When I told my parents about my successful hex, they scoffed and said that I couldn’t use my own curse on myself. I’d be biased about the outcome.

“I didn’t purposely fall down the stairs!” I protested.

“No,” my dad said. “But maybe subconsciously you wanted your curse to work so badly that you ‘tripped’ yourself.”

“Your father is right, Eliza. Try it on someone else.” My mum backed him and that’s one of the only recollections I have of them agreeing on something other than the weather. In fact, sometimes they fought about that too.

“Why did you put it on anyway?” Kaydon asked. “Don’t you have some test dummies?”

“If by dummies you mean people to try it on, yeah I had a couple in mind. But then Jessica came along and I had no choice.”

I explained to him about Jessica and all her questions. He looked solemn, and advised me to stay away from her because he was certain he didn’t know anyone by that name.

“She’s just mistaken,” he said. “But avoid her as best you can, anyhow.”

***

Tell us: Does it make sense that witches cannot cast spells on themselves?