Page 46 of Bright Dark Curses

I allowed the magic to envelop my hands and seep through the glass into the moon water, interacting with the herbs and the black jade.

Magic can be harnessed,

harnessed into?—

Strident ringing made me jump in the air. The bowl tipped, moon water splashing over the edge. I stared at the mess, dumbfounded, as the shrill ringing came again, sending my heart right into my throat.

And inside the bowl, the jade’s energy dimmed and the stone lost all power.

FOURTEEN

“Wha—” What had just happened?

The ringing came again, and it suddenly clicked—the phone land line!

I stumbled out of the kitchen and rushed for the shop as the demonic artifact screamed again. Jerking the receiver out of the holder, heart pounding, I barely had enough breath to squeak, “Yes?”

“You’re the Tea witch?” came a robotic voice.

Holding a hand to my chest, I tried to calm my heart down. “The Tea Cauldron at your service,” I managed.

“You deal with magic?” the voice asked. Raised voices and pop music filtered through the voice modifier. Guiles and Romary?

Wary now, I said, “Depends.”

“I found you online. It said you deal with dark magic,” the caller insisted.

I straightened abruptly. Was this some kind of fishing expedition? Was this person trying to make me admit over the phone that I ran a dark magic business on the side, use it as proof to take the shop away from me?

I stifled a gasp. Was this another Council test?

How to answer? If I denied any involvement with dark magic and this was someone I could convert into good magic via placebo, I’d be doing a disservice to my mission as a community witch. On the other hand, I couldn’t admit to a complete stranger I was involved with dark magic.

But if it was a test, wouldn’t the Council want a witch who tries to help her customers, even if the customers’ issues had something to do with dark magic?

“Hello?” the voice demanded. “Are you there?”

“What’s your problem?” That sounded safe and noncommittal enough.

“My…?” The voice sputtered. “Seriously? What’s your problem?”

“What’s your magic problem,” I clarified.

“Oh. Okay. Well…” There was a long pause, through which I recognized a popular song playing in the background long enough for me to start singing along in my head.

When Ian was back, I was dragging him to karaoke.

“How do I know you’re the witch?” the voice asked, suddenly suspicious.

“It’s after hours and you called here. Who else could it be?” Were Key and the strays at the bars right now following our suspects? Could I send them a text, see if they noticed any suspicious person on the phone? There would be too many of them, I supposed. Plus, my phone was in the kitchen.

“Right, okay,” the caller conceded.

“Why did you call?” I cooed. The sooner I figured out if this was another test, the faster I could go back to see what could be salvaged from the potion. Although, if this was the Council witch, she should be playing the main role in the movie and winning acting awards.

“I think I cursed something,” the caller said in a low rush. “I need to uncurse it.”

“Curses don’t exist,” I said automatically, then covered a gasp of surprise and realization.

---