Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  “All of the above,” Bitsy whispered. She looked at her brother sadly. “Except Liam. He just tried to shield the rest of us. And we moved a lot.”

  “And now you’re here,” I said. “And anyone who wants you has to go through us first.”

  “The bullying seems about the same,” Liam muttered.

  “Does it, sorcerer?” Kandy asked. “Or did you just pull your itty-bitty gun on two Adepts of untold power, and they’re about to let you walk away?”

  The green-haired werewolf stepped back, standing shoulder to shoulder with me. “Take a good look, asshole.”

  Liam’s gaze flicked between us.

  “Use all your senses,” Kandy snapped. Then she muttered to me, “I swear the new fledglings are utter morons.”

  Liam clenched his jaw. Then his sorcerer magic shifted. I sensed the moment he actually saw us — specifically, Kandy’s cuffs and my necklace. His face blanched.

  Kandy grunted. “Go home. Next time, I crush the gun.”

  I closed the space between myself and the sorcerer. Kandy had already put him in his place, multiple times. But I needed to add my own bit. I really didn’t like being threatened in my own backyard. And Kandy was right, unfortunately. If Liam was prone to pulling his gun when facing unknown Adepts — whether or not he presumptively assumed they were harming his family — he was going to be in for a nasty surprise when he met Warner or Kett, or any guardian who might be visiting Vancouver.

  I’d protected many friends, including some I shouldn’t have, without ever pulling my knife. At least not as a first reaction.

  “Liam Talbot,” I murmured, presenting his gun in my open palm.

  He met my gaze.

  I deliberately allowed my magic to curl over and around the weapon.

  “Please,” he whispered.

  I raised an eyebrow at him and he fell silent. Then I informed the deadly artifact in my hand that it wouldn’t fire against me. Its magic shifted, accommodating my own. “Kandy,” I said.

  The green-haired werewolf placed her hand over the gun without further prompting.

  Reaching for a tendril of my BFF’s magic, I fed it into the weapon, also informing it that it wouldn’t fire against Kandy.

  I nodded. The green-haired werewolf stepped back.

  I offered the gun to Liam.

  He hesitated. “What did you do to it?”

  “You won’t be able to use it against me or Kandy.”

  He looked doubtful. And a little too smug about it.

  “Give it a try,” I said. “And when the backfire takes off your hand, I promise to let Bitsy drive you to the hospital.”

  Liam swallowed, gingerly taking the gun from me.

  “Is it of your own construction?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  “Do you have others?”

  “No.”

  “While you reside in Vancouver —”

  “Under our protection,” Kandy interjected.

  “You won’t make any more of them.” I continued as though she hadn’t interrupted me. “Do you understand? You make more weapons like this … you try to figure out how to harm me or Kandy or anyone under our protection, and I will crush you. Not just the gun in question.”

  “I’m an officer of the law,” Liam said stiffly. “I don’t hurt people. I know my duty.”

  I leaned into him. He struggled to hold himself in place. “You held me at gunpoint, Liam Talbot. You threatened my friend, the enforcer of this territory. When we were doing our duty.”

  “I apologize. I was … mistaken.”

  “I’ll be keeping close tabs on you, sorcerer. In fact, I expect to see you in the bakery, often. How about every Thursday afternoon? You take a coffee break, yes?”

  He nodded stiffly.

  I eyed him for a moment. “Do I need to repeat myself?”

  Liam’s gaze flicked to me, then to Kandy.

  The green-haired werewolf shrugged. “You’re in trouble if Jade Godfrey doesn’t like you, VPD. The few people she doesn’t like usually come to very bloody ends. If it wasn’t so, Henry wouldn’t have sent your family here for safekeeping, would he?”

  Careful to keep his finger nowhere near the trigger, Liam thoughtfully twisted the gun in his hand. Then he nodded. “I understand the rules. Where we fit within them. And who enforces them. Henry was clear. I just didn’t …”

  “Believe him?” Kandy asked mockingly.

  Liam glanced at me, then away. “He wasn’t forthcoming about certain aspects.”

  Kandy laughed harshly. “Yeah, the blond curls and big boobs confuse a lot of people, VPD. But the power is more than clear.”

  Liam nodded, wrapping his arm around Bitsy’s shoulders. “I’ll be at the bakery. Thursday afternoon.”

  I nodded, pretty much dismissing them.

  Kandy and I watched them hurry away.

  “My new favorite pastime,” I said. “Terrifying fledglings.”

  “The sorcerer isn’t a fledgling.” Kandy bumped her shoulder against mine. “That gun was impressive.”

  “It was.”

  “Come on. We’ve got nails to paint, makeup to apply. You don’t want to be late for your own party.”

  “It doesn’t take me …” I glanced at the time on my phone. “Four hours to get ready.”

  “I booked us mani-pedis.”

  I grinned at my BFF. “You are the best.”

  She shrugged. “It’ll be a good way to figure out if the twins smoothed everything over.”

  “Ah,” I groaned. “The twins. And we need to check out this Tony dude.”

  Kandy nodded, glancing down at her phone. “The brother. Pearl texted the Talbots’ address.”

  I sighed. “Even if this is all somehow tied to the grid, it would be good to check out the house sooner than later, figure out if the Talbots are connected to it all somehow.”

  “If it weren’t for your itchy feet, this would all be my thing.” Kandy gave me a pointed look. “As enforcer.”

  I raised my hands in acquiescence. “Not stepping on your toes, my toothy friend.”

  She snorted. “I’ll pop over while you’re closing up the bakery. I’ll let you know if I need reinforcements.”

  “Trying to get rid of me?”

  “Nah, I like you tagging along. I get a big kick out of all the double takes.” Kandy grinned wolfishly. “But you know Scarlett is totally going to recruit Wisteria and gang up on Pearl, after the twins and now the werewolf. So I figure you’re going to be otherwise occupied.”

  “And how would my mother know about any of that?”

  “Reading my text messages, I imagine.”

  “Kandy … you’re not deliberately pitting my mother against my grandmother, are you?”

  “How can you even ask that?” Kandy pressed her hand to her chest, mockingly aghast. “I mean, those would be some impressive fireworks —”

  “I take back that thing I said earlier. About you being the best.”

  Kandy chuckled. “You don’t like the itchy-feet thing.”

  “I don’t. I don’t like being controlled by an external force. My own internal forces are bad enough.”

  “And I don’t like your grandmother weaving other options into the grid.”

  My heart grew suddenly heavy at the thought of Gran deliberately tying me to the grid. “Possibly weaving. Or possibly my own fault. With the punching of concrete and all.”

  Kandy grunted in agreement. Then she wrapped her arm around mine. “So the witches will gather tonight, we’ll cast the grid again, subbing you out, and everything will sort itself.”

  I nodded, allowing her to lead me away up the alley.

  A gust of wind buffeted us, and for the first time in a long while, I thought I could feel the promise of rain. Rain would dampen the smoke from the forest fires plaguing the province. The haze over the city would lift. Everything would go back to normal.

  And normal was good. Normal was great. Normal was exactly what I wanted.
<
br />   So then why did it feel as though whatever was going on unseen around us was just getting started?

  With Tima and Todd perfectly fine to cover the final hour of the day and close up the bakery, I headed upstairs for a shower. I was almost ready to give up on diffusing my hair and moving on to doing my makeup — because perfect curls were great, but losing half an hour of my life in order to obtain them was ridiculously boring — when Kandy popped her head into the bathroom.

  “Burgundy is taking your place.”

  “For the grid casting?” I switched the diffuser to the other side of my head, eyeing Kandy, who looked just a little bit smug. After we’d had our mani-pedis, the werewolf had followed a trail of text messages to Gran’s.

  “The witches have so ordained.”

  “And Burgundy is powerful enough? Even as a quarter-witch?”

  “Your mother thinks so. Mostly because her magic will be receptive to the others, so they can support her. Plus the fact that she’s been specifically training with Pearl for over a year.”

  I nodded thoughtfully. It wasn’t as if I was a full-blood witch either, and I hadn’t specifically trained in spellcasting. Not for years, anyway. And even then, I’d been pretty incapable of actually pulling off any and all witch magic. Burgundy might be only a quarter-witch, but since she was actually in training and capable of casting, I could see why my mother would think she was a better choice, even with Gran so adamant that I participate.

  “How much magic was thrown around during the discussion?” I asked.

  Kandy grinned. “None. But I seriously wouldn’t want to have been the one facing off with Scarlett, Wisteria, and her hottie Declan. It was all polite smiles between the women while Declan singed the rug.”

  “Singed? Like he casts with fire?”

  Kandy shrugged. “Pearl held her own through it. Barely batted an eye, then relented. Then they sat down and put together a plan.”

  “Which is?”

  “You redraw the runes, cast, then break the circle while the other witches maintain their anchor points. Burgundy steps into your spot, then she recasts.”

  “With the same runes?”

  “Nope. Those are too complicated for her. Or, as Scarlett kept insisting, too complicated for the main grid spell.”

  Kandy leaned against the bathroom counter, stirring her fingers through the makeup I’d strewn beside the sink. She plucked a lipstick from the pile, opened it, then rejected the color — a pretty pink — with a curl of her lip.

  “And Gran?” I almost hesitated to ask. “Is the engagement party still on?”

  Continuing to sort through and check the color of my lipsticks, Kandy snorted. “By the end of the bloody meeting, she had it all turned around like the whole thing was her idea. A great test to see if the grid would hold should one of the anchor points be compromised, yadda yadda.”

  “Maybe I should have been there,” I murmured, tucking my hairdryer back into its drawer.

  “Nah. Then the subject would have twisted back on itself, like it did this morning. Wisteria’s presence kept everything civil, and Declan’s permanent glare made sure the meeting didn’t drag on and on. Though I left when they got sidetracked about other tests they were going to take the opportunity to conduct tonight.”

  “Other tests?”

  “Something about a shield. Or a barrier spell. Should the city ever come under siege, I don’t know. Witch porn.”

  “And your misfits? Will they all be at the party?” I asked.

  “Your misfits, you mean? I dropped off beer and gave them money for pizza later. They’re playing games at the Talbots’.”

  “You … dropped off beer?”

  “Seem young, don’t they? But they’re all of age … mostly. In Canada, anyway.”

  “And?” I asked pointedly. Kandy didn’t randomly buy beer and pizza for just anyone. “Is Tony an evil wizard secretly spelling the others?”

  She barked out a laugh, shaking her head. “Just a geek with a flashy computer.” Giving me a surly look, she added, “I took the opportunity to scout the place. As so ordered.”

  I snorted. “As if. And?”

  “Nothing out of the ordinary. No weird magic. Not that I could smell, at least. They’re renting from Pearl. Across from the park.”

  “The house on Ogden?”

  “Yep.”

  “That’s close to the anchor point,” I said thoughtfully.

  “But not even remotely in line with the magic. It runs along the shoreline in both directions. Trust me, Jade. I checked all the points this morning, and I specifically double-checked the one in the park after I left the Talbots. If the fledglings were tapping into it somehow, I would have scented it.”

  I returned my attention to the mirror, picking up and brushing some powder across my forehead and cheeks while I thought through all the weird occurrences that I’d witnessed since the grid had been raised. “Maybe they screwed around with it last night. After we left.”

  “We were pretty heavy on them. I don’t think they’re mastermind manipulators, especially not when interrogated separately. I’m not even sure the Tony kid ever leaves the basement. And you know that Mory wouldn’t lie to you. Not for one second.”

  I nodded my agreement about the necromancer. But I still wasn’t so certain about the Talbots. “Gran must have invited them to the party. Mory, at least.”

  “Sure. But given the choice, you’d have picked the basement with your friends over Pearl’s sure-to-be snotty shindig.”

  “Any day.” I grinned at Kandy. “I mean, as long as there were cupcakes.”

  She snorted. “Please. Any dessert would do for you.” She fished a lipstick from my makeup collection — a purple so deep it was practically black. It appeared pristinely new, so it must have been an impulse buy. “I’m borrowing this.”

  “It’s yours.”

  “And this.” She swiped a miniature sampler containing three eye shadows and two blushes. A gift-with-purchase sort of thing, again unused.

  “Do you need some brushes to go with your stolen goods?”

  “Nah, I’m fine.” Kandy flashed me a toothy grin, then twirled around as if intending to flounce dramatically from the bathroom. But instead, she smacked chin first into a thick parchment envelope that had just appeared out of thin air.

  Smoky dragon magic filled the room, followed by earl grey tea so black that it was bitter.

  Kandy snarled, reached up, and tried to tear the offending envelope out of the air. She couldn’t move it. Not an inch, not even wearing the cuffs. Not even when she grabbed hold with both hands, lifting her knees to her chest and putting her full weight behind it.

  So she hung there, suspended from a four-inch-by-six-inch piece of paper.

  “Well, that’s new,” I muttered.

  Kandy snarled just to underscore her displeasure. Then she let go and stepped back, allowing me to easily pluck the envelope out of the air.

  The taste of the treasure keeper’s magic intensified underneath my fingertips. I wondered if he would have been immediately aware of the moment I touched it.

  “No,” Kandy said. Emphatically. “Your grandmother has been planning this party for months. She’s moved the date three times. And where the hell is Warner, anyway?”

  Nodding to acknowledge her concerns, I eyed the envelope. It was addressed to Jade Godfrey in a handwritten scrawl of black ink. No title. No official seal. Which was most definitely the treasure keeper’s way of being a total asshole.

  Sighing, I opened the parchment, reading the eleven words contained within.

  You will attend me at the moment you read this summons.

  I laughed nastily, angling the note so Kandy could read it. “At the moment? Seriously? I’m supposed to transport myself to his side while reading his pissy command?”

  Kandy folded her arms across her chest. “Go after the party.”

  “Go after? The asshole was supposed to have sent me a notice letting me know I’d been
exonerated. Or that the trial had been canceled. He didn’t. He summoned me. Officially. Letting me think I was going to have to plead for my freaking life before a freaking panel of guardian freaking dragons! He can clean up whatever mess he’s gotten himself into on his own.” I lifted the parchment before me, speaking formally. “Screw you and the horse you rode in on.”

  Kandy scrunched up her face. “Horse you rode in on? Do you even know what you’re quoting?”

  “Nope. But then, neither will he.”

  The parchment disintegrated, leaving a film of soot across my prettily pedicured toes. I’d replaced the coral nail polish with a sparkly pink OPI shade appropriately dubbed Princesses Rule.

  “Wow,” Kandy said, not impressed.

  “Yeah. Asshole to the bitter end.”

  “I doubt that’s the end.”

  I sighed. “You’re probably right.”

  “There’s no ‘probably’ about it, dowser.” Kandy thrust her purloined lipstick before her like a knife, grinning madly. “Get on your pretty dress, pretty baby. The caterers were already setting up before I left Pearl’s, and I don’t want all the good grub to get picked over before we get there.”

  I laughed as the green-haired werewolf took off to her own apartment to get dressed. I certainly wasn’t going to let itchy feet or pissy guardians ruin my evening, either.

  I’d seen the menu, and it wasn’t to be missed.

  9

  A chocolate fountain, copious amounts of champagne, and heavenly bites of candied sockeye salmon on garlic crostini filled the long, linen-swathed tables that occupied the top tier of the patio, closest to the house. Strings of lights powered by bright-blue witch magic flickered along the eaves, swooping across and along the tall fences edging the yard, twining through the branches of a maple tree just beginning to change color, then crisscrossing over the aqua-blue-tiled swimming pool on the lower deck. More charmed lanterns floated in the pool’s crystal-clear water.

  Scattered across my grandmother’s backyard, witches, necromancers, and shapeshifters chatted quietly in small clusters. Dressed to the nines and with their magic politely tucked away at Pearl’s request — and under the weight of the multitude of wards encasing the property — they nibbled on treats, watching the sun slowly setting over English Bay.