“So, when do we get to meet Rian?” I asked, smiling at her.

“That depends. Are you going to try to shoot him?”

“Only if he shoots first.”

Before Tessa could do more than look completely horrified, Zane patted his napkin to his lips and said, smooth as silk, “Calli, if I may be excused, I have a date tonight.”

“Of course. Who’s the lucky girl?”

“Carmen Wilder.”

The sheriff’s daughter. Wow, he worked fast.

Zane bowed like a prince, then swept out of the room.

“And I think I’d better get started on that big pile of applicants for the witch job,” I said, wondering if I’d find even one real witch among them. I turned to Bella. “Care to help me out?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Good,” Calli said, looking at Gin and Tessa. “And you two can do the dishes.”

“Dishes?” Tessa groaned. “But we were going to go out and meet up with Rian and his friends.”

“You can do that after you clean up,” Calli told her.

“You let Zane go out,” Tessa pouted.

“Zane and Leda caught a fugitive and earned us two thousand dollars today,” she replied calmly. “Today, you two painted your toenails pink and spent a hundred dollars at the Bazaar.” She nudged them into the kitchen. “We all have to take our turns working.”

“Calli has a funny reward system,” I told Bella as we walked into the living room. “My reward for catching that vampire is I get to go through this.” I pulled the stack of papers out of my desk drawer and set it down on the coffee table.

“You could go out too,” she teased.

“I go out all the time.”

“To work. To hunt. You need to live a little.”

I held up the first applicant’s bundle. “No time.”

“You are always working, Leda. You never go see people.”

“I went to a bar tonight. There were lots of people there.”

“You went there to work. Not for a good time.”

Maybe she was right, but I just didn’t have time for fun. Zane and I worked in the field, Bella made the potions, and Tessa and Gin helped out when they weren’t in school. Calli managed the jobs and the books and still went out on more hunts than the rest of us combined. She was incredible.

But she’d had to be incredible for so long. She’d taken us all in, fed us, loved us, and worked her butt off to make sure we’d have as normal a childhood as anyone post-Scourge could have. She hadn’t had a break in over a decade, and one was well overdue. It was our turn to pick up the slack—my turn, since I was the oldest. I had to take more jobs, take some of the load off her shoulders. It was the least I could do after all that she’d given me.

And that wouldn’t happen if I wasted my nights away partying. Bella and I had had this conversation before. I wasn’t backing down, and she’d never stop trying. That’s just what sisters did.

“Taking down that vampire was a good time,” I told her. “We made two thousand dollars.”

“You’ll never meet anyone this way.”

“I already know everyone in town. And been hit on by them while they were drunk on moonshine. The highlight of tonight was Dale.”

“Dale?” she asked. “As in the grocer next door?”

“The very same.”

“Poor guy. Ever since his wife died, he’s been so sad.”

“He looked really happy locking lips with Cindy tonight.” I wiggled my eyebrows at her.

She smiled. “Good for him. I like him. He always lets me take all I want of the Witch’s Root and Fairy’s Breath from his garden.”

Both plants were just weeds to Dale, but they were useful magic potion supplies to a witch like Bella.

“I’m glad you’re getting out of here,” I told Bella, flipping through the first application. I only had to read a few lines before my worst expectations were realized. Calli was right. No real witch wanted to come here. “And I’m glad that you’re getting the chance to study witchcraft.” I tossed the first bundle aside, sighing.

“It’s just for two years,” she said, squeezing my hand. “Then I’ll be back.”

I threw the next application on the reject pile. The guy thought that being a mega-fan of the Wild, Wild Witches comic book series qualified him for the job.

“No, you’re going to become a famous witch,” I told Bella. “You’ll rise to the head of a coven in five years, no problem.”

Bella’s laughter rang out, a song of summer and rainbows, a promise that wishes really did come true. “You sure are confident.”

“You’re good. And I’m glad you’re going somewhere where you can get even better.”

“Wishing you could come too?”

“No,” I said. “I have no special talents. I’m a magical dud.”

“No, you’re not. You’re strong and fast.”

“Tell that to the vampire.” I winced.

“Leda, you’re strong inside, where it counts the most. You don’t back down. Ever.”

“In other words, I’m stubborn.”

“One hundred percent.”

I shrugged. “Well, as far as mortal failings go, I could think of a few worse ones.”

Bella’s laughter was cut short when the door banged open, and Carmen Wilder ran inside, her hair disheveled, her body drenched in sweat, her eyes wide with terror. A stream of unintelligible words poured out of her mouth, punctuated by wheezing heaves of breath.