LEO MINOR
LEO MINOR
“THAT’S A VERY IMPRESSIVE MOVE.” Hetty eyed the card that Oliver tossed down onto the stack. “But I think this might be a bit better.”
She slapped the Ace of Mirrors onto the table.
Oliver’s mouth fell open. Across from him, Penelope and Thomas exchanged chuckles as they playfully tossed their cards aside. “How did you do that? How do you even know it’s a proper move? I just taught you how to play noughts!”
“Beginner’s luck?” Hetty suggested. Her words earned a groan from Oliver.
“That’s your problem right there,” Benjy called from behind a book. “You expect her to follow them. Hetty sees rules as guidelines.”
“You’re just afraid of losing,” Penelope said. She leaned forward to confide to Thomas. “Benjy always loses no matter what card game Hetty plays with us.”
“I think he just lets her win,” Oliver growled.
“You’re a sore loser.” But Hetty dropped her cards, letting them start a new game without her.
She wasn’t much of a card player. Her only strategy was playing recklessly until she got results. Which usually meant relying on luck and on the others second-guessing themselves.
Hetty drifted to the other side of the room. Benjy sat with his feet propped up on the table as he read.
He was still pretending to read when Hetty sat down on the windowsill.
“I don’t let you win,” Benjy said as Hetty reached into her pocket.
“I know that,” she laughed. “I wanted to show you this. It arrived in the post today.”
Hetty held out the card.
No bigger than the playing cards she just held, it was perfectly blank with not a single mark on it.
Benjy sat up, putting his book aside. “How strange.”
“Watch this.” Hetty drew the Phoenix star sigil and manipulated the magic so an orb of light appeared in the palm of her hand. She held it under the card, and suddenly the pristine white card changed. Crescent moons appeared in each corner. Then, as if a ghost held the pen, words scratched themselves onto the card.
“A plea for help,” Benjy said as his eyes darted along the card. He blinked. “This is the bookseller that was accused of stealing spellbooks! They think something can be done about it!”
“I just wonder why someone sent this to me. Those cases we took on are not that well known.”
“Except for one,” Benjy corrected. “They must have been at that party last winter when we unmasked the widow who murdered her sister’s family.”
“But why not send it to you? You did most of the talking that night.”
“You’re easier to find, since you’re still living with Mrs. Evans. Or they assume we work these cases together.”
Hetty snorted. “People are always telling tales.”
“You can’t blame them after all the work we did together.” Benjy paused as he always did when a sudden thought occurred to him. “Wouldn’t it make sense if we continued on in a different area?”
“I suppose.” Hetty flashed a grin at him. “You obviously need my help in these cases. What would you do without me?”
“Would you like to get married?”
The room went very quiet at these words. So quiet that when something heavy fell from upstairs, they all jumped.
The sound echoed in the house, rattling the windows and making the lamps flicker. Alarming on its own, it was made worse by the simple fact that there wasn’t anything up there that could have caused the sound. Oliver had just moved into the house last week and the few possessions he owned were scattered around the main level.
Hetty tore her eyes from the ceiling, as Benjy stood up.
“Is this the sound you heard?” he asked Oliver.
“Yes.” Oliver sank into his chair. “Thank the stars everyone heard it. I thought I was hearing things.”
“Is this why you invited us over!” Penelope exclaimed. “To listen for strange bumps?”
“To have company for strange bumps.” Oliver’s eyes fell over to Thomas, who was picking up the cards he dropped. “I didn’t invite you—you just showed up with Hetty.”
“Which I regret,” Penelope huffed. “My potions can’t do a thing against ghosts!”
“There are no ghosts,” Benjy said absently. “It might be an intruder.”
“We would have heard glass,” Hetty said.
“No,” he said, without even considering her words. “Stay here. I’ll take a look.”
The others took that advice, but Hetty did not.
She followed him up the stairs, loudly stomping behind him so he knew it.
“I’d be careful if I were you,” Benjy cautioned. “Go back downstairs.”
“To what, three people asking me questions about what you asked me? I’m many things, but I’m no fool. Besides,” she added, “it’s curious.”
Her words only deepened his frown.
“You can forget I said anything.”
“Why? It’s hardly the worst thing you ever asked me—” Hetty took a step forward and her foot sank into the wood.
“Stars,” she swore, “what’s this!”
“It’s a hex.” Benjy studied it with some interest. “I wonder how this was done?”
“I don’t care!” Hetty tried to pull her foot out, but she only sank deeper into the wood. When she started to draw a spell her focus broke as her other foot sank as well. “Get me out of this!”
“It does matter.” Benjy didn’t seem to be aware of her plight as he studied the stairs. “If it’s Sorcery, it meant the previous owner had some sour feelings about selling to Oliver. Which explains—”
“Benjy,” Hetty interrupted, “if I get swallowed up by a set of stairs, I will be the ghost that forever haunts you!”
That got his attention, like she hoped it would.
Without a word, Benjy set a series of spells around her. Taurus, Capricorn, and Virgo flashed briefly before becoming rays of light that shot down at the stairs. As his magic dazzled around her, Benjy hooked an arm around her waist and pulled.
He lifted her out of there so easily that for a moment she felt like she was flying before her feet returned to the ground.
She glanced back at the wood, but it was smooth.
“How did you do that?”
“Who do you think Oliver asked to help him with this house? He had me do a sweep of the rooms. I found some rogue magic lurking about, but I thought I got them all.”
“You clearly haven’t,” Hetty added. “Looks like you’ll need my help.”
He clearly wanted to tell her no—she could see it on his face. But after all they’d been through, a little hex like this was nothing. They’d gone too many places, faced too many things. To treat her like a porcelain doll was ridiculous.
But she might be wrong.
In the months since the war had ended and she had settled into life in Philadelphia, she found change all around her. Changes in her search for Esther. Changes in her friends, who were happy to put the past behind them for new endeavors. Changes in the city itself as its people reacted to the promises of new freedoms.
Benjy was the same as always, but even the sturdiest tree bends over in time.
“Having another pair of eyes does help,” Benjy admitted. “If we get all the hexes, Oliver won’t have to lure us over here again with card games.”
“We certainly will,” Hetty said. “I’m more talented with magic than you.”
“Debatable,” Benjy laughed.
There was another thump down the hall, louder this time, and they heard something break. Instinctively they moved together, prepared to face whatever unknown danger lurked ahead.
“You first,” Benjy said to Hetty. “I’ll be right behind you.”