Page 27 of Justice & Liberty

Old glass jars filled with things we didn’t recognize were perfect stand-ins for eye of newt.

I looked down at the floor and found another thin woolen rug, so I turned up the edge with my toe. Silver lines inlaid to the hardwood floor, and unless I missed my guess, it was a bigger circle than the one in the shop.

Holy crap.

Mom was a witch.

I was a witch.

Magic was real.

Cats could talk.

I turned and grabbed the first jar of jam that came to hand, realized it was actually a jar of asparagus pickles, and reached for something red instead.

Beets. Dammit.

There, raspberry jam, recognizable by the tiny seeds, and on top, it did in fact say raspberry jam. Thank goodness.

I took the jam and the beets upstairs, because who didn’t love Mom’s pickled beets? When I almost stumbled on the last step, I paused, looking at the cats, who were waiting for me at the top of the stairs, looking concerned.

Weird.

That was weird, wasn’t it?

I put the beets in the fridge as I slurped down the last of the willow bark tea, then I slathered a layer of jam on top of my bagel and finally went to flop down on the couch in the living room.

That bagel was possibly the most delicious thing I’d tasted in my entire life, even if I ended up with more cream cheese and jam on my fingers.

I rolled my head to look at Hex and Bee as I licked my fingers clean, beaming at my cats. Both of them were staring up at me like I was a very large and perplexing kitten. “Is it possible this tea takes too much pain away? I feel a little?—”

“High,” Hex told me. “You’re high. Maybe you should add more tea that doesn’t have the magic on it, to reduce the effect. You don’t want to get arrested for selling the stuff. And maybe...only drink half a cup of the other kind to test it out? You don’t want to sleep all tomorrow or something.”

Huh.

Probably a good plan.

14

I wentwith half a cup of the bedtime tea, and that was good. Clearly, I didn’t know my own strength yet when it came to this whole magic thing, because I fell asleep with the teacup still a quarter full, crashing out even on my tiny childhood bed, and not waking till close to eight, which was late for me.

The cats were sitting on either side of me as I opened my eyes, watching me with...well, interest or concern, I supposed.

“Are you alive?” Bee asked, standing and climbing onto my chest as I opened my eyes. “You seem okay.”

“Of course I’m alive. What did you think, I was a zombie?” I froze for a moment, considering. “Are zombies real?”

“We were mostly concerned you would oversleep, so this is good,” Hex said, glaring at Bee. “Yes, zombies are a thing, but nothing you’ll ever have to deal with. That’s not the kind of magic you practice.”

That was...good, I supposed. I didn’t love the notion of anyone raising zombies, but if it were a huge problemanywhere, I suspected it would have been on the news by now rather than just fiction. That was why I hadn’t believed in magic, after all. It wasn’t common knowledge, and as much as people loved stories about magic and ghosts and huge conspiracies, it just wasn’t realistic. People weren’t that good at keeping secrets.

I sat up, ready to drag myself out of bed, expecting to feel like I was fifty years older than I was, but there was no residual pain. No aches, no tiredness refusing to slide off.

Holy crap, no wonder Mom’s teas were so popular.

Hex had been right, though; I needed to dilute the magic ones I’d made with extra non-magic tea. That would work, right?

I had to hope, since I still had no freaking idea how magic actually worked.

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