Aidan held out a hand and helped him to his feet.
“I gotta say,” Jamie said, brushing leaves and dirt from his backside. “A guy tries to do the right thing, reach out, and he gets nothin’ but rejection. This is how people become recluses, you know—they can’t deal with people no more.”
“We apologize,” I said, elbowing Aidan, who remained silent but nodded ever so slightly. “You caught us off guard.”
“All evidence to the contrary.”
“We just left Renee, so we’re a bit jumpy.”
“She tell you anything?”
“Not much,” I said. “She made some vague threats, as usual. Hey, did you come by my shop?”
He gave me a side-eyed look. “Is this a trick question? ’Course I did. I brought a dozen cupcakes over this morning—you forget already?”
“Actually, I meant yesterday morning. Did you happen to overhear me speaking to a man in front of Aunt Cora’s Closet . . . ?”
Jamie shook his head.
“You weren’t on Haight Street yesterday?”
“I like that Amoeba Records they got there on Haight Street. I like vintage LPs. Sound’s much better than the modern CDs, in my opinion. I gotta get your permission to go record shopping, now?”
“No, of course not. I was just wondering. Do you know a woman named Amy? Or Wind Spirit?”
“No.” He shook his head and looked around as though worried about being watched. “And I gotta tell you: I stopped you for my own reasons, not to get interrogated.”
“What is it you want?” I asked.
“I’m thinkin’ this ‘cold’ you got is a little suspicious.”
“How so?”
“I work for Renee and all, but it’s not like I wanna be there.” He crooked his head in Aidan’s direction. “He knows what I’m sayin’. Right, pal? Sometimes that’s how it works. You don’t wanna be workin’ for someone, but you get stuck. There I was, runnin’ a nice little racket with the Russian psychics out in the Richmond District, and next thing I know, I’m indebted to the Cupcake Queen over here.”
“What did you mean about Lily’s cold being suspicious?” Aidan asked.
“Well, now, hold on for just a second here,” Jamie said. “What’s in it for me?”
“You expect to be paid for information?” Aidan asked.
“No, nothin’ like that. But I don’t wanna work for Renee no more. I want to throw in with you. Maybe I tell you some helpful things, and I come work for you instead? Whaddaya say?”
There was a long pause. A car honked, and a couple of teenagers walked by.
“You were just saying you needed to do some hiring, Aidan,” I said, amusing myself at Aidan’s expense.
“It’s a possibility,” said Aidan. “Depending on the information. Renee holds your marker?”
He nodded. “Even talking to you is dangerous for me, I gotta say.” He looked over his shoulder again.
“Then don’t waste any more time.”
“I’m sayin’, are you prone to colds? ’Cuz Renee was workin’ on a batter the other day, and I saw her put fingernails, hair, chopped-up feathers, and powdered crab shell in it. Lord only knows what else went in there.”
“And that means what?” I asked.
“I figured you’d know. Aren’t you the botanical whiz?”
“I’m good at brewing, but I don’t have encyclopedic knowledge.” But I knew who did: Graciela. Or Calypso, maybe.
“And then she did that mumbling thing that weirds me out. Anyway, she didn’t exactly come out and say what she was doing. She just said the batch she was makin’ was for a ‘special’ customer. I’m wonderin’ if she sent them to you.”
“Wait. Were these the cupcakes you delivered this morning?” But that wouldn’t make sense—not only had I not eaten any of those cupcakes, but I’d started sneezing and feeling draggy a couple of days earlier.
“Nah, the ones this morning had pot in them. She sells ’em down at the dispensary. She thought it was hysterical to send some over to your shop. Couldn’t stop laughing. It’s her brand of humor, which I don’t entirely get, if you know what I mean.”
“So when did she send me cupcakes before then?”
“Wasn’t cupcakes, I don’t think. More like her new line of meat pasties.”
* * *
? ? ?
“Ugh,” I said, putting my head in my hands as we left Jamie and approached the car. “I can’t believe I might have eaten something dosed by Renee! And fingernails and hair . . . I think I’m going to be sick.”
Aidan smiled as he opened the car door for me. “You’re being just a tiny bit overdramatic. Don’t you know we all eat insects and larvae in our food, all the time? It might be unpleasant to think about, but it won’t hurt you.”
“But I think she gave me this supposed ‘cold.’ Maybe you should put that green crystal on my nose and see if I’ve been poisoned?”
“That only works if you’ve got goblin blood. I assume that’s not the case.”
“I don’t know,” I said as Aidan got into the car. “The way things are unfolding, maybe that’s what the shoe box was trying to tell me about my past. Maybe that’s the prophecy. Maybe I’m not a witch at all, but something evil and unnatural.”
Aidan looked at me so long without speaking that I looked up to meet his gaze.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You’re not evil and unnatural, Lily. You’re . . . extraordinary.”
“Um, thank you.” I really didn’t know how to respond to that. “I thought you were angry with me.”
“You’re the one who stormed out of my office last time. I didn’t ask you to leave. Have you ever noticed that when you get angry with me, you assume I’m angry with you?”
“Okay . . . that’s a thought that’s going to fester.”
“It’s all right to be angry with someone,” Aidan continued. “And with a friend, it’s a sign that we need to talk, obviously. Anyway, to get back to the pertinent question: How would you have eaten something from Renee’s shop?”
“It was purely by accident.”
“What happened?”
“Renee went by Lucille’s Loft with some goodies, and Maya brought me one of the meat pasties.”
“Was it good?”
“Very.”
The truth was, I wasn’t that careful about the food I consumed. I sort of assumed I’d feel anything that had been tampered with, and of course I avoided Renee’s cupcakes, but hadn’t I been thinking recently about all the enemies I’d made in town? Maybe I needed a taster. Like the European royals of old. I always wondered what that must have been like: to eat for a living, with the expectation that one might die at any meal.
“You know, you could simply have a regular cold. You’re not immortal, after all.”
“True. Could I borrow your phone?”
I called Calypso to ask her about the odd ingredients Jamie had mentioned Renee had used in the pastry batter.
“I don’t recognize the ingredients right offhand, Lily. I’m sorry.” I could hear her flipping through pages. “Of course, fingernails are never good.”
That was for dang sure.
“But, let’s see. . . . You say it’s associated with coldlike symptoms?”
“Yes. Sneezing, congestion, loss of smell and lack of energy mostly.”
“Okay, yes, here it is. It sounds like it might be a Tiberius Caesar befuddling spell. It says here, ‘Sneezing was considered losing part of one’s soul through the breath, or having to do with evil spirits. That’s why we say bless you.’ A Tiberius Caesar spell is cast by having the mark ingest the brew, but the mark has to do so willingly.”
“Is there an antidote?”
“According to this, it should pass within a week or so. It’s not deadly, just a nuisance, really. Rather like having an actual cold.”
I thanked her and disconnected just as Aidan pulled into a valet parking spot in front of a fancy restaurant near the Ferry Building.
“What’s up?” I asked.