Page 96 of Witch You Would
A burst of colored lights, like fireworks, exploded a few inches above my hand with a quiet popping noise. Another followed,then another, one per bead. After the fifth went off, they faded in a shower of sparkles.
“It worked!” I shrieked.
Gil laughed and grabbed my hands, and we jumped up and down like happy kids. I didn’t even have to ask if it was secret handshaketime. We spun into our dance, going longer than before, adding extra twirls for each of us before we blew it up. And thistime, I once again yelled, “Presto!” and let the actual fireworks from the bracelet end the dance.
I wanted to kiss him. I couldn’t kiss him. Not on camera. Oh, this fake flirting had gotten so much harder.
We weren’t done yet. We still had to finish the bracelets, putthem inside their piñata boxes. The judges might not be impressed, might think they were silly or childish. But we loved them, and we’d had fun making them, and that was worth whatever might come next.
The first few were awkward, but I found my rhythm. Gil stuffed them into their piñatas as quickly as I made them, sealingthe papier-mâche containers with a quick murmured incantation since they were already primed.
About eight bracelets in, from the other side of the room, a loud crackle of staticky noise was followed by two voices yellingat the same time. One said, “Sugar!” and the other said something that sounded like “farkleberry”? Gil and I raced aroundthe side of our station to see what had happened.
A platter of what looked like tiny radios steamed in the center of an elaborate circle of candles and mirrors. Knowing Dylanand Zeke, the radios were probably edible. They were also making weird hisses and squeals that made me want to stick my fingersin my ears.
Syd marched over, eyebrows jammed together like they were worried. Nate followed, camera rolling.
“Hey, guys,” Syd said. “What seems to have happened?”
“It looks like something went wrong with the sonic enchantment,” Zeke said. “I dunno, we gotta check some things.”
“Will you have time to recast it?” Syd asked.
Dylan’s dark skin looked grayish, his lips almost gone because he was pressing them together so hard. Zeke didn’t answer,just shrugged.
Felicia had stopped what she was doing to watch the drama. Had she messed with their spell? She didn’t look happy, or satisfied, or whatever I might have expected if her evil plans had worked. Instead, she seemed . . . worried? She went back to her work, which involved pouring herbs into small cloth bags I’d watched her sew the day before. I wondered what they did, magically speaking.
Charlotte hadn’t even looked up. I wished I could be that focused.
I had to be, because I still had to make a lot of bracelets.
But unlike the other rounds, where spells had collapsed or exploded during the presentation at the end, there was still—Ichecked the clock—two and a half hours before time was up. My instinct to fix, to help, started a luchador wrestling matchwith my need to finish our work first.
“You’re dying to figure out what went wrong,” Gil murmured.
I was. “I shouldn’t...”
“The person who called every botánica in Miami and Broward to find a reagent for a stranger is going to just let that go,hmm?”
Fine. “Ten minutes. Come and get me if I take longer.”
“As mew wish, m’lady.”
I’d be back sooner if they didn’t want my help. Still, I had to try.
Gil took up a guard spot at the edge of our station as I crossed to where Dylan and Zeke were talking quietly. Fabienne watchedme with a raised eyebrow.
“Hey,” I said. “Do you guys want a hand?”
“We got it,” Zeke said, rubbing his shaved head. The batch of tiny radios squealed as if to disagree.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I’m pretty good at spell fixes.”
Dylan nudged Zeke’s shoulder. “She’s legit. It’s worth a shot.”
After a quick look at their recipe, I couldn’t see anything wrong. Just like Amy’s. Asking whether Felicia had messed with their stuff was pointless; it had to be fixed either way. Unfortunately the music enchantment had been cast into the wet ingredients before thetiny cake radios were assembled, so they’d need an entirely different approach.
“What about candy antennas?” I asked. “You could enchant those and stick them on.”
