The house wasn’t particularly interesting with its plain beige siding and brown shingles. And the yard was a bleak stretch of sun-scorched grass bisected by a narrow concrete sidewalk stretching from the road to the front step. Despite its boring appearance, just seeing the place made me sweat.
When I’d told Gideon I was going to investigate with Elwood, I’d been fine. But now that we were at Ivan’s, the reality of the situation was hitting me. At least I wasn’t hungover anymore. If I had been, my stomach would be churning even more than it was.
But how on earth was I supposed to help with a magical investigation? I didn’t know anything. Nothing.Zilch. Any of the other misfit monsters would be able to help more than me. I was such a fraud. I swallowed hard.
“Ready?” Elwood asked. He looked ready to charge into Ivan’s place and eradicate any wayward magic. With his long gray hair and beard, all he needed was a large staff and a cloak to look like he’d stepped out of the pages ofLord of the Rings. “That hex isn’t going to find itself.”
“You bet,” I lied.
Before we’d driven over here, he explained how he suspected a witch had hexed Ivan, and that we should be looking for a hex bag. I’d looked that up on my phone because I had no idea what one of those would look like. A small satchel or bit of cloth bound up with a rope. It contained whatever materials the witch had used to construct the hex—usually herbs, stones, and animal bones or teeth. It sounded like something the witches inMacbethwould make, and I wanted nothing to do with it.
Was it too late to tell Elwood I needed to go back to the apartment and make some chocolate chip cookies? Because Igot the feeling this day was going to need some feel-good magic before it was done.
He reached for his door handle, then paused to look at me. “And remember, Ivan is a coyote shifter who’s extremely agitated at the moment. Be respectful of his territory.”
“Of course.” I was a little offended that Elwood thought I’d need a reminder like that.
Elwood hopped out of the driver’s seat and marched to the back of the vehicle. I reluctantly joined him. A raven—my raven, maybe—landed on the roof rack on the chartreuse microbus and fluttered its wings.
A weird sort of jealousy pulled at me when Elwood reached up and scratched the bird’s head. I forced myself to ignore the strange feeling, but I couldn’t deny how relieved I was when Elwood pulled his hand away from the bird to open a hatch at the back of the bus.
I hadn’t paid much attention to the back end of the vehicle before. I’d just assumed it held the engine and not much else, so I was surprised to see a couple of small toolboxes stashed back there.
“What are those for?” I asked.
“To help us,” he said, like it was obvious.
“Uh… right…” I nodded as I eyed the toolboxes again. “How exactly? I mean, wrenches and hammers don’t seem like magical tools.”
“I forget how much you don’t know.” Elwood shook his head. He popped open the toolboxes, revealing they did not, in fact, hold tools. At least not the kind you’d buy at a hardware store.
He plucked up a couple of clear quartz pieces and passed one to me before putting the other in his pocket with his mouse—because, yes, he’d brought George. I hoped Ivan was okay with a mouse being escorted into his house. “This’ll amplify our power and clear any mental fog.”
I put the stone in the pocket of my jeans.
“We can come back for the rest, once we know what we’re dealing with.” Never one to pass up a teaching moment, though, he gestured to a black stone. “For example, obsidian helps expose secrets.” He pointed at a metallic cube-like stone next. “Pyrite might help us reveal the truth.”
Okay. I could see where those might help.
He continued to list the properties of several other stones in his arsenal, including lapis lazuli, tiger’s eye, sodalite, azurite, and more. I got a little overwhelmed with all the information he was throwing at me, to be honest.
Hopefully, he wouldn’t test me on this later. I could remember information about baking ingredients, no problem, but stones? Not so much.
Then he moved on to describe the little satchels of herbs and powders, explaining how they were special blends that’d help trace the remnants of old spell work and such. He talked about rosemary, bay leaves, sage, and juniper. I felt like I was back in school again. And I guessed I was, only this was magic school. Which meant I probably needed to start carrying a notebook around with me.
The other toolbox had even more things. Some were things I expected to be in a witch’s toolbox, like tarot cards, a stone mortar and pestle, and candles of various colors. But the mirror wrapped in wrinkled linen, knife, earthenware bowls, twine, and salt surprised me—the salt especially, because they were the little paper packets you found in fast food restaurants. Tucked in with the rest was a mason jar filled with clear liquid.
“It’s just water,” Elwood said when he caught me eyeing the jar warily.
“Right. I knew that.” I absolutely had not known that, but maybe I should have. I’d sensed something in Ivan’s beer, so I should be able to sense when something was just water, right? Ipoked at it tentatively with my magic, and sure enough, I felt the purity of the water inside the glass jar. But there was something more to it. “Are you sure it is just water?”
“Excellent.” Elwood’s eyes twinkled.
Ugh. So, hewastesting me.
“I wondered if you’d pick up on anything special about the water. It’s been charged under the full moon. Moonlight cleanses it and makes it an excellent building block for spells and potions.”
I felt like a little kid getting a pat on the head.
