“Tough day?” he asked.
I laughed. “Tough couple of weeks.”
“Did you figure out which witch is working with your neighbor on her son’s issue?”
I shook my head. “The message boards have been silent.”
“Hmm,” Roman said. “What does that mean?”
“Either, they’re working super secretively or Brittany never contacted a witch for help.” And I leaned towards the second explanation. What purpose would she have to act secretively, when news of her son was already all over this town…unless… “Humor me, but a crazy idea has been rolling through my head the past few days. What if Brittany hexed her own son?”
“Why would she do that?”
“How better to gain sympathy and attention for her cause than by having her own child the victim of a crime? She really isn’t happy with a magic shop right next to her church.”
“It’s one possibility. That would mean she also hexed the entire town. All those children.”
I looked out the window to the protesters still out there. They had made their point. The entire town knew to stay away, yet they lingered. “Why do children of the same age seem to be the ones affected? I’d say they are all in the second grade. No adults have grown a tail and no younger or older kids.”
“And they all bought something from your shop?”
“No. Of course not!”
Roman arched an eyebrow at me.
“Which means…that the townspeople must see I’m not behind the spell!” I dug my cell out of my pocket and typed in the reporter’s number on the business card still laying on the counter. “I just need to get the word out. It’s not like Natalia Young can make the story any worse.”
“Just be careful. I don’t trust her.”
I laughed. “Neither do I, but she’s our best chance of having the town listen.”
I had to leave a voicemail, but left it vague, hoping she would call back quickly. “Hi, this is Ettie from Ettie’s Enchanted Effects. I have some newsworthy information on the tail epidemic. I was hoping you’d call me back to chat.”
When I ended the call, Roman tapped his finger on my open spell book. “Did you find something?”
“A true identity spell.”
Roman tightened his lips. “That might work.”
I looked out the window at the two children leaning against the glass, both with their big, bushy tails wagging. “It’s worth a shot, right? We can’t let the entire town sprout tails.”
“I’ll light the candles, if you get the ingredients.” Roman’s smile still made my heart pitter-patter. How was it he was all mine? Despite everything going on around me, I had to admit I was a lucky woman.
But if the shop failed, and we lost our house, would our new marriage be able to weather the storm? I really didn’t want to find out.
“Where do you want to set up?” Roman asked.
I needed a big floor space, my back room didn’t have the room, and the upstairs was so cluttered with storage. The only place here was the main entrance way. I laughed. The last time I did a big display of magic in the public eye, my sales had boomed.
Maybe this would do the same? “Right here, in front of the windows.”
Roman didn’t question me. I mean, what was I hiding? Everyone already knew we were witches.
Soon, I had a basket of various herbs from my back room and Roman had candles set up on the floor in a circle. No fancy pentagram like the mortals thought. Just a nice burning circle. I created another ring of the circle, laying out the aromatic herbs: sage, aspen, watercress, blue spruce, and myrrh. The herbs and the candles were for nothing more than to call the magic. It was the words of the spell interlaced with my own internal magic that did the work.
I stepped into the center of the circle holding a mortar full of ground herbs.
“Hit the lights,” I said, while sitting down with my legs crossed and the spell book of magic words open beside me.
Roman tilted his chin. “Why?”
I shrugged. “Just to make it more dramatic for our onlookers.”
Soon, the candles twinkled around me, even though it was still light outside. The store wasn’t as dark as I would have liked, but it worked to create an eerie feeling while allowing me enough light to read the book. Faces gathered at the window and stared inside. Was that good? If I fixed the tail problem, there would be a lot of witnesses as to how helpful a witch could be. But what if it backfired? What if having them see me get rid of the tails made them think I caused the tails as well?
They already thought I caused the outbreak, so what did it matter?
“Ready?” I asked.
Roman nodded.
I took a deep breath, focusing on the children with tails and laying out a map out of the town to indicate the boundaries of my spell. I then sprinkled the ground herbs over the surface. “Parere filios invocavi vera identitas. Accipiant veram formam.”
The candles flickered, then extinguished, indicating the completion of the spell. Nothing as dramatic as the eyes that watched me wanted, I’m sure. I turned to the glass windows, seeing Natalia’s face smack in the center of my front door.
She had come down to Ettie’s.
Had she just witnessed this?
And did it work? Outside, I scanned for the first tail…and saw it was still there, clear as day.
The spell hadn’t worked.
But then, one mother outside turned to her child, placing both hands on the girl’s cheeks. She turned her head, and I could hear the sound of her high-pitched voice vibrate through the glass window. Another mother joined her, examining the child, then turning to her own. One parent after another leaned down and rubbed their children’s faces with a look of terror that soon turned angry. They set their glares towards me, and that’s what I saw the first little girl’s face.
Her nose was dirty—black. And right above the corners of her lips were dark whiskers.
Oh no!
“Roman. I think I’m in trouble.”
He dashed to the front door and locked it. “I think we’re both in trouble,” he said, as another child turned around, revealing his black nose and whiskers that were so much like the first child. “I think the spell revealed their true form…and whatever magic caused them to grow tails has decided their true form is a fox!”
Chapter Eleven
Oh my, oh my, oh my.
What was I going to do?
Roman’s head sashayed back and forth as he watched me pace in the back half of my dark store, away from the people pounding on my windows and front door. All the second graders in this town now not only had big, bushy tails, but they also had a black nose and whiskers! And worst of all, some of that was one hundred percent my fault.
“It was an innocent spell,” I muttered to Roman.
“It’s not your fault. How were you to know? In fact, I supported your attempt.” He held his hand out to me. “Let’s go home.”
I shook my head as a realization hit me. “If I leave, everyone will think I’m guilty.” Closing the shop and running had been my instinctual response, but that wouldn’t get me anywhere. I had to hang in here and face the witchy music. My pacing sped up, and I wrung my hands together. “At the very least, I need them to know the whiskers were from me trying to help.” I turned a sharp corner and headed to the front door. I pointed to Natalia and motioned her inside. She already had her notebook and pen ready to go.
The crowd roared when I opened my door, but I pulled all the magic that remained inside me before it was completely exhausted, to produce a bit of magic wind to keep everyone out except Natalia.
“What just happened here?” she asked. “I saw you do magic…then everyone grew whiskers. Why? What do you want from us?”
“Nothing. I don’t want anything. I was just trying to help.”
“Help them become a fox?”
“No. I was trying to reverse the fox tails. I did this spell.” I pointed to the spell book still laying open on th
e floor.
“I can’t read anything there,” Natalia said.
“That’s because it’s in our native language—very similar to Latin.” The original language of my people. “I need you to write a story. The truth about everything.”
“I only write the truth.”
A big laugh came from the back of the shop where Roman stepped out of the shadows. “The truth? You wrote nothing but lies so far.”
“There’s always two sides to the truth, depending on how you tell it. I wrote what the townspeople of Watersedge wanted to hear.”
“And what’s that?”
“That there is a witch in town and magic has historically always caused trouble.”
I couldn't deny that. At least, it caused trouble in this realm.
Natalia shoved her pen in spiral of her notebook, then pulled it out again, repeating the gesture. “The truth is, I don’t know you any better than I know the karate instructor in Frost Falls.”
My muscles tensed. “Frost Falls?” I tilted my chin. Why would she use an example from my hometown that resided over a thousand miles from here?
“Or any other town I haven’t been to,” she corrected.
“You haven’t been to Frost Falls, yet that was the first town you thought of?”
“I’m a reporter. I did my homework. I know you’re from Frost Falls.” There wasn’t any arguing with that logic. Natalia continued, “What I’m trying to say is that I don’t know what you stand for or what your true intentions are here in Watersedge, but what I do know is that you’re not wanted here. You weren’t wanted before anyone sprouted a tail. Either you caused the tail epidemic and should be forced to leave, or you didn’t cause it and someone in this town is framing you because they don’t want you here.”
“Like the neighbor,” Roman said.
“Brittany?” Natalia laughed. “She’d never hurt anyone.”
“Really?” I laughed back. “Because I think she caused a tail to grow on her own son.”
Officer Gates and her partner interrupted the silence that followed my accusation with the thumping of their fists on my front door. Beside them towered Mayor Raab with her big fish lips puckered like a Hollywood porn star.
I moaned. I was in big trouble now.
The crowd was happy to let the three of them in and my magical wind wasn’t needed—not that I could muster it up. My magic was as tired as an out-of-shape couch potato who had just run a 5K.
“Mrs. Sunward,” the male officer addressed me with his thumbs dug deep in his belt. I squinted at his badge, reading the name that I didn’t know, Officer Duncan. Did he like donuts? Why did I have inappropriate thoughts whenever I was stressed? Officer Duncan pulled his thumbs out of his belt and continued, “We’ve had multiple 911 calls in the last half an hour about kids growing whiskers. Some callers are telling us that they saw you do a spell that caused the issue.”
“I wasn’t trying to cause an issue,” I said, taking a step closer to Roman who looped his arm around my back. “I was just trying to reverse the fox tails.”
“So, you did cause the whiskers?” Officer Duncan went for his little notebook he kept in his breast pocket. “We were hoping it was just the paranoid town pointing their finger at you.”
Mayor Raab cleared her throat. “Like I’ve been saying. We need to shut this place down.”
Like she’s been saying? “What happened to innocent until proven guilty?”
“We have about twenty witnesses that saw you do a spell,” the Mayor said.
“And she admitted it to me,” Natalia added.
“Yes, I did a spell. I do spells all the time. The whiskers were an accident!”
“We don’t need any more proof than her confession.” Mayor Raab straightened her light grey coat. “Ettie’s confessed she’s behind the whiskers.”
The group looked at me.
I tightened my lips and gave a slight nod.
“Well, until this is all sorted out, Ettie’s will be shut down until further notice. I told City Council to deny your shop’s permit, but they wanted to give you a chance. At this point, I’m not sure they’ll ever approve you opening again,” Mayor Raab grimly concluded.
The muscle in my temple that connected with my jaw tensed as the mayor left, taking Natalia with her. The police officers stayed for my statement, where I admitted to everything but the tails.
“Would you like us to escort you home?” Officer Gates asked with an unexpected compassion.
Suddenly, I didn’t feel like the dirty criminal my mind was telling me I was. “Thank you, but we’ll be okay.”
Officer Gates narrowed her eyes, waiting for me to change my mind, but I gave her a confident nod.
“Before you attempt to head home, give us at least half an hour to break up the crowds.” Officer Duncan said before heading outside, leaving Roman and I with Officer Gates.
“I support you,” she said. “My husband came here when you first opened. Bought me this charm.” She pulled out a necklace from beneath her uniform collar, showing a little jade pendant I recognized.
“For protection.”
She nodded. “I thought it was useless until late last week. A child had climbed up a tree and couldn’t get down. I went after her, but a branch broke beneath my feet, sending me down a few rungs, but do you know what happened? Instead of falling the three stories to the ground, my belt loop caught on a branch, catching me. I twisted over and continued back up the tree and rescued the child. I don’t think that was a coincidence. Without this charm, I really think I would have broken multiple bones…or worse. Thank you. There are a few influential voices in this town that are twisting what is going on, and I wouldn’t doubt one of them is sabotaging your shop. I’m working on the case and will bring the truth out, so hang in there. I’m rooting for Ettie’s.” She smiled.
I found Roman’s hand and squeezed. She wasn’t the only one that had faith in me. I had my wonderfully supportive husband. All I had to do was win over the other twenty thousand people living in Watersedge.
Undoubtedly, there were some loud voices in this town and Brittany was only one of them. There were also Natalia and Mayor Raab, and that was only who I knew about. Someone was trying to sabotage the store, for that I was certain, and as of right now, they were succeeding. I hadn’t even had the opportunity to tell Natalia that there was no way I caused the tail problem because most of those children hadn’t even come to the shop…but after everyone saw me descend a spell on the whole city, I was certain that argument wouldn’t hold water.
This situation had been going on long enough, and it was time I got serious. I kept being questioned and accused of bad magic, but maybe it was my turn. I took a breath and squared my shoulders to Officer Gates, pulling out of the comfort of Roman’s arm. If I only had one ally in this town who could make a difference, it would be her. “What can you tell me about the affected children? The newspaper said they were all in second grade, but three dozen are too many to all be in the same classroom. Were they all from the same school?”
“Watersedge only has one school. It appears both the second-grade classes were affected.”
“But nobody else?”
“Yes. Two more people—their teachers.”
I rubbed my chin. “Hmm. The news didn’t report the adults. I wonder if there is something in their classroom.”
“I can take you to look, if you think it would help. Heck, I wouldn’t even know what I’m supposed to be looking for. I’ve only studied this magical world of yours at the academy years ago and don’t have any practical experience.”
“That would be great.” I smiled, trying to convey my gratitude, but this was one of those things that nothing could repay.
“Meet me there in an hour. I need to help with crowd control and do some paperwork first.” With that, Officer Gates joined her partner outside, dispersing the remainder of the crowd.
“This is promising,” Roman said. “Maybe we’ll have this all wrapped up
in time for dinner.”
I turned to my big, positive hubby. Seeing all the hope on his face. “I’m sorry,” I blurted out.
“For what? I thought performing the true identity spell was a good idea, too.”
“No. Not for that. I’m sorry that Ettie’s Enchanted Effects has been nothing but a disaster.” The floodgates opened. “We’re going to lose our house. Your secretary told me about the collateral deal you made with the owners of Watersedge Architecture Group. I wish you would have told me! From now on, every major financial decision made by either of us needs to be discussed, no matter how good our intentions are.”
Roman took me in his arms and smoothed back my hair. My nose pressed against his chest, inhaling his fresh mountain air scent. “I’m sorry. I was so used to being completely independent that I saw an opportunity to make you happy, and I jumped on it. I had the house before we met, and I didn’t think twice about putting it up for collateral to help you obtain your dreams. I know marrying you, satisfied all my dreams.”
The argument on my tongue fell flat.
Roman continued, “Right now, Love, losing our house is the least of my worries. I know that wherever we end up, we’ll be just fine.”
“Your life was so much easier before you met me.” Tears continued to escape, no matter how much I tried to control them. “I’m so sorry. If you would have known the hassles I would put you through, I’m sure your choices would have been different. Four months of nothing but applying and being rejected for jobs, complaining about this town to you over and over again. Now this…I really don’t think I belong here.”
Roman pulled me out of his arms and placed a hand on each of my shoulders, staring at me with a weight in his expression that made me cringe to look at him, but he waited until I gave him eye contact. “Listen here, Ettie Sunward, I don’t regret a moment of our time together nor do I regret my decision to marry you. If we can’t make Watersedge our home, we’ll leave. It’s as simple as that. I don’t care where I live, as long as it’s with you.”
My stomach twisted. What faith he had in me, and why? What made me so special? “Well, I’m not done with Watersedge, yet. Sure, it’d be easy to leave, since I’m obviously not welcome here, but I’m also quite stubborn. They’re going to love me. I’ll make sure of it.”
Magic Underground: The Complete Collection (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 4) Page 16