One thing we did have to do, though, was tell Reg what was going on. The Scarecrow Grille was probably the safest place in Salem, so neither Joel nor Gretel had any hesitation about going there. Joel invited Ezra too, and he accepted after Joel gave him big sad eyes for all of three seconds. 

There was clearly something starting there, and I almost felt obligated to talk to Ezra. About what, I wasn’t sure. It would sound unbelievably petty of me if I used examples of Joel’s behavior from when we were younger. People grow up. And Ezra knew about everything from the past couple weeks. After all, we’d met when I made Joel pay for a wildly expensive, disgusting coffee at the café where Ezra worked. So it wasn’t like Ezra didn’t know what Joel was like. And if he wanted to date Joel, that was his business.

Plus, if there was anything to Reg’s comment about Joel regretting breaking up with me, then maybe I should be encouraging him to get out there and date other people. 

“How was work?” I asked Gretel at the table after we’d received our drinks.

“Long,” she said. “And frustrating. There was a patient who had tooth pain, and the dentist spent so long digging around in her mouth trying to figure it out. Which he didn’t, of course. So he scheduled her for a procedure next week that might or might not actually do anything. Which, I guess…”

She trailed off with a dainty shrug, but didn’t continue on that train of thought. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to know where she was going with it. Gretel wasn’t a medical provider at the office. She ran most of the administrative section, which was absolutely essential. But it wasn’t with the patients. At least technically. She’d all but admitted to using her ability to heal at her work. But based on everything I’d heard, it didn’t seem like she was in magical cahoots with the dentist or any of the other providers.

Was she running her own thing out of the office? Healing people in a room off to the side and taking money under the table? Or was it more along the lines of healing a friend’s mother’s toothache so she didn’t have to wait an hour to see the dentist? I suddenly wanted to ask, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the answer. If she was illegally running a treatment center, then what exactly could I do about that? Tell her to stop?

Maybe it was cowardly, but I wasn’t going to ask. Plus, the idea of Gretel running some kind of underground magic ring was just ridiculous, even after the revelations of the past week.

She held her hand out to me on the table and I took it, running my thumb over her soft skin. She wore a light sweater and jeans that showed off her full, curvy figure. And yeah, maybe the way it exposed her cleavage and collarbones was shutting my brain off a little too, but mostly I just wanted to enjoy being with her. I loved Gretel.

“Fancy meeting you he-”

The voice I’d been dreading was right next to the table, and I looked up to see Declan staring at Joel, his face pale with shock. “You!”

Joel held out his hands in a mock flourish. “Me.”

“You’re dead.”

“No, I’m sitting here, drinking a beer with my friends.” He smiled at Ezra, then turned back to Declan. “Who the hell are you?”

“No, no, Corman killed you. I heard about it. Dar…” He turned to me for confirmation and for what felt like the first time, I could clearly see his face and hold on to the image. The shock of seeing Joel must have caused him to drop the glamor. “Dar, what’s going on?”

“Please leave us alone, Declan,” I snapped.

Joel and Gretel were on their feet in an instant, but Declan didn’t move. “Can you raise the dead?” he asked me, with genuine wonder in his voice. “Is that your ability? Or, I mean one of them. Plenty of us have two, of course. But did you raise Joel from the dead?”

Joel’s jaw dropped in outrage and it would have been funny if I wasn’t so angry. “Do I look like a fucking zombie?” he demanded. 

“Go away,” Gretel snapped. “She asked nicely.”

“Listen, I’m just trying to get to know folks in the area. That’s why I’m here tonight, I didn’t, like, follow you or anything.”

He laughed, like the idea of him following me was so silly that it was obviously impossible for any of us to believe. Looking at him now, he was definitely a little younger than us, maybe twenty-five. His face was pale, and he was taller than me, Joel’s height or so. Shorter than Gretel. His eyes were a watery blue and his hair was dark. Even without the glamor there wasn’t much to distinguish him from any other dark-haired, blue-eyed man. But he was still clear, and I was trying to commit as much of his image to memory now in case he managed to disguise himself again.

“So listen,” he said, glancing around the table where there thankfully were no empty chairs. He went to pull a chair over from a nearby table, but the woman sitting there glared and shook her head. So he gave up and walked back over, lingering beside me. “I just came to town. I was in a program for a while and now I’m graduated and ready to start really working. So I’m looking to make connections. And I’ll be blunt, I want connections with power. If I’m going to establish myself in the Salem social scene, I can’t do that with just anyone, you know?”

Joel was glaring at him as Gretel looked calmly furious. “Then why can’t you just believe me that I’m not magic?” I asked him, resisting the urge to throw my drink in his face. “I’m ‘just anyone’ and you’re wasting your time.”

Declan laughed. “You’re persistent, I’ll give you that. I know you, though. It’s not like that kid,” he said, motioning toward Ezra. “You’re powerful.”

“I’m not,” I insisted as Ezra now glared at him. “There’s nothing about me that’s magical.”

“You can keep your secrets for now,” he said, giving me a wink before turning to Joel. “But man, I had no idea. You really had me fooled too. Does anyone else know you’re alive?”

Joel opened his mouth, probably to say something rash and stupid, but when I kicked him under the table, he stopped. “Leave us alone,” he said instead. “I’m not going to ask again.”

Declan snapped his fingers, a small spark coming out of them as he did so. “I have an idea,” he said. “Joel, you and I should hook up.”

Joel raised an eyebrow. “Not interested,” he said.

“No, sorry, not like that,” Declan said quickly. “I’m straight. Like, very straight. I wouldn’t insult you by saying you’re not, you know?”

“I wouldn’t be interested anyway,” Joel said, with a deliberate, snotty once over of Declan.

Declan blushed, clearly flustered and angry. “I’m saying let’s put our power together and build something,” he snapped. “You have a reputation. And you’re ruthless, I’ve heard stories.”

Corman had said the same thing, hadn’t he? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the extent of Joel’s ruthlessness. What had Joel gotten up to when he was desperate for money? And why wasn’t his family helping him? 

I didn’t know his parents, I’d only met them a couple times during our eight-year relationship. He’d never been close to them, but they’d provided him money whenever he needed it. And now he was doing odd jobs for fucking movie villains to get money?

Dammit, I had to ask him about it, didn’t I? That was going to be a fun conversation.

“I don’t do any of that anymore,” Joel said, avoiding looking at the rest of us. “Whatever you’ve heard, forget it. I’m busy.”

“Doing what?” Declan demanded impatiently. “If you were doing anything worthy of your magic, I’d have heard about it. But I didn’t even know you were alive! Which is incredibly impressive, by the way. I thought for sure I’d be able to see through that kind of thing. I’ve got a couple types of tricks up my sleeve. Nowhere near what you’re capable of, of course.”

He was buttering Joel up, that was obvious. And fucking Joel was enjoying it, even if he was still throwing Declan out. “Of course not,” Joel said. “But we’re busy. Please leave us alone.”

“Anything I can help with?” Declan asked. “Not that you need me, of course. Not when you have someone who is capable of destroying a Scarlet Holding.”

He looked pointedly at me and I gazed levelly back. “Come on, Dar,” he said, voice teasing. “Tell us your secrets.”

I felt a scratch at the back of my mind, just for a second, and recognized that he was trying to compel me to tell him what he wanted to hear. Horrified, I grabbed the first thing I found, which happened to be Joel’s beer, and threw it in Declan’s face. “Don’t you fucking dare!” I snapped.

Joel started to protest, but I glared at him and he shut up, so apparently my fear was obvious. “Get the hell away from me,” I continued. “And don’t you ever fucking try to get in my mind again.”

Gretel looked horrified beside me as Joel moved toward Declan. But before anyone could do anything, Reg was there, a massive hand on Declan’s shoulder. “It’s time for you to leave,” he said.

“Who the fuck are you?” Declan demanded, beer still dripping off his eyebrows.

“The owner of this establishment,” Reg said, voice level and deadly. “And I try to keep this a magic-friendly place, God knows we need it. But you’re using your abilities against my customers and I’m not going to let that happen.”

“Oh, she can stop me if she wants,” Declan said, voice falsely cheerful as he wiped the beer from his face with his hand. 

“Get out.”

I’d seen Reg angry before, but I’d never seen this level of cold fury radiating off of him. Even Declan faltered under it and Reg steered him away. He turned and looked at me as Reg led him to the door.

“I’m going home,” I said, standing up and tossing money down on the table. Again, I didn’t count it and probably left far too much.

“I can stay and talk to Reg,” Ezra said softly.

I noticed that neither of the other two protested this. “I’ll go with you,” Gretel said to me.

She and Joel both stood up, tossed down money, and we left the oddly quiet restaurant.

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Continue to Chapter 10