Page 24 of How to Flirt with a Witch

As it dissipates, I take my hands away from my ears to cover my mouth, trying to keep the dust out. It’s on my lips, bitter and dry. I’m cold, trembling, my breaths fast and shallow—but as Natalie’s scent mixes with the acrid smoke, a sense of safety wraps around me like a blanket.

I can’t believe she protected me like that. Her back was totally exposed.

Where the doll was, there’s a black, jagged crater in the bed, as if a mine detonated.

I’m going to need a new mattress.

The rest of my room is in shambles, looking like a home demolition in progress.

I try to ask Natalie if she’s okay but can’t find my voice, terror constricting my airway. Loose strands of her hair tickle my face, and she’sso close that her breath brushes over my lips, cool and minty. The candles have extinguished, their light replaced by the soft glow from the street lamps outside. It bathes her face in shadows, accentuating her jawline, her narrowed gaze, her pinched brow. She’s furious.

“What were youthinking?” she growls.

“I—I didn’t know it would do that.” My voice quakes, and I swallow hard, clinging to the comfort of having her between me and the wreckage.

But she steps away, leaving a chill where her body used to be. Fear rushes back, and I fold my arms over my stomach.

She turns on the bedroom light, and in the sudden brightness, I blink, my eyes stinging.

Three vibrant purple butterflies rise from the crater, spiraling in a hypnotic dance before flying out the open window. Another butterfly circles where the hawk was, and there’s another that I can only assume was the massive spider—or has taken the place of the spider? Animals don’t morph into butterflies. That’s impossible.

Their wings flap in chaotic blurs, and then they dart through the window too, disappearing into the blackness and leaving me wondering if they were just a hallucination.

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” ends, then starts over. I grab my phone and hit pause, and a ringing silence descends in place of the power ballad.

I gulp down air, willing my hands to stop shaking. It’s over. Rebecca is gone.

Natalie walks back to me, her expression smoldering. “You saw how the cat was. Why would you want another…?” she grinds her teeth, leaving me to wonder how that sentence is supposed to end.

“Anotherwhat?” My voice is still weak. “I don’t understand what Lucy and an old doll have in common.”

“So you bought the doll to try and figure it out?”

I feel small as I look up at her. “I got it because I knew that was how I could see you again.”

The crease between her eyebrows softens. She searches my face. “And you wanted to see me again because…”

“The kitten,” I say quickly, heat flooding my face. “Because of Lucy. Not like—not like in a stalker way, like I’m trying to force you to see me—” My tongue is suddenly too big, tripping me into silence.

Oh, God, put me out of my misery.

The corner of Natalie’s mouth twitches for the briefest moment, revealing a dimple, and then her scowl returns. She steps back. “If you’re hoping I’ll give you back your old cat, you’re fighting a losing battle.”

“Why? What did you do with her?” My focus pulls to the crater in my bed, nausea overcoming me. “Did you dump a vial on her and make her melt—”

“No, I didn’t melt a kitten! Jesus Christ.” She lets out an exasperated growl, turning away. “That cat wasn’t aher. It wasn’t even acat.That—” She points to Not-Lucy, who’s returned to watch us curiously from the doorway. “Thatis a cat. That’s the one you were meant to have. Not that other thing.”

“What do you mean, she wasn’t a cat?” My words come out roughly, hurting my throat. My grip on reality is slipping away, leaving me grasping at nothing.

She runs both hands over her head, raising her arms in a way that shows off the curve of her waist beneath the open blazer. “Katie…”

My brain stalls, pausing my bewilderment over everything that just happened. It’s the first time she’s called me that instead ofMiss Alexander, and I like the sound of it coming from her lips.

When she drops her arms, her expression softens. “I can’t explain the way you want me to.”

I clench my teeth, frustration rising. None of this makes sense, but what choice do I have but to accept it?

She must see my helpless confusion because her shoulders sag. She glances between me and the kitten, exhaling slowly. “What’s her name?”