“I know and I promise,” Regan says. She goes to hug Lucky, but the bunny hops away. “Come here.” She crawls on her knees to pet Lucky, but she keeps hopping away.

  Regan holds out another lettuce leaf and wouldn’t you know, Lucky hops back over.

  (Seems Lucky can also be bribed with food.)

  Okay, reader, I’ve got to be honest here: This bunny is so cute, it’s sort of melted my cold, dead heart. Nothing better happen to it. Because that would not be okay. Besides, what kind of monster would hurt such an adorable creature?

  Ding-dong.

  (And would you look at that? It’s been two minutes.)

  “That must be our last family for the week.” Mrs. Charles gets up and walks toward the front door of the B&B. “Put Lucky in her cage and be ready to help the Clements with anything they may need.”

  Mrs. Charles opens the door and pauses when she sees none other than Damien Hearse. (Wait a second, wasn’t he just at the senior center performance? My goodness, he certainly gets around quickly.)

  “Mrs. Charles,” he says with a grin. “I’m hoping I can count on your vote.”

  “Now, Mr. Hearse, you know that my family is friends with the Washingtons, and I’ll be proudly supporting Mayor Washington.” Mrs. Charles gives him a curt nod.

  “Well, it would be an awful shame if the truth got out. I’d protect you.” Mr. Hearse extends his bony hand with a flyer that says The Future of Cauldron’s Cove is in Hearse.

  Regan’s eyes are wide. What exactly does Mr. Hearse know? Is he … threatening her mom? Her family?

  Mrs. Charles’s face remains neutral. “As I said, I’ll be supporting Mayor Washington.” Her attention moves to the family standing behind Mr. Hearse. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Hearse, I’ve got guests to check in.”

  Mr. Hearse keeps his eyes glued to Regan’s mom, stubbornly not moving. With a sigh, she begrudgingly takes the flyer so he’ll finally leave. Which he does, but not without also giving the family some flyers.

  Now, this new family to the Bed and Boofast are definitely into the Halloween spirit. They’re all dressed in black and in slightly older clothes: The father is wearing a three-piece suit and top hat, the mother is in a black corseted dress that looks like it’s a couple centuries old, and their kids are dressed similarly. There’s a boy who looks about twelve or thirteen and a girl who’s a few years younger, clutching a worn teddy bear.

  “I’m so sorry about that. Hello and welcome to Cauldron’s Cove’s Bed and Boofast!” Mrs. Charles greets them.

  The father takes off his top hat and gives her a little bow. “May we come in?”

  “Of course, of course! You must be the Clement family, you are most welcome!” Mrs. Charles steps aside as the family enters.

  The father and son are carrying a very, very large suitcase.

  “Oh, goodness!” Mrs. Charles exclaims as she sees three matching suitcases on the porch of their Victorian home. “We can help you with your luggage.”

  “That will not be necessary. We have everything covered, but thank you for your hospitality.” He gives a nod to the son, who picks up the large suitcase like it weighs nothing. “My name is Balthazar; this is my wife, Victoria; and our children, Natasha and Matthew.”

  Regan notices the family members all look very different from one another. Almost like they don’t fit together, but she knows there are all types of families. The dad is very tall and slender with blond, curly hair and fair skin. The mom is of Korean descent with short chestnut-colored hair. The two kids look the most different: The girl is tiny with black eyes and white hair that matches her pale skin, while the son has a muscular build with light brown skin and short, curly brown hair.

  “It has been quite a journey here,” Mr. Clement says. And I gotta be honest with you, these four look really tired, maybe even more tired than Mr. Hearse. It seems like a long, relaxing weekend in Cauldron’s Cove is exactly what they need.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Mae.” Mrs. Charles hands Mr. Clement their room key. “You’re on the top floor, in our Sorcerer’s Suite.”

  “Thank you so much, Mae,” Mr. Clement says with a friendly smile. “I hope you did not find it incredibly rude of us to turn down your delicious breakfast. We are not morning people.”

  “Not at all, I’d be happy to make up some sandwiches for lunch instead,” Mrs. Charles adds.

  “Why that is a lovely offer. However, it will not be necessary. In fact, we do not even require our suite to be serviced during our stay.”

  This perks Regan up. No breakfast and one less room to clean means less work for her. The Clements might just be her favorite guests ever.

  Mr. Clement takes a step closer to Mrs. Charles. He leans in and waves his hand in front of her face. “And you will not disturb us during the day. We shall be left alone whilst we reside in your house.”

  Her mom’s eyes glaze over. “You will not be disturbed during your stay. We shall leave you alone whilst you reside in our house,” she repeats in a voice that sounds like it’s coming from someone else.

  Regan’s eyebrows furrow. This seems strange. Why would—

  “And you must be the infamous Regan.” The son, Matthew, approaches her. “It seems that beauty runs in the family.” He then bows down and kisses her hand.

  Goodness. First of all, dear amazing reader, as I mentioned in the warning, flattery can get you everywhere. Would you like to try it out on me? Go ahead, say something super nice about me. Like, for instance, how I’m your favorite author and how I’m your hero and that I can do no wrong. Just a few examples that came to the top of my head.

  Go ahead …

  Aww, thanks! See, I knew back in book one that this was the start of a beautiful friendship.

  And may I tell you that you’re very kind and have the best taste in books and no matter what anybody says, you do not smell that bad.

  Now, while you and I are used to being heaped with compliments because we are made of awesome, but supes humble about it, Regan isn’t used to this kind of attention, especially from a boy. And this particular one looks like he belongs in a boy band with his dreamy hair and pale eyes. I mean, sure, Bennett sort of gave Regan a googly-eye look after she destroyed those zombies, but this guy’s staring at Regan.

  “I hope you enjoy your time in Cauldron’s Cove,” Regan says, remembering how to be a good hostess.

  “We will.”

  At that, Natasha comes to stand behind Matthew. She grabs his coattail.

  Regan bends down to the young girl. “And you must be Natasha.”

  Natasha peeks from behind Matthew and gives the smallest nod of her head.

  “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Natasha.”

  “It is nice to meet you, too,” comes a soft voice, the girl still mostly hidden behind her big brother.

  “It takes her a while to warm up,” Matthew explains. “But I must say that the pleasure is all ours. We have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. A very long time.”

  “Well, Halloween is definitely the best week to come to Cauldron’s Cove. Let us know if there’s anything else you need.” Regan waits for her mother to jump in, but she still looks dazed. “Mom?”

  Mrs. Charles blinks a few times like she’s just waking up. “What?” She takes in the family in front of her. “Yes! We hope you have a frightfully wonderful visit to Cauldron’s Cove!”

  Mrs. Clement brushes back her hair from her face. “We most certainly will.”

  Matthew takes another step closer to Regan. He takes a deep breath through his nose. “And I look forward to spending more time with you, Regan.”

  Wow. Regan has a bunny and there’s a super cute boy who wants to spend time with her.

  So yeah, this is the best day ever.

  Or so she thinks.

  Because the next morning is pretty great, too. And it’s the day of the Cauldron’s Cove Carnival, which is one of the most popular events in the town. It’s always the Sunday before Halloween (which is in two days, clock is ticking, dear reader) in the town square. At sundown there’s an immersive witch’s performance featuring spells, dancing, and of course, the most important staple of any decent event related to Halloween: Candy.

  So yeah, maybe today will be even better!

  (I bet you thought I was being all ominous when I said “or so she thinks.” But sometimes, astute reader, I can be optimistic about our heroes. Dead wrong, but still optimistic nonetheless.)

  “Are you sure she’s going to be safe out here?” Regan asks her dad as he puts the finishing touches on an outdoor habitat for Lucky.

  “It’s best she’s not cooped up in your room while you’re at school.” He strokes his ginger beard, the same shade as Regan’s and her siblings’ hair. Oh wait, did you forget that Regan is the oldest of five kids, which is why she has to help out so much? The terror that is known as Regan’s siblings is another reason to lock the bunny safely away.

  Regan looks up at the darkened morning sky. “But it might rain!”

  “Now, Regan, there’s a roof.” Her dad taps on the roof of the two-story wire-and-wood habitat, complete with a staircase. “I forgot one thing and will be right back.”

  Regan plops down on the grass. She holds out a treat to get Lucky to sit on her lap. The little bunny hops over from the corner of the habitat. She’s happily chewing, her little whiskers moving as she chomps away. Lucky suddenly stands up on her hind legs, sniffing the air before she darts back into the enclosure, bounding up the stairs to the second floor, which is completely covered.

  “Lucky!” Regan calls out, holding out the wildflower mixture to try to coax the shaking bunny from the darkened space.

  “Good morning, Regan!”

  Regan turns around to find Matthew and Natasha coming from the house.

  “Good morning. Did you sleep well?” It’s always the question her parents ask guests, but it’s clear from their rosy complexion that they had a great night’s sleep.

  “We sure did. Our parents are still asleep.” Matthew gives Regan a wide grin while Natasha continues to hide behind him.

  Regan looks up to the third-floor windows of their suite. She does a double take. “Did you … put something on the windows?”

  “Ah, yes.” Matthew sits down next to Regan while Natasha studies the habitat. “My parents prefer their room to be really dark, so we put some paper on the windows. We will remove it before we leave.”

  “Oh, that’s something we could’ve done.”

  “We did not want to be a bother.” Matthew’s gaze is on Regan, and she can feel her cheeks reddening.

  “It wouldn’t have been a bother at all,” Regan says.

  For real. Putting paper on windows wouldn’t have been the weirdest request they’ve gotten. Regan’s family gets a lot of oddball visitors. One family didn’t want a room with any white in it (and honestly, with how messy Regan’s siblings get, it sort of makes sense). There were the three sisters who insisted on being called Winifred, Sarah, and Mary Sanderson after the witches in Hocus Pocus. There was the couple who only wanted “so rare it bleeds” steaks for breakfast. Another asked for black curtains over the lamps. Another for broomsticks in their closet.

  Cauldron’s Cove gets all kind of weird. And they always want to stay at the Bed and Boofast.

  Besides, who doesn’t like to sleep in a dark room? I mean, you might not want to after reading this book, but I love it to be as dark as possible. One must get their beauty rest when their job requires coming up with new ideas and monsters to torture the Cauldron’s Cove crew.

  “Can I see your bunny?” Natasha asks in a small voice.

  “Of course.” Regan holds out another treat. Food seems to be the only way to get Lucky to do anything. (Hmm, I might start demanding treats for me to do work. You want another chapter, editor, show me the cheese fries!) But this time, not even the promise of a treat will get Lucky to leave her pen. “Um, maybe another time?”

  “Oh okay.” Natasha hugs onto her teddy bear tightly. She looks up at the clouds. “We should probably get inside, brother.”

  “It’s supposed to clear up in time for the carnival,” Regan says.

  “Splendid.” Matthew stands up and brushes the dirt from his pants. “I guess that means I will be seeing you there. I look forward to it, Regan.”

  “Me, too.” Regan smiles to herself as Matthew and Natasha head back into the house.

  It looks like another awesome and drama-free day for Regan.

  (You know better than that, don’t you, reader?)

  I don’t need to tell you all the things you have to worry about as a kid: Homework, chores, bullies, hiding your snotty boogers, pretending you didn’t let out a super stinky fart …

  But even with a bunny and the promise of seeing Matthew at the carnival, Regan has something coming up that is stressing her out. It’s something terrifying.

  What could be more terrifying than monsters and zombies? you may be thinking.

  How about a math test.

  Yup.

  But here’s the thing: Regan has a secret weapon. And this time we’re not talking about wooden spikes and baseball bats.

  “Okay, you did the work correctly, but right here you reversed the numbers,” Sofia tells Regan a couple hours later as she underlines her long division practice sheet.

  That’s right, Sofia is tutoring Regan in math.

  Let’s just take a moment to appreciate how far Regan and Sofia have come. Regan used to be terrified of Sofia because in case you’ve forgotten (but it’ll only take a couple pages to remember), Sofia is sort of abrupt and annoyed at pretty much everything and anything because of course she is. But then Regan decided to stop being afraid of Sofia, since Sofia had stood up for Regan and the whole bond you get with people when you’ve saved your town from a curse.

  Regan lets out a frustrated groan. She’s always so close to getting something right and then just messes it up in the end. She wants to curl up on the couch in the Norland-Vargas living room, but she knows she can’t give up even if she wants to.

  “What I think you need to do is just slow down,” Sofia says. “You had it but probably at the end just rushed with the final number. It’s like how they say more road accidents happen closer to home: People get too comfortable. You were at the end and just switched it around. It’s not a big deal.”

  Regan grits her teeth and tackles the next equation.

  Okay, can we talk about how most people don’t ever use long division? For real. I’ve never needed to divide 7898 by 14. Ever. It’s almost like math beyond balancing a checkbook (ask an adult) and figuring out a tip is unnecessary. I’m not trying to insinuate that adults have invented long division to torture children, but let’s just look at the facts.

  (Moving on before the math police show up.)

  Take it slow, Regan says to herself as she goes step-by-step. Line by line. She double-checks each calculation. Anytime something gets jumbled in her head, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Then she tries again. She passes the paper to Sofia.

  Sofia takes out her red pen, which, yeah, is sort of a trigger for Regan, and if I’m being honest—which of course I always am, trusting reader—for me (I’m looking at you, editor who just loooooves to mark up my precious AND PERFECT manuscripts!). Sofia circles the entire equation.

  Regan’s heart sinks. She was positive she got it correct.

  And then Sofia puts a smiley face next to it.

  “What?” Regan exclaims.

  “You got it right!” Then Sofia does something we rarely see; she actually smiles. Like a genuine smile, and you know what, it looks nice on her. (Not like I’d ever tell her that.)

  “I got it right.” Suddenly the math test doesn’t seem as scary anymore.

  But there’s somebody in the Norland-Vargas household whose day appears to be getting worse.

  Diego Norland-Vargas storms through the living room, phone glued to his ear. He’d look more serious if he wasn’t wearing the same vampire costume from yesterday. “It’ll all blow over if we can just—” He’s cut off as he enters the kitchen.

  “So how bad was last night?” Regan asks in a whisper.

  “Everybody was asking questions about Leona, which is the last thing Darius’s mom and my dad want. Like anybody would believe she’d just go camping and not tell someone. I’d have come up with a much better cover story.” Because of course Sofia would. “But the front page of the Cauldron’s Cove Courier only had pictures from the seniors’ performance. There was no mention. But there’s no way Mr. Hearse is going to stop.”

  “What are they going to do?” Regan asks, and to be honest, she’s kind of relieved all this curse nonsense is not her problem anymore.

  Isn’t it nice for things to be going wrong for the adults for once while the kids just get to be kids? (Spoiler alert: Don’t get used to it.)

  “I overheard my dad say that it doesn’t look good for Hearse to be exploiting a death for his political gain. Although, they’re going to dedicate tonight’s event to Leona and do some sort of charity event in her honor in a couple weeks, so not like they aren’t doing the same thing. But they figure it might make her family stop asking questions, and if they talk about her, it shows they have nothing to hide.”

  Regan shivers. “I’m so glad it’s not our problem.”

  Sofia shrugs. It’s almost as if she wants to be in the middle of chaos.

  A rumbling sound comes from the stairs and Bennett comes rushing down. “Hey, sis, did you—” He stops when he sees Regan on the couch. “Oh, hey, Regan, I didn’t know you were here.” Bennett smooths out his always perfectly styled blond hair.

  “Sofia is helping me with math.” Regan holds up her notebook.

  “Cool.” Bennett plops down next to her and puts his arm around the back of the couch, behind Regan’s back. “Sof is so good at math.”

  “It’s Sofia.” Sofia shakes her head.