Page 13 of Wicked Witch of the Wolf

I looked down at the tiny man who was not-so-slyly pocketing sugar packets from a dispenser. “Since he moved in with me, I’ve been almost dragged to Hell, kidnapped and nearly murdered, and had my trailer burned down. If he’s good luck, my regular luck is far worse than I could ever have imagined.”

Kiv set our items down and handed Cecil a honey straw. “You werealmostdragged to Hell,nearlymurdered, and yousurvivedyour trailer burning down. I’d say that’s amazing good luck. Wouldn’t you?”

Mr. Good Luckand I snarfed down our snacks and headed to La Paloma.

We stopped at a few businesses that sold our herbs and charms, and Cecil mostly stayed hidden by clinging to the back of my neck behind my hair. We hit Beau’s Oddities, a combination paranormal resource and human head shop owned by a friend of mine and a close friend of my mom’s.

Not that I wanted to think about that too much.

“Got a new tome you might be interested in,” Beau said, after the human clientele cleared out. “It’s got some interesting protectionspells. Thought you might be in the market for something like that after everything that happened, you know?”

Beau Glazier looked like Nicolas Cage and sounded like Matthew McConaughey. He tended toward jeans and flannel shirts in winter and spring and wore his brown-and-gray beard cropped close.

Despite his appearance, he was not a man to be taken lightly. Beau knew something about nearly everything, and he was my main point of contact for rare paranormal books and artifacts.

“How much?”

“Borrow it, see if it suits your needs. We’ll talk price after that,” he said. It was our usual method of exchange. Beau knew he could trust me. I was pretty sure he and Mom had a thing for a while. They’d been good friends, if nothing else.

I took the book and handed over some fresh charms for him to sell in the store. Cecil popped out of my hair, and he and Beau exchanged a fist bump. Beau gave the gnome a shiny new penny, and they fist-bumped again.

We left and set off for Wicked, parking between the crumbling, two-story building and a duplex hookah lounge and laundromat. The scents of fabric softener and sweet shisha made for a strangely pleasant combination.

“This is a big store with lots of shinies. I’m going to need you to be on your best behavior, okay? I’m not trying to be condescending. I’m genuinely concerned for your safety should you mess around with the wrong spelled object.”

He folded his arms over his beard and chittered a groan.

“I know you, Cecil. Trouble follows you like a tail.”

My cell rang, and I sent it to voicemail like I had the other calls from Ronan. I set the phone to vibrate, extended a hand to Cecil to help him onto my shoulder, and exited the car.

Bronwyn was helping a customer when we walked in, so I hung back and thumbed through a book on herbal remedies. Most of the recipes were missing at least one ingredient to be truly effective, but they wouldn’t kill anyone either, so it wasn’t a big deal. Humansmostly used these sorts of books to sit on coffee tables or elevate bookcases, anyway.

Cecil took umbrage at an herbal treatment for foot fungus and let out a loud, angry chitter that made everyone look in my direction. I closed the book, coughed to cover the sound, and grumbled, “Be quiet,” under my breath.

It was strange that he appeared to have no difficulty reading English but could neither speak nor write it himself. I was starting to think he just didn’twantto do it.

“Betty.” Bronwyn motioned me to the counter.

I set the book back on the stack. “Coming.”

Bronwyn Jonas was in her mid-thirties, same as me, and looked younger. I’d only ever seen her in loose, flowing Bohemian style clothing or a satin witch hat and cape. Nothing else. So it was strange to see her in jeans, boots, and a snug green sweater. Her black braids were tied in a loose knot on top of her head, and her dark brown skin was devoid of makeup.

She looked worn out, annoyed, and burdened.

“Everything okay?” I asked, knowing it wasn’t.

“Sure.” She set a bell and a sign directing customers to ring it on the counter. “Mind if we talk in my office?”

“No problem.”

She led me to a wall of display cases behind the register. She rearranged a collection of stones on one shelf and the door opened with a loudsnick. Cecil and I went in first. Bronwyn followed close behind and shut the door/display.

“This is so cool,” I said. “You have a secret lair.”

She let out a surprised laugh. “I never thought about it like that, but I suppose I do.”

“Do you also have any of those paintings with the eyes cut out? Because that’s the only way this gets cooler.”

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