Not that I’m going to be his lover. Just . . . because.
Ben carefully extracts his hand from Gwen’s clinging grasp. “You know I’m not a fan of the type of magic you cast, Gwen.”
She tsks, undeterred. “Such a traditionalist.” Her smile is undaunted as she looks over at me. “No, I can’t really help you with that particular curse situation. I actually thought both of you were coming to take a peek at Dru’s old hiding place.”
“Hiding place for what?” I ask.
Gwen gives me a patronizing look. “Aren’t you precious. Her hiding spot for her old curse tablets, of course. She used to hide them here on my property after I left her service. You might get an idea for who cursed her by seeing who she cursed in the past, perhaps? It’s clear someone has a vendetta against her.”
That sounds like an excellent lead, and my heart thumps with hope. “Wonderful. Where is it?”
Gwen rises to her feet, every inch the sultry goddess. “An old dry well in one of the back pastures. I’ll show you.”
BEN
I want to choke Gwen. Not in a murderous sort of way. Just in a why-won’t-you-shut-the-hell-up sort of way. She natters on to Reggie as she leads us out into her fields, talking about a fertility ceremony she’s going to be holding tonight, and inquiring about Reggie’s “moon cycles.” Reggie answers her politely enough, but I can tell she’s more than ready to leave Gwen’s company.
“Well, here’s the well.” Gwen giggles at her own joke and tosses her hair. “Now, I have to get ready for my party tonight. You two are welcome to join our drawing-down-the-moon ceremony. The more the merrier, I always say—”
“No,” I butt in before Reggie can answer.
“But—” Gwen begins.
“No,” I say again. And just to emphasize the situation, I pick up Reggie’s hand and indicate her wrist. “See this? You know what it means. She’s working for me, and you know I don’t like to share.”
Gwen affects a pout. “Fine, fine.” She gives Reggie an interested look, me a lascivious one, and then heads back toward her house. “Have fun playing with the well. I need to make my canapés.”
Reggie gently draws her hand out of my grasp as Gwen leaves, and sidles toward me. “Do I want to know what a drawing-down-the-moon ceremony is?”
I lean in toward Reggie, resisting the urge to bury my face in her soft brown hair. “Let’s just say it involves fertility and a lot of fluids.”
“Ah.” She wrinkles her freckled nose. “I should have guessed that one.” Taking a step away from me, she approaches the well. “So Dru hid her tablets here? Why a well?”
I follow after Reggie as she circles the thing. As wells go, it’s a fairly large one, with an old rock lip that reaches my waist, and a diameter of about ten feet. The size of it makes me wonder if there was some sort of machinery attached to it long ago, but now the lip is old and weathered, and vines grow over the sides. There’s an old wooden pulley on one side with a bucket and rope, and they look as old as the rest of it. As I watch, Reggie moves to the well and pulls the wooden lid off it, pushing it over to one side and peering over the edge.
“Wells were a traditional hiding spot of curse tablets, as I’ve told you before,” I say, trying not to stare as Reggie leans over the well and her perfect ass goes up in the air. “You’re not a very good listener, are you?”
“I tune out when you lecture me, if that’s what you’re asking.” She braces her hands on the rock lip and stares into the darkness.
I clear my throat. “I don’t lecture. I’m just trying to help you understand. As for why a well, no one ever climbed down a well, so it was a good spot to easily hide a tablet and have it disappear for good.”
Reggie leans over the edge. “Helloooooo down there. Are there any tablets? Hello? Tablets?” She looks over at me, that impish smirk wreathing her face. “No answer.” She widens her eyes as her gaze sweeps the old well. “The entire thing looks rather ominous, doesn’t it?”
“You wouldn’t want to hide a tablet someplace clean, obvious, and easily accessible.”
“Fair point.” Reggie leans over and pulls off one of her shoes. “At least it doesn’t look that deep.”
I frown as she plucks off the other shoe, too. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going into the well,” she tells me, then goes over to the bucket and the rope pulley, giving it a tug. The wood groans, but she seems satisfied with it. “Think it’ll hold?”
Is she insane? She’s insane. “You’re not going into a well.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No, you are not, Reggie. I forbid it.”
“Well,” she says brightly, looking over at me. “It’s a good thing you’re not my boss. Besides, if one of those tablets holds the information we need, we have to get to them. I’m not a huge fan of Gwen, but she’s right—if Dru cursed someone and they’re getting revenge, we might find the answer we need down there. How else do you propose we retrieve the tablets?”
“No.” Just the thought of Reggie—fragile, headstrong Reggie—lowering herself into the bottom of a well fills me with all kinds of terror. “People threw things down these kinds of wells because they didn’t want them to ever be found again, Reggie. You are not going down there.”
She ignores me, untying the rope from the bucket and looping it around her waist. “It can’t be that deep. Maybe fifty feet? When I called out, I could hear my echo bounce off something. I think.” She wrinkles her nose and looks up at me. “Actually I don’t know all that much about wells. But it doesn’t seem that deep.”
She’s going to give me gray hair.
I reach for the rope, determined to pull it away from her. Instead, she pats me on the arm. “You’re going to need to lower me slowly, Ben.”
“You’re not going down, Reggie.”
“Yes, I am. We’re going to save your aunt, and this is the first step toward it.”
She’s not listening. “It’s dangerous.”
But Reggie only beams up at me and slings one leg over the lip of the well. “Then it’s a good thing you’re a warlock with magic potions, or we’d really be fucked, huh?”
“Reggie.” I grab her shoulders before she can leap over the edge. “At least let me go down there.”
“Ben,” she says, ever so reasonable as she gazes up at me. Her eyes are clear and unafraid. “You’re bigger than me, so you’re going to have to pull me up. And besides, you dramatically sliced your hand to ribbons earlier, remember?”
I hate that she’s right about those things. “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t, either, but it needs to get done.” She shrugs, smiling. “But if you don’t want to watch, go back to the house and let Gwen bounce her boobs in front of your face a little longer. Now, lower me in?”
27
REGGIE
Climbing down into a really old well is not high on the list of smart things I could do. I know that, but we’re low on options. What are we supposed to do—make an appointment with well diggers and see if they can dig up some tablets that might or might not be here and that might or might not be helpful? This is the only answer I have, so down the well I go.
At least the well is wide, so claustrophobia isn’t an issue. Instead, it’s just dark and damp and terrifying. I close my eyes, trying to calm myself, as Ben lowers me. It’s deeper than I thought it would be, and with every grunt he makes as he lowers me in, I start to have regrets. Dangling in midair in an old well? Pretty typical Regina Johnson move. It’s just like me to be pigheaded and stubborn to the point of idiocy. Nick could tell a dozen stories off the top of his head.
I bite back a sigh. Probably should have thought this through before I was halfway down the well. Too late now.
After what seems like forever, my feet touch something wet and cold. I squeal in surprise, and the rope jerks. “Reggie?” Ben sounds frantic. “What is it?”
“It’s not a dry well,” I call back up. “There’s water down here!”
“Are you all right? I’m pulling you back up—”