Page 5 (1/2)

Magic I straightened, breathed in, and felt a hesitant calic?

Maybe

I blinked a few ti roo Davina a few feet behind in the hallway I watched the bat fly in circles, bouncing off the occasional ith a hard clink, leaving puffs of plaster behind with every collision The harsh buzz-buzz-buzz sound of a phone that’s been left off the hook grew stronger as it circled overrooly, just like with the trash-can-lid dog, and I came to a sudden, calm realization

I’d just turned my phone into a bat

I looked behind me at Davina and pointed "I did that"

"Yes," she said, her voice soft as if talking to a small child "You did" She patted my shoulder "Don’t worry It probably won’t last too long You got soot awhile to go yet before you start to mean some business"

As if soothed by her voice, the bat slowed a bit Then, suddenly, its wings pulled in and it jolted into complete stillness

Then my phone landed, with a lifeless plop, on my couch

"Oh, that’s a shame," Davina said "Such a pretty bat phone"

There was a tap-tap-tap onroomand we both started, but then I released a breath and said, "Oh, hell" I walked over and pushed theup "Hey, Peach"

Peach pulled her broomstick back into her house She wrapped her fleece bathrobe around her and said stiffly, "What’s going on in there? I thought I heard screalanced at the broken phone on the floor "It’s gone now" I looked back at Peach, looking for soret in her expression; there was none "Sorry to bother you"

"It’s no proble silence, and then I said, "Okay, then," and reached for theto close it, just as Peach leaned even farther out herand waved pointedly in Davina’s direction "Hey, Davina!"

Davina ain, Peach"

Peach turned her sured you wouldn’t ave your aunt my key when I saw her out there earlier this afternoon"

I nudged Davina with ed "By e"

"I couldn’t very well let her sit outside on your porch all day in this heat," Peach went on, her eyes shi with hurt "And what a surprise to find out you have an aunt none of us knew anything about"

I sighed "Peach, it’scomplicated"

"You don’t have to explain anything to hbor"

And then she shut herand went back inside

I shut h it at Peach’s house

"Nice girl," Davina said "She told me you tere like family I think that’s nice"

I held up h, she shut up In my head, I set the tension with Peach aside; I would deal with that later For now, I had a dead bat phone to think about I blinked a few ti So, and o to ithet my drink" I turned on my heel toward the kitchen

"Good idea," Davina said, and followed rabbed the scotch she’d poured for me, and downed the rest where I stood

"Oh, that’s - you’re drinking that fast, baby" Davina shook her head back and forth, tsking like a ood idea"

I handed her lass "Another"

Davina crossed her arrabbed the bottle of scotch off the counter, whipped the cap off, took a slug, and sputtered for a minute or two as the liquid actively resisted onna regret that," Davina said under her breath

I angledto die? Are you, like, an angel of death or soetme hallucinations? Because that makes sense Kinda"

Davina took a moment to form her response "You knohat this is Deep down, you know But I’ll tell you, you keep drinking like that, and you’re gonna wish you were dead in theWasn’t so bad this ties around theand the bat phone seemed to dull A little

"Not a brain tumor," I said "So, I’m crazy, then?"

"No," she said, the very soul of patience "You’re nored her "Hallucinations seeht? I mean, maybe there’s some kind of antipsychotic pill I can take - "

"It’s all real," Davina said softly, and I centered my focus on her She really was beautiful, and she seey

"Definitely a brain tumor," I said quietly

Davina raised a brow "What?"

"You’re not real You can’t be - ow!"

I whippedthe spot on my bicep where she’d pinched me Hard

"I’m real," she said

"And onna leave a mark"

"Good It’ll stand as proof that I’ any raht now Give me that bottle" She reached her hand out for the bottle, but I pulled it back by my shoulder, out of her reach She huffed in frustration and dropped her hand "Stop playing games; you obviously cannot drink worth a daed the scotch to my chest "My brain tuht about my mother and her brain tu and terrifying And even though I knew - or suspected, anyway - that I didn’t really have a brain tuh was not quite that htforward,of your own is with it both terror and a dose of clarity

"I’ve got so I have to do" I put the bottle down on the counter and started toward the kitchen door

"Baby?"

I walked out of the kitchen Davina didn’t say anything, but I heard her light footsteps trailing h the hallway, out the front door

and toward Tobias’s apartment

Fivethe corner onto Rosewood Lane, Davina caught up toas she hurried to , exactly?"

I turned the corner onto Rosewood "It’s not far"

"What’s not far?"

We walked the three blocks down Rosewood Lane in silence until I got to Tobias’s aparte Victorian, painted lavender with pale yellow trim and divided into four apart the attic Seven people living in roughly the same amount of space I occupied all by myself

"What’s here?" Davina asked I darted up the porch steps, found the button labeled SHOOP, and lay on it

"Who paints a house purple?" she asked, and I shot her a look She lance, her eyes widened, and she said, "I mean, pink is completely within the realm of acceptable house colors, but purple"

Tobias came down the inside steps to open the front door He earing a white T-shirt and gray sweats and even in es of happiness and dread For his part, he seenal knife even lass, then opened the door

"Hey" He leaned against the doorjaenuine "What’s up?"

"I turned a phone into a bat"

His face registered so and he sniffed "Liv? You didn’t accidentally fall in a vat of scotch again, did you?"

"Not accidentally" I stepped aside and grabbed Davina’s ar her up next to me "Do you see this woman?"

Tobias’s eyes landed on Davina, and cooled a bit "Oh, yeah Chocolate Belgian waffles, right?"

"That’s me" Davina’s voice was flat and unamused

"Okay, so you see her?" I asked "She’s allreal, and everything?"

"I see her" Tobias focused oninto concern "You okay?"

"Could still be a tumor," I muttered

"It’s not a tumor," Davina said

"Well, of course you’d say that," I said

Tobias kept his eyes on Davina for ahis hands on both my shoulders "Liv? You okay?"

"No," I said "I turned a phone into a bat"

"We’ve had a few drinks" Davina reached her hand out to him "I’m Davina Granville Liv’s aunt"