Page 31 of Witches of Honeysuckle House

Florence nodded without hesitation. “She muffled my ears once. Said I was listening to something I shouldn’t have been.” She still remembered the sensation, even more she remembered the conversation. Her father claimed Linda had used her magic on him—to do what, Florence didn’t know. She’d leaned too far over the stairs, and her mother had seen her straightaway. She hadn’t been able to hear right for a week. “It wasn’t like the ringing though. I don’t think the magic works that way. She’d have to keep doing it.”

“Maybe she has,” Angela said.

“You could ask her,” Evie suggested, still not fully aware how the wrong question could send their mother over the edge.

“Maybe after my birthday,” Florence hedged.

Angela opened her bag and took out a small box that she handed to Florence.

“My mom helped me pick it out.”

Inside Florence found a necklace—a black leather cord with a small dark crystal hanging from it.

“Tourmaline!” Florence said. Though her mom sometimes used crystals in her spell work, Florence had learned more about them from Angela than she ever had from her mother. Angela had bought a guide about them at the book fair, and she’d been obsessed with them ever since.

Angela pulled a cord from around her own neck and fished a matching stone from beneath her shirt. Florence pulled hers over her head and tucked the crystal under her shirt to rest beside the half of the heart necklace she shared with Evie.

Beside them, Evie pouted. “What about me?”

Angela met Florence’s eyes with a grin and an arched eyebrow. Florence nodded.

“It’s not your birthday, is it?” Angela asked.

“No,” Evie said with a sigh and a matching frown.

“Don’t worry,” Angela said. “Mom got one for you anyway.” She pulled out another small box and Evie squealed with delight.

“I thought these might help with your mom,” Angela said. “And with the thing you never seem to be able to hear me talk about.”

“The thing that’s keeping you from coming over tomorrow,” Florence said. She worried at her lip. “Maybe there’s a way around it. Could you write it down?”

Angela pulled a notebook out of her bag and flipped to an empty page. She started to write, but when Florence looked over her shoulder, all she saw were smudge marks. She shook her head.

“Evie?” Florence asked.

Her little sister looked up from the necklace she hadn’t stopped turning over in her hands. “Hmm?”

“What does that say?” She pointed to the notebook.

Evie frowned. “Doesn’t say anything.”

“Let’s try something else,” Angela said. “It rhymes with …” she paused and tapped a finger against her lip. “Purse.”

“Nurse!” Evie suggested.

“You think my mom wouldn’t let me come over because of a nurse?” Angela asked.

“If it was a scary nurse,” Evie said. “It’s going to be Halloween soon.”

Florence pursed her lips, then, starting with the beginning of the alphabet, made her way through the consonants. “Burse … curse. Oh! Curse?”

“Yes!” Angela said.

“There’s a curse?” Florence asked. “At … my house?”

“On—”

Again with the ringing. Florence shook her head. “I think you might be right.”