Page 64 of The Witching Hours

“The key word in that sentence isnever,” Daphne said.

“You were about to tell us the catch?” Nick reminded his Aunt Ceija.

“If it’s not done right, it might just fail. Worse, Catherine might be pulled down into their world with no means of escape.”

Oh gods!

“Wow. That’s some serious pressure right there.” Julian asked.

“Shut up,” Daphne said. “It’s up toher. Notyou.”

“I know,” he said. “Just saying it’s like a superhero choice. You know?”

Superhero choice?

I took in a deep ordinary, mundane, very muchnotsuperhero breath. “Before I pick door number one, which seemsmost likely at this point…” I glanced at Nick before I continued, “I’d really like to hear what would be involved in the other thing.”

“First, you would need to recreate the circumstances as close as possible. Do you still have the book?”

“Alice in Wonderland?” There’s been so many times I almost dropped if off at the nearest neighborhood library as a donation. It was in good condition. I’d always treated my books like they were precious gems. For some reason I couldn’t name myself, I’d kept the book even though I had every reason to despise it. “Yes.”

“That’s good. Second, is the house still there?”

“The house?” I asked before making the connection that she meant the house I’d lived in as a child. “Oh. Yes. I think so. My family moved away a long time ago, but the house is still there so far as I know.”

“Could you get access to the room where this happened?” she asked.

I looked at Nick and shrugged before answering her. “There’s no way to know. We’d have to travel there and ask the owners to use their house. If I were them, I’d say, ‘No. Get the hell outta here.’”

“Yes,” Nick said, “but then if I offered them a thousand dollars to use their house for…” he looked at Aunt Ceija, “ half a day?” She nodded. “They might say yes.”

“Um. Right.” I conceded. “That’s possible.”

“Assuming we could get access, then what?” Nick asked.

“I would give you instructions on how to duplicate the important parts of the event and send them back.” Aunt Ceija said.

“What are we talking about? Candles? Potions? Latin? Or stuff I couldn’t imagine?”

“The book. Red roses. Fresh cut. Cards from the heart suit. And baneberry juice,” she said.

“Baneberry juice?” Daphne asked. “Where would we get that?”

“You can’t get it. It has to be made from fresh baneberries,” Aunt Ceija said. “Red. Not white.”

“What could cause things to go worst case scenario?” Nick said. “A tiny mistake or a big mistake?”

Aunt Ceija hesitated. “It’s precise work. One person would need to read instructions and hand Catherine the things she needs.”

“That would be me,” Nick said. “Obviously.”

“Why is that obvious?” Daphne said. “I have more training and would be a more logical choice.”

“Until this second, I didn’t know you were offering,” Nick said. “But the ‘obviously’ is more about me being her husband than me being a certified curse breaker.”

Aunt Ceija jerked her head toward Nick. “Curse?”

“Yeah,” Nick said slowly. “Isn’t that what it is?”

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