7
I drove directly to Rivka’s house to update Esther on this new and exciting turn of events. She’d paused her light gardening to give me a quick check-up, then proceeded to subject me to a stern lecture about dark magic that essentially came down to “just say no.”
My counterargument that my actions had been instinctual and I’d do the same again if it meant not dying failed to placate her. Neither did the fact that there was no spike of dark magic or any trace of Lilith that she could detect.
“Allow me to list all the ways dark magic will destroy your life.” Esther pruned dead blooms off the rambling rhododendron in her sister’s back yard. “It starts with paranoia-inducing voices, then you’ve got hallucinations of giant insects out of the corner of your eye and itchiness where you scrat
