Chapter 4 #2
He smiled at the patrons who glanced his way.
More than one eyed him curiously as he headed to the counter which made sense, since Calli had told him they didn’t get many visitors until around the Halloween festival.
A pretty woman about Calli’s age with black hair that looked almost purple in the light waved her hands in the air like she was directing an orchestra.
Espresso machines and coffee presses were running at her magical command. Malcolm looked on in awe.
Cups floated along, filling up with coffee and bags of fresh coffee grounds poured into espresso machines by invisible hands.
Then the cups floated to the counter where the witch offered them to the waiting customers.
It was simply fantastic to see such well-coordinated magic.
At home his mother used regular appliances, non-magic ones that his father always seemed to jinx when he tried to use them.
But this witch had somehow figured out a way around that.
He’d have to ask her about that. When the witch working the counter noticed him, she blushed and hastily wiped her hands on a towel.
The cups stopped moving, but many of the simpler spells continued, not seeming to require her attention at all.
She stared up at him expectantly. “Hi there! What can I get you?”
He eyed the menu that hung above her head. “How about the Cursed Bones? What’s in it?”
“It’s a dark roast with some added ingredients gleaned from your past.” She grinned, her blue eyes sparkling.
“Sounds good.”
“Wait here and I’ll whip one up.” The woman went to work, casting a small spell he couldn’t quite make out before stirring it into his cup. Then she topped it with spiced cinnamon, which sank below the dark surface of the coffee.
“Taste this,” she encouraged as she handed him the mug. “Try a sip, let me know if I got it right.”
Malcolm took a sip. Rich dark coffee hit his taste buds, but then he tasted something else…something that brought back the happiest birthday memory he’d had as a boy.
“Bananas foster!” he gasped. “How did you know?”
She gave him a wink. “Trade secret.”
“I haven’t had bananas foster since I was ten. My parents took me to a fancy restaurant for dinner and we ordered one. It was the best dessert I’d ever had.”
The memory warmed him almost as much as the coffee. He could still see his father smiling as Malcolm had blown out the candle perched on the mountain of whipped cream besides the bananas. His father had been filled with such pride.
“I’m so proud of you, Malcolm! Someday you will be the most powerful warlock the East Coast has ever seen.”
He hadn’t known then that Malcolm would turn into a failure. That had been before his broom accident, before he’d pushed away magic as much as possible.
The woman gasped. “Oh no! Your aura just darkened. It was supposed to be a happy memory.”
“It was a happy memory,” Malcolm assured her. “It’s what came later that wasn’t so happy.” He sipped the coffee again and once more the taste plunged him back into a state of renewed joy. “You have a hell of a talent for this.”
“Thanks.” She held out a hand. “I’m Sage Sinclair.”
“Calli’s friend?”
Sage’s eyes lit up. “You know Calli?”
“I do. We only just met last night.” He just hoped she didn’t pry him for details about that.
Sage pointed up to the barn owl nestled on a perch on the back wall. “That’s my familiar, Nimbus.” The barn owl let out a screech that caught Hades’s full attention. He huffed at her.
“So, what brings you to town?”
Malcolm thought back to the wormhole and the pumpkin patch, trying to think of an answer that wasn’t exactly a lie, but didn’t sound so horrible.
Just then, Sage’s eyes shimmered with magic. “You destroyed her pumpkins?” Sage covered her mouth in horror. “Do you have any idea how long she’s been working on them?”
Malcolm’s eyes narrowed. “Wait, hang on. How did you—”
“Sorry… I have an ability for reading surface thoughts. It’s one of my other talents.” She continued to stare at him. “Wait—how did you destroy the pumpkins? All I saw was a blast of light.”
“I opened a witch wormhole.” Malcolm muttered and rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed.
“Sorry, a what now?”
“A witch portal,” he corrected.
“Ahh,” she was still looking at him curiously. “You came through a portal into Moonstone?” Sage’s tone was clearly disbelieving. “That’s not an easy thing to do. We have wards here, you know. You’d need a lot of magic to pull that off.”
The door chimed behind him and a familiar voice called his name. “Mac? What are you doing here?”
He turned around and grinned at the shocked look on his best friend’s face, then moved in for a bear hug. “Jasper! I was just looking for you.”
Jasper was a tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed man that the girls in college had nicknamed the Viking, because he’d dressed as one at the freshman Halloween dance.
“You came to a magical town to look for me?” Jasper chuckled. “I thought you weren’t a fan of magic.”
Sage seemed to be watching them with way too much interest, so Malcolm pulled his friend over to a table by the windows overlooking Main Street.
Malcolm glanced out the window and saw a little girl riding a broom on the sidewalk.
She was only a couple of feet off the ground and couldn’t have been more than seven or eight.
She was kicking her feet and laughing as she rode in circles around her father, who carried two large bags of groceries.
“You might not love magic, Malcolm, but I do,” Jasper said, also watching the pair.
Malcolm’s chest tightened. The girl made magic look easy.
Fun. But it hadn’t been easy or fun for Malcolm when he’d been a kid.
When he’d been younger the magic hadn’t been so hard, he’d been able to ride a broom just like that girl, but after the accident?
Everything had changed. Unable to keep the wistful feeling hidden, he watched the father and daughter.
Rather than look exhausted carrying the groceries and dealing with the small child, the father managed to chase the girl even as she chased him, like some big game. It was like a Norman Rockwell painting… with magic.
“I’m surprised he can keep up with her like that,” said Malcolm.
“I’m not. Jack’s a werewolf.”
“You’re joking.”
Jasper nodded. “Married one of the local witches. That’s their daughter Belinda, but everyone calls her Bells.”
Malcolm’s brow rose. “A witch married a werewolf?” His father’s family would never have allowed a marriage like that.
The Wellesley line dated back to those who escaped the Lancashire witch trials in England.
At least it had been until his father had broken with tradition and duty, and married a non-magical human.
“People here are free to live their lives on their terms. It’s incredible. I’ve been here for four months now, and honestly, I have no desire to leave.”
“Really? I thought you loved being on the move.” Since they’d graduated, Jasper had been employed by a travel magazine for feature writing. Until now, he’d never been in the same location for more than a month.
Jasper shrugged, and his gaze drifted to the woman behind the counter.
“Some things are worth sticking around for. I’m a bit bored with travel articles lately.
I want to try writing some fiction, like murder mysteries or thrillers.
” Jasper’s face glowed with excitement. “That way, I wouldn’t need to leave Moonstone Falls. ”
“If you had planned to stay, why didn’t you tell me you were staying in a magical town? I remember you mentioning you were headed this way, but you never sent me any of your articles like you usually do,” Malcolm had a sense that Jasper was keeping something from him.
Jasper’s face turned a little red. “Well, you don’t like magic. I didn’t want to be like ‘hey bro, come hang out in a magical town with me.’ You know?”
“Good point,” Malcolm murmured. He definitely wouldn’t have wanted to come here if Jasper had told him about it. But now that he was here… it felt different.
Sage came over and placed a mug of coffee in front of Jasper.
“Wait, you didn’t order anything, did you?” asked Malcolm.
Jasper smiled. “Perks of being a regular.” He winked at the witch, making her face turn crimson. Sage gave Hades a quick pat and a small cup of whipped cream topped with a dog biscuit before she hurried back to her counter.
“You’re not worried that flirting with a witch might get you hexed?” Malcolm was only half-kidding about that.
Jasper arched a brow. “Is that what happens when you flirt with witches?”
“No,” Malcolm said far too hastily.
Jasper chortled into his coffee mug. “So what brings you to Moonstone Falls, really?”
“Like I said, you did. Just… indirectly.”
Jasper blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He’d never kept anything a secret from Jasper after the night he’d levitated him off his dorm bed, and he wasn’t about to start now. Malcolm told the entire story, starting with the disastrous arrival in the pumpkin patch, right up to setting Calli’s rug on fire with a kiss.
Jasper snorted. “Thank God you never set me on fire.”
“You’re not my type,” said Malcolm.
“Yeah, that would have probably changed how I viewed magic… and roommates.” He took deep drink from his mug.
“Is that the Cursed Bones?”
Jasper nodded, eyes closed.
Malcolm couldn’t help but wonder how the spell differed from person to person. “What do you taste?”
“Apple pie, the kind my grandmother made at Thanksgiving when I was a kid.” He nodded at Malcolm’s mug. “How about you?”
“Bananas foster. The kind I had on my tenth birthday.”
“She’s got a gift,” Jasper said with admiration. “So, you decided to stay and let Calli give you some magical tips, huh?”
“Yeah, at least one lesson. The least I can do is humor her.” He still doubted she could help him. No one could.
“I’m proud of you, man. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?”