by Linda Palmer
Thea screeched. "Stop this instant!"
Startled, both Raven and Tamsyn lost concentration.
"Dommage acun!" Adele's quick reflexes kept the pitcher from shattering, but tea still went everywhere when it landed on the floor. Fortunately in a house full of witches, clean-up was never a chore.
Like two little kids butting heads, Raven and Tamsyn tried to outshout each other. My temples began to throb almost instantly, and there was no ending in sight.
"Quioto." My softly uttered spell shut everyone up. "Do you ladies remember Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather, the fairies in Sleeping Beauty?"
I got nods all around.
"Then you know how their silly spats ultimately affected poor Aurora."
More nods. I mean, they couldn't do anything else with their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.
"I'm Aurora, okay? And I'm sick of all this fighting. If you don't stop right this minute, you're going to have to make your own food runs from now on. Is that clear?" A flick of my finger untied their tongues.
"Sorry, honey," said Tamsyn.
"Me, too." That came from Raven.
I accepted their apologies with a nod. I knew the souls of these women. They were good people. "That's more like it. Raven, I brought you some chicken strips and a salad. I hope you can eat them."
"I can. Oh, thank you." Raven pulled me into a bony hug.
I patted her shoulder before I turned to Tamsyn, whose embrace was more of the doughboy variety.
"That silencing spell was well done, wasn't it girls?" Raven's pointed gaze flew from one to the other of them.
"Yes, indeed."
"I couldn't even open my mouth."
"My tongue is still numb."
I cut in. "Enough. I'm sorry I had to do it. Now can we please eat?"
"Something smells good." Eduardo glided into the room from, I suspected, right outside the door. As usual, his Romanian accent made most hearts flutter, but not mine. How like him to leave the peacemaking to me. He did have enough manners to clean up the mess, a process that involved a twitch of his pinkie. The pitcher refilled and settled on the table.
Eduardo, who wore tight leather jeans and a tighter black shirt, pulled out a chair and sat. His glance met mine. He winked, and for a second I was reminded of one of my favorite singers, Adam Lambert. The two of them favored as far as hair style and clothing went. The similarities ended there. Eduardo couldn't sing a note and was most definitely not gay.
Thea, the youngest of the sorcerers' quartet, looked more like a hippie than a witch today. She had flowers in her flowing salt-and-pepper hair and wore a full, ankle-length skirt with a gauze peasant top that hung off one shoulder. Although in her late sixties, she could easily have passed for a woman in her early fifties.
She'd been married to a writer for years, until he was killed in an auto accident. The house had been theirs, and the acreage surrounding it had been a beautiful farm. Now the barns and corrals were all empty and unnecessary, but still she clung to them. I thought she was lonely. I mean, she had to be. Why else would she invite her eccentric friends to move in and share expenses? I also thought she had regrets about that impulse every now and then, but especially on a day like today when sparks literally flew between them.
For a while, no one said anything, not even "please pass" this or that. Asking for food would be silly when all we had to do was think it from one place to another. The trick was avoiding mid-air collisions, the reason I waited for everyone to get what they wanted. While food flew back and forth inches from my nose, my brain wandered to Grissom's and the intriguing Hutch Hutchinson. How far into him had Ember's claws actually dug? Would the love potion have tipped him over the edge and into her arms? More important, why did that bother me? One, he was a big boy. Two, he could take care of himself. Three, I had no stake in their outcome.
But I did have ethics, and dosing any unsuspecting guy was wrong. Just wrong. Especially if he was nice.
"Ivy? Where are you?"
Tamsyn's question barely made it to my brain. And when it got there, I pretty much ignored it. Should I or should I not warn Hutch that Ember might drug him?
"Ivy!"
"What?" Realizing I'd just snapped at my aunt, I immediately apologized. "Sorry. I was a million miles away."
"Is something wrong?" asked Adele.
"Probably not. I just don't know."
"We'd love to help you." This came from Raven, who'd leaned a little closer. The other four at the table did the same thing. Whether I wanted one or not, I had a captive audience.
"Oh, all right." Regretting my show of impatience, I sucked in a calming breath. "Are love potions fair?"
Several telling glances were exchanged before Tamsyn ventured an answer. "From a holistic point of view, no. From a financial one, yes for several reasons. Not only could we not pay our bills without them, by refusing to sell, we'd be passing judgment on a customer. And that gives them the right to do the same, which opens up a Pandora's box full of prejudice, superstition, persecution, and hate. We don't want Salem all over again, now do we?"
I gave that a moment's thought. "Is it fair for one witch to make a love potion for another?"
More glances. Thea took the floor. "Why can't...she?"
I nodded.
"Why can't she make her own?"
"Doesn't have enough magic." I sighed and confessed. "Ember came into Something's Brewing today wanting a potion. I didn't sell her one. Said I only sold to couples, which is mostly true."
"I'm not one bit surprised. Like her mother, Ember has no real talent."
"I wonder who she's got her eye on now?"
"Did she tell you who it was for?"
"No." For some reason, I didn't share my Hutch theory. "But if I knew for sure, I'd be tempted to tell him she's on the prowl."
"No, no, and another no," said Eduardo, who'd been silent until now. "It's never wise to interfere in another's magic. Nothing but bad can come of it, whether she has talent or not. Remember she's got a coven watching her back."
"He's right," said Thea, earnestly nodding. "Ember's with the Hickory Ridge Hoe's."
I spewed my tea. Hoes? If that wasn't the lipstick calling the nail polish black...
"And we all know how much havoc they can wreak. Remember the Founder's Day picnic two years ago? It took half the town to chase away the rain, and there was thunder and lightning for hours after that."
"I'm sure all of you are right." Big sigh.
"May I read you tonight?"
Adele's request caught me off guard. While I had witnessed many acts of magic and even had skills of my own, I'd always doubted the worth of Tarot cards and Ouija boards. "Why? Are you thinking something bad might happen?"
"We'll never know if we don't ask. Follow me."
"Now?" My half-eaten food was growing cold.
"We need to stir while the cauldron is hot." Adele motioned for me to follow her into the room reserved for readings. She did them fairly often. Thea, every now and then. I thought Raven could, too, if she wanted, but her concentration skills were lacking, so she really had to work at it. As for Tamsyn, she flat-out wouldn't.
"Now you sit there, and I'll sit here."
We sat at the round table and pulled up our chairs. "You know I don't believe in the cards."
"Maybe you'll be surprised." She was so insistent that I didn't have the energy to argue, at least that's what I told myself. In truth, I was a little antsy about Ember now that I'd been reminded she had a coven on her side.
Adele shuffled the cards several times before asking me to cut the deck. After laying both stacks on the polished table face down, she chose the top card of the stack on her right and set it face up between us. Although it meant nothing to me, she clearly got something from it. "Oh dear."
My heart skipped a beat. "What?"
"Nothing."
She carefully placed another card. "My, my, my."
I tried again. "What?"
"Not
hing. Nothing at all."
Hmm.
A third card landed on the table. "Well, this won't do."
I'd never been more frustrated. "Are you going to tell me what's going on, or not?"
"You don't even believe in the cards."
"No, but you do, and that's something I have to respect."
"Why, thank you, Ivy." Adele had fans from all around the world because of her website. She read cards over the internet and over the phone, but face-to-face over a table was certainly her favorite form of delivery, especially if her client was a delicious young man.
I loosened a stray hair from my lip gloss and tucked it behind my ear as I leaned a little closer to her. "So what do I need to know?"
"You're in the sights of a witch who's up to no good."
I snorted a laugh. "Knew that."
"Did you know that another power, currently dormant, watches you from the wings? Be cautious. I can't tell if it's black or white, only that it's strong, possibly unlimited."
"Anything else?"
"You're definitely going to know when this power stirs."
Great. Just great. "Is that all?"
She was still studying the cards. I saw she'd added others. "You're going to meet a tall, dark stranger."
At first, I couldn't believe she'd uttered that cliché. Then I saw the mischief in her smile. "Me and everyone else you've ever read, right?"
Adele laughed and pushed away from the table. "Our food is getting cold. Shall we rejoin the others?"
I gladly led the way out the door.
* * * *
By the time I got home around eleven, I could barely think straight. Too many old stories swirled around in my head, as did the recipe for a salve to treat wolf bites. I'd scribbled it down on a napkin even though I doubted I'd ever need it. It wasn't like there were wolves in Missouri. All the same, I'd transfer it to my incantus tomorrow.
What was once a backyard served as the parking lot for my car. It was no wider than the house and sheltered by the buildings on either side, but I didn't mind. Besides that slab of asphalt, I had a back porch with a grill and patio furniture. And though the view was limited to brick walls on three sides, it was usually quiet and always safe.
Tonight, my exhaustion was surely to blame for the fact that I reached the middle of the kitchen before I felt the creepy sensation that someone had been inside my home. I dropped my purse and ran to the basement door to check the seals. All were intact, but I added another so they'd stay that way. "Blocca porta."
I next sent out a tracer to locate the footpath of any intruder and mark it with a trail of blue vapor. The vapor materialized, but went nowhere. Relieved, I headed to my bedroom.
* * * *
Saturday in the shop proved to be very busy, thanks to a privately chartered bus. Dozens of gray-haired tourists swarmed the street, most of them female. Several came into the shop.
"Oh look," said a woman wearing a hot pink running suit and Nikes too clean to be true. "This is just like that magic shop in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Did you see that movie, Nell?"
"Yes. Watched it with little Timmy."
I heaved a mental sigh of...what, exactly? Dismay? The shop did have that cluttered cob-webby look often seen in films. And even though I could clean it with magic in an instant, I didn't want to. Doing the work myself was important for a proper inventory. Besides that, I respected the magic of everything Tamsyn had placed on the shelves. Each item had a story to tell. I wanted to know it.
"Hurry, Margaret. This is just what we've been looking for." Another tourist had entered Something's Brewing. She, too, wore a red running suit—that seemed to be the clothing of choice—with the pants tucked into matching cowgirl boots. She walked straight to me. "Do you have hand-made scented candles?"
"Right this way." Since she had to smell each one, we stayed in the candle corner for a while. I heard the jingle of the bells on the door and always glanced up to see who'd entered or exited. By the time the ladies left the store, I'd sold a couple of magic books, some pagan paraphernalia, lots of candles, and several homemade tonics, all of which I carefully wrapped in tissue paper and placed in brown-bag totes with the shop's name and logo imprinted on them.
Absorbed in my work, I glanced up automatically when the doorbell jingled yet again. Hutch Hutchinson stepped into the shop, his gaze instantly pinging from one side of the store to the next. His expression never changed, but I cringed, knowing he saw a jumbled mess. Or did he? His face suddenly lit up, one of those kid-in-the-candy-store reactions. My heart flip flopped inside my chest. Our gazes clashed. His grin was so devastating I dropped the bag I'd just opened. As I bent to get it, my elbow collided with the counter. Rubbing it, I popped up and knocked over the waste basket with my foot. Could I be more of a klutz?
"Are you all right, sweetie?"
"Fine, fine." I made myself focus on the customer waiting for her merchandise, which I quickly bagged and handed over. "Please come back."
"I will. Do you have a website?"
"Not yet. No computer skills, which means I'll have to hire someone. Plus, I want to clean up the place before I posted any photos."
"But it's so charming as is."
Charming? "Only if you're into cobwebs and dust."
She laughed softly and left the shop. I immediately glanced around for Hutch and found him at the curio cabinet that held the pewter miniatures. He seemed very interested in the fantasy beasts, in particular the dragons. I didn't blame him. They were exquisitely detailed.
"So it's fire-breathers for you, huh?"
He jumped.
I tried not to laugh. "Sorry."
"My fault. I have a one-track mind, and right now it's on this." He showed me the dragon he held. I tipped it to look on the bottom.
"Cedric," Hutch said before I could spot it. Javan named every creature he created. "So which pieces do you collect?"
"Sorceresses, of course."
"Ah. Appropriate for a woman who owns a magic store."
"Isn't it?" I kept my tone light. Had to with Illusion newcomers. As a man of science, he was most likely unbelieving or maybe even unknowing. I didn't want to spook him.
"I brought Ms. Tamsyn's meds." He handed me the sack.
"Thanks. Are you interested in buying a dragon today?"
"Only if the owner of said dragon will have dinner with me tonight. Something light."
"You should never bargain with a 'witch.'" I drew quotation marks in the air.
"I'll risk it. Eight o'clock at Korner Klatch?"
I pretended to consider his request. "Sure. Will that be cash or charge for Cedric?"
"There's no sale until you show up for dinner."
"Don't you trust me?"
"Not so much. In fact, I've heard that believing a witch is as foolish as bargaining with one." With that, he gave me a wink and left the store.
Should I have looked into his eyes? Well, it was definitely the safe thing to do, especially if our dinner proved to be the beginning of a friendship. But sometimes I was happier not seeing the soul of others. Nothing was more crushing than my glimpsing a cheater, liar, or fool inside the body of someone I liked. Right now all I needed to know was that Hutch's vibes were amazing, surely indicative of a good heart.
I could barely keep from pushing a last lingering customer out the door when the clock struck six. As I locked up, Ember drove by in her snazzy red sports car and flipped me off. Dread shimmied up my spine, its intensity activating my mental alarms. According to Adele, Ember and I might be locking horns sometime soon. That, if anything, was enough to creep me out.
A trip to the fridge resulted in my carrying a crystal glass of Thea's strawberry wine to my bedroom. I sipped on it and then got undressed. In my undies, I went to the closet to pick out something to wear to dinner, which would be casual. I decided on designer jeans and a top with some sparkle. I also laid out my laciest lingerie simply because it felt sexy against my skin, and a little confidence never hurt, es
pecially on a first date.
Date?
I laughed. Hutch had said nothing about us dating. All he'd offered was dinner, and I knew that Korner Klatch had little more than gourmet salads, sandwiches, and cheesecake. Plus the coffee, of course. Lots of it, all certified for honoring strict third-party environmental standards. I loved that Hutch wanted to save the planet. Or maybe he just liked the food.
Carrying my drink, I went to the adjoining bathroom and started filling the tub. I added some of the famous bath salts Tamsyn made, knowing it would relax me physically just as the wine would relax me mentally. A wave of my hand lit the oft used candles around the antique tub. When I shut off the tap, I stepped over the side and sank into bubbles up to my chin. My eyelids had never felt heavier. They drooped and then shut. Only for a minute, I told myself.
When I woke, I found myself in a tub of ice cold water. I sat up, a move that splashed some of it on the floor. Only one candle still burned. The others were melted globs with tiny black wicks. How long had I been asleep? And how could it be so dark so soon? Wrapped in a towel I checked the clock in my bedroom.
Midnight.
No wonder it was dark.
And I'd missed dinner with Hutch.
"Argh!" I flopped face down on the bed and wallowed in my misery for a good five minutes before I thought to call him. Then I remembered I couldn't. I did not have his number, nor did he have mine.
What.
An.
Idiot.
I never took random naps, especially in the evening. Why tonight? And what had Thea put in that wine, anyway? It was usually so benign. A check of the empty glass didn't help me one bit. As for the bottle, the drop left in it tasted and smelled just like it should.
My mind was in a spin by the time I turned on lights and walked into the kitchen. I opened the fridge, but couldn't remember why. To check the wine, maybe? No. I'd finished up the bottle. Was I hungry? I honestly couldn't tell, but reached for the tuna salad I'd made Thursday night. I stood there for the longest time wondering what I'd need to make a sandwich.
Bread! Of course. I walked to the bread box and took out a bag of Oreos, eating three before I remembered my intentions. By then dying for a glass of milk, I went back to the fridge and took out a carton of eggs. I looked at it for the longest time. What did raw eggs have to do with my dry mouth?