The Complete Spellbound Trilogy Bundle

by Penelope King

  “Why do you say that?” I whispered. I needed to be careful here. It was scary how easily Justin and I connected with each other, even if we were talking about another girl. We still had that comfortable chemistry with each other that had created this whole mess in the first place.

  He shrugged and gave a half grimace. “She just made it kinda obvious one day. I mean, she wasn’t a jerk about it or anything, but I could tell she didn’t really want me to be a part of her life. Her real life. She just liked hanging out with me in private, all alone with no one else. Like maybe she was ashamed of me.”

  “So you just stopped hanging out with her?”

  “I just saved her the trouble of having to tell me to go away. As I said, she’s really sweet deep down, and I think maybe she was just being nice to me ‘cause I was new in town.”

  “And you think she was embarrassed by you?”

  He nodded and shrugged. “Well, yeah. She was. But I can’t blame her. Like I said. Two different worlds.”

  I shook my head. “What if you have it all wrong? What if she wasn’t ashamed of you at all, but of herself?”

  He scrunched his eyebrows, confused.

  “I can’t believe you’d just stop hanging out with someone you obviously seem to like so much and had a great connection with, just because you were assuming something that probably wasn’t even true!” I continued.

  He seemed taken aback by my righteous indignation, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He genuinely believed what he was saying. He really thought Savannah was embarrassed by him, so he stopped seeing her to spare her the trouble of having to dump him. O. Henry couldn’t have written it better.

  I knew I had to wrap it up quick. Things had already gotten more intense between us than they should’ve, and it was going to be hard to ignore him at school after having this little heart-to-heart. But I had to make this right. I owed him at least that.

  “Please, please, you have to give her another chance,” I begged with all the passion I could muster. “You might be making a huge mistake by walking away from something that might be really awesome, and over some silly misunderstanding. If you care about her, then give her the benefit of the doubt. Don’t just quit without a fight. Do you know how hard it is to find that special connection with someone? Don’t just let it go! Hold on with everything you have, and make something really wonderful happen. Otherwise, you might regret it for the rest of your life.”

  He stared at me, his soft blue eyes wide. I let out a deep breath, and glanced away. Now I was the one who felt a little embarrassed. Where did that come from?

  “Well, anyways… I gotta go,” I stammered, and stood up. “Good luck with everything.”

  He nodded and rose to his feet. As he did I felt a certain strength and peace come over him, and I knew my words had hit home. I smiled to myself. We’re even. And you’re welcome, Savannah.

  “Thanks for the advice. It was really nice meeting you, Calista.”

  I gave him a warm smile. “It was really nice meeting you, too, Justin… It was really nice meeting you, too.”

  *****

  My tears were bittersweet as I exited the sunroom and returned to Sophie, Lily, and Ana. “Okay. I’ve done what I needed to do. You will take good care of him, won’t you?”

  Ana nodded. “It has all been arranged. He will be counseled and comforted, and will soon get over this brief setback. Notwithstanding any unforeseen events, he should be just fine, so long as you three stick to the plan.”

  I thought back to my vision of him and Savannah and knew without the teensiest shred of doubt that it was their future I’d seen. I didn’t know where they had been, or when it would happen exactly, but I was absolutely certain it would come to pass.

  I glanced over at Sophie and Lily. Both of them were a bit relieved, but still distressed. This turn of events with Justin had been so unexpected, and was a lot to process. I was mentally and physically exhausted, and the earlier throbbing in my head had returned.

  “Can you take me home?” I whispered to Lily, and was surprised to see she’d been crying. Cool, calm, unflappable Lily was almost as torn up as I was.

  She nodded and dabbed at her eyes. “You coming with?” She glanced at Sophie.

  Sophie made a face. “Like you even have to ask?”

  “Goodnight, Ana, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

  “Goodnight, my dear. Sleep well. Things will look better in the morning. They always do.”

  Lily grabbed me with one hand, and Sophie with the other. Before I knew it, we were standing in the middle of my room.

  “Oh!”

  And that was the sound of my world collapsing again, as my father stood directly in front of us, staring.

  Chapter 25. Acceptance

  Sophie gasped. “Oh my God!”

  So I wasn’t hallucinating. Dad really was in my room, and he really did just witness the three of us shimmer in.

  Oh, no… What have I done?

  “Callie,” Sophie thought, “Callie, I think he saw us.”

  I turned my head slowly and gave her an incredulous look. “Ya think?!” I turned to Lily. “Why didn’t you make sure the coast was clear first?” I hissed.

  She shook her head in disbelief. “I-I don’t know why. I just wasn’t thinking… my mind was on Justin.”

  I was afraid to look at Dad, but I knew he was still standing there, still staring at us. What was I supposed to say? What words could possibly make what he’d just seen be in any way okay?

  I didn’t know how long the four of us stood there in silence… Five seconds, five minutes… My brain was on supreme overload with the possible ramifications of what had just happened. Each thought led to an even worse one.

  He saw. He knows. I’ve been exposed. We all have.

  Finally, Dad cleared his throat. “Uh, sorry, Cal. I didn’t mean to be bargin’ in uninvited.” He shifted his feet uneasily. “I just wanted to check on ya and see if you needed anything.”

  “What?” I asked weakly.

  “How’s your head feelin’?” He pointed to his own. “You said it was bad durin’ supper. Did you get that aspirin?”

  I managed to nod somehow, as if I was a marionette and someone else was pulling the strings. “Yeah…I feel fine now. My headache is all gone.”

  He just lowered his gaze and stuck his hands in his front pockets. “Well, that’s good ta hear. I’ll let you be, then. G’night, gals. Don’t be stayin’ up too late if you’re stayin’ over.”

  The three of us watched in stunned silence as he let himself out of my room and closed the door behind him.

  “Did that really just happen?” I finally whispered.

  “Yeah,” Lily groaned. “It really just did.”

  “We should go get the others, before it’s too late—” Sophie began.

  I turned to her. “Get what others? Before what’s too late?”

  Sophie and Lily looked at each other. “Someone has to do a memory charm on him, and the Council will have to be alerted—”

  “Oh, no-no-no-no-no!” I held up my hand and shook my head. “There is no way I’m letting anyone even think about magically messing with his mind! I mean, are you kidding me? After what we just went through with Justin?”

  Sophie’s jaw fell slack. “Cal, you have to!” she protested. “You know it! And it’s not the same as Justin’s case, not by a long shot. Quick memory charms are harmless. Remember we had to do one on my whole dance class that one time, ‘cause I’d started floating in the air—”

  I clenched my jaw. “I don’t care! This is different! Nobody is messing with him unless I say it’s okay. And I do not say it’s okay!”

  Sophie and Lily were confused by my reaction, and truthfully, so was I. I knew the short-memory charm was nothing like the prolonged extraction spell Justin had just suffered through, but with every fiber of my being I didn’t want Dad to be exposed to anything more than he already had
been. I still wasn’t sure if my mom had done something magical to him. And what if there were some weird, unexpected side-effects? I couldn’t take even the slightest chance of anything going wrong. I’d already lost my mother and a dear friend today. I couldn’t lose my father, too.

  Frustrated and scared, I paced in circles around my room, clenching my hair. “Callie, you know you’re being completely unreasonable,” Lily stated. “The memory charm is as much for his benefit as it is for yours. He can’t process or understand what he just saw, and it’ll mess him up bad. You know that. You really want your dad to lose his mind? Is that what you want?”

  I stopped in my tracks as I suddenly realized why I was reacting so bizarrely.

  Because when Dad saw me shimmer in, when he saw the three of us appear from out of thin air, he didn’t just act fine… he was fine. He wasn’t surprised. He wasn’t shocked. He wasn’t completely blown away by the fact that his daughter and her two best friends had just appeared from out of nowhere. He felt a bit startled, like how a person gets when they don’t know someone is standing behind them or something. But he didn’t feel anywhere near the level of profound, stunned disbelief that someone in his position should’ve felt.

  I sat down on my bed and slowly shook my head. “Something’s going on here,” I whispered, almost to myself. Maybe my mom had cast a spell on him to prevent him from seeing magic performed? Was that even possible?

  “Cal, what’s happening?” Sophie sat down beside me. “What’s got you so upset? Yeah, that totally sucks that your dad busted us, but it’s a relatively simple fix. No need to freak. Promise.”

  I knew she was trying to make me feel better, but her words actually made me feel worse. Dad wasn’t surprised by what he saw. Not in the way he should’ve been, at least. So either he didn’t see anything, which, judging from his wide eyes, I highly doubted, or he already knew something. And if he’d already known something, chances were he’d known for a long time… maybe ever since my mom. And, as we’d just learned the hard way, there was absolutely no undoing memories that old without devastating consequences.

  “I have to talk to him,” I whispered. I turned to Lily and Sophie and gave them a stern look. “And don’t go anywhere until I get back. Promise me that you won’t say anything to anybody. Nothing!”

  Sophie ducked her head, and Lily frowned. “This isn’t just about you, or him,” Lily said quietly. “It’s about all of us. We’re all at risk here.”

  I shook my head in frustration. “Just give me some time, okay? Let me talk to him. Ten or fifteen minutes won’t change anything, right?”

  They glanced at each other and shrugged. “Guess not,” they agreed.

  “Swear you’ll stay here and not say a word to anyone until I get back?”

  They nodded reluctantly. “Swear.”

  I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and headed to the door.

  Dad was sitting on the couch, aimlessly flipping through the stations on the TV with the remote. He gave a small smile when he saw me. I opened my mind and heart and tried to absorb every emotion from him I possibly could. But other than some mild embarrassment, I sensed nothing out of the ordinary. He wasn’t totally and utterly freaked out… he was eerily unfazed.

  What was going on? He’d had a stronger reaction when I changed my hair color. Yet me magically apparating into a room didn’t even register on his radar?

  “Um, can I talk to you for a sec?”

  He flipped off the TV. “Shore.”

  I sat down on the couch and turned to face him. “About what you saw in there…” I drifted off, hoping he’d take over.

  He just looked at me. “Yeah?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “With me and Lily and Sophie… didn’t you think that was… strange?”

  He shrugged and looked down. “Don’t know.” Then he glanced up at me, almost shyly. “Is it strange for you?”

  I stared at him for several long moments. “No, it’s not,” I finally whispered.

  He shrugged again and smiled. “Well, all right then,” he said as if that settled everything.

  How could he possibly be so nonchalant about this? The only emotion coming from him was a sense of awkward discomfort, as if I was trying to talk with him about my period or kissing boys or something.

  “Dad…doesn’t it bother you that I’m… um, different?”

  Finally, he registered some surprise. “Bother me? Heck no. It’s amazing!” Then his shoulders slumped a little. “I just wish your ma could be here for you, ‘cause this sorta stuff was really her arena. I’m not sure what I’m s’posed to know or do or say. Can’t see how I’d be much help any, but I’m glad you have your friends and Ms. Havish you can talk to ‘bout it.”

  Whoa…! “Okay, wait a minute. What do you mean I ‘have Ms. Havish’?”

  He tilted his head to the side a bit and squinted. “Well, seein’ as how she’s your granny and wants to take good care of ya, I’s just assumin’ she was helpin’ you out in that department. She seemed to be doin’ a great job of takin’ you in under her wing ‘n all.”

  He knew Ana was my grandmother?

  That did it. I was in the Twilight Zone. My mind was officially blown and my brains were in another dimension somewhere. Unicorns were real and Santa was my uncle and alien babies from Mars did my homework for me in exchange for Skittles.

  “And what am I, exactly?” I asked softly. I felt like I’d swallowed a cup of sand, and I was sure I hadn’t blinked in over a minute.

  He pressed his lips together and assumed a look of serious contemplation. “Not exactly sure, but it’s almost like you’re part angel, part human, like your ma was.”

  I felt my eyes widen slightly. “You think I’m part angel?” I whispered.

  He shrugged again. “Not sure the specifics. But I know you’re special. Just like how Gabby was special.”

  Deep breath. “And that doesn’t freak you out at all?”

  He shook his head. “Nah. Why would it? I know I’m not the smartest feller on the planet, but even I get that there’s bigger things than us goin’ on out there. Forces beyond my understandin’.” His eyes softened as his gaze fell on me. “I know you’re better than me… than the rest of us.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not better than you or anyone else.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Oh, yes you are. And don’t you be lyin’ to yourself that you ain’t. Besides…” He paused and gave a little smile.

  “Besides what?” I whispered. I almost wished I could record this conversation, because it was by far the most surreal experience of my life. And considering the events of the past few months, that was saying a lot.

  “Besides,” he continued, his voice lower. “I like the idea of you bein’ better than us. Makes me feel good knowin’ someone like your ma is here on Earth with me, keepin’ an eye on things. Makes me feel safer.”

  “You’re not afraid… that I can do things that normal humans can’t do?” My heart was beating so fast, I had to literately force myself to breathe properly.

  “Afraid? Shoot, no. Makes me prouder than a papa can almost stand bein’. Calista, there isn’t one thing I’d change about you. You’re the closest thing to a livin’ miracle I’ve even seen.”

  I blinked rapidly before the tears could come. “How did you know? For how long?”

  He was quiet. “Don’t know when I started knowin’, just felt like I always did. We never talked about it, me ‘n your ma, and I got that she needed to keep that part of herself to herself. And that was okay. I’d see her do somethin’ here ‘n there… things people ain’t s’posed to be able to do, but it never bothered me none, and if she didn’t want to talk to me ‘bout it, I respected that, too.”

  “What about me? How long have you known about me?”

  He gave a faint smile. “Prolly from the time you was a baby. Just the way you’d look at the world, with this smart look in your eyes, like you already knew more than the rest of us. And you never crie
d. You always just sat there… perfect… aware… like you was patiently waitin’ to get big and start livin’, ‘cause you were gonna do somethin’ really special for the world.”

  I gulped. “And Ana? How long have you known that she was my grandma?”

  He glanced off to the side, as if he was trying to recall. “Well, the first time I saw her, when I came out here to meet her before takin’ the job, I was struck right off by how much she reminded me of Gabby. They have the same build, the same ways of doin’ things, and the most unusual eyes. But it wasn’t ‘til I saw you and her together that I knew for sure. All three of y’all have those shiny blue eyes, and the same walk.”

  “Walk?”

  He nodded. “Yup. Y’all walk the same. You, your ma, and Ms. Havish. Could pick any one of y’all out of a crowd.”

  I shook my head and gave a little chuckle. “Why haven’t you ever said anything to me? All this time, why’ve you kept everything you know a secret?”

  He leaned back in the couch. “Dunno. Just felt it was for the best that way. If stuff needed discussin’, it’d get discussed. No need for me to be bringin’ it up or pokin’ my nose where it don’t belong.”

  “How did you know that I knew Ana was my grandma? I’ve never mentioned it to you...”

  He lowered his head. “Sorry ‘bout that, but I accidentally overheard you and her talkin’ one day when you was outside, and I was around the corner measurin’ a window pane. I wasn’t eavesdroppin’ or nothin’, and I didn’t overhear much. Just enough to tell that you knew who she was. You seemed all right about it and happy, so I figured I’d just leave well enough alone. But I gotta say, my pride got a bit bruised after findin’ that out.”

  “Huh?” I frowned. “Why would that hurt your pride?”

  “’Cause obviously she didn’t bring us all the way out here for my fine carpentry skills, good as I am.” He grinned and gave me a wink. “She wanted you.”