Page 61 of Black and White, Twice the Might

“Molly told me the boys’ father abused them with magic. Do we need to keep an eye out for him?” Alfred asks.

I go to answer, but Ernest gasps in outrage. “Really? He better not come here, or he’ll have to deal with me and probably the other true witches as well.”

Sly touches my arm. “He was dealt with. We’ll have no problems with him coming here.”

Alfred grins at him. “What did you do? I know I don’t know you that well, but I can’t see you not doing something to him.”

“You’d be right with that,” I say.

“I covered him in boils, made his hair fall out, cursed him so that everything he touched broke and stripped him of his magic. I gave the magic to Ebby before you ask, as it was from his line.”

“Nice. Temp and Nix are gonna love you. Nix hexed someone with boils once, and Temp threatened to cover Kean in boils as well,” Alfred tells him.

“Looks like I really do fit in here,” Sly says with a laugh.

We finishthe BBQ and clean up before heading off to the fair. None of us are expecting anything to happen because of redoing the wards, but this is dark magic we’re dealing with, so anything is possible.

We’re walking around the fair with Kean and Titus, laughing and joking and talking about their magical bunker.

“I think we were all shocked by how big that bunker is,” Titus says. “But it does mean our magical playtimes are fun.”

“I’ll say, if you had a lava dragon,” I say, grinning.

Titus laughs. “That was fun. I think all the town witches are enjoying playing with magic again. We witches can sometimes forget that playing with magic is fun and just use it when needed.”

“That’s true,” I say. “But then we’re taught to take magic seriously and only use it when needed.”

“Like against a lava dragon. Sal told us he made a glass dragon fly. I wish I‘d seen that,” Sly says.

“It was an impressive sight,” Kean replies.

We walk past one of the stalls I’ve not seen before and shudder.

Sly notices. “What’s wrong?” he asks as I stop walking.

Titus and Kean look at me.

I see Titus shake his head. “Boundary lines.”

“What?” Sly asks, looking confused.

Kean slaps his forehead. “Idiots. We’re a bunch of idiots. This farm crosses two boundaries.”

“And our protection only covers Cadenbury,” Titus adds. “We should find the others and tell them.”

I look around. “There is Ernest and some of the others,” I say, pointing.

“Come on,” Kean says, rushing away. We follow Kean. “Boundary lines,” Kean calls out as he gets closer.

“Yep, we just figured it out,” Temp replies.

“Witchlings gather round, and we’ll extend the wards. Sly, you can either join us or add yours separately.” Ernest says.

“I’ll do mine separately,” he replies, taking a step back.

Titus and I step closer, and we all hold hands.

“On the count of three,” Titus says. “One, two, three.”