said bluntly. “No—no. Every science fiction movie I’ve ever seen tells me this can’t be close to good.”
“Where was that picture taken again?” Alex asked, trying to get a feel for the universe shifting beneath their feet.
“Mendocino,” Jordan said automatically. “Three years ago. We all went to check out the tide pools, and Cully sat and made a sand castle. Dante….” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Dante made sand castles with Cully—”
“At the exact same time he was looking at the tide pools with us,” Bartholomew filled in. “My brain is doing it too.”
“Both memories,” Alex murmured. “I feel it. Both things happened simultaneously. It’s like split pasts. In one memory they’re lovers, and in the other memory they’re roommates and friends.”
“All… shit.” Kate took a breath. “You guys, I bet if we start thinking about them, all our memories will be like that. I mean, I thought about them just before they disappeared, as sort of a test. In one memory, Dante is about to overnight at someone else’s house. In the other memory, he and Cully are going to a play together. They’re holding hands.”
“Oh Jesus,” Jordan muttered. “What did we do?”
Alex took a deep breath and pulled up Simon’s number. Before he hit Dial, he snapped, “Oh, I think it’s perfectly obvious the magic is doing what it bloody well wants to!”
Just as he said that, all the lights in the house went off again, and Simon answered the phone.
“She’s right here,” Simon said, and Alex was so relieved to hear his voice—and that the damned dog was okay—that his eyes burned.
“Good,” he said, his own voice a little lost. “We… I don’t know what happened. The spell went all wampus. Except… oh God. We’re going to have to go next door and see and—”
“Hey,” Simon said. “Calm down. I’ll bring her over. Don’t worry.”
“It’s so late,” Alex said miserably, but he couldn’t make himself tell Simon to stay home. “You just got there.”
“I can sleep over,” Simon said. “On the couch if you need me to.”
And Alex, who had prided himself on his self-sufficiency his entire life, broke a little.
No, not on the couch. Take me away from this place where the world is all weird and the magic is whirling out of control!
“Please?” he asked, hating himself a little but not caring. “I would… that way Bartholomew can spend the night at Jordan’s after we bake and nobody has to sleep alone.”
He realized belatedly that all of his friends had just heard him beg for a sleeping buddy, and he looked up, expecting rolled eyes or irritation or worse. What he got was five people nodding with fervor and Jordan giving a pathetically grateful “Thank you!” from across the table.
“Scary?” Simon asked, voice so gentle Alex wanted to cry.
“Yeah,” Alex whispered.
“You can explain it to me when I get there—” He suddenly broke off. “No, you can’t come! Because it’s rude! No. Wait a minute—” He spoke into the phone again. “Gabby and Audra want to come over and meet all the witches.”
“You told them we were witches?” Alex asked, and it was saying something that this didn’t even seem all that bad.
“Your dog, Alex. Showed up on my door. Again. I had to tell them something.”
Yeah. Simon had apparently earned the right to tell whomever he wished. “Just don’t, you know, have them spread that around, okay?”
“Don’t worry—it won’t be all over work,” Simon said, and then his voice softened. “But I can’t promise the same about you and me, so be prepared. I think your dog is trying to tell you something.”
Alex laughed softly, but he didn’t want to think about that—not right now. “Okay, whatever. It’s all good. Tell them we’re going to be baking all night. We’ll expect them to help.”
“Will you tell us why your dog keeps teleporting to my door?”
“I don’t even know how the dog keeps teleporting to your door. But maybe we can figure it out together.”
“Maybe the why is the thing,” Simon said cryptically. “We’ll be there asap.” He paused. “Uh, Alex. You’ll take care, right? No casting spells or walking around your haunted neighborhood until I get there, right?”
Alex smiled, because he could feel concern in the words. “No, Simon. We’ll behave, I promise.”
“Good. I-I mean, it’s scary that the dog shows up here. If you started disappearing, I’d be… really upset.”
“So would I!” Alex had to laugh. “But point taken. Soon.”
“Good.”
He hit End and looked around to his friends. “He’s bringing the dog back.