He stared at me. “I don’t deal in hypotheticals. Are you telling me to get over it?”
Inside, I screamed yes, but this was Kyle spoiling for another fight. Instead, I took a steadying breath. “What do you think about couples counseling?”
“Are you saying we can’t work this out on our own?”
Another deep breath. “I’m saying I don’t know how to help.”
His gaze shifted over my shoulder, toward the window. “Your friend is back. I’m not comfortable with strangers showing up at your house.”
“So you’ve mentioned.” I wiped my hands on a towel while Daria turned onto our street. “This should be her last visit.”
He folded his arms. “I’m sticking around until she’s gone.”
“I thought you were sticking around for breakfast, or are we done talking?”
When he didn’t answer, I detoured to my workshop, grabbed a bean pot and a Bunsen burner, and met Daria on the patio.
“I found the things you told me to get,” she said. “I had to go to the nursery to get the castor bean stem and the mistletoe, and I brought a tomato. Will that work?”
“Sounds perfect.” I cleaned the ingredients with the garden hose, put them into my bean pot along with some water, lit the burner and gave them a minute to cook. “I need to get a mug. I’ll be right back.”
“You’re going to make me drink that? Isn’t mistletoe poisonous?”
“It can be, but not the part of the plant you brought, and not from the quantity you’ll be drinking.”
Daria took a step back, stumbled at the edge of the patio, and fell to the ground. Tears welled in her eyes. She pulled her knees to her chest. “I don’t suppose I have a choice. You sure it won’t kill me?”
I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’m sure.”
“I guess I’m desperate enough to try anything.”
While I mixed the concoction, she took a box from her purse and set the payment she’d promised on the patio table, a beautiful dreamcatcher with colorful feathers and beadwork. A handmade tag detailed the dreamcatcher legend on one side and was personally signed on the other. If she’d been able to buy the ingredients at a nursery instead of finding them growing in the wild, she could have afforded to pay me in cash, but we’d struck our bargain.
When the first bubbles boiled in the pot, I turned off the flame. A car turned onto the street—Nora’s. Kyle and I hadn’t had a chance to finish our discussion, which increasingly felt like formalizing the end of our relationship.
“Great,” Kyle mumbled from the doorway, clearly as frustrated as I was. “Nora’s here.”
I poured some of the potion into the mug and gave him a glare. He knew Nora visited every Sunday. I refocused my attention on Daria.
“Now, before you drink, you need to ask for absolution from Madeleine.”
“But I didn’t do anything wrong. Her brother did steal the car.”
I held the mug away from her. “This is important. In her mind, you bear some of the responsibility for what happened, whether it was justified or not. You turned him in.”
Daria pushed to her feet, her lips pressed tightly together.
“I have to remind you, you will get sick after you drink this, but that will be an indication the spell is leaving you.”
She snatched the mug from my hand. “Forgive me, Madeleine. I didn’t mean to send your brother to jail.” She downed the contents, gagged, and returned the cup to me. “But he did steal the car.”
“Kyle?” Nora’s voice sounded worried, I turned to look. Kyle sat on the floor inside the house like a ragdoll.
“Are we done here?” Daria asked.
So much for a sincere apology. There wasn’t anything more I could do for her. “Yeah.”
Daria stalked away and I rushed into the house.
I knelt beside Kyle and cradled his head. He opened his eyes and for a moment, I saw a dark flash there. “What happened?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” He pushed to his feet. “One minute I was watching you, the next I was laid out on the floor.”
Nora fluttered across the room in her flowing caftan. “What were you doing?” she asked me.
“Helping someone.” I raised my eyebrows, to indicate it was a discussion for another time.
Kyle started for the door and tripped on the threshold.
“Are you okay?” I asked, reaching for him.
“Just clumsy. I’ll be across the street if you need me.”
Was I supposed to follow him?
Nora stood beside me as we watched him go, then turned to me. “What’s going on?”
I filled her in on Daria and the spell I had sought to lift.
“Oh, dear.”
My heart stuttered. “Oh dear?”
“What did you give that young lady?”
“The recipe was in the grimoire.” I pointed toward the workroom.
“The grimoire in the wall?”
Nora was making me nervous with her questions. “No. One of the recipe books on the shelves.”
She blew out a sigh.
I hesitated. “I did look at the hidden grimoire the other day, to find out about casting a spell to atone for a wrong.”
“And?”
Kyle had walked in before I finished reading, chasing the book to its hiding place. “I assumed when the recipe grimoire gave me the potion for Daria, it meant I should remove the spell.”
Nora’s eyes glittered. “Show me.”
The hidden grimoire appeared on the dining table. My stomach did somersaults as the pages flipped. What had I screwed up this time?
Nora stepped to the book first. I looked over her shoulder, reading the part I’d missed after Kyle had come in.
Proceed with caution. If a spell has been performed, it could well be protective in nature.
To determine the purpose of the magic, look for these signs:
Confirm the afflicted person has had contact with a witch.
Be sure the afflicted person’s behavior is unusual. It is possible they are simply having a run of bad luck. If fortune has frowned on said person, traditional uncrossing rituals will set things to rights.
Ask if the afflicted person is missing personal items or photos.
An interrupted
