The Problem With Black Magic Read online

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  Washing her tear-stained face in the bathroom after watching Sam unceremoniously drop the rat into the boiling concoction, which had made it shudder and hiss with sickening sounds, Cassie resolved to lose herself in work for a while. Mike had come up front shortly after she had, looking pale and shaking his head when Jay tried to talk to him. He holed up with his laptop in his usual corner of the shop, barely acknowledging Cassie later when she brought him a cup of his favorite white hot chocolate. She imagined he was scouring the internet, looking for a mundane explanation for how gemstones and a live rodent had melted into liquid in a matter of minutes, with only the amount of heat provided by a cheap hot plate.

  Eventually, Sam came out and took Cassie’s place at the bar. Temporarily without much to do, she walked back into the break room to check the progress of the potion. If Sam was back outside, that probably meant he was letting it cool.

  To her surprise, it had gone from a dull, dishwater-like liquid to a vivid pinkish purple, with a luminous opalescence. The surface had a pearl-like sheen, and Cassie realized it was probably starting to harden, just like the recipe said. She stared; there was no sign of the rat, or any of the other weird things Sam had tossed in there. Instead, it looked like some kind of gourmet gelatin dessert. She sniffed, surprised when she came away with a vaguely floral impression. How did a rat, some gemstones and herbs suddenly smell like flowers?

  “Well, it is magic,” said Sam, suddenly behind her.

  Cassie jumped. “You said you couldn’t read my mind,” she said quietly.

  He stepped around her and went to open his locker. “Give me some credit, it was obvious.”

  Cassie made an effort to act unperturbed and not show her relief; she didn’t want him to know how much that idea scared her. If he knew that the prospect of him knowing her thoughts frightened her more than anything else, he might start trying to read her mind just out of spite.

  What Sam removed from his locker appeared to be lanyards with transparent glass cases on the end; the casing for the amulets, she realized. As she watched, he used a teaspoon to portion out the potion into the 12 cases, shutting them closed when he was finished. When he was done, he handed one to her. Cassie took it cautiously, like it might be hot to the touch. Sam laughed softly at her reticence to take it.

  The finished amulet looked like a necklace with a round, purple stone at the bottom. Small enough to fit in the center of Cassie’s palm easily, the pendant, filled with the fresh potion, looked like a slice of a vibrant gemstone, with a soft pink glow that she thought she might be imagining.

  “It’s…gorgeous,” she said, surprised.

  If Sam was proud of what he’d created, he gave no sign. “Put it on. It should harden completely within the hour, and then it’ll be active.”

  Cassie slipped the lanyard over her head, blushing slightly when the pendant came to rest on the cleft between her breasts. Since she was wearing a polo shirt and her apron, there was no danger of the amulet falling into her cleavage, but it definitely would when she was in her underwear.

  Sam scooped up most of the remaining amulets and gave them to her. “Give these to the guys outside, including your friend, the skeptic. I’ll give Dwight his tomorrow.”

  Cassie weighed the amulets in her hand, surprised how light they were. “Can I give them to my parents, and my little brother too?”

  Sam turned his back to her and began cleaning up the leftover ingredients, putting them back into a brown paper shopping bag he’d produced from somewhere. “Of course, that’s why I made the 12-batch.”

  Cassie laughed; it was funny, hearing him talk about crafting items with dark magic like he was whipping up a batch of cupcakes. At his quizzical look, she shook her head that it was nothing and left the room.

  Khalil was organizing the money in his cash drawer when Cassie dangled the amulets in front of him. He looked at them she was offering him some giant bugs.

  “So not only do I have to wear this stupid thing, but it’s pink?” he said, looking up to meet her eyes. Cassie shrugged and tossed him one.

  “Wear it under your shirt; that’s what I’m going to do,” she said, making her way to the café area where Jay was scrubbing down the tables. Before she could hand out any more of the pink pendants, Serenus walked through the front door.

  “How’s our little experiment coming along?” he asked, to which Cassie held up the amulets and twirled them around so they reflected the light from the shop’s lamps. Serenus grinned at her.

  “Fantastic, because you’ll need them in New York. We all have a convention to attend.”