wasn’t needed. Let the Bobsey Twins figure it out for themselves. Just as I was about to make my escape, Sam stopped me.
“Dulce, can you boil some water please?”
I nodded and watched her dump a quarter of the white tincture into the bowl. Then she broke off a piece of the bat’s wing, snapping it like a dried leaf. Yuck. She paused and glanced at me.
“Here, take this.” She handed me a lemon.
“What, are we making lemonade?”
“Cut it in half and once the water comes to a boil, squeeze the lemon into the water. Make sure you don’t get any seeds in it, though.”
I pulled out a knife and sliced the lemon in half. Then I pulled out the seeds. “What’s the lemon juice for?”
“It pulls all the impurities from the water and air so they don’t taint my spell,” Sam answered. I’d been half hoping her star pupil would answer. I just liked the sound of his voice-like deep, rumbling thunder.
“Oh,” I said and turned to watch the water boil.
Meanwhile, Sam and Knight continued to work together on the spell, laughing and comparing spell notes as if they were in a college biology class and about to dissect a frog.
The water started bubbling and grabbed my attention. I reached for the lemon half and squeezed it over the hissing water. The sharp scent of citrus wafted up in the steam. Is there a better smell than freshly squeezed lemon?
“Okay, the water’s boiling and I squeezed the lemon. Now what?”
Sam turned toward me, propping her hands on her hips. “Can you bring it here and carefully pour it in the bowl?” Then she faced Knight. “Would you get some of Trey’s hair?”
“Sure, Dulcie where are your scissors?”
I reached into my knife block and considered throwing them at him. Instead, I handed him the scissors. In return, he winked. Actually winked!
The smug jerk walked over to Trey and cut off a good tuft of hair. Knight then handed the tuft of hair to Sam, who set it on the table.
“Water, Dulce,” she said, and I realized I’d abandoned my post.
“Sorry,” I answered and approached them, the pot roiling and spitting. “Do you want me to start pouring now?” I asked, looking into the bowl. The white tincture looked like sand, and with the pieces of bat wing and frog guts, it looked like some weird foreign dish.
“Yeah, slowly,” Sam answered.
I poured. As soon as the water hit the tincture, it began bubbling and let off a huge puff of white smoke. The bat wing started bouncing, but the frog guts did nothing at all.
“Knight, could you add the hair, please?” Sam asked.
He nodded and dropped the tress of hair into the mixture. As soon as it hit the white stuff, the tincture turned blood red. Sam started stirring. The puff of smoke went from white to light pink to a deeper pink and finally turned into a fire engine red.
“Ah, they used a scarlet potion, did they?” Sam asked.
I felt like saying “yes”, but I said nothing at all. Better not to be thought a smart ass…or a dumb ass.
She continued to watch the potion, as if expecting it to do something else. After another ten seconds or so, she straightened her back and turned toward Knight and me with a triumphant smile. “What is it?” I asked. “They’ve just used a scarlet on him. That’s easy enough to break. Knight, would you mind handing me the erasing vial, please?” He handed it to her, and she pulled the cork from the bottle. “Dulce, do you have a measuring spoon?” I opened a drawer and sorted through it until I found a rusted teaspoon. “All I have is a teaspoon-sorry.” Sam frowned. “That’ll do. Can you soak it in lemon juice?”
I nodded and pulled a small saucer from the cupboard. I squeezed the remaining lemon half and then basted both sides of the old teaspoon. “Okay, now what?”
“Hand it to Knight, please.”
I did so and he held it over the bowl as Sam poured an exact teaspoon of the erasing potion into the spoon. It bubbled against the lemon juice and turned mint green.
“Dump it in,” Sam said.
Knight rotated his hand, and the mint green met up with the scarlet red. That’s when all hell broke loose. The scarlet liquid pulled up against the side of the bowl as if afraid to touch the tiny teaspoon of green.
“Dulcie!” Sam yelled. “Plastic wrap, quick!”
I lunged for the Saran wrap in the bottom drawer and threw it at her. Knight caught it and ripped off a piece of plastic while the potion in the bowl sloshed against the sides angrily. Knight wrapped the plastic on top of the bowl, and Sam sighed a breath of relief. The potion threw itself against the plastic and no longer afraid of being showered in Hades knew what, I leaned in to get a closer look.
The mint green erasing potion had left the scarlet white in its wake. Now it looked like a one-man army going to slay the river of red. It inched slowly toward the red, which had now completely thrown itself up against the opposite side of the bowl. The white liquid behind the green was placid, just sitting there happily. The green attacked the red, and in about four more seconds, the whole bowl was white and sitting patiently as if it had been lobotomized. “Hmm,” Sam said as she chewed her lip. “Hmm?” I asked. “Why doesn’t that sound good?” She shook her head. “I did everything I was supposed to. Now it should turn deep blue, but it’s still white.”
Knight and I leaned over the potion to inspect it, hoping to see a blue tint take over the pearly white. Nothing happened. Sam pulled off the plastic wrap and reached inside her bag again. She pulled a small piece of litmus paper out, which she plopped into the bowl. The color of the litmus didn’t change. “Something’s not right,” she said. Knight reached inside his pocket and produced a vial of beige powder. “What’s that?” I asked, wondering if I was the weird one because I didn’t happen to carry around random vials of potions. “Another test-to see if the reason Sam’s spell didn’t work is because something illegal was used on Trey.”
I nodded, mentally kicking myself. An illegal spell made perfect sense. All the facts in this case were revolving around the illegal potion trade so why wouldn’t the bastards have used something not available on the market?
Knight dropped a pinch of the beige powder into the bowl and long, white wisps of smoke circled up from the tincture like ghosts only to dissolve into the air. “It is an illegal,” Sam said in awe. “Am I right in thinking it’s a Sleeping Beauty?” Knight chuckled. “You’re right on the money, Sam.” “How are we going to break that?” I asked.
Sam smiled. “The only place they keep the anti-potion is at Headquarters. And you’re the only one with clearance to get in after hours, Dulce.”
I frowned. “If my clearance hasn’t already been revoked. And even if I can get through the front doors, you know I can’t access the vault.”
The vault was where all confiscated illegal potions evidence was stored until the Netherworld sent us potion-destroying cauldrons. Our cauldron shipment happened once a week. “I can get you in anywhere,” Knight said and handed me a white key-card. “If you have access, then why don’t you do it?” I asked archly. Knight shook his head. “Because I don’t want to alert anyone to my presence. You can come and go unsuspected.”
I glanced down at the card and thought about what they were asking me to do. “You do realize if I get caught, Quillan is going to be furious. This could mean I’m off the team for good. No one gets access to the vault; I don’t even think Quillan has access.”
Sam chewed her lip. “Maybe we should just call Quillan then?”
“No,” Knight interrupted. “This is still top secret. Dulcie, you have my permission to go after the anti-potion. If you have any issues, I’ll take it up with the Relations Office.”
###
When I showed up at Headquarters, the only person around was Elsie who was tasked with watching our prisoner, a drunk goblin named Ehling who wasn’t a stranger to Headquarters. At the moment, he was passed out on a wooden bench. Elsie glanced at me and didn’t seem too surprised to see me; sometimes I had to work late evenings so maybe she didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary.
“Hi, Dulce, what brings you here?” she asked and settled the book she’d been reading on her lap.
I swallowed my palpitating heart and forced a smile. “I came to clear out some stuff from my desk.”
