“The power of belief,” Lizzie said, jerking her shoulders and biting into her toast.

“And if I wanted to remove the curse, how would I do that?” Charlotte said.

Her mother’s expression became even more discomfited. Giving a baby a blessing only took words and good intentions. But undoing another fairy’s curse? That was a totally different matter. The Popescu-McBees didn’t practice magic, usually. There was too much that could go wrong in the process of birthing to add the complications of ritual. But Lizzie had a treasure trove of her ancestors’ books and magical tools hidden away in the attic and she’d never shied away from learning. Charlotte, on the other hand, feared what sort of person she might become if she had shortcuts in a world that was already filled with them. So she’d left the studying to Mama, promising herself she would pick it up in a far-off “someday.”

“Someday” had a way of sneaking up on people, human or fae.

Lizzie chewed her toast thoughtfully. “Well, the best ‘catch-all’ I know to remove curses is to counteract it with a potion made from very powerful magical ingredients. I mean the magical equivalent of turpentine, very strong. You’re going to need to base it on something with real oomph from an ancient magical creature–hair from a unicorn’s mane, a phoenix’s talon, scales from the ouroboros’s tail, a dragon’s eggshell–

Charlotte perked up. “A dragon’s eggshell?”

“You have access to a dragon’s eggshell?” Mama asked quietly.

Charlotte paused, wondering how much she could say without violating patient confidentiality laws. “Let’s just say that I might have access to a dragon’s eggshell, and the shell will have a little phoenix DNA in there, too. Would that help or hurt?”

Lizzie’s blue eyes went wide as she nearly choked on her toast, but she recovered gracefully. “Well, there’s no guarantee, of course. It all depends on your intention, how the ingredients interact, and whether your subject deserves to have the curse removed in the first place. Magic is a living thing and makes judgments. It doesn’t tolerate intervention on the behalf of jackasses.”

“That’s beautiful.” Daddy laid two eggs sunnyside-up on Mama’s plate. “Is that Shakespeare?”

“Smartass!” Mama swatted at him, grinning as he poured her more coffee. “I’ll look through the books to see if I can find a specific recipe.”

“Well, first, I have to ask the egg-owner in question if I can borrow some. How exactly am I going to phrase that?” Charlotte said.

“Carefully.” Lizzie nodded, chewing her eggs. “If I find anything, I’ll email it to you.”

“You’re going to email the ancient potion recipe?” Charlotte gasped. “What would Granny say?”

“She would say shame on me for raising a pretentious Luddite for a daughter,” Lizzie said.

Charlotte snorted. “Thanks, Mama.”