Joke curse, I thought sourly. It was still black. If I was caught, I'd be labeled a black witch and magically castrated. I wasn't fooling myself that this was anything other than wrong. No 'saving the world' crap. It was wrong.
Just this once, echoed in my thoughts, and I frowned, thinking of Nick. Telling Al about me had probably started with just one harmless piece of information.
Ceri sighed. 'All you need for the joke curse is dust from inside a clock and black candles made from the fat of the unborn. The rest is incantation and ritual.'
'The unborn?' I said in a horrified, hushed whisper. 'Ceri, you said it wasn't that bad.'
'The fat of an unborn pig,' she reiterated, sounding angry. 'Honestly, Rachel.'
My brow furrowed. Okay, it was a fetal pig, the same thing biology students dissect, but it sounded close to the slaughtering-goats-in-your-basement kind of magic. The transference curse looked harmless apart from the black it would put on my soul, and the disguise charm was white—illegal, but white. The inertia-dampening curse was the worst of the lot—and it was the one that would keep Jenks alive—a joke curse. Just this once.
I was so stupid.
Stomach roiling, my thoughts flicked to Trent and his illegal labs, which saved people so he could blackmail them into seeing things his way. He, at least, didn't pretend to be anything other than what he was. Things had been a lot easier when I didn't have to think. But what was I supposed to do? Walk away and let the world fall apart? Telling the I.S. would make matters worse, and giving the statue to the FIB was a joke.
Angry and sick inside, I sidestepped Ivy to get to the candles. I'd already been there to pick out my colored candles for the transference curse. Behind the carved castles and colorful 'dragon eggs' were the real goods, arranged by color and size, branded at the bottom with either what the fat had been rendered from or where they had first been lit. The woman's selection was surprisingly good, but why they were hidden behind such crap was beyond me.
'Taper or barrel?' I asked Ceri, crouching to reach one with PIG scratched on it. You can't light a candle in a pig, so it was a good bet that's where the fat had come from. I'd never been in a ley line charm shop other than the university's, and that didn't count since they only carried what the classes needed. Maybe there was a spell that used 'dragon eggs,' but I thought they looked lame.
'Doesn't matter,' Ceri answered, and with the smallest taper in hand, I turned and rose, almost running into Ivy. She winced and backed up.
'I'm fine,' I muttered, setting the candle in the basket. 'Did you see any packaged dust?'
Ivy shook her head, the tips of her black hair shifting about the bottom of her ears. There was a rack of 'pixy dust' by the register that was just glitter. Jenks would laugh his ass off. Maybe the real stuff was behind it, like the candles.
'You sound tired, Rachel,' Ceri said, question high in her voice as I moved to the rack.
'I'm fine.' Ceri said nothing, and I added, 'It's stress.' Just this once.
'I want you to talk to Kisten,' she said firmly, as if she was doing me a favor.
Oh God. Kisten. What would he say if he knew Ivy had bitten me? 'I told you so,' or maybe 'My turn'? 'Ceri,' I protested, but it was too late, and as Ivy fingered a display of amber bottles that were good to store oil-based potions in, Kisten's masculine voice came to me.
'Rachel…How's my girl?'
I blinked rapidly, the threatened tears shocking me. Where had they come from? 'Ah, I'm fine,' I said, missing him terribly. Bad things had happened, and I'd been carrying the pain since. I needed to talk to him, but not standing in a charm shop with Ivy listening.
Ivy had stiffened at the sudden emotion in my voice, and I turned my back on her, wondering if I should tell her that the glass container shaped like a full moon in her grip was generally used to store aphrodisiac potions.
'Good,' he said, his voice going right through me. 'Can I talk to Ivy?'
Surprised, I turned to her, but she had heard him and shook her head. 'Uh…' I stammered, wondering if she was afraid of what he'd say to her if he knew what had happened. We were both chickenshit, but we would be chickenshit together.
'Ivy, I know you can hear me,' Kisten said loudly. 'You have a big problem waiting for you when you get back from your vacation. Everyone knows you're out of the city. You're his scion, not me. I can't go up against even the youngest undead. The only thing keeping a lid on this is that most of them are my patrons and they know if they act up, I'll ban them.'
Ivy walked off, her boots loud against the hardwood floor. Her passive response surprised me. Something was really bothering her.
'She walked away,' I said, feeling guilty Ivy had come up there to help me.
Kisten's sigh was heavy. 'Will you tell her that there was a riot in the mall downtown last night? It was at four in the morning so it was mostly living vampires, thank God, and some Weres. The I.S. handled it, but it's going to get worse. I don't want a new master vampire in the city, and neither does anyone else.'
I stood before the rack of pixy dust and rifled through the hanging vials, reading the tiny cards attached to each. If Piscary lost control of Cincinnati, Trent would have free rein. But I didn't think it was a power play by the undead vampires or Trent. It was more likely that the riot had been the Mackinaw Weres looking for me. No wonder Walter had agreed to a thirty-six-hour truce. He had to get his pack together.
Tired, I let the vials slip through my fingers. 'I'm sorry, Kisten. We have a couple of days before we can call this done. It depends on how fast I can do the prep work.'
He silently took that in, and I could hear Ceri singing with the pixies in the background. 'Can I help?' he asked, and my throat tightened at the concern in his voice, even as I heard his reluctance to leave Cincinnati. But there wasn't anything he could do. It would be over one way or the other by tomorrow night.
'No,' I said softly. 'But if we don't call you by tomorrow midnight, we're in trouble.'
'And I'll fly up there in two hours,' he assured me. 'Are you sure there's nothing I can do? Call someone? Anything?'
Shaking my head, I fingered a book on how to knot love charms from hair. These things were illegal. Small towns have very little in the way of policing witches, but then I saw that it was a fake, a novelty item. 'We have it okay,' I said. 'Will you feed Mr. Fish for me?'
'Sure. Ivy told me.'
'He only needs four grains,' I rushed. 'Any more and you'll kill him.'
'Don't worry about it. I've had fish before.'
'And stay out of my room,' I added.
He started making a fake radio hiss, whistling and popping. 'Rachel? The connection is going bad,' he said, laughing. 'I think I'm losing you.'
A smile, the first in days, touched me. 'I love you too,' I said, and he stopped.
There was a suspicious hesitation. 'Are you okay?' he asked.
Worry slid through me. He was starting to pay attention. 'Why?' I said, realizing my hand had gone up to cover my neck. 'Um, yeah,' I reiterated, thinking it had sounded guilty. 'I'm just stressed. Nick…' I hesitated. I couldn't tell him Nick had been playing kiss-and-tell. It was embarrassing to have been that stupid. 'I told Nick to kiss off, and it bothered me,' I said. Not really a lie. Not really.
He was silent, then, 'Okay. Can I talk to Ivy?'
Relieved, I exhaled into the mike. 'Sure.'
I handed the phone to Ivy—who had come up behind me to listen, presumably—but she closed the top and handed it back. 'He can handle it a few days more,' she said, then turned to the counter. 'Do you have everything? It's getting late.'
Tension edged her voice. She was trying to hide her mood, but not doing very well. Concerned, I took the basket from her. 'Everything but the dust. Maybe she has some behind the counter. God, I'm tired,' I finished without thinking. Ivy didn't say anything, and I put the basket on the counter, eyeing the aphrodisiac bottle Ivy set by her catnip.
'What?' Ivy said, seeing me look at it.
'Nothing. Why don't you put your stuff in with mine?'
She shook her head. 'I'm going to get something else too, but thanks.'
