Page 118 of Witch You Would
Penelope rolled her eyes.
“You can’t prove shit,” Isaac said.
Unfortunately true. All we could prove was that she’d set off the freezer spell, and even that was our word against hers. Out ofthe corner of my eye, I noticed Nate quietly filming. There would be evidence of this, at least, assuming the footage wasn’t destroyed later.
I said, “I’ll bet if you go through all the dailies you might be able to catch her in the act.”
Doris made a scoffing noise. Okay, maybe she was too careful for that.
Charlotte spoke up then. “Listen, the round is almost over. Why don’t we finish and then figure things out afterward?”
Penelope shook her head. “I won’t let our work be judged by someone who was trying to sabotage it. She can’t be trusted tobe fair.”
“What she said,” I agreed.
“Then Hugh and Fabienne can judge without Doris,” Charlotte said.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You want to take the chance that your spell hasn’t been compromised?”
“Ours is fine,” Charlotte insisted.
“How can you be sure?” Penelope asked. “I bet you bribed Doris the way you tried to bribe me.”
“And me,” I added. “Maybe Doris hadn’t even planned to risk sabotage until she knew there was an extra check in it for her.”
Charlotte glared at us both. “I never did any such thing, and if you even hint it in public, I’ll bury you in lawsuits.”
“That’s what I said!” Isaac yelled.
“I knew this would come down to lawyer ninjas,” Penelope muttered.
“It’s okay,” I said. “My dad is the best lawyer ninja around.”
Isaac growled, grabbed the freezer spell off our table, and threw it. The container shattered against the wall, spraying glassand colored ice all over the decorative arcane symbols and the floor.
“Fuck this and fuck you!” he shouted. “I have a date with enough tequila to put a horse in a coma, so get back to your stations and finish this round.” He gave all of us double middle fingers and then stomped back out.
“Places, everyone. We’ll start up again in ten.” Tori smoothly delivered a few more orders, then stepped outside with herphone glued to her ear. Probably calling someone higher up to off-load the whole problem now that it was, as my dad used tosay, above her pay grade.
Penelope stared at the glass-and-ice mess. “Is there a rule about the showrunner wrecking a contestant’s stuff?”
I grinned at her. “What does Leandro Presto know about rules?”
She snorted, then busted out laughing. “Oh my god, this round really did end on a spectacle, didn’t it?”
“I liked ours yesterday better,” I whispered in her ear.
Penelope blushed and bumped me with her hip. I put an arm around her shoulders. No matter what happened with the show nowthat it had all gone to shit, at least we had each other, and that was pretty magical.
Chapter 24
Penelope
Our spell was missing something.
Whatever Doris had planned to sabotage, she hadn’t managed to do it, thankfully, so Gil and I were still on schedule. Butas he finished the circle for his card tricks, I had this nagging feeling... or maybe it was more that I didn’t have thesame sense of everything being right that I’d had in round three.
I spun my pencil on the table and tried to figure it out. Was I nervous? Overthinking? Catastrophizing? Did I need more caffeine,or less?
