by Amy Boyles
Samson mimed knocking and her not answering. Kimberly pointed to the chicken leg and her greasy fingers. The crowd laughed and clapped. Samson and Kimberly bowed. My fears were absolutely unfounded.
Then why did a feeling of dread have ahold on me?
I had just brushed it aside, relieved that everything was okay, when a man’s screaming cut through the air like a knife.
The four of us witches rose while people turned around in their seats, murmuring.
“Everyone stay in your seats,” Samson called from the front of the stage. “I will see what the problem is.”
“It came from outside,” Betty said, tossing her cotton candy stick in a trash can. “Let’s see what’s happening.”
“Yes,” I murmured, “let’s.”
Charming
Ignoring Samson’s request to remain where we were, the four of us dashed out into the sunlight, searching for the source of the screams.
Another one split the air. People stood stock-still along the path, unsure of what to do. Some folks had their phones out and were filming, following the sound of the cries.
“Over there.” Rose pointed toward a ring. “It came from there.”
By the time we reached the ring, it was heavily crowded. People were clamoring to get a look at all the commotion. Betty wasn’t deterred; she shoved her boobs right into the crowd.
“Coming through, y’all. Get out of my way. Old lady with an attitude coming through.”
About a dozen people had their phones trained on the figure in the center of the ring. The strong man, whom Thorne and I had watched only the day before, stood on the other side of the ring, cowering.
A cat, sitting on the ground a few feet away from him, meowed. “Get it away,” Giorgio screamed. “Someone get the cat out of here!”
My jaw dropped. Was he scared of the feline?
Arnold, the young kid who was afraid of just about everything including his own shadow, strode up and grabbed the cat.
I quirked a brow. There was something strange about Arnold, something different, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was as if he’d gotten an overnight makeover. His hair was slicked back, his spine straight and his sleeves were rolled up, exposing taut biceps.
This didn’t seem like the same kid who’d nearly vomited, he was so afraid. He’d changed, and quickly.
“What, Giorgio?” Arnold said. “You want me to get this sweet little kitty of here?”
Giorgio threw out his hand. “Yes, get it out of here. Please! Please don’t let it hurt me.”
Arnold clucked. “This little beauty here ain’t gonna hurt anybody”—he took an innocent step toward Giorgio—“are you?”
“Please!” Tears streamed down Giorgio’s face. “Please, keep it away from me!”
Pepper leaned over and whispered in my ear, “What in heaven’s name is going on?”
I grunted as I had no words. I couldn’t explain this situation if I wanted to. It didn’t make sense. We were staring at a grown man afraid of a cat—a cat, for Pete’s sake.
Samson broke through the crowd and strode into the ring. “What’s going on?”
“The kitty,” Giorgio cried, “don’t let it hurt me.”
Samson stared at Giorgio and then at Arnold and the gray cat. His lips tightened to a button, and his eyes narrowed. He opened his mouth and looked like he was about to rage against the strong man, but then his face softened.
Samson turned to the crowd. “Everyone, there’s nothing to see here. We will have another strong man performance later this afternoon, but as of right now, the show is cancelled.”
Arnold walked off, still holding the kitty. “I’ll take care of this.”
Samson nodded; then he bent down to Giorgio and whispered not too quietly, “For goodness’ sake, get yourself together, man.” Samson helped Giorgio to his feet, and the two men walked off, disappearing behind a red curtain.
The folks who were filming started tapping on their phones, probably uploading their videos onto social media so that all the world could witness the embarrassed Giorgio—because no doubt he would be embarrassed when he awoke from whatever fugue had gripped him.
“That was weird,” I murmured. “What in the world would cause a grown man to be afraid of a cat?”
“Cat scratch fever, perhaps?” Rose suggested. “There are also plenty of magical sicknesses you can get from a simple kitty. Of course, those generally have to be cast against you.” She shrugged. “Maybe someone once cast a cat meowing spell on him—you know, the kind where all you do is walk around meowing? Poor guy probably never recovered after suffering from such a spell, and now, every time he sees a cat, he falls into a fit of hysterics.”
My head spun at Rose’s insane logic. “I don’t know…”
She smiled widely. “Trust me, Charming, when you’ve lived as long as I have, you’ve seen it all, and you’d probably be afraid of a little kitty, too.”
Betty pulled a corncob pipe from her pocket and jutted it between her teeth. “I don’t know. It seems like something more sinister was going on than that.”
Pepper’s hand shot out and gripped Betty’s wrist. “It was strange, wasn’t it? And I swear that I can feel something in the air—a shift, a change.”
Betty met Pepper’s gaze and cackled. “I feel it too, kid. I feel it. It’s faint, but it’s there.”
Wishing that both of these women would stop speaking in such cryptic terms, I said, “What is it that you feel?”
Pepper licked her lips. Her eyes narrowed in concentration. “It’s the heart. A piece of it is here, in Witch’s Forge.”
“How can you be sure?” I said.
She brought her fists to her face and closed her eyes. “I can feel it; it’s like a low hum.” Pepper opened her eyes. “I’m not wrong. It’s here.” A look of determination filled her eyes. “We have to find it.”
Pepper
I couldn’t wait to tell Axel. He would be elated, of course, and ready to search out the heart fire. All of us would return to the carnival and with our collective powers, we would find it. It would be much easier than it had been the last time—when we were in Haunted Hollow.
After all, I felt the vibration down in my bones. The hum was like a bee buzzing in my muscles.
Within a few hours our jobs would be done and we’d be back in Magnolia Cove with another piece of the heart, and Blake Calhoun would be none the wiser.
When we arrived back at the house, laughter filtered outside. It sounded like the men had set aside their differences and were now best buddies.
Good, because I didn’t need Axel to get all werewolf on me again. I knew he wanted what was the best for us—which meant finding the heart—but the way he’d acted to Thorne made my nerves fray.
Charming opened the door, and the sound of the laughter grew louder. She shot me a quizzical look. I think she was thinking the same thing I was—that the men sure had put aside their differences rather quickly.
We followed the laughter to the living room where we found Leopold, Thorne and Axel sitting in the chairs, their heads tilted up in laughter.
“You should have seen it,” Leopold said, his eyes shining. “This vampire fell at least two hundred feet into the water, diving like a swan. The townspeople thought for sure he would die on the rocks below, but when he surfaced, they declared him a devil.”
“Did they threaten to kill him if he ever returned?” Axel asked, leaning forward.
Leopold clapped Thorne’s shoulder. “No.” He held back a laugh. “They didn’t declare him a devil, they declared him a saint—Saint Thorne.”
Axel and Leopold took one look at the smirk on Thorne’s face, and they erupted into laughter. Axel laughed so hard that tears streamed down his face. “Saint Thorne! I’ll have to see if I can get a town to love me that much.”
Leopold shook his head. “No, this was a long time ago, when people still believed in monsters. They don’t believe in us the way they used to, which I sup
pose is a good thing. We can hide easier and get away with more.” His face darkened. “Especially the evil of our kind—they can do much more that’s bad, and it isn’t looked at as being from a supernatural source.”
Charming cleared her throat.
Leopold’s gaze swiveled to the four of us standing in the doorway. He clapped a hand on his knee and rose. Thorne and Axel followed his greeting.
“But I suppose,” Leopold said to the men, finishing his thought, “that all things change, and for us to be able to sink into the shadows is an advantage.”
Axel smiled at me. “Everything go well at the carnival?”
Betty busted through us and took possession of the center of the room. “It went good—great. A piece of the heart fire is here, in Witch’s Forge.”
Axel’s eyebrows shot to peaks. “You’re sure?”
Betty tapped her nose as if the answers to the secrets of the universe could be located up one nostril. “A situation occurred—the strong man became frightened of cat.”
Axel’s eyes narrowed. “Continue.”
“Then I felt it.” Betty patted her stomach. “It was a hum, real low, like, but then it grew, just a teensy bit but it was enough. I know what it is, and Pepper does, too. Don’t you, Pepper?”
Everyone’s gaze shot to me and I nodded. “It’s the heart. I felt it in my bones. It’s here, Axel, and it’s connected to the carnival in some way.”
“So we need to look for it,” he said. “We need to search that carnival from top to bottom.”
I frowned. “I don’t know if it will be that easy. There are a lot of carnival workers. I doubt they leave even when the show’s over.”
“They sleep there,” Thorne confirmed. “They stay in trailers and tents.”
Betty rubbed her chin. “But we have to search that place, get in there where we can find the heart—it’s the only way.”
I racked my brain, trying to come up with an excuse that would get us close to the folks in the carnival but also give us enough cover that we’d be able to do what we needed.
Rose spoke. “I know, we could go in pretending to be exterminators. We could magic up big vacuums and start sucking up props and things. Surely once we got back, we’d find the heart fire among something.”
“It won’t work,” Glinda said, entering the room. “These are carnival people we’re talking about. They’ll be suspicious of anyone who’s not their own. Trying to gain trust them is like trying to keep an entire barrel of apples from bruising after tossing a brown one in—it won’t work.”
“Then we need a way to differentiate ourselves,” Charming murmured, “something that says we’re the authority of a situation.”
Silence filled the room as we considered how best to go about searching without looking like we were searching.
“We need to get close to the strong man,” I said. “He’s our first clue and may be able to help us.”
Axel’s gaze met mine, and I swear we both had the same thought at the same time.
He spoke first. “We say we can cure him.”
“The strong man,” I added, excitement flooding my veins. “We send in someone they haven’t seen and tell the owner we know how to stop the fear that’s gripping him.” My gaze dashed around the room. “Who hasn’t been to the carnival? Who hasn’t been seen by any of the workers?”
“I haven’t,” Axel said.
“Nor me,” Leopold answered. “Either of us would make good candidates.”
“This is my fight,” Axel said in a low, commanding voice, “our hunt.”
Leopold’s mouth tightened. “I understand that but feel responsible in some ways. If Blake Calhoun hadn’t been allowed to gain so much control, then we wouldn’t have to worry about him and none of this might ever have happened.”
“That doesn’t matter now,” Axel said. It wasn’t a burn meant to singe the hairs on Leopold’s head; it was simply a statement.
Leopold bowed his head, backing down from the discussion. “So it’s decided. You will go.”
Axel focused his gaze on Betty. “Now, let’s figure out a way to make me look legitimate.”
A half hour later, Axel looked like a traveling wizard—at least he did to me. Betty had zapped his face with magic, and a mustache sprouted above his lip.
Charming suggested asking the house for a wardrobe, and the house complied, giving us a selection of suits made out of silk and vests patterned in paisley, damask and stripes.
Axel pointed to a plain black suit and vest. “I like that one.”
“You don’t prefer the paisley?” I teased.
“No, I don’t. The more simple I look, the more believable I will be.”
“I’ll go with him,” Charming said. “I’ve already met Samson, the owner, and it would make sense that I might be able to find Axel and introduce him.”
Axel straightened his tie. “That’s Mr. Brick.”
I shot him an amused look. “Mr. Brick?”
He nodded. “It’s a simple name, and there are a lot of magical Bricks in the world. If Samson becomes suspicious about me and tries to research if I’m real, then he’ll have plenty of folks to sort through before he figures out I’m lying.”
“Which should give us time to find the heart,” I said cheerfully.
Axel scowled. “What is this ‘we’?”
I clapped my hands and was suddenly outfitted in a black dress with a matching black jacket. “You don’t think I’m going to let you do this alone, do you?”
“But he might have seen you at the magic show,” Charming argued. “I thought that’s what we decided.”
“But the doctor might have his wife with him,” I said.
Axel buttoned the cuffs of his shirt. “No deal. You’re not going.”
“Axel is right,” Glinda said, sailing into the downstairs bedroom the three of us were standing in. “I know this will be hard for you, but you have to let him do this alone. He will bring back the intelligence he can get, and we move from there.”
“Otherwise,” Betty said, grabbing a jacket and helping Axel put it on, “we risk compromising everything. Samson mustn’t suspect who we are or what we’re after. If he does, we may be putting more than ourselves at risk. We could lose the heart forever.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’ll stay here like the dutiful little wife.”
Axel smiled at Betty, Glinda and Charming. “Would y’all ladies kindly leave me and my bride alone for a moment?”
They left the room without another word, though Betty shot me a charged look before she shut the door behind her. I knew what that meant—I was in for it now.
As soon as the door shut, Axel pulled me into his arms and kissed me deeply. I moaned as his lips parted mine and a wave of pleasure zipped to my core.
When we pulled away, I felt heady, drunk off his kiss. “What was that for?”
“That,” he said, buttoning his jacket, “was to let you know that you are never the dutiful little wife. You are Pepper Reign, my love and soul mate. I’m not banishing you to the house as punishment; I’m doing it to keep all of us safe.”
I smirked. “I know; it’s just that I want to help.”
He smoothed the jacket and ran his hands across my cheeks. “I know you feel guilty about this, but don’t. There’s nothing for you to feel guilty about. Let it go,” he said sternly.
“I am; I’m trying.”
Axel pulled me into a hug. I melted against his chest and put my weight on him, letting Axel support me, both in body and spirit.
When we parted, Axel smiled. “Betty will be climbing the walls in here, dying to know what’s going on. Keep her distracted, for both our sakes.”
I laughed and the shot of air expelling from my lungs felt good. “Okay, I’ll keep her busy.”
“Good.” Axel grabbed a glob of hair goop and spread it over his tresses while he spoke. “Hopefully this won’t take long. If I discover where the heart is, then we can go back later tonight and take it.
We’ll leave and neither Samson nor the rest of his crew will know where we’ve gone, and we’ll be one step closer to mending the heart and our lives.”
I nodded, exhaling a shaky breath. “Be careful. Please don’t take an unnecessary risks.”
“I won’t.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “I promise.”
“Thank you.”
Axel took a step back and splayed his hands. “Now, how do I look?”
A grin split my face wide. “Like a million dollars.”
He looked in the mirror and narrowed his eyes. “Meet John Brick.”
I gave a little curtsy. “Pleasure to meet you.”
Axel not only looked different, but he held himself differently too, tilting his head down as if he was a man of mystery, which I suppose was the point.
Axel tugged his mustache. “Let me grab Charming. It’s time to find the heart.”
Charming
Axel and I walked casually toward the carnival. The last thing we wanted was to look suspicious, so we took our time, making sure to stop and talk to people we encountered on the way.
“Mayor,” I said, as we approached Winifred Dixon, “this is John Brick; he’s a doctor specializing in strange and rare medical conditions.”
Winifred extended her hand. “How do you do, Mr. Brick?”
“Just fine,” he said. “Nice little town you’ve got here.”
The mayor thanked him and then motioned toward the busy streets. “It seems there was a ruckus at the carnival. It’s all over social media.” She glanced around the street. Tourists had streamed in since this morning, filling just about every nook and cranny available in Witch’s Forge. “We are bursting, Charming, which means I have work to do.”
“Of course,” I said. “I wanted to make sure you met Mr. Brick.”
Winifred glanced at the wedding band on Axel’s finger. “I would tell you to make sure Charming finds your soul mate for you, but it looks as if you’ve already found her yourself, Mr. Brick.”
He nodded. “Indeed I have. It was a pleasure meeting you, Mayor.”
