Page 3 of Hexes and Hiccups (Mystery In A Bottle #3)

D aisy

Within the arcane room of Fields’ Herbals , Daisy loomed over a smoldering cauldron.

A trail of smoke curled up from the center as the liquid bubbled and spat at her.

A notebook was sprawled across her knees, her lips moving as she read the recipe in her head.

The tracking potion was one she hadn’t needed in a long time.

Despite the shop being full of potions and tonics similar to it, the one she brewed to uncover the book was only produced by special request. Its power was undeniable, and Daisy was in no hurry to hand it over to an unsuspecting witch or warlock.

Noise echoed out from the storefront as Daisy worked in the arcane room.

With how busy it had been lately, Susy was working the counter alongside Tessa.

Though it was summer break for the schoolgirl, she spent many days working at the shop, collecting a growing fund for when she’d return to school.

Susy’s sweet voice rang out in the store constantly as she mingled with patrons and checked them out at the register.

When they’d first come back to the shop, Anne had been forced to remain in the back room, her cries seemingly unstoppable.

After a few cups of a soothing tea, Anne had returned to her normal state, but the frown on her face was unavoidable.

Daisy glanced at the recipe another time.

“Dandelion roots and bay leaves,” she murmured to herself.

“Check.” Her finger trailed down the list. “A sprinkle of salt.” She poured some in her palm before letting it trickle through her fingers into the cauldron.

The brew smelt of something savory, like a roasting stew. “A few juniper berries –”

She plucked some berries from a jar beside her before smashing them between her fingers, then letting the skin and juice simmer within the brew. The scent turned utterly sweet in seconds as she dragged her wooden spoon throughout it.

“And, last but not least –” Daisy snatched up a leather pouch, pulling at the opening till she could pour in her final ingredient. “Powdered Quartz.”

Daisy cleared her throat as she straightened, holding her hands over the cauldron. Letting her eyes flutter shut, Daisy began to feel the magic course through her veins, growing stronger beneath her skin. The words came to her effortlessly despite not practicing the spell in years.

“Through the cloud and through the mist,” she began, her voice echoing through the arcane room as everything else faded away, “show me where the Book of Gossip is!”

The brew within the cauldron sputtered and swayed with her words, rising towards her outstretched fingers.

The light in the arcane room flickered in and out, the cool liquid engulfing her hands.

Smoke curled all around her as the magic grew to its apex, the spell using the potion to take shape into something else.

Daisy breathed in deep before slapping her hands together, a puff of magic snapping through the air.

When she opened her eyes, the lights had returned to normal within the room, and there wasn’t a single drop of liquid left within the cauldron.

While she knew she had felt the liquid rise onto her hands, she wasn’t the slightest bit wet either.

She pulled her hands apart, and there was a pile of pearl-shaped beads resting within her palms. Though they weren’t pieces of jewelry, Daisy could’ve fooled herself.

Beneath the light, they looked as if they were freshly plucked from clams, waiting to be strung together and wrapped around a slender neck.

“Don’t tell me you’re calling it the Book of Gossip.”

Daisy lifted her head towards the door to see Tessa leaning against the frame, her arms wound tightly over her chest. “Do you have a better name?”

Tessa considered it for a moment, tapping the edge of her pointed chin before she shrugged. “No,” she mused, “I think the Book of Gossip is the best we’re gonna get.”

Chuckling lightly, Daisy began to stand, keeping a tight hold over the beads. She walked over to the door as Tessa retrieved a pouch and held it open to allow the stream of beads to fall into it.

“You could sell those as pearls,” Tessa commented.

Daisy eyed her. “They’re meant to be eaten, Tess.”

“Well, I sure hope you flavored them well.”

“They should lead us straight to the rest of the book,” Daisy explained. “Though, it has been a while since I’ve done that particular spell.”

“Is that doubt I hear?”

Daisy shrugged as she pocketed the little pouch. “All I know is that once we pop them, we won’t be able to stop moving. Might make it a bit awkward, but,” she paused as she stepped back into the storefront, “what else is new?”

Out in the front of Fields’ Herbals , a handful of customers lurked within the aisles.

Susy was still behind the counter, organizing things beside the register.

Near her, sitting in a rattan rocking chair, was Anne.

Though she was no longer weeping, Anne rocked herself back and forth with a sour expression, her badge provided by the local animal shelter resting within her hands.

The moment Daisy saw her, something seemed to tighten around her heart.

Seeing the normally cheerful woman in such a state of despair was hard to swallow, and it only made Daisy more determined to find whoever was behind the gossip.

“ Daisy! ”

With her attention caught, Daisy turned towards the line, where there was a pair of older gentlemen hiding behind a rack of herbs. She moved around the growing line of patrons to the odd couple, one brow raised.

Daisy gave them a smile. “Can I help you two –”

The man on the right, with an obvious toupee, let out a sharp hiccup. “So sorry, Daisy,” he blurted, a red hue covering his button cheeks. “We’ve been –”

Another hiccup snapped through the air. The second man, the one on the left, blushed harder than his companion. “This is a very terrible case of the –”

Daisy bit back her laugh. “Hiccups, I see!”

They nodded their heads rapidly, moments away from speaking when they hiccuped at the same time, their eyes wide as people started to eye them.

“Relax, gentlemen.” Daisy faced the aisle and retrieved a pair of bottles. “One drop every few hours on the tongue,” she explained, “and you’ll be as right as rain.”

“Really?” Hiccup!

“Yes, sir, I promise.”

“Oh, wow!” Hiccup!

Daisy watched them closely. Welts were beginning to sprout along their necks, slowly nearing their throats. They itched every so often, scratching roughly before another hiccup rocked through them. Her eyes narrowed.

“I have to ask,” she mused. “When did those hiccups start?”

The man on the right, his toupee flapping as he rattled his head, said, “I couldn’t possibly say.” Hiccup!

“Neither can –” Hiccup ! “I!”

Daisy pressed her lips together. “Marks like those ,” she gestured towards their necks, “make me believe this isn’t just a bad case of the hiccups. Sounds a lot more like –”

Hiccup!

“A hex, to me.”

The pair of gentlemen eyed each other, their faces growing red with embarrassment.

Daisy crossed her arms, tucking the bottles away. “Now you two might not know this, but hexes require a different sort of solution. I’m afraid these won’t cut it. Perhaps if you told me the truth…”

They hesitated silently, the man on the left looking more and more like he was ready to combust. Toupee Man shook his head till his hair went off center before his companion practically burst at the seams.

“Alright, Daisy, alright!” He sighed, each word followed by a sharp and irritating hiccup. “We…well, there’s no good way to say it. Zirelle Duskwither makes the best apple pie you’d ever taste. The ripest of apples, the sweetest of combinations. The cinnamon alone –”

The hiccups came again, in rapid succession.

“Zirelle refuses to share the recipe,” the man continued. “Refuses to even share a slice or two. This morning, when she made a fresh pie, she set it on the windowsill in Gray Manor, and we just had to get our fingers on –”

Hiccup! Hiccup! Hiccup!

Daisy raised a hand to her face, desperate to stop herself from bursting out in laughter. “I see,” she murmured. “It seems the Elder had enough of your grubby, greedy fingers, didn’t she?”

The gentlemen nodded sadly, squeezing their lips shut to minimize the hiccups that were gathering attention.

Daisy sighed before pulling the bottles back out, and pressing them within her palms. Lowering her lips to their tops, she plucked a healing spell out from her brain, a simple one that was capable of soothing annoying and pesky hexes.

Zirelle was an expert at hexes, but it didn’t mean she had the time to use anything other than a simple manipulation hex on a pair of thieving and hungry old men.

“Heal their will, heal their might,” Daisy whispered. “Heal it before they give us a fright!” The potion bottles glowed and shimmered ominously as she handed them over to the men. “Try to down it in one go,” she instructed. “And hold your breath afterwards, as long as you can.”

“And that’ll –” Hiccup! “Do it?”

She nodded. “That’ll do it.”

Daisy watched as the pair of men followed her instruction.

With a simple smile and a sigh, Daisy turned her back and headed back towards the front of the store, feeling rather accomplished with herself.

Despite the ruckus going on with the gossip and Riven’s predicament, Daisy managed to run the store and solve a few hexes. She was more than satisfied, it seemed.

As a few patrons approached the counter with bottles to purchase, Daisy slipped behind Susy to crouch beside Anne, resting a hand over her knee. “How are you feeling, Anne?”

Anne sighed, still rocking. “Well enough, I suppose,” she murmured. “Would you like for me to do some cleaning? I hate sitting here, I can –”

“Don’t worry about it for a second longer, Anne.” Daisy gave her the widest smile she could muster. “As long as you’re here and feeling better, alright? That’s all I could ask for.”