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Wanda threw her hands up in the air. “Oh, for spell’s sake.” She stalked off into the kitchen, her ears looking a little pink.
I turned to Olga and Betanya, who were still sorting through some things, and Imani who was still looking around with a small smile on her face. “Thank you for this. I mean it. This is amazing of you.”
Olga patted my cheek with one plump hand and bustled into the kitchen.
Imani, meanwhile, stepped up beside me, still examining my couch and the framed nature print on the wall.
“I like this house,” she said eventually. “It’s got good energy.”
She’d never been to my house, I realized with a start. We’d have to ask Imani if she wanted to join the Black Cat Cocktail Club.
As if she was reading my mind, she winked at me, and half-drew a larger bottle from the box she was carrying, exposing just enough of the label that I knew it was rum.
“If the potions are going well, I figured we could mix up a few other things later.”
“I’m mixing it up now,” Wanda called from my kitchen, clearly proving the fact that her hearing was as good as a vampire’s.
I laughed, I couldn’t help it. The sheer relief I was feeling was making me giddy. This was more than I’d ever thought to ask for, and with all of us working together, I might actually be able to not only restock my store, but have some things to fill out my little stall at the festival. I was going to owe the coven so big, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
Finally, things felt like they might be turning around.
Chapter Thirteen
Saturday rolled around and somehow, in spite of all of my fears, things actually seemed to be going well.
Fifi was as good as her word, and the dryads and nymphs had not only managed to drain away all the extra water so the ground no longer was a soggy mess, but they’d also managed to coax the grass to grow extra thick and so green, it looked like a carpet of plush velvet. Even with crowds walking on it for hours, none of it flattened or turned into muddy patches.
Everyone had arrived early to get set up for the festival, and there weren’t any last-minute problems with placements, or anyone setting up in the wrong spot. By the time the festival opened to the public, everything was ready, with games and stalls of all sorts of items. And the most delicious smells from Roy’s food truck wafted in and around all the stalls and festival goers. From the look of things, Roy had decided to sell funnel cake for dessert, and my mouth was watering just seeing it.
My stall was all set up with potion bottles of every hue in the rainbow, each filled and neatly hung with a paper tag to explain what each particular potion was for, and how best to use it. With the coven’s help, I’d even managed to anoint a bunch of pillar candles, and they sat in pretty glass holders, ready to be lit. But I’d left the work of drawing customers’ attention to the fairy lights I’d strung up, draping them all around my stall. My dreams were still full of fire, and I couldn’t bring myself to light any of the candles, no matter how good an advertisement they’d be.
Imani was nice enough to volunteer to watch over my things so I could go and double check that everything was going well and to make sure no one needed anything. She didn’t have a stall of her own, since she ran the salon in town, so she was here to lend a hand and to do some shopping of her own.
I hurried around the grounds, checking in on the vendors and the people running the games, and promised myself that before I headed back to my stall, I’d be sure to grab some funnel cake for Imani and myself.
I knew Finn was here somewhere with his friends from school. I’d managed to get that much out of him, at least. He still wasn’t talking to me, not more than a handful of words, at least. I kept trying to catch a glimpse of him in the crowd, but didn’t have much luck. I just hoped that once all the planning and restocking, and the tracking down of suppliers was all over, I’d be able to sit down with my son and have a discussion with him.
I didn’t want to hold him back. I wanted him to be happy, and I was so, so proud of him. Of the boy he was, and the man I knew he’d become, vision or no vision.
Andre had said he’d make an appearance later, and I was looking forward to seeing him again. I needed to talk to him, too. I hadn’t liked how things had been left with us at all. And I didn’t want him thinking that I wasn’t willing to take a chance on him—because I was. In fact, I was determined to try, even if the thought was enough to make me want to run for cover. But it was something Andre had said that had helped me to get through my fear—that all the relationships I’d been in had failed, because I wasn’t meant to be with any of those men. And maybe he was right—maybe a relationship between the two of us wouldn’t fail because we were destined to be together—well, if the red ribbon business was anything to go on.
But at this very minute, I didn’t have time to think about Finn or Andre. I was on the job, and I was kind of alone in it. Roy was tied up with his food truck, even with Fifi’s help. There was a line long enough to keep them jumping. Stanley Stomper was covered by a glamour to hide the horse half of his centaur body, so he was able to man the ice cream booth for the creamery with his wife, Shelby. So, he needed to stay put, where the counter of their stall helped keep him hidden.
Wanda would be there to lend a hand later, but she and Lorcan wouldn’t be making an appearance until after the sun had set and that was hours from now. Daytime jailbreaks to my place for potion making aside, it was safer for her to stick to nocturnal hours. I really appreciated her coming to bail me out with the coven, but I still felt bad that she’d put herself at risk in order to do so.
Hopefully they’d be able to make it for the bonfire lighting. I knew the Summer Solstice was a big deal for witches. Not as big as Samhain or Yule, but still important.
As far as I could tell, it looked like a good turn out, so that was one worry off my back at least. Lots of tourists, just like we’d hoped, but I also caught more than a few locals enjoying the festivities.
Roy and Fifi were killing it at the Half-Moon food truck. It had been Roy’s idea to expand, to offer lunch to places that were a bit too far away for a sit-down meal at the bar, and the festival was the food truck’s maiden voyage, so to speak. If the crowd waiting for their burgers, hot dogs and fries was any indication of its popularity, then things were looking great.
Roy was handling the cooking while Fifi helped the customers, and of course, even in a Half-Moon staff T-shirt, with her long platinum hair piled up into a messy bun, with sweat dewing at her temples, Fifi looked amazing—amazing as in: if there were a magazine for food trucks, she could have been the cover model.
Of course, the beaming smile on her face that made her skin practically glow probably had more to do with her beauty than any succubus powers. She and Roy were really happy together, and I was so glad for them.
A call of, “Hey, Poppy!” had me looking around, and I spotted Darla bouncing up onto the balls of her feet to wave at me. She was there with Henner, the two of them dressed nicely and obviously on a date. I gave her a wave back before the crowd surged between us and I lost sight of her.
Darla had been through a lot, and I was glad she was getting her second chance at life. She’d been as much a victim of the poltergeist haunting as Finn and me. More, since it had been her ex-boyfriend who’d killed her, right before turning the gun on himself. I hadn’t been happy when she’d stowed away in our luggage to start haunting us in Haven Hollow, but she never meant any harm. And there were worse things for Finn to pick up than some wildly out of date slang terms.
