Page 2 of Bright Dark Curses

“Take it up again?” I repeated like the Cabinet of Curiosities’ automaton.

The woman made an impatient noise. “You know, cover more food places. It’s been four months since his last video.”

“I will, uh, ask him.”

Appeased, the woman smiled and moved to the last free stool while I stared into the abyss.

Brimstone and Destruction, aka Jeremy the fire mage, aka Key’s uncle, aka long-time member of the dangerous dark side of the paranormal community, ran a food video log?

Hmm.

Would he be willing to make a video about the Tea Cauldron? I studied the women at the counter, all suffering from a grave case of stars sprouting out of their eyes. He clearly had fans. He needed a job; I needed free promotion. A match made in heaven?

“Here you go,” Brimstone said, placing a mug in front of the first woman.

Thunder reverberated in the distance. The women sighed. I made my escape into the back.

“Ms. Bagley,” I whispered as I stepped inside the kitchen, “did you know about Brimstone’s food vlog?”

Bagley, currently stuck in a lovely old locket I’d left on the windowsill, snorted. “Who doesn’t?”

Why hadn’t anyone mentioned this before? Key and I were going to have to have a long talk later. If I’d known this side of Brimstone, I’d have included a video about the shop in the price for his fake dark magic potions!

“Is the vlog popular?”

“Don’t you have a phone to check?”

I fought a blush. “Be nice.”

“Be smarter.”

Oh, it was like that, was it? “Fine.” In the blink of an eye, I’d transferred the locket into a plastic container and was making my way into the backyard.

“Youth these days,” Bagley complained loudly through the plastic, “no sense of self-awareness.”

“Have a good night, Ms. Bagley,” I said very politely before putting the box inside the locker in the backyard and closing it firmly.

Thankfully, the added layer of metal saved me from having to listen to Bagley’s replies.

Some might say it was a mistake to allow Bagley out of the locker at all—she was a murderous, evil dark witch who had tried to hike out of the shop with the help of an equally murderous, evil dark witch—but I was a big believer in rehabilitation. As Grandma used to say, everyone had a nugget of goodness in them, even if they happened to be the devil’s spawn.

Paraphrasing.

I returned inside and went up to the first floor, where Fluffy and Rufus were resting after a very busy afternoon of rolling all over the backyard. Ian might be only a phone call away, but as far as my and the dogs’ hearts were concerned, he might as well be on the other side of the globe. We needed plenty of daily group hugs.

Shane had dropped a spare set of keys at the shop the morning after Ian had left so I could take the dogs at will, and I had never felt more valued in my life. No longer would I need to scale over fences to get a handful of cemetery dirt or ring the bell for five minutes and make funny faces at the intercom camera to gain entrance into the land of Cavalier Repairs & Renovations.

And speaking of cameras… I brought up my phone and searched for Decadent Temptations.

Oh, boy.

I hurried to add video log and food to the search.

Nope.

“Images can’t hurt you, Hope,” I repeated to myself as I went back down into the shop. Nothing appeared amiss. No customers were set on fire. They were all still looking at him with their hearts in their eyes.

I was trying to figure out the best way to ask about this vlog without possibly infuriating Brimstone and getting set on fire when Dru entered the shop.

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