Incense hung heavy in the air, and merchandise crowded the dark wood shelves. Seth and I blinked in the doorway while our eyes adjusted after the bright sunlight outside. Diana had a huge selection of books covering every topic from psychic development and herbal healing to astral travel and tarot reading. Two young teenagers whispered near a section of stoppered glass vials and consulted a small black notebook. A young salesperson said hello and went back to her customers, a mother and daughter shopping for the perfect talisman for serenity.
“You need to wear it close to your skin, and you’ll notice when you don’t have it on,” she told them. “I have this friend? And I can tell when she’s not wearing her amethyst. She’ll call me all in a snit, and I’ll tell her to call me back when she’s got her necklace on.”
Seth went to the scrying section and began hefting the crystal balls—some as large as bowling balls, others smaller than tennis balls. He tried them in the various stands and seemed to have a preference for the dragons. When he turned to show one of them to me, he bumped into the display of semiprecious stones, spilling several bowls of them onto the floor. I rushed to help him re-sort the colored stones into their proper containers.
“Blessed be. I should have known it would be you,” said a familiar voice from above.
I glanced up to see Diana, looking almost the same as she did the day we graduated from high school. Her orange curls were cut to just below her shoulders, and she wore less makeup now, having moved beyond her goth phase, but otherwise she seemed unchanged.
I jumped up to give her a hug and crashed into a rack of velvet capes. For its size, the store was really crowded.
“It’s been too long,” I said, hoping she wasn’t mad.
“It has been.” She hugged me back. “What took you so long? Is it Mac, or the fact you’re living with your parents again?”
I stepped back; I had never quite figured out if it was touch or just proximity that brought out her ability to read me so well.
“Just busy,” I said, gesturing toward Seth. “I’ve had Seth with me, and Vi’s got me walking all her clients’ dogs.”
Her deep green eyes held my mismatched ones, daring me to try to wriggle out of this one.
I cut my gaze to Seth, who was still busy sorting rocks. She tilted her head—a signal of a truce, for now.
She walked toward the back of the store, past busts of Egyptian gods and goddesses in a display case, more bookshelves on astrology, kitchen magic, and paganism; shelves of bagged and bottled herbs; and books on herbal healing.
“Can we trust Seth not to destroy the place if we leave him out here unattended?”
I glanced back toward the front, where he’d finished with the stones and was looking at a display case of dragon statues. I shrugged, following her through a red velvet curtain.
Diana’s office was the converse of her store. White cabinets held her paperwork and computer, leaving the space open and clean-feeling. The room felt organized and efficient. Considering how cluttered her store was, it seemed some other person was in charge of her private space. She had always seemed to hold two opposite personalities in one body.
Diana’s family had moved to Crystal Haven for the open and accepting attitude. Plus, the proximity to the beaches of Lake Michigan and the lush wooded areas of western Michigan were hard to beat. They were Wiccans, and after a bit of furor by the less educated, they settled in and used their knowledge of the town to run boat tours, walking tours, and ghost tours. Elliot Ward also opened a used bookstore and pursued his passion for finding treasure in the form of first editions and private diaries.
I was finding it difficult to navigate the social obstacle course and didn’t share the suspicions and fear of my peers, so fortunately, we found each other in third grade and had been friends ever since. Diana was named for the moon goddess, and when she opened her Magickal store, after converting her father’s dwindling bookshop, she changed her last name to Moonward. Diana’s parents had died a year before that in a car accident, leaving Diana and her brother to make their own way in the world. Dylan left to pursue his artistic interests, and Diana stayed behind to combine her business sense and Wiccan lifestyle. Moonward Magick’s success didn’t erase the fact that at times she was a haunted daughter still missing her parents.
“What’s going on with you? I want to hear everything.” She sat back in her chair as if awaiting a good, long story.
I was afraid of this. It was going to be hard to talk to Diana without telling her everything, and I wasn’t ready yet.
“Well, actually, I came to ask you about Sara Landess.”
“Sara? Oh, that was terrible news. I can’t believe anyone would want to hurt her. She was a really great person, always so nice. . . .” Her eyes became unfocused for a moment.
Before we got lost in the shock of Sara’s death, I tried to redirect.
“I heard you went to a séance of hers recently.”
“Oh yes! It was great. She did a really nice job. I didn’t get any messages, though.” She looked down at her lap. “You know I always hope to hear from my parents.”