Witchy Flash Back (PAPERBACK)

A shimmering by the door gave way to Lissa Lavender. Her mom was stuck between worlds right now. It was partly Jess’s fault and partly her mom’s and Maestro’s for not sharing the rules of administering potions, but in another few months there would be an opportunity to make Lissa mortal again—if things went right this time, and if Jess learned how to be a better witch.
No pressure then.
“That is a glum face, darling girl. What’s upsetting you?” Lissa Lavender asked serenely—as serenely as a ghost could who often treated their midlife daughter as if she were still a child.
Maestro snorted. “Could be anything with Ms. Glass Half-Empty,”
“You mean what could be wrong apart from living a lie and having to listen to this moth-eaten bossy feline?”
Maestro hissed and stormed across the room to the door. Now that made Jess laugh. “Need a human to open that for you, pussycat?”
“Be careful, dear. He has a long memory,” her mom warned.
“Don’t I know it.” Jess huffed. “How am I going to train Jenny if I can’t get the simplest spells right?”
“Maestro informs me that you have managed some very well and you have time to perfect more. Besides, from what you both say, Jenny isn’t there yet.”
Jess nodded unhappily. “That’s true, but every day she has these premonitions and there are only so many ways I can put her off the scent when I have to ask her questions in case what she sees are warnings.”
“You’re handling it well enough dear and that reminds me, does she have your ability of smell?”
“I don’t think so. At least, she hasn’t mentioned it. It’s obvious that the premonitions are getting her down though.” Jess sighed. “Now she’s worried about everyone, and that sets people off when she asks them a gamut of questions in that earnest way Jenny has.”
Lissa shook her head. “That isn’t good. It will be too easy for her to slip into that over-protective mode which will eventually make her sick.”
“The way it happened to you, Mom?”
Lissa became a pale blue. “That’s right, dear.”