Cully sucked in his breath, remembering the calendar with Ryan Ramczyk and still having a hard time processing that. “Wow.”
Simon looked over his shoulder and nodded. “Now, I hope you don’t mind, but at Jordan’s request, we looked at your financials, and apparently you and your friend—”
“Boyfriend,” Cully said staunchly, wishing Dante would wake up so he could know that for sure all over again.
Simon’s smile was so relieved Cully felt like his own breaths were lighter. “Oh, good,” he said. “Your friends were really worried about that. But you two have been working like champions this last month. I’m not sure if you remember that or not. Financially, you’re in a great place, could probably take a year’s sabbatical if you wanted, so don’t worry about that.”
“After this last month, we might need it,” Cully said, wondering if the fact that part of him had been working like a draft horse was the reason he felt like he’d run a hundred miles in the snow.
“Roger that. But there’s more you need to know. See, it’s like a fight, I figure. Between good and evil. You all cast a heart’s desire spell, and every last one of you lied. Am I right?”
Cully remembered the spell, remembered the carefully crafted verses about his job and his goals as a designer that had been the truth—but only part of it. He thought about the pressing loneliness that had built up from living, day in and day out, with the world’s most perfect guy for him, but never being able to tell Dante exactly how he felt.
“Yeah,” he said gruffly.
Simon’s brown eyes darkened with compassion, and Cully thought that Alex’s boss—whom he’d been crushing on for years before the spell—had been a good choice.
“Yes, well, everybody lied. Everybody. And the magic, we figured, got pissed off and decided to fuck with you a little.”
“But….” Cully felt an absurd sense of hurt. “I thought, you know, it liked us.” All that time spent learning spells, thread colors, emotional rainbows. They had felt appreciated when their spells had results, right?
Simon nodded. “Oh, it did. See, the best we can figure is that the magic got huffy, ripped your heart’s desire from you, and the spell rebounded. When the spell rebounded, a presence—sort of… I don’t know, an active mass of overblown karma—was awakened in your neighborhood. It had always been there. We figured the witch’s cottage, the one Jordan was living in? That was ground zero. So both things happened at once. The magic needed you to come clean to it, and the presence jumped on that bandwagon and went to town. You and Dante, I’m afraid….” He grimaced, as though he didn’t want to say what was really on his mind.
But Cully could figure it out. “We told the biggest lie,” he said, recognizing it for truth.
Simon shrugged. “Yeah. That’s what I think anyway. Your friends are all too self-recriminatory to put it that way, which is sadly one of the things the presence fed on. You guys, you’re sort of amazing. Not one of you blamed anyone else—you all saved it for yourselves. Apparently the thing keeping you in the house got off on all that self-flagellation. We had a real emotional BDSM circle jerk here for a month or so.”
Cully snickered, liking Alex’s boyfriend very much. “So we cast the spell, the forces of magic and clusterfuckery went to work….”
Simon grinned and turned his back on the oven, since it was apparently warming their food all on its own.
“And the day after the spell, you went into your house and disappeared into space and time while your little cul-de-sac went to hell. Your friends—all of them—have been doing a morning and evening ritual for the last month, trying to stave off the encroaching darkness and possessed animals and… well, you know. Hell. That’s what I meant when I said Alex was free, by the way. Not having to get up at fuck-you in the morning or be back by dusk is almost like getting set loose from prison for pretty much everybody.”
“Oh my God,” Cully muttered in horror. No wonder everybody looked so exhausted.
“So anyway, the day your cul-de-sac got sucked into hell, your friend Bartholomew, in addition to hooking up with the love of his life—”
“Lachlan,” Cully said, remembering Jordan’s words, and Simon gave another of those great smiles.
“Yes! You remember him?”
“Only what Jordan said.”
Simon’s expression fell. “Well, that’s too bad. Great guy. Anyway, turns out Lachlan also has some talent in the witchy department. He and Bartholomew made—” Simon’s narrow, appealing face grew slack and dreamy, and the hand not mixing salad with a big spoon came up to the stark, gleaming silver pentacle at his throat. “—these. And gave one to all of their friends.”
Cully brought his fingers up to his own charm and remembered the force of everybody’s wordless song, calling them home.
“Including us?” he asked in wonder.
“Well, yes,” Simon told him, flashing a smile. “But we’re getting to that. Anyway, the necklaces sort of connected and protected everybody and allowed everybody to function with the… weirdness in the cul-de-sac enough to perform the rituals to keep it safe.”
Cully shook his head. “I can’t believe Dante and I were just oblivious to all of this.”
Simon nodded soberly. “From the outside,” he said carefully, “your house was always—always—surrounded by animals. Turkeys, starlings, ravens, owls, even squirrels. It’s like the birds were a force locking you in, and everybody was working so hard to keep them from taking over the neighborhood we didn’t have a way to get you out.”
“Where did you come in?”
Simon grimaced. “Okay, for starters, your dog is fine.”
Cully’s eyes went wide. “I should hope so! What in the—”
“I needed to preface the story with that,” Simon said, holding his hands up. “Because the magic never actively, you know, put her in harm’s way.”
“What happened to my dog!” Cully burst out, and there was a rustle and a bump from the bedroom, followed by frantic footsteps pounding out to the kitchen.
“Cully?” Dante hollered. “Cully? What’s wrong with Glinda? Cully?”
Cully and his new friend turned to the hallway in surprise right when Dante stumbled into view and into the kitchen. Cully was at his side in a moment, catching his elbow and leading him gently to the table. “Sh…,” he mumbled. “Come on, baby. This is Alex’s boyfriend, and he’s bringing me up to speed. I got a little excited, that’s all. Everybody’s fine.” He shot a meaningful look at Simon, who nodded.
“Absolutely fine,” Simon agreed. “I’m Simon Reddick. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Dante gave him a sour look and sank onto one of the kitchen chairs. “Dante Vianelli. Charmed, I’m sure. The dog’s okay? Cully’s been stressing about the dog.”
“The dog’s great!” Simon said brightly. “Everybody adores her. Most spoiled pooch on the planet.”
Cully arched an eyebrow, but he kept his hand on Dante’s knee.
Simon took a deep breath. “She was, in fact, how Alex and I finally got together.”