When Sarah and Endora emerged from the sewing room looking exhausted, but optimistic. The four of them moved into one of several sitting rooms that Jon had seen. Endora sank into a blue leather armchair, and Richard into an identical one. Jon and Sarah found themselves sharing a blue leather loveseat. Jon tried to ignore the implications.
“Your grandfather,” Endora told Jon as the four settled in. “He was arguably the greatest magic user of the twentieth century. Youngest person to ever lead the High Council. When he married your mortal grandmother, sealing away his connection to magic, it reverberated through magical society like the day John Lennon was shot.” Endora paused. “Come to think of it, it was the day that John Lennon was shot.”
“So I’m a witch?” Jon asked.
“Your grandfather was a witch. Your father was a half-witch. The day that your father married your mortal mother, it cut off magic for your entire family line. Including you. That day didn’t so much reverberate through magical society, but more felt like a final nail in Malachi Gibson’s coffin. Almost like the day George Harrison died.”
“My parents got married on the day that George Harrison died,” Jon provided.
“Funny that.” A small smile curled onto Endora’s lips. “But the upshot of all of this is that there have been rumors for decades, they started almost as soon as your grandfather married, that in his creative genius, he’d found a way to circumvent his own magical seal. That he’d found a way to practice magic in secret.”
“My stone?”
“Your stone.”
“But he said in his letter that he’d found it in South America.”
“Your grandfather was always a commendable liar.” Endora sighed as she sank deeper into the leather seat. “It’s an unprecedented object. Your grandfather was an unprecedented person. Without examining it directly, it’s hard to tell exactly how it interacted with Sarah’s nascent magic. But here’s my guess.” She leaned forward. “Sarah’s severance spell split Karyn into two personas.”
“One that’s Sarah’s best friend, and one that’s my best friend, right?” Jon provided.
“Wrong.” Endora pointed a painted nail at Jon. “She was split into one that hates Sarah, and one that hates you. The fact that Karyn already hated Sarah to start with meant that one of these personas very closely resembled her original personality. But that’s an illusion. Neither Karyn is real. The real Karyn is capable of love for the both of you, whether or not she chooses to express it. And this is the Karyn which you must insinuate yourselves into, to bring her out and overrule the two that now exist.”
“With magic?” Jon asked.
“With words,” Endora corrected.
“Grandma taught me how to scry Karyn’s location,” Sarah turned to Jon. “She’s still at Biff’s house right now, but as soon as she’s away from him, the two of us need to talk to her.”
Jon turned away. “Karyn’s my best friend. I should do it alone.”
“I know that my memories of Karyn are false,” Sarah whispered, “but they still feel real to me. Karyn feels as real to me as you do. She’s important to me. I want to help her.” Sarah reached a gentle hand over to stroke Jon’s far cheek, to carefully nudge his face back in her direction. “Besides, both my magic and your magic are inside of Karyn right now, and so it’s both my words and your words that need to fix things.” She caressed her hand up and back, brushing her fingers through Jon’s hair on their way to cup the nape of his neck. “And I want you to know, as long as I’m here, there’s nothing that you should be doing alone.”
A feeling welled up inside of Jon. The same feeling as when he looked down into an almost-finished bowl of alphabet soup some twenty minutes earlier. It told him to kiss her. It told him that he would feel comforted, and that Sarah would feel happy, if he leaned in right at that moment and kissed her.
But as genuine as that feeling was, it still felt wrong somehow. Jon still couldn’t accept it. So instead, he closed his eyes, and let out a breath, and said “Okay. We’ll do this together. We’ll fix Karyn, and then we’ll deal with everything else.”
