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She nodded without looking at us A kiddie film was on the TV screen, and her attention was fastened on a princess and a pony, her small body curled into the seat cushion of an Evan-sized, leather couch She yawned and pulled an afghan over her, looking sleepy

Little Evan was standing in the door to the kitchen, bare-chested, wearing footie jammie bottoms He stared at me, eyes wide I patted him on the head as I climbed the steps into the kitchen The small intimate space had been expanded into the old faer table, a pantry, and a central island as well as skylights for Mol’s herbs, growing in a bayBut the heart of the kitchen was still the old Aga stove with bread baking in the oven, beef stew bubbling on top, the teapot on perpetual si against the counter when I ca a denim smock and dark red blouse Her hair was up in a ponytail, and she wore garnet earrings She clutched a fist between her breasts and her eyes were hesitant, sliding back and forth between Evan and ed to know that, when ht was trouble

"Evangelina," Evan said, "is dabbling in black ic"

Molly’s eyes seehtly "I have hot chai on the stove Evan, would you get the s?"

Evan looked like he’d been poleaxed He had expected Molly to agree or deny or get angry, not act as if the words had never been spoken His eyes on his wife, he opened the new glass-fronted china hutch and hooked fingers through three tealup for tea Evan said, "Evangelina is practicing black ersnaps and snickerdoodle cookies And I know Jane wants whipped creae and Evan took the spray can froe hands and tilted her face up, in as the esture I had ever seen He smiled down at his wife and she smiled back I heard mumbled words, likely some form of Gaelic, saw his lips purse and heard hiht for a moment he had broken the spell on Molly But she jerked back, strong eh her, so hot I could feel it across the room She whirled to elina," she said "But you don’t have to s about her"

"Make up--"

"You never liked et to know each other, to become friends And instead, when she met a man she liked, you took hi about Bruiser "She used a love spell on hi"

"A love spell?" Evan asked I nodded and he released his wife’s arether He atching her the way a doctor watched a patient he was diagnosing I just felt sick to my stomach

"All I did was tell hiently

"You always treated her like she was less than you, unworthy of you!" Mol said, as if neither of us had spoken As she slipped past Evan, hethat I was supposed to keep Molly talking I didn’t think that would be hard to do

"I’m scared to death of her Doesn’t athered in Molly’s eyes "My sister has suffered more than any woman should ever suffer, and all because of thes you work for now" She advanced on ht like a wand or a staff, a weapon of destruction Tears coursed down her face "They took her fauely re before I ot custody of their daughter But then, I hadn’t been friends with all of them until just before Carossip about Evil Evie Behind Mol, Evan looked confused, as if he’d never heard that vaelina’s family With a tiny head-shake, he put that bit of neay for the , bearded irly balloon was co what he had on hand to construct a spell on the fly "Why did Evangelina couide Mol to safer topics

Molly hesitated, "To get away fro to--"

"She’s dating a vampire," I said "I saw the bite marks on her--"

"No That’s a lie," she said Behind her, I saw Evan pause in the balloon blowing and sip so from a flask He then blew the fluid into the balloon, the liquid athe inside "You never liked et to know each other, to become friends And instead, when she met a man she liked, you took him away How could you do that?" She had just repeated herself, word for word The phrases were part of the spell on her