Mare frowned. ‘Jude doesn’t love me, but I bet he knows something.’
‘Can you seduce it out of him?’ Dee said.
‘No, but I can beat it out of him,’ Mare said, looking over her shoulder as Mother filled in her tattoo.
Lizzie watched her finish.
‘What’s it look like, Liz?’ Mare said when she was done.
‘Like you,’ Lizzie said. ‘Like a warrior’ Her color was back, her hands were no longer shaking, and for the first time in her life she looked strong and determined. ‘I want a butterfly,’ she said to Mother. ‘But not a warrior. I want a sorcerer butterfly. I want the magic.’
Mother handed Lizzie a book of flash and then smeared cream on Mare’s back and covered it with plastic wrap, while Lizzie began to look for her sorcerer tat.
‘That one, the sorcerer butterfly,’ Lizzie said a few moments later, handing Mother the book as she took Mare’s place on the chair. ‘But small on my ankle. Something that’ll look great with my shoes. Whatever they turn into.’
Dee put down her cup and got to her feet. ‘I think that’s my cue to leave. We all know about Xan now, we’re all protected because we know, we’ll talk to the guys-’
Mother turned those gray eyes on Dee. ‘Three sisters. Three tattoos. Different but the same.’
‘I am not getting a tattoo,’ Dee said.
Mother nodded, still serene, and handed her a second book of flash.
‘Save yourself a little time,’ Mare said to Mother, ‘don’t bother with Dee and the flash. It’s not going to happen.’
Mother sighed. ‘You’ll be fine, Mare. Stop trying to control the universe. It’s not trying to control you.’ She put a gentle hand on her arm and Mare almost burst into tears. ‘And give my love to Crash when you see him.’
Mare sniffed. ‘Okay,’ she said, and headed for the door.
The last thing she heard was Dee saying, ‘Really, I am not getting a tattoo.’
Xan was lighting the candle under her chafing dish when she saw Maxine in the see glass, huddled next to the Dumpster, looking tense. She frowned and then waved her hand and opened the portal, and Maxine stumbled into the room.
‘What’s wrong?’ Xan said, not unkindly. Maxine looked around, trying to hide her nervousness. ‘Hey, it’s nice in here. I never been in this room before.’
‘It’s my kitchen.’
‘Yeah,’ Maxine said, reaching out to stroke the black granite countertops. ‘Are those cherrywood cabinets? They’re really red. This is something.’
‘Thank you.’ Xan watched her for a moment and then went back to the silver chafing dish.
The cream there was warming beautifully, thick and rich, and Maxine inhaled and sneezed.
Xan sighed.
Maxine moved closer to the bowl. ‘What is that?’
‘Cream,’ Xan said. A few spices. A little coffee. Some dark chocolate.’
Maxine leaned closer and sniffed. ‘What are you making?’
‘A spell.’ Xan picked up three cinnamon sticks from an intricately painted box that held dozens and, for the moment, her see glass. ‘Lean back, Maxine, I do not want you sneezing into this.’
Maxine stepped back. ‘Is it dangerous?’
‘Very.’ Xan broke the three cinnamon sticks into the cream.
The rich spice filled the room, the cloud spiraling up in three curling strands, rust-colored arabesques with tiny red sparks that made Maxine’s mouth drop open. ‘Whoa,’ she said, leaning closer again as the spirals turned and twisted, and Xan watched, smiling, her eyes half shut.
‘What kind of spell is that?’
It’s a libido spell, Maxine,’ Xan said, watching the cinnamon curl. ‘I went to Salem’s Fork today to nudge the plan back into place, and this spell is going to make sure it stays there. Tonight the sisters and their lovers are going to find each other irresistible. Tonight seals the deal.’
‘I’m sorry we couldn’t get the necklace, Xantippe,’ Maxine said, watching the cinnamon, too.
‘It’s all right, Maxine,’ Xan said. ‘You can try again tomorrow.’
‘Jude will help,’ Maxine said eagerly.
‘Jude will not help,’ Xan said. ‘Jude is finished. Mare has chosen Crash. It’s going to make things difficult, but I’ll simply have to adapt.’
‘No.’ Maxine drew closer. ‘That’s what I wanted to tell you, Jude will try harder. Don’t fire him or turn him into something, he’ll do better, really…’
The cream was ready, so Xan tuned Maxine out and picked up three glass beads strung on a silver thread, beads she’d separated temporarily from the see glass. ‘Deirdre, Elizabeth, and Moira,’ she said over the cream and the beads, as Maxine leaned still closer, pleading with her. ‘May your deepest passions be unleashed-’
‘Please, Xantippe,’ Maxine said.
‘- may your wildest fantasies come true-’
‘- he’ll try really hard-’
‘- may this night make you one with your true love-’
‘-Xantippe!’
‘- so I say, so be-’
Maxine moved to grab her arm and knocked the cinnamon box and the see glass into the cream.
‘- it,’ Xan said, and watched as the cream began to turn dark as the entire box of cinnamon sticks and the see glass sank to the bottom of the pan. She sighed and dropped in the Fortune sisters’ beads, too.
Maxine stood frozen as Xan turned to her.
‘That was bad, Maxine.’
‘I’m sorry, Xantippe.’
Xan looked down at the rapidly darkening cream, sighed again, and then took a glass rod from the table and fished out the see glass, letting the cream drip from it before she wiped it clean.
Maxine swallowed. ‘What’s going to happen now?’
‘Now?’ Xan poured herself a drink. ‘Now there’s going to be a hot time in the old town tonight.’
Maxine’s eyes got huge. ‘It’s going to burn down?’
‘Only figuratively. Go home, Maxine.’
‘What did I do?’
‘The spell was meant for the sisters only,’ Xan said. ‘That’s why there were only three beads. But you blundered. You knocked the whole see glass in, so now the entire town-’
‘What about Jude?’
‘Forget Jude. He’s finished.’
‘What do you mean, finished?’
‘Go home, Maxine.’
‘No, please!’
‘Home, Maxine.’
Maxine backed toward the paneled door, sniffing, her breath coming in mewing sounds. She stopped when she had it open. ‘Xantippe?’
Xan was still watching the dark cream bubble. It had been such an elegant spell, so beautifully subtle, so carefully aimed.
Now it was going to be a fuckfest. She put her forehead in her hand. ‘Xantippe?’
Xan raised her head, looked into Maxine’s terrified little eyes, and raised her hand.
‘No!’ Maxine screamed and dove through the door, letting the panel slam behind her.
Xan watched in the see glass as Maxine landed in a sobbing heap behind the Dumpster.
She was going to have to do something about Maxine. She turned back to the glass, decided that Salem’s Fork was not something she wanted to see tonight, and covered it with a velvet cloth before leaving the room.
Dee was still a block away from the inn when she spotted Danny’s Triumph at the curb. Absently rubbing at her right shoulder blade, she stopped dead in the street.
Should she go on up? More important, would he talk to her? Would he understand?
Dee didn’t even want to think about the scars Danny could inflict before he left. Or that she could inflict on him. What choice did she have, though? What choice had she ever really had?
Her pulse had speeded up again, and she had to lay a hand on her chest to help her breathe.
‘Danny?’
He was sitting on the white wicker swing on Velma’s front porch. Dee realized he was bent over, his head in his hands. She strode up the sidewalk.
He jumped to his feet. ‘Dee?’
His face looked drawn, his hair spiked from where he’d been tangling it in his hands. His smile, when it came, was lopsided and sweet. Dee ignored the flare of panic in her chest and kept walking. She met Danny at the bottom of the porch steps.