Excerpt from Wish Magic
This is the fifth installment in The Summoner’s Mark Series after Demon Kissed, Fae Crossed, Hell Bound, and Samhain’s Bargain (a digital only novella).
In Wish Magic, Gregory Adamos is a plain mortal in a magical world, and he’s just been attacked by Lucifer himself. He seeks magic of his own but he gets more than he bargained for when he releases a power djinn.
Please enjoy this section of Chapter 3.
Gregory Adamos strolled into the shop like a conquering hero. Always impeccably dressed, he wore a gray-green wool pinstripe suit, a light blue dress shirt and a deep gray tie. A sliver of shirt sleeve peeked out at his wrist and the pants broke perfectly above simple black Derby dress shoes. He sported both mustache and beard, and a silver Movado watch.
“You dressed up for little ‘ole me?” I said, raising an eyebrow. “The watch is a nice touch.”
He glanced at it. “Just one of a dozen I own.”
I sprained my eyes rolling them so hard. “Well, excuse me.”
He leaned on the counter with a cheeky grin. “What if I don’t excuse you?”
I had no time to play around, so I didn’t rise to the bait. “Well, you have to because I have something you want.” I flashed teeth at him, barely holding onto my cool. My instinct was to lash out and pepper him with questions. I wanted to demand answers, but my experience with this slick mobster told me a more subtle approach was needed.
Technically, he was a reformed mobster. Or at least mostly reformed. Trying to reform. Better than he was, but not quite there. Old habits died hard. Plus, Lucifer, yes, the Lucifer, had targeted him over Halloween, trying to get Gregory to make a series of bad decisions and doom his soul to Hell’s tender mercies. Lucifer failed, thanks to Gregory’s own inner fortitude and the efforts of several people, including me, a coven of white witches, and Lord Samhain, the Celtic spirit/godling of All Hallows Eve.
Thinking about that night made me break out in a sweat.
Gregory rubbed his right hand over his left hand’s knuckles. “You received my package?” he asked without a trace of irony, but then heard the sentence in his head and blushed an unusual shade of maroon. “I didn’t mean that the way it came out.” He cleared his throat while I stood there amused, not giving him an inch. He scratched the back of his neck. “Where is it?” he finally asked.
I jerked my thumb to the area behind me.
The narrow store stretched long with a corridor in the center and shelves, boxes, and objets d’art on the right. My office lay just beyond. The waiting area was immediately on the left, opposite the cash register counter. Behind that was a table with an actual crystal ball. Madame Francesca, the original owner of the shop, had been a medium before her death. She’d conducted readings there, and I hadn’t dismantled it.
I turned to walk to the back, gesturing for him to follow. “Gregory?” I said, starting simply. “What can you tell me about the crystal import wars?”
We walked down the central hallway, passing the public restroom, a kitchenette, and a storage area followed. Physically the shop shouldn’t extend its full length. The rear alley wasn’t materially that far away, but the shop seemed to stretch as much as was required, sort of like a Dungeons & Dragons bag of holding.
“Ah,” he replied. “Someone’s been reading the papers.”
“Someone,” I said, not turning around, “got a visit from a member of the Mage Council today. This mage was worried about corrupted crystals in the marketplace.”
“This crystal isn’t corrupted.”
We arrived at my little office, and I waved my hand to the open box. “I believe you, but do you know what or who is corrupting the other ones? The mage indicated that you are importing quite a few.”
He shrugged, sluffing off my questions like an old skin and glued his eyes to the crystal. He took a shuddering breath and reached out a single index finger to touch the tip. As he did, he closed his eyes and pressed his lips together.
“It vibrates,” I said.
“I know,” he replied with a seriousness I didn’t expect.
“What is it?”
He finally looked at me. “Just a pretty thing from Egypt.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
I shook my head. “Yes, but you are leaving things out. It is a pretty thing from Egypt, but there’s something else going on.”
He eyed me. “Why do you say that?”
“Oh, Gregory. Why do you bother evading my questions? You know I’m going to dig until I find the answers.” I put my hands on my hips. “It vibrates and heats up. It’s from a protected area in the Middle East. You shouldn’t even have this crystal. It’s illegal.”
He waggled his hand. “It’s morally questionable.”
I threw my hands in the air. “No! It’s not. You are the most stubborn man I’ve ever met. Given what we just went through in October, the words ‘morally questionable’ shouldn’t leave your lips.” I paced away from him and leaned against my narrow closet. Time to try a different tactic. “The mage implied someone was stealing your cargo.”
“I told you that myself.” He stroked the crystal again with a lone finger and shuddered at the vibration. “That’s not a secret.”
“Who is stealing from you?”
“I don’t know.” He packed the bubble wrap back in the box. “But I suspect Anastasia Andino.”
“Why would she do it?”
His mouth twisted in fury. “To mess with me.”
“To what end?”
“I don’t know. That’s what the Andinos do.”
I walked closer and poked him in the chest. “That’s what Phillip and Mimi did. Not what you and Anastasia are supposed to be doing.”
“Well, it’s hard for a leopard to change its spots.” He touched the tip of the crystal yet again, eyes round in wonder.
“Are you talking about her?” I prodded him again. “Or you?”
“Stop jabbing me,” he said, mildly annoyed. He turned his eyes to meet mine. “Both, I guess.”
“I’m not jabbing. I’m touching.”
“You’re not just touching.”
We sounded like kindergarteners. This is what Gregory Adamos did to me—turned me into a juvenile.
My voice grew hard. “Listen. I’m connecting the dots here. and I’m not liking where it is going. Crystals are being imported in unprecedented numbers. You are one of the people importing them. This one seems to be special and acts weird, plus it comes from an unusual place.”
“I was indeed looking for this particular crystal, but I couldn’t find it through normal means.” He wiped nonexistent lint off his tie. “I was, regrettably, forced to hire an expensive consultant.” He sniffed and tugged at a shirt sleeve. “What does this have to do with you?”
I curled my fingers in frustration. “It makes me think that you and someone else, maybe Anastasia, were both looking for this specific crystal.”
He looked smug. “Maybe.”
I gestured to the Egyptian crystal. “What does it do?”
He started taping the box back up. “Why do you think it does anything? Maybe it is simply rare.”
“Because I know you, Gregory. I know how you think and how you behave. You seek power, not decoration. There’s no way this crystal doesn’t do something important.”
He leaned down to collect packing peanuts from the floor. “I’ll let you figure it out.”
My ire grew. His constant deflection ensured that I became more determined to find out what he was hiding. If this crystal had anything to do with the corrupted ones, I wasn’t letting Gregory out of my shop. His shop. Whatever.
I grabbed the box with both hands and pulled it toward me. “Sorry, Gregory, but you can’t have the crystal until you explain what it really is and why you want it. Dangerous crystals are hitting the streets, and if you or this crystal are involved, I’m duty bound to end it.”
Gregory seized the box, trying to take it from me. “This is my property, Rebecca. Nothing I’m doing is corrupting crystals. This one is mine, though, and I’ll be damned if I let you keep it from me.”
“Damning is exactly what Lucifer wanted from you in October! Literal damnation, and one wrong step puts you back on that path. What is wrong with you? Why is this crystal so important?”
He yanked the box, but I held on, grabbing the top open flaps.
“Just be honest with me and tell me why this one is special.”
“Stop it!” He glared at me. “It’s mine. Why I want it is none of your business!”
I tugged, he pulled, and riiiiiip! The box tore in two.
We both gasped and immediately abandoned the box to catch the crystal. The packaging slipped off, and we each tried to wrap our hands around it. It plummeted downward, and I missed, the crystal passing right through my grasp, but Gregory’s palms just skimmed its smooth surface, until, at the very last second, he clutched it and kept it from smashing into the floor. He lifted it and placed it back on my desk, each of us releasing a breath of relief.
Which I immediately inhaled again in panic as the crystal visibly rocked, releasing a deep, bass thrum.
Gregory clapped his hands to his temples. “No!” he said. “Not now. Not yet.”
Where to Pre-Order
Please click here to order. The book comes out July 28th.
