Midnight Magic

Chapter 1

  "What are you doing up here so late at night?" Piper Halliwell asked her sister, Paige Matthews, who had just walked into the attic. Piper was kneeled down on the floor, surrounded by a circle of a dozen open cardboard boxes. In the middle of the circle was a big pile of miscellanea: banners, stickers, streamers, toy party favors, and uninflated balloons littered the wooden floor. She sifted through them mindlessly, letting them slip between her fingers. Then she let out a frustrated sigh, angling her mouth so that her bangs blew out of the way of her pretty face.

"My date decided at the last minute to take me out to a movie after dinner," answered Paige. "How about you? And our sister?" Paige asked, putting her purse on a nearby table, taking a seat on the chair beside it, and kicking off her high heels. She stretched her arms behind her head and her legs in front of her and let out a groan. Piper knew that sound; she heard it (and made it herself) on a regular basis. It seemed as though whether a Charmed One's day was filled with dates or demons, flirting or flaying, smooching or slaying, it was always exhausting.

Piper stopped sorting for a moment and looked up at Paige. "Well, I suspect Phoebe is in her office. She says this letter she received is the greatest conundrum of her career," she said, beginning to sort the junk into small piles.

"What's the story?" asked Paige, concern tracing her beautiful features. She knew that the day jobs of herself and her sisters could be as trying as their witch duties. She hoped that she and Piper could take something off of Phoebe's plate without her thinking that they were meddling. The sisters tried to give each other as much privacy as possible, but so often was the case that they had to get their demons—both literal and figurative—out in the open, and that often meant tears and misunderstandings and not minding their own business.

"Apparently, this seventeen-year-old girl married a seventeen-year-old boy. They were taken to court, and the decision reached was that because they were underage, the marriage was null and void. Now the girl is asking Phoebe what she should do next."

Paige had very clear definition of what was bad news. Before officially becoming a witch, it meant breaking the heel off of her shoe. Now it meant something more like breaking the ankle wearing that shoe from fending off an evil spirit. She abhorred the newspaper and any other source of information that reminded her that the evils of mankind (such as murder) and nature (such as a hurricane) abounded in this world without the help of dark supernatural beings. This piece of news ranked low in the fear department but high in the sadness department. "Wow. What a bummer," was all she could think of (or manage) to say.

"As for me, I'm awake because of reverse cycling; for the past week, Wyatt has been sleeping during the day and waking up at night. It must be from the flight to the convention."

Piper was referring to a nightclub-owner's convention that had taken place one week ago in Hawaii. She had learned a few more tricks of the trade and let herself spend some time alone with her sweet baby boy, Wyatt. One of these strategies was to host theme nights at her club, the aptly named P3. Tomorrow night—October 31st—would hold the theme of none other than Halloween.

Phoebe and Paige had immediately stepped up so that Piper could take her business/pleasure trip, but as soon as the eldest sister had returned, she was back into moneymaking mode, and had decked out the place to the last detail, covering the bar and dance floor in black and orange streamers and confetti, decorations of ghosts (both the scary kind and the cute kind), zombies, vampires, and of course, witches.

Piper didn't tell Paige that she might have been wandering aimlessly through this paraphernalia at this hour partially because she was also nervous about her designing debut as well, but she didn't need to, nor did Paige tease her about it.