Upside Down Magic (Good Bad Magic #6)

Chapter 7

SEVEN

I woke up to something wet nudging my hand. I felt around and ran my fingers along Fluffy’s familiar fur.

“ Fluffy ?” I murmured.

“ Good morning, angel,” Ian said from somewhere on my side.

I opened my eyes and searched for him. He had dragged my one chair from the kitchen and was sitting by the side of my bed, reading from my e-book reader, his soft black pullover doing a wonderful job of delineating his arms and chest.

“ Ian ,” I said with a grin, slowly sitting up while petting Fluffy . “ Why are you—the potion!” I threw my legs over the side of the bed, panic gripping me.

Ian set the reader down on my nightstand and put a hand on my shoulder, keeping me sitting on the bed. “ Everything is all right.”

“ The potion worked?” I asked, full of hope.

“ Like a charm.”

I let out a whoop and launched myself into his arms. He caught me, chuckling into my ear as I squeezed the living daylights out of him. After a few moments, I leaned back to look at his face.

“ Shane is back to normal?”

“ And mad about the whole situation. He thinks it was a lack of self-control.”

I frowned at that. “ It wasn’t. It must’ve been a spell or potion someone put on him.” I searched for my phone. “ How long have I been out?”

“ About three hours. Alex drove back with the potion, and I brought the death trap back.”

“ You ? Driving Bee - Bee ?” I put a hand to my forehead. “ I must be feverish and hearing things.”

Ian let out a grunt of disgust. “ That thing is going to disintegrate under you one day soon. You need a car.”

“ Nowhere to park it at the shop.”

“ Keep it at the cemetery.”

“ I need something light and fast to make potion deliveries,” I pointed out. “ Finding a place to park a car with every order would only add time.”

Ian harrumphed, then grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the door.

“ Where are we going?” I asked, allowing him to lead me. Fluffy jumped off the bed and followed us, tongue lolling in excitement.

“ I’m taking you out to lunch.”

As if in agreement, my stomach rumbled loudly. Food did sound amazing right about now. Unfortunately , I had other things to do. I squeezed his hand. “ I can’t. I need to get back to work.”

“ I talked to Mark . He’s got it covered. Alex is helping too.”

“ But —”

“ We won’t take long, I promise.”

I capitulated but stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “ Did anyone take Brimstone his potion?”

“ I don’t know.” He pushed the bead curtain aside and leaned into the shop. “ Did anyone tell Jeremy to pick up his special delivery?”

I peeked around him. Mark and Alex were behind the counter, wearing matching Tea Cauldron aprons. Two customers sat at the counter while a couple made use of the table by the window. They all turned our way, but it was Alex’s blank expression that answered me.

“ Thanks guys,” I said brightly. “ I’ll be back soon.”

“ No problem, boss,” Alex said cheerfully. He had gathered his hair back into a messy tail and looked quite at ease in the role of barista. He truly was the paranormal jack of all trades of Olmeda .

Mark waved me away, and I went into the kitchen, where a glass vial lay filled with the potion, plugged with a cork stopper and ready to be delivered. Alex must’ve poured the potion after I passed out before going to take Shane his. The stray was nothing if not thoughtful.

“ We have to get this to Brimstone .” I picked up the vial and put it inside my jacket pocket. “ Do you know where he lives?”

“ No .”

“ Are you sure?” I teased. “ Not in the database?”

He gave me a very unimpressed look and opened the back door for me.

“ Aww . You even put the cover back on Bee - Bee .” It was the small things like this that showed a person’s true self.

Fluffy barked in agreement, and Ian bent to put her vest and leash on. It wasn’t the first time we went out to eat with the dogs, and it had never been a problem— Fluffy had a way to charm even the most antagonistic of restaurant owners.

“ Ready ?” Ian asked, opening the back gate.

I pressed a kiss to his cheek on the way out. “ Always .”

Brimstone declined to give me his home address over the phone, but sent me a location where to meet him. Judging by the fact that his suit was still in the same disarray as before, with the added bonus of a pair of house slippers rather than shoes, I gave the probability that he lived in the apartment building above our meeting point garage a ninety-nine percent chance.

“ Are you sure it works?” he asked, suspicious. I had left Ian waiting outside with Fluffy since I wasn’t sure Brimstone’s nerves could take being around a dog right now.

“ A hundred percent sure,” I assured him. “ Drink it and it should work right away.”

“ Hmph .” He unstopped the vial and chugged down the contents, somehow managing to keep eye contact with me the whole time. The man had intimidation down to an art.

Once he was done, he tossed the vial back to me, then lifted a hand. A familiar reddish glow formed on his skin, followed by a small lick of flame.

“ Good ,” he said, returning his messy hair into his usual comb back with a single swipe of his hand. A couple of tugs at his waistcoat later, and he was Brimstone and Destruction again, feared fire mage for hire and former boy-band teen heartthrob. “ Thank you,” he added curtly.

With that, he spun on his slippers and made his way toward the elevator.

“ You’re welcome,” I called after him. “ Remember your shift this Friday !”

He waved regally and disappeared into the elevator.

I went outside, and Fluffy strained at her leash to get to me. I reached down to pet her. “ Yes , I missed you too this whole minute we were apart, Fluffybutt .”

She licked my hand, then went back to stand by Ian .

“ Everything good?” he asked.

“ Fire powers back; the balance of illegal fire starting in Olmeda has been restored.”

He laughed. “ Good to know.”

I sent Key a text informing her that the potion had worked on Brimstone , then we made our way to an up-and-coming Southern food restaurant close to the heart of Old Olmeda . It was normally filled by tourists, but Ian had done some renovations for the owner and he found us a table right away.

“ And Miss Fluffy too?” he said, scratching Fluffy behind her ears. Fluffy let out a low yip, conscious of being inside, and stared at him in doggy adoration.

We were taken to a nice table by the windows and made our selections—baked Mac and Cheese for me and pork with potatoes for Ian . As we waited for our drinks—soda for me, beer for him— I toyed with my napkin and glanced around us.

I loved this place. I loved sitting across Ian at the small table and getting lost in the warmth—and dare I say love?—in his green eyes. Neither of us had said the L -word yet, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was what we had here.

Love , friendship, companionship. A soul-deep connection that made me wonder how I had lived all these years without it.

I sighed dreamily, and his mouth kicked up at the corners.

“ What are you thinking?”

That I want to reach over and kiss you senseless.

But that’d knock the bread basket and half the cutlery over, so probably better to think about other things. More important things. Like the fact that Brimstone and Shane had something bad happen to their magic at the same time, and that the blood witch was in town. Were both things related? It didn’t make much sense, but weirder things had happened in Olmeda .

Way , way weirder.

I checked everyone around us was busy with their meals and conversations and leaned in. “ I had a strange visitor today.”

“ Oh ?”

“ Back when Hutton was having his issues, I contacted a witch expert in blood magic and asked her about paranormal blood illnesses.”

Our waitress arrived with our drinks and I waited until she was out of earshot to continue.

“ She showed up today at the Tea Cauldron . She says she got curious about my questions and decided to check out the shop.”

Ian took a sip of his beer. “ You think it’s related to what happened to Shane and Brimstone ?”

“ It’s too much of a coincidence. She shows up in Olmeda and at the same time both Shane and Brimstone get sick? What if she’s like Hannah ? What if she’s in league with Bagley ?”

“ How would making random paranormals sick help her or Bagley ?”

“ Maybe they want me out of the way.”

“ Shane and Brimstone getting spelled isn’t your fault. The Council would have no reason to remove you from the shop.”

“ They would if…”

“ If ?”

I rubbed my face with my hands. “ If Shane and Brimstone got sick because of me.”

The words hung heavy in the air, and I wished they didn’t make so much sense. I looked at Ian , searching for his usual realistic streak to shoot my idea down.

“ Did you give Shane any potion lately?”

I shook my head. “ No .”

“ Then how can it be your fault?”

“ The shop is the only thing Shane and Brimstone have in common. What if they got hurt because of it?”

“ The shop is not the only thing they have in common,” he pointed out in that reassuring way of his.

“ No ?”

“ They also have Key in common.”

The fact startled me. I hadn’t considered that possibility. “ You think someone is trying to get to Key through the people closest to her?”

“ It makes more sense than it being related to you. If someone was after you, wouldn’t they have spelled Dru rather than Shane ?”

I slurped my soda, mulling the question over. Ian , as always, made some excellent points. It left me feeling kind of self-absorbed, immediately assuming Shane’s and Brimstone’s magical misfortunes had to do with my shop. Just because most dark magic issues that crossed my path had to do with me or my shop, it didn’t mean all dark magic issues did.

I smiled at Ian , relieved we had a second working theory that didn’t involve the Tea Cauldron .

“ We need to figure out how they got spelled,” I said, feeling hungry again and grabbing a bread roll from the basket. “ That will lead us to who can do that kind of potion or spell.”

“ Agreed .”

“ I was thinking I could?—”

“ You !”

I jumped in my chair, startled by the shout. The whole restaurant looked up from their meals to watch a man make his way around the tables straight toward me and Ian .

I dropped the roll on the table. “ Jim ?”

He grabbed a chair from a nearby table and sat down catty-corner to me. “ We need to talk.”

Jim was the human owner of a business that specialized in setting up themed attractions. His most famous one was the haunted house during Halloween , but from what I understood, he found ways to keep busy all year long.

“ Talk about what?” I asked.

“ I heard there’s some kind of Christmas thing going on.”

I shot a pleading glance at Ian , but he was leaning back in his chair, eyebrows raised and a faint smile on his lips, clearly leaving the field to me. Hmph . Some boyfriend.

“ There are a lot of Christmas things going,” I hedged.

He grabbed a bread roll, tore a piece, and threw it into his mouth, munching with gusto. “ I’m doing a Santa thing over by Piccarel .”

“ I see.”

He pierced me with an intense glare. “ I want in on your Christmas event.”

I reached for my soda and took a fortifying sip. “ Where did you hear I’m doing a Christmas event?”

He waved another chunk of bread around. “ I have my sources. So ? Can I join?”

I had meant the event for paranormals only—there was always the danger of revealing the paranormal side when human businesses got involved in these kinds of things—but the idea had some surprising merit. Wouldn’t it be less suspicious if a couple of human businesses joined in instead of it being the same ones holiday after holiday? Someone might get curious as to why only certain people did events together, and they might think it went deeper than friendship or elitism.

But that wasn’t a decision I should make in the heat of the moment just because Jim had cornered me during my lunch date with Ian .

“ I’m not sure I have the space,” I said.

“ That’s easy. Broaden the scope of the event. They told me it’s some kind of sticker game?”

I wondered who his source was. Janet ? She had a reputation for being sweet on men, and while Jim wasn’t to my personal taste, maybe she was less picky than I was. “ Customers go around the shops included in the event and receive a tree ornament sticker to put on a card. Like a treasure hunt.”

“ So make more stickers.”

Our food arrived, and I moved back to make space for the dishes to be placed on the table. The waitress sent Jim a questioning glance.

“ He’s not staying,” I rushed to say.

Grandma would not have approved of my rudeness, but I wanted my lunch date with Ian back.

Fluffy let out a sharp bark from under the table.

Jim looked down. “ Cute dog.”

“ Thanks ,” Ian said in a dark, dangerous tone.

Jim sent him a scowl. “ Are you part of this event, Cavalier ?”

“ No .”

Jim was undeterred. “ You better not try to do a Santa . I already booked Culligan . You can’t have him.”

I assumed that was the local Santa actor. “ Ian owns a cemetery.”

Jim returned his focus to me. “ So ?”

“ Santa in a cemetery would be a little weird, wouldn’t it?”

“ Why ? They’ve done it before.”

“ You have?” I asked Ian in surprise.

He shrugged one shoulder. “ Mom had some inventive ideas.”

I grinned. “ There better be photos of that.” Preferably with little Ian in them.

He smiled back. “ I’m sure I can find some somewhere.”

Jim waved a hand in front of my face. “ Hey . Over here.”

I blinked at him. “ Sorry . What ?”

“ Christmas event. Do a bigger tree. Or better, do a Santa on a sleigh and the stickers can be presents. That way they can be put everywhere.”

“ The designs are already done for the tree.”

“ Then change them. Do the presents. Much better than ornaments.” He took out a business card from his back pocket and slapped it on the table. “ And put the business names on the stickers. Call me with the details.”

With that, he stood abruptly, grabbed the last bread roll, and stalked out of the restaurant.