Page 33 of Bright Dark Curses

I had an inkling this was one of those times when my customers needed good advice rather than magic potions. “What happened?”

“Mandy sucks!”

“I see.”

“She told me she wasn’t going to come to the cemetery tour because she was busy with her cousins, but Jules caught her going to the haunted house.”

“That wasn’t nice of her,” I said soothingly.

Natalia glared. “Seriously?”

“Kind of mean, actually,” I amended.

“She went with Gavin. Gavin!”

I nodded in understanding. “Gavin sucks.”

“He does! He hooked up with Linda behind Mandy’s back, and then Mandy made out with Bethany to get back at him, and he broke up with her and she was such a mess, but I was there for her. But if she’s going to treat me like a rebound, then I want nothing to do with her, and I hope she catches something nasty from him because that’s what she deserves!”

Oh, boy. “It all sounds awful.” Awfully complicated.

Natalia drew up to her full height, which was a couple of inches over me. Shifters tended to be the tall and handsome type. “I don’t want to be her forever love anymore.”

“Got it.”

“Can you do something about it?”

I’d suggest simply not talking with this Mandy again, but that’d probably get me the evil eye, and then Natalia might go search for a real dark witch to craft a hate spell for her.

No, this kind of stuff had to be dealt with in-house.

“Leave it to me,” I said with an edge of steel. “Stay here. I’ll have your potion ready in a moment.”

“You don’t need my blood?”

“Not for this.”

She instantly deflated, her shoulders slumping as if the sudden relief was too much to bear. She nodded weakly and averted her face, but not before I caught a slight sniffle.

Ah, young love.

I went into the kitchen and filled a small glass vial with moon water and a drop of red food dye. After shaking the vial for a few moments, I awakened my magic and put a tiny ward on the glass. The small amount of magic would give the potion that extra touch of being the real product rather than an obvious placebo.

“Here you go,” I said, returning to the hallway and handing her the vial.

She took it like it was the holy grail. Swallowing hard, she peered at me with sad, bright eyes. “This will cancel the spell?”

“Yes. Drink it and it will?—”

She had already pulled out the stopper and was in the process of downing the contents of the vial. After finishing, she smacked her lips and grinned, all traces of her sadness gone. “Done.” She inhaled deeply, then produced a wicked smile. “I feel so much better already.”

I tried not to laugh. “Glad to be of service.”

She handed over the empty vial, then leaned in. “By the way, how come you got that dude working here? Isn’t he famous or something?”

Sudden excitement filled me. “You know his vlog?”

Natalia looked confused. “His vlog?”

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