Page 10 of Of Magic and Murder

That’s me. Helpful Penelope.

“Actually, yes.” She pats the open page with the flat of her hand. “I need a witch’s perspective. I thought about checking in with the coven, but Max has been dealing with Delilah lately, and I thought I’d see if you might be willing to help before I bothered her.”

I always am. Even if it wasn’t Honey—who’s done enough for me that I’ll never be able to repay her—I’d find it hard to refuse. “Of course.”

“Okay. So. About two weeks ago, Roxy and me tried one of my Grandma Jean’s spells.” Instead of patting the page she was reading, she jabs it with her nail. “‘Finder’s Seekers’ Fudge Cake’. You eat a slice and it’s supposed to help you find what you’re searching for the most. Only problem is that it didn’t work. I even made Max try some, but nothing happened.”

I don’t have to ask what they’re searching for. For one thing, it’s definitely a who. For another, I do believe I’ve learned enough about Honey in the last two months to guess who she was trying to find with that spell. The sheriff wants to bring Olivia to justice but not as much as he wants to see his older brother back home.

Honey confirms it in her next breath. “Max misses Riordan. We all do.”

As though deciding he should pipe up, Gus makes a soft chittering sound before adjusting his position. The tin star-shaped deputy badge hanging off of his collar knocks into the metal bowl as he hooks his tiny pink claws on the edge so that he can see out at us.

He looks at Honey who spares a hand to stroke his back. “I know, buddy. You miss your friend just as much as the rest of us.”

Gus nods, and my heart breaks for the wild opossum. Honey told me that, shortly after Max and Honey became mates, Gus formed a fast bond with Max’s brother. He would hang out with Riordan at his cabin on pack land or down at the sheriff station some days so that Honey and Max could have some privacy. After Riordan left, it was the newly christened Deputy Gus—who got the badge and the title after he went after Olivia as she was attempting to curse Roxy—who took his disappearance harder than anyone expected.

Well, except for me, I guess…

“But my mate… he really needs his brother back. Not that he’ll admit it,” Honey adds. “You know Max. He keeps saying Riordan is a grown male and he can take care of himself, and if he needs anything, he knows how to get in touch with us. Which is true, all of it. But he’s not just his brother or his chief deputy. He’s the Beta to Max’s Alpha. The pack needs him, too.”

I know.

I’ve watched Max over the last couple of months. He’s the sheriff of Moonburrow, Alpha of the Moonshadow Pack, and, with Riordan gone, he’s been doing his own job while covering most of his brother’s responsibilities as chief deputy and Beta. Not having that position weakens the structure of the pack, and that’s nothing compared to how worried he must be that something is wrong with his cursed older brother.

He must’ve been desperate if he tried one of Grandma Jean’s spells to get him back. But if it didn’t work…

“Maybe he’s too far away,” I offer.

“That’s what Max said.”

“Or the spell needs a stronger witch,” I muse out loud.

Honey’s shifter eyes brighten. “That’s what I said.”

Oh, Goddess. I walked right into that one, didn’t I?

CHAPTER 3

NOT-SO-WELCOME BACK

if they had let gus watch over the witch,

this never would’ve happened.

tsk.

— gus

So… Honey asked me to do magic.

It wasn’t anything too difficult. Just a simple locator spell to find Riordan and hopefully convince him to return home. Any witch should be able to do that—the locating part, at least—and if they had the same amount of raw power inside of them as I do, ‘persuading’ him to come back to Moonburrow for a chat would be no problem at all.

Any witch except for Penelope Willows, that is.

Reminding Honey that my spells don’t really work when I attempt basic witchcraft did no good. She was determined, and I… well, I’m a people-pleaser.

It’s a flaw. I know it is. My mother used to tell me that being kind and being incapable of telling someone ‘no’ are two entirely different things, and that I needed to stick up for myself since I couldn’t rely on my magic to do it for me. Shame that my need to help outweighs any of my discomfort. That’s why, when Honey sat on the counter downstairs in Dough You Believe in Magic, beaming at me with her big purple eyes, and asked if I could please try to find Riordan, I folded like one of her soufflés when someone slams the kitchen door too hard.