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

by Melinda Kucsera

  “Spend it with Ettie,” Roman said.

  “What else?”

  “I fixed up the apartment above Ettie’s shop.”

  Alma laughed. “How about before you met Ettie?”

  Roman shrugged. “I worked a lot, both at the architectural firm and fixing up the house we currently live in. Yard work? If all that was done, I’d watch a few movies to pass the time.”

  “Sounds dreadful,” Penelope said.

  “I don’t know,” Alma said. “If I didn’t have the kids keeping me busy all the time, it sounds like a life I’d like to try. Speaking of the kids, little Juniper is teething. Do you have anything at Ettie’s Enchanted Effects to help her with the pain? I hate to constantly rub her gums with the numbing gel.”

  “I do.” I smiled, always glad to help a friend. “I have an incense you can burn off an enchanted herb.”

  “Great! I’ll come visit you tomorrow.”

  “Oh, no. Wait. I’m all out. I sold the last to The Little Pilgrims Daycare. I have more on order. I can call you as soon as they come in.”

  “How long?”

  “They should be here already, but when I checked today, the shipment has been delayed, and I don’t have a new delivery date yet. I can let you know as soon as they arrive.”

  “As long as it’s soon, because I’m hoping her teething won’t last too long.”

  “Oh, it does, sweetie.” Penelope took off her blazer and laid it on the back of the sofa she sat on. “I raised two girls, and it seemed like something bothered them constantly all the way up until they turned eighteen.” She laughed. “Actually, I think things still bother them.”

  We all giggled, then went back to our trivia game. Luckily, Roman’s turn was over and we could get serious now.

  And we were on fire. One question after another, we blurted out answers. I could see the glazed-over expression on Roman’s face, but it was he who wanted to come.

  When we made it through the cards, or two glasses of wine, I wasn’t sure which came first, Penelope smiled. “That was fun…and I think it’s time to take this trivia team on the road.”

  “What do you mean?” Irene held three chocolate-coated pretzel rods in her hands.

  “BB’s is having a contest this upcoming weekend,” Penelope said. “We should join.”

  “I’d love to, too.” Roman popped a M&M into his mouth.

  The women stared at him, me included, but it was my duty to do something about his eagerness. “Roman, honey, it’s a competition.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He swallowed his M&M. “It sounds like fun.”

  Eight eyes stared at me, waiting for me to explain.

  I shrugged, as gently as I could. “We kinda want to win.”

  “I’ll study.”

  “It’s not that,” I pleaded.

  Penelope saved me. “Roman, it’s an all-women’s league.”

  “Oh.” The switch went on to a different light bulb in his mind. “No problem. I’ll just come and cheer for you.”

  “Perfect,” Gabby said. “We go against Mayor Raab’s team, and I’ve heard they’re tough! Until then, everyone needs to study-up!” She clapped her hands twice. “I gotta run though. The kids have school tomorrow and Norm’s picking me up.” She pointed at her wine glass. “I need to set a good example. Need a ride?” she asked Roman and me.

  “Nah.” I held up my fingers and rubbed them together. “I can get home without driving, but I don’t drink.”

  She looked at the soda in front of me. “Huh. I hadn’t noticed. Why on Heaven’s Earth would you do that?”

  I shrugged. “Never had much of a taste for alcohol.”

  “Oh, sweetie,” Penelope said. “It’s not about the taste.”

  Everyone giggled, and I looked to Roman to back me up. Come to think of it, I had never seen him drink, either.

  It was like he could read my mind. “I only do things to embarrass myself when I drink.”

  I held back my smile. And claiming to be good at trivia didn’t embarrass him? Oh, wasn’t he cute? “We should get going, too.”

  Once we cleaned up and headed for the door, Gabby stopped me. “Do you mind if I ask a question about your…race?”

  “My race? You mean about being a witch?”

  She nodded.

  “Go ahead.”

  “I was wondering why you and Roman drive everywhere when I know you can transport with a bit of magic. Actually, I’m wondering why you do much of anything at all. Can’t you just snap your fingers and…poof…a pile of money?”

  “If only it was that easy! First off, we slowly gain power, so in witch’s terms, Roman and I aren’t very powerful yet. Roman just grew enough magic to transport more than himself to different locations, and even though he can do that, using magic is draining. There’s only a finite amount of magic we can produce, and it diminishes quickly. It’s like, you can run, so why do you ever walk? Running would get you places quicker, but it’s also more tiring.”

  Roman cleared his throat. “I actually enjoy driving. I like having a car and doing mortal things. It’s like going to England and skipping tea time. Or going to the South and not trying a barbeque or sweet tea. Why would you want to miss out on culture and tradition?”

  Well put. It not only satisfied Gabby, but me as well. Roman and I followed Alma out and soon we were on our way home.

  “That was fun,” Roman said. “I don’t know why I didn’t join you sooner.”

  “Maybe it was because I hadn’t invited you.” I smiled.

  “Well, I’m glad you did now. I could see really getting into trivia.”

  “That’s great,” I said. But was it? Not even a month ago, Gabby had invited me to come to the girls’ night, and it had been one of the high points of my time here in Watersedge. I, Ettie Sunward, had finally broken through this witch-prejudiced town. Even if it was only with a small group. I wasn’t the woman who hung on Roman’s arm, I was a new business owner and an independent entrepreneur here in Watersedge.

  But with Roman there tonight, did I lose some of my identity? Or was it just a different dynamic?

  I still had fun.

  Why was I making this out to be a problem? The big guy cared for me. Loved me to the moon and back, and I should be flattered that he wanted to spend more time with me.

  “What are you smiling at?” Roman glanced over at me.

  “Ahh, nothing important. I just had a nice time tonight.”

  That was the truth, but it was just a bit different than the last few times.

  Our relationship was continuing to grow and change. This was just one more adaptation I had to make.

  “I had a nice time, too.” Roman flashed me those dimples, and I realized that I was happy he had been along.

  Chapter Three

  “What’s going on here?” Roman’s father asked as he walked down one of the aisles of Ettie’s dragging his finger along an empty shelf.

  “Low on inventory,” I stated, thumbing through the papers I had recorded my end-of-the-day earnings on. They were looking sad, considering how hard I had been working. Sure, I was still solving people’s problems using my social work degree, just like I wanted, but that didn’t pay the bills.

  “Well, it looks like you’re moving out,” Joe said. “You need to do something about this.”

  “I’ve been trying! Everything’s on backorder. Magic Express says my items are in transit while Enchanted Gifts is calling me back because the items are marked with a delay of some type. Is everyone in the world opening an enchanted item store at the same time?”

  “In my day, all enchanted items were made by the witch who owned the store themselves.”

  “I have been enchanting items…maybe not as many these past few weeks, but I can’t keep up. I sell them faster than I can make them.”

  “Then it seems like you need a few warlocks to help. Seeing how low on inventory you are, perhaps Roman and I could assist?”

  My world stopped. Joe was offerin
g to help me…with witch-related tasks? “Yes. If you have ideas, that’d be great.”

  “I know we don’t have that much magic in us to fill this entire place quickly enough, but some items are better than none.”

  The door chimed as Roman stepped through it, holding a handful of mail.

  “Speaking of my son.” Joe smiled and turned towards the door.

  “Talking about me?” Roman teased, tossing a few letters on the counter and giving me a quick kiss.

  “Yeah. Joe offered to help me enchant some objects to get the shelves in here not looking like a tornado went through and took everything with it.”

  Roman turned to his father. “Are you feeling up to it?”

  “Oh, come on. I don’t need to be treated like an invalid. I’m only in the first stages of Witches’ Wandering. I should have quite a few more years before I start messing up spells.”

  Last month, Joe told us that he had early stages of a witch disease similar to Alzheimer’s. It’s what brought him to Watersedge to spend time with his son after they had gone their separate ways when Roman came out of the broom closet.

  “What did you have in mind?” Roman asked.

  “We could gather some rocks from the Great Lake. They’re smoothed and polished. Not as fancy as the stuff Ettie has, but we could draw a ward symbol on them and perform an enchantment. At least there would be something to sell. Bigger stones for bigger spells.”

  “That sounds like a plan.” I didn’t know what choice I had at this point. I opened a letter from Spell Solutions while Joe talked, hoping it was an explanation why I hadn’t received the delivery yet. Opening it, I saw a big red stamp saying, “OVERDUE.”

  An overdue bill?

  How was that possible?

  I hadn’t even received the merchandise yet!

  “Ettie?” Roman asked.

  “Ahh, what? Sorry, I was just deep in thought.”

  “Dad wants to know if you’re free to gather stones tomorrow, and we’ll enchant them on Friday, right before your weekend rush.”

  “Yes. That’s great.” The only thing I had on my calendar besides work was trivia night at BB’s this weekend, as well as my weekly trivia on Wednesdays.

  As Joe took off out the side door, climbing the steps to his apartment upstairs, Roman leaned down to my ear and whispered, “I’m so glad he doesn’t live at our place anymore.”

  “You and me both.” I laughed, despite knowing that if his disease got bad, he’d be right back in the bedroom across the hall. But for now, Roman and I could enjoy our privacy during our first year of marriage. I handed Roman the bill from Spell Solutions. “The merchandise hasn’t arrived yet. I don’t know how the bill can be overdue.” I picked up my phone and looked over Roman’s shoulder to dial the number. “Maybe I can catch them before they close today.”

  “Spell Solutions,” came a nasally man’s voice from the other end of the phone.

  “Yes, this is Ettie Sunward. I received a bill today for merchandise I haven’t received.”

  “Let me look you up.” Keyboard clicking. “Yes, your shipment was delivered four weeks ago.”

  “Four weeks ago? I didn’t get it.”

  “Hmmm.” More clicking. “No, it was delivered to your back door.”

  “I don’t have a back door.”

  “4839 Segway Street?” He snorted.

  “4839 Segway Street? I don’t know where that is. I’m at 783 Main Street, Watersedge.”

  “Hmm…” more clicking. “We can reship your items.”

  “That’d be great.”

  In a few minutes, I was off the phone. “How did they get the wrong address?” I asked.

  Roman shrugged. “Even businesses make mistakes.”

  “Don’t I know it.” I fanned my hands towards my empty shop. “How did I let it get so bad?”

  “No worries. It’ll all be fixed up in a few days. We’ll have enchanted rocks from the Great lake and hopefully your Spell Solutions order comes in…along with the others.”

  It’ll all be fine. I had to have faith. “So, what brings you down here two days in a row?”

  “I’m done with work. I thought I’d wait for you to finish then…” He snapped his fingers and a board game appeared in his hand. “Look what I found! Witchy Trivia. We can practice for the weekend.”

  I laughed. “I don’t think the trivia will have anything to do with witches.”

  “Maybe, but it’ll show you I’m not a complete idiot. This is more my speed.”

  “Let me finish up here, and I’ll be right home. I’ll meet you there.”

  “I don’t mind waiting. I’ll just have a seat in your storeroom.”

  Oh, he was going to be bored, but it didn’t look like he wanted to leave, so I might as well make him feel welcome. “Maybe it’s best if you do stay here,” I teased with a sly smile. “I wouldn’t want you pre-reading all those trivia cards.” I bumped his thigh with my hip.

  “I wouldn’t dare,” he teased back.

  Outside my door, I caught my neighbor Brittany walking by. Slowly. Too slowly. While she stared in through my window.

  Hmm…

  When she turned back around and looked inside one more time while going the other way, I couldn’t hold back.

  I hurried across the store and caught her before she scurried up her porch steps and disappeared into the church.

  “Is there anything I can help you with?” I asked.

  “No. I’m fine.”

  “Really? You seemed to be looking for something.”

  She shrugged. “It’s just that I heard you were going out of business, and I needed to see for myself.”

  “I’m not going out of business. Where did you hear that?”

  “Natalia said that your shelves were empty.”

  I could have shot back the truth about the shipment delays, but something slightly evil twisted in my stomach and I didn’t care at all. “Yeah, I’ve been busy. Sold nearly everything I have. I won’t be going anywhere for a long, long time.” None of that was necessarily a lie. It was actually all truth, to the best of my knowledge.

  It was enough for Brittany. She huffed and spun around, disappearing into the Church of the Saved.

  But as I returned to Ettie’s, Brittany’s words got to me. People thought I was going out of business? Was that part of some master plan by whoever had been sabotaging me? Natalia? Brittany? Mayor Raab? Someone I hadn’t heard of yet?

  Well, I had to fix that rumor. I marched inside and raised my voice so Roman could hear. “Hey, want to skip our trivia night and pick up a few stones instead? Let’s see if your dad’s free.”

  I was going to get my shelves full today, even if I had to pass up on sleep to enchant as many rocks as my magic allowed.

  Chapter Four

  Roman and I had spent all last evening picking various stones from the pebble beach along the Great Lake. Some were black, some white, while a few had other colors mixed in, but what they had in common was that they were all nice and smooth with a flat surface. Joe couldn’t join us because he had a date with Principal Penelope Prusa, but picking the stones wasn’t what we needed from him. The enchantments we were going to perform tonight were.

  Gathering stones took way longer than expected, and we didn’t get home until close to midnight. Even at that hour, Roman would have been happy to help me enchant the rocks, but it wasn’t the best use of our time. Like Joe said, each witch had a finite amount of power inside them. The older the witch, the more power. Joe probably had more power than Roman and I put together. Joe had us meet him at the apartment he rented from us on top of Ettie’s, because he was afraid to do the enchantments downstairs in front of the giant entry windows. Someone might walk by and uncover Joe’s secret—that he was a warlock. Not that if anyone was smart enough, they couldn’t put two and two together anyway. He did hang around Roman and me an awful lot, plus he was built just like Roman with a six-foot something athletic frame, dark hair (although Joe’s wa
s peppered with grey,) and the same brown tell-me-anything eyes.

  Clearly Roman’s father.

  But we honored Joe’s wishes and kept his magical abilities a secret. We wouldn’t want him targeted by whoever was out to get Roman, me, and our shop.

  With a few tubes of fabric paint, I drew gold, silver, and metallic blue symbols on the flat surface of the stones representing the wards for protection, love, strength, courage, dedication, and other popular virtues people had come into my shop seeking. Roman and Joe enchanted them, one by one, by saying whatever spell was needed.

  “Educet lapidem animi nuntius.” Joe spoke our witch’s native language, which was crudely connected to modern Latin, while waving his hand over a collection of dark stones with metallic silver wards drawn on their surfaces.

  “Huius ingenium est lapis est fortitude ut dominus,” Roman chanted over a collection of white stones with metallic blue writing.

  “Fascinare hanc petram in caritate.” Joe gave me a smile when he snapped his fingers, making the room’s lights flicker from all the magic being drawn into the rocks.

  I kept drawing the archaic wards on the stones and sliding them over to Roman and Joe, but Roman eventually sat back.

  “I’m done,” he said. “Out of magic.”

  That left Joe and me. I kept sliding the rocks to Joe, and he kept enchanting until eventually, he fell exhausted, too. I used my magic to enchant the rest, and by the time we were done we had about one hundred enchanted stones laying out on Joe’s living room floor.

  “Now, we just need to wait for them to dry. I really appreciate your help.” I nodded towards Roman and gave Joe an extra warm smile. And to think, I thought he was sabotaging me a month ago. “So now what?”

  Roman sprang to his feet. “How about some witch trivia?”

  I laughed. “You really want to save face after Wednesday’s trivia night, huh?”

  Roman nodded and snapped his fingers but nothing happened. “Shoot. I’m out of magic and the board game’s at home.”