“Wait a second, that’s the woman from my dream!”

  I stared at him, not sure how to react to that. The other teens immediately burst out laughing, teasing the kid while he slowly went scarlet from mortification.

  “Not like that,” he stammered, but his eyes were still fixed on me and suspiciously—like it was my fault I’d showed up in his dream (if I really had). “But seriously, I had a dream about you,” he continued. By now, I was listening, because I’d never seen the kid before and from the sound of it, he’d never seen me.

  “You did?” I asked, frowning.

  He nodded insistently. “You were standing in the street, and you had fire wrapping around your arms, but it wasn’t burning you at all. I think you were controlling it.”

  “What?” the ringleader asked, frowning at him.

  “Isn’t that weird?” he asked her with a little, embarrassed laugh—like he’d realized how strange he sounded.

  “Yeah, super weird,” one of the girls answered.

  It took me a second to force any kind of response out of my mouth, because I’d frozen in horror at what he was describing. Because, the thing was, that sounded a lot like my Fiery Command Oil. I’d used it pretty publicly when I’d first come to town, when a Wendigo had decided to go on a murder spree in Haven Hollow, and I’d been trying to slow her down enough for the Council to take care of her. The whole situation had been pretty big, and showy, and it had taken a lot of work to make sure that the less magically inclined residents of the Hollow had their memories altered in order to keep the peace.

  That had been back when Ophelia, a Night Hag, had been in charge of the Council, and while she also turned out to be inclined to going on murder sprees, she’d been a real stickler for keeping the supernatural and the mundane citizens entirely separate. Heck, she hadn’t even wanted to sell homes to non-magical people by the end of her reign. No way would she have allowed some human kid to remember me, wreathed in fire, duking it out with an eight-foot, antlered, shaggy monster in the middle of Main Street. Unless this wasn’t just a normal, human kid? But when I studied him, he looked and felt normal.

  The kids were staring at me by this point—like they were wondering if I really was some sort of weird, fire-handling entity, so I forced a laugh out from between lips that had gone numb. “Yeah. That’s a weird dream for sure.”

  That seemed to be good enough, because the crowd turned and started drifting towards the door, all the while teasing the kid about finally meeting his ‘dream woman’ who also happened to be old enough to be his mom. I decided to forcibly ignore that last bit, which wasn’t hard considering I was still stuck on the fact that this kid had somehow seen me all those years ago.

  When the bell over the door rang to signal they were gone, I grabbed my hair with both hands and tried not to freak out. But seriously, what the heck? How could that kid have known that? Had it really just been a dream that had visited him, and I was panicking about nothing? But then, why would he have dreamt about it—something he’d never even witnessed. Was he maybe a budding supernatural, and having some kind of reverse-prophetic dreams? Was that even a thing? Dreaming of the past sounded like kind of a let down where supernatural gifts were concerned, but that didn’t mean that his running his mouth to his friends wasn’t going to cause problems.

  It was just dumb luck that none of them seemed interested in asking him more questions in favor of busting his chops about dreaming about some mom in the potion store. But that could change at any moment. Right, good point. I needed to call Wanda. Then I needed to figure out what was going on. But before all of that, I needed to take a full breath before I passed out on the floor.

  Before I had a chance to get myself really worked up, my phone pinged. I almost ignored it, but I didn’t get a lot of texts, and there was a limited number of people that it could have been, and I cared a lot about all of them. Somehow, I managed to fumble my phone out of my pocket without dropping it, which was bigger magic than any potion.

  It was a text from Finn.

  Mom?

  I frowned, worry creeping in for a whole different reason. It was still school hours, and Finn shouldn’t have been on his phone. He should have been in class, paying attention to whatever he was learning.

  Come to think of it, what had those teenagers been doing outside of class? Never mind, three problems or less at a time.

  I was just typing up a response, when Finn called me. Apparently, I hadn’t answered quickly enough.

  “What’s going on, buddy?” I immediately asked, but when there was no immediate response, I continued, “what’s wrong?” I tried to keep my voice even, to not let the unease I was feeling creep into my tone. He wouldn’t have called for no reason. He knew better than to use his phone in school.

  “Mom?” The tremor in his voice made him sound years younger.

  “What’s going on, Finn?”

  He took a shaky breath and let it out. Static crackled across the line. “Mom, Alicia collapsed in class. She just dropped on the floor, and no one could wake her up. They had to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital.”

  Listening to the hiccup of my son’s tears over the phone line, when I had no way to hug him or give him any real comfort, was agonizing. The phone creaked in my grip, my fingers squeezing tight like I could crawl through the receiver to get to his side.

  Alicia was one of Finn’s classmates and one of his, newest but soon to be closest, friends. They spent a lot of time together and Finn had been overprotective of her, ever since he’d had his showdown with the Magicless that had been targeting his class. The woman had been doing her best to torment the kids, to suck all the hope out of them and turn Finn into a broken Magician like her, and she hadn’t cared who suffered as collateral damage in her wake. Alicia had been hurt pretty badly in the process. She still suffered panic attacks and couldn’t be alone in the dark to this day, from what Finn had told me.

  “It’s okay, Finn,” I promised, although I had no way of knowing if it was okay. My chest hurt. What a terrifying thing to see. And that poor girl, I wished she could just have some peaceful days and a chance to recover. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  Finn snuffled across the line, his voice thick. “Can… can you come and get me? Please?”

  “I’m on my way.”

  And I was. Everything else was forgotten as I grabbed my purse and my keys. Within seconds, I’d locked up and was on my way to the school to pick up Finn.

  Chapter Nine

  Haven Hollow’s General Hospital made an effort to be a bright, cheery place.

  There were flowers planted in the beds outside, and the walls were painted in soft pastels. But under all of that, it was still a place for the sick and the injured, and underneath the faint antiseptic smell of chemicals, there was fear, and there was death.

  I didn’t have a lot of good memories of hospitals. The day Finn was born was pretty much it. The harsh chemical smell that was desperately fighting against sickness and infection, stung my nose, and the murmurs of frightened, worried people clustered together in the waiting areas tugged at my heart, leaving me feeling soul-bruised and a little light-headed.

  I took a deeper breath, and the smell of flowers briefly drowned out the smell of bleach and antiseptic. The light flared overhead, stabbing my eyes like I was staring straight up into them. There were people leaning over me, masked strangers speaking to each other in voices that weren’t shouts by only the thinnest margin. I was cold, so cold, the ice numbing my whole body, until I couldn’t even shiver.

  How had I ended up here?

  I could only just feel the vibration of the wheels beneath me as the nurses rushed me to the emergency room, stringing up a bag of blood they were desperate to get back into my veins. And somehow, over the babel of controlled chaos, I heard a man’s voice.

  Hold on, Poppy. You have to hold on.

  I yanked myself out of the memory with a gasp that was loud enough that one of the nurses at her station glanced up to look at me. I managed a weak smile, but it was enough to convince her I wasn’t about to pass out or expire right there in front of her, so she went back to typing on her computer.

  The uncomfortable vinyl chair creaked underneath me as I shifted my weight. There was a cramping in my thighs from where I’d been sitting with the metal bar digging into the back of my legs for too long, and I grimaced as blood went rushing into numb limbs in a rush of pins and needles.

  I’d been waiting here for a while, too keyed up to play on my phone, but trying to make a game out of deciphering the near incomprehensible announcements over the PA. Finn had been sitting with me for a while. Owing to the fact that he wasn’t Alicia’s family, he hadn’t been allowed in right away. Eventually, Alicia’s mom had popped out to grab a drink and had seen him waiting, and she’d ushered him in for a visit, knowing he was someone her daughter would absolutely want to see. Then I was left to wait by myself.

  I was starting to regret that last application of Memento Mori. The potion was still clinging to the hair at my temples, and unfortunately the hospital wasn’t giving it anything nice to latch on to. Or maybe it was just my own uneasiness from being here, but I kept getting an unpleasant montage of all the various ways I’d managed to hurt myself since coming to town. It wasn’t the best.

  Though, there was that confirmation that the last time I’d ended up here, when Roscoe had landed me in the emergency room with a severe case of anemia, I really had heard Andre’s voice. Even before we’d met, Andre had reached out to me. He’d been there for me during one of the worst moments of my life, and I hadn’t even known it.

  Which made the idea of losing him hit that much harder.

  Nope. I wasn’t going down that path again. I was here for Finn, and for his friend. Whether or not there was relationship drama between Andre and me, that was a problem for another day.

  I tried to think of something more pleasant, and the smell of woodfire and lilacs flared, the potion oh so helpfully giving me a full body flashback to Andre kissing his way down my throat as I lay sprawled across his bed.

  Blood rushed into my face, fast enough that I could feel the hot burn of it in my skin. Oh boy, those memories weren’t out-in-public friendly, thank you, potion. I shifted, uncomfortable, and suddenly irrationally worried that someone was somehow going to start eavesdropping on my thoughts.

  The nurse at the station gave me another worried look over the rims of her lime green glasses, probably wondering what had happened in the last minute to turn me from fair-skinned, to volcano-red. I managed another shaky smile. Luckily, she’d probably seen it all and written the book on it, because she turned back to her typing. The staccato beat of the keyboard helped me focus on breathing and not thinking of anything too racy.

  There had to be other things to distract myself with, other than Finn’s friend or my own worries. I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head, but I knew they had to exist. I didn’t want to pay too much attention to the other people in the waiting area, feeling like I was intruding somehow, just by looking at them. The television was turned way down, and I’d never been very good at lip reading, so I had no idea what show was on or what was happening. And I couldn’t say I cared.

  Instead, I’d resigned myself to counting the tiles on the floor that I could see, when a second nurse, one in scrubs covered in pink and blue puppies, stepped up to the reception station.

  “Can you pass me the paperwork for thirty-three?”

  My ears perked up. That was Alicia’s room. Now, obviously, the nurses couldn’t tell Finn and me anything, since we weren’t Alicia’s family or guardians. There were privacy laws. And it wasn’t like I wanted to bother her mother with questions, especially if the answers weren’t good ones. But, if I happened to overhear something while I was zoned out and counting floor tiles, well, maybe it would bring Finn some comfort.

  I pretended not to be listening, and let my eyes go soft and out of focus, like I was thinking very deeply. No one eavesdropping over here, no sir.

  The first nurse broke away from whatever she was typing to sort through a pile of clipboards before handing one to the second nurse, who flipped through the papers quickly. That nurse then sighed, shoving back some fly away hair that had slipped out of the bun it was twisted back into.

  “Panic attack. Mmm hmm. Well, we’ll keep her for the night just to keep an eye on her and make sure there’s nothing else going on. The doctor can talk to her in the morning.” She looked up at the other nurse. “Maybe something for anxiety?” The other nurse nodded. “I’ll make a note for… who’s on in the morning?”

  The first nurse hit a couple keys, tipping her head back to peer through her glasses. “Doctor Stuart is on rotation in the morning.”

  “Okay, great.” The second nurse passed the clipboard back. “I’m going to go double-check that she doesn’t need anything.”

  I waited until she moved off and the other nurse went back to whatever she was doing before I let out the breath I’d been holding. A panic attack sounded awful, but it wasn’t as serious as it could have been. I couldn’t help but wonder what had caused it though. From what Finn had told me, Alicia had been doing better with dealing with the lingering issues caused by Ms. Rose’s efforts. After that whole thing with the Magicless, it had been hard for the poor kid for a long time. She didn’t remember the more obviously magical parts, thanks to Wanda and Astrid’s quick work with memory charms. But the feeling of helplessness, that was the kind of thing that lingered, especially in kids. Still, Finn had done his best to help, keeping Alicia company, trying to cheer her up when strange things set her off, like the smell of chalk or the old portables on the school grounds.

  That was part of what made what Andre did, what Finn would do, so important. Because being a Magician, it was all about hope. Having it, inspiring it in others. Especially in children. It was something so important, helping kids like Alicia, keeping their hope alive. The world certainly didn’t need any more Magicless in it.

  Maybe Alicia’s panic attack wasn’t related to the Magicless at all. Even in Haven Hollow, not everything was due to magic. Alicia was fifteen. That was a rough age for any kid. She might have just had an anxiety attack after all the stress of the State Exam, and it just got away from her. I hoped that she got the help she needed. Maybe Finn could cheer her up.

  It was a relief that it wasn’t more serious, though. Finn had been panicked when I’d picked him up, and he hadn’t been able to tell me any more than he had on the phone. Just that Alicia had suddenly started hyperventilating and had eventually passed out. That must have been so scary for her, and for everyone else. I was glad she was going to be okay, and I knew it would be a big relief for Finn, too.

  I shifted again, trying to find a position in the chair where my legs didn’t start going numb after five minutes. I’d also missed dinner, and so had Finn. Slipping away to the cafeteria while Finn was with his friend was out of the question, though. Assuming I could even find it. I’d been there a few times during my last stay, but sometimes it felt like the hallways moved and changed around me. They all looked the same, and it made the building a confusing maze.

  I was pretty sure that I had a granola bar or two stashed in my purse. I’d taken to storing snacks ever since Finn had started his latest growth spurt and took to eating like he was hollow. It seemed kind of rude to just pull one out and start eating it here, though. But again, I didn’t want to leave, even to go to a stairwell to inhale some granola and chocolate chips.

  It was only a few minutes later when Finn slipped out of Alicia’s room. I braced my hands on the arms of the chair to boost myself up, a reassuring smile already on my face, when I caught sight of his expression and froze.

  Because that wasn’t the face of a boy who’d checked on his friend and found her mostly fine. Finn’s face was pale, and a little sick looking. His eyes were wide, and his freckles stood out like sepia ink against the rest of his skin. I was very familiar with all the expressions my son could make, and that one was definitely his freaked out and trying to hide it look.

  I hurried towards him, trying not to stumble as my feet were forced to remember they had bones and nerves in them. “Finn? What’s wrong?”

  The smile Finn forced himself to make was ghastly and made him look like he was fighting the urge to be sick. “I’ll tell you in the car, okay?”

  Well, that was worrying. What the heck could have happened in the hospital room? Was there something else that was wrong with Alicia, after all? Whatever it was, clearly Finn didn’t want to talk about it in a crowded hospital, even if the chances of being overheard were pretty low, what with the people and the gurneys being wheeled around, and the low repetitive beep of machines.

  I didn’t argue, I just hurried Finn towards the exit and into the parking garage. Even once we were buckled in, he didn’t seem like he felt like talking. He buckled his seatbelt, and then sat there, just staring straight through the windshield while he chewed his lower lip until it was bright red.

  “What’s going on?” I prodded him.

  That had him taking a shuddering breath. Finn’s voice was very small when he spoke. “Alicia had a panic attack.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I heard the nurses talking. That’s not good, but she’s going to be fine—you know that, right? A panic attack isn’t that serious, Finn. So, you don’t have to worry—”

  He was shaking his head before I’d even finished the sentence. “No, Mom, you don’t get it. It’s not the panic attack that’s worrying me.”

  “Then what is?”

  He turned to look at me. “She had the panic attack because she suddenly remembered Miss Rose, and all the things that she did to us. She remembered. All the stuff that Astrid and Wanda made her forget, it’s all back now.”