Binx at an Antima meeting? “Not that I know of. Will Binx be safe? And Aysha and Mira, too?”
“My girls can take care of themselves.”
Ridley wasn’t so sure. There hadn’t been any confirmed reports of Antima violence in Sorrow Point—Penelope’s murder excepted, assuming that Colter or another Antima member had been responsible—but there was always a first time.
“… and last but not least, please tell Greta she should stop acting like a child and start returning my messages,” Div was saying. “Otherwise, perhaps she should reconsider her status as coven leader and hand the reins over to you. Anyway, I must go; Prada requires my attention. Good night.”
Div hung up. Ridley stared at her phone and then set it aside. What a strange, unsettling conversation. Also, how could Div suggest that Ridley take Greta’s place? Greta was a wonderful coven leader. It would be a huge betrayal even to think about replacing her.
Although frankly, just speaking to Div without Greta involved felt like a betrayal. The two of them were rivals. They apparently used to be friends and coven-mates, but that was ages ago. According to Binx, they may have had a romantic history, too… but again, that was ages ago.
No matter. Ridley would just tell Greta first thing in the morning about this conversation. Honesty was always the best policy. Or it was usually the best policy, anyway.
Her phone rang again. Had Div forgotten to tell her something?
“Hello?”
There was buzzing and crackling, then a blur of different voices.
“Hello? Div?”
Two beeps, then someone muttered, “Holy hemlock! How does this stupid thing work?”
Ridley sat up. “Aunt Viola? Is that you?”
“Oh, good, it’s working! Yes, it’s me. Hello, darling girl!”
“Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m at the airport. In Los Angeles. I think I accidentally packed my cell phone in my checked luggage, so I had to use a pay phone. Although you’re probably too young to know what that is.”
“Um, why are you in Los Angeles?”
“My connecting flight was delayed, so I’m cooling my heels, as they say. I’m on my third Jamba juice.”
Ridley rubbed her eyes. This conversation was very confusing.
“Your connecting flight to where?”
Aunt Viola laughed. “To visit you, of course! If nothing else goes wrong, I should be at your house sometime tomorrow.”
7
NEST OF VIPERS
In a situation, never assume you know all, or that you know nothing.
(FROM THE GOOD BOOK OF MAGIC AND MENTALISM BY CALLIXTA CROWE)
On Saturday afternoon, Binx hurried down Pleasant Street toward the community center. She’d overslept, which was understandable, given that she’d stayed up half the night trying to advance to Level 25 in Witchworld—she’d been this close—and also researching how to make cosplaying costumes. She liked to knit and crochet and was really good at both, but she didn’t own a sewing machine and couldn’t imagine making a whole entire outfit from scratch. She also couldn’t decide who she wanted to dress up as that wouldn’t make her seem too geeky. Someone from the Valkyrie Valley High Council? Or from the Dimensional Diamond Lair? Or from some other part of Witchworld? Honestly, though… the whole thing seemed silly and way too social and not a worthwhile use of her time.
Except that she’d promised ShadowKnight, and she didn’t want to bail on him. Besides, it was a net positive overall. She was finally going to meet him. And some of the other Libertas members, too… but mostly, she was looking forward to meeting him. They’d been through so much together, virtually, in the few short months they’d known each other.
As Binx waited for the WALK sign at the next intersection, she wondered if she should just make a U-turn and go home. Why did she have to play undercover at an Antima meeting? And with Aysha and Mira, no less? Aysha was so obnoxious and full of herself—and downright mean, when the mood struck her. Mira wasn’t much better, and she usually delivered the mean with an irritating who, me? smile.
Plus, there was the other thing later, at the Jessups’ house, providing security for Div while she mingled with a bunch of Antima/New Order VIPs. Aysha and Mira would be running security with her, too, which meant that Binx was basically stuck with them for the entire day. Blurg.
“Hey! Binx Kato!”
Speaking of… on the other side of the street, Aysha was standing in front of the Curious Cat, Greta’s dad’s used bookstore. She was dressed in a red tank top, jeans, and a black leather jacket, and she was holding a bag from Starbucks. Mira wasn’t with her.
Binx lifted her hand in an unenthusiastic wave as she crossed the street on the WALK sign. “What, no ‘Beatrix’?” she called out.
“Thought we could have a truce for a day. Figured we should stick together on account of, you know, that.” Aysha scrunched up her face and nodded in the direction of the community center, which was three doors down.
“Yeah. That. Can’t we just bail and tell Div we went?”
“LOL. As you probably know by now, Div doesn’t react well to insubordination.”
“True. So where’s Mira?”
“She has her ballet class, so she’s meeting us there.” Aysha reached into the Starbucks bag, pulled out two bottles of mocha Frappuccino, and offered one to Binx.
Binx quirked an eyebrow at her. “You… bought me a drink?”
“Truce for a day, remember?”
“Huh. Okay, well, thanks.”
“Sure.”
Binx had skipped breakfast plus lunch due to the oversleeping, so she was actually glad for the unexpected caffeine freebie. As she turned and started toward the community center, she uncapped the bottle and took a sip. “So have you ever… blech!”
She spit out the foul-tasting beverage. She held the bottle up to the light.
There were dead insects floating around in the liquid. Were they… mealworms?
“Are… you… SERIOUS?” Binx yelled at Aysha. She ran to the nearest garbage can and dumped the contents. She tried not to vomit as the mealworms wriggled and writhed in a Frappuccino puddle.
Aysha burst into hysterical laughter and slapped her thighs. “Yessss! You fell for it!”
“I thought we were having a truce for a day! Besides, I’m in your cov”—Binx corrected herself quickly; there were people walking by—“group now, jerk. I thought we were past the pranking phase.” Before Binx had joined Div’s crew, she and Aysha used spells to prank each other almost daily. Mira had been involved, too, but Aysha had been particularly, and annoyingly, skilled in that department.
“Who said we were past the pranking phase?” Aysha countered. She was laughing so hard now that tears rolled down her cheeks. “Oh my god, that was excellent! I should have made a TikTok! You should be impressed because I did that without, you know, shortcuts.”
The girl was obviously talking about magic.
“Well, I know a good shortcut to shut your ugly face.”
“Good one, Beatrix.”
Glaring, Binx dug through her backpack to find water, gum, mints… anything to take the taste of mealworm out of her mouth. Aysha handed Binx the second bottle of Frappuccino.
“This one is mealworm-free. I swear.”
“Like I believe you.”
“I can prove it. Watch.” Aysha uncapped the bottle and took a sip. “See? It’s totally normal. You can even do a quick, uh, confir… confirmation on it if you want.”
She’d almost said confirmo, the C-Squared spell to verify that an inanimate object was what it appeared to be. “Why, so you can go running to Div and tell her I broke her little rule?”
Aysha grinned and shrugged. “I would never.”
Binx scowled at her. Then she grabbed the Frappuccino bottle, studied it carefully, and took a tiny sip. It tasted fine. She took several larger sips.
“I’m ready. Let’s go. And be very, very afraid because I will get you back�
� when you least expect it.”
“Looking forward to it, Beatrix.”
Binx stifled a swear and continued down the sidewalk toward their destination. Aysha doubled her steps and caught up to her. They headed into the community center in stony silence.
Once inside, Binx stifled another swear. The lobby was jam-packed with people, most of them wearing Antima patches. She’d expected a crowd, but not this big of a crowd. Where had they all come from? Did sleepy little Sorrow Point really have this many active witch haters?
“Guess we should have come in our Antima costumes,” Aysha muttered under her breath.
“Yeah, guess so.”
Everyone was slowly funneling into the auditorium. Binx and Aysha followed and found three empty seats on the aisle. Binx did a quick head count; there seemed to be two hundred or so in attendance.
“Mira just texted. She’s on her way.” Aysha draped her leather jacket over the empty seat between herself and Binx.
“Super looking forward to this fun event,” Binx said sarcastically.
“Yeah, me too.”
A few minutes later, Orion Kong stepped onto the stage and grabbed the microphone, which elicited clapping and cheering. Binx shifted nervously in her seat. The awful meeting was beginning. For some random reason, she noticed that Orion had switched out his blue highlights for orange ones. She appreciated highlights as much as anyone—currently, she was sporting several different shades of purple—but Orion looked both ridiculous and frightening with his flame-colored buzz cut and all-black outfit complete with not one, not two, but three Antima patches.
He raised a hand to silence the crowd. Wait… was that an Antima symbol inked on his right forearm? Ugh.
“Hello, welcome! I want to thank you all for giving up part of your Saturday to be here.”
Behind him, half a dozen Antima members walked onto the stage and sat down on metal folding chairs. Three of them were also from the high school—Axel Ngata, Brandon Fiske, and Francisco Lopez. Binx didn’t recognize the others—two girls and a guy.
“Hey.” Mira appeared and slid into the seat between Binx and Aysha as she set her gym bag on the floor. Her long brown hair was scrunched up in a bun, and she wore a fuzzy black sweater, denim cutoffs, and black leg warmers over faded pink tights. “Did I miss anything?” she whispered.
“Just started,” Aysha whispered back.
“This is our third meeting as a group,” Orion was saying to the crowd. “In those few short weeks, we’ve gone from a half a dozen folks to this.” He swept his arm in a wide arc, and there was more clapping and cheering. “I see a lot of new faces here today. Welcome.” His gaze seemed to land briefly on Binx, Aysha, and Mira. Gross.
“And today, I want to welcome a very special guest.” Orion pointed to a dark-haired man sitting in the front row.
The man stood up, turned, and waved to the audience.
Mira grabbed Aysha’s wrist.
“Is that—” Aysha began.
“Ohmigod, that’s my dad. What is he doing here?”
Mira’s dad? Binx frowned. Why is he hanging out at a hate-group meeting?
“This is Councilman Neal Jahani, and, as you probably all know, he’s running for mayor. Councilman Jahani, why don’t you come up here and say a few words?” Orion called out.
“Thanks. Love to.”
Mr. Jahani strolled onto the stage, and Orion handed him the mic. Mira was still death-gripping Aysha’s wrist.
“Thanks, Orion. Hey, everyone. I’m Neal Jahani, and I have the privilege of being one of your councilmen. During these past four years, I’ve been responsible for spearheading many important efforts, including the rec-center expansion, low-interest loans for small businesses, and faster approvals for new construction. But there’s so much more that I want to do for our great community, which is why I decided to run for mayor.” His expression grew serious. “I think it’s safe to say that our current mayor is out of touch with these times. In fact, and some of you may know this already, but she’s been working behind the scenes to turn Sorrow Point into a sanctuary city for witches.”
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Binx hadn’t been aware of the sanctuary city thing.
Good for Mayor Lovejoy. Except that Mr. Jahani—and the Antima horde—would no doubt make sure any such plan was DOA.
“I think I speak for everyone here when I say, witches don’t belong here,” Mr. Jahani went on, and Mira clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a cry. “Not in Sorrow Point, not in Washington, not in our country. There are a million reasons for this, but I’ll give you just one. Their use of magic gives them an unfair, not to mention unnatural, advantage over the rest of us humans. A witch could use magic to take your job away from you”—Mr. Jahani pointed to a middle-aged man in the front row—“and a witch could use magic to steal your hard-earned money from your bank account”—he pointed to a woman to his left—“and a witch could use magic to cheat off your test at school, the one you studied so hard for and they didn’t”—he pointed to a couple of high school students. “I say, this must end. Here. Now. We must make witches give up their powers and live like the rest of us. And any witches who are unwilling to comply will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. I’ll make sure of it.”
Now Mira was visibly shaking and gritting her teeth to fight back tears. Binx felt sorry for the girl for the first time in, well, ever. She patted Mira’s shoulder, not knowing what else to do; she wasn’t used to comforting people.
This was bad. Really bad. Binx was aware Mr. Jessup and Mr. Jahani were friends—in fact, Mr. Jessup had thrown a big fundraising party for Mr. Jahani’s mayoral campaign just last month—and Mr. Jessup was a big ole witch hater, which meant he wouldn’t be supporting someone who was explicitly pro-witch. But… this?
“Thanks, everyone. Please make your voices heard. Please vote for me on November seventh. And if you need a ride to the polls, we have a team of volunteers who would be happy to drive you.”
“Thank you, Councilman Jahani.” Orion took the mic back and turned his attention back to the audience. “If anyone would like to join Councilman Jahani’s campaign, please come see me after the meeting! Right now, we could use more people to go door-to-door, make phone calls, send texts, and distribute lawn signs.”
We? So Orion was a member of Mr. Jahani’s campaign, then? Him and how many other Antima members?
“I need to get out of here,” Mira whispered to Binx and Aysha.
“I know, sweetie, but if we leave now, we might look suspicious,” Aysha pointed out.
“I guess.” Mira slumped down in her seat. “I’m getting a new dad.”
Binx leaned over. “Does he know you’re a… um…”
“No! And after this, I will never, ever tell him. Ever.”
Mira dug through her bag, extracted a pair of earbuds, and pushed them into her ears. Orion and the others on the stage proceeded to give various updates about Antima business. Kind of like the Homecoming Committee, except this committee was evil whereas the other one was just stupid. Binx ticked through a mental list of items they would report back to Div later. Huge attendance. Young, old, middle. Way too many Antima patches. Orion was the leader, or a leader. Brandon, Axel, and Francisco from school were also there. And worst of all, Mira’s dad was running on an anti-witch platform and recruiting Antima members to work on his campaign.
“Now can we go?” Mira asked Aysha as soon as Orion had called the meeting to a close.
Aysha nodded, and the three girls rose quickly to their feet. But before they could reach the exit, Mr. Jahani sauntered up to them.
“Mira, honey, I didn’t know you were coming to this!” he said, reaching over to hug her.
Mira stiffened and pulled away. “Some kids at school mentioned it.”
“Excellent, that’s great. Nice to see you, Aysha.” Mr. Jahani pivoted toward Binx and thrust out his hand. “And you are…?”
“Binx.” She shook his hand reluctantly.
“Pleased to meet you, Binx. I must say, it’s a terrific surprise seeing you girls at this gathering. It’s so wonderful that your generation is getting involved in these important social issues. Gives me hope.”
Important social issues. Binx squeezed her fists. She marveled at Mira’s ability to not have a meltdown in the aisle, because she herself was this close.
Fortunately, Aysha saved the moment. “Sure, uh-huh. ‘Our generation is the future’ and all that. We have to run now; we’re meeting up with some friends at the library for this group project thing that’s due on Monday,” she fibbed. “Bye, Mr. Jahani!”
“Bye, girls! Mira, I’ll see you at home later.”
“Yup.” Mira pushed her backpack onto her shoulder and made a beeline for the exit. Binx and Aysha rushed after her.
Once on the sidewalk, Mira stopped and turned to the other girls. Tears shimmered in her eyes, and her cheeks were flushed with anger. “I knew he wasn’t, like, pro-witch. When Penelope died, he made a stupid remark about teens who make bad choices and break the law or whatever. But this?”
The tears were pouring down her face now. Aysha reached over and hugged her tightly. Binx was not the hugging type, but she felt like she should do something, and so she patted Mira’s shoulder again. Binx’s own father might be an absentee dad who’d let her down more than once. And she didn’t trust him—or her mom—enough to tell them about her own witch identity. But she knew her parents would never participate in an anti-magic hate movement… or any hate movement.
Oh, what the heck. Binx reached over and gave Mira an awkward hug.
“We’re gonna fix this,” she said fiercely.
She had no idea how. But she meant it.
8
THE INNER SANCTUM
In battle, learn to cloak your emotions, except when vulnerability can be used to your advantage.
(FROM THE GOOD BOOK OF MAGIC AND MENTALISM BY CALLIXTA CROWE)
Div wasn’t sure whether to act excited or nervous about her first New Order meeting, which was really her first anti-magic meeting of any kind. As she followed Hunter to the family library—she was early and he had things to take care of, so she would hang out there for a bit—she tried to wear both emotions on her face like the eager, supportive girlfriend she was pretending to be. “Excited” and “nervous” didn’t begin to cover her true feelings, though. Her pulse thrummed and adrenaline coursed through her veins… honestly, she felt as though she were preparing to go into battle.
Witch Rising Page 7