After placing my crystals in a circle around the cauldron, I tug on their magic threads and tie them together. Once the latticework is secure, I draw it into the cauldron and fold it into the water inside. Giving the extra strands some time to naturally spread, I head over to the back shelves. Pilar slides past me, grabbing supplies of her own. The soft fabric of her green-and-yellow dress brushes my ankles as she goes by.

“You look more rested, Shay,” she says, giving me a once-over.

“Yeah,” I say, carefully working a glass bottle of powder out from behind a Tupperware of premixed herbs. “Sorry I had to ask for another day off. I promise I’ll come back to my normal schedule as soon as the show is over.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” she says. “Lex and I can manage.”

Lex’s head appears in the pass-through window as I carry the bottle of blue vervain powder back to my in-progress potion. “Pilar, Mrs. Morris needs your help.”

Pilar passes me in a blur of green and yellow, breezing out front to deal with the problem. Moments later, Lex leans against the table next to me as I sift powder into the cauldron.

“Bad luck getting stuck with Mrs. Morris today,” I say.

“Seriously.” She groans theatrically and sticks out her tongue in Mrs. Morris’s direction. I laugh quietly, giving my sieve a particularly hard whack that sends the last flurry of powder falling into the cauldron. “So,” Lex says, a playful smile spreading across her face. “Are you excited for your hot date tonight?”

“Hot date?” I repeat. Has Lex lost her mind? All I’m doing tonight is going over to Ana’s house so she can help me with my hair.

“With Ana?”

“What?” I say, putting the empty sieve down on the table.

Lex huffs. “Oh my god, lady, why are we still pretending you don’t like her?”

My heart just about stops. “I don’t—what—why do you—” I sputter, my cheeks flaming. Has Lex been huffing potion vapor or something?

“You’re obsessed with her,” Lex says, answering the question I never managed to ask. “You talk about her all the time. I mean, you used to complain about her all the time, but now you just straight-up talk about her.”

“I do not!”