Besides, being out of the cramped house with its silly decorations was a good thing. Cecily found the cool night air and the roaring ocean clarified her thinking. For instance, she’d stopped reveling in the shame this would cause Kathleen and worrying about how Mom would react when she found out about the unauthorized use of her Book of Shadows. Instead Cecily was thinking about Scott.
What will the end of the enchantment be like for him? she wondered. The Book of Shadows didn’t say. Will he simply not care much about Kathleen anymore, and wonder what he ever saw in her? Or will it be more dramatic than that? And if it is dramatic, will he realize he’s been enchanted?
Cecily had been the subject of some harmless enchantments a few times; that was a standard part of a witch’s education, finding out how it felt. When the enchantment broke, the feeling was unmistakable: as sudden and powerful as the drop in a roller coaster after it had climbed a hill. You came smashing down to earth, and you knew that something unnatural had just happened to you.
Even somebody who had never heard of the Craft might well understand that they’d been the subject of magic. That was one reason enchantments were to be used sparingly, if at all.
If Scott realized the truth, then what?
Probably there was an answer lurking deep within the pages of Mom’s Book of Shadows, but Cecily wasn’t going to look for it. In her heart she had always believed that men could hear and accept the truth about witchcraft. (Maybe not all men—but all women couldn’t hear it either, could they?) Somehow her mother could live with lying to her father forever and ever, but Cecily had never wanted that for herself.
The guy of her dreams—the chef who wanted to open a restaurant with her—he would know not only that Cecily practiced the Craft, but would also see how amazing it was. He would be proud of her power. He would support her no matter what.
Could Scott actually be that guy?
Her heart thumped crazily in her chest. One way or another Cecily was going to find out.
The next morning wasn’t sunny exactly, but at least it wasn’t raining. Despite the chill in the air and the thick cloud cover, pretty much everyone headed to the beach. Theo ran down the hallway in his swim trunks and neon green flippers, yelling, “Cecily! You have to go swimming with us!”
“I’ll catch up,” Cecily promised as she shimmied into her black bikini. “It won’t be long.”
She stared at herself in the mirror. Had she once been afraid of something as little as wearing a swimsuit? Compared to what was at stake today that seemed so small.
Besides—she looked good.
Cecily sauntered out of her room, acting casual, with a large beach towel folded over one arm in such a way that it disguised what she was holding in her hand: the spray bottle, which was filled with an all but complete elixir for the disenchantment spell.
Already the house was almost empty—except for Scott, who was rubbing sunblock on his shoulders. It took all Cecily’s self-control not to ask him if he needed help. “Hey,” he said. “Kathleen and I are about to hit the beach. Want to join us?”
“She doesn’t want to!” Kathleen yelled from her room.
Cecily smiled. “I think it’s a little cold for a dip in the ocean, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but there’s no way I’m spending a week on the Outer Banks without going swimming once,” Scott said. He glanced at her bikini—just a glance—but it was encouraging.
Casually, as if the idea had only just occurred to her, Cecily said, “Hey, what about the hot tub on the deck? Warm water, Jacuzzi jets—way better than freezing our butts off in the surf.”
Scott had a slow, warm smile that made her feel sort of gooey inside. “You know, that sounds great.”
“You and Kathleen get comfortable. I have to check on Theo, but I’ll stop by the hot tub on my way out.”
Cauldron—check.
She walked toward the wet bar but glanced over her shoulder to see Scott headed toward the deck. Never before had she realized even a guy’s back could be sexy.
Not that Kathleen wasn’t one hundred percent evil to do this to you, she thought, but I do at least get her motivation.
Once they were outside Cecily got to work. Corkscrews looked simple enough to use, but she’d never attempted to handle one before, so opening the red wine took much longer than she’d planned. The delay made the process even more suspenseful. If her mother walked in and saw Cecily uncorking a bottle of booze, she wouldn’t get a chance to explain why she really needed it. She wouldn’t survive that long.
Finally the cork slid loose with a pop. The red wine smelled sort of stinky to Cecily—maybe this stuff had gone to vinegar. Probably it wouldn’t matter for the spell, though.
She poured a thin stream of wine into the spray bottle. A wisp of periwinkle blue smoke drifted upward, glittering and eerie.
The smoke needed to be darker than that—the magic, more powerful.
With a shaky hand Cecily took a glass tumbler from the bar and held it over the sink. She was scared now, and she told herself that it was stupid to be scared of pain. Did she want to be like Theo, whining and crying before he got a shot at the pediatrician’s?
But it wasn’t the prospect of pain that frightened her. It was the reality of performing this spell—by far the most powerful Cecily had ever attempted on her own. She had no idea what would happen if she got it wrong, but she strongly suspected it wouldn’t be good.
Enough, she told herself sternly. Turning her face to protect her eyes, Cecily threw the glass into the sink. It shattered with a crash, and she felt a sharp jab against her palm. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to actually slice her skin open.
Cecily added a few small shards of glass to the mix, then held the open spray bottle beneath her trembling hand and a few drops of her blood fell inside. With each drop the smoke puffed again, darkening into deeper blue, then into purple, and finally almost into black. That looked more like it.
Showtime.
She strode onto the deck, hoping she looked confident. Kathleen and Scott sat alone in the hot tub, and Kathleen had hooked her legs over his, as though she were about to sit in his lap. When Cecily stepped out, Kathleen looked over with a scowl. “Uh, don’t you need to play with your baby brother or something?”
“Soon,” Cecily said. “Not now.”
Scott grinned and gestured toward the spray bottle. “What’s that?”
A gust of cool wind tossed Cecily’s hair and made her shiver. “Your freedom.”
Kathleen’s eyes opened wide. She knew. It was now or never.
Whispering the incantation, Cecily yanked off the top of the spray bottle and dumped the contents into the hot tub.
The currents caught it, creating a spiral of blue-black that widened every second. Instead of diluting within the water the elixir darkened the contents of the hot tub until it looked as if Scott and Kathleen were sitting in ink. Thick smoke began bubbling at the surface and tumbling over the sides. The air turned sulfuric, and Cecily felt as if she could hardly breathe.
“What the—” Scott tried to push himself out of the Jacuzzi, but he didn’t make it, because that was when everything exploded.
Not for real, with bits of tub and deck and Kathleen spraying everywhere. But it felt like an explosion anyway. A shock wave smashed outward, shaking them all and thundering like a sonic boom. Little arcs of static electricity vaulted through the air. Kathleen started screaming, and Cecily didn’t blame her.
Then it was over. Scott slumped down in the tub as if unconscious, but Cecily jumped forward to catch his head. “Scott?” Her voice shook. “Scott, are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He sat upright, blinking slowly. His expression looked dazed. “What was that?”
“You don’t need to know!” Kathleen clambered out of the hot tub. Her whole body shook, and some of her hair literally stood on end from the energy in the air. “Scott, come on.”
Cecily said, “He’s not going anywhere with you.”
“Who are you to say? Scott, come with me!” Kathleen held a hand out to him, but he didn’t budge.
His expression still looked dazed. No, Cecily thought the correct word was “vacant.” Like there was nobody home. Had she hurt him?
Then the Jacuzzi jets came on, and Scott grinned a lazy, stupid sort of smile that Cecily had never seen before. “Dude, hot tubs crack me up. You know why?”
Cecily cocked her head. “Uh, no?”
He said, “Because when the jets make the bubbles, it’s like somebody farted.”
“Are you sure you feel okay?” Cecily said. “Because you—you don’t sound like yourself.”
Scott laughed the kind of laugh that sounded like a donkey’s bray. “Guess what? I’m farting right now! And you can’t tell!”
Cecily stumbled away from the hot tub, backing toward the other side of the deck. Something was wrong with him; he wasn’t at all the kind of person he’d been before. Had she done something wrong when she broke the enchantment? Had she hurt Scott?
Kathleen wiped angry tears from her cheeks. “You ruined him!”
The truth hit Cecily. “You didn’t just make him like you. The enchantment altered his personality too, so he’d be the perfect guy for you.” Or for me, she thought, remembering how Scott had seemed so ideal when he was with her—and how his personality had seemed to change the moment Kathleen walked into the room. Why hadn’t she seen it before? The real Scott was this guy: slack-jawed, stupid, and completely unconcerned with anything around him. He wasn’t even paying any attention to their conversation.
“If you had the guts to borrow your mom’s Book of Shadows, you’d know how to do real magic too,” Kathleen jeered. She advanced upon Cecily, who pressed her back against the deck railing. What other evil spells could Kathleen have learned? What else might she be willing to do? Cecily wanted to think she could defend herself, but more than that she wanted to run for help. Yet Kathleen stood between her and any escape. “Scott was perfect, and he can be perfect again, because you’re about to get out of my way.”