Roy and Fifi pulled up about two hours later (which put to bed my belief that Maverick had somehow magicked Roy to stay away). As soon as Roy saw the tree, he started pacing and steadily working himself up into a bigger and bigger temper. I was worried he was going to burst if things didn’t get handled, and soon.

  Hellcat paced a circle around the tree, giving it a perfunctory sniff. “I think we should take it back to the coven house. It would make an adequate scratching post for a cat of my caliber.”

  Wanda ignored him, like she usually did. It was actually Imani who broke the news to the little hellion.

  “Take it back to the house?! There’s no way! This thing’s got to weigh a thousand pounds, at least! It would crush a car.”

  Hellcat’s tail lashed irritably. “Why do we even keep the vampire around if he and the Sasquatch can’t relocate a simple tree? Ridiculous.”

  “I’m about to relocate you with my boot,” Wanda muttered, not quite under her breath.

  Hellcat hissed at her. “And to think they thought you were the one to do such a working. As if a dunce of your ineptitude were capable of such a feat, you miserably harpy.”

  Wanda gave him a long look before turning her gaze back to Imani. “What do you think? I bet if I listed Hellcat on Petfinder and offered someone twenty bucks to take him off my hands, they might?”

  Imani hid her smile with her hand as Hellcat screeched in outrage.

  “Can we get things rolling, here?” Roy cut in. His jaw was clenched so tightly that I was shocked he’d gotten the words out without cracking a tooth.

  Wanda just rolled her eyes and turned her back on him. “Alright, everyone. Take your positions.”

  Then Wanda faced me. Since I didn’t have any witch magic, or at least, I wasn’t supposed to have any witch magic, I wasn’t expected to join in on the ritual. I figured I was more like the cheerleaders to the football team than an actual player. Rah-Rah, go Scapegrace!

  “I need you to act as lookout,” Wanda whispered to me.

  I frowned. “Lookout for what?”

  “A frumpy looking vampire woman who’s trying to prove I’m not the vampire I’m trying to prove I am.”

  “Ah,” I answered with a quick nod. “I haven’t seen anyone who matches that description.”

  “Well, stay vigilant, would you?”

  I nodded and took stock of our surroundings, not seeing anyone who wasn’t supposed to be there. I watched as Wanda returned to her circle of witches and one Blood Warlock and they all took up position around the tree, linking their hands into a circle.

  Honestly, once they got started, it didn’t take very long. There was some chanting, and the air got wavey, like a heat mirage over black asphalt. And after a few minutes, Wanda spoke a few commanding words, and hard metal gave way to sturdy dark wood. The metallic gold just bled away, like the wood was growing back over the top of it. Finally, the coven stepped back, shaking their hands out. Franz grabbed at Olga’s skirts with his odd little hand-paws, and she scooped him up to ride on her shoulder. The lederhosen he was wearing made him look like Rocket Raccoon from The Avengers dressed as a German for Halloween.

  “Crisis averted.” Wanda tossed her long dark hair back over her shoulder with a practiced sweep of her arm. Then she braced one hand on her hip and pointed at the ground in front of her while glaring at the people assembled. “The line for apologies starts here, by the way. And, Roy, you can be first.”

  Roy crossed his arms over his chest, scowling. The move made his biceps swell until they looked bigger than my head—not that I noticed. I was perfectly happy with my Mr. Darcy.

  “Is that seriously what you’re worried about right now, Wanda?” he demanded. “We have way bigger problems. If it wasn’t your coven who did this, then it seems like a very deliberate attack.”

  “If it wasn’t my coven?” she repeated, suddenly fuming.

  “No one thinks it was your coven,” Taliyah interrupted, spearing a glance at Roy. “Do we?”

  He grumbled something but then begrudgingly agreed with a quick nod.

  “Attack?” I repeated, reminded of his previous comment. That sounded serious. I tugged at the sleeves of my sweater, twisting the fabric. “Why do you think that?”

  Roy waved a massive hand at the once more wooden tree. “Something this big and flashy? Right in the heart of downtown, which gets the most traffic? It had to be deliberate. Either someone was screwing around and their screwing around got out of hand, or they did this on purpose to bring a lot of unwanted attention to Haven Hollow. Either way, this is dangerous to us, especially with things as precarious as they are now.” He took a breath. “And, again, I’m left to wonder who has this sort of power to begin with. And I keep only returning to—”

  “The coven,” Maverick answered for him, eyes narrowed. “What makes you so sure it was one of us?” Isis clicked her beak in irritation. “Poppy admitted that one of her potions had this kind of effect. It could have been her. Or anyone who got their hands on her potion,” he amended when Imani jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow.

  I bit my lip and twisted my sleeve harder. “I mean, Gypsy Gold couldn’t do this. Like I said before, it turns things into Fool’s gold, and only for an hour or so. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “Maverick has a point, though.” Taliyah said, her eyes narrowed in thought. “What about your son? He’s a teenager, right? And he has his own magic?”

  “Finn wouldn’t do this. And he’s a Magician, not a brewer of potions.”

  Taliyah didn’t look convinced. “Maybe this is his version of a bit of youthful rebellion?”

  My magic roiled angrily, and I did my best to stuff it back down. It was instinctual to get defensive of someone accusing my son of such a horrible thing.

  “No,” Wanda said, shaking her head. “Finn isn’t like that. He’s a good kid.”

  I gave her a nod of thanks. Yes, sometimes Finn struggled. But everyone did at his age. Growing up was hard, and heck, I still struggled and I hadn’t been a teenager for many long years. Though, I had to admit to myself that Finn did seem to be struggling more lately. He was quiet, and obviously troubled by something. The thought made my heart feel too tight, like it was stuck in a jar and couldn’t beat properly.

  “Finn wouldn’t do this,” I repeated, my lips stiff. “Besides, he couldn’t have done it. I only made one vial of the potion, like I said, and Andre took it with him when he left to go to Portland.”

  “Andre? The new Magician in town?” Taliyah asked.

  “Yes, and...” I cleared my throat. “My boyfriend.”

  “Could he have done this?” Taliyah asked, apparently missing the part where I said Andre was my boyfriend.

  I frowned. “He wasn’t even in town when the bush was turned to gold.”

  “Are you sure?” Roy asked bluntly. “I mean, how much do you really know about this guy? He just shows up one day out of nowhere, and ends up moving into a house right up the street from you? Do you even know where he’s from? Do you really know anything about him?”

  The absolute unfairness of that comment, especially coming from Roy, had my words getting all jammed up in the back of my mouth. It wasn’t like I’d gone around announcing my relationship with Andre, but Roy had his own soulmate. He should have known what it was like to find the one and I was sure Fifi had told him about Andre’s and my connection because I’d talked about it with the girls at the Black Cat Cocktail Club.

  “I’m going to choose not to take offense to that,” I managed, proud of myself that I was keeping my anger in check. “And I would ask you, for the sake of playing devil’s advocate, even if Andre were behind this, what would even be the point? To turn a tree gold? To put Haven Hollow at risk? Why would he want to do that?”

  “Wow,” Wanda cut in dryly before I could find my voice again. She was facing Roy, and she was fuming mad. I could tell by the way she held her shoulders. “I thought your only power was showing up in blurry photographs, Roy, but apparently it’s your ability to leap to huge conclusions with a single bound and not a shred of evidence.”

  Roy turned on her, glaring from beneath heavy brows. “I don’t see you trying to figure anything out. Maybe you should care more about protecting the town than about your own pride.”

  Wanda gave him an astonished look. “Why in the name of the Goddess would I do that when my pride is the most important thing to me?” she demanded, clearly mocking him. “Besides, I just fixed the problem.” She motioned to the once golden tree. “You’re welcome, by the way, you ungrateful ape.”

  “You’ve fixed the problem for now.” Roy ran a hand back through his hair. “What about the next time this happens?”

  Wanda waved a dismissive hand. “It could have been a fluke that won’t happen again.”

  “Once is an accident, twice is a pattern,” Roy answered, turning to face everyone else. “We need to figure out why this is happening, and we need to stop it.”

  Roy took a step forward, and Lorcan was suddenly standing beside Wanda, his lip peeled back to reveal the sharp edges of his fangs. I hadn’t even seen him arrive.

  “We can’t just assume everything is fine,” Roy growled. “Do you not grasp how badly this could go for the town?”

  “Do you not understand that flinging random accusations at people and causing this kind of a rift in the council could be bad for this town?” Wanda snapped back.

  Then Fifi was pushing between them. Well, she put her back to Roy’s chest and shoved him back a step, anyway. “Okay, time out. No more fighting. This is not what we need right now. We need to be sticking together and trusting in one another to get to the bottom of this.”

  Roy stopped like he’d been stuck in play, looking down at Fifi, his chest rising and falling rapidly. She patted him absently, but looked at Wanda and then everyone else. “Clearly, we need to talk about this. But is the middle of the road the best spot for a conversation? The spell won’t last forever. How about we hold an emergency council session at the Half-Moon, and try to hash this out?” Fifi then gave a pointed look to Roy and Wanda. “Hash it out peacefully.”

  “Fine,” Roy grumbled, and turned to stalk up the street, pausing only long enough for Fifi to catch up with him.

  Taliyah got back into her cruiser after a quick word with Maverick, and went to move it somewhere a little more inconspicuous, like an actual parking spot.

  Wanda rolled her eyes and turned to the rest of the coven. “This is going to be annoying. Good work tonight, everyone, but don’t bother waiting up. Imani,” she continued. “Would you take Hellcat with you? It’s going to be aggravating enough without his scathing diatribes. Just stuff him in the trunk if he acts up.”

  Ignoring Hellcat’s offended yowl, she turned to saunter up the street towards the bar, holding Lorcan’s hand.

  I shot a text to Finn to make sure he’d gotten to Marty’s okay, and when I got a thumbs up in response, I pulled my cardigan a little tighter around myself and headed up the street.

  Chapter Nine

  While Hallowed Homes was certainly a nice spot for a meeting, with comfortable chairs and really good coffee, there was food at the Half-Moon so, in my mind, it had Hallowed Homes beat.

  Roy closed the place up early, citing a plumbing issue for the mundane customers, so we had the place to ourselves, and we could sprawl out at the comfy booths and tables (which was good because I thought Wanda and Roy might come down to fists and magic).

  There was a reason that the Half-Moon did such good business, and that wasn’t all about its location. The place was warm, inviting, with its polished wood floors and the heavy oak bar on the back wall, where Roy could usually be found slinging drinks, since he seemed to struggle with keeping a bartender on.

  But the food was the real draw. It was all pub style stuff, mostly burgers and hot sandwiches, but they did have some really tasty entrees and salads. And I’d always found that meetings went better when everyone wasn’t hangry, especially after hours.

  So, I didn’t feel any guilt at all as I tucked into my cheeseburger and fries, even if I was going to have to walk a few extra miles to burn it all off again. It was exactly the right side of delicious and comforting, and I was going to take the extra helping of fries Roy had heaped on the side as an apology for earlier.

  As I sat there, I got a text from Andre, asking how my day was.

  Just in the middle of a council meeting, I texted back, feeling giddy even though I tried to stop myself. What are you doing later?

  Hopefully coming to see you? he texted back.

  I hope so, I responded with a happy face. Text you once I’m out of here.

  He responded with a thumbs up and just in time for Taliyah, who hadn’t asked for anything but a ginger ale with lots of ice, to tap her knuckles against the table once everyone was settled.

  “The tree and the bush aren’t actually the only gold related problems we’re having in Haven Hollow,” she explained grimly. “The reason I happened to be close by this morning was because there was a robbery of a jewelry store over on first street that was reported right before this tree business came up. And it wasn’t your run of the mill robbery either.”

  “Of course not,” Maverick grumbled. “Because that would be too easy.”

  She nodded at him. I did notice that Angelo wasn’t present and hadn’t been all day. Apparently, he was taking this bodyguarding business of Lydia pretty seriously—something which still surprised me. But, who knew, maybe even the biggest womanizers could change their ways with the right woman. Or maybe Lydia was simply his newest flavor craze. Whatever the answer, it really wasn’t my business.

  “Whoever robbed the place,” Taliyah continued. “Didn’t set off a single alarm, and they made off with every scrap of gold in the building, leaving behind everything else.”

  “Wait.” Fifi looked up from her root beer float, confused. “They took only the gold?”

  Taliyah nodded, like Fifi had just asked a really good question. “Exactly. They left all the other precious and semi-precious metals, taking only the gold.”

  “Then they left—” I started.

  “—silver bracelets, necklaces, rings. And platinum versions of the same—as well as some pretty expensive gemstones. All left behind. In one instance, they pried a sapphire from its setting to take the gold necklace, but left the stone.” Then Taliyah breathed out a big breath. “Which makes zero sense.”

  Wanda frowned, probably still miffed that Roy had ignored her request for a glass of red wine. “So, the thieves are good enough at what they do to break in without getting caught, but stupid enough to leave some of the most valuable pieces behind?”

  Taliyah shrugged. “I’m just bringing it up because it was odd and gold related. It may or may not be linked to our not so merry gilder.”

  Roy sat next to Fifi, holding her hand, but still glowering. “I keep coming back to Poppy’s potion.”

  “Of course,” I grumbled, shaking my head.

  He nodded. “I’m sorry, Poppy, but it’s just too big a coincidence.”

  I finished chewing my bite of cheeseburger before I answered. “I know. That’s why I brought it up in the first place. I’m just not sure how my potion fits into any of this. Like I said, it makes Fool’s gold, light and pretty, but not valuable. And I only made one vial, and I know Andre used it, because he sent me pictures of the things he turned into Fool’s gold. And, no, no one could have copied the potion because no one was with me when I brewed it. And, before you bring it up again, no, Finn had nothing to do with it.” I took a breath. Something else was nagging at me. “Here’s the problem.” I gestured from myself, to Taliyah, to Roy and Wanda. “Let’s assume that all the gold related events are related to each other. If someone did steal my potion, and they somehow altered it so that it made real gold instead of fake, then why on earth would they need to steal gold from a jewelry store? Why not just make the gold themselves? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

  Everything was quiet for a minute while we all mulled that over.

  It was Fifi who broke the silence, playing with the straw from her float. “Maybe we need to look at the people who are new to town? We haven’t really been able to vet people like we used to. I’m not saying we should go back to Ophelia’s way of doing things,” she added in a hurry. “But maybe someone slipped in who has a grudge against the Hollow and now they’re taking that grudge out on us and we just didn’t look at their backgrounds closely enough?”

  “Have there been any people new in town with…” Taliyah made a face, gesturing vaguely. “Gold powers, lately?” There was a tinge of faint pink in her cheeks, like she was embarrassed by the question, and she picked up her ginger ale to take a drink to hide it.

  “The only new people I know of are Lydia, Poppy’s cousin, and Andre, Poppy’s boyfriend,” Roy said. “And Lydia has been under strict watch by Angelo since he seems to believe she’s in some kind of trouble. So that just leaves Andre.”

  “Who had nothing to do with this,” I answered, giving him a look.

  “Fifi, who else is new to town?” Wanda asked as she then faced Roy. “Because Mr. Darcy I’m sure had nothing to do with this.”

  “Mr. Darcy?” Roy repeated, frowning.

  Wanda waved an unconcerned hand at him. “It’s a character from a classic book—but, since you can’t read, you wouldn’t know it.”

  “Wanda, please,” Taliyah said, frowning at the witch who got an expression of ‘who, me?’ on her face.

  Fifi nibbled on her lip as she thought about Wanda’s question, clearly deciding to ignore her later commentary, which was just as well. “There was a leprechaun, I think. But they’re more about hiding gold than making it.”

  “Any dragons?” Lorcan asked, teasing.

  Fifi didn’t seem to get the joke. “No, still just Gregor,” she answered, talking about one of her surlier realtors at the office. “And again, he’s more about hoarding gold than making it and showing it off in very public places.”