Gwyn leapt up from the table as Aunt Elaine turned around.
“Hey, Ashley,” Gwyn said, coming over and putting an arm around the girl’s shoulders as she began leading her back into the store, and throwing a look back at Vivi and Elaine. “That’s just the back room, nothing that interesting, but we do have some really cool wands in if you want to check those out . . .”
Gwyn’s voice faded as she walked deeper into the store, and Aunt Elaine stood up, sighing, hands on her hips.
“Well, guess we know that spell isn’t working as it should right now, either.”
It wasn’t exactly a surprise, but it was a reminder that this thing had to get sorted out, and fast. And that’s where Vivi’s focus needed to be.
Which is why she only glanced at the couch once before she hurried out of the storage room.
The drive to campus was uneventful, and Vivi was just locking her car when she heard someone calling her name.
It was Amanda, jogging over to her, a bright smile on her face. “How did it go?”
Relieved, Vivi reached into her bag for the candle. “Great! But now please take this because having a ghost in my purse is creeping me out.”
Amanda’s smile brightened as she wrapped her fingers around the Eurydice Candle. “Not a problem. I’ll get this back to our side of campus, and you can go on about your day.”
Since she had a class to teach in five minutes, Vivi was grateful to do just that, and with a wave, she turned toward Chalmers Hall, the building where her class met.
Clouds were thick in the sky today, leaves skittering across the brick walkways, and Vivi shivered a little, tugging her scarf a bit tighter around her neck. As she did, she glanced back over her shoulder and spotted Amanda walking across the parking lot. She turned left, disappearing behind a row of trees, and Vivi frowned as she turned back around.
That’s not the way to get to the witch side of campus.
But maybe Amanda knew a shortcut, or was getting something out of her car.
That had to be it.
Vivi taught her first class, then her second, forgetting all about Amanda and the Eurydice Candle as she enlightened a hundred freshmen about the Magna Carta, even forgetting about Rhys for a little while, and by the time she got back to her office late that afternoon, she was actually starting to feel a bit . . . okay, “normal” would’ve been too strong a word, but at least more settled, more sure of herself.
Sure, they still had to deal with the curse, but they’d fixed the potion issue at the Coffee Cauldron, and now they no longer had an angry ghost roaming around campus.
She was actually on top of all this.
Smiling, pleased with herself, Vivi settled behind her desk and tugged a stack of grading to her, flipping on her kettle as she did.
She’d just gotten through the first three essays when there was a knock at her door. “Come in,” she called without looking up.
As soon as the door opened, magic rippled over her skin, so thick and heavy she had to take a second to catch her breath, and when she looked up, Dr. Arbuthnot stood in the doorway.
“Ms. Jones?” she intoned, her voice like thunder. “I believe we need to speak.”
Rhys had been thinking about Vivienne all day, so in a way, he wasn’t surprised when she turned up on his doorstep that evening. In fact, when he first opened the door, he wondered if he was having a particularly vivid hallucination.
But no, if he were conjuring up Vivienne, he definitely would not have made her look this sad.
Not just sad. Defeated. Her shoulders were slumped, hair straggling out of her loose bun. Even the little cherries marching along the hem of her skirt seemed to be drooping.