by Lauren Quick
“The dreaded class photo.” Vivi winced. “What was I thinking getting orange and red highlights?” She widened her eyes, mortified.
A smile bloomed on Honora’s face. “And that perm. Your hair is so curly and big. I don’t know how you got through doors.”
“Not everyone was born with perfect locks like you were. Some of us needed magical assistance, sprucing up our limp hair,” Vivi said. “Plus big hair was in fashion back then.”
“If you say so.” Clover wiggled her eyebrows.
They spent the next half hour reminiscing, but found little to support the theory that Devlin Strange could be a wizard Vivi knew back in her academy days. But Honora spotted a number of skips she’d picked up in the past few years for magical break-ins and an ace lock-picking wizard.
Vivi stretched. “Enough about me and my poor hair choices. What’s this big surprise, Clover?”
Clover moved the collection of yearbooks to the coffee table and sat up straight. “Brace yourselves. The aunties are coming for a visit. And they’re coming this weekend.”
“When you said you had a surprise, you weren’t kidding.” Honora jerked up in her chair, her attention focused. “This weekend is short notice.”
“Tell me about it. I received a message that they are arriving this Friday and staying for at least a week in my house, with me.” Clover swallowed a gulp of wine.
“Technically the house was theirs at one time,” Vivi said.
“I know and they are generous and kind, but they love to snoop. You know how they get. They have no sense of personal space. They’ll be sifting through my things and grilling me on my love life.” Clover leaned her head back against the sofa.
Honora sunk into a chair and smiled. “At least it’s you and not me. Remember, you live a quiet life in the Meadowlands. There’s nothing dubious to find.”
Clover threw a pillow at her and groaned. “I like my privacy.”
“Kiss that goodbye the minute they arrive,” Vivi said with a grin.
The aunties were their grandmother’s sisters—Elsie and Henrietta Mayhem. Their grandmother, Gwendolyn Mayhem, passed away years ago under mysterious circumstances. The topic was off-limits in the family, never to be spoken about. Vivi always assumed it was curse-related and didn’t want to pry. Their mother, Elspeth, had been very close with Gwendolyn and talking about her was still too difficult. But the aunties were special, fun-loving free spirits and major eccentrics. As young witches, the sisters loved it when the aunties came to visit, especially since they plied the girls with treats and played witchy games until late in the night. But it had been a while since they’d had a visit from their eccentric aunts.
“Not that they need a reason to visit, but did they say why they were coming?” Vivi asked.
“No. They didn’t offer an inkling of what they might be up to.” Clover raised her eyebrows. “They just said it was a surprise, and they can’t wait to see us all.”
“Maybe it’s to see Mom,” Honora said. “Does she know they’re coming?”
Clover sighed. “Who knows? She’s on assignment and I can’t reach her. I contacted Rye over at Hex and he told me she’d be back in a few days and not to worry.”
Vivi rolled her eyes. “Easy for him to say. But really there’s nothing we can do until Mom surfaces and let her know the aunties are here. I’m excited to see them. They’re always such a hoot,” she said.
“Remember our graduation party?” Honora asked.
Instead of throwing three separate parties, the aunties had waited and thrown the three of them one huge graduation party after Honora had finished from Haven Academy.
Clover propped her feet on the coffee table. “How can we forget?”
They had invited the entire school to the party, which they held at a rickety old mansion one of the professors owned. They hired a great band and the food was to die for. It complemented the party’s death theme. Everyone had dressed in crazy costumes and looked like walking corpses. Henrietta said they were killing their youth and being reborn into their next life phase.
“The aunties are so kooky and so much fun,” Vivi said. “I wonder what the occasion is.”
“They don’t need an occasion,” Honora said. “Though it is a little unusual. I always expect something monumental to happen when they’re around.”
“I’m sure they just miss us as much as we miss them,” Clover said. “I hope.”
“We’d visit them more if we only knew where they lived,” Vivi said.
The aunties never stayed in one place long, living out of steamer trunks and piles of suitcases. As Elsie always said, they went where the wind blew and wherever they could get a good margarita.
The memory of them brought a smile to Vivi’s face. “You’re going to have a packed house. They’ll get to meet Derek.”
“Yeah, you better keep your handsome young assistant away from Elsie. You know how she likes the young ones,” Honora said.
Clover snorted. “Derek can handle himself. And luckily the next couple of weeks are light as far as my workload goes, so I’ll have plenty of time to spend with the aunties.”
“That’s good because I have a feeling I’m going to be very busy,” Vivi said.
Clover’s brow furrowed. “It’s going to be a lot of Mayhem energy in one place. Should I think of the ramifications? I’m not one to worry about the family curse, seeing as I live a quiet life in the Meadowlands,” Clover said, winking at Vivi.
“Quiet life.” Honora swirled her wine around in the glass. “You obviously don’t count the neighbor who was poisoned in your yard at your summer solstice party last year.”
“How is Austin, by the way?” Vivi asked, referring to Clover’s new neighbor who had inherited the family home after his father’s untimely demise.
“Good. He mostly comes out on the weekends to work on the house and the labyrinth. We’ve been trading gardening tips. He built a huge boxwood topiary shaped like a fox that is a perfect likeness of Rusty.”
Clover’s fox familiar was curled up in front of the fireplace. Vivi noticed what appeared to be a dead mole on the hearth, but didn’t mention it.
“You aren’t really worried about seeing the aunties and the curse are you?” Honora asked, redirecting the conversation. A family curse of mayhem had filtered down through the generations thanks to Mayhem matriarch, great-great-grandmother Rosemary, who had angered a dark wizard illegally trading familiars and incurred the curse when she bravely turned him in to the police.
Clover’s brow relaxed. “Well, I guess not. The aunties have a lot more experience with the curse than we ever did, seeing as it was much stronger for their generation, but still I do wonder. It’s been an interesting year and doesn’t seem to be getting mundane anytime soon.”
“Who wants mundane or simple? The thing about the curse is we have no control over it. I say, let’s not worry about it until we have to.” Honora sipped her wine.
“Hear, hear!” Vivi toasted with her wine glass. “What could possibly go wrong with a house full of Mayhem witches?” The three sisters cackled in unison.
7
Holding a milky-colored moonstone in her palm, Vivi sat cross-legged on a velvet pillow in the back of The Evil Queen prophecy shop. Pins and needles prickled her leg. She shifted on her pillow, wiggling her foot. A waft of incense tickled her nose. Scarlet was chanting softly to herself, rolling a crystal around in her hand. Vivi sighed with boredom before she could catch herself. Scarlet went quiet. A wind chime hanging behind the shop clinked in the background. Vivi peered out of squinted slits. Scarlet was staring at her, lips pursed.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on with you? You’re as restless as a cat on a hot summer night.” Scarlet’s burgundy-colored hair was plaited in a long braid, her make-up light and fresh.
Vivi released a long exhale. Over the past year, she and Scarlet had been meeting every other Thursday, sometimes just the two of them, and sometimes in a group, to work on prophecy skills. Her end goal was to be a licensed seer so she could work with the police department. Credentials made all the difference. The next available test was in a couple of weeks and she planned to be ready. “I can’t focus. My thoughts are racing. There’s too much going on in my life right now for me to meditate and think of nothing. I’ve got a serious case of monkey mind.” She stretched out her legs, trying to return feeling to her feet.
Scarlet set the crystal down and poured Vivi a cup of iced green tea. “Then this is the perfect time to meditate and train your mind to focus. Life doesn’t slow down for you to be ready for when something happens.”
“I know. But you asked. I’m just being honest.” Vivi accepted the tea and took a sip of the mellow brew as Scarlet poured herself a glass.
“You can talk about what’s going on. Maybe it will help to clear out your mind if you tell me about it.”
Vivi and Scarlet had grown much closer, but somehow they still weren’t at a level of deep sharing. Maybe she would always see Scarlet as Honora’s best friend from childhood and knew her alliances were set. Still, she needed advice on her dream vision and Scarlet knew more about the art and magic of prophecy then anyone she knew.
“Can I ask you a hypothetical question?”
“Sure.”
Vivi tucked her legs up under her. “I’m looking for a wizard who is off the grid. How would I find someone I’ve never met, but I have a feeling I know him, like we’re connected, or I might meet him in the future?”
“That’s a lot to have on your mind. Where did this feeling of knowing him originate?” Scarlet glided over to the window to gaze outside.
“I had a weird dream and he happened to be in it. Only I didn’t know it was him until someone asked me to find him, and I started digging and learned more about him. If that makes sense.” Vivi was being vague because she didn’t want to spill too much since Scarlet had had dealings with dark magicians in the past and she was trying to steer clear of them and other wizards like the Darklander.
Scarlet cracked the window, letting in some fresh air. “It makes total sense. Dreams can be tricky for witches with the sight. You’ll dream naturally on a nightly basis just like everyone else. Your premonitions are a total separate entity, coming and going, sometimes without your control. And there is a big difference between the two.”
Vivi rose to her feet. “That’s exactly what I thought. This dream was just a weird dream and nothing more. And then one of the wizards in it was actually someone I needed to find. So what does that mean?”
“It means your premonition broke through into one of your dreams. It happens sometimes. I like to call it a shadow premonition because the premonition clung to the fictitious events that happened in the dream.” A breeze blew back the curtain.
“That sounds about right. Most of what happened felt like a crazy dream, but now you’re telling me that some parts of it might actually happen in real life.”
“Yep. And I realize how frustrating that can be. It happens to me all the time and that’s why sometimes getting what will happen and what won’t happen sorted out is the hard part. And it drives you a little crazy, wondering if your silly dream is true or not. You typically won’t know till after the fact, like when you found out about this wizard only after you discovered him in real life.”
“You’re right. That is totally frustrating. So back to my original question, is there a way to find this wizard right now?” Vivi had heard Scarlet talking about ways she found her mother using projected prophecy—a joint future she could trace back.
“That’s tough, especially with him going off the grid. He’s in hiding, I assume. So typical locater spells won’t work. You could try retracing.”
“Sounds interesting.” Vivi felt her body tingle at learning a new technique to connect her with her persuasion. “Is that like projecting a prophecy?”
Scarlet cocked an eyebrow. “Someone’s been listening. Yes, it’s a lot like that. Basically, you project your mind’s eye into the future on a single day or event where you think this person might be.” She held up her palm before Vivi could protest. “I know. You don’t know this guy or where he might end up. You’re going to have to do a little guesswork, but you probably know more than you think from your dream. There are probably some clues embedded in the dreamscape that you could use. Think about it for a minute.” Scarlet glided toward the door to the front of the shop where raised voices could be heard. “I’ll be right back. There’s always drama around here.”
Vivi rolled the moonstone around in her palm as thoughts collided in her mind. She pulled at the parts of the dream that she could remember. She’d woefully neglected her dream diary, which had seemed silly when Scarlet first told her to keep one, and since she’d been working on controlling her persuasion, her dreams seemed like fleeting harmless fun, not journal-worthy. Her headaches, brought on from suppressing her magic, were also under control to the point she hardly noticed them anymore. But as the faded images shifted through her mind, she regretted not writing the dream down.
Vivi narrowed her focus. What event from the dream could she use? What felt the most important? There was the tea party. There were the events when she was walking down Main Street. But which event should she pinpoint—running into Pepper with her potion, seeing her sisters, or the wizard warning her of the Red Queen? The dream was also filled with lots of portals and local witches and wizards, not to mention the ending—the Mayhem wedding and the Dire Woods.
Vivi groaned, blowing hair out of her face. She needed to pick one and get focused. She could always try again if one image didn’t work out. If she were going to see the wizard Devlin Strange in the future, she needed to focus on him entirely. She brought his image to mind. He was tall, had piercing green eyes, and dark hair. Well-dressed in a suit, he was polite and held a pipe with curling smoke, and though she didn’t like smoking or the smell of it, his pipe, strangely enough, didn’t bother her. In fact, the sweet smell of the smoke was comforting.
What event could she project that might have the wizard in it? She had nothing. Focus! She gritted her teeth. She pictured his face—strong jaw, thin nose, and that bushy mustache. She replayed what he said over and over. “Beware the Red Queen,” his voice echoed in her head, but imagining him did little to help her. Vivi surrendered, opening her eyes, and an idea flew into her mind. The aunties are coming.
What did that have to do with Devlin Strange? This wizard didn’t know her aunties or her sisters. She’d just have to wing it, make a guess like Scarlet said. She had no clue where to look for him. Who else might be connected? Well, there was always the goat-horned wizard one of the nymphs mentioned, and she had a bad feeling she knew where to find the Darklander’s minion.
A chill cascaded over her bare arms—his mansion in the Dire Woods.
Scarlet returned. “How’d it go? Get any flashes of inspiration?”
“Kind of, but it’s a long shot and crazy.”
“Oh, good. I love those kinds of ideas. Predictable can be sooo boring. Let’s get started.” Scarlet waved her wand and the room suddenly glowed with tiny illuma lights floating on the air like lightning bugs. “Close your eyes and focus. Not on now, but on the future. Picture a time, see it on the horizon, and let it glide closer and closer to you.”
Once centered, Vivi projected her mind’s eye a few days into the future, visualizing the Dire Woods rising around her, the dank forest reeking of wet earth, and the Darklander’s mansion towering among the tangled tree limbs. Cold air encircled her body, the woods looming around her. She pushed, straining to see what might happen. A figure came into view—a wizard dressed in black jeans and a leather jacket. She zeroed in on his
face, recognizing his curly-whiskered chin and two goat horns protruding from the top of his head. It was one of the Darklander’s minions—the one who chased the nymph, Rose.
Wearing a sleazy grin, the goat-horned wizard strode into view, his heavy boots pounding on the ground as he hurried to the edge of the Dire Woods, heading for the closest portal. Vivi gritted her teeth. She didn’t like this wizard one bit. She watched powerlessly as he left the mansion far behind him. “No! Go back!” Vivi yelled. Her voice was edged with impatience.
Scarlet gently touched her arm. “Don’t try so hard to control it. Let the vision guide you. Stop forcing your own desires onto it,” she whispered. “Watch and listen.”
Scarlet was right. Vivi was tight as a spring. She swallowed, loosening her jaw, breathing in and out. She released her hold and allowed the scene to pull her along, playing out before her eyes. The wizard headed for the arched grapevine portal opening, pulled his key from a chain attached to his belt, and shoved it into the lock with a quick turn. The portal ignited in a swirl of magical energy, illuminating the darkness, and the wizard leapt into the field, yelling, “Halo district!”
The vision shifted wildly to a dingy street in a dangerous part of Stargazer City. Pale illuma lights cast eerie shadows on the street and witches and wizards lurked in and out of view. The wizard flipped up his collar and stuffed his hands in his pockets, hurrying down the street. A line of glowing storefronts drifted into view. He ducked into a shop—a tattoo parlor and slipped off his jacket before sitting down in a cracked leather chair. Vivi felt her whole body and mind hovering above him in the shop, watching. She willed herself to be patient. The last thing she wanted to do was watch some lowlife, nymph-chasing, Darklander-worshipping wizard get a tattoo, but she needed to trust her vision, trust the magic, to show her what she needed to see.