Single Witch's Survival Guide by Mindy Klasky

chances against their Team. I’m stronger than they think I am.”
    “You’re not listening. This is the Court . They make the Washington Coven look like Matchbox cars test-driving the Indy 500. If a dozen witches aren’t enough to restrain you, they’ll bring two dozen. A hundred. They have unlimited resources, and they’ll do whatever it takes.”
    “What’s a Major Working, anyway? How major is Major?”
    David shrugged. “I don’t know. I suspect they don’t either. You’ll have to choose something big enough that there can’t be any doubt.”
    Great. Maybe I could negotiate peace in the Middle East while I was at it.
    But what choice did I have? If I went rogue, Neko was automatically forfeit. If I signed the damned Charter, at least I had a fighting chance to keep him. And I meant to fight. A lot.
    I turned on my heel and stalked back to the beach, Spot on my left side, and David on my right. Thrusting the Charter in Pitt’s face, I asked, “What do I do? Sign it in blood?”
    “Ink should suffice.” He smiled as if he’d just told the best joke in the world. As I fumed, he extracted a Bic from his well-protected pocket. My stomach turned when I saw the cap had been chewed to a pulp.
    He flipped to a page in the middle of the Agreement. “I am required to point out that you have a deadline here.” He tapped the paper. “Please initial where it says you have until Samhain to complete your Major Working.”
    “Samhain!” That was Halloween. A mere four months from now. The Madison Academy semester didn’t end until December; we should have had until Yule to prove ourselves. But Samhain marked the traditional end and beginning of the pagan year. And if I argued, Pitt would probably move the deadline up to Lughnasadh, to the first of August.
    I clenched my jaw and initialed the deadline.
    Then, I signed the last page of the Charter, taking great care to make my name legible. Pitt added his own signature on behalf of the Court before he passed the sheaf of papers to David. “If you’ll bear appropriate witness?” he asked with oily politeness.
    David nearly tore the paper as he crossed the “t” in Montrose.
    “Excellent,” Pitt declared, snorting with adenoidal glee. I half expected him to start rubbing his palms together like Snidely Whiplash. “We’ll make copies back at the home office and deliver one to you, post-haste. Did you have any questions, Miss Madison?”
    “Just one. Do you actually like your job, screwing with honest witches who only want to make the world a better place?”
    He blinked, as if my words did not compute in whatever feeble machine passed for his mind. “I don’t understand, Miss—”
    “Let me show you the path back to the house, Norville,” David said. He shot me a glance, clearly warning that the Court’s eternal blacklist might be only one more insult away.
    “I’ll find it myself, thank you.” Pitt looked like he didn’t want to spend a second alone with David, and he wasn’t all that fond of Spot either. I couldn’t say I blamed him, on either count.
    We watched Norville Pitt waddle across the beach. He swung his briefcase at his side, all the while slipping and sliding on the sand. I waited until he’d disappeared behind the treeline before I asked, “What do we do now?”
    David collapsed into one of the deck chairs. He buried his hands in the thick fur around Spot’s neck. “Good boy,” he murmured, as the dog’s tail took up a steady tattoo. It took ages for him to raise his gaze to me. “I’m sorry,” he said at last.
    “About what?”
    “About dragging you into all of this. If you had another warder, Pitt wouldn’t have gotten involved.”
    “If I had another warder, I’d never have gotten this far. I certainly wouldn’t still have the Osgood collection. And that has to be the real reason Pitt showed up.”
    “Jane—
    “I’m not listening,” I sang, stopping just short of putting my fingers in my ears. I waited until