by Amy Boyles
“So that’s what this is all about?”
I swallowed an emotional knot in my throat. “Yes. She wanted to tell me something. I can’t let this opportunity pass me by, Axel. I have to know.” My gaze drifted to the table. “I never met her. For once in my life—living here in Magnolia Cove, I have the chance to learn things about her, things my father never shared with me before he passed. I want as much information as I can get.”
Axel studied me. He squinted as if trying to decipher if I was telling the truth. His lips formed a thin line and he slowly nodded. “What would you like to do?”
I licked my lips. “Can you do a rubbing or some magic to figure out what was on the sheet? Is that possible?”
Axel dragged his gaze to the pad. He ran his thumb over the indentions and said, “I’m pretty sure we can.” He glanced at the table of food between us. “In fact, we’ve got the right ingredients.”
My gaze swept over the sandwiches, baked beans, cobbler and sweet teas. Nothing on the table made me think about magic or what we could use.
I cocked a brow. “And what exactly is going to help us with this?”
Axel smiled wide. “Why, the blackberries, of course.”
I nearly facepalmed my forehead. “Of course. The blackberries. Makes perfect sense. Why didn’t I think of that?”
He winked at me mischievously. “You just haven’t been around magic as long as I have. That’s all. Don’t worry. I’ll save some of my cobbler and when we leave here, we’ll see what we can find out.”
It took everything I had not to shovel the rest of my food in my mouth. Actually, I probably did heave it in there because the food was so darned delicious.
Axel paid and we slipped into the Mustang.
“So where are we off to?” I said.
“The Potion Pools are a great spot for this type of work. Come on. We’ll see what we can conjure up there.”
I felt my lips curl. I’d witnessed Axel do a smattering of magic, but that was all. I’d never watched him perform what I could only describe as a full on spell, or even magic that consisted of actually seeing his power. My stomach quivered in anticipation.
We wound around and down into a small valley nestled at the base below downtown. A copse of magnolia trees surrounded a sparkling pond. Moonlight glinted off the surface, making the water shine like diamonds.
A creek trickled into the pool and at the center, the water babbled as if a small fountain lived at the base.
I slid from the seat. A cool breeze pricked my skin and lifted the hair from my nape. I inhaled the sweet scent of magnolia blossoms. I heard a snap and glanced to see Axel extending a bloom for me.
“Sweet for a sweet,” he said.
“Thank you.”
Our gazes locked and heat dotted my cheeks. I bit my lip and glanced away. My skin tingled and sang, but I needed to focus on business. Not on how hot Axel looked and how I wanted to lose myself in his beautiful blue eyes.
“Is it too much? The flower? I can take it back.”
My eyes widened. “No. Why would you say that?”
His gaze darted across the landscape. “Only because you look like you’re about to be sick.”
I tipped a shoulder into a half-shrug. “It’s nothing. Just, you know, feelings and stuff.”
“Feelings? You have those?”
I elbowed his ribs. “Only a few.”
He led me to a bench beside the pool and opened the to-go container with the cobbler. “There’s a spell that uses fruit to reveal missing words on a page.”
I leaned back on my palms. “I don’t know what kind of wizard you are. I’m a head witch, Betty’s a kitchen witch—what are you?”
Axel rubbed a thumb over his brow. “I’m a jack-of-all-trades wizard. I can do a little of everything.”
I tipped my head toward him. “And by a little bit of everything you mean?”
He coughed into his fist. “I mean I can use earth energy, I can summon creatures if need be. I can suck a person’s power if I have to. I can even use another witch’s magic against them.”
My throat dried. “Holy heck. And y’all said being a head witch is the most powerful kind of witch there is. I don’t have anything compared to that.”
Axel chuckled. “You can do more because the only thing that limits you is your mind. I’m limited by ingredients, situations, whatever’s in front of me. You’re not limited by anything and until you learn to accept that, you’ll be limiting yourself.”
I shifted. “Is that true?”
“Would I lie to you?”
“You didn’t tell me you were a werewolf.”
Axel scowled. “For your protection. There will always be things I do for your protection. Things you may not understand, but are necessary.”
“Cryptic yet again.” I flicked a strand of hair over my shoulder. “I like living dangerously.”
He leaned so close our lips were almost touching. “Are you trying to seduce me?”
I blinked and backed away. “No. No. Not seducing. Sorry. I wasn’t trying to seem like that. I don’t know. I think it’s this magnolia blossom. The scent’s so sweet. It’s wonderful. Puts me in a romantic mood.”
Axel’s lips coiled. “Happens to lots of folks at the pools…Do you remember why you’re here?”
I cleared my throat and straightened my spine. “For my mother.”
“Right. Let’s see what we can see.”
Axel twirled a finger. The glob of blackberries wiggled out from under the shell of cobbler and lifted into the night air. They twirled and gyrated, coiling into a tight cylinder. The syrupy concoction broke apart into seeds and black fruit.
My jaw fell as Axel continued motioning with his hand effortlessly and the fruit continued to bend to his power.
“The notepad?”
I fished it from my purse and placed it in his open palm. The blackberries, in their tight coil, ascended into the air. With a twitch of his fingers, the fruit dove onto the pad, splashing as if they were dunking below the surface of a pool.
Axel twirled his finger again and a line of water sprang up from the pool, descending onto the page with a flourish.
I inhaled a shot of air, only then realizing that I’d been holding my breath. “What does it show?”
Axel stared at the sheet for a long moment before turning it toward me. I frowned. The fruit had spilled perfectly into the nooks and crevices of the impressions, but what they revealed took a moment to register.
“It’s an address,” I said. “Three hundred Fairy Lane. Is that what it looks like to you?”
Axel agreed. He tugged his phone from his pocket and thumbed it to life. “It’s a shop address. Fairy Lane is here, in Magnolia Cove.”
“What store does it belong to?”
He frowned at the map. “Spellin’ Skillet.”
I gnawed the inside of my mouth. That wasn’t right. Something about that address didn’t ring true. Then it hit me.
“It’s not an address for Spellin’ Skillet. It’s for Witch’s Wardrobe, the store next to it.”
Axel’s brows pinched together. “What makes you say that?”
I cracked the knuckles on my right hand. “For several reasons—the first is that Gretchen Gargoyle left with Mysterio the night of his performance. She interrupted my meeting with him—you know, the one where I was supposed to find out the secret my mother wanted me to know.”
“And the second?”
“The second is the most suspect,” I said. “It’s the fact that Mysterio died at the hands of his cape and if there’s one witch in town with power over fabric, it’s Gretchen Gargoyle. Which means—”
“—Miss Gargoyle may have killed Mysterio.”
I nodded. “And more important, she might’ve stolen this note. So if she also holds the rest of the paper, she knows the message my mother wanted me to know.” I narrowed my gaze. “That’s one secret I intend to find out.”
EIGHT
As much as I wante
d to track Gretchen Gargoyle down that very night and pester the heck out of her about that note, Axel didn’t let me.
He curbed the car in front of Betty’s house. “We’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
“Are you sure? I think maybe Gretchen wouldn’t mind letting us in for coffee while I raked her over the coals about the note she clearly stole.”
Axel chuckled. “Quite the imagination you’ve got on you.”
“I thought you were going to say mouth.”
His gaze slid to mine, spearing my heart to my spine. I sucked air as Axel’s lips ticked up. “You’ve certainly got one of those on you as well.”
“In a good way?”
He leaned over and gently grazed his mouth across mine. A light moan escaped me. When we parted he said, “Yes. In a good way.”
I smiled and Axel escorted me to the door. I kissed his cheek and told him not to bother coming in. He promised to call the next day, before we planned on talking to Gretchen.
I’m pretty sure he realized that if he spoke to her without me, I’d be pretty p-o’d at him.
I patted Jennie the guard-vine before entering a quiet house. For once, Betty wasn’t waiting up for me with a shotgun strapped across her knees. Perhaps I’d proven myself worthy of not needing a grandmother for a babysitter.
Or maybe Betty was simply too tired to stay up.
It was probably that one.
I climbed the stairs to my room. I found Mattie curled on my comforter. I changed and slipped underneath the bedding. A whimper had me glancing around the room. In the corner lay the dragon in his cage.
“Oh, little guy. I forgot all about you.”
The dragon thumped his tail.
“Betty cleaned his cage.”
I looked over to see Mattie staring at me with one green eye open.
“That was nice of her.”
“Sure was,” Mattie said, “because it sure did stink. You gotta potty train that dragon.”
I scoffed. “As if.”
Mattie closed her eyes and snuggled into a tight ball. “I’m sure it can be done.”
“Good night, y’all,” I said.
And with that, I fell into a dreamless sleep.
The next morning, Betty left breakfast for the three of us.
“Wow,” I said, clapping my hands together. “Chocolate gravy, biscuits and eggs. This is awesome.”
Cordelia licked a finger she’d dredged in the sauce. “Nothing better than chocolate for breakfast.”
“You got that right,” Amelia said.
I poured a big dollop of gravy over my biscuits. Now, it might be called chocolate gravy, which sounds disgusting, but it’s actually a chocolate sauce concocted from cocoa powder, sugar, flour, milk and butter. It’s freaking amazing. Nothing like it on earth.
I moaned as the chocolate and biscuit hit my tongue. I opened my eyes and saw my cousins laughing at me. Deciding not to acknowledge their amusement, I said, “Did you have any trouble returning the key?”
Cordelia shook her head. “Not at all.”
“What key?” Amelia said.
Cordelia poked at her food. “I let Pepper into Mysterio’s room ahead of the police.”
“You did? Wow, that’s so un-straight and narrow. Completely unlike you.”
Cordelia flashed Amelia a tight smile. “I can let my hair down now and then.”
Amelia sipped her coffee. “I’d love to see it.”
“What is this, a challenge—like truth or dare?”
Amelia glowed with interest. “Sure. Truth or Dare. Want to play?”
“No.”
“Party pooper.”
“Girls, let’s be nice. Remember we love each other,” I said.
Amelia laughed. “One day. One day we’ll get Cordelia not to be so serious.”
I quirked a brow. I had a feeling my cousin Cordelia was a lot less serious than any of us thought. The fact that she had a secret love interest proved the fact to me.
“So how’s Zach?” I said.
Cordelia choked on her biscuit. “Good. He’s good. Still studying that ancient culture.”
“When do you expect him home?” I said.
Amelia poured creamer into a fresh cup of coffee. “Oh, Zach’s never coming home. In the three years that he and Cordelia have been dating, he’s only ever come to Magnolia Cove once.”
Cordelia bristled. “He’s busy.”
Amelia stirred the cup. “He is very busy. So busy I’ve forgotten what he looks like.”
Cordelia shrugged. “I haven’t.”
I wiped the corner of my mouth and dropped the napkin on the table. “Do y’all need help cleaning up?”
Cordelia snapped her fingers. “We’re sweet tea witches, Pepper. I’ll have this mess cleaned up in a snap. Don’t worry about it.”
I thanked her and gathered my purse and dragon to take to work. I draped the cage as I didn’t want a thousand people asking questions about the creature—either on my way to work or when I got there. I figured the fewer people who knew about him, the better.
‘Course, I still had to figure out what the heck I was going to do with the creature.
I arrived at Familiar Place and tidied up before it was doors-open time. I had just brushed a bit of dirt from my hands when the door swung wide.
My jaw fell.
Standing in the frame stood a man wearing lederhosen, except minus the white shirt—and it appeared the lederhosen were made from leather.
Okay.
My brain hiccupped. I blinked, making sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me.
Yes, in the doorway of my shop stood a grown man built like Hercules wearing leather lederhosen—basically shorts with suspenders and a bar strapped over the chest.
“Hello?” I said, totally confused.
“I am Barry,” the man said, striding in. His stone-like thighs were so large he walked like a pro-wrestler; legs splayed wide, his feet landing about two people apart.
I cocked my head so far my neck popped. Oh yes, that felt good. “Barry?”
A short figure busted in around him. “Barry the Dragon Tamer.”
Betty Craple fisted her hands to her hips and nodded proudly. “He came all the way from Las Vegas, where he has a show on the Magic Strip.”
“The Magic Strip?”
Betty pulled a pipe from her pocket and packed a wad of tobacco in it. “That’s where all the witches go for the magical shows. You can’t expect Barry to perform with dragons where any Joe Schmoe could see, do you?”
She had me there. “I guess not.”
Barry strode in and fisted his hands to his hips. “I hear there is a dragon in this righteous town of Magnolia Cove.”
“Um. Yeah. I’ve got one.”
Barry leaned back as if faking surprise. “Allow me to see the creature. Peer into its eyes of death.”
I shot Betty an are-you-serious look as I crossed to the cage. I unfurled the covering.
“Behold, I witness the fire-breather,” Barry said.
Unable to stand it any longer, I waved toward Betty. “Does he always talk like this?”
“Barry, you can knock off the act. She’s not buying it.”
Barry knelt to eye level with the dragon. The beast thumped its tail. “Well lookie here,” Barry said. “What you’ve got in that there cage has got to be one of the beautiest looking dragons I ever did see.”
Beautiest?
I yawned. “Never mind. I prefer if he talks the other way.”
Barry laughed. “It’s all an act. I like to be funny. Liven things up. A little majesty in my speech never hurt anybody, and it sure didn’t hurt me. But let me take a look at this creature.”
Barry slicked a hand over his short, sleek dark hair. “You know there are only one hundred known dragons in all the world.”
“That would make him one hundred and one,” Betty said proudly.
“It’s not like it’s your great-grandchild or anything,” I said.
She snif
fed. “I’m still proud.”
Barry glanced over his shoulder at me. “I have five myself. Dragons don’t often live long in captivity, so whoever bought this one probably had to prove that the dragon would be well cared for.”
“My deceased great-uncle,” I said.
Barry rose. “He’s young, and this pup needs help if you’re to mold him, shape him into the king dragon he should be. I can see it now.” He raised a hand and traced some imaginary voyage with his gaze. “This young beast becomes the mightiest of all dragons, slaying anyone or anything with intentions to attack you. You can fly on its back, sailing the skies and the world. You, Pepper Dunn, will be a princess among dragons.”
“Um. Okay,” I said, slowly backing away. “But for now, can we just make sure it’s potty trained and maybe teach it not to shoot fire at people?”
A smile flared on Barry’s face. “We can do that and so much more.”
Interest sparked in my core. “Oh? Like what else?”
Barry grinned. “First things first. Grab some mice. You’ve got to learn to feed it.”
Against my better desires, though definitely not judgments, I boxed up a couple of mice. Barry grabbed the cage while Betty greeted customers and promised to watch the shop while I was gone.
“Can’t we do this tomorrow? When the store’s closed?”
Barry tsked. “Time is of the essence. You must bond with the dragon, and the dragon to you. It’s important for all other aspects of your relationship. The creature’s feeding is prime time to build this bond.”
Great. “Do I have to watch?”
“Yes.”
Double great.
I followed Barry down Bubbling Cauldron and past the Potion Pools, where Axel and I had been just the previous night. Behind the copse of magnolias was a large field. There were some kids playing ball and witches practicing spells. Orbs of magic floated around along with common objects like balls and pens.
“We may need something a bit more private for this,” Barry said.
He clapped his hands. Green walls shot up around us. They grew tall and fast, rumbling from the earth. It was like we were enclosed in a giant maze.
