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"I'm sorry. What?" Lucy finally asked. I'd never seen anyone's face turn quite that shade of purple before.
"Megan. Your sister."
Lucy took three deep breaths and held the last one in before exploding.
"You sold my sister a love potion cake?!"
"Technically, I didn't sell it to her. My mom did."
"I don't care who sold it to her!" Lucy fumed.
"I can't tell our customers what they can and can't buy," Felicity said.
"The bum butt you can't!" Lucy yelled.
"Okay, okay!" I cried, throwing my hands up. "Hold on for a second, would you?"
I turned back to Felicity. "Why didn't you just tell me that before? When I asked the first time."
"I had some... trouble..."
"Trouble?" I asked.
"Well, not really me, I suppose. My mother. There was a string of cake poisonings in Mistmoor not too long ago. Some people thought my mother was behind it."
My eyes widened. I wondered if Lucy knew about this. And if she did, how could she not tell me?"
"My mother was innocent!" Felicity said quickly, reading my expression. "They caught the real criminal. A dim-witch named Calista. But anyway, none of that matters. It's just... when I found out that a cake from our bakery was connected to a new set of murders, I just... panicked."
I let out a deep breath. Instead of answering questions, I was creating new ones. Like what did Megan want with a love potion cake?
"She's only eighteen," Lucy mumbled to herself. "What in the cat's cauldron would she need a love potion cake for?
"Why don't you ask her?" Felicity said.
Lucy and I looked at each other. Why don't we?
Five seconds later, Megan's phone was ringing. Lucy had it on speakerphone.
"What?" Megan answered.
"Megan? It's Lucy."
I could almost hear the eye roll.
"Duh. What do you want?"
"I want to know why you bought a love potion cake from Cakes and Creations."
There was dead silence for a minute, then Megan began to speak. "Yoo uhhh... ummmmnnn... nooohh."
Lucy and I looked at each other. As far as either of could tell, Megan had not spoken one single, comprehensible word.
"Megan?" Lucy asked again.
We could hear her breathing.
"I didn't buy any love potion cake," she finally said.
"Oh, yes you did," Felicity chimed in.
"Am I on speakerphone?" Megan cried.
"That's right," Lucy said. "Felicity and Ava are both here. We already know everything. Except what you wanted that cake for."
"I tell you I never bought one. Are you really gonna take Felicity's word—the word of a... of a relative stranger—over mine? Your own sister?"
"Felicity's not a stranger," Lucy said. "And yes."
"Megan," I tried in a calmer tone than Lucy was managing. "You're not in any trouble. We just need to know so we can..."
I looked around for help but Felicity looked just as frustrated as I was, and Lucy looked like she was ready to hex someone. A new idea occurred to me.
"We just want to help Damon," I said.
"Damon?" Megan's ears perked up. "What about him? Is he okay?"
"Not really. He ate some more of that cake. He's in the hospital."
I hoped Lucy wouldn't be mad at me for lying to her sister, but when I looked up, she was smiling smugly. "That's right," she said, playing along. "And we need to know exactly what was in the cake or else he might be the next to die."
"But I thought I threw it all away!" Megan yelled. "I was sure of it!" I could picture her on the other end biting her nails and felt bad for lying to her like this. But it was necessary.
"I snuck into his apartment while he was in the hospital and tossed whatever he had left. I even snuck into Campbell's place, just to make sure he hadn't left any behind when he... you know. You have to believe me."
"Wait a second," I said. "You gave the cake to Campbell Price?"
"No. I gave it to Damon. I was hoping... I mean... I thought if he ate some, just a little, he might... change his mind about me. I had no idea it would make him so sick."
"Megan," Lucy scolded. "You know that's not how love potion cake works. You can't make someone love you."
"I know. I wasn't trying to. I was just trying to open his mind a little, that's all. Besides, I read that it worked differently on humans than wizards. Like it was more effective."
Felicity was shaking her head.
"So you gave some to Damon..." Lucy prompted. "And then...?"
"He split it with Campbell. I didn't realize it until the night of the party. I asked Damon how he liked it, and he admitted that he hadn't even tried it yet. He'd cut it in half and given some to Campbell because he said he'd never eat it all."
Suddenly things were clicking into place. All this time I'd been thinking the love potion cake was directly related to the murders. Turns out, it was related to a love-struck girl trying to get the boy she liked to like her back.
That meant Campbell's strange behavior right before he died had nothing to do with what killed him. It was just the cake he'd eaten acting out in his system.
Lucy looked at me, and I knew she was having the same realization I was.
"What about Damon?" Megan asked. "Is he going to be okay?"
"What?" Lucy asked. "Oh yeah. Damon's fine. Sorry. I lied. He's not even in the hospital. He's probably at the beach, down by his boat."
"What?" Megan cried. "You little wombat! I'm telling mom as soon as I—"
Lucy hung up the phone. "Serves her right. Maybe now she'll learn her lesson."
"All this time, I've had it wrong," I muttered. "The cake... the wand... they're not at all connected. Are they?"
"Doesn't sound like it," Felicity said.
"Yeah, but you know what that still doesn't explain?" Lucy asked.
"What?" I asked, hoping she had some brilliant answers tucked away in the back of her brain somewhere.
"Sheriff Knoxx. Why is he hiding that chocolate cake? You think that was love potion cake, too?"
I shrugged. "No idea."
The front door chimed, and Sheriff Maxwell came walking in.
"There you two are," he said, looking from me to Lucy. "Hi, Felicity."
She blushed.
Lincoln returned his attention to us. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Sheriff Knoxx called when he couldn't find you and asked me to check around this side of the island."
"For us?" I asked
He glanced at Felicity, who smiled politely at him. I could see deep feelings for each other running between that glance.
"Ava," he let out a breath, "there's no easy way to say this. Your father..." His voice trailed off.
"My father?" I screeched. My heart hammered in my chest. "Oh, my witches. What is it? Is he... is he...?"
"He's escaped."
"Escaped?"
In one dark flash, the world around me spun on its axis. The last thing I felt before hitting the ground was my heriotza necklace burning a hole in my chest. Then the world went black.
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