Page 25 of Charmed, I'm Sure
He shakes his head, eyes wide with panic. His gaze lands on the table full of jars of all varying sizes. Each filled with ingredients for spells. Everything from toadstools to the blood of vampire bats. His hand hovers over the jar full of what looks like twigs.
“That one’s worse,” I say before he can open his mouth.
He glances at me innocently. “Come on, this one is just sticks.”
“Thoseare thornberry springs. Prick your skin and you’ll curse your own love life. Wait, go ahead and grab one of those for me.”
He hesitates, hand hovering over the lid. “So if I touch it, you’re saying…”
“That I won’t have to worry about you hovering in my shop anymore.”
He snatches his hand back so fast you’d think the jar zapped him. “You could just say ‘don’t touch it.’”
“I could,” I say, smirking. “But where’s the fun in that.”
He moves off to the next area of the store, and honestly, I don’t have time to babysit him.
I’ve got to finish this spell for my customer, who is supposed to be stopping by in…checking my phone, I realize I have less than an hour.
I’m carefully measuring the next ingredient into the mortar—a pinch too much and the entire spell will backfire. The kind that could cause a loss of limb. The tin is tipped over as I gently bat it as the dust falls into the mortar, when Miles leans in over my shoulder like an overgrown toddler at a science fair.
“What’s that?” he asks as he reaches around me.
Before I can stop him, his elbow bumps my arm. The small tin of powdered valerian root tips over in slow motion, scattering its contents across the counter in a fine, greenish dust.
I freeze. He freezes. Nyx mutters something in my head that isabsolutelynot fit for polite company.
“Oh my moon and stars,” I breathe, pinching the bridge of my nose.
Miles straightens, like a child who was just caught with his hand in a cookie jar. “Is that bad?”
I exhale slowly, set my pestle down, and turn to him with a tight smile. “Yes, it’s bad. Now, do me a favor, alright?”
“Anything,” he says brightly, clearly desperate to make up for it.
“Go fetch me a bag of bat wing sachets from The Binding Thread. Tell Marnie it’s for me and that I said to give you the good ones.”
He grins, and I can almost imagine his tail wagging if he had one right now. “On it.”
The door swings shut behind him, and I finally take a long, blissful sip of my coffee. Glancing at the mess that is actually nothing more than a mess I didn’t want to deal with today. Yeah, valerian root is potent, but it has to be mixed with black salt to create the deadly portion of it.
Nyx hops onto the table, swiping his paw through the green powder and sniffing it.
“You know he’s going to be back before you can finish that,” he says dryly.
I sigh. “I’m counting on it taking him at least twenty minutes so I can finish this spell without his questions and touching of things that can actually curse him.”
Miles' absence made the shop feel empty, the silence thick and palpable. I breathe in the faint scent of sandalwood from the protection charms, their soft hum a gentle vibration against my skin. Only Nyx and I remain, the silence a welcome balm.
I move quickly, mixing the valerian root with the rest of the ingredients and chanting the incantation under my breath. The potion shifts from a murky red to a deep plum. The smell of dreams dying, lavender, and regret fills the air. I really feel bad for whoever the person is on the receiving end of this. Not that it’s my concern.
Nyx watches from the counter, tail flicking lazily as he cleans his paw. “You could always cast a spell to keep him out of the shop for a few hours.”
“That’s not going to work,” I mutter, adding the final pinch of crow’s tongue. “Besides, Elora will somehow know and undo the spell or walk in to give me a lecture about how I shouldn’t be mean to the new people.”
Nyx’s whiskers twitch in what I swear is a smirk. “You’re slipping, witch.”
I’m corking the bottle when the front door slams open with all the subtlety of a banshee on roller skates.