by Amy Boyles
Best to stay far, far away. After all, if Betty could sense when we kissed, who knew what else she could sense?
Something I didn’t want to find out, thank you very much.
Axel wrapped a hand around my neck and gently kneaded his fingers into the rope of muscles. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but Axel, I have a feeling that whatever Rufus wants isn’t going to stop at me. There’s something strange about everything. I mean, the police didn’t have too hard a time tracking him down and nabbing him.”
He cocked his head. “He could just be stupid. To spell you the way he did suggests it.”
I poked his chest. “It’s not that. There’s more to this than just me.”
Axel took my hands and stopped, studying me. The bloom of intensity in his eyes made my lower lip tremble. “I don’t care about the part that isn’t you. I care about you. As soon as Garrick called to tell me what was going on, I returned. I’ll do whatever I can to break this spell. First things first, we need to speak with Argus Amulet.”
I shook my head. “Don’t you know? He’s dead.”
His eyes flared. “Dead?”
“Tonight. Shot himself up with a lethal dose of deadly nightshade.”
“Not Argus.”
“Yes, he did. Killed himself.”
Axel exhaled a deep breath. “I’ve known Argus a long time. Consulted with him on several cases. He knows how to dose that stuff. He wouldn’t have committed suicide.”
“I confronted Rufus about it, because let’s face it, he’s the most likely to have killed Argus, but he didn’t know anything. Not that he would tell me the truth, but I thought at least he might reveal a nugget of information.”
Axel released my hands and raked his fingers through his shoulder-length dark hair. “I’m still digesting what you told me about Argus. No way he killed himself. No way.” He glanced at me. “And it was nightshade?”
“Garrick has the vial.”
“Okay, there are a lot of cogs going in this thing. Do we know how Rufus was able to enter Magnolia Cove?”
I shook my head. “No.”
He clicked his tongue. “So even if we kick him back out, he could still reenter. We need to know that won’t happen. Next, I need to work on getting you separated from Rufus.”
I rubbed my temples. “Could you make that sooner rather than later?”
Concern slashed across his face. “Why?” He then glanced at the starry heavens as if asking for a bone. “The headaches?”
“I’ve had one all day.”
“Let’s get that solved, then.” He took my hand again. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” I said.
“To Argus’s shack.”
“At this hour? You’re kidding.”
He shook his head. “Not kidding. We’ve got to break that spell.”
“But it’s probably locked.”
Axel smiled. It was the first time I’d seen him do that since he’d blown the doors off the police station. “I know where he keeps the key.”
We reached the First Witch Center a few minutes later. Axel had driven his truck, and I hopped in after I stored the skillet in the bed.
“Are we going to get in trouble for sneaking around the center at night?”
Axel drove with one hand on the wheel. He tipped his face toward me. “I don’t care if we get in trouble. We’re investigating a potential murder of a good friend of mine.”
I nodded, sinking back into the bucket seat. A wave of sadness filled me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were close to him.”
“Seems like that’s just how it’s been going lately. I was close to your uncle, too.”
“I know.”
Axel had helped out my Great-Uncle Donovan quite a bit before he passed away. In fact, Axel had shown me things about my store that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise, simply because he and Donovan had been so close.
The pickup rolled through town, eventually coming to the center. Most of the lights were off except those illuminating the foyer. We parked and Axel killed the engine.
“We’re going around back.”
“With all that dense shrubbery? Won’t there be spiders?”
His lips coiled into a grin. “I’ll protect you. How does that sound?”
“By going first and breaking all the webs?”
He nodded. “Exactly.”
I slid from the seat and quietly shut the door. Axel came around and threaded his fingers through mine. He guided me around back, speaking softly as we walked.
“It’s against my better judgment to have even brought you.”
“Why?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Because I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“Well, I’m not exactly a wilting flower. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not going to sit at the house and wait for you to fix this.”
“I’ve noticed,” he said sharply.
I pulled my fingers from his. “What does that mean?”
We’d walked around back and were facing the dense foliage. “It means you have a knack for finding trouble.”
I crossed my arms and didn’t move. “I know you’re not saying I was asking for Rufus to do this to me.”
“Of course not.” He sighed. “All I’m saying is, I want to keep you safe. I probably shouldn’t have brought you, but I did.”
“If I’d known you were coming, I would’ve insisted in going with you.”
“That’s what I mean. I can’t keep you away from trouble.”
I scoffed. “It’s not as if it’s your job to keep me from trouble. I can take care of myself.”
He shook his head. “Why is this suddenly an argument? I want to keep you safe, but obviously I can’t.”
“But it’s not my fault.”
His voice rose. “I didn’t say it was your fault.”
“Well, that’s how it sounded.”
“You’re making something out of nothing.”
“No, I’m not.”
He rubbed his forehead. “Listen, would you stop arguing and just come with me so that I can figure out how to break the spell?”
“And do what? Save a damsel in distress?”
His lips curved. Axel took a solid step toward me until only a slip of air passed between us. “Is it so wrong to want to save you?” His fingers brushed a strand of hair from my cheek.
My nose twitched. I bent my ankle, letting my foot roll over in nervousness. “No. You can save me anytime you want.”
“That’s what I was hoping for.” He took my hand. “Come on and stop back talking. We’ve got work to do.”
As much as I didn’t want to, I couldn’t help but chuckle at his comment. “If you didn’t push me to it, I wouldn’t back talk.”
Axel shot me a dirty look over his shoulder. I blinked innocently at him.
We reached a part of the garden that the lights from the building couldn’t penetrate. Axel seemed to know his way by heart, or possibly it was scent from the werewolf part of him that led him effortlessly to the front door of Argus’s shack.
A ceramic frog sat to one side. Axel gently tugged off the head and retrieved a key from the porcelain belly. He slid the key into the lock, and a moment later the door swung wide.
I followed him in, and he quietly shut the door behind us. Axel opened his palm, and faint light glowed in the center.
My eyes flared. “Some trick.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “I’m full of surprises.”
“So I see.”
“This way we won’t draw attention to ourselves by flipping on the light.” He walked silently around the room. His lean form stirred something deep inside me.
Axel and I had experienced a few ups and downs in the short span of time that we’d been involved. In fact, that sucker had broken up with me a few days ago—for my own protection, it had turned out. It had been a rough couple of days without him. Watching him now, I understood part of that.
The
guy was hot and the chemistry between us, sizzling.
But it was more than that. I kinda “got” Axel and Axel kinda “got” me. It was cool. A lot of mutual respect ran between us. But even still, we were moving slowly through this. The last thing I wanted was to rush into a relationship that neither of us was ready for.
But watching him now, I can tell you that I was just about ready for anything when it came to Axel.
Better not tell him that.
He moved to a collection of stones and started picking them up one by one. “No labradorite.”
I cocked my head. “Samuel, Argus’s nephew, mentioned something about that, too. Said he needed the labradorite for the spell.” I leaned on one hip. “And you know what? Rufus said something about it, too.”
Axel swung around and faced me. “What did he say?”
“He guessed that it had gone missing. How he knew, I have no idea. But once again it makes the whole thing look like Rufus had a hand in Argus’s death.”
Axel swept the light over a wall. “It’s a very precious stone and happens to be what I need to help you. Now whether or not Argus was going to use it, I don’t know, but it probably would’ve been in his arsenal.”
“Samuel seemed pretty ticked it was gone.”
“I can understand that.”
“Why?”
Axel dusted off a container and looked inside. “Because Argus didn’t have any faith in his grandson’s abilities as a sorcerer and Samuel knew it. Always irritated him. There’s nothing worse than the one person you respect thinking that you’ll never live up to their standards.”
I twisted a strand of hair absentmindedly. “Yeah, I can see that, but I didn’t get that sense from Argus.”
“He was very polite. At least, most of the time. It’s not something he would’ve told a stranger.”
“Are you looking for something other than the labradorite?”
“Ah,” Axel said, “here it is.”
I walked over and glanced at his hand. In it lay a small twisted lump of feathers. “What’s that?”
“It’s something that can help with what Rufus has done to you. At the very least it may be able to ease the pain of your headache.” He grabbed a thick black tome with a cracked binding. “And I definitely need this.”
“And that is?”
“An arcane spell book. Lots of secrets in here. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the very spell Rufus used lay hidden inside somewhere.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “It would be amazing if that were the case.”
He handed it to me, and I hugged the book to my chest. “What else do you need?”
“That I won’t know until I’m in the thick of things. And I’m hoping I don’t need the labradorite, because that could be a problem.”
Unfortunately something told me that he might need it, which would mean we were possibly up crap creek without any sort of paddle.
“And one last stop.” Axel opened a cabinet with glass doors. He pushed aside vials that tinkled and clanked as he worked. “This is where Argus kept his nightshade, among other potions and elixirs he might need.”
“Oh? Why’re you looking in there?”
Axel pulled out a vial. “This is why.”
He presented a bottle with the word NIGHTSHADE.
“I don’t understand. There was already one bottle found with that in it. The one Argus used to kill himself with.”
Axel’s mouth tightened. “That’s my point. Argus only ever kept one bottle of the stuff at a time in here. For safety purposes.”
I pressed at the worry lines creasing my forehead. “So what you’re saying is that the other bottle labeled ‘nightshade’ wasn’t his?”
Axel nodded. “Right. It wasn’t and I’m going to prove that Argus was murdered.”
TEN
Axel took the few items, and we slinked from the shack, heading back toward the pickup.
“Did you find the labradorite?”
The voice popped out of the darkness. I shrieked, throwing my hands into the air. Axel pushed me behind him in a protective stance.
“Who’s there?” Axel said.
Samuel Amulet shuffled from the bushes. “Well? Find what you were looking for?”
Axel shook his head. “I only wanted to pay respects to your grandfather. He was a good man.”
Samuel sniggered. “You didn’t find the labradorite, did you?”
Axel shook his head. “No. I don’t think it’s there. Maybe he placed it in his room inside?”
Samuel shook his head. “Not there either. If you find it, the stone rightfully belongs to me. I’ll need it.”
Axel placed a hand to his heart. “I wouldn’t dream of keeping it from you. You’ll be the first person I tell if I find it.”
“Make sure of that,” Samuel said.
My heart didn’t slow until we were safely inside the truck. “What was that all about?” I said, pulling the ancient black book from my purse and resting it in my lap.
“Samuel thinks the labradorite will give him power that he hasn’t had before. Make him a better, more powerful sorcerer.”
“Will it?”
“Does putting lipstick on a pig make it pretty?”
I shrugged. “Depends on the pig, I suppose.”
He scowled.
“Kidding. No. So you’re saying it won’t matter for him. He’s going to be at the level he’s at unless a miracle happens. And some miracles are hard to believe in.”
“Right.” Axel cranked the engine. “I’m just glad he didn’t ask if we’d taken anything else.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t like to lie. At all. Not part of my agenda. And I wouldn’t have wanted to give that book up, because I’ve got a lot of work to do tonight if I’m going to break the connection between you and Rufus.”
I placed a hand on his arm. “I appreciate you trying to help.”
He turned to me, an almost hurt expression on his face. “There’s nothing to appreciate. I care about you, Pepper. I don’t want to see anything happen that would jeopardize your safety.”
He slid from the parking lot and drove through town. When we passed my street, I frowned. “Where are we going?”
“My place.”
My eyebrows shot to peaks. “Your place?”
He laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m not trying to seduce you, but I do want to ease that headache. I should be able to, but everything I need is at my house. So that’s where we’re headed.”
I nestled back into the seat and pressed my fingertips into my temples. “Good. Because the sooner the better. This one’s getting bad.”
He rubbed my shoulder. “Hang on. Just a few minutes longer.”
We reached Axel’s house shortly after. Unlike all the gingerbread-looking structures in town, Axel’s house was constructed of glass and long wooden panels. It looked ultramodern on the outside, and I could attest that it was also ultramodern on the inside with sleek countertops, soft colors and sparse furnishings.
It did not surprise me in the least that Axel rubbed against the grain of Magnolia Cove in terms of the structure. It fit who he was—a man who crashed into oncoming waves in many ways, not just in how he appeared to live.
“I’ll try not to keep you here all night,” he said.
I pressed my temples. “It’s okay. I can stay however long I need to. No one knows I left the house, so Betty won’t be waiting up for me.”
He quirked a brow.
I elbowed him. “Don’t get any ideas.”
He guided me inside, where he snapped on a lamp, revealing soft brown leather furniture that looked as slippery as butter. Axel guided me to the couch, and I nestled down onto it. He found a blanket and draped it over me.
“Get comfortable. I’ll grab some things and come back.”
I rested in the living room while sounds of rummaging wafted from the kitchen and some other room. After a few moments he popped back into view.
&nb
sp; “I’ve got everything I need to calm that ache.”
My eyelids fluttered open. Axel sat on the glass coffee table, a wide display of objects scattered atop the surface.
I sat up. A wave of nausea made me pause. “What’s all that?”
“This,” Axel said proudly, “are the tricks of my trade. A few objects that will ease pain, hopefully diminish it. They won’t be able the stem the root of the problem—which is that you must burn off some of your power—but they can at least calm the tidal wave you’re experiencing.”
“How does it work?”
He grabbed a small cauldron and started dropping items inside—leaves, twigs, fur. He explained as he worked.
“Bark of a willow, a drop of venom from a viper—”
“That’s not going to kill me, is it?”
“Shh. I have to concentrate.”
I lay back on the pillow. Yep, better let Axel concentrate so that he didn’t accidentally kill me, because I did not need to be killed. No, ma’am.
He mortared the mixture, pounding it into a paste. Then he added a few purple drops of liquid from a clear vial. The concoction hissed and wheezed.
He laid a hand atop it, mumbled a few words I couldn’t understand. A great puff of smoke erupted from the cauldron.
“It’s done.”
He poured the contents into a flask and passed it to me. “Snake venom?”
“It’s a common ingredient in blood pressure medicine. If it doesn’t kill those folks, you’ll be fine.”
I glared at him.
“Trust me. On this, I know what I’m doing.”
“But you’re a wizard, not a sorcerer.”
He raked strong, muscular fingers through his hair. “I’ve got advanced training. Drink it. It will help.”
I sniffed. “Whoa. That smells horrible.”
It did. It smelled like mildewed socks and sweaty armpits. “Do I really have to?”
“Will you stop being such a baby?”
I pushed up on my elbow. “I’m not being a baby.”
“Yes, you are.”
“But it smells.”
“Baby.”
Our eyes locked and we both burst into laughter. I sat up and cradled the cup in my palms. “This better not kill me.”