Page 24 of Enchanted to Meet You

I gazed in awe at the teenaged girl sitting across from me as she dug into the last brownie.

“H-how did you do that?” I demanded breathlessly. I hadn’t seen a display of magic that powerful since—well, since Rosalie.

“I don’t know.” She gave another shrug and sipped from her water bottle. “It’s just a thing I’ve always been able to do. Gabby says I’ve got the ‘gift.’ I don’t know if that’s true, but whatever it is, I figure it will come in handy when I go to college. Keep the frat boys in their place!” She laughed.

It was fortunate that the bell rang just then, because I was too shocked to say anything more. I had, I knew, found West Harbor’s Bringer of Light.

“Well, I better get to class,” Esther said, scooping up her book,water bottle, and enormous black backpack. She looked at me curiously, probably because I was just sitting there in stunned silence. “But this was nice. We should do it again sometime.”

“Yes.” I roused myself. “We should. Tomorrow?”

Her eyes widened. “That seems a bit soon, but I guess if it fits your schedule—”

“It does!”

“Oh. Well, I do want to go to NYU to have the urban experience, but my parents say that place is stupid expensive. So I could really use that scholarship money.”

“Great.” I quickly pulled my cell phone—and something else—from my bag. “Let’s exchange numbers, and then we can figure out a time to meet again.”

“Oh.” She could not have looked less enthused. “Okay. Sure.”

It happened so quickly, she didn’t notice. As she was typing, I slipped the amethyst stone from my necklace into a side pocket of her backpack.

After everything that had happened with Billy, I’d sworn to myself never again to use magic on someone without their permission.

But this was different. This was to protect someone.

Did I feel bad that I was lying to a child? No. If Derrick was right, and catastrophe was coming to West Harbor, it would be worth it.

Besides, we lie to children all the time about things like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Then when they get older we tell them other lies, like that there’s no such thing as magic. What I was doing seemed mild in comparison, especially considering the magic I’d just witnessed Esther use with my own eyes.

After Esther thanked me politely for my time and the brownies and headed back to class, I noticed the boys follow her, murmuring amongst themselves in what I felt was a semi-worshipful manner. Surprisingly, Brayden in particular looked smitten.

My God. Esther hadn’t been sitting alone because she had no friends. She’d been sitting alone because she wanted some time to herself. Esther was a teenaged witch queen.

I packed up Dina’s now-empty brownie container and then, looking down at my phone, texted Derrick.

Hi, it’s Jess. Met with Esther. Pretty sure she’s our Bringer of Light. When/where do you want to meet to talk about it/plan next steps? Let me know.

I put my phone away, shouldered my bag, and headed toward the closest exit, which fortunately led straight out to the lot where my car was parked, since I could see through the skylight overhead that it looked like rain—which was odd because the sky had been a bright, cloudless blue when I’d walked into the school.

Then, just as I was about to reach the exit, my gaze fell on a folding table set up near the soda machines, with a sign hanging from it that screamed:

SIGN UP HERE FOR THE CHANCE

TO BE A WEST HARBOR HARVEST PRINCESS!

Get college scholarship $$$

for helping your hometown celebrate its Tricentennial!

I’d never heard of a Harvest Princess before. But I was so shocked at the regressive antifeminist sound of it that it took me a few seconds to notice the slim woman in the pale pink sweaterset and tweed slacks standing behind the table, staring at me, hatred in her ice-cold blue eyes:

Of course. Who else? Rosalie Hopkins.

Even worse, beside her stood a tall, broad-shouldered man in a crewneck sweater and khakis, looking everywhere but at my face: Billy Walker.

Derrick