Chapter 32

THIRTY-TWO

“ And that’s how,” I told my captive audience, “ Dru was instrumental in lifting Olmeda’s movie curse. Thanks to her, a dangerous criminal was apprehended, and more movies and shows will be filmed here. Think about all the Hollywood tourism. We won’t be solely dependent on Guiles and Romary and special holidays for our income. All thanks to Dru !”

With those words, I closed my eyes and allowed the awe of my audience to flow over me.

“ Avery ?” Sonia said from her seat behind her folding table.

I turned my winning smile toward her. “ Yes ?”

“ You can get out of the way now.”

“ Yes , Sonia .”

Carefully , I hopped off the small stage and sat next to Dru in the first row of the chairs at the PBOA meeting, all but preening. How could anyone fail to support Dru after my rousing speech?

“ Anyone else want to add something before we vote?” Sonia asked.

Dru turned on her seat and glared at everyone present. There was a larger crowd than usual, and a lot of familiar faces occupied seats in the rows behind us.

Tanya , Dru’s friend we had visited for a spell, stood and cleared her throat. “ I think her shop will be good for Olmeda ,” she stated in a monotone voice, as if reading off a script. Then she sat again.

“ Anyone else?”

Ian stood, and my heart filled with pride. He was wearing his usual all-black and a granite expression. When he spoke, his deep voice rumbled with conviction and the merest trace of threat. “ The bounty hunter guild has no objections.”

After he sat, I found Hutton among the present and attempted to telepathically force him to say something. He met my gaze, made a face, then stood as well. “ The pack has no objections.”

Preston was the next one to stand. I sensed Dru tense beside me, but from the dazzling bright smile he offered the crowd, I didn’t think we had anything to worry about. Not if he didn’t want to end up ostracized by the whole community once I told people what an underhanded bastard he was.

“ I am a newcomer here, but in these short weeks it’s been obvious to me what a great member of Olmeda’s paranormal community Druscilla is.” I didn’t need to be looking at Dru to know her eye was twitching. Oh , but Preston was going to pay for that one. “ It’d be a mistake to reject the permission for her shop and force her to start her business in another town. She will make a wonderful addition to our range of businesses, and increase the desirability of our town by providing a new range of services.”

“ I sell clothes and knick-knacks too,” Bosko complained from the other aisle.

“ You sell rags that break up after two cycles in the washer machine,” someone told him.

Laughter spread throughout the room. With an even wider smile, Preston winked at us and sat down.

“ Smug bastard,” Dru muttered.

Yep , Preston had better watch out for the foreseeable future. Dru knew how to keep a grudge.

Janet the florist lifted a hand.

“ Yes , Janet ?” Sonia said.

“ I think Dru should have the shop. She’s one of us.”

Murmurs of assent came from the crowd.

“ I agree,” someone else said.

“ She’s always been very nice,” April said somewhere behind us.

“ Hell , yeah, let her open the shop,” a grinning Mark shouted from the back.

More shouts of agreement rose in the air.

Sonia clapped her hands, bringing the room into immediate silence. “ Anyone who does not think the petition to open the shop should be granted?”

Nobody moved a muscle.

“ Very well. Permission granted.” She flipped the page on the giant open folder on top of her table. “ Next item. The? —”

I let out a crow of delight and hugged Dru hard. “ We did it!”

“ Avery !”

“ Sorry , Sonia .” But I couldn’t make myself sound contrite or wipe the huge grin off my face.

Dru hugged me back for a millisecond, then made disgusted noises until I loosened my grip. Her smile of pure satisfaction and the way she sat, straight with her chest puffed out, filled my heart with joy. Even though I had been sure the rest of Olmeda would come to bat for her, it brought me such happiness to witness Dru rank so high in their esteem. She was an integral part of the community, and I was beyond ecstatic that now she could see it too.

My phone buzzed in my pocket—a new email notification. I gasped with shock and delight at the preview on the screen.

“ Something important, Avery ?” Sonia asked as she began to scrunch up the top page of her folder.

I looked up, tears of joy in my eyes. “ My black jade has finally shipped.”

The ball of paper hit me right in the face.

Once the PBOA meeting came to an end, we gathered at Ian’s house to celebrate Dru’s official new shop. The strays brought in boxes of pizzas, Hutton showed up with beers, Dru forced me to have ice cream delivered because she was too lazy to hunt down an open store, and I lavished the dogs with plenty of pets and food in their bowls so they wouldn’t feel left out. All the while, Ian sat at the table and watched everyone take over his kitchen like a statue made of stoicism.

The gleam of amusement in his eyes told me he was anything but, though.

No sooner had the ice cream arrived than Brimstone showed up with a bottle of wine. Fluffy immediately greeted him with her usual overwhelming happiness, and the mage almost jumped onto the nearest counter.

“ Here , Fluffy , let’s play with Ian instead,” I said, grabbing her and dumping her onto Ian’s lap.

Ian arched a brow, but ran his hand along Fluffy’s back. She huffed in bliss.

Brimstone tugged at his shirt’s collar. “ Congratulations ,” he attempted to intone, although it came out a little shaky.

“ Thanks ,” Dru said, inspecting the wine with a hum of approval.

He slid along the counters across from Ian and Fluffy and Rufus’s dog bed.

I couldn’t help a chuckle. My gaze met Ian’s and the corner of his mouth kicked up. I was glad he didn’t mind Brimstone here, or us throwing an impromptu party at his house, but the memories of last night made me wish they were all gone. Had it only been one day since he’d come back? It already felt like he had never left.

I hoped he never had to leave again.

“ To Dru ,” Alex exclaimed, lifting a beer can.

“ To Dru ,” everyone repeated.

Fluffy barked. Rufus woofed.

We all laughed, then took a sip of our respective drinks. I’d opted for a diet soda, as I didn’t want to end up drunk and singing random songs so Alex could record it and post it on his social media.

“ Sharp Claws is going to be amazing,” Key told Dru earnestly.

“ It will be,” Dru said with conviction.

I knew it would, because Dru never did anything with half measures.

Taking another sip of soda, I studied the crowd. Seeing everyone gathered together to celebrate was a balm to the soul. After helping the Council witch drag McKee to her car, Dru had waited while the Council witch corroborated she was a local with no paranormal criminal past, then had been set loose.

Then Dru had threatened to strangle me if this somehow hurt her chances at the shop.

But how could it? She was a hero!

Doyle had called me the next day, commending me on being a team player and not trying to do things on my own.

Boy , was I happy that hadn’t been a video call, or she’d have seen the copious amount of sweat running down my temples as she went on a rant about witches who thought they could fix anything on their own and were too scared to ask the Council for help.

She had then told me that McKee had admitted to disrupting the set with magic, but denied having anything to do with Lee’s death.

Until the witches had made it very clear he’d be sent to the bounty hunters for questioning unless he made a full confession.

“ He changed his tune fast,” Doyle had confided with a low chuckle.

Nothing like bounty hunters to put the fear of everything holy into paranormal criminals.

“ What will happen to him?” I’d asked. Murder was, after all, a serious matter.

“ I’m sorry, I’m not at liberty to say. But don’t worry, he’ll spend a long time in jail for these crimes.”

And that would have to suffice. It wasn’t my job to deal justice, after all. My job was keeping the local paranormal community happy and healthy, and judging by the crowd gathered in the kitchen, I was slowly succeeding.

“ Eat some pizza, boss,” Shane said, pulling one of the boxes toward us. He grabbed a slice and began munching on it with gusto. Pepperoni and extra cheese—my favorite.

I copied his example and took a big bite of a slice. Yum . Best way to celebrate. Even Brimstone had picked up a slice and was trying hard to not dirty his expensive suit jacket.

Brett should’ve been here, as we were celebrating his paranormal case closed almost as much as Dru’s shop, but he was busy on set. They had stopped the filming for a couple of days to mourn the loss of Lydia Lee , but then had resumed making the movie, making it clear it would be dedicated to her memory.

Ethan , who had gotten a promotion out of all of this and was as happy as a clam, had told us that there had been so much interest with the death that the books had gone viral and interest in the movie had skyrocketed. The sequel had been announced earlier today.

That was Hollywood for you.

Key had been disappointed that she’d missed the big showdown, but having successfully closed her first case as a bounty hunter to-be had given her a new confident bounce to her steps and the way she carried herself.

My phone dinged, and I wiped my hands on a paper towel before checking who it was. A text from Natalia :

Potion worked wonders. Thanks .

A link followed.

I clicked it, of course.

It brought me to a video of a group of young teens, thirteen or fourteen tops, dancing in unison inside a dance studio. They did a series of moves under a fast beat of music, then one had a free-style solo in the middle, then they all finished with different poses. Cool , but also absolutely adorable.

The one on the right caught my attention. So young and serious-looking and already staring into the camera with a familiar intensity.

My heart melted. Oh , my goodness.

“ Ah ,” Brimstone said over my shoulder, and I jolted, startled. “ The Pyro Boys .”

“ The … Pyro Boys ?” I repeated, trying to suppress a giggle. It was too much!

Brimstone straightened and tugged at his waistcoat. “ I would appreciate it if you do not share this video,” he intoned. “ The follies of youth should not— witch !

I had already slipped my phone to Key , and she had pressed play. Her face filled with wonder as she watched in awe.

“ Uncle Jeremy , this is so cool!”

Brimstone coughed and pink tinted his high cheeks. “ As I was saying, I would?—”

“ Lemme see,” Dru said with her mouth full of pizza.

Key hesitated and glanced at Brimstone , but Dru was faster and snatched the phone from her hands.

“ This is kind of cool,” she agreed with no small amount of respect.

Brimstone gave her a flat stare. “ It will not work as blackmail material.”

Dru’s smile turned into a smirk as she passed the phone along. By the time it made it back to me, I was feeling a little guilty.

“ I’m sorry,” I told Brimstone , silently adding, please don’t burn my shop down?

He sighed, clearly succumbing to his fate. “ I am not ashamed of my past, but I prefer people to focus on my present.”

I lifted my soda can in salute. “ Wise words.” And since we were here and all… “ I heard you have a food vlog channel?”

“ Over fifty thousand subscribers.”

That was a lot. “ Maybe you could feature the Tea Cauldron sometime?” I asked, hopeful.

His smile was not nice. Not nice at all. “ Maybe I could get free lifetime potions and coffee. And muffins.”

“ You got it.”

Totally worth it.

Four weeks later.

The early December morning was cold as I made my way back to the Tea Cauldron . A heavy, dense fog had settled over the streets the last few days, forcing delivery trucks to switch their lights on and turning the world into a strange ball of cotton. I shuddered in my jacket as tendrils of wet chill attempted to sneak down my spine and hurried up my pace.

It had been twenty minutes since Ian had reluctantly let me go, and I was regretting not spending another half hour with him in his warm, comfy bed. He sometimes spent the night over at the shop, but my bed was tiny compared to his.

Last week, I’d caught him measuring my bedroom. Probably to see if there was enough space for a bigger bed.

November had been blissfully free of paranormal criminals, Thanksgiving with the strays had been a complete success, and I couldn’t wait to celebrate Christmas with Ian .

The thought made me smile and wish I had brought Bee - Bee . It would’ve allowed us to spend some extra time together this morning.

Unfortunately , today was Natalia’s first shift, so I needed to be at the shop bright and early to get everything ready. Apparently , she needed money for a new phone, and her ex-crush now turned nemesis was working at the shifter stores.

I was nothing if not willing to help my beloved community.

The fog was so thick today the other side of the street was barely visible. Sharp Claws and the Corner Rose surfaced eerily into full view as I crossed over to the shop. Norman still made it his daily habit to stop by for a breakfast tea and muffin, and his demeanor hadn’t changed from bright and friendly. But how could that be when his gallery had so much upsetting stuff in it? I hadn’t caught him doing anything weird, but my suspicions remained. Dru agreed. There was something off about him and the place.

“ About time,” Bagley complained from the windowsill as I came into the first-floor kitchen. “ You know how boring it is to watch this fog all night?”

“ As boring as hearing you say the same thing every morning.”

She snorted. “ Please . At least there are usually birds or something. What about you leave me at your living room window tonight?”

“ You already had your front street view day this week.”

“ Goddess , what did I do to end up like this?”

“ Murder and dark witchcraft?”

She chuckled. “ All worth it.”

“ And this is why you only get one front street view day a week.”

“ Fine . Not all worth it. Just parts of it. Better ?”

Absolutely not. But sometimes change came in small increments. “ I’ll wear you down one day, Ms . Bagley . Wait and see.”

“ Wear me down from boredom, perhaps. Now , start the audio book before it gets too late.”

I didn’t like her ordering me around, but a deal was a deal. I placed my phone on the kitchen counter and started our current read. We were listening to the tales of a fire sorceress who immolated evil witches for a living. Very inspiring, if I say so myself.

Someone clanged on the backyard gate.

Natalia ? I checked the time. It was way too early for her.

The clanging came again.

“ You better open that before they bring down the fence,” Bagley said sternly.

I disarmed the back door alarm and unlatched the gate. Brimstone stood in the back alley, looking uncharacteristically disheveled—dark blond hair falling over his forehead, his coat open, no suit jacket, and the buttons on his vest were made up wrong.

He shouldered his way in, and I let him, gaping the whole time. “ What? —”

“ What did you do to me, witch?” he demanded, towering over me. His eyes were wild and…afraid?

“ What do you mean?”

“ My magic! It’s all wrong!”

He stuck his hand out, and I watched in fascination as frost spread over his palm until icy crystals hung from his fingers.

Ice , not fire.

Oh , boy.