Chapter 4
Four
Mystic was every bit the tourist trap I’d remembered it being.
Fake signs advertising another realm and search for the portal tours at every store.
Major buildings like the courthouse and town hall had been painted all black.
The only bar in town was even called Witch’s Brew.
A purple and green banner hung at the entrance of Main Street that read, “Discover the Magic of Mystic.” It was like the locals leaned into it even harder now that October was upon us.
My eyes scanned the rearview mirror, triple checking that I hadn’t been followed.
Without hesitating further, I jumped out of my car at the police station and walked quickly toward the front door, shielding my face with the hood of my rain jacket from the lightly spraying mist.
When I tried to pull open the glass door, it stuck. I froze for a moment. Thoughts of early this morning and the doors at the cottage being sealed shut spun through my mind. But before I could panic, I noticed painted-on operating hours. They wouldn’t be open for another fifteen minutes.
One man sat inside, typing away at a desk. I knocked and he looked up, startled. When he noticed me, he pushed away from the desk and walked over.
He pointed to the hours. “We’re not open yet,” he said. I could barely hear him through the door.
“Please.” I held up my hands in a prayer motion. “I really need help.”
His brows pulled together with concern. He twisted the inside lock and pushed the door open, stepping aside so that I could enter.
“What’s the matter, darling?” The darling would have given me the creeps in the city, but this man was all small-town and presumably genuine. He was a middle-aged man with graying hair, combed over to hide a receding hairline and a navy blue officer’s uniform.
“Well…” Where did I even start with this saga?
My grandmother still wasn’t answering her phone.
There was a strange man—warlock—sleeping across the hall from me.
Sure, Theo hadn’t attempted to hurt me last night, but still. I knew that I should feel uneasy. I was not about to be the girl in a horror movie who ignored every sign to go find help.
“You see there’s this man,” was the first thing that spilled out of my mouth.
He nodded, urging me to continue.
“I’m staying with my grandmother, up in the old gray Victorian off of South Main? At the end of the path? Um, anyway, I got here last night and I can’t get a hold of her but this giant man is staying there and he claims he knows her but I don’t trust him.”
His expression flashed from confusion to recognition. “You’re Loretta’s granddaughter?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Josie.”
“Oh, she talks about you all the time. My wife is a regular of hers. I don’t believe in all that energy stuff but if it makes her happy.” He rolled his eyes and laughed.
I stared at him blankly before laughing nervously. “Um, yeah, that’s me. Anyway, like I was saying, this guy?—”
“Theo, right?” he snapped his fingers. “What a nice guy. Always helping out around the shop. She’s lucky to have him.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Oh, you know him?”
He chuckled. “Hard to miss a new guy like that in town. I thought Lori said he was her grandson.”
“Definitely not,” I said.
“Huh.” He stroked his chin. “I could’ve sworn she said something like that. Maybe he’s a family friend?”
I wasn’t sure if I should be comforted or further stressed out by the fact that he seemed to not have any concern for my situation.
Could Theo have put some sort of charm on these people? My gut told me no. Wouldn’t he have cast some sort of spell over me if that was in his repertoire?
“So you’ve seen them together? He’s not dangerous?”
He laughed and I tried not to bristle at the idea that I, a woman, was not being taken seriously at a police station.
“He’s not dangerous at all. They’re together all the time.”
“Okay, then.” I drummed my fingers against the desk. “I guess…I guess I’ll go then.”
“It was great meeting you.” He smiled and reached behind the desk before producing a bright pink pastry box. “Donut?”
I thought about saying no, but figured if I took the donut this outing wouldn’t be a complete wash.
“Thanks,” I said, grabbing a vanilla frosted one and holding it up.
“Take care and welcome to Mystic.”
I hip-checked the door back open, stuffing the donut into my mouth.
My car was still the only one in the parking lot as rain softly beat down on me. I didn’t bother rushing to it.
Theo was most likely harmless.
But he was also a warlock who was hiding something and was staying across the hall. A freaking warlock was sleeping under the same roof as me.
The sane part of me that had never believed in magic or anything like that wanted to continue to panic. But what more was there to do? I just had to wait for Lori to come home which, if Theo was to be believed, would be soon. It wasn’t like I could leave. I had nowhere to go.
“Josie?” a deep voice said directly behind me.
I screamed and whipped around, nearly dropping my donut.
Theo stood there, in all black, a windbreaker hood over his head. He towered over me. If he was trying to play the part of not menacing and scary, he wasn’t succeeding.
“Are you following me?”
“I was in the kitchen when you tried to sneak out.”
I’d attempted to be discreet, but I’d clearly failed.
“That doesn’t answer my question.” My heart rate picked up.
I’d tried going back to sleep last night, but with the knowledge that he was right down the hall, I’d only managed to stare at the ceiling for a couple of hours.
I’d locked the door to my bedroom, but even if he wasn’t some magical entity, or whatever, he could have easily shouldered his way through and busted the old, rusted lock.
He shrugged. “I thought I’d go for a run.”
“It’s raining,” I said, but as I took him in, I realized he wasn’t wet in the slightest.
“I don’t mind.” He glanced over to the police station. “What are you doing here?”
“Nothing,” I said stubbornly, backing up so that I was closer to my car door.
I thought I saw the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.
“So you’re a wizard who likes to jog,” I muttered to myself, stuffing the last of the donut into my mouth.
He frowned. “Warlock,” he corrected. “And we don’t really call ourselves that where I’m from.”
“Witch, then?”
He shook his head. “While technically witch is a gender neutral term, I’m just a guy.”
“So just a guy who likes to run.” I waved my hands in a little jazzy motion. This whole thing was too preposterous to take seriously.
“I like to keep fit,” he said, shrugging.
I nearly snorted because this man was probably the most physically fit person I’d ever seen in real life. His muscles were well defined even underneath his windbreaker.
“Look, I’m trying to play it cool here,” I started.
He turned to look back at the police station. The officer was at the door now, waving. “That’s why you came to the police?”
“That isn’t the point. This morning, I didn’t even think wizards were real?—”
“Warlocks.”
“Whatever. The point is, I thought that magic was a thing of fairytales. Storybooks. Not real.”
His brow furrowed. “But you believe me, right?”
His concern over if I believed him or not was almost comical. “It’s either that or I’m having a psychotic break. Which if you knew me, is actually not that unlikely so…”
He didn’t say anything and continued to stare at me. Shivers crept down my spine and I folded my arms across my chest.
“I’m going to run an errand,” I announced, breaking our stare and spinning on my toe.
I’d gotten my door halfway open before he was on the passenger side, eyes never leaving me.
“What?” I snapped. It was only 8:00 a.m. and my patience had already worn completely away.
“Can I come?”