by Tess Lake
I heard Molly and Luce yell out something from behind us, and while I was very sorry that Jack had been hit with a spell and was now unconscious on the ground, I had to get downstairs to see Grandma straight away. With Aunt Cass behind me, I ran into the house and into the kitchen.
We nearly collided with the moms, who’d been rushing in the other direction and obviously felt the pull of magic from the sky and then from beneath their feet.
I heard Mom yell out something, but Aunt Cass and I dodged past them down the stairs and into the basement.
As we pushed the door, it was like we were opening it into a heavy wind. There was a great pressure from the other side. We forced our way into the basement.
My grandmother, Aunt Cass’s sister, has been frozen for at least twenty years in the same position: her hands out in front of her as though she had an invisible basketball between them, with an intense look of concentration on her face and a slight smile as though she was very happy with what she was doing. Now she was moving slowly, as though she was stuck in molasses. Aunt Cass and I were still running towards her, but we seemed frozen too. It was a struggle even to take a step as the magic around us thickened the air like glue.
“Grandma!” I called out. There came a sudden moment of perfect silence and Grandma was moving at normal speed, a real, live breathing person. She looked at Aunt Cass and me and then frowned.
“Not yet,” she said and then the moment vanished. Whatever was holding Aunt Cass and me back ceased to do so, and we collapsed together onto the floor. I stood up and helped Aunt Cass off the ground.
It was only then that I realized she was sobbing. Grandma April was back in the pose she’d been in for the last twenty years. Aunt Cass grabbed at her frozen clothing and wrapped her arms around her.
“April, April, don’t go, come back. I need you,” Aunt Cass sobbed. I’d never seen Aunt Cass like this, not in my entire life. I reached forward to touch her, and she finally let go of her sister and turned towards me.
“What did she mean, not yet?” I asked her.
“I don’t know,” Aunt Cass said and then hugged me. Somewhere in there, the moms and my cousins came rushing into the basement, all of them struck silent by the sight of Aunt Cass, Aunt Cass the indomitable, Aunt Cass the sarcastic, Aunt Cass the powerful, with her arms around me, sobbing all of her tears into my chest.
They may have been struck silent, but it didn’t stop all of them from rushing in to hug the both of us.
High above, the storm muttered to itself to see such love.
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In the next book, a series of thefts around Harlot Bay turn deadly…
xx Tess