CeCe nodded and squinted down at the ingredient list. “Seems simple enough.”
Luci pulled the book toward him. “Yeah, if you have enough juice. If you’re not strong enough, the incantations won’t take hold and the potion won’t do anything but taste bad.” He smacked his lips and grimaced. “Trust me.”
“We’ll take your word for it.” I gave him a dry smile and started gathering ingredients.
“You know,” Luci said. “Black jade holds hexes, curses, and charms better than other stones.”
I looked at the jewelry. None of it was black jade. “How do I even know you’re telling the truth?”
CeCe winced. “He is. I actually knew that.”
Pursing my lips, I narrowed my eyes at Luci. “Conjure us a bunch, please.”
He mouthed at me for a moment before snapping his teeth together, then waved his hand over the table. A handful of black jade stones appeared beside the jewelry. “I can’t believe I’m helping you make sure I can’t influence people.”
“If you’re as charming as they say you are, you don’t need compulsion to get people to do as you’d like.” CeCe fluttered her eyelashes at the devil. I wasn’t sure if she was teasing him or maybe she liked flirting with danger.
Either way. I didn’t think he’d hurt her, at least.
When it was time to turn the heat on the potion, we joined hands around the table as Luci poked around in my plants. I tried my best to ignore him as we chanted, but it was difficult. “Et perspicuitati conducit,” we repeated over and over.
I focused as hard as I could, but when Luci snapped off a piece of black oleander, then sniffed it, my attention wavered.
Then the fool popped it into his mouth and started chewing. “Luci!” I exclaimed. “That’s highly poisonous.”
Luci grinned and chewed. “And absolutely delicious.”
“Focus,” CeCe hissed, then went back to chanting. I joined her.
Thirty minutes later, we had several pieces of jewelry as well as a handful of black jade stones, all covered in anti-compulsion charms. All in all, it had been a successful day, even with Luci looking constantly over our shoulders. And apparently immune to black oleander.
“Well, this was fun,” CeCe said. She pocketed one of the jade stones and put on the ring we’d charmed. “I want us to get together again soon, okay? We can play with some powerful spells, see if we can’t irritate the devil.”
Luci sniffed. “We’ll see.” He winked. “It was a pleasure doing business with you, ladies.” He tipped his imaginary hat again and disappeared.
Once Luci was gone, I turned to CeCe. “You and Lorelai said you wanted to talk to me about the accidents.”
She leaned in and whispered, “Be careful. I don't think they were accidents. Someone is using dark magic.”
“Do you have any guesses on who?”
CeCe frowned. “No. It’s more intuition. But it’s too much of a coincidence that it’s only coven members dying.” Her phone beeped and after she checked it, she said, “I have to go. We do have to get together again soon.”
I walked CeCe out. Stepping out on the porch I saw Luci watering his roses. In the dark. Creepy, nosey neighbor. I waved and went back inside, shaking my head. Whatever was going on, at least Shipton Harbor was never boring.
Chapter Twelve
“So, I have to ask…” I peeked at Drew out of the corner of my eye as my stomach rolled with anxiety. He slowed, approaching the stop sign at the end of my street. Taking a deep breath, I tried to will away the dread burning my insides. “I don’t have any right to ask. We haven’t said anything to each other about exclusivity or anything like that.”
After glancing in the rearview mirror, he turned his head and waited at the stop sign, his features a mask of confusion. “What is it?” His voice was full of concern, not a note of suspicion. “I don’t mind you asking me anything.”
“I went in to pick up dinner at Guac On! the other night on my way home from the bookstore,” I said carefully.
He looked in the mirror again but must’ve seen no cars coming because he returned his attention to me instead of going. “Yeah?”
“And I saw you there with a woman.” I threw up my hands, waving them between us. “Now, we’ve made no claims on one another, and in fact, I’m not truly wanting to nail this down as something super exclusive or like a—a commitment or something.” My words came out rushed and in a bit of a panic. I had no idea what I was saying. I was just a rambling mess.
The corners of Drew’s lips tipped up. Great, he thought I was nuts. I tried to explain and pull myself out of this mess. “I just think that if we are going to date other people, we should maybe make some ground rules.” I sucked in a deep breath. “Like, maybe giving the other person a heads up when we might be dating in town. I’d rather not actually run into you on another date if possible.”
Especially when it was likely that I’d get jealous and hex his date, which I had no right to do. Or claim him as mine. Did I?
Did I want to?
“Ava,” Drew said gently, drawing my attention back to him. “It’s not what it looked like.”
Oh, I hated that line. That was always the first thing they said when caught cheating. I couldn’t stand the thought that Drew might turn out to be one of those guys.
“No, you don’t have to make an excuse or anything.” I turned straight in my seat and clutched my knees, wishing I had something to do with my hands. “I’m not old-fashioned or anything. This is all fine.” Fine. It was fine.
“Ava.” We both jumped when a horn tooted behind us, a short sound that made me think the driver wasn’t mad, just letting us know they were back there. Drew cranked down the window on his old truck and waved out the window. “Sorry!”
He turned onto Main Street toward the town’s only bowling alley. “That was my sister.”
Sister? Now it made sense. The younger woman. The way she looked at him. It was love for a big brother. I sighed in relief before I could stop myself.
“Oh,” I said in a small voice and scooted down in my seat. I desperately wanted to crawl under the seat. Damn it. Why had I let my mouth run away from me? I knew darn well that it could’ve been his sister or cousin or something. I’d even told myself that repeatedly.
“She was in town but just passing through. We had dinner and she went on her way, traveling south to see her grandkids.” He winked at me. “And I want to be exclusive. I take it you don’t?”
Great. My verbal diarrhea had put me in the middle of it this time. “Well, I do, actually. But I still want to take it super slow.” Shoot! Admitting that was scary. I’d rather have faced something undead.
He nodded and covered my hand with his, giving a small squeeze. His touch made me relax a little. “I’m okay with that. I know it’s got to be incredibly difficult dating again after losing your husband.”
The silence stretched between us. “It is,” I said finally. “But a large part of me is ready. A smaller part feels incredibly guilty for moving on at all. He was the great love of my life. Am I allowed to have that possibly happen again?”