by Amy Boyles
I sucked air. Holy crap. While we’d been outside, someone had walked into the Sweet Witch and stolen the one shot I had to save this town.
FOURTEEN
Farinas left the street a little while later. I scowled at her backside, wishing she’d never arrived in town.
Betty leaned her head against a tree. She stared as if trying to figure out a way to eat it.
“Need a fork and knife?”
Her gaze swept from my feet to my crown. “Very funny.”
“Let’s get you home.” I pinched her elbow and started to drag her.
She yanked out. “I feel great.”
“You’re sweating. Your eyes are glassy.” I put my knuckles to her forehead. “You’re hot. Let’s get you home.”
Mattie and Collinsworth approached. “We’re taking Betty home.”
“You do not look good,” Mattie said.
“I feel great. All I need is a little honeysuckle wine, my pipe and I’ll be fine,” Betty said.
She took a step. Her knees wobbled. I braced her in my arms. “Let’s go.”
I managed to get her home and put her in bed. She closed her eyes and mumbled, “My pipe. I need my pipe.”
“Not right now you don’t. You’ll burn down the house. Probably fall asleep with it cindering.”
She stared at me with fever-bright eyes. “I would not.”
Tylenol was my first thought. “I’ll be back. Mattie, stay with Betty.”
“You got it, sugar.” Mattie curled up beside Betty’s pillow.
I left the room and knocked on Cordelia’s door. No answer. I raked my fingers through my hair and headed into the kitchen, where all the medications were kept. I found the Tylenol, shook two into my hand and headed back upstairs.
I gave the dose to Betty along with some water, sat on her bed and waited until she dozed off, which was about ten minutes later.
I scraped my fingernails down my face. For some reason the twinge of pain made me feel better. I found a thermometer in the bathroom and took Betty’s temperature.
She had a fever. The Tylenol would take care of it, but I was worried. I had to do something. I called Cordelia and Amelia but didn’t get an answer.
I racked my brain until it hit me. The bottle holding the potion was missing. Who would’ve stolen it?
The name hit me like a monster truck sliding in mud. I found Collinsworth in my bedroom. “Where’s Becky Ray’s house?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do know. If fact, we never finished our conversation from earlier. We’ll do that in the car. Come on.”
I hardly ever used my vehicle, but it needed to be run. I grabbed Collinsworth by the collar and practically had to drag him to the door before he stopped trying to dig his paws in the floor.
“She’ll kill me.”
“I’ll protect you. Don’t worry. I’m a head witch. I can make seriously cool stuff happen with my mind.”
The rabbit finally stopped fighting. I picked him up and entered Betty’s room. Mattie blinked at me. “I’m on my way to Becky Ray’s. We shouldn’t be gone too long. I’d call you, but you can’t use a cell phone.”
“Never tried,” she said.
“I’ll text Cordelia and Amelia and let them know what’s going on.”
I texted my cousins that Betty was running a fever and in bed. I asked Cordelia how she was feeling and slid the phone in my front pocket.
I hoisted Collinsworth onto my hip.
“I have some dignity,” he sniffed.
“Not anymore.”
I fastened his seat belt, slid into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine. “Where are we going?”
“I’m not telling you.”
I turned to face the rabbit and plastered on my most evil look. “Listen to me, rabbit, if you don’t tell me what I want to know, I will tell Sheriff Garrick that you are personally responsible for the giving potion mess. I will make sure he sticks you in a dark, nasty cell and denies you hot tea. For the rest of your life.”
The rabbit shuddered. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me, Cottontail.”
Collinsworth paused. His nose twitched as he stared out the window. “It’s on Eastwitch.”
“Perfect.”
It was a couple of minutes away. Not far. It wasn’t like Magnolia Cove was some booming metropolis. Most anywhere you wanted to go was within a few clicks of somewhere else.
“It’s the green house.”
I slid the vehicle to a stop and stared. We’d arrived, which was great. But what was I going to do now? It’s wasn’t like I could just break and enter in the middle of the day.
Couldn’t I?
“What’s her phone number?”
Collinsworth blinked rapid fire my way. “I don’t know.”
“Nasty little cell.”
He shot off numbers like a Gatling gun. I thumbed them into my phone and pressed the call button.
A few seconds later Becky Ray answered. “Hello?”
“This is Sergeant Ritter at the police department. We need you to come down and identify a batch of magical cookies. We’re investigating them.”
Her breath came out raspy. “What sort of magical cookies?”
“The kind that look like they might be a real problem for Magnolia Cove.”
She paused. “I’ll be right there.”
So either Becky Ray was going to run as far away from town as she could get, or she’d be nosy enough to figure out what was going on. My hope was on the fact that she’d want to know what the police could have that might get her in trouble.
She seemed the nosy type.
Within seconds Becky was out the door and huffing and puffing her way toward the station.
“This should buy us some time. Ten minutes there. Five minutes for the mess to be straightened out, ten minutes back.” Collinsworth had sunk into his seat, hiding himself from Becky. “What’s wrong? Why is Becky going to kill you?”
“She told me that if I ever mentioned the illegal potions to anyone, she’d take care of me. I told you.”
“Ah.” My head fell back. I stretched my neck. My muscles were knotted and tight after the night I’d had. Lord, I needed sleep. But I needed the potion first.
“And I basically told Becky Ray I know all about it—what with the black car and the trash bags.”
“So now she’s definitely going to kill me.”
He tried to jump in his seat but got tangled in the belt. “Sit your britches down. Come on. Help me check the house. We need that potion.”
The rabbit calmed enough for me to unravel him from the strap, tuck him under my arm and make my way to the house.
“There’s a spare key in a rock by the back door.”
We headed around back. I craned my neck this way and that, making sure no one was watching. I did not need to get busted breaking into this house. Of course the rabbit could say I was helping him move some things.
Wow. It was amazing how deviant my mind became when I gave it the chance. Must’ve been the Betty Craple in me.
We entered and I set Collinsworth down. “We need to find that potion.”
He shivered. “I don’t know where Becky would put it.”
“Let’s start in the kitchen.”
I rummaged through cupboards and drawers. It hadn’t been that long since it had been taken this morning, she couldn’t have put it too far away.
I hoped. Half of Magnolia Cove might still need it. I know Betty did.
It felt like an invisible hand squeezed my heart. The thought of Betty being sick because of a stupid potion made anger burn in my veins.
“It’s not here,” I said, nearly slamming a cupboard shut. “Bedroom.”
I followed Collinsworth as he hopped through the house. He took me to a bedroom with off-white walls and sparse furnishings. A few porcelain figurines sat on the dresser. Angel babies with fat cheeks.
“This is Becky’s room?”
He nodded.
He didn’t say anything. I stepped in and started riffling through drawers. “Clothes, clothes and more clothes.” I moved to the closet. A series of shoeboxes lined the back wall.
“What’s this?”
I pulled one out and lifted the lid. It was filled with cards. Recipes. For potions. Stacks and stacks of them all tucked neatly away and filed in a place where no one would look for them.
Collinsworth hopped over. “What are they?”
“You said Lori Lou devised the potions.”
“She did. They were all her recipes.”
“Then what’re these?” I lowered the box so he could see.
“I…I don’t know. Perhaps I could figure it out over a cup of Earl Grey.”
“No Earl Grey. Why are these in here? Why would Becky Ray have them? Look, this one is the pie recipe Carmen said was stolen and here’s another for a giving potion.”
Collinsworth’s nose twitched. “I don’t know. I told you the truth. Lori Lou created the spells. These aren’t hers. It’s different.”
Gears in my brain clicked at high speed. “What if Becky Ray had her own ideas for the business, and those ideas didn’t work out with what Lori Lou wanted?”
The rabbit’s eyes narrowed. “You mean they wanted separate things?”
“Was it enough to kill over?”
“I don’t know.”
I tucked the card in the box and closed the lid. “That’s what we need to find out.”
The sound of a door opening came from the other side of the house. Collinsworth and I shot bug eyes at each other.
There was no way Becky Ray was back so quickly. We’d only been in the house a few minutes.
“Lori Lou’s room. Quick.”
I followed him as silently as possible down the hall and through an opening. I quietly shut the door as I heard Becky Ray rummaging around the kitchen. Good. Maybe she would cook up something to eat and the extra sound would help us.
I scanned Lori Lou’s room. Beside her full-size bed covered in a pink lacy bedspread lay a smaller matchbox bed. The word COLLINSWORTH was burned into the wooden headboard. It was so small and cute my heart squeezed.
I almost felt sorry for the little lying rabbit.
“The window,” he whispered.
Risking a moment to snoop, I opened Lori Lou’s nightstand drawer. There was a faded pink rose, some scraps of paper and tissues. One of the scraps looked familiar. I snatched it up. Written on the back was a phone number. I slid it into my pocket.
“What are you doing?” Collinsworth said. “We have to hurry.”
I tucked the shoebox tightly under my armpit and crossed to the window. I snapped the lock and pushed.
The frame was painted shut.
Now why did people do that? Every freaking apartment I’d ever lived in had all the stupid windows painted shut. Could the painters not take a second with their work and not seal the stupid windows? It totally irked me. Like, if you wanted to annoy me, come to my house and paint the windows closed. We’d never be friends.
Just kidding.
Sighing and needing something to boost my brain into overdrive, I dug into my pocket, pulled out a bag of jelly beans and popped every single hot cinnamon-flavored bean into my mouth.
It was something about cinnamon and heat that got my brain working. I closed my eyes. I had extra power that needed burning off anyway.
If I didn’t use my magic, I got headaches that meant my power was building up. My ability was like a pressure cooker. If I didn’t release some of the energy every once in a while, the force would kill me.
Like I said, I had magic to spare. I thought of my finger as a blade and scraped it around the window. The paint crackled and snapped. My heartbeat launched into my throat. My palms were slick with sweat, and my stomach was a jumbling mess.
“Hurry,” Collinsworth said. “She’s coming.”
My eyes snapped open. I gave the window one good shove. It shot up so fast I thought it might explode through the roof.
I jumped out, landing softly on the grass. I reached back to grab Collinsworth. I slipped my hands underneath him and tugged.
His jacket caught on a splinter jutting out of the wood. I pulled, but the splinter was strong.
“She’s coming! Hurry,” he said.
I pulled, but he was not budging. “Take off the coat.”
“I can’t. I won’t. It’s my signature,” he said.
“You have to,” I hissed. “Hurry.”
Like, I didn’t know what Becky Ray was doing in there, but it sounded like she was stomping through the house wearing bricks. The structure rumbled as she made her way down the hall.
“You have to.”
I heard the footsteps stop. It sounded like they were outside the door.
“I won’t,” he whispered.
I hit his jacket with a splash of magic. The coat flung off him, and I yanked Collinsworth out the window. I reached for the jacket as the door opened.
There wasn’t time. I couldn’t grab the jacket and run to my car, so I did the only thing I could.
I left the jacket for Becky Ray to find. She would know Collinsworth had been there.
With the shoebox under one arm and Collinsworth tucked beneath the other, I sprinted to the car. I unlocked the door, stuck the rabbit on my lap and streaked down the street.
After a moment he sulkily shifted to the passenger side. “She’ll come after us, you know,” he said. “There’ll be no escape.”
FIFTEEN
By the time the rabbit and I returned to the house, Cordelia and Amelia had arrived. Cordelia didn’t look good, but she wasn’t nearly as bad as Betty.
My cousin lay bundled on the couch. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I want more pie.”
I checked her temperature. It was elevated. “Let me get you some Tylenol.”
I bumped into Amelia in the kitchen. She took one look at me and gaped. I still had Collinsworth tucked under my arm. I was worried the rabbit would run away and I would still need his help.
“Why are you naked?” Amelia said to him.
The rabbit glared at me. “Because someone had to go snooping.”
Amelia shot me a confused look. “What’s going on? Betty’s never sick.”
I cringed. “We’ve got a serious problem. She’s going through withdrawals from the pie. The withdrawals are so bad that she and a whole bunch of other people could die. The one shot I had at saving folks was ruined by Farinas, aka Nancy Grace wannabe.”
I sank onto a chair. “How’s Betty?”
“She asked the name of the purple dragon.”
I frowned. “What purple dragon?”
“The one that was in her room.”
“Oh Lord, she’s delirious.” I shouldered my purse. “Watch Collinsworth.” I headed to the front door.
“Where are you going?”
“To the police station to get those cookies back.”
I headed out and had to stop myself from crumbling onto the porch and bursting into tears. This was hard, y’all. Carmen’s attorney was trying to help, but she’d just ruined the town’s chances of getting healthy. I could only hope the folks who had a bite or two of the cookies had eaten enough to keep them from going into severe withdrawals.
My mind flashed to Axel—to his blue eyes, dark hair, strong arms that could wrap me up and make all the bad go away. He always, always had a solution. I was swimming in the middle of the ocean. Sharks were circling, and the only thing between me and them was a stick and an inflatable raft with a leak.
Seriously, that’s how I felt. I needed help. I needed Garrick to listen.
My phone rang. I snatched it from my purse and was relieved when I saw the number flashing on the screen.
“Hello?”
“How’re things going?”
I bit back tears. “It’s hor
rible, Rufus. I had the town cured. Me. I had them cured, but then Farinas Harrell appeared and screwed everything up.”
“Sounds like her.”
I laughed bitterly. Some of the tension melted from my shoulders. It was sick and wrong that talking to Rufus made me feel better. It should’ve been Axel I was confiding in.
“I ran the plate you gave me.”
“You’re not a cop.”
He chuckled. “You’d be surprised the access I have. I ran it, and yes, absolutely shady characters were traced to it.”
“So bad guys buying love potions.”
“More than likely.”
I had nothing else to say. There wasn’t anything that could help me right now.
“What do you need?” he said.
“A miracle,” I said bitterly. “The wizards and witches who can help are either gone or sick. Axel’s not here, Betty’s in bed. Those are the most powerful people I know.”
He paused. “Wrong. You know someone else.”
“Who?” Oh no. He meant— “You mean you?”
“You don’t have to sound so surprised. I know magic, and I know how to help with potions.”
“You can’t come here. No one will let you. Besides, I think most of the cookies were eaten.”
“Are you sure?”
“No. I don’t know.”
“Calm down,” he soothed. “Even if I can’t get in, I can still direct you.”
“How?”
“My mother’s house might have something that can assist.”
I cringed. Rufus’s mother had traded gifts for personal treasures. I’d only been outside it, but the place freaked me out.
“I don’t know. Let me think about it. People might be okay.”
“I’m here if you need me.”
The words twisted my gut. Rufus, the evil Rufus was here to help me and Axel wasn’t. How ironic was that?
I needed to think. I needed time. I needed to breathe. “I’ll call you if anything changes.”
“Don’t hesitate.”
“Rufus?”
“Pepper?”
“Don’t be sarcastic. I’m trying to say something nice.”
“I like how you think me saying your name is dripping with sarcasm. Did you ever stop to think that maybe I just like saying your name?”
