As she reached out to take them, I noticed something shiny tinkled on her bracelet. It was the little silver bell charm Amy had given to Selena.
Just then I saw a silverfish scurry past Amy’s foot. I followed its path to the old shoe box, sitting open under the table. It crawled inside.
“Selena?” Oscar said.
When I looked up, “Amy” had become Selena. Tears poured down her cheeks, and she was furiously writing on her drawing pad: I’M SELENA!!!!! DON’T KILL ME!!!!!
“Selena?” I said, relief warring with anger in my chest. “What in the world . . . ?”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.”
“How did you even know about the box, or where to find it?”
She flipped the pages on her drawing pad to show me a sketch of the box sitting on a shelf in my closet.
“I told you, I see things sometimes. I don’t know why. It’s not like I ask for it. I could tell it was your closet because of the old green suitcase. That’s the only place I’ve ever seen one like that.”
“Do you mean to tell me you’re running through the streets of San Francisco at this hour, breaking into my shop, and my apartment, and stealing things from my closet?”
She exchanged a guilty glance with Oscar. He shrugged in response, as if to say,“She’s got a point.”
“When you put it like that, I guess it sounds pretty bad,” said Selena, twisting her mouth. “But nobody tells me anything, except for weird things like ‘Don’t trust Sailor if he comes around,’ even though Sailor’s supposed to be part of the family. It’s confusing.”
“That’s no excuse, young lady.”
“Also, these bugs are silver, and I love silver. But I accidentally stepped on one. He’s okay, though. He crawled back into the box.”
“And when you stepped on the bug, you changed?”
“I couldn’t talk, and I felt funny, and you started calling me Amy, and then I saw my reflection in the chrome of the table leg, and then I sort of freaked out. It wasn’t me.”
I blew out a long breath. Now that my heartbeat was returning to normal, relief was winning out over anger. In fact, the situation was starting to feel pretty funny. But still. I was the grown-up.
“Does your grandmother know where you are?”
“I told her I was sleeping over here so I could help you move things tomorrow.”
“Let me see the charm Wind Spirit gave to you.”
She held out her slender wrist, and I clasped the charm and tried to feel for vibrations. Nothing felt off, or strange. Probably it was pure chance that Selena had taken Amy’s image for a moment, since she was wearing something that had once belonged to Wind Spirit.
“All right, let’s go upstairs and get some dinner. But this isn’t the end of this. I’m going to give your grandmother a call and we’re going to talk about you lying, and stealing, and sneaking out at night—you hear me?”
She nodded, eyes downcast. I noticed a small smile on her face, and looked to see Oscar aping me from behind.
“Oscar,” I said, “you are not helping the situation.”
They both cracked up.
I couldn’t help but smile along with them as I grabbed the shoe box and my mail, turned off the lights, and shepherded my two unrepentant wards up the stairs.
“Hey, Selena, guess what,” Oscar said. “Lasagna for dinner! And after, we’re gonna make cookies!”
“Cool!” said Selena.
It was always dangerous to solicit Oscar and Selena’s help making cookies. Odds were good not much of the actual batter would wind up as cooked cookies. Still, there were always more chips where those came from, and I had another night to bake before the tea, if need be. The truth was, if I couldn’t have Sailor by my side, I could use a mellow evening with my familiar and Selena, just being normal. Or what passed as normal for the likes of us.
As I followed them into the apartment, I sorted through the pile of mail and phone messages. Bills, advertisements, a postcard from the Grand Canyon sent by Graciela.
And the note from Maya:
Hey boss lady,
I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for, but the Da Pinchi Code sign was taken from an ancient mark known to have been a witch’s sign, in a town not far from Salem, during the witch hunts. It seems to be connected to a woman who was burned at the stake, which was actually very unusual back then—most were hung. Her name was Deliverance Corydon.
So much for my hopes for a normal evening.
• • •
The next day I went down to Aunt Cora’s Closet, bleary-eyed despite two big cups of strong French roast. I hadn’t slept much last night. I hadn’t made cookies, either, despite Oscar and Selena’s whining.
Instead, I had installed the two of them in front of the TV to watch a movie, and then spent most of the night consulting my Book of Shadows, brewing, and making protective sachets and talismans to pass out to my loved ones. Aidan kept warning me that I had defeated Deliverance Corydon too easily, that part of her had somehow become a part of me. But I hadn’t wanted to believe it.
What did it mean that Deliverance’s sign kept showing up? Was it a harbinger that I would become evil, like she was? Is that what had happened to Deliverance Corydon? . . . Had she once been a well-meaning witch who was seduced by malevolence, until she became demonlike herself?
And why in the world was a busload of elderly coven members making her mark with their path?
A terrible thought occurred to me: Could the grandmas have been kidnapped, somehow? Were they safe? Anyone could have been sending those text messages, right? How could I be sure?
By midnight I had worked myself into such a tizzy
