by K. M. Waller
He did sound like a public service announcement, but even if he didn’t want lifelong involvement with the agency, he understood their need to exist. The attacks on Jordie and Dara were proof of that. He rolled his shoulders forward, realizing that sharing the burden of his second life with another person brought on a sense of relief—like twenty pounds of cement lifted from his shoulders.
“My aunts warned us about the Council. They always said they’re bullies who shouldn’t be trusted, but as long as we never draw any attention to ourselves we shouldn’t have to worry about them.” She stood and began collecting the broken pieces of plates and a few tea cups that had toppled onto the floor. “Why are you here in Burberry? Until today, I’ve never known of a single instance of paranormal activity.”
“Our assignments are handed down from the Council’s seers. The assignment I received said there were three witches in Burberry and their love-casting magic would produce an incident. Our internal tellers—fortune tellers of a sort—give us approximate dates to correspond with the assignment.”
“So pretending to buy the store?”
“My cover.”
“Dogging my every move?”
“Also my cover. You’re connected to the assignment.”
“Asking to kiss me?” Amira sat down again. “No, don’t answer that one.”
If he’d answer with wanting to kiss her being his cover it would be a complete lie.
She waved her hand in a circle as if to wave away her last question. “You have all these supernatural powers at your disposal and you couldn’t prevent what just happened to Dara?”
“Nothing works in absolutes.”
“Tell me this assignment from the seer word for word.”
He repeated the verses.
Her expression twisted with disbelief. “You infiltrate people’s lives based on rhymes a three-year-old could make up, and then send in a preemptive strike team to what? Arrest them? Didn’t Tom Cruise star in a movie about something like this? A cautionary tale about predicting future crimes? That didn’t end well.”
“I don’t know. I don’t watch Tom Cruise movies.”
“So you aren’t a real estate mogul? You’re an investigative warlock or something?”
“The real estate mogul part comes from working my tail off. Everything you read about me in Fortune is true.” He didn’t need her approval, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to offer up answers to her every question. “And no, I don’t have any paranormal powers. The amulet has all the magic. It’s issued from the LSP and points me in the right direction like a magical compass.”
Amira tossed the broken porcelain pieces on the nearest table. “This is insane. Even if everything you’re telling me is true—and it’s a lot to process—then I can’t believe a governing bunch of paranormals would hand out accusations without some kind of evidence.”
Her tone had sharpened with each word, and now that her initial shock had dissipated, he could see the real confrontation just over the horizon. He slipped the amulet back over his neck in case she was one of those witches who allowed her emotions to control the magic.
“That’s why I’m here. To investigate and obtain evidence.”
“How do you stop out-of-control paranormals who are harming humans? What’s the punishment for something like what happened today?”
Lex placed his hands on his hips and stared at the floor, where a sandwich had been squished into the beige carpet. “The offending party is taken before the CCAH and after the evidence is reviewed, they’re branded with a type of magic that removes their paranormal abilities. Or they go to a special prison for paranormals.”
Not even her sharp intake of breath made him meet her gaze. When said out loud, the punishment came across as harsh. “Look. At least no one was killed. That will go a long way with the Council. You can even speak for your sister at her hearing. And I don’t think you and your sisters are responsible for all the love magic that first drew the attention of the Council. I think that might be your elderly aunts.”
“No. I mean, yes, my aunts are probably guilty of a few love spells, but no, you are not taking in my sister.”
He glanced up, prepared to deal with Amira’s pleading. Instead he found outrage.
She walked up to him and poked his amulet three times. “You will do your job and investigate. You will not assume that because my sister was born a witch that she’s the guilty party. The only magic the three of us practice is to keep our aunts from forcing us into a love match, and that is exhausting enough. Ris isn’t your assignment and we’re going to prove it.”
“We?”
“Yes, we. I’ll be damned if I let you take my sister to be judged by some council without a fight.”
Chapter Eight
An hour later, Amira texted both of her sisters and clicked her tongue while she paced back and forth in the kitchen. All the nervous action made her dizzy. She paused and set her cell phone on the counter. Why wasn’t anyone answering? News spread through Burberry like indigestion after a plate of jalapeño cornbread. And with the mayor so closely involved, she bet the entire county would know before nightfall. Any notoriety for Burberry equaled good publicity.
Lex spoke in a hushed tone on his phone while he also paced in the main serving room. From time to time, he glanced in her direction when he passed the open doorway. His expression was hard to read. If she hadn’t known better, she would’ve assumed he talked real estate business with colleagues. She held in a dry laugh at the thought of how simple things were this morning when she believed he’d been hexed to fall in love with her.
Heat wound its way up her neck. How embarrassing. Lex wasn’t here because he wanted to be with her; he was here because of an investigation into her family. All the charm, all the chivalry still an act? She thought back to the almost-kiss in her kitchen. The interest in his eyes had seemed genuine. Could he be trained to fake all of that?
She needed to get rid of the eyelash and the spell or she’d look as guilty as he wanted her sister to be.
Her phone chimed a text from Mayor Henry. Dara rested comfortably at the county hospital. The doctor’s prognosis was a seizure with unknown origins.
Seizure?
Dara had floated two feet off the ground and frothed at the mouth like a rabid pit bull. If not for Lex’s amulet, who knows what might have happened next—a rotating head and green vomit?
She couldn’t help the niggling feeling she’d witnessed a spell gone wrong. The missing books were too much of a coincidence, and her aunts might like to meddle with the Walker sisters, but Amira no longer believed they were involved. But who—other than Ris—would want to cast a spell on Dara? And what kind of spell made a person float and froth? The aunts might know, but Amira didn’t wish to involve them if she could help it. They would be a last effort to keep Lex from taking in Ris.
Amira walked to her office, the exhaustion of the morning making her movements sluggish. She pulled the folder labeled Mayor’s Shower and removed the seating chart from the stack of paperwork. Mayor Henry had placed all of the women in their seats around the five tables. Six chairs at each table, with the immediate family members being at Dara’s table. Mayor Henry, Shelby, Dara’s mother, and Dara’s two sisters were the five women in closest proximity to Dara.
Dara’s mom and two sisters had driven down from Charlotte for the shower. None of the women at the table would have a clue as to how to use a proper spell book or cast a spell. Amira underlined each of the remaining guest names one by one with a red pen. Things didn’t look good for Ris. No one on the guest list lived close to the Walker house or associated with the Walker sisters in any way. At least, not since Patrick broke up with Ris to date Dara. Mayor Henry and Dara’s crowd were a different type of people.
Lex knocked and leaned against the doorjamb. “What are you thinking?”
She narrowed her eyes and wrinkled her nose. “You don’t want the honest answer to that.”
“I under
stand you’re angry, but I won’t apologize for doing my job. The LSP sends agents where bad things are happening or are going to happen. Dara could’ve been killed if I hadn’t been there to remove the magic.”
“I’m a rational person. So, I’m going to refrain from freaking out on you in the way you truly deserve.” For now. “If we’re going to work together, no more undercover secret hidden agenda crap. Understand?”
“Understood.”
“Great.” His quick answer surprised her. Maybe he wasn’t completely unreasonable beneath the top layer of deceit. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and wished she had more bravado than she let on. “Now I have a confession to make about the break-in last night. My family’s spell books were stolen.”
Lex folded his arms across his chest and sat down in the only other chair in her office. “Do you think the two incidents are connected?”
“You’re here because of the possibility of an event that will expose paranormals. The missing books would expose us. The spell used on Dara would expose witchcraft. Those books are full of witchcraft. I think everything is connected.” Amira tapped the seating chart with her pen. “I’m going over the guest list. I assume that whoever cast the spell was nearby. They’d want to see their handiwork in action.”
“That’s a smart deduction, but not everyone in attendance was seated at a table. Your sister was standing across the room.”
She tossed the pen on the desk. “It’s not Ris.”
“Then why isn’t she answering your texts? She could’ve taken the books and tried a spell. Why else would she run when everyone stayed? Usually the most obvious answer is the correct answer.”
“Did you read that in a fortune cookie? Or is that a motto of the LSP?” Amira bit her lips together and closed her eyes. If she wanted to be involved in Lex’s investigation, she had to control her bursts of anger. She opened her eyes and met his somber gaze. “I’m sorry. That’s not fair. You did a good thing when you saved Dara, so your agency can’t be all bad. What happens next?”
“We’ve paid a specialist at the hospital to say that Dara had a seizure. I’m sorry to say that your tea shop is probably going to take a hit for that. The tests will show that something in the tea spices set it off.”
“That’s just wonderful.” This time she let her tone reflect the full force of her sarcasm. “How do we explain the floating, frothing, and thirty scared witnesses?”
“My assistant, Jordie, will use the guest list and contact each person to control the narrative. He’ll pose as an FDA agent and perform food allergy testing on the guests. People are apt to believe anything told to them by a government official.”
Amira groaned and sank back into her chair. Magic—the ever-giving curse. “Can this get any worse?”
Lex stood and shoved his hands in his pockets. “You’ll need to close down Tea Haven for a couple of days to purge any remaining contaminated teas. We’ll post signs on the door. Also the local newspaper will run a story on the contamination and Dara’s seizure.”
“I won’t have a tea shop left to sell by the time this ‘narrative’ is finished. No one will step foot in here ever again.”
“It’s better than being outed as a family of witches who harm romantic rivals.” His voice took on a chastising edge.
“I’m going to say this for the last time. My little sister did not cast that muddled spell on Dara.” There were many things she didn’t understand about the situation unfolding around her, but she knew that one truth.
“You’ve yet to present any evidence that she didn’t.”
“You’ve yet to present any evidence she did.”
He raised his eyebrows. “She met with your aunts this morning.”
Amira huffed. “She wouldn’t.”
“My assistant Jordie took photographs. She met with them and they gave her something.”
Amira scrambled out of her chair, careful to keep a few inches between her and Lex. “Show me.”
He thumbed the screen of his cell phone and then handed it to her. Amira’s watery eyes focused on the four women. She moved from picture to picture. The aunts with their unruly, long silvery-white hair. Ris with her bright pink hair. There was no confusing the women of her family with anyone else.
The last few pictures showed Aunt Tizzy passing a small brown package to Ris.
“She wouldn’t,” Amira repeated and supported herself against the edge of her desk. “We made a pact that we wouldn’t practice magic. Ever.”
She handed the cell phone back to Lex.
After he took it, he slipped it into his back pocket. “Why are you against using magic? It’s in your blood. I don’t see a problem if it’s practiced in a way to help people.”
“Magic is a curse. In our case, it’s literally a curse and we don’t want to pass it on to the next generation.” She’d never discussed her family history with anyone outside of her sisters. “Someone in the family, somewhere along the way, pissed off a pretty powerful head of the coven to which we once belonged. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were one of the aunts. The witch was outcast and further bewitched. In order to pass on the powers, we have to fall madly in love before the age of thirty. Any children produced from this love will have magical powers.”
“That’s an odd curse.”
“No one ever said being a witch had to make sense. Like the fact that we have to use witchcraft to keep witchcraft out of our lives.”
“You said earlier that you and your sisters protect yourselves from your aunts’ love spells.”
“Like most matriarchs, the aunts want to see the bloodlines continue despite the curse. So our family specializes in emotional manipulation to make sure that happens. But with any witchcraft, there are consequences.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “Like gaining the attention of the Council.”
“That is bad, but the consequences I’m talking about are much worse and more personal.” She pushed past the squeeze in her chest. “Our mother died of pancreatic cancer when I was a teenager and our father was justifiably broken with grief. But then even after several months of mourning, he wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t sleep. He couldn’t function until one day he stopped functioning completely. Dad died of a broken heart.”
Lex reached out and laid a hand on her upper arm. “I’m sorry.”
Amira squelched the urge to move into Lex’s arms and lean against his chest. The zings from his touch she’d once contributed to the love spell reminded her he was still there for a magical reason. And magic ruined everything. “My dad died of a broken heart because he’d been spelled to love our mother by our aunts to ensure the witchcraft bloodlines continued. He had no choice but to wither and die because the connection between them couldn’t be broken.”
A flash of compassion lit in Lex’s eyes. “You don’t think your dad really loved your mom or that she loved him back?”
“No—yes, I mean I don’t know.” Their happiness had always seemed real enough, hadn’t it? “That’s beside the point. We made a pact to never use our family magic on anyone, and to resist any attempt by the aunts to force us into witchcraft. That’s how I know Ris didn’t do it.”
“I want to believe as much as you do that it isn’t Ris. For your sake.”
She pulled away from his touch. “Then help me prove it isn’t her. I’ll close down the shop and we can find the real person who did this to Dara. With your resources and my determination, I guarantee we can find another suspect.”
Lex rubbed his hand under his chin a few times. “I’ll give you until sundown, but if we don’t find that other suspect, then I want you to help me bring in Ris peacefully. You don’t want the Council to send one of their mercenary goons after her.”
Relief washed over her. “Deal.”
∞∞∞
An open-and-shut case and Lex had just agreed to keep it open. His earlier conference call with Sparsh and Gramps had not gone well. Both men had stuttered and spewed profanities at having to us
e LSP resources to manage the fallout from the bridal shower. Not that there wasn’t plenty of money in the LSP vaults, but it was a matter of pride for Gramps. They’d flip if they found out he planned to work with Amira to pursue suspects outside of her sister. Even if they did him a favor by firing him, the Council could bypass the LSP and send in someone less reasonable. The Walker sisters were no match for the Council’s darker side.
The determination and ferocity of Amira’s faith in her sister told his gut giving into her request was the right decision. Time for him to rely more on his instincts than the amulet. He sympathized with their plight of fighting off their aunts. Family legacies sucked.
He just hoped after the deadline, they had an answer that wouldn’t smash her heart.
Amira made a few more notes on the guest seating chart and handed it to him. She was right. None of the guests had given any indicators that they’d wish Dara harmed. He tapped his amulet. He could approach each of them and see if the amulet warmed like it did when he touched Amira.
That might take too much time. The person who attacked Dara could make another attempt at the hospital. He needed to get the doctor to limit her visitors to family.
“Where do we start?” She glanced at him, her eyes clear and focused even though he knew she was stressed.
Lex opened his mouth to respond, but a fierce pounding interrupted his reply.
Amira inclined her head toward the sound. “Someone’s at the front door.”
Lex shrugged. “Maybe the true villain has come to confess?”
Amira cut her eyes at him and led the way through the dining area.
The man pounding on the door wasn’t a villain per se, but Lex knew the charlatan wasn’t a friend of the paranormal. Samuel Chase from the popular television series Ghost Getters Incorporated stood on the other side of the glass, waving his overly muscled arms like a viewer-attracting lunatic.
Just when Lex didn’t think the Burberry assignment could get any worse. If he got caught on camera, he’d be the laughing stock of LSP.