Orchid noticed me noticing.
“Oh, so that’s what you meant by cotton candy.” She was gesturing toward Jonah’s pink faux hawk.
“Haha, hardly. Jonah’s cool. I mean, I think we’re friends. It seems like he’s nice to everybody. Probably just wants tips.”
“I don’t see a tip jar.”
“Oh. Well, whatever.”
“He’s into you.”
“No. No way. He’s just doing his job.”
“And you were flirting with him.”
“No, I was not!”
She fanned her hands out from her cheeks like wings and said in a singsong voice, “Oh, thank you, kind barista person!”
“Shut up!” I slugged her. “I’m just in a good mood.”
“It’s more than a good mood; it’s like you’re…are you in LOVE with him?”
“Oh, yeah right.”
She leaned in and whispered in my ear, “First a warlock, now a punk rock barista dude? I’m going to have to re-nickname you if you don’t cool off a bit on the Y-chromosome here, Lil.”
I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t help smiling.
Just a few days ago, I had thought my magic was doomed. I was a cheater, and a liar, and now? Logan could be the key to saving our magic, and I would be the one leading us to him.
And now this surge of adrenaline dragging me down here.
“Wow, I never would have thought…” She made a tsk sound under her breath.
Jonah looked up from the whipped cream he was shooting into my dessert-mocha and winked.
I must have looked at it too hard, because the whipped cream swirled and swirled and kept swirling.
Jonah lifted his finger off the nozzle, but it stayed pointing down, piling on top of my drink like a whirlpool of creamed sugar. Finally, when it was about a foot tall, the whipped cream drooped and fell with a fantastically ludicrous plop onto the counter.
Everyone around us cracked up. Everyone except Orchid, who just looked equal parts disturbed and bemused.
Holding his hands up, Jonah stepped away like the sticky mess was a crime scene he’d stumbled upon. “Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we’ve witnessed the first possessed dairy. Is there an exorcist in the house?”
The customers on the bar and hanging out on velveteen purple couches near the counter laughed and shouted out in response.
Narrowing her eyes, Orchid stared into her tea mug. The hot water began to boil when a gawky kid with a bad case of acne called out from behind his laptop, “A spell from one of Melas witches perhaps?”
That wasn’t the weird part. Kids said stuff about witches all the time here. But Jonah turning from the pile of cream he was cleaning up and catching my eye directly after? That was weird.
“A wonky nitrous oxide accident. That’s all.” His tone was more than jovial. It was purposely light. Like he was covering something up. Something he might know.
Um.
He handed me the mocha with a glop of salvaged cream on the top. “Here you go, Lily. Have at it.”
I avoided his eyes and muttered, “Thanks.”
What did he know?
And why did the whipped cream flip out? More of my magic gone awry, certainly.
What I did get, from my own intuition, was the fact that if Jonah did indeed know something, he wouldn’t use that knowledge to hurt me. He’d be on my side.
And in my World Gone Mad? A comforting thought, indeed.
People that have been raised in Melas know not to hang out at the Boardwalk, past about age twelve. The loud, overpriced, no-parking-whatsoever kidfest is for tourists. But I woke up this morning and knew I had to go. For some reason I was drawn down here. A craving. Like with the sweet drink. Thank goodness, Orchid agreed to come with me. I thought after the whipped cream debacle at the Brew, she might change her mind and flee, therefore leaving me in the sticky, noisy, lurch.
“Thanks so much for coming. I so know this isn’t your normal cup o' tea, dude.”
“It’s not even my instant, generic, lukewarm, nastoid cuppa tea, Lil. But anything for you, my darling…”
She leaned into my cheek with mock air kisses.
I giggled, ducking out of her way.
“You know, for a human, that Jonah’s not that bad,” she said.
“I know, right? He’s super cool. That was awesome—he sort of…well, did it seem like he covered for us after that kid made a crack about witches?”
“Indeed.”
“I wonder…well, there’s no way he could know, but…it seemed like he knew.”
“Yeah, it did.”
“You don’t seem worried.”
Orchid shrugged. “Look, we’ve been living in Melas for generations and generations. Not all humans are stupid. Most, sure. But not all. If that cotton-candy-head barista knows something, I mean, who would believe him if he told? And who would he tell? The key to survival, Lily, is making sure the people who could take you down never find out your secrets.”
Clearly, Jonah was not one of those people. I could read humans pretty well, and he seemed like one of the good ones.
Still, I couldn’t help wondering how much we stood out from the other customers at the Brew. For Orchid, it was almost a matter of pride. If her current ensemble were a newspaper headline, it would read: “Pocahontas Rebels Against Chief Powhatan and Goes Goth.” Her tight tank top was a blur of black leather strips and beads. It clung to her chest, showing off smooth, bony shoulders, willow-thin arms. This morning her hair was streaked with dark purple, and she wore fishnet stockings to match. She drew the attention of pretty much everyone who walked by as she leaned against the sticky bench looking off in the distance.
Soaking in the sweet-salty atmosphere, I noticed a cicada of circus music coming from the double decker carousel. When my eyes landed on the ride, the music seemed to grow louder. Old-school ducks and kangaroos rose and fell in a cartoon blur, their giggling riders clinging to golden poles. Smiling parents preserving the moment in pictures.
I grinned to myself too. Happy humans so impressed with man-made magic. See? They wanted it just as much as we did.
Inside everything beautiful there is a little bit of magic.
Orchid’s black-lined lips continued to move in spirited storytelling.
I wanted to listen to her.
But the music. It was all-encompassing. I focused inward, tried to turn down the concert in my head. Squeezed my eyes shut.
When I opened them, my eyes landed on the reason I’d been drawn to the boardwalk today. My heart sped into overdrive.
Logan.
Under the Boardwalk’s Spell
Logan
“Dude, this is ridiculous.”
Logan jumped over the pink elephant’s ears onto the rising yellow stork. “It’s fun.”
Chance stood where he was, holding on to the gold bar like it was a subway pole, and deadpanned, “It’s a ride for babies. Besides, you don’t like fun.”
Logan leapt to yet another antique animal. This time an orange dragon breathing green flames. Ahh, the irony. “Now this is what I’m talking about.”
“You need an intervention.” Chance held out his hand. “Give me the amulet.”
“No chance.” Logan laughed at his dumb joke. “You’re terribly boring today, by the way.”
Logan slipped down the dragon’s orange ceramic fire when the music and the ride lulled to a stop.
“Logan, it’s making you act like a moron. I should have dunked your craziness off your board and confiscated it in the water. Now hand it over.”
“You’re wrong, my friend. It’s making me happy.”
“It’s crack. It’s your crack.” Chance shook his head. “You’re a crackhead.”
Logan hopped over the low rail. “What do you want to go on next? How about that swinging boat? Anything you want.”
Chance held him still with both hands mashing into his shoulders. “I want you. To stop. Acting like a lunatic.”
Logan to
ok a deep breath. “I’ll try. I’m trying. See? I’m trying.”
“You can barely stand still.”
“I can’t help it.” Logan pointed to the log ride and started toward it. “I’m having fun. You know, when I was a kid, Jacob refused to take me here. I’d see this place from the backseat of his Mercedes, just out of my reach.”
“Did you ever ask him to take you?”
“Every day,” he said with a wry smile.
“You know what’s happening here, right?”
“No, what’s happening?”
“The witch’s amulet is making you…I hate to say it…more human.”
Logan watched a cheap-looking log boat jerk up the track at a painfully slow pace. Logan closed his eyes as his shoulders soaked in some of the sun’s magic. He held his inked arms in front of him and thrust his palms straight out, giving the boat an extra push and sending it sailing over the edge. Hands high in the air, the human riders cried out in euphoric fear.
“Well,” he said, “I don’t know it’s making me more human, but it is making me feel things, see things from points of view other than my own. It makes me feel alive.”
Chance rolled his eyes. “You must be cut off.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re crazy. Because you are going to get us busted. Because you nearly crashed that fake log and killed twelve humans. Should I go on?”
“Just having a good time. Aren’t you and the other guys always after me to break the rules once in awhile? Well, this is me doing your bidding, Voodoo.”
“Uh, this is not at all what I had in mind.”
Logan shrugged. “I’m not giving it up,” he said.
Ever since meeting Lily, Logan’s senses were running triple time. Before, all he wanted was to be alone, fighting, or in the ocean.
Now he wanted to embrace everything life offered. He didn’t understand why, but he knew it was all connected to Lily’s amulet, and to Lily herself. That’s why he couldn’t give it back. He couldn’t part with something that made him feel this good. “For the record, I sped up the track not to hurt them, but to give them a better ride.”
“Why would you care if they had a better ride?”
Logan shrugged. “I don’t know.”
When they finally reached the top, Logan hopped in the front of the boat.
“Buckle up, my friend. I got a feeling this is going to be a wild ride.”
“There aren’t any seatbelts.”
Logan chuckled wryly. “May the universe help us, then.”
Lily
“Orchid, hide me.” Ducking behind my friend’s smooth legs, I squatted on the popcorn-littered boardwalk. I’d been watching, unable to tear my eyes away as Logan roughhoused with his friend, a warlock with cerulean eyes like ours, but with hip spiky dreadlocks and a wide, wicked smile.
They had disappeared onto the log ride. But now that they were back in view—and coming in our direction—I panicked like a middle-schooler at my first dance.
Orchid jumped away from me like I was lighting her ankles on fire. “What is your deal?!”
“Orchid, it’s him.”
“Him who? There are so many ‘hims’ in your life these days, how could I guess which one?” she teased as she flicked at her ankles. “Get. Off. Me. And stop acting so weird! What is with you today anyway?”
Dodging her flicks, I stayed crouched behind Orchid’s legs like a clingy toddler.
“Don’t say anything,” I hissed. “That’s Logan. That’s the warlock I’m forbidden to interact with until I get coven approval. He can not see me.”
“So that’s Logan, huh?” Orchid let out a smooth whistle, “Wow, he’s hotter than I thought he’d be.”
“Orchid!”
“Smokin’.” She whistled under her breath. “Too bad he’s warlock scum, or this coven mission of yours wouldn’t be bad at all. His friend’s not hard on the eyes either.”
I licked my lips and smoothed my hair down with my palms. Re-grouped. “Come down here.”
Orchid eyed the filthy ground, “Yeah right.”
“Pretend you dropped something! Orchid, please. I have to tell you something.”
She cursed then unnecessarily loudly cried, “WHOOOOOPS!” In a fluid dancer-esque motion, she plucked a star-shaped earring out of the top of her curved ear and dropped it. Under the influence of her spell, it fell feather slow, until she swooped it into her outstretched palm. “So clumsy!” Patting her chest like a Southern belle, she lilted her accent to match.
“What was that?” Tugging the leather fridges on her tank top I yanked her down. “Listen, if he comes over here and talks to us, I’m going to pretend I don’t know he has my amulet, okay? I’m going to play it all friendly, so that way, when I have to go searching for his mark he won’t be as suspicious. Got it? Just play along.”
“Hate to point out the obvious, but isn’t it sort of coincidental that this warlock, who is forbidden to leave his academy, just so happens to be the same place you are? What if he was sent here by his master to find you? We could be in danger here, Lil. Camellia said to stay away from them. I say we bolt before he sees us.”
“No, come on. This will work. Trust me.”
“I suspect double motivation for your savvy plan.” Orchid’s gaze landed on Logan’s body as he walked across the wooden planks. “Not that I blame you. I’ve heard the rumors about the warlocks and their uncanny levels of hot, but holy hell, dude. That is something else.”
I blinked, soaking him in as well. It was very hard not to. He was unbearably gorgeous in his black tank top and low-slung pants. I noticed he’d switched out his heavy boots for low-rise Converse, which made him seem more relaxed. Blinding sun reflected off his chest. More specifically, the jewel dangling around his neck.
My pulse sped up. “He’s wearing it.”
“Don’t think your plan’s going to work now, Fred. Best get back into the Mystery Machine and ask Shaggy for some tips. Or we could go the Orchid route: I jump him and just snatch it.” She ran her tongue over her teeth. “He looks highly jumpable.”
“Off limits!” I said, reclaiming the moment. Not because Logan was against the rules, but because he was mine. “No, no. Stick with my plan. I’ll pretend I don’t see it.”
“As you wish. But I got your back in case they pounce, Lil.”
Orchid wasn’t looking at me as she said it. And who could blame her with two ridiculously hot warlocks sauntering twenty feet away.
I glanced down toward where the mark may be. When my eyes met his skin, a dizzying heat coursed through my body.
He was all I’d been thinking about. And here he was.
“Hey,” Logan said.
“Hey,” I said back. As our eyes locked, a feeling like a feather tracing the outline of my spine tickled down my back.
Off-limitsOff-limitsOff-limits.
“We haven’t been formally introduced.” The friend leaned over Logan, extending his hand to me, “I’m Chance.”
“Lily,” I said, shaking his hand. His eyes flashed liquid pools of water when we touched. He knew exactly who I was. So Logan had been talking about me?
Logan leaned forward, breaking his grasp on my hand. He turned his body toward me as if protecting me from his friend.
Orchid hissed under her breath as she reacted to their energy. I felt her heart speed up as her antsy foot tapped the wooden planks.
“What are you doing down here?” she asked them, in a tone that was less than civil.
Logan shot me a nervous look.
“Free country,” his friend said, meeting Orchid’s tone.
“Not necessarily a free country when you’re banished to the outskirts of town, now is it?”
The energy shifted from lighthearted to stormy in a matter of seconds.
This was her first encounter with the warlocks. Our mixed energy was like gas trickling toward an open flame. It would likely lead to a conflict in broad daylight if I wasn’t extremely careful.<
br />
“Orchid, it’s cool,” I said. “We aren’t responsible for governing over them. Broken rules or not.”
A curious smile twitched at one side of Logan’s mouth. He was glad I was sticking up for him.
Orchid wasn’t. She narrowed her eyes at me. “But the Congression is. And we’re entitled to report anything unusual to our Mistress. So...” She shrugged.
“Orchid, come on. Don’t make a scene.”
Tourists were glancing our way. Fights happened down here a lot, but not usually between girls and boys.
“That warlock scum stole your amulet,” she hissed. She was so not going along with my plan.
She palmed Logan’s chest hard. “Give it back to her. Now.”
Chance stepped between Logan and Orchid. Their chests practically grazing each other. I could hear their breathing, out of sync, the energy, the tension was thick as they struggled for dominance.
“Logan.” He knew what I meant. I needed him to get his friend to back off Orchid, so I could chill her out. He nodded and gripped his friend’s shoulder with his hand, soothing but firm.
“It’s cool, dude.”
“Is it? Because my girl here says he ripped off her stone. Pretended to save her and then switched it. Where I come from that isn’t cool. So give it back or we throw down right here. This is human territory, and therefore our jurisdiction.”
Logan might be able to restrain Chance, but I could not rope in Orchid.
So I sucked in a breath and ran a spell in my head.
When I opened my eyes, Orchid was batting her lashes, leaning into Chance like we were all friends from Melas High—as if we weren’t breaking major coven law by approaching two warlocks in public.
Like she hadn’t wanted to kill him thirty seconds ago.
“What are you boys up to today?” Orchid asked, all flirty, her hip jutting out to the side as she twisted a black bead on her bodice.
Witch's Brew - Spellspinners 1 (Spellspinners of Melas County) Page 8