“Don’t go in to confirm. I want you to go to Wanda’s place and get Mav. I don’t want you going back into your place alone, just in case. Go, now. Put me on speaker so I can brief him.”
I did as I was told, marching sluggishly forward as though I’d needed permission to go see Maverick. My face felt warm and puffy, and I lowered my eyes almost at once when I entered the store. Only Maverick appeared to be in residence. My heart sank. I’d been looking forward to seeing my best friend’s face. She couldn’t change what had happened, but being around her would make it better. Funny how I was worried that Wanda would make things worse and now I wished she was here. I liked Maverick and all, but he wasn’t Wanda.
“Poppy?” Maverick asked, his eyebrows furrowing as he took in my tear-streaked face.
I wordlessly placed the phone on the counter, letting Taliyah tell him the details. As she spoke, I stared at my shoes, unsure of what to do or say. I was out of stock for… everything. God, I could only imagine the work I had ahead of me—it would take months to restock all those potions. Not to mention the time it would take to clean the store and replace all the furniture.
I wasn’t sure when I’d started crying again, but Maverick offered me a handkerchief from his pocket. I took it gratefully, mopping at my face. This morning’s makeup was no doubt ruined. Just like my shop. Oh, sweet Lord. Someone haddestroyedmy shop. Someone was angry enough with me to wreck months’ worth of work and to piss off an entire coven. There was no way Wanda would let this slide, even if I broke it to her in the gentlest terms possible. Someone had hurt my feelings, so she’d be on the warpath, regardless of what I said or did.
“We’ll catch the bastard,” Maverick said confidently, handing my phone back.
I just looked at him and nodded, though I wasn’t convinced.
“The window was intact when I opened Wanda’s store twenty minutes ago,” Maverick continued. “That tells me the culprit couldn’t have gotten far. There was a lot of broken glass, too, so Lorcan may be able to scent his or her track this evening.”
“Thanks, Maverick.”
He nodded. “Don’t worry. No one is going to touch you.”
I stared up into Maverick’s solemn eyes. He looked sober and almost… concerned. We’d never been bosom buddies, but we were like distant family to each other now. Though I doubted he’d ever say as much aloud.
“I’ll head over there in a couple minutes and check it out. Will you be okay here?”
I nodded. “Thanks,” I whispered. “But you should be careful. There are potions everywhere. I remember what happened the last time blood magic and a volatile potion mixed.”
He and Wanda had magicked a mannequin to life. Sybil. She was now a shapeshifter who ordinarily posed as a young woman. Maverick was the one who had claimed her as his daughter, and he took his job as a father seriously. It was amazing how muchhe’d grown as a person since we’d first met. From douchebag to girl dad. It was almost inspiring.
Maverick grimaced. “I’ll try not to blow anything up.”
“Promise? Because it’s already wrecked as is.”
His smile was brief but still there. “No promises.”
Chapter Nine
“What do you mean, you can’t get a read?” Taliyah asked, tapping her foot impatiently.
I was almost regretting the fact that I’d decided to tag along with Maverick. Seeing the wreckage the second time around was almost worse than the first.
“Maverick,” Taliyah prodded him when he didn’t respond right away. She’d been tapping or pacing for the last half hour. It had taken us that long to clear all the crap from my floor so I could mop up the potions. We’d put some of the shelves in a tentative ‘salvage’ pile, but most had been reduced to matchsticks.
“I mean, I can’t get a read,” Maverick shot back. “The place is inundated with Poppy’s magic. It’s covering the signature of whatever or whoever broke in and did this.”
“Ugh,” Taliyah grumbled.
“I’m thinking it has to be some kind of spirit or monster because I should have heard the commotion,” Maverick continued. “Even from Wanda’s. I mean—I parked out front this morning since I was running late, and I didn’t hear a goddamn thing, Tally.”
Taliyah brushed a lock of hair out of her face with a sigh. “So what you’re saying is the culprit is smart enough to have taken into account magical and forensic countermeasures to be sure we couldn’t catch his or her scent?”
“Right,” Maverick answered.
That sent a little chill down my spine. A spirit or monster smart enough to do this once could probably pull it off again. I still couldn’t fathom who could hate me enough to do this kind of damage to my store, though. And in about twenty minutes—that was the time we’d figured it had taken them. I couldn’t recall asingle interaction I’d had with a customer that was anything less than professional.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Maverick continued. He didn’t rise from his position on the floor. Instead, he kept his hand pressed to the floorboards as though he could take the pulse of the building or the ground below. For all I knew, he could.
“Well, damn it. Do you think any of the coven could have better luck?”
Maverick shrugged. “Olga is the oldest. She might be able to sense something I can’t. I’ll ask her to come over. She’s brewing right now, making examples for her potions lessons.”
