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“If you’re not really gay, then the spell should have no effect,” Megan pointed out.“So you have nothing to worry about.Come on, Avery—humor us.Prove how un-gay you are.”

Her words seemed to appeal to our coven mate’s new-found machismo.

“Fine!”He stepped into the circle and Megan closed it with the last of the salt.Avery held out both hands.“Do your worst, but hurry—I have to go pack.”

“Just be quiet and let me work,” Megan told him.She closed her eyes and I felt her power start to gather.It felt like lightning that was about to strike.“Hail to the guardians of the Watchtowers of the North,” she began.“Keepers of Wisdom and Guardians of Justice.I call upon thee now in my hour of need.”

“Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the East,” I said, remembering what I was supposed to say.

And so we went on.Kaitlyn called South and Griffon called North.Though none of us had Witch magic like Megan did, I could feel the power building and building.Clearly the spell was working.

When the circle was closed, Megan began to chant.

“Magic of an evil power

I bind thee now

In this Dark hour!”

I saw Avery twitch as she chanted.He put his fingers to his temples and began to rub fiercely, as though he was getting a headache.

“I bid thee leave my friend alone

I send you far away from home,”Megan continued.

Avery began rubbing harder.

“Ohhh!”he moaned.“Goddess Bright, ithurts!”

I looked anxiously at Megan and saw that Kaitlyn was doing the same.

Megan gave a small shake of her head and I realized this must be part of the spell.It reminded me a little of Fae magic, which—as Lachlan says—is transactional.When you do magic in the Fae Realm, you have to pay for it with pain.Clearly Avery was paying now.Or maybe it just hurt to have the spell stripped away—the way it had hurt me when Lachlan had stripped off the geas that had hidden my true identity for years.

“Depart from here, I say to thee!

You must depart and set him free!”

Megan’s voice was rising now, her hands lifted to the sky as she called on her power to help strip the conversion magic off of Avery.

“Ohhh!”he moaned and doubled over, holding his head.“Oh why…why?”

At that moment there was acrack!like thunder and someone else was standing on the athletic field, just outside the circle.My eyes grew wide when I saw who it was.

Avery’s father was standing there and his face was as dark as a thundercloud.I couldn’t believe he’d just appeared like that—travel spells are rare and they take immense power to perform.Avery hadn’t been kidding when he said his dad was a powerful Warlock.

“Stop!What are you doing to my son?”he shouted at Megan, who pretty much ignored him.

“Lady Bright and Lord of Night,”she went on chanting.

“Free my friend from his Dark Plight!”

“Stop that!Leave him alone!”Avery’s father tried to charge in and break the circle but Lachlan and Bran were there to stop him.He was a big man but Bran was a Fae warrior and Lachlan was strong too.Together they blocked his way so Megan could keep chanting.

Avery, meanwhile, was now kneeling on the ground, his head clutched in his hands.

“Too much!”he moaned.“So many memories!I can’t tell which ones are real!”

I felt sure then that the gay-away spell really had affected his memory.My guess was that it had given him a whole set of false remembrances in which he was straight.They had probably been laid right over his true memories.Now that the spell was slowly being peeled off him, he couldn’t tell which memories were real and which ones were false.