Page 35 of How to Flirt with a Witch

My heart does a victory leap.Ah-ha!

Hazel clenches her fists under her jaw like she’s going to burst.

“Anything else leading you to believe the nutcracker is cursed?” Natalie asks. “Any more boils? Can you breathe okay?”

There’s the breathing question again.

I inhale deeply. No problems. “I’m fine. So you admit Lucy and Rebecca were cursed, then.”

Hazel’s mouth drops open. My face tingles. Did I just get an actual piece of information?

Natalie’s breath hits the phone. “Katie, you’re trying so hard to solve a mystery… but what if this is tough to figure out because you’re notmeantto figure it out?”

“Everything is meant to be figured out.”

“Spoken like a true scientist.”

The mysterious vial lingers in my mind’s eye. “Is that what you are? A scientist?”

“Depends how you define science.”

“What was in the vial?”

She pauses.

I chew my lip, waiting for her answer.

Hazel tugs me back to sit next to her. She leans close to the phone again and puts a hand over her mouth to stay silent.

In the background of wherever Natalie is, people talk and shout to each other. She moves away from the noise, her voice returning in a low purr. “Are you ever going to let this drop?”

“What do you think?”

“It would really be in your best interest to drop it.”

“Good to know.”

There’s a shout, a hiss, a bang, and Hazel and I both lean away from the phone as it crackles.

We exchange a bewildered look.

Hazel mouths,Where is she?

I shrug.

Someone shouts Natalie’s name.

“Coming!” she calls back, then returns with a note of urgency. “Okay. I’ve been thinking, and there are a few things I can explain. But I need you to do me a favor in return. Are you free to meet up tomorrow?”

Hazel grabs my arm as the words jolt through me like a lightning strike.

Meet up?In person?

“I—I can’t until after Christmas,” I say. “My family’s visiting. How about the 28th in the afternoon?”

It’s the day my family leaves. I can go straight to Natalie after saying bye at the airport.

“I’ll pick you up at your place at three.”