Free A Stroke Of Magic by Tracy Madison

You bet.
    “Do you want to ride with me or do you want to meet me there?”
    “Meet you.” Then, worried that I might have sounded rude, I said, “I’ll be out around then anyway. Easier on me.”
    He hung up and I swallowed in relief. I knew it wouldn’t last long, but I was happy for the delay while I had it. I clicked back to my sister. “I’m sorry it took me so long. No, it wasn’t a dream. Yes, it really happened. I’d prefer to talk about it with you and Grandma at once, though.”
    “Oh, come on. You can’t do that to me! I want to hear everything. Just tell me!”
    I was tempted. Really, really tempted. But I was also exhausted. As much as I wanted answers—all of them—my body wanted to sleep. And I didn’t think my brain would process much of anything until I did. “How about tomorrow morning? Instead of going out for brunch, come here for breakfast. And bring Grandma Verda with you.”
    Another wounded sigh floated through the phone line. “Fine. We’ll be there at nine. You better have coffee made when we get there! And not that instant crap, either.”
    I promised I would and then disconnected the call. With a sigh reminiscent of my sister’s, I curled up on the couch again. I thought about what Miranda had shown me, and I was pretty sure I understood her message. The magic—the wishes—were a gift she’d created for her daughters, and it seemed now I had it. I didn’t get how it worked, but at least part of the picture was clear. The rest would come into focus soon enough.
    Weirdly, though, I wasn’t nearly as surprised about the entire revelation as you’d expect. Rather, it was as if a cloud I’d always known existed had finally been lifted. The magic itself didn’t scare me as much as it had before, either. But even so, I wasn’t so sure I wanted it. What I did want, though, was to know everything about it. Every last detail.
    On the top of my need-to-know list was finding out who else in my family had experience with it, and why I hadn’t been told about it before. I mean, really, shouldn’t I have known my entire life? Yes. If for no other reason than to be prepared when it arrived.
    Maybe my family hadn’t learned that lesson, but I certainly had. And that was one thing that was going to change here and now. No more secrets.
    Beginning with my daughter.
    “So that’s the story.” I sipped my tea, now lukewarm. I’d decided to tell my grandmother and sister about everything that had occurred, so they could fill in the blanks.
    “Wow,” Elizabeth said. “Something similar happened to me, but instead of seeing Miranda’s past, I saw my own. With Marc.”
    “Ew. Let’s not bring him up.” My sister had made her peace with her ex-husband, but I never would. He’d broken her heart, walked out on her, and then had the gall to hire her bakery to make his wedding cake—for his wedding to the woman with whom he’d cheated on her.
    “Water under the bridge. Besides, my magic started with Marc.”
    Now I was interested. “That’s when you got your witch powers?”
    “Not witchcraft. Gypsy magic.” Grandma Verda’s eyes shone. “Miranda was a gypsy, and the gift she passed on to us has nothing to do with witchcraft.”
    “Oh. Wow.” The cloud lifted a bit more. “But why was she trying to curse the father of her baby? I didn’t understand that part of it, other than he’d hurt her.”
    “When she told him she was pregnant, he revealed that he was married, and wanted to take the baby from her to be raised in his home,” said Grandma.
    Pain sliced through me fast and hard. While different in some ways from my experience with Troy, it was also eerily similar. The lies. The betrayal. An invisible thread of unity existed between me and my great-great-greatgrandmother, tying us together in a way I’d never known with anyone else. “That sucks. But how does it work?”
    Grandma Verda gave a small smile. “The magic is different for each of us, and each of us can