Chapter 12

Me? Henry thought – before, a moment later, his brain caught up with him. Well, of course me, I suppose. I’m the one she cursed, after all. Even if I have no idea why.

He was about to give a voice to this thought when Madame Fortuna cried out again, her finger still leveled in fierce accusation, her eyes wild with fury.

“You! How dare you!”

Her voice was really getting quite loud, and a few of the other stallholders were turning around to look now, concerned expressions on their faces, and Henry really couldn’t say he blamed them.

He lifted his hands conciliatorily – or as conciliatorily as he could, with Madame Fortuna waving her finger in his face.

“I just want to talk, since I think there’s been some kind of –”

Mistake,he never got to say, because in the next moment Madame Fortuna opened her mouth wide and bellowed, “You broke my heart!”

The next thing out of her mouth was a miserable wail, and she lifted her hands to cover her face as she started crying – and not just crying, but deep, wracking sobs, as if Henry somehow really had broken her heart.

But I’ve never even met her before!he thought desperately. What is she talking about?!

“I – I really didn’t. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Madame Fortuna in my life,” he said, turning to where Luna was standing beside him, her mouth hanging open in shock and surprise. It seemed that, in her upset at laying eyes on Henry, Madame Fortuna hadn’t yet noticed that Luna – the woman whose photo she’d stolen – was here too.

Oh God, Luna doesn’t believe her, does she? Henry thought, panic suddenly lancing through him. How can I convince her this has just been some terrible misunderstanding?!

Luna looked up at him, her eyes wide. She seemed to search his face for a moment, and then she shook her head.

“It’s okay, Henry – I believe you,” she said a moment later. “I don’t know how or why, but I think I’d know if you weren’t telling me the truth. I mean, I don’t understand even a little bit what’s actually going on, but I don’t believe you broke anyone’s heart – well, not intentionally, anyway. But I think –”

“You have some nerve showing up here now, after everything you did,” Madame Fortuna broke in, her face still blotched with red and tears still clinging to her eyelashes, but her voice furious once more. “Come to apologize and beg for me to come back, have you? Well, I won’t have it! You made your bed, now you can lie in it!”

Okay,Henry thought, as he stared at Madame Fortuna. Enough is enough.

“Look, I’m sorry for what’s happened to you,” he said firmly, hoping that by being sensible he might be able to break through to her. “But I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. We have never met before. And I definitely didn’t break your heart.”

“Of course we never met!” Madame Fortuna raged at him. “Because you ghosted me for our date! After months of chatting me up, flirting with me, telling me you thought we had a real connection… and then you just never showed up!”

Henry stared at her. He couldn’t help but feel that far from coming under control, the situation was just getting more and more out of hand. But what could he say? What could he do? He had literally no idea where Madame Fortuna had gotten any of this from.

He glanced over his shoulder. Passers-by had stopped to stare at them, some of them with food still half-raised to their mouths, their eyes wide.

The last thing Henry wanted was for this to become a spectator sport. They had to get Madame Fortuna somewhere where they could talk this out in private. Because clearly, something had gone very wrong here.

“Look, lady, just calm down for a moment.”

Henry’s attention was snapped back to Luna as he heard her voice, firm and no-nonsense, cutting through everything else.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Luna said, her voice still low and firm. “All I know is for some reason Henry has a curse he doesn’t deserve on him, and I think you put it there. I don’t know where you got the idea he broke your heart, but you better forget that idea right now, because I don’t believe it’s true. What I do know is true is that you stole my photo and you’ve been going around saying it’s you. So if anyone here is in the wrong, it’s you. And I want an explanation for all of it. Right now.”

Henry felt mildly in awe of Luna. She wasn’t flustered, she wasn’t angry. She was just calmly and quietly laying out the situation for Madame Fortuna, with an edge to her voice that made it clear she wasn’t messing around.

And perhaps it was because of that that Madame Fortuna abruptly stopped sobbing and actually noticed her, and let out a shocked gasp.

“Wh— why – how are you here?” Madame Fortuna asked, fear in her voice for the first time. She stared at Luna with wide eyes, before swallowing hard. “I didn’t – I didn’t mean any harm. I just wanted to – I just thought – I didn’t think you’d ever find out. I don’t even really know who you are, I just saw your photo online, and I –”

“Yeah, I figured that part out,” Luna said, her voice grim. “But you’re still not making any sense. So I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll go over to that diner over there and sit down somewhere relatively private. And then you’ll explain everything, start to finish, not leaving anything out. Okay?”

For a moment, it looked as if Madame Fortuna might be about to disagree, or start crying again. But then she visibly deflated, nodding miserably.

“Okay. I’ll explain. But he really did break my heart. I have proof!”

“Well, we’ll sort that out later,” Luna said, glancing up at Henry.

Henry nodded. He didn’t think Luna had changed her mind about Madame Fortuna’s claims, but right now, the important thing was keeping the woman calm. If she’d only explain, then he could tell her, maybe, why she was mistaken.

Our mate is incredible,his hellhound piped up as, after he’d nodded to Kieran and Caleb where they were standing to signal everything was okay, they began walking over to Eula’s diner. She handled the situation superbly. You should take note and try to be more useful in future.

Henry ignored it, but he did have to admit Luna had been the one who’d done the lion’s share of the work here. But he really didn’t know how to rebut the accusation that he’d broken her heart – he’d never had the chance to break anyone’s heart. Most people had never let him get that close.

In any case, it didn’t matter – because he knew he’d never seen Madame Fortuna, or whatever her real name might be, before in his life.

He held the door to Eula’s diner open to let Luna and Madame Fortuna enter, and then followed them to a table at the back wall. There was no one else inside, though – they’d asked Eula if they could have the place to themselves since the diner was closed for the festival, and she’d agreed, a twinkle in her eye, probably assuming they wanted it for some kind of clandestine purpose.

Which was true, but just not, sadly, in the way that Eula had thought.

As Henry made his way to a table at the back, he glanced out of the diner window – just as they’d discussed, Caleb was standing in the diner parking lot, ready to give them some backup if it was needed. Henry doubted they’d need it, but still, he nodded to Caleb, who nodded back – it felt good to know he was there, and that Kieran and Gale were close by too, even if they didn’t end up needing their help.

“Okay,” Luna said, once they were all seated. “First things first. I guess your parents didn’t name you Madame Fortuna?”

“No.” Madame Fortuna shook her head. “That’s just my business name. My real name’s Sally-Anne Loder.” She looked up a little sheepishly from behind her bangs – they were strawberry blonde, so not really like Luna’s auburn hair at all. But Henry supposed it could just be passed off as a trick of the light. “You can kind of see why I go by Madame Fortuna, right?”

“Well, that aside, what made you decide you could go by my photo?” Luna asked. “Didn’t you think people might notice you look different when you show up to tell fortunes?”

“I only did that recently,” Sally-Anne said, a little defensively. “And it was only because… and anyway, I usually have a shawl over my hair, and it’s dark in the tent. So people don’t really see me clearly.”

“I still don’t really understand why,” Henry said, shaking his head. “You could have just put your own photo on your website, surely?”

Sally-Anne shot him a venomous look. Clearly, she was still under the impression he’d broken her heart.

“No, I couldn’t, because I’d told you my business name, and I was worried if you looked me up, you’d see I wasn’t – well, that I –”

Sally-Anne swallowed, coming to a stumbling halt. Obviously, there was something more to say than she really wanted to admit.

“What did you do, exactly?” Luna asked, leaning forward, her voice hard.

“I – that – that I…” Sally-Anne squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again. “Okay, I admit it. I used a fake photo… or a bunch of fake photos… on my dating profile on Witchr. Your photos, okay? I just… my life is so boring, and I never go anywhere. And I’m ugly! So I didn’t think anyone would be interested enough in me to click on my profile. But then I was just looking around at travel photos thinking about how I could spice things up, and I came across your articles, and just… everything looked so exciting! You’re always going places, eating things, and… you’re so pretty! I just wanted someone to give me a chance! Is that so wrong?”

Henry leaned back, a little overwhelmed by the sudden flow of words. He blinked, rewinding them in his mind. Wait… what the hell is Witchr?

“Hang on, Witchr?” Luna said, clearly having the same thought. “Is that like…”

“It’s a dating app,” Sally-Anne said sulkily. “For witches and wizards. But when I had my own photo up there, no one seemed to take any notice of me. But after I used yours… well, lots of people clicked on my profile. I even started chatting to people. Well, one guy, anyway.” Her eyes swung to Henry. “You. Until you ghosted me and broke my heart.”

Henry felt as if, perhaps, he had drifted into an alternate dimension. But no – this was real. Somehow. He just had to figure out why.

“Well, that’s impossible,” he said. “Since I’m not on Witchr, or any other dating app for that matter. I’m not even a wizard. I don’t really do online stuff. So whoever you were talking to, it wasn’t me.”

“That’s impossible,” Sally-Anne said angrily, slamming one fist down on the table. “It was definitely you. I know it was! Look at this!”

She jammed a hand into her fancy-looking beaded purse, rummaging around until she pulled out a cell phone.

“Look,” she said, as, with her head bowed, she poked her thumbs around on her phone screen. “I can show you the profile picture from where I was chatting to you. Don’t you dare try to deny this is you!”

Having found what she was looking for, she thrust the phone at Henry and Luna’s faces.

And –

Okay,Henry thought, frowning. I guess that does look kind of a lot like me.

His hellhound made a dismissive sound. You look even worse in photos than you do in general. You’re lucky our mate met you in person in the first instance.

It wasn’t the first time Henry had wondered if it would technically count as a crime if he got into a fistfight with his hellhound, and he knew it wouldn’t be the last. Not that he was sure how he would go about such a thing, anyway.

In any case, the pertinent point here was that it was a photo of him. Slightly blurry and poorly framed, like it had been taken surreptitiously, but definitely him.

He squinted at the photo. When had it been taken?

In the end, the answer was obvious: while he was at work, standing outside a nightclub door. The person who took the photo must have been waiting in line to get in.

He shook his head. He really should have picked up that there was someone there with ill intent. Or weird intent, anyway.

“Ma’am,” he said, gently pushing the phone away from his face, “I didn’t take this photo, and I haven’t been putting it up on dating sites. I’m happy with my m— with, uh, Luna, here.” He winced a little, but continued on. “And if I was going to put a photo up on a dating site, I’d want it to be a bit better than this.”

Sally-Anne did not look particularly mollified, though Henry thought he could see just the slightest hint of doubt in her expression. “Well, you would say that.”

“Seriously,” he said. “Like I said, I’m not a wizard, so why would I be on a witches and wizards dating site? But even if I was, I don’t have a computer. I only got a cellphone a couple of years back, and that was because my work made me get one so I could access their timesheet system. Look.”

He pulled out his phone and flipped it open to the camera roll, turning it around so she could see it. There were precisely three photos: a picture of his work ID number so that he wouldn’t forget it, a picture of the brand of cheese that his hellhound particularly liked – not that he’d really needed a reminder about that, as his hellhound definitely had it memorized – and a picture of an interesting rock he saw one time.

Sally-Anne’s face twisted into an expression that he couldn’t quite read.

That’s the expression of ‘I can’t believe that someone this boring exists,’ his hellhound sneered.

“Henry’s telling the truth,” said Luna gently, reaching out to rest her hand on Sally-Anne’s forearm. “I know it must be hard, getting ghosted after you’ve put yourself out there. But Henry didn’t do this. He would never mess anyone around like that – he’s the most honest person I know. The only thing I can think of is that someone used his photo for their profile. But it definitely wasn’t Henry you were talking to.”

Sally-Anne slumped back in her chair, looking defeated. “Then… then, I don’t know what to think anymore,” she murmured. “Why would anyone do that?”

Henry almost opened his mouth to tell her that she, herself, had in fact done almost exactly the same thing in using Luna’s photo for her own dating profile… but the utterly bereft, miserable expression on Sally-Anne’s face made him keep it closed.

Despite everything, it was almost impossible not to feel a little sorry for her – even if he definitely wanted this curse taken off him, and right now. Though he was still more than a little incensed she’d stolen Luna’s pictures to pass off as her own.

Still, give her a moment,he told himself. She does look pretty upset.

“But I guess I can believe that someone else might use a fake photo, too,” Sally-Anne said after a moment, looking up at them sheepishly, as if she’d just remembered what she’d done. “Maybe they’re just as much of a loser as I am. And maybe just as ugly, too.”

“What?” Luna said, sounding startled. “You’re not ugly at all. And if getting ghosted by some idiot on a dating app makes you a loser, that makes about half the people in the world losers, too. But maybe next time, you should really just… try to be yourself.”

“I am a loser,” Sally-Anne said miserably. “Not only did I have to steal someone else’s photo just to get anyone to pay attention to me, but then it turns out that not only was he not who he said he was, but he wouldn’t even meet me. Even when I’m pretending to be someone pretty and successful, my loser vibes just come through.”

“Well, putting aside that you’re not a loser, maybe that’s on him,” Luna said reasonably. “You deserve better than that.”

“Don’t try to make me feel better,” Sally-Anne sniffled. “I mean, look at me. Who would date me?”

Henry looked at her: at her splotchy red face, her running nose, her slumped shoulders and wretched expression.

He also saw a person who was clearly staggering under the weight of crippling self-esteem issues. Now that she was no longer snarling like a caged beast, there was nothing about her that screamed ‘un-datable’ except for a distinct lack of self-confidence.

He pulled a packet of Kleenex out of his pocket and held it out to her; she took one of them out with a sniffled ‘thanks’.

“Plenty of people would date you, I’m sure,” Luna said warmly. “After all, you’re pretty –” Sally-Anne snorted “– you’re a successful business owner, and you work in an interesting field. The right person will come along eventually, but maybe right now is not the time. You’ve got to make sure that you feel like someone who is worthy of love before you go out looking for it.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Sally-Anne muttered, wiping her nose. She didn’t sound convinced, but, Henry thought, it was a start.

“But,” Luna said, her voice suddenly growing hard, “you can’t just go around stealing people’s photos. And you can’t just curse people because they stand you up for dates – especially since in this instance, it seems like your curse misfired. Badly.”

Sally-Anne bit her lip, a blush suddenly spreading across her face. “Um. I’m. I’m really, really sorry about that,” she said, glancing at Henry. “Obviously, if I’d known you weren’t really that guy who stood me up, I never would have done it.”

“Well, whether it was me or not, I don’t think you should be cursing people because you’re unhappy with your love life,” Henry told her. “But how did your curse land on me, and not the person you intended?”

“Well… it’s a bit complicated,” Sally-Anne said, looking down, her expression slightly ashamed. “The way I do curses is to concentrate on a photo, or an item that belongs to the person you want to curse… and so, because for Dorian – that’s what he told me his name was – the only thing I had was the photos he’d sent me, which were actually of you, I just focused on them, and sent the curse to the man in the photo.” She peered up apologetically at him. “It really was just a little mistake.”

A bit more than a little mistake,Henry thought – though he supposed he should be thinking himself lucky that the curse had only been to make animals fall in love with him, rather than to start coughing up toads or something else equally unpleasant.

“Well, mistake or not, I’d really appreciate it if you’d remove it,” Henry said firmly. “Right now, if you wouldn’t mind. I’m getting tired of being followed around by every cute, fuzzy creature I see. And some that aren’t so cute, either.”

Sally-Anne nodded eagerly. “Of course, of course. I can do that right now. I won’t even charge for it, since –” She cut herself off quickly, probably on seeing the looks on Henry and Luna’s faces. “Um. Okay. Here I go.”

She straightened in her chair and closed her eyes, before bringing her hands together for a moment and then placing them upon the photo of Henry on her phone. After a moment, she began humming a strange, low, discordant sound. A soft, golden light began to glow underneath her palms.

It probably would have been more impressive if Sally-Anne had been doing this in a darkened room with her head draped in a shawl and a battered old photograph on the table, rather than sitting in an empty diner with a cellphone, but it was still creepy enough to raise the hairs on the back of his neck. He was aware of Luna’s leg pressing gently against his under the table, and the feeling grounded him.

A few muttered gibberish words later, and the golden light dissipated and Sally-Anne opened her eyes.

“Did it work?” Luna asked hesitantly.

Henry glanced out the window to where Caleb was still hanging out. The others had joined him, if the poorly hidden figures behind a nearby stand of bushes were any indication.

Caleb gave him a small thumbs-up – presumably the curse’s aura was now gone. Henry supposed that he wouldn’t know for sure until he went outside without Luna around to dampen the curse’s effects, but he didn’t think that Sally-Anne would do anything to sabotage him now that she understood she’d been duped.

His hellhound also seemed more relaxed than it had been in a long time.

He nodded. “Yeah, I think it worked.”

A radiant smile spread across Luna’s face. “I’m so glad, I really am.”

Sally-Anne looked pleased, and it transformed her from the glum, self-deprecating person of a few minutes ago into someone else entirely. Henry was sure that she would be able to find someone once she’d sorted out her self-confidence issues. And her tendency to curse people out of romantic disappointment.

“Does this mean though that… you only invited me here to confront me about the curse?” Sally-Anne asked after a moment. “I thought I was going to be able to get some business today – things have been a bit slow recently, and I thought I’d gotten a lucky break.”

Luna and Henry exchanged a glance.

“Well…” Luna said, a little hesitantly. “We did book you. And since the festival is here anyway, you may as well set up your tent and do your thing. As long as you promise not to do anything like this again. Especially if you can’t even get your curse to go where you want it to go.”

“I promise I won’t,” Sally-Anne said quickly, making a quick cross motion over her heart. “Really. Lesson learned – no more curses.”

“And there’s one other thing we need your help with too,” Henry cut in.

Sally-Anne – or Madame Fortuna – had claimed on her website that she could lift curses, after all. So she should be able to get rid of Luna’s too, right?

“Luna is being threatened by the guy who ghosted you, whoever he actually is,” he said. Sally-Anne’s eyes widened, and Luna held out her phone so that she could see the weird all-caps text messages. “He also put a curse on her. Probably thinking she was you, given what you’ve told us about using people’s images to curse them.”

“What?” Sally-Anne said faintly, grabbing Luna’s phone and scrolling through the messages with a look of disbelief on her face. “Wait – you’re both cursed? By me and Dorian?”

“What are the odds, right?” Luna said with a wry smile.

“Crap.” Sally-Anne at least had the decency to look shamefaced. “Look, I’m really sorry about all this. I never thought someone else would get caught up in it, let alone two someone elses.”

“Well, you can make up for it by lifting the curse on me,” Luna said. “You did just lift the curse on Henry, right?”

“I did, but…”

“But…?” Henry prompted.

Sally-Anne’s expression turned glum. “I can’t lift all kinds of curses.” She nodded at Henry. “I could deal with the curse I cast, no problem, and most other people’s basic curses are a piece of cake, but if Dorian put that curse on her, then I probably can’t do anything about it. He practices a completely different kind of magic to me, and he’s also at a much higher level. Assuming that he wasn’t lying about it in his bio, anyway. Which he might have been,” she muttered. “Bastard.”

Disappointment spread itself through Henry’s gut. It didn’t seem right that his curse was lifted, while Luna was still stuck with hers.

But if Dorian is the only person who can lift it…Henry thought, glancing at Luna – and looking into her eyes, he could see the same thought formulating in her mind, too.

“If you can’t lift the curse yourself, then you’ll have to help us out another way,” Luna said, turning back to Sally-Anne once more.

Sally-Anne blinked. “Um… I mean, sure? But I’m not sure what I can do.”

Luna’s expression was determined. “Would you be able to message this… Dorian, was it? Tell him you want to meet up.”

Sally-Anne shook her head. “He ghosted me, though. I haven’t messaged him since he stood me up. I actually blocked him on the app, so that’s probably why he’s been texting you instead. I don’t think he wants to talk to me.”

“Ah,” Luna said, “but I think he does. Since like you said, this guy has been texting me non-stop and following my every movement. I can only assume that he thinks I’m you, and that my number is linked to my name somewhere online… or he used magic, I guess. In any case, he thinks I’m you.”

“Really?” Sally-Anne looked nervous. “Do you think he’s angry about it?”

Well, yeah, I’d say he’s a little pissed! Henry thought, but didn’t say.

“Don’t worry,” is what he said instead. “Even if he is, I’m a shifter, and so are several of our friends in this town.” He normally wouldn’t be so forthright, but it was important that Sally-Anne felt reassured – and as a witch, she was almost certainly aware of shifters. He’d certainly known that witches existed, though he’d never met one before now. “We should be able to deal with him if he tries anything… unless he’s more powerful than he seems?”

While Sally-Anne seemed a little taken aback at the shifter revelation, she recovered quickly. She shook her head. “No, I don’t think he’d be a match for several shifters. I hope.” She paused. “Unless you’re, like, an ant shifter or something?”

Henry laughed. “No, nothing like that. Though ant shifters are pretty good at lifting several times their own body weight. And I wouldn’t want to get bitten by one.”

Sally-Anne seemed to relax, even smiling a little. “Okay. I’ll help you. Or I’ll try, anyway. What do you need me to do?”

“Message him again,” said Luna. “Through the app, or however else you contacted him. Unblock him and chat to him a little, and tell him that you really want to meet up. He may have ghosted you, but he’s obviously not over you.”

Sally-Anne looked uncertain, but then nodded with resolve. “Sure. I’ll do it. It’s the least I can do after causing all this mess.”

She lifted her phone from where it had been sitting on the table since she’d taken it out of her purse to show them this Dorian’s dating profile. Henry watched as Sally-Anne’s thumbs flew across the screen, and he started to feel better about the whole plan. He still wasn’t entirely sure that it was a great idea, but he could only hope that four shifters and a witch would be enough to deal with a wizard who was more bent on petty vengeance than societal destruction –

WHOOMP!!

Henry gasped as all the air seemed to be sucked from the room. After a long moment he managed to suck in a grateful breath, followed by another one, until his lungs started working properly again.

Protect our mate! Protect her at all costs!!

Scrambling out of the booth on wobbly legs, he turned to see a figure standing there within a dissipating cloud of green smoke. It put its hands on its jeans-clad hips, threw its head back, and laughed.

“HA HA HA HA HA! YOU HAVE SUMMONED THE MIGHTY DORIAN! AND NOW YOU SHALL PAY FOR YOUR HUbrIS!!”