Paige hovered on the Halliwells’ doorstep for a whole minute before finally ringing the doorbell. She was early, but that wasn’t the main reason for her hesitance. It was the uncertainty about what awaited her on the other side of the door.

  After losing her parents as a teenager, Paige had allowed herself to believe that meeting her long-lost relatives was a sign, an answer to the emptiness she had carried for so long, a second chance at being part of a family. But if that were the case, wouldn’t she have heard from her new sisters sometime in the last week?

  What if the destiny she had heard Piper and Prue’s grandmother speak of was just about the magic stuff? Did they have room for her in their lives? Did they have room for her in their hearts?

  Seeing movement behind the frosted stained-glass panes of the front door, Paige shook off her negative thoughts, took a breath, and steeled herself. When the door opened to greet her, she tried to mask her disappointment.

  “Paige,” said Leo in surprise, smiling but looking just as tired as he had days prior. He ushered her inside. “Come in, come in.”

  “Thanks,” said Paige, taking in the grand old house as she stepped over the threshold.

  “I’m afraid you just missed the girls,” Leo explained, leading her into the living room, where they sat down on the couch.

  “Oh, don’t worry, that’s my fault, I know I’m early,” she said apologetically. “I would have called, but—”

  “But that hasn’t worked out very well so far?”

  Paige chuckled nervously. “I guess I just…need some answers. I, err, had another Premonition. About a friend of mine. I’m worried he might hurt himself, and I need to know if there’s anything I can do to change what I saw. I think it might be time sensitive.”

  Leo breathed deeply. He wanted the girls to be here for this. “Well, it varies, to be honest. You can usually change the course of a future event, but there will be occasions when a Premonition is to help you understand why something is meant to be.”

  “Great,” said Paige churlishly, afraid that might be the case. “I don’t suppose there’s any way to differentiate which is which?”

  Leo gave her a non-committal shrug. “Tell me about what you’ve seen, everything you’ve seen since you were last here.”

  “Okay, well, there was the near-miss with the coffee,” Paige listed on her fingers, “then I won the lottery—”

  “But your ticket went blank?” Leo interjected with a hearty laugh.

  “Yeah, how’d you know?”

  “The Council of Elders—my bosses, a group of powerful Whitelighters—tested Phoebe the same way when she first received her power.”

  Paige smiled. It was nice to hear she had something in common with Phoebe, and somewhat reassuring to know neither of them had been able to resist trying their luck.

  “Well, those examples save me a long lecture on the difference between personal use and personal gain,” Leo remarked. “Your powers are primarily for protecting yourself or others. It’s okay to use them as you wish, but there’s a line, and the Elders will step in if you cross it.”

  “Okay, I guess that makes sense, but how exactly do I use my power? So far, I’ve just seen things at random.”

  “Well, Premonition is a passive power, at least at first. As your magic grows, you might gain more control over it, but I expect that will take some time. For now, you’ll get visions at random or when you’re supposed to, when you touch people or objects of significance.”

  “But that’s not always how it’s worked,” Paige contested.

  Leo looked intrigued. “Go on,” he urged.

  “Well, the first I had was when I touched the magic book, but the second was when Shane showed up at the church possessed by the Source, remember?” said Paige, to which Leo gave a confirmatory nod. “That time, I didn’t touch anything. The same thing happened when that woman was attacked near my apartment. The vision just popped into my head out of nowhere, unless my TV remote was somehow connected to that demon guy, but it’s not like I was watching squids on the Discovery Channel. I can’t even afford cable!”

  Oblivious to Paige’s clever quip, Leo considered this thoughtfully, “Hmm. I’ll have to look into it, but I suppose it’s conceivable that your power works a little differently due to your Whitelighter half. Maybe you’re sensitive to evil or Innocents within a certain range? It’s certainly an interesting thought. Did you say something about squids?”

  Paige couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed. She had come for answers, not more questions. “Oh, that was just me being silly. The demon guy…had tentacles for arms, so….”

  “Tentacles? That’s new. Well, let’s go look him up!”

  “Look him up?” Paige repeated.

  “In the Book of Shadows.”

  Leo escorted Paige up to the Halliwells’ large but cluttered attic. It was full of family heirlooms, antique furniture, dusty boxes of old clothes piled high, and childhood possessions accrued during a life lived without her.

  “Hmm. Looks like this might be your guy,” Leo announced triumphantly, tapping a yellowed page of the sisters’ ancient codex a few minutes later. A sharp-toothed, tentacle-armed man was depicted next to some calligraphy. “Grindylows: low-level, water-dwelling demons that frequent coastal towns in human form, leaving drownings and strangulations in their wake. While usually reliant on gills, they absorb their victims’ last breath to extend their time on land. There’s a vanquishing spell, but I guess you didn’t need it, huh?”

  “Only because squid boy finished himself off,” said Paige. “But I think I might have…Orbed, is it? Somebody’s going to have to teach me how that works, because I haven’t been able to do it on purpose.”

  “All in good time,” said Leo. “For now, remember to celebrate your victories. You saved a woman’s life, Paige, as well as those of that Grindylow’s future victims. That’s part of what being a witch is about. Protecting the innocent.”

  Paige smiled. She hadn’t really reflected on the incident with the demon, but it was a good feeling, knowing that she had made a difference. She then absently began flipping through the pages of the book. “It looks so old,” she said, then remembered her manners. “Oh, may I?”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Leo put his hands up. “It’s not mine, it’s yours! Yours, Prue, and Piper’s,” he said.

  That was right. This book was partly hers now. Her…what? Inheritance? “All these demons… They’re all real?”

  Leo nodded, looking grave. “Information collected and recorded by generations of ancestors, who knew that their daughters, granddaughters, and eventually the Charmed Ones, would one day need it.”

  “But how did their—my—ancestors know? If they encountered these demons, wouldn’t they be dead? Or wouldn’t the demons be…?”

  “Vanquished?” Leo said, then shrugged. “The demonic entries in the book are a mix of knowledge, research, folklore, the experiences of survivors, and in some cases, the prophecies and predictions of the Warren line’s few Premonition users.”

  “Other witches with my power?”

  “That’s right,” Leo confirmed. “Of the three powers practiced by the first of your magical ancestors, Melinda Warren—Telekinesis, Molecular Immobilization, Premonition—yours was the rarest to appear among her descendants, but those who mastered it made a huge contribution to the Book of Shadows. They foresaw some of the challenges the Charmed Ones would one day face and created the information here, knowing they would have the power to put it to good use.”

  “Wow,” said Paige in awe. “And all these spells really work, too, huh?”

  “Yep, as long as they're performed correctly by a witch with enough magic.”

  “Sounds a bit more useful than the witchcraft books I’ve been reading. Maybe I can borrow it sometime?”

  “You’re welcome to study the book any time, but it doesn’t leave the house. Evil would love to get their hands, or claws, on it.”

  “Don’t forget tentacles,” Paige jested.

  “Right!” Leo chuckled. “Thankfully, the book protects itself, so they can’t literally touch it, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

  “It protects itself?” Paige asked. “How?”

  “Magic!” said Leo, grinning.

  “Prue, Piper, you up here?” a gruff male voice called out with a note of impatience. Paige and Leo looked toward the attic door, where Cole appeared, wearing a camel coat over blue jeans and a red sweater. “Oh, it’s you.”

  If Paige knew Cole better, she might have had a choice retort for that little remark. As it was, she decided to hold her tongue.

  “Where are the girls, Leo?” Cole enquired.

  “I thought they were with you,” he answered.

  “Looks like they ditched me again,” Cole said wearily with a huff of frustration. “Well, maybe it’s a good time for us to talk?”

  “Sure,” said Leo.

  Cole looked pointedly in Paige’s direction.

  Paige started awkwardly, “Oh, I can leave if you wanna—”

  “No, no, you stay here, keep looking through the book. I’ll be right back,” Leo insisted with a kind smile.

  As the men left the attic, Paige thumbed the pages of the Book of Shadows, landing on one that caught her attention:

  Instant Karma Spell

  To make a demon feel the pain he inflicts

  Thinking of her detestable colleague, Donnie, Paige muttered to herself, “This could solve a lot of problems.” She then removed a pen and a pad of Post-its from her purse and eagerly started jotting down the incantation.

  Leo followed Cole all the way down to the sunroom, unsure why he needed to talk or why they couldn’t just do so upstairs. “So, what is it? What’s wrong?” he prodded when the man began pacing.

  “Having a nice chat with back-up-Phoebe, were you?” Cole snarled.

  Leo’s brows contracted. It wasn’t the first time Cole had made a comment about Paige replacing Phoebe. Honestly, Leo understood the man’s frustration. He sympathized, but he couldn’t let the comments slide anymore. “Is that what you brought me down here for? To insult Paige? Because, if it is—”

  “It’s not,” Cole snapped. “Sorry, it’s just… You’ve got to talk to your wife!”

  “What about my wife?” said Leo indignantly.

  “She’s out of control.”

  “What? What happened?”

  “What happened?” Cole repeated in consternation. “Have you not been paying attention? She’s angry, Leo!”

  “Well, of course she’s angry. She’s grieving. So is Prue.”

  “No, no,” Cole corrected, wagging a finger. “Prue’s different. She’s like me; she always goes to anger first, then calms down with time and perspective, but Piper… Piper doesn’t express her anger openly; she swallows it, then lets it out passive-aggressively. At least, she used to. Whatever the reason, without Phoebe to offset Prue, and without Piper acting as the neutral middle ground, their…sisterly balance, the thing that made the Charmed Ones so effective, is all out of whack!”

  Annoyed that Cole would have the gall to advise him on his Charges, not to mention his wife, Leo opened his mouth to object, but there was something to his crude psychoanalysis. Perhaps this was to be expected. As one of their greatest foes, he had studied the girls closely and even come close to defeating them.

  “It’s understandable, isn’t it?” said Leo. “Their mother and grandmother withheld this life-altering secret, then lied about Phoebe, and left Piper and Prue to deal with the fallout.”

  Cole nodded, “I do understand, Leo, because I want to find out what happened to Phoebe as much as they do. Our increased odds of uncovering the truth together are the only thing keeping me sane, keeping me from… But at the rate Piper and Prue are going, they’re going to get themselves killed.”

  Feeling conflicted now, Leo challenged, “But how’s what they’re doing any different to what you and Prue were—”

  “No, no,” Cole said again, with another wag of his finger. “What Prue and I were doing before was different. We targeted, we planned, we strategized. But since finding out about Phoebe, she and Piper have been going off half-cocked, chasing every demon they can, with no regard for their lives or anyone else’s. With bounty hunters on my ass, Piper’s powers on the fritz, and the pair of them ditching me at every opportunity, I can’t guarantee their safety, Leo!”

  “Alright, alright, I get the picture!” said Leo, finally admitting defeat. “I’ll talk to Piper. Again. But I have tried, you know? It’s not like I’m oblivious to what’s going on. I just…can’t get through to her.”

  “I get that, Leo, but if something doesn’t change, this isn’t going to end well,” Cole warned darkly. “For any of us.”

  Leo nodded in agreement, rubbing his temples. He understood where the man was coming from; he just wanted to keep Phoebe’s sisters safe. After a few moments of silence, Leo noticed something and asked, “Did you change your clothes since this morning?”

  Cole looked at Leo with a blank expression, considering his response. “That’s not important,” he said evasively. “I should go catch up with Prue and Piper. Can you Sense where they are?”

  Upstairs in the attic, Paige was quickly running out of Post-its and patience. If the spells in the Book of Shadows could do the things they promised, life was about to change in a big way, and not just for her, but for the people she worked with and supported at the office. She would be able to help those in need in a way she never had as an assistant, or perhaps ever could as a social worker.

  Pulling off her last Post-it, Paige huffed in frustration. Why scribble the spells down one at a time when she could just read directly from the book? It was partly hers now, right? She surveyed the large room’s many windows, biting her bottom lip as a cunning plan came to mind. But she couldn’t. Could she?

  Ignoring her better angels, Paige closed the book and carried it to the closest window, which she opened, then poked her head out to peer down at the verdant garden below. “Okay, book, protect yourself,” she said, and then let the ancient tome drop from the Halliwells’ third story.

  Paige watched on tenterhooks as it fell, then eventually landed softly on a patch of grass, fully intact. Ha! She knew it would be okay. Now, she just had to retrieve it without Leo noticing.

  When Paige descended the many stairs and arrived on the second-floor landing, she nearly bumped into Leo in her haste.

  “Careful!” Leo warned, lending Paige his arm for support. “Are you leaving? Cole’s gone now, so I can—”

  “Uh, you know, work. Lunch break’s over. Gotta go,” said Paige, hurriedly continuing down the stairs.

  “Oh, well, you’re still coming by this evening, right? For dinner?” Leo asked as they crossed the foyer. “The girls should be around…but if not, there’s plenty we can discuss.”

  “Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Bye,” Paige answered, waving over her shoulder as she made a swift exit.

  “Bye,” said Leo as he closed the front door behind her, feeling a little confused at first, then less so when a thought occurred to him. “Yep, she’s definitely a Halliwell.”