Willow and Ash waited for me beneath our great Magnolia tree. Heavy white blossoms clung to the branches, their curved petals nestled between the tree's large, waxy leaves. Outside of Black Brier, the time for flowering had long since passed, but magic gave our trees an edge. I broke a flower off, inhaling its heady scent as another bloomed to take its place.

"Don't throw that out," Willow said, "we may need it for a spell."

"Okay, but you do see there are dozens more to choose from if something happens to this one?"

My tiny friend rolled her eyes and slapped her hands over her hips. "Yes, but you've already sacrificed that one. No need to waste."

"What did y'all need?" I asked, not willing to indulge in another argument with her over whether flowers had feelings.

"I found something out I thought you might want to know," Ash said in a rush, his eyes almost black with excitement.

"Did you discover this while you were out hunting for ferns near my school?"

"Flannery told you?"

"You told her to tell me," I replied, speaking slowly as I tried to decipher his tone.

"I did, but I knew you were out there."

I almost dropped the blossom in surprise. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"You were obviously trying to hide, and I didn't trust Harmony or Jemina to not cause a scene if they'd known you were there."

"What were you really doing out there?"

"Oh my lord, that's what he's trying to get to," Willow shouted.

"Let's go for a walk. To make sure no one is listening," Ash said.

I didn't argue, knowing anyone in my house was perfectly willing to cast a listening spell over the three of us. It was just one of the many perks of living in a witch town- you never knew who might be eavesdropping. Willow or Ash could've cast a deafening spell, but they might as well announce to anyone who looked out of the house that we were sharing secrets.

No one spoke as we made our way down the drive, gravel crunching beneath our shoes. In the shade and without the cardigan I was required to wear at school, the temperature was bearable- almost pleasant. A lovely autumn evening for a stroll. But tension radiated off Ash. It was evident in the bunching of his shoulders and the hard slant to his eyes.

"Are we far enough now?"

He stopped and kicked a pebble into the deep ditch on the side of the road. It crashed through the kudzu, eliciting a squeak of protest. The undergrowth beneath the trees was too thick to determine what type of critter we'd disturbed, but after a few seconds, the woods quieted again.

Ash pulled something from his back pocket and handed it to me. It was an old book. One in deplorable condition or one well-loved depending on perspective. Spine almost split and pages permanently curved from being bent in half. Much of the cover was worn so that the title was illegible, and as I thumbed through the pages, very little of what I read made sense to me.

"What is this?"

"It's a book on demonology."

"What?" I shrieked, shoving the book into Ash's hands. "Demonology is banned."

"The practice of it. Not the study of it," Ash said, the amused twist to his lips doing nothing to calm me. Touching that book made me feel dirty. Soiled. Too many good practitioners of magic had been corrupted by texts like the one he held.

Willow's face was somber as she watched her cousin flip through the book. "Studying is how it always begins, and if what we think is true, then someone is definitely doing more than reading a book."

"Where did you find this?"

"Not somewhere you'd expect," he answered. "I found it in the woods outside your school."

"In St. Augustine? Not in Black Brier?" My questions were dumb. I knew very well that's what he meant, but I needed him to have misspoken.

"Yeah." He scrubbed the back of his head. "I couldn't sleep last night, thinking about the party and what could've happened to Willow. What could've happened to the innocent people around her if we hadn't been there. But I know we can't take our suspicions to the Council. Especially, since I was there."

Pain weaved through his words, and I wished I could hug him. Wished I could tell him I understood just a little of what he was going through.

"I slept with a sachet last night. Cowslip for finding. Borage to enhance my psychic powers. Bracken for prophetic dreams. And just a pinch of Belladonna. When I woke up this morning, I knew I had to go to your school."

"So not looking for ferns then," I teased.

He huffed. "No, I only told Harmony and Jemina that because they were being nosy as hell. They caught me on the way out of town, and Harmony immediately thought you and I were trying to sneak around together."

Willow elbowed me, and I blushed. In the fading light and shadows, I thought his cheeks might have pinked as well.

"I told her I was getting ferns because our stock was low at the store. They're used in warding spells a lot, especially as Samhain approaches."

I liked how Ash always made sure I could follow his logic. He explained things without coming across as condescending. As someone who was constantly pushed aside because of a lack of power or knowledge, the simple act of being made an insider meant a lot.

"So how did you find this? When?"

"It was beneath some bushes in the woods. I actually found it fairly quickly, but I wasn't able to snag it until Flannery distracted the girls. There's one of those old fashioned library card slots on the back page. Has a card with all the dates it was checked out, but the last date stamp is for 1993."

"What was that doing in an impoten library?" Willow bit her lip and rubbed her arms as if suddenly chilled.

"It could've come from Black Brier. Can you see which library?" I asked.

Ash shook his head. "The condition is too bad, and there's no identifying marks besides notes in the margins. So, unless one of y'all is a handwriting expert..."

I twisted the ends of my hair in frustration as I tried to think through our next steps. Clemmy would want to know this. Heck, she needed to know this.

"And it's real? It's not just some pseudowitchcraft impoten book? The spells will work?"

This time, Willow and Ash nodded together.

"Ok, so it doesn't really matter where it came from then. Here or there, it was likely in the hands of humans. And they've probably meddled with forces beyond their understanding. Any clues in the book that will tell us what they did?"

Ash opened the book to a page and handed it to me. I squinted to make out the faded letters in the dusk. It was a recipe for a potion. For someone who wanted to harness the energies of the world around them.

"Magick exists in everything. The very fabrick of our beings is made up of magick, but only the Enlightened have the knowledge to harness the power within themselves. The greatest of the Enlightened have the Gift of Siphoning and can borrow magick outside of themselves.

"This potion, when shared between the Enlightened and an impoten, creates a tether between the magick wielder and the vessel. It becomes a way to use what would otherwise be wasted, and it will imbue you with enough power to summon the greatest demon- Malphas."

"I told you that's what it felt like," Willow whispered.

"But a Siphon only borrows, right? Is that what this potion does or is it permanent? And this wouldn't be useful to humans. They're the ones being stolen from."

Ash hung his head, answering in a voice so low, I had to strain to hear him. "I don't know."

"We have to find out. What happens to impotens when they're drained dry?"

"I don't know," Ash repeated, but now his head was held high. He reached for the book, pressing his finger on the sentence about summoning Malphas. "But this is a far greater concern than anything else."

"Malphas? Who is he?"

"A prince of hell."