Couture and Curses

by Danielle Garrett

  Caleb smiled. “I sent her after the delivery boy.”

  My eyes widened. “Oh.”

  “If he’s in on it, she’ll find out.”

  I didn’t press for more details. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what all that might entail.

  Instead, I shifted my attention to a new battlefield. “I know you don’t like it, but I want to go to the hospital to see Aurelia.”

  Caleb frowned.

  “You and Harmony can come with me,” I said. “Nothing bad will happen. But if I can form that connection again, maybe I can try to, I don’t know, communicate with whoever it is that’s behind this.”

  Caleb looked to Harmony, clearly hoping she’d step in and talk me off this particular ledge.

  “I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot,” she said. “I think I might have a way for us to get inside Aurelia’s thoughts and memories without you, Stace.”

  “That so?” Caleb asked, his eyebrows lifted.

  She bobbed her head. “I asked someone at my potions workshop if there was a way to see inside someone’s mind and they gave me a spell.”

  Caleb tensed.

  “Mind magic, Harmony? You do realize you’re literally elbow-to-elbow with an SPA agent, right?”

  Mind magic was forbidden by the Haven Council and the law was heavily enforced by the SPA. Even just the hint of anything in that vein was a serious offense.

  Leave it to Harmony to implicate herself in a crime with an entire pack of SPA agents within earshot.

  “I don’t think it technically falls into that category,” Harmony said, giving Caleb a wary look.

  “Ah, yes, magic and technicality. Those two things go so well together. I’m sure the Haven Council would love to hear your rationale on this one.” I scoffed, shaking my head. “My magic might be shallow enough to fit in a teaspoon, but even I know you can’t go poking around in someone’s head and not call it mind magic.”

  Caleb frowned. “She’s right, Harmony. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you attempt something so dangerous. We have specially trained agents who perform anything in that realm. Of course, it would require a hearing before the council, or finding an agent with enough seniority they can get away with it outside of council approval …” He trailed off and for a moment, I wondered if he was thinking of someone specific, but then he shook his head. “It’s not possible. We need another lead.”

  “Well, clearly we struck a nerve by pursuing Ramona,” I said. “Whoever is behind this was desperate enough to kill her to keep her from talking.”

  “Wait, what?” Harmony held up her hands in the shape of a T. “Time out!”

  Caleb caught her up and Harmony swore under her breath. “That’s it. Stace, I know you think I’m just your crazy little sister, but even I can see the danger here. Caleb is right, we need to get you to the safe house.”

  Caleb gave Harmony an approving nod.

  Great. They were back on the same team again. Just what I needed.

  “Boss!” A new agent appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. He stopped and looked embarrassed. “Sorry. I don’t mean to interrupt—”

  Caleb waved off the apology. “It’s fine. Go ahead, Clark.”

  “I went through the SPA records and Ramona Quell didn’t have any aunts or uncles. Her parents were both only children and they’ve both passed away.”

  “So, the whole story she gave is a lie. Which raises the question of where—and to whom—did the Heart of Poseidon and other trinkets originally belong to.” Caleb’s mouth tensed. “Any progress on tracking down the name of the ex-roommate? I’d say that’s our strongest lead at this point.”

  “Not yet, sir.”

  “All right. Keep digging. And someone get me Meryl on the phone. I want to know if she’s made any progress in tracking the delivery boy with the flowers.”

  “Yes, boss!” The agent turned away and hurried off to complete his task.

  When he was gone, Caleb reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “We’re missing something. I can feel it, but can’t figure out what it is.”

  I nodded even as my spirits sank. Even with everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours, it felt like we were treading water, no closer to finding the shadow man than the night he’d attacked Aurelia.

  Harmony brushed her fingers over my hand. “You okay, Stace?”

  “I was just thinking about Aurelia,” I said quietly. “I’ve been attacked by the shadow three times now and I’m still awake. Shaken up, but okay, while she’s lying in a hospital bed and there’s no cure or treatment that seems to touch her.”

  Caleb shifted. “I wish I had an answer. But for now, all we can do is put you in a safe place and keep a close eye out.”

  “I know.”

  “Harmony, do you have somewhere else you can stay?” Caleb asked.

  I cringed. I hadn’t told him that Harmony hadn’t been back home since the argument we’d had during his last visit. The guilt over the petty argument was even deeper now, thinking about how those heated words might have been the last I’d ever gotten a chance to say if things had ended differently tonight.

  “Can’t she stay with me?” I asked. “I mean, if you want to?” I added, casting her a cautious glance.

  “I’ll stay with Stace,” she said decisively before taking my hand. “And Peaches, obviously.”

  We exchanged a smile. We’d still need to have a conversation to clear the air, but it felt like we were back on the same team again.

  “Oh, yes, and Peaches,” Caleb groaned.

  “Hey!” I protested, shooting him a glare.

  Harmony snickered. “He’s just upset that he’s finally found a lady he can’t charm with his smile and some sweet talking.”

  I giggled into my hand. “Aww, poor Caleb.”

  Caleb’s brow furrowed as he looked at each of us in turn. “I think I liked it better when you two were fighting,” he said. He muttered under his breath as he left the kitchen, something about making sure he sent an agent to find a litter box that “her grace” would approve of.

  Harmony and I laughed as he strode off to regroup his agents. “Do you think he’ll ever win her over?” Harmony asked.

  I shook my head. “Not likely. He accidentally shut her tail in the fridge the second time he spent the night.”

  Harmony laughed, her eyes going wide. “Oh! Well, that’s the unpardonable sin in the Ten Commandments of cats.”

  “Exactly.”

  Harmony squeezed my hand. “I was actually going to call you tonight after my shift,” she said, looking down at the floor for a long moment. “I’m really sorry about the other night. You had every right to be ticked off.”

  “I’m sorry, too. I should have had a cooler head. And, as for the stuff I said about working at the restaurant, I shouldn’t have brought that all up. I know you’re saving your money and getting your feet underneath you.”

  “Well, actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.”

  “Okay …” I braced myself, mentally preparing for her to tell me she’d blown her money at a casino or buying bottle service for all her friends at some club opening in the city.

  It wouldn’t be the first time, though at this point it would genuinely shock me. She’d been doing so much better. At least, I thought she had.

  “This is weird timing,” she said, glancing out at the living room. “But, I got accepted to work as an apprentice at a potion shop.”

  “You did?” Relief and surprise flooded through me and I tossed my arms around her neck. “Harmony, that’s great! Congratulations!”

  Our celebration was cut short when Caleb appeared in the doorway, his eyes dark and lined with worry.

  The smile slid off my face and I straightened.

  Caleb beckoned for me. “Ana, you need to see this.”

  “What? What is it?” I asked, staying rooted in place.

  “Ana, someone set a tracking spell on you. That’s how they found out where you lived.”


  Chapter 15

  “A tracking spell?” I repeated. The concept wasn’t foreign to me; I remembered it being discussed in academy, though the details had likely been something said in passing. It wasn’t something our teachers expected us to actually perform.

  Harmony led the way, stepping into the living room. I shuffled behind her. Agent Knapp stood with the door open as Agent Ruiz inspected a faint silver line hovering in midair. “It’s already worn off,” he said, when he glanced up from his work and saw me standing there. “See, normally when someone casts a tracking spell, the thread of magic only stays active for a short window of time, usually twenty minutes or so.”

  “Usually?” I said.

  “It’s not an exact science,” Ruiz explained. “The strength of the caster can impact the time the spell stays active.”

  “I see.”

  Ruiz gestured at the faint line. It was almost like something out a cheesy spy movie where the hero has to spritz hairspray or smoke to reveal the lasers on an armed security system. “I’ve recalled the spell. We can follow it back to wherever it was cast. Chances are the one who called it up is long gone, but we might be able to find some clues. Especially if they were foolish enough to cast it from a place familiar to them, home, work, apartment building, etcetera.”

  I cut a look to Caleb. He didn’t look optimistic. If anything, he looked shaken. His normally bulletproof exterior was crumbling the closer the case got to me.

  “Go,” Caleb said, his tone clipped. “Take Knapp with you. I want a call every fifteen minutes.”

  “Yes, boss,” Knapp and Ruiz said, scrambling to leave my condo.

  Caleb crossed the room and closed the door. “We’re staying here until we know what they find. I don’t want to risk leaving yet.”

  “With a tracking spell, doesn’t the caster have to have something for reference?” Harmony asked, apprehension in her voice. “Whoever conjured the spell would have needed something of Stace’s?”

  “Like what?” I asked, looking to Caleb.

  He gave Harmony a dark look but then nodded, his mouth set in a firm line.

  “Something like … like a hair,” Harmony answered.

  My heart jumped into my throat and I swallowed hard, trying to force it back down again. “A shadow couldn’t have done that …”

  “No,” Harmony agreed, “it couldn’t.”

  Caleb looked ready to punch a wall. He paced from one end of the condo to the other and back again.

  “Maybe … maybe we try this mind magic that Harmony was talking about?” I suggested.

  “No!” Caleb snapped.

  I recoiled and his face fell. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

  “It’s okay,” I told him.

  “This creep already has too much access to you, Ana. I don’t want to open another window.”

  I nodded, even though—to borrow one of Caleb’s ranching phrases—it felt a little like closing the barn doors after the horses were gone.

  “I just need to think,” Caleb said, spinning on his heel to pace back the other direction. “There’s something we’re missing here.”

  As he paced, he grabbed his phone and tapped at the screen. “Where are you?” he demanded when someone on the other end of the line picked up. “Anything yet?”

  His expression fell and he swore under his breath. “All right. Get back to the condo building. I’m sending Anastasia and her sister with you and Clark to the safe house on Unicorn Saddle Ridge.”

  Harmony looked at me. “Is that a real place?” she whispered.

  I nodded. “It’s remote.”

  “Oh, perfect, just what we need, to be in the middle of hexin’ nowhere when the boogeyman comes back to call.” She folded her arms tightly across her chest, her lower lip protruding into a pout that would rival any pint-size kiddie beauty pageant entrant. “If he would just let me do the spell—”

  “No!” I hissed. “Mind magic is illegal for a reason, Harmony. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Hey,” she fired back, “you’re the one who wants to go toe-to-toe with the shadow man.”

  “All I said was that if I could touch Aurelia, maybe I would get another vision. I wasn’t planning on challenging him—it—to a duel!”

  “And how would that help? You’ve already seen this thing three times and it hasn’t done much more than knock you on your ass.”

  I ground my teeth together.

  Caleb hung up the phone and slid it back into his pocket. “Meryl lost the trace on the delivery guy. She’s coming back here and will accompany you and Clark to the safe house.”

  “And where are you going?” I asked.

  “We got the name of the man who bought the Hooperson watch. I’m going to pay them a visit and see if Ramona visited them in an attempt to buy it back, or if anyone else had been asking about it.”

  “Was there anything else, here in my home, I mean?” I asked, glancing around. The agents had combed through everything though, and hadn’t found so much as a book out of place. The magic from their charms and spells still hummed in the air, a silent but palpable vibration.

  “No,” Caleb replied, giving his head a frustrated shake. “Whatever this magic is, it’s seamless, no fingerprints or signatures left behind.”

  “I’m going to go pack a bag,” I said, starting for my bedroom. “How many days’ worth of clothing should I bring?”

  Before Caleb could answer, his phone rang.

  I didn’t wait to see who was on the other line. My nerves were shot and I needed a breather away from the chaos. Staring into my room, I heard Harmony’s clipped footsteps in pursuit. She’d started out stashing her suitcase in the living room but when it became clear she was going to stick around, I offered up some space in my walk-in closet.

  “Stace?” she said, her voice small. “Are you all right?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I disappeared into the closet before she could push for me to elaborate. Harmony wasn’t comfortable with silence. She always seemed compelled to fill the space and find something to talk about. Normally, I was happy to let her gab away, but right now, all my emotions were too close to the surface and I needed a moment to put myself back together again.

  With some effort, I pulled my cherry-red suitcase out from the recesses of the closet, realizing it had been far too long since my last serious, suitcase-worthy vacation. Hazard of the job. I got to hear about exotic places and boasted a collection of glossy photos in my office that made it appear as if I was well-traveled. In reality, they were gifts from clients, off on their honeymoons to sunny beaches (well, not the vampire ones) or bundled up inside snow-covered ski lodges.

  Even when my clients requested a destination wedding, I ended up working the entire time and not truly enjoying the surroundings. I couldn’t take off for a sightseeing tour while wedding prep was underway, and after the vows were exchanged and the last bottle of champagne popped, it was usually all I could do to drag my poor exhausted feet to bed, ready for an early morning flight home the following morning to meet with clients first thing Monday.

  On and on it went.

  Shaking myself from my poor me revelry, I stooped down and opened the suitcase, laying it flat on the floor of the closet. Autopilot took over and I started loading clothing, refolding most of it as I went. When the suitcase was halfway filled, I heard footsteps. Expecting Harmony, I said, “I’ll be done here in a minute. Do you think Patrick would want anything from the fridge? I don’t know how long we’ll be gone and I don’t want to leave food in there to spoil.”

  When she didn’t answer, I glanced up and saw Caleb standing in the doorway, his hands braced on the frame. His expression was unreadable, something dark and sad.

  “What happened now?” I asked, with a pained wince. I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

  He shook his head. “Nothing. Just getting the plans in place.”

  “Oh.”

  I folded a sweater and tucked it
in between a pair of slacks and my bathrobe.

  “You okay?” Caleb asked, stepping inside the closet. His hands went to his pockets. “I know this is a lot to take in.”

  I bobbed my head but resisted meeting his eyes as tears formed. Caleb had enough to worry about. I didn’t need him fretting over me when there were more important things that needed his attention.

  He squatted down on the other side of the suitcase and reached for my chin. With gentle fingers, he tipped my face up. I blinked, trying to clear the unshed tears. “Ana, we’re going to get this guy. You and Harmony will be safe. I promise.”

  “I—I know. I trust you.”

  “Tell me what you’re thinking about then.”

  “Everyone who gets in the way of this … thing, ends up hurt or—” I drew in a shaky breath, “—worse. If you go after them …”

  Caleb’s job was filled with risks. Logically, I knew that, but seeing it play out in front of me was a totally different experience. In the six months we’d been dating, the danger had been one step removed. He talked about small busts sometimes, and there were times when I’d catch part of a conversation on the phone and knew something bad was happening, but even then, it never fully sank in. Now, he wanted to tuck me away in a safe place so he could charge head first into the very thing he was shielding me from.

  “I’m not going to lie to you, Ana. This is a dangerous case. We still have little idea what we’re going up against and what kind of magic or power might be waiting for us. But, I can promise you that I have the best team in the SPA at my back and while I’m not paralyzed with fear, I do have a healthy sense of risk and I’m not going to put myself or my team into unnecessary peril. I won’t act until I know what this is and how to stop it.”

  “I know,” I said softly. “I know you know what you’re doing and I trust you. I’m just scared.”

  He offered a sympathetic smile. “This whole case has hit way too close to home for you. I get that. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”