They were beautiful, with every scalloped edge on the leaf done perfectly. The stems, the veins, they looked like they could have just been plucked off a tree. The light above cast them with a satiny sheen, but the one strange thing I noticed was that there was no loop on any of them that would allow for hanging them from a necklace.

  So, of course, I could only wonder one thing—was this another case along the lines of the gold bush that had randomly appeared in someone’s yard? Big red alarm bells suddenly started clanging away in my head.

  I looked up at the woman. “Where on earth did you get these?”

  She blinked, her smile faltering. “Oh. Off the tree up the road.”

  “The tree up the road?” I frowned.

  She nodded excitedly. “It’s a gold tree! And there’s a crowd around it a mile thick, seems like! I could only get close enough to grab these three leaves and I had to push my way through everyone just to do that.” Then she took a breath as my heart plummeted down to my feet. A gold tree? Roy wasn’t going to like this—not one bit. “We all figured it was a stunt Haven Hollow did for tourists?”

  “A stunt?”

  She nodded again. “You know, like coupons to use in town? But gold leaves instead of paper?”

  A whole tree turned into gold? She was kidding, right? I could only hope she was kidding. Especially right out on Main Street, the busiest road in the entire Hollow. But the woman only looked at me like I was the one who wasn’t in the know.

  “Um, well, I had no idea there was a gold tree in town.”

  Her face fell. “Oh. That’s too bad.”

  I didn’t want her walking out the door with those leaves. Plus, I needed to close the shop asap and get out there to see what in the world was going on. So, although it would hurt my pocketbook a bit (actually, maybe it wouldn’t—all depending on what the gold leaves might be worth), I plastered a big smile onto my face.

  “But you know what? I’ll honor the leaf coupons for you.”

  “Oh, you will?” she crowed, snatching up the handle of the basket like she was worried I’d change my mind.

  “Yes, whatever marketing stunt the mayor is working on by bringing that tree to town, he simply forgot to inform me, but there’s always something fun brewing in this town.”

  She nodded excitedly again. “This town is wonderful. Always so exciting. It’s the best place, especially during October. I’ll have to come back again next year! Hopefully he’ll bring the gold tree back! It’s really the best idea to get tourists excited to come to your town!”

  I kept my smile in place while she bustled off, and then I ran to the door, flipping the sign to closed before locking up.

  It wasn’t hard to find the tree. All I had to do was follow the throngs of people who were swimming like a school of fish up Main Street. When I found the tree, I noticed the lady in my store had been correct—there was now a multitude of onlookers crowding around it, pushing each other to get closer, taking pictures, and, oh goodness, taking videos of themselves with the tree. Roy was going to have a fit and this time it was going to be legendary, if he hadn’t already had one.

  All but the leaves at the very tippy top of the tree had been stripped, with people trying to bend smaller branches off, and even picking at the bark, but to no avail. To all appearances, the whole tree was solid gold.

  My heart was slamming inside my chest, bruising up against the inside of my ribs. This was bad, very bad. Places like Haven Hollow existed to keep the supernatural hidden, and safe away from prying human eyes. And because supernaturals were already leaving Haven Hollow, something like this—well, it could only make matters worse. Way worse. Something this obvious and flashy would continue to draw in mundane tourists, and that would likely be the beginning of the end for Haven Hollow. Could they even shut down a Hollow? I wasn’t sure, but I also really didn’t want to find out.

  My hands were shaking so badly, it took me three tries to actually hit the buttons on my phone. But once I could, I started firing off emergency messages to the other council members. As soon as the messages were sent, I tried to come up with something to get the crowd to move on and stop taking pictures and videos of the gold tree.

  The air was getting swimmy, and I wondered if I was having a panic attack for a brief second, because that would just be the absolute topper to this morning: to pass out in the middle of Main Street. But no, it wasn’t that. The power that lay coiled up inside my rib cage like a sleeping dragon was getting agitated with my stress. I could feel it moving, sliding around, like it was looking for a way out of the cage it was confined to.

  I froze, suddenly terrified. I was a potion maker. That was my thing, my family’s thing, and it always had been. I didn’t have big scary magic powers, and really, I had no idea what to do with the magic that I could feel waking up in my bones. Witch magic.

  The faster I breathed, the stronger the power pulsed. It was a horrible cycle, my anxiety driving the magic, ratcheting it up, which made my panic spike even higher until I was stuck in a terrible feedback loop.

  I clamped down as hard as I could on my own anxiety, but the magic surged even higher, fighting against me. Suddenly, a few bright sparks exploded nearby, and a couple people cried out as their phones shorted with a buzz of electricity. In response, they dropped them to the ground in little piles of broken plastic and scorched metal.

  The whoop whoop of a police siren probably shouldn’t have been as comforting as it was, but it let me breathe again as Taliyah inched her car down the road, occasionally giving another blare of her siren when people didn’t clear out of her path fast enough.

  She parked her cruiser at the side of the road, blocking the gold tree, and climbed out. With her hands planted on her hips and sweeping the edges of her suit jacket back (to make sure her badge was on full display), she turned to address the crowd.

  “Okay, everyone. You all need to move along—you’re causing a major traffic block. And no more vandalizing the tree.” She paused and faced the people directly in front of her. “Go on—get a move on. Yep, that means you, sir.” Then she faced the crowd once more. “Let’s get going! Now! Unless you want to spend the rest of your day behind bars!”

  The last part was very pointed, and the crowd, which had started looking a bit guilty when she’d brought up the word ‘vandalize’ moved off quickly once it was clear no one was getting any more gold from the tree.

  Once the crowd was gone, Taliyah glanced over, met my eyes, and beckoned me over.

  “You want to tell me what’s going on,” she said in a hard tone that was very much Police Chief Morgan, and not Princess Olwen.

  I shrugged helplessly. “You know as much as I do.”

  “How did you end up out here?” she asked, clearly taking issue with my statement.

  I nodded and took a deep breath. “A customer came into my store, trying to barter with gold leaves, and she told me about a solid gold tree she’d seen just up the road. I came out here and started texting the council when it was obvious the woman wasn’t just making it up.”

  Taliyah pinched the bridge of her nose, like she was trying to stave off a headache. “Okay. I’m going to cordon the tree off and I’ll get some officers up here to keep everyone away.” She then called for backup.

  “And what are we supposed to tell everyone who’s already seen the tree?”

  She shrugged. “That it was a stunt—something the town did for Halloween or something. I don’t know—we’ll come up with something. But for now, you get on the phone and get someone down here that can actually do something about this with magic.”

  Magic meant the coven, which meant Wanda. I winced. “I’m not sure how willing Wanda will be to help. She was pretty miffed about the accusations at the meeting.”

  Taliyah gave me a hard look. “Miffed enough to turn a tree into gold?”

  Now, Wanda could be petty, I was the first to admit that. She’d grown up in a on old-school coven, where backstabbing, scheming, and petty vendettas were not only normal, but expected. But she took her role as High Witch of Scapegrace seriously, and she would never put her coven in danger by drawing attention to Haven Hollow. Never.

  I shook my head, hard enough to make some of my hair slide free from the ponytail I’d put it in that morning. “No way. And it might be better if you don’t ask those kinds of questions if you want her help because she can hold a grudge like no one can.”

  Taliyah’s nostrils flared, but she gave a short, sharp nod. “Just get her here. I want this thing gone, yesterday.”

  It still wasn’t quite noon, which meant there was absolutely no way that Wanda was up and about. So, that meant I got the fantastic job of waking up an irritated witch, in order to ask her a favor for the council that was currently on her shit list. Yes, I could actually swear when the occasion called for it. And this one definitely did. In fact: shit shit shit. And an added crap on top.

  The longer the phone rang, the more anxious I got. What if Wanda was too deeply asleep to hear it ringing? Or what if she slept with her phone set to do not disturb, just so she wouldn’t get woken up?

  No, Wanda wouldn’t do that. Not when someone in the coven might need her help. She’d complain about it, and make sure to let them know how terribly inconvenienced she was about the whole thing, but she’d never just ignore them.

  The call went to voicemail, and with a little murmured apology, I hung up and hit redial. This time, the line picked up on the second ring, with an extremely groggy, “H’lo?”

  “Wanda? It’s Poppy. We have kind of a... well, we have a situation on Main Street. We could really, really use the powers of a High Witch, because... well, because it’s quite the shitshow.”

  “If you’re swearing, then it must be bad.”

  “It is. Really bad.”

  There were a few seconds of silence, and I worried that she’d fallen back asleep. “Wanda? Are you there?”

  “Give me a minute, for spell’s sake.” I heard sheets rustling and a muffled yawn. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

  “Yes, and I’m sorry.”

  “Seriously, what part of ‘nocturnal’ do people not understand?”

  I winced, wrapping one arm around my stomach while I watched Taliyah break out the bright yellow crime scene tape to cordon off the golden tree. “I’m really sorry, Wanda, but like I said—it’s kind of an emergency.”

  “So, who died?”

  “Jeez! No one died!”

  “Then how much of an emergency can it really be?”

  “Well, not that sort of emergency, thank the Lord, but something else has been turned into gold.”

  “Hopefully Roy?”

  “I will choose to ignore that.”

  “You have no sense of humor, I swear.” A sigh. “Okay, what’s been turned to gold?”

  “A whole tree, and it’s right in the middle of Main Street! There are people everywhere, Wanda, tourists were taking pictures of it, before Taliyah chased them off. I don’t see how this hasn’t gotten out.”

  “Well,” she said after a pause, sounding completely and totally uninterested. “You’ve got to give whoever is doing this some credit.”

  “Credit?”

  “Sure. It’s a pretty funny prank, if you ask me.”

  “Don’t tell Taliyah that.”

  “I have no interest in being turned into a Wanda icicle, so you can bet your cheery, little gypsy butt that I won’t.”

  “And... just a word of advice, maybe don’t mention the fact that you were hoping it was Roy who was turned into gold.”

  She sighed out, long and hard. “Anything else, Poppy? I swear, you’re getting so demanding in your old age.”

  “My old age?!” I asked, taken aback.

  “Just a joke, bestie, calm your panties.” Wanda then muttered something rude under her breath. “If Taliyah is already there, why are you calling me? Shouldn’t we just let Bigfoot and the Princess get it all sorted out?” Then she laughed. “Bigfoot and the Princess—that sounds like a naughty romance novel I should be reading.”

  I let out a slow breath as the magic inside me sloshed against the inside of my ribs. “Wanda, please. This isn’t them asking. This isn’t even the council asking. This is me, your best friend, and I’m asking for your help because I’m scared. I’m scared of what this kind of attention would mean for Haven Hollow and I know you are the only person powerful enough to stop it.” Sometimes you had to appeal to someone’s sense of vanity to get anywhere.

  “Well, that’s certainly true.”

  “Please?”

  “That is dirty pool,” she growled across the line. “It’s downright manipulative, Poppy Morton, and I hope you know that.”

  “Pretty please?”

  “They both know that I’d tell them to go whistle. So, they get you to call me, knowing I can’t say ‘no’ when you get that pathetic sound to your voice. Really, the nerve.”

  A tiny smile curled my lips. “Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

  “Ah, spell. I trained you too well,” she said, grudgingly. “I still won’t be able to make it until sunset. But at least that will give me time to get the rest of the coven together and gather whatever ingredients and implements we’ll need.”

  “That’s fine.”

  She yawned again, longer this time. “Go to my store. Maverick’s working today. Tell him to splash some repelling potion around the tree, or hex it to make people avoid it until we can get there with a more permanent solution.”

  I was so relieved, tears prickled in the corner of my eyes, and I had to blink rapidly to keep them from spilling. “Thank you, Wanda.”

  “Don’t thank me,” she grumbled. “I’m just doing it so I can rub it in Roy’s nose later.”

  The smile got a little bit wider. “Okay. Thank you, anyway. I’ll see you soon.”

  I hung up and walked over to tell Taliyah the plan, before trotting back down the street to collect a surly Warlock.

  Chapter Eight

  In all the pacing and fretting and waiting and worrying I was doing, I almost jumped out of my skin when the phone in my hand buzzed with an incoming text.

  Hey, Mom, it read. Is it okay if I stay late at school to work on a project? And then if I go to Marty’s after? He’s got a new video game we wanted to play.

  I fired back a quick text telling Finn that was fine and told him to let me know if he needed a ride home. At least that was one worry off my chest while I waited around to deal with this tree situation.

  It was close to agonizing, waiting for the sun to set. I knew why Wanda was pretending so hard to be a vampire, to keep the coven and everyone else safe from vampire retaliation, and frankly, something like the gold tree would be the perfect way to lure her out and trick her into revealing herself. And from what I understood, there was some vampire woman who had been lurking around Haven Hollow, trying to catch Wanda in the act. So it was now more important than ever before for Wanda to keep the ruse up. Sure, I understood all that, but it didn’t make the waiting any easier.

  At least Maverick had come through, casting a quick repulsion hex on the tree that would keep mundanes from noticing it, and it even made Taliyah not want to spend much time standing next to it. So, the two of them stood together off to one side of the street discussing something (no doubt the tree), and I probably could have gone over to join them, but the way they were standing, kind of tilted in towards each other, their conversation seemed like it might have been intimate. Or at least private. So, I kept up my vigil, pacing a rut into the sidewalk and trying not to chew my nails down to bloody stumps.

  I debated texting Andre with the information, but he wasn’t on the council and council members weren’t allowed to alert anyone to Haven Hollow matters unless they, too, were on the council. That, and I didn’t want to interrupt whatever he was doing—which was, no doubt, learning new Magician tricks or deciding what next to teach Finn. Yes, I knew he wouldn’t be upset with me for interrupting him, but I also wanted to maintain my own independence. I didn’t want to lose myself to our relationship like I had with all the other men I’d been with. I wanted this one to be different—I wanted to still be Poppy, rather than Poppy and Andre. Maybe that sounded strange, but it was a good enough explanation to myself that I bought it and didn’t bother him.

  What felt like a thousand years later, the sun finally slipped beneath the horizon, sinking Haven Hollow into twilight. The antique street lights came on, and I tried not to notice how prettily the gold tree reflected their glow.

  Not long after the sun had set, the rest of the coven arrived. Lorcan and Wanda came with Hellcat, Wanda’s familiar. In a second car, Imani, the coven’s newest member from Louisiana, drove Betanya and Olga, and their familiars, the racoon Franz, and Willie-Ray, the skunk. Maverick was already there with Isis, his owl, and me. Though, I wasn’t about to be of any help during the ritual casting, I figured maybe I could just provide moral support. And I could try to keep the fighting to a minimum, because I was pretty sure things would blow up as soon as Roy showed up. And, strangely, he hadn’t yet. I could only wonder if Maverick had done something with his magic to keep Roy at the Half-Moon or maybe things were just so busy there that Roy hadn’t had a chance to come out for this. I had a feeling it was more the former than the latter, but I didn’t ask because what I didn’t know couldn’t be used against me.

  The first thing Circle Scapegrace did when they arrived was to cast a spell that was a bit like Maverick’s repulsion hex, but on a larger scale. It filled the street with silvery mist, and would make sure people avoided the area, and didn’t pay any attention to why a crowd of people and animals were all hanging around a plucked bare gold tree.

  The witches all converged on the tree, prodding at its branches, and feeling it’s surface, as if trying to find some trace of the magic responsible. Olga even rapped her knuckles against the trunk, and the dull knocking told us that, however it had happened, the tree was solid gold all the way through.