upload

“It, it, it! I am not an it! And you, foolish boy, have just been added to my hit list,” Virginia was in fine form, glowing the brightest I’d seen yet. Pride was an important sticking point for her. Hmm, maybe if Drake came in he could talk her to death by getting her to use her magic so muchshe dematerialized, but I couldn’t risk his safety. And I also much preferred ridding myself of her permanently. It was Luna’s potion or bust. I just needed to convince Drake to leave and get what she needed.

“Drake, it’s okay. Don’t listen to her,” I called, hoping that Virginia’s threats hadn’t caused him to lose courage. “Just go to the garden. Bring back what we need. It’s the only way. Do you have your phone? Take down this list.”

A brief moment of silence, and then,“I’m ready.”

I recited the ingredients to Luna’s nodding approval and also gave Drake the address. “Now hurry please! I’m counting on you!”

I listened as Drake’s feet slapped the pavement in retreat, then his engine roared to life and he sped away.

“What now?” I asked the cats who were both still watching from the windowsill.

“We wait and hope that he brings us the correct ingredients. And swiftly,” Luna answered.

“Drake knows a little bit about a lot of things,” I said, recalling the conversation I’d had first with him and then with Kelley. “Gardening is one of them. Besides, he can always look up the ingredients on his phone and make sure he’s picking the right ones. He won’t mess this up.”

For some reason, I believed this with every fiber of my being. Drake would not let me down. In fact, he would save me. Everything would be okay.

I just had to be patient.

“I’m growing stronger by the minute,” Virginia reminded me in a serpentine whisper. And she was right. She’d regained the form she had when I first saw her—a full bust that filled out to just a little below her armpits. “I will kill you, Gracie, and I will make your boyfriend watch. Then I’ll rebuild my power and kill him, too. Next will be Luna. I’m saving my former master for last. Before the night is through, you will all be dead.”

“No one is dying today, you old goose,” Merlin heckled her through the barrier. “Especially not my familiar and not my unborn children!”

Virginia gasped and spun toward the window.“What did you say?”

“We have the power of love on our side. Your hate will never win,” I yelled, because that seemed like the type of thing a good guy would say in a showdown like this.

“It seems I left you at the right time, Luna,” Virginia said coldly. “At least as a witch, you had some power. But you gave that all up, didn’t you? And for what? To play house with some walking hairball and to bear his brats?”

“I owe you nothing, Virginia,” Luna ground out, a growl underlying the words. “And you can never understand that power comes in many forms. My children will grow to be strong and kind and to help rid the world of monsters like you.”

“They will die or live cursed lives. That I can guarantee.” As the ghost shared this eerie promise, I knew better than to doubt her words.

As much as I’d thought this wasn’t the right time for my cats to start a family, I would fight with everything I had to protect Luna’s litter. Virginia had meant to scare us, but she’d only given me more motivation.

I would defeat her once and for all.

Those kittens would never know how close they’d come to ending before they’d ever had a chance to begin.

Auntie Gracie was on the case.

And she would not let them down.

25

By the time Drake returned, Virginia’s ghostly body had materialized down to her navel.

And those twenty-odd minutes of waiting, trapped in place, while she ranted and raved and told us all how awful we were, proved to be among the most excruciating of my life. A few times she charged at me, but I was able to deftly knock her away with my broomstick.

Honestly, I think we were both relieved when Drake’s car pulled into my driveway for the second time that night. This time, however, two sets of footsteps approached my door instead of just one.

“Drake?” I called out warily.Please let it be him. Please let it be him.

“It’s me,” he called through the door.

“And me,” a second voice chimed.

“Kelley?” I croaked. Why on earth would he have knowingly brought her into a dangerous situation? Now that my friends were at risk, too, I felt the pressure mount. Me, Luna, Merlin, the kittens, Drake, Kelley—I had to save us all and fast. Virginia was reforming more and more quickly. Soon she’d be able to cast whatever she had planned for me, and then she’d take us all out one by one.

“I ran into her at that house,” Drake shouted to explain Kelley’s presence. “How come you didn’t tell me it was hers? Anyway, she wanted to help, so I brought her back with me. Now will you please let us in?”

“No, don’t come in!” I shouted, but it was too late.

Virginia used a small bit of her accumulated magic to throw the door open and pull both Kelley and Drake inside.

“Gracie, what’s going on?” Kelley trembled as she caught sight of Virginia’s imposing presence.