Entangled (Spellbound #1)

Chapter 11

Gray woke up with a start. She lifted her head a couple inches off the pillow and saw the two bedposts on either side of her—Charlene's bed. Gray threw back the covers. She was wearing a red and black silk, lace babydoll.

Not again.

Oh, god. What if her life was turning into the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day? At least in Bill Murray's version he got to be himself every day.

Gray snapped into her cotton pajama pants and a tank top. She peeked inside her mother's room. It was empty. When noises below and the scent of raisin bread reached her, her heart surged with happiness. Gray flew down the stairs.

Mom turned from where she stood in front of the stove and smiled. "Morning, hon. Would you like some oatmeal and raisin bread?"

"Yes, please."

"Did you sleep well?" Mom asked as she dished Gray up.

"Um, yeah." Gray buttered her toast while Mom sprinkled berries, walnuts, and brown sugar on top of her oatmeal. Gray glanced at her mom. "I woke up in Charlene's bed again."

Mom didn't meet her eyes when she handed her the bowl of oatmeal. "I can explain that."

"Thank goodness." Gray took a seat on a barstool at the counter and scooped a bite of oatmeal with all the goodies onto her spoon.

"The good news is I didn't accidentally purge Charlene from existence."

"And the bad news?" 'Cause of course there was bad news—probably horrible news. This was a resurrection spell, for freak's sake, and Charlene wasn't present.

Mom released the breath she'd been holding. "There's just no easy way to say this. At the moment you and Charlene are sharing the same body."

Gray dropped her spoon. "What?!"

Mom extended an arm toward Gray. "At the moment there's only this one body—Charlene's—and both of you are using it."

"Like multiple personality disorder?"

"No, like fifty/fifty split. After you went to sleep Friday night, Charlene woke up Saturday morning in your bed."

Gray got off the stool. She couldn't sit any longer. "What's today?"

"Sunday."

"So you're saying tomorrow I'll be Charlene?"

Mom nodded.

"And on Tuesday I'll be me again?"

A pot clanked inside the kitchen sink as Mom started putting in the dirty dishes.

"How did this happen?"

"Apparently I didn't specify wanting you in separate bodies."

Oh, those pesky little details. Gray didn't share this thought. She was beyond sarcasm. She wanted back inside her body pronto. Black magic had a way of coming back around and biting one in the ass. "Your contact needs to fix this!"

"It's not that easy."

"What do you mean?"

"In removing you from Charlene's body you could be removed altogether."

"What am I supposed to do—live half a life in someone else's body?"

"We're working on it."

"And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime you need to pretend to be your sister. No one at school can know."

"And the coven?"