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Chapter 1

Emma

“I’m not doing a damn thing until there’s a warm pretzel in my belly,” I tell Ezra when we enter the Cedar Grove Mall. We’re on a two-day trip to Cedar Grove, the South Carolina monster town, to meet with Mayor Payne to discuss a partnership as a way to attract more visitors to both areas.

Our meeting with the mayor is tomorrow, so today we’re enjoying the town’s biggest attraction––a mega mall that’s straight out of the nineties. It has an Orange Julius, a CD/record store, Yankee Candle, Hot Topic, and a thrift store that sells clothes exclusively from brands that were once mall staples but have gone out of business. Malls might be disappearing all across America, but this one is absolutely bustling.

Monsters love nostalgia, especially those of the elder millennial era, and those without kids, like Ezra and myself, who have the disposable income to spend on it.

Ezra stops to clean the lenses of their gold-rimmed aviator glasses. “Fine, but then we’re hitting Hot Dog on a Stick. I’m starving.”

“Get a pretzel with me.”

“That’s a snack, not lunch. I need lunch.”

I raise a brow as I turn to look at them. “Are you calling a deep-fried wiener popsicle lunch?”

They chuckle. “At least it has protein.”

“Ugh, you and your protein. If I had a nickel for every time you scolded me for not eating enough protein…”

“You’d have, like, three dollars in nickels. Chill out.”

That pulls a smirk from me, and soon Ezra’s smirking back. Not only are they my chief of staff, but they’re also the closest thing I’ve ever had to a sibling. I’d be absolutely lost without them.

Once our bellies are full of warm carbs, we take turns hitting stores we like. They get a few new records to add to their impressive collection, and I get a bundle of scented lotion and body spray you can smell from a mile away. We buy clothes, milkshakes, decor, and end the day on the carousel in the middle of the mall.

“See? Mapletown needs something like this. We need an attraction that draws crowds.” I say from the pink-and-yellow horse I’ve chosen to ride. My pantsuit for today is a happy butter yellow that matches my horse perfectly.

Ezra is next to me on a much bigger black horse, which also happens to match their dark pants and vest. “We have leaf peeping. Monsters from around the globe come to see it every year.”

“That’s a one-and-done type of attraction. You come. You peep. You leave. But this,” I gesture with a sweep of my arm, “you could come here weekly and never get sick of it. Just like we did when we were teenagers.”

“What do you want, an amusement park?” Ezra asks with a scoff. “We can’t afford a single bumper car.”

In the nine years I’ve been mayor, I’ve done my best to keep the taxes as low as possible. Raising property taxes on my Uncle Henrik’s three-million-dollar craftsman along the Mapletown border certainly helped, and he didn’t have any leverage to argue since it’s his…sixth home, I think? The man has more money than he could ever spend, and as long as he plans to have a house in my town, I plan on forcing him to contribute to the town’s limited funds in any way I see fit.

Unfortunately, money runs out, and even a town as small as ours needs a constant stream of funds to stay on top of infrastructure repairs, education for our local kids, teachers’ salaries, special events, and healthcare for every resident.

But managing the budget is part of my job, and I’m happy to take these cost concerns off the plates of my constituents. They work too hard and contribute too much to our town to have to stress over the costs of life-saving medicine and annual tax bills. Regardless of how little or how much money a person makes, they deserve basic dignity. That’s where the Mapletown government comes in.

I blow out a deep breath, cheeks expanding like a puffer fish, as the carousel comes to a stop. “Well, hopefully Mayor Payne will be able to inspire us with some new ideas.”

Ezra hops down from their noble steed and follows me outside to the parking lot, where an idea pops into my head. “We should stop by Mayor Payne’s office now to say hello. Show him how much we loved the mall. Say we’re beyond excited to discuss a collaboration tomorrow.”

Ezra nods slowly, considering this, before looking at their watch. “It’s ten past four. Do you think he’s still there? Is it rude for us to show up unannounced at the end of the day?”

I balk. “No way. I love when visitors come to see me just to tell me I’m doing a great job. Plus, it’ll set the meeting tomorrow up for success if we fawn over him today.”

“Okay, let’s do this.” They gesture for me to proceed. “After you, Cap’n.”

We cross the parking lot and hop on the Cedar Grove trolley, which takes us from the block of big brand stores and the mall to the town square. Here, there’s not a chain restaurant in sight. Only small businesses and municipal buildings. While Mapletown’s town square has a gazebo and Mapletown Rock, Cedar Grove’s has a gilded statue of the town’s founder, Agatha Whitmore, and a plaque beside it telling her story.

Unlike the origin stories of most American witches back in the day, Agatha wasn’t an outcast. Her family was wealthy, and she was well-liked in the community. Magic was actually how her grandparents acquired their generational wealth. Despite being forbidden from practicing magic outside the house or with anyone who wasn’t a blood relative, Agatha rebelled through chaos and costly mishaps. Her parents eventually paid the founders of Magnolia Village, Louisiana’s monster town, to show Agatha how to create the protective barrier that would keep outside humans from being able to enter the town borders.

Once the barrier was in place, Agatha continued her reckless magic until a freak accident with a parachute, a frozen pond, and a too-tight corset ended her life.

After we take a moment to honor Agatha with a gratitude incantation, we cross the street toward the town hall.