Shadows by Amy Meredith Page B

couldn’t always wait.
    It’s worse for Mal , Eve thought. His parents go travelling together, so he doesn’t even have one of them . Eve’s folks were pretty good at making sure she had at least one parental around. Maybe she had a couple of nights a month on her own, but Jess was always available to keep her company.
    ‘So what do you two have planned for tonight?’ Eve’s dad asked as he grabbed a slice of the pizza. ‘I know it can’t be hanging out with me.’
    ‘We’ve decided to watch Titanic for the millionth time,’ Eve answered.
    ‘And cry, and cry, and cry,’ Jess added cheerfully. ‘You can join us if you want.’
    ‘Uh, I think this is the night I’m going to experiment with the nail gun. I’m curious what will happen if I staple my hand to a board,’ he said, struggling to keep his expression serious.
    ‘You’ll cry, and cry, and cry,’ Jess told him. She liked joking around with Eve’s dad.
    Eve broke a breadstick in half and dunked it into the little container of dipping sauce. ‘Dad, have you ever heard about a witch from around here – a kind of Deepdene witch?’ she asked.
    She was expecting him to shrug, or talk about ‘crazy occult beliefs’ the way he sometimes did. But instead, he dropped his pizza onto his plate and stared at her.
    ‘Did someone say something to you at school?’ he demanded, his brow creased. ‘Was someone making fun of you?’
    ‘What? No,’ Eve said, surprised. ‘One of my friends read a thing about her online.’
    ‘Oh.’ He looked a little flustered. ‘OK.’
    Eve studied her father’s face as he picked up his pizza again.
    ‘Why would someone make fun of her?’ Jess asked.
    ‘Yeah, what do I have to do with the Deepdene Witch?’ Eve asked.
    Now her father shrugged, but he was avoiding her gaze.
    ‘Dad, come on,’ Eve said. ‘I really don’t need any more weirdness right now.’
    ‘Well … I guess you should know …’ He hesitated,and Eve’s muscles tensed. Her whole body felt like a spring that had been wound too tight. ‘And I know you tell everything to Jess anyway …’ He didn’t continue.
    ‘ Dad! ’ Eve exclaimed.
    He sighed. ‘OK. Eve, the Deepdene Witch was your great-great-great-grandmother.’
    Eve opened her mouth to answer, but her father suddenly waved his hand in the air.
    ‘No, wait. That’s not right,’ he went on. ‘What I meant to say is that your great-great-great-grandmother was Annabelle Sewall. There were some ignorant people in town who called her a witch. Don’t tell your mother I said she was a witch.’ He pointed at Jess. ‘You either. No saying the words Deepdene Witch to Eve’s mother.’
    Eve closed her mouth again. Her father seemed to think he’d gotten some big thing off his chest, because he gave her a smile and grabbed another cheese stick.
    ‘Hang on,’ Eve said finally. ‘My great-great-great-grandmother was a witch?’
    ‘No. Absolutely not. That’s just crazy occult nonsense,’ her dad answered. ‘She was widowed at a very young age, and she chose to live by herself and not marry again. She supported her family by working as a midwife and a healer. So some of the townsfolkcalled her a witch. People weren’t always tolerant of independent women back then.’
    ‘So what else did people say about her?’ Jess asked eagerly.
    Eve understood why her dad didn’t believe her great-great-great-grandmother was a witch. Who believed in witches any more? Eve certainly never had. But now that she could shoot fire from her fingers and turn what was probably a demon to dust, she was a lot more open to the possibility.
    ‘You don’t want to hear all this ancient history.’ Her dad grabbed a slice from the side with double anchovies. He loved them. Eve hated them. So whenever the two of them shared a pizza, they ordered one with everything, but asked that all the anchovies go on one half. The guys down at Piscatelli’s Pizza called it the Evergold Special.
    ‘Of course we want to