Page 120 of A Taste of Bliss

Simon and Gwen start to inspect her clothes. “Got it!” Gwen says, pointing to the collar of Niamh’s button-up shirt. Liz shakes the powder over her too, making sure to get some of the wax seal. Getting the picture, Taser and Pisces start inspecting Tubbs, getting more and more frantic as they can’t find it.

“It’s not here!” Taser yells, looking widely at Liz. “What do we do?”

“Remain calm. It has to be on his person. It wouldn’t have fallen off once attached.”

They continue to look but neither can seem to find it. Liz and Amelia take over, pushing the boys out of the way. They search Tubbs’ pockets, and Blake and Taser even lift Tubbs out of the chair so we can make sure it’s not stuck to his back somewhere, but we see nothing.

“Wait,” I say, my gaze landing on his shoes. “Hold up his feet!”

And sure enough, there on the bottom of his shoe is the wax seal. Liz sprinkles the concoction on it and over the rest of Tubbs.

We all look expectantly at her. “They’ll be fine now, but they’re going to have to sleep a lot. This hex takes a lot out of a fae.”

“How do you know so much about this?” Shaun asks, arching a brow at her.

She grins at him. “I used to work for the council. Specialized in hunting down fae who put hexes on people.”

Simon watches Liz with wide eyes. “Fuck, that’s cool.”

“Badass,” Benny agrees.

Shaun hauls Evan onto the couch and Amelia quietly moves Evan’s feet onto it. She brings a blanket up over him and gazes down at his peaceful but still blood-covered face. “We should probably get them cleaned up— Oh stars!” she exclaims. She whirls around and faces everyone. “The shows! We’re both fucked,” she says, looking at Pisces.

He frowns, glancing at all three of the hexed musicians, his hand running along his jaw. I might notice how it’s freshly shaven. “We’re out a bassist and a backup vocalist.”

“And we’re out a fucking drummer,” Amelia laments, coming to me and throwing herself around me. “We’re gonna have to back out of tonight’s show. We can’t play without a drummer.”

I look over at Tubbs. Taser is cleaning off his face with a warm wash cloth. “I’ll let the festival know,” I say, my shoulders slouching. I start to look up the number for our contact at the festival on my phone.

“Hold on,” Pisces murmurs, taking my phone out of my hands.

“You’re down a drummer; we have a drummer,” Pisces continues, holding my phone out of reach as I stand on my tiptoes, trying to grab it back.

“Thanks for rubbing that in,” I huff out, rolling my eyes.

He stares at me, and even though his hair falls a bit into his eyes, I can see an arched brow. “We’re down a backup vocalist and a bassist, you have a singer and a bassist.” He looks pointedly at the group gathered around listening. “Let’s trade. Dericia fills in for Evan, Amelia fills in for Niamh, and Shaun will drum for Goddess’ Trance.”

Everyone looks at him, and I swear all our mouths have dropped. “Are you insane?” Shaun finally says, laughing. “It would take me days to learn just a few of their songs, not to mention a whole set list.”

“Yeah, and like, I could definitely learn your whole set list in a day, because your bass lines aren’t super complicated—” Dericia says.

“Gee, thanks,” Pisces quips.

“—but no way will I have them down in the two hours we have left,” Dericia finishes.

“It was a good suggestion, Sces, but not everyone is as musically gifted as you that they can pick things up that quickly,” Benny says, swinging an arm around Pisces’ torso, not being tall enough to go around his shoulders.

Pisces looks down at the guitarist. “Remember that super dumb, ridiculous test that the fae council makes all adult kindreds take in order to register with them?”

“Yeah,” Benny says, eyebrows knitting together.

“Remember how Evan was supposed to tutor Simon, but Simon wasn’t really getting any of it?”

“Yeah…”

“And remember how Evan just ended up giving him that learning potion?”

Liz snaps her fingers. “Learning potion! That’s just a bit of waterberry, lemon zest, and worm root.”