Witcher Upper - Amy Boyles Page 0,52

need to tell me—you hear?”

“Yes, sir.” I glanced over my shoulder at Rufus. “Come on. Let’s go.”

“What? You’re gonna leave now?” Dooley said, bewildered.

Rufus strode forward. “I think we’ve searched all that we can and haven’t found what we’re looking for.” His gaze cut into me. “Don’t you think, Clementine?”

It felt like Rufus could see the secrets pocketed in my heart. As if he knew what I was thinking, even, and what I had hidden in my jeans, near the talking spell.

I smiled widely and kicked a pebble in my path. “Yep, we’ve searched about as much as we can.”

Orbs still glowed. They flitted about, but Dooley didn’t stare at them because he couldn’t see them.

As we got into my truck and I slid behind the wheel, I felt the orb in my pocket, the new one I had tucked away. Its warmth oozed over my leg, almost like water running atop my skin.

Rufus sighed as he slinked down into his seat. He stared out the window and said heavily, “Looks like that spell is harder to find than I imagined.”

The memory spell in my pocket slipped a little to the right. My fingers tightened on the steering wheel as sweat from my palms slicked the surface.

I patted Lady, who curled up beside me. “Yep, I guess you’ll just have to keep looking. You’ll just have to,” I repeated as we rumbled back toward the main road and away from Dooley’s farm.

Chapter 20

I got home late that night. Every muscle in my body ached—from my shoulders to the bottoms of my feet. Lady was tired, too. As soon as I opened the front door, she scurried to the kitchen for a drink of water from her bowl and then hopped onto my bed, ready to call it a day.

My night was yet unfinished. I swear that Rufus must’ve thought something was up because the orb slid from side to side in my pocket the entire drive back to the bed and breakfast. I held my breath, expecting the thing to wiggle out and fall onto the seat, where he could see it. Then he’d accuse me of keeping the memory spell from him.

Boy, what a can of worms that would open. But luckily Rufus exited my vehicle none the wiser.

As I stared at my open cupboard, trying to figure out exactly the best container for the spell, I spied a couple of old mason jars that I’d received from Malene. Once filled to the brim with homemade fig preserves, they now sat empty.

“Y’all will be perfect.”

The first one opened easily, and I stuck the talking spell in it, screwed the lid shut and placed it on my kitchen table, figuring that I’d deal with it later.

The second jar was a different story.

At first the lid didn’t want to budge, but after a bit of elbow grease and running it under the tap, the hot water seemed to do the trick.

The faint smell of dust drifted from the jar. I dropped the orb inside, and it bounced around from side to side. After capping it, the ball ricocheted from top to bottom, looking like a lightning bug that desperately wanted to escape.

Now to hide it. Since my cabinets were never fully stocked, that would be a horrible place to store it. The jar would be seen as soon as the doors opened. I considered hiding it in my closet, but that seemed too obvious. Then it came to me.

The cabinet in my bathroom, the one under the sink, was a mess—full of curling irons with dangling cords, a box of hot rollers, hair products with crust on their lids. You know how it is—you buy a hair product, use it a few times, store it in a cabinet and forget about it. Well, I had an entire graveyard of hair products that I never seemed to find the time to toss in the garbage.

Well, now those products would help me out. The jar fit perfectly behind a box of shampoo and conditioner that I’d received as a Christmas present.

After tucking the orb away, I snapped off the bathroom light, changed my clothes and slid under the covers. Not once did I feel guilty about hiding the memory spell.

Keeping Rufus Mayes away from his true self was a service for all of humanity.

At least, that’s what I told myself as I drifted off to sleep.

The next day Lady and I ate breakfast together—she had a bowl of really good, expensive dog food,