What did concern me were the leather loafers on his feet and the button-down shirt on his back. I knew the leather was of the finest quality Italian variety, and I'm sure the shirt cost more than I made in a month. Flix worked with me for fun; any paycheck I could have cut him would have been like tossing two pennies into Scrooge McDuck's vault. But I'd been privy to several of his diatribes on plaid before, and had I not noticed the subtle signs of a person in a new, exciting relationship I would have thought he was late to a costume party.
Now, while I've never been able to get a read on the status of Flix's soul mate--I assumed this was due to the Fae half of his heritage--I had also never exactly been asked to try. I'd always gotten the impression he wasn't interested in anything more than a series of one-night stands. Supes usually avoid getting into long-term relationships; I'm sure you can guess why.
"Son of a witch, you've met someone. Spill, now." I demanded, flicking a fingertip to coax a pair of armchairs into a cozier position (this was getting easier by the day), and grabbing Flix's perfectly manicured hand from where it was jammed into the back pocket of a pair of Gucci jeans to pull him into sitting position.
He fixed me with a cold stare for all of two seconds before his face dissolved into a smile. "Yes." Flix confirmed, "but it's too soon for glowing phrases and a tell-all session. All I'm going to say is that he makes me happy. I don't know if it's serious yet."
"What's his name? Where did you meet him? Do you have a pic? Is he...human? Have you...you know...yet?" I blurted in a rush.
"I'm not answering any of that. Except that his name is Carl."
"Carl? His name is Carl? I'm assuming that means he's human. What Fae would name their kid Carl?" Oops, that came out snarkier than I'd intended.
"Whatever, you're dating a guy named after either a raincoat or a type of apple. What human names their kid Mackintosh?"
"It's a family name," I sniffed, "and I think it's cute."
"I'll introduce you when and if it goes anywhere. Now it's your turn. You haven't come into the office for days now, and it's been a ghost town as far as business is concerned." Once addicted to his hands in their hair, a number of my former matchmaking clients refused to let anyone else near them again. Whether he liked it or not, Flix was Port Harbor's most sought-after stylist. His elusively-kept business hours increased the demand. What can I say, the man has amazing hands, and he gives good hair. Word gets around.
"I was taking a much-needed break. The decline in business is coincidental but appreciated. I actually wanted to talk to you about some things. Things I can't tell Terra and the others because they already don't understand what I do. But you're with me all the time, and you know how this stuff works."
What I didn't say, but what I meant was that Flix understood because that's just what he did. It was part of his faerie magic; some Fae are elemental, like my godmothers, and others have different abilities. Flix's special talent was empathy. He could gauge a person from across the room; know how they were feeling and compensate with his demeanor. That's why he was always able to be whatever I needed--whatever our clients needed. Sometimes, though, it made it difficult to know what kind of person was under the calm demeanor. For all I knew, there was an anguished soul screaming for release. Mostly, the insight into others seemed to make him happy, even though he didn't like to talk about it. I left it alone. I'm beginning to realize I've done that with all the Fae in my life. What does that say about me?
Flix shifted in his seat, settling in for a long conversation. "Lay it on me."
"Well, for one thing, Sylvana is back."
"Sylvana? You mean your mother?" Flix was taken aback, "why didn't you lead with that? How long have you known? Have you talked to her?" It was his turn to rattle off a list of questions.
"Don't be mad at me; I've known since right after we released Kin's soul from Skip Stark's guitar, and I only talked to Kin about it the day before yesterday. And only because I was so shaken up after what happened at the Port Day Festival and it all came out." I walked him through the experience I'd had that night, my encounter with the enigmatic Delta, and how I had left Sylvana without so much as even attempting a conversation. Flix sat back in silence for a moment too long when I was finished.
"Wow, that's insane. So what happened to your grandmother then? And did she take and hide this Bow of Destiny?"
"No clue. Just a couple of the questions I intend to ask when I work up the guts to talk to Sylvana again. If I ever do, I mean. I can't believe I just walked away like that. I've been looking for her for weeks now, and then when she shows up I scamper off like my butt's fire. What an idiot."
"It's not like you wind up face-to-face with your presumed-dead mother every day. You've dealt with more than enough life-changing curve balls over the last couple of months; cut yourself some slack."
"I know, and I will. For now, I need to focus on beefing up my magic defenses. If Delta was telling the truth, it sounds like my job is about to get even more complicated. Kin thinks the matches were Jett causing trouble for me, but I'm not buying it. It's not in his wheelhouse to help me make matches; he's more concerned with ripping them apart--and, he was busy doing just that during the festival. Unless he knew I'd get all hopped up on power, and was trying to goad me into making a mistake; that's the only way it fits, and even then it's a bit thin. If I mess up enough, Jett thinks Cupid will return to bail me out, and he'll get his father back. But it seems to me that the world has been going to hell in a hand basket for quite some time, and if Cupid were really the big shot Jett thinks he is, he'd be here already. If Jett finds out Sylvana is back in the picture, it's only going to fuel his fire. The one thing we had in common was that both our mothers were dead."
"Lexi..."
"Hey, guys!" Mona Katz burst through the door and flopped into a chair to regard both Flix and me with interest that indicated a more intimate level of friendship than the reality of our relationship deserved. A former client, Mona should have been tangled in her new man's bedsheets right now, and my stomach lurched at the thought of a possible failed match. It had been hard enough to set her up with Kin's friend Mark in the first place.
"Well, hello, Mona," I said, my eyes wide with more surprise than necessary; I'd already pegged Mona as someone with limited respect for boundaries, and had figured our paths would cross again. "Everything working out okay with Mark?"
"Oh, definitely." Mona grinned, blue eyes sparkling over high cheekbones. "I'm so happy, I can't stand it. You're my hero. In fact, that's why I'm here. I need your help."
Flix caught my eye with his own and turned his lip up in a small smile. I knew he was mocking me for getting too involved with a client, and I crinkled my nose in response, the intended sentiment of bite me clearly indicated.
Mona continued without waiting for my response. "It's my mom. She's lonely now that all us kids are out of the house. I don't think she's dated since my dad passed almost ten years ago. I'm happy, and I want her to be happy too. I tried to do what you do, but it didn't work out like it does for you."
Now that wasn't what I was expecting to hear.
"What do you mean, you tried to do what Lexi does?" Flix asked with a raised eyebrow. I held my breath as I waited for her response.
"Well, I got her dressed up and took her out--introduced her to some men I thought looked like her type. She's really pretty--look." Mona flicked through some photos on her phone and flashed Flix and me a picture of an attractive woman in her early fifties, with the same heart-shaped face as her daughter, and a head of loosely curled strawberry blond waves that complemented a spattering of freckles across her nose and cheekbones. "But that didn't work, so I signed her up for Lifelong, that online dating site for mature adults." Mona rolled her eyes and used air quotes in the description, but it was clear she had been desperate enough to give it a shot despite her better judgment. Too bad she hadn't listened to good sense.
"Mona, that's not really how it works. Why didn't you just call me
and send her into the office? I'm more than happy to lend a hand." And I was. I couldn't help liking Mona; when she had come through my door the first time, I had seen through the frumpy outfit and drab haircut to the smart but self-deprecating woman underneath. I wanted to take credit for bringing her out of her shell, but all I had done was offer her a blowout and listen to her insecurities until the fuel allowing them to burn had been exhausted. She was responsible for the rest.
"Well, now she's mad at me." Mona chattered on. "There's no way she'd come down here of her own free will. I could trick her to get her into the office, but I think that might make it worse."
"Don't do that."
"Why?" Over the hand that lifted to cover her mouth, Mona's eyes were wide. "Is it too late? I mean, my parents were so happy together I always thought of them as soul mates, so maybe she's not meant to find someone else? It's been so long already; that makes sense. I'm sorry, I should have thought of that before I came here."
"No, that's not what I meant," I called after Mona, who was on her way to the door. "Come back and let me explain." The woman could be exhausting, and I didn't want to delve into the complexities of making matches with her, mainly because most of what I knew was a three-quarters assumption and the rest speculation. If there was a manual that came with my God-given (literally) powers, someone had forgotten to hand it along to me.
"This is my inexpert opinion based on what I've seen over the years," I ignored Mona's raised eyebrow and cocked head. "Nothing in this life is set in stone." Well, except for a murdering witch, but let's not have that conversation. "Books and movies rely heavily on the notion of preordained fate being the definition of a soul mate. It's more romantic to think there is only one person in the entire world you could be happy with and if you never get together with him or her, your life will be loveless and tragic."
"People do love a good tragedy." Flix commented. "Romeo and Juliet could have spared themselves a lot of angst if they'd been a bit more sensible."
"Love isn't supposed to be sensible," I chided.
"Are you telling me Mark might not be the love of my life?"
See, I knew she was going to leap to that conclusion, and that's why I don't talk about these things in polite society.
"Not at all. I'm telling you that if something tragic happened like it did for your mother, the person you would become as a result of that loss would have a perfect match out there somewhere." Give me a break, I know it sounded ridiculous and inept and a hundred other words that meant the same thing.
"I think I see what you're saying, and it gives me hope. Can I confess something to you? As much as I wanted to see my mom happy and not have her be lonely, I was feeling bad for the man who tried to fill my father's shoes." Brightened, she continued, "Now, how are we going to pull it off?"
"Does she know you hired me?" I hadn't cashed Mona's check and never planned to, so technically, I wasn't sure she had.
"Not at first, no. When I came to see you, I was in a bad place, and I didn't want her to worry. So, I told her I met Mark at a wedding, which is the truth, and I had talked to her about my new friend Lexi. I finally told her the whole story when I thought I could use your method to help her and that failed dismally, so here we are."
"Okay, we'll keep it loose for now. Off the books. She'll be more comfortable in a more social setting, so get your mother to meet you for lunch as soon as possible. Text me the details. I'll talk to her, see if I get the vibe, and how she responds, then we'll take it from there."
"Thank you, Lexi, seriously; you're the best." Mona gushed, squeezing me into a hug that nearly knocked the wind out of me before prancing out the door.
"That girl is a hurricane, and you are the coast of Florida. You might be able to see her coming, but there's not a damned thing you can do to stop her. I think you'd better find a bomb shelter to huddle up in." Flix ribbed.
"She's sweet, but we'll need to be a bit more careful if she's going to make a habit of these spontaneous visits. She's eventually bound to see something we can't explain away."
Oh, if only I had known just how accurate that statement was going to turn out to be.
Chapter Seven
To me, soon meant in a day or two, to Mona it meant right freaking now. She wasted no time setting up the lunch and texted me within ten minutes of leaving my office. She requested I meet her in half an hour at a small café a couple of blocks away. I bade goodbye to Flix, promising him a movie and catch up night ASAP. He looked a little forlorn about being passed over for Mona, but I was used to him putting on the occasional show of jealousy by now and didn't let it bother me too much. I'm allowed to have other friends, sheesh.
I was just approaching the cafe when my lunch companions stepped out of a cab. We spent several minutes with introductions right there on the street.
If I hadn't been busy chatting with Mona and her mother, I might have caught the scent of overpowering perfume and flop sweat coming off Serena Snodgrass before she materialized in front of us.
Formerly lank and blond, Serena must have decided that the goth look was more suited to her new bad girl persona because she now sported a still lank, but decidedly darker do. Black actually, and clearly a home dye job since her scalp still bore the evidence of her inexperience.
An encounter with the skanky witch ranked right up there with getting a root canal and a bikini wax at the same time.
"Lexi Balefire." Ninety-eight pounds of bobble-headed stick-figure ugly marched right up to me and stuck her huge beak in my face.
"Serena Swampgrass." I ignored Mona's questioning look for the time being.
"Maybe you should try to get my name right since we're about to become sisters-in-law."
"Oh, I'm sorry Serena Snotass, then. I wouldn't start posing for the wedding photos quite yet. Jett's just not that into you." Lucky for me, I wasn't interested in a family relationship with my half-brother. If anything, he hated me more than Serena did--in that respect, they made the perfect couple. That she couldn't see how deftly he was using her to get on my nerves only proved her low level of social ineptitude.
"Who's your little friend?" Serena turned beady eyes on Mona.
The last thing I wanted to do was expose Mona or her mother to the vile witch, so I turned to them and said, "If you ladies could go in and get us a table, I'll deal with this...person, and join you in a few minutes." Only too happy to take herself out of an awkward situation, Mona gave my arm a squeeze and pulled her mother into the café.
"Does that singer know you're stepping out with a skirt these days?" Serena's barb failed to score.
"Is there a reason you crawled out of the gutter to annoy me? Or maybe it's Friday the 13th, and I walked under a ladder."
I missed whatever dull-witted retort she came up with when I noticed a familiar face halfway down the block. My relationship with Serena has always been based on insults and the occasional curse being tossed around as the result of some childhood transgression buried so deep in the past I can't even remember what it was. I'll give her credit for one thing; the witch knows how to carry a grudge. It wouldn't surprise me if trying to stick it to me over some ancient slight was her sole reason for hanging around with Jett. I hadn't been lying when I said he wasn't into her. Anyone could see that after two minutes in their presence.
While I was distracted by the sight of Delta strolling casually toward me, old Swampy actually thought she'd gained the upper hand because I quit trading insults with her.
"What? No snappy comeback?"
"Sorry, I'm just not up for a battle of the wits right now. Besides, it wouldn't be fair, what with you being unarmed and all."
Sizzling magic arced toward me. "We're in public, you idiot," I hissed as Serena loosed something green and glowing in my direction. A quickly whispered spell deflected the curse skyward where it burst harmlessly. Or almost. One area birdwatcher would go on to create a panic among his peers with a report of having seen a raven covered with green spots, sparking rumors o
f some new version of bird flu.
"Lexi, is everything okay?" Mona chose that moment to reappear next to me, and I glanced over to see her mother's curious face peering through the café window. Of course, they'd chosen a ringside window seat, and now she was looking up toward where Serena's ill-advised curse had gone. "Did you see something strange? I thought I saw..." Mona shook her head to dispel the image. "...Something odd."
Outing myself to her before she discovered my true nature on her own moved up a few places on my to-do list. Friendships are complicated enough; hoping your new friend won't look at you in awestruck horror adds another kink.
"It's fine. Serena was just leaving. She has places to be, small children to scare."
The rule for not displaying magic out in the open might be unspoken, but it's one that every witch with a lick of common sense follows. Even Serena. Visibly shaken by her stupidity, she carried her gangly self away down the street with nothing more than a glowering backward glance. I watched her go and only rolled my eyes once. I'd like to think I'm growing more tolerant as I get older. The rude hand gesture I couldn't hold back proved me wrong on that count.
As I turned to follow Mona inside, I searched the street for signs of threat, but Delta had vanished again.
"Lexi." Mona's voice broke through my reverie. "You're scaring me. Come inside and have lunch, you're acting sort of spacey; I think your blood sugar must be low."
Delta was long gone now, and Mona was right, I needed a moment to process the possibilities. Poor Mona seemed to land herself right in the middle of a new existential crisis every time we went out in public together.
"Sorry. My mind was somewhere else. You must be wondering how I manage to crawl out of bed every morning." Linking my arms in hers, I let her lead me to her mother and the table they'd chosen near the café window. "I haven't been at my best lately, and you keep scoring a front row seat for some of my worst moments."
All Spell is Breaking Loose: Lexi Balefire: Matchmaking Witch (Fate Weaver Book 2) Page 5