A Farewell to Charms Read Online Free

liked the same boy, but I didn’t know he was the same boy when I started to like him, because he wasn’t the same boy at the time—he was a prince. I’d spent months thinking I liked Prince Karl, when all the wonderful things about him were really Reed pretending to be Karl. And I would tell her this, but if I did, I’d get fired. And maybe lose my magic.
    Oh, yeah. P.S., I have magic.
    “Okay,” she said. “Jeez. Sorry.”
    Here’s the thing about having magic: everyone has an emotion or trait that allows him or her to tune into his or her power. Mine’s empathy, so when I emotionally relate and connect to my clients, I’m able to channel my magic to help them. And that ability to magically serve isn’t exclusive to royals, despite what Façade would have its employees believe. Anyone could benefit from my magic, if I could just figure out what, exactly, I was capable of doing. So far, I’d managed to conjure up an agency bubble, talk to Celeste with my mind, and figure out what a lot of princesses wanted. But I had yet to come up with a concrete way to use my powers in real life.
    Right now would be a really good time for some magic. But it’s not like I could shoot a love potion out of my finger so that Kylee liked some other boy and our problem disappeared. It didn’t work like that.
    Wait. Unless it did! I had no idea what I was able to do using my magical emotion. Maybe I could clear this all up with a little cupid action.
    I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated on my supportive, sweet best friend and her crush on Reed and all her needs and feelings and problems and hopes. I pictured the perfect boy for her—someone funny and smart and talented and cute and NOT REED. I knew Kylee so well; it wasn’t hard to get my empathy pumping. Then I pointed, willing all my power to pool into my fingertip. Crush be gone. Alacazam!
    “Des? Why are you pointing at me?”
    I opened one eye. “Do you feel…anything special when I do that?”
    “Do what?”
    “Point?”
    “Besides weirded out? No.”
    I dropped my hand. Stupid Cupid.
    “What, are you trying to put a hex on me so I’ll stop asking about Reed?” Kylee’s eyes lit up. “I saw that in this teen horror movie, Planet Hex , where this girl had a wand inserted into her fingernail, but it was controlled by an alien from this alternate galaxy —”
    I sighed while Kylee rambled on about the flick. My magic powers were a bust, but at least I deflected her questioning by reminding her of another scary movie.
    “—but then she ended up liking the alien, so it all worked out.”
    “Mmm hmm,” I said.
    “So, anyway.” Kylee flicked a rock in the gutter. “Did Reed ask you to the Winter Ball when you were in the bathroom?”
    “What are you talking about?” Sproutville’s Winter Ball was a huge festival with ice skating, hot chocolate, snowy sleigh rides, games, and yes…a “ball,” which was really just the community center jazzed up with decorations and a cheesy DJ. There weren’t many chances for girls my age to dance with boys, so they got all dressed up and pretended the “ball” was something fancier than it was. “Reed and I aren’t going together,” I said. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    Kylee didn’t look at me when she spoke. “The only thing ridiculous is that you’re keeping something from your best friend.”
    “I’m not.” I rubbed my forehead. “Seriously, I told you that Reed and I—”
    “I know you, Des. I know when you’re nervous. I know when you’re lying. And things have been different ever since the play started. It’s like sometimes…you’re someone else, thinking about some other world. And you don’t tell me anything anymore.”
    I started to interrupt, but Kylee held up a hand. “Don’t deny it. And it’s like, it’s like Reed knows you better than me, even though you only saw each other at rehearsal. You’re different around him .”
    “Kylee! Listen, you are my very best friend and I tell