Chapter 14

FOURTEEN

“ Wha —” What had just happened?

The ringing came again, and it suddenly clicked—the phone land line!

I stumbled out of the kitchen and rushed for the shop as the demonic artifact screamed again. Jerking the receiver out of the holder, heart pounding, I barely had enough breath to squeak, “ Yes ?”

“ You’re the Tea witch?” came a robotic voice.

Holding a hand to my chest, I tried to calm my heart down. “ The Tea Cauldron at your service,” I managed.

“ You deal with magic?” the voice asked. Raised voices and pop music filtered through the voice modifier. Guiles and Romary ?

Wary now, I said, “ Depends .”

“ I found you online. It said you deal with dark magic,” the caller insisted.

I straightened abruptly. Was this some kind of fishing expedition? Was this person trying to make me admit over the phone that I ran a dark magic business on the side, use it as proof to take the shop away from me?

I stifled a gasp. Was this another Council test?

How to answer? If I denied any involvement with dark magic and this was someone I could convert into good magic via placebo, I’d be doing a disservice to my mission as a community witch. On the other hand, I couldn’t admit to a complete stranger I was involved with dark magic.

But if it was a test, wouldn’t the Council want a witch who tries to help her customers, even if the customers’ issues had something to do with dark magic?

“ Hello ?” the voice demanded. “ Are you there?”

“ What’s your problem?” That sounded safe and noncommittal enough.

“ My …?” The voice sputtered. “ Seriously ? What’s your problem?”

“ What’s your magic problem,” I clarified.

“ Oh . Okay . Well …” There was a long pause, through which I recognized a popular song playing in the background long enough for me to start singing along in my head.

When Ian was back, I was dragging him to karaoke.

“ How do I know you’re the witch?” the voice asked, suddenly suspicious.

“ It’s after hours and you called here. Who else could it be?” Were Key and the strays at the bars right now following our suspects? Could I send them a text, see if they noticed any suspicious person on the phone? There would be too many of them, I supposed. Plus , my phone was in the kitchen.

“ Right , okay,” the caller conceded.

“ Why did you call?” I cooed. The sooner I figured out if this was another test, the faster I could go back to see what could be salvaged from the potion. Although , if this was the Council witch, she should be playing the main role in the movie and winning acting awards.

“ I think I cursed something,” the caller said in a low rush. “ I need to uncurse it.”

“ Curses don’t exist,” I said automatically, then covered a gasp of surprise and realization.

Was I talking to the movie saboteur? This was too coincidental.

“ They do,” the caller insisted. “ You have to help me. I’ll pay whatever it costs.”

I considered my options. If this was the movie saboteur, I needed to know who it was so I could present him to Key and Brett , and possibly paranormal justice. If it was unrelated, something bad must’ve happened for someone to contact me like this.

In either scenario, they were asking for help. And wasn’t that what counted in the end?

“ Come to the Tea Cauldron tomorrow, and we’ll sort this out. You can use the back door so nobody sees you.”

“ No ! Just tell me what to do to fix the curse, or send me a potion or something.”

“ I have a strict no consults over the phone policy.” At least, I did now.

“ I can’t go there,” the robotic voice whined.

“ This kind of thing can’t be talked about over the phone,” I said, making it up as I went. “ What if someone’s listening?”

There was a burst of static, then an alarmed, “ Someone’s listening?”

“ You never know.”

A different music track filled the air as my anonymous caller mulled over their options.

“ I guarantee complete discretion,” I assured them. At least until I figured out whether the sabotage had been some kind of prank gone wrong, if Brett was going to be fully okay, and how repentant this person was. Plus , as long as I didn’t promise witch-client confidentially, I figured I was good.

“ Okay , fine. But not at your shop.”

I ran through other options in my mind, then settled on the best: “ Meet me tomorrow morning at the east side of Greenhill Cemetery .”

If my caller was a local bad paranormal, they wouldn’t want anything to do with Ian or the shifters.

“ Sure . Ten thirty. Be there.” They hung up, and I was left with a dial tone.

Not a local, then. My initial suspicions seemed to be correct: he was likely part of the filming crew, and this was the saboteur we’d been looking for. Excitement bubbled inside of me at the thought. Finally , a suspect delivered on a silver platter!

As I returned to the kitchen, I pondered whether to call Key or not. While I was almost a hundred percent sure this person was our UNSUB , until I was fully sure, I couldn’t tell others about their problem. If they had nothing to do with the movie curse, then I’d be breaching one of my moral confidentiality pillars as a witch shop owner, and that wouldn’t do.

The mess on the kitchen counter was worse than expected.

Puddles of moon water covered the circle of herbs and crystals, and the black jade stone rested submerged inside the bowl, dead and dull. I touched it to make sure. Whatever energy it had contained, it was gone now.

I only had the one, and it would take longer than 2 nights to recharge.

Oh , boy.

Deep breaths, Hope . This was why I’d cultivated a wide range of suppliers, I reminded myself, trying to soothe the tendril of icy anxiety slithering down my spine. I would order a charged crystal, and yes, it would be an extra expense that’d hit me in the budget, but Council witch customers who were testing my abilities as a shop witch owner came first.

I cleaned up the mess, repeating this mantra, then returned upstairs. Rufus was keeping guard at the door while Fluffy was passed out on her blanket. She appeared to be in doggy dream heaven, so instead of waking her up, I kneeled by Rufus and threw my arms around him.

He let out an affronted woof , but allowed me to hug him close and bury my face in his fur, taking comfort in the warmth and vitality emanating from him. Slowly , I felt the anxiety retreat and a new sense of calm flood through me.

With a sigh, I pulled back and smoothed his fur before giving him some scritches. Fluffy was the best, of course, but Rufus had his own way to ease my nerves. “ Thank you, Rufus ,” I whispered before standing and getting ready for bed. I left the jade on the kitchen’s windowsill, but without an inkling of moonlight, it would simply remain a lovely paperweight.

Once in my long sleep T -shirt, I grabbed my phone and got under the covers.

Charged black jade for sale was much rarer than its uncharged counterpart—easier for the buyer to do the charging as they preferred—but I eventually found a store with some in stock. I put in an order with the very expensive rush delivery option that guaranteed it’d land on my step by tomorrow evening at the latest, and told myself that not every potion went smoothly, and that’s why I’d told the Council witch two days instead of tomorrow.

Expect the best, but allow for the bumps.

Unable to resist myself, I sent Ian a good night text, then smiled, closed my eyes, and cocooned under the blankets when he sent a heart and a moon back.

Morning came with an update from Key as I took Fluffy and Rufus out for their walk. They had followed Sanders and Curtis to the bars, but they’d been in a group with other people from the crew, so they hadn’t been able to talk to them on their own. They’d done nothing suspicious and had returned to their hotel after. Brett was doing fine and didn’t seem to have any lasting issues from whatever had been in his coffee.

Thank goodness.

I could sense Key’s disappointment with the lack of progress with the case, and I almost told her about my anonymous caller, but refrained. No point in getting her hopes up if it was unrelated.

I had replayed the phone call in my head several times, and while I couldn’t see how it wasn’t related to the movie curse, the caller had sounded like they didn’t have a clue of what they had done. In contrast, the sabotage so far had been meticulous and full of intent, especially Brett’s poisoning. The two didn’t add up.

I left Fluffy and Rufus to enjoy the backyard while I got the shop ready for opening. Brimstone wouldn’t come in for a bit, so it was all on me. The familiar actions of starting the water urn, writing the day’s specials on the blackboard, and refilling the glass display with the muffins and cookies filled me with a quiet sort of joy hardly found elsewhere. I took pride in getting everything perfect for the first customer of the day, in placing the mugs just so, and that last swipe of the cloth over the counter.

After arranging the chairs and stools to my satisfaction, I approached the front door and pulled the blinds up.

Hutton’s scowling face was plastered to the glass.