“We’re back,” Alicia announced as they entered Bella’s house for what was hopefully the last time.

  “Did you get the final ingredients?” she asked. When they found her in the kitchen, she was adding kindling to the fire that now burned underneath the cauldron.

  Noah answered by taking a knife from the block on the counter and slicing open the stuffed rabbit’s stomach, dark feathers spilling out like intestines. Even though it was only a doll, Jesse couldn’t help but wince as he did so. He placed the bouquet of primroses next to it.

  “Wow, that’s more than I expected,” Bella said. “Where did you get these?”

  “I bet they’re from a secret admirer,” Brom said. He was sitting on the top of the fridge, and Jesse wondered if Bella put him there to keep him out of the way. Or as a time out. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the way that slime girl kept staring at you.”

  Before he could ask how Brom could tell she was staring at him, or how he knew she was a girl for that matter, Alicia brushed past him.

  “Are we finally ready to make this stupid potion?” she said, helping Ashton to sit on the counter. Another close call with her brother had clearly pushed her to the limits of her patience.

  “Yes, because while you were gone, I found the last thing we needed.” She triumphantly lifted a shining silver necklace over her head.

  Noah squinted at it. “That’s what you were looking for this whole time?”

  “This belonged to my grandmother and was stored up in the attic. It took a while to sort through all her belongings. But never mind that. With the vulture feathers and flowers, we can now get started.”

  She gathered everything they had collected on the kitchen table, alongside five plastic cups. The cauldron in the middle of the room, which she had been steadily filling with water when they first left, was now full to the brim, bubbling from the fire beneath it. She opened her giant spellbook and began to read the recipe aloud.

  “Seven newt eyes, four strands of nightmare hair, two cups of bone meal.” As she said each ingredient, she added it into the boiling cauldron, water changing color from clear to green, to red, to blue. “Stir counterclockwise eleven times before adding five feathers from a vulture, six petals from the perennial primrose, two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, a pinch of ground dragon’s teeth, and finally, a sliver of silver. Sorry, Abuela.”

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  She used a gnarly looking pair of shears to clip off a bit of the necklace and let it fall into the potion. But as they watched in anticipation, the water didn’t change color again, instead remaining stubbornly bright orange.

  “Did it work?” Siobhan asked.

  Bella frowned. “No, something went wrong. But what?”

  “I’ll tell you what went wrong,” Brom said. “Did you actually think that cheap hunk of junk was real silver?”

  “Abeulo gave her that,” she mumbled under her breath.

  “It’s fine,” Jesse said. “We just need to find something silver, right?”

  “That’s easier said than done. There’s a reason I kept this necklace so hidden. Silver is really harmful to a lot of the residents here in Gravewood, like Hank. We try to limit how much is in the neighborhood.”

  Jesse felt his heart drop. “You don’t have any more silver jewelry?”

  “Sorry, I prefer gold.”

  “You’re kidding right?” Alicia said. “What about your silverware?”

  “Stainless steel.”

  “Oh, what about coins?” Siobhan dug into her pocket and brought out some leftover loose change her mom had given her.

  But Bella just shook her head sadly. “They don’t make coins out of silver, not since the mid twentieth century.”

  “So, anything older than that could be made out of silver?” Noah asked slowly.

  “Yes, but where-”

  She cut herself off when she saw him produce a coin from his pocket. Jesse recognized it as one of the coins from the fountain that they found earlier.

  “You kept that?” Siobhan asked.

  “I didn’t mean to steal it,” Noah defended. “I just… thought it was interesting.”

  Bella snatched the coin from his palm, inspecting the engraving. “That’ll do it.”

  She took the shears again and snipped off a sliver from the coin’s edge, flicking it into the cauldron.

  Immediately, the water changed to a deep purple-red color. Bella filled each of the cups with the potion and passed them around.

  When she handed one to Jesse, he recoiled at the stench of it, but it shouldn’t have been surprising considering everything that went into it. Ashton didn’t seem to have any problem with it; he started drinking as soon as Alicia handed him the cup.

  “Hurry,” Bella said. “There’s not much time until midnight.”

  Not to be outdone by a four-year-old, he braced himself and downed the glass. He had to force himself not to immediately throw it back up, instead swallowing every last drop. He didn’t know if that was necessary, but he was not taking any chances.

  Once all of their cups were empty, Bella gathered them up. With bated breaths, they watched as the clock struck midnight, the chimes echoing throughout the house.

  They exchanged nervous glances.

  “Did it work?” Jesse asked.

  “Only one way to find out.”