Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
“ So ,” Lilian began, “the issues began two days ago?”
I sat up straight. “ Yes . A fire mage friend who works part-time at the Tea Cauldron visited me first thing in the morning when his magic was producing ice. Then later, while you were at the shop, a local wolf shifter unintentionally shifted into his wolf and couldn’t shift back. I made a potion for both using their blood and their magic reverted to normal.”
“ Tell me exactly how you did the potion.”
I listed the herbs I had used in both the potion and the circle as well as the crystals and the incantation. Lilian mulled on this for a few moments. “ That potion should’ve been enough, if the spell had been a one-time use.”
Just as I feared. “ You think they got spelled again?”
“ That or we’re talking about something like a ward.”
“ Can wards affect paranormals like that?”
“ It’d take considerable skill and power, but it’s possible. However , I didn’t feel any ward in your shop.”
“ I used a detecting spell the first day and then again today and found no traces of outside magic.”
Lilian took out the teabag, and sipped her tea. “ I arrived in Olmeda the day before I came to your shop, late in the evening. I had some take-out, then took a ride to the shop in the morning. The only thing I have in common with the other two cases is your shop.”
My shoulders slumped. “ I figured. I closed it down for the time being.”
Lilian put the mug down. “ There are several ways this kind of spell can be delivered. A spell or a ward put on an item the person touches, or a potion slipped into food or drinks.”
“ Shane hasn’t eaten anything from the shop in a while.”
“ A delayed effect potion?” Ian asked. “ He and Brimstone might’ve had it elsewhere but the effects didn’t show up until the day before yesterday.”
“ And then they put it in my food?” Lilian asked, giving the idea an obvious thought. “ That would mean… Oh , I see what you mean. They might’ve recognized me at the tea shop then contrived to give me the potion at any moment after.”
“ Then it might not be the shop itself after all?” I asked, daring to hope.
“ It’s too early to tell,” Lilian said. “ But me being affected by this spell brings up some interesting questions.”
“ Like ?” I asked.
“ Was I targeted because I was recognized as a witch, which means whoever is doing this is likely to be a witch themselves rather than a paranormal buying someone else’s spell, or were all of us random targets? Which means whoever planned this might be also giving this potion to non-paranormals who aren’t being affected.”
“ A blanket potion-ing to see what paranormals pop out?” I mulled this. “ It could be.”
“ I assume there are other paranormals who frequent the shop?”
“ Yes , I’ve gained more and more paranormal customers. My demon friend used to work at the shop, and I also have a wolf shifter picking up shifts now. None of them have been affected.”
“ Or they haven’t noticed yet,” Ian put in.
Lilian appeared pleased with his comment, as if she was glad to be surrounded by intelligent people for once. “ He’s right. If the paranormal doesn’t use their magic often or has a low level of power, they might not have noticed yet.” Refocusing on me, she asked, “ Who wants to hurt you or the shop? Anyone comes to mind?”
I glanced at Ian . “ Ian and I talked about this. I can’t think of anyone, but it might not be me personally who they’re after but the shop itself. If it were me, they would’ve harmed people who are closest to me. The fire mage and I are friends, but there are others who are part of my closest circle here. Plus , why would they target you?”
“ Indeed . What about the shop itself?”
I hoped my poker face was up to scratch. “ There was an incident with someone starting a harassment campaign against the shop when I first took over, but it stopped after two or three weeks.” Because Vicky had met her end in the pack’s territory, but being honest about her and why she had wanted to sabotage the shop would mean being honest about Bagley’s dark magic deeds, which in turn would put the spotlight on why hadn’t I reported any of that to the Council . As open-minded as Lilian seemed to be, I had no way to know if she’d keep the secret, blackmail me with it later, or call the Council and have Ian take me in for questioning.
Of course Ian would never do that, but the rest of the possibilities remained.
Lilian studied me closely. “ And you’re sure this harasser isn’t an issue anymore? They might’ve gone away then come back and tried another way.”
“ I’m sure. Plus , it’d be too much of an escalation from bad reviews and things like that to this kind of spell or potion.”
She conceded the point with a nod. “ Someone new, then. But why the shop? Even if that specific building is shut down, the Council will open another location eventually. Olmeda has too many paranormals not to have an official Council presence. It would be like playing whack-a-mole.”
“ Unless this person is in the Council and wants this to happen for their own reasons,” Ian said. “ A deal with a seller for another place.”
I leaned toward Lilian and whispered, “ He works in construction.”
Lilian let out a good-natured laugh. “ That could be motive, but the kind of spell or potion we’re talking here is very powerful and highly complicated. A dark witch willing to do this would ask for more money than whatever a possible kickback for a sale is.”
“ If they’re not the one doing the spell,” Ian said.
“ There is a third possibility that might account for the randomness,” Lilian said, showing no shock or horror at the notion the Council might harbor dark witches. But then, she was friends with Dorsey , so she definitely kept an open mind about these kinds of things.
Could she be the one causing this mayhem? I frowned, going through the scenario in my mind: she might’ve arrived earlier than she said and told Dorsey to cover for her, then she had poisoned people around the shop having had no time to do a real deep dive into my relationships, then poisoned herself to not be counted as a potential suspect.
Literally the plot of the fourth book in Lily Hale’s suspense mysteries.
But why would she need to go through all that? If she wanted the shop or me gone, she was high enough in the Council hierarchy that she could’ve done it behind scenes without the need for all this drama. Unless drama was the point.
She didn’t seem the type, though.
I archived the idea to be shared with Ian later, then realized they were both looking at me expectantly.
“ I’m sorry, what?”
“ It might be a spell or ward that has been around for a long time but laid dormant until it was triggered recently, somehow,” Lilian said.
“ But wouldn’t I have triggered it before now?”
“ Your power might be too weak, or it needed a certain level of combined steps to be triggered and it has reached that point.”
“ But my detecting spells…”
“ They might not have been enough. Buildings like your shop, where magic has been happening for a long time, have a way to absorb magic. It might interfere with detecting spells.”
“ What about Bagley , the previous owner? She was a strong witch, wouldn’t she have triggered it?”
“ My guess is that her power wasn’t enough, either.”
Oh , boy. Bagley was going to love that.
I couldn’t wait to tell her.
“ We might have some leads about old spells,” I said.
“ Tell me.”
I explained the rumors about a similar situation happening before, what we had found out in Montel , and our initial plans to look up the families of everyone involved.
“ A dark coven like that would definitely have the combined power to do such a spell. It might be they never got to finish it before it was disbanded, or they meant it for something else but they never came around to triggering it.”
“ Or a descendant from the coven who knew about it has come back to trigger it,” Ian said.
“ Or that,” Lilian said, a happy note in her voice. She rubbed her hands. “ This is all so interesting. I love myself a good mystery.”
For someone whose magic wasn’t working right, she seemed quite upbeat. Green check mark on the suspect column—would she be so happy about things if she wasn’t sure she could reverse the spell at a moment’s notice?
“ You two seem to work together well,” Lilian said, then added in a mutter, “ Unlike half of my raid group.”
“ We do,” I said proudly, forgetting all about her being a possible suspect.
“ You two should do as you planned and follow up on the dark coven leads, figure out if any of the families are still around. Check on that victim’s family as well.”
“ I have to make another potion for you and the other paranormals affected first,” I said. “ That’ll knock me out for a bit.”
“ No need.”