“Hello, this is Sarah Richard’s phone. Oh, hey, it’s Kai. Yeah, she’s here, but there was an emergency we’ve had to deal with. Yeah… Yeah, she’s working on it. Seb’s here now, and I think they’re going to get it out to everyone in the next hour or so. Uh huh. Yeah, you just keep her wrapped up and watching TV. I always liked popsicles when I was sick as a kid. Still do, actually.” Kai grinned at the thought. “Maybe once we’re done cleaning up here I’ll go get some and send them over with Seb. Sure. I’ll come visit this evening and check in, okay? Okay. Bye.”
Sarah slumped her head into her hands and groaned. “The potion. This batch should be ready to bottle by now, but I was going to go get more supplies when I took lunch…” She glanced at her watch. “Two hours ago. God, what a day.” Sarah rubbed her free hand over her face and grimaced. A stress headache was starting to press against her eyeballs and her stomach rumbled loud enough that everyone could hear it, now that she’d thought about food.
“Okay, you go bottle up the potion and send it with Sebastian as planned. Gabe and I will finish cleaning up the glass, then I’ll go get your ingredients while you grab lunch and Seb delivers the first doses to everyone. We’ll meet up again in the back while you brew up the next batch and think about what to do about this Angela situation,” Kai picked up the rubber trash can and started walking towards the back, presumably to haul the thing to the dumpster.
“Sounds brilliant,” Sarah answered. Letting someone else make a few decisions felt like half a ton off her shoulders, and damned if she wasn’t glad of that.
13
Sarah sat on a bench near the fountain hidden behind the administration building of the Village apartments. It was the admin building, according to the city’s records anyway. Kai and Sebastian lived there, over the office, but really Sarah wondered if either of them spent much time in their apartment anymore. Sebastian was at her place most nights now, and Kai… Well, Sarah had her suspicions. She was glad for him, though. He needed someone he felt comfortable leaning on, even when he was trying to take care of them, along with everyone else he felt responsible for.
Sarah leaned back and tipped her head to the sky, not that she could really see any stars. There was a thin fog that blocked out anything but the lights from the airplanes that passed overhead. She closed her eyes and let the sound of the fountain wash over her. Sebastian would come find her eventually, but for now she just took the moment to rest. She was safe enough here, unlike at the reservoir.
Well, was she though? The wards here were basically the same as the ones at The Apothecary, even though those had to let customers through, and these ones were significantly less porous. Still, Angela had managed to find a way through them there, so it seemed likely that she could do the same here. Which meant that nobody here was safe.
Sarah shifted on the bench, the uncomfortable feeling of being watched, stalked really, crept over her and she looked around the dark space. Trees loomed over the black water in the pond that Sarah knew was both wide and deep enough for aquatic spirits to lounge around in when they needed some time in the water and didn’t want the chemicals of the swimming pool or the risk of exposure in public. More than deep enough to drown one human witch.
A heavy shudder ran over her body and made the old bench creak. Suddenly, the stillness of the night and the soft gurgle of the water seemed ominous, and the soothing peace she’d sought fled for the comfort of the lighted apartments. Sarah wanted nothing more than to follow it. She turned in her seat and started to stand up, and the shadowed figure standing on the path froze her in place. For one panicked second she thought the wights were back and had somehow gotten inside the wards, but then the familiar, friendly, safe greeting reached her.
“Mr. Young!” Sarah gasped. The world around her snapped back into place, the stress and anxiety driven off by the quiet older Spirit. Mr. Young smiled and tipped his head at her, his brown eyes soft and comforting.
“Sure, I’d love for you to join me.” Sarah scooted over on the bench to make room for him. He never spoke— at least not that she had ever heard— but he still managed to communicate somehow. Nobody really understood it, but everyone agreed that you just knew, somehow, what it was he wanted to say.
Mr. Young stepped over and sat gingerly on the bench, sighing in simple pleasure as he settled his weight and brushed his hand over his plain brown trousers. He settled back onto the bench slowly, with a long, tired sigh.
“Oh, come on, you’re not that old. You’re barely old enough to be my grandfather,” Sarah said, then chuckled and shook her head. “Actually, you’re probably older than I would guess, aren’t you?”
Mr. Young winked at her and reached into the pocket of his cardigan. He pulled out a candy bar and snapped it in half, holding one piece out to her.
“Thanks.” Sarah accepted the gift and turned back to the pond, which was once again just a pleasant spot to spend some time. “I guess you’re only as old as you feel, huh?”
Mr. Young nodded. They sat and listened to the water splashing into the pool while they ate their treat. Finally, after swallowing his last bite, Mr. Young turned to her and tipped his head.
“Nah, I just needed a few minutes, you know? Everything’s been so hard this week, I had to step away for a breath or two.” Sarah shrugged. “This outbreak of shadow pox while Doc’s in the hospital, and then Meg got hurt today—”
Mr. Young frowned.
“She’s okay, mostly. She got shoved by some guy, and it all cascaded until the display case broke. She needed to get stitches for one cut, but otherwise she’s fine,” she said. “But I’m not fine with it. The guy that shoved her? He was sent into the shop on purpose, with a talisman specifically to get through the wards.”
Mr. Young’s frown deepened.
“I know. I’m kind of freaked out.” Sarah slumped back onto the bench and pulled her own jacket tighter around herself. The days were plenty warm, with the summer sun shining, but the evenings could get chilly and tonight definitely qualified. “Doc is being attacked deliberately, it’s not just some weird, random virus she picked up or anything. I’m so worried about her. And we don’t know what to do. Gabe saw a witch casting some sort of big spell, and she seems to be Angela Davila Meg’s so-called coven leader and all around favorite person. “I’m not Doc. I’m not my grandmother. I’m not good enough to do all this.”
She sensed rather than saw him roll his eyes, and got the impression of a snort. A lone wisp of mist drifted past her eyes where she stared at the path that they sat beside. It flowed over the ornamental gravel and collected on the surface of the pond to swirl playfully away to nothing.
“You know I’m not exactly a well trained witch. Sure, I know I have the potential, I’m not going to ignore that, but with the exception of breaking that one curse on Sebastian, I’ve never done anything big on my own. And even that was almost just pure luck, and I’m pretty sure that Kai’s dad was helping guide me.”
Mr. Young nodded. He looked around the pond and pointed at something invisible, just past the wall on the far side of the water that surrounded the whole apartment complex.
“Yeah, I fixed the wards, but I’ve worked with Doc on wards for months. I’ve never seen Shadow pox before. Or Ellie came in the other day with Dryad Flu. And now there’s another witch out there coming after the shop, and Doc, and by extension all of us. And I have to fix everything.”
It was too much for a new witch to handle on her own. Mr. Young shook his head and raised his eyebrow at her.
“Yeah, I know you’re right. Nobody can do everything by themselves. And I’m not on my own here. I’ve got you and Sebastian and Kai and everyone,” Sarah slumped on the bench. “It’s just that this feels like a problem that needs to be solved by a witch, you know? And I’m the only one around now. And I don’t even know where to begin to start. I don’t know if I can do this, and then it’ll be my fault if Doc doesn’t get better.”
Her eyes burned and she squeezed then
shut against the tears. A warm hand brushed over her shoulder and she smelled something that made her think of her garden after a cool morning shower passed over it, something refreshing and healing and honest.
Tears filled Sarah’s eyes now for a different reason. Mr. Young patted her shoulder and then held out a packet of tissues.
“Thank you.” She took the tissues and dabbed at her eyes while her companion smiled gently at her.
“Yeah, Doc said I should look for other teachers, too. It seems to be a theme lately,” she said. It was a little scary to know that Mr. Young— a spirit old and powerful enough to be considered a god— had faith in her. A completely average, young, all too human witch. She had to smile at the idea that she now thought that being a witch was average.
He nudged her elbow with his own and grinned.
Sarah laughed out loud now. “Yeah. Sebastian has been after Gabe, and I made the mistake of mentioning the idea to him. Now he’s starting to get after me about it, and it’s been barely a day since the idea came up.” She sobered slightly. “Doc suggested that I study herbalism, but I don’t know. I feel like I’m getting as much hands on practice with that as I need. Maybe I should look at something else to compliment that? What do you think?”
He tipped his head and his salt-and-pepper hair caught the bit of light from the corner. It almost looked like the mist was clinging to him as much as to the pond. Sarah wondered again what sort of spirit he could be. Not that it mattered especially, but…
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“I guess.” Sarah wasn’t sure that she was ready to take a whole new degree in anything. “I mean, I could look into classes for that sort of thing. Sebastian’s been after me to take classes ever since I mentioned it. You’re right that if I’m going to stick around doing this back-room witch clinic stuff, I should know more about medicine in general. Especially if Doc’s not around as much.” Sarah refused to accept that her mentor might not recover. The Apothecary without Doc was unthinkable.
Mr. Young nudged her elbow again. His grin was sly, and Sarah had to laugh again.
“You’re right. My mother would have a harder time arguing about a medical degree,” she said. “Though I have to say, I’d probably go for something like nursing rather than trying to be a doctor. She’d complain loudly that it wasn’t prestigious enough or something, I’m sure.”
Mr. Young just rolled his eyes slightly, but Sarah didn’t get any impressions of conversation behind the gesture, so it must have been just that. She sat beside him quietly thinking for a moment before turning back to tip her own head.
“Thank you,” she said. “I didn’t realize how much I just needed a friend for a minute.”
Mr. Young patted her arm, and Sarah had the sense— not that he was speaking in any way, but there was just a connection to a feeling— that Mr. Young was looking out for his family in his own way. If family was what you made of it, then she was glad to call Mr. Young her grandfather. And Doc was more maternal than her own mother.
Sarah was going to make them both proud.
14
“Here, Sarah. I found these in the back of Doc’s closet. Did you know she’s got a bookshelf in there that’s a whole shelf of herbalism books and the rest is all jars and stuff? It’s like…” Gabe trailed off and turned bright pink.
“Like a witch’s cupboard?” Sarah smiled at him, trying to find the humor. Her talk with Mr. Young had helped, but the determination was starting to wear off. They’d been sitting in Marcus’ living room for three hours, looking through a few of Miss Rosie’s journals. She’d left them to Sarah with the house, to document the things she’d wanted to teach her granddaughter in person, but had been prevented from doing so by Sarah’s mother. Sarah had let Sebastian pick them up when he brought back beer for everyone.
It was getting late now, and Sarah was getting tired. The words on the pages starting to blur together, and she groaned when Sebastian started massaging her shoulders when he leaned over to look at the page she was trying to focus on.
“I’m not sure I have the energy to go through them. Kai, the kids all got their potion?” She turned to where he was lounging on the sofa, a book in his lap.
He glanced and nodded. “Yeah. I’ll go check on everyone again in the morning, but most of the kids were sleeping comfortably the last round I took.”
“I can keep going if you’d like to go home to bed. I’ll be up anyway,” Marcus said. He plopped down on the sofa and opened a fresh beer. “I might as well make myself useful here. I feel terrible that I can’t help at the Apothecary.” He grimaced before taking a drink.
“You’d be no help to anyone burned up to a crisp.” Kai answered him without taking his eyes off the book he still flipped through.
“Yeah. I’m not qualified to handle vampire-in-sunlight burns yet. Might want to wait till Doc’s back on her feet, at least.” Sarah shook her head at Marcus’ frustration.
“I just wish I was more useful around here,” he grumbled.
“You’re plenty useful,” Sarah said.
“Yeah, I heard about what you did to those Hunters last spring. And you patrol every night, which let me tell you makes me feel a hell of a lot safer,” Gabe said. “Sure, there will be times you can’t protect someone and they get hurt.” His eyes unfocused for a moment. He rubbed his hand over his jaw, remembering his own encounter with Hunters. “But you’re there when we need you, and when you can’t be there physically, you’re here working online or waiting as backup. It’s probably the best thing about this place, I think. Everyone looks out for everyone else. Everyone cares and helps and contributes. I don’t know if you all realize how insane that is. It’s just… It’s… more mythological than we are.”
Marcus blinked in shock at the young man, Sebastian stared, and even Kai looked up at the end of Gabe’s little speech.
“Gabe…” Sarah started, but realized that she didn’t know what to say.
“Sorry, I guess it’s just all sort of hit me. It’s been a rough week, you know?” Gabe rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes and headed to the fridge for a soda, trying to camouflage the sniffle with the sound of his rummaging.
“No, you’re right,” Sarah said. “It’s easier for us to see that because we’re new here, but Kai and Sebastian probably don’t even notice it.”
“And it’s a bit contagious,” Marcus nodded his agreement. “I agree with you Gabe. It’s rare enough to find one person like that, but to find a whole community? Well, I don’t know an appropriate word for it.”
Kai turned his shocked face to Marcus. “If we don’t look out for each other, who will? It just makes sense to stick together.”
Marcus just smiled and took another sip from his beer. “Anyway, I’ll look through Doc’s records and you, Sarah, let your boy take you home. Get some rest.”
Gabe was already collecting the journals that Sebastian brought over, and stacking them on the table in front of Sarah.
“Yeah, you’re probably right, Marcus.” She stood and stretched. It may only be midnight now, but she felt like she’d been up for days. Some good sleep would only help her sort through this whole mess.
Sarah woke up at dawn the next morning. Not the most sleep she’d ever had before, but at least it was a few hours of very solid time spent in dreamland, and she felt physically lighter for it. Not that she wanted to get up yet.
For once she’d even woken before Sebastian, who snored softly on the other side of the bed. She watched his shoulder shift slightly with the rhythm of his breathing, and the quiet sound and repetitive movement soothed her into a peaceful meditation.
Sarah’s mind drifted, and she let her thoughts flow where they would. Unsurprisingly they drifted to Doc and Angela and the whole mess they were trying to figure out. Their priority, naturally, was helping Doc get healthy again. Everything else could— and should to Sarah’s mind— wait until Doc was on her feet again.
Which meant that the hex needed
to be broken. It could have been any sort of spell, though. A misfortune spell, a general sickness spell, a spell to make specific symptoms appear at random… Who knew? Sarah sure didn’t, and nobody else had a good guess, either. She strongly suspected that even if Doc had come across something like this, she hadn’t written it in her record journals. It was unusual for witches to write down the spells they used, and Sarah knew from experience watching Doc make her entries that they mostly consisted of tea blends and obfuscated notes about what she treated in the back room, in case someone did get their hands on her notes. She didn’t want to accidentally give away anyone’s secrets.
So how did Sarah break a spell she didn’t know? Her thoughts spiraled and hopped around through various wards and counter-spells until she felt Sebastian roll over and draw a deep, yawning breath.
“Morning,” he mumbled, half into the pillow.
“Good morning. I think I’m going over to see Doc in a bit. Want to come with?” Sarah asked. When he just muttered unintelligibly into the pillow, she laughed. “Okay, I get it. I’ll ask again after coffee.”
She arrived at the hospital midmorning. The sunshine poured in through the windows that covered one wall of Doc’s room, and Doc herself was sitting propped up at an angle by the bed. She looked exhausted, but in relatively good spirits with a small smile and a sneaky sparkle in her eyes.
“Morning Doc! How’re you feeling?” Sarah plopped down in the chair at the side of the bed and peered at the ward discs. Then up at the potted tree, which had been shoved to the back of the small table, but was still there. It looked a bit battered, though, and the clay in the discs felt much grainier and more fragile than they had just a few days ago.
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