Chapter One
Treasure, mermaids, and other myths
Declan
“I should’ve driven the car over him instead of giving it to him,”I grumbled as I dragged my suitcases along the cobblestone sidewalk.
Thinking about my now ex-boyfriend—theexpartwasnew as of seven hours and twenty-six minutes ago—made me wish I was a mythical fire-spitting dragon. Then Josh, the cheating cheater who cheated, who would also now be known as either Josh the Jackass or Josh the Jerk (Ihadn’tdecidedwhich I preferred yet), would be a smoldering lump of charcoal, and I wouldn’t be struggling to walk up this stupid hill with all my worldly belongings.
I paused long enough to catch my breath, adjust my glasses, and wipe the sweat from my brow. IfI’dtakenthe car, I would’ve been at my grandfather’s place already. I scowled and started walking again. The little town my grandfather—“call meElwood, I’m too young at heart to be called Grandpa”—lived in might be in the mountain range’s valley, but that didn’t mean itwasflat. And the hike from the bus station to my grandfather’s shopwasall uphill.
Tourists were everywhere, meandering all over the sidewalk, licking ice cream cones, and getting in the way. I knew theyweretourists because who else would be oohing and aahing at every little thing in town?
“Oh, for pity’s sake,”I griped as I dodged around yet another happy couple and their happy little family.
Where had these people come from?
Oh, wait. The last time I spoke with Elwood, he complained about the mayor, who was also the new chair of the Economic Development Committee, being determined to have an endless series of festivals and events this year. They must’ve already started.A poster tacked to the message board outside the library fluttered in the hot breeze, grabbing my attention. In thick, bold letterswerethe words,Ravenstone’s First Annual Magic Festival, confirming my suspicions.
“Magic? Why did it have to be that one?”I groaned.
I’dalready confronted Josh the Jerk. I didn’t need to get involved with a bunch of other weirdos this week, too. Okay. Thatwasunfair, especially since my grandfather sold crystals and tarot cards to those people.
But, let’s face it, talk of magic should be reserved for discussions aboutThe Witcher, not the best way to hex an ex. No matter how much I suddenly wished magicwasreal and could do exactly that. Josh the Jackass would look amazing with a face covered in boils.
But my grandfather’s magic wasn’t like that. He peddled a bunch of feel-good, think-positive, placebo-esque trinkets to help people survive their lives. I mean, I understood the appeal.After my rather dramatic breakup with Josh thismorning,I’dgrabbed my rose quartz pendant.It’d been a gift from my grandfather years ago when I’d been stressed about school. Hepromisedit would be calming. I knew it didn’treallydo anything, but sometimes we clutched at anything to trick our brains into believing our livesweren’tso bad.
I heaved a sigh and continued trudging up the hill. My suitcase wheels clattered over the cobblestones, like a suitably irritating and chaotic serenade to this inauspicious moment in my life.
I needed to change this dreary narrative.
I sighed.Okay. I pasted a smile on my face.Here I go.
Coming to town in time for the hocus-pocus festival would be great. With this many people in town, Elwood would need help at the store. And working would be better for me than whipping up a supermarket’s worth of baked goods, which was what I’d originally planned on doing when I got here. Not because I (or anyone else) needed that many cookies or cakes, but because keeping busy would be an excellent way to forget about the nausea-inducing incident with Josh this morning.
And now Iwasthinking about my stupid ex again. And his stupid work-from-home plan. And his stupid face when I caught him with someone else in our bed. A fresh surge of bile shot up the back of my throat at the vivid memory, but I swallowed it down.
Iwasn’tsure if Iwasangry, embarrassed, or just plain old irritated that all my plansevaporatedin the span of that one shocking moment this morning. When I’d added a touch of nutmeg for luck to my morning coffee, I never expected to be single by lunch.
Hell, the coffee in my go-cuphadn’teven cooled in the time between me leaving the apartment and whenIreturnedto grab the notebook I’d forgottenfor my meeting with our newclient. But it’d been long enough for Josh to coax someone else intoourbed.
Interestingly, hurt wasn’t among my many, many feelings about Josh the Jerk’s infidelity. And didn’t that just speak volumes about the state of our relationship?
But now I was without a boyfriend, a home, a car, or a job. I guess that’s what I got for quitting my job to start a business with Josh the Jackass. Someday I might decide Iwaslucky to have discovered his cheating tendencies beforewe’dmarriedor filed our business permit, but I wasn’t there yet.
With a growl, I mumbled a series of nasty words. A small kid caught my scowl and ducked behind her mother’s legs.Yeah, yeah, kid, I know.If Iwasin a cartoon, a black cloud would be hovering around my head.
“I hope I never see him again,”I muttered.
Thatwasthe real reasonIleftthe car, all the furniture, and, well, every other thing except my computer and my clothes. IfI’dtakenanything else, Josh would’ve wanted to review it, talk about it, and try to take it away from me while also trying to gaslight me into going back to him.
Ha!I wouldn’t let him have the chance. Iwasdone.
Thatwasalso why I was in Ravenstone. It would’ve been easier to crash at my mom and dad’s instead of showing up unannounced at my grandfather’s place. My parents were on their first holiday ever, so it would’ve been easy to go to their place to regroup but then Josh the Jerk would follow me there. I didn’t need that.
Josh had fooled me. He made it so easy to ignore the signs that our relationship was falling apart. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he bewitched me. But Josh didn’t believe in magic any more than I did.He’dthoughtmy grandfatherwasthe ultimate snake-oil salesman. I didn’t share that opinion of Elwood,obviously, but I understood why Josh might have thought that. Elwoodwasextremely invested in his ideas about magic.
That should’ve been a sign that our relationshipwasdestinedto fail. After all, if Josh couldn’t accept my family, who, despite their quirks, I loved dearly, how could I expect him to love me?
