Page 26 of Herbs & Hex-breaking

“I have no doubt,” my cousin said. “But I really wanna know what’s with her attitude toward you lately. And also, why has her security camera been aimed at your apartment stairs?”

“That camera is one of the first things I intend to find out about,” I said.

CHAPTER SIX

Heading straight to the connecting door, I slid it open and let myself into New Moon Books, with Circe hot on my heels. I spotted Lorna standing behind her front counter, checking in a stack of new releases.

“Lorna,” I said, walking closer. “We need to talk.”

She raised one eyebrow. I could see it shoot up over the upper rim of her glasses. “Oh, so now you want to talk?”

Circe rolled her eyes at the sarcasm. “Well, aren’t you just a little porcupine today?”

Lorna’s eyebrows rose higher. The lights above her began to flicker. It was a magickal warning not to push her too hard.

In response to that—courtesy of Circe—a stack of paperbacks fell over and to the floor with a splat.

“Circe.” I elbowed her. “Don’t get into a magickal pissing contest. You know you’ll lose.”

“I may not posses your particular set of skills,” Circe grumbled to me. “But I bet I could make her work for it.”

Lorna tossed her head. “Oh please. I could easily out magick you any day of—”

“I had a visit from Dex’s mother earlier this morning,” I said, cutting off Lorna before we all got off track.

Lorna grimaced at the news. “I’m sure that was a pleasant experience.”

“Pleasant beyond words,” I agreed, scooping up the books from the floor. “She wanted to inform me that even though I—and I quote—have my hooks in him, that I won’t be getting a penny of Dex’s inheritance.”

“What did you say to that?” Lorna asked.

“I told her to get out, took her by the elbow, and removed her and her snippy dog from my shop.”

Lorna pulled her glasses off, dropped her head into her hands and groaned. “I didn’t expect that she’d come and see you—not so soon anyway. I should have warned you.”

“There’s a lot of things you should have talked to me about,” I said firmly as I replaced the books on the counter. “For starters you can explain why your security camera is aimed at my apartment stairs.”

Lorna slipped her glasses back on. “To be clear,” she began, “the camera is at my rear delivery door for security and for shipment notification. Your stairs simply happen to be within the view of the camera lens.”

“All right,” I said, doing my best to stay calm.

“Originally,” Lorna said, “I had checked the footage, worried I’d see Dex getting mugged, or something like that... The last thing I expected was to see him leaving your apartment, post hook up, so early in the morning.”

My stomach rolled over at the words ‘post hookup.’ Still, I spoke calmly. “It wasn’t a hook up.” At least it hadn’t been for me.

“Hey!” Circe dove right to my defense. “What happened between Kate and Dex is nobody’s business but their own.”

“I apologize,” Lorna said to me. “Kate I’m sorry. That was a poor choice of words. I haven’t been sleeping well, and I’m beyond worried for Dex. I’m afraid something horrible has happened to him.”

I studied her face for a good long moment before speaking. “Tell me about Dex’s relatives.”

Lorna blew out a breath, hard enough to make her bangs flutter. “I’ll tell you what I know.”

An hour later my mind was still reeling from what Lorna had shared with Circe and me. The foot traffic in the shop was slower that day, and I took advantage of it to do a deep dive into Dex’s family online. It wasn’t hard. There were plenty of society articles about them all, from the golf club that his father had chaired, to his mother being on the board for the local botanical gardens.

Dex, I discovered, also had a younger brother and an older sister. The brother, Eli, was a college student at the University of Alabama, and his sister, Bethany—from what I could tell—fancied herself an influencer on social media. The Poindexters were an attractive family. His sister was stunning with her dark hair and blue eyes. However, the more I swiped through her various posts, the more concerned I became.

Bethany was a dabbler. In other words, she played around with magick—with no regard for the dangers that can be associated with careless spellwork. There were dozens of generic posts about the goddess…that wasn’t the problem. What concerned me was all of her posts on spells. The darker, manipulative kind. Most of which were completely unethical.