I reached out with my fledgling magical skills and poked at the contents of the bottle as it sloshed around. A sense of wrongness scraped over my skin like a comb of tiny needles. I shivered and rubbed my arms. What the heck was that?
“Exactly,” Ivan agreed. His canine teeth became more prominent with each passing minute. He had to be a shifter. “And I’m going to find out who tampered with it.”
Gideon straightened, and I could tell that his alpha-mode had now been activated. “It might have just been an accident that your beer turned sour.”
“Pshaw,” Ivan scoffed. “Next, you’re going to be telling me not to throw around accusations without proof or some such nonsense.”
“Ivan…” There was a warning in Gideon’s tone.
“We all know who did it, Gideon.” Ivan scowled at my… Gideon. I had a strange compulsion to step in between them, as if Gideon needed my protection.
“You can’t be sure,” Gideon argued.
“Roy Pruitt.” Ivan spat the winning brewer’s name at us. “There’s no way his ale deserved to win.”
Oh boy. Were all competitions this, well, competitive? If they were, the festival board should stop including them in their events. They didn’t seem to be bringing the community together. Not at all.
Ivan turned his scowl at me. “Is Elwood here?”
I shook my head quickly, realizing that even though I hadn’t known who the brewer was until today, he knew me. “He’s at the Mystic Menagerie.”
“I’ll be back later, Sandy,” Ivan said, spinning on his heel and marching off in the direction of my grandfather’s shop. “Elwood will know how Roy did it. He’ll help me trap the rat.”
We all stared after him. The raven–the one I was beginning to think of as mine–circled overhead and followed after the angry brewer.
“Should we call the sheriff’s office?” I asked quietly. “Give Grady a heads up?” As the sheriff, he’d want to know if trouble was brewing in town, wouldn’t he?
Gideon shook his head. “If Ivan is right and someone tampered with his submission, Elwood should be able to figure it out. We can’t do anything until we know more. There isn’t anything to report to the authorities right now.”
“Corporate sabotage is a thing, right?” I rubbed my arms again. “I did sense something… I know my magic isn’t all that powerful or whatever, but there was something spectacularly wrong with the beer in that bottle.”
Gideon wrapped his arm around me. “Huh. Maybe Ivan was right. Maybe someone did try to knock him out of the competition. But I still think he needs more answers before he throws accusations around.”
“I guess. Just because Roy won doesn’t mean he’s the one who did something wrong.”
I might be too gullible to live in a small town. When people said things, I believed them. I kept forgetting that people lied or exaggerated or twisted things to conform to the things they wanted to believe. In the city, I hadn’t known that many people well enough to get caught up in their personal dramas. Yes, I’d had to deal with Josh’s lies, but he was one person, not a whole community.
But these squabbles weren’t my concern. I didn’t need to put my nose into their business. I had enough of my own things to worry about–like how to open a bakery and whether I should call my parents and tell them I’d moved to Ravenstone and fallen head over heels for a wolf shifter.
And if Ivan’s lager had been messed with, Ireallywanted to support him now. I spun to face Sandy and slapped a fifty on the counter.
“I’ll try the Solstice Stout, Sandy,” I said. “Gideon? What are you having? We’re going to say cheers and spread cheer tonight. This is our first stop.”
Okay. My fabulous tagline didn’t sound as good as it had in my head, but whatever. They knew what I meant.
“Cheers to beers! Coming right up.” Sandy grinned. “But watch out, these might knock you on your ass. They’re pretty intense.”
I hadn’t been hungover in years, but it was sweet of him to warn me. “I can handle it.”
Sandy and Gideon exchanged a look, but I didn’t care what they thought about my alcohol tolerance. They’d find out. My stomach hadn’t betrayed me since my first year of college. I’d be fine.
Chapter Four
Drinkable Magic
Gideon
“And then she handed me a whole stack of books and told me she wanted to return them because they were damaged. Damaged my pointy tail. They weren’t damaged. The spine was creased. Did she think I was stupid? It was obvious they had been read.” Az rolled his eyes. “I run a bookstore, not a freaking lending library.”
