Saved by the Spell. House of Magic 2.

by Susanna Shore

  “You’re an antiques dealer. You can ask if he has old books lying about,” she suggested, and Amber nodded.

  “Get yourself invited to his home and snoop around.”

  That was an annoyingly sensible suggestion.

  “Fine. But I won’t enjoy it.”

  I took the easy way out the next morning. I sent a message to Olivia asking for Ida’s phone number. She called me back when I was walking from the Tube station to the gallery.

  “I’m so glad you liked Ida,” she gushed. “She’s great. I don’t actually have her number, but I’ll ask Harry.” She paused and her voice turned coy when she continued: “So … I hear you went out with Jack yesterday?”

  My stomach fell. “Yes, we had lunch.”

  “Tell me everything.”

  “It was lunch. Not much to tell.”

  “Oh, come on. Surely there’s more than that?”

  I racked my mind for a suitable explanation for my unenthusiastic response. “Ida said he’s a womaniser. I only recently got rid of one. I don’t need another.”

  “Surely he’s not that bad? Give him another chance. He’s the best man and you’re my maid of honour. You’ll have to get along.”

  I almost dropped the phone hearing I’d been promoted from bridesmaid to maid of honour. It promised to be a wedding out of hell if I didn’t get rid of the spell by then. “I’ll see what I can do.” I drew a fortifying breath. “Before I forget, your grandmother is on the warpath. She’s decided there’s something iffy about your engagement.”

  She groaned. “Not her too. Dad’s already threatening to have his lawyers check the family. What could they possibly have against Harry?”

  “There’s no harm in making sure. Just let him check. He’ll do it anyway.” I couldn’t believe I was siding with Aunt Clara after all, but if Olivia’s father was already on it, I didn’t have to get involved.

  “Fine, but I retain the right to gloat when his suspicions turn out to be baseless.”

  “That’s the best part.”

  I’d reached the gallery by the time we ended the call. I glanced at the café across the court and a sour taste rose to my mouth. Could I ever go to that place again? I’d miss their blueberry muffins, but I didn’t want to be reminded of Jack. Or run into him there.

  As I sat at my desk, I realised that I hadn’t felt like I was being observed in the Tube this morning like I had almost every morning the past week. Or had I been too preoccupied to pay attention?

  Would it be too much to hope that whatever it had been had gone away?

  Maybe it had been Cynthia keeping an eye on me in case I was the weak link to Kane, like everyone seemed to think. I decided to ask him if it was possible to keep tabs on someone with magic the moment he arrived.

  Only he didn’t.

  Arrive to work, that is. I had his tea ready at nine, and was sitting behind my desk dabbling with this and that as I waited for him. At ten past nine, I checked my watch to see if it had died—or was advancing. At twenty past nine, I checked my messages for the third time, in case he had informed me of a change in his plans.

  He hadn’t.

  His tea had turned cold by half past nine and I threw it away. I was debating whether to make a new pot when my phone pinged with a message. The speed with which I rushed to my desk to check it belied my worry.

  But it wasn’t from him. Olivia had sent me Ida’s phone number with a wish that we’d become great friends. Since I wasn’t great friends with Olivia, I didn’t see why I’d have to befriend Ida. But I had liked her and I needed her help with Jack, so I sent her a message and asked if we could meet for lunch.

  After a brief hesitation, I sent a message to Kane too. This wasn’t the first time he didn’t show up at work in the morning, and it was always because he’d gone to check a promising piece of antique someone had offered for him. He didn’t always remember to inform me about it.

  But what if I was wrong? He had been attacked last night, and had been in poor shape when we left him. What if he was still in bed, too weak to get up?

  What if he’d been attacked again!

  I started to worry in earnest, the pit in my stomach growing steadily as the morning advanced and he didn’t answer my messages and calls. I had a ton of work to do for the auction, but I found it difficult to concentrate.

  Should I go check him at home? But if he was under attack, what could I do?

  Pity Ashley was on duty or I’d send her there.

  When a message from Ida arrived, agreeing to lunch, I considered calling it off after all. But I needed to learn more about Jack, and I wanted the spell lifted off. So I just left a message to Kane on his desk, took my bag, and went to meet her.

  I didn’t have far to go. The pedestrian court opened into a small plaza fifty yards from the gallery, with restaurants practically in every building. It was a beautiful and fashionable place to have lunch, and almost every table was full on the terraces lining the plaza.

  I spotted Ida outside a corner pub at the far end, seated already. She waved at me when she spotted me.

  “I claimed a table for us. Go order our food. I’ll have whatever salad they have, and water.”

  I did as I was told. The queue at the bar was shorter than I expected, and the barkeep was a woman, so there were no delays due to disgust, and I was soon back at the table.

  “I was surprised by your message,” Ida said. She was wearing a suit today, and the masculine cut suited her tall frame. With the geometrically cut shock-red hair, she looked striking. “And surprised to learn that you work so close to where I do.”

  I took a seat and smiled. “Where do you work?”

  “I’m an accountant at Nationwide, not far from here.”

  “You don’t look like an accountant,” I blurted, and she laughed.

  “I get that a lot.”

  “Do you live in this part of town too?” I wasn’t that curious, but thanks to my mom, small talk came automatically to me.

  She made a face. “God no. Can anybody afford that?” Since I’d recently faced that question, I tilted my head in wry acknowledgement. “I live in Bushwood, and even that is a bit steep for me. But at least it’s green and I can take the Circle Line all the way to work.”

  I perked. “I use the Circle Line too! Imagine we’ve never run into each other there.”

  “We probably have, but who pays attention to people in the Tube.” She paused and gave me a curious look. “So I guess you want to know more about Jack?”

  Her direct approach threw me, but since that’s why I was here, I nodded. “We had lunch yesterday, but I want to know more about him before I go any farther with a womaniser.”

  “You want to know if he’s worth the broken heart?” she guessed, and I grinned.

  “He’d have to be pretty spectacular for that.”

  She barked another laugh. “No man is that spectacular.”

  “Amen to that.”

  The waiter arrived with our food. He flashed a flirtatious smile at Ida, and all but dropped my food in front of me with a disgusted curl on his lips.

  “Is the spell still making you repel men?” Ida asked when the waiter had left. I blinked, uncomprehending, so she continued. “You told me you’ve been spelled.”

  I’d forgotten I’d done it. “I guess it’s still on,” I said lightly, but she leaned closer.

  “So, who spelled you and how did that happen?”

  I hadn’t thought she’d be that interested. “Are you into the occult?”

  She shrugged. “Something like that.”

  “Unfortunately, I have no answers to you. I was only joking.”

  She gave me a pointed look. “I didn’t imagine that man’s reaction, or how the men at the engagement party gave you a wide berth.”

  Curse her for being so observant.

  But not for real. The last time I’d been able to curse people, it bounced back to me.

  “Jack wasn’t repelled by me,” I said as calmly
as I could. She tilted her head, considering me.

  “That’s true.” Her eyes tightened minutely, the expression gone so fast I thought I’d imagined it. Then she picked up her fork and began to eat.

  “So, what do you want to know about Jack?”

  We had a great lunch talking about Jack and bashing men in general. I didn’t learn anything useful, but it didn’t hurt to have an ally in this wedding business, as she would be one of the bridesmaids. Her surprise about it rivalled mine.

  “You’ll meet my brother at the wedding too … provided you don’t still repel men,” she said with a laugh. She laughed a lot.

  I ignored the jibe. “He wasn’t at the engagement party?”

  “No, Julius is my stepbrother, a son of my mother’s second husband and not related to the Sanford side of the family, but he’ll be my date at the wedding—much to his horror.”

  I smiled. “Maybe he’ll love it.”

  She laughed again, and this time there was a hard edge to it. “That’ll be the day.”

  A shiver went down my bones for her tone. If I’d been more like my Aunt Clara, I would’ve interpreted it as an omen.

  Since I wasn’t, I returned to the office feeling pleased by the lunch.

  I’d barely settled down behind my desk when Kane stormed in, badly startling me.

  The startle turned into concern when I realised he wasn’t wearing a jacket or waistcoat, and his shirtsleeves were rolled up. Had the magical strain of the previous day addled his brain?

  He didn’t look delirious. He was radiating with barely contained energy. “There you are! Come with me. I think I’ve found a solution.”

  Chapter Nine

  “Where have you been the whole morning?” I asked as I followed him down the stairs and into the gallery. It was closed on Mondays, but the lights were on, which distracted me briefly.

  Had they been on when I returned from lunch?

  He led me to the exhibition space, and I paused at the door, my mouth hanging open.

  “When did you do all this?”

  The display cases holding the items waiting to be auctioned had been moved to the sides of the room to clear a large space in the middle. He had drawn a complicated diagram with chalk on the floor, with several candles placed on the proper spots.

  My heart jumped. “You’ve found a way to break the spell?”

  “Not yet,” he said, with an apologetic look. “But I spent the morning at the council library and found a spell that will mask its effects on others.”

  “I guess that’s better than nothing…”

  It also explained why he hadn’t answered his phone. One didn’t keep the phone on in a library, even if no one else used said library.

  “Infinitely better.”

  He picked up an old leatherbound notebook with scrawled handwriting and diagrams, the ink faded with age. “Now, let me see…”

  He beckoned me to stand on a specific spot inside the diagram and then lit the candles with the wave of his hand. No matter how many times I saw him do that, it wouldn’t stop impressing me.

  Then he took a bunch of dried herbs and lit them with the candle placed on the northern compass point. It didn’t start to burn with an open flame like I thought. Instead, it began to give out fragrant white smoke.

  He started to sweep my body with the smoke, front and back.

  “Are you cleansing my aura?” I asked, half jesting, but he nodded.

  “Something like that. I’m opening it for the spell.”

  When he was done with the herbs—and a good thing too, because the scent made my nose itch and I was tolerably certain that violent sneezing would ruin the spell—he directed me to the western compass point and told me not move until he sat down. Then I was to do so too.

  He stood opposite me on the pattern. He looked me straight in the eyes, the blue in them deeper than normal, as if they were glowing from the inside, and said one word in the mage language.

  The pressure was sucked out of the room with a whomp, and my ears popped. He sat down, and I dropped to my knees less gracefully, my legs suddenly feeble.

  He began to chant, his voice strong and sonorous, the power behind every word making the candle flames dance and his hair billow more than usual. The air twirled around me, growing in power so that I felt like I was sitting in the eye of a tiny tornado. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from him.

  Abruptly, the wind died. I barely dared to breathe as Kane closed his eyes for a few heartbeats. He said one more word and it hit my solar plexus like a punch. Air whooshed out of me with a gasp.

  The magic eased around us, and the candles died. Kane opened his eyes. His brows shot up and he blinked. Then he blinked again, and looked left and right, as if searching for something.

  “Did it work?” I asked.

  His eyes darted back to me. Shaking his head, he rubbed them with his thumb and middle finger, as if cleaning them. He opened them again, and sighed heavily. I didn’t like the sound of it.

  “Well, the good news is I’m not disgusted by your presence anymore.”

  Relief turned my bones liquid, and it took a moment before his words registered.

  “There is bad news?”

  His face was solemn like he was about to tell me I’d died. “The bad news is I can’t see you anymore.”

  I stared at him, uncomprehending. “What do you mean?”

  He grimaced. “It seems I’ve turned you invisible.”

  We cleaned the gallery in silence. What was there to say after a turn like that?

  I mopped the chalk lines off the floor and Kane moved the display cases back to their places. He avoided looking at me—or the mop that from his point of view was cleaning the floor by itself.

  I didn’t feel invisible. I could see myself normally, and I even appeared in a mirror. That was the first thing I checked.

  “Maybe this is a gender specific spell too,” I finally said as we climbed back upstairs. Kane went first so he wouldn’t accidentally step on my heels. “Maybe women can see me fine.”

  “I don’t know what it is. It shouldn’t have had this effect in the first place.”

  “Can you undo it?”

  “Yes,” he stated firmly. “But not right now. I burned all the ingredients already. Let’s get you home so that Amber and Giselle can help me.”

  He rolled down his sleeves and put on his waistcoat and jacket. I picked up my shoulder bag and he grimaced. “I’d best carry that.”

  I barely refrained from rolling my eyes, then remembered he couldn’t see me and rolled them anyway as I handed him the bag.

  The walk to his car took us through the plaza. The lunch rush was over and there weren’t as many people around anymore, so I didn’t accidentally bump into anyone. But I sighed in relief when I sat on the front seat of the Jag and Kane closed the door behind me.

  He was normally that polite too, but this time it had the added benefit of not confusing the potential onlookers with the door opening and closing on its own.

  “I’m really sorry about this,” he said when we were on our way. “And I know it’s not a consolation, but I truly feel better around you again. It was incredibly stressful before.”

  I still had no idea what to say to him. I wasn’t angry as such; he’d tried his best and I didn’t understand magic well enough to know what had gone wrong. But I couldn’t just brush it aside either. This was a huge problem.

  Although, I could see some benefits too…

  “Maybe I could sneak into Jack’s house while I’m invisible and look for the spell book he stole.”

  I was instantly excited about the idea. I could see myself sneaking silently through his home, with him none the wiser.

  But Kane didn’t share my enthusiasm. He turned to give me an admonishing look, only to startle when I wasn’t there. He faced the traffic hastily again.

  “That’s still criminal activity. And incredibly dangerous.”

  I threw my hands up, the gesture wasted on h
im. “He stole it first,” I said. “And what could be dangerous about it if he can’t see me?”

  “He might sense you there.”

  “He might not be home.”

  He spared me a glance. “Then you wouldn’t have to be invisible in the first place.”

  I couldn’t exactly argue with that logic.

  “All I’m saying is, I am invisible, and it would be criminal to waste the opportunity it presents.”

  He was unmoved. “We’ll reverse the spell immediately.”

  “Fine…”

  I didn’t want to frighten the customers of the magic shop, so we entered through the back door. But the place was empty, and Amber came to see who was there. Her brows shot up.

  “Archibald? What brings you here in the middle of the day? Has something happened to Phoebe?”

  So she couldn’t see me either. Bugger.

  “In a manner of speaking…” Kane said dryly, then gestured at where he assumed I was. I stepped forward, as if that helped.

  “I’m here.”

  Amber was a former trauma nurse. She did not shake easily. But she staggered back now, turning pale. “What the hell happened?”

  Kane looked contrite, probably for the first time ever. “I tried to mitigate the effects of Jack’s spell, and it didn’t work quite the way it should have.”

  “I’ll say…” She pointed at the staircase. “Up you go, then. I’ll close the shop.”

  Griselda was in the attic, lying in the middle of the floor, basking in a beam of sunlight filtering through the skylight. She opened her green eyes, annoyed for the interruption, and looked straight at me. She sprang up like being catapulted, her back arching like a bow and fur standing up, and hissed at me.

  “I guess someone can sense me,” I said, as the cat shot past me and out of the attic. I was a bit upset by her reaction. She’d often spent nights on my legs, and I’d grown accustomed having her there.

  Kane stared after her, amazed. Then he looked at where he assumed I was standing. “We’ll fix you.”

  I sighed. “What if you can’t?”

  “There’s always someone who can,” he assured me, reaching a hand as if to pat my shoulder, but dropping it as useless when he couldn’t figure out where I was.