Vacations from Hell

Could Scott actually be that guy?



Her heart thumped crazily in her chest. One way or another Cecily was going to find out.



The next morning wasn’t sunny exactly, but at least it wasn’t raining. Despite the chill in the air and the thick cloud cover, pretty much everyone headed to the beach. Theo ran down the hallway in his swim trunks and neon green flippers, yelling, “Cecily! You have to go swimming with us!”



“I’ll catch up,” Cecily promised as she shimmied into her black bikini. “It won’t be long.”



She stared at herself in the mirror. Had she once been afraid of something as little as wearing a swimsuit? Compared to what was at stake today that seemed so small.



Besides—she looked good.



Cecily sauntered out of her room, acting casual, with a large beach towel folded over one arm in such a way that it disguised what she was holding in her hand: the spray bottle, which was filled with an all but complete elixir for the disenchantment spell.



Already the house was almost empty—except for Scott, who was rubbing sunblock on his shoulders. It took all Cecily’s self-control not to ask him if he needed help. “Hey,” he said. “Kathleen and I are about to hit the beach. Want to join us?”



“She doesn’t want to!” Kathleen yelled from her room.



Cecily smiled. “I think it’s a little cold for a dip in the ocean, don’t you?”



“Yeah, but there’s no way I’m spending a week on the Outer Banks without going swimming once,” Scott said. He glanced at her bikini—just a glance—but it was encouraging.



Casually, as if the idea had only just occurred to her, Cecily said, “Hey, what about the hot tub on the deck? Warm water, Jacuzzi jets—way better than freezing our butts off in the surf.”



Scott had a slow, warm smile that made her feel sort of gooey inside. “You know, that sounds great.”



“You and Kathleen get comfortable. I have to check on Theo, but I’ll stop by the hot tub on my way out.”



Cauldron—check.



She walked toward the wet bar but glanced over her shoulder to see Scott headed toward the deck. Never before had she realized even a guy’s back could be sexy.



Not that Kathleen wasn’t one hundred percent evil to do this to you, she thought, but I do at least get her motivation.



Once they were outside Cecily got to work. Corkscrews looked simple enough to use, but she’d never attempted to handle one before, so opening the red wine took much longer than she’d planned. The delay made the process even more suspenseful. If her mother walked in and saw Cecily uncorking a bottle of booze, she wouldn’t get a chance to explain why she really needed it. She wouldn’t survive that long.



Finally the cork slid loose with a pop. The red wine smelled sort of stinky to Cecily—maybe this stuff had gone to vinegar. Probably it wouldn’t matter for the spell, though.



She poured a thin stream of wine into the spray bottle. A wisp of periwinkle blue smoke drifted upward, glittering and eerie.



The smoke needed to be darker than that—the magic, more powerful.



With a shaky hand Cecily took a glass tumbler from the bar and held it over the sink. She was scared now, and she told herself that it was stupid to be scared of pain. Did she want to be like Theo, whining and crying before he got a shot at the pediatrician’s?



But it wasn’t the prospect of pain that frightened her. It was the reality of performing this spell—by far the most powerful Cecily had ever attempted on her own. She had no idea what would happen if she got it wrong, but she strongly suspected it wouldn’t be good.



Enough, she told herself sternly. Turning her face to protect her eyes, Cecily threw the glass into the sink. It shattered with a crash, and she felt a sharp jab against her palm. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to actually slice her skin open.



Cecily added a few small shards of glass to the mix, then held the open spray bottle beneath her trembling hand and a few drops of her blood fell inside. With each drop the smoke puffed again, darkening into deeper blue, then into purple, and finally almost into black. That looked more like it.



Showtime.



She strode onto the deck, hoping she looked confident. Kathleen and Scott sat alone in the hot tub, and Kathleen had hooked her legs over his, as though she were about to sit in his lap. When Cecily stepped out, Kathleen looked over with a scowl. “Uh, don’t you need to play with your baby brother or something?”



“Soon,” Cecily said. “Not now.”



Scott grinned and gestured toward the spray bottle. “What’s that?”