Standingby his truck with the door open, Noble pretended to look for whatever he was dropping off as he watched the two drive off with a sigh.
While he wanted to go with Ollie, realistically, it was just not a place he could safely go without possibly being outed. While they didn’t always work, and mostly didn’t because of the resistances full witch hunters had, witch-owned stores like theone Ollie was going to would likely have spells in place to warn the owner of danger. The danger being him.
Even if the spells failed, and there was a good possibility they would, there was always a chance that whoever ran the place, if older, would recognize what he was.
He supposed he could go home and do more laundry. Noble, honestly, aside from the scrub-down he’d been doing, had been partly faking having things to do at home. Mainly as he didn’t want Ollie to realize that he had nothing else to do. Even with the witch partly hiring him as a bodyguard, he knew for a fact that it was odd for Noble to stay at the library all day, with literally nothing to do elsewhere.
But he’d rather fake having a life than have Ollie finally realize why he didn’t have one. Though, his lack of one may have had less to do with being a witch hunter and more to do with his lack of personality… It didn’t really matter either way, as it was only a matter of time before Ollie figured out what he was, and he had a feeling his time was running out faster than he'd like.
Noble sighed again.
Ollie parked his ladybug in front of the bakery, eyeing the building. It was medium-sized and built of light beige brick, with a brown roof. Written in curving pink letters on a dark-brown sign above the striped light and dark pink awning that stretched the width of the building, were the wordsYeasty Risings. Underneath the awning, on either side of the centered, brown-paned glass door, were large display windows illuminated by warm light and filled with bread and a few other baked goods.
“Are you sure we are in the right place? A bakery isn’t exactly known for selling herbs separate from the baked goods,” Jahla asked as they got out and headed for the door.
Ollie knew this was the place. Mainly as he had googledYeasty Risingsand shown it to Red to make sure it was in fact where he was supposed to go.
“Red said that most apothecaries front as something else to keep hunters away. Which, I mean, makes sense, as a bakery is far less suspicious than, say, a crystal or New Age shop.”
She hummed. “I can see your point.”
A bell chimed when they opened the door of the bakery and entered, Ollie’s stomach growling as he was hit in the face with the delicious smell of fresh bread. The floors were tiled in pink, and the walls were wood-panelled. He licked his lips as he eyed the rows of dark wooden shelves filled with prepackaged fresh baked goods and loaves, with cute pink signs scattered all around.
At the back was a pink counter with wood paneling, the wall behind it dominated by a large display of fresh, unwrapped bread in glass cases, seemingly built around two double doors. A woman stood behind the counter near a baby-pink cash register, looking down as she was writing something on a piece of paper.
“Okay, new plan. Get the stuff we need,andbuy some bread,” he said as his stomach rumbled again.
His friend snorted. “Speaking of…what exactly do we need? And where or how are we supposed to get it?”
They were all good questions. He mostly knew the answer to how and what, but not…where it was. Ollie frowned and looked around again. That was when he noticed that, while there had been a large display window to the right of the door, the shopfront only occupied the space to the left side of it. While some may assume that side held the kitchen, knowing why they were there, he could only assume it was much more than that.
With that mystery solved, he tugged the small folded list from the front belly pocket of his overalls and showed it to her. “I have it all written down. Can’t say I understand how at least oneof the ingredients is even real, but it’s on there. Oh, and my cat added the burner, small cauldron, mortar and pestle, and three glass bottles to the list himself, believe it or not. He just blew on the paper and they appeared.”
It had been cool, yet for some reason it felt like a party trick or something.
“And the where and how?”
“I’m pretty sure whatever we need is hidden on the right side of the building, but as Red told me to just ask for Tabitha, I’m guessing we won’t be grabbing any of it ourselves.”
She stared for a moment, eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion, before asking, “No last name, just Tabitha?”
“Yep!” Ollie shrugged. “To the counter.”
Walking towards the counter, he examined the woman standing behind it as she continued to write. His heart admittedly started to race with both excitement and nerves at the idea that he might be about to meet another witch. The woman was tall, with long blonde hair pulled into a braid, and appeared to be near his age, with an oval-shaped face, a sharp pointed nose, and heart-shaped lips. Perched on her nose was a set of baby-pink framed glasses, and she was wearing jean overalls, along with a white and pink striped long-sleeved shirt.
While he knew he should have a mountain-high number of questions going through his mind, at the moment, he had nothing. Just pure nada—empty space.
The woman looked up as they reached the counter and let out a soft gasp. Her bright-blue eyes seemed to widen in shock as she stared at him, before a look of sadness quickly joined in.
“Um…hi?” Ollie said hesitantly. “I’m Ollie Cross, would you happen t-to be Tabitha?”
“You’re Amelia’s son.” A bright, blinding, yet slightly watery smile stretched across her face. “You look just like her.”
“You knew my mom?!” Ollie blurted. “Can you?—”
“No.” He flinched as she cut him off, the word so sharp and final. The harshness of the single word was softened only slightly as she sent him a clearly apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you have many, many questions for me, but I’m afraid I can’t answer a single one of them. All I can say is that you will know what you need to know when the time is right.”
Jahla scoffed beside him. “That is some bullshit. Like, how is him floundering so much better than just outright telling him what he needs to know?!”
