“Oh, man, this is better than Bridgerton. I wish I had popcorn,” Sandy whispered.
I didn’t know when he’d shown up, but it didn’t surprise me. I hoped Sandy hadn’t called any of the other misfits. I didn’t need Tulip hauling Josh off to her pond tonight. I had enough to deal with already.
“Josh, I think you should go back inside and do your job,” I said.
“Don’t tell me you’re still sensitive about what happened. You know Elliot didn’t mean anything to me.”
A black shadow cut through the glow cast by the nearest streetlight. Josh ducked, but he wasn’t fast enough. Licorice swooped down, let out the shrillest noise I’d ever heard her make, then struck the top of Josh’s head with her talons. She flew away with strands of his dark hair in her grip.
Josh screamed and ran to the library. He didn’t make it before she dive-bombed him again. He was still shrieking when the library door closed behind him.
Holy crap. She was amazing. George wouldn’t have been able to do that. I had the best damned familiar in the history of familiars.
As soon as I was sure Josh was dealt with, I spun toward Gideon, and words burst out. “I just found out he was here today. Leon told me when I grabbed the growlers from him. Then I’ve been busy and totally forgot. I wasn’t keeping it a secret. You know he’s been texting and that I’ve been ignoring him. You’ve got to believe me.”
Gideon studied me for a long moment. “Okay.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded.
“Aw…” Sandy cooed. His hands were pressed to his chest like we were the sweetest thing he’d ever seen. “You two should totally kiss and make up now.”
“We weren’t fighting. Were we?” I asked Gideon.
He just drew me into his arms and kissed me. This one lasted longer than the few quick ones we’d shared when I’d first arrived. As our tongues collided, he rubbed my back and my neck and my arms, like he was putting his scent all over me and obliterating any trace of Josh’s. It had to be a shifter thing, being all territorial like this. And I was here for it. All of it. He could kiss me all night like this and I wouldn’t protest, except to wish we weren’t in public so we could take this kiss even further.
Licorice jabbed her beak down on the top of my foot again.
“Ouch!” I jumped back, out of Gideon’s arms.
She fluffed up like she was proud of herself.
“So bossy,” I scolded her, then I peered up at Gideon. “But she’s right. We need to talk to the brewers.”
“I talked to them already,” Gideon said. “No one noticed anything unusual with their contest entries.”
“But did they find hex bags at their breweries?” I asked, as I cleaned my glasses. They’d gotten a little steamed up while we were kissing.
“I didn’t ask that specifically.”
“Because every local competitor except Roy was hexed,” I said. “Either their growler or their application. And the hex signature was the same. Elwood and I think the same hex maker sabotaged all the people they expected to enter the competition. It has to be Roy.”
“Eugene? Did you hear that?” Sandy said. “We have a mystery to solve!”
The shadow imp formed a charcoal gray happy face on the side of the library. It was a little creepy, but I’d keep that opinion to myself.
“I thought I’d asked you two to stay back and keep your ears open?” Gideon said.
“Yeah, well…” Sandy toed the edge of a cobblestone. “Then I saw Josh head for the door…”
People trickled out of the library and headed toward their cars.
“Shit, the event is ending,” I said. “We need to talk to the brewers before they leave.”
Gideon nodded. “Let’s separate. Between the three of us, we can hopefully catch them all.”
“Ask if they’ve found a hex bag. If it’s like the one we found at Ivan’s, it’ll be a bundle made of black cloth and secured with a thin rope. It won’t be bigger than a golf ball.”
