And how had this little human managed to break a witch necklace?
Neither of these factors were Ava’s problem. She couldn’t feel the power nor identify the crest, and the last thing she needed—particularly after the day before and all the stress involved—was to get involved in human drama.
“I didn’t sell this to her. Did someone tell you I had?” Why had they come to her to begin with?
The girl shook her head. “Your store seemed friendly. We thought maybe whoever was in here would know.”
These children were going to be in so much trouble, on so many fronts. Ava handed her back the necklace. “I don’t know who would have sold this. But”—she pointed across the street—“there’s a jewelry store over there that can fix it. That being said, if I were you, I’d turn right around and go home. Give this back to your mother. They have a tendency to forgive us a lot easier than we think they will. This place is not safe for the two of you.”
Her face fell, and Ava wished she could give her the response she wanted. “Thank you. My mom cries when she holds it. She loves it so much. I just wanted to get it fixed.”
Ava’s heart clenched. If she’d been the reason her mother was sad, she would have undertaken a trip like the one the girls did for her mother, too, to make her happy. Getting involved was a bad idea, yet that was exactly what Ava was going to do.
“Okay, give me back the necklace. I’ll get it fixed for you. Turn around, now. Go home. Take the train back in two days.” That was usually the amount of time these sorts of repairs took. “I will meet you at the train station at four, hand you the necklace, you will turn around, get back on the train, and not come back here. Ever again. Does that work?”
They both nodded in sync, which might have been comical had Ava not wanted them out of her store that very second.
“Scoot. Both of you.” They turned and, hopefully, went back where they came from. Ten minutes after the humans left, Ava took the necklace across the street to Callahan’s Jewelers. As long as Ava could remember, Callahan’s had been a fixture in the downtown area. The owner, Todd Callahan, was an older gentleman but had been quite the dish in his younger years. She knew a lot of women who had at some time crushed on Todd. He’d been happily married to his wife, Jayne, for a long time. Longer even than Ava’s parents. They had two daughters, and although both girls—Nancy and Petra—had been part of the ‘worst witch’ chanting crowd, Ava had always liked Todd.
She crossed to his store quickly, hating to leave her place of business unattended, even though it was unlikely anyone would rob her in the middle of the morning. Todd wasn’t busy, having just opened for the day, and Ava breezed through the door like she wasn’t carrying human contraband in her tight fist.
“Hello, Todd.” Ava tried her best to act the part of a Blakely most of the time. Happy, blessed, and aware of her own importance. The problem was that she had no power and everyone knew it. If she hadn’t been a Blakely, she’d not be living here, let alone running a store. They’d have found a place to put her in one of the lesser districts.
He smiled when she came in. “Ava, how are you? The wedding was lovely. Are you okay? When that Enforcer carried you off, I thought we might never see you again.”
Ava forced a smile. “I am sorry that took so much attention. I had no idea my store had been broken into.”
He nodded, his brow furrowing. “I heard that potion stores are being targeted?”
She sighed as though it was the worst news in the world. Playing this game meant selling it every time she spoke about it. “Who knew that was happening?”
“It must be very time sensitive for them to have yanked you out of your sister’s wedding like that.”
Ava nodded. “They didn’t explain. Just had me confirm whether things were missing. Anyway”—I held out the necklace—“I found this on the street this morning. It’s broken. I thought, maybe, I could get it fixed before I found the owner.”
The last thing she wanted to do was tell Todd she’d been dealing with humans. He winced when she handed him the necklace.
“Ouch.” He shook his head. “This one is hot. Been a while since anyone called upon its magic.”
She thumbed her own Blakely symbol. The lion had never brought her powers alive. The healers thought it might be a twin transference thing. Zoe got all the power in the womb and left her none. It was a good thing Ava loved her so much.
He continued. “Yes, I can fix the bent part. Must have been a very strong spell to break it.”
Or a small human girl with tennis shoes. She kept her thoughts to herself. Whatever this was, whatever strange anomaly had happened here, Ava couldn’t get involved.
“You can fix it?”
Todd raised his gaze to hers. “Sure. You’re sure you want to pay for it? Not find the owner first?”
“It’ll be my good deed for the day.” If Ava never put it up on the websites devoted to missing things for witches, Todd would never know.
He held up the necklace to the light. “Looks really old. I’m surprised no one has put a locater spell on it yet. But sure, yes. I’ll fix it.”
“Thanks.” She nodded at him. “I appreciate it.” And the little girl whom she was doing this for better appreciate it, too…
“Hey”—he nodded toward the window—“you have quite a crowd waiting for you.”
She whirled around. Sure enough there was a crowd outside her store. While it would mean high sales for the day, Ava didn’t relish dealing with the people who must be her customers. “It’s the gawkers, I’m sure.”
Todd put a gentle hand on her arm. “Your family has been through enough.”
She nodded her thanks and refrained from pointing out that while her family suffered a bit, Ava had been handling the spectacle of her life all alone since Mitchell left her at the altar. She’d even started to not blame him. A powerless witch? If she were Mitchell Sharpe, she wouldn’t want to bind herself to that mess either. Together, they could have made a whole family of powerless witches who would run around the streets helpless. It would have been a disaster.
“Best be on my way.” She smiled because she always did then headed back to her store. Time to tell the story over and over again.
But when she got there, she didn’t recognize a face in the crowd. She abruptly stopped as all the witches turned to regard her.
“Hello.” She moved past them to open her door. Where had all these people come from? Did they all need a potion today?
The crowd descended on the shelves like they were on a mission, and she backed up to observe them. They weren’t local, that much was for sure. Some of them had nose rings and tattoos, and their clothes were not trendy enough to walk around in. There were men with long hair and women with short pixie cuts.
Soon, they lined up at the cash register, everyone with almost the exact cash. They each took their stuff and went on their way. When they were almost all gone, she found her tongue. Ava asked a guy in his thirties who wanted foot cream, “How did you hear about my store?”
“Oh, yeah.” He brightened at her question, and she tried to focus on his sweet face and not the huge serpent tattoo wrapping around his neck. “It was put on a board. One of the cool, hey you need to shop here, it has the best stuff boards with a list of all of your products and how much they cost. I never would have thought to come to this part of town for this quality of stuff. So snotty, usually. Anyway”—he nodded to her—“thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
What board? Ava didn’t know anything about it. Who would have done that? Marketing had never been her forte, and she didn’t think any of her friends would know about some trendy witch message board.
The whole rest of the day was the same. Waves of people came and went until she was completely out of product and had to shut down the store at four instead of six. She sent a quick signal to her supplier—her sister had spellcast a form so all she had to do was write on it and it got sent. She’d have to be there
past midnight to replace her entire supply. Not to mention, she was going to have to mix fast.
But it was with a huge smile on her face that she set about to do it. Luck wasn’t really her friend. She wasn’t going to complain about it.
Chapter 3
Ava stayed at the store until almost one in the morning before she drove herself back to her lonely apartment. She didn’t mind driving, since flying could only happen if someone offered to take her home. Although, not all witches drove. Some did still like their cars. Using a vehicle wasn’t the weirdest thing about Ava.
She face planted into her pillow and let exhaustion drag her into a dreamless sleep. The utter need to finally rest her brain meant she didn’t start obsessing about her apartment until the next morning.
Ava had never loved the place, not even when she’d bought it. The need to get out of the home she’d started creating for her life with Mitchell had driven Ava to make a hasty decision. She’d hired the wrong real estate witch. Turned out that the woman would have been better suited in a different career—one where her intuitive powers didn’t dump Ava into a lemon of an apartment that she always struggled to keep up.
Her parents would help her financially if she asked. They assumed rather regularly—and loudly, if they were drinking—that she would be a burden to them one way or another for the rest of their lives. Oh, sure, a loving burden, but one just the same. Ava was determined to prove them wrong. She hadn’t asked them for anything in years.
Help fixing the apartment she was sure they disapproved of wasn’t worth the loss of pride, at least not yet.
She fixed coffee and was listening to the weird sounds the fridge made when a knock sounded on the door. It was six in the morning. Who was going to be there just then?
A walk to the peephole—thank goodness her new brother-in-law, Elijah, had been willing to human-ify her apartment—showed her mother standing outside tapping her foot. Ava swung open the door. “If you are going to show up here unannounced before the sun is even out, then you could at least bring donuts.”
The smile she hoped to get from her mother didn’t appear. Instead, Lila marched into the room and sat on the couch without uttering another word. Ava closed the door behind her and stared at her mother for a long second. Her mother was pale. Dread crept up Ava’s spine as she crossed to her.
Was it Zoe? Had something happened to Elijah and Zoe on their honeymoon? Her father? “Mom. Tell me.”
Lila huffed out a breath. “I can’t stop thinking about it. I even took a dose last night, and it didn’t help.” By dose, her mother meant a drink of whiskey. Ava didn’t interrupt her. There were, however, better sleeping potions, especially for witches. Ava made really good ones. “You can’t work with those Enforcers again. They’re barely civilized.”
Ava blinked. It took her a second to digest what had just been said. “Mom. Are you telling me you’re pale, upset, and here before dawn because I went off with the Enforcers—which they demanded I do—to my shop, which had been broken into? As you can see, I’m fine.”
Her mother shook her head, some of her red hair falling over her eyes. For Lila Blakely, this was the equivalent of falling apart. “They’re going to come back to you. I just know it. They don’t do anything but cause trouble.”
Ava rose. “Look, we both know I’m powerless.” Although, she’d been helpful for the first time in her life when the Enforcers had called, and it felt great to have done so. Even with the stress of the whole experience, at the end of the day, she’d finally possessed the right skills at the right moment. Not that she wanted a repeat performance anytime soon. “They aren’t coming back.”
Lila pointed a finger at her. “I want a promise from you that should they come back, you won’t go with them.”
“I can’t promise you that.” Wouldn’t might have been the better word. “If they come back and have information about the break-ins, I’m going to work with them.” Or, as the case really was, if they needed her to take off another hex, she would. Ava would never leave someone in that kind of pain.
But since her parents were always two seconds from demanding she move back home so they could take care of their poor, powerless daughter, she was absolutely never going to tell her mother any of that.
Lila rose. “Fine. Not more than that, Ava. Don’t work with them, should they ask.”
Ava put her hands on her hips. “Why would they ask me, Mom?”
Had her mother somehow discerned that she’d lied? Were her parents so well connected they got some kind of report from Enforcers? Did they know what had happened?
“I guess they wouldn’t.” She looked away. “I worry about you, Ava. You understand that, don’t you?”
Yes. Ava was keenly aware. It had always been that way. Since Mitchell had left her, the parental worry had only doubled. At least when it looked like she was going to be Mitchell Sharpe’s wife, they could see a future for her.
“I do, Mom.”
The coffeemaker in the kitchen dinged, and Lila jumped. “What is that?”
“I can’t spellcast the coffee to make it ready. That’s a human device. Coffee is done.”
Lila looked down at the floor. “I see.”
No, if there was one thing Ava knew better than anything, it was that no one really did. But she wouldn’t be a burden on anyone, not ever, not even a loving one. The idea kept her up at night and made her work twice as hard to make the store successful. She had to make it—despite the fact the odds were against her, always.
Mitchell Sharpe’s betrayal of her love wouldn’t be the end of her story. Ava would have a happy ending—even if it was entirely of her own making and didn’t look at all like the one she’d always envisioned for herself.
Police officers flooded the street outside of Pure Luck. Ava got out of her car, parked, and ran toward the door with her heart in her throat. What had happened? Were the Enforcers back? Had someone actually broken in? It would serve her right to have that happen, considering she’d lied about the event. She should know better than to tempt the fates. What little witch she had in her understood that words had power. She’d spoken them, thought them, and even pictured a break in somewhere in her imagination so she could talk about it.
But it wasn’t her store that had brought in the police but Callahan’s across the street. She’d seen on a television program once that scenes involving the human police force were usually loud. Sirens and bright lights. Witches had none of that. If anything, a scene that required the police usually meant everything got quiet.
Silence bespoke pain.
The street was so hushed Ava couldn’t even hear birds chirping. Something had gone wrong in the universe, and all the creatures around them knew it.
Ava grabbed the arm of the first police officer who came near her. “What happened?”
The man shook his head. “Such a nightmare. Todd Callahan tripped this morning going into his store and broke his neck.”
She gasped, a flood of horror moving through her. Ava had just seen him the day before. How could he now be dead? Todd had tripped, fallen, and died? Those things didn’t really happen, not to witches. Humans, sure. But Todd was a powerful practitioner. He fell?
Even as the whirlwind of emotion threatened to steal her breath, a question formed in the part of her mind that always had to be rational, considering her situation in life. Ava had a very difficult time picturing Todd Callahan falling anywhere. He was older, but healthy.
“He tripped down the one, small step that leads into the store and died from it?” If she sounded disbelieving, it was because she couldn’t picture it happening. Sure, he was older but that would simply mean he had to either one—catch himself with his hands, or two—say a spell that would levitate him.
If the kind police officer noticed her incredulity, he didn’t comment. He shook his head and spoke with a deep sigh in his voice. “I know it seems insane, but he broke his neck. Sometimes these things happen. As uncommon as they are.”
<
br /> A crack of thunder sounded in the sky, and Ava rubbed at her arms. Goosebumps broke out on her flesh. They hadn’t expected rain today. Snow maybe this time of year. But even then, none had been called for. If a witch was going to change the weather, a report went out. To do otherwise was illegal. So either the weather had suddenly become horribly unpredictable, or someone was doing illegal magic. Well, that was a problem for the Enforcers and why they existed in the first place.
Thinking of the Enforcer brought to mind Lawson Abramowitz, and she immediately had to stop doing so. The best thing to do would be to forget he’d ever come back into her life. His smoldering eyes lodged into her memory, making her sigh. He’d been in the middle of a serious situation. He hadn’t been looking at her with that heat, certainly not directed at her. There had only been one man who had ever regarded her that way, and he’d proven to be a huge pain to her heart she wasn’t sure she’d ever get over.
The police officer stared at her, clearly waiting for her to say something else. She had nothing more to do except to go try to process what had happened. Todd was dead? She’d never wave at him in the morning as they both entered their places of business, she’d never rush into his store because she’d forgotten it was her mother’s birthday and needed something last minute. She would never see him at the spring open-store events when the witches all showed off their sale prices on the streets.
Ava stared up at the sky as the wetness came down on her. A man had tripped, fallen, and broken his neck in a store he’d entered six days a week for decades. These things just happened sometimes…
Life really could be fragile.
Hexed and Vexed Page 3