Waiting for the announcement was torture. They weren’t kind enough to make a decision right away. They had to brood over it for an hour or two. It was enough to make a girl sprout some gray hairs!

“Relax.” Paul smoothed a hand over my back. “It’ll be all over soon. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

I nodded but still chewed on my thumbnail. He might be able to keep calm because he had his family money to take care of his schooling. If I let my grandmother pay for it, she’d own me, and I wasn’t ready to give up my freedom just yet.

Dale sat at my other side, his hand on my leg. “If you don’t win, you can always do a work-study like me. There’s a few available in the library.”

I grimaced. I knew Dale was being helpful, but I really didn’t want to have to work and do school at the same time, not if I could help it. I had a hard enough time keeping up with my work as it was. If I had to work too, I couldn’t imagine the amount of stress that would add to my plate.

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” I’d put that in my list of last resorts, along with student loans and stripping.

“Hello, can I have your attention please?” a voice boomed over the entire fairgrounds.

I couldn’t see the speaker even though I knew where it was coming from. I got out of my seat and started toward the stage they’d set up. The guys followed after me, each of them staying close by my side. My parents and grandparents had done exactly as my wish had commanded. They chatted happily with each other as if they were best friends. It was a bit eerie actually.

Turning my attention from them, I focused my gaze on the stage. The headmaster stood with the other judges waiting for everyone to quieten.

“Thank you all for coming out. We appreciate your support in the school and our students. Now the moment everyone has been waiting for ...”

My heart jumped into my throat, and my pulse pounded in my ears. This was the moment that would decide the fate of my future. Okay, that was a bit dramatic, but it was still a really big deal. Student loans were no joke.

“We are proud to announce that the winner of this year's Spring Fair competition, by a unanimous vote, is Maxine Mancaster!”

The crowd cheered, and the guys patted me on the back. My mom hugged me, and my grandparents gave me congratulations. All of this was barely registered in my shocked system.

I couldn’t believe it, I had won. I had really won. It took me several seconds to process what was happening and then it hit me. What the headmaster had called me.

Mancaster. He’d called me Maxine Mancaster, not Norman.

Fury and disappointment filled me. I had won alright.

People had liked my idea, sure, but my booth wasn’t really all that, and I wasn’t that charming. The reason I had won wasn’t that I had a great idea. Or I’d charmed the judges. It was because I was a Mancaster.

Without a word, I pushed away from the hands on me and through the crowd. I had to talk to the headmaster. I couldn’t accept it. I wouldn’t. I had said from the beginning that I’d make my way with my parent’s name. My name. I wasn’t some magical royalty that got things handed to them.

However, I never got to the headmaster. Someone rushed up to the stage and whispered in his ear. His face went from happy to despair in under a millisecond. He didn’t explain but moved off the stage and out of sight.

I stood there in all my anger and confusion, not knowing what to do. My grandmother came up to my side, her hand on my shoulder. The look on her face told me she knew what was wrong.

“What is it?” I glanced back at my grandmother and the sympathy on her face genuine.

“It’s his daughter, Delilah. She’s dying.”

“Dying?” My brow scrunched together, trying to remember when they had mentioned her before. My grandmother had offered her condolences before, but they had never said what was wrong with her. “Of what?”

“Cancer.”

“Don’t you have some kind of spell for that?” I asked, not understanding how that was even a thing for them.

My grandmother gave me a small, sad smile. “Magic can do many things, but even it cannot fight death.”

I frowned hard at her answer. My amulet warmed against my chest as if telling me I could do something. I glanced down at my amulet, the inside of the gem swirling and sparkling like never before. I never would have thought to use it, not for this. Surely, it wasn’t powerful enough to save someone’s life. It couldn’t even make money.

But I had to try.

“I have to go,” I told my grandmother, heading toward the way the headmaster went. I could hear them calling my name behind me, but I didn’t stop. I ended up at the entrance to the fair, but I had no idea where to go from there. I didn’t even know where the headmaster had gone.

A rumbling noise came toward me, and I jumped back as Ian came to a stop in front of me, a motorcycle growling beneath his legs. “Get on.”

Not one to be told twice, I hopped on the back of the bike. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“The headmaster’s house, right?” I nodded. He revved the engine. “Then hold on.”

We raced down the street faster than I’d ever gone. I wasn’t even sure he was going the speed limit, but none of the cars even noticed we were going by them. Deciding he had to have some kind of spell at work, I held onto him like my life depended on it.

Before I knew it, we were at the headmaster’s home. I expected his house to be like my grandparents’ or the Broomsteins’, but it was a simple home like my parents’, a two-story house with off grey paneling. There were several cars parked outside, and a feeling of gloom settled over the place.

I climbed off Ian’s bike and started toward the house. Ian trailed after me. I didn’t really acknowledge him as I walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. At first, no one answered, and I thought I might have to ring it again, but then there was a rush of feet and the door opened. The headmaster stood there, grief and confusion on his face.

“Miss Norman, Mr. Broomstein, I’m not sure what you are doing here but now is not a good time. I will see you at school.” He tried to shut the door on us, but I caught it.

“Wait, please. I want to help.” I licked my lips as he stared at me. “I mean, I think I can. If you’ll let me.”

He seemed to struggle with his decision. Not surprising, really. However, when he moved back and allowed us inside, I sighed with relief.

“I’m not sure what you think you can do, but she’s this way.” He led us through his home in a slow gait. It was humbly decorated, nothing like the other wizard homes I’d visited, not that they were the norm.

We came to a bedroom door on the first floor. The door was half cracked, and I could hear low voices inside. The headmaster pushed the door open and went in.

I hesitated.

Ian took my hand, squeezing it lightly. My hand around the amulet, I stepped into the room.

Headmaster Swordson took his place by the bed, next to what I could only assume was his wife. A few others hovered nearby, all of them looking at me like they couldn’t understand what I was doing there. A weak cough came from the bed.

Delilah could have been called beautiful at one point but no longer. Her hair was drab, her face shallow, and almost skeletal. Cancer had wrung her out and left her to dry. It was clear in her eyes that she knew death was coming and she accepted it.

But I didn’t. I could do something for them, for this family that I didn’t know but whose father had already made a huge impact on my life.

“Hello,” I said quietly to the room. “I’m Max. This is Ian.” I gestured to him. They all nodded politely but didn’t greet us. I turned to the headmaster. “Can I?”

“Of course.” He moved away from the bed, allowing me to take a seat beside Delilah.

“Hi, Delilah, how are you?” I snorted. “Sorry, that’s a stupid question.”

The woman smiled weakly.

“I don’t know if this will work, but I’m going to try and help you. I just need you to relax is all. Can you do that?” Delilah’s hand twitched. “Right, not like you have a choice.” To the headmaster, I asked, “Where’s the cancer?”

“In her liver but it’s spread to her blood and other organs,” the headmaster offered.

“So pretty much everywhere. Alright,” I fingered my amulet, “I guess that makes it easier then.” My eyes went to Ian who gave me an encouraging thumbs up, the douche.

I placed my hand on Delilah’s. I wasn’t sure if I needed to be touching her, but it couldn’t hurt. My other hand stayed on the amulet, and I could feel it begin to warm as my wish formulated in my mind. “I wish the cancer was gone.”

“What is this crap?” an annoyed voice from the grievers asked but he was shushed by everyone else.

“I wish she was healthy. I wish the cancer were gone.” I kept muttering these wishes over and over again, but the amulet never grew to that almost hot temperature like it had with all my other wishes.

Maybe it was too big for it? Dad had bought it at a marketplace in Cairo. It’s not like it was a lifesaving object.

Just as I was about to give up, the ball of light in my mind’s eye flared at me. I cocked my head to the side as if trying to listen to it. It was trying to tell me something just like the amulet had.

Suddenly, I knew what to do.

My hand still on the amulet, I reached out with my mind and grasped a hold of my magic, coaxing it to move through me and into the stone. If it didn’t have enough power to grant my wish, then I’d have to lend it some of mine. I fed it my magic until the amulet grew so warm that it stung my hand, but I didn’t let it go.

Power pulsated in my hand, waiting for me to give it a direction. My other hand still sat on Delilah’s leathery skin, so it was easy enough to redirect the magic through me and into her. My eyes were screwed tightly shut, concentrating on giving her the magic and pushing all my intentions into it. I couldn’t see if it was working or not.

Someone gasped, but I didn’t stop. I kept pushing the magic into her until I felt lightheaded myself. The hand beneath mine stirred and then turned over to clasp mine, tightly.

“Max,” a voice said in my ear, but it sounded so far off. “You can stop now, Max.”

I couldn’t bring myself to answer or to stop. It was like I had opened a hole in myself and I couldn’t plug it back up. I could feel every piece of myself leaking away, making me weaker and tired.

“Max, you have to let go.” Those were the last words I heard before everything went black.