Upside Down Magic (Good Bad Magic #6)

Chapter 16

SIXTEEN

Wyatt owned an establishment in the net of alleyways that formed Guiles and Romary’s bar scene. As far as I was aware, only paranormals frequented it, and, unlike the Crawler , it was open to all—as long as you liked dark, dingy interiors and were there for illegal magical matters.

It was also Brimstone’s haunt of choice.

For a moment, hope sparked inside of me. Maybe the upside-down magic spell wasn’t about me or the Tea Cauldron ; maybe it was someone related to Wyatt’s bar having sworn revenge after a deal gone bad.

But then, how to explain Shane and Lilian ? Shane might’ve gotten close to Wyatt’s bar, but Lilian had no reason to go anywhere near it.

Ian parked as close as possible, and we hurried through the narrow streets. Even this early in the day some of the bars on the main two thoroughfares were open, and tourists milled around, aahing and oohing at the old buildings.

Wyatt’s bar was a hole in the wall in one of the side streets, appearing closed for all intents and purposes, but I knew better— I had come here at all times of the day, and it was always open.

The inside was as gloomy as usual, with several standing tables and a series of booths lining one wall. On the other, a long bar stretched the length of the room, with Wyatt standing behind it and a few customers nursing drinks at the far end.

Nobody looked sick; nobody looked angry. Maybe they were in the back room? The jukebox was silent now, and nondescript country music played softly over the speakers.

“ I’m here,” I exclaimed, rushing to the bar counter and gripping it like it was my lifeline. I sensed Ian come to a stop behind me. “ Where are they?”

Wyatt finished drying a glass and snapped the rag over his shoulder before coming over, his usual deep scowl in place. “ About time.” He gave Ian a fast glance and a muscle in his jaw twitched. “ Cavalier .”

At the sound of his name, two people stood abruptly and disappeared through the back door, and the closest person at the counter took his drink to one of the far booths. The reaction would’ve normally made me laugh, but I was too worried about having another sick paranormal on my hands. “ Well ? Where are they?”

“ Where is who?”

I leaned in and lowered my voice, not wanting to cause a panic. “ Whoever is sick?”

“ Nobody’s sick, lady.”

“ Nobody ?”

“ What are you talking about?” he demanded, planting both hands on top of the counter in a move I was well familiar with. It was the stop messing with me or I’m bringing out the bat move.

“ There’s nobody sick?”

“ Of course not! This is a proper establishment.”

My legs gave out from under me and I barely slid onto one of the stools before I landed on the floor. I wanted to put my hands on my face and cry with joy. Nobody else was sick yet. We still had time to fix it before more people were affected. Ian put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently.

“ Are you sick?” Wyatt suddenly asked, taking a step back and staring at me like I had grown infectious zombie spores all over my body.

“ I’m not,” I said, straightening and looking at him in the eye. If this had nothing to do with someone being sick, then maybe there was something else going on that could lead to it. Coincidences were for people who didn’t read enough mystery books. “ Why did you call me, then?”

He gestured toward me with his rag. “ That thing you’re doing.”

“ Which thing?”

“ The Christmas thing.”

For a moment, I entertained the fantasy of jumping over the counter and strangling Wyatt with his rag. I didn’t think Ian would interfere. “ Did you call me and tell me it’s an emergency because of my Christmas event ?” My voice got higher and higher until I was pretty sure the people over at Crawler on the other side of Guiles and Romary had heard me.

“ There’s a Christmas event?” someone asked from the booths.

“ You shut your mouth, Jack . This is private business,” Wyatt snapped, then turned to me. “ Yeah . The Christmas thing. I want in.”

Deep breaths, Hope . Just because other people didn’t share my concept of urgency, it didn’t mean it wasn’t an urgent matter in their world.

Plus , Grandma would not have approved of murder.

Probably .

“ I can’t put you in the Christmas event, Wyatt . It’s family friendly.”

The outrage on his face warmed my heart. “ We’re family friendly here!”

“ That’s right,” another customer shouted. “ We’re all a big family here!” Then proceeded to ruin the sentiment with a loud guffaw.

“ If minors can’t enter,” I told Wyatt , “then it’s not family friendly.”

Wyatt narrowed his eyes. “ Minors can enter. They just can’t order alcohol.”

The thought of a happy ten-year-old skipping into this dark dump of a bar to get a sticker from Wyatt made me shudder. “ Nope , sorry.”

“ What about you do two of those card things. One for kids, one for adults.” He beamed as much as his perennially grumpy face would allow, clearly pleased with himself.

“ Why don’t you organize a Christmas thing for adults among the bars?” I countered.

“ Bah . Who cares about those people.”

“ What about the Crawler ? Maybe you could?—”

He spit to the side and all but made the sign of the cross with his fingers. “ Don’t mention that place,” he warned.

A low growl reverberated behind me, and Wyatt sent Ian a wary glance.

“ Yeah ,” someone at the end of the bar said. “ The Crawler sucks!”

Probably a fellow paranormal on the no-enter list, like me. “ If not them, maybe some of the other bars? Rita’s ?”

“ Why them when you can add me to yours?”

I rubbed my forehead. “ I will take it under consideration.” And no way in this green earth I’d give it my approval. Wyatt might be occasionally helpful to my investigations into the illegal happenings in Olmeda , but that was a far cry from allowing a bar in… My train of thought trailed off as a new one formed.

“ Hey , Wyatt .”

“ If you wanna ask, you gotta order.”

“ Water ,” Ian said in his deep voice.

Wyatt scrunched his nose but filled a glass in the sink, then slammed it in front of me, the water splashing everywhere.

“ Do you know about the old dark coven who used to operate here long ago?” I toyed with the glass, having absolutely no intention of drinking its contents.

“ What does that have to do with Christmas ?”

“ Nothing . I’ve been curious about something that happened a while back. You know the Ellis family?”

“ Can’t say I do.”

“ The oldest brother comes in sometimes,” the other man said.

I turned to him again. “ He does?”

A shrug. “ Seen him here and there, not a regular like me.”

“ You know what happened in the family a while back?”

Wyatt slapped the counter with his rag and began wiping some of the water spill. “ We keep our business to ourselves here, lady.”

The man snorted. “ Sure thing, Wyatt .”

“ Keep your mouth shut if you don’t want me to shut it for you, Earl .”

Earl rolled his eyes but said nothing more.

I finished swirling on the stool to face the rest of the dimly lit space.

“ If anyone has any information on the Ellises ’ past or the Leeman family who used to live here, please let me know.”

With that, I stood and left the bar. Ian took a few extra seconds to join me outside, likely having given everyone his patented glacial bounty-hunter glare.

Once we were back in the SUV , I contemplated the information we had gathered so far.

“ So , Sofia’s older brother drops by the bar sometimes. That probably means he’s involved in some shady deals and has access to shady spells. Do you think he wants to take revenge for what happened to his ancestor?”

“ The case files didn’t mention his ancestor suffering long-lasting consequences because of the spell.”

“ Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. But you’re right,” I admitted with a sigh. “ It’s far-fetched to go through all this trouble to avenge a long-ago relative, plus he’d have targeted witches. He’d have no beef with the other paranormals.”

“ Do you want to go back to talk to Sofia about him?”

I pondered that. “ Not yet. Let’s go to the old coven house. If we’re right and Leeman was involved with the coven and that’s how he got his dark magic potion, and that’s related to our current situation, good chance whoever made the spell now went there to soak in the bad vibes.”

“ And if the spell was dormant and nobody around is behind it?”

“ We still should check.”

Ian started the car. “ Good .”

“ Something’s been bugging me about our conversation with Wyatt .”

“ Oh ?”

“ He never asked about paranormals being sick.”