Page 122 of Witch You Would
“Is your butt starting to hurt?” Gil asked.
“Little bit,” I said.
“We should probably get up, then.”
“Probably.”
We didn’t get up. I looked at the countdown timer and groaned. Gil helped me stand.
“Time to finish the rest of this spell and win,” I said.
We high-fived and got back to work.
The judges, including Doris, took up their usual positions as Syd gave their speech about it being the final round, celebrationtheme, amazing espectaculo and so on. Jokes were involved; I laughed on cue. We were all doing a great job pretending thewhole sabotage thing hadn’t happened, that this was all normal show stuff. I’d stuck on my customer service smile, Gil wasfull Leandro himbo face, and Team Ice Queen looked all sophisticated and untouchable.
It was nearly midnight. Gil and I had chugged double espressos to keep from yawning nonstop, even though we were also bothwired from nerves. Fina and Bruno had retouched our hair and makeup. I couldn’t smell myself, but I doubted it was pretty.I heroically did not sniff my armpits to find out.
The coin flip decided we were presenting first. Part of me was happy to get it out of the way; part of me wished I could seeFelicia and Charlotte’s spell before ours so I could manage my expectations. The rest of me wanted to run laps around theblock screaming until I passed out.
Gil rubbed his thumb along the side of my hand. I was squeezing him tight enough to make my fingers numb, so I relaxed mygrip.
“Penelope and Leandro,” Syd said, “please demonstrate your spell for the judges.”
Showtime.
Gil carried the top hat, while I carried the coin. The top hat went on a small table, open side up; the coin burned a holein my hand, figuratively speaking.
“Tell us about your spell,” Syd said.
“We call it ‘Making Magic Together,’” I said. “It honors the charity Leandro is competing for, and my abuela, my grandmother.”
Syd waved their hand. “Amaze us.”
I patted the queen of hearts card in my pocket for one last bit of luck, kissed the coin, then dropped it into the hat andstepped back outside the containment circle. Gil immediately grabbed my hand again and we leaned on each other, holding ourbreaths.
Mist poured out of the hat, giving the area a cool, mystical vibe. Sparkles twinkled like sequins catching the light, exceptthere was no light—until there was. A single bright spotlight shone on the hat, which seemed to float in all the fog.
A pair of white gloves rose out of the hat and spread out like the hands of an invisible magician. They picked up the hatand showed there was nothing inside, then reached in and pulled out a ghostly white rabbit. The cutie hopped around the tablea few times before suddenly hopping in two different directions simultaneously, splitting into two rabbits. This repeateduntil two dozen bunnies leaped off the table in waves and bounced around in the mist.
The gloves once again showed the hat was empty. This time, they pulled out a white dove, which cooed quietly. It took offflying and flapped around, then started dividing like the rabbits, until a dozen doves hovered and made lazy circles abovethe fog.
Now the gloves made a bouquet of flowers appear from nowhere. They tossed the bouquet onto the floor in front of the table, and the flowers spread into a lush green carpet covered in wildflowerblooms in varying shapes and colors. The rabbits started to nibble at the flowers . . . which burst into a flock of butterflies that drifted around as a bright, fluttering cloud before landing on different flowers, their wings opening and closing gently.
Now the gloves began to arc a deck of cards back and forth between them. After a few impressive shuffling cuts and passes,the gloves spread the cards across the table in front of the hat, face down, then flipped them all over in a fluid motionwithout touching them.
The various heart cards slid forward and floated into the air, then one by one they drifted across the area, dropping pearlypink hearts like snowflakes. The diamonds emerged next, and those shot up and burst into fireworks. Strands of shimmeringcolor rained down on the doves, staining their white feathers, then the rabbits’ fur. The rest of the cards reformed intoa single stack, then arced across the flowery field as a rainbow disappearing into the mist at both ends. The animals scamperedand flew into the rainbow and vanished, leaving the landscape empty.
I swallowed nervously. Now we’d find out whether the pressure-cooked portion worked. What if it didn’t? What if I’d failedagain?
As if sensing my tension, Gil leaned closer and whispered, on the quietest breath, “Believe.”
Faint strains of music echoed throughout the room, some song pulled from the closet of my mind. A spiral of mist rose fromthe floor and formed into a ghostly figure. My abuela, just as I remembered her. She danced through the flowers, one arm acrossher stomach, the other bent with her hand raised. Her eyes were closed, and she smiled like she knew the secrets of the universe.
The gloves reached for my abuela’s hand, spun her around once, then helped her climb misty steps to the top of the table. She put afoot inside the top hat and began to shrink and dissipate into mist, like a genie going back into its bottle.
I didn’t even realize I was crying until Gil’s hand brushed tears off my cheek.
With a flourish, the gloves threw the hat toward the flowers and grass and rainbow, where it landed opening-up on the floor.Everything turned misty, dissolving and drifting into the air like bubbles in champagne, only colorful and glittering andglowing faintly. The fog slowly disappeared into the hat like my abuela had, until the only things left were the gloves, thehat, and the spotlight.
