Wytchcraft: A Matilda Kavanagh Novel (6 page)

“Yeah,” Ronnie finally agreed with a nod, “I guess that is a little scary. But, Mattie, is she scarier than the fae?”

“That’s a very good question.” I pushed away from the table, stood, and went into the kitchen to look for some food. The brownies were cool enough to cut, but I needed some real food, not just sugar. I was bent over, my head in the fridge, when I heard the knock at the door.

“Do you usually get customers this late?” Ronnie asked. It was nearly three o’clock.

“Not usually, but it happens,” I said as I shut the fridge door and moved through the apartment toward the front door. The caller pounded frantically on the door before I reached it, making me hesitate. Jimmy had knocked like that when he came asking for that seeking spell. So help me, if it was that troll, I’d have his fuzzy little head on a stake.

Just as I reached for my baseball bat, I heard the high pitched voice of a young girl call out my name, muffled through the door. “Mattie! Mattie! It’s me, Joey! Please!”

“She sounds desperate,” Ronnie offered from her seat in the kitchen.

“Joey,” I said as I started to unbolt the multiple locks on the door, “what is the matter?” The tiny waif of a girl rushed in when I had opened the door a mere couple of inches. She was a blur of pink as she darted past me. A half-pixie half-human, Joey was so tiny, she was shorter even than Ronnie, and if she weighed over a hundred pounds, I would be surprised. Her hair was a shock of bubblegum pink that sprouted from her head in every direction, ending in soft spikes with tiny pieces framing her lavender eyes.

“Um, I, uh,” she stammered as she looked around my apartment. Her eyes landed on Ronnie. Joey turned back to me and blinked her wide eyes slowly.

“Ronnie’s cool. What’s up?” I asked as I shut the door, threw the locks back into place, and touched the knob with my finger to trigger the freezing spell.

“Yeah, okay,” she said quickly. When I had first met Joey, I thought she had a meth problem because of how erratic her speech was and how quickly she moved, but it was just the pixie in her reconciling with the permanent human size. Her mother was a pixie and her father a human. The combination had turned out pretty enough, but Joey didn’t have all the transformative powers pixies usually had. She was stuck at human size, as small as she was at four foot nine, but she moved like a hummingbird, and I worried one day her heart was going to burst in her tiny chest.

“Come, sit, have some wine,” I said, taking her by the shoulders, guiding her over to the kitchen table, and urging her to take my seat. I poured a third glass of wine and held it out for her. Joey took it with trembling fingers, but after the first sip, she was visibly calmer.

“Is she old enough to drink?” Ronnie whispered to me as if Joey wouldn’t be able to hear her three feet away.

“She’s half pixie,” I said as an explanation for her size and childlike face. As it was, Joey was well into her twenties, not that the supernatural community cared much for human age laws anyway.

“So what’s the matter?” Ronnie asked. Joey looked up from the wine glass held in both hands. The pink hue of her cheeks had already darkened with the few sips she’d taken.

“It’s about Malachi,” Joey said, looking from me to Ronnie and back again.

“The boyfriend,” I said to Ronnie as I picked up my wine glass and took a gulp, finishing off my third glass. I definitely felt the wine then; my vision was a little fuzzy and I felt a little lightheaded. It was time for some food. “Go on,” I said to Joey as I pulled open the fridge door again and resumed the search Joey’s arrival had interrupted.

“I think he’s getting ready to break up with me,” Joey said, her voice cracking at the end. Tears shimmered in her eyes, and when I looked over the top of the fridge door, she blinked, making them spill down. A black streak of mascara ruined her carefully applied makeup.

“Why do you think that?” Ronnie asked.

Before Joey could answer, I said, “Because he’s a werewolf.” I heard Ronnie make a noise of understanding as I ducked back down and finally grabbed a box of left over pizza. I nudged the door closed with my hip and set the box down on the kitchen table. I pulled out a piece and took a huge bite. Ronnie took a piece when she realized it was just cheese, tomatoes, and basil on top. I nodded at Joey for her to take a piece, but she just shook her head and sniffed sadly.

“So you’re really dating a Were?” Ronnie asked. “Even though you’re not one?”

“Why does that surprise everyone?” Joey asked exasperated and set her glass down a little too hard, making me cringe, but it didn’t break.

“Because, Joey, Weres usually don’t date outside their race,” I said. “And when they do, it’s usually just a fling.”

“Not with Malachi and me!” Joey yelled, but her eyes bulged and her hand flew to cover her mouth as if she hadn’t meant to yell at us.

“You just said you think he’s gonna break up with you,” Ronnie said. I waved a hand at her to stop, not wanting Joey to fly into a rage and break my stemware.

“Fine, so what is it you want from me?” I asked, tearing off a bite of crust.

“A love potion,” Joey whispered. I wondered if she thought Malachi could hear her all the way across town. I mean, a Were’s hearing was good, but not
that
good. Ronnie groaned loudly, slouching in her chair. I shot her a look, and she took another bite of pizza to keep from voicing her opinion further.

“Joey, we talked about this last week,” I said, making Ronnie’s head snap up, looking daggers at me. “I told you a Were would be able to smell the potion, and it would be nearly impossible to slip it to him.”

“I know, I know,” Joey said quickly. “Look, I’ll figure it out, all right?” I looked at her and saw the desperation in her eyes and my heart went out to her. I knew what it was to be in love with someone only to feel them pull away from you, to watch them slip away like water through your fingers.

“Fine,” I said, shaking my head.

“Mattie, you can’t be serious.” Ronnie jumped in her chair and turned to face me.

“Ronnie, don’t.” I held up at hand. I did not want to argue with her about it. Ronnie opened her mouth, but after a moment, she closed it without saying anything and slumped back down in her chair. She turned her face away from me, tossed her long red hair over her shoulder, and pursed her lips. She’d get over eventually. If she was really that mad at me, she would’ve left. Besides, she knew as well as I did if I didn’t give Joey the potion, she’d find it somewhere else, and she might get taken advantage of by someone with lower morals. At least if she got the potion from me, she was safe knowing it was a real potion and at a reasonable price.

I went back to the kitchen, pulled out one of the premade potions I had prepped, and pulled the cork out before setting it on the counter. I found the finger sticks in the drawer and let Joey see me break the seal on it and pull the paper and film apart like a Band-Aid to access the sharp needle.

“Come here, Joey,” I said, crooking a finger at her. Joey’s eyes went to the needle on the counter and hesitated. I had an alcohol-soaked cotton ball ready and waiting.

“Having second thoughts?” Ronnie jeered, her voice a small echo as she spoke into her wineglass before taking a sip.

“No,” Joey said quickly, her voice stronger than I expected. Ronnie’s gibe got Joey out of her seat, and she walked over to me, slower than I had ever seen her move before.

“Hand please,” I said, holding out my empty hand for Joey’s.

“Will it hurt?” she asked. Her voice wavered as she whispered, hoping Ronnie wouldn’t hear her, but she did, as was obvious from the snort we heard.

“I’ll make it quick,” I promised as Joey laid her hand in mine. I wiped her finger with the cotton ball to sterilize it, and when I reached for the needle, I felt Joey’s hand tremble in mine.

“Still time to back out,” Ronnie said as she reached for a second piece of pizza.

“Shut up,” Joey said, turning her face to look over her shoulder at Ronnie. I took the momentary distraction to stick her finger. Joey jumped and hissed, but it was done.

“Wait,” I said, snatching Joey’s hand back before she could stick her bloody finger in her mouth and suck the blood off. I turned her hand over and squeezed three drops of her blood into the bottle. When the third drop hit the potion, there was a puff of purple smoke and the pink potion turned crystal clear. The spell was done.

“Is that it?” Joey asked around her finger as she stared wide-eyed at the bottle.

“That’s it,” I said and corked the bottle. I laid it on its side, grabbed a lit candle from the window sill, and dripped the melted wax on it to seal it. “Now,” I said, picking up the bottle and blowing on the wax to set it, “be careful only Malachi drinks this. It will work on anyone, so you don’t want to go spiking some punch at a party or something.”

“Eh, why not?” Ronnie said around a bite of pizza. “What’s the difference meddling in one heart or a hundred? I say spike the punch!”

“Thank you, Ronnie,” I said and turned back to Joey. “Be careful.”

“I will, I promise,” Joey said as she took the bottle from me and clutched it to her tiny chest. I could see all her hopes and fears lay naked on her face, and for a moment, I thought about taking the bottle back from her. I could think of a few charms that would do her some much needed good, but that’s not what she came to me for.

“It’s a hundred,” I said, my hand out.

“I thought potions were fifty,” Joey said. Her hand hesitated over her purse.

“That’s for medicinal potions,” I said with a shake of my head. “Love potions cost more.”

“Because they have higher consequences,” Ronnie said.

“Enough, Ronnie,” I said before saying to Joey, “So, one hundred.”

“Yeah, okay,” Joey said a little sadly as she rummaged in her purse and found the money. She handed it to me in a wadded up ball, and I had to lay it out on the counter to count it. When I found the full fee there, I gave her a nod.

“And remember, he’ll be able to smell that.” I pointed at the bottle. “If he catches you, you didn’t get it from me, understand?”

“Yes, yes,” she said, “thank you so much, Mattie.” She rushed past me and was out the door. I hardly had time to hear the tell-tale
crack
of the freezing spell breaking before the sound of the door slamming.

“You know,” Ronnie said, and I felt my shoulders inch up, ready for her barb, “after what Jimmy’s put you through, I would think you would have second thoughts about meddling with people.”

“Ronnie,” I said as I turned back to her and slid into my seat, “I have to pay my bills.”

“I know, but you could just stick to charms and medicinal spells,” she said.

“And which should I give up: food or electricity? Or maybe heat or water?” I tilted my head and waited for her answer.

“You really make that much more money with these things?”

“Yes,” I said. “People who come to me for medicinal problems usually don’t have a lot of money because they can’t work, or can’t work a lot, and are barely making ends meet. I just can’t charge them more, you know? But love spells? Those I can charge more and make sure I can pay my bills.”

“Quite the dilemma,” Ronnie said. “I just hope she really did have a plan to slip it to him. I don’t even want to think about what he’ll do to her if he catches her trying to spell him.”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh, reaching for another bottle of wine to uncork, “me neither.”

Chapter 5

I woke the next evening with a massive hangover. Artemis stood on my chest and kneaded my shirt. His tiny little claws felt like knives in my skin.

“Mrrrow!” he said, demanding that I get up and pour him some milk.

“Uncool, Artie, uncool,” I grumbled as I flipped the covers off, burying him in a mound of sheets. He hissed and spat at me as he clawed his way out, flicked his tail in the air, and turned his back on me before jumping off the bed. He sauntered out of the bedroom.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said as I dragged myself into the bathroom to attempt to make something presentable of myself. The cool tiles felt wonderful on my bare feet, but the effort to untangle my short hair didn’t. I finally got it tamed enough to tuck it behind my ears and took makeup remover to my face. The smudged black flakes under my eyes made me look like I had been in a bar fight last night, but when I got it all off, I just looked like I’d been sick for a week.

I switched off the light with a smack of my hand and made my way out of the bedroom, slipped on my house shoes on my way, and to the kitchen where Artemis waited for me. He was walking in circles on the countertop around his empty bowls.

“Oh, forgive me, your highness,” I said and bowed with a flourish of my hand. “Ugh, bad idea.” I straightened up and the room spun around me. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth against the lurch in my stomach until it passed. The cream smelled wretched, but it wasn’t past its expiration date, so I knew it was just the hangover turning my sense of smell against me. After I poured Artemis a bowlful, I shoved the offending carton back in the fridge and fished out a cold soda to settle my stomach.

There were still a couple of pieces of pizza left in the box, which I was grateful for. The carbonated sugar and carbs worked wonders on my stomach, leaving me with only the thrumming beat in my head to deal with. As I leaned against the counter, munching on the cold pizza and Artemis lapping up his cream, I heard the soft whisper of paper against the hardwood floor. Artemis picked up his head, his ears turned forward as he looked toward the front door.

“Wonder what that was, Artie,” I said as dropped the half-eaten slice on the counter and dusted off my hands as I walked out of the kitchen. I could feel Artemis following me, jumping from one piece of furniture to the next, until we reached the front door. I looked down at the envelope with my name written on it. The script was elaborate and in a red so bright, it reminded me of spilt blood.

“Let’s not think like that so early in the evening,” I said to Artemis. I nudged the envelope with my toe experimentally, not wanting to pick it up. “What do you suppose it is, Artie?”