Page 57 of Clearly Charmed

My feet stayed frozen to the ground. If I looked at him, I was sure he’d see the truth written across the lines of my face.

The low melody of a Fleetwood Mac song floated out of the windows. Lia must have lost a bet. She never let Aster pick the music that filled the house while they did the dishes.

I appreciated the distraction, because it reminded me where my allegiance needed to be. That there could no longer be a flirtation between Bryce and me. No more heated moments where we ended up half-dressed with our mouths slick from the taste of each other. No… This all had to stop.

‘Goodnight, Bryce.’

Like he heard the resolve in my voice, he took a slow stroll to his car.

I stayed in the driveway for a few more minutes, pulling in a lungful of clean mountain air, hoping the sudden knots stretching against my shoulders would loosen with each and every breath.

This wasn’t hiding from my family. Avoiding the inevitable interrogation that was coming. It was calming the furious pound of my heart, because I’d have to admit how drawn I was to Bryce. That he knew about the journal and my poor attempt to hide it, which only made him more curious about what was written inside.

As the music grew louder, I headed for the front door. When I reached the top of the stairs, Aster was dancing around, swinging a dish towel above her head, and crooning about being taken by the sky. I cleared my throat, and Lia ran to her phone to close her music app.

Clo stood at the wall of windows facing the dark lake. The tension in the air was thicker than the late fall fog that hung like a ghost over the water.

‘He likes you.’ Clo broke the silence. ‘And that terrifies the hell out of you.’

‘Shouldn’t it?’ I said.

‘Yes, it should,’ Lia spat out from her spot at the sink. ‘You know as well as I do what happened the last time a reporter wrote a story about this town. And now’ – she flapped her arms out to the cleared table – ‘you and Clo are inviting a journalist, whose magazine has half a million copies in circulation, into our home like some fucking honored guest! It’s dumb and dangerous.’

‘Lee Lee,’ Aster said quietly. ‘It’s not that bad. He seemed nice.’

‘Nice?’ Lia closed her eyes as if gathering all her patience. ‘I love you, Ast, but you don’t remember what happened the last time a reporter was here. The chaos it caused.’ She pulled in another wobbly breath. ‘For our grandmother and Dani.’

Aster’s eyes were pained. ‘Tell me then so I can understand.’

A stream of memories rushed back to me like the world was tilting beneath my feet. I’d pushed that episode to the far back of my brain. Locked it away so it couldn’t hurt me anymore. I’d spent most of my life trying to protect Aster, but she was a grown woman now. She needed to know what we’d endured the last time an article was written about this town and its history of magic. How with no more than six paragraphs, a single journalist turned most of the town against us.

I walked to the corner of Grandpa Beau’s favorite chair and put my hand against it, needing to steady myself. Feel his strength.

‘The year I entered middle school, a reporter from Denver came to town. He started asking all sorts of weird questions about witchcraft. Most of the locals blew him off until he started showing pictures around town of salt circles he’d found in the woods not more than five hundred yards from this house. Pools of what looked like blood in the dirt.’

Aster’s mouth hung open.

‘This town has always leaned into its supposed magical history, but it’s been more subtle, unspoken, not something straight out of a horror film.’

Aster nodded along.

‘The town, and the tourists, panicked, especially since the article mentioned the Perkins line and the rumors about Ambrosia and her mother. I got bullied for weeks at school because of it.’

I looked at Clo, whose face gave nothing away. ‘People left hideous messages in our mailbox. Whispered behind our backs in town. The panic went on for nearly a month until the sheriff discovered the reporter had staged the blood pools and salt circles just to get a national story. Even with that truth, it took years for people to stop whispering “witch” under their breaths whenever Clo or I walked by.’

‘Holy crap,’ Aster said with a sigh. ‘Why did you never tell me any of this?’

‘Because you were young. There was no need to scare you,’ I said.

‘And because Dani is doing what she always does. Protecting us from the bad shit she thinks we can’t handle,’ Lia added.

‘That’s not true,’ I protested.

‘It is,’ Lia shot back. ‘Our entire lives, you’ve shielded us from any kind of worry. When Belladonna shows up, you become this wall that tries to insulate us from her callous actions. But guess what, Dani? You can’t protect us from the realities of life. And this Bryce guy, he can act all charming at the table. Shoot a thousand flirty looks and smiles at you.’ The pointed stare she gave me warned we’d sucked at hiding our feelings. ‘But he’s determined to write an article about this town and our history, and I have a feeling it’s going to be a thousand times worse than what the reporter from Denver did to us.’

‘Lia.’ Clo used her gentle voice. ‘You can’t know that.’

‘I can’t? Bad shit happens all the time in this world. We may think we can stop it, but we can’t. And the three of you pretending like you can keep this guy from writing about us, making up facts to get clicks and likes, is delusional.’ She swiped her phone off the counter, grabbed her coat from the peg near the stairs and left without a goodbye.