Pet Psychic Mysteries Boxset Books 5-8 (Magic Market Mysteries Book 2) by Erin Johnson (simple ebook reader .txt) 📕

good.” Was that what he intended? I edged back, my heart thundering in my chest. “I don’t want it.”

He loomed over me.

“No!” I screamed.

My voice echoed off the walls, but Ludolf in a quick flash doused me with the potion. I cringed against the cold stone wall, shaking as the potion burned, then cooled, then evaporated away, leaving me dry.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but the memory of Eve dousing me with the curse that had stripped me of my powers and ability to shift wouldn’t stop playing behind my eyes. I trembled, lost in the horrible memory, until Ludolf’s quietly menacing voice brought me back to the present moment.

“Try.”

I peeled an eye open and stared at him, not understanding.

“Try to use magic. Or shift.” His chest heaved, and a childlike eagerness laced his words.

I didn’t understand his excitement, but it creeped me out. I let my arms drop to my sides and nodded. I tried to shift. Nothing happened. I tried to sense the magic inside me. Nothing.

I shrugged and shook my head at him.

His expression darkened. “Try harder.”

I gritted my teeth. “It didn’t work.” Anger burned in my chest and throat. “Like I said, you’d have to know what was used to curse me in the first place. It’s useless!”

He moved closer and lurked over me. “How dare you question me.”

I froze. He’d always been sort of quietly menacing, but there was a gleam to his eye I’d never seen before. Open hostility hardened his words. “I know what I’m doing.”

I huffed. “If that were true, then you should know you can’t—”

“I know what curse was used against you!” he shrieked.

Icy dread flooded down my spine, and I stared, frozen, up into his hard face with its sharp nose, cold eyes, and stringy hair. “How?” I sucked in a shaky breath. “How do you know what was used against me?” My chin trembled, and tears welled in my eyes, though I wished them away. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

That case I’d been working, defending that young kid—Ludolf had been the one he’d taken the blame for. Shell, he was probably still behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.

Ludolf watched me, unblinking. “You were getting too close.”

Goose bumps prickled my arms.

“That boy had agreed to take the fall for me. He was paid well for his years in prison. You needed to be silenced.”

I leaned back against the wall for support. It felt like the room was spinning around me. “How did you know?”

“Emerson was in my pocket.” He narrowed his eyes. “You recently put him behind bars, yes?”

I’d been right—all those years ago, I’d been right and punished for trying to do the right thing. That kid—I’d convinced him we could fight it, that I could protect him. Next time I went to visit him in prison, there’d been a man to see him—a Mr. Ronstadt. I hadn’t recognized the name, but my client changed his tune. The kid told me he was taking the fall and warned me to drop it.

I suddenly remembered—that’s where I’d seen the name Ronstadt before. He was the same man John (now an iguana) had told me came to buy the remainder of the potion that had turned him into a lizard. He’d bought the contaminated potions for Ludolf, just like he’d convinced that kid years ago to take the fall for the mob boss.

My throat grew tight. “Why not just kill me?”

He shrugged his bony shoulders. “Why? It’d attract attention and be such a waste. No. Much better to discredit you and have a little test subject as a bonus.”

I thought I might be ill. “A test subject? For what?”

He leaned away. “That’s all I care to say for now. We’ll summon you when we have a new iteration to try.”

“A new—?” I glanced at the old women working away behind him—his hex makers. And now breakers, apparently. He was going to keep experimenting on me with cures until he found one—or more likely, one wound up killing me.

“Why are you doing this? If you want to kill me, just get it over with now. I’m not coming back down here to be experimented on like a lab rat.”

“Jolene!” Neo hissed.

I darted a quick look at his panicked face. Yeah, probably not the smartest to taunt Ludolf with the option of killing me, but I was furious. I hadn’t consented to being tested on.

Ludolf bristled and somehow seemed to grow taller and wider. He loomed over me, face red and blotchy. “You will do exactly as I say!”

I recoiled, pressing against the wall.

Spit flew from his pale, thin lips. “I am the law! If you don’t obey, you will suffer, as will everyone you care about!”

I trembled.

“I will summon you.” He softened his tone to deadly quiet and adjusted his tie. “And you will come, Jolene.”

34

Together

I barely slept, despite how exhausted I was. I woke in the late evening and lay in bed, ruminating on my shipwreck of a life until the sun set. I dragged myself up, ate the last of the cheese crackers in my cupboard, then dashed down to Will’s clinic.

Heidi opened the door and stuck her head outside as I slipped in.

She peered up at the dark sky. “Ew. It’s gross out.”

A steady rain pattered the roof. I glanced around at the lobby and gave a half-hearted wave to Will. He sat slumped in a chair, golden chests littered around the room, a pile of empty glass vials on the coffee table in the middle.

If I’d come here looking for a pick-me-up, I had a feeling I was out of luck. I fished out a clean rag from the cupboard behind the front desk and wiped off my wet face, then tousled my damp hair.

“What are you—erp—up to?” Heidi hiccupped and swayed on her feet, her eyes unfocused and glassy.

Ah. That made sense with all the empty vials. I came around the tall front desk and leaned my back against it. “How many of