His eyes strayed to the back of the shop.

“Do you still have that legendary apothecary in the back? I’ve heard a lot about it.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

I paused, Jade’s words of warning flashing through my mind. She seemed to believe that Jo was bad news, but he’d helped me before. Then again, I wasn’t sure what to think about the fact that he seemed to know Chandra’s daughter.

Grandma Celeste had trusted Theresa, who I knew to be good. Besides, I really had no choice. There weren’t a lot of people I could trust, and now that I knew Jo was a witch, I needed him on my side.

“Yes. Do you want to see it?”

Jo’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

“Sure.”

He grinned. I felt a little self-conscious as he followed me into the employee area. I’d left order forms, receipts, and even food containers out on the worktable, but Jo didn’t seem to care.

“It’s hidden in the wall,” I explained.

Moving my hand across the wall, I found the hole where the door handle was hidden and pulled it. Jo gave an appreciative gasp when he saw the rows and rows of ingredients inside.

“I knew Celeste had one of the best stores of potion ingredients, but I had no idea it was this big.”

“Yeah, I was a little shocked when I first saw it, too.”

He gave a quizzical frown. “When did you first see it?”

“When I moved here. Theresa actually showed it to me.”

The confusion on his face grew as he looked from the shelves back to me. “Why didn’t your grandma show it to you?”

I twirled a finger through my hair, something I hadn’t done since I was a teenager. Why did I feel so nervous? “I never met my grandma. Or I should say that I don’t remember her. My dad moved us away from Woods Crossing when I was four. I never even knew Grandma was a witch until I got here. I didn’t know I was one, either.”

Judging by the expression on his face, Jo was floored. “Why didn’t your parents ever tell you?”

I crossed my arms and looked down at the floor, terrified that I would start to cry. “My mom died. It’s why my dad and I left Woods Crossing. He didn’t want anything to do with magic anymore.”

Jo slapped his forehead. “Oh, geez, I’m such an idiot. I’m so sorry, Sage. I…I forgot about that.”

With lots of blinking and a deep breath, I managed to keep the tears at bay. I looked up at him, surprised to see that his eyes were filled with intense sympathy.

“It’s okay. It happened a long time ago.”

He shifted on his feet, wearing an uneasy frown. “I didn’t know your mom personally, but I’ve heard a lot about her. They say she was very kind.”

I wondered who “they” were, but I decided against asking.

“She was.”

An awkward silence settled between us. Jo wandered along next to the shelves, examining the bottles.

“Have a lot of people come in here for potion ingredients?”

I grinned. “Yeah, it’s my main source of income. I’ve even had people come from out of state to buy.”

He picked up a bottle of Alligator Teeth, examining the razor-sharp points.

“Has anyone else asked to see the apothecary?”

I instantly sobered. “No, but someone tried to follow me in here yesterday. I think she was trying to steal from the apothecary because she wore some sort of invisibility cloak or coat.”

A shadow of worry crossed his face. “So the culprit is after potion ingredients.”

Jo stared into space, deep in thought.

“What do you mean?”

He turned his eyes back to me. “There have been a lot of weird things happening around town. Witches have complained to me about break-ins and missing potion ingredients. Whoever took Theresa has been making a lot of potions and seems to have a hard time getting hold of certain ingredients.”

That made sense. Some very rare potion ingredients were almost always out of stock on WitchNet.

“What has the intruder been stealing?”

“Rhino Horn, Ram’s Horn, Gorilla Hair, Grizzly Talons, things like that. I could tell that the barrier you’d put around your house had been tampered with, and those ingredients make a lot of ramming potions.”

My mouth fell open. So I had been right that the potions were being made to destabilize the barrier!

I frowned at Jo as another thought occurred to me. “You could sense the barrier, so you knew even back then that I was a witch. Why didn’t you say anything?”

He shrugged. “I figured you knew.”

With an exaggerated sigh, I turned back to the shelves. My eyes caught on the extra bottles of Essence of Chameleon that I’d ordered. Theresa hadn’t been lying when she said it was expensive, so I hadn’t bought very many.

“You know, now that I know that you know about magic, I can tell you a little more about Theresa.”

Jo’s head shot up. “You can?”

“Yeah. I met her when she came in here looking for Essence of Chameleon. I thought she was crazy or on drugs because I didn’t know then that witches were real.”

He looked at the shelves. I watched his eyes scan the bottles until they came to rest on the essence.

“Why did she need it?”

“She said it was for a disguise potion.”

A confusing mix of anger and sadness crossed his face. For the millionth time, I wondered what he was thinking.

“Yes, she probably would have needed that.”