As Molly stood in the middle of the room, sparks of magic came from every direction. She felt drunk with possibility as she turned, soaking everything in.

Watching her, Sarah laughed. “I have no cauldron, as you can see.”

“It’s all so perfect.” She gave a happy sigh. “I love how organized you are.”

“I don’t like confusion in any state, not mentally or emotionally, and certainly not physically.” Sarah walked over to the shelves that held potions and candles. “See how I have everything marked here?”

Molly walked over, noting the labels on both the shelves and also on the items themselves. “Yes.”

“Think you can find anything if I send you up here on your own?”

She grinned and nodded. “Oh yes.”

“Good. The cabinets are the only thing off-limits for now, and those are locked with a separate key. We’ll get to what’s inside them eventually.” Sarah led the way back down out of the attic. Molly followed, and Sarah carefully locked the door behind them. “Always lock this door behind you when you leave. Most of the dangerous things are in the cabinets, but to be on the safe side, I don’t want anybody up here I don’t trust.”

That sent a small glow of pleasure through her. “I understand.”

After that, she began to run errands for Sarah, delivering herbs, simples, and unguents to nearby residents. On her errands, Molly met Alyssa, a young single mother with a five-year-old boy named Evan who suffered from a rare lung disease. The potion Molly delivered helped Evan breathe almost normally from full moon to full moon.

She also met Charles and Bertrand, a retired married couple from San Francisco. Charles’s muscular dystrophy was held in check by Sarah’s simples and unguents. And she grew acquainted with seventy-five-year-old Homer, whose rheumatoid arthritis was eased by one of Sarah’s ointments.

And when she stopped to buy gas from Colin’s gas station, he came out to chat. He told her that Sarah had saved his daughter Tallulah’s life while his wife Sonja was still pregnant with her. Tallulah was a bright, healthy young woman now because of her.

Molly said, “The more I meet and talk to people, the more I realize how important Sarah is to this community.”

“That she is. Heard she’s taken a shine to you.” Colin squinted in the bright morning light as he leisurely washed the windows of her Subaru. The sun highlighted the gray threading through his short, curled hair and the good-natured lines that marked the mahogany landscape of his face. “It’s going to be a hard day when she leaves us.”