Neve (Silver Skates #3) - Helen Scott Page 0,25

those interviews to bring more humans to Silver Springs? I don’t know about that. I mean, how would we even go about that? I certainly don’t know any witches that can work that kind of magic.”

“I know someone,” I replied, not adding that it would probably take a miracle to talk my father into doing something like this. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. Right now, I needed Seren on board and believing that we could do this more than I needed to worry about my father.

“Okay.” Seren pulled his glasses off and cleaned them again, and I was starting to think that was what he did when he was mulling something over. “If you think you can get someone to do the magic, then I’m up for trying it.”

“Yay!” I clapped and couldn’t stop the smile that spread over my face. “By the way, there is a Silver Springs Blades game tonight that I’ve been invited to attend. I wasn’t sure if you’d want to come with me to report on it.”

“I was going anyway, so I’ll be there.” He sounded awkward, like he was trying to reassure me and make excuses at the same time.

Before I could say anything else, someone I didn’t recognize came wandering around the corner into the main work area. “Can we help you?” I asked.

“Hi, I’m Zoe from the Cleanly Den. We had someone book an appointment for this office?” She tucked a stray lock of brown hair behind her ear. Most of it was back in a ponytail, but there were a couple bits that seemed too short to stay tied back.

“Yes, that was me,” I replied with a smile, amazed by their customer service. I had only discovered their business when I downloaded Screech and was doing some searching. “I was hoping someone could come through and clean this office area and also do a check for any magical objects, curses, that kind of thing, if possible?”

“Definitely.”

“Fantastic. Let me show you around and you can give me a quote,” I said to Zoe before turning to Seren and saying, “Could you start figuring out the best way to interview everyone? Maybe we can alternate people who just moved here with people who have lived here a long time. It might help with the other part.”

“I’ll figure something out,” Seren replied, sounding resigned to his fate.

“I know you will.” I turned back to Zoe, and she was watching me with a strange expression.

“You didn’t happen to go ice skating recently, did you?” she asked quietly.

“I did actually, why?”

“Oh nothing, I must have seen you there or something.” She was lying, I could always tell when people lied to me, but it didn’t feel malicious, more like she just didn’t want me to know something, which was fine. Her business was her business, so I just smiled at her and nodded.

“So this is the main area that I think needs the most attention.” I gestured to the main room. “There are a couple other offices and the bathrooms, of course. I also wanted to make sure that there were no residual spells in place, or at least if there were, to know what was present.”

“There’s definitely some negative energy in here, but we can clean that out with everything else.”

Negative energy? I glanced over at Seren and caught him watching me. The man was a mystery, a quiet, possibly harsh mystery, and although I hated myself for thinking it, I couldn’t help but want to solve it.

10

Neve

One of the other things I’d found on Screech last night was the page for a bakery that was just around the corner. Well, not just, but it was close. Saying that though, pretty much everything in Silver Springs was close. The town wasn’t exactly sprawling. I thought some baked treats might improve Seren and Samson’s opinions of me if I did the typical boss thing and went out to get coffee and donuts or something. Except Neve Astor did nothing by half measures, so donuts from a big box store wouldn’t cut it.

I wanted something special, something that would show them they were appreciated and valued, that told them I knew they had put numerous thankless hours into the paper and I was going to do my best to make it up to them by righting this sinking ship. I may have come to Silver Springs kicking and screaming, but now that I was here and had experienced the town, I felt more