Page 24 of Bewicched

At the sound of trucks pulling up, Declan turned his head and waved. “I need to go back to my truck for gloves and then talk to Phil, as I’m assuming you don’t want an audience for this. I’ll be back.”

Declan walked out of sight while I went for my camera. I switched out the lens for a high-powered telephoto one and then went back and lay down at the doorstep so my body was stable while I leaned out with my camera and zoomed in. Dark feathers, twigs, something that looked disturbingly like shriveled organs, and a stone with a rune etched into it.

I couldn’t make it out, but for many rune stones, the position of the glyph dictated its meaning. An inverted, or upside down, rune could have the opposite meaning of a right-side-up one.

Pulling in the camera, I glanced down and saw a cute little seal nose break the surface. “Hi, Wilbur. I’m dealing with some bad stuff right now. We can play later.”

He flipped and dove under the water. A moment later, when I was standing up, the tennis ball flew over my head and bounced squishily over my floor.

“Hey! No making messes!” I ran in and grabbed a kitchen towel, mopping up the seawater before picking up the tennis ball. Yuck. We needed a new one to play with. This one was becoming a mess.

When I went to the open doorway to throw the ball, I saw Wilbur circling the post with the curse sitting atop it.

“Wilbur, no! Get away from that thing.” I could see it, though. I knew exactly what he was going to do so I threw the tennis ball, hoping to distract him. It didn’t work. When I saw him gathering for a jump, I dropped my phone on the windowsill and dove in, arrowing through the water, dolphin kicking to my seal friend.

Thankfully, the minute I hit the water, the game changed. Instead of stealing the fetish, he was now distracted by chasing me. He raced me through the posts like it was an agility test. When I turned and started back, he circled me, beside, above, below. It was like trying to swim through a seal tunnel. This was clearly the most fun he’d had in a while.

As long as I was wet anyway, I swam out to the edge of the posts and surfaced. “Morning, Charlie. Herbert.” I waved. They did not wave back. I felt something wrap around my ankle and ducked my head under the water. “Hi, Cecil!” Bubbles rushed from my mouth to the surface as I waved. His tentacle slipped from my ankle with a move that mirrored my own.

Wilbur nudged me in the back, wanting to continue playing. Instead, I surfaced again, looking for Declan. He was jumping from one post to the next when he saw me and almost missed the landing.

“What the hell are you doing in there?” he growled.

“Wilbur was getting too interested in the curse.”

He watched the seal swimming around me, nudging me to play, and then nodded.

I gave Wilbur the slip and then raced him to land. Surprising absolutely no one, the seal won. I climbed the rocks and found Declan waiting for me, the curse in his gloved hand.

“I just need a potion bowl and my nulling draught. Be right back.” I took two steps and then remembered that I’d come out the back door. I didn’t have my keys and couldn’t exactly use a spell while Phil and his crew were waiting for me.Shit.

Judging by the look on Declan’s face, he’d come to the same conclusion. He slipped off the glove, making sure to keep the fetish in the palm of the empty glove and then handed it to me. “What do I need to get?”

“Let Phil and his guys in the gallery and then go back to my studio. Grab the bottle of water on my work desk and in the open cabinet, on the top shelf, you’ll find a hammered silver bowl. It’s wide and shallow. I need that.”

He nodded and leapt to the first post.

“Oh, and my phone is on the windowsill. I need that too.”

“Got it.”

He disappeared through my back door and I stood in the wind, shivering. I knew it made no sense, but freezing ocean temperatures didn’t bother me in the least. Standing here cold and wet, the wind gusting through my sopping clothing, had my teeth chattering.

Looking down at my arm, I tried to gauge the wet fabric’s transparency. It was hard to tell, though. I didn’t care about my bra being visible. I was wearing overalls and whatever. It was my back being exposed that bothered me. My father’s fae blood had left marks on me, marks I’d covered up in an unusual way.

Eventually, Declan came jogging around the side of the cannery, the silver bowl under his arm. When he got to me, he took a good look and then took the glove holding the curse from me, carefully placing it in the bowl before putting the bowl on the ground. He took off his flannel-lined jacket and helped me into it.

“I’m going to get it all wet.”

He shrugged, zipping it up for me. “It’s just water. And your lips are turning blue.”

Some sun broke through the cloud cover where we stood. As lovely as that felt on my face, it was nothing compared to his big warm coat that hung to my knees. It was glorious, having retained his body heat and scent. It felt like a hug.

He leaned in, reaching for my hair and I flinched away, but he was just pulling up the hood while glancing over his shoulder.

“Your, uh, lips aren’t the only blue thing.”

Shit.I stuffed the curly mass of hair into the coat, out of sight. Also thanks to my dad, my hair reacted strangely to salt water. It brought out various indigo lowlights and green highlights. I needed to wash it in desalinated city water to return it to my usual mélange of brown, gold, and red.

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