Chapter 4

I woke up slowly, enjoying my fleeting moment of peace, before I remembered what was happening, and then it evaporated. I groaned, thinking about the spell. I thought that perhaps I’d be lucky and the effects would have worn off by now, but I knew that wasn’t at all likely. Still, it was nice to dream.

I enjoyed a brief time with Willow and Hawthorn while drinking my coffee, before driving to the cupcake store. I was relieved to see that the town wasn’t somehow overrun by zombies, as a small part of me worried that the spell would somehow cause more destruction than it had so far. Then again, it was a spell of happiness, so that seemed unlikely.

My cupcake store was already open by the time I arrived. I opened the door and looked inside to see the shop nearly full to the brim with people. I panicked and checked my phone, only to realize that I was early. Why was the shop open? Perhaps more importantly, why was it so full of customers? I decided that it would be best to help Thyme, who was furiously serving the customers at top speed, and then figure out what was going on later.

Camino, thankfully in her street clothes, was cheerily making lattés and cappuccinos. I had recently decided to expand my business by serving coffee, iced tea, hot tea, and cakes. The ‘showroom,’ as Thyme always called it, was huge, so I figured using the space would be a good way to grow the business. The idea struck me when Camino mentioned two things upon my recent return from my hellish time on Paradise Island: firstly that she was trained as a barista, and secondly, that she was awfully bored and wanted to return to some form of work.

I spent the next two hours doing nothing but serving customers as quickly as possible. Everybody was incredibly friendly, and almost all of them were giving me more money than the cupcakes cost, and told me to keep the change. I had to empty the tip jar five times in the space of fifty minutes to keep it from overflowing. I didn’t even have time to consider that my spell had made people like this until somebody mentioned that they wanted to buy cupcakes for all their friends that day, which was probably what everybody else was doing.

“It’s going so well, Amelia!” Thyme beamed, and I couldn’t help but smile with her. I was already exhausted, but it looked as I would have to serve while Thyme baked more cakes. Thyme and I had been too busy dealing with customers to speak to each other all morning.

I sat down on the nearest chair, feeling as though I already needed a nap. I wondered how much it would be to have a bed or a hammock installed in the shop, but I knew that once I figured out how to stop the spell, or if the spell stopped working of its own volition, then the store would go back to normal. I felt a little bad about taking all of this money when it was my spell that was making people buy so many cupcakes, but at least it was an accident, and I couldn’t exactly deny customers just because they were more friendly than normal.

“Would you like a cupcake?” Thyme asked me.

“No, thanks. Thyme, I need you to listen to me.” I sat up straight and cleared my throat. “The reason everybody is being so nice is because of a spell.”

“What do you mean?” She sat on the only other chair behind the display cases.

“A woman called Selena came over yesterday, and long story short, she wanted me to do a love spell for her,” I explained.

“Oh, did you do it?” Thyme asked, still smiling.

“No, of course not,” I said. “Well, sort of. She wanted me to do a love spell, and I didn’t want to do that. So I used a kind of ‘like’ or ‘happiness’ spell to make him friendlier and be as positive toward her as he could possibly be.” It had evidently been a bad idea to cast the spell, and Thyme would know it.

“Aww, that’s so sweet, Amelia!” Thyme beamed. “What happened next?”

I resisted the urge to throttle Thyme and decided that I might as well tell her all the details. Even under the influence of the spell, she might have an idea how the spell could be reversed or otherwise undone. “Well, when I cast the spell, the strong wind blew it all over town. But it gets worse,” I said, waiting to see Thyme’s reaction.

Of course, she was sitting still, smiling, and nodding enthusiastically. I realized that this kind of super-optimism wasn’t all that out of character for Thyme, but now it was heightened. “Thyme, the man I was targeting with the spell was murdered. I don’t know how, but I do know that if I hadn’t cast the spell, then he wouldn’t have met Selena at the restaurant. In other words, he died because of me.” I struggled to fight back the tears.

“Oh, don’t worry, Amelia,” Thyme said happily. “He’s dead! He won’t be upset with you.”

I sighed deeply, realizing that this wasn’t going to get us anywhere. Still, talking with—or rather, talking at—Thyme was almost therapeutic. It was good to get it off my chest. “I think I’m the only one who can solve the murder,” I continued. “The police have been affected by the spell, so they’re all being too nice and happy to actually solve anything. Can you imagine if they tried to interrogate a suspect?” I asked.

Thyme giggled loudly. “I can! That’s hilarious.” A wide grin spread over her face.

I sighed again, not knowing what I really expected from Thyme in her current bespelled state. “My only real hope is that the detectives were out of town when the spell was cast. It seems likely, since they tend to move around a lot, and...”

Before I could finish, Detectives Greene and Jones walked through the front door. My stomach clenched tightly, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I stood up and walked around the display cabinets.

“Hi, Detectives,” I said. “How can I help?”

“Hello, Amelia,” Jones smiled. “Sorry to bother you. We wanted to know your whereabouts the day leading up to the murder.”

Despite the question clearly placing me as a suspect, or at least in some kind of suspicious light, I felt immense relief at the question. The two detectives had obviously been out of town when the spell had been cast, or they would no doubt find it too rude to ask a question like that.

“No hurry, though,” Jones said with a grin. “Just let us know when you’re ready. We’d much prefer you tell the truth, of course, but there’s no great rush.”

Or not. I hadn’t even noticed at the time, but Detective Greene had walked straight past me to strike up a friendly conversation with Thyme. Ordinarily, Greene would have been gruff and even angry, but he seemed like a completely different person.

“Follow me,” I said wearily, leading the two detectives into the back room where we could talk in private. Even though the spell would probably make it so that nobody cared, I didn’t want to be seen being questioned by detectives in my own store. I’d had enough troubles for one lifetime.

“So,” Greene said with a grin. “Jones was following procedure earlier, but we actually don’t care why you were at the restaurant. I know, I shouldn’t tell you that, but I thought I could save us all some time.”

“Oh, good thinking,” Jones said, nodding.

“Thank you, Jones. Anyway,” Greene continued, “we were just wondering why you were there. I’m sure you didn’t go there to murder anybody, of course, but we just need to fill out some paperwork.”

I leaned back in my chair and felt a headache coming on. Not only did I have to solve this crime entirely by myself, but I would have to sit through the most bizarre police questioning in history. “Look,” I began, “I met a woman named Selena Simpson earlier. She was a friend of my Aunt Angelica’s, and came to the house looking for her. Then she left to go to the restaurant to have lunch with the man who died. Selena doesn’t really know anybody else in town, so when Nick died, she called me. I just went down there to check if she was okay.” I finished talking and leaned forward, ready for the barrage of fact-checking questions.

“Well, that checks out,” Jones said. “See you later, Amelia.”

Greene and Jones stood and went to leave. “Wait, what?” I asked. “I mean, wait. Are you sure?” I certainly preferred not to be questioned thoroughly, but it was more than a little disheartening to see that the spell had made them so bad at their jobs.

“Oh, yes, quite sure.” Greene nodded. “You’re basically automatically off the suspect list at this point, Amelia. You have a habit of attracting terrible things without being directly involved. I even joked about it on the way in this morning, didn’t I, Jones?”

“Oh, yes,” Jones said with a laugh. “We always make a good crack or two about you, Amelia. All in good fun, of course, but you have to admit that you have a streak of terrible, terrible luck.”

I was less than amused, but decided I should try to squeeze as much information out of the two as I could. The spell had made them terrible detectives, but maybe that meant they would be more willing to share information with me. In the past the two detectives had been tight-lipped, but that obviously wasn’t the case any longer.

“So, why were you two in town today?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

“Oh, no, of course not.” Greene grinned. “Just a routine matter. Ordinarily, we probably wouldn’t even have gotten involved, but it’s been quiet lately, so we decided we could use the trip. Good thing, too. Imagine that a murder would occur just as we arrived!”

Jones laughed. “Yes, wonderful! What timing. I wish all murderers were so considerate.”

I sighed. “Oh, yes, I bet the two of you would much prefer it if death and destruction followed your every step.”

The two detectives smiled and nodded at me, my scathing wit apparently lost on them entirely. “Well, I’ll see you later,” I said, hoping they’d take the hint.

“I hope so, Amelia,” Jones said with a smile, waving goodbye as he walked away. Greene followed suit, and I heard the two saying a friendly goodbye to Thyme as they left the store. I rested my head in the palms of my hands and tried my best to stay calm.

My spell had not only potentially gotten a man killed, but also made the detectives, my friends, and the local police totally useless. I felt terrible. On top of all that, Alder’s phone was still going directly to voicemail. What if he’d fallen for another woman because of my spell? I couldn’t bear the thought. It was all too much.