The Witch Within

by M. Z. Andrews

  Jax had the opposite reaction. She flew forward and threw her arms around him as he slid off the counter. “Reign!”

  “Hey, cuz.” He chuckled as he gave her a squeeze. Looking over Jax’s head, he stared at Holly, who for once appeared speechless around my brother. “Lookin’ good, ladies.”

  “Thanks,” chirped Jax. Letting go of him, she scooted back to stand next to Holly. “We did facials.”

  “I see that.” He pointed at Holly. “Nice unicorn costume, Holl.”

  Holly’s hands flew up to her hood. “I-it’s Jax’s. She was sad. I-I was just trying to cheer her up.” She looked as if she wanted to crawl into a hole.

  Reign almost looked surprised as he smiled at Holly. “Oh yeah? Well, that was nice of you.” Then he looked at Jax. “So you were sad? Why’s that? Whose ass do I have to kick?”

  “Gran’s,” I said, as if that answered it all.

  His eyes swung up towards the ceiling. “Go figure. What’d she do now?”

  “She won’t undo the curse she put on Jax,” I said. “The girls and I have decided we’re going to have to do it ourselves.”

  “Well, if I can help in any way…”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” I said with a smile. “I know where you live.”

  “Yeah, you do.”

  I glanced over at Holly. It was as if her feet were bolted to the floor. I could tell she wasn’t sure what to do. Flee the scene, or stay and talk to my brother and pretend she wasn’t wearing a ridiculous unicorn onesie with her face painted green. I looked down at my Batman watch. “So what are you doing home so early? Kind of an early date. Strike out?”

  “Meh,” he said, pulling the bag of popcorn out of the microwave for me when it dinged. “She wasn’t my type.”

  I frowned. “Then why’d you go out with her?”

  “It was a setup. Mom’s friend’s sister’s cousin or something. Supposedly Char set it all up.” He waved a hand in the air. “Anyway, it didn’t work out.”

  I plumped out a lip and raised my brows at him as I put a new bag of popcorn into the microwave. “Aww, poor Reigny.”

  “Shut up,” he said, slugging me playfully. “There are about a million more fish in the sea.”

  “But you are dating,” confirmed Jax.

  Reign smiled. “Yeah. I finally feel at home in this town, but it’s too boring not to at least go on a date once in a while.”

  “I know some girls at school that might be willing to go out with you,” said Jax excitedly.

  Holly shot Jax an evil glare, which bounced off Jax like a tennis ball against a brick wall.

  “That might go out with me?” Reign repeated with a dumb expression on his face. He chuckled. “Not to toot my own horn, but I haven’t exactly had to twist anyone’s arm to go out with me as of yet. And I think I’d rather go out with a girl that wants to go out with me. Not one that’s doing my kid cousin a favor or something.”

  I glanced over at Holly. I knew exactly what she was thinking. She’d go out with him without having her arm twisted, but Reign had never given her a second glance.

  Jax shrugged. “Well, if you change your mind, I know a lot of girls.”

  Reign ran a hand over Jax’s cat ears and gave her hoodie a tousle. “Thanks, Nugget, but I’m good on finding my own dates. I’m not exactly a troll, you know.”

  “So you say,” I said with a grin.

  Reign held a fist up to me and pretended like he was going to hit me with a right cross while I ducked behind Jax. Then he gave us all a once-over. “Well, I can see the three of you have big plans for tonight. Yoda convention, right?”

  Holly’s mask hid the crimson blush that I was sure had flooded her face.

  Jax wrapped an arm around my waist. “We’re going to watch Vampire Diaries and eat popcorn in Mercy’s room.”

  “Mercy’s room? Wait, I thought Mercy’s room was your room? Am I missing something?”

  Jax frowned. “Yeah, Alba didn’t want to room with Holly anymore, so she made me trade rooms with her.”

  “Alba didn’t want to room with Holly?” He looked over at Holly. “Why not?”

  Holly’s eyes widened again after having been suddenly put on the spot. “Sh-she just… I mean, she didn’t…”

  “She said she’s tired of Holly being such a slob,” I blurted. Holly’s wide eyes and balled fists told me she probably wanted to deck me for saying that, but I didn’t really care. It wasn’t like I wanted Holly and my brother to get together anyway.

  “Holly’s a slob?” said Reign incredulously. “I hardly see Holly as a slob!”

  “Thank you, Reign,” she said sweetly, through her hardening mask.

  “Yeah, you don’t know Holly like we do,” said Jax. “She’s kind of a mess.”

  “Jax! I’m not a mess!”

  “Well, you might not be a mess, but your room’s a mess,” clarified Jax.

  “Oh my God,” she murmured, ducking her head and looking like she wanted to crawl under a rock. I actually felt bad for her for a split second.

  I threw an arm over Holly’s shoulder. “Eh, she’s not that bad.”

  Reign gave Holly a crooked little smile. “I guess I have to agree with you. Anyone who dresses like Yoda wearing a unicorn costume just to cheer up my cousin can’t be that bad.”

  Slowly Holly’s eyes lifted to look at Reign excitedly. I knew then—his small compliment had just made her entire week. “Really?”

  He nodded. “I hate that Gran won’t hook Jax up with her powers. I bet Jax was pretty destroyed about getting denied. So you trying to cheer her up is a pretty big deal in my book.” He looked at her seriously then, his dark onyx eyes shining with sincerity. “So thank you, Holly. I really appreciate it.”

  Despite her facial mask, Holly grinned. “You’re welcome, Reign. Thanks.”

  7

  The next day it was only Alba and I that met between classes to start our research. Jax had stayed home sick that morning, complaining of, in her words, a “tummy ache.” I was positive it was just anxiety and stress, but we’d all thought it was a good idea that she stay and let us handle her predicament. Not being a witch, there wasn’t much she’d be able to do to help anyway. Sweets had to work, and Holly had to turn in some late assignments to one of her teachers.

  Seated at a table in the Great Witch’s Library, we found Cinder and Libby brainstorming final graduation project ideas. We’d quickly discovered that they’d yet to come up with any good ideas, and were open to any suggestions we had.

  Alba slid into one of the chairs across from the girls. “What if you made a really big bonfire outside?”

  Cinder raised one unimpressed brow. “Lame.”

  Alba held up her hands defensively. “Bear with me. Right, so it’s this really big bonfire. Like huge.” Her arms rolled up around her in waves, like big flames as she demonstrated her idea.

  I rolled my eyes. It was obvious that Alba was making it up as she went along.

  “A-and then you make it rain, right?” Her fingers now wiggled in front of her as her arms moved up and down. “And then you whip up the wind and the wind blows and then there’s smoke, obviously, because you know when the rain puts out the bonfire—”

  “Lame.”

  “I’m not finished!”

  Cinder folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair, shaking her head. She was already tired of listening.

  Alba kept going. “Right, so that gets you earth, because, well, the bonfire is on the earth. It gets you fire, it gets you water, and the wind is the air.” Alba ticked each item off on her fingers. She exploded her fingers out in front of herself. “Boom. Project complete.”

  Cinder glanced straight-faced over at Libby and then at me. Then she swung her eyes back over to Alba. “Are you finished?”

  Alba smiled and nodded. “Yeah. What do you think?”

  “I think it’s lame.”

  The smile disappeared off of Alba’s face and appeared on mine.

&
nbsp; Alba’s eyes narrowed into slits as she glared at me. “You think it’s funny, Red?”

  I shrugged. “Perhaps I find it mildly amusing.”

  “Then let’s hear your brilliant idea.”

  “I never said I had an idea,” I said with a chuckle. I looked at Cinder.

  “Listen, Stone said to impress her. That wouldn’t impress our mother,” said Cinder, shooting Alba a raised eyebrow and nary a smile.

  Alba looked unhappy. “Yeah, well. You said you didn’t have any ideas. I was just trying to help.”

  “We said we didn’t have any good ideas,” said Cinder. “We had plenty of bad ones. We didn’t need any more of those.”

  I let out a sigh. “Well, you just have to relax and get creative. You’re probably pushing too hard. You know? Like forcing it. You can’t force creativity. Creativity just happens.”

  Alba stood up and looked down at Cinder. “Well, the Fire Queen can relax and get creative. I’m done trying to be helpful. I’m gonna start researching possible ways to lift the curse.”

  That made Libby lean forward on her elbows and look up at Alba curiously. “Lift the curse. What curse?”

  “The curse on Jax,” said Alba plainly.

  Libby looked over at me. “What curse on Jax?”

  I took a deep breath. The fact that Jax wasn’t a witch was not common knowledge. Everyone at school assumed she was a witch, just like we had when we’d first met her. Libby and Cinder, however, knew the truth. What they didn’t know about was the Stone and Habernackle family feud. Discovering the truth about the curse between families was a relatively new turn of events, one that Jax hadn’t wanted out, so we’d kept it to ourselves. “Well, you know Jax isn’t a witch…”

  The twins nodded.

  “Like, a million years ago, my granny put a curse on Jax’s grandmother, Augusta Stone,” I said. “Well, really she put it on the whole Stone family. It’s a long story, but Gran put the curse on the Stones because Auggie accidentally killed my granddad when my mom was just a little kid.”

  “Surely you are joking,” said Cinder.

  I shook my head sadly. “I wish I was. I wish none of it had ever happened, because the mistakes of those that came before us have continued impacting our lives to this very day. Jax hasn’t become a witch and won’t ever come into her powers if we don’t get the curse reversed by her eighteenth birthday.”

  Libby’s eyes widened. “But isn’t her birthday on graduation day?”

  I nodded my head sadly.

  “But that’s less than a week away!”

  “Yup. We have a lot of work to do,” I said with a sad nod.

  “And you’re over here trying to help us with our project?” said Cinder. “Why aren’t you working on reversing the curse your grandmother put on Jax?”

  I shrugged. I happened to be the queen of procrastination. And while I wanted nothing more than for Jax to get her powers before her birthday, I had absolutely no idea where to start. “We’ll get to it.”

  “You’ll get to it!” Libby and Cinder said in unison.

  Libby shook her head. “Mercy, you have got to get started now! Before you run out of time!”

  I pushed myself up to a standing position and looked around. Alba was already off, combing through the card catalog for ideas, I assumed. “Alright, I’ll look. It’s just that I really don’t know where to start.”

  Libby looked at her sister. “Cinder, could we spare some time to help the girls out?”

  “Lib, no! I wish we did, but we have to work on our graduation project.”

  “We’ll think of something,” said Libby. “I’m really not too worried. But if we’re supposed to relax and get creative, this might help us free our minds. Besides, after graduation we may never see these girls again. Wouldn’t it be fun to get to work on this with them for a little while at least?”

  Cinder looked at me and then across the room at Alba. “You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”

  I shook my head. “Absolutely clueless.”

  Cinder’s shoulders slumped forward and a sigh escaped her. “Oh, fine. My sister and I will help you.”

  Libby clapped her hands. “This is exciting!”

  “Can you guys keep it down? You’re gonna wake the ghosts in here!” shouted Alba from across the room.

  I waved Alba over. “Alba, come here. I’ve got great news.”

  Groaning, Alba slammed the card catalog drawer shut and sauntered over to me. “What do ya want, Red? We got work to do.”

  “Libby and Cinder are going to help us reverse the curse on Jax.”

  “Yeah? You two know how to do it?”

  Libby and Cinder exchanged looks.

  “Well, no, not exactly, but we can figure it out,” said Libby.

  “Yeah, well, Red and I can figure it out too.”

  “But if we help you, maybe it’ll help us think of a graduation project,” said Libby.

  I smiled. “I agree. I think it’s just the distraction you need.” For the first time that day, I finally felt like we could possibly make Jax’s dream come true.

  “Alright, then, it’s settled. We’re doing this together,” said Libby. Then she held her hands out across the table. “But nobody can tell Jax.”

  My eyes widened. “What?!”

  Alba lowered her brows. “Yeah, what Red said. What?!”

  “It should be a surprise!” said Libby.

  “For her birthday,” agreed Cinder.

  I glanced up at Alba skeptically.

  She shrugged as she met my eyes. “That’s actually not a bad idea. Then we don’t have to get Shorty a present. You know how much I hate shopping.”

  “But Jax will literally flip out if she thinks we aren’t helping her,” I said.

  “We’ll make something up,” Alba assured me. “I think it’s a great idea. Just think how excited and happy she’ll be when she gets her powers.”

  I wondered how I’d be able to keep it from Jax. “Well, if you think it’s a good idea…”

  Alba nodded confidently. “I think it’s a great idea. And we can’t tell the other girls. Sweets’s got the biggest mouth in the world, and I ain’t workin’ with Cosmo. She’s a nitwit. She’ll spill the beans for sure. Plus I get enough of her at home.”

  I waved a hand. I was just anxious to get started. “Whatever. We’ll keep this to ourselves. It’s won’t be that long anyway. Alright. When can we start?”

  Alba looked around the room. “I mean, I got nothin’ goin’ on right now. Can’t we start now?”

  We both looked at Libby and Cinder.

  Cinder looked at her sister. “We’re already here.”

  “Yes, for sure, now’s good,” she agreed.

  “Alright, then, spread out and let’s see what we can find!”

  Over an hour later, I found myself buried between dusty stacks of centuries-old books. Even though I’d skipped my Advanced Spells class to do research, I hadn’t found myself any closer to finding a way to reverse the curse. I’d been staring at books so long my eyes burned.

  Libby’s voice called out over the stacks of books. “Girls, come here.”

  Glad for the distraction, I shut the book I’d been flipping through and stood up. My back was sore from leaning over the table, and it felt good to give it a stretch. I arched my back and felt a cool breeze zip past me. As I rubbed the gooseflesh off my arms, I glanced behind me, looking for an air vent or a moving fan. When I didn’t see anything, I headed towards Libby.

  “Find something?” asked Alba as the three of us approached Libby’s table.

  “Maybe,” she said slowly. She pointed a long ice-blue fingernail at a page in a book she had open in front of her. “This book is about curses. There are two important things that I’ve learned.”

  “Two things?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “Why do I not like the sound of this?”

  “Yeah, me either,” agreed Alba.

  Libby pointed at the p
age she’d been reading. “The first thing I discovered is that when a witch puts a curse on multiple people at the same time, it makes it much harder to reverse.”

  I curled my lip. “So because Gran put the curse on basically the whole Stone family, we aren’t going to be able to do anything about it?”

  Libby lifted a shoulder. “Well, not exactly. You see, it only says that it’s more difficult to reverse group curses as opposed to curses placed on an individual. It doesn’t say it’s impossible. I feel like if it were impossible, it would say that. Don’t you?”

  Alba nodded. “Yeah, it definitely would say impossible.” She smiled. “That means there’s a way to do it. I feel good about that. We just have to figure out what that way is.”

  I looked at Libby as my stomach rolled with unease. “You said you found out two things. What’s the other thing?”

  Libby wrinkled her nose. “The other thing is the length of time since the curse was invoked. Curses invoked more recently are a lot easier to reverse. Curses that happened long ago are much more difficult, and according to the book, doing so may result in unforeseen consequences.”

  “Great,” I groaned.

  Cinder plopped down into a chair across from her sister. “We’ve been looking for hours. I don’t see this as good news. It just means that this is going to be even more difficult than we first thought.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re right. This isn’t going to be as simple as muttering a chant, lighting a few candles, and mixing together some ingredients into a magical potion.” I pulled up the chair next to Cinder and let my head fall forward into my hands. Why did everything have to be so difficult? It seemed like forever since I’d started witch school, and it had been one problem after the next. When would our problems end?

  Suddenly, the sound of a wailing siren filled the empty spaces of the room.

  Alba and I looked at each other. There had only been a few instances during the past nine months when I’d heard that siren, and none of those instances had resulted in good news.

  “What in the…?”

  Brittany Hobbs’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker. “All students, please report to the gymnasium. All students, please report to the gymnasium.”