Familiarity Breeds Witchcraft (4 page)

“What do you think, Bron?” She scratched his exposed belly as he drooled on her other hand, which was currently twined with headphone cables. Gemma hadn’t even noticed it sneaking up on her. “Could you keep me honest and on task if I sit here more often?”

The visible portion of his tail attempted to wag.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She made kissy noises in his direction as she ruffled his ears.

In response, he licked her hand.

A quiet
ping
caught her attention. When Gemma clicked on the link Fox had sent, her friend’s face appeared, solemn but for the twinkle in her eye. She’d dyed her mohawk red and tried a new, very attractive, style. Special jewelry also decorated her pierced lips. Gemma enjoyed clicking through several headshots of various types. Fox tended to model when bored, a habit Gemma didn’t mind in the least.

FiestyFox95: Are they so good you’re overwhelmed or so bad you don’t want to hurt my feelings?

Realizing she’d been so busy staring at her hot friend she’d forgotten to respond, Gemma adjusted in her chair, shifting Bronson’s head so the weight didn’t press so hard into her hip. She sat with her fingers resting on the keys as she tried to compose something to say.

In reality, Gemma’s response to Fox’s modeling pictures was always a string of drool hanging from her chin.

That would probably sound creepy if she said it, though.

RidesWithBronson: Does your ego need a boost? You should know you’re stunning.

FiestyFox95: Stunning works. Don’t I get to see you? Not that Bronson isn’t handsome!

Gemma laughed. She’d sent plenty of pictures Fox’s way in the past, but just to tease her a little, she sent a shot she’d taken earlier when she’d aimed her phone out the window at the townspeople walking toward the gathering. She sent the picture to Fox and sat back to wait for a response.

FiestyFox95: Oh, right. Tonight’s the esbat! Who’s the guy in the middle?

Gemma’s phone screen was too small for her to be able to make out individuals so she sent the picture to her own email and opened it on her computer.
 

She thought seeing the town this way, as a still picture in time, could be kind of nice. Enid stood in the near distance, the tip of her pointy hat a little crooked in the breeze, her striped stockings as bright and cheerful as ever in the fading light of late day. She seemed to be talking to someone Gemma assumed was Kimberly Leif, judging by the eagle familiar swooping behind the woman’s head.

Nearer to the house, Adora Glenn stood somewhat aloof, her blonde hair paler than usual in the cool light of evening. Some kids and other people Gemma couldn’t pick out by sight seemed to be milling around. Right in the middle of the group she saw the person who’d most likely caught Fox’s attention.

RidesWithBronson: That’s Garrett Blank, the town’s token mundane. He’s the father of Rowan’s baby.

FiestyFox95: LOL, token mundane. But that’s so sweet!

RidesWithBronson: Of course you’d think so…

Fox always talked about non-magical people with loving condescension. Gemma admired non-magical people, too. After all, she’d grown up around so much magic that the reverse seemed pretty novel.

How could anyone use computers when computers didn’t sing to them? How did they troubleshoot issues without being able to ask the motherboard why it felt sick?

Mundanes were truly impressive in their ways.

FiestyFox95: I thought he looked pretty happy. Makes sense if he’s having a baby.

Taking a closer look at the picture she saw Garrett had been standing kind of close to the house and could just make out his bright and cheerful expression as he looked off to one side. Squinting a bit she saw…Rowan, of course. Who else would he look at that way?

Gemma hadn’t expected Rowan to show up at the esbat, since she was about a million years overdue to give birth. She might just pop out a baby while she was sitting with the other witches.

Reviving the Ash Academy must have been as important to Rowan as it was to her.

Gemma considered how she might feel in Garrett’s shoes. Gemma thought going to random esbats and socializing with witches who’d known each other forever would have been
way
too much for her sensitive nature, but from what she’d seen of him, Garret was always really nice and very easy-going. His presence truly made the town a nicer place. Her earlier worries bubbled to the surface and she shared them before she realized she’d done so.
RidesWithBronson: Rowan said she’s thinking of moving away.

FiestyFox95: Secret Hallow’s reached a peak, huh? Are the pumpkin pies turning stale?

RidesWithBronson: If they were, I’d be the first one gone. We were discussing the school situation. Both Rowan and I want the idea of rebuilding to work out. I want to keep as many of our families in town as possible. So Rowan and Enid are going to talk fundraisers with the coven tonight.

FiestyFox95: What would a fundraiser do for messed-up magic?

Of course she’d forgotten to bring Fox up to speed on the newest developments. She recapped her earlier conversation with Enid about the new building in as few words as possible.

FiestyFox95: No way would bake sales earn enough. ComePayMe is the way to go.

Gemma’s eyes widened. Fox had talked about ComePayMe before, back when she’d needed money to do a print run of her web comic. She’d told Gemma how random people online pledged money for the project in return for little gifts and bonuses. Fox had earned more than enough and the print version of her web comic earned her both new followers and a tidy income. The idea sounded perfect, except…

RidesWithBronson: Who outside Secret Hallow would care to chip in? We’re not world-famous and I don’t know that we could make enough pies as incentives.

FiestyFox95: I could drop a link on the newest update to my comic to share with my followers. If you start tonight, I’ve got a big release coming out tomorrow. Remember the twist I told you about? And I’ve got plenty of incentives left over from last time, if that would help. I’m happy to donate!

RidesWithBronson: I couldn’t ask that of you.

FiestyFox95: Just for the smaller levels. I’m only talking bookmarks, babe.

Gemma rubbed her temples as she took a couple breaths. She didn’t want to risk her friendship with Fox, but Secret Hallow did need the help. She couldn’t do this herself. And the idea of her friends and relatives all moving away hurt too much for her to even consider.

RidesWithBronson: Okay, talk me through this so we can watch another movie.

FiestyFox95: Goblins, you figured out my price. I found a truly awful movie for us!

Gemma laughed and pulled up the ComePayMe site.

SUNLIGHT WARMED GEMMA’S face and bright light filtered through her closed eyelids. She groaned and rolled over, wiping a slimy strand of drool from the corner of her mouth.

When had she fallen asleep? She felt like the crust at the bottom of a cauldron after a long night of casting.

Stretching out the kinks in her shoulders, she looked around the room in half-conscious confusion.

 
Bronson no longer lay on the bench. In fact, she didn’t see him anywhere.

 
As she tried to stand, she tripped over the edge of the blanket wrapped around her, and figured Enid must have stopped in when she’d gotten home from the esbat the night before.
 

Gemma must’ve fallen asleep when the second movie ended. Fox had been right…the story was probably the worst she’d ever seen. Who in the world would believe a man could fall in love with a glittering blood-sucking woman without figuring out what she was?

Thinking back to the terrible movie reminded her of what she had been doing the entire night.

Her heart skipped a beat.

The Ash Academy’s ComePayMe fund must have been up for at least eight hours now.

She wiggled her mouse to wake her computer and pointed the cursor at the ComePayMe bookmark in her browser. Deep down, she hoped to find they’d already earned what they needed to rebuild the school, but knew that wouldn’t happen overnight. She could only hope a person or two might have stumbled across the page since they’d set up the request.

Gemma froze as her gaze landed on the dollar amount.

“No way.” The sound of her own voice in the morning stillness startled her.
 

She refreshed the page, like that would somehow change things, but everything looked just the same. The green line on the graph reached all the way up to their target funding amount.

But that couldn’t be right. The page showed only four donors, and the majority of the money from one anonymous source, which…no, that had to be a glitch. They couldn’t have already reached their goal. Fox hadn’t even offered her incentives yet.
 

As she thought of Fox, she saw the chat window still open on her screen.

RidesWithBronson: FOX! DO I NEED TO RELAUNCH THE COMEPAYME? SOMETHING LOOKS WRONG.

Gemma gnawed on her ragged cuticles as she waited for a response. She knew Fox might still be asleep at such an early hour after they’d been up so late watching the movie.

Wrapping the blanket tight to ward off the morning chill, she sat with her heart racing in fear she’d done something wrong with the ComePayMe page. Maybe she’d broken something without Fox knowing.

The loud clicks of the clock on the nearby wall indicated the slow passage of time.

“Where is she?” Gemma asked a nearby CAT-5 cable, which reared its connector in an inquisitive look. It couldn’t respond. It might have been animated by Gemma’s magic, but it wasn’t truly sentient.

Even so, she took a modicum of comfort when it coiled around her forearm in a hug.

Should she text Fox? She didn’t want to take the chance of being thrown off the site for having done something illegal. How else would they have so much money so soon?

FiestyFox95: Don’t scream at me so early in the morning, babe. I have a bad movie hangover.

“Oh, thank the ghosts!” Gemma sagged with relief as she set down her phone.

RidesWithBronson: Sorry. Just…can you take a look at the page?

FiestyFox95: What’s wrong?

RidesWithBronson: Our request seems to be fully funded! Looks like one person left a ridiculous amount of money. Maybe they didn’t mean to donate so much. Do I have to track them down and return the cash?

FiestyFox95: I’m not seeing a problem.

RidesWithBronson: There’s no way one person would drop that much on a school.

FiestyFox95: Hang on, babe. I’m gonna call you.

Gemma started as her phone danced across the desk with the incoming call notification.

She and Fox
never
talked on the phone.

Well, okay, maybe they had once or twice. Gemma only called Enid for the most part since she much preferred to text with people; she couldn’t hear well on the phone and worried that she’d either misrepresent herself or insult someone.
 

She took a steadying breath as she reached for the phone with a trembling hand. This was just Fox. They messaged online for hours every single day so speaking to each other shouldn’t be a big deal. Toggling the accept button on her screen, she put the phone to her ear.

“Hey, babe.” Fox’s deep, sultry voice, even on the crackling line, sounded very good. “I knew I should’ve talked to you about this first, but you’d fallen asleep, and I thought…well, that doesn’t matter. I’m just sorry you’re so worked up. That was never my intention.”

“Why are you apologizing? You’re only trying to help.”

A few moments of silence passed before Fox spoke again. “The money wasn’t a glitch or a mistake by some stranger.”

Something didn’t add up. “Then who…”

“Me.” Fox gave a nervous laugh. “I made the donation.”

The dorky laugh Gemma could never seem to control escaped before she could stop herself. She clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle it. The nervous habit just made a strange situation weirder and she mentally cursed her lack of self-control. “Oh, pumpkins! You know you shouldn’t have done that, Fox. We can never repay such generosity.”

“It’s a donation, babe. You know what donations are, right?”

“But you paid way above the highest donation tier! It’s not enough for me to send you honey from the Leif hives and a couple of pumpkins.” For that much money, it wouldn’t have been enough to send Fox an entire car in thanks.

Fox’s tone turned teasing. “I have an idea of what you can do for my incentive.”

“You’re the one with the bookmarks.” Gemma’s nervous laugh escaped her again. She clenched her free hand into a fist and gritted her teeth. “Did you want to keep them that much?”

Fox laughed, a warm, musical sound. “I just need help with a spell, babe. That’s all.”

Gemma hadn’t expected that. Fox knew Gemma’s skills ran more toward tech services than spell-casting. “What do you need?”

“Promise you won’t laugh.”

“You know I can’t promise that.” Gemma fought down the nervous titter welling up within her again. “But I can promise I won’t be making fun of you.”

“Okay…um…”

When Fox couldn’t come right out and ask for what she wanted, Gemma became even more nervous. She hoped her friend didn’t want her to do something illegal or immoral. Nothing that would go against her better judgment. Not that she was some goody-goody or anything. She just hated telling people no.

Moments later, Fox blurted out her request. “I need a love spell.”

“I’m sorry. What did you say? I don’t think I heard right.”

“I’m sure you did.” Fox took a deep breath on the other end of the line. A few more moments of silence passed before she again said, “I said I need a love spell.”

Confused by the request, Gemma could only say, “Have you…looked in the mirror?”

Fox gave what sounded like a laugh of relief. “Sure I have. That’s why I’m asking.”

“But you live in Seattle! Don’t you meet attractive and eligible women all the time?” Gemma just couldn’t imagine someone as hot as Fox not being surrounded by other beautiful people.