Page 53 of Upside Down Magic

“Thenhe would’ve asked.”

Ipicked at my jeans. “You’reright.He’sprobably running some sort of bet likeSofiaand doesn’t care ifIsolve the issue or not.Probablythinks he’ll never get affected too.Badguys are always the last to fall,”Iadded in a grumble.

Iansqueezed my leg. “You’llfigure out a way to bring him down a peg or two,I’msure.”

Thethought cheered me.Maybea small ward next timeIwent toWyatt’sthat made people stumble in the bathrooms?No.Toomean to all his customers.Grandmawould not approve.Maybeif figured out where he lived and hadKeymess with his lock?Butone shouldn’t punish people simply for being impolite jerks.Whatabout leaving him on the hook about theChristmasevent then shut him down at the last minute?No, again, too mean.HowwouldIfeel if someone did that to me?

Iwas still trying to figure out a good way to makeWyattsee the light about how he conducted his business when an anonymous text arrived:

Iknow aboutLeeman’spast.

Irepeated the text aloud, grinning wide.Iknewsomeone in the bar would take the hook.

Asto how everyone in the seedy underbelly ofOlmedahappened to have easy access to my phone number, that was somethingIdidn’t want to think too hard about.

“Whatdo they have?”Ianasked, not looking away from the street.

“Let’sfind out.”

I’mall ears,Itexted back.

50 now, 50 after.

Hah.Asif.

25 total.

Thesender gave me their payment email address, andImade the payment.

“Yousure?”Ianasked, knowing perfectly well this wouldn’t be the first timeI’dgotten conned by anonymous texters claiming to have information in exchange for payment.

“Oneday it’s gotta work, right?”Hislong silence was eloquent enough, andItutted. “Nofaith in your fellow paranormals.”

“Nonewhatsoever,” he agreed.

Thepayment dinged as complete and soon another text appeared.

Mygramps worked with someone in the family.Toldus they used to be in some shady stuff and to stay away if they ever moved back.Somesort of dark cult.

Irepeated the information toIan. “Soundslegit.”

Helet out a grunt.

“Thedark cult has to be the coven.Maybethey kept it up somewhere else after theOlmedaone got dismantled.”

“It’llbe hard to track down a dark coven elsewhere.”

“Whateveris happening is connected toOlmeda.Weshould try to find out more about our dark coven first,”Iagreed.

Iancame to a stop in front of the old, dilapidated house that used to house the coven leader so long ago.

Exceptthe house was no longer there.

Igaped through the window, trying to process the sight, thenIunhooked the seatbelt and jumped out of theSUV.

Wherethe old house used to be, there was nothing but razed earth.

“Wheredid it go?”Iasked, still gaping.

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