Spells on Shelves

Chapter 4 || Why are you glowing blue?

"You cannot hold us here against our will," Braids shouted, pushing to his feet. He stood half a head taller than me, the hand pointing at my face shaking slightly. "I can fight you. I'm not afraid!"

I glanced back to the street. The boy had vanished. Again.

Exhaling deeply, I rubbed my forehead and surveyed the destruction. The spilled potions had begun to mix and sizzle. Violet vapors rose in spirals, spreading the intense smell of sage with hints of lavender and thyme.

Just breathing in the smoke made me tired and strangely alert at the same time. I had stacked the arcane shelves with memory elixirs, focus tonics, mana potions, and luminar elixirs just this morning. Now half a day's work lay at my feet in less than a minute.

In a deadly calm voice, each word carefully accentuated, I spoke, "You come into my shop, break half the shelves, and think that I would just let you go?"

"No, no," the girl said, holding up her hands. "It was an accident. W-we didn't come to cause trouble."

Braids rocked back and forth on his feet, narrowing his eyes at me, his knees slightly bent, like a tightly wound spring, ready to burst into motion. "This place is rigged. There's clearly some magic at work that—"

The girl hit him on the back of his head, grabbed his arm, and pulled him back. "He's very sorry. Sometimes his mouth and brain just don't align properly."

"I want names," I stated unimpressed. "Or I will call the administration office and make them send someone. It's their property after all."

Braids stopped trying to throw her off. They swallowed, exchanging uneasy looks. Good to know that Livy's office held some weight.

"Names," I echoed, my attention shifting to the tallest one. He had the kind of slender, stretched build that hinted at a recent growth spurt, and the most unusual pair of vibrant blue eyes I'd ever seen. Their color seemed out of place against his olive-toned skin and dark hair, almost as if he was wearing contacts. They were fixed on me, hesitant and weary.

"Chen, Kaifeng..." he stumbled over his words. "I mean, Kaifeng Chen. I mean... Just call me Kai..."

"Katharina Walter," the girl interjected swiftly. Beside Kai, she seemed almost miniature. "But you can call me Rina."

"Mason," Braids said, fiddling with a pair of small golden hoops in his ears.

Rina frowned, jabbing him in the ribs. "Knock it off."

He grunted and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Taji."

There was a moment of silence until she delivered a swift kick to his shin. Taji shot her a glare. "Fine, Jacobs. Taji Jacobs, okay? What's next, my age, weight, and home address?"

I stood arms crossed, resting against the counter, rhythmically tapping my fingers. Kai had inched closer to the pair as if to better cover Rina's right side. In fact, the two boys hovered so close to here she was almost squished in the middle. Well, weren't they just cute?

"We're really sorry," Rina asked, pushing the two aside. "Mrs...um...witch...a-are you going to call the office?"

"You can call me Jade," I replied coolly. How should I handle this? Of course, I could give them the evil witch act but that might send them running into the next shelf. Or I could involve Livvy and resolve this through official channels but that just meant more people up in my business. I scanned the mess. Cleaning this up would take me ages and, on top of that, I had to sort through all the boxes in the storage.

Wait a moment.

Wasn't this the perfect opportunity? I had a mountain of work and here three teenagers, clearly drowning in free time, practically offered themselves up to me. What a coincidence.