“She’s resting,” Luna says, repeating to my grandma what she told me almost immediately following the call. “She finished receiving her blood transfusion early this morning, and she’s been sleeping a lot. They told me to expect that. But so far, her numbers have improved, and she appears to be on the mend.”
“Good news,” Grandma says. “Very good news, indeed.” She pulls into the school parking lot. The dismissal bell is due to ring in ten minutes.
“Let’s hurry.” I jump out of the car and rush my grandmother, and Luna, to the administration office.
I’m forced to go through the niceties; questions about my mom and my return date, before I can collect my packet. I answer them all to the best of my ability and then dash back out to the parking lot, prop myself against the side of the car. Wait for James and Jeanna to get released from class.
“School gets out in a few minutes,” I say to my grandma. “Let me just make sure James is cool with Luna and me hanging out and getting picked up later. If all is good, then you can go.”
Grandma agrees and decides to wait while sitting comfortably in the car. Luna bumps up next to me, rests her head against my shoulder. Hangs out and watches the front of the school. I press my hand against the slope of the trunk, and she does the same, our pinkie fingers touching. The bell rings, and in a matter of minutes, the front walk and parking spills over with fleeing students.
When James and Jeanna exit the cement day-hold it takes them all of four seconds to spot Luna and me waiting, supported by Grandma’s car at our backs.
“You’re here!” Jeanna dashes around and past kids and cars, straight for us. “Does this mean you are going to attend our Monday meetup?”
I nod, and a gleeful dance bounds in my chest. Luna casts me a sideways smile, her hair spilling across half of her face in the process.
“Blessed be the heavenly gods above,” James says, throwing his arms wide. “Your presence is a most beautiful delight.” He drops his books into a hold at his front, and comes to a pause before me. “So…” He appraises both Luna and me. “What’s happening, witches?” His gaze narrows on the barely there touch of our hands.
“New developments on a daily basis.” I rub my pinkie along the side of Luna’s finger. “I’m hoping we can rehash what we already know, and discuss a few new tidbits?”
“That’s what our meetups are for.” He glances up at the overcast sky. “We’ll sip some thought-provoking tea and ponder the current climate.” When he says climate, he isn’t talking about the weather.
A later pickup is approved, and my grandma heads home, while the four of us—James, Jeanna, Luna, and I—make the walk to James’s house.
“We need to figure out a way to look into the past,” I say, looking both ways before crossing the street. “Specifically, at interactions between my mom and Caleb.”
“We need to figure out where she unknowingly gave him permission to possess her like he is now,” Luna adds.
“That would require mirror magick,” James says.
“Oh!” Jeanna jumps and side skips forward, her attention directed at us. “The mirror in your mom’s room, did it use to hang in the room she once shared with him?”
“Of course not. The entire house burned down.” My feet stop carrying me forward, and I recall the short list of items that actually survived the wreckage. The mirror—surprisingly enough—was one of those items. Falling witches! “I can’t believe I am going to say this but, you’re right. It did.”
“What is she right about?” Luna swings her gaze between me and Jeanna.
“Private spaces, such as a boudoir, are more likely to capture the energy exchange of spell groundwork someone wanted to keep secret.” James flairs his hands through the air in a theatrical delivery.
“We need the mirror,” I say, believing… hoping… it captured whatever trickery Caleb used to ensnare my mom.
“Yes.” Jeanna punches the sky, and excitement for having moved our quest further explodes from her over joyous expression.
We make a detour to my house and collect my mom’s mirror. Thankfully, it isn’t a large mirror, and it’s rather easy to manage along the continued walk to James’s place.
Once we get to James’s, he makes tea to help balance and focus our thoughts, and we dive straight into discussion of Luna’s parents, the bokor, and Caleb’s hold on my mom.
There are four of us, and Luna will pull her uncle into the fight against the bokor… as she advised him the other day. I’ll recruit Michael, and James will get his brother John to join our cause. That’s the combined power of seven. Using the element of surprise and the power of seven on our side, we start drafting a plan to defeat Chuks the bokor, and free Luna’s parents.
One afternoon is not enough time to determine a plan. There is information to be gathered, books to be referenced, people with whom we must confer. Deciding we will check in each day this week and compare notes, update information, and further our planning, we set the bokor issue aside… for now… and focus on my mom and Caleb.
The mirror is set in the center of the table where we all have a clear view of the reflective surface.
“Does anyone here have any experience with mirror magick?” Luna asks. James and Jeanna exchange a yeah-no glance.
“We might not have experience,” I say, ripping a piece of paper from Jeanna’s notebook. “But I have a pretty good idea what to do.” I grab a pencil from the counter behind me.
“How do you know if you’ve never done this kind of magick before?” Jeanna asks and leans over to get a better view of what
