Five Years Later
“I know it’s you cursing people, Pluto!” The town curmudgeon, Maeve Gilmore, shouted outside my store. “Pack up your stuff and get out of Rosegrove!”
More shouts came flying in through the open door, proving that Mrs. Gilmore was able to gather more than just her girlfriends to run me out of town this time. “If it were me cursing people, Mrs. Gilmore, you should be more careful. I could curse you all with just a twitch of my nose.”
“Aha! You admit it,” Mrs. Gilmore shouted. “Did you hear her, Sheriff?”
“Pluto can’t curse people, Mrs. Gilmore,” I heard my best friend and town sheriff, Isaiah Monroe, say.
“I could if I wanted to, Isaiah!” I shouted, finally walking out from behind the counter.
“You heard her Sheriff. It’s her! Arrest her!” One of Mrs. Gilmore’s cronies said.
Isaiah let out a long suffering sigh as the crowd began shouting at him to arrest me. “It’s funny that you all would have me arrested or run out of town, yet you’re all too happy to come to me when you’ve got erectile dysfunction or baldness or a rash,” my voice dropped to a whisper, “down there.” I pointed to each of my customers who had, just days ago, come into the shop for their treatments.
“That’s confidential information! You can’t tell people about what treatments you give out,” a man that, yesterday evening, came into the shop for a recharge on his ED charm shouted, causing a chorus of “yeahs” to sound around him.
“I’m truly sorry, Mayor Johnson, that’s professional courtesy, not the law,” I responded calmly, leaning against the door frame with my arms crossed.
“Pluto, please go back into your shop and close the door. You antagonizing them isn’t helping anything,” Isaiah said. I started to argue and he shot me a glare, “Go.”
I rolled my eyes, but retreated into the shop, locking the door before heading to the backroom. I stopped in my tracks as I took in the spellwork Juni had started with the assistance of Mom and our grandmother, Nan. “What the fuck are you guys getting Juni into?”
Nan rushed over to me, “Oh it’s nothing dear. She’s just making sure those useless townspeople understand the price for trying to run the Blackwood’s out of the town they founded.”
I massaged my temples to ward off the headache I knew was coming, “You cannot cast a curse on anyone. You’ll just make us look guilty in the eyes of the townspeople. The only way to avoid being run out of town is to take what they dish with a smile. Cursing people isn’t the way to go.”
“Pluto? I managed to get all but Mrs. Gilmore to leave the storefront,” Isaiah shouted from the front of the shop.
“I gave you that key for emergencies, not casual visits,” I shouted back, not bothering to stop rubbing my temples.
The sound of Isaiah’s footsteps stopped as he took in the scene, “Juni, what are you casting?”
“Oh it’s nothing dear,” Nan answered, “Just a harmless spell to remind the people that the Blackwoods are not the ones to mess with.”
“No,” Isaiah ordered. “I’m having a hard enough time keeping the peace in town until the special investigator gets here. I don’t need this to confirm their fears. Pluto, you have to keep Juni out of trouble. Please don’t make this harder for all of us.”
“I’m trying,” I all but shouted, throwing my hands into the air. “You think I taught her to do this or told her to do this? I didn’t. I’ve known about this about as long as you have. Mom and Nan put her up to this.” I walked over to the altar and inhaled, “seriously? You guys have her cursing people to piss their pants?”
“Well we didn’t think you and Sheriff No Fun would like us teaching her to kill or maim people with her curses,” Mom responded. “We don’t know what her speciality will be, so it’s important to try a bunch of different schools of magic to see what she has an affinity for. This was the perfect opportunity to test out cursing without doing the thing people fear most from this school.”
“First of all, mother, I know how to train her without you butting in and cursing people.” I said, crossing my arms and giving Mom a hard look. “Secondly, what were the results of your little test?” I asked, looking over at Juni who shrugged.
“I don’t feel any more drawn to it than I have anything else we’ve tried.”
I hummed about to respond, “Can you have your little moment after you’ve taken care of the curse?” Isaiah asked in a panicked voice.
I shot him a look. “Sheriff, stop being disrespectful,” Nan said, the aura around her turning slightly red as anger began to take over her mood, “Pluto has nothing to do with this, so keep your attitude in check or you’ll be the next one I have Juni curse.”
“Nan, for the love of the goddess, stop threatening one of the few people in this town we have on our side.” I looked back over at Isaiah, “I think it’s time for you to leave. Your tone is more than disrespectful, it’s hurtful. I will handle this, but you need to leave.”
I didn’t give him a chance to respond before I called on the store to gently remove him. “Of all the tattoos you put on that boy, that’s my favorite,” Mom said with a little happy dance.
“He deserved more for how he talked to you,” Nan stated her aura fully red.
“No, he didn’t. He’s a human who hasn’t been taught the difference between a harmless curse and a harmful one. He was right to be freaked out with what little knowledge he has and the things that are going on in and around Rosegrove. Not to mention he stuck his neck out for us today to get the angry mob outside to go away.” I gestured to Juni to follow me to the altar, “Time for a neutralizing lesson, Juni.”
“I’m so-” I waved my hand, halting her words.
“It’s not your fault. When you need to take accountability for something, I’ll tell you, but this wasn’t on you.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and gave a little squeeze, “Now this should be pretty easy since it’s such a simple spell.”
I gave Juni step by step instructions to cleanse the spell from the altar. “Head upstairs and get started on dinner,” I said once we finished.
“It’s your turn to cook.”
I sighed, “I’m aware, but I need to talk to Mom and Nan. Alone,” I responded, pinching her nose. “Go. I’ll be up in a bit to take over.”
She groaned dramatically, but left without another word. “If you’re going to yell at us, I’m leaving,” Mom said as I turned to them.
“You guys need to be more careful when you do renegade shit like that with Juni. I’m mostly fine with the shit you guys tend to drag her into because it gives me plausible deniability when things go sideways, but when it comes to cursing, wait until the people responsible for killing people are caught.” Nan opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything after I raised my hand to silence her, “Not even small curses like that one today.”
“Fine,” Nan said begrudgeonly. “Do either of you find it odd that she still hasn’t felt the slightest pull towards any of the schools?”
I nodded, “I was waiting to say anything because I didn’t know for sure, but she only has a couple of schools left to try and they aren’t likely.”
“There hasn’t been a caster that moves easily between the schools since Kallipoe,” Mom said, a worried expression overtaking her face. “That can’t be a good sign. Deimos, Juni, and you are the strongest Blackwoods to be born in thousands of years. The heavens are preparing for something.”
I looked over at Nan, who in her day was truly a force, “It’s true. Even I wasn’t as strong as you when I was your age, maybe, and I do mean maybe, at my prime, but you are miles away stronger than I was and you’re only going to get stronger.”
“It’s true, Pluto,” Mom said, “Mozy’s familiar is the least powerful of the three of you but still much more powerful than most familiars. Your familiar is a bloody cat-sith and Juni’s will be a black shuck.”
“It’s actually surprising the council has left you three alone,” Nan said after a beat.
Mom cackled, “Opal knows better. Especially with how powerful Pluto and Mozy both are already. She would be out matched and she knows it. Say what you will about the Bitchops, but Opal is smart.”
“Just another thing to add to the list of things to deal with later,” I said. “Stop trying to cast curses through Juni and keep the conversation we had about Juni having an affinity for all schools to yourselves. Juni doesn’t need that weight on her shoulders, she needs to be a kid.”
“She needs to prepare,” Nan said as I started to walk up the stairs to the apartment. “You cannot put it off. Things have already been put into motion.”
I stopped and looked back at them, “I know. I just can’t bring myself to burst that bubble yet. She’s still a kid. I want her to hold onto that for as long as she can.”
Author: Kailan Counahan 