Page 41 of Hell and Hexes
Clinton jerked his arm free, eyes wide as he spun away from the child. As he stepped back, he tripped over his father and also hit the floor, knocking an entire box of cupcakes over on top of himself. The kids screamed, a few began to cry, and the parents frantically tried to save any remaining cupcakes, glaring at the two werewolves who scrambled to their feet and raced for the door.
I ended up buying cookies and milkshakes for the partygoers in restitution for the smashed cupcakes. Then I collected my charms and headed out. I had thought we were making progress, but perhaps the werewolf situation was more than a luck witch trained in mediation could handle. Sometimes two people wouldn’t budge. I had really hoped that Dallas and Clinton could find common ground, but it hadn’t happened.
I drove over to Cassie’s to give her the bad news. She’d taken to working from home a few days a week, juggling her lawyer job and her responsibilities to the town all at once. I found her with her files spread across the kitchen table, Lucien nowhere in sight. Grabbing a drink from the fridge, I sat down, carefully avoiding looking at the empty spot where the microwave had once stood.
“Looks like there’s war on the mountain,” I told her glumly. “Not just tonight, either. Dallas plans to wipe out Clinton and his pack by the end of the week.”
Cassie shot me a sympathetic glance. “I’m sorry, Sylvie.”
“I really don’t know what more I can do.” I sighed. “Dallas is so stuck on his pride. He claims it’s about holding to their traditions, but I think it’s more that Clinton disappointed and embarrassed him by taking off with a portion of the pack and not even giving him the courtesy of a challenge. He’d let Clinton and the others return, but they don’t want to return. They want to remain autonomous with their own territory. Things got heated, then everything went sideways Three Stooges style, with falling and getting smashed with cupcakes, and kids needing to poop.”
“What?” Cassie stared, open-mouthed.
“I know. I’m sorry. I tried my best, but you were right. I think the only thing that’s gonna work with these guys is threats, and even then, we’ll get sucked into fighting and probably some retaliation.”
“No.” Cassie waved away my statement. “Honestly, I didn’t expect this to work, but you’re good at what you do, and I figured it was worth a shot. I mean the kids pooping cupcakes and stuff. What the heck is that about?”
“Not pooping cupcakes. The cupcakes and the poop were separate things—at least, I hope they were separate things. A dozen kids showed up right as we got started and were racing around playing and yelling. It was some sort of birthday party.”
Cassie frowned. “No. I talked to the manager and he specifically told me he’d block off the time so there wouldn’t be any parties.”
“Well, he must have gotten the days mixed up or something, because there was definitely a party. Some kid fell and smacked Dallas in the face with a cupcake, then he stepped on a ball from the ball pit and went down. Then the kid that needed to poop decided that Clinton of all people should take him to the restroom. Clinton backed away and fell over Dallas who was on the floor and upended a whole box of cupcakes. I’ve never seen two werewolves move so fast. They were covered in cupcake icing. And you know how nervous they are around humans—especially human children. I had to stay and make nice with the parents, buying milkshakes and cookies to make up for the cupcakes.”
Cassie shook her head and laughed. “Sounds like a mess. A perfect storm of bad luck.” I sucked in a breath at her comment and she reached out for my arm. “Crap. I’m sorry, Sylvie. I didn’t mean to imply anything. It was just a comedy of errors, not anything to do with luck.”
Maybe it had a lot to do with luck. I pulled the button charms out of my purse and looked at them. The old me, pre-death, wouldn’t have had any of this happen. The old luck witch me wouldn’t have had her mediation interrupted by a mistakenly scheduled birthday party or had the cupcake-smashing, tripping-and-falling chaos at the end, either.
I’d made these charms, and Eshu charged them. What an idiot I’d been. My sisters might be able to use demon energy to supplement their powers, but Eshu wasn’t really a demon. I should have known. He was such a contrarian. My charms had probably been charged and reversed to be bad luck charms instead of good luck ones.
“Tell me what you think of these,” I said, handing the button charms to Cassie.
Her mouth formed a surprised “o.” “Holy crap, these are charged to the max. But it’s not your energy.” She squinted at them, rolling the buttons between her fingers. “Is it? It doesn’t look like your energy.”
I blinked back tears, hating to admit the very thing I’d been trying to hide from my sisters for the last two weeks. “It’s not my energy. I can’t work my magic anymore, Cassie. Not since I died. I can do the technical part of it, but when I go to bring a spell to life, nothing happens. It’s like I’m not even a witch anymore. I’m afraid I’ll never be able to work my magic again, that it will never come back.”
She dropped the charms onto the table and came around to gather me into a huge hug. “Oh, hon. It’ll all be okay. Just give yourself some time to heal. You’re pushing too hard. You’re trying to do things when you’re still recovering from what happened. You just need more time, sweetie.”
I laughed, feeling a few tears slip free. “I’m not coming back to stay on your couch, just in case that’s what you’re about to propose. Much as I appreciate you taking care of me, I really need to be back in my own house, trying to get my life together again.”
She pulled back to smile at me, running a hand over my hair like she’d done when we were kids. “Okay. Just be patient with yourself. And stop worrying. You’re a witch. You’ll always be a witch. It’ll all come back with time.”
What if it didn’t? What if I spent the rest of my life fatigued halfway through the day? Not able to cast spells? Having to rely on Glenda’s smoothies just to get through the week?
But I’d worried Cassie enough with my fears. It would only upset her that she couldn’t do something to fix me with a snap of her fingers. I’d heal or I wouldn’t. No sense in continuing to cry over it.
I wiped my eyes and pointed over to the button charms. “Eshu helped me power those up. I figured if Lucien helped with your magic and Hadur helped with Bronwyn’s, that he could help with mine.”
Cassie grimaced. “But Eshu is…different.”
“You’re telling me.” I laughed. “Everything around him turns into a slapstick comedy. I should have realized any charm he powered would probably do the same. Instead of drawing luck to the meeting today, I drew bad luck.”
Cassie pursed her lips. “I wouldn’t saybadluck. I mean, the birthday party totally threw the werewolves off their game. And the falling down and cupcakes and kid needing to poop defused a tense situation before it could turn into a fight,andbefore Dallas and Clinton said things they couldn’t take back. Maybe theyareluck charms, only not in the way you usually define luck.”
It hit me that Cassie was right. But even if they were Eshu-type luck charms, I was definitely going to think twice before I asked him to power my magic in the future.
