Page 8 of Magical Melee

I glanced over at Skye. “Actually, do you mind if I meet you over there? I don’t want us to miss our appointments, but I have a few questions for Stella.”

Skye looked at the envelope clutched between my fingers and back to Stella before smiling at me. “Absolutely. The mystic said we couldn’t be in the room with each other anyway. Yours starts in forty minutes.” She looked out the window and pointed over my shoulder. “It’s across the street that way. The shop with the bright purple door.”

“Can’t miss it,” Stella assured me as I craned my neck to glimpse the storefront.

Skye stood and came around behind me, giving me a quick squeeze. “I’ll see you in a few. I hope I’m not about to discover triplets are in store for us.”

I chuckled, knowing Skye would be elated if that were the news delivered.

She bounded through the tea shop as Stella slowly sat down in her place. I looked at my empty teacup and suddenly felt foolish about what I wanted to bring up.

I was falling for the eerie trappings of this town and the season.

“Yes, dear?” Stella asked softly with a gentle smile.

She’d removed the lipstick on her teeth and put a fresh red coat on her thin lips. The longer I looked at her, the more I felt a closeness.

A familiarity.

“Everything okay with the tea?” she prompted.

I swallowed my uncertainty, straightened my spine, and breathed deeply. “My tea changed color multiple times. Skye couldn’t see it, but I did.” I cleared my throat. “Severaltimes.”

As if Stella didn’t get my point the first time.

Stella nodded. “Makes sense.”

I frowned. “What makes sense?”

“That you’d see the tea’s changes, but your friend wouldn’t.”

“So, itdidchange,” I stated as a matter of fact.

“If it’s meant to, it will.” She pursed her lips. “And it sounds like it was meant to, so it did.”

I let go of the envelope from my fingers, not realizing I’d never released it. “Hers didn’t change at all.”

Stella nodded in agreement. “No, it wouldn’t. She just ordered the Abracadabra tea. Nothing too magnificent about that other than it sells like hotcakes.”

I chewed my bottom lip briefly as I tried to rephrase my question for a more direct answer.

“Hocus Pocus is another humdinger. Tourists eat it up.” She slid her tongue along her crimson lip and let out a thoughtful sigh as I felt a sudden weight collapse on my toes.

A snort rattled from below.

“Frank?” Stella asked, tipping her head to look under the table. “Frank, you know the rules. No canoodling the customers.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “I don’t mind.”

She nodded, studying me with delight behind her gaze. “You’ve been through a lot.”

I narrowed my eyes on Stella. “How do you know?”

“Oh, I can’t read minds, dear. You mentioned the tea changed colors several times.” She smiled. “It’s just what that mix of herbs and florals does.”

Her observation cut the tension, and I laughed, feeling the ridiculousness of my worries drifting away.

It was a town built upon the idea of magic.