I nod.
Peregrine doesn’t look happy. “I still get to work zandara on guys, though.”
I open my mouth to protest, but Chloe cuts in. “Don’t bother arguing,” she says to me. “Peregrine would wilt without male attention.”
Peregrine walks out of the room without another word to me. “I’ll be in the car, Chloe!” she calls over her shoulder.
I hear the front door open and close a moment later. I turn back to Chloe, expecting that she’ll leave too, but she’s just standing there. She shifts from stiletto to stiletto for a moment and twirls her honey blond hair nervously as she stares at me.
“What?” I finally ask.
“Look, I’m not accusing you of anything, but did you dig up the Justin doll? In the cemetery that night that you spied on us?”
“Oh, crap,” I say. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to figure out what was going on.”
“You need to put him back.” She looks like she’s about to cry. “You don’t mess with another queen’s magic! I mean, I know you didn’t know, so I’m not mad this time. But Justin’s been acting weird, and I had no idea why. Just rebury him before I have to break up with him, okay?”
“Chloe,” I say slowly, “is everything between you and Justin magic?”
She gives me a look. “Not everything. It’s just easier when there’s a little charm involved. I don’t have to worry about stupid stuff like him checking out other girls.”
“It’s called real life,” I say.
Chloe makes a face. “But why would I want to go through that if I don’t have to?”
“Maybe because it would be great to know that Justin likes you for you, and not just because you’ve forced him to?”
She studies the ground. “But he wouldn’t like me,” she says so softly that her words are almost inaudible. “He’d like Peregrine.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Every guy in town is into her, Eveny. And I’ve been in love with Justin for a really long time. I can’t lose him.”
She looks miserable, and I feel sorry for her. “Fine. I’ll rebury the doll tonight.”
“Thank you so much. I’ll write down a super easy reinstatement charm.”
She grabs a pen and notepad out of her Louis Vuitton bag, jots something down quickly, then rips out the page and hands it to me. I stuff it in my pocket. “You have to mix damiana with balm of Gilead buds,” she says. “When you use them together, they strengthen a charm’s ability to bring back a drifting lover.”
“You sure you want to do this?” I ask.
“Of course, Eveny.” She pauses, then brightens suddenly. “Hey, want me to write a love charm for you too?”
My mind immediately goes to Caleb and how drawn I feel to him, how many things stand in our way. “Nah,” I say. “Thanks, but I think I’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”
Chloe looks perplexed. “Suit yourself,” she says and disappears out the door after Peregrine.
Exhausted from working the charms in the parlor, I go to bed early and set my alarm so I can make a quick trip to the cemetery on Chloe’s behalf under cover of darkness.
At nearly two a.m., clutching the Justin doll, I slip out the back door and over the garden wall by the light of the moon.
“Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out,” I say to myself as I move past fog-draped tombs. I don’t think there will ever be a time when I’m not nervous to be in a graveyard in the middle of the night. But I promised Chloe, and I’m eager to see if a charm like this works when I do it alone.
Standing at the crossroads, I touch my Stone of Carrefour and call on Eloi Oke. I feel the now-familiar change in air pressure, and I know the door to the spirit world has once again opened. I take a deep breath and quickly skim the words Chloe has jotted down. I shake my head in amusement when I realize she’s written them in rhyme, then I chant them quickly aloud.
The magic lifted, and some were hurt.
I restore it now, back in the dirt.
The charms of Chloe will work through this doll
On Justin’s heart, through it all.
I rebury the Justin doll and a flannel sachet of damiana and balm of Gilead buds along with it. As I kick the dirt over the doll, concealing him completely, I feel a quick whoosh of wind, and the dust settles.
I stand there for a moment, then bend and touch the dirt again. I reach for my Stone of Carrefour with my left ring finger and say, “Also, spirits, if you’re still listening, if Justin isn’t a good guy, or if he doesn’t care about Chloe at all, please make her realize that before he breaks her heart.”