by Lauren Quick
“Honora, I don’t think you understand.”
“So enlighten me.”
“I can’t release you.” He speared her with his gaze.
“What?”
“Like you said, if I release you, they’ll know. They set you up to take the fall. They created the dark charm and you’ll go down for it. They probably already suspect you, since the police raided the park. If you get off, they’ll know something is up and we need to strike now while we can.”
“What are you asking me to do?”
“I think we’ll still have a chance if you continue undercover work.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” But Honora had a bad feeling she already knew the answer to that question.
He squared his shoulders, all business. “You would have to go to jail. We would offer you a plea, a lighter sentence that would be too good to pass up. We would leak that you got the deal because of your good standing in the community and you had no priors. You take the deal and go to the Banishment.”
Honora jerked up in her seat, emotions ricocheting inside her. “The Banishment! You’re going to throw me into Everland’s worst prison. And how exactly will this help the case?”
“Alana is there.”
Suddenly it all made sense. “You want me to work her and see how much information I can get out of her.”
“She was in the club like you, and she ended up in jail, like you are supposed to if Witches of a Feather have their way. It’s too big a coincidence.”
Honora considered her options. “Plus, we still don’t know who killed Constance. She might know or have suspicions.”
“Alana’s a valuable source, but we haven’t been able to get her to talk. You would have the perfect angle to get to her.”
“We could bond over our stupid life decisions.” Honora closed her eyes and rested her head in her hands for a moment to think.
How did everything fall apart? She felt off, like every action she’d made was one step late. Ophelia was behind all of it. She was smart, smarter than Honora. Maybe going to the Banishment would help. Maybe it could work, if she could stand it, if she could make it in that dark pit surrounded by viper witches. She shook off the image, getting control of her imagination.
The sound of Corder’s voice roused her. “Once we bust them for the dark charms, we’re going to use the leverage we have to get them to turn on each other and give up which one of them murdered Constance. We just need time. I need you, Honora.”
“Time. Maybe I can whip you up a dark charm for that,” she said with a smirk. At least her humor wasn’t dead.
“This can work. You can do it.” He reached out and touched her hands.
“Do you know what you’re asking me to do?”
“You will be arrested for crimes against witching kind. You will be sentenced to the Banishment for twenty-five years. And you will be on your own with no one knowing who you really are. I know it seems bad now, but we can do this.”
“My sisters don’t know anything. My business partners don’t know. No one knows, but you and your team.” Tears welled in her eyes. “They’ll hate me. Everyone will hate me.”
“No, they won’t because when this is over I’ll make sure you’re exonerated. I’ll make sure the Witch Council pins a medal on your chest.”
“I don’t want a medal. I want my good name. My reputation. Everything is on the line.” She brushed a tear off her cheek and got herself together. But more than that, one thing really irked her. “Ophelia set me up. She thought I was an easy mark. She thought she could force me into doing dark charms for her and then throw me out like a piece of trash. She needs to be stopped.”
Corder smiled. He had her and he knew it, she realized. Now she just had to go to prison and live among some of the most dangerous witches in Everland. No problem.
16
It was Vivi’s turn to pick up breakfast for the girls at the shop and she was enjoying her walk back from Nocturnes, levitating honey cream lattes in a drink caddy in front of her while enjoying the crisp spring morning. She hugged a bakery bag filled with warm pastries. She peeked her head inside and took a big whiff of deliciousness. Her mood skyrocketed. The pastry pick-me-up was a relief after the week she’d had. She’d pretty much given up on finding Willow Cashing and it didn’t look good for the police either. Lance had been working late every night, searching all over Everland, tracking down any lead no matter how small. Her heart broke for him and it was hard not to share in the blame for turning up dead ends from her visions.
She pushed through the front door of The Potion Garden and the smell alone was enough to stop her in her tracks. “What curled up and died in here?” she asked.
The shop was thankfully empty of customers. Lindy poked her head in from the back, her eyes bugging out of their sockets. Her bangs were sticking straight up, pushed skyward by the goggles on her forehead.
“Nothing died, but we have a prototype of the potion.”
“Which potion are we talking about?” Vivi’s eyes began to water the closer she got to the brewing area. “It really reeks. I hope you don’t expect someone to drink that. Is it a floor-cleaning potion? It smells like you could strip varnish right off wood with it.” Vivi placed the pastry bag on the counter.
Pepper glanced up. A scarf was tied around her face, making her look like she was about to rob the place. “No, silly. It’s the Truth or Dare potion or Tattle Tell or whatever you want to call it. I think I cracked it.”
With everything going on with Clover, Vivi’d forgotten about the potion she wanted to use on Willow’s uncle. At the time she’d been grasping at straws with the idea, but she didn’t want to burst Pepper’s bubble, since she’d worked so hard on the truth potion. “That’s amazing. Thanks for brewing this up.” Vivi nonchalantly flicked her wand and whispered a spell to crack the window and let some fresh air into the fume-filled room.
“No problem. You know how I get when faced with a challenge.” Pepper put a lid on the copper cauldron and pulled her scarf down. She made a beeline for the bag. “I’m starving.”
“Me, too.” Lindy grabbed some plates from the cabinet and they all gathered around the counter. The odor had dispersed enough to enjoy breakfast. Vivi dished out the pastries and lattes and they settled in.
“What inspired your breakthrough?” Vivi asked Pepper. She should have known that Pepper could never resist the challenge of creating a harmless truth potion that lasted only a few minutes, no matter how impossible it might seem.
“I was out in the garden last night after the shop closed, enjoying the evening, when I saw a slug.”
“Oh, no. I thought we got rid of the slugs.” Vivi shuddered thinking of the recent time she’d walked outside barefoot only to step on a slimy slug. It didn’t fare so well. And cleaning up slug guts wasn’t fun.
“We did. But it got me thinking about how slow and vulnerable they are and that led me to thinking about snails and of snail shells and I knew I’d found the missing ingredient to lighten the potion,” Pepper’s words spilled from her lips.
“I’m still not following. You put snails in the potion?”
“Not exactly. I used powdered snail shell!” Pepper beamed.
“Isn’t it genius?” Lindy said, a smear of white icing on her chin. “The powder has calming and slowing properties in it. It literally slows down a witch’s thought process.”
Pepper cocked her hip and leaned against the counter. “I used it in addition to rose thorn and sage grass for truth inducing. This way the witch doesn’t have time to formulate a lie and telling the truth is a natural process.”
Vivi sipped her latte, listening intently. “So it doesn’t force a witch to tell the truth—it stops her from formulating a lie. That is genius.”
“Plus, it wears off natu
rally within a few minutes,” Pepper said.
“You never fail to amaze me. Now we just have to work on the smell.” Vivi wrinkled her nose.
“What smell?” Lindy said, glancing around as if the smell were visible. “Does it smell bad? I can’t tell anymore.”
“I think we acclimated to the odor.” Pepper shrugged.
“Trust me. It reeks in here. Maybe we should add a few drops of orange oil to help with the odor. I doubt it tastes much better.”
Pepper helped herself to another pastry. “I thought a bad taste would be a good thing. We don’t want it to be over used.”
“We might only have to use it once, if I can figure out a way to get Edward to take the potion,” Vivi said. She would revisit that task later.
Lindy pulled a pecan-studded bear claw from the bag. “Who’s going to test it? I’d volunteer, but the last potion I tested was a bust and gave me hives all over. And when I say all over, I mean all over. I couldn’t sit for two whole days.”
Pepper giggled. “I remember that, but that’s what you get for experimenting with love potions.”
“It wasn’t a love potion. It was a like potion. I was pacing myself. I thought it would work better than going all the way to love.”
“I’ll test it,” Vivi said. “It should be me. I can’t very well expect someone to drink a potion that I haven’t tried myself.” She cringed.
“Great!” Pepper said, darting over to the cauldron. She ladled some of the potion into a mug and brought it over to Vivi.
Vivi jerked back from the green swill. “Now?! Shouldn’t we wait and make sure it’s ready?”
“It’s ready. I’m sure.”
Steam rose off the noxious brew. The smell was enough to curl her nose hair. “I thought we decided to add some smell and flavor enhancers.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I will. But why wait? We need to know if it works first. I don’t want to waste any more ingredients if it’s not going to work,” Pepper said.
Lindy’s eyes widened. “You’re worried it might work, aren’t you? And you’ll have to tell us something truthfully.”
It suddenly dawned on Vivi that not only would she have to taste the potion, but also she would be tested. “You’re going to have to ask me something serious that I might want to lie about for it to be a real test.” She glanced at the table, sweeping up crumbs off the wood surface into her hand, and tossed the breakfast debris into the trash. “Just don’t ask about Lance.”
“No boyfriend questions.” Pepper’s brow furrowed. “Let me think.”
Vivi stared down into the mug. The liquid was green, not surprisingly, and not a pretty spring flower or grass green. It was like frog skin green. She’d discovered that when a potion was green it never tasted good. A film had collected on the surface, which was another unappetizing detail. She held the mug and sucked it up. She wasn’t going to be a baby about it. “Are you ready? I’m about to chug this icky brew,” she said to Pepper, the mug inches from her lips.
“I’ve got a couple of questions. But promise not to get mad at me if you don’t like them.”
“I promise.” Vivi brought the mug to her lips and downed it before she changed her mind.
She gagged, her gorge rising, but she managed to keep it down. The potion clung to her mouth and throat. She’d tasted some awful experimental potions in her day, but this was officially going down as the worst. It tasted like pond scum mixed with lawn clippings and a splash of snail slime with a chalky aftertaste.
“Ick! Yuck! Gross!” Vivi wiped her mouth on a napkin. “I’m making you drink this Pepper. Just you wait.” She shuddered and her shoulders shook. “Make it quick.”
Pepper focused, stared her in the eyes, and asked, “If you had to choose between your persuasion of prophecy and running The Potion Garden, which would it be?”
Lindy gasped. Pepper had gone for the gut. Vivi’s stomach gurgled. Her whole body tingled and her thoughts moved in slow motion. She thought about it for what felt like minutes. Her magic was important. She could help witches and help Lance. They’d never been closer, but…“I’d pick the potion shop.”
“Would you ever leave the shop to work with the police full-time?”
“Never.” The word flew from her lips.
“How do you feel about your persuasion?”
Vivi felt her throat tighten. She hated this potion. Hated it. She didn’t want to admit the truth. She wanted to lie, not in a vicious way, but in a safe way. She didn’t want to face the truth. “I hate it. I wish I never saw the future. It’s like a curse, but worse. At least with a curse, I could hate it without feeling guilty.” Emotions bubbled up inside her. Why did she take that stupid truth potion? “With my persuasion I have to use it. I have no choice and I wish it would go away.”
“That’s enough,” Pepper said. She handed Vivi a glass of water. “Drink this. Relax. Clear your mind and breathe.”
“It should wear off soon. I think we should ask one more question in a minute or two to see how you feel,” Lindy said.
Vivi drank the water and could feel her thoughts speeding up again as if the slowness was ebbing and her normal mind was getting back up to speed. “That potion gave me the weirdest feeling.”
Pepper watched her like a hawk, probably monitoring her for any visual side effects. “I’m sorry I had to get so personal, but I wanted to know and I knew that a silly question wouldn’t have the effect we needed to truly test the potion.”
“I know. And I’m not angry. You’re a great potion master. It worked. I didn’t want to answer the question, but I felt compelled to and I also could only speak what I truly believed. I couldn’t have lied if I wanted too,” Vivi said.
Pepper’s body relaxed as if she’d suddenly released a long-held tension in her bones. “I’m glad you picked The Potion Garden. I was getting a little worried that you would quit and go work with Lance full-time.”
“After this last case, I think I should definitely stick to making potions.”
“It worked. It really worked,” Lindy said. “That’s awesome.”
“Is it?” Pepper asked. “It sounds like the truth is brutal.”
“You got that right,” Vivi said. And, she realized, maybe Edward didn’t want to face it.
Clover sat in a swanky café in Stargazer City’s news district where Witch World Daily and other publishing outlets made their home. She sat outside at a black wrought-iron table and watched the witches and wizards stroll along. Witch-watching was one of her favorite hobbies. She loved imagining the lives of the witches walking by, filling in the details, guessing their persuasions, and giving them insurmountable obstacles. But even witch-watching wasn’t quelling her impatience.
She drummed her fingers on the table, causing her teacup to rattle in its saucer. Crystal Crown was late. She’d been forced to make an appointment with the pushy reporter for Witch World Daily when Derek informed her their connections at the paper had run dry and she couldn’t get her latest article published. It seemed even a famous word witch could only get so many favors, leaving Clover in a quandary. If she wanted to bait the hook to catch the Lady Raider and get her new story in the paper, then she needed help from the inside.
Crystal sauntered up to the table. Her hair was pulled up in a severe bun, tugging her facial skin back tightly. She wore a pair of black cat-eye glasses and red lipstick. Her skirt was straight and tight, like snakeskin tight. She wore a silk blouse and a cropped cashmere cardigan. Clover envied her wardrobe and envisioned herself traipsing around in high heels and cute clothes around her house. She smiled, like that would ever happen.
Crystal slid into her seat. “What do you want?” she asked and the trance was broken. All elegance ended when Crystal opened her mouth. She was a hard-nosed reporter after all. She didn’t waste time with p
leasantries.
“I need your help getting an exposé into the paper.” Clover waved the waiter over and ordered a fresh pot of tea for them.
“What’s in it for me?” Crystal asked. The Mayhems had already given Crystal the story about their family that she’d been coveting for years after she’d helped them out with a case. Clover needed fresh bargaining material if she wanted Crystal’s help.
“I could name a character after you in my next book.”
Crystal barked with laughter. “That’s it? I’m not some mushy fan. I want something real, something good. But before we go any further, what do you need an exposé for and who is it of anyway?”
“The exposé is for a friend and it’s for fun and exposure,” Clover said. She wasn’t about to tell Crystal it was a fiction and it was intended to set up a criminal.
“What kind of piece is it?”
“It’s a historical exposé on a rare piece of antique jewelry owned by royalty. My friend is spending time in the city and…”
“Wanted to see her name and picture in the parchment. I get it. I’ve seen the stories that have been run for you about your friend,” Crystal said, eyeing up Clover like she was trying to detect her motive. “It’s awfully nice of you to go to all the trouble for your friend.”
The tea arrived and was poured. Clover took a big gulp of the hot liquid and burned the roof of her mouth in the process. “I’m a nice witch. What can I say?” she said, with a nervous smile.
“You must really like this person because, as you know, I don’t come cheap and neither does my column space. It’s going to cost you.”
“Name your price.” Clover had been prepared for Crystal to demand something big for the favor.
