NOVEMBER 3

I was woken up by a small body jumping into my bed. I groaned, trying to bury my face in my pillow. I did not want to get up yet. I wasn't ready. What time was it?

"Da!" a high voice exclaimed, as my blanket was yanked away by small hands. I was tempted to yank it back. I really didn't want to get up yet. "Mommy!"

I sat up, rubbing my eyes. Beside me, Merlin was doing the same. "What, Harper?" I grumbled.

She scrambled into my lap. She grabbed my cheeks roughly, squishing my lips together in the process. She turned my face toward hers. Her eyes were huge and excited. That was the thing about kids that nobody warned me about: You get manhandled. All the time. Kids have no sense of personal space. At all. At my kids didn't. "It's my birfday!"

I shook my head, which caused her to drop her hands to her sides. "I'm sorry, Harps. Your birthday isn't today. It's in two days."

She jutted out her lower lip in a pout. "But I want it today, Da."

I wrapped my arms around my oldest daughter, kissing her forehead. I stroked her blonde hair out of her face. "I know you do. You're really excited, aren't you?"

She nodded vehemently, getting a chuckle out of her mother. "Uh-huh. I wuv my birfday. I wuv it so much!"

Merlin leaned over with a smile and peppered Harper's head with kisses. "And your daddy and I love you so much."

A noise sounded.

From the hallway.

Merlin and I exchanged a look. Harper was in here with us, and the twins were supposed to be asleep in their cribs.

Which they didn't know how to get out of.

I passed Harper to her mother and scrambled out of the bed. "Mackenzie Tess Pendragon!" I called, because Kenzie was always the cause of suspicious noises in our home. Okay, nine out of ten times she was the cause. Occasionally it was just the wind or something like that.

Kenzie was sitting on the floor, giggling. I sighed in relief when I realized that was all that she was doing. Just giggling. Not coloring on the walls. Not tearing paper to pieces. Not flushing toys down the toilet. Not ripping the heads off her sisters's dolls.

Just giggling.

I picked her up. "Mackenzie, what are you doing out of your crib? And how did you get out?"

Giggling again, she attempted to levitate out of my arms, with her magic. I reflexively held her a little tighter. So that was how she'd done it. Levitation. I wondered if Maddie had learned that trick, too, or if it was just Kenzie. "Oh, great," I muttered, mostly to myself. "You've finally learned how to use your magic to make yourself float, and not just your toys. Lovely."

Something hard hit my head, and then a permanent marker fell to the floor.

I frowned.

How had a permanent marker fallen onto my head?

With a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, I looked up. About a dozen permanent markers were scribbling happily on the ceiling. It looked like they'd been going at it for a while, because the ceiling was absolutely covered in scribbles.

And then, without any warning, they all fell.

Right on my head.

"Ow! Ow! Merlin! A little help! Ow!"

Kenzie gave a maniacal laugh, as if she was enjoying my pain.