Page 6 of Bright Dark Curses

I snapped my mouth shut. “I’m not their mom. They can do whatever they want.” Straightening, I gave him a superior look and smiled sweetly. “I’m happy if they found a side job that pays them well.” Even if it was for the competition.

Jim gave me the evil eye, then resumed glaring at the filming preparations. Abandoning his side, I retreated from the front lines and allowed another curious onlooker to fill my spot. Fluffy immediately stuck to my side, Rufus behind.

Dru followed. “You didn’t know about Key and Shane?”

“Nope. I’m not her mom. She doesn’t have to tell me everything.” The truth was that while I was a little crestfallen Key hadn’t told me about her new job, our relationship was still on shaky ground after the events during Halloween, when I had accepted Shane and Alex’s help to deal with Crane’s murder but had insisted on keeping it a secret from her “for her own good.”

I cringed at the reminder. What had I been thinking involving Shane and Alex from the start and not her?

No, I couldn’t blame her for not telling me about this job.

“I’m happy that she’s found a job while Ian is away.” In a movie set! For Gone by Morning! Honestly, I was awed by her cunning. That girl was going places.

Luckily, those places were still in Olmeda.

Hannah hadn’t killed Crane during Halloween, then stolen his corpse on her own. An earth mage had helped her. We didn’t know who this mage was exactly, but he had quite the reputation for being a bad ass in the underbelly of the paranormal world. It fit the profile of Key’s missing older brother.

At first I’d prepared myself to beg her not to go after this earth mage in the hopes it might be her brother, but it hadn’t been necessary. Key hadn’t shown any inclination to follow, and I wondered if she was hoping Ian could look into it once he was back from the guild.

Or maybe she was hiding her plans from me, like this new job.

I brought out my phone, intending to send her a text, but stopped at the last moment. I shouldn’t bother her while she was working. If I wanted her to trust me, I needed to keep my curiosity to myself and allow her to confide in me in her own time.

Curiosity might be a tough beast to tame, but friendships always had your back.

“Did you know someone supposedly cursed Olmeda so no movies can be filmed here?” I asked Dru as we resumed our walk.

“No.” She pursed her lips. “Maybe. I think I heard something a while back. Jim probably made it up to stop people from filming stuff here and stealing his thunder.”

That was a distinct possibility. “What if he’s right, though?”

“I thought curses weren’t a thing.”

“They aren’t, but what if something’s going on?” It was a reach to assume Key and Shane working at the set had something to do with any supposed curse, but coincidences were for people who hadn’t gotten back stabbed repeatedly. Curses might not exist as such, but there was no shortage of people willing to use a tale as an excuse for their own nefarious needs.

“Don’t worry,” Dru said philosophically. “I’m sure if something’s wrong, it’ll somehow involve you too.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

She gave me an angelic smile, then focused ahead and rubbed her hands gleefully. “Get ready. We’re here.”

Bosko’s shop stood a few paces away, his garish apparel hanging on the old-fashioned open wooden doors and spilling onto the street. A couple of tourists stood by the entrance trying to decide between a neon green T-shirt proclaiming Put me on your tree because I’m pining for you, and a cheap-quality sweater with a goofy Santa head and a line of deer.

I definitely was running late in decorations if even Bosko had Christmas stuff out already.

“Should I do Christmas decorations?” I asked, stopping by a group of car fresheners with Old Olmeda wrapping around the silhouette of the statue in Bolton Square. “Or should I decorate for witchgiving first?”

“Decorate for what?”

“No stealing!” thundered a voice from inside the shop.

I let the freshener drop. “I’m not doing anything!”

Fluffy let out a happy bark and strained against her leash.

“Fluffy, no.”

“Oh, good,” Dru said, licking her lips. “He’s here. Let’s go.”

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