The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Jamie goes into the gallery, and Mika takes the car to a sunny spot. She detects magic in the wind and realizes that another witch is nearby. She spots Hilda from the Society. Hilda is out with her fiancée, Kira. Hilda hasn’t told Kira about magic, and Kira thinks Mika is a friend from Hilda’s book club. Kira excuses herself so that Hilda and Mika can catch up alone.

Both witches remark that Primrose can’t find out about their meeting. Hilda confesses that she’s too afraid to tell Kira about her witch side because of Primrose’s rules. However, she hates hiding part of herself. Mika encourages Hilda to tell Kira the truth. Mika calls Kira the “Holy Grail” because she always loves and accepts Hilda. When they part, Mika wonders if Hilda will tell Kira the truth.

Jamie emerges from the gallery sooner than Mika expected, carrying his father’s journals and beaming. Mika loves seeing him smile. He feels that he only needed to see his mom to make sure she’s okay, and he believes that she felt the same way about him. They’ve gotten their closure. Jamie’s brothers also weren’t as scary as Jamie remembers. He credits his guardians at Nowhere House for helping him become a complete person after leaving home. He’s happy that Mika came with him to help him keep a straight head.

She tells him about her encounter with Hilda. He asks what Mika meant by “Holy Grail.” Mika says she believes that everyone is searching to be loved and accepted for who they are. As they drive, Jamie notices Mika idly playing with the magic around her. Magic likes attention, and Mika likes to give it attention. She recalls how magic gave her the nudge to respond to Ian’s initial message.

Jamie speculates that the rules of keeping witches apart aren’t working and that the magic knows this. Mika wonders if he’s right. She has been lonely all her life, and she wonders if the magic is lonely too. However, she doesn’t think she has the power to change things. Jamie suggests that Mika start with improving her own life, but Mika fears she’ll be rejected if she gets close to people. She has always felt like she was never enough for anyone. She doesn’t think she leaves a mark on people. Jamie mutters that she does.

On the way home, they stop in the woods again so that Mika can forage. Jamie jokes about gathering the ingredients himself and having all Mika’s potions turn poisonous, which makes Mika laugh. Jamie listens to Mika talk while they forage. He doesn’t care that he’s freezing.

Mika asks if Jamie ever misses his hometown. Jamie says he sometimes thinks of it, but he’s happy in Nowhere House with his found family. He thinks to himself how Mika is part of that family now but immediately corrects himself because he knows she’ll leave.

They get very close while talking and clearly both want to touch each other. Eventually, they embrace in a passionate kiss. When it finally breaks, Mika jokes about not having sex in the woods. Jamie is surprised she’s thinking of that. They kiss harder, overcome by passion until rain interrupts them.

In the car, Mika pours magic tea that warms them and dries their clothes. Mika asks why Jamie turned her down a few days ago. Jamie reminds her that she was exhausted. As Jamie’s clothes dry, he suggests that Mika consider opening a potion shop. He tells Mika about a nearby town where every street corner is overflowing with flowers. He explains that someone there loves flowers so much that they dedicated their life to it. He wants Mika to take the same risk on her potion shop. Mika says she doesn’t know a place where it’s possible. Jamie suggests that she invent a place.

Nowhere House begins preparations for Winter Solstice. Mika and Ian make a large horse out of wire for the girls to practice animating, but they keep bending it out of shape. Altamira complains that something doesn’t feel right this winter. There’s no snow yet, and the sunflowers in the back garden remain in bloom, which is highly unusual. Mika reassures Altamira, noting that everyone’s feeling stressed about Edward’s visit. She promises to make something called fairy wine for the girls, which excites them.

Rosetta and Terracotta wonder why they’re told to work together to move the wire horse when they’ve been told not to cast spells together. Mika explains that she never would’ve suggested it before meeting them, but she has faith in their abilities. She acknowledges that they’re irregular witches, much like Primrose described Mika as a child. As much as Mika wishes she weren’t, she realizes how attached she has grown to the girls. She considers what life could be like if she stayed, but she’s certain that would be up to Lillian, and she doesn’t want to overstay her welcome. Lillian aside, she worries about being welcomed by everyone else more permanently. She has never felt worthy of the kind of love that keeps someone in one place.

Jamie has avoided Mika for the several days since their woodland tryst. Mika saw something like panic in his eyes when they got home. She worries that he has changed his mind about wanting her, and if so, she’s angry that he hasn’t told her.

On the Winter Solstice, Nowhere House is well decorated, and the family has planned many activities and cooked delicious dishes. The day starts out rough because Terracotta and Altamira are battling over Altamira’s puzzle. Altamira put rotten fish in Terracotta’s room, so Terracotta poured a color-shifting potion on Altamira’s hair. Jamie lectures the girls on escalation, focusing on Terracotta because she’s older—and she did something to Altamira’s body, which is unacceptable. Once tensions have smoothed, Mika removes the fish smell from Terracotta’s room and the pigment from Altamira’s hair.

The rest of the day goes merrily. Everyone exchanges gifts. Mika made a special tea mixture for everyone in the house, complete with fun labels for each one. Jamie’s label alludes to his handsome scowls. He makes eye contact with Mika across the room, taking her breath away. After the day’s festivities have wound down and the girls have gone to bed, Mika and the other adults sit in the living area, sipping on cider. Mika has wanted to talk to Jamie all day, hurt that he’s avoiding her, so when it looks like he’s going to bed, she excuses herself too and invites him to talk. Ian wants to listen in on the conversation but leaves them be.

Jamie knows that Mika is confused and hurt by how he pulled away from her. She leads him to the beach and lights the air with a spell that imitates fireflies. Jamie feels bad about how he has acted, but he has reasons.

Mika asks what’s bothering Jamie. He says it’s Edward’s visit, but she presses him about why he has been avoiding her since their forest kisses. He says that he wants her but explains that it won’t work because Mika doesn’t have serious relationships, while a serious relationship is all Jamie wants.

Mika explains that her usual reasons for leaving—not being able to be her true self—don’t apply here because Jamie knows about her magic. He rebuts that he believes she’ll find another reason because she doesn’t think she’s good enough to be loved. He thinks the moment he does something to hurt her—which he insists he will because things are more messed up than Mika knows—she’ll run.

Mika asks him to try to trust her, but Jamie refuses to reveal what he’s hiding. She realizes that whatever he’s hiding is bigger than just him. She promises not to ask again and heads back up the beach toward Nowhere House. He realizes how much it must hurt her to realize that he’s withholding something. He acknowledges that no one has ever chosen her and decides to make it right. He calls after her, saying that they lied and that he’ll tell her everything.

Mika is filled with dread, having heard Jamie out. She heads for the garden where the sunflowers are still blooming. Mika uses magic to lift the entire patch of dirt out of the ground, unearthing a clean white skeleton. Around the skeleton’s neck is a locket with the letter L on it. It’s Lillian, who has been dead since June. Jamie is surprised that Lillian is only bones, as she shouldn’t be completely decomposed. Mika explains that the earth reclaims witches faster and that it gave sunflowers in return.

The night before Lillian was supposed to leave for her next archeological adventure, she dropped dead in the kitchen. They think it was an aneurysm. Ken, Ian, Lucie, and Jamie all decided to hide her body, lest her will be carried out. Lillian was adamant about the girls going to her sister, Peony, so that they could be raised by a witch. However, no one at Nowhere House has met Peony, and they don’t want their family ripped apart. They’re the girls’ only parental figures. Despite their attempts to talk to Lillian about it when she was alive, she was adamant. Mika realizes that Lillian needed someone to continue to cast the warding spells. Jamie asked a lawyer while they were in town with Rosetta. The lawyer informed him that the only way around Lillian’s will was for Peony to reject the girls.

Edward called the house a month later, worried because he couldn’t reach Lillian. The residents of Nowhere House tried to stall and avoid Edward as much as possible, but he eventually insisted on visiting Nowhere House to speak to Lillian face to face, adding that they’d all be speaking to the police if they couldn’t produce her. Edward knows Lillian’s will, and he’ll enact it if he learns that she’s dead. Because Edward already has bigoted opinions toward Ian and Ken and the rest of the family, he may assume they did something to Lillian and would likely bring the full extent of the law to bear to prove it.

Mika understands everything except why they called upon her. Jamie explains that the girls really did need a tutor, but the urgency was because of Edward. The plan was to hire Mika, tell her the truth once they could trust her, and ask her to disguise herself as Lillian if possible. Mika recalls Ian’s asking about glamor spells. She feels betrayed and used. She wonders if every conversation had an ulterior motive.

Mika is devastated because she told them about how people in her past used and manipulated her, yet they still chose to do the same. She asks why Jamie kept the truth from her, especially after they became close and kissed. Jamie explains that they were worried about Mika possibly involving the Society. She’s upset to hear that despite her putting herself at risk to help them, they never truly trusted her. She feels she really wasn’t enough. She tells Jamie that he was right. She’s hurt, and now she’s leaving. Jamie tries to stop her, but Mika won’t listen. She thanks him for the truth, even though it was too late.

Mika packs up a few necessities for the next few days. She vows to return on December 26 for Edward’s visit and to properly say goodbye to the girls. Mika can’t do glamor spells, but she’ll devote her time to working on a solution until then. As she gets in the car, she can see tears in Jamie’s eyes. She drives off into the night.