Chapter 4

• Gracelyn stood at the window and watched the cab leave down the long-overgrown drive. She held Phinehas in her arms and rubbed her face into his soft fur. “It’s just us now,” she whispered.
• Setting the cat down, she looked around the cabin. It wasn’t as nice as the pictures had led it to be, but it wasn’t horrible either. It would do for now, for as long as it took her to reverse the curse and get her life back on track. It was private and cheap, both important. Her money wouldn’t go far if she had to pay it all out on rent, and she needed the privacy to experiment and find a way to put things right.
• She was stiff all over from the long bus and then bumpy cab ride, but at least she’d gotten here. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She would not cry about her home again. It had been necessary to leave it behind. There was no way she could live among people who had forgotten she existed. That would be worse than being alone. To be forgotten by those she had grown up with. No one had spoken to her at the funeral. It was as if she hadn’t been there at all.
• She sniffled and took another deep breath. She wouldn’t be here forever only until she fixed everything, and then she could go home again. She thought of home. What would they do with her empty house just sitting there? As far as she knew, they couldn’t sell it, not with her being the sole owner of it now. She sighed. As soon as her phone was connected, she’d have to make a few phone calls and check on that. It would be just her luck to get rid of this curse and then not have a home to go back to.
• Shaking off the self-pity, she went into the kitchen to check out the “complete with dishes” part of the rental agreement. Hopefully it was complete, because she had brought nothing with her. Actually, other than a few memories of her parents and her sister before she had changed, she had brought clothes, books of magic and crates of supplies to work on reversing the curse. Everything that had the slightest use for magic was with her. She was going to restore her existence to the way it was before Samhain.
• ~
• Gracelyn wrote on the last day of the calendar, then opened a new one to January. She glared at the month now showing, January. She had been here through November and December and still hadn’t been able to change anything!
• December had been a teary month for her, being alone. She had called a cab and gone into the town a few times throughout the month, but seeing the families with children so excited had only made her lonelier than she already was. The fact that she was completely alone in this world now had really hit her hard. She cried for her parents, again, and even her sister, not caring whether she had cursed her or not, just wanting her back. That wasn’t something she could change either.
• Circling the first day of this New Year, she nodded and turned back to the pile of books on the table. It didn’t seem like it was getting smaller, which was a good thing. More books meant she still had that many more chances of finding a way to have her world returned to something she was happy with.
• “Today’s the day, Phin, we’ll find a way to fix one part at a time.” She rubbed the cat’s head and grinned when he stretched out on the table among the books as he had done every day since they’d arrived. It seemed as if he wanted her to find the answers as much as she did.
• ~
• Crossing out the date, she threw the marker at the calendar and went to sit at the table. Phinehas jumped down, went over, and batted the marker to send it skittering across the floor. Gracelyn looked up at the photo of flowers above the month and closed her eyes. It was hopeless, and it was time she accepted that. It was now the middle of May, and she was no further ahead in reversing even the simplest effects of the curse.
• She pushed the last book of magic around on the table. One left, and then what? If the answers she needed weren’t in this one, what did she do then? She pulled the notebook over that had all of her figures and calculations on it. Her money was going to run out by the end of summer, even with her living on the tightest budget she could manage.
• She’d gone to town recently and noticed several help wanted signs in windows now that the weather was mild and more people were out. Should she just resign herself to living in this tiny weathered cabin and find a job? Would it even be possible to get a job? Wouldn’t her employer forget about her? She couldn’t go back to her own home, and the idea that she had already accepted that made her heart heavier.
• She looked at the cat sitting there watching her. “Last day of trying Phin, and then we need to come up with a new plan.” Phinehas sat perfectly still for a moment before he turned and walked out of the kitchen. She grimaced. “I feel the same way.”