“It isn’t designed to hurt me. It’s here to hex Ivan.” He grabbed it off the ground again and carried it to the microbus. Ivan followed, but kept several feet back. “Today is making it obvious we need to increase your lessons. You’re so far behind.”
I bristled at that. It wasn’t my fault that everyone, including him, had kept me in the dark about magic until a few weeks ago.
“What does it do? What’s inside?” Ivan leaned over to sniff at the hex bag as Elwood grabbed his toolboxes and plopped everything, including himself, onto the sidewalk.
I held my breath as my grandfather cut through the rope binding the fabric and tugged the bundle open. When nothing jumped out, I exhaled slowly. But I didn’t think we were safe yet. Sweat trickled down my neck.
The contents were a balled-up jumble of dried plants and tiny bones. Elwood poked at the mass, spreading it out over the cloth. I really needed to stick some latex gloves in his toolboxes because he shouldn’t be touching that without some kind of protection.
Something white caught my eye. It didn’t look like a bone, but what was it?
“Perfect,” Elwood muttered to himself as he plucked out the white object. “Let’s see what we have.” He picked at the thingwith his fingernails until I realized it was a tiny bit of folded paper. He squinted at it when it was finally laying flat across his palm. “I can’t read it. Declan, come see if your younger eyes can make sense of this.”
I begrudgingly took the itty-bitty scrap of paper from his hand. The writing was ridiculously small, but I could read it.
“Well? What does it say?” Ivan leaned over to look for himself.
“Give him space,” Elwood said. “Can you read it, Declan?”
I nodded. “It is like a little rhyme. It says:
‘This little hex will use its power
to turn what you submit sour.
This magic you will not feel.
It will do its work and stay concealed.’”
“So, someoneisout to get me,” Ivan muttered. “I knew Roy couldn’t have won fair and square.”
“We don’t know it was Roy,” Elwood said quickly. “In fact, I’d be surprised if it was him. I’ve known him his whole life. I’d swear that boy doesn’t have any magic.”
“But does this even make sense?” I asked. “You found magic in that beer, and I think I felt it too, for that matter. I just didn’t know what it was. So it obviously didn’t stay concealed.”
“The magic was supposed to stay hidden from Ivan. Although, that last bit of the verse suggests the witch is fairly new to hexes and doesn’t understand what can and can’t be done. It’s a bit crude, to be honest. However, few witches would be strong enough to hide a hex like that completely. They’d certainly need to be stronger than this hex maker. Although it does explain why I couldn’t get a better reading from the contaminated beer.” Elwood gathered up the remnants of thehex bag, plucking the hex out of my hand and tucking it back in with everything else.
“Where do you think you’re going with that?” Ivan asked.
“I need to take a better look at it. Identify all the ingredients. That might help us find out who did this.”
Fur sprouted along the backs of Ivan’s clenched hands. “We know who did it. But fine, take it. I’m still telling Grady about this. So you better not lie when he comes knocking on your door for answers.”
Elwood nodded. “And by then, hopefully I’ll have something to tell him.”
Chapter Six
Murder Board Without a Murder
Gideon
The back room of the Mystic Menagerie smelled faintly of herbs, old books, and whatever Declan had baked that afternoon. Lemon, maybe? I caught the scent the moment I stepped through the doorway, and my wolf perked up.
The weekly Misfit Monsters’ meeting was about to get underway.
Hazel sat in her normal chair, knitting needles clicking steadily as she worked on a bright purple scarf that pooled over her lap. Tulip had claimed a chair, but someone, I was guessing Declan, had placed a waterproof mat beneath it. Az lounged nearby with his arms folded, looking like the entire world had offended him. I chuckled to myself, grumpy demon.
Sandy sat cross-legged in his spot, and I was pleased to see that Perry was hovering over near the snack table. I knew being around so many people in a small space made him anxious, butI thought he needed these meetings whether he wanted them or not.
