by Gina LaManna
“Why didn’t you just walk out?”
“What’s the fun in that?” Hettie raised her arms above her head. “I’m old. I’m gonna die soon. Are you really gonna deny me fun in my final years? What if this was the last fun thing I got to do here on earth? I’m bonding with my grandbabies, you know. They’re gonna look back on this moment fondly.”
“As am I,” Ranger X muttered. Then he mumbled words that sounded like crazy and nutcase, or something along those lines. I didn’t blame him much. “Do you plan to creep around the building for the rest of the day, or would you like me to show you out?”
“Nah, I’ve had my fill of creeping for today,” Hettie said. “I’m hungry. Girls, are you ready to go?”
Cautiously Poppy stood, followed closely by Zin. I joined them, hooking my arm through my grandmother’s so she wouldn’t get lost. Again.
Then Hettie surprised me by twirling out of my grasp. She danced over to Ranger X, her little fists circling in front of her face like a boxer. “Come on, Ranger X. Let’s duel. I can tell Zin’s not convinced about my strength from that statue.”
“I’m not dueling you,” he said. He gave me a ‘please, help’ sort of stare.
“Hettie, it’s time to go,” I said, reaching for her. “He’s not going to duel you.”
Hettie muttered something under her breath about I’ll show him. Then she held up her hand and shot a tiny lightning bolt straight from her palm toward Ranger X’s chest. But he was faster. Ranger X blocked the bolt and had Hettie draped over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes before I could blink.
“I’ll walk you ladies out,” Ranger X said, turning on his heel with my grandmother bobbing over his shoulder on the way out the door. “I’m sure you don’t mind.”
Poppy raised her eyebrows. “Do what he says!”
The three of us followed close behind Ranger X.
“Hettie, are you okay?” I asked cautiously. Her body resembled a limp noodle hanging over his shoulder. Her arms flopped down to his waist, waving to and fro like a lazy sprinkler system.
I almost reached out to stop Ranger X so I could take my grandmother’s pulse, but at the very last second, she turned her head up and winked. That woman winked at us, and then she went right back to dangling over his shoulder.
“She loves it,” Zin whispered. “Can you believe her?”
Poppy shook her head. “Maybe you should let her train you for the Ranger program. I don’t know anyone like her.”
“Did she just pinch him?” Zin whispered as Ranger X’s back shot ramrod straight. “The guts on that woman!”
“Maybe we all need to be trained by her,” Poppy said a bit wistfully. “She’s older than us by decades and she still gets more action than all of us put together.”
I couldn’t draw my eyes away from where Hettie was pretending to squeeze Ranger X’s buns like a pair of ripe cantaloupes at the supermarket. It was like a train wreck. I didn’t want to see it happening, but I couldn’t look away.
Ranger X turned around as we stopped whispering, and Hettie went limp.
Ranger X’s eyes scanned the three of us for a long time. When his eyes landed on me, it heated my stomach, and goose bumps prickled my arms. His eyes didn’t pull away from mine for a long while.
“Stop staring,” Zin said. “This is getting weird.”
I yanked my eyes away and looked down. Unfortunately, Hettie’s head was “down,” and she waved enthusiastically back up at me.
“Put the grandma down,” Poppy said. “It’s time for them to get going anyway. I have to get back to work.”
Ranger X didn’t listen. Instead, he marched all the way through Ranger HQ with my grandmother hanging over his shoulder. One or two folks directed funny looks in his direction, but it wasn’t until we reached Elle at the front desk that anyone addressed the issue.
“I see you’ve met our guests?” Elle asked, her blue eyes falling on Ranger X. “Aren’t they lovely?”
Something in her innocent voice and beautiful face sparked a small curl of jealousy in my stomach. I fought it back. Ranger X and I had nothing going between us, except for a polite business relationship. I had absolutely no reason to dislike Elle. In fact, I liked her a lot. I just didn’t like her too close to Ranger X.
“It’s not our first meeting,” Ranger X said, glancing around at us, his gaze landing on me. “But lovely is one word to describe them.” He carefully placed Hettie’s feet down on the floor.
“Describe me, maybe.” Hettie pointed at herself. She leaned an elbow on the desk and twisted her head to face Elle. “Did you know I have a statue in the Hall of Fame?”
“I did.” Elle nodded politely. “You’ve shown it to me before…many times.”
“So many times,” Poppy echoed. “Too many.”
“It ain’t just anyone who can get a trophy erect in there,” Hettie said. “But I did.”
Poppy, Zin, and I all flinched at Hettie’s choice of words.
“Erected, Hettie,” Poppy clarified. “You know what? Just cut that word out of your vocabulary entirely.”
Elle covered her mouth with those long, dainty fingers, stifling a giggle. Even as that wisp of jealousy hovered inside my stomach, I couldn’t help but join in the laughter. She was just so pleasant to be around.
“Lily, may I have a word?” Ranger X shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “In private.”
I pointed at myself. “Me?”
“No, the other Lily,” Hettie said sarcastically. “If you’d like to whisk me away, Ranger, feel free. I’m up for grabs.”
“Hettie!” both Zin and Poppy said at once.
I followed him across the lobby, the soft background music creating a false sense of relaxation as our footsteps padded across the thick carpeting.
“In here.” Ranger X rested his hand on my lower back, causing a jolt of electricity to sizzle across my skin.
I tried not to shiver at his touch, but it was like trying to stop a sneeze. Our close proximity amplified his motions; every breath, every footstep felt intensely personal. I stepped away from his hand as he pushed open the door to a dark room. I wanted to tell him to leave the light off for a moment so we could be here together. Quietly. Just the two of us.
But he flicked the light on, and I blinked twice as my eyes adjusted.
“Hi,” he said, more softly now. “Thanks for coming.”
I didn’t bother to correct him. Really, I’d just stopped by to see Poppy, but I wasn’t going to burst his bubble.
“I know you came to see Poppy,” he said quickly. “But it worked out well because I needed to talk to you anyway. Please tell me everything you remember about the man who ordered The Elixir.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“First of all, I pride myself on keeping my clients’ business confidential. If I started blabbing what everyone ordered, I’d lose half my clientele. Nobody wants the entire island to know they’ve ordered a Balding Beverage or a Height Helper. That sort of stuff is private.”
“Not when it’s a matter of security.”
“How is this a matter of security?” I sat down at the conference table, two seats away from Ranger X. The distance helped me think. “Gus was there the entire time. I hadn’t known about The Elixir before my guest requested it, so I was as clueless as the next person. It was Gus who guided me through everything.”
“And you trust Gus?”
I looked at him curiously. He was the second person to ask in one day. “Of course I trust him.”
Ranger X glanced down at the table where he’d folded his hands.
“How do you even know about The Elixir?” I broke the silence. “It was just this afternoon the visitor came in. It took over an hour to brew, and I only served it to him thirty minutes ago or so.”
“There’s strong magic in that spell.” Ranger X leaned back in his chair and rested his hands behind his head. “Ranger HQ is responsible for the safety of The Isle. We have trigge
rs in place to alert us of potentially harmful magic.”
I scrunched my nose up. “How can you tell?”
“Magic has an equal and opposite reaction; it leaves a trace. The spell doesn’t just disappear. It takes energy to create a spell, and during a very intense spell, a void emerges. We have our own hexes to sense these voids.”
“That’s why it’s harder to perform bad magic.” I gave a slow nod. “Someone—was it you?—explained to me when I first arrived that The Faction has a harder battle ahead of them than we do because they’re using their powers to harm instead of help.”
He nodded. “Exactly. We can detect bad magic. That doesn’t mean we can always prevent it, but we usually send someone to check it out.”
“You sent someone to Magic & Mixology?”
“We were about to, but then you showed up here.” Ranger X eyed me. “You read my mind.”
“That was all Hettie,” I said with a laugh. “I was trying to find someone else.”
“Someone else?”
For a brief moment, I wondered if that glint in Ranger X’s dark irises didn’t also walk the line of jealousy. Then I pushed the thought away. The glint disappeared much faster than it’d arrived. “Okay, my turn. Tell me where you are at with the investigation for The Magic of Mixology.”
He exhaled a sigh. “We’re no further than when I updated you yesterday.”
“But you hadn’t made any progress when you updated me yesterday.”
“If I could change that, I would,” Ranger X said grimly. “I’ve never seen anything like it. There are no traces of magic. None of our sensors detected foul play, there is not a hint of a fingerprint in the room, and nobody saw anything.”
“I need it back!”
“I’m well aware.” Ranger X’s jawline tensed. “I’m working on it, as are many of my best men. They’re scouring The Isle now asking for help from less than...traditional members of The Isle.”
I didn’t bother to ask. Whether he was referring to werewolves or gnomes or giants, I really wasn’t sure I needed to know the nitty-gritty details. “Do you think that’ll actually help anything, or is it a long shot?”
“At this point, it’s all a long shot. Investigations normally don’t take this long.”
“I mean, I used to watch television, and sometimes investigations took months.”
“You’re talking about humans. I’m talking about the supernatural.”
I fell silent. “So where does that leave us? I can’t become a Mixologist without that book. It contains everything.”
“You’re doing just fine now.”
“Just fine is not good enough. I’m struggling as it is, and I lean on Gus for everything.”
“You’re allowed to use other people for help, Lily. The job might be a solo one, but it doesn’t have to be a lonely one.”
“I wouldn’t have known where to start with The Elixir if it hadn’t been for Gus. He explained the rules, he remembered the ingredients, the recipe...everything. Without him, I’d be lost.”
“Then keep Gus close.”
All at once, a silence descended on the room, heavy and full of trepidation. “Gus went out tonight,” I said slowly. “Gus never goes out.”
“Did he say where he was going?”
“Not in so many words. I assumed he had dinner plans with Mimsey.”
“Are they dating?”
“Not really...” I hesitated. “But I think they want to.”
“How do you know that?” he asked with too much curiosity. “Gus doesn’t strike me as the type to open up about his personal life.”
“People don’t need to say when they like someone, either as a friend or as a romantic interest. You can just feel it.”
“And you think the nature of this evening’s visit was romantic?”
I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t like to think in those terms when talking about Gus. Or Mimsey.”
To my surprise, Ranger X laughed. “He’s a man, just like any of us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He cleared his throat, and this time it was Ranger X’s face turning the color of ripe tomatoes. “Nothing.”
“In all seriousness, do you think Gus is in trouble?”
He paused a moment. “He really likes Mimsey, huh?”
“He enjoys her company,” I hedged. “I haven’t seen them together long enough to know if it’s love, but there is something between them.”
“Do you think he was lying when he said he was going out tonight?”
I shook my head. “He was too awkward about it. If Gus wanted to do something in secret, he just wouldn’t have told me, and I’d never have known.”
“It doesn’t hurt to check in with him,” X said. “I’ll make up an excuse and say it’s Ranger HQ business. Does he have a way we can reach him?”
“I’ve never needed to try,” I said thoughtfully. “He doesn’t carry a Comm device. Usually we’re right next to each other, so I shout across the room. If Gus needs something, he finds me.”
For some reason, all of our modern technology from the mainland did not work quite right here on The Isle. Maybe my cell phone would’ve worked if it hadn’t been washed away by the giant wave, but it was unlikely. The amount of magic zipping through the air rendered most devices useless, and I hadn’t seen a computer either. Even receipts and bookkeeping were done by hand, bringing me back to Little House on the Prairie days.
“Let me call in Glinda, she’s our Emergency Contact Specialist,” Ranger X said. “She consults for Ranger HQ.”
“So what does Poppy do as a dispatcher, if she can’t call people?”
“She dispatches internally. As you might know, each Ranger has a specific talent or skill set. If we get word that someone needs healing, she’ll direct the request to the medics. If someone’s lost, she’ll contact Ranger F, who’s known for his ability to return things to their rightful owner. The list continues.”
“So about this Ranger F, can I get him working on my case? Maybe he’ll have some luck finding the spellbook.”
Ranger X narrowed his eyes at me. “He’s already on it. He’s the reason I’m saying the future is bleak for that book. His track record is impeccable. He’s solved almost everything in just under three days. Yours...it’s been going on weeks. Short of a wild breakthrough, I don’t see this case closing anytime soon.”
“But I need it—”
“We’re not abandoning it,” Ranger X interrupted. “If anything, we’ll be setting an example. When we find out whoever did this, we’ll come down, and come down hard on them. The longer this goes the more interest it generates. The more interest it generates, the more of an example we need to make with it. Now, let me call Glinda in here so we can talk to Gus.”
Chapter 9
Five minutes and a lot of pink glitter later, a witch who looked nothing like the beautiful Glinda from the Wizard of Oz had set up shop in the middle of the conference room.
This witch looked like she’d gone out and had a good time at Mardi Gras last night. Smudges of mascara lined her eyes, while her weathered face gave off the impression of a long, hard-earned life. She wore a dress that looked sort of like Peter Pan had fought a tutu. Pink tatters of cloth flapped around her waist in a bedraggled skirt and fluttered about as she pulled out a crystal ball. The woman herself stood no taller than four feet high, and her body was made of rolls and curves and sassiness.
“So, who’re we talkin’ to?” She chomped some gum, and strangely reminded me of an attraction from the New Jersey boardwalk. She looked to Ranger X and stuck a hand on her hip, but he nodded toward me. She whirled in my direction. “You gonna speak, chickie? I don’t got all day.”
She did some snapping with her fingers, and I jumped to attention.
“Uh...his name’s Gus?” I spoke extra loud, competing with the jangling bells dangling from her fingers.
“You sure about that?” she snapped.
“Yes?”
&nbs
p; “Then why you askin’ me a question, sweetheart?” Glinda put something that looked like a crystal sphere on the table and waved one hand over it like she might a magic eight ball. “Gus who?”
“Gus… of the bungalow?”
“Sound a little confident. I know you’re new here and all, but ain’t you supposed to be the Mixologist?” Glinda closed her eyes. When I didn’t respond right away, she peeked underneath one eyelid. “Cat got your tongue?”
Startled, I shook my head. “Sorry, I thought you were concentrating. I am the Mixologist.”
“I can multi-task,” Glinda said. “Now tell me about this Gus.”
I looked to Ranger X, but he looked mildly amused more than anything else. “Uh, he’s medium-old, really crabby most of the time, and spends the majority of his time in the storeroom over at the bungalow.”
“Good,” Glinda said. “Except I sense you’re lying about something.”
My heart raced. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to lie. I don’t even know what I was lying about?”
“Let me tell you. If it’s the Gus I know, then he’s super-duper-ancient, old as dust, really. He’s crabby on a good day and vicious on a bad day, and he spends so much time in that storeroom I think he might’ve smoked too much of the fun weeds, if you know what I’m saying.”
I covered my mouth, but couldn’t help snorting at her description. When I pulled myself together, I caught the slight glimmer of satisfaction in her eye. “If you knew who Gus was already, why’d you ask me?”
“Just curious what you thought of him. Everyone knows Gus. He helped make a Pimple Popper that changed my life.”
I laughed again, surprised at how much I enjoyed the company of the strange, old witch. “You’re funny.”
“Not funny, I just speak the truth, sweetheart.” Glinda laid her fingers on top of the crystal ball and closed her eyes again, this time for a longer moment. The silliness disappeared, and her forehead crinkled and twitched in concentration. “Okay, I need a few minutes now. I sent the signal out.”
“How does that work?” I asked, taking a hesitant step forward.
“You’re from the mainland I hear, yeah?” She looked at me, waiting for an answer. When I nodded, she mimicked the gesture. “That’s what I thought. Another reason why I wanted to meet ya. I’m from there too. New York.”