Amuletto Kiss (The Magic & Mixology Mystery Series Book 5)

by Gina LaManna

  “Did Poppy earn her fangs? Did Zin earn her Shiftling status? Did Hettie earn that horrid sense of style, or was she born with it?” Gus let me consider this for an extended moment. “Actually, forget about the last one. Bad example. My point is you don’t begrudge Poppy or Zin for what they are. Nobody begrudges you for being born a Caucasian female with brown, blond—whatever the hell color hair you have—so my point is to accept what you have and work with it.”

  I marked the conversation finished with a flick of my fingers as I returned my attention to the necklace. “This must be an amulet,” I said, twining the chain around my fingers. “It has to be—there’s no other explanation.”

  “It’s certainly an amulet. The question is whether it belongs to Ceres.”

  “Gus, listen. I have a crazy theory—bear with me.” I paced around the room, my breath coming in shallow gasps. “The Master of Magic is protected by ancient gods, right?”

  “So the legends say.”

  “And the retired Keeper has confirmed it.” I tapped a finger against my lip as I thought. “I suspected my necklace was acting up because of my mother. But what if that’s not the reason the amulet has come to life at all?”

  “You think that’s a coincidence.” Gus’s eyes lit up. “Instead, the glow could have everything to do with your search for the Master of Magic.”

  “Exactly. Liam told us about the Master of Magic just after I first took Long Isle Iced Tea. The timing was so close that it was easy for me to think it had to do with the search for my mother. This whole time, maybe all the amulet was doing—if it truly is Ceres’s amulet–is guiding me to protect the Master of Magic.”

  “I think you’re onto something.”

  I frowned. “But if that’s the case, why would it lead me to the Master of Magic? Theoretically, isn’t that more dangerous than staying out of the situation entirely?”

  “It might be, unless The Faction is preparing to destroy the Master of Magic,” Gus warned. “Then, we’re all in danger. And I’m sorry, but no amulet of the gods is going to save you if the Master is murdered.”

  I looked up, my gaze somber. “The amulet wouldn’t be acting up unless The Faction is close. It must be a sign that Liam was right—they’re getting ready to make their move somehow. Demigod or otherwise.”

  “I hate to bring this up.” Gus peered through uncertain eyes. “But it needs to be said, I’m afraid.”

  “You’re thinking about Lucian.”

  “You’re blood related to the man, Lily—he’s your father. If you have ancient blood, it’s very possible you inherited it from your father’s side. As far as I know, your mother wasn’t a descendant. I don’t know anything about Lucian’s past.”

  “But I got the necklace from my mother.”

  “Right, but didn’t you listen to the passage?” Gus peered intently at me. “It didn’t say anything about being passed down to only the descendants of Ceres—it explained it’s passed through one generation to the next until it reaches its rightful owner.”

  “You think my mother was just the messenger. The vehicle to get the necklace to me.”

  Gus cocked his head. “That would make sense if you’re a daughter of Ceres through your father’s bloodline. He wouldn’t have given you the amulet—but you are clearly the rightful owner of it. It found you through your mother.”

  “You’re implying...” I inhaled sharply, stopped. “You think my father is a demigod.”

  “It’s not impossible, and if that’s true, he himself can locate the Master of Magic. It could be the reason The Faction recruited him in the first place.”

  I raised my hands, pressed my fingers to my forehead as I sank back into the seat. “This is insane. I can’t believe any of it.”

  “There’s an awful logic to this whole thing.” Gus thumped across the room and rested his hands on my shoulders. “If Lucian is the son of Ceres and a mortal man, then it would explain why you have the necklace. It’d help to explain why your powers are so strong—if, in fact, this is all true, you’re two branches down the genealogy tree from Ceres herself. No wonder you are attuned to Empath magic.”

  I couldn’t breathe. It was hard to say how long I sat there in a daze, but a sudden, sharp clap of thunder brought my attention back to the storeroom. I glanced through my haze to find Gus standing at the door, peering far over the horizon to where lightning leapt from the heavens and inky black storm clouds swarmed below.

  “Lily,” Gus said with a sigh that terrified me to the last atom of my being. “I’m afraid you’re correct.”

  I gulped back a burst of fear. “About what?”

  Gus pointed a finger up. It trembled. “I believe your father is close to finding the Master of Magic.”

  Panic clutched at my chest as darkness settled over the island. Eventually, beefy raindrops spattered onto the ground, thick as tears. We stood there until footsteps and a head of gleaming black hair tore our gazes from the skies.

  “The time has come,” Ranger X said, glancing behind him as if checking for a tail before he stepped inside the storeroom. He issued a somber glance in my direction. “What happened with the Keeper?”

  “Come inside and lock the door,” I told both men. “I have work to do, and I’ll fill you in as I get started.”

  “What’s so urgent?” Ranger X asked, peering over my shoulder. “Is it the potion you started this morning? The one with no name?”

  I nodded, hesitated. “It has a name now.”

  Both Gus and Ranger X stopped short and waited expectantly. I clasped my hands nervously before my waist as I studied the ingredients simmering on the cauldron.

  “Well?” Gus prompted. “What is it?”

  With a grim smile, and a finger pointed to the story of Ceres, I whispered the name that’d come to me in a flash of understanding. “Amuletto Kiss.”

  Chapter 20

  AFTERNOON BLURRED INTO evening, which blurred into night. At first there was chatter in the storeroom as I caught up Ranger X and Gus on the details from my trip to Wicked. After I completed the story, the two men lapsed into a quiet concentration and spent most of their time flipping through books, looking for any hint that might be of help in creating the Amuletto Kiss potion.

  “I think it’ll be done earlier than expected,” I told the men sometime around midnight. “I’m going to stay up until it finishes. Why don’t you two get some rest?”

  Ranger X, bleary-eyed, looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “We’re here to help.”

  Gus, completely unruffled, nodded his agreement. “The storm outside’s not going anywhere, so neither am I. Plus, I forgot my umbrella.”

  We all ignored the stack of umbrellas that lived permanently in the corner, almost never used thanks to the balmy nature of the island.

  “Suit yourselves,” I said. “This next bit is the tricky part.”

  “Maybe it’ll help to explain what you’re doing,” X ventured cautiously. “I know it would help me stay awake if I could try to understand.”

  Gus didn’t comment, instead waiting for my answer. Since I’d arrived on the island, he’d never once presumed to tell me how to work, he merely made suggestions and followed orders. When it suited him.

  “Sure, I can do that.” My voice sounded hoarse from lack of use over the last few hours.

  I’d been concentrating so deeply and for so long that it felt like spiderwebs had taken over my brain. My fingers ached, my eyesight blurred, and I hadn’t had a meal since the afternoon, but somehow, I’d never felt better. I was in my element.

  I couldn’t deny the thrill of the chase—the hours spent tinkering on the exact right proportions of hazel-seed to baby’s breath, the slight flutter of satisfaction as the appropriate amounts eased into place, and the ensuing nerves as I waited to see if my work would be successful.

  I took the two men step by step through my work, proceeding at a slow, steady pace while I explained. “The Amuletto Kiss will work similarly to the ancient potions G
us found theorized in the manuscript.”

  “Why didn’t they work?” Ranger X asked. “The old ones, I mean.”

  “Because they’re wrong,” I said crossly. “But I think I’ve spotted the problem.”

  Gus stifled a grin of pride as satisfaction beamed from his face. “Lily Locke, proving the ancients wrong.”

  “You were right about something,” I told Gus. “The reason they got the potions wrong was because the previous Mixologists were men.”

  That wiped the smiles clean off their faces.

  “See, men tend to focus on the thing,” I continued. “The problem.”

  “What are we supposed to focus on,” X asked cautiously, “if not the problem?”

  “Sometimes, the problem is not the problem,” I said sounding snappish. “Sometimes, it’s about the feelings. The emotions. The thoughts—not the thing.”

  Gus looked to Ranger X. Both appeared utterly mystified.

  “Go on,” Gus said. “Enlighten us poor creatures.”

  “See this here?” I held up a scrap of fabric, then smiled proudly. “I nabbed this off Sammy, the alleged killer of my mother. I sliced it from his shirt before he disappeared.”

  Gus’s expression turned curious, while Ranger X leaned forward, perturbed.

  “Previous Mixologists have focused on this.” I wagged the cloth in front of their faces. “The thing. The piece of fabric. That’s where they went wrong.”

  “If you don’t need the fabric,” X asked, “why did you take it?”

  “It contributes to the potion, but it’s not everything. More important than a piece of fabric are the emotions of Sammy. We need to know what Sammy was feeling, what he was thinking—the intangibles.”

  “You were talking about your mother,” Gus said, “I’m assuming, so his thoughts and feelings would be focused on her.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “Amuletto Kiss—if it functions as I anticipate—will allow me to relive the last few minutes inside of Sammy’s head before I took this snippet of fabric. Not the factual thoughts, but everything. I’ll be able to feel as he feels. I’ll hear his thoughts, but I’ll also sense what he’s sensing. Is he panicking because I’m suspicious? Is he desperate? Sad? Lonely? After this, I should know if Sammy is guilty or not.”

  Gus looked down at the scattered array of ingredients I’d swept into neat little piles. He sucked in a breath. “It’s comprehensive. It’s not mind reading because you’re stepping into another’s body for a few minutes in time and taking over completely. The nightshade—” Gus stopped abruptly, fingering one of the leftover ingredients. “Lily, this is genius.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a smile. “I thought so. See here?” I pointed to a rare blend of chamomile Gus had tucked in the back of the storeroom. “This calms the user’s body and enters them into a trance. The Forgotten Ferns—that’s a key ingredient. It allows the user to entirely, completely forget themselves—forget their own wants and needs and desires, opening up their minds to inhabit another’s.”

  “That’s also part of the failed potions.” Gus’s eyes keenly studied the old texts. “They didn’t clear the mind—didn’t think it’d be necessary.”

  “But a woman knows that’s not how humans work,” I said with a tight smile. “Our heads, our hearts are so full of our own problems, loves, desires, wants, needs—we absolutely cannot experience another’s wishes, thoughts, fears while we hold onto our own.”

  Gus’s eyes sparkled. “I’ve never seen a thing like this.”

  “We’ve got to keep moving along,” I prompted. “Here, I’ve added bits of powdered snail now that the potion is boiling. Any thoughts as to why I need them?”

  “Because snails can shed their shells and move to another home. They can inhabit another’s forgotten shell with ease,” Gus said, his voice stilted in wonder. “Then you have the herb mix that’ll stabilize everything, of course, and the...what’s the yellow rose for?”

  I smiled. “Color.”

  Gus looked up, shocked. “Color?”

  “Why not make it pretty?” I asked. “I like pretty things.”

  Gus snorted. “You’re kidding me.”

  “Now is not the time for criticism,” I said lightly. “Of course, I added the standard reversals to the potion that will pull the user back to reality. I added guarana extract for an accelerator—more energy,” I explained to X. “Because we only have a few minutes, and I want to hear and feel and experience as much as possible.”

  Gus stepped back and ran a hand through his thin, graying hair. He opened his mouth once or twice to try a response, but eventually, he settled for a pair of raised eyebrows. If I didn’t know him better, I’d say he was shell-shocked.

  “Well...” Ranger X struggled a few paces behind, far less familiar with the herbs and ingredients and their respective properties, though he fought valiantly to keep pace. “Why’d you name it Amuletto Kiss?”

  “It’s a member of the Kissing Curse family.” I smiled and clamped a hand around my necklace. I exposed the heart charm for both to see. “And, with any luck, I’ll be able to use this potion with the amulet. It’s a gift from my mother, so...”

  “Lily,” Gus warned harshly. “I advise you not to use this potion with a relic so old. It’s not only dangerous for you physically, but the mental distress could ruin you. That’s if everything goes perfectly.”

  “It would be worth the closure,” I said, ending the conversation before this turned into a whole different argument. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have a few more steps to go before I close up shop.”

  Ranger X peered down at me. “When are you planning to test the potion?”

  I tucked the necklace back into my shirt and smiled. “First thing in the morning.”

  Chapter 21

  THE NIGHT BLEW BY US in a flurry. I forced Gus to go home after I’d set the final ingredients in the pot. He had stubbornly yanked an umbrella out of the corner stand, growled at the thunder, and went on his merry little way.

  Ranger X had passed out hours before on a couch near the roaring fire. He continued to snooze peacefully, oblivious to the quiet work I pursued even as my eyes struggled to close mid-thought.

  As the potion bubbled a thick golden yellow color, I finally eased to a seat beside the fire, pulling a blanket over my legs as the storm grew oily and black outside.

  My legs creaked with exhaustion; I’d never stood for so long a period at once. But during the past twelve—fourteen, or was it sixteen?—hours, I’d been up and down, mixing and dicing, stirring and surveying, and I’d not realized how little I’d eaten or how much I’d waited hunched over the cauldron that now bubbled happily on a small burner in the middle of the table.

  I pulled my eyes from the potion’s complex swirls of color for a moment, letting my gaze wander toward the couch where Ranger X had simply tilted sideways a few hours before and fallen deeply into sleep.

  He looked peaceful, the sharp contours of his face softer, more childlike. Innocent almost, as he breathed in and exhaled, a pleasantly carefree sound. Only a slight crease of his forehead along with the now-and-again flutter of his eyelashes gave away any sign of concern, and I hoped those would ease as the night continued.

  I stood, hauling a blanket with me, and moved over to the couch where he rested. I’d covered him hours before with a large blanket, a long one that reached from his chin down to his feet. As I sat, I rested a hand on his forehead and noted his temperature was quite warm from the fire roasting several feet away.

  My hand toyed through his hair, pushing a few strands from his face. The locks had fallen into his eyes and he blinked, twitching when they brushed against his lashes. As soon as my hand touched his skin, he relaxed.

  I took pleasure in that small fact, the knowledge that even in the deepest of dreams, X seemed to know me. To ease nearer me despite the darkness in his subconscious mind. I’d have stayed perfectly still all night like that, but the distinctive pop of a bubble from the cauldron dre
w me back to work.

  Bring to a boil, the last instructions said, and nothing more.

  As I neared the center of the room after re-tucking in X, I glimpsed bits of sunlight fighting against the dredges of storm battering the bungalow. How quickly morning had come.

  Time flies, they said, when you’re having fun. If only my fun wasn’t intended to lead me to my mother’s killer, I might believe it.

  I believed Sammy hadn’t done it, but with this final test I would know for certain. After that, I had no clue what I’d do. Pursue the real murderer, I supposed, but when? How? Who and why? All questions I had little or no way of answering.

  With quick hands, I ladled the finished version of Amuletto Kiss into several smaller vials that I tucked safely into my travel belt. Just in case.

  Then I capped the remainder of it into a larger beaker and stashed that on the shelves of the storeroom that had reverted from its anniversary date night decorations to its typical happy chaos.

  Though anxious to test out the potion, I forced myself to leave the tops on all vials and refrain. Now that the difficult part of the Mixing routine was over, the tiredness launched its attack, crippling me in waves. I was physically and mentally exhausted, completely drained.

  Dragging my feet up the stairs, I decided on a shower and pajamas, and then I’d wake Ranger X. He’d have to leave for work about the time I crawled into bed, so the least I could do for his support was send him off with a kiss.

  The shower came and went first. I stumbled out of the water and took a moment to bask in the trapped steam as it wrapped around my body. The makeshift sauna warmed me straight through, even as growling thunderclaps rocked through the walls.

  I threw a towel around my body and limped toward the bedroom after a quick brush of my teeth. After grabbing clothes from the closet, I returned to the bathroom to change and, once there, shimmied into sleeping shorts and a tank top. I’d gotten a little paranoid about changing in my room ever since that whole Surprise! incident with Liam.