Sleight of Hand

Thanks to everyone who made this book possible. A huge thank you to Olivia at Leafing Out Professional Gardening for helping me figure out something quirky to do to the plant. Thanks to the Sprinting Group and the Secret Readers group for always keeping me motivated. Thank you to Jasmyn for the editing and to my husband for chasing around the kids and providing me coffee.

CHAPTER ONE

I stood in front of my register, staring at the plant. It wiggled as it stretched toward the window where the sunlight was streaming through. It’d shown up on my doorstep, and I had no idea who would have brought it or why on earth they would buy an enchanted ivy. According to the security camera it’d been dropped off early this morning.

It was at home in my shop for sure, but I couldn’t figure out if someone just had a strange sense of humor or if they really thought I’d want the plant. I didn’t keep plants around for a reason.

That reason was a four-pound fluffy bunny named Copperfield, who ate anything green because he thought it was food.

The bunny in question was sitting in his cage because I hadn’t let him out yet. Currently, his fur was his favorite color of lavender, and he sat contentedly munching on the food I’d brought him from home. He looked up at me, his little nose twitching before he went back to eat. I sighed and put the plant in the front shop window, hoping its little enchanted self would be happier there. It stopped wiggling, and the leaves fanned out, so I took it as a yes.

Typically, if an odd item got enchanted, it was my fault. That’s how Copperfield came along. That’s how Nooccar came along. My magic was just odd and had a thing for colorful creatures. This plant wasn’t colorful, though. It was a dark green that was suited for a plant, and it was very content in the window.

I turned back to Copperfield. “I’m going to let you out, but don’t you eat that plant, because I don’t know what will happen to you. I don’t want you to be any more enchanted than you are.”

He wiggled his nose at me before going back to his food.

I opened his cage and left it that way so he could come out when he wanted. I walked back to the door and clicked on the open light for the shop.

The light was a new addition. Trace and Moses added it when they fixed up the shop after someone destroyed the inside. They’d done it as a Christmas gift for me, surprising me when I’d lost hope. It was wonderful, and they had made more improvements than I could have asked for.

Like a state-of-the-art security system to go with my new fancy light sign. I smiled at the thought. They both cared, and my old system had needed an update. This one came with remote access, movement sensors, cameras, pretty much anything I needed to prevent or catch someone coming into the shop uninvited.

I went to the register and started to make a list of what needed to be done. The next rush for the magic shop was April Fools, so I needed to rotate out the tricks for the gag gifts that people would want to play pranks on their friends. I needed to refresh the main endcap. I thought I heard something creak, and I looked up.

The ivy had started climbing up the side of the window, already doubling its size.

Uh oh.

I pressed my lips together and wondered how long it was going to grow, and if I needed to vacate the shop or not. It seemed to have stopped for the time being, so I decided it wasn’t a threat. Even Copperfield seemed to be ignoring it. If he wasn’t worried, I should be okay.

I went back to the shelves and started rearranging the product. The new shelves were bolted to the floor so they wouldn’t tip over, and no one could push them over.

I was working on the practical joke section when Trace walked in.

His brown hair could use a cut, and his eyes matched the color of his hair. He smiled at me. “Working hard, I see, and got a new plant?”

“The plant was a gift. It was by my front door this morning.”

“Interesting. Enchanted?”

“Look at you, Mr. Smarty PI, what gave you that clue?”

He laughed. “It’s crawling up your window.”

I turned around expecting to see the plant just growing, but no, it was moving its leaves like it was actually walking up the window. “Hm.”

“Hm indeed.” Trace said. “Just left at your front door?”

“It was left by a local company, but there wasn’t a name on the card. I don’t typically take care of plants because Copperfield eats them.”

Copperfield turned blue and jumped off the desk and hopped to Trace. He hopped around, sniffing him, and then looked at Trace with narrow eyes.

“I think he’s mad that you didn’t bring Nooccar.”

Copperfield twitched his nose and went to bounce around the store.

Trace shrugged. “I left him at home today. He looked too happy bathing in the sunlight, sleeping, so I let him be.”

“Spoiled raccoon.” I snorted and went back to moving items. “So, what brings you to my shop? Typically you wait until lunchtime to visit.” We’d gotten into the habit of walking to lunch every day and then back to the shop.

He sighed. “I have a case that involves magic, and I need your help.”

I’d been working on retainer as a consultant for his PI cases, and it worked out well, most times. Sometimes it got scary and strange things happened.

But in the end, it all turned out okay.

“Oh? Cheating wife? Disappearing bank accounts?” I glanced over my shoulder at him.

“Um, kind of?” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Okay, look, my client is convinced that her kid is using magic to cover something up. And she’s worried that her son is going to go down the wrong path.”

I stood up and turned around to face him. “Okay, let’s hear it. Anytime a parent has a feeling their kid is misusing magic, it ends up being something ridiculous.”

“He’s getting together and staying out late with his friends. They talk about dragons and sorceries and wizards.”

I blinked and then smiled. “They’re playing a game. She doesn’t need to be worried.”

“Will you please humor me and come speak to her son with me?”

“I will humor you, but you’re buying lunch.”

He nodded and went to find Copperfield while I finished up the shelves. I dusted my hands off on my jeans and looked up when he came back with the bunny.

“He’s fast for how fat he’s getting.”

I nodded. “Some days, I think more than his fur is enchanted.” I ran my hand over the now black fur.

“Let me call Moses real quick and see if he’ll watch the store.”

He nodded. “I’ll meet you at my office.”

∞

I got Moses to come in to cover the shop and keep Copperfield company. I gave him a warning about the enchanted ivy and then went over to Trace’s office.

His office was in the room behind a desk in a small waiting area. He walked out when he heard the door shut and smiled. “All ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s go talk to this paranoid mother.” I smiled and shook my head. We walked out of his office and locked the door.

I waved as we passed the shop and noticed that the ivy was now hanging down the front window. I shook my head and hoped that it didn’t take over the whole shop while I was gone. Trace and I rounded the back of the building where the parking was for the complex.

“Okay, so the son is going out and not coming back until late, and he’s talking about magic and such. Has she tried talking to him?”

“Yes, Lacey, she has. She’s talked to him, and she’s tried to get him to stay home. Hell, she’s invited his friends to the house to play whatever game it is. He refuses and acts all weird about it.”

“Okay, so you’ve talked to her already.”

He nodded. “I’m there to talk to her, and you’re going to talk to the son.”

“That’s going to be a really awkward conversation,” I muttered and climbed into his truck.

He got in the drivers’ side and nodded. “Yeah, I know, but I really appreciate you doing this. I figured if nothing else, you can get some sort of vibe off him on if he’s actually magical or not.”

“If he’s magical, it has to be in his bloodline somewhere. We don’t just magically wake up as a witch or a wizard.” I laughed. “It doesn’t work that way.”

“Okay, fair, but mom swears up and down there’s no magic in their blood, but also swears the kids are playing with magic.”

“I mean, it doesn’t mean he’s not dabbling in the occult, but we’ll see what he has to say.” I buckled up and motioned forward. “Onward.”

He snorted. “Yes, your highness.” He started the engine and then pulled out of the parking lot, heading toward the middle of town.

“Have you heard anything about Salazar?” Trace kept his voice soft as if the name would startle me.

Salazar was a wizard I’d had a couple run-ins with. He’d been arrested twice, and both times, I had foiled his plans. “Last I heard he was out on bail. I was shocked that he was able to post it. The police have a tracker on him to make sure that he doesn’t run before his court date.”

“Are you testifying?”

I shrugged. “Probably.”

“Okay. I want to make sure you stay safe if you do. If he finds out that you’re going to testify, he may come after you or send someone after you.”

“I thought about that. We’ll see what happens.” I honestly tried not to put much thought into it, because a crazed wizard coming after me didn’t sound like something I wanted to experience again. I’d much rather deal with my quirky magic and the enchanted plant.

Trace fell silent for a moment, and then finally, he sighed. “I did some digging…”

When a PI ‘did some digging,’ it was never going to be good news.

“Yeah?”

“Salazar has been listed as a suspect in some pretty nasty cases. There’s something else going on other than him using his magic to trick people.”

I paused for a moment. I knew that there were darker parts of magic, situations that were never good. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

“It scares me.”

I shrugged. “I’m sure that Salazar has other people to worry about. We’ve only stumbled upon his petty crimes, nothing big.”

“Okay.” Was all he had to say, and he dropped it. Only following up with. “What would you like for lunch?”

I relaxed a little bit at the change in conversation. “Let’s do burgers.”

“That sounds like a plan.” He turned on to a road heading north. “We’ll hit up a place a few blocks away.”

“Okay.” I watched as he drove through town and stopped at a burger joint. We’d done this often enough that he ordered for me, and then we were back on our way to the house.

I ate as he drove and tried to think of what I would say to a teenage boy about his game and any advice I would have to help his mother understand.

Trace pulled up to an unassuming house. A light blue picket fence lined the green lawn, and two cars were parked in the driveway leading up to the tan two-story house.

We got out and walked up the driveway and then to the path that led to the door. Trace knocked, and we waited for someone to answer.

A couple seconds later, an, ” I got it, Ma!“ could be heard through the door.

What I was expecting was an acne-riddled teenager, but the person who opened the door was a man about my age with shaggy brown hair, big hazel eyes, and no shirt.

I tried not to stare at his nicely formed chest and rippling ab muscles, but it was really hard.

He laughed as he smiled. “Sorry, I was just working out.” He grabbed a shirt from somewhere by the door and pulled it on. “Can I help you?”

Trace took over. “I’m Trace McHue, and this is Lacey Willows. Your mother, Maggie, invited us to calm talk to her and her son about some…” he hesitated for a moment. “Issues.”

The man put a hand over his eyes and sighed. “Ma, the PI you hired is here.” He held his hand out. “I’m Calvin. I believe you’re here to talk to my brother Sam about his game?”

Calvin took Trace’s hand and shook it, and then he took mine. His smile grew a little wider as he shook my hand.

“I guess so. Magic and Dungeons, I’m assuming?”

Calvin nodded. “A harmless game. We don’t have any magic in our blood.” He shook his head. “Come on in. Ma’s putting tea on.”

We walked into the house, and Calvin led us to a dining room where an older woman was putting a tray on the table. Her graying hair was pulled up in a half-hearted bun. She smiled at us, showing the crow’s feet at the corner of her eyes.

“Come in, come in. Mr. McHue, it’s nice to see you again. This must be the lovely witch you told me about.”

“Hi ma’am. My name is Lacey Willows. I’m Mr. McHue’s consultant.” I held my hand out, but she pulled me into a hug. “I’m so happy you’re here.”

I gave her an awkward pat on the back.

“You own the magic shop downtown, don’t you?” Calvin asked.

I nodded. “I do. Parlor Tricks. I don’t think I’ve seen you in there.”

He shook his head. “I walk by it almost every day.”

I studied his face to see if I had noticed him, but I couldn’t recall. “You’ll have to stop in one day.”

“I might have to.” He flashed a smile at me. “Sam’s down in his room. Just down the stairs to the left. He’s probably playing video games.”

“I want to talk to your mom for a few before I talk to Sam.”

He nodded. “I’ll let you guys chat then. I’ll be outside working in the yard.” He walked out of the room, and I looked at Maggie. “Does Calvin also live here with you?”

She smiled. “Yes, he does. He’s a good boy. He stays here to help me with Sam. Teenagers are hard to keep up with, and Sam isn’t an exception to that. He’s a spitfire when he wants to be, and he stays out so late at night. Calvin is a sweetheart and drives him to and from, but he won’t stay for this so-called game.”

“Why do you think Sam’s performing magic if there’s no magical blood in the family?”

She hesitated for a moment while she poured us some tea. “It must be if it’s transforming his life and taking over his thoughts. Maybe it’s not him per se, but maybe one of the other kids playing. I don’t think it’s as innocent as it seems, which is why I hired Mr. McHue.”

“Do you think that Calvin knows what’s going on?”

She shook her head. “Calvin insists it’s just a game, and it’s a game he played when he was younger. But something is different this time.”

“Let me chat with Sam, and I’ll see if he’ll tell me anything.” I stood, and Maggie pointed to the stairs.

“Down there, dear. Don’t mind his attitude, he’s a teenager.” She smiled, and there was something loving in it. Maybe she really was just a concerned mother.

I walked down the stairs and knocked on the door.

“Go away, Calvin.” A teen’s voice came through.

“It’s not Calvin.”

The door opened after that. “Who are you?”

“I’m Lacey, a witch from downtown.”

He hesitated slightly and then let out a loud huff. “Mom’s at it again, then?” He stepped out of his room and leaned against the wall. “Look, it’s just a game.”

I nodded. “Magic and Dungeons, right? Great game, so much fun to stay out late and play. Where you can be exactly what you want and ignore the real world around you?”

His eyes lit up a bit. “You’ve played?”

I sat on the stairs and nodded. “It’s been a long time, but I used to play in high school. I was a damn talented sorcerer.”

He looked a little disappointed. “But you’re a witch in real life.”

I snorted. “I’m a quirky witch. If I do magic, it goes crazy one way or another, and sometimes it ends in disaster, and other times it does not.”

He looked like he understood. “I mentioned that sometimes weird things happen when we play, and my mom is all freaked out and worried. Calvin keeps trying to get me to talk about it at least once a day. We aren’t magical, so anything that’s happened isn’t my fault.”

I nodded. “Would you be willing to tell me what happens?”

He laughed. “No, because you’ll go right back up there and tell my mom or Calvin.”

Okay, that was a totally fair answer. “That’s fine.” I pulled my card out and handed it to him. “You can text me if you need too. Your mom is just worried.”

“Worried enough to hire a PI and a witch? Doesn’t that go into paranoid?” He asked before taking my card and going back into his room.

He had a point with that as well. This did seem like a lot of work to go through for just some worry about a game.

I kept that thought in my brain as I walked up the stairs. It also seemed odd that Sam knew I was there with Trace, and he knew that his mom had hired a PI. Usually the party being investigated didn’t know.

I smiled at Maggie as I sat down. Trace glanced at me expectantly.

“Honestly, right now, I think he’s just a teen looking for a good time, and there are so many worse things that he could be getting into. That being said, though, he’s not going to tell an adult what’s going on at the games, because he knows we’ll report it. He’s a teenager, he’s not dumb.” I shrugged. “Let Trace and I make a plan to see if we can find out what’s going on.”

“Okay, I guess that’s all you can do. Thank you both.” Maggie sighed.

I smiled at her. “We’ll do all that we can do. I promise.” I stood, and Trace finished his tea before following. Maggie showed us out, and we walked to Trace’s truck in silence. I’m sure he was processing what he needed to, and I was still mulling the thoughts of why she’d be going through this much work because of a teenager playing a popular game.

∞

Trace started the truck and sat there for a moment.

“If there is something weird going on, that boy isn’t the cause of it,” I said. “If anything, the mother is going to uncover something else.”

“I had the same feeling,” he admitted and put the truck in gear. Calvin came around the front of the house and waved to us as we pulled away. “No one calls in a PI and lets the whole family know about it.”

“Not unless she’s trying to scare him into confessing something,” I muttered. “Which I mean, I wouldn’t put it past some parents to do something like that. Where’s dad at?”

“Dad passed away not long after Sam was born. That’s all I know, and that’s all Maggie will tell me.”

So she’d been raising two boys on her own for a while then. I didn’t imagine that was easy, but she seemed to have been doing a good job with it. “Good to know. Sam and I bonded a little bit over the game, but he flat out wouldn’t tell me what happened during them because I would just go tell his mother.”

“You played this game before?” Trace raised a brow.

“When I was a teenager, yeah. Don’t give me that judgmental look. It’s a fun game. It was a lot more fun than going out and getting drunk every Saturday night.” I shook my head. “Seriously, people thought this game was evil when it first came out, but they didn’t think of all the bad things we could have been doing instead.” I chuckled. “Like magical fireworks.”

“Did you make magical fireworks?”

I stared at him. “Can you imagine how wrong that would have gone?”

“Yeah, I guess with the quirks, it would have been interesting.”

“Interesting is a good way to put it.” I shook my head. “The point is, unless we get inside that game, we’re not going to find out what’s going on.”

“Calvin mentioned he used to play as well. Maybe they’d let him join their group?”

“Doubt Sam would let him. It’s probably Sam’s safe space.”

“Which means he’ll freeze up and not want to play.” Trace sighed. “Okay, we’ll approach it another way. The ol’ fashion way.”

I raised a brow. “Spying?”

“It’s called investigating, and I mean check out the kid’s social media.” He snorted. “Let’s go back to the office.”

CHAPTER TWO

When we got back, I let Trace take over the technical aspects of everything while I went back to the shop. I walked in and saw Moses helping a customer at the counter with Copperfield on up his shoulder.

I smiled at the site. It took Copperfield a while to warm up to Moses, mostly because he smelt like giant German Shepherd. Copperfield turned lavender and hopped off Moses and on to the counter toward me. I picked him up and scratched his ears.

The customer walked out with a bag, and I smiled at Moses “How was it?”

“It was fine. A few customers, a couple of people just looking, nothing crazy or exciting.” He shrugged. “Were you expecting something exciting to happen?”

I pointed to the ivy. “I half expected that to have taken over the store by the time I got back.”

“It’s been that size since you and Trace left. So maybe it’s taking a growing break.”

“Or maybe it found enough sunlight. Who knows?” I smiled. “It is kind of pretty.”

“Maybe you should get some more for the shop?”

I shook my head. “No, Copperfield likes to eat them. If you want to work a few more hours, there’s some inventory in the back that needs to be put in the system.”

“Can do. I don’t have anywhere to go right now.” He smiled and walked to the back. He’d been hard on his luck when I first met him, but he’d worked his butt off to better his situation. I was glad to have his help around the shop. It made it easier to handle the inventory and leave when I needed to. And some days, it didn’t hurt to have company.

I went back to stocking the front but noticed he had completed the changeover and smiled. I could focus on getting paperwork done at the counter while he did inventory.

I walked back to the counter and put Copperfield down. Copperfield hopped to his cage and settled down into the bedding as I pulled out a clipboard and started to go through what needed to be done.

I was working through the invoices when the door dinged as someone walked in. I swore the plant shriveled back a little bit when the tall man walked through the doorway. Copperfield woke from his nap to turn jet black and hide in his bunny log.

I looked up at the man. I couldn’t meet his gaze through the dark sunglasses. His hair was covered by a fedora that was pinstriped and matched the suit he wore.

“Can I help you, sir?”

He took off his sunglasses and met my gaze with dark brown eyes. “Ms. Willows?”

“Yes.”

“You need to come with me.”

I pressed my lips together. “No, I don’t think so.” My heart pounded, and I heard the backroom door open. I didn’t want to look over, but I had a feeling Moses was standing there watching the scene.

“Your presence has been requested by my client.”

“No,” I said again. “Not without more information.”

He paused for a moment and then smiled, showing small pointy fangs. “The alpha would like to speak to you.”

Well, that was new. Werewolves hadn’t come out to the general public yet, just to those of us considered magical. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the local werewolves wanting to talk to me.

“He—”

“She,” he corrected.

“She can pick up a phone and call me. I’m not going anywhere.”

He let out a huff, and his eyes flashed yellow. “Please, Ms. Willows. I don’t want to go return empty-handed.”

“Please, Mister?”

He shook his head, refusing to give me a name.

“Understand this from my perspective. I’m a witch, and not a very good one. I don’t like to go anywhere unfamiliar because when I do, typically, trouble follows. So, if your alpha wants a witch, she better find another one.”

He put his sunglasses on and walked out without a word. I hadn’t really expected it to work, but at least he left and didn’t try to manhandle me into going.

Moses stepped out. “What the heck?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t even know we had a local werewolf pack.” I shook my head. “That’s not something I want to get involved in, though.”

He nodded. “Good idea, but I have a question. Since when did werewolves exist?”

It took me a moment to realize that he wasn’t exactly versed in all things magical. And then I let a small curse. “Look, you cannot let anyone else know they exist. The wolf that came probably didn’t realize you weren’t magical.”

“What happens if I tell someone else?”

“They’ll likely kill you and the person you tell.” I pressed my lips together

“All good advice. Do you think they would pair up with Salazar?”

“You and Trace are both stuck on that. No, I don’t. That would risk exposing them, and as far as I know, they don’t want to be exposed.” I shrugged. “How’s inventory?”

“Just about done. I’ll finish up, and then I’ll take off for the day. I’ve gotta take Cairo for a walk, or he’s going to get stir crazy in the apartment.”

I smiled. “Yeah, I’m sure. Bring him by here, and I’ll love on him a little bit.”

He nodded and returned to the backroom to finish up. I looked at my invoices and then to Copperfield. “Werewolves.”

He twitched his nose and jumped off the countertop and to the window where the ivy was. “Don’t you eat it!”

He sniffed it and shot off to the other side of the shop. Good, maybe it was enchanted so that animals wouldn’t eat it.

Or Copperfield smelt something on it that I didn’t.

I shook the thought off and finished up the invoices. I put the paperwork away and was about to grab something to practice when the door dinged, and a group of people walking in.

“Welcome to Parlor Tricks,” I greeted them, and they gave a little wave before going about to browse the store.

∞

The customers stayed for some time before buying a couple little things and leaving. Moses had left during their browsing, promising he’d return later with the dog. I started tidying up the shop, putting things back that people left out or put in the wrong place. I restocked the items we’d sold that day, but nothing could distract my mind from the werewolf that had come to visit. I didn’t like that there was an alpha looking to meet with me. Typically when someone wanted a witch, they needed magic performed. Good magic. And that just wasn’t my MO.

I went to pick up a simple card trick. I didn’t need the rigged deck, just a plain deck of cards. But the last time I played with cards, they all ended up in my mom’s cake. Today I was just hoping to turn them all to the same color.

I put the deck on the counter, closed my eyes, and put my hand on it. I pictured each card of each color and suit turning into the Ace of Hearts.

The deck disappeared with a little poof, and I let out a frustrated growl. They weren’t supposed to go anywhere. They were supposed to just change. I rubbed my eyes, wondering where they would have gone this time. Hopefully, not in my mother’s cake or the dinner we were supposed to have tonight. She was still trying to forgive me for ruining her cake last time.

I swore I heard Trace laughing in the office next door, and I had a feeling that’s where they ended up at. At least cards would be easier to clean up than the flowers were. I headed to the door and saw Moses walking from Trace’s office with his German Shepherd. A stuffed wolf was in the dog’s mouth.

When they came into the store, Copperfield jumped up on the counter using his steps and scurried into his cage, turning a dark blue. “I see Cairo got a new toy.”

“Yeah, Trace’s office is full of them. He said we could have one.”

“I’m afraid to ask. Why is Trace’s office full of them?”

“He said that they just started poofing into his office.”

I sighed. I had managed to change the cards, just into something else altogether, and I made them disappear and reappear in Trace’s office. Moses paused. “Ah, quirky magic?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I promise, you get used to it. It’s not dangerous. Just quirky.”

“There are worse things it could do.” He shook his head. “If being accosted by stuffed animals is the worst, I think everyone will be okay. But stuffed wolves?”

“My brain was still on the werewolf visiting from earlier, I guess.” I shrugged and started to rub the dog’s ears. “How’s the new apartment turning out?”

“Good. We’ve got all the necessities, and it’s nice to have a kitchen to cook in and our own bathroom.” He nodded. “Much better than living in the truck.”

“I’m glad it’s working out.” I smiled and stood back up. “I’m about to close up and head to my parents’ for dinner. We get another shipment tomorrow if you want to come in and work.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I gave the dog one last pat on the head before they walked out. They paused for a moment before turning back to Trace’s office. I heard the door open and shut again but paid it no mind. If it was important, Trace would tell me later.

I shut the register down and started balancing the drawer for the night. I finished that, locked the drawer in the safe, and tucked Copperfield in for the night. “You be a good boy. I’ll be back in the morning.”

He snuggled into his bedding and twitched his nose at me, turning lavender again. I armed the security system and headed out to the car. I didn’t notice anything odd when I got to the parking lot, but my and Trace’s cars were the only ones there for the evening. It wasn’t unusual, but I half expected him to be walking out at any moment.

Though he was on a case, so maybe he was staying to finish up some paperwork. I unlocked the car and got in. Before I started the car, I texted my mom to let her know that I was on the way for dinner.

She didn’t answer, so I assumed that meant that she was busy cooking. A weird feeling sat in my stomach all the way to their house, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It’d been an odd day for sure, but that really wasn’t anything out of the normal for me. Except for the visiting werewolf.

I’d never met a werewolf before, and maybe that’s what was making me so nervous.

∞

I pulled up to my parent’s house and put the car in park. My dad was standing on the porch drinking a beer. Either my mother was going crazy about something inside, or he was just bored and waiting for me. I got out and waved to him. He waved back and held his beer up. “I’ll get you one as soon as we go inside.”

“What’s the occasion?”

“Your mom’s trying a new dish tonight.”

I cringed. “How does it smell?”

“Like fish.”

That could be taken a couple of different ways. Sometimes fish smelled good, and other times it smelled like cat vomit. I wrinkled my nose, wondering which one it was. Maybe I should have invited Trace over for dinner so he could suffer with me. He never did forgive me for making him come for the experimental cake.

That was the last time Trace came over for dinner, much to my mother’s disappointment. Dad and I walked in together, and he went straight to the fridge to grab me a beer. He handed it to me two seconds before my mother realized what he was doing.

“Lacey, you made it! Did Trace come?”

I shook my head. “No, he’s working on a case, so just me tonight.”

“Oh.” There was a small sound of disappointment in her voice as she went back into the kitchen.

I risked sniffing the air, and there was a slight smell of fish in the air. Nothing too overwhelming, but it still made me suspicious. “Mom, what are you cooking?”

“Baked fish with a side of pasta and steamed veggies.”

That sounded terribly normal for her. I glanced at my dad, and he took another drink of his beer. Hm. “Sounds good?” I tried to sound optimistic about it, but it came out more like a question.

“It’s a recipe that I found in a magazine at the doctor’s office.”

There was that doubt starting to creep in. Of course, it didn’t smell too bad. “Great, I’ll get the table set.” I walked into the kitchen and pulled out the silverware and napkins. Mom didn’t even look at me when I entered. She just peeked in the oven and hmmed for a moment.

I walked back into the dining room and started to set the table while dad leaned against the wall. “Has she tried to pick up any other hobbies these last couple of weeks?”

He shook his head. “Nope. I kind of miss the cake baking, because at least that came with dessert.”

“That was a plus.” I shrugged. “If it’s bad, then we’ll just go get something afterward. I have frozen pizza at home,” I whispered.

Mom came out when a pan and a grin on her face, looking a bit like a crazed Mrs. Beaver. “It smells wonderful.”

It smelled like bitter cat vomit now that it was out of the oven. When she set it on the table, I tried to keep my gasp in but failed. The burnt fish still had its head and eyes. It stared up at us with its mouth open. I looked at dad, and then my phone rang.

He mouthed ‘don’t you dare,’ at me when I answered it.

“Lacey Willows speaking.”

“Hey, Ms. Willows. This is Sam.”

“Hey, everything okay?”

“Yeah. No. Can you come see me? I think it’s time I talk to you about what’s going on.”

“Of course. Name the place.”

“Coffee shop on the corner of Hancock and Academy?”

It wasn’t far. I could make it there in a few minutes. “You got it. See you soon.” I hung up and looked at mom. “Sorry, it looks great, but I have to go. Work calls.”

I started to edge toward the door, and my mom let out a dramatic sigh. “Tell Trace I said hi.”

I wasn’t even going to correct her on who was on the phone. Dad glared at me as I passed him. I walked out of the house and texted Trace that I was going to be meeting with Sam. I just wanted someone to know where I was in case something went down.

Trace only responded with a simple ‘okay.’ I drove down to the coffee shop and pulled into the parking lot. I had been expecting just Sam, but I saw him and Calvin walk into the shop together.

I sent Trace another message, updating him on the situation. I guess I should have asked if someone else was going to be there, and maybe I should have considered back up.

Who was I kidding?

They were brothers, and I should have expected Calvin to be there since he was Sam’s ride. I took a deep breath, got out of the car, and headed into the shop.

Calvin waved me over, and I went to go sit with them.

“Sam, what’s up?”

He fiddled with his fingers for a minute. “So, I cast a spell tonight at the start of the session.”

“Okay?”

“It was a fog spell, and I rolled a natural twenty.” Which meant that the spell would work well. “And, well, fog filled the room. Literally.”

I raised a brow. “Literally?”

“We couldn’t see anything. At all.”

CHAPTER THREE

It took me a moment to process what he was saying because it totally sounded like something that would have happened to me. Cast a spell as part of a game, and it actually happened. I couldn’t say that it happened when I was playing Magic and Dungeons, but it was plausible. “You are sure there’s no magical blood in your family?”

Sam glanced at Calvin.

Calvin shook his head. “There’s no history of magic in our family. Mom swears up and down that dad was a normal person who did very normal things.”

Part of me was offended that he described normal as such, but I let it go. Most people didn’t realize that they were being offensive when they used the word that way.

“What about the people in your group? Do any of them have magic in their blood?”

Sam shrugged. “Not that I know of. We try to leave our lives at the door, and we’re in character the moment we sit down. That’s what makes the group great. We’re all friends outside of it, but we don’t tend to talk about magic or where we come from.”

“At all?”

He shrugged. “I mean, they know that I live with my mom and brother, and I know that Craig’s dad works in construction. Julie’s mother is a baker, but I don’t know if any of them are magical. We just met this year. I mean it’s not like you walk up to someone and ask ‘yo can you do magic?’”

His words made me smile a little bit. “That’s fair. You just met this year?”

“New school,” Sam muttered. “Mom switched me for some reason.”

I glanced at Calvin, who shrugged.

“Ma didn’t like the school. She said it wasn’t challenging enough and pulled him out without input from either of us. So I’m just as clueless as you.”

Interesting. “Thank you for telling me, Sam. Is this what you meant by weird things?”

He nodded. “Though it’s never been as real as the fog. It used to be that it was almost like an illusion. It kind of made things fun.”

“And now?”

“Now, it’s kind of scary. There shouldn’t be fog that thick in the room. I don’t want real magic in the game.”

It was interesting that it escalated that soon after Trace and I visited. “Do you think I can observe one night?”

“You’d have to play. Like I said, we keep our real lives out of it.”

It’d been a long time since I’d played, but maybe I could pull it off for at least a couple sessions. Then I’d let them kill off my character and disappear when I got the information I needed. “Okay.”

He smiled a little bit. “I’ll get you in touch with the DM.”

“Remember, you don’t mention who I am or who I work for.”

“Or what you are.” He nodded. “I promise. I’ll have him text you.” He stood up and started to walk out.

Calvin stayed behind. “I overheard you tell my brother your magic was quirky. Do you think this is the right place for you to bring that kind of magic?”

I didn’t know how he’d heard that conversation, but I wasn’t going to push. “As long as I don’t put any magic into the spells in the game, it’ll be fine.” I waved my hand.

Calvin gave me a doubtful look before he stood up. “Maybe I’ll just stop taking Sam. I feel like it’s getting out of control.”

“Maybe talk to him about it. But to me, it seems that he likes it enough to stick it out. I’ve been where he is before, and when you find that group of people that you can play a game with and you can be who and whatever you want to be, it’s healing.”

Calvin jerked like I had hit him, and I held up a hand. “I don’t know anything about you guys, but I do know that being a teenager is hard. Finding good friends is hard. Sam has found a group he feels like he belongs with, or he wouldn’t keep returning every week.”

“Twice a week,” Calvin corrected.

“That’s dedication.”

Calvin muttered something and walked out of the coffee shop, leaving me there alone. I went to the counter and ordered myself a cup of coffee to go. I’d cook a frozen pizza when I got home, but I wasn’t about to walk out of the shop without a drink.

When I did walk out, I saw Calvin and Sam still sitting in their car. It looked like they were having a serious conversation judging by the frown on Sam’s face and the occasional eye roll. For a moment, I wished that I could be a fly in the car to hear them, but their conversation might have had nothing to do with the meeting.

I got in my car and texted my dad, asking how the fish was. There was no immediate response, so I started the car and headed back to my place.

∞

I pulled up to my house and shut the car off. I was still trying to think about how going to a session was going to work out. I was clearly older than the teenagers, which might put them on edge, but if they were really as into the game as Sam said, they wouldn’t care. Magic and Dungeons knew no ages, and it didn’t matter who you were in real life.

Which meant that it was also a safe place for them to explore things that they kept cooped up in their mind.

I went into the house, dropped my purse off by the door, and kicked my shoes off. Frozen pizza was called for while I researched and brushed up on my Magic and Dungeons information. Things changed, different editions came with different rules, and there had been at least two new editions since I stopped playing in high school. I turned the oven on and hung my head the moment my front door opened. There were only two people who had a key to my house, Jenny and my dad.

I knew it wasn’t my dad when I heard the laughter that bubbled out and echoed through the house.

“How’s it going?” I asked as the door shut, and I went to get the pizza out of the freezer.

“I got a promotion! I wanted to come and celebrate!”

“It’s a weekday, we don’t celebrate on weekdays.”

Jenny came into the kitchen. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a bun, and she wore a pants suit. “We do if it’s a promotion, and I only brought one bottle of wine.” She grinned and held up an expensive white wine.

I laughed. “Okay fine.”

We’d made a strict rule of no red wine in the house anymore since I accidentally summoned some and turned a few things in the apartment a light purple.

I got two glasses out, and she poured the wine while I stuck the pizza in the oven.

“So, a promotion, huh?”

She nodded. “Yep, you’re now looking at the Assistant HR director.” She grinned at me. “And I’m super excited to start my new position and move into my own office.”

I raised my wine glass to her. “To your new office.”

“Want to come help me decorate it? I could use some help moving things around.”

I nodded. “It depends on my current case and if I can get Moses to cover the shop.”

She waved her hand. “We’ll do it in the evening after the shop closes.”

“Okay, that sounds like a good plan. Still depends on the current case though, because I might have to investigate an event.”

She raised a brow, and I shook my head. “I can’t share right now.”

“Fine, keep all the good stuff to yourself.” She shook her head. “Shop is going well, right?”

I nodded. My phone chirped, and I looked at it to see Dad’s name. I swiped to open the message and snorted at the picture.

‘Mom served me the head. I told her I was taking a picture of it to show you how beautiful it is. Dinner is staring at me.’

I showed it to Jenny, and she laughed. “Okay, well, I guess pizza and wine is a much better choice than fish head.”

“You should have smelled it. It was awful.” I cringed. “We need to find her a new hobby.”

“Knitting.”

“Oh man, then she’d be knitting stuff for Copperfield and Nooccar.” I laughed. “Can you imagine the outfits she would come up with?”

“Are you still planning on letting Copperfield be the Easter Bunny again?”

I shook my head. “After he kept turning black after the flash? No. They want a light-colored bunny, not a temperamental one.”

“Ah, but it was so entertaining.” She snorted. There was a knock on the door, and we both froze. “Are you expecting company?”

“No.” I glanced at her, and we both approached the door. I looked out the peephole to see a woman standing on the porch in a pinstriped duster jacket and a fedora.

If I had to guess, I’d say werewolf, just because she looked very similarly dressed to the last one. She popped her red lips together. “I can smell you on the other side of the door, witch. Let me in.”

“Or what? You’ll blow my house down?” I couldn’t stop the comment before it came out of my mouth.

Her lip quirked up in a smile. “I would like to speak to you. Please let me in so we can chat and I’m not just standing on your porch like a creeper. One of your neighbors is already staring at me.”

I sighed and looked at Jenny, who shrugged and went to get the pizza out of the oven.

I opened the door and stepped to the side. “I’m assuming you’re here on behalf of the alpha.”

Her eyes shot to Jenny and then back to me, almost in a warning. I waved my hand. “Jenny’s been around magical creatures all her life. She knows about your kind.”

“I am the alpha.” She crossed her arms as I shut the door. “My guard told me that you weren’t willing to come with him.”

I shrugged. “My life has taken some strange turns lately. I sent him away saying if he was looking for good magic, I wasn’t the witch for you guys. My magic is quirky.”

“But you work for a PI., and you’re a member of the magical community.”

I reminded myself to not be rude and led her to the kitchen. “Please sit down while we chat, would you like something to drink?”

She smiled. “A glass of wine?”

I glanced at Jenny, who for a moment, looked like she didn’t want to share. With a tight-lipped smile, she said, “Sure.” She went to go get another wine glass, and I sat down in front of the alpha.

“I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name. You seem to know a lot about me, but I know very little about you.”

“My name is Shandra Miller. I’m the alpha of the Colorado Pack. We relocated here a few years ago from Wyoming to cut down on the pack size up there. We were drawing too much attention, so we thought it best we split apart.”

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Miller.”

Jenny handed her a glass of wine and then sat down to join us. I was glad there was another person here as a witness, just in case Ms. Miller decided to eat me.

“I wish you would have come met with me earlier today, but it seems, you are a woman who is stubborn, and since you had someone at the shop, he couldn’t force you to come along.” Her eyes flickered to Jenny.

I shrugged. “I don’t take kindly to threats. Why are you here, Ms. Miller?”

“I’m need your skills, Lacey.”

Both Jenny and I laughed. “I don’t have any skills. I have quirky magic that sometimes works out.”

“And you work for a PI.”

“As a consultant.” I shook my head. “If you want someone who is actually helpful, find a different witch.”

She growled, and it came out more wolf than human-like. “Lacey Willows, I don’t want another witch. I want you.”

“Why?” I sipped my wine and watched her.

“Because I hear you have a way with animals, and that is exactly what we are, Ms. Willows. Animals. Meet me tomorrow night at this address.” She slid a piece of paper across the table. It was no bigger than the size of a business card, but it was face down, so I couldn’t tell what was written on the other side. She sipped her wine, and I tried to figure out the politest way to ask exactly why she needed a witch.

“You’ll learn everything you need to know tomorrow night. We promise we won’t eat you. You can decide if you’re the right witch for the job once you know more about the situation.” She finished her drink in one long swig and stood. “Thank you for the drink, I look forward to our next meeting.”

She let herself out, and I turned to stare at Jenny.

“Well, it’s not every night a werewolf walks into your house.” She sipped her wine. “I should have brought vodka tonight.”

“Possibly.” I nodded. “Very possibly.”

What on earth was I getting into?

∞

The next morning, I walked into the shop and disarmed the alarm before turning to the window to see the magical ivy crawling down the other side of the window. The leaves reached out as it walked, brushing the morning sunlight. I turned away from it and went to let Copperfield out.

I hadn’t seen Trace’s truck in the parking lot, so I knew he wasn’t in yet. If he had stayed too late last night, he wouldn’t be in until later this morning. I had a delivery coming today and needed to make sure the back room was ready to accept the new boxes before I opened up.

I walked to the back to see that Moses had done an awesome job organizing the inventory that he put away yesterday. There was plenty of room to put the new boxes away when they came. I got the tray for the register out of the safe and then went back to the front to put it in. I counted the drawer just to double-check the amount.

He sat there and munched on his breakfast while I turned on the rest of the lights in the store and then the open light.

It wasn’t long after I turned on the light that dad walked in. “A fish stared at me while I had to try and eat it.”

I looked up and shrugged. “And I had a werewolf visit. We all have our problems.”

He paused in whatever he was going to say next. “Wait, what?”

“A werewolf came to see me last night at home.”

“Lacey, that’s never a good thing. They eat witches.”

I waved a hand. “That’s an old wives’ tale. They don’t eat us. She said she needed my help.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Are you going to help her?”

“I don’t know yet. I want to dig into a couple things first and see if I can get more of an idea of what I’m getting into before I agree.”

“You’re a smart one. I say let the city know that there are werewolves in town.”

I smirked. “Most humans don’t know that they exist. There are the select few, like Jenny, who know just because she’s been in the magical community.”

“Maybe they should.” My dad crossed his arms. “They can be dangerous.”

“So can witches.”

“And they know about us and suck at keeping us contained.”

I had a feeling he was getting at the Salazar situation, but I let it go because I didn’t want to admit that he was right. “If I tell the humans, then the wolves might very well eat me. I’m not risking that.”

“And what about Trace?”

I shook my head. “No, I can’t tell him. Not right now. I want to see what I’m getting into first. If I need to, then I’ll involve him.”

“It’s only a matter of time before he learns more about the supernatural world.”

I snorted. “Ain’t that the truth.” The door dinged, and Trace walked in. “Speak of the devil.”

Trace shook his head. “Just me. Promise no demons have come with me,” he smirked. “Today, anyways.”

Dad and I froze. “That’s nothing to joke about.”

“Okay, noted. I have news on Sam.” He sounded more excited than he should be in the morning.

“I’m all ears.” I smiled.

Copperfield jumped off the counter and went to Trace. Trace picked him up. “Sorry, buddy. No Nooccar today either. I’ll bring him tomorrow.”

“What’s the news on Sam?”

“Sam and Calvin aren’t blood-related brothers.”

I raised a brow. “They look identical.”

He nodded. “I know, they’re cousins. Mom took both of them in. She’s not their biological mother either. Turns out, her brothers died in a car accident and left the boys to her. Sam was just a baby, and Calvin was almost a teen.”

“He calls her ‘ma.’”

He nodded. “Maybe out of habit? Or support for Sam? I don’t know if Sam knows this or not, so it’s best not to bring it up. It took me a few hours of research to find, but I did. Something just didn’t sit right with me.”

“So it’s possible that Sam is magical. It could be on his biological mother’s side of the family. Do we know where his mother is?”

“I’m still trying to figure that out.”

I thought it was interesting that both biological mothers weren’t in the picture. Maybe they were alive, and we could talk to them.

“Okay. I saw Sam and Calvin last night. Sam said he’d get the DM to contact me about wanting to join the group. He said that the session last night went weird. Actual fog filled the room when he cast a spell.”

Trace raised a brow. “That seems like there’s magic in his blood right there.”

“No, it could be that the book is enchanted, or his character sheet, or something else in the room,” my dad stated as he took Copperfield from Trace. “If something is enchanted correctly, anyone’s words can activate the spell.”

Trace looked at me, and I nodded. “Totally not my forte. Dad has been known to enchant a thing or two as a practical joke.”

“But when you get there, will you be able to tell what’s the magic?”

“Possibly. I can’t make any promises.” I shrugged. “All I can do is go and play and see what happens.”

He nodded. “I’ll keep working the lineage angle then. Since when it comes to magic, that’s about all I’m good at.”

I shrugged. “At least you’re not summoning wolf stuffed animals.”

Trace chuckled. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the other fifty-one of them.”

I shrugged. “Sorry, I was working with a deck of cards.”

Dad shook his head and walked further into the store, but I didn’t miss the smile on his face when he walked by me. He’d always been more amused by my magic than annoyed.

“Well, it could have been worse.”

“Could have been wine,” I agreed. “Or glitter.”

He glared at me, and I grinned. “I’ve never summoned glitter. So don’t worry.”

“There’s always a first. I’ll see you at lunch.” He turned to walk out.

“Wait, before you go, can I ask you a favor?”

Trace looked over his shoulder. “Anything.”

I handed him the card that Shandra gave me. “Can you look into who owns this address?”

He glanced at it and then to me. “I don’t have to. The local Alpha does.”

CHAPTER FOUR

I stared at him. “Come again?”

“The local werewolf alpha owns it. It’s a little restaurant up north. Well, its front is a restaurant. I’m not sure what’s behind it,” he mused. “Did you not know werewolves existed?”

I glared at him. “How did you know they existed?”

He blushed. “I might have dated the alpha and discovered what she was.”

I tried to hide my surprise. “You know Shandra?”

He nodded. “And a few of her guards. They were almost always around. She told me that they were her friends, or her employees depending on where we ‘ran into’ them at.” He shrugged. “I thought it was weird, and then one night, I went to surprise her on the full moon. And, well… history.”

I continued to stare at him for a moment. “And you’re still alive?”

“Yes. She let me get away with a death threat.”

Huh. Neat. “Well, that was easier information to get than I thought.” I put the card back into my pocket.

“Except I still have questions. Why are you looking into her address?”

“Because she invited me down there tonight. She knows I work for you and said that she needed my particular skills.”

He looked just as confused as I felt the first time the werewolves told me that. “Are they sure they have the right witch?”

“That’s what I asked. She is convinced that she does and that I can solve whatever problem they are having.”

“Shandra is a good woman, a little odd, but odd is your life, so I think you’ll be okay.”

I nodded. “Then I’ll go see her tonight and see what is up.” I could trust Trace. He wouldn’t steer me wrong. Though I was surprised that he knew the alpha seeing as he wasn’t super versed in the supernatural world.

I was also surprised that Shandra hadn’t changed him into a werewolf by force to keep the secret. I looked at Trace closer as if I could see if he was a wolf or not.

My mind went back in time to see if he’d ever missed work on a full moon or looked tired the day after one.

“Why are you staring at me?” He asked.

I shrugged. “Just thinking too hard.”

He shook his head. “I’ll see you at lunch, Lacey.” He chuckled as he walked out.

Dad came back to my side and handed me a couple prank jokes. Fake dog poop and a two-headed coin. “Huh, that wasn’t what I expected him to say.”

“Me either.” I looked down at the jokes. “Mom’s not going to fall for this.”

He smirked. “With a little bit of magic mixed in, she just might.”

I rolled my eyes and took it to the register. “She’s going to call and yell at me for selling these to you.”

“She won’t even know.” He grinned. “And I promise I won’t make the joke quirky enough for her to blame it on you.”

“That’s appreciated. Last time you did that, she didn’t talk to me for a month because she thought I ruined the night.”

He shrugged. “I should have thought the can of snakes through more.”

I shook my head and bagged his items. He handed me some cash and then waved as he walked toward the door. “Make sure you let me know how tonight goes.”

“I will.”

He stopped and looked at the plant. “It may be time for you to trim this plant.”

The plant seemed to shrink a bit at the words, and for a moment, I wondered if it had feelings.

Dad noticed it too and then looked at me. “Your doing?”

“Nope, it was a gift.”

Dad shrugged. “Maybe a secret admirer.”

“Dad, go home before mom notices you’re missing.”

He cringed. “She said she wanted to cook octopus for dinner tonight. She’s at the store.”

“Octopus can be good.”

“Yeah, if it’s cooked right. This is your mother cooking.”

He had a very valid point on that. “Well, don’t send me pictures of it.”

“You should see if you can come and make it move. Then she won’t ever cook it again.”

I rolled my eyes. “You have magic too.”

“Yes, but she’ll know it’s me when I’m the only one there.”

I waved him out the door. “I have to go meet with a werewolf tonight, remember?”

“That’s right. Don’t get eaten.” He walked out of the shop just in time for UPS to walk in with a few boxes stacked on a dolly.

He unloaded them in front of the counter, and I signed for them before he left. I moved them to the back one at a time for Moses to deal with later.

I walked back into the shop to see Calvin looking at one of the displays. I hadn’t heard the door ding, but that didn’t mean much. “What brings you in?”

“I just thought I’d stop by and check out the shop.” He shot me a charming smile.

I went to the counter and picked up Copperfield, who’d changed to a dark blue. “I forgot you said you walked by here every day.”

“Do you carry the Magic and Dungeons books?”

I shook my head. “No, the game shop down the road does. He has a great selection of them. I’m a magic shop, parlor tricks, sleight of hand, that kind of thing.”

He picked up a trick deck of cards. “No magic needed?”

“No magic needed. They’re fun to learn, especially for kids. It teaches them coordination and out of the box thinking. They can impress their friends when they master the harder tricks.” I shrugged. “It’s fun to watch them come in for new tricks when they manage to master one.”

“I’m sure it is.” He put the trick deck on the counter. “I’ll take these. Maybe I can learn something to brighten Sam up.”

“He’s upset about what’s happening in the group?”

He shook his head. “He’s upset because Ma says he can’t go this week. She said there’s too much going on in school, and going out twice a week is affecting his grades.”

“And is it?”

Calvin shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t get involved in his grades. That’s Ma’s job.”

“That’s fair. He’s a junior, right?”

“Yeah. He’ll be a senior in the Fall. He’s so excited to finish school and go to college.” There was something sad in Calvin’s voice.

“You’re going to miss him?”

“Well yeah, he’s my little brother after all. He wants to move overseas.” He snorted. “There are some good colleges out there, but that’s a long way away.”

He paid, and I bagged the deck of cards. “I’ll see you later.”

He grinned. “Maybe I’ll bring you coffee when I walk back.” He winked and left the shop.

I stood there for a moment, wondering what was going on. Then it dawned on me. He was flirting.

I shook my head and pet Copperfield. “He’s cute, but I think there’s probably something against getting involved with clients.”

Though Calvin wasn’t the client, his mom was. I entertained the thought for a moment until Moses came through the door.

He glanced at me. “What are you thinking about?”

“Coffee.”

“You’re blushing. That has to be one hell of a coffee you’re daydreaming about.”

I shrugged and didn’t comment on it. “The boxes are in the back. I’ll be back there in a moment to grab a few things to restock.”

∞

There was a little part of me that was sad that Calvin hadn’t stopped by that afternoon with coffee, but the other part of me was glad that I avoided a seriously awkward conversation. I glanced at my watch. It was about time to head out to meet Shandra.

Moses had the store covered, so I walked out and headed to the parking lot. To my surprise, Calvin was walking across the parking lot toward me.

So much for avoiding awkward conversations. He held up a cup of coffee. “Sorry, I was late leaving. I was checking the parking lot to see if your car was still here.”

I smiled and took the offered coffee. “It’s okay. I’m typically at the shop for another hour or so, but I have a meeting tonight.”

“Oh, that’s really good to know.” He smiled. “I’ll have to catch you earlier next time. I’m on my way to go pick up dinner for Ma and Sam. Maybe I’ll stop by tomorrow, and we can have a chance to chat.”

I couldn’t help my grin. “That sounds nice.”

“I’ll see you then.” He walked off, disappearing around the corner of the building.

I sipped my coffee as I got in the car. I started the engine and put the address into the GPS so I could find the restaurant.

I pulled out of the parking lot and followed the directions over the highway and to the other side of town. The map led me to a more secluded part of the city where businesses were spread out instead of huddled together and had more trees than houses. I pulled into the parking lot and waited for a moment.

I was about to head into a restaurant, owned by the Alpha werewolf, without any idea of what she actually wanted from me.

I tried to calm the anxiety that was closing my throat and stealing my breath. Maybe I should just turn the car back around and make an excuse as to why I didn’t show up. Certainly there was another witch.

Tightening my grip on the steering wheel, I decided I would not chicken out on this. I would go in, see what they wanted, and then politely decline when I knew it was out of my skill range. I took a couple of deep breaths and forced myself out of the car and to the front of the Italian restaurant. I don’t know what I was expecting a werewolf to run.

A club?

A bar?

A strip club?

Who knew, but an upscale Italian restaurant was not it.

I walked to the door, and a young lady opened it for me, “Welcome to Mama’s Place, where the food tastes just like grand-mama made it.” She gave me a big smile. “Just you today?”

“Actually, I’m supposed to be meeting Shandra.”

Her eyes widened with surprise. “Oh, you’re Lacey, please follow me.” She let the door close behind me and then moved away from the hostess stand.

She led me through the white cloth-covered tables and to the back of the dining room. A few people dotted the area, talking low and eating their meals. I was too early for a dinner rush, but it was too late for lunch. The nearly empty dining room didn’t set off any alarms for me.

But when the hostess opened a door that led to a hallway, I glanced at her. She smiled. “Third door on the left, down the stairs, she’ll meet you there.”

She closed the hall door behind me, and I swore I heard a lock click in place.

I was happy that multiple people knew where I was. That way, if I disappeared, they knew where to start looking for my body.

I followed the hostess’s direction and found the stairs.

Luckily the stairwell was well lit and didn’t resemble something out of a horror novel. I walked down the stairs.

“Thank you for coming, Lacey.” Shandra stepped out of a room to my left. She’d gotten rid of the pinstriped duster and stood in front of me in a very tight white button-up shirt with a short tie and black slacks. “If you would, please, follow me?”

“You know, this is all very mysterious. I wish you would just tell me what it is. Then I could give you an answer on if I can help or not.”

She nodded. “I know, but please understand that we are werewolves, and we must keep our lives secret. Humans would not be as accepting of us as they are you, witch.”

“Trust me, there are still some pretty unaccepting people out there, but I see your point. But creepy basements and sending goons really isn’t the best way to make an impression.”

She chuckled. “Yet, you still came.”

“I came because Trace vouched for you.”

She glanced at me over her shoulder. “He’s a good man. We had a lot of fun together.”

I was going to ask her about him knowing she was a werewolf, but I didn’t want to bring attention to him still being human. She stopped in front of another room. “Okay, now, you have to promise not to laugh, because it makes him angry.”

I didn’t like where this is going. “Is he going to try and eat me?”

“Trust me, Ms. Willows, he’s not capable of eating you. Maybe just taking a tiny chunk out of you.” She pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh.

I steeled myself for whatever might be on the other side of the door. When she opened the door, the only thing I saw was a tiny fluffy dog. The colors of the fur said wolf, but the size said ankle-biter.

I locked my jaw, trying not to laugh. “Is that a werewolf?”

“That, Ms. Willows, is my mate.”

“Fate must hate you,” I muttered while I was trying to figure out the situation. “What happened?”

“I was hoping you could tell me. We shifted on the full moon, and he was fine, beautiful. Now he’s…” she motioned to him. “And he can’t shift back.”

“Are you sure someone’s not playing a prank on you?”

The tiny dog turned his eyes up at me and growled the cutest little growl.

“If they are, then they have my mate somewhere.” She crossed her arms. “I need him back to normal. And I need to know who did this.”

I sat down and held my hand out to the dog. “What’s his name?”

“Anthony.”

Anthony, the werewolf who was now a lap dog.

“Okay, Anthony, I just need to touch your fur to see if I can sense magic.”

“Can you undo it?” Shandra asked.

I shook my head. “Not without knowing the spell or what happened. If I try, I could end up doing more damage. The thing is, magic has to have an exchange. So, if he’s stuck as…this. Then there could be a dog stuck as a wolf.”

“That’s bad.”

“It’s very bad. I’ll see what I can do to help. I mean, someone has to be reporting a dog the size of a wolf somewhere, right?”

She nodded. “Hurry, Ms. Willows. Once you have the animal, can you reverse the spell?”

“I think so. And if I can’t, my dad can.” I ran my hand over Anthony’s fur. “I can feel magic in him, but it doesn’t feel malicious or anything.”

She growled. “How is this not malicious? Someone turned my mate into a…a…fluffy football!”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Sometimes magic just does odd things.”

“Like you said your magic does.”

I glanced at Anthony and then her. “Honestly, this strikes me as something my magic would do, but I haven’t been around any small dogs or werewolves lately. Like I said, I’ll see what I can find out. Now that I work with Trace, I have access to programs and research that I normally wouldn’t.”

“Thank you, Ms. Willows. We’ll be in contact.” She walked out of the room, and the dog barked at me as I left.

She shut the door behind me. “No one else except my guards knows about this. You need to make sure it stays that way. Anthony would not want the information to get out.”

“I figured. I’ll keep it hush-hush.” I glanced at the door. “Hopefully I can get it figured out.”

“And before the next full moon. I can only tell my pack that he is away for so long. He would never leave the pack alone for a full moon.”

“I will do my best.” I walked back upstairs. I swallowed a giggle as I imagined the tiny animal running with a pack of wolves.

That made my color-changing bunny seem almost normal.

∞

Moses had closed up the shop for me, so I was free to go home and eat leftover frozen pizza and work on the werewolf problem. My phone rang just as I entered the house. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it without looking at the number.

“Hello?”

“Lacey Willows?” There was a male voice on the other end I didn’t know.

“Yes?” I sounded almost hesitant.

“Oh good, I was afraid Sam was pulling my leg. My name is Titus, and Sam told me you were interested in joining our Magic and Dungeons group?”

He didn’t sound like a teenager. Of course, Sam never said the ages of the people in the group, just that he’d met them at school. “Oh yeah, he’d stopped by the shop and mentioned that he attended a group.” I hope it didn’t sound too much like a lie. “I’ve wanted to get back into it. It’s been a while, but I miss it.”

“That’s great, we’d love to have another person join us. I do want to mention it’s not a super-serious group. Sometimes we go on crazy adventures and stray from the rules when I allow it as DM.”

I smiled. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Okay, great. We’ve moved sessions to Friday night since there were some complaints from parents about kids being out late on school nights. Which, I can understand.”

“Just send me the address and the time, and I’ll be there.”

“Great! I’ll send you over a character sheet too so you can get started and already have one rolled up when you get here. I’ll still have the final say, but at least you’ll have a starting point.”

“Great, I’ll do that.”

“See you then.” He disconnected, and it wasn’t two minutes later that I got the information that I needed.

I grabbed a cold slice of pizza and sat down to look at the character sheet he sent me through text.

I zoomed in to see if anything had changed. There were a couple new races and links to explanations on them. I rubbed my eyes. I was too tired to create a character tonight. It was still early, but exhaustion was starting to set in, and I was wondering if it was even a good idea to go into a session. Maybe they’d let me observe.

No, Sam said that they would find that suspicious and that I needed to go in with a character and ready to play.

I turned the screen off on my phone and ate my pizza. I’d pull out the laptop in a few and start searching for found dogs and see if any of them happened to match the description of a wolf.

I took care of my plate and washed my hands. Grabbing my laptop, I sat on the couch and turned it on, starting my search in the usual places that someone looked for lost pets.

I scrolled through pages and pages of lost pets and pictures of found pets. Nothing came up that looked like a wolf, and no one was reporting a missing fluffball.

Maybe it wasn’t local.

I rubbed my eyes at that thought. Magic wasn’t dependent on distances. That’s why it was such a dangerous thing when it came to the exchange. Somewhere the world was missing fifty-two stuffed wolves and in place had fifty-two playing cards.

Some people brushed it off. Others sought out where the magic came from. It was just how this world worked.

So somewhere in the world was a small dog that was now a big wolf, and I had to wonder if it could turn into a man.

I hoped not, because that was more complicated than anything I wanted to deal with. I snorted and closed the computer after looking for a couple hours. Even Google searches didn’t come up with anything.

The full moon was just a couple nights ago. It was possible that the owner of the dog hadn’t had a chance to report anything yet. I leaned my head back on the couch. I could sleep here if I really wanted. No one else lived in the house, so it wasn’t like anyone was there to judge me for falling asleep on the couch.

I pulled the blanket off the back of the cushions and tucked myself in.

CHAPTER FIVE

I walked into the shop the next morning and grinned at Copperfield. He twitched his nose at me and then snuggled back into the bedding of his cage. I wondered if something had kept him up late last night.

I, on the other hand, had enjoyed my early bedtime, slept great, and was ready to take on a new day. I’d decided on what my Magic and Dungeons character was going to be, an Elf Sorcerer, and I was ready to fill out the rest of my sheet.

I hasn’t, however, made any progress on the werewolf turned ankle-biter, and that was sitting in the back of my mind still. I got the till for the register from the back room and put it in. I counted it down to make sure that no mistakes were made with closing the night before and looked up when I heard a noise.

The ivy had grown around the whole window and was now creeping on the floor.

I frowned. At this point, it might be better to take it home or put it in a garden somewhere. It might take over the whole store looking for more sunlight. It stopped as if noticing that I was watching it.

I shook my head and went back to opening the store. Copperfield finally came out of his cage to eat the food that I left him. I scratched his ear as I walked by to flip on the open sign. I stood there for a moment watching the few people that were walking down the street this early in the morning.

Most of them were businesspeople, heading to the office from the nearest parking lot.

An occasional vagabond.

A couple people walking dogs.

Nothing too exciting, and no early morning customers. Mornings were slow and when I typically cleaned the store.

But I’d rearranged already this week, dusted things down, and refilled the inventory. I’d paid the invoices and received a delivery, which, thanks to Moses, was done.

I shrugged and went back to the counter and scratched Copperfield’s ears. “I guess I could practice some magic.”

He jumped back in his cage and hid.

Coward.

Of course, with how scattered my brain was, something could go very wrong. Like I could accidentally turn someone into a wolf. I shook my head. No, best not to practice magic.

“Hey.” Calvin’s voice made me look up.

I smiled as he walked over and handed me a big cup of coffee. “Good morning. Thank you for the coffee.”

“Of course, it’s early, and any early morning discussion should start with coffee.” He winked at me, and I blushed. It’d been a while since I had considered dating. My magic tended to chase off wizards and humans as well.

“So why do you walk by the shop every day?”

He laughed. “I park down the road and walk to the office so that I get some steps in before and after work. It’s a great way to start and end my day. It gives me a few minutes of peace and quiet in the morning and a few minutes to gather my thoughts after work.” He shrugged. “When you live in a house with your mother and your teenage brother, there are very few quiet moments.”

“I wouldn’t know, I don’t have any siblings.” I sipped the coffee. “And I moved out the moment I had the chance.”

He nodded. “That’s how many kids do it, but with my mother being older and Sam being younger, I stuck around to help out. It didn’t seem right to me to leave them alone.”

“That’s sweet of you. What are you going to do when your brother graduates?”

He laughed. “I honestly don’t know. It might be time to get out and settle on my own. Did you know what you were going to do when you left home?”

I shook my head. “No, my dad and I always talked about opening a shop, so we did. Then he moved to Florida, and I took over the shop. Can’t say when I graduated that it was what I planned to do with my life. But it works. I’m happy.”

“Happy is good. I work as an administrative assistant right now at a lawyer’s office.”

“That’s neat.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. “Um, thanks again for the coffee.”

He nodded. “No problem.” He checked his watch. “I should probably get to work. Have a good day, Lacey.”

I gave him a little wave as he walked out of the shop. I looked at Copperfield, who was a deep blue. “You don’t like him.”

The bunny seemed to humph before hopping off the counter and further into the store. When the bunny didn’t like someone, you know there was something up with the person. I took another sip of my coffee and went back to my day.

∞

The afternoon picked up with customers, and attending to them and restocking kept me busy throughout the day. I flipped off the open sign at the end of the day and was about to lock the door when Trace came in.

“I’m closed, sir.” I stared at him.

“Yes, I know, but I just needed to speak to the owner.”

I rolled my eyes and let him in, locking the door behind him. “You can talk to me while I close up.”

He followed me around the shop while I started doing closing duties. “So, I saw that Calvin stopped by this morning.”

I nodded. “Yeah, he’s been bringing me coffee.”

“Has he said anything about Sam?”

I shook my head. “Nope, and I didn’t ask him about Sam. He just came to chat. I think he’s lonely. I mean, the man seems to have dedicated his life to his mother and brother.” I held up a hand before Trace could correct me. “For all intents and purposes, they are his mother and brother.”

Trace nodded. “I’m still trying to track down the bio moms’ information. Whoever they are, they didn’t want to be known. The birth certificates have aliases on them. Someone forged them.”

“I think you may be focusing on the boys too much. I’ve been invited to join a session Friday night. So let me see what I can find out then.”

He nodded. “Okay, but I would still feel better if I could rule out magical abilities.”

“I’m not even sure what the big deal is if it’s not hurting anyone.”

“I’m not either, but Maggie wants answers, and that’s what she’s paying me for.”

I nodded. “I’m not sure though. If she’s suspects Sam of being up to something, Sam shouldn’t know that you’re snooping around.”

“I know, and I’m trying to figure out why, but that’s up to me. You focus on the magic part of it all.” He leaned against the counter. “How’d the meeting with Shandra go?”

I shrugged. “Fine, I guess. She wants me to look into something for her. Confidentially, of course.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else from the werewolf,” he muttered. “How is she doing?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t really stand around and chitchat with her, Trace. I got in, got the information, got out.”

He laughed. “You didn’t even stay for dinner?”

“I wasn’t invited, and I wasn’t going to sit there awkwardly by myself.” I shook my head. “Though maybe I could have dinner there, perhaps the wolves there talk?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Want to go?” He asked.

“Why are you so eager to go out to dinner?”

My phone buzzed, and he nodded. “It’s your mother.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

“Making homemade sushi tonight! Be here soon!”

I glanced at him. “To the werewolf Italian restaurant, we go.”

I texted my mother back that I was already going out tonight and that it had to do with a job.

My phone rang two seconds later, and I sighed as I picked it up. “Sorry, mom. I need more than ten minutes notice that you want me to come over for dinner.”

“Trace also said he had plans for dinner and that it was for work. Are you going together?”

“Yes, mom. Who else would I be going with?”

“Hmm, maybe the charming young man that works in the shop with you now.”

“Mom, he’s newly divorced and trying to figure his life out right now. He’s not thinking about romance. He’s thinking about paying bills and feeding his dog. Trace and I have to check out something for the case. Okay?”

She let out a dramatic noise. “Fine, I guess it’ll just be dad and me again. You missed the octopus last night. It turned out pretty well.”

I wasn’t going to question it. “That’s great, mom, I have to go. I’ll chat with you later.” I hung up and shook my head. “We need to get her out of the seafood stage before she gives dad food poisoning.”

“Or kills all of us.” He nodded. “I agree. We need to get her a less dangerous hobby.”

I suddenly had a vision of my mother running around stabbing people with knitting needles. “Not knitting.”

I scooped Copperfield up and put him in his cage. “I’ll be back tomorrow, buddy.” He turned lavender and snuggled in. I closed the cage, and Trace and I headed out. I locked the door behind us, and we turned to go to the parking lot.

“Do you really want to go to Shandra’s restaurant?” I laughed. “Or were you just trying to get me to agree to so you’d have an alibi for tonight?”

He shrugged. “Honestly, I want to know what Shandra is dragging you into, and the only way I’m going to find out is if we go there and overhear something.”

“I can’t tell you. She might eat me alive if I do.” I glanced at him. “And I’d rather not become wolf food.”

Almost on cue, a howl echoed in the air, and I shivered. Maybe tomorrow there would be reports of a wolf spotted, and that would give me a chance to find out what happened to the alpha’s mate. “We go, but if Shandra says anything, it’s because I wanted to try the food.”

“Agreed.” He steered me to his truck. “I’ll drive. No need to take two cars.”

I climbed into his truck and buckled up. Trace got in and started the engine. “Let’s go have some dinner and see if we can overhear any werewolf talk.”

∞

We pulled up to the restaurant and got out. Cars filled most of the parking lot with the dinner rush, and people walked in and out of the building at a pretty steady pace. Trace and I walked in and saw the hostess from the night before standing there.

She smiled. “Decided to come back and join us for dinner?”

“Yes, a table for two, please.” I gave her my most charming smile and hoped I didn’t seem as awkward as I felt. She picked up two menus and led us to a table towards the back. “Here you go. Your waiter will be Thomas, and he’ll be right with you.”

She sauntered back toward the front, and Trace opened his menu. “It’s good to see that this place is still busy.”

I nodded. “When I came yesterday, they only had a couple people. So it’s nice to see that they have a dinner rush.”

I looked up as the hostess walked by the table with two people following her. Interesting. It was Maggie and another woman.

I glanced at Trace, and he nodded, indicating that he saw them as well. Luckily for us, they were seated right behind us. I wanted to tell Trace that he’d made the right choice to come here tonight, but instead, we sat in silence looking over the menu until the waiter came.

“Hi, I’m Thomas, and I’ll be your waiter. I’m sorry about the wait. Can I get you two something to drink?”

Trace nodded. “We’ll have the Chardonnay, please.”

Thomas wrote it down. “Are you two ready to order, or do you need more time?”

I glanced at Trace. I was ready, but I wasn’t sure if he was.

“I’ll have the lasagna, please, a salad on the side.” Trace put the menu down on the edge of the table.

“I’ll take the chicken parmigiana.” I laid my menu down and hoped the waiter would go away so I could listen to what the two women were talking about.

They had raised their voices a bit while the waiter was at the table, making me think something was going on. Most people didn’t raise their voice in a normal conversation.

The waiter moved on to the next table.

“I have every right to see them,” the woman stated. “It was in the will, and it was in the court documents.”

“It’s been thirteen years. You don’t get to just come into a kid’s life after that,” Maggie said. “You want to make amends with Calvin, that’s fine, he’s an adult. But Sam, you’ll have to wait until he turns eighteen.”

The woman growled. “Listen, Maggie, I’m grateful for you and everything you’ve done for my boys, but you’re going too far. You can’t keep them from me.”

I looked at Trace, who raised a brow. It could be possible the fathers were sleeping with the same woman, or she could be a surrogate. Maybe that’s why things didn’t match up on the birth certificates. Trace jerked his head toward the woman telling me he was also listening.

“When you asked to meet, I thought you simply wanted an update on them. I didn’t think you’d demand to be let back into Sam’s life. Calvin hasn’t forgiven you for simply abandoning him after his father’s death. Tabitha, let it go. I sent you pictures and updates out of the kindness of my heart.”

Tabitha let out a sigh. “There are things that you wouldn’t understand, Maggie. Forces in control that you don’t believe in. I never wanted to stay away from the boys, but I had no choice.”

“Calvin doesn’t understand that. He was barely a teenager when his father died, and his mother just disappeared. And Sam? Doesn’t even know who you are. I’m his mother now. Not you.” Maggie stood and walked out of the restaurant.

Tabitha sighed. “You stupid woman.”

I wanted to know what Tabitha’s last name was, but there was no way to really find out. Unless. I glanced at Trace, and he motioned for me to do whatever. I’m sure he was just as curious. I slid out of our booth and into the seat across from Tabitha.

She looked at me, a moment of panic flashing on her face. “Who are you?”

“My name is Lacey Willows. That was Sam’s mom who just walked out. I’m in his Magic and Dungeons group. Is everything okay?”

She looked relieved for a moment. “Yes, everything is fine. Aren’t you a little old to be playing such games with teens?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “There’s no age limit in the group.”

She considered me for a moment. “How well do you know Sam?”

“I’m fairly new to the group, so we haven’t talked a whole lot. But you said you were his mom? Or did I misunderstand that?”

She fiddled with the napkin until Thomas came over to get her drink order.

She quickly ordered a water and a meal before turning back to me. “I’m his biological mother. Some things happened after his dad died, and I couldn’t take him. Then this wench takes him and acts as if he’s her child.”

I tried not to react to her calling Maggie a wench. Clearly, there was some hostility there. “Can I ask what happened?”

She shook her head. “No, I really shouldn’t be telling any of this to you.” She motioned for me to go back to my table. “Good day, Ms. Willows.”

“Good day, Ms?” I waited.

“Wilde,” she stated.

“Ms. Wilde.”

I got out of the booth and went back to sit with Trace. He gave me a thumbs up and sipped the wine that Thomas had brought us. I sipped mine and held it up in victory to Trace.

He chuckled but said nothing until our food was brought to us. “I told you, the best Italian food in the city.”

I took a bite and nearly moaned at the cheesy taste in my mouth. “Okay, that’s pretty damn good.”

“I only hire the best chefs.” Shandra’s voice interrupted our dining. She pulled a chair over from one of the tables. “I’m glad to see you came around to try the food.” She grinned at Trace, showing that her teeth were just a little more pointed than most humans. “Hey, Trace, how’s it going.”

He snorted. “Better than the last time I saw you.”

She shrugged. “I’ve apologized many times for that. I was hoping you could move on from it.”

I had questions, but no good way of asking without mentioning werewolf. “We decided to stop by. Trace couldn’t believe I didn’t stay to have dinner the other night, so here we are.”

Shandra nodded and looked over me. “You and Trace?” She asked. “Are you a thing?”

Trace shook his head. “No, she’s just a consultant and a good friend. Nothing more.”

I wondered if there was a little bit of jealousy in her. Like Trace was the one who got away. Of course, maybe she was just having second thoughts since her mate was currently a fuzzy ankle-biting dog.

“Any progress?” She asked as if reading my mind.

“No, not yet. I’ve been looking around for any information. I think it’s time I start using other resources.”

She let out a sigh. “I was hoping this was going to be easy.”

I nodded. “Me too, but I’m sorry it wasn’t. I’ll get it figured out, though.”

“Trace vouches for you, so I have no doubt that you’ll figure it out.” She stood. “Don’t worry about your bill, your meal is on us tonight.”

She walked off before I could protest. Trace shrugged and took another bite of his dinner. “This really is delicious.”

I nodded in agreement and continued to eat.

∞

We finished up our meal with idle chat and got up to leave. I noticed Tabitha hadn’t left yet, but maybe she was just enjoying her own time while she ate. Trace and I left, and I swore I saw Calvin out in the parking lot, just sitting in a truck. It was hard to tell in the light, but it did look like him. I shook my head and got in Trace’s truck and let him drive us back to the shop.

“What do you make of it?” He asked suddenly.

“You’re the PI, I’m not sure what to make of it.” I shrugged. “All I wanted was her name so that you could look her up and see how she fit into place.”

“It seems to me that she’s the biological mother of both Calvin and Sam, which makes things a little more complicated than I thought.” He pressed his lips together. Maybe Maggie and I need to have a chat tomorrow about what she’s really trying to discover.”

“I think that’s probably a good idea. I don’t think you need me on this case.”

“I do. There’s still the matter of the magic at the Magic and Dungeons games.” He shook his head. “Maybe his bio mother is magical, and Maggie just doesn’t want to admit it.”

“That would make Calvin magical too. You’d think he would have mentioned something.”

“That’s true. I can’t imagine having magic is easy growing up, especially if no one is there to teach you.”

I nodded. “I’m sure it’s not.” He pulled into the shop parking lot.

I got out and noticed that Calvin was leaning against my car. I glanced at Trace. His brows were drawn together, and he got out of the truck as well.

“Calvin, what are you doing hanging around?”

He held up what I was sure was a long cold coffee. “I wanted to make sure you got your coffee this evening. I was starting to worry about you when I didn’t see the lights on in the shop, but your car was still here.”

I gave an awkward smile. “Sorry, Trace and I went out for dinner to talk about another case.” The lie came out of my mouth easily enough because I didn’t want him to push for details if he thought we were talking about his mother’s case.

He narrowed his eyes at Trace and then turned back to me. “If you two were an item, you should have said something.”

“We’re not an item.” Trace stepped to my side. “It’s also a bit weird for you to wait this long for her at her car.”

Calvin growled. “I wouldn’t have been waiting out here if I’d realized you were at dinner.”

I didn’t understand his sudden anger at the situation. He chucked the coffee at me and stormed off.

I cried out as I put my arms up in a poor attempt to block the coffee, and instead of cold liquid, I was doused in hot coffee.

Trace noticed too as he took his jacket off and attempted to wipe me off. “Are you okay?”

“I think it was cooled off enough that it’s not actually going to burn.” I nodded and looked down at my coffee-soaked clothes. “I don’t know what the hell got into him.” My heart pounded, and I tried to take a deep breath.

Trace was pulling out his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling the cops. You’re reporting harassment.”

I wanted to argue, but I realized that the report needed to be made. I sighed and sat on the truck seat, my legs hanging out the door.

Trace walked off while he made the call, and I sat there trying to think why Calvin would be so angry. Had he been at the restaurant?

No, the guy I saw wasn’t even ready to leave, and he wouldn’t have had the time to grab coffee and beat us down here.

Trace came back to the truck. “An officer will be here in a few minutes. Are you sure you’re okay? The coffee was still pretty hot.”

“Yeah, it stings a little bit, but I don’t think it’s a full burn. My arms took the brunt of it.”

“Let’s go into the office, so you don’t freeze while being wet.” He shook his head and locked the truck.

I’d never really seen Trace angry before, irritated on occasion, but never angry.

He led me to the office. “Come on.” He disarmed his alarm, and I walked in and leaned against the desk. He flicked on the lights and looked at my arms. “They’re red. I should have told the cops to bring an EMT with them.”

“Yes, because it’s not embarrassing enough that someone threw hot coffee at me.” I sighed.

“I’m not sure what was going through his mind, but I don’t like it.”

“Me either.” And now I was second-guessing myself for showing up at the Magic and Dungeons session. Calvin knew I would be there, but maybe he wouldn’t try anything crazy with Sam around.

One could hope.

I saw the cop cruiser pull up in front of the office and sighed. I wasn’t planning on putting in a report, but if for some reason, Calvin tried something else, I wanted this on record, and I knew that was exactly what Trace was thinking as well.

CHAPTER SIX

After the night I had, I’d called Moses in and let him run the store for the day. I was going to take it easy and work on my character sheet for the session tomorrow night.

My arms were okay, and after a shower and another inspection, there were a couple spots that looked like they might blister, but there was no serious damage. My brain was still trying to figure out that situation.

If it had been Calvin at the restaurant, there would be very little chance that he could have gotten to the shop that fast without magical intervention. It was rare for wizards to walk through walls and appear somewhere else. It was possible, but not common. Salazar was able to do it. I did it in a moment of fear and panic, but it wasn’t something that I wanted to retry.

I shook my head and went back to my character sheet and tried to come up with some details on my elf. She was a high elf on the quest to find her companion, a creature that was promised to her by fate, but she had to go through her own magical journey before it would be granted.

That was as far as I had gotten. She’d be a level one to start out with, and her attributes would be low. Her class would give her some advantages on the field, and I had her as a sorcerer.

I leaned back on my couch and tried not to jump when my phone rang.

“Hello?”

“I just wanted to see how you feel.” Trace’s voice was on the other end. “I saw that you didn’t come in today.”

“Yeah, I was just tired. I called Moses, and then I went back to bed. My arms are fine, just a couple spots that might blister. I was lucky.”

“You were lucky because you were wearing a long sleeve shirt, and the cool air had dropped the coffee’s temperature. I went to the coffee shop and found out that he’d stopped there a few minutes before we’d shown up at the shop.”

I frowned. “That meant he had to have known I was going to be late. We were about an hour and a half after closing.”

“Exactly. I wonder if maybe Tabitha tipped him off?”

“She had no idea who we were.”

Except I had given her my real name. Maybe I needed to start coming up with an alias when I was talking to people. It hadn’t sounded like she was in contact with Calvin, and if she was, it wasn’t friendly contact according to Maggie.

“Just be careful. I don’t know if the police went and talked to him or not after you put your report in.”

I didn’t either. I had just wanted to get home and out of my coffee-soaked clothes last night. “I’m not going anywhere today. Tomorrow night is the Magic and Dungeons session, so we’ll see how that works out.”

“Okay, I’ll let you be, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” He disconnected the call, and I set the phone down before going back to my character sheet.

I looked down and started filling in my character’s physical description as I went down the sheet’s boxes.

When I finished that, I pulled out my computer to look for any found pets that might have popped up.

I scrolled through the local found and lost pets page and didn’t find anything matching the wolf’s description.

I pulled my phone out and texted Shandra. “Do you happen to have a picture of Anthony in his wolf form? I want to try to put a call out for a lost pet.”

Two seconds later, my phone rang. “Do you really think people are going to answer to a lost pet call when you show a picture of a wolf?”

“I was going to say he was a husky wolf mix and go from there. They aren’t uncommon, and it’s believable. No one has posted that they have found a wolf-like dog walking around the city. I’ve checked every lost and found pet page. I’m going to call the shelters here in a few minutes, but I figured I’d try this route too.”

There was an irritated sigh on the other end of the phone. “I don’t want any of my pack to know that he’s missing. Remember? If we put up a picture…”

“They would know, that’s right. Never mind then. I’ll see what I can do without a picture.”

“Thank you, and I do hope you enjoyed your meal last night.”

I smiled. “It was wonderful, thank you so much.”

“If you solve this and find my mate, you can have dinner on me any time, Ms. Willows. It’s the least I could do.”

I disconnected the call and pulled up the phone numbers for the local shelters. There were a few of them in town, but I started with the biggest one.

The phone rang a few times before it was answered. “Humane Society, how can I help you?”

“Yes, my dog got out, and I’m wondering if maybe someone dropped him off? He’s a big husky wolf mix, yellow eyes, dark gray fur. He answers to the name Anthony.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line and then. “Give me just a moment, I don’t see one in the system, but we just had a new group of dogs come in. Is he chipped?”

“No, he’s not. I just got him right before moving here. He was tied to a fence post, abandoned.”

“Okay, well, if he is here, you may want to consider getting him chipped before he gets out again. The first thing we do is scan animals for chips so we can get them back to their rightful owners.”

I tried not to imagine having to chip a werewolf. I forced the giggle that was bubbling in my throat down, but I couldn’t keep from questioning if the chip would survive the shift.

Hold music suddenly clicked on, and I sat there waiting for her to come back. A few minutes later, the music clicked off, and the woman was back. “No, I’m sorry to say that your dog is not here. Try some of the other shelters.” She disconnected the call, and I started back down my list of shelters.

Every other shelter ended the same way. No one had a dog that matched that description. Everyone suggested that I get the dog chipped, and one person made a rude comment about me buying such a dog, even when I explained to her that I had rescued him.

I went through one more scroll of the local pages and stopped when I came across a picture of a grumpy wolf.

His yellow eyes held a look that said he was fed up with whatever was going on when the picture was taken.

“Found this dog. Very friendly, but I think he scared away my dog.” Was written with the picture.

I reached out and messaged the lady. “That’s my dog. Is your dog a little white pom?”

It wasn’t long until I got an answer back. “Yes! Is she safe?”

She. I wondered if Shandra had checked the gender of the dog. “Yes, she’s with my friend who found her.”

“I want to meet tomorrow night. I want her back. This dog is stubborn.”

“I’ll see if she can meet you. I have another obligation tomorrow night. Could you do tonight?”

I waited for an answer and waited until I got back. “No.”

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do about tomorrow night then.”

I didn’t get an answer back after that.

I called Shandra.

“Did you find a wolf?”

“I did, but the person says that her dog is a female dog. Did you check the gender on the dog you have?”

“I didn’t. I assumed it was male because the dog answers to Anthony. Would a spell cause the gender to change?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve never dealt with this before, remember? See if you can check the dog’s gender. She wants to meet tomorrow night, but I have to go somewhere for the other case I’m on with Trace.”

“I can meet her. If anything, we can swap the dogs out, and then maybe you can see what’s going on?”

I wanted to be there because if Anthony really was the Pom, I didn’t want to have to explain to the lady why I needed to borrow her dog. “I’d rather be there. Or at least my dad?”

She huffed. “He would have to know that we exist.”

“He’s a wizard. He knows. We’ve known about your kind for a while.”

There was another noise of irritation. “Fine, send him tomorrow night. Let the lady know we’ll swap dogs, and with any luck, I’ll have my mate back to normal.”

With any luck.

“Sounds good.” I hung up and texted my dad that I needed his help with something.

He didn’t answer right away, but that wasn’t unusual for him. Sometimes it took him an hour to type out a text altogether.

∞

It was a couple hours later when my dad called me.

“I couldn’t get the stupid text to send, but your mom wants you over for dinner. She knows that you’re not at the shop today and says that you have no excuse to not come.”

I groaned. “Fine, what is she cooking tonight?”

“Burgers. I convinced her to just buy some patties and cook those on the grill.”

It almost seemed like a trick. “Okay, and then I’ll talk to you about what I need help with.”

“Okay, that sounds like a solid plan.” He paused for a moment. “Why aren’t you at the shop today?”

“The better question is, why do you two know I’m not at the shop?” I shut my computer and walked to the kitchen to make me something for lunch.

“I stopped by to pick up something else, and you weren’t there. Moses didn’t say why.”

I debated for a moment on how much I wanted to tell my dad. “I just decided that I needed a day off is all. I’ve gotten some research done and prepared for my case with Trace. It was much needed.” I didn’t want to tell him about the coffee. He’d tell mom and then she’d freak out on me.

My phone beeped, letting me know someone else was calling. “Dad, that’s Moses I have to see what he needs.”

“Okay, I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”

I swapped the call over. “What’s up?”

“There’s a guy here, demanding that he speak to you. Says he owes you an explanation?”

My heart sank. “Who is it?”

“He won’t tell me his name. He just keeps asking to speak to you.”

“Describe him.”

“Brown shaggy hair, probably your age, dressed up. Copperfield doesn’t like him. He turned a dark blue when the guy walked in.”

Calvin.

“Tell him to leave the shop, and if he stays, call the cops. He assaulted me last night.”

“You got it, boss lady.”

The call disconnected. I wasn’t worried about Moses because he was a big man who could take care of himself. He could probably take Calvin on hand to hand.

But I had to wonder what Calvin was doing there. Had he come to apologize? Or did he come to yell at me about Trace.

It didn’t matter, because either way, he’d be leaving the shop. Either willingly or with the cops.

I shook my head and went back to finish the final details of my character before sending the sheet off to the DM and leaning back to watch some TV.

I flipped through a few different streaming programs. When nothing caught my eye or my attention, I picked up my phone and texted Jenny.

“I’m off today, want to rearrange your office?”

It was barely a minute when her message came through. “No, but I’m coming over for lunch.”

That wasn’t exactly what I was aiming to accomplish, but her company would be nice.

“Okay, I’ll see you in a little bit. I’m at home.”

I shook my head and went back to the TV to waste time. Something was sitting right in the back of my mind, and I couldn’t seem to place it. I kept thinking back to Sam. He was so willing to let me go to the session after the fog incident that I wondered if I was walking into a trap.

I got some extra sandwich stuff out before Jenny got there. She walked into the house and put her bag down. “You would not believe the day I’ve had.”

“I thought work was going well.”

“It was until I got a call from our branch manager. One of our guys was arrested for assault last night and then let out this morning.”

Oh no. There was no way. Calvin said he worked for a lawyer.

“Oh, that’s interesting. What happened?”

“Well, his explanation is that he tripped and spilled his coffee on the person.”

“Is his name Calvin Loffton?”

“It is. He’s new at the office…” She stared at me. “Oh, oh, no. You were the person, weren’t you?”

I nodded. “He told me he was working for a lawyer.”

“He’s not. He’s working for the bank.”

Which was down the road from the shop still.

“He said that he had a new girlfriend and everything was going great. She was a small shop owner down the way. I should have known that it was you when he came back with a card trick one day.”

I rubbed my eyes. “I’m not his girlfriend. And he threw hot coffee on me. There was no tripping involved. I can’t believe that he works for you.”

“Not for me, just the company. I’m the assistant HR manager, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember. I’m sorry about the nightmare. Trace called and filed the report. I didn’t know they arrested him though.”

She nodded. “Yep. I’m supposed to go through the details and see if the offense is worth firing him over.”

“Don’t fire him. I’m sure he just lost his temper or something. I’m fine, the worst damage was the clothes. They’re stained.”

She made herself a sandwich. “We’ll have to see what happens now. If he continues to harass you or not.”

“I guess it depends on what the actual charge is.” I rubbed my eyes. “It’s more complicated than I was expecting it all to be.”

She nodded. “I didn’t expect you to be involved, but now that I know you are, I want to fire him just for being an ass.”

“That’s okay, see what happens with it.” I finished making my sandwich and then sat down. “He stopped by the shop today.”

“I hope that he had a good reason to or that Cairo bit him in the butt.”

I shook my head. “He wanted to speak to me, but I took the day off because of last night. I didn’t want to go in to work today. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a day off and recover.”

“From hot coffee.”

I rolled my eyes. “From a long day.”

“Okay, from a long day. You deserve days off on occasion.” She grinned. “We’ll rearrange my office next weekend. This weekend we have some big meeting to go to that involves all the managers in the company.”

“Where at?”

“Just the big event center in Denver. They’re letting us stay there for the night on the company’s dime. It’ll be a blast.”

“Enjoy. I’ll be playing Magic and Dungeons Friday night and then hopefully having a quiet weekend.”

She grinned. “Back to the high school days.”

“For the case with Trace.” I waved a hand. “It’s been a long time. I’m sure it’ll be as awkward as my first.”

My phone buzzed, and I looked at it.

“I’m sorry, our sessions have been canceled for now.”

It was a message from the DM, Titus.

“Or you know, it could be worst than my first time. The sessions have been canceled.”

She shook her head. “There are better ways to connect to teenagers.” She shrugged. “And honestly, you would have been super suspicious there.” She took a bite of her sandwich. “Trust me. No one trusts an adult who shows up to a teen’s game night.”

I nodded but texted back. “Okay, hope everything is okay.”

“Sam disappeared. Everything is not okay.”

That jerked me to attention, and I called Trace.

He answered on the second ring. “Yeah, I know. I just got a call from Maggie that he was gone. I’m working with her on it. She’s asked that you stay away from the case for now, but I was hoping you could talk to the group. None of them want anything to do with Maggie.”

“Did she get the cops involved?”

“They’ve been alerted he’s missing. We’re working with Detective Gavin. He knows you’re a consultant with me, so he’ll work with you too.”

“Perfect. I’ll see what I can do with the group.” I disconnected the call and looked at Jenny. “Looks like my case just got interesting.”

“Sounds like it. I’d take that over trying to decide on firing Calvin or not.”

“Well, he may not be around because he’s related to the case, and it’s his brother who’s disappeared.”

“Oh, that’s not good. I hope they find the kid. I’ve met him once, he’s a sweet kid. I didn’t realize that’s how you knew Calvin.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I met him on the case. He mentioned he walked past my shop every day and then suddenly started bringing me coffee. It was cute, we chatted a couple times, but nothing serious had evolved. I mean, it’s been less than a week. The fact that he thought we were dating makes me nervous.”

“Or he was overexaggerating.”

“Yeah, wishful thinking and all that jazz.” I waved my hand and went back to my lunch. We talked idly about what happened with my mom’s seafood and how her job was going other than Calvin, but the whole time my mind was stuck on Sam and him disappearing right after his biological mother demanded to see him.

∞

After lunch, I had arranged to see the DM of the Magic and Dungeons group on correct terms. I’d let him know who I was and who I was working with. I hadn’t let him in entirely on why I was trying to join the group or why Sam had recommended me, but I’m sure he was able to figure some of it out.

I pulled up to the address Titus game me to meet him. I got out of the car and walked up to the house. It was an unassuming two-story house. I could see the basement peeking out through tall window wells. Nothing strange or eerie surrounded the house, so I didn’t think I was in danger. Of course, I’d been wrong about that before.

Maybe I could conjure up a snake or a rope again if I got in trouble. I chuckled at the thought right as the door opened.

“Something amusing about the situation?” The guy asked. He was in his early twenties, head shaved, and I could see a tattoo of a dragon on his neck.

“Um, not about the situation, just a thought that crossed my mind. Sorry. I’m Lacey Willows, and I’m here to meet with Titus?”

He nodded and stepped aside so I could come in. “I’ve been waiting for you, Lacey.”

I entered, and he stepped around me. “We’ll go chat in the playroom. I don’t want my girlfriend to overhear.”

I raised a brow at that. “She doesn’t know about Sam?”

“No, and she doesn’t particularly care for my Magic and Dungeons nights.” He shook his head and led me to a flight of stairs. He went down first, and I followed him into a well-lit rec room that had a huge table in the middle. On the table sat maps, sheets, figurines, and dice.

It was an amazing set up that told me he took it all seriously. It made me smile and think back to my days of playing. “You have a nice setup.”

“Thank you. Why are you here, Lacey? Sam had originally said you wanted to join our group, but now that you’re working with the detective and a PI, I’m not so sure about that.”

I nodded. “I’ll be honest. The PI was hired by Maggie Loffton because she thought something odd was going on here after Sam mentioned some of the spells appearing like they were real.”

Titus stiffened, but I continued.

“I wanted to see what was going on. I’m a witch, parlor tricks and illusions don’t scare me, and I would be able to tell if they were real magic or simply smoke and mirrors. Originally Sam refused to have me come along, but then he said a spell he cast was more than just an illusion.”

Titus nodded. “The fog spell.”

“So he asked if I could come along to see what was happening. I think he was concerned that his safe place was no longer, well, safe.”

He nodded. “This was Sam’s haven. You could see him relax when he came in. Just like the others. They all come from different walks of life.” He smiled. “And here they can be whatever they want.”

“Do you know what happened with the spell?”

He shook his head. “I’ll be honest with you, the illusions, that’s me. I’m magical. I don’t make it known because sometimes people get nervous around magical folk.”

I gave him a look that said ‘no kidding,’ and he laughed.

“But I don’t know what happened with the fog, which is what worries me.” He crossed his arms. “None of it was supposed to be real, could you imagine if he had cast magic missile or something dangerous?”

I cringed. “This would be a very different case.”

“Exactly. So I chose to move it to just one night a week, and that would give me a chance to wipe the spells away and have things go back to normal.” He shrugged. “And then Sam disappeared.”

“And you have no idea where Sam would be? His home life seemed pretty stable. I wouldn’t think he’d run away.”

“Naw, the kid was looking forward to his senior year and graduating. He wouldn’t do anything like that to screw his life up. He’s a good kid.”

I nodded in agreement. “Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, Titus. When you figure out what went wrong with that spell, will you let me know?”

“I haven’t been able to. Do you want to take a look at them? Maybe you can figure it out?”

I considered it for a moment. “Yeah, I’d like to take a look.”

He pulled out a binder. “So here are the ones I altered. Nothing fancy. I just worked some of the enchantment into the actual spells.”

He flipped the binder open, and I could see where the Latin words were mixed in with the spell’s original wording.

“Nicely done. Where’s the fog spell that Sam used the other night?”

“In his book. That’s why it was concerning. It wasn’t one of mine.”

Interesting. “Where’s your version of the fog spell?”

“Here.” He flipped the pages and pointed.

“Can I take a picture of it? I want it to compare to whatever I find in Sam’s book.”

“Of course.”

I took a picture with my phone and smiled. “Thank you again, Titus. You’ve been more than helpful.”

“I hope you find Sam soon and that he’s not hurt.”

“Yeah, me too.” I knew the statistics of missing adults, and it wasn’t much different for missing teens.

I walked back up the stairs and was greeted by a woman who had a nasty look on her face. “Who the hell are you?”

“Um, hi, I’m Lacey. You must be Titus’ girlfriend.”

“Yes, I am.” She looked over my head at Titus. “Another ‘player?’” she put air quotes over player.

“No, actually, this is Lacey Willows. She’s working on a case that has to do with Sam.” He sighed. “Sam went missing last night.”

She seemed to soften up a little bit. “Oh.”

“And now I’m on my way out. Thanks again for the information.” I walked out of the house and got in the car. I should have headed home, but instead, I went to Trace’s office to share the information.

CHAPTER SEVEN

When I pulled up to the building, I saw cop cars in front of both Trace’s office and my shop. No one had called me to update me on anything. I parked around back and then walked to the shop. Moses stood there with an ice pack on his eye. Not far away stood Calvin and Trace. Calvin was in the middle of being handcuffed, and Trace was also sporting an ice pack.

“I’m not sure what I’m walking into, but seeing as this is my shop, maybe someone should have called me?”

Calvin jerked in the cuffs. “You whore.”

I blinked at him and then looked to Trace and Moses. It took me a moment to figure out what he meant. “Oh, you think I’m sleeping with them both?”

“Yes.” He snarled. “While we were dating.”

I shook my head. “We weren’t dating. You brought me coffee a couple times. That doesn’t mean we were dating.”

Another officer came up to the group. “Mr. Loffton, you were just released this morning for assault.”

“I didn’t assault her.” He snarled. “This is bull.”

I just stood there, not sure what to say. I hadn’t gotten a court date yet for his first arrest. The officers took him to one of the cruisers while he screamed profanities at me. I shook my head. “He’s delusional.”

Trace nodded. “Yeah, and violent. Hopefully, he’s not released so quickly this time.”

“Are you two okay? Did defending my honor hurt too much?”

They both laughed until one of the officers came back over.

“Ms. Willows, we saw that you and Mr. McHue were the ones who put the report in last night.”

I nodded. “Yes, Calvin threw hot coffee on me last night after he saw Trace and I get back from dinner. There was no explanation for why he did it other than he was angry.”

“And today?”

“Moses called to tell me Calvin stopped by demanding to speak to me. I told him to tell Calvin to leave, and if he didn’t leave, to call the cops. That was a couple hours ago.”

Moses stepped up. “He came back assuming you were going to be in this afternoon. When I told him you weren’t going to be here today, he attacked me, claiming that you were sleeping with me and didn’t want to admit that to him.”

“I heard the ruckus and came over.” Trace shrugged. “I tried to pull Calvin off Moses, and well, he turned around and did the same thing.”

I rubbed my eyes. “I’m sorry, guys. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”

“How long have you known him?”

“A week? I met him in connection to a case that Trace and I are working on. So not long.”

The officer made a note. “Okay, I’ll be in contact. Thank you, Ms. Willows.”

He walked off, and I let out a long sigh. “Well, I’m glad I wasn’t here when he came. Sorry you two got caught up in that mess.”

Trace nodded. “Me too, because Maggie also just fired us from the case. That happened a few minutes before Calvin showed back up. She said that there was a conflict of interest.”

“Like her so-called son attacking people?” I muttered and then ran a hand over my hair. “Are we still helping out with Detective Gavin.”

“He’ll probably need us to help him with the information we have, but after that, who knows.” Trace rubbed his eyes. “This is a mess. “

“You’re telling me.” I shook my head. “Go ahead and close up shop, mom’s grilling burgers tonight.”

“Are you sure there’s going to be enough?” Moses asked.

I nodded. “She always cooks plenty.”

Trace narrowed his eyes. “Burgers is an awfully normal thing for your mother to cook.”

“Just go with it. Dad convinced her.” I shook my head. “And tonight, I could go for some normal.”

“And a drink.” Trace said. “A strong drink.”

“And maybe some Tylenol?” I suggested after he winced when he blinked.

“Yeah. I’ll see you at your parents’ house.” He went back to his office, and I turned to Moses.

“I’m really sorry you got mixed up in this.”

“It’s okay. At least it keeps life interesting.”

There was at least that. “Lock up, and I’ll see you at my parents’.” I walked back around the building and tried not to let the day get to me. I needed to relay the information that I’d gotten from Titus to the detective in charge before I did anything else.

I looked through the text I had from Trace and found the number for the detective.

He didn’t answer, so I left him a message letting him know the gist of what I had learned and told him to call me back if he needed more.

I started the car, texted my parents that we were going to have company, and then headed over to their house. The only bright side of the day was at least now I could go to the meeting with Shandra and the woman tomorrow night and see what I could do about the werewolf issue.

∞

I beat both Trace and Moses to the house and parked out front. My dad had said it was fine, and that there was plenty of food like I had assumed. I got out, and when I walked into the house, I was greeted by the delicious smell of burgers on the grill. It eased the tension in me just a little bit because burgers were comfort food. I sat my purse down by the door and walked through the house to the back yard. My mom was in front of the grill and my dad stood there with a beer.

He greeted me with a smile. “Long day?”

“Give me a beer before I even start to fill you in on the rest of it.” I shook my head. “My life is starting to get too weird for my liking.”

Dad walked into the house with me and grabbed a beer from the fridge. “Everything okay?”

“Look, last night someone threw coffee on me. Today he showed up and attacked Trace and Moses.”

“That explains why they are coming over for dinner. You know your mother’s going to ask questions.”

I nodded. “I know. We’ll see what they say. I’ll let them handle it, but just in case it does come up, it’s been taken care of. He’s been arrested, and hopefully, he’ll be staying in jail for longer than one night. I haven’t been contacted for a court date yet on the first arrest, so we’ll see what happens.”

Dad nodded and opened the beer for me. “What happens is that if he gets let out again, you scare him away with magic. Is he magical?”

I shook my head. “Not that we know of.”

“There you have it. Pull something scary out of a hat, and he’ll go running.”

I stared at my dad. “What is the scariest thing you’ve seen me pull out of a hat?”

“Copperfield when he’s hungry.” My dad winked, and I shook my head.

“There was something else I wanted to talk to you about. The werewolf thing. I might need help with it.”

“How so?”

“The wolf was turned into a Pomeranian.”

Dad stared at me. “That’s powerful magic. There are very few around that can transfigure something that big and that complicated. We’re not talking swapping just an animal soul, but a human as well.”

I nodded. “I don’t think I can undo that.”

“It would take some time, but I might be able to. Before we even attempt it, we have to make sure that is what actually happened.”

“I found someone claiming they found a wolf and lost their pom. We’re meeting them tomorrow night to see what we can find out.”

“Does Shandra know what happened or who would do such?”

I shook my head. “No, she wasn’t really forthcoming with any information.”

“Maybe you should ask better questions then.” Trace walked into the kitchen. “If you ask the right questions, you can get different information.”

Dad got in the fridge and grabbed Trace a beer as well. “Nice bruise there.”

“Got it defending your daughter’s honor.” Trace snorted. “Turns out, the guy had a good right hook that I wasn’t ready for.”

“He had a mean left hook too.” This from Moses, who came in and joined us. “I don’t think the cooking in your house has smelled this normal since your mom started inviting me over for dinner.”

I shrugged. “Be glad we’re not here on octopus night.”

Moses looked at my dad and Trace to see if I was joking, and neither one of them cracked a smile. “I’ll remember that.”

My mom walked in. “You act like I’ve poisoned you before.”

We did have to hand it to her. We hadn’t ended up with food poisoning, yet. All of us remained silent. My mother threw her hands up in the air and walked back out to check the burgers.

I grinned. “This is nice.”

Trace nodded. “It is.”

Two seconds later, my mother screamed.

We rushed outside to see what the big deal was, and there, in the middle of the yard, was a wolf.

Not just any wolf. The same wolf that I was supposed to meet the lady about tomorrow night.

My phone chimed and then started ringing at the same time. I answered it as my mother continued her theatrics about a wolf being in her yard.

“It just changed into a bunny! A bunny, Ms. Willows!”

“Well, the good news is there’s a wolf in my yard.” I tried to keep my voice even. “Any suggestions on how to approach him, so he doesn’t dash off?”

“Just talk to him. If the human version of him is in there, then he’ll understand you.”

“And if the human version isn’t in him?”

“Approach like you’re approaching a very scared dog.”

So basically, talk to it.

“Got it. Thanks. I’ll see you in a bit.”

I checked the text that came through. “My dog came back, won’t be meeting tomorrow night. Your dog ran off.”

I didn’t bother responding. I started to walk to the wolf, crouched down, so I didn’t seem threatening. “Hey Anthony, you in there?”

The wolf looked up at me with yellow eyes, and he seemed to nod. Oh good, this was going to be easier than I thought. “Can you shift back?”

He jerked his nose towards the audience at my back.

“Most of us are magical, and the other two already know about your kind.”

He seemed to huff, which was a strange noise coming from a wolf.

“Hey dad, can you go grab some clothes?” I asked without looking back. I’d never dealt with a werewolf before, so I was hoping that he wasn’t going to suddenly go feral and eat my face off. “Anthony, once you shift back, Shandra’s on her way.”

He shook his head, and in a flash of light, a naked man was crouched in the yard. “Can’t. Put her. In danger.” He passed out in the grass, and I look over at my mother, who I swore was about to faint.

“Trace, can you go get a blanket? And maybe you and Moses can help move him? I’m going to call Shandra.”

∞

I let the men take care of Anthony, and I went to the front yard to call Shandra. “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”

“Don’t play with me, witch.”

“Anthony was able to shift back with no naïve witnesses, but when I told him that you were on the way, he told me no, that he didn’t want you in danger. This tells me that there’s something else going on. Who would be trying to hurt you?”

Shandra was quiet for a moment. “There’s a wizard out there named Salazar.”

Of course, it had to be him. “I’m familiar with him. He was just released on bond not long ago.”

“He wants my pack.”

“Salazar is out of my league. You need to find another witch.” I shook my head. “He’s playing fairly simple games right now. Swapping one animal out for your mate, but if he gets nastier, I can’t handle him.”

Shandra sighed. “I know that. I was hoping that wasn’t it. But if my mate doesn’t want me to come to him because he thinks it’ll put me in danger, that’s probably it.”

Yeah. Probably. “I’ll talk to Anthony when he wakes up and find out what’s going on.”

“He’s not awake?”

“No, he passed out soon after his shift. Is that not normal?” I really knew nothing about werewolves.

“Not for one of his strength. Of course, if he’s been in wolf form since he disappeared, he’s probably exhausted. Please have him call me when he wakes up. I’ll trust his judgment right now and stay away until he says it’s safe.” She disconnected the call, and I wondered what her next step was. Would they hunt Salazar? Did this mean war between the wolf pack and the wizard?

I wouldn’t be sad if they ate him. That would certainly solve one of my problems. I walked back into the house to see that the guys had gotten Anthony laid on the couch and covered in a blanket.

“Thanks.”

They both nodded, and we all walked into the kitchen, automatically picking up our beers and taking a sip like a werewolf hadn’t interrupted our chat at all.

“So this is what it’s like in the magical community,” Moses said. He took another drink of his beer.

“Burgers are ready,” my mom called from the deck, and I started pulling out the paper plates.

The only thing to do when your day went weird was to have a normal dinner and hope that your mother didn’t suddenly decide to make the burgers out of fish.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I decided to be the one to open the shop the next morning. I could prepare for the Saturday rush and make sure Copperfield was good. Besides, the shop was a great place to get my mind off Sam and the werewolf problem.

I went through the motions of opening the store, getting the till and counting down, and then going through what was sold the day before. Moses typically made sure inventory was restocked after a sale, but because I had him close down early last night, he didn’t have a chance to finish up.

I paused when I noticed the ivy was missing. Like the plant had just gotten up and walked off, leaving its pot empty in the windowsill. I stood there for a moment and wondered if that was what happened, or if for some reason, Moses unpotted it.

Glancing around the store, I didn’t see it. I shrugged and flipped on my ‘open’ light. I went back to the counter and scratched Copperfield behind the ear. His fur remained the bright lavender that he preferred.

“I’m glad to see you’re at work today.” Trace walked in. The bruise near his eye had turned a nasty purple overnight.

“Yeah, I thought I needed a normal day. Besides, it’s Friday, and I want to set up a sale table for tomorrow. Saturday mornings always have a nice rush, and it’ll be a chance to get rid of some of the clearance items.”

“Like the massive amount of rings and scarves?”

I nodded. “Like those.”

The door chimed, and a man walked in. “Hello, Ms. Willows?”

“Yes, can I help you?”

“I’m Detective Gavin. You left a message for me last night about Sam?”

My gut fell. “Yeah, did you find the information helpful?”

“We did, but I’m afraid I don’t have a witch on my team, and I was hoping you could take a look at Sam’s Magic and Dungeons book?”

Trace stepped to my side. “Detective, it’s good to see you.”

“You too, Mr. McHue. Sorry that this case seems to have brought you some trouble. I was made aware of Calvin’s arrests last night.”

Trace shrugged. “I’ve had worse than a black eye before, I think I’ll live.”

Detective Gavin handed me the book, and I flipped it open. “This is an older version of the book,” I muttered. “The one that I saw online and on the table at Titus’ house were newer.” I flipped through it and went to the fog spell. I pulled out the picture of the altered fog spell that Titus had made.

They were almost completely different. I frowned.

“You found something?”

I nodded. “Stand back, boys. I’m going to try some magic.”

Trace grabbed Copperfield and stepped back a few feet, but Detective Gavin stayed right there.

I took a deep breath and read the spell that Titus had altered.

Nothing happened. Which I had expected. Titus had messed with the spells, but I had a feeling that part of it was that the spell would only work in the room they had sessions, a conditional spell. It was smart because it meant the players couldn’t go around casting spells to show off.

I looked down at the book and took a deep breath. I looked at Trace, who nodded.

Fog wasn’t a dangerous spell, so I wasn’t worried about something too crazy showing up, but I was worried about doing it wrong.

I read the spell out loud, and I could feel the tingle of magic move through me. Suddenly, popping could be heard. I looked outside and saw clouds of cotton candy appearing out of the air.

Trace started laughing, and Detective Gavin looked at me, unimpressed with what had happened.

I cleared my throat. “Well, it looks like we found the source of what made the spell real. The question is, who would switch out the books?”

“And where Sam is. Can these spells be dangerous?”

“I mean, they’re meant for clearing dungeons and defeating monsters. I would say they could be dangerous. I think Sam was a Mage, though, and depending on his alignment, he wouldn’t be using spells to harm, but more like tricks, like the fog spell is meant to conceal.”

Trace crossed his arms. “There’s a cotton candy storm brewing outside. How long is this spell supposed to last?”

I shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure.” I could only hope that it wasn’t going to take over the whole city.

I flipped through the book and paused at an earmarked page. “A spell of concealment. Maybe Sam hasn’t gone missing at all.” I looked at Trace, “Maybe he’s just hiding.”

Trace looked at the detective. “Where was Sam’s last known location?”

“He was at home. In his room, according to Calvin.”

I was starting to think Calvin was in on this, but maybe it was just me being resentful. “I need to get into the house if we want to counter the spell.”

“Can you counter it?” Detective Gavin asked and motioned outside to the cotton candy that was starting to melt in the rain. “Correctly.”

I tried not to get my feelings hurt. “You can find another consultant to do it if you want.” I didn’t snap at him. I simply closed the book. I understood where he was coming from.

“I’ll be back if I can’t find one.”

‘Better than you’ didn’t need to be said, but it hung in the air. He picked up the book and walked out of the store.

Trace looked at me when the door shut. “You okay?”

I nodded. “I know that my quirky magic isn’t what people always expect or need. He’ll find another witch that can undo the spell if I’m right.” I shrugged and picked up Copperfield. “Besides, I have my hands full with the werewolf case.”

Trace gave me a half-assed smile. “Okay, I’ll see you around lunchtime. If you need anything, just holler.”

“Okay.”

He walked out, and I went back to work.

∞

Twenty minutes before I was going to close for lunch, the door opened. There had been a steady stream of customers throughout the day, so I looked up from my list expecting, another one. What I did not expect was the worried face of Tabitha staring back at me.

“Ms. Willows. I need your help.”

It seemed a lot of people had been saying that recently. “I’m not sure how I can help you.”

“I’ll pay you for your time.” She took a step further into the store. “Sam is missing, and Maggie won’t give me any information on him.”

I sighed. “I’m not involved in that case at all anymore. I can’t provide you any information even if I was.”

“Maggie is hiding him. I know she is. Calvin agreed to meet me with Sam and then suddenly, Sam disappeared. You can’t tell me that Maggie isn’t behind this.”

“Ms. Wilde, I’m not a cop. I’m not even a PI. I’m a quirky witch who helps out where she can. You need to talk to the detective on the case if you have information on what might be going on.”

She sighed. “I want to hire a PI.”

I jerked my thumb to point to Trace’s office. “Talk to Trace. I don’t know if he can take your case or not.”

She nodded. “Thank you, Ms. Willows.” She walked out, and I saw her go next door. I shook my head and went back to my list of items that needed to be put on the sales table.

I had half the table done when Trace walked in with Tabitha. “Lacey, Tabitha has something to tell us.”

“Calvin is magical. I don’t know about Sam because he’s never shown any signs of it that Calvin has mentioned.” She sighed. “I don’t think this is Calvin’s doing though.”

I wasn’t going to argue about what Calvin would and would not do, because I was still pretty upset at him for attacking the guys. “I need access to Sam’s room, but Maggie isn’t going to allow that.”

Trace nodded. “Not to mention you’re not allowed near Calvin and vise versa.”

“That puts a damper on things too, for sure. I’ll do what I can to help as Trace’s consultant, but that’s all I can do.”

I had expected a question from Tabitha about why I had to stay away from Calvin, but she just sailed over the comment. “Thank you both. I’ll be in touch.”

She walked out without another word, and I looked at Trace. “Wouldn’t this be considered a conflict of interest?”

“Only if Maggie was still paying me, which she’s not. She made it very clear that she fired me after Calvin attacked you.” He shook his head. “I’m taking it because I want to find out what happened to Sam, and this is the only way I could really help.”

“I understand that. The thing is, if Sam were to read from that book and he’s magical, the spell wouldn’t be limited to the Magic and Dungeons playroom. Titus said Sam was using a different book that night. I want to go back and take a look at the room Titus has.”

“Okay, I’m going to go see what I can learn about Calvin.”

I shook my head. “Don’t. That’s too obvious. I have an idea.” I pulled my phone out and called Jenny. “Hey, I have a favor to ask you.”

“And I have an HR nightmare with Calvin,” she growled back. “What the hell were you thinking getting involved with a guy like that.”

“One, I wasn’t involved with him. Two, we need to know what you know about Calvin. Care to meet Trace for coffee?”

There was a little bit of hesitation in her voice. “What’s going on?”

“Case related. You meet Trace, tell him information on Calvin. I have to check on something else.”

She sighed. “This is going to be a mess. I’m not sure if I can tell you anything as an HR person.”

“It won’t be anything that will put your job in jeopardy, which is why Trace will do it, because he knows what he’s allowed and not allowed to ask.”

“Okay, I’ll see him in about an hour?”

“That’ll be great. Thanks, Jenny.”

“You owe me wine and one hell of an explanation after this.”

I laughed. “I’ll take you out to dinner after the case is done.”

We disconnected the call, and Trace looked at me. “I thought he worked for a lawyer.”

“Yeah, well, everyone lies.” I snorted.

He shrugged and didn’t bother denying it. “I’ll let you know what I find out. Call Moses in to watch the shop and head over to Titus’ house?”

“I’m about to close for lunch, so I’ll just shut down and hop on over there.”

He walked out, and I went and grabbed Copperfield off the floor and put him in his cage. “I’ll be back, buddy.”

He twitched his nose and stared at me while his fur kept switching from lavender to dark blue.

I paused for a moment. Dark blue was what he had been turning when Calvin was around.

There wasn’t anyone in the shop, so I didn’t think any more of it. Maybe the bunny was traumatized from yesterday.

I locked his cage and set the alarm system before I left.

∞

I pulled up to Titus’ house and found the driveway empty. I probably should have called before I headed over, but I didn’t think about it. I just really wanted to see if I could find out what spells were restricted to that room.

I got out of the car and walked up to the house. Maybe he and his girlfriend shared a car and one of them was home. I knocked on the door and waited for a moment. The door swung open, and the girlfriend stood there with her arms crossed. “What do you want?”

“I was hoping I could take another look at Titus’ room where they do the Magic and Dungeons sessions?”

“He’s not here, and I don’t know anything about this crap.”

“That’s fine. I don’t need to ask any questions. I just want to look around.”

“Look, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but Sam is missing, and you want to look at a room where some stupid game is played?” She dropped her arms. “Shouldn’t you be looking for him?”

“I’m actually here on something not regarding the disappearance, but the magic involved.”

She huffed and tried to close the door in my face.

“Hey, Lacey.” Titus came up behind me. “Why are you back?”

“She wants to look at the room again. Because you know Sam’s hiding there.” Her sarcasm was clear, but I brushed it off.

“We’ve been through this, anything to help find Sam. If she needs to look at the room again, she can.” He sighed. “Sorry, she’s on edge. Sam was one of the teens she didn’t mind.”

I made a mental note of that. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to cause problems.”

“She’ll get over it. I need to drop the groceries off in the kitchen. Why don’t you head downstairs and take a look at what you need.”

I did as he suggested and headed down to the room. I walked in and paused for a moment. Something was different. The figurines and the maps had been cleaned up, the books had all been put away, and I could see the table. I walked over to the shelf and looked at the spine of the books. They all had the same edition listed on the them. The shelf lower had different editions, older, but they were all there.

I continued to walk through the room and look at all the stacks of books and binders that I could find. A couple piles of books were next to the table. They hadn’t been there before. They looked almost like they were haphazardly thrown there.

They were the same edition of Magic and Dungeons that Sam had his spell in. The book that should have been there wasn’t, and it was the book of spells that Sam had. I heard footsteps come down the stairs as my mind raced to figure out what was going on. Did Titus give Sam the book knowing what was going to happen? Or was there something else at play here?

“Where are you going, Titus?”

“Downstairs to see if Lacey needs any help. She might not know what she’s looking at.”

Luckily for me, I had enough knowledge to get by and know what was missing from that pile. Titus appeared in the room. “Sorry, it’s a mess. We were unpacking some of the old books because we were thinking about playing from the older editions after Sam was found. For fun, you know, because sometimes the old rules are better.”

I nodded and picked up the DM guide from the pile I had been looking at. “This was the edition I started with. The spells were some of my favorites because I always imagined them going perfect. Not like the quirkiness I was born with.”

“I’m missing a book from that edition.” He sighed. “Which is a shame because I wanted to give it to Sam. He was interested in the older version of some of the spells. He never did say why, but I promised him that I’d give him the spell book when I unpacked it.”

“That’s a shame. Any idea what happened to it?”

He shook his head. “You know sometimes things just get lost when you move. Maybe I lent it out before we moved here. Who knows?”

“Maybe you can find another copy and complete the set.” I put the book down. “Thank you for letting me look around. I’m not even sure what I’m looking for, but I wanted to ask you about the spells. I tried the fog spell you wrote, and it didn’t work in my shop.”

“That’s because it’s tied to here. I can’t have any of my magical players going around casting fog spells. It would be a mess.”

“That’s what I figured, but I wanted a confirmation. Thank you.”

Lisa came down the stairs. “Oh, sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to just come and get back to putting the books away.”

“Of course, I’m done anyway. Thanks for letting me take a look around.” I went up the stairs, and Titus followed me.

“Sorry, she’s a bit of a neat freak, and even though she doesn’t like the game, she likes the room organized. If it was up to me, it’d still be all scattered.” He chuckled.

I shrugged. “Don’t be sorry, it seems like you two balance each other out. Where did you meet?”

“Oh, we met in college. We had the same chemistry class together. We decided to move out here because she said she had family here.” There was a bit of confusion in his voice. “It turned out that her family wasn’t still around but had moved without saying anything. I guess they were an aunt and uncle.” He shook his head. “But we decided to stay and make our life here.”

“A cute little love story.” I smiled. “Thank you again for letting me look around. I really do appreciate it.”

“Of course, anything to find Sam.”

I went back to the car and sat there for a moment. There was something I was missing, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I started the engine and went back to the store.

∞

The ivy had returned, and now it covered the outside of my window. It hung over the roof with roots curled over the edge of the building. Like it went for a stroll and wanted to come back to its pot. I stood there with my arms crossed, trying to decide what to do. It wasn’t like I could get into my shop now, because it was creeping over the entryway as well.

This was an interesting problem to have. “Excuse me, Enchanted Ivy, could I possibly get into my shop?”

The ivy’s leaves all pointed at me, and I realized that it was not a nice ivy. It started to creep toward me, stretching out the vines and leaves like hands. I stepped back until I was on the edge of the curb with a parked car behind me. Without a moment’s notice, leaves started flying at me like razors.

I cried out and jumped behind the parked car, leaning against the bumper as the leaves went flying over and around, shattering car windows. I ducked as one went flying over my head, embedding itself into a telephone poll. Others hit the ground, cracking the asphalt near me.

It was a killer plant, and that wasn’t something I was expecting to come out of an ivy. Green vines started to crawl across the asphalt toward me, and I booked it across the street. I wasn’t sure what I could do about a killer plant. I tried to think of something that could kill it quickly, but my mind was blanking.

Fire. Fire killed every plant.

I took a deep breath and tried to focus on summoning some sort of fire. My gaze darted around to find the roots. Kill the roots, kill the plant. Right?

I summoned every bit of magic I could think of and focused on the roots. As long as I didn’t set the building on fire, I would be okay. So I hoped.

I felt the magic hum through me, and something in me clicked, but no fire came. Nothing came. All the leaves on the ivy had regrown and were pointing toward me again. Thunder cracked overhead, and I looked up to see storm clouds. I realized I had summoned something, but it wasn’t fire. Unless the fire was going to be started by lightning.

Another boom of thunder overhead and liquid started falling from the sky. I stuck my hand out and studied what was pooling in my palm. Brown droplets with tiny bubbles. I brought my hands to my lips and laughed when I realized it was raining Professor Pep. I looked back to the ivy, which hesitated with this new development.

The leaves started to wither and fall off the vine as the roots shriveled up. The green started to fade, and the ivy fell to the ground with a thump, lying dead on the sidewalk as the soda rain subsided, leaving puddles of fizzy liquid behind.

I stood there waiting for something else to happen, but the only thing that happened was a few people peeking their heads out of their shops, shaking them, and going back inside.

Lucky for me, the area was used to weird things happening. I sighed and crossed the street. I needed clean clothes and to figure out what to do with the killer plant.

“What on earth happened?” Trace asked as he walked up. “I’m going to assume the Professor Pep storm was you?”

I nodded. “I was trying to summon fire, but I summoned soda instead. But it worked. The plant is dead.”

“The ivy? Isn’t that a little…” He looked down at the sidewalk and saw the massive plant there. “Never mind. Are you okay?”

“I was attacked by a plant. I’m not exactly sure if that constitutes okay.” I ran a hand through my soda-soaked hair and sighed. “I need a shower and some clean clothes.”

“I’ll keep an eye on the shop. When you get back, we can fill each other in on what we learned?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll be back in a bit.” I headed to the car.

Before I got in, I rifled through my trunk to see if I could find anything to sit on to save the seat from the soda. I found an old blanket that I’d stuck in there for emergencies. This looked like an emergency to me.

I pulled it out and laid it on the seat, got in, and headed home to change.

CHAPTER NINE

I got back to the shop to find that the plant had shriveled up more in the sunlight and was now a skinny brown withered rope instead of a healthy green killing machine. I stepped over it and walked into the shop to see Trace finishing up with a customer.

The lady waved at me as she walked out, and I stepped up to the counter. “Thanks for watching the shop.”

“I almost called Moses in to do it, because I thought you might want to take the rest of the day off.”

“A killer plant isn’t going to stop me from coming back to work. Not today.”

“An assassination ivy.” He chuckled. “But in all seriousness, we need to find out who sent you that ivy.”

I nodded. “I know. There’s only one person who might be out to kill me. So I’m willing to bet it was Salazar.”

“If the plant hadn’t shown up before the Sam situation, I would be willing to bet Calvin had something to do with it.”

I shook my head. “Not his style, and though he’s magical, I don’t know if he could enchant something like that.”

No, that kind of enchantment needed a lot of experience. Someone had taken a house plant and turned it into a killing machine that knew who its victim was. That wasn’t a parlor trick. That was damn good magic.

“I’m never going to be able to drink Professor Pep again.” I shook my head. “It took me forever to get the sticky out of my hair.”

“Well, at least you didn’t catch yourself on fire.” He offered.

Or the building. “Really, I was trying. Who knew that soda killed plants?”

“Either way, it worked.” He came out from behind the counter and scratched Copperfield’s ears. “I’ll bring Nooccar tomorrow, buddy, I promise.”

“Learn anything new about Calvin?”

He shook his head. “Not really. Jenny said that he seemed kind of bitter about his home situation, having to be there to help his brother and his mom out. He thinks of himself as quite the ladies’ man and often brags about who he’s sleeping with.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Gross.”

“He thinks of you as a conquest. I guess some of the employees have been told about a girl who’s playing hard to get.”

“Wait, is he out?”

“They only put a twenty-four-hour hold on him.”

“You should have mentioned that.” I sighed.

“I just found out while I was at coffee.” He shrugged. “Look, he should know to leave you alone now. He’s been arrested twice.”

I would have thought one time arrested would have been enough, but I didn’t say anything. “The book Sam had, Titus had a full collection at one point for that edition, but he’s missing that particular book. He says it got lost in a move.”

“What do you think?”

“I think he’s being honest, and the timing is wrong, but there’s something that’s just not sitting right with my brain. I can’t pinpoint what happened there that threw me off.”

Trace leaned against the counter. “We know that Sam got that book from somewhere.”

“And we know the spells were altered.”

“Titus and his girlfriend live there, but have we met the rest of the group?”

I shook my head. “No, the sessions were canceled when Sam disappeared.”

Trace’s phone rang, and he held a finger up to tell me to hold on. He stepped out of the shop, and I busied myself with paperwork and going through what sales Trace made while I was gone.

I went and got the pot out of the window. I needed to take it to the dumpster and throw it out before anything else decided to grow in it. I flipped it over and saw a sticker on the bottom of it.

Liana’s Garden was printed on the sticker.

I’d heard Liana’s commercials before. It was a small nursery down south, tucked back on the edge of a neighborhood. I’d never been there because of my inability to keep plants alive, but maybe I needed to visit.

Trace walked back in. “Want me to go throw that out?”

I nodded. “That’d be great. Who called?”

“That was Tabitha. It turns out that someone broke into both her house and Maggie’s house last night. Trashed the rooms, but didn’t take anything.”

“I’m willing to bet whoever it was, was looking for the book Sam had.”

“But why Tabitha’s house?”

I shrugged. “You’re the PI here, not me.”

He rolled his eyes. “Speaking of, how’s the wolf situation?”

“Anthony is held up in a hotel for a little bit while Shandra tries to figure out what is going on with Salazar. I don’t know any more than that. I don’t really want to tangle with it right now. She didn’t even actually need me because Anthony wasn’t hidden by magic, he was just being moved around.”

“That’s still pretty magical.” He shrugged. “Just so happened that the wolf ended up in your parents’ yard.”

Which was pretty peculiar. If it was Salazar, maybe he was taunting me.

“I’m going to take the pot to the trash and then go back to the office. I want to get some paperwork filed and see if I can make sense of what Tabitha was saying on the phone.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

He walked out, and I grabbed my phone to look up the hours of the nursery. They’d already closed for the day, so I’d have to wait until tomorrow to talk to them about the killer ivy. I wanted to know how many of these plants they’d sold and if they could point me in the direction to who might have sent me one.

∞

I shut the store down for the night and waited for Trace to get done in the office. I didn’t want to chance getting to my car alone and finding Calvin waiting for me.

Trace came out a few minutes later and locked his office. “Ready?”

I nodded. “Yeah, let’s go. I’d like to get home and relax for a little bit and take another shower. I swear that I still have soda in my hair.”

Trace pretended to smell my hair. “Yeah, smells like it.”

I stepped away. “That’s creepy.”

“Not as creepy as that.” He motioned to where Calvin was standing at my car. “Calvin, you’re not supposed to be here.”

“Step away from her, Trace, or you’re going to end up getting hurt.”

I paused in my steps. “I’m going to call the cops. You need to leave. You’re not supposed to be near me or my store.”

“I can be wherever I want to be.” He held up a book. “I control all of this.”

I squinted, trying to see the title of the book and then pushed Trace. “Run, that’s Sam’s book.”

Trace and I took off, but not before a thick fog took over the parking lot. Trace grabbed my wrist, and I let him. I didn’t want to be alone in a thick fog with a psychopath.

“All I want to do is talk to you, Lacey. Alone.” Calvin’s voice came through the fog. I couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from, but I knew he was close.

Could he see in this? Did the spell work that way?

“I want you to know that I can offer you so much more than just a tiny shop. I’m powerful, strong, and you wouldn’t have to depend on your pathetic magic anymore. I could provide everything for you.”

I about shouted at him when he mentioned my magic, but Trace jerked my arm. We’d give away our position, and we didn’t want that. We wanted to stay hidden. Trace started walking, and I hoped to hell he knew where he was going. We had only been a couple feet away from his truck, but we couldn’t even see that.

“We could move away from here and start a new life together. Forget the other men, forget the shop.”

I shuffled along with Trace and took a deep breath. I could do something with this fog, and it didn’t matter if it went wrong or right because it would be an illusion of sorts. I muttered the spell under my breath. Shadows started to dart in and out of the fog.

“Lace?” Trace asked in a soft voice.

“My magic. Keep moving,” I urged.

“I see you,” Calvin called, but his voice was getting further away. “You can’t run from this fog. I just want you to listen to me.”

I sighed when Trace pulled me through the edge of the fog. We were at the end of the parking lot, but we could at least see everything. “Now what?”

I smiled and snapped my fingers. The fog turned into cotton candy. Toward the other end of the cotton candy field stood Calvin, stuck in a puff of bright pink and blue sugar fluff.

Trace started laughing. “What the hell, Lacey?”

“It was the only thing I could do.”

“I’ll call the cops.” Trace shook his head and pulled his phone out. “You make sure he stays stuck.”

I watched as Calvin tried to wade his way through the cotton candy, but seeing how the cloud of sugar went from the ground almost to his head, he wasn’t making much progress. “Where’s Sam, Calvin?”

“I don’t know. Why would I know?” He yelled. “I’ve done nothing but care for that kid since he was born, and he just ups and leaves without saying anything! Now that he’s gone, I can move on, though. Let Ma worry about him and Tabitha! I can move on.”

If that wasn’t motivation to make your family disappear, I didn’t know what was. “You have his book, though. You know how to use it.”

“Because it was sent to me. I gave it to him because I stopped playing that game.”

And he’d figured out that it could be used to summon actual spells. Probably when he was at the coffee shop with Sam and me. And now he was using it against me.

He was slowly moving through the cotton candy toward us, but a cop car pulled up, and Detective Gavin got out. “What’s with the cotton candy?”

“Sometimes my quirky magic comes in handy.” Was all I said.

Trace motioned to Calvin. “He was here harassing Lacey again. I do hope CSPD doesn’t release him a third time after this. Lacey turned the spell against him, using it to trap him in a non-harmful way to deescalate his threat.”

He made it sound like I had managed to do it on purpose. Of course, maybe in my own way, I did. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was trying to turn the fog into, but I was cocky after the shadow spell had work and simply clicked my fingers and boom cotton candy. I just went with it.

Detective Gavin looked at me and then looked at Calvin. “What were you doing here?”

“Trying to talk to Lacey.”

“By casting a spell?”

Calvin seemed to shrug.

“The last person that had that spellbook was the witch I was working with. How did Calvin get it?”

“Calvin said it was sent to him and he’d given it to Sam originally. I’m not sure where he got it this time. I didn’t think to ask. I was asking him where Sam was.” I tried to keep my attitude in check.

Clouds rumbled overhead, bringing in an evening rainstorm. At least I knew it wasn’t going to be soda pouring from the sky this time, but the cotton candy would melt, and Detective Gavin could get Calvin.

“I’m going back to the shop for a few minutes. You can deal with him.” I turned around and walked away. Letting Gavin handle the cotton-candy-covered jerk.

∞

I drove home after Detective Gavin took a full statement on the situation. He chuckled every time the cotton candy came up, and I brushed it off. When I got home, I threw myself on the couch and debated on trying to summon a glass of wine, but with my luck, something else would come and just make my night worse.

I closed my eyes while I sat there and tried to ignore the headache forming in the back of my mind. Sam was still missing, and Calvin didn’t seem to care at all. He was so focused on starting a new life that he was just going to up and leave the kid.

He had the book. He was probably the one who broke into the houses looking for it, but Detective Gavin had said that the witch he’d consulted with was the last one with the book. I opened my eyes and pulled out my computer. There were many ways to find a witch consultant, but the best and easiest way was the internet. I pulled up the search engine and typed in ‘magic consultant for hire’ and started to search through the results.

In a couple hours, I learned a few things. There were some sleazy looking magical consultants in the town, and there were some really pricey ones. But no one caught my eye.

It was possible that I just wasn’t using the right keywords, or the person was completely unrelated to any part of the case that I knew about. I closed my laptop and tossed it to the side on the couch. Maybe this was one of those cases that I didn’t help solve, and I could go back to my regular days once Calvin was behind bars.

My phone buzzed, and I saw Traces name on the screen. I answered. “Yes?”

“Don’t you sound bright and cheery?”

“It’s been a long day, remember?”

“And it’s about to get longer. Want to go snoop around with me?”

I sat up at that. “You’ve got more information?”

“Tabitha called with the name of the witch consultant that Detective Gavin is working with. Apparently, they came to her house looking for any clues on where Sam would be.”

Interesting. “Who is it?”

“A Lisa Coxworth. I have the address. I just want to go check it out real quick.”

The name didn’t ring a bell. “Yeah, I’ll tag along. Pick up coffee on the way?”

“Already got it. I’ll see you in a couple minutes.”

He had been expecting me to say yes. I rolled my eyes and pulled myself up off the couch to get my shoes back on. Chances were he was just down the road.

Sure enough, by the time I’d gotten my shoes on, Trace was heading up the walk. I greeted him at the door, and we walked to the truck together. “How did Tabitha sound?”

“She was upset. I guess Detective Gavin came in expecting her to be the bad guy. He accused her of kidnapping. In the end, he left empty-handed because there was no sign of Sam at her house.”

I got in the car and buckled up. “Do you think she took Sam?”

“No, I don’t. I’m not sure what is going on at this point, but she wouldn’t have hired us knowing that I could have access to her information and check her out. Most of the time, if people have something to hide, they don’t hire a PI. They avoid putting the spotlight on themselves, unless it’s to claim their false innocence, and even then, you can tell. There’s just a way about them.” He shook his head. “No, I don’t think it’s her.”

I was still trying to figure out how the witch was connected. Then I got my answer when Trace pulled up to the house.

Titus’ house.

CHAPTER TEN

“This is the DM’s place. Titus,” I said. “The moment I go in there, they’re going to know what we’re doing here.”

“That might work to our advantage. Come on.” He jerked his head to the house, and I begrudgingly got out of the car. This woman already didn’t like me. I can’t imagine what was going to go down when we went in there asking about Sam again.

Trace knocked on the door, and Titus answered. “I’m not in the mood right now. Please go away.” He wiped a hand over his face, rubbing a little bit at his red-ringed eyes.

“Titus, you okay?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, sorry. Lisa and I just got in a fight. She stormed off.” He rubbed his eyes. “Do you guys have news on Sam?”

I hesitated, but Trace stepped up. “Sam had a book the night the fog spell came to life.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure what book it was. I know it wasn’t the one he typically brings.”

“It was the ninth edition spellbook,” I said gently. “The one you’re missing from your collection.”

Titus straightened up and almost growled. “Are you saying that I had something to do with this?”

“No, because you told me you had lost the book when you moved here. Sam’s brother had that book tonight and attacked me and Trace with it. The last person who had that book was Lisa because she’s working with Detective Gavin.”

He shook his head. “Lisa would never hurt Sam.”

“I’m not saying she hurt him. I’m saying somehow Calvin got that book from her, and I want to know if you know how.” Trace kept his voice even.

I paused and remembered what Trace had said before. Maybe I just wasn’t asking the right questions. Of course, he was talking about werewolves, not Titus.

“What were you and Lisa fighting about?”

He looked at me and frowned. “She said she wanted to move again. She didn’t find what she expected to here. But she didn’t want me to go with her. So, I guess we were talking about breaking up. After so many years.”

“You said she came here to find family? Right?”

“But they had moved on.”

I glanced at Trace, and he nodded. “I’m sorry, Titus. We’ll let you be. I hope you get it figured out.”

“Thank you.” He sounded confused and lost, but he shut the door.

Trace shook his head. “This is all just one jumbled family mess.”

I nodded. “I’m willing to bet that Lisa is Calvin and Sam’s half-sibling.”

“And now she found them, and Calvin wants to move on, and Lisa wants to move again suddenly.”

“The only piece that wasn’t in place was Sam, and now he’s disappeared. We need to find Sam before they all disappear,” I muttered. “We need that book.”

“You figure out how to get the book. I’m going to go do some research on Lisa and see if our hunch is correct.”

I climbed into his truck. “Detective Gavin took the book, correct?”

“Yeah. I doubt he’s going to hand it right over to you.”

“He might. Especially if we can prove that the witch he’s working with is part of the whole mess.” I pressed my lips together and started forming a plan on exactly how to get the book.

Trace was quiet while he drove us back to the shop, giving me time to solidify my plan. The shop came into view, and Trace drove around back and parked.

We got out, and he looked at me. “Be careful. Detective Gavin isn’t trusting of your magic.”

“You summon a butt load of cotton candy once, and suddenly, everyone is wary of you.”

“I mean it, Lacey.”

I nodded. “I know. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

Well. I guess it would depend on his definition of stupid.

∞

I left Trace to his work, and I headed to the station to find Detective Gavin. I was hoping to catch him working late so I could ask about the book. I grabbed a book from the back of my car and walked into the station.

The receptionist looked at me and smiled. “Can I help you?”

“I was hoping to catch Detective Gavin? I had something I wanted to ask him about an incident he came to tonight.”

She looked at me for a moment and then reached for the phone. From down the hall to her left came Detective Gavin and Lisa.

I resisted the urge to dive away and hide. With any luck, she wouldn’t notice me. She waved to Detective Gavin as she walked out and didn’t even look over.

Detective Gavin did though. “What are you doing here, Lacey?”

“I was hoping to catch you late. I wanted one last look at that book if I could?”

He hesitated for a moment. “Why?”

“I just want to see if it really is the same one that Sam had. It’s possible that Calvin could have memorized the spell and just used another book as a prop.”

He pulled his brows together. “I hadn’t thought about that. I just had Lisa come take a look and see if it was cursed or anything.”

That explained why she was here after Titus had said she ran off. “She didn’t say if anything was different?”

He shook his head. “No. It did sustain some water damage from the rain, though.”

“Can I see it?” I asked again.

He nodded. “Come on back. Let’s see if it’s the same one.”

I followed him down the hall and to an office. He opened the door to a small room. In the room sat a desk, a nice desk chair, and a questionable wooden chair facing the desk. Papers covered the wood surface, threatening to fall off if someone breathed wrong.

He picked up the book that was sitting on top of it all and handed it to me.

I frowned as I opened it and ran my fingers over the words. The Latin letters disappeared under my finger, and the water damage smoothed out. “This isn’t Sam’s book.”

I wasn’t going to get Sam’s book because the one I was holding was a fake. It was the same move I had been planning on doing to get the book, but it looked like Lisa was ahead of me.

The disguise of the book melted away, leaving a newer edition in my hand. I flipped through the book and frowned. “Someone switched these out on you.”

“You?” He asked.

I shook my head. “No, remember, my magic is quirky.” I tried not to be insulted at the accusation since I had come intending to replace the book. “This is the exact one in Calvin’s hand?”

He nodded. “I brought it right here after I arrested him, and I called Lisa down…” He looked at the door and then to me. “She switched it.”

“She had to of, or Calvin didn’t have the original. Either way, she’s involved.” I put the book down on his desk. “You need to figure out what happened to the actual book.”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job, Ms. Willows.”

I held my hands up. “Sorry, you’re right. My work is done here, so I’m going to go.”

He muttered something as I walked off. I don’t think he was completely convinced that I wasn’t the one who swapped out the book. I paused at the door. “Is Calvin still in jail?”

“He’s being held for twenty-four hours. The court will be in touch with you for your court date.”

I walked out without much confidence. I had twenty-four hours until Calvin could try something again, and the local law enforcement didn’t seem too concerned. I rubbed my eyes as I walked out of the building. Someone grabbed me from behind, and before I could scream, my world went dark.

∞

When I came to, the world looked a little bit hazier than I remembered. I tried to rub my eyes, but nothing cleared up. It was like there was a thin fog over everything. I turned to my left and realized that I wasn’t alone.

Sam was sitting there, and he was the only thing not covered in the haze. “Sam?”

“Ms. Willows.” He sounded relieved to see me. “I’m so glad you’re awake. You have to get us out of here.”

I took a closer look at our surroundings and frowned. We weren’t anywhere that I’d been before. There were no windows and only one door. The room was small and cramped, almost like an oversized crawl space, but not big enough to call a cellar. “Where is here?”

“Someone’s basement. Calvin brought me here and said he wanted to talk to me about something. Suddenly everything went hazy, and now I can’t leave this place. The woman comes down to talk to me occasionally. She says we’re leaving soon. As soon as Calvin gets out of jail?” He shook his head. “Nothing is making sense.”

I nodded. “Calvin attacked some friends of mine, and he tried to convince me to leave with him the other night. He’s in jail for assault and harassment. Detective Gavin said that Calvin was on a twenty-four-hour hold.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at the time. “I was out for a while. Looks like we have about five hours.”

I walked over to the door and tried to pull it open, but my hand went through it. “What the?”

“See, we can’t leave. It’s like we’re ghosts.”

I shook my head. “We’re not ghosts. We’re trapped in magic.” I stood and thought for a moment. “Does this resemble any of the spells in the Magic and Dungeons game?”

He frowned and thought for a few moments. “Yeah, but it’s one that can only be cast by a high-level player. Which, I guess, would equate to a really skilled witch or wizard in the real world? I don’t know. None of this stuff should be in the real world.” His voice raised a pitch.

“I know. Someone messed with your spellbook so that when you cast a spell, it became reality. Which means that you have magic blood.”

“I don’t.”

“Oh, but you do.” Lisa’s voice came through the haze, and she walked in through the door. I could see her as clear as day. “You’re my little brother. Our mother is a witch. I finally found my family. You, Calvin, and I. We’re going to move far away from here and be together as it should be.”

I kept my mouth shut because right now, I didn’t want any of the attention on me.

Sam shook his head. “You’re crazy. I don’t even know you.”

“But you do. I’ve been upstairs every session, every night that you came to the house.”

He seemed to think back. “Wait, you’re Titus’ girlfriend.”

She nodded. “Yes, exactly.” Her eyes cut to me. “And you, you nosy witch, will be stuck in this limbo forever.”

I raised a brow. “When you leave, the magic will fade.”

“You think so? I’m not that weak.” She snorted. “By the time it fades, you’ll be dead of starvation or dehydration.”

That wasn’t a pleasant thought. She wrapped her hand around Sam’s wrist. “Come on, it’s time to go.”

Sam ripped his arm back. “No, I want to go home to mom. Not with you.”

“Maggie is not your mother. Tabitha is, and you can meet her as soon as I know we can trust her.”

So Tabitha wasn’t in on all this.

Sam shook his head. “Maggie raised me. That makes her my mother. Now let me go.”

“You belong with me and Calvin,” she screeched and yanked him toward the door.

Sam disappeared from her grip and reappeared next to me, almost like he was never near Lisa.

What the hell?

Sam smirked. “I memorized that book for my character. I know every spell in it just as you wrote it.”

Lisa’s eyes grew wide. “That’s a lie. You would have broken this spell if that were true.”

“I’m not strong enough for that. I’m just new to putting magic to the spells. But Lacey, Lacey can break it.”

“Lacey turned fog into cotton candy. She’s not able to do anything to my spell.” She crossed her arms. “Are you?”

“I could probably turn it into cotton candy,” I offered, but I had a better idea. I glanced at Sam. “Sleight of Hand?” It was a spell I’d seen in the book. I hadn’t memorized it, but he had.

His eyes lit up a little bit, but Lisa still looked confused. Sam held his hand out to me, and I took it. He started saying the spell, and I repeated each line as I pushed my magic into it. The whole point was to replace us with a replica of ourselves. Similar to the spell used for the book.

And we’d be placed outside the spell. Hopefully, in the basement we were being kept in.

The haze cleared, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. We’d managed to pull it off.

“What the hell? Cards?” We heard Lisa yell.

I grabbed Sam’s arm and pulled him to the door. “No time to stick around, let’s go.” I flung open the door, and we both ran up the stairs only to come face to face with Calvin.

“You’re supposed to be in jail,” I squeaked and stopped in my tracks. “Detective Gavin said twenty-four hours.” My heart fell.

Calvin shrugged. “He let me out for good behavior.”

He had to be kidding. I put Sam behind me. “Let us go. You really don’t want to add kidnapping to your list.”

Calvin smiled. “It’s not kidnapping. Sam will come willingly.”

Sam shook his head. “No, I want to go back to mom.”

“Ma this! Ma that! The woman kept you from your real mother. She wouldn’t even let me tell you that you were magical,” Calvin growled. “Because she didn’t want to admit that our dads loved the same woman.”

I didn’t even want to think about the complexity of that situation. Half-brothers and cousins. I could see how that would be a lot for a teen to take in.

“You’re coming with me, Sam.” Calvin stepped forward, and Lisa came up the stairs.

I took a deep breath. “Don’t make me use my magic.”

“What are you going to do? Turn me into candy? Make it rain?” Calvin snorted. “The fact that you could get out of Lisa’s spell was amazing enough.”

Sam started whispering something behind me, and fog gathered around us. His fingers wrapped around my wrist, and he pulled me left, right as I saw two shadows lunge for where we were. The spell started to dissipate moments later, and Sam looked like he was exhausted. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” We were near a back door, so at least we weren’t trapped between Lisa and Calvin. But they were gaining on us. I threw open the door, and Sam and I ran out of it into a yard. Luckily for us, the yard wasn’t fenced, so we ran around the building as I pulled out my cell phone. Awesome. It had service now.

I dialed 911 and explained the best I could to the dispatcher what was going on. She responded that there was an officer on the way.

I skidded to a halt as Calvin suddenly appeared in front of us. He was good. Which explained how he managed to beat us to the shop that one night. He had to have been watching and used magic to get there.

I swallowed. “This is it, Calvin.”

“Come with us, Lacey. You could do great things with me. I can teach you how to make your magic better. To be a great witch. Me, you, Lisa, and Sam. We’d be an unstoppable team.”

“Unstoppable? For what?”

“The only thing magic is good for. Crime. Now you see it, now you don’t. We could make millions.” He laughed.

I shook my head. “No, thank you. I like my magic how it is.”

“You’ve lost your mind,” Sam snapped from behind me. “What happened to the brother I knew who would do anything to protect mom and me?”

“I learned the truth. Ma kept it from us,” he growled. “She didn’t let us know that our real mother was alive.”

The air around us started to feel thicker. I looked over my shoulder to see Lisa heading toward me. I had to do something. I didn’t think I could take on the two of them.

I tried to focus. If I could just slow them down. I focused on the spell, trying to ignore the noises around me.

Somewhere in the distance, a dog howled, and I tried not to think about that but focused on turning the thickening air into a net for Lisa and Calvin.

The fog disappeared with a pop, and I let out a disappointed sigh when nothing took its place.

Lisa laughed. “Okay, so she can make fog disappear, big whoop.”

Out of nowhere, a wolf landed in front of Sam and I. Sam jumped back, but I smirked. “Meet Anthony.”

Anthony looked at me and then to the people in front of me.

“They’re threatening me. They’re the kidnappers in my current case.”

The wolf lifted his lips up in a snarl.

Calvin lunged at me, but Anthony cut him off, throwing him down to the ground. I looked to see Lisa running away, but Sam took off after her. “No, you don’t.”

He threw his hand out, and ice surrounded her. Police cars pulled up to the house, and Detective Gavin was the first to get out. “What on earth, Ms. Willows?”

I shrugged. “They took Sam with intentions of leaving the state with him.”

“And the wolf?”

Anthony came to my side.

I shrugged. “A magic trick.”

Detective Gavin shook his head as he and his men rounded up Lisa and Calvin. An EMT came to check out Sam. I waved off the one that came to me. I was fine. I wanted to get Anthony back to Shandra before she realized I’d borrowed him from his hiding place.

I stood there, realizing I had no car to get anywhere when Trace came running over. He threw his arms around. “Jesus Christ, Lacey. You scared me.”

I patted his shoulder awkwardly. “I’m fine. Come on. I’ll tell you about it while we take Anthony home.”

∞

Trace drove Anthony and me to Mama’s Place. We parked, and I called Shandra.

“What do you want?”

“Well, I have Anthony right now. A spell went wrong, and I accidentally brought him to me.”

“Oh, thank god.” She let out a huge sigh. “I went to see him at his hiding place and found a stuffed animal there instead. I was worried Salazar had turned him into a child’s toy.”

I snorted. “No, sorry. I didn’t mean to switch him out, but it was helpful. He was able to help apprehend one of the suspects in another case. We’re outside. Are we safe to bring him in?”

“Yeah, I’ll come up and unlock the front doors. No one is here right now since we’re closed.”

I disconnected the call and put my phone in my pocket before climbing out. I opened the bed of the truck, and Anthony jumped out and headed toward the front door. I followed him, and Trace tagged along.

Shandra met us at the door and ushered us in. Movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned, my heart jumping, and I expected to find something scary.

But there, on the table, sat an unassuming ivy in a terracotta pot.

I hesitated as the leaves lifted a little bit. “That’s a beautiful plant, where did you get it from?”

“Someone from Liana’s Garden dropped it off.” She shrugged. “There was no name attached to it, so I assumed it was from a customer.”

I shook my head. “Get rid of it now. Kill it and make sure that it dies.”

“It’s just a plant, Ms. Willows.”

The leaves started to creep towards us. It tipped the pot over and crawled across the table. “No, it’s not just a plant. I just killed a massive one that tried to murder me.”

The ivy leaped off the table. Luckily the pot weighed it down, so it fell to the ground, shattering the terracotta.

Trace sighed. “Go get a glass of Professor Pep.”

She didn’t even question it and went to the kitchen. I bent down and grabbed the plant by the roots. It swung at me with its little leaves, growing just a bit as it did. Luckily, I was still out of its reach.

Shandra came back with a glass of Professor Pep. I put the plant’s roots in it and watched as it shriveled up. I handed Shandra the cup. “I’m going to call the shop and see who ordered these ivies. I’m pretty sure murderous plants aren’t on the typical shelf.”

Shandra nodded. “I owe you one.”

I shook my head. “No, you don’t. Consider me an ally, and we’ll call it good. I got you your mate back, and he saved my ass. The plant wasn’t a threat, yet.”

“And it won’t be because of you.”

I ignored her comment and grabbed my phone out of my pocket. I dialed the number for the shop, and a man answered.

“Liana’s Garden, how may I help you?”

“Yes, a friend and I received ivies from your location, and we were hoping you could tell us who sent them?”

There was silence on the other end. “Our people haven’t delivered any ivies recently.” He hesitated for another moment. “However, we did recently have two stolen.”

Crap. “Thank you.” I hung up and looked at Trace.

“A dead end.”

He pressed his lips together. “A dead end for now.”

But I knew he was thinking the same thing. Shandra and I had an enemy in common, and chances were, the plant was a calling card for Salazar.

Dear Readers,

Thank you for joining me on this story with Lacey. Lacey is a ton of fun to write and it’s so nice to write something lighthearted when the world seems like such a dark place. If you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review. I hope you pick up her next adventure when it comes out.

You might have noticed that this book was dedicated to Grandma Betty. Grandma Betty is a wonderful woman, she stepped in to raise me when I was a teenager and she’s the reason that I love reading and have a soft spot for cozy mysteries.

Once again, thank you for reading.

A.L. Kessler

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About the Author

A.L. Kessler is the author of the best-selling series Here Witchy Witchy. She resides in Colorado with her family and pets. Her addiction to coffee and chocolate fuels her creativity to bring her readers wonderful stories.

Other Series by A.L. Kessler

Here Witchy Witchy

Children of the Apocalypse

The Case Files of Abigail Collins

The King’s Game

Normalcy

The Syndicate (with Mia Bishop)

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