Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
Twenty-four hours later, I was pulling my first batch of cursed macarons out of the oven. We’d gotten power to the place and spent time washing it down from ceiling to floor.
The floor was so bad, but I needed to get working on the curse first, so we tiled black-and-white checkerboard along the wall under the enormous stove, two ovens wide, so I could start baking while my dad worked on the tile.
Rawley offered outside help by bringing in flooring guys, but my dad had to place anti-curse spells with every tile, and who else could do that?
No one on such short notice. It was lucky goblins were so accustomed to dealing with curses.
We had to work constantly to keep the curse from affecting the stove before we’d cleared it, so that was what we did—made a tiny corner of safety surrounding the stove—and then I baked.
I swirled my favorite wooden spoon around the bowl and inhaled the scent of almonds and sugar before I piped the pink macaronage onto the parchment paper.
The cuteness of the entire process was watched by the dull if slightly judgmental eyes of the rabbit.
It didn’t matter. I baked and baked, pulling the curses from the walls into the adorable macarons.
I put them together with chocolate ganache, raspberry jam, and ended by piping the cutest little gel hearts on top. Shiny.
The oven was so good. It only took me three batches to make the perfect macarons. So pretty. Pity I couldn’t eat them or sell them, but it was good to iron out all the kinks with the stove, and even better to remove the curse. No one wanted cursed baked goods.
My dad worked on the anti-curse tiles while I baked batch after batch. Fourteen hours later, my dad had the entire place tiled, and I had a batch of macarons that were entirely curse free. All the adorable, cursed macarons were in piles, pink and pretty but, of course, deadly.
I frowned when I realized the rabbit wasn’t on the counter. Had he ceased to exist while I wasn’t looking? I looked over the counter and there he was, eating the first batch, the most cursed of all the macarons.
I shrieked, and my dad rushed in, holding a trowel, ready to slay the enemy.
I scooped up the rabbit. “Dad, I need to take him to the healery! Can you get rid of them while I’m gone?”
The rabbit struggled to get out of my arms and back to the cursed macarons. Did he have a death wish?
“You shouldn’t go without me. You aren’t safe out there.”
“I’ll take Rawley. The rabbit…” We both looked down at the rabbit, who’d gone still then started to twitch.
I ran.
The healery wasn’t very far from the shop, so I just ran out the front door, leaping off the stoop and spreading my wings so I’d make better time.
The world blurred by as I rushed, and then I was outside the ancient stone building.
The courtyard was open as I ran in, and a large woman put out a hand to stop me.
“What’s the issue?” she demanded in a deep voice.
My heart beat so fast as I gasped, “I accidentally cursed my rabbit!”
She blinked at me then frowned at the convulsing, sad-looking creature. “That rabbit’s been cursed for a long time.”
I hiked the rabbit up and studied it. Still breathing. Barely. “Right, but I accident doubly cursed it. We don’t have time to argue! It’s a house curse I put into my macarons. Well? Can you help?”
“A doubly cursed rabbit, you say?” a cheerful voice asked from behind me.
I whirled around then beamed when I saw Anna. My mother had gone to the extremely scarred healer before she got really sick. She wasn’t the best healer, but she was really kind.
“Yes. Can you help? I don’t know what to do. I have to save him. It’s all my fault. I never should’ve taken my eyes off him when I was baking, but I swear I only turned my back for a second.”
She leaned down and peered at the shivering and quivering thing. She raised a finger and poked it, sending a ray of green light patterns through it in the most horrifying way, like an x-ray that turned the rabbit see-through for a second.
I gasped and pulled the rabbit back, staring at the woman in shocked horror. I’d expected some blended-up herbs, not this…dark magic. That’s what it was.
“What did you do?” I asked as the rabbit shivered harder, convulsing so badly I could barely keep hold of the fluffy bundle.
“Mostly just charcoal,” she said with an unstable smile. Had she always been slightly unbalanced? Yes. But the power was new. It roiled around her like a thunderstorm.
That green flash wasn’t charcoal. The rabbit started retching then out came the macarons, only along with the pink smoosh was darkness, curling like live smoke.
“Oh, yes, that’s definitely a curse,” Anna said, crouching to look at the vomit mess. “Definitely a curse, but I don’t know about it being a house curse.”
I held onto the rabbit. “Well, it was in the house. I’m not sure what kind it was exactly. I just baked the curse into my macarons so I could burn them up.”
She looked up, concern on her face. “You shouldn’t burn curses inside city limits, particularly a city like Singsong. You never know what the smoke will trigger.”
“My dad’s got it handled. He’s really good with curses.”
She shook her head, frowning. “You’re saying that, right now, he’s burning cursed macarons in the city? Where is he?” Her frown made my stomach twist, and the feeling of facing down a storm grew stronger and stronger.
“He’s a goblin. He’s really good with dealing with curses.”
She blinked at me. “Your dad is a goblin? Adopted, I presume.”
“Um…can we focus on the rabbit?”
She looked at the rabbit, head cocked, but the way she was looking, I felt like she was also analyzing my blood and makeup as well. Did a flash of green light go through me, turning me transparent?
She finally said, “I think we got all the cursed macarons out. He’s still not healthy, but he’s not going to die today.”
I frowned down at the rabbit. He was shivering but no longer convulsing. “Thank you.” I looked up at her and wanted to burst into tears. “Thank you so much. I have to keep him alive or I’ll lose my bakery before I even get it running properly.”
“The bakery where your father is burning cursed macarons.” She raised her dark brows and smiled, but it was a dangerous smile. “Where is it located?”
I hesitated. “I don’t—”
She cut off my excuses. “I’m the Grand Sorcerer.
We take curses very seriously. If you don’t tell me, I could wrench the truth out of you with all sorts of unpleasant bindings.
And you owe me for saving your rabbit. Look, how about I don’t charge you for saving the rabbit from the house curse, and you tell me where the bakery is?
If we get there before anything disastrous happens, I won’t even penalize you for illegally destroying curses within city limits. ”
The Grand Sorcerer? Weren’t sorcerers all men? I hesitated. “What if you throw in an ointment for the rabbit’s sores, and I’ll tell you where the bakery is.”
She raised a brow. “You’ve got some nerve, bartering with a sorcerer.” She winked at me, flourished with her hand then tossed a bottle to me. “I like it. Let’s go. We’ll take my car.”
She looped her arm through mine then led me forcefully to the gate while I clung to the rabbit and the ointment.
The car was sleek, silver, and looked like a ridiculous amount of money. She pushed me through the open door then clambered in after me. “Where to?” she asked cheerfully, closing the door behind me.
The driver glanced back at us, a woman who looked more competent than anyone I’d ever worked for.
She almost intimidated me more than the Grand Sorcerer, because she was still Anna, the crazy healer, in my head.
“It’s The Rabbit Hole, but we haven’t put the sign up yet.
It’s a shop kitty corner from the Library of Antiquities, right next to The Cat’s Pause. ”
Ann squeezed my arm. “Wonderful! Then we can go get sushi after we make sure the smoke doesn’t raise an ancient force of evil from the dead or something.”
“Does that really happen?” I asked, grasping the rabbit and the jar. Maybe I could put it on him in the car. But I didn’t want to spill, and the driver had really stepped on the gas.
“Oh, sure,” she said airily. “But it usually takes some time to really cause a disaster that would require the evacuation of both upper and lower cities. Actually, the last real evacuation was when my husband turned the city to stone.”
I stared at her. “You’re married? Congratulations!” Really, though, she didn’t seem like the type to have a husband, what with the Grand Sorcerer title and the scars, but mostly because she was so weird.
“Thanks.” She grinned at me, eyes flickering with lightning in a very creepy way. “He’s ridiculously handsome. I hope you’re dating someone, or I might get jealous.”
I blinked at her. Why would she be jealous when I’d never even met her husband? She was just as weird as ever. “I have a lot on my plate right now. Dating isn’t really…”
“And if an incredibly attractive man with tons of money hit on you? What would you think?” She peered at me like it was a deadly serious question, more serious than the cursed macaron smoke thing.
“I would think that was extremely strange. And I don’t think your husband would be attractive to me. I think the single most beautiful male in Singsong is the Devil of Wonderland, and your husband is probably not a devil.”
She beamed at me. “That’s the smell on you. You reek of devil. Are you dating him? No, you’re too busy to date, but you’re definitely doing something with him.” She wiggled her brows suggestively. “That’s all right then.”