This time, the spell worked. Ghostman let out a horrible shriek causing everyone on the street to stare, and then he spun into a tornado that caved in on itself, turning into a kind of super-fast ball, before it finally disappeared with a “poof” sound.
I was free from the curse, and I was about to make sure Jeremy Berg regretted every life choice he ever made.
Chapter 2
Two hours later I was back in Jeremy Berg’s home, and this time, I had found the cuckoo clock. He had cast a spell to have it appear to be a bookshelf.
“That was what gave you away, Jeremy,” I told him as we waited for Joseph to show up and take back the cuckoo clock. “You just don’t strike me as the reading type, and there are some pretty crazy titles up here, including from the human world. Can you even pronounce the word ‘Metamorphosis’? Well, I guess you can’t right now, anyway.”
Jeremy glared at me. He was hanging upside down, his body turned into a cocoon made of ropes that I’d generated from my wand. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to cast any spells on me from there, but just in case, I covered his mouth with duct tape through which he was currently hurling some form of insult at me, I was sure.
Unfortunately for him, it all came out as “hrrrrmmmmmm” at best.
I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out he had used magic to disguise the clock, actually.
Joseph arrived about ten minutes later. He took one look at his brother and shook his head.
“I’m really disappointed in you, Jer,” he said. “Dad wanted me to have the clock because he knew I’d take care of you with the money it generates. I can’t believe you wanted to steal it from me.”
Joseph made his way to his brother and peeled off the duct tape. Jeremy grimaced from the split second of pain as it was torn off.
“It’s all thanks to that witch over there,” Jeremy said, spitting in my direction.
“We’re still in your house, genius. You’re the one who’s going to have to clean that up,” I replied casually.
“Yeah, well, they’re going to have to clean up more than that when I’m done with you,” Jeremy replied, glaring at me.
“So here’s the thing,” I said. “You’ve stolen the cuckoo clock from your brother, and we can prove it. So if you don’t want to spend the next ten years of your life in prison for the theft of a magical item, you’re going to forget you ever met me and you’re going to forget about this clock.”
“She means it,” Joseph warned. “And if anything happens to her, I’ll make sure the Enforcers know exactly who’s responsible. Got it?”
Jeremy just let out an incomprehensible mumble in reply.
“Got it?” Joseph asked, his tone a lot less amiable this time.
“Fine, fine, I got it,” Jeremy grumbled. “I still can’t believe she found that clock.”
“Alright, well, it was a pleasure doing business with you,” I said to Joseph, shaking his hand.
“And you as well. I’ll have the rest of the money wired to your account. Thank you for saving this piece of my family’s history.”
I nodded, gave Jeremy a finger wave, earning myself another scowl from him, and went home.
“Good news, Vinnie,” I said to my familiar, a fainting goat, when I walked through the door.
“There was a sale on pears at the grocery store?”
“Nothing that good,” I said with a laugh. “But I’ve managed to fix a problem for another client.”
“Which means you’ve been paid, which means you can afford to buy me some pears. So it is good news!”
I laughed again. “Fine, I’ll buy you some pears later from the grocery store. I have to go down to The Magic Brewmstick and apologize to the fairies there, anyway.”
“Then it is a good day,” Vinnie said, bouncing around on all four legs. He was adorable when he did that.
“See? Told you,” I said with a small giggle. To be totally honest, I wasn’t used to being this flush with cash. It wasn’t that I was totally rolling in it – I certainly still had a budget that I did my best to stick to – but for the first time in my life, I actually had savings, and I was making a pretty decent income.
It turned out I was way better at investigating things and solving peoples’ problems than I was at anything else. I had kind of accidentally fallen into this job, building a reputation after solving the murder of a vampire at the behest of his parents, and now I was the paranormal world’s go-to private investigator. In the last month I had not only recovered the cuckoo clock for Joseph but I had found proof that a wizard was cheating on his wife, I’d recovered a necklace stolen by a movie star, and I’d managed to track down a local witch’s familiar who had gotten lost and accidentally taken one of the portals to Australia.
Yes, life was good, and as I was saving the world one client at a time, I was also managing to put away the money I needed to buy my mom a nice house, the main goal I had in life.
I moved some of the money Joseph sent me into my savings, admiring the larger figure, and then decided I really needed a coffee. And it wasn’t just because I had to apologize to the fairies working at The Magic Brewmstick.
I said goodbye to Vinnie and a few minutes later found myself in the coffee shop’s warm interior.
“Welcome back, Ali,” Starr, the fairy working the counter, greeted me. I couldn’t help but notice her looking around, like she was expecting to see the cloud curse ready to embarrass me again.
“Thanks,” I said. “Sorry about earlier. I had a little problem with a curse.”
“We all have those days,” Starr replied with a wink. “What
