Brewing Trouble

by Katherine Kim

  Gabe groaned. “Everything comes back to studying. Seb’s still after me about taking classes.”

  “Well, it’s not the worst idea ever. I’m starting to think about it, too. I just don’t know what I’d take.” Sarah glanced over her shoulder and laughed at the shocked expression Gabe wore.

  “But you graduated already!” He was appalled by the idea, she could tell.

  Sarah laughed. “True, but there’s so much I don’t know! And like I said, yeah. I took business classes even though I didn’t want to, but I’m not really going to use that stuff now. Although, it has actually come in kind of handy, hasn’t it?” She glanced around the shop and sighed. She didn’t want to end up owning The Apothecary because Doc got hexed to death. “I like what we do here, but being in business for its own sake isn’t really for me, you know? It’s not about the money for me.”

  “Then what is it about?” Gabe asked.

  Sarah dug out the sage to at least start gathering the ingredients together. They were, naturally, low on sage, too. She really had fallen behind on ordering supplies while Doc was in the hospital. Something that she should have been paying more attention to while she was in charge. But she’d been too busy with everything else. Doc was a big part of it, of course, but there had been Ellie’s rash and the kids getting sick. She’d even made up something for Kai’s leg which had gotten a bit stiff after sitting in the hospital’s weird, hard waiting room chair for a few hours while Doc went through a bunch of tests.

  “I guess I like helping everyone. The back room witchery stuff,” Sarah said. “Doctor Collins said something to me the other day that got stuck in my head a bit. About how I was good with Doc, and I told her that I helped put a lot of bandaids on the Village kids.” Sarah chuckled and shrugged. “I mean, I couldn’t exactly talk about this stuff in here, right? But she said that I was a natural caregiver. And… I was thinking that maybe I could look into nursing school or something.”

  “Well then—”

  “I think I got it!” Sebastian slammed though the back door. “Mom called and her friend came through. Well, at least as far as he knows. The information’s a couple of years old, but he thinks she’s still in this house.”

  “Well it’s the best we’ve got to go on right now, since Meg’s still not answering her phone,” Gabe said.

  “Agreed. Where is it?” Sarah started pulling out the cauldron and a notepad. She wanted to have to do this only once.

  “Down by Lexington Reservoir. One of the little pockets of houses down there,” Sebastian said. “Apparently she moved down there about a decade ago, and Mom’s friend hasn’t heard of her selling the place.”

  “Okay, that makes some sense. There’s a lot of energy down there to pull from if you need to. It’ll be useful for me, as well, should it come to it,” Sarah was scribbling thoughts. She needed the protection of the sage, for sure, but she also wanted some safety and honestly, a little healthy wellbeing wouldn’t be the worst idea. If Angela’s other victims were in the kind of shape Doc was, they’d all need some healing energy sent their way. She started pulling down bins from the shelves, and grabbed the bag that she’d brought from home. She’d done some quick harvesting in her own garden, thinking she’d simply cast extra spells on the salt that was here, but making a whole batch now, she was glad she’d brought her own supplies. There just wasn’t enough here to supply the whole batch from scratch.

  She selected her ingredients and placed them all carefully in the cast iron cauldron. Any cooking pot would do, really, but Doc liked the symbolism of the cauldron and had bought hers deliberately. She also enjoyed hauling it out in October and using it in the front of the shop to dole out candy and cookies while wearing a pointy hat, because what was the point of being a witch if you couldn’t enjoy it?

  Carefully, Sarah lit the edge of the leaves on top and let the fire lick its way through the rest of the pile. Soon, everything was a smoldering heap of ashes.

  “Sarah?” Gabe’s voice jolted her out of her spiraling thoughts.

  “Yeah? Sorry, I was getting lost in my own head.”

  “Yeah. I guessed that when you didn’t react when the phone rang,” Gabe said. Sarah came over to join him and saw the heaviness in his expression. “That was Kai. He’s been at the hospital checking in.”

  “I don’t like that expression,” Sarah said. Gabe shook his head and slumped a bit further.

  “Yeah, well. Doc’s gotten worse. The doctors are completely stumped. She’s not exactly comatose, but she is basically just lying there, staring.”

  Sarah blinked at him, letting the information settle through her brain.

  “We have to find Angela. Tonight.”

  The guys nodded their agreement.

  18

  The drive down Route 17 was quiet. They’d gone over to Marcus’ apartment as soon as Sarah had finished making the black salt and gathering the few other supplies she thought she might need. Both Sebastian and Kai refused to let Sarah confront Angela alone, and they both needed to search for the fetishes since she would be busy, and whoever looked needed to be able to detect the magic they held. That was one of the things that kitsune excelled at, it turned out, which to Sarah’s mind explained a few things about the brothers. Marcus could also detect magic, due to being a creature that was created rather than born in a traditional sense, but he couldn’t shapeshift to be less conspicuous, and his strength and speed made Sebastian feel slightly better about not being Sarah’s bodyguard himself.

  They’d had to fill Marcus in and wait for dark, of course, before they could venture south to the small neighborhood near the reservoir where Angela’s house was. He didn’t even flinch when they asked him to come with them, and Cassie, his step-daughter, had only asked whose apartment she should head to for the night.

  “Actually, why don’t you stay here with Gabe?” Kai suggested. “That way you can sleep in your own bed, and you’ll know when we get back. I know you’re going to worry all night.”

  “Damn right I will!” Cassie agreed. Gabe was fine with the plan, as well, since he didn’t have any real skills in a situation like this. He may have lived on the streets, but he avoided fights like the plague and never lowered himself to thievery, so he had nothing to offer them.

  So Marcus had gone back to his room and changed out of the khaki pants and plaid button up shirt he’d been wearing and emerged in black jeans and a dark t-shirt. Sarah had to admit that with his dark hair and his height he actually looked pretty dangerous.

  They parked the car on a stretch of road not far from Angela’s house. It was quiet, with the hush of the woods muffling the sounds of the highway that wasn’t far off. There weren’t enough houses around to make it feel like they were near people, but Sarah knew from the map that there were at least a dozen houses around her. The whole place felt somehow sad and slightly abandoned.

  “Okay, so I think that Seb and I should sneak up from the back in our animal forms,” Kai said when they all grouped up between the car and the trees. “It will be easier to get close and sniff around— if you'll excuse the term— if we look like prowlers of the four-legged variety. I don’t sense any wards, do you Sarah?”

  “I do, actually, but it seems… I don’t know. Poorly constructed, I guess? Weak for sure.” She tipped her head and closed her eyes, letting her senses touch the ward line and get a feel for its construction. “It doesn’t seem to be meant to keep everything out. Just witches and magical attacks, oddly enough. You should be fine.”

  “Will you be okay?” Sebastian moved and put his arms around Sarah’s shoulders, drawing her into a protective embrace. “I don’t like leaving you alone.

  “I won’t be alone. Remember Marcus?” Sarah poked Sebastian in his ribs. “I mean, we know that he’s a nebbish hipster single dad, but they don’t know that.” She heard Kai snort and Marcus chuckle.

  “I may be a nebbish hipster single father, but I am still a lidérc, you know. Faster, stronger, tougher, all that nons
ense,” Marcus pointed out.

  Sebastian sighed. “I know. I just worry.”

  “Go on, the faster we find those dolls, the better for everyone,” Sarah said. “And the sooner we can go home.”

  “True enough.” Sebastian sighed.

  “I’ll keep her safe, Seb. Don’t worry.” Marcus patted his shoulder and moved towards the road. Sebastian leaned down and kissed Sarah before turning towards the trees at the side of the road.

  “Be safe, you two,” he said before the shimmer of magic rose up around him, then fell away and left a large fox tilting its head at them.

  “You both be careful, too,” Sarah called quietly after them. Kai’s lean coyote head dipped in acknowledgement and the brothers disappeared.

  “They’ll be okay as long as we do our job, as well,” Marcus said. “We’ll need to keep this Angela woman distracted until the guys can get back out. What’s our plan?”

  “Um, right. Plan.” Sarah blinked a few times, thinking. Marcus chuckled and they both turned to walk up the street towards the house.

  “We could just walk up to the front door and knock. Bet she won’t be expecting that,” he suggested.

  “I bet. She doesn’t even know that we found her, let alone that we’re coming to visit.” Sarah hefted her bag more comfortably on her shoulder. She’d packed her supplies in a shoulder bag, in case she needed anything right away. Hopefully, though, she could just take the dolls somewhere else and perform the ritual in the same place she meant to dispose of the remains. Gabe said to return them to the earth, but if it’s all mixed in with the salt, she didn’t want to be responsible for killing off all the plant life nearby. She intended to take the whole mess down to the beach and let it all be washed away quite literally by the power of the ocean.

  “Is that it?” Marcus pointed. Sarah checked her phone’s map and nodded. The house itself didn’t seem very big, but it was blocky and had at least two floors. The outside was covered in wooden shingles instead of siding, and it sat on a small hill above the street’s level so they had to climb a short cement staircase to get to it. There were two planters with scraggly geraniums in one and a rosemary plant big enough to be replanted as a hedge in the other, but otherwise the yard, however far it extended, ran wild. When they got up to the door Sarah noticed the beginning of a cement pad around the side and guessed that there was a patio around back. As they approached, Sarah felt the odd tingle of the badly set ward, and the sudden aversion to getting closer to the house that she’d expected, but it wasn’t very strong and frankly, she didn’t care if Angela knew she was coming or not.

  Marcus’ crisp knocks seemed to echo through the whole wood. Sarah heard scrambling inside, and voices. There was a man here with Angela. Interesting. Was it the same man from Gabe’s vision? They had a vague idea of what to expect thanks to him, but seeing the future was not exactly a precision science.

  Now Sarah was even more glad that Marcus was with her. A magical attack from another witch she could probably handle, but a physical attack? She was no fighter, that was for certain, even though Doc had been teaching her some self defense stuff along with the magic. She had no faith that she could defend herself both ways at once. It was all just still too new to her.

  “Hello?” The door opened to reveal Angela in a bright orange tank top and swirling sea blue patterned skirt. She was barefoot and her hair hung free and the bangles on her wrist jangled cheerfully. She had a smile on her face that did nothing to hide the stony judgement in her eyes.

  “Hello, Angela, may we come in?” Sarah didn’t wait for permission but stepped forward with Marcus at her back, imposing and sudden enough to startle Angela into making space for them in the front room. There was no hallway to hem them in so Marcus slid to the side as soon as he cleared the doorway.

  Sarah looked around the large room. It was as bright and comfortable as Angela’s clothes. An overstuffed sofa with sky blue and white upholstery was in turn covered in brightly colored throw pillows of every color. A hip-high ceramic vase stood in a corner containing a mix of decorative bamboo poles, an artistic besom broom, and… a didgeridoo? Sarah blinked. The walls were a bright coral tone and everything was comfortable and cozy and, Sarah felt, entirely orchestrated.

  The whole place was more of a stage set than a home, and it felt completely fake to her. Even the kitchen, with its bunches of herbs drying, clipped to a string stretching across one wall and the small breakfast table that seemed designed for cozy chats over a cup of coffee or tea. What was the point of all this falseness? Who was this woman trying to fool? Sarah’s stomach churned as an image of Meg popped into her mind.

  “How interesting to see you, dear,” Angela was saying. “I didn’t expect a visit this evening, I do hope there’s nothing terribly wrong that brought you here. Meg told me all about her unfortunate encounter, there hasn’t been anything more, has there?”

  Sarah blinked in surprise. “I have the feeling that you would know if there had been, wouldn’t you?”

  “Whatever do you mean?” Angela asked. Sarah had to wonder if she’d somehow read a ‘how to be a villain’ book somewhere because her comments would come right from it.

  “I mean that you have some sort of grudge against Doc. I don't know what it is, but how long, exactly, can you hold something that happened in college against her? It’s been decades!”

  Angela’s smile dropped off her face and was replaced by an outraged sneer. “That woman never deserved anything that she got. Then or after! She never had to work for any of it like I did!” she shrieked.

  Beside her, Sarah felt Marcus shift and flicked her eyes over to check on him. He frowned, looking over Angela’s shoulder and when Sarah followed his gaze, the door opened. The man that stepped though it was faintly familiar and it was only a moment before Sarah placed him.

  “You!” she gasped. “You’re the one that shoved Meg!”

  “Didn’t mean for the clumsy idiot to go crashing through the whole place, but it served its purpose,” he sneered. “Made a mess, scared folks off, and got your hippy-dippy shop shut, didn’t it?”

  Sarah felt rather than heard Marcus’ quiet growl. He’d met Meg once or twice when the shop was open late on Fridays, and Sarah was sure that his daughter had mentioned the girl. It was probably enough to set off the lidérc’s protectiveness. Add to that the fact that Meg needed a few stitches and a lot of rest, and the fact that it was done deliberately…

  “I would really suggest that you back off, man,” Sarah glared at the guy. He was tall— about as tall as Marcus she judged, which meant that he was over six feet— but also broad. He looked like he spent half his life in a gym and even his muscles seemed to have muscles under his t-shirt. He pulled his shoulders back and sneered again.

  “Davey, wait.” Angela held up a hand. “Let’s see what the little witchling has to say.”

  “I want the fetish. In fact, I want all of them. I’m going to break your hexes and free your victims,” Sarah said.

  “What fetishes? I have no idea what you mean.” Angela glared and shrugged.

  “The fetish you used to attack Doc and the others,” Sarah said. “You apparently have nothing of mine, I assume that’s why you sent Davey yesterday. Either to swipe something to use to attack me, or to make a big enough mess it would keep me busy and too distracted to figure it out.”

  “And you think you’ve figured something out, then, I take it?” Angela sneered. “No, I don’t like Doc, as you call her. She’s a selfish, arrogant, brat, too used to getting her way just because she got a little more power than I did. She thinks that she can walk in and take my friends, my boyfriend, my position in the clubs in school. Well, I’m not going to have that problem ever again.”

  “Because you’re killing her?” Marcus finally spoke up, and the coldness in his voice made Sarah shiver. He had more than a little antipathy for murderers.

  Angela cracked a laugh. “Aren’t you adorable. I simply cut off the flow of magic. Her bo
dy is doing all the rest itself!” she cackled. “Now that magic is flowing into me instead, for my use, so she can’t feel superior to me anymore! Besides that, Davey would never leave me for that bitch.”

  “Davey, the thuggish lackey who shoved your relatively innocent pawn through a glass display case yesterday?” Sarah shouted. Her hands were fists at her sides and it took everything she had to not throw a wild punch.

  “And Davey has already apologized to Meg for losing his temper. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.” Angela narrowed her eyes at Sarah, who glared back.

  “Was it a mistake that he happened to be wearing a charm specifically designed to get him past our wards?” Sarah asked. “Was it only a lost temper that made him deliberately goad Meg into a position where he could take a swing?”

  She could feel the magic in the room start to swirl as Angela began pulling on it. Whatever the woman was planning, it wasn’t going to be healthy for the good guys. Hell, it might not be healthy for Davey, the poor idiot. “Marcus, stay behind me,” she muttered. His slight shift to angle himself just behind her right shoulder was his only response.

  Sarah reached into her own reserves and activated the protections she’d piled on before they even got in the car. She wore her own spell-knot bracelet, similar to the one she’d given Doc. She also had a charmed necklace on, made from a small bag woven with wool and Kai’s own hair. The wool lent its own magical protection, and Kai’s blessing added a semi-divine layer of power to everything the bag contained. Inside the bag was a protection sigil carved into a small clay disk.

  All four of them had one of the clay discs on them somewhere, but since they suspected that Angela didn’t know about the rest of them, or didn’t much care, that Sarah would be her main target. It seemed to be other witches that she was focused on harming, so it was Sarah that the other three were most concerned about.

  And though she hadn’t agreed with them, Sarah was now grateful for the extra protections because Angela unleashed a wild blast of magic directly at Sarah. The force of the blast knocked her back hard, and the only reason she didn’t go tumbling over was Marcus’ arm that wrapped around her back almost as fast as the blast itself hit. She had barely recovered her footing when Marcus’ arm disappeared as he put himself between Davey’s improvised club and Sarah’s head.