Chapter 30
THIRTY
So , there we were: me, the stray, the seedy paranormal bar owner, the mean crone, the demon, the happy zerker, the local pack’s alpha, and the broken deus ex machina witch, all grouped around the pick-locker friend as she played with the back door’s lock.
I was tempted to snatch a group selfie to mark the moment.
“ I thought the spell got you sick,” Lilian whispered to Hutton , who was standing as far from her in the group as possible without it being suspicious.
Hutton grunted.
“ Bad tacos,” I told her, sending a silent mental apology to the Mexican food truck in Bolton Square .
Hutton grunted again.
“ The Taco Tuesday truck? No way,” April said, her hands covering her stomach. “ I ate there today.”
“ Maybe it was something else,” I said soothingly. “ Don’t worry about it.”
Another Hutton grunt.
“ Got it,” Susy whispered. There was a snick, and the door opened.
Lilian slipped inside, and I followed, phone flashlight at the ready. We located the alarm box, and Lilian opened it carefully. She pressed her hand to the blinking display and keypad, and raised her magic.
Sparks flew in the air, and the display died with a single beep.
“ It almost makes me want to keep it,” Lilian murmured, studying her hand.
“ We good?” Hutton asked from outside.
“ All good,” I told them. They came inside, looking around curiously as I illuminated our surroundings with my phone. The windows overlooking the street weren’t fully blocked but had half-walls with painting on them that still allowed a view into the front of the gallery, so I made sure to keep the phone flashlight pointed downward.
“ Nice place,” Alex whispered.
I had to agree. Norman had enlarged the entrance into the back hallway, turning it into a natural continuation of the gallery. A door with a bathroom sign on it and another with an “ Office ” plaque were separated by a pedestal displaying a bust, and what would’ve been the kitchen had been turned into an open sitting area with a plush sofa. On one side, a third door blocked the way into the stairs leading to the second-floor living area.
“ Get to work, blondie,” Dru said, pointing at the bust.
I saluted and sprayed the bottom of the bust.
Detect .
I shook my head. No magic.
“ I like this moon water in a spray bottle idea,” Lilian said.
“ I have a version that will detect magic if you’re not a witch,” I told her proudly. We had put it to good use last time we had magical issues.
“ Impressive .”
Rufus yipped in agreement.
“ Silence , Rufus ,” I reminded him. He butted my hand with his head, and I gave him a good scratch.
“ We don’t have all night,” Wyatt said. “ I need to get back.”
“ Me too,” Dorsey said. “ I’m not even half-drunk yet.”
“ I don’t mind. This is so much fun,” April whispered.
“ Thanks , April ,” I said pointedly, then walked into the art gallery itself, glad my sneakers weren’t squeaking on the polished floors. Soft spotlights illuminated the different paintings, busts, and other works of art. As before, the wave of wrongness assaulted my senses as I took them in. It wasn’t overwhelming or anything, but it was there .
“ Oh , man,” someone said.
“ What is that?” Dorsey asked, leaning towards a bust of a screaming man and pinching her nose as if the wrongness of the sight had a bad smell.
“ Dude ,” Alex said, shuddering by my side. “ That is some bad vibes.”
I followed his gaze to find the painting of the woman standing by the fireplace that doubled as a gateway to Hell .
“ Interesting ,” Lilian said, sounding fascinated.
“ I like that one,” Dorsey stated, pointing at a cherry wood secretary desk I was pretty sure still had splatters of someone’s blood. “ It’s neat.”
“ That one has been here from the start,” I said. “ The painting with the fireplace too. We need the new arrivals, or anything that feels wrong.”
“ Everything here feels wrong,” Dru muttered, rubbing her arms.
“ Demon has a point,” Hutton grumbled.
“ Try a little harder,” I chided, then began checking for pieces I didn’t remember being here on opening night.
A painting caught my attention—a small, framed canvas with a portrait of a man in regency clothes (thanks, BBC classics). I sprayed moon water on my hand, then pressed a fingertip to the edge of the canvas and focused my intention.
Detect .
No magic bounced back.
“ Rufus ,” I said, putting my hand on his head, “sense anything?”
Rufus sniffed the wall, then the floor, then moved along. I followed, because what if Dru was right and spending a lifetime with Ian and the strays in Olmeda had made him magic-sensitive?
He stopped by a ship made of different bits of metal standing on a pedestal. This one was definitely new.
I used the moon water on it, then my power, and a small bounce of magic hit back.
“ Here ,” I whispered excitedly. Lilian immediately came to my side and studied the metal construction.
“ Boss , what about this one?” Alex said from a few paces away.
I joined him in front of a small wooden alchemy chest. The box was open, showing row upon row of tiny drawers with different herbs and designs painted on them. The drawings should’ve been beautiful but, there was something just off about them. The way some leaves curled, or how some of the flowers fought to break out of the drawer’s confines seemed wrong somehow. If I hadn’t interacted with Norman every day for the past month, I’d seriously consider him some sort of evil mastermind. But even my faulty evil detection system couldn’t be wrong about him—he was too good natured, too much like an eager puppy. He was completely oblivious to the bad vibes.
I used the moon water on the chest and got another hit.
“ This one has traces of magic too,” I said. I glanced between both artworks. Which one was it?
“ Test every one,” Lilian said. “ Then we’ll decide.”
I agreed and went through the art gallery, the others retreating to the relative safety of the entrance into the hallway. No other piece had traces of magic.
“ We’ll put the potion on both,” I decided, wiping my forehead and hoping I had enough power left for the potion itself. Even though I had been using only a tiny flare of my power with each detection spell, it was adding up, and my limbs were starting to feel heavy.
“ Yes ,” Lilian agreed. “ You have the ingredients or do we need to go back to the shop?”
I lowered my tote. “ I got them.”
“ Let’s get to it.”
I prepared the circle of herbs and crystal under Lilian’s supervision, who, unlike Bagley and Tammy , was actually useful rather than simply complaining about my way of doing things, then poured the moon water into the glass bowl. Next came my trusty fruit-cutting knife.
“ Ready ,” I said. “ Who first?”
Alex stepped forward. “ I’ll go first, boss.”
I gave him a thankful smile. With potions that required blood, there was always an initial reluctance to donate, and him being eager to do it would help the others get it over with.
He knelt on the floor and extended his arm. I cut it deftly and blood beaded then ran down his skin to drip into the bowl. Once there was enough, Lilian slapped a gauze pad on his arm as I cleaned the knife with an alcohol wipe.
With Alex smiling like it had been no big deal, the tension in the group lessened and they all stepped forward one by one— Dru , April , Dorsey , Wyatt . I went last, trying not to wince at the sting as I sliced my arm.
“ Use mine too,” Susy said, kneeling and offering her arm. “ I want to help.”
That was really sweet of her. I’d make sure to serve her free tea and muffins for a month. “ What kind of paranormal are you?”
“ Got an earth mage somewhere in the family tree.”
That explained the affinity for lockpicking. It seemed to be a trait with earth mages.
After I was done with her blood, I cleaned and put the knife aside and held the bowl. “ I’ll do the spell now.”
“ What about him?” Lilian asked, pointing at Hutton .
I avoided looking his way. “ He’s an alpha. He’s too powerful for the potion.”
“ I think a drop or two will help. After all you gotta fight fire with fire sometimes, right?”
My gaze flew to Hutton in alarm. Was Lilian suggesting what I thought she was suggesting? That since the original spell had to be dark magic, a bit of dark magic in our potion would help?
Hutton’s eyes widened in panic. “ No .”
“ Trust me,” Lilian said. “ It’ll help.” She smiled slyly. “ And I won’t tell a soul.”
“ Won’t tell what?” Dorsey asked.
“ That he faked being sick to get out of doing the first potion, of course,” Lilian said smoothly.
“ I didn’t?—”
“ Oh , thank goodness,” April murmured with relief. “ Those were really good tacos.”
“ Fine . Yes , I did,” Hutton said.
“ He took a potion for some delicate issues before going to the meeting and he was too shy to admit it,” I said. “ So he bowed out rather than have the potion he had ingested influence the results.”
“ Delicate issues, huh?” Dru said, laughter in her voice.
“ Shut up,” Hutton snapped. To Lilian , he asked, “ Are you sure it’ll help?”
“ Yes .”
“ Bathroom issues maybe?” Dorsey suggested.
Hutton rounded on them. “ If I hear a word about me and delicate issues outside this room, you’ll all pay for it,” he snarled.
“ Sure ,” Dru said. her lips twitched.
“ Don’t threaten me, young man,” Dorsey said. “ I helped change your diapers.”
“ You’ve never set a foot in Clawstone Park in your life, and my father hated your guts.”
“ Eh .”
“ The potion,” I reminded them. “ Can we get back to it?”
Hutton , looking absolutely thunderous, knelt by the bowl and offered his arm. “ Do it already.”
I made the cut and allowed a couple of drops to fall into the potion before using the gauze to stem the shallow bleeding.
“ Thank you,” I said genuinely. He could’ve refused, called Lilian’s bluff and stomped out of here, but he’d stayed and given his blood because it would help.
He was a good egg.
He gave me a curt nod and stepped away. Lilian joined the group, giving me space to do my magic.
Here came the trickiest part: using enough magic to make the potion, but not enough that the original spell would feed off it instead of being neutralized. Plus , I needed to keep some power to activate the spell on the two items themselves, and I was already somewhat drained from all the magic detecting.
I held the bowl in my hands, closed my eyes, and allowed the faint scent of the herbs to invade my senses, the feeling of the cool glass against my skin, the reassurance of the clear quartz placed in the circle.
Magic comes from all blood .
Together it becomes an unstoppable force .
Magic tingled down my arms and, through my fingertips and the glass, into the moon water, herb mixture, and blood. I took the glass stirrer and added the rest of the spell.
Let magic’s nature prevail over disruptive spells.
The streaks of blood and herb mixture swirled around each other, first tentatively, then interacting. Once the potion was well mixed, I put the stirrer aside, fighting a wave of weakness trying to take over my body.
“ Done ,” I whispered.
The hallway’s light switched on and Norman’s shrill voice rang out. “ Hope ? What’s going on?”