“She said something else,” I said. “Rowan mentioned that she’s part of a secret coven that protects the town.”
“The Crystal Cauldron,” Hank said. “It’s not so secret.”
“Right, that’s it. Anyway, she said that the Covenant of Chaos—the organization that founded Stellarview—is on the rise again, and that they’re looking to stir up trouble. Is that something we should be worried about?”
Caitlin pursed her lips. “I wondered how many of those magicians were still around.”
“How much should I trust Rowan?” I asked.
“I think Rowan really does care about the town,” Tad said, mulling over my question. “And she is part of the Crystal Cauldron. But I question whether she threw you under the bus with Val just to avoid having to dig deep and do real work to neutralize the land elemental. Did you promise him anything?
“No, but she told me he’s fascinated with me now.”
“That’s not good,” Tad said.
I sighed, leaning back in my chair. “Now that Val owns the land, there’s nothing we can do. I’ll go watch the demolition tomorrow. I feel like at least one of us should be there, if only to observe what effect it has on the energy of the land.”
“We’ll all go,” Tad said. “I’m not letting you out there alone. Not this time.”
After I called Val’s secretary back, we went back to talking about my cats.
That night, I arrived home five minutes before Killian called me. He’d been in touch every day, and I was surprised how much we had to talk about. He was opening up, telling me more about his life in California, and about his family. As for me, I found him easy to talk to.
I put the phone on speaker while I began to make a roux for the alfredo sauce. Ari was coming to dinner and I had decided to make fettuccini alfredo. I whisked the butter as it melted, then sprinkled in flour and whisked again. “So how is Tally doing?”
“She’s out of danger now, and if all goes well, she’ll be moved out of intensive care into a private room tomorrow. I’ll be home tomorrow evening. I just wanted to make sure my folks were handling this okay. But I have to get back to setting up my business, now that she’s out of danger.” He paused, then said, “My mother says hello. She wants to meet you sometime soon.”
Startled, I pulled the pan off the burner, grateful we weren’t video-chatting. I didn’t want him to see the terror that washed over my face. I had already endured a horrible set of in-laws. The idea of meeting my boyfriend’s parents before we had even slept together scared the fuck out of me.
“Okay. Tell her hi for me.” My heart was racing. I hadn’t even expected him to tell them about me at this point. I slowly replaced the pan on the burner and began to add the cream, whisking briskly. Then I sprinkled in the grated parmesan, added some cracked black pepper, a little dill, and pink Himalayan salt. I wasn’t fond of garlic in white sauce, so left it out and instead, added a little crumbled feta.
As I drained the fettuccine, Killian said good-bye. Five minutes later, as I was stirring the pasta into the sauce, I heard the front door open.
“Hey, are you home?” Ari called from the living room.
“In the kitchen!”
She popped in. “Yum, that smells good,” she said, eyeing the cream sauce. “I’m starved. I brought wine.” She held up a bottle of merlot.
I dished up the pasta and added a cucumber tomato salad to the table, then settled into my chair. “It’s been a day,” I said.
“You can say that again,” Ari said, looking morose.
“What’s wrong?” I handed her the salad.
“I fucked up. I really screwed up. Do you remember Muffy Flannigan?”
I nodded. Muffy had been a popular name among the yuppie set at one time. While the name was out of fashion, the attitude wasn’t. Muffy Flannigan was at the top of the social pecking order in Moonshadow Bay. “Yeah, why?”
“Because…I did her hair today. She told me her regular hair dresser was out of town and she’s got some big event, so she came to me. And it did not go well.” Ari shook her head, staring at her plate.
“How so? You’re brilliant at what you do.” I frowned, adding some more salt to my pasta.
“She wanted to go blond. She had dyed black hair that was already damaged. I warned her that’s not recommended and going for it could fuck up her hair, but she insisted. I should have just refused to do it, but she was making a scene and threatening to ruin my reputation if I refused to help her, and finally, I just did it to shut her up.”
I could see the road this was taking, and the street sign read Disaster. “Okay…what happened?”
“I’m not sure what she did to it before, but we had to do two rounds of bleach, and on the second round, some of her hair fell out. It just melted right off, leaving a big bald patch. That was when she told me she had it permed a month ago and didn’t like it, so she used a hair straightener at home. Her hair was so fragile, the bleach melted it.” She groaned, twirling pasta around her fork.
“Uh oh. I dread the answer, but what did she do?”
“She freaked out and didn’t even let me rinse it out of her hair before storming off. She threatened to ruin my reputation. I decided to see if her regular stylist—I know who it is—was around and sure enough, he’s not on vacation. I told him what happened. Apparently she asked him to do the bleach job, but he refused because he knew how fragile her hair was. He’s the one who did the perm. He told me that he realized she had tried to straighten it. He promised to tell people it wasn’t my fault, but that doesn’t negate the fact that she now has it in for me.”
Muffy Flannigan could do a lot of damage with that nasty mouth of hers. “Can you put a binding spell on her?”
“I thought about it, but I’m too upset.”
I licked a spot of sauce off the corner of my lip. “Do it. You need to.”
Binding spells were preventative spellwork. They prevented people who were out to harm you—in one way or another—from doing so. It didn’t negate the need for mundane action, but it was a powerful amplifier.
“I guess there’s no choice. But what will I do if Muffy finds out?”
“If Muffy finds out, she can take a flying leap. She’s already threatened your livelihood, blaming her own mistake on you. You might as well do what you can to keep the rumors from spreading.”
“I guess you’re right,” Ari said, wiping her mouth. “The pasta’s good. So what are you up to?”
I told her about Val Slater and the asylum, filling her in on everything that had happened over the past day or so.
“Vampires… I knew they were here in Moonshadow Bay.” Ari shook her head. “Be careful, please. They’re so unpredictable.”
“Trust me, I know that,” I said.
We finished up the evening by sitting in the dark with just the tree lights turned on, watching an old movie, and savoring a glass out of my father’s best port—it was fifty years old and thick as honey.
After Ari went home, I was about to go to bed when something drew me into the library. It wasn’t just an office. The library was where my mother had performed a number of her spells.