Love Charms and Other Catastrophes

by Kimberly Karalius

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that my friend’s hurt and I can’t sit here while the town is in danger.” Fallon gestured to the ex-rebels. “We can’t just sit here.”

  “I appreciate your concern and quick thinking,” the detective said, not unkindly, “but you are high school students. This is not your responsibility. Care for Miss Kitamura and focus on your studies. I will apprehend whoever is behind this.”

  Fallon’s cheeks flushed, but she didn’t argue.

  The twins exchanged a look. No way were they going to wait this one out. Hijiri sensed a plan brewing between them. Which, considering the fight they had at the café, was a miracle in and of itself.

  The nurses insisted on ushering everyone out of the room—too many people, not good for the patients’ health—but Detective Archambault silenced them with a deep frown. “Let them stay,” she said, “just this once.”

  “Ten minutes,” Dr. Vermeulen said, compromising. “Miss Kitamura needs her rest. We must run some tests to figure out how to treat her. So far, the cure eludes us.”

  Hijiri took a few shallow breaths. She had school. Her missed-connections charm needed to be crafted. Her heart stirred with anxiety, making her double over in pain.

  “Easy now,” Dr. Vermeulen said. “You’ll be excused from school. I’ve already notified your parents.”

  “My parents?”

  “Well, I left messages through their emergency contact numbers,” he said with irritation. “They can’t be reached.”

  Hijiri shook her head. Typical.

  The more cheerful of the two nurses moved to fluff her pillows. “Don’t you worry. As soon as we cure you, you can go home.”

  A cure? How? This is not a medical illness. It’s a charm. Hijiri wanted to say something, but her throat felt dry and her tongue too thick. She sank back into the pillows as the doctor and nurses left the room.

  Within seconds, Ken was by her side, covering her hand with his. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I didn’t make it in time.” He had been the first person to find her collapsed near the fountain. After carrying her to the nearest shop, he had the manager call an ambulance.

  “How did you know where to find her?” Sebastian asked.

  “Love,” he said.

  “Love’s too busy,” Hijiri muttered.

  “Who else could have made the stone cupids point their arrows in the direction of the park?” Ken said, his eyes shining. “They changed their poses right before my eyes. If that’s not Love, I don’t know what is.”

  And you couldn’t help me? Hijiri thought bitterly to Love. Now she was stuck in a hospital bed for who knows how long. Only another charm could overpower this one.

  Fallon’s gaze slid from Ken to Hijiri. After hesitating for a moment, she said, “What about the True Love’s Kiss charm?”

  Hijiri’s eyes flew open.

  The twins gasped. Mirthe rubbed her hands together. Femke raised her eyebrows.

  Nico, who’d been quiet up until then, almost whooped at the idea. “It should work, right? We can get Hijiri out of here by tonight!”

  “It’s not that easy,” Hijiri said. Three tears slipped down her cheeks. Some uninfected part of her heart warmed to the idea, but hanging on to the feeling was too hard. As she stared up at Ken, the charm amplified the ache in her chest. Part of her wanted his kiss. She just didn’t know what part. Not that it mattered. “That charm hasn’t worked since Love helped me. It’s useless.”

  “Even if it did work … she’s not a boy,” Sebastian said bluntly.

  Hijiri wished she could have laughed. He had a point. As a girl, her heart was in a precarious location for kissing. No, they needed another option. A charm that would get her out of here. “Okay,” she said. “I think I have a love charm for this.”

  The charm was an old one that she had crafted in middle school, back when her anxiety made her jittery and sick. She had bought a ton of ingredients and spent weeks working on the right combinations to craft tea that could calm her heart and ease her nerves. She called it Heart’s Ease. It was one of the only charms her parents had taken notice of, though Hijiri wished she hadn’t been so adamant to share it with them. Mr. and Mrs. Kitamura had signed her up for multiple summer programs to help her “socialize more,” and Hijiri ended up sharing her charmed tea with rowdy campers and hospital patients alike. Her memories of those summers were tainted with painful awkwardness—a big reason why she didn’t think often of the useful tea she kept in a tin in her kitchen.

  Heart’s Ease was more than useful in this case. The tea was infused with a special brand of love she had squeezed from watching touching family movies and researching comfort desserts. Anything to make the heart feel snuggled and warm. Secure.

  When she told her friends about the tea, Ken’s grip on her hand tightened. Hijiri stared at him under her lashes, curious about his tight-lipped smile, like he was suppressing a full one. The lovesickness tugged her concentration away.

  “Tell us where you keep the charm,” Fallon said. “Sebastian and I will go get it.”

  “The kitchen cabinet above the stove,” she said. A filigree spice box held the charmed loose tea.

  Hijiri leaned back into the pillows after her friends left. Ken stayed behind, pulling a chair next to her bed. He held her hand so long that she forgot where hers ended and his began.

  Chapter 16

  SABOTAGE

  Stoffel’s charm affected her dreams too. She paddled her way through a pink sea, unable to find up or down. The sea tasted bitter like biting into dark chocolate when you expected milk. Hijiri pressed her mouth closed and kicked toward the surface—Was that the surface?—but the water pushed her down.

  Her heart had somehow escaped her chest; even in her dreams, it was smaller than a fist. It carried a rope for Hijiri to grab on to. As it passed, she reached for the rope with both hands but her fingers missed.

  Her heart left her behind.

  Hijiri woke three times to the sound of the woman in the bed next to her sobbing. Hijiri reined in her symptoms as much as she could, but she cried too. Silent tears. Sniffles. A longing so deep it drowned her even in her dreams. Ken was there each time she woke up. “You don’t have to stay,” she murmured.

  Ken frowned and wiped away the tear tracks on Hijiri’s face. “Is the lovesickness worse with me here?” he asked.

  Hijiri shook her head. “The terrible part,” she said, “is that the aches and pains are abstract. No one’s causing me this heartache. It’s got a life of its own, all the symptoms without a beloved to feel sick over.”

  “Is there anything I can do?”

  “I want a notebook,” she groaned, “so I can write bad love poetry.”

  Ken chuckled softly. “They should be back with the tea soon. Rest.”

  “Some people don’t like hospitals,” she said, pressing her cheek to the pillow.

  “I’m not one of them,” he said, threading his fingers through her hair.

  Hijiri leaned into his touch; it was a welcome distraction and she didn’t want him to stop. The sickness wasn’t real. It was just a charm.

  When she woke again, she overheard Dr. Vermeulen saying that another victim had been found in Verbeke Square: a lace shop employee taking out the trash at the back door.

  “Grimbaud can’t fall into panic,” came the detective’s voice. “I need to make an arrest soon.”

  “And we need to stop the sickness,” the doctor said.

  “The charm,” the detective corrected. “Take care of the victims. With any luck, we’ll have this case solved soon.” The detective’s footsteps echoed down the hallway.

  Hijiri felt someone gently shaking her shoulder.

  “We’re here,” Fallon said. She held the filigree spice box with reverence. Sebastian was by her side.

  “What day is it?” Hijiri asked, struggling to sit up in bed. Ken handed her a cup of water. She drank it slowly, careful not to cry into the cup. She hated the crying.

  “It’s
still Sunday,” Sebastian said. “A little after seven.”

  Hijiri opened the spice box. The loose leaf tea smelled delicious—strongly of hibiscus, with vanilla and caramel undertones. One of the nurses came in with a mug of hot water. Fallon provided an infuser shaped like a lounging cupid, its silicone arms resting on the lip of the mug. The water turned a rich, ruby-red color. Everyone gathered around the bed while Hijiri blew on the hot tea.

  The first sip burned the back of her throat as it went down. Fire spread through her veins, clashing with the lovesickness charm residing there. Hijiri kept drinking. Normally, the tea brought warmth to loosen muscles and relax the body, but it was fighting another charm and reacting strongly. One charm had to overpower the other and she hoped that her charm would win.

  Her heart trembled between the two charms for what felt like ages. Then, slowly, the Heart’s Ease tea gained the upper hand. But only the upper hand. Stoffel’s charm stayed put. Her vision cleared with only the slight flickering of a pink tint and her tears dried, though she still felt on the cusp of crying. The longing is manageable, she thought. I just have to keep drinking the tea.

  Dr. Vermeulen burst through the door, his stethoscope hanging from his neck. His eyes widened when he saw Hijiri push back the covers and slip out of bed. “What’s going on here?”

  “I’m fine,” Hijiri said. Her body still felt weak, as if she hadn’t slept in weeks.

  “If this is a trick…” Dr. Vermeulen said, wagging his finger. Then he sighed and used his stethoscope to listen to her heart. “No more palpitations,” he said with wonder. “No more tears. No heartache? How could this be when the other victims are only getting worse?”

  Hijiri pursed her lips. She could play dumb—it would get her out of the hospital quicker. The other victims were safe enough in the hospital, even if they wouldn’t heal without the aid of charms. But that wouldn’t be right. Hijiri took the spice box from Fallon and pinned the doctor with a solemn look. “Thanks to this love charm I made. It’s only a temporary solution, but it will take away the worst of the symptoms if they keep drinking it.”

  She spent the next hour explaining to the doctor and a few nurses how to use the charm, reluctantly having to part with half of her loose leaf tea. She promised she’d make more when she returned to her apartment. She had to. Heart’s Ease was not meant to be a powerful charm, but the town needed it nonetheless.

  Fallon turned to the detective. “What if Stoffel is drawn to people who are already suffering from love problems?”

  “How do you figure?” one of the nurses asked.

  Fallon shrugged. “The flyers. ‘Stoffel’s Hugs Heal Hearts.’ It wouldn’t be chasing people with happy love lives if those words are true.”

  Hijiri flashed Fallon a tired grin. That made sense. Her own heart had been troubled when Stoffel appeared.

  Ken took the empty mug of tea. He breathed in the lingering scent, his gaze soft.

  “What is it?” she asked, remembering his reaction to her love charm earlier.

  He looked up sharply. The beginnings of a cough bubbled up in his throat. “I love tea,” he whispered.

  Hijiri raised her eyebrows. “More than waffles?” His proclaimed favorite food.

  “More than I can say,” he said, his smile fragile and fleeting.

  * * *

  Monday brought news of more victims. Hijiri tried not to burst into tears or cover her notes with poetry during her classes. She carried a heavy thermos of Heart’s Ease tea with her. Whenever her vision started to darken to pink, she knew it was time for another cup. Grimbaud High couldn’t get enough of talking about the charmed robot. Detective Archambault must have felt that releasing information on Stoffel would help keep Grimbaudians safe, so the local paper had printed a front-page article.

  The entire town knew about the robot now. They also knew that Hijiri’s love charm was making a difference in healing the victims.

  Hijiri was surprised to see her name in the article, already wishing she could hide in the shadows of the tunnel until the news blew over. Students who had never spoken to her before came up to her to talk about the tea.

  “This is really good for you,” Nico said as he played bodyguard between her second- and third-period classes.

  “Yeah, being bombarded by strangers,” Hijiri said, dabbing her wet eyes with a tissue. “If I knew that Dr. Vermeulen couldn’t be discreet, I never would have given him my charm to use.”

  Nico snorted. “Uh-huh.”

  A headache bloomed that had nothing to do with the pop quiz she had taken. “Look, I didn’t expect the news to get out so quickly. I was only just in the hospital myself yesterday. This is happening too fast.”

  “You should have stayed home and gotten some sleep,” Nico said with some concern.

  “I’ll sleep when the competition is over.”

  Nico rolled his eyes.

  She drifted through the rest of her classes and made it to lunch. Crumpled newspapers doubled as tumbleweeds by then; all the paper reminded her of the flurry of flyers Stoffel had spit at her. Hijiri shivered and pushed the thought away. She sat down at the lunch table with vegetable soup and her tea.

  “Doing okay?” Fallon asked Hijiri.

  “Surviving.” Hijiri dipped her spoon in the soup. Anais and Bear looked as happy as ever, sharing their lunches and talking about the shared elective class they had together. Still, she couldn’t stop the warning that fell from her lips. “Be careful walking home,” Hijiri said, looking at both Anais and Bear. If their hearts were even remotely troubled, they could be targets for Stoffel.

  “I heard the news.” Anais said with a huff, “If any robot tries to get me, I’ll snap its arms in half.”

  “You’re not quite there yet,” Bear said fondly.

  “That robot is just a bully,” Anais insisted. “It makes me so mad to think that it’s hurting so many people.”

  Hijiri drank deeply from her tea and looked around at the students occupying tables and the lines for food. Any of them could be attacked by Stoffel. Just thinking about it gave her the chills.

  “Who are you looking for?” Anais asked.

  “Not Ken,” Fallon said, concerned. “You know he’s not in our lunch period.”

  Hijiri blushed and gripped the table as a wave of dizziness washed over her. “I may be lovesick, but not that way. My memory’s fine.”

  Anais perked up. “So where’s this new boy I’ve been hearing so much about? I’m beginning to think he’s imaginary.”

  Imaginary. Hijiri flinched. He just might be. A bundle of charms in human form.

  “He was at the first two challenges,” Fallon said.

  “Well, Bear and I weren’t introduced,” Anais said, pouting.

  Hijiri squirmed and waited for Fallon to smooth over Anais’s hurt. They weren’t her friends, even though they seemed nice enough. She felt the smallness of her heart in moments like these. A tightness that made her reluctant to share. She took another gulp of tea and tucked her hands under her legs to keep herself from writing bad poetry on her napkins. The school day couldn’t end fast enough.

  * * *

  Tuesday followed in much the same way: Hijiri ripped up pages of her terrible poetry and drank so much tea her stomach felt bloated. She spent the night working on her missed-connections love charm for the competition, but it was hard to focus when her heart pounded and longing slowed her movements. Her parents still hadn’t called. She wondered when they’d schedule in a time to see if their daughter was still breathing.

  Ken was a quiet presence beside her on their morning walks to school. He’d seemed lost in his own thoughts since Sunday.

  He came by her locker after school. “Do you mind the company?”

  She shook her head. “With Stoffel around, company is a good idea.”

  “Is your heart in peril again?” he asked with a twist to his smile.

  “I don’t know. Is yours?”

  Ken hesitated. “Perhaps we’re not
safe with each other.”

  “Let’s go,” she said, grabbing his sweater sleeve.

  Walks provided her with brainstorming time. Usually. They had only walked a few blocks when Hijiri heard someone angrily call her name. Hijiri turned around to see Clea striding toward them—or a woman who looked kind of like Clea. Her pixie cut was in disarray, all the shine and glitter from her charmed eye shadow smeared like a paint stain across her face. One of the crystal butterflies always pinned to her smock had lost a wing.

  “I know what you’re up to,” Clea said, stabbing the air with her finger. “Very clever of you to take advantage of this runaway charm to steal votes.”

  Hijiri gasped. Is that why Clea chased me down?

  “Who’s to say you didn’t craft Stoffel?” Clea said.

  Hijiri didn’t acknowledge the accusation. Something had upset Clea badly. “Where’s Mandy?”

  Clea’s bottom lip trembled. “She’s in the hospital. Stoffel got her. Right in front of me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Hijiri said. No wonder the poor woman was upset. “Then you should be there with her. My Heart’s Ease tea will lessen the lovesickness symptoms, but not for long.”

  “This is all because of you,” Clea said. “Ever since you made Mandy and me use that charm in the second challenge, she’s been ridiculously upset with me about my makeup habits. It made her a target for Stoffel. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t meddled in our relationship.”

  Ken’s jaw tightened. “Hijiri’s charms would never create problems that aren’t there.”

  Hijiri swallowed down a wave of longing and sorrow from the lovesickness. Her head throbbed from the effort. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Ken smiled at her.

  Clea wiped her eyes, spreading more glittery makeup. “I’m going to win the competition, I swear.”

  “Best of luck to you,” Hijiri said with a fake smile plastered on her lips.

  Clea growled and turned on her heel. They watched her walk away.

  “Stoffel’s turning this town upside down,” Ken said, sighing.

  Hijiri couldn’t agree more. She took a sip of her tea and tried to push Clea’s angry face out of her mind. They fell into step again, heading toward the Student Housing Complex, when she noticed the townspeople gossiping in small groups on the street. When she and Ken waited to cross the street, what they were saying became clear.