Brewing Trouble

by Katherine Kim

  “I’m right here, honey. You’re a bit cut up, but nothing we can’t handle. Can you stand?” Sarah reached out, careful of the glass and the table, and especially anywhere that looked like Meg was bleeding from and helped the girl stand. Splinters and debris spilled off her, and Sarah suspected that there would be a few new cuts coming when Meg got herself out of the jeans and t-shirt she wore. Glass splinters were remarkably good at hiding in clothes.

  Sarah had never seen Meg look unhappy before, and this went past merely ‘unhappy’ and right into frightened and hurt, and it really didn’t suit her.

  “I called the police!” A woman called out, and Sarah vaguely recognized her. “That guy just took off down the street! Sarah, what can we do?”

  “Nothing, thank you,” Sarah said over her shoulder. “Well, wait for the cops, I guess. They’ll need to know what happened, and I only saw the very end of it. He’s gone?”

  “Yeah. As soon as it was all basically over he just bolted.” The woman, a regular who came in almost every afternoon hovered at the edge of the pool of glass shards and spilled tea. “Oh, Meg. You’re okay now, Sarah will sort you out.”

  The door chime sounded and Gabe came back in, panting.

  “Jerk got away. Maybe I should take up jogging? I could do it right after my meditation,” he said. He shook his head and glared back over his shoulder. “He’d better hope I don’t see him again. I mean that in every way I can mean that.”

  “Gabe,” Sarah shook her head in warning. “Okay Meg. Let’s head into the back with the first aid kit. I’ll get you cleaned up and see if there’s anything that needs real treatment.”

  “I’ll start cleani—” Gabe was interrupted by the door opening again.

  “Holy crap, what happened?” Sebastian stared at the mess and Kai stepped past him to help Meg on her other side.

  “Whatever happened, you’re going to be okay, Meg. We’ve got your back,” Kai said. Sarah breathed out some of her stress. “Okay, everyone. I think you’ll understand that the Apothecary is going to be closed for the rest of the day. The police are on their way, and will probably want everyone’s statements, if you’d be incredibly kind and wait for them. Sebastian, would you be a saint and print everyone some free tea coupons or something?”

  “Absolutely.” He was heading to the back before he finished speaking.

  “Kai, could you make sure that everyone out here is safe and stays clear of the mess please? And tell the police where we are when they get here?” Sarah waited for him to nod before helping Meg back through the kitchen door.

  “I really tried to get that order right, Sarah, I swear, I thought that was exactly what he asked for.” Meg sniffled.

  “Meg, it doesn’t matter if he asked for tea and you gave him a rutabaga. He’s the one who got violent, and he’s the one in the wrong.” Sarah helped Meg sit on the stool by the work bench and glanced at the cauldron simmering away on the portable cooktop. Hopefully Meg was too distracted to notice it. At least it smelled nice.

  She grabbed the first aid kit and started carefully looking over Meg’s arms. She’d managed to get burned by the hot tea that had been waiting to be ferried to the right table, as well as cut up, so Sarah was extra gentle. No glass or ceramic had stayed behind, fortunately, but the worst cut— a deep gash that sliced down Meg’s left arm for almost four inches— looked bad enough that Sarah was just going to wrap it up before sending Meg to the hospital herself.

  “Sweetheart, the police are here. They want to talk to Meg, if she’s okay with that.” Sebastian poked his head into the back.

  “I’m okay, I think,” Meg answered. She still looked pale and the fear lingered in her eyes and the tension of her shoulders.

  “You need stitches. But other than that, I think you’re okay,” Sarah said. “And we’ll be here with you the whole time.”

  “Thanks.” Meg stood, shakily and started towards the door and the questions. “Whatever you’re cooking up back here smells amazing, by the way. Is it a new drink?”

  “Sort of,” Sarah glanced at the actual cauldron that she and Doc used. It made them laugh when they would start dropping herbs into the cast iron pot. Witches around a cauldron and all that. “Doc had a few ideas the other day and I’ve been playing with them while I did all that paperwork and inventory stuff this morning.”

  “I’ll be happy to taste test for you!” Meg’s returning good cheer made Sarah feel better than anything else.

  “You’ll be the first taste tester I call. I’m not sure about it quite yet, though,” Sarah ushered Meg out to the waiting police, and spoke to them. “Now she’s mostly okay, I think. But she did get pretty badly scalded, and one of those cuts needs stitches, so Meg needs to get to the emergency room soon. Please don’t keep her too long.”

  The room was busy, everyone talking over each other and answering police questions, though overall everyone was calm and helpful. Sarah was somewhat shocked by that, considering that everyone had their day interrupted and were now being held up just to help Meg and Sarah. Not that any of them expected the police to find the guy, but still.

  “Seb, could you take Meg in to the hospital while I clean all this up, please? I think she’d feel better with a familiar face there and I have to stay to deal with this mess.” Sarah turned to him and batted her eyelashes. He just laughed and nodded.

  “Sure. I’ll take her home once she’s been seen, then I’ll come back to help out.” He gave her a quick hug then checked with the police who were wrapping up the last notes. He hustled Meg out to his car and the officers said their goodbyes and the last of the customers gave Sarah a hug and promised to be back in as soon as the Apothecary reopened.

  Finally, once all the police and the customers were all gone, Sarah started to lock up and found that Sebastian had made a sign and put it on the door explaining that the shop was closed for the next few days for cleaning and renovation. She started to take a breath of relief when her cell phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Sarah? It’s Rachel from the Village. I’m calling about Becca. She’s got an awful fever.”

  Sarah sighed and rubbed her eyes.

  “Yeah, Rachel. It’s going around right now, I guess. I’ve got a batch of potion brewing right now. I’ll put Becca on the list for delivery when it’s ready.” It was just one of those days.

  12

  “Well, the police will do what they can, I guess,” Sarah said. She shook her head and took another photo of the mess that used to be the display case.

  “At least you have a case number or whatever it is that the insurance folks will need. That’s something,” Kai said. He stood behind Sarah with a broom and a rubber trash can. Gabe was on the other side of the room with a grey tub, collecting the dirty dishes off the tables. Sarah just hoped that Doc had whatever insurance she needed to make sure this was covered. Insurance was not Sarah’s forte.

  “Shouldn’t the wards have fended that guy off though?” Gabe asked. His bin rattled when he lifted it to move to the next table.

  “It should have, yes,” Sarah said. She took one last photo and then nodded to Kai. “Gloves, Kai. The glass is mostly okay, weirdly enough, but the ceramic from the dishes are like surgical knives, as we have learned. I don’t need to take you to the E.R. as well.”

  “Yes, Mom,” Kai said and went to the back for the rubber cleaning gloves. Sarah grinned and shook her head.

  “Well, what happened? To the wards, I mean?” Gabe asked. He turned and leaned a hip against the table he had just finished wiping down. He eyed the rest of the room from his position by the door and grimaced. There was glass everywhere on the floor. Food spilled from the front of the case like it was bleeding pastries. On one side it was all tea cakes and pastry cream smears, on the other it was the remains of little fancy sandwiches. From the middle of the mess Sarah shook her head again.

  “I don’t know. I checked them the other day, remember? They were dinged up but holding fine, and then I rei
nforced them. He should have felt an aversion to coming in here and just stayed away. And I should have known about it,” Sarah answered.

  “He didn’t seem like a tea sort of guy, either. He was all kinds of snarly and rude before he even ordered,” Gabe said, glancing back at them. He turned back to his bin and picked it up to move on. Sarah grinned when he ran his fingers through his shaggy hair in a gesture that echoed Sebastian and Kai. The brothers did that all the time, and when Sarah had met their dad— well, Kai’s step-dad— he’d done it, too. She laughed out loud when Kai stepped back into the room carrying the rubber gloves and did the same thing. Funny how family traits could be passed down like that without it even being genetic.

  “Hey, someone lost a bracelet in all the fuss.” Gabe put his bin down and bent over, reaching for something under a chair by the door. “I’ll put it in the lost and—” He stilled, frozen by the vision rolling through his mind. Sarah shivered, not used to this emotionless version of Gabe. She stepped over to him and crouched to gently take the bracelet from him.

  As soon as it slid out of his fingers, he shuddered and drew a harsh breath. “Well, I guess that confirms that Doc’s illness is magical in nature, after all.”

  “Come over and sit down, Gabe.” Kai helped Gabe over to a chair and sat him down, both keeping him steady and using his own power to ground the seer.

  “Every prophet serves some god or another,” Sarah winked at Gabe. “Even if it’s just following directions to take care of themselves.”

  “Come on, guys, lay off.” Gabe waved them off with a grumble, but Sarah knew he appreciated their friendship. It was good to see him come so far out of his shell now that he had a home and people he could count on.

  “What did you see? Best as you can explain it in normal people language,” Kai asked. He crouched down next to the chair and left his hand on Gabe’s knee, keeping the seer’s power tethered. Once they had discovered Gabe’s ability, and how wildly uncontrolled it was, they’d all jumped in to help. Kai, particularly, with his demi-god status, had the power to keep the visions tamed. Sarah had been mostly teasing when she’d said that every prophet served a god.

  It was true that his visions were more fragmented now, but he could mostly control when they came. A definite improvement over the unwanted and unpredictable insights he had been getting of strangers’ lives. Kai’s power helped stabilize and direct Gabe’s.

  “I saw a woman casting a pretty major spell, it looked like, hunched over a table with a pile of stuff on it. There was another woman with her, helping her and sort of encouraging, but I couldn’t see the second woman very well. She was sort of shadowy and distorted.” Gabe frowned in thought. “After the spell was cast, the witch was exhausted, but happy. Like she was excited about whatever that bracelet was going to do. She started talking about how she was finally going to get the satisfaction she’d been denied back then. Whatever that means.”

  “It means she’s out for vengeance. But against who and what for?” Kai stood and sat back in a chair across the small table.

  “Well, it wasn’t recent anyway. ‘Back then’ implies that whatever the slight was it was a while ago,” Sarah said. She looked over at Gabe who was pale and shaken. It had been weeks since he’d had an unscheduled vision, and he looked unhappy that it was still a possibility. She stepped back behind the counter and fussed with the dishes she knew were clean and untouched by the destruction at the counter.

  “Tell us about this witch. Did you recognize her?” Kai asked.

  Gabe shook his head. “No, I have no idea who she is. I might have seen her though, and not thought about it. Passed her on the street or something.”

  “Well, what did she look like?” Sara asked, heading back to the table with a glass of ice water. Gabe usually needed a few minutes to recover from a major vision, and now was no different. He was pale and looked a bit like he’d been running too hard. The visions he deliberately sought were much easier for some reason.

  “She was about Doc’s age, I’d guess. Not old, but you know. Older than us,” Gabe’s eyes flicked up when Sarah set the glass down in front of him. “She was, um… I dunno. She had dark brown hair in a braid. Wasn’t very tall. She had a crazy hippie gypsy thing going on with her clothes. Super bright colors and a swirly skirt. Denim jacket with patches all over it.”

  “Angela Davila,” Sarah said. She met Kai’s startled gaze and knew that he’d put it together, as well.

  “Who?” Gabe asked.

  “Meg’s precious Coven Leader. She came in the other day while you were off. Colorful describes her perfectly,” Sarah answered.

  “There was something off about her. Neither of us could say what, particularly, and she seemed friendly enough. Still…” Kai said. He leaned back in the chair and glanced back at Sarah. “I guess we knew the target of her revenge, too.”

  “Yeah. But what could Doc have done in college that would warrant being attacked now?” Sarah shook her head and turned back to the mess.

  “Good question. Maybe we should ask her about this woman?” Kai suggested. He pulled on the rubber gloves and started picking up the larger glass shards.

  “I did that the other day when I went to ward her hospital bed,” Sarah said. “She didn’t really remember Angela. Thought they were in some classes together or something, but nothing that left an impression.”

  “Here. Maybe you can figure something out from this.” Gabe reached out to poke the bracelet where it sat on the table, then grinned at the alarm on their faces when he looked up. “Don’t worry, it’s done all the unexpected damage it can do to me. Things like that generally only get one hit.”

  “There’s a first time for everything,” Kai muttered. Sarah reached over and took the bracelet and looked at it closer.

  “Well, it’s definitely enchanted. I’ll take it in the back and— oh no, the potion! Those kids!” Sarah groaned.

  The chime for the front door sounded. “Meg needed two stitches, but she’s fine otherwise. I drove her home, and there was some woman there that said she’d look after Meg so I could come back and help you…” Sebastian frowned at the silence. “What?”

  “Plain woman in colorful clothes?” Kai asked.

  “Did Meg call her Angela?” Sarah chimed in.

  “Um, yes? To both?” Sebastian looked between them.

  “The question, I guess, is whether Meg is an innocent pawn or an extremely good actress.” Sarah slumped where she stood. It was all being piled on her shoulders, even though Doc seemed to be the target. Maybe she was a secondary target since she was clearly Doc’s ally and friend.

  “What did I miss?” Sebastian asked. He came over to Sarah and started rubbing her back, and she just turned into his shoulder and leaned her face into it, drawing on his calm to help her find her own.

  “I honestly don’t think she’s able to act very well,” Gabe said. “I think she’s naive and easily led, though. I bet Angela saw that, and saw that she came here a lot, and took advantage. Meg told me once that she’s only been learning ‘magic’ for about six months.” Gabe brought his hands up for exaggerated air quotes, and they all rolled their eyes. Meg had seemed so sweet, but the way she always talked about the spells she was doing had made them all a little nuts.

  “Do you think she’s in danger? Now that she’s injured and can’t be here spying?” Sebastian asked.

  “I… I don’t know,” Sarah said. She looked up at his face and tried to roll the stress from her shoulders. “I’d guess that unless Angela has a reason to think we suspect her, then she’ll keep trying to use Meg as her mole here.”

  “Makes sense. Even if she’s doing it unknowingly, Meg’s a pretty valuable source for inside information on what we’re all doing,” Kai said. He put the last large shard of glass in the rubber can and pulled the heavy duty trash bag shut. Gabe nodded and grabbed the broom to start sweeping in the corners. He spoke as he moved towards the center of the mess.

  “It’s true. Even though
we try to keep her from knowing what’s going on in the back room, she still sees us in and out of there all the time. She knows how much time you spend back there, and generally what you’re doing,” he said. “I mean— assuming she’s innocent— she thinks you’re back there doing inventory and coming up with the daily blends and stuff. But she knows you’re brewing things, and that you’ve had visitors back there. If Angela is a witch, and it seems likely, then she can figure out what you’re really doing pretty easily.”

  “She could be telling Angela all about everything you do, just in that stream of chatter that she keeps up. She might not even mean to be revealing all this information.”

  “That’s true…” Sarah looked down at the bracelet in her hand. It was a thin leather strap with three semi-precious stone beads tied to it’s length. The leather was wrinkled where it had been tied to the rude man’s wrist, but was otherwise smooth outside of the beaded decoration.

  “You know, I’d bet that the weird dings the wards have been taking lately were Angela poking at them, trying to figure out loopholes or ways around them.” Sarah turned the leather strip over in her fingers and her eyes unfocussed, looking past the visible world and trying to peer into the enchantment that still clung to the talisman.

  “And that bracelet is the result?” Kai asked.

  “Yeah. I bet it is. It feels pretty complicated. Each bead has a different spell on it, and then the leather has a binding spell on top of everything else.”

  “Is it still dangerous?” Sebastian asked. The steel in his voice made Sarah blink back to the present. All three men were looking at her and she wondered how long she’d been staring at the talisman.

  “I don’t think so,” she said slowly. “I think—” Sarah’s phone rang, and she blinked again, looking around to see where she’d left it this time. It was on the counter, and Kai, who was closest, picked it up after glancing at the screen.