Sorcery and the Single Girl by Mindy Klasky

fours, popping it into her mouth without worrying about balancing a plate and a glass, without worrying about anything at all. When she had swallowed the morsel, she leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially, “Teri always does such a nice job with these get-togethers. Half the time, I think that’s the only reason we let her be the Coven Mother.”
    Teri.
    Teresa Alison Sidney, to me. Terrifyingly powerful, all-knowing leader of the Washington Coven, to me.
    Teri, to Haylee.
    I was up against more than the most popular girl in school, here. I was up against the entire Old Girls’ Network.
    Once again, I shot a glance toward the front room. Why hadn’t David warned me about this? Why hadn’t he told me who I’d be dealing with?
    And then I thought, maybe he hadn’t known.
    Well, that was absurd. He’d been affiliated with the Coven his entire life. Warding was the family business, he’d told me. He’d even been drummed out of the warders corps, on a temporary basis, for breaching the witches’ rules. He knew what was going on here. He had to.
    If only I did.
    Haylee flashed me a sympathetic smile. “It’s all a bit overwhelming, isn’t it?”
    I tried to match the quirk of her lips, pretended for just a moment that I had her devil-may-care flair. I shrugged and attempted an airy “Just a bit.”
    “You’ll get used to it.”
    “Really?” I realized how plaintive I sounded, and I hurried to cover my wistfulness. “It’s just that I don’t have any idea what’s coming next. I don’t know what people expect of me. What they want me to do.”
    What was I saying? Why was I talking to this woman? Had she cast some spell to make me confide in her?
    As if to confirm that dark thought, Haylee raised a perfectly manicured finger to the base of her throat. I realized that she wore an ornament there, a delicate amulet that rested on a silver chain so slight that I could barely make it out in the dim light. I could not keep myself from stepping closer, from staring at the device.
    A torch. The same torch that I had seen on David’s key chain. “What is that?” I asked, before I could stop myself.
    “This?” Haylee touched the jewelry again, and her voice conveyed a shrug, almost as if she were saying, This old thing? When I nodded, she said, “My Torch. The symbol that I’ve dedicated myself to Hecate.” She looked around the room. “We all wear them. Teri presents them to us, when we’re accepted into the Coven.”
    Teri again.
    “Oh.”
    Well, that response made me sound absolutely brilliant. Like I was a shrewd judge of witchcraft. Or jewelry.
    I must be even more tired than I’d thought. As soon as those words crossed my mind, a yawn began to grow at the back of my throat. I thought that I could hide it, that I could swallow it away, but I could tell from Haylee’s arched eyebrows that I wasn’t quite successful.
    “I know,” she said in a voice that wasn’t quite sympathetic. “It’s all strange when you’re new to the Coven. Your mother certainly wasn’t able to keep up with us.”
    “Clara?” My voice cracked with incredulity. When had Clara come to the Coven? When had she met the witches? And, far more importantly, why hadn’t she said anything to me? “What happened with Clara?”
    “Let’s just say that she wasn’t given any major assignment, shall we? No centerstones in her future. Poor thing’ll be lucky if she learns how to read jade runes.”
    “She’s actually quite skilled at jade runes!”
    Why was I defending Clara? Well, it was one thing for me to challenge her, to say that she was a lousy witch and a worse mother. But I wasn’t about to let a perfect stranger get in on the game.
    “Really.” I could tell that Haylee didn’t believe me. “Well, I suppose we might have been mistaken. Some women are just so nervous when they come before the Coven. It didn’t help that your mother was so worried about your grandmother. I don’t think that either of them had