A RETELLING OF PRACTICAL MAGIC.
A 300-year-old family curse. A teenage witch with a broken heart. And a lone wolf determined to solve a missing person's case.
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For three hundred years, a witch family has endured a curse: any man an Owens girl d...
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I blink at my sister repeatedly. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Shh! The aunts..." Ginger quiets me by shoving her index finger to my lips. Her marble blue eyes peer down the hall that leads to the kitchen. There is a blender going and faint murmurs, which means we're in the clear. She eases up. "Why don't you support me?"
"I want to support you, I really do. It's just this obsession you have with the vampires is really starting to scare me. When we were kids, it was cute. Now? I mean, you're actually meeting one."
She gives a light shrug and turns her back on me. "I have my reasons."
"I know you do, trust me. And I don't fault you for them. It's just there has to be a better way of breaking our family curse. Are you really willing to give up everything that you are to the Children of the Night?"
She remains silent so I continue.
"Vampires won't welcome you into their family clan unless you convert. And the minute one of them agrees to transform you, it's over. Mother Nature doesn't mix the preternatural—you know this. The more dominant nature will prevail. You'll either remain a witch or thirst for human blood. You can't have both worlds."
"Dammit I know that, Silver! I'm not a child!" She spins back around, her eyes moistening. "So you'd rather I just move away to California with you or wherever the fuck you're going and refuse to use my magic, refuse to fall in love? Is that the better way of dealing with the curse? Running away from it?"
I nod. "Afraid so."
Impassioned, she strings up her rich, long red hair into a top knot. "You're so full of shit."
"I'm practical."
"Practically human. That's the sort of life you're living by going that route. I refuse to let it be my path."
I fold my arms, offense worming up my throat. "There's nothing wrong with a safe, human life."
She shakes her head, scoffing.
"Then I guess we can agree that we view this matter differently," I say hurriedly, before this can turn into a fight.
"We can agree that one of us is attempting to deal with the matter while the other is choosing to run from it entirely."
"Says the girl all too eager to become a vampire's pet. This is your path to freedom, Ginny? Someone else's meal ticket?"
"Better a pet than a murderer."
Her words sting like acid on an open wound. I've already been called a killer by my peers today. But to be called one by my own sister is almost too much. I stumble back with shock.
As soon as she realizes it too, she claps her mouth with a look of regret. "Silver, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it—it just came out."
I draw in a deep breath. "I think we both know it was exactly what you meant to say."
