Page 100 of Jingle Spells

Finally, Luna sat heavily on a fallen log, sweat beading her forehead despite the winter chill. “I’m out of ideas,” she admitted. “I keep thinking there’s one more thing . . . or maybe two? But I can’t remember now. Everything I can remember, I tried . . . But it’s not enough.”

Delilah plonked down beside her sister, the weight of their failure pressing down on them both. “So that’s it, then. We’re stuck in a perfect trap.”

Scarlett joined them on the log. “We need magic to break the wards, but we can’t get our magic back until we break the wards.”

“Catch-22.” Luna sighed.

Jerusha nodded grimly. “And without our magic, we don’t have enough power to use the portal spell to move the . . . you know, the thing. The big thing.”

“Casino,” Luna whispered gently.

“Right, right . . .”

“I can’t believe this,” Delilah said bitterly. “I gave up Jasper for nothing. I sent him away, and we’re no better off than before.”

No one argued. What could they say? It was the truth, plain and simple. The portal spell had been their last, best hope; a huge sacrifice had been made to obtain it, and it may as well have been an onion dip recipe.

“Maybe we could try again tomorrow,” Aphra suggested without much conviction. “Luna could rest, recharge . . .”

“It won’t make a difference,” Luna said, shaking her head. “The wards are too strong, too complex. This isn’t the work of a few stage magicians playing at real power. This is old magic, the kind that reshapes reality.”

The same kind of magic Agnes Bartlett had used to move an entire barn across space and time, Delilah thought. The kind of magic that had created Oak Haven in the first place. “It’s weird, isn’t it,” she said aloud. “Our whole lives everybody told us that the magicians were a joke. Turns out they aren’t that much different from us.”

“They are hugely different!” Jerusha said fiercely. “Don’t you ever speak like that again. We would never treat them this way. We’d never treat anyone this way.”

“Anyway, we’re screwed.” Scarlett stood up, brushing off the back of her coat. “Mama’s trapped in some interdimensional limbo, we’re powerless, and the town is being turned into an increasingly tacky tourist trap with every minute that ticks by. I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a drink. Or twelve.”

No one argued with that assessment either.

The pub was mercifully empty of tourists in the late afternoon. Dayo, bless her, took one look at their faces and immediately started lining up shots.

“That bad, huh?” she asked, sliding glasses across the bar.

“And then some,” Scarlett replied. “We’re officially out of options.”

“Did something happen with . . . you know?” Dayo’s eyes flickered to Delilah.

“It’s done,” Delilah said flatly. “He’s gone. And it was for nothing.”

The liquor burned as it went down her throat, a welcome distraction from the hollow feeling in her chest. She pushed her glass forward for a refill.

“I’m really sorry,” Dayo said, pouring generously. “About all of it.”

“That makes all of us.”

The witches claimed a table in the corner, away from the windows where tourists occasionally peered in with camera phones at the ready. The afternoon stretched into early evening, marked by rounds of drinks and increasingly despondent conversation.

“You know what I don’t understand?” Luna said, gesturing with her glass. “How the magicians got so powerful. All of a sudden, they’ve got magic that rivals what our ancestors could do?”

“They’ve been planning this for years,” Aphra pointed out. “Ever since their last attempt failed.”

“But where did they learn it?” Luna pressed. “That kind of power doesn’t just appear overnight. I’ve traveled all over, studied with some of the most powerful magical practitioners in the world. Even they couldn’t pull off what these magicians are doing.”

“Maybe they found a wellspring,” Jerusha suggested. “An untapped source of magic.”

“Or maybe they’re channeling power from somewhere else,” Scarlett added, her eyes unfocused as she contemplated her drink. “Like, siphoning it off.”

“From where, though?” Delilah asked. “Their headquarters in Vegas? Come on.”