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“Most things have a magical aura around them, yes,” Sybil said. “But some are just pretty things Sylvana liked the look of when she spotted them at a flea market or estate sale.”
The smile on her face told me those were happy memories.
She picked up a doll in denim overalls. “This thing used to creep me out. I swear it would watch me all the time.” She held it up and looked at it. “But now I know there’s no magic in it at all.” She tossed it into a big black bag labeledGarbage.
“It would’ve freaked me out, too.”
We found tons of similarly spooky-looking things in the house, including a bracelet made of hair which I was afraid to touch until Sybil reassured me the dead person’s soul was no longer attached to it.
We worked well together and quickly made quite a dent in the living room, and here it was still only Friday evening. At this rate, we’d have most of the house done by Monday. Then all we had to do was take the garbage to the dump and bring the donations to the right places.
I eyed the shelf full of heavy magical tomes.
“You don’t happen to have the cure to my curse here, do you?” I joked.
“Of course, sure, let me just find the Universal Curse Destroyer spell,” she quipped. Then she turned serious. “Honestly, curses are usually highly personalized. I was hoping you’d know a lot more about when and why your granddad got cursed. They are like prophecies in a way, like the wording is really important. Usually, the person being cursed remembers the exact words for a long ass time…”
“They would, wouldn’t they.”
“Yup. But a butchered version gets passed down through the family, like a game of Broken Telephone. If you don’t mind, I’d like to put some feelers out on the witch forums to see if your story sounds familiar to anyone. If we can find out who cast the curse and why, it would go a long way to breaking it.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about mentioning my curse in a forum full of witches, and it must’ve shown on my face.
Sybil put a reassuring hand on my arm. “We don’t have to give any of the details. Certainly not mention your name. Just ask if anyone has ever heard anything about a curse being put on a naga. People ask things like this in the forums all the time. Sometimes just out of curiosity, sometimes for personal research. It won’t put a target on your back or anything, I promise.”
“If you think it’s safe…”
“Totally. There’s a lot of questions being asked there all the time.” She glanced sideways. “Half of them are really dumb, too; just don’t tell them I said that.”
I chuckled. “All right. I trust you.”
She frowned, then suddenly sat down heavily on the jacquard print couch and pressed the heels of her hands to her temples.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Someone is testing one of my wards, the one I set back at my condo. It’s low-level magic though. And just using brute force. It’s nothing I can’t handle. I just didn’t expect it.” Already she looked much better.
My thoughts immediately went to the jerk who’d come by the other day. “Anything I can do to help?”
“Nothing some snuggle time with my ratties won’t fix. And a protein shake. Focusing on a ward always drains my energy.”
Ah. So that was what the high-protein meal replacement drinks we’d picked up were for.
“I’ll grab you one and get started on dinner.”
“Thanks.” She smiled. “Are you making the pasta today? If you are, can you put aside some plain boiled pasta, cooked veggies, and like two shrimps in a bowl for Salt and Pepper?”
“Done and done.”
“Thank you.”
I started to squeeze past her into the kitchen but stopped when my snake, who’d been eerily silent for much of the day, insisted that Ikissss her.
I would. But not yet. I stepped into the kitchen, grabbed a meal replacement drink from the fridge, and headed back into the living room.
“So what do I get in exchange for a delicious—” I read out the label. “Chocolate flavored high protein complete meal replacement?” I grimaced; that did not sound delicious at all.
“It’s not that bad,” she giggled, seeing my face. “I dunno. What do you want for it?”
