As soon as Prospero and Sondre turned the corner of the car-rental building, Prospero’s lighthearted demeanor shifted to more serious. TheVictorian witch took his hand, and in the next moment, they were standing in an alcove near a busy area with what looked like several dozen shop fronts. There was a store selling only sunglasses, another looked like a penny-candy store, a third was a two-story bookstore. A fountain and benches and…fakegrass lined the space in front of the stores, and across from them was yet another series of shops. One seemed to have mannequins wearing all manners of undergarments.
“Those have certainly changed, haven’t they?” Sondre gestured. “I have seen some of the newer ones when—” He stopped himself. Discussing undergarments with Prospero wasn’t normal, even as their lives had grown entangled.
We aren’t friends.She was the woman he’d thought of as evil for several decades. He could admit that he was wrong about her on several points, but that was as far as he could adapt.Not friends.
“We may have to stop in there.” Prospero’s pale face was tinged red, even though her expression was blank. “For research.”
Sondre broke out in a loud laugh and said, “We’re still not friends, but maybe you aren’tentirelyevil.”
“The jury is still out on that,” Prospero murmured.
Before he could reply, a badger darted out of the underwear store behind a woman who was carrying a bright-pink bag. As the woman scurried away from the store, the badger ran in the opposite direction, a pair of stockings trailing behind the furry mustelid like a plume of smoke. A scream came from the same store.
“Found one,” Prospero muttered, before taking off into the panty store.
At the doorway, she dropped something tiny on the floor, but Sondre didn’t pause to see what it was. The floor was a veritable field of silk and lace and whatever else these things were made out of. Reds, blacks, whites, pinks, and a surprising number of blues littered the floor like a frippery truck had exploded.
Prospero was wading through the stuff. A pair of polka-dotted translucent knickers had snagged on the buckle of her boot. It waved like a woman’s fluttering hankie as she marched into the lacy morass.
Inside, people were popping into badgers all over the store. Other badgers rolled around in the bright and pastel clouds of fabric. Several badgers were panicking.
A witch called Jenn was standing in the middle of the store with her eyes wide. She looked over at him in shock. “Sondre? What are you doing here?” Jenn paused and glanced from Sondre to Prospero. “Withher?”
“Bringing you home.” Sondre stared at the dozen or so badgers running around inside the store. No one was able to open the door, so they were captives here. One badger was a baby, still wearing the tiny cap it had on as a human child. “Look what you’re doing, Jenn.”
“I didn’t mean to badger anyone!” Jenn folded her hands together. She looked around, as if expecting to find a way past them. It was foolishness. Prospero was not a witch to underestimate, and everyone in Crenshaw knew that.
Not that I’m a pushover,Sondre thought,but I guess she sees me that way because I put up with Aggie’s ego.
“Don’t make this hard.” Sondre stared at Jenn, knowing the futility of his request even as he spoke the words. Jenn was one of those overly officious people who carried her self-righteousness with her like a cloak. She decided that she wanted to keep her magicandbe in the world she’d left behind for Crenshaw.
“I don’t see why this has to be a big deal.…” Jenn smiled her plastic smile.
“Magic in this world has consequences.” Prospero sighed loudly. “It’s like you’ve ignored everything I’ve said about this for the last decade… or you’re stupid. Is that it, Jenn? Stupidity? Or arrogance?”
“You just wanted to keep us under your control.” Jenn glared across the sea of badgers and lacy clothes. “I had a career over here. Now? I’m nothing.”
“Sure, perpetual health, long life, and magic aresucha burden.” Prospero couldn’t have sounded less sympathetic.
Jenn made a crude gesture in reply. Then she smiled an ugly smile. “Well,youcan’t use magic over here without breaking your own rules, so what are you going to do? Those rules don’t apply to me now. I’m free of—”
“I can erase your memory,” Prospero interrupted. “Slip inside your head and fix—”
“Fuck you.” Jenn closed her eyes, scrunching her face up as if she had to fold everything tightly together. “You cannot. Not if I don’t cooperate. Aggie warned all of us. I’ll keep my eyes sh—”
“And where is dear Agnes?” Prospero said in a low, calm voice, as she stepped closer to Jenn, not quite touching her.
Sondre looked at the two women, and then he scanned the store. The only other people in the store were badgers. A veritable crowd of badgers ran amuck in the piles of panties. They were obviously panicked and afraid. Sondre wasn’t sure how to unbadger the people, but they couldn’t be left here in this state. “Areallof the badgers nonwitches?”
“Yes.” Jenn turned her back to them and presumably opened her eyes, because she was weaving between racks of clothes as she tried to escape. The only way to not slip on the silken mess or run into a rack was to have her eyes open.
For a moment, Prospero stayed still, as if she couldn’t quite believe Jenn’s audacity. Sondre watched them briefly, but then he saw two badgers start to roll around in some sort of tussle.
“Do you honestly think I was unprepared?” Prospero asked quietly. She was striding through the silk and lace piles on the floor fast enough to set the frilly things to flight a few times.
Without missing a step, Prospero flung a tiny stone at Jenn, hitting her in the calf. At impact, the stone released a spell, and Jenn crumpled to the floor with a scream.
Sondre looked at Prospero with a measure of surprise. “Spell stones?”
