Witch brew 2 cozy fantas.., p.1
Witch Brew 2: Cozy Fantasy (Rosie Hexwell), page 1
Witch Brew 2
A Cozy Fantasy
Wolfe Locke, James Falcon
FANTASY UNLIMITED PUBLISHING GROUP LLC
Copyright © [Year of First Publication] by [Author or Pen Name]
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
Contents
1. Deal Or Not
2. A Cup Half Empty
3. Colored Sparks & Glamour Acts
4. Tart, But Only Sometimes
5. Pumpkinhead Down!
6. The Greatest Show
7. Sinister Rouge, Like The Lipstick
8. Quiet Audience
9. Hot Caramel Drizzle
10. The Upper Crust
11. Basically Theater
12. Business As Usual
13. Muffin Diplomacy
14. A Promised Treat
15. Fumble With The Key
16. To Go Cups
17. Nature Walk
18. Deciding Vote
19. Welcome In the North Country
20. Lights of Ashford
21. Broomsticks & Grandmas
22. Lattes, Pumpkin Spice
23. Pumpkin Spice Supremacy
24. Dramatic Deals
25. Just You Wait
26. Abuzz With Activity
27. The Spice isSpecialty
28. The Show Goes On
29. We've Earned It
30. Palace Visit
31. Drained Coffee
32. Lock Up at Four
33. Strictly Exploratory
34. A Delicate Task
35. Radio Announcement
Afterword
Also By Author
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Chapter 1
Deal Or Not
As it turned out, Hans’ Witch’s Brew song was actually tolerable, and the rest of his concert wasn’t bad either. When he was done I turned to Lulu, impressed.
"Let’s keep him around," I said. "Maybe three days a week? Just so the people who like peace and quiet in the café don’t get annoyed."
I glanced over at Prince Hector, who did indeed look a little agitated about all the commotion. To be fair to him, he’d never seen the shop with this many customers in it.
"Deal," she said, reaching out to shake my hand. "And he refused payment, too. Said that coffee and treats were plenty for him."
"We’ll make sure he gets all the cookies he wants," I said, shaking her hand, mock-serious. "Pleasure doing business with you."
Hans packed up his lute and came over to our table. Asmo, clearly in a helpful mood for once, brought him a latte and a cinnamon biscotti.
"So," he said, taking a sip. "What did you think of the show? Right vibe? Right energy?"
"Perfect. Maybe don’t put me on the spot next time, though."
He shook his head. "Why not? You’re the café owner. Might as well play it up."
"I don’t like being the center of attention," I said, feeling my shoulders tense up as I spoke. "It feels weird when everyone’s watching me. I’m not a performer, you know—"
"Well you’re the center of attention now after the last two days!" Lulu butted in. "Everyone’s talking about it. How much magic you did, how skilled you were, how no one knew you could do it—"
"And I don’t like it, Lu!" I said. "I was just helping people, that’s it. I wasn’t trying to be some kind of local celebrity."
"Ladies, ladies," Hans said, putting one hand on each of our shoulders and reminding me why I disliked him. "Please. Let’s not fight. We just had a great concert. Let’s have a chill day."
I was about to make a snappy retort, but the door flew open before I could say anything—luckily, since whatever I’d been about to say would likely have ended Hans’ contract with the Brew—and Laurie stormed in. Her usually-perfect hair was in frizzy disarray, and her cloak was misbuttoned as if she’d thrown it on as quickly as possible. She stomped right up to our table and stood in front of me, arms crossed. I looked back at her blankly.
"Uh," I said after a moment. "Welcome to the Witch’s Brew?"
"What are you doing?" she snapped.
"Drinking a coffee," I said. "Just watched a concert. I think the boys are making some cookies in the back—"
"You know what I mean!"
"I don’t, actually."
"Why did you undo all my spells?" she said. "I spent hours making those envelopes. People loved them!"
I glanced over at Asmo, who was leaning behind the counter with an inscrutable expression on his face. He gave me a nod.
"I undid the spells because they were all totally messed up," I said, trying to keep my voice down so the customers around us didn’t hear. "Everyone was asking me to fix them. They all did exactly the opposite of what they were supposed to do!"
Laurie went pale. "They did?"
"Yeah. The spellwork was messy. I warned you, didn’t I?"
"Warned me about what?"
"About handing magic out like candy!" I said. "There’s no way anyone could have done that many spells that quickly and had them all be good quality. Maybe the very best witches could have done it, but—"
"Are you saying I’m a bad witch?" she snapped.
I sighed. "No. I’m not saying that. I have no idea if you’re a good witch or not."
"Good!" she said, so loud that a few customers glared at us. "I’m just as good as you, if not better! I’m as good as any Hexwell!"
I frowned. She’d brought this up before: that I was from a famous witching family and she wasn’t. It was strange to me—after all, it wasn’t like I paraded it around. If anything it was a little embarrassing. Grandma liked to use our family name to try to pressure me into things.
"I’m sure you are," I said. "I never said you weren’t."
"Then why did you embarrass me like that? Neutralize all my magic?"
This was getting ridiculous. "I didn’t do it to embarrass you! I did it because those spells were messing up people’s lives! What was I supposed to do, just do nothing?"
"You could have let me handle it!" she said. "Let them come to me instead of going behind my back!"
"As if people would come to you for help after you were the one who messed up in the first place!"
I regretted it as soon as I said it. Laurie was annoying—and apparently comically insecure—but she didn’t deserve to be called out in public like that. It was a low blow. But I couldn’t unsay it once it was out.
"I’ll show you," she muttered, and now people were really staring at us. "You think I can’t cast? Just you wait?"
"Ladies," Hans said, and we both spun around to glare at him. I’d forgotten he was there.
"Ladies what?" Laurie said, clearly as annoyed as I was. It was good to know that she and I had at least one thing in common.
"Just, I mean, don’t fight," he said, raising his hands placatingly. "Don’t you want to have a chill time?"
"What," she said again. Lulu put a hand on Hans’ arm.
"Let’s go back to the kitchen," she said quickly. "I bet Billy and Hugo have those cookies ready."
Laurie and I glared at each other as the two retreated into the other room. Once they were gone, she raised her hands dramatically.
"You think I can’t do magic?" she said.
"I never said that—"
"Watch me!"
She waved her arms and glowing blue sparks fizzed out of her fingers and drifted through the air. Everyone in the café turned to look at us.
"Magic!" said an old man with glittering black eyes. "Is this another show?"
"See?" Laurie said. "I can do magic."
"I never said you couldn’t!"
In all honesty, her spark spell was pretty simple. It looked flashy, but it was the kind of casting you learned as a kid to show off to your friends. It was just a controlled magical flare. But there was no way I’d say that at this point.
She raised her arms again, and this time she cast a large illusion: a glowing, floating, translucent peony that exploded into a full bouquet of flowers. When it finally vanished, the whole café applauded.
Hm. That had actually been a bit impressive. Illusions weren’t always easy to make, and hers had been a multi-step spell. Maybe she had a natural talent for it. Every witch had things she was better at than others, and this could be Laurie’s strength. If so, she was in the wrong line of work with all the envelope business.
"Your turn," she said, crossing her arms.
I blinked. "What?"
"Show me what you’ve got!"
"Ooooo!" crowed the same old man who’d been excited about her spark spell before. "A competition!"
Ugh.
I really didn’t want to compete with Laurie, but if that was what she wanted….
"Fine," I said, rolling up my sleeves. "What are we doing? Illusion spells?"
"Seems appropriate," she smirked.
I tried to think of something that might be impressive. Then, Asmo stepped forward from the counter, looked straight at me, and winked.
A cat. A big cat. No, better than a cat. A tiger!
I raised my arms, called the image into my head, and worked the spell. Immediately a glittering, translucent tiger made of cold fire sprang forward into the air. It made a circuit of the entire café, snarling, as our customers shrieked and duc
She slowly got to her feet, glowering. "Okay, not bad. But watch this."
She quickly worked another illusion, and this time a shimmering dragon flew across the room. It sailed low over the customers’ heads and—predictably—headed straight for me. Unlike Laurie, I faced it down. I knew how illusion spells worked. They might look scary, but they weren’t real. Just like my tiger, her dragon disappeared when it got close to me.
"Impressive," I said. "But just wait."
I knew exactly what I was going to do next—and it was going to blow everyone away.
Chapter 2
A Cup Half Empty
I could feel the room go quiet as all eyes turned to me, waiting to see what I’d do next. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and brought the image I wanted to conjure forward into my mind. Then I breathed out—and as I did, I worked the spell.
A glowing unicorn sprang forward into the air. This time, instead of flying above people’s heads, it went to the center of the room, reared up and transformed into a fiery fox. The fox ran around the cafe, leaping and twirling to show off what it could do, then turned into a shimmering phoenix. Screeching, the bird flew at Laurie and dissolved into flames.
For a moment, the café was silent. Then, everyone in the room applauded—including Billy, Hugo, Hans and Lulu, who’d come to the kitchen door when they’d heard what was happening. Laurie’s face was red as she looked around the shop.
Then, without another word, she stormed out of the Witch’s Brew.
"She’s really mad, Rosie," Lu said, coming over to stand next to me. "Better watch out. She’ll hex you!"
"I don’t know if she could," I said absently. "You saw some of her spells, Lu. But she’s a pretty good illusion witch."
"Great show!" said the same old man who’d been so enthusiastic earlier. "Are you going to do more like that?"
"I don’t think so," I said at the same time that Lulu and Asmo said: "Maybe!"
I glared at them. "Maybe?"
Lulu shrugged. "Well you have to admit, it was pretty cool."
"Could bring people into the shop if we did it again," Asmo said. "People like new things."
Wait. New things.
"I forgot!" I shouted. "The mail."
I rushed back to the counter. The letters Asmo had brought from the post office were still there, right where I’d left them earlier that morning. So much had happened that day that they’d totally slipped my mind.
There were two from Green River and one each from Lemon Harbor and Banana Cay, and I ripped them open quickly. The first one I saw was a polite rejection from one of the Green River coffee shops, and my spirits sank momentarily. Luckily the rest were all positive—and the letter from the Lemon Harbor café seemed really excited!
I beamed over at Asmo and Lulu. "They want our beans! They want to do an exchange!"
Lu whooped and leaped into the air. "Darn straight they do! Our beans are the best! Ashford beans are the best!"
"Whoa there," I said, holding up the three positive letters. "Who knows. Maybe Banana Cay beans are the best."
"They aren’t."
"Have you ever tried them?"
"Don’t need to," she said firmly. "Come on, Rosie. Don’t you have any hometown pride?"
There wasn’t any point in arguing with her, so I sat down with Asmo to draft a plan. We needed to figure out how to start this exchange program and how many beans to start with.
"Let’s do sample sizes at first," Asmo suggested. "Same as we’ve been doing with Lulu and Billy’s experiments. That way people can try more than one."
"We can make it an event!" I said excitedly. "Coffee from all over the continent. Lu can advertise it."
"One poster per location," she said. "Banana Cay, Lemon Harbor, Green River…I’ll need to do a little research. Make some concept art."
Asmo smiled. "You’re thinking like a businesswoman now. Good."
I packed some sample bags, drafted up some letters for the three interested companies, and handed it all to Asmo to post. Then I sat back and looked out at the shop. The café was buzzing for the first time in days, and people were ordering second and third cups of coffee so they could stay longer. The return of Hugo…Hans’ concert…an (unintentional) magic battle…we’d put on a show that day for sure. Maybe that was part of what we needed: events, excitement, things that made people feel like anything could happen in the Brew.
I mulled it over for the rest of the day as people came in and out, Billy and Hugo brought out tray after tray of treats, and Lulu and Hans composed new tunes in the corner. Asmo stayed away for the rest of the afternoon, returning only when I was about to lock up.
"Long line at the post office?" I said as I wiped down the counter.
"What?" he said. "Oh. No, that wasn’t it. I was down by the river talking to that cat."
"Cat?" For a moment I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Roger. The tomcat who ran away."
"Oh! Right." I remembered the tearful little boy who’d come to me asking for help getting his sister’s cat back. "Were you able to get him to go home?"
"Yeah. He was ready for it, the idiot. Was tired of being out in the cold. But he said he wants more freedom in the warmer months—and he doesn’t want her to dress him up like a doll anymore. It’s undignified."
"I’ll pass the message along next time I see them," I said. "Thanks for doing that, Asmo."
He shrugged. "No problem. Can I have a cookie?"
"Take your pick."
I fell asleep that night with a smile on my face. Things were going well: we had our customers back, we had an exciting new business plan, and I was doing magic for the first time in years. I’d have to show Grandma Witch the next time she came into town. And I’d have to get Hans to sign a real contract. Whether I liked it or not, people seemed to enjoy his music.
The next day, though, the café was dead again. Lulu stomped in about an hour before noon and slammed the door behind her.
"That—witch!" she shouted.
Oh boy.
"What’s she doing now?"
"A show! She’s putting on a giant magic show!"
I swallowed hard. "What?"
"Yeah," Lulu said, knocking back two shots of espresso in quick succession. "I guess she was inspired by yesterday or something. She has a whole thing going: sparkles, illusions, purple flames. That’s where everyone is."
I felt my cheeks go red. Was it really so easy to get people to abandon the Witch’s Brew? Just put up some magical fairy lights and the whole town would go running back over to the Spell and Shine? After all the work we’d put into getting people back—not to mention everything we’d done to fix Laurie’s bad spells—it seemed unfair.
"Okay," I said. "Well, if everyone’s over there, we should go too."
Billy gave me a worried look. "Rosie, are you sure that’s a good idea—"
"It’s a great idea!" Lulu interjected. "Come on, I’ll show you what she’s been up to!"
"I want to see it," I said. "Don’t worry, Billy. I won’t cause any trouble."
He sighed. "Sure."
But he looked a bit skeptical, and I didn’t blame him. It seemed like every time I interacted with Laurie, something crazy happened—and it wasn’t all her fault, either.
Lulu grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the shop before Billy could say anything else. She was so annoyed her hair practically stood on end with magical static.
"You should see it," she muttered. "It’s so cheesy! It looks like a laser light show or something. I bet we could do ten times better."
Hm. "There’s an idea."
Her face lit up. "You want to do a show in the Brew?! With magic…and maybe I can sing…and Hans can play…and Billy can juggle…."
"Whoa, whoa." I didn’t even know that Billy could juggle. "Let’s slow down a little. See what her show is like."
"Yeah," she hissed. "See what we’re up against!"
There was a huge crowd outside the Spell and Shine when we got there, and Sadie and Mr. Whitlock waved us over.
"We’re not buying anything," Sadie said with a reassuring hand on my arm. "We’re coming to the Brew for coffee later and we’ll bring anyone we can. We just want to see the show!"
