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  “What am I going to do, Boo?”

  He purred and plopped his fat body onto my tummy. I pet him as I looked up at the white popcorn finish on the ceiling. I imagined that I was back home – at my real home – with my mom and dad. They’d been gone for years. Sometimes it felt like forever. I missed them still.

  People always said that life got better. They said things like “time heals all wounds” and “one day, it won’t hurt so bad,” but that wasn’t true, was it? Things still hurt. I still missed the way my mom sang songs while she cooked spaghetti and the way my dad laughed as he danced in the kitchen with her. I missed the way they read me bedtime stories and how they used to count the stars with me. I missed everything about them.

  Mémère was a wonderful person. She was kind and brave and I was so incredibly lucky to have her, but…

  But she wasn’t my mom.

  And sometimes I just wanted my mom.

  Finally, I got up and started getting ready for bed. I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth and my hair. Then I came back, brushed Boo, and picked out my outfit for the next day. I double checked my work schedule and figured out what time I needed to get up in order to make it in for my shift. Then I closed my eyes.

  I tried to fall asleep, but I laid in bed thinking for what seemed like hours.

  I heard a crash, and Mémère let out a string of swear words. She would be working late into the night, I guessed, and I had no idea what she was doing down there.

  What was so important that she couldn’t tell me about it?

  And why did I have the feeling it wasn’t anything good?

  Chapter 2

  By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was tired from a weekend of cleaning dishes, making mochas, and dealing with customers who didn’t know when to quit. When the end of my shift came and went, I found Tony and told him I was going to head home for the day.

  “Hmm, I’m sorry, Maxine, but I’m really going to need you to stay.”

  “It’s Max, actually,” I told him for the millionth time. “And I was supposed to leave at one. It’s almost two. I told my grandmother I’d be back.” By the time I got home, it would be pushing three. This was a little ridiculous.

  “Grandmother?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Okay, so apparently, I’d never mentioned her before. I didn’t often disclose personal information about myself with people, especially not people from work. Not that anyone ever asked about my personal life. The thing about coworkers is that they always tend to be wrapped up in their own stuff. They don’t really have time to care about what anyone else is going through.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I was supposed to be back when my shift ended.”

  “Afraid Grandma’s going to have to wait,” he said, pointing to the front of the café where a line of customers had suddenly appeared. I looked around at the other baristas who were supposed to be working. We were supposed to be a team. If we operated like a group of people who cared about each other and trusted each other, this wouldn’t be a problem.

  And that’s when it hit me.

  We weren’t a team.

  We never had been.

  Tony didn’t like me, and I didn’t know why, but Grams had been telling me for ages that I needed to stand up for myself and face him like the brave warrior woman I am inside.

  I didn’t.

  Hadn’t.

  Maybe it was this misguided idea that we could use the money or the idea that standing down would somehow be embarrassing or the wrong choice, I don’t know, but I was tired. I was tired of feeling lonely and tired of feeling like nothing else mattered and most of all, I was tired of Tony being a jerk to me just because I didn’t have powers.

  “I already told you I wouldn’t be able to stay late today, Tony.” I’d reminded him at the start of my shift. Already I was going to be late. Again. I wasn’t about to make it later.

  “Maxine,” Tony said pointedly. “The line is almost to the door. Clear it and then you can go.”

  I looked at the door and suddenly, I realized what he was doing.

  He was forcing me to stay by giving me an arbitrary goal that was unreachable.

  It was a Tuesday afternoon. It was right after lunch, which meant that local business professionals were going to be scheduling coffee dates and meetings right here. People were going to come in for afternoon snacks. They were going to want drinks to go with their snacks.

  And the line was never, ever going to end. It would continue for hours until there was another rush, and then it would just keep going. Tony was the type of person who needed control in everything he did. Every interaction was designed to make sure that he came out on top. Right now, he wanted me to stay. I didn’t want to. More importantly, I didn’t think that I needed to.

  I turned back to Tony and I realized I had a choice to make.

  I could do what he asked. I could stay. I could listen like a good, obedient girl, and I could start making drinks until the line finally cleared.

  Or I could be a badass.

  I could be brave.

  I could stand up for myself for what could have possibly been the very first time – I’m not sure.

  When I framed the choice correctly, it seemed like a no-brainer. I didn’t want to waste my life being the type of person people just walked all over. Nobody wanted that. Not really. Believing in something and actually standing up for it, though, were two very different things. The reality was that the time was now or never. If I didn’t stand up to Tony today, I wasn’t ever going to.

  Is that something I could live with?

  The decision hit me hard in the gut. I realized what I needed to do, and how I needed to do it, and I closed my eyes and wished for the strength I needed to push through. Tony was going to be angry if I stood up to him, but I’d be mad at myself if I didn’t.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, standing up straighter. “I have to leave now.”

  I turned and started to grab my purse. That wasn’t so bad, was it? Only, it wasn’t that simple. Things never were. A hand gripped my arm painfully hard. I turned around, surprised. Tony had grabbed me and was gripping me tightly. He was standing, towering over me, and it took all of my energy not to cower and whimper at the invasion of my personal space. Suddenly, he seemed really huge, and I felt very small.

  “If you walk out that door,” he said. “Don’t bother coming back.”

  “You can’t fire me for leaving on time,” I told him.

  “I can do whatever I want,” he sneered. “My father owns this place. Don’t think he won’t back me. You’re nothing against me.”

  In that moment, something shifted inside of me. I realized this had always been about power. It had nothing to do with wanting to run a good café or caring about his customers. Nope. Tony cared about one thing and one thing only: his bottom line. He wanted to make money and impress his dad. He didn’t care who he hurt in the process.

  Well, my days of letting him give me a hard time were over.

  “Get lost, Tony,” I carefully plucked his fingers from my arm. I took a deep breath and then I looked up at him. I couldn’t tell whether he was more shocked or mad at my response to him, but I didn’t plan to stick around and find out. I turned and left, walking swiftly toward the door. I passed the line of customers and I heard a couple of them murmuring to themselves, but I didn’t care.

  “Hey, where’s she going?” I heard Maggie ask Tony, but the door was already closing behind me, and I didn’t stop to see what he was going to say. I was sure he’d find some sort of excuse for being the way he was. He’d probably say that I was an unreliable employee or that I just didn’t respect my customers enough.

  No matter.

  It was no matter at all.

  I walked swiftly down the road and turned around a corner. As soon as the café was out of sight, I allowed myself to relax for a few minutes. Just a few minutes. I needed to breathe and clear my head. The world around me was so hectic, so crazy, that for a minute, I just wanted to t
hink about everything that had happened.

  I’d done it.

  I had stood up for myself.

  Everything was going to be okay because I’d finally been brave. Oh, Gram was going to be so damn proud of me! In the face of adversary, I’d looked Tony in the eyes, and I’d told him to shove it. Wow. What a great feeling. I felt strong and, for the first time in my life, I really had felt powerful.

  Even without magic.

  I was standing in front of a little magic shop, thinking about what had just happened, when I heard the door open. A tiny woman came out and looked me up and down.

  “Can I help you, honey?” She asked, not unkindly.

  “I’m okay,” I shook my head. “Sorry. I just needed to stop for a moment.”

  “You’re welcome to stay as long as you like, darling,” she said, smiling with understanding.

  Her kindness surprised me. Perhaps it shouldn’t have, but as the resident non-magical person in the town, I was used to being treated weirdly or poorly or ignored altogether. Having someone acknowledge me and give me space was…nice.

  It was nice.

  Maybe Grams really was right all along. Maybe all it took was a little bit of self-assurance and a little bit of belief. Maybe when she urged me to stand up for myself, it wasn’t just because she thought that I needed a push. Maybe it was because she knew that when I believed in myself, I’d be different. Maybe she knew that people would respect me a little bit more.

  I glanced at the clock tower at the end of the road. It was big and gloomy-looking: the type of thing you’d see in a horror movie. The original magic users of the town had insisted on having it placed in the very center of the town to ensure they could always coordinate magic spells at the same time. Well, I wasn’t using it for spells, but I did see that I was running late and I was going to be in trouble if I didn’t hurry.

  What good would losing my job be if I still had to explain myself to Mémère? My grandmother was a patient woman, but everyone had their limits. I knew that if I didn’t hurry home, that if I didn’t get to her promptly, then quitting my job would have been for nothing, and I couldn’t have that.

  I turned and hurried down the road. My feet hit the pavement loudly. The sound seemed to echo despite the fact that no one else was paying any attention to me. The roads had cars and pedestrians and a couple of cyclists, but everyone was focused on themselves.

  Everyone was too busy, too wrapped up in their own lives, to notice a little human girl like me.

  I headed toward the edge of town. That’s where I could start making my way to the cabin where I lived with the only person who had ever looked out for me. When I reached the end of the street, I looked back over the little town.

  It really was picturesque.

  I had spent so much time here playing, learning, studying. I had basically grown up here. After my parents passed away, this town became my home. Still, I so often felt like a stranger in this place. It was unsettling. I knew the townspeople and they knew me, but there had always been a distance. There had always been a sort of unspoken understanding that I wasn’t one of them, that I would never be one of them.

  Today was different, though.

  Today was the day that everything changed.

  Today was the first day of the rest of my life, I told myself. Today meant that tomorrow, things were going to be different. I wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen next, but I knew that I had taken the first step today at work.

  That’s how everything started, after all.

  With a step.

  The first one was always the scariest. I knew that. Everyone knew that. If you could do it, though, if you could take that first dangerous step, then all of the other steps would seem easy in comparison.

  I had taken the first step today.

  I had stood up to Tony.

  I had been brave. I had been strong. I had been everything my grandmother had been urging me to be, but I knew that my journey wasn’t over yet. This really was only the beginning. Soon I would have to make a lot of decisions that I wasn’t quite ready to make. The reality was that I was 19 and I really couldn’t do magic. I needed to figure out what I was going to do with my life, and it wouldn’t be sitting around looking at my grandmother’s special magic book. No, what I really needed was some sort of job, something that I could do where I felt like I was making a difference in the universe.

  I hadn’t found that in the coffee shop.

  I hadn’t found what I was looking for.

  I learned an important skill while I was there. I learned many skills. Some of those were more useful than others, but now I needed to take those skills, those talents I had honed, and find a way to put them to use in another way, in a better way.

  The edge of town came and went, followed by a road that led in one direction. On the opposite side of the road was a small path almost completely hidden away by trees. That’s the path I took. It was guarded, closed off, and it would lead me toward the place where I lived with Grams.

  As I walked, I let my thoughts, my feelings, and my emotions run free. I let them consume me for just a little bit. I thought about so many different things. I thought about my parents and how much I missed them. I thought about how proud they would be if they could see me today, if they could see what I did back at the café. I thought about my grandmother and how lucky I really was to have her in my life, but most of all I thought of how strong and courageous I felt when I had stood up to Tony.

  I think I hesitated for so long because I thought something bad would happen to me if I rocked the boat. Maybe I thought that I would let people down. Maybe I thought standing up for myself was some sort of failure, but it wasn’t. None of it was. Standing up for myself, speaking boldly, being brave: these things made me feel so many new emotions that I didn’t even know I had.

  Now I had to figure out what to do with them.

  I walked down the path to my house. It wasn’t a far walk. I’d made it a million times before. The path crossed a couple of roads and then ended on a narrow street. I followed the street for awhile before turning onto another path. This one was the last little trail I’d take to reach my home. Although I knew the way very well, I took my time getting home. I probably should have ran, but it was hot, and I was tired, and…well, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to say to my grandmother.

  I couldn’t exactly walk in and say, “Surprise! I quit my job! Oh, just kidding. Actually, I was totally fired for disobeying my boss.”

  That wasn’t really the best way to launch into an explanation, now was it?

  But I could do something else. I could find a way to explain what had happened, but frame it in a positive light. Honestly, it did feel pretty positive, and part of me suspected that Grams would be thrilled. As she had said just the other day, Tony wasn’t any good for me. He was a bully, and nobody liked bullies.

  I rounded a corner and saw our home standing in the bright afternoon sunshine. It really had become a place where I was comfortable, where I was at ease. My grandmother had done everything in her power to transform this place from an ordinary cabin in the woods to something truly special: a home. She didn’t have to take me in all those years ago. She didn’t have to raise me or love me, but she did. She’d sacrificed more than I would ever understand, and she’d done it all for me. I smiled as I walked up to the house, ready to tell her what I’d done. Damn, she was going to be so proud.

  But then I reached the yard, and I stopped.

  I listened.

  Something felt…wrong.

  Something was wrong.

  What was it?

  I looked around, but there was no one here. It was just me, the driveway, and the cabin. Boo was nowhere to be seen, which wasn’t unusual, but everything else seemed the same as it always was.

  So why did I suddenly get the feeling that there was a problem?

  Why did I suddenly feel like my skin was itching?

  Why did I suddenly feel like my entire world
was about to shatter?

  I took a step toward the cabin, aware that something was wrong, but I still didn’t know what. I’d never had a feeling like this before. I wasn’t a witch, after all, not really. I didn’t get feelings the way my grandmother did. I didn’t get strange sensations or inklings. That wasn’t me. That had never been me. Somehow, though, I knew that something bad was about to happen.

  Then it hit me.

  The air.

  There was something wrong with the air.

  There was nothing visually out of sight, but that didn’t make any sense because the air distinctly smelled like danger, which is a stupid thought. Nobody could smell danger. Danger wasn’t something you could scent or touch or see. It was just something that you felt. Yet despite knowing how dumb it was to think that I could smell a feeling, I was very aware of the fact that danger had a very distinct smell. It was so tangible I could practically touch it.

  What was happening to me?

  I’d never smelled anything like this before.

  I’d always thought I was very aware of the emotions of people around me, but I’d never specifically smelled an emotion before.

  So why was this happening now?

  I stared at the cabin where I lived with my grandmother, trying to pinpoint exactly what the issue was. What was wrong? What had happened while I was at work? Why was I suddenly afraid to approach the cabin? We had lived there together for so long. I’d never felt any sort of nervousness before, so why now?

  What was different about today?

  I took a deep breath.

  “You can do this,” I said out loud to myself. “You’ve got this.” Sometimes a personal pep-talk was all anyone needed to get the courage they craved. Verbal affirmation, my grandmother always told me, was essential to personal growth. I’d made it a habit to encourage myself when I could, and I did so as I walked toward the house.

  My movements toward the cabin were slow, cautious. Each footstep was heavy. Every step took my full, concentrated effort. The birds weren’t chirping the way they normally were. I couldn’t hear rustling in the grass or the trees nearby. The woods seemed to be completely silent, which was more than unusual.