“I’ll come with you,” said Malcolm. “We can try Ivy later.”
On the way, they passed by one of the non-magical tourist families, and a giant schnauzer who trotted alongside them. Their little boy rode the dog like a small pony, and in his arms he held a black kitten.
“Such an odd town…” the father mused.
“This place is awesome!” The little boy shouted.
Huh, that dog looks just like… Then Malcolm realized the dog was his.
“Hades?” His familiar was behaving like a miniature pony for the child, but he sensed his familiar’s amused reassurance that all was well and trotted on by without looking back.
Persephone turned her whiskered face up to look at Calli as they passed, purring loudly.
“Well, that was… interesting,” Calli replied as their familiars led the little boy and his parents to the Witch Better Have My Candy shop.
“I never knew Hades wanted to moonlight as a tour guide,” Malcolm chuckled.
The moment of levity faded, and the sense of doom began to grow again. Malcolm took Calli’s hand in his own, feeling her cold fingers as he tried to warm them up. He hadn’t forgotten the look she and Zelda had shared at the tarot shop. She was keeping something from him. She didn’t even seem to notice he’d threaded their fingers together. His chest ached. She was lost in thoughts so distant he couldn’t possibly follow.
Malcolm thought of something his mother had said when he was a boy when they’d talked about his parents’ unique relationship as a non-magic human and a warlock. He’d asked her how she managed to be okay being an outsider, feeling like there were things in his father’s life she’d never fully understand.
She had taken Malcolm’s smaller hand in her own and said, “I am patient, and though there are sometimes places I cannot go and things I cannot understand, I stand here and I wait, because if I am patient, he will always come back.” He hadn’t understood that analogy then, and had wondered for a while if his father was leaving. Later he understood she was referring to the parts of his life she could not fully share in.
Right now, he felt as though he was standing on the shore, watching Calli’s ship out on the distant waves, wishing he could do something, anything for her to feel safe enough to come back to him.
When he and Calli entered her bookstore, he saw a pretty woman with pale blonde hair using a wand to direct books back onto their shelves.
“Hey, Mira,” Calli called out.
The witch spun around, her face pale, but the color returned when she saw it was who it was.
“You scared me! Don’t worry, everything is back in place now. Thankfully, nothing was damaged.” Despite the store being empty, she leaned in to whisper. “The wards are down.”
“We know,” Calli sighed. “The non-magics are already filling the town.”
“Uh oh. I need to help Jack. You got this?”
“I’ve got this,” Calli said.
Mira took off running and almost collided with several tourists who’d just wandered inside.
“Welcome to Pages & Potions!” Calli greeted.
Malcolm smiled at one couple who started perusing the bookshelves.
Yes…, everything’s normal here. Normal bookstore. Normal, normal, normal… He realized his grin was maybe a little too wide and the non-magics might start to think he was crazy. He was going to make a hash of things if he stuck around. He needed to get answers.
“I’ll be back,” he whispered in Calli’s ear before he kissed her cheek. “I’ll go to Ivy Greenlee’s and I’ll meet you here. What time is good?”
“How about five?” Calli tried to act positive, but her eyes were full of worry as he left.
A few minutes later, Malcolm was knocking on the door to the inn.
The elderly witch from before answered, peering up at him through pale blue eyes. “Mr. Wellesley?” She blinked owlishly. “I still don’t have any available rooms.”
“It’s not about the rooms, Mrs. Greenlee. I’m sure you sensed that the wards are gone from the town.”
“Oh yes, I felt the rupture quite clearly. It’s a terrible thing,” the innkeeper murmured. “Terrible.”
