moved through the magically created fog to join me by the candy corns. “What’s wrong?”

  The “I told you so” coming from him would dampen my spirit, but without his assistance, I wouldn’t be able to find Leaf and recover my wand before she created irreparable damage.

  “I’ve made a huge mistake,” I started, but stopped when I noticed we had Ash’s attention too. I grasped Amaranth’s sleeve and pulled him to a quiet corner on the other side of the room. “You have to promise not to yell at me.”

  “Juniper?” His tone carried worry. As it should.

  “Promise first.”

  “Fine. No yelling. What’s happened?” He glanced around as if he tried to guess the issue before I finished with my mini panic attack.

  I yanked off my hat and held it at an angle to cover our faces. To anyone else it might look as if we shared a romantic moment. I knew better and soon so would he. “I let Leaf use my wand and she made herself disappear.”

  “What?!” His voice echoed off of the wall we stood beside.

  “You said you wouldn’t yell,” I reminded him and backed up a few steps.

  “Of all the irresponsible things—”

  “I don’t think we have time to run through your litany of phrases expressing your deepest disappointment in me,” I snapped. “We have to find her. She’s a twelve-year-old with a fairy godparent wand. Give her some actual fairy dust and I can’t imagine the chaos she can cause.”

  “I warned you about her.”

  “I thought you meant the twins.” I pointed to Indigo and her brother, Heath. One yawned into her hand and the other checked the clock. Neither appeared remotely interested in causing mischief. I could now see how I’d misjudged the wood nymphs. Sucker was a valid description of me. My heart sank. All I’d wanted was someone who enjoyed human traditions as much as I did.

  “We have to tell Ash
.”

  “Do we?” I jammed the pointy hat back on my head.

  “Do you know where she went?”

  “No.” My hands tingled with worry. She could be anywhere in the kingdom. “But it’s not like she can get out of the protective dome. Right?”

  His eyes flashed as if it hadn’t occurred to him. He retrieved his wand and before he tapped his head, gave me a stern, “Stay here.”

  With a poof, he disappeared.

  At that moment, Iris decided to make her grand entrance. Two fairy gentlemen dressed as carriage footman preceded her, each throwing rose petals onto the floor in front of her. I rolled my eyes. She hovered in over the petals.

  Her dress was the palest of blues and she wore a wide ice blue ribbon in her hair to match her gown. When she saw me, she waved her hand for me to join her.

  “That’s quite a gown,” I said.

  “I’m Cinderella from the human world. Don’t I look like a future princess?”

  She’d asked me but she’d directed her question toward Heath, who’d moved closer to us the minute Iris had fluttered through the door. Now that I gave him a more thorough glance, it appeared that he’d dressed up as Cinderella’s Prince Charming. Interesting. Iris had been in charge of costuming everyone too.

  But we didn’t have time for fairy tale love matches. I wrapped my arm through hers and pulled her over to the corner. “We have a problem.”

  She looked out across the room over my head. “I’ll say we do. Someone messed with my classy decorations.”

  “It’s worse than that.”

  We made eye contact and hers widened just a little. “You’ve fallen in love with Ash?”

  “Do you ever think of anything else other than men and love matches?”

  Her delicate shoulders lifted in a shrug. “What else is there?”

  “Leaf stole my wand and she disappeared.”

  Iris’s mouth popped open, making a perfect O.

  “I need your wand,” I said, holding out my hand. “Then maybe I can figure out a way to track her down before her family finds out that she’s missing from the dinner.”

  “Dinner is ready to be served,” the castle cook announced from the doorway.

  “Why don’t you tell her brother what she did? Technically, she’s their responsibility, not yours.”

  “I want to convince her to give me the wand back on her own. She’s only twelve. I’m sure she doesn’t understand the amount of trouble she’s in.”

  At that moment, Leaf poofed in beside us.

  “Oh, thank goodness.” Relief like I’d never felt before flooded me. “I’m so glad you came back on your own.”

  She bopped me on the head with the wand. “Permanent witch.” Then she did the same to Iris. “Permanent hag.”

  With a poof, Leaf disappeared again.

  “No!” Iris screamed out as she transformed from a Cinderella princess into an elderly woman with thinning hair and a burlap sack for a dress. A cane appeared in her hand and she automatically stooped over.

  I closed my eyes but didn’t feel much of a transformation. A full length decorative mirror on the other side of the room caught my attention and I rushed to it. My skin remained green and I’d grown a cluster of warts on my chin and the very end of my nose. My brown hair turned as black as the feathers of a raven. What did being a permanent witch even mean?

  Iris’s sobs filled the room and the wood nymphs gathered around her.

  I straightened my shoulders. Twelve or not, Leaf had taken her little pranks too far.

  4

  Amaranth flew back into the main dining hall with a flurry of agitated wings. He stopped in front of Iris, the expression on his face molded into one of anger. He then turned that angry expression on me.

  I shrugged my shoulders to unfurl my wings and nothing happened. A sharp gasp escaped my lips. Being a witch meant I didn’t have my wings. I had to walk across the room. My parents were going to kill me. Being the heir to the throne wouldn’t matter; they were going to strip me of my title and put me in a dungeon they’d create just for their insubordinate only child.

  Even if it didn’t get as bad as punishment by death or imprisonment, they would definitely never allow me out into the human world now. I couldn’t even control a preteen wood nymph. My entire world had fallen apart with one simple, stupid mistake.

  Amaranth met me in the middle of the room. “I can’t turn either of you back without your wand. Only the king and queen have wands powerful enough to counteract the magic of another’s.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  “You and Iris are to stay here. I’ll post a guard with you, and if Leaf wands back in the room, he’ll grab her before she can do any more damage.”

  “I should be helping in the search,” I countered.

  His gaze focused on the cluster of warts at the end of my chin. Though he maintained a stoic expression, I could almost see his nose wrinkle in distaste. No hand rubbing on my cheek now, huh? I kept that comment to myself since I’d ignored his advice about watching out for the nymphs.

  My irritation could only be directed at one person. Myself.

  “Can you please do this one thing I ask of you?” His tone had softened.

  “Yes. I’ll stay with Iris.”

  Amaranth snapped his fingers to a guard lingering in the hallway. The younger man rushed over and made it clear he had no intention of looking me in the face. Because it was now gross.

  “Stay within a single heartbeat of both Juniper and Iris,” Amaranth commanded. “You will answer to me personally if you don’t.”

  The guard nodded vigorously and I could tell even with this face Amaranth scared him more than I did.

  I walked toward Iris. Honestly, nothing scared me more than my best friend’s ire when she didn’t feel her prettiest.

  “Iris, sweetie?” I approached her with one arm out, ready to pull her into a hug.

  She hissed between several missing teeth.

  No hugs for me at the moment. “I’m so sorry. I know this is my fault.”

  “She better hope I don’t find her first.” Iris shook her cane. “I’ll beat her with this chunk of wood until my arms fall off. Which probably wouldn’t take long considering the age she’s made me.”

  The wood nymph siblings spoke in low tones with Amaranth just outside the door. Catching small snatches of the conversation, I could tell they were dividing up the castle to search each of the rooms. She had to be somewhere.

  And I couldn’t do a single thing to help. I only had witch powers which wouldn’t help anything because I didn’t know how to use them. Knowledge of their powers had come secondhand from watching them in the courtyard fountain.

  The courtyard fountain. If I could get to the fountain, I could figure out how a witch would track down a missing person. Would the fairy dust work if I were the one to sprinkle it on the water? Only a fairy could work fairy dust.

  I turned to our guard. “I’m sorry, I should know your name and I don’t. My mom is so much better at knowing every person’s name in the kingdom.”

  “We all think very highly of your mom,” he said, gaze still averted.

  I waited a few beats. “What’s your name?”

  “It’s Lark.” Iris supplied the information with a pout. “I dated him not too long ago.”

  Iris dated a lot of the guards. It surprised me she could remember all their names.

  Lark kept his gaze trained on the ground.

  Awkward. But we had to move past any romantic discomfort.

  “I need you to escort us to the courtyard fountain.” I turned to walk out of the dining room.

  Lark trotted around in front of me and held up his hands. “Captain Amaranth stated quite vehemently that we are to stay here.”

  “Actually, he said that you are to stay within a heartbeat’s length of me and Iris. If you follow me to the fountain, then you won’t be disobeying his order.”

  He shook his head.

  Tim
e to pull out the big guns. “Wings or no wings, Lark, I am still the princess, and while the king and queen are away on official business, I’m in charge.”

  He flicked his gaze at Iris.

  She huffed out a broken sigh. “Take us to the fountain and after I’m turned back into my glorious self, we can have that second date.”

  A grin broke wide on Lark’s face. “I guess as long as I stay within grabbing distance, we should be fine.”

  “Walk slow. I hobble now.” Iris leaned heavily on the cane.

  I peeked around the edge of the door leading out into the main corridor. Amaranth and the nymph siblings had already started their search. The coast was clear.

  “Let’s go.” I motioned them forward and tiptoed down the hallway, Lark fluttering between me and a limping Iris.

  We made it to the courtyard with a minimum amount of fanfare. A few castle staffers stood in the hallways, but no one seemed to care that a witch, a fairy, and a hag paraded past.

  At the courtyard fountain, I ran my fingers over the water. That afternoon, I’d watched cute kids ready their costumes with parents and attend parties with big happy smiles. It’d filled me with joy. Leaf stole my Halloween joy with her antics. A hard lesson learned when it came to who I could trust.

  I turned to Lark. “Can you sprinkle a little dust for me? I need to see a witch about a spell.”

  He pulled out his bag of dust. “Okay, but I don’t know what that means.”

  “She needs a spell to find the girl.” Iris settled on the edge of the fountain. “Yeesh, no wonder I didn’t take up your offer for that second date.”

  “Harsh, Iris,” I whispered.

  The wrinkles around her mouth deepened. “I’m a grumpy old hag. This is how I talk to people now. So hurry up and figure out how to find that little menace.”

  Witches. I needed some smart ones. “What spells do we need? It has to be specific enough we can locate Leaf and stop her from wanding away again, but also simple enough I can perform it with my limited knowledge.”