Loved Up

by A. A. Albright

  I looked down at our joined palms. What the hell was wrong with me? Getting funny feelings about Max this morning, and now this? This felt warm, and safe, and ... this felt right. He looked even more intently at me, and so much emotion rushed through me that I was almost frightened to acknowledge it. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to kiss him the way we’d kissed at the Masked Ball. I wanted to kiss him and have it feel like forever.

  ‘Let go of me, Will,’ I said with great effort.

  He dropped my hands like I’d burned him and said, ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean ... Wanda ... you have to listen to me just this one time. Forget what you think about me. None of that matters. Just believe me when I say that this is bigger than you could ever imagine. Bigger, and more dangerous. You need to let it go.’

  ‘Dangerous like Dark Team dangerous?’

  He began to blink furiously. ‘How did you ... ‘ He shook his head. ‘Never mind. It doesn’t matter how you know. I’m not even going to ask you how much you know. But I’m begging you – let it go, Wanda. Whoever killed Nancy will be punished. Just ... not by you. Not this time.’

  I looked carefully at him. ‘Will, if you think I’m in danger, then you are too. Nancy was murdered. Whoever the Dark Team are, it’s possible that they know she was spying. It’s possible that it’s the very reason she was killed. And if that’s the case, then it won’t be long before they come for you. Work with me. Tell me everything you know, and we can find who’s responsible together.’

  His eyes felt like they fused with mine for too long a time. Finally, he broke the connection and said, ‘I wish I could, Wanda.’ He stood up. ‘Come on. I’ll give you the grand tour of the new community hall. It’ll be open on the day of the election. I’m going to set up screens so that everyone in Riddler’s Edge will be able to come here and watch the vote as it happens. I know, I know.’ He shot me a wry grin. ‘This year, all that the supernaturals who reside in Riddler’s Edge will be able to do is watch, while their fate gets decided by those eligible to vote. But maybe next time there’s an election, this’ll be a voting centre.’

  As we crossed the road together, my thoughts were a mixture of light and dark. ‘I don’t get you, Will Berry. Sometimes you give me the impression that you think the only thing weredogs are good for is emptying your bins. And then other times ... why are you so ... so ...?’

  His face filled up with that irritating, unfathomable expression I had seen there all too often. ‘You do get me, Wanda. You know why I’m doing all of this. I don’t want a Plimpton to win. And as for what I think certain supernaturals are good for ... well, a happy worker is a more productive worker. It really is that simple.’ He paused a few feet before we reached Candace and looked at me again. ‘Don’t go seeing more to me than there is. Because what you see really is what you get.’

  I couldn’t think of a reply. I couldn’t even think a thought that made sense, right then. Will had confused me from the moment we met. A very significant – and very stupid – part of me wished that it would change. But I had the feeling it never would. I walked towards Candace, and smiled.

  ‘Hey there, kiddo,’ I said. ‘This place is looking great. Was it my imagination, or did I just see you do a Materialization spell a hundred times better than the one the builder just did before you?’

  She gave me an ever so humble smile. ‘It’s not that I’m better at these spells. It’s just that I put a bit more effort in. It’s not enough to want the windowsill to have grey paint. You’ve got to want it to have sophisticated, long-lasting grey paint. There are subtle nuances when doing a grey-paint spell. It can be boring, or it can be brilliant.’

  I looked at the windowsill. The grey paint had a certain pop that it hadn’t before. ‘Well, I hope Will’s paying you,’ I said.

  She smiled as he joined us. ‘He is, actually.’

  Will laughed. ‘I told Candace we had everything sorted, but she’s been coming to site every day after school anyway. And it turns out she does the work of ten men, and does it better. So of course I’m paying her. She’s worth every gold round.’

  ‘And he gives me salmon,’ said Kitty. ‘Because I keep the mice away. It’s win-win.’

  We walked around the centre, Will, Candace and Kitty pointing out the work that had been done. I was impressed. There was a large hall for major gatherings, with smaller rooms for group meetings. There were two kitchens, one for cookery classes and a smaller area for fixing snacks and drinks during meetings. There was a swimming pool and gym, and a play area with climbing frames and a ball pool.

  ‘We’re thinking of having a day-care centre here, too,’ Will said. ‘For parents who catch the train from Riddler’s Edge to Dublin every day. So we’ve set it up for every eventuality. If there’s anything that we haven’t thought of, we can always add it afterwards.’

  ‘I think you’re covered.’ Candace grinned adoringly up at Will, but her expression soon changed to horror, and she cried, ‘Look out!’ just a fraction of a second too late.

  Someone had been painting the ceiling above – a non-magical someone, considering they dropped an entire pot of red paint all over us. Well, most of it on me and Will. Kitty only had a few spatters, and Candace had escaped unscathed.

  Will laughed, looking up at the scaffolding, where the worker (who I now realised was a young unempowered witch I had seen a few times before) looked nervously down. ‘It’s okay, Fee. No harm done.’ Will pointed at me, whispering, ‘Clean.’

  I watched as the paint disappeared, and my clothes began to dry out. We probably would have been much quicker if we hadn’t been laughing so much. I don’t know why, but the sight of Will, usually so handsome and perfect, with paint dripping off his expensive shirt and jeans, made me want to roll around on the floor with laughter. And maybe roll around a bit with Will, too. Bad Wanda. Melissa was right – this moon had a lot to answer for.

  ‘I’ve got you,’ I said, pointing my finger. Just as I was about to whisper the cleaning spell, Candace’s face fell.

  ‘Don’t look now,’ she said. ‘But Will’s monster – I mean, fiancée – is marching towards you with a murderous glint in her eyes.’

  Will swallowed, and we both turned to see that Candace was right. Mandy Parker was indeed marching towards us, and she most definitely had a murderous glint in her eyes. She glowered at me first, and then turned her eyes on Will.

  ‘Hello there, Will,’ she said. ‘I’m not sure if you realise, but you’ve got a spot of paint on you.’

  ≈

  When I arrived in the kitchen of Wayfarers’ Rest, Dizzy flew to my shoulder.

  ‘So,’ he said with a cheeky wink.

  ‘So?’

  ‘Yeah. So. Is it finally going to happen, then? Because I’ve got to tell you, I like him much better than Gabriel.’

  I scratched my head and sat down at the table. ‘You like Will Berry better than Gabriel? I thought you hated all of the Berrys. You know, because of how horrible they were to you when you were Harry Berry’s familiar?’

  ‘Fake familiar,’ Dizzy replied with a scowl. The range of expressions a bat can form would never fail to surprise me. ‘I was never really bonded to a Berry. And don’t you forget it. Anyway, why would you assume I was talking about Will Berry? You don’t like him. You like Max.’

  At the sound of Max’s name, the strangest heat crept through me. And just because the universe sometimes likes to give me everyone else’s share of embarrassment as well as my own, Max chose that exact moment to saunter into the room.

  ‘Hey,’ he said.

  ‘Hey,’ I said back. Wow, not only was I suffering from a monosyllabic malady, but I was hoarse in top of it.

  Luckily, Max was just as hoarse, and seemingly just as embarrassed as I was. ‘You back long?’ he asked.

  ‘Just got here. You up long?’

  He shook his head. The droplets of water that danced in the air told me he had recently vacated the shower. Okay, I should not let my thoughts veer onto visuals of what
that scene would have looked like. ‘Just a little while,’ he said. ‘I have to meet Rover in Madra Lane before the moon comes out, so we can check in a delivery. So I don’t think I’ll have time to speak with Emily. But I’m going to. I promise you.’

  ‘Well, that’s ... y’know ... I mean ... whatever you think you should do, then I guess that’s what you should do. Because, I mean, only you know what’s right for you. And ... yeah, I have nothing useful to say, so I’ll shut up now.’ I looked away from him. I had to, because he looked ridiculously good, standing there, barefoot and wet-haired. And he smelled good, too.

  What was wrong with me? This had come out of nowhere. I mean, as if I wasn’t confused enough with my feelings for Will Berry on top of my feelings for Gabriel. Now I had to add Max to the mix? It was all so totally unlike me. A few months ago I barely even had the energy to like one guy, let alone having a thing for three at a time.

  Last night, I was happily kissing Gabriel. Well, happily until I heard Christine shout out, ‘Oh yes, Kevin. Right there,’ followed by my mother shouting out a few minutes later with something equally disgusting. But I did like being with Gabriel. I mean, sure, he’d annoyed me on more than one occasion. I’d been close to breaking up with him for good when he was arguing with Max a while back. But when he was with me ... and I smelled him ...

  Oh rats! I shouldn’t have let my train of thought go towards masculine scents. Not when Max’s body was sending wafts of loveliness my way.

  ‘I used your coconut shower gel,’ he said. ‘I hope that’s okay. I forgot to bring mine with me.’

  ‘Of course,’ I squeaked. ‘What’s mine is yours. So ... are you all packed and ready to go?’

  ≈

  Max was, indeed, all packed and ready to go. He had only taken a small bag with him. So as long as he held on to Wolfie, and Dizzy perched himself on my shoulder, I should have been able to transport us all to Westerly Crescent with no problem.

  ‘I guess we’d better hold hands now,’ said Max.

  Did I just say no problem? Strike that ridiculous idea from the record. I mean duh – of course I had to hold Max’s hand. Physical contact was kind of necessary when a witch was travelling with someone who wasn’t magical.

  Judging by the fact that Max wasn’t simply grabbing my hand the way he usually did, I was guessing that he was feeling as freaked out at the notion of hand-holding as I was. And if that was true, then it meant ... nope. Not going there. Not even going to consider that one. Max was not feeling this same irritating feeling that I was. There was no way that he could possibly have the same weird and unwanted impulse to get a lot closer, and maybe a bit horizontal at the same time.

  ‘Oh, you know what? I’d better send your bed back first.’

  ‘Yeah.’ He sounded as relieved as I was at the thought of putting off the holding of the hands. ‘Yeah, you should do that. And don’t hurry up the spell or anything. Because … y’know … I don’t want you to tire yourself out.’

  ‘Mm-hmm,’ I said. ‘We sure wouldn’t want that.’ I looked at the bed and tried to think of a way to make moving it take longer than a split second. But that was the thing about magical teleportation. It didn’t take longer than a split second.

  I sighed and began to incant. ‘Bed of Max’s go to his room,

  Teleport now and do it soon.’

  Well, I had been hoping that the word soon would cause a delay of some kind. No such luck. The bed zip zap zinged its way out of there faster than I can say uncomfortable silence.

  ‘Your brooms,’ said Max. ‘It might be difficult for you to hold on to those and your bag at the same time. Maybe you should magic those back home before we do it.’ His face turned a deep shade of purple. ‘By it I meant travel.’

  ‘Of course. What else would you mean? And you’re right. I’d better magic my brooms and my bag and stuff over there. And possibly magic each one of those items separately, before I can even think of magicking the two of us.’

  I pointed at one broom, and incanted, and then the other, and incanted. Then I pointed at my bag and magicked it back home. Then I decided I fancied having the hairbrush I normally kept here back at home too. When I finally ran out of things to magic, I turned to Max. ‘I guess you’ll be late to meet Rover if we don’t go now.’

  He bit his lip, his teeth peeping out at me. Good goddess, those were amazing teeth. I mean I’ve described their caveman quality before, what with the bigness, and the whiteness (y’know, because in my imagination cavemen took dental hygiene seriously). But I don’t think that I ever quite appreciated the magnificence of them. They were strong teeth. Teeth that said, I’ll nibble your earlobe, and I’ll do it with the perfect amount of pressure.

  I swallowed and grabbed his hand. ‘Come on,’ I said, readying my clicking fingers. ‘Let’s just get this over with.’

  ≈

  Wolfie was just about as excited to meet Bowie as I expected he might be. My mind had been on much more important things lately. Things like: what the hell was wrong with me? And: should I seek professional help? Or: it’s okay, it’s just the blue moon, it’ll all be over any day now. So naturally I had been far too busy to remember that I had an important operation taking place in my bedroom that evening, an operation that I really didn’t want Wolfie around to see. The Irish wolfhound was many things – but a good secret keeper was not one of them.

  Luckily, Max was taking Wolfie to work with him. Lady, the manager of the Water Bowl, the weredog tavern where he worked, had recently adopted a collie, and she had arranged a dog sitter to look after her new charge, as well as Wolfie, for the night.

  ‘She’s a great dog sitter,’ Max said as he packed Wolfie’s things up for his play date. ‘I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if Bowie came along too.’

  ‘Thank you most kindly, Max,’ said Bowie. ‘Now that I’m meeting you for myself, I can see why you’ve earned the admiration of so many people. But I really ought to stay with Wanda. We have to solve Nancy’s murder.’

  ‘Oh.’ Max shrugged his shoulders. ‘I thought Wanda said you didn’t know anything.’

  Yes, yes I did say that. To Max. One of these days, I was going to spill it all, no matter what Finn said. But for now, we had told Bowie that the operation was a secret. And luckily, that little Chihuahua was on the ball. ‘Well, I haven’t been as helpful as I would have hoped,’ the tiny dog said. ‘But if there’s any chance I can recall something of use, I’d like to be close to Wanda at the time.’

  Wolfie’s big head hung down. ‘But we could have so much fun, Bowie,’ he said plaintively. ‘Brenda has all sorts of balls to play with. Big balls. Little balls. Medium sized balls ...’

  Bowie raised a paw and patted Wolfie gently. ‘I would love nothing more than to spend an evening with you, old chap. But perhaps another time.’

  8. Doppel-Berry

  ‘I still can’t believe I’m about to do this,’ I said, staring into the mirror above my bedroom dresser. ‘I mean, this is my face. It might not be the prettiest in the world, but I’m kind of used to it by now.’ I spun on my heels and looked at Gretel. ‘You’re sure it won’t be easier for you to do it?’

  She shook her head, her long dark braids moving as she did so. ‘I’m telling you, he’s onto me. Sometimes you sense things, y’know. And you should never ignore your gut.’ She prodded me gently in the stomach. ‘The Wayfarer should know that better than anyone.’

  ‘Okay, I get it. I need to be the one to go through with Bowie’s plan tonight. But do we need to do such a serious spell? Couldn’t we just do a glamour?’

  She shook her head again. ‘I’m good at doing them on myself, but I’m a nightmare at doing them on others. Anyway, doppelganger spells are fool proof. And before you ask, you will not get stuck looking like someone else. The spell we’re doing lasts until midnight. More than enough time.’

  I groaned, looking at the ingredients on my dresser. Bowie had come up with an amazing idea, but in order to put it into action we were de
lving into old school magic. Disgusting potions and magic mirrors – and don’t even get me started on the issue of having to swallow someone else’s hair. The equipment for this sort of doppelganger spell was rare, but we had most of it in the evidence locker, thanks to two witches who were now behind bars – Maeve and Majella had involuntarily donated the equipment they used to create a doppelganger of Emily Caulfield, back when they were trying to frame Emily and Lassie for their own murder spree.

  ‘I can’t believe you guys managed to get Veronica’s hair all by yourselves.’ Gretel stroked Jewel and Bowie. ‘I thought for sure I’d have to get it myself.’

  Bowie gave a simple, modest shrug, but Jewel’s fur puffed up and she held her head in just about the haughtiest manner I’d ever seen. ‘Well, it’s like I’m always telling Finn. What’s the point of having a useless familiar?’ She let her big green eyes drift over to Dizzy while she spoke.

  ‘Hey!’ I gave her my sternest stare. ‘Dizzy’s an amazing familiar.’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, a tad unconvincingly. ‘I could break into houses and steal hair if Wanda needed me to. She’s just never asked me. Anyway, I’m better at giving sage advice and moral support. Like this new crush Wanda has on Max since they spent the night together. I’ve been telling her–’

  I glared at the bat and said, ‘Hush it, Dizzy. Unless you want your mango supply running mysteriously dry.’

  ‘What’s this?’ Finn’s eyes lit up with glee while he stirred the green goop above a small magical fire. Yeah, I said goop. If you saw it, you’d struggle to think of a better name. Maybe gloop? Or oozy gloop? Or gloopy ooze? Whatever it was called, I seriously hoped it wouldn’t leave a mark on the furniture. ‘You’ve finally realised that you and the nicest guy in the world are meant to be together?’