Page 29 of Sugar, Spice, and Magical Moonlight (Midlife Menace #2)

IN THE PAST MONTH, I’d learned a lot about Shu.

For instance, he’d been the Sagredo family’s fairy godfather for six hundred years.

Yeah, you read that right. Fairy godparents were a rarity in the magical world.

They were technically classified as djinns, or as husks liked to call them, genies.

They were a class of ancient mythical witches, bound to their magical lamps thousands of years ago by either an angry witch with a grudge or a kind witch who was looking for a way to save them.

The story varies depending on the history book.

Djinns were considered immortal, for I’d never heard of one dying of natural causes.

Their lamps were much like magical protection chambers, safeguarding them from demons and spells, one reason Shu had been hiding in that lamp when we’d found him.

Technically, they must follow their host family’s orders, so if I wanted to, I could force Shu back into his lamp.

I never would, though I’d learned from Shu that a few of my ancestors had forced him into his lamp, only summoning him when they needed something.

One more reason I didn’t want to call myself a Sagredo.

Djinns could mate and have children with other djinns or even witches if their host families allowed, though if their children had too much djinn blood, they would also be bound to a lamp, suffering the same fate as their parents, and why I believed djinns hardly bred.

I didn’t blame them. I wouldn’t want Des to suffer such a fate, though I supposed that’s what I’d done to him, by forcing him to hide in Ric’s mansions.

Still, there were worse fates. At least Des had his family and Puffy and a fairy godfather to grant him wishes.

Fairy godparents granted wishes to an extent.

They couldn’t pull tampons out of thin air.

The objects had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere must be within their lamp or close enough for their magic to reach, which was usually under a mile away.

Even then, striga laws prevented them from stealing tampons from a nearby convenience store, for fear a husk would notice a box disappear from the shelf, and in today’s digital age, everything was recorded.

When husks suspected witchcraft, they broke out the pitchforks and torches, which was why those rules were in place.

If a djinn was caught breaking striga law, their host family must face punishment by the nearest Tribunal.

If I’d known we’d be going to a deserted island, I would’ve asked Shu to pack extra tampons for me in his lamp.

Of course, we made sure Shu had a fully stocked bar, because everyone knew he made the best mixed drinks.

Godparents were bound to serve their families for life until they were released by a spell.

What’s the spell, you ask? I didn’t know, and Shu was spellbound not to tell me.

Over the past six hundred years, he’d served my grandmother Maga Sagredo and her grandmother as well.

Shu was bound to serve the most powerful witches in the Sagredo family, hence the reason he followed Des and me.

He said Grandmother Sagredo treated him more like a servant.

A shame, because Shu was family, which was why I needed to see him.

It was time we had a talk, one family member to another.

After regaining the strength in my legs and reassuring Ric that I wasn’t going to die today, I was able to leave our bedroom to go in search of my fairy godfather. Ric led me down a back set of stairs toward the library.

It was situated in a darker part of the home toward the back, with a lower ceiling and narrow hall.

We walked down several steps until we were almost at basement level.

Narrow, long windows lined the top of the ceiling, letting in soft pink evening light that wasn’t enough to chase away the shadows blanketing the floor.

I kissed Ric’s cheek when we reached the library’s double doors with heavy curtains drawn behind them. “Thank you for looking after me.”

He pulled me flush against his warm chest, his deep lion’s purr rattling my bones and liquefying my insides. “I’d do anything to keep you safe, mi amor .” The intensity in his golden feline eyes was strong enough to force me to glance away, afraid to acknowledge what that expression meant.

Everything was happening so fast, and I worried I was in danger of falling in love with him.

Ric was perfect in every way. The thought of loving him and being loved by him shouldn’t have frightened me as much as it did, but I’d only been divorced for a little over a year.

I hadn’t had enough time to decompress from the last twenty years with Farty Breath McDouche Face.

The hallway, spacious as it was, felt like a low tunnel that was closing in around me. I pressed a hand to Ric’s chest, lightly pushing him away while needing to clear my head of his scent.

“Luci,” he whispered. “Are you all right?”

I swallowed, turning my gaze to my toes, focusing on a chip in my nail polish. “I need to talk to him by myself.”

“Oh.” His voice faltered and pain flashed in his eyes as he stepped back.

I bit back a curse, hating that I’d upset him, but it was too late now. I released a slow breath, plastering on a smile. “I’ll find you when I’m finished.”

He nodded, then left me at the doors. A heavy weight of guilt settled on my shoulders as that dejected look in his eyes haunted me. Closing my eyes, I released a slow breath. Why did my life have to be so hard right now? Why did I make it so hard?

“There you are. How do you feel?”

My eyes flew open, and I spun around, clutching my lipstick wand when my nemesis walked out of the shadows.

“Better,” I answered from between clenched teeth, “no thanks to you.”

The Enchantress wrapped her lean arms around herself, giving me a sympathetic frown. I wasn’t buying her mock contrition.

“I’m sorry things got out of hand today,” she said.

Things got out of hand? Was that how she apologized? What a gaslighter. “You broke my ribs and caused internal bleeding.”

“I didn’t mean it.” She hugged herself tighter. “Sometimes I don’t know my own strength.”

“You’re not big enough to have caused this kind of damage.” Clutching my wand in a tight grip, I jutted a foot toward her. “Tell the truth—you used a spell.”

She vehemently shook her head. “I didn’t, I swear.”

Tired of her lies, I impatiently tapped my foot. “Then how did you do it?”

“It-it was an accident,” she stammered, her eyes shifting from left to right.

Liar, liar, butt implants on fire.

“Did my aunt hire you to kill me?”

“Absolutely not.” She gasped, splaying a hand across her chest as if I’d struck her with a verbal spear. “You have to believe me.” She nodded toward the wand I clutched in my fist. “Use a truth spell on me if you need to.”

I squeezed the wand until my hand ached while giving her a hard stare. “Maybe I will.”

She visibly swallowed. “Will you be feeling well enough to do another interview later?”

I sucked in a sharp breath. Of all the nerve! “I’m through being interviewed by you. If you would excuse me.” I grabbed one of the door handles.

She stepped toward me, twisting her fingers together. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Luci. I swear.”

“It’s Luciella,” I answered coolly while jarring open the door. “Only my friends call me Luci.”

Ignoring her gasp, I slipped inside the library, slamming the door behind me while thinking more and more about using that truth spell on her, for I had lots of questions, and I knew she had the answers.

I FOUND SHU AT A BIG mahogany table, several dusty, faded books stacked in front of him while he flipped through a large tome, his gaze focused on the yellowed pages.

He wore a white leather jacket with random silver buckles scattered across the sleeves and front, and shoulder pads so wide, they should’ve required a building permit.

He wore a bright scoop-neck striped shirt beneath the jacket and a head bandana to match and enough hairspray in his spiked mullet to nuke a hole through the ozone.

He read by low lamplight as pink and yellow rays from the setting sun cut through narrow windows at the top of the room, illuminating dust particles floating in the air.

The furniture and rows of bookshelves were a dark wood, a striking contrast to the light and airy furnishings in the rest of the house, and the place smelled of musty old books, reminding me of a damp castle library.

“Hey,” I called, grimacing when Shu looked up with a gasp, his hair spikes rattling with the movement. “Why aren’t you at the pool with everyone?”

He turned back to his book. “I’m doing a little light research.”

“Oh, what about?”

Shutting the book, he looked past my shoulder, as if he expected a ghoul to pop out from the hall, his face unusually grim. “Close the door.”

I looked at the door behind me, noticing I hadn’t latched it all the way.

After zapping it shut and twisting the lock with my wand, I bridged the distance to Shu’s table and created a privacy bubble around us.

I had a feeling whatever he had to say had something to do with the Enchantress and her freaky friends.

I sat at the table across from him. “Better?” I asked, my voice echoing inside our translucent bubble that surrounded us like an invisible tent.

He flattened his hands on the book, his lips twisting. “Something about our guests is not right.”

I laughed. “Just one thing?”

He breathed out a slow, shaky breath. “I watched you get hit from the sidelines. You flew back like you’d been struck by a truck.”

I grimaced. “It felt like I’d been hit by a truck.”

His eyes darkened. “No ordinary witch has enough strength to do that.”

“She used magic,” I answered, which meant it had been intentional.