Chapter 4

FOUR

Shane unzipped his windbreaker. “ We’ll have to sneak you in.”

We exchanged outwear, and I immediately missed my warm winter jacket. This thing had the thickness of a plastic bag. “ Will this be enough?” I eyed Shane’s curling dark hair, tan complexion, and black eye patch dubiously. We weren’t exactly twin material.

“ Yeah ,” Brett said. “ It’ll be fine.”

I finished zipping up the jacket and gave Key a salute. “ At your mercy, boss.”

Dru snapped a photo of me. When I blinked at her, she said, “ Hope Avery working for the competition? One to remember.”

“ There is no such thing as competition,” I reminded her from my high horse. “ Only examples to study.”

“ Can we get going?” Brett asked, a note of impatience in his voice.

“ Sure ,” I said, feeling a bit chastised. I crouched by Fluffy . “ Fluffy , you stay, okay?” She let out a soft whine as I straightened. “ I’m ready.”

Key and Brett led me back to the sectioned-off part of the sidewalk. My palms grew sweaty as we approached the security guard, but he didn’t spare us a second glance after Brett flashed the ID badge clipped to his jeans. Perhaps we had it all wrong. Perhaps the only curse at work in Olmeda was her inhabitants’ complete disregard for safety precautions.

Most of the crew were tinkering with spotlights and other equipment. A couple of men were working over the camera attached to the big crane, and a few others, whom I figured were assistants, flew back and forth with cups of coffee and different folders of papers. A woman was yelling at someone over her radio. The atmosphere was so charged with anticipation, I could practically feel my skin tingling with it. How could Key bear to work here without standing awestruck the whole time? It probably got even worse once the actors were here mingling with the crew.

“ Where are the actors?” I asked in a whisper.

“ We got the makeup trailer over there,” Brett answered, pointing to the other end of the sidewalk.

Unfortunately , Brett took one side street before we got there. It was packed with vans and a couple of small trucks. You had to give it to the production for utilizing Old Olmeda’s web of streets so well.

Brett waved at a couple of women who were milling by a van, then brought us to one of the trucks. The doors on the back were open, and the lift deployed.

“ In here,” he whispered, looking suddenly nervous.

Nervous because he was guilty and was about to murder us inside the truck, or nervous because we were at the scene of the crime and he didn’t want anyone to link him to the possible sabotage any more than he already was?

Ah , well. Only one way to find out. “ Show me.”

He ignored the lift and leaped into the trunk, then gave me a hand up.

Key , I noticed, stayed put.

“ Are you really one of Hutton’s shifters?” I asked, studying Brett anew.

He was taken aback by the question. “ Yeah .”

“ Do you like grilled ham and cheese sandwiches?”

“ Uh , sure. Who doesn’t?”

Clearly not the bad guy. “ Awesome .” I scanned the dark inside of the truck; only a couple of big trunks remained. “ You pass.”

“ What ?”

I walked up to the nearest trunk. “ Is this it?”

“ No , this one over here.” He pointed at a smaller black trunk with shiny metal latches.

I kneeled by the front and turned on my phone’s flashlight. On the outside, it was the kind of trunk musicians used to store equipment. On the inside, who knew? A trove of treasure? An evil doll? A portal to hell?

I sniffed the air delicately but got no whiff of blood or decomposition, which was to be expected since I was a witch, not a shifter. A closer look at the area around the latches revealed spots slightly lighter than the rest of the trunk, and glossy rather than matte. If blood had been used, it had been mixed into a real potion; otherwise, it’d be as black as the trunk.

There were two ways to create harm by touch through passive magical means: a dark magic potion created with the intent to produce certain damage when touched, or a ward. With the potion, you simply poured it over the item you expected your victim to touch. It was easier to do, since you could create the potion elsewhere and bring it with you, but it had several downsides. For one, the magic in the potion would start to dissipate once left in the open air, especially during the day. Second , there was limited harm that could be done through a potion.

“ Is it magic?” Brett asked. He was keeping his distance from the trunk. I couldn’t blame him.

“ Let’s find out.”

Placing my fingertips as close to the glossy discoloration as I dared, I awakened my magic. My spell wouldn’t work as well without touching the affected area directly, but hopefully there was still enough magic charging the potion to be detectable this close.

Closing my eyes, I focused my intention.

Detect .

In normal circumstances, a bit of power was all that was needed, but I wanted to make sure I detected as much of the potion as possible in an effort to get a hint of what it could do, so I poured a higher amount than usual into the incantation.

My fingertips stung as my magic interacted with the surface of the trunk, then bounced back with a familiar tingling.

I sat back, opened my eyes, and studied the latches. “ Definitely magic.” Sadly , detecting spells couldn’t give any hint of what kind.

Brett let out a low curse. “ Can you neutralize it or something?”

“ Sure , but let me get a sample first.” I patted my pockets, then remembered I wasn’t wearing my jacket. “ Do you have a tissue?”

Brett and Key checked their jeans, then Key produced a handful of paper napkins. “ Will that work?”

“ Perfect .”

I wiped some of the potion off, then folded the napkins carefully and put them in my back pocket. There was no test to figure out what a potion meant to do, but if I could figure out some of the ingredients used, it might give me a general idea of what the dark witch meant to do—simple itchy hands or much, much worse.

“ Done .” I got up, glad my legs were wobbly from the exertion of magic but not yet of noodle consistency, then managed to get off the truck without falling on my face. It was a win-win kind of day.

“ What about the trunk?” Brett asked.

“ Bleach or any strong cleaning product will get rid of the potion. Just make sure you use a lot and don’t touch the surface.”

Brett leaped off the truck and grumbled to himself as he went to search for cleaning supplies while Key and I stayed put to stop anyone from going inside the truck.

“ What about the other things that started acting up?” I asked eagerly. “ Do you think we can check if there are traces of magic there too?”

Key frowned. “ Wouldn’t the magic have disappeared by now?”

“ Maybe . But it wouldn’t hurt making sure, right?”

Okay , so my interest wasn’t wholly professional. But when else would I get the chance to snoop around a movie set? A movie set filming Gone by Morning !

“ When the universe gives us gifts, it’s our responsibility to make full use of them,” I told Key .

“ Yes ! I couldn’t say no when Brett asked for help.”

“ Exactly . You’ve seen the other spots where the sabotage happened?”

She made a face. “ Not yet. They happened at another filming location.”

We stopped talking as a woman approached. She gave us a look over. “ You guys lost?”

I gave her my best customer-ready smile. “ We’re taking our break.”

“ Oh , cool. Tell your boss the food was amazing. Best thing I’ve had since working in movies.”

If I served anything other than muffins and cookies, I’d have been mighty envious. Case study, not competition , I reminded myself. “ Thanks , we’ll be sure to let Lucy know. Is there anything you’d want next time? She’s always open to suggestions.”

Research , and not a complete lie. Who wouldn’t be open to learning about their customers’ wants?

The woman thought about that for a few moments. “ Maybe more of the rice dish next time? It was really good. A little harder to eat on the go than the other stuff, but worth it.”

“ What about desserts? Drinks ?”

“ Oh , those were fine. But , well…”

I leaned in invitingly. “ Yes ?”

“ Maybe more tea would be nice next time? I’m not a big coffee drinker and the tea urn ran out fast.”

Hah ! Take that, Fairy Circle Cakes . I took out one of my business cards from my back pocket and offered it to the woman. “ I heard this is the best tea shop in town. Make sure to drop by if you have a minute.”

She took the card and pocketed it after a brief glance. “ Sounds good. See you guys around.”

“ Wait ,” Key blurted.

She paused.

“ Have you heard about Olmeda being cursed for making movies?” Key sounded so innocent and earnest it made me want to wrap her in blankets and take her home.

It seemed to affect the woman in the same exact way because her expression warmed. “ Oh , yeah. I heard about some of that.”

“ You believe in curses?” I asked in a whisper.

“ Me ? Nah . But people around here can be paranoid about that stuff.”

“ So you don’t think all the weird stuff happening has anything to do with a curse?” Key asked.

The woman laughed. “ If I had a dollar for every time a mistake or accident has been blamed on bad luck in the movie sets I’ve worked on, I wouldn’t need to work anymore.” She winked at us. “ Now , I really need to get going.”

“ Thanks ,” I said.

Key also thanked the woman as she sauntered away. Then she turned to me. “ What do you think?”

“ That it was very smart to ask her about the curse.”

She flushed. “ What do you think about the curse and the sabotage? Are they related?”

I studied the open truck and the magically booby-trapped trunk inside. “ I think we need to brainstorm.”