Page 48 of Malice

We walk together down the sidewalk and to the store. “Have you ever been down here in October?”

Hudson chuckles. “Only once. Won’t make that mistake again.”

“Same. It’s nuts.”

“If it was October, we could’ve walked here sooner than find a parking space this close to Essex.”

“True.”

After we climb the three steps to enter the store, I pause inside, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things. We’re definitely gonna need some help.

“Can I help you?” A tall, lanky man glances up from behind the counter. He’s wearing a beanie and big round glasses and has a large silver septum piercing. Definitely not the stereotypical witch.

“Yes, please. I have a list of a few things I need.”

“Let me see.”

I turn to Hudson. “It’s in your text from Jocelyn.”

He nods, pulling his phone from his back pocket and showing the text to the guy while I hold a squirrely Otto. He wants to get down and explore. I glance at all the shelves filled with crystals, candles, books, and herbs.

“Ooh, this looks like a doozy,” the worker says. “Heck of a protection spell. Whatcha got on your hands?”

“A poltergeist,” I say. Kind of. Much easier than trying to explain what’s really going on.

“Yikes. Just you two are handling it?”

“Aster knows what he’s doing,” Hudson says with much more confidence than I’ve earned. “This is just a spell to weaken its effects on other entities in the house.”

“You have other entities in your house?”

“A lot of them, apparently.” He turns to me. “Right, Aster?”

I nod. “Benign though. They’ve been there a long time. The poltergeist is hostile.”

“As they are.” He holds one finger up. “Hold on.” We watch as he runs to the back of the store.

“What do you think he’s doing?” Hudson asks.

“No clue.”

Hudson scratches Otto’s head while we wait. The guy returns a minute later, holding up a small velvet bag.

“Here.” He hands it to me. “I couldn’t tell you what’s in it, but I was told to remember it if someone ever came in looking for a strong protection spell. My instinct poked me that you needed it.”

“Thanks.” I peer inside, pulling back slightly at the pungent smell. It’s a dark purple powder. “What do I do with it?”

“Just add it to your spell. Follow your instinct for how much.”

“Great. What do we owe you?”

“Let’s get you rung up.”

A few minutes later, we leave with a bag of things I’d never heard of before today.

“Did you have any idea you’d be doing some witchcraft when you were assigned to help me?”

I chuckle, clicking the key fob to unlock the car doors. “Nope, but one thing that’s really cool is my… supervisor told me I would instinctively figure out the right path. It feels good that you led us to that store and the clerk had this special item.”

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