“Nice one!”
“Not the point,” Chloe went on. “And when we shook hands on the deal, this…thing happened.” She didn’t know how to describe it.
“Thing happened?”
“A curse activated,” Maxwell cut in.
“Shit,” Jesse said, his expression now deadly serious. “What kind of curse? Are you okay, Chloe?”
“I feel fine,” she assured him. “But I was hoping you could tell me what this curse will do to me.”
“To us,” Maxwell added.
“Shit,” Jesse repeated. “Come on, I’ll get the girls to leave.”
Chloe went through the open doorway and frowned when Maxwell didn’t follow her. “Is there a problem?”
“I, uh, need the resident to invite me in. Explicitly,” Maxwell said, looking embarrassed.
“Really? I thought that was just a legend.”
“Nope,” Jesse said, looking at Maxwell like he was considering not extending the invitation. But he shrugged. “Okay, you too, big guy. Come on in. You’re welcome.”
Maxwell raised his eyebrows as he crossed the threshold and followed Jesse down the hallway. When they reached the living room, with its squashy red sofa, shelves of books and a cabinet full of crystals, amulets, and herbs that Chloe couldn’t even name, they came across Jesse’s guests.
Sofia and Ingrid were dancing around the room like two elegant gazelles, though gazelles didn’t usually giggle so much.
“Uh, sorry, ladies,” Jesse said. “We’re going to have to call it a night. My sister needs some help, and you know. Duty calls.” He puffed out his chest as though he was a retired war hero being sent back to the battleground.
“Sad,” one of them said, her face falling. “I was having good time!”
“Me too,” Jesse lamented. “Maybe tomorrow night we could get together again?”
“We leave tomorrow,” the other one said. “Last night here.”
“That is sad,” Jesse said, looking like he had suffered a huge personal blow. “But I’ve got to help my sister.”
“You are good brother,” either Ingrid or Sophia said, giving him a pat on the cheek as she pulled on a coat. “But not so smart.”
“No,” the other agreed, following her friend down the hallway and towards the door.
When they were alone, Chloe looked at her crestfallen brother and felt a little guilty. Even if she really did need his help. “Sorry,” she said awkwardly. “Didn’t mean to…”
“Cock block me?” Jesse said, but he just shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I mean, that was kind of a bucket list thing for me, but I’m sure I’ll get another chance. There are always plenty of tourists in Crowley Lake.”
“And I’m sure you’ll be there to meet them,” Chloe said drily, collapsing down on the squashy sofa, almost willing it to swallow her up. That would solve all her problems.
“So, this curse, then,” Jesse said, sitting beside her. “What happened?” He directed the question at Maxwell.
“It was like Chloe said,” Maxwell seemed to have recovered his composure, and his voice was once again smooth. “We shook hands, and then there was a bang. Felt like my hand was being shocked, then there were these red sparks—”
“I tried to pull my hand away, but I couldn’t,” Chloe interjected. “It was pretty scary.” The truth was, she had been terrified, but there was no need to admit that.
“She handled it like a champ,” Maxwell said, and Chloe felt her cheeks colour slightly. “Anyway, there was another bang, the sparks exploded, poor Chloe fell backwards—”
Chloe made a noise of disgruntlement. She didn’t want to disagree with the guy who was going to be responsible for the biggest commission check of her career, but seriously?
“We both fell backwards,” Maxwell continued, shooting her an apologetic look. “I felt fine after that. Couldn’t see any physical changes.”
“No horns,” Chloe confirmed.
Jesse snorted, but then he looked thoughtful. “Curses aren’t my area of expertise,” he admitted. “But from what I know, that sounds like a gnarly one.”
“It definitely seemed that way,” Chloe said, but she frowned. “But shouldn’t it have, you know, done something to me? To us?” She looked at Maxwell, but he seemed to be taking this all in his stride.
“The effects aren’t always immediate,” Jesse said. “It can take a while for this stuff to show up. Like a delayed reaction.”
“So it could still do something…unpleasant?” Chloe suppressed a shiver.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Jesse said, giving her a half-hug with one arm. “But don’t worry. I’m sure we can figure it out and stop whatever’s going on.”
“You said you don’t know much about curses,” Maxwell objected.
“Well, I don’t,” Jesse said. “But I’m hardly the only practitioner of the arcane arts in this town. I’ll call Tilly in the morning; she’s good on curses.”
“In the morning?” Chloe’s voice came out more plaintively than she had intended. She cleared her throat. “I mean, are you sure we can’t call her now?”
“Look, I’d know if you were in immediate danger,” Jesse said. “And you’re not. I can feel the energy coming off you two if I concentrate just right. It’s like, slow ripples on a pond. Not a storm. Trust me, you’ll be fine until we see Tilly. You do trust me, don’t you?”
Chloe really didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to find out what was going on. But she did trust her brother. “Of course,” she said quietly, looking into the face so like her own, although considerably more stubbled.
Maxwell made a sound like he disagreed, but he didn’t argue. “You’ll call this Tilly tomorrow, then? And she’s an expert?”
“Broken more curses than I’ve satisfied women,” Jesse raised his eyebrows. “And I’ve had a lot of—”
“Please don’t finish that,” Chloe said quickly. “If you say she’s good, she’s good.”
Jesse laughed. “She’s good. Really.”
“So that’s it?” Maxwell looked impatient.
“That’s it until tomorrow, big guy,” Jesse shrugged. Maxwell looked like he’d like to object to being called “big guy” but was holding back out of politeness. For some reason, that made Chloe smother a giggle. Why did she want to giggle? There was nothing funny about this situation.
“I’m supposed to just go home and wait?” Chloe knew her voice sounded like a whine, but she couldn’t help it.
“I know, you’re the worst at that,” Jesse said. “But you’re going to have to do it this time. Like I said, you’ll be fine. Both of you. Get some sleep!”
“Fine,” Chloe echoed, looking at Maxwell. “Sure.”
She didn’t think that getting sleep was even a remote possibility.