The Mayhem Sisters (7 page)

“You really don’t get out much, do you?” Scarlet asked, the corner of her lip upturned.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s a corporate logo for a company in Stargazer City.” Scarlet prompted. “Care to take a wild guess?”

“I don’t get to the city much.” Vivi’s stomach did a little flip. She was getting a bad feeling about this.

“It’s Dax’s company—Mender Corp.” Scarlet rolled up the parchment and tucked it away. “It wasn’t sewing, but mending. The word is a take on healing and medicine. Dax recently invested with them. But that’s all I know.”

“You’re kidding. Dax? Honora’s Dax?” Vivi was mortified. Dax was her sister’s first love, a cherished boyfriend and family friend for years.”

“You mean
my
Dax, right?” Scarlet’s stare turned glacial. Dax was the reason for her and Honora’s falling-out. He had come between them and destroyed their friendship, and now Vivi had seen the logo of his company when she tried to locate the missing witch. To Vivi’s knowledge neither witch was seeing Dax anymore, but it was still a touchy subject. Talk about awkward.

“What does it mean?” Vivi tried to navigate around the issue. “Probably nothing. He couldn’t be involved.”

“I don’t know. You said you saw the logo. You can’t pretend you didn’t just because you don’t like what it stands for.” Scarlet put her hands up in surrender. “But remember, this is all on you. It’s your vision, not mine. Honora isn’t going to be happy.”

“It’s one clue. It might not mean anything.”

“Or it could mean everything.”

That’s what Vivi was afraid of. Honora was really going to kill her now. She had enlisted the help of her sister’s best friend turned nemesis, who sort of helped her implicate her ex-boyfriend’s company as the only clue she had to finding a missing witch. On the bright side, at least she was one step closer.

T
he door shut behind her as Vivi hurried out of The Evil Queen and headed back to The Potion Garden. She slipped into her shop and took a deep breath. Scents of sandalwood and lemongrass wafted on the air. She hadn’t meant to spend so much time with Scarlet, but time had slipped away from her. Truth be told, she’d had a great afternoon. Even with struggling to get a handle on her magic, she was doing something important, trying to figure out how to navigate her
persuasion
. For the first time, she felt in control.

Unfortunately, her time in training with Scarlet did not come without consequences. The one big clue to finding the missing witch happened to be the corporation invested in by one of Everland’s most successful, brilliant, and devilishly handsome businessmen, Honora’s ex-boyfriend, Dax Cross. She would have to handle that bit of news later. Time to get to work.

“How’s it going?” Vivi asked Pepper, shoving her purse under the counter. A few customers mingled around the shop.

“Great. You just missed the rush. The wishful-thinking potion you whipped up is selling like crazy. We’ll probably need another batch.” Pepper handled the afternoon crowd like a pro.

Vivi tied an apron around her waist. “You’re a lifesaver.” She gave Pepper a little squeeze. “Thanks for taking care of things around here the past two days. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

“No problem. We’re a team.” Pepper giggled and a tiny furry head poked out of her shirt pocket. A little black nose sniffed the air, whiskers twitching. It was Teeny, Pepper’s chipmunk familiar. He often hitched a ride in her pocket while she worked. The curious, hyper little guy was a good match for her active assistant. They both had the same speedy temperament.

“Looks like your little boy’s helping out.” Vivi smiled.

“Not really. He just likes to run around and find little hidey-holes behind the potion bottles. He practically scared Lavender to death.”

“How’s she doing? I hardly ever get to see her anymore, now that her shop’s going gangbusters.”

Lavender Blue ran The Charmery, the hot new shop on Main Street.

“Great. She’s a workaholic like you. She was in shopping for a calming balm. After the big charm gala last week, business boomed, so she needed a potion to help her relax.”

“That was the best party ever. She had dozens of gorgeous metal charms and even introduced a jewelry line of cool necklaces and bracelets. I wanted them all.” Vivi twisted up her lips in concentration. “I was thinking we could try something similar with a few popular potions.”

“Like how?” Pepper asked, feeding Teeny a piece of popcorn.

“By using those extra-small vials we thought would never work for resale.”

“Right. The ones the glassblower made way too small and we got stuck with three full boxes.”

“What if we strung the tiny vials on necklaces using leather or silk cords? See how it works. Then, if they sell, we could upgrade to silver and gold chains.”

“That’s a great idea. Wearable potions. You’re a genius.” Pepper beamed.

“Not really. Just trying to keep up with the times.”

Vivi headed into the back and grabbed her old trusty copper pot. Time to brew some more potions to keep the shelves filled, especially the new wishful-thinking potion that was a surprise hit. Brewing gave her time to think and time to relax. It also brought back memories of her childhood, when she’d learned how to conjure magic in the kitchen of their little cottage in the woods.

When Vivi was little, she used to curl up at her mother’s feet as she bustled around in the kitchen, wearing a long soft apron that had been washed so often if felt like a lamb’s ear rubbing against Vivi’s cheek. Always baking up something special for her girls, Elspeth never scatted Vivi away when she played underfoot, but would sprinkle cinnamon or crystalized sugar down from above for her to catch on her tongue like delicious snowflakes. Vivi would hold her own little ceramic bowl in her lap, filled with pulverized wildflowers and a few unfortunate beetles that had clung to her mother’s rose bushes and ended up as part of a make-believe magic potion she stirred up while her mother hummed a tune.

Elspeth always encouraged her to experiment, to take chances and mix many a strange and wonderful potion. Vivi had poured the powdery concoctions into tiny leather bags she kept in her pocket or tied to her belt. She knew the potions didn’t work. She hadn’t learned how to imbibe the ingredients with magic, but they made her feel better. Even as a child, Vivi realized potions fixed things.

Now in her back-room kitchen, she took a moment to think about everything that happened and how she fit into the world. Her shop was her anchor. Jars of honey sat next to bottles of melted mountain snow. Dried newt rested next to spiky cattails. Canisters of marigolds, lavender, toadstools, and poppies, vials of seeds, and jars of sap crowded her shelves. She collected the essence of the forest and the seas to make elixirs, tonics, potions, and salves.

Her life was sweet and sour, harsh as rain-swept wind. It ached and squeezed, loved and laughed. Life was supposed to be filled with good and bad. A tune her mother used to sing came back to her.

Sulfur, brimstone, soot and ash. Posies, roses, sugar, salt.

Life breaks the skin, the bone, the heart.

The potion maker steals the sun, the moon, the rain.

Bottling a better brew to ease the pain.

The memory of her mother was bittersweet, but it always grounded her, made her realize the one thing in her life she never questioned. Potions mended, healed, and hid the pain of life with a jolt of laughter, a wish whispered to the universe, a deep breath, or a moment of lightness.

These were the things of her shop: her pretend, her make-believe, made real.

Vivi didn’t want to lose it. She didn’t want to be alone like Esmeralda—a shunned seer. But what was done was done. Every step she took was taking her deeper into a mystery she wasn’t sure she was prepared to solve, and now she had to face the things she saw and follow the visions where they took her. She shuddered, remembering what Esmeralda had told her that night in the woods.

Follow the visions wherever they take you.

That was her problem.

“Hey, Vivi,” Pepper called from the front of the shop. “A giant owl just arrived.” Her voice was stern. She was probably keeping a strong eye on the predator and making sure he steered clear of her meal-sized familiar. There was a strict no-eating policy in the shop, especially when it came to beloved chipmunks.

Vivi hurried to the front to see a huge brownish-gray barred owl perched on Rumor’s stand. The owl gave a hoot when he saw her. Rumor was not in the shop, but he wouldn’t mind sharing his perch with Honora’s familiar, Barnaby. There was a tiny capsule attached to his leg. Vivi and Honora often exchanged messages through their familiars. She took the capsule and unrolled a tiny bit of parchment sealed inside.

The note read:
Dinner tonight at Clover’s. See you there. H.

Vivi loved it when her sisters got together to hang out, cook, eat, and talk. Any other night she would have been elated to see them, but now that she had seen the logo she would have to talk to Honora. No avoiding it. She knew if she wanted to follow her vision and get into Mender Corp, she would need her sister’s advice. No one knew Dax Cross better.

Pepper tapped her foot, hands on hips. “I hope you haven’t forgotten something.”

“Never. A promise is a promise,” Vivi said. Time she had a little fun with her assistant and pay a visit to the most famous word witch in Everland.

The local bookstore, Goodspells Grimoire, was packed with witches and wizards desperate to get a copy of the latest
Spellbinder
novel. The place hummed with excitement. Vivi had promised Pepper, who clutched the newly purchased novel to her chest as her gaze roved the bookshop, they could close up the shop for the afternoon and head over to the signing. They were crammed in with what looked like the entire town. An elbow jabbed Vivi in the ribcage. A witch wearing a long blue cape and a platinum waist-length wig stepped on her foot. Many of the witches jostling for position were dressed up as characters from the books.

A hushed silence filled the room as the famous Cassandra Reason passed through a silk curtain and made her way onto the stage. A cascade of rich brown curls cradled her shoulders. Wearing a long black dress with gathers in all the right places to show off her hourglass figure, Cassandra took her seat. Her nails were black enamel, and her lush lips were stained the color of blood. Crystal-blue eyes stared out from a gorgeous face with a delicate brow and high cheekbones. She oozed sultry with a splash of deviant goddess. Cassandra was creative and brilliant—a gifted word witch—and yet she remained humble and kind in the spotlight’s bright glare.

She was also completely fictional.

Clover Mayhem had invented the fictitious witch to be her standin because she couldn’t handle all the attention. She hated the spotlight that her
persuasion
as a wildly successful word witch had bestowed on her. She was much more comfortable camped out in her old-world-style house with a pitched roof and writing turret, devouring cupcakes, drinking wine, and writing stories than hanging out with throngs of adoring fans. But to be a successful novelist, she had to work the circuit and make public appearances.

So, to fix the problem, Clover devised the bombshell—a dynamic, charismatic pseudo-witch to absorb the spotlight for her—and Vivi had been happy to conjure up the potion that, for four hours at a time, allowed her sister to magically transform into Cassandra Reason. Once the time elapse was up, she turned back into herself, or she could take a reversal potion, if she didn’t want to wait.

The disguise worked like a charm. The Cassandra Reason series of romance mysteries had crowded the top of the bestseller list for the past five years. Clover stayed relatively anonymous, and the witches of Everland lapped up the show like cold cream with a coarse cat tongue.

From the length of the line, Vivi figured it would take a least an hour to get Pepper’s book signed, and that gave her an idea. “Would you mind if I checked out the archives on the second floor while you’re waiting?” Vivi asked.

“Not at all. I’m not going to be good company anyway. The potion you made for you-know-who is flawless. I want to take a good look, to study it.”

“For professional potion-making research, of course.” Vivi nudged her assistant with her elbow. “I’ll be back soon.”

On her way to the staircase that led upstairs, she waved down a flustered wizard with a barrel chest and a full brown beard. Bear Griswold hurried around the store, handing out books and answering questions, but when he caught Vivi’s eye he joined her at the foot of the stairs in a flash.

“Thought I’d head up and check out some materials from the archives,” Vivi said with a wink.

“Go on. In fact, lead the way. I could use a few minutes’ break.” Bear wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief and waved to his wife, Priscilla, motioning to where he was going, before following Vivi up the creaking stairs to the second floor.

Unlike Vivi, who had constructed an apartment on the second floor of her shop, Bear had built a space to store the town archives and back issues of
Witch World Daily
. It was a treasure trove of information on all things Everland. Bear was a lover of stories, and not only the fictional. He loved the stories of real witches and wizards who made up the community, so keeping the town records, newspapers, and catalogues was a labor of love. Plus, it saved the town from having to hire a curator.

The room was filled with shelves packed with huge ledgers and rolls of parchments containing back issues of the paper. Vivi was slightly overwhelmed and her wide-eyed expression made the wizard chuckle.

“What are you looking for? Maybe I can steer you in the right direction.”

“I’m searching for information on a medical company in Stargazer City called Mender Corp, plus whatever we can dig up on the owners and Dax Cross.”

Bear raised his brow and motioned for her to follow him down one of the aisles. “This area’s where I like to keep the public records, licenses, and tax information on business establishments. Anything the company makes public. Not the originals, mind you, which are kept in the city of record, but I like to have copies for our local records.”

“Wow, you’ve collected an impressive amount of data.” Vivi brightened with admiration for the details-loving wizard.

“It’s my passion, or as my wife would say, my obsession. I like to think of it as a tapestry of the
persuasions
of industry and progress.” He waved his wand and muttered a spell that caused a number of books and scrolls on the shelves to shift and slide a few inches forward. “A sorting and searching spell I’ve been working on,” he said for explanation and went to retrieve the materials.

“Great spell. It would have taken me hours to find this stuff.”

He smiled. “Here you go. Feel free to look through them and others if you wish. There’s paper and writing materials if you need to take notes. None of the books or parchments can leave the archives, I’m afraid, but you’re welcome to stay as long as you like.”

Vivi pulled out a chair as Bear set the materials down on the table. “Thanks. This is great.” She spent the next hour gleaning the records for information on Dax and his new company. Mender Corp had been up and running for many years, Dax joining the company in the last year, and not surprisingly, business had jumped considerably under his guidance. They specialized in healing potions, capsules, and mass production of medicines, which were once only available from local healers. But Everland was moving into the modern world of medicine and demand for easy access to healing remedies was on the rise.