Magic Underground: The Complete Collection (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 4)

by Melinda Kucsera

  “They were mostly teenagers who obviously are much more open minded than their parents.” A lightbulb went on. “I haven’t set up the store to cater to that demographic, but with a little rearranging, I could easily make a teen corner. More youthful looking charms to help with common issues they face like studying, anxiety from dating or from general social situations, jitters and nerves, controlling wayward hormones…the possibilities are endless.”

  Roman smiled, showing off his charming, yet slightly crooked teeth and the two dimples on his cheek that I loved to kiss. “Great! See, soon you’ll forget all about that neighbor.”

  “What neighbor?”

  We laughed.

  Roman picked up his paper again, thumbing through it, as I returned to my bowl of Magic Charms. I felt better already. After only a few months of marriage, I’d been noticing Roman’s level head has a way of balancing me out. When I got worked up about things, he grounded me. And to think, I was nervous about marrying a stranger. When two people were in the same place in life, anything was possible.

  Even love.

  A groan came from across the table.

  “What?” I plopped a spoonful of marshmallow goodness into my mouth.

  Roman shook his head. “This is not good.”

  “What?” I repeated, shoving more cereal into my starving maw.

  He lowered the paper, and his chest rose and fell with a deep breath I could hear over my chewing—though, the cereal was quite soggy at this point. His nearly black eyes softened and his lips went slack, turning down in a frown. “You made the newspaper.”

  I swallowed. “You make that sound like it’s not good.”

  He folded the paper carefully, so an article stood out on the front, then pushed it across the table towards me. My mouth dried at the headline:

  Witch in Town: Friend or Foe?

  It sounded like the reporter had been talking with the neighbor. “At least the title allows the reader to make up their own minds.”

  “Keep reading,” Roman said.

  I dug into the article.

  Remembering the absolute debacle in our sister city of Green Meadows, where a witch opened an enchanted objects shop that turned out to be a front for the witch mafia, we can’t help but wonder what new owner of Ettie’s Enchanted Effects, Ettie Sunward’s true intentions are. With the ability to purchase safe government-certified potions and enchanted items on the Internet, what use would a town like ours have for an actual physical shop?

  I put the paper down. “Does it get any better?”

  Roman shook his head.

  “Then I don’t need to read it. Why put myself through the torture?” I folded the paper and slid it back to my husband.

  Roman’s broad shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry I showed you.”

  I waved a dismissive hand in the air while standing up to dump the mush that used to be cereal down the garbage disposal. “I’m glad I now know the depth of the opposition. Gives me more reason to succeed.”

  “You know how I told you that my father preached to keep our identities hidden from mortals?”

  “You said he basically disowned you after your mom died and you came out of the witch’s closet.”

  Roman’s eyes turned sad. “This persecution is what he was trying to avoid. He saw it time and time again during his travels for work, but I think he was just a coward. Coming clean with who I was, was one of the most liberating experiences of my life. Sure, I ran into many prejudiced people, but I also met some truly supportive mortals as well, and I firmly believe that changing the most stubborn of minds can be the most rewarding affair. Something my father will never get to experience.”

  Once witches came out, so did my entire family. We never hid our witchiness, so this wasn’t something I had much experience in, other than the odd reports here or there that I occasionally heard through Witch Way. “I’m not ready to change that potentially troublesome neighbor’s mindset yet, but I will definitely be starting with a phone call to reporter Natalia Young as soon as I get to work, thanking her for the article. Don’t they say that some negative publicity is better than no publicity at all?”

  “We can hope,” Roman said.

  I smiled. I needed to focus on the bright side, as this was only day two of my new career as a business owner.

  Chapter Five

  The article in the paper had turned out to be fantastic for business, even with the negative spin the reporter had put on it. I spent my entire day answering customers’ questions about what each item was for and explaining that I only purchased them from government-certified wholesalers or did the enchantments personally myself. Items were flying off the shelves faster than a witch’s black cat chases down a mouse. Everything sold, from a giant talisman for one couple to bury in their backyard so that their house would sell faster, to enchanted seasonings guaranteed to fool your taste buds. Yes, broccoli could actually taste like pizza.

  Well after the lunch break I didn’t get, I finally had a moment to check the sales report. Twenty-five hundred dollars? My jaw fell all the way to the counter top, but as exhausted as my body felt, the number had to be true. A few days like today every month could completely take care of the bills…and more.

  The door chimed, opening to five teenagers with backpacks slung over their shoulders. One of the two girls had a familiar face, and I recognized her as one of my few customers yesterday.

  “Welcome back.” I smiled. “I set up that area over there with some more items you might like.” I motioned to my brand-new teen corner I had worked on for over an hour that morning. Both girls’ eyes lit up from the sleek lines of the displays I had arranged to appeal to the younger crowd. They both reached out their hands, ready to touch everything, and the boys trailed along after them. My chest swelled; I had this enchanted object shop under control.

  When I turned towards the chiming door again, my heart suddenly pounded. If I thought my jaw had laid on the countertop before, now, it hung down to the floor.

  The clicking of the notorious next-door neighbor’s heels on the linoleum floor drowned out the music playing over the speakers. A cute yellow purse, which matched her shoes and the sunflowers on her dress, swung over her arm in a menacing way. Behind her, cowered the child I had given the baseball-improving charm to yesterday. But in spite of all this, the most attention-getting part about her was the deep scowl on her face as she marched right up to the counter I wanted to shrink behind.

  Her voice nearly echoed throughout the store. “How dare you curse my son!”

  A lump formed in my throat as everyone in the shop turned around. “Beg your pardon?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me! You cursed him. Didn’t you give him this charm?” She tossed the little talisman I gave Matt onto the counter.

  “That’s not a curse. All it does is helps with hand-eye coordination.”

  “Bull crap!”

  By now, everyone else in the store had stopped shopping and stared at us standing nearly in the center of the room. The woman took her son by the shoulder with a jerky movement and spun him around. She lifted up the back of his shirt, revealing…a bushy tail climbing up his back.

  Her accusatory eyes pierced through any protective exterior I could muster. “If you didn’t curse him, how do you explain that!” She pointed at the tail. “Reverse it. Now!”

  I shook my head. “I—I—” I didn’t know what to say. How was that possible? Had I messed up the talisman spell? I had performed the enchantment myself, but my magic had never been strong enough to disfigure anyone, much less have them grow a tail. “I didn’t do that.” Stupid, Ettie, stupid. Certainly, I could have thought of something a bit cleverer.

  “No? Then how do you explain it. You and your husband are the only witches here in Watersedge. You gave him that.” She pointed to the little charm. “And the next day he grew a tail! Reverse it! Now.”

  “I—I can’t.” I swallowed a lump, knowing even if I didn’t cause the tail, I might be able to he
lp. “I need some time.” Without knowing the exact spell it came from, reversing magic could be impossible…but if I could figure out how he grew a tail, I might be able to help.

  “We don’t have time. My son is turning into a dog!”

  “Actually, he’s turning into a fox,” I said, but then I mentally berated myself.

  “Excuse me?” the neighbor shrilled.

  “A fox. A red fox, in particular. See the coloration and the white tip to the tail? That’s specific to a red fox.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Sounds like you know quite a bit about this creature my son is becoming. Fix it, or I’ll call the police.”

  “You’re going to have to call the police then, because I can’t fix it at the moment.” Or maybe not at all…and was it even my responsibility to fix her problem? “What other magic have you encountered? Potions? Other enchanted objects? Who’d want to do that to him?”

  “Nothing,” she snapped, pulling out her phone and typing in a number I recognized as 9-1-1.

  Fudge.

  Double fudge.

  Door chime after door chime drowned out all other sounds in the shop as my customers quickly escaped. Even the teenagers who had been thrilled only moments ago, scattered like leaves on a windy fall day. Once all the patrons were gone, you could have cut the silence with a butter knife as we waited for the police to arrive. My neighbor didn’t want to discuss anything further until law enforcement was present, so we stood in the center of the shop with nothing but an evil stare coming from the church-going woman—the same woman shooing out each of my customers with nothing more than a glare. This entire thing was a nightmare!

  Perhaps running a shop was not what I was cut out for. I was a social worker, not an entrepreneur.

  My tense muscles relaxed when two uniformed officers arrived.

  “Mrs. Fleming, what’s this about…a tail?” The older of the two officers asked, holding a clipboard in her hand and silencing a walkie-talkie on her belt.

  I waited patiently while the neighbor spilled her complaint, showing off Matt’s fluffy tail. I stated my innocence to the stoic, unmoving faces of both officers.

  The male officer who looked like he was fresh out of the academy rubbed his baby face. “We’ll have to consult the witch division about this. Until then, don’t leave town, Mrs. Sunward.”

  Leave town? Why would I do that? I was innocent in all of this.

  “And Brittany,” the female officer said to my neighbor, “I know you’re not happy Ettie is here, but don’t you think that sign is a bit over-the-top?”

  The sign?

  When I arrived at work today, her changeable letter sign over the church door still read: Witchcraft is not the answer.

  Had she changed it today?

  I headed out the door, through the crowd that stood waiting for something. For what? For me to dip into the dark magic they thought existed?

  Or for me to fix the boy’s tail?

  Or was it the neighbor’s handiwork that had them pause? Brittany had changed the words on the sign to now read: You’re never too old to try something pointless. But it wasn’t the saying that made it stand out. It was the giant red arrow right beneath it, pointing at the store.

  My fingernails dug into my palm.

  This town was against me. The reporter. The neighbor. Even the mayor made it clear I wasn’t welcome here.

  The police escorted Brittany and Matt out of the shop, giving me the place to myself, but I didn’t want to be here. Because of me…or possibly a reason tied to me, that innocent child now had a fox tail to deal with.

  My hands shook, and I wanted to hide, but I couldn’t do that with the entire front of the shop being glass and people still standing outside.

  Were they watching the spectacle?

  Or did they just want to come inside?

  I didn’t wait to find out.

  I flipped my sign to closed and locked the door.

  Chapter Six

  My knuckles had been white against the steering wheel the entire time as I drove to Roman’s work. What had just happened at my enchanted object shop wasn’t something I wanted to tell him over the phone. In fact, I didn’t want to tell him at all, but all I really wanted was a hug and a whisper in my ear that everything would be okay.

  Four months ago, I’d have turned to my mother or one of my sisters, but now I had Roman. Who’d have thought how much of my life could change in a fraction of a year?

  I rode the elevator up to Watersedge Architectural Group’s eighth floor and stopped at Bev’s desk. I had only met the middle-aged woman who was over-the-top into fitness once, but had heard stories from Roman about her crazy bouncing ball chair she sat on during work or how she’d sneak in a few sets of push-ups during her breaks.

  “Is Roman available?” I asked, twisting on the side of my skirt like a nervous teenager.

  Bev set a hand weight down that she had been doing reps with as I had walked up and clicked on a key on her computer. The monitor’s eerie blue glow reflected on her glasses as she typed away. “Let me bring up his schedule…yeah, he’s free for the next hour. Should be in his office. Want me to ring him?” Her hand fell on the phone receiver.

  “No need.” I passed down a hallway to the office I had only been in once before.

  Roman’s smooth and youthful face aged ten years when he looked up from his desk to find me standing in the doorway.

  “Surprise,” I choked out while using every ounce of willpower I had to hold back the tears in my eyes.

  Roman sprang from his desk, knocking over his cup of pens. Now who was the clumsy one? In minutes, he had me in his arms and the tears I had been holding back through sheer willpower fell. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you at Ettie’s?”

  “Because…” I took a deep breath, calming myself enough to tell him what happened. “Because that neighbor’s son grew a fox tail!”

  “What?” He pulled me out of his arms and looked into my watery eyes. That’s when I realized Roman had never seen me cry before. Our marriage had been all moonlight and enchanted roses up to that point…well, once we got through the first few weeks.

  “The neighbor…Brittany Fleming…the one with the church…she came over to accuse me of hexing her son Matt. He grew a tail. She even called the police!”

  Roman’s lips tightened, and his eyes flashed a storm I hadn’t seen before. He then grabbed his suit jacket off the back of his door and slipped it on. “Come on. Let’s go home and figure out what we’re going to do about this.”

  “But you have a meeting. Bev said it was in about an hour.”

  Roman shook his head. “No meeting is as important as you.” With that, he wiped the tears from my cheeks and planted two soft kisses in their place.

  On our way off the floor, Roman stopped at Bev’s desk. “Could you reschedule the meetings I have this afternoon? I’ll be out the rest of the day.”

  As Bev picked up the ringing phone, Roman took a step away from me. “I just need to go tell my boss. I’ll be right back.”

  I nodded.

  Soon, Bev was done with the phone call, and she assessed at me from behind her glasses. Hadn’t I wiped my tears enough? Were my eyes still red?

  “I can’t wait to get down to your shop,” she said with a genuine smile.

  “Well, that makes one person here in Watersedge.”

  She waved her hand at me. “They’ll all come around. When I first met Roman, I was nervous about working with a warlock, but I’ve come to realize that he’s not much different from the rest of us. He’s not getting promotions because he can do magic. It’s all about the creativity of the projects he works on.”

  “I hope everyone comes around. The way things look now, it seems as far away as a trip to Pluto.”

  “You’ll win everyone over. Roman nearly glows when he talks about you. He has complete faith in you—even convinced the owners to give you a business loan.”

  “Convinced the owners?”

  Be
v nodded. “They didn’t think the shop would do well here in Watersedge, but Roman insisted you could make anything work. He was so certain, he even put your house up for collateral.”

  He put up our house as collateral?

  My stomach twisted in a knot. How much was riding on the success of Ettie’s?

  And the neighbor was still after me with a vengeance.

  Not to mention the media.

  If the few strong voices managed to persuade the town, Roman and I would be homeless. We’d have to move in with Mom and listen to her gloating over my failure. I knew my sisters were more successful than me, but they had had an extra five years or more to get their life in order and they didn’t dedicate years of their life to a charity that paid nothing like I did.

  How could Roman risk all this? And take such a big chance on me?

  I rocked back on my heels and my hands fidgeted with my skirt again.

  I guess Roman taking a chance at me and my business was no different than me committing to be a mail-order witch. I married Roman sight unseen…and that worked out.

  My thoughts were interrupted when Roman came out from his boss’s office.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  I nodded, not quite sure about how I’d handle the weight resting on my shoulders...or let Roman know that I now knew his secret.

  Chapter Seven

  Last night, I kept quiet about the business loan that was using our home as collateral. Instead, I focused on Roman’s encouragement and his positive words about perseverance. I still had to go back to Ettie’s tomorrow. I didn’t have a choice. Keeping the house Roman worked so hard for depended on me.

  He had been sweet, curling up on the sofa and binging on all the Indiana Jones movies, all night long. It had given me an escape to get my mind off all that had happened with the negative press, Matt growing a tail, and the attack on Ettie’s written in black and white on the neighboring church’s billboard. The binge session also gave me time to build up the courage to return to the store.