Dime Store Magic

Victoria hesitated.

I hurried on. 'Give me three days. After that, I promise you won't hear anything more about witches in East Falls.'

After a moment, Victoria gave a curt nod. 'Three days.'

'There's just one other thing. And I'm telling you, not because I believe it, but because I don't want you to hear it from someone else. They say Savannah's father is a sorcerer.'

'Wouldn't surprise me. There is definitely something wrong with the girl.'

'There is nothing-' I began, then cut myself short. 'But it's not possible, is it? For a witch and a sorcerer to have a child?'

'How should I know?' Victoria said.

As Victoria snapped at me, I thought of my mother, how she would have responded. No matter how many questions I asked, or how silly they seemed, she always found the time to answer, or to find an answer. I stifled the sharp pang of grief and pushed on.

'Have you ever heard of it happening?' I asked.

'Of course not. Coven witches would never do such a thing. But I'd believe it of Eve Levine. You remember Eve, Therese. She'd do such a thing simply because it was unnatural.'

'What does Savannah say?' Therese asked.

'She has no idea who her father is. I haven't mentioned the paternity suit. She thinks Leah's the one suing for custody.'

'Good,' Victoria said. 'Let's keep it that way. I don't want anyone in the Coven knowing of this. I won't have them thinking we allowed a witch with sorcerer blood to join our Coven. You'll mention none of this to anyone. I don't want to frighten them into thinking a sorcerer could come to East Falls.'

'A sorcerer? In town?' Therese fairly squeaked with terror.

Victoria's eyes narrowed. 'He isn't in town already, is he?'

'As far as I know, Kristof Nast is still in Los Angeles,' I said, deciding not to complicate the matter by mentioning Sandford. 'I'll take care of the witch accusation, and the custody challenge.'

Therese nodded. 'You need to handle it properly, dear. Get a lawyer. The Carys are good.'

Bring a human lawyer into this mess? Not likely-wait, maybe that wasn't so crazy after all. It gave me an idea. I steered the conference to an end.

Chapter 5

The Beauty of Science

ONCE THE FRONT DOOR HAD CLOSED BEHIND THE ELDERS, I cast fresh lock and perimeter spells, then grabbed the phone book. Savannah walked in.

'It's a real custody battle, isn't it?' she said, taking a seat on the sofa.

'I thought you knew that.'

'When you said Leah wanted custody, I figured you meant she wanted you to just hand me over.'

'It doesn't matter. They don't have a case-'

'So Leah has a lawyer and everything? What is he? A sorcerer, I bet.'

'Yes, but there's no need to worry.'

'Oh, I'm not scared of any sorcerer. Or any lawyer. You know, we should get one.'

'I was just about to call Mr. Cary.'

'I meant a sorcerer lawyer. They're really good at it. All the best sorcerers are lawyers. Well, until they get older and become politicians. That's what my mom always said.'

Here was the perfect opening for a query that might help answer the question of Savannah's paternity, something like 'Did your mother, uh, know a lot of sorcerers?' Of course I didn't ask. I never asked anything about Eve. If Savannah wanted to tell me, she would.

'Witches don't work with sorcerers,' I said.

'Oh, please. That's for Coven witches. A real witch works with anyone who can help her. A sorcerer lawyer could help, as long as we picked carefully. Most of them are real jerks-they won't have anything to do with witches-but Mom knew a few who'd take a case like this, if you paid them enough.'

'I'm not hiring a sorcerer. I'm getting a human lawyer.'

'Are you serious? Don't be stupid, Paige. You can't-'

'Why can't I? They won't be expecting it. If I get a human lawyer, Leah will need to handle this case by the books. The human law books. No secret meetings discussing sorcerers and Cabals-'

'What about the Cabals?'

'I'm just saying, they can't talk about that kind of thing in front of a human lawyer. If they want to play by human laws, let them. I'll play right along.'

She frowned, and leaned back into the sofa cushions. 'That might not be such a stupid idea after all.'

'Glad you approve.'

Friday morning started off feeling very familiar. Like the day before, I decided to keep Savannah home from school, picked up her assignments, took her to Abby's, then returned to the Carys' law office for another ten o'clock meeting.

This time my meeting was with Grant Cary, Jr. Yes, I chose Grant junior. Despite my misgivings about the guy's moral compass, he was a good lawyer. He knew me… well, not as well as he'd like, but well enough. When I spoke to him on the phone yesterday, he seemed interested in the case and we'd arranged to meet at ten. I'd set up a conference with Leah and Sandford for eleven.

I'd been sitting in Cary's office for twenty minutes, gazing out the oversized window behind his desk while he read through my papers. So far everything had gone well. Other than a lingering look at my boobs when I walked in, he hadn't done anything untoward. I'd probably been too harsh on the guy. I seemed to attract a lot of Cary-types- forty-something married guys who see me, if not as a gorgeous blonde who'd look great on their arm, as a young woman who might enjoy and appreciate the attention of an older man.

From what I'd seen of Grantham Cary II, he likely hit on every younger woman he met. You know the type. All-American boy of 1975, the town's brightest star, every girl in town wetting her pants if he so much as looked at her. Fast-forward to 2001. His weekly golf game no longer keeps his love handles in check, he's recently resorted to a slight comb-over to cover that growing bald spot, he squints to avoid wearing the bifocals he hides in his desk drawer, and he spends his days in an office filled with decades-old sports trophies. Still a good-looking guy, but these days more likely to be coveted for his bank account than his biceps.

'Well,' Cary said, returning the last sheet to the stack. 'This certainly is unusual.'

'I-I can explain,' I said. I could?

'Let me guess,' Cary said. 'You're not really a witch and this is simply a ploy to gain custody of Savannah by dredging up an uncomfortable element of East Falls's past and playing on the historical paranoia of this particular region of New England.'

'Uh, yes,' I said. 'Something like that.'

Cary laughed. 'Don't worry, Paige. It's a very transparent scheme obviously dreamed up by folks who don't know much about modern-day Massachusetts. You say this man, Kristof Nast, has no proof that he's Savannah's father? But I assume he's willing to submit to a DNA test?'

'DNA?'

'We can't just take his say-so on the matter.'

Of course they couldn't. This was a human court, which played by human rules. A court that wouldn't understand why Kristof Nast couldn't submit DNA. Any supernatural knew that we couldn't risk having humans study our DNA, but to a human judge, it was evidence so easily given that to refuse would be tantamount to an admission of fraud.