“Not exactly.”
Binx reached for her stuffed Pikachu and hugged it to her chest. Then she told Ridley about the events of the day, starting with the meeting in Mrs. Feathers’s office and ending with the stuff about the Jessup family… and about Gofflesby, too. (Greta had texted her about Iris’s weird visions and also Gofflesby’s un-Gofflesby-like behavior.)
When she’d finished, Ridley was shaking her head in disbelief.
“Penelope’s boyfriend?”
“We don’t know anything for sure. Ms. O’Shea and her coven think someone in the Jessup family might be the leader of this new Antima group, but so far there’s no proof.”
“Aaaaand… if they’re right, does it mean that’s the person who killed Penelope? Someone in Colter’s family, or maybe even Colter himself? Because she was a witch?”
“Well, except that whoever killed her was a witch. Which means they can’t be Antima. Or can they? No, there’s no way.”
Ridley’s lip trembled. She lowered her head so that her chin was resting on Eevee’s fluffy brown ears.
“I know. It’s a total mess,” Binx acknowledged.
“Did you guys see Colter at school today?”
“He wasn’t in school.”
“Huh. So what’s next, then?”
Binx crossed and uncrossed her legs. “Yeah, so the two covens are going to, like, keep working together. Hurray. Div, Mira, and Aysha are going to this political fund-raising thing at the Jessups’ house tomorrow night. It’s for Mira’s dad, who’s running for mayor or whatever. Our coven plus the newb recruit will keep trying to figure out how magic ties into all this and whether there are any other witches in town we don’t know about. I’m also going to find out what I can online—about the Antima, about the Jessups, et cetera, et cetera.”
Binx didn’t mention her genealogy app project for ShadowKnight or even ShadowKnight himself. She’d broken her promise of confidentiality to tell Greta about him, but that had obviously been a huge mistake. She also didn’t mention Div’s phone call on Thursday, inviting her to join her coven. Binx was so not ready to talk about that, much less think about it.
Although, to be honest, she had thought about it a tiny bit. Once or twice, just for a microsecond, when Greta was being annoying.
“… and let me know what I can do to help,” Ridley was saying.
“Are you sure Penelope didn’t mention getting a shadow message?”
Ridley bit her lip and nodded.
“Maybe we should ask her parents if she got one.”
“She wouldn’t have told her parents. Her parents didn’t know she was a witch, remember?”
“Hmm. True. Maybe we could search her backpack, then?”
“How would we get our hands on her backpack?”
“I don’t know. Lemme think. Hey, didn’t you use alata to make Brandon’s beer can grow wings and fly back into his car and hit him on the head? Because he super-deserved that? Couldn’t you use it to make Penelope’s backpack grow wings and fly out of her house?”
“Um, yeah… that sounds risky. Plus insane.”
“Yeah, but it might work. We should try it.”
“Let’s see what Greta says.”
“Oh. Yeah. Greta.”
Ridley cocked her head. “Is something going on between you two?”
“What? Nah. She bugs me sometimes, that’s all. Doesn’t she bug you sometimes?”
“Not really. I think she’s a great coven leader. Also, you should cut her some slack right now. She almost lost her familiar.” Ridley stood up and wandered over to the window, still clutching the stuffed Eevee. She parted the pink beaded curtains and stared out at the view. “Speaking of pets… did you guys get a new dog? You didn’t tell me.”
“What?”
“It’s pooping in your fancy Japanese garden. You should teach it not to do that, otherwise it’s going to—”
Binx didn’t hear the rest of the sentence. She jumped to her feet, ran up to the window, and pressed her face to the glass.
And there was the dirt-colored puppy, squatting next to the Buddha statue with an earnest expression on its little face.
“Bad dog!” Binx shouted. And smiled.
Something pinged on her computer. At the same moment, her phone began to vibrate in her pocket.
Ridley wandered over to Binx’s desk. “Who’s ShadowKnight? Is he your secret boyfriend?”
Binx spun away from the window. Ridley was staring at something on the computer screen.
“Wow, a new boyfriend and a new puppy. That’s not like you. Did you trade identities with another Binx Kato?” Ridley teased her.
Binx ran over to her computer. On the screen was a videochat request from ShadowKnight. She then glanced at her phone; the request had come in through both devices.
“Nope, he’s not my secret boyfriend. No way. He’s just some gamer. He keeps bugging me for Witchworld hacks.”
The videochat request continued blinking on the screen, and her phone continued vibrating.
“Aren’t you going to answer that?” Ridley asked.
“No! He’s annoying. Just go away!” Binx yelled at the screen as she hit the ignore icon. “Uxie, end call!”
“The call has been ended,” Uxie announced.
Binx tugged on Ridley’s arm. “Come on, let’s go outside so you can meet the puppy. I think I’m going to adopt it and make it my familiar. How does that work, anyway? Is there a familiar-izing spell in C-Squared’s book?”
“It doesn’t really work like that.…”
As they left the room, Binx glanced back at her computer screen and saw to her relief that ShadowKnight had given up. She would have to call him back later, when she was alone.
ShadowKnight. Div. The invite to Div’s coven…
Binx’s head felt as though it would burst with all the secrets she was keeping.
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Witches are born that way, although the ability can skip generations.
Some witches may spend their entire lives not knowing that they are witches.
Some witches may spend their entire lives regretting that they are witches.
(FROM THE GOOD BOOK OF MAGIC AND MENTALISM BY CALLIXTA CROWE)
“Your names,
