Page 37 of Mochas and Minotaurs

“Yes. We were able to nullify the spell.” But not the love of a very devoted incubus, although I kept that detail to myself.

“Don’t be so quick to judge, Evy,” Andreas said, wisely. “That troll might end up as some woman’s ultimate man. You know how it is. One man’s junk—”

“—is another man’s treasure,” they finished together.

“You’re right, Andy.”

I wasn’t so sure, considering how much the troll had stunk up the place. I thanked the older couple for having us over and promised that if we found anything interesting, we’d let themknow. They told us to call or visit at any time. It must be nice to be retired with all that extra time on their hands.

Explaining that we’d had our windows smashed last night and the repair company was due to arrive after lunch, we apologized that we couldn’t visit for longer. And with our newfound knowledge, Marcus and I headed home, eager to search in this mysterious basement.

Chapter 18

Marcus

There was nothing here.Nothing at all. We’d gone through and tapped on every brick, knocked on every patch of wall, and checked every floor tile.There was nothing here. But something still nagged at the edge of my consciousness.

“I know we’ve looked everywhere, but a part of my brain is still telling me that we haven’t,” I said, looking around the basement.

We’d brought down as many lights as we could since the basement had only one blinking fluorescent bulb lighting the entire place. Now, lamps from Gigi’s home flooded the floor with warm light.

“I know what you mean,” Gigi said. “It’s like the answer is right here in front of my face”—she gestured to the wall in front of her—“but I can’t see it.”

“Do you want to call it quits for today?” I hated to quit, but we’d been down here long enough, and the longer I stayed, the more hopeless everything seemed.

Today had been a day of ups and downs, and it was getting exhausting. First we had our windows broken. That had brought Seth, bearing information about both the dragon and Arcane. Declan had found the book…which had been basically useless. Then we’d gotten our hopes up about the basement after visiting Evy and Andy. We’d gotten back just in time for the repair company to arrive. And now I felt as if we were back at square one.

“We’ll try again tomorrow with fresh eyes,” she agreed. “We should probably relieve Declan anyway. He’s been up there dealing with the window people all afternoon.”

“He said they’re almost done.”

“Did Elise ever come back?” Gigi turned off the lamps so that the only thing illuminating our way was the unflattering fluorescent bulb.

My mother had dropped by just after lunch and had milled around until Gigi had gone up to let her know the coffee shop was closed, but they would open again tomorrow. She’d used the opportunity to feel around Elise’s aura to see if she had magic. She didn’t.

“But it’s hard to tell,” Gigi had said. “Because witches are taught at a young age to hide our powers from people who might want to use us.”

“Well, I don’t remember her casting any spells or doing any magic of any kind,” I’d told her. “The only ‘crystal’ she’s interested in are diamonds, and I’m pretty sure that if she could cast beautifying spells, she would.”

“In that case, I’m just going to go out on a limb and say that she has no magic. This makes my life easier. When she comes back tomorrow, I’ll be ready to mess with her memories.”

We were lucky she only spoke with Nick twice, for about thirty seconds in total, and that meant we only needed to erase any memory she had of him. That made the spell concise and easier to prepare.

According to Declan, Elise never came back. But I was still extra careful and made sure my glamor was running when I went upstairs.

“Ready to paint the logo?” Declan asked when he saw me. He had already penciled in the outline on the wall.

“Yeah. More than ready.” We were already days behind schedule.

“Any luck ah… cleaning the basement?” His eyes flitted to the workers who were just on their way out, their job done.

“Nope,” Gigi replied. “Still a fucking mess.” She looked as disappointed as I felt.

I wanted to pull her into my arms and kiss her until she smiled again, but now was not the time, not with all this work ahead of me.

“Well, I’ll let you gentlemen get back to work.” She gave my hand a squeeze and turned to the door.

“Call me if you need anything.” I meant it. Anything at all.

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