The side of his mouth quirked up in a half smile.
“I happen to be pretty good at potions. You want some help?”
I let out a sigh of relief, feeling as if a two-ton weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
“Yes, please. It’s been driving me nuts.”
He rubbed his hands together, his eyes lighting with excitement.
“Let’s brew it up, then.”
I frowned. “We’d have to go back to my house. I don’t have a stove here.”
He shook his head. “No need for all that. Have you got the recipe with you?”
I groaned when I remembered that I’d tucked the written copy into the potions book Faith had given me.
“No. I found it on WitchNet, though. I can probably pull it up in my recent searches.”
“Yep. You do that while I set up my collapsible cauldron.”
I stared at him. “You have a collapsible cauldron? I didn’t even know those existed.”
Jo nodded. “Comes in handy when I’m out in the field. I have to be able to brew on the go in my line of work.”
He walked out of my office to the worktable and took off his jacket. Unzipping one of the pockets on his cargo pants, he took out a small drawstring bag. From it, he removed what looked like a child’s stretchy plastic toy. When he pulled it out to its full circumference, it clicked together to make a cauldron. I stared at it, wide-eyed.
“How did that even fit in there?”
He pulled a wand from the bag. “It’s got a large capacity spell on it. It has a ton of room in there, even if it doesn’t look like it.”
Waving the wand, he muttered an incantation I couldn’t hear. I watched in amazement as a blue flame sprouted from the end of the wand, turned orange, then settled into a little ball under the cauldron.
“I need some water. And have you got the ingredients?”
I nodded. “In my bag. I’ve been carrying them around with me.”
He grinned. “Smart move. Get them out and arrange them on the worktable, and grab me some water, please.”
I couldn’t help but admire the efficiency of his movements. Within moments, the potion was boiling, and had attained the needed shade of vivid green.
Pulling an empty bottle with a cork lid out of his bag, he scooped up the potion with a ladle and poured it in.
“What kind of spell were you thinking of using?”
I crinkled my forehead, trying to think through the explanation.
“As far as I can tell, the barrier was made using pressure from both sides to sort of seal the door. I wanted to use a shield spell that can expand and contract. I’ll position the shield under the layer, then expand.”
His grin widened. “That, combined with the crumbling potion, should just do the trick. That’s really smart, Sage.”
I blushed hotly at the praise. “Thanks. I just wish it hadn’t taken me so long to work out. If this person hadn’t tried to follow me into the shop that day, I’d never have thought to look for a weakening potion.”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter when you found the spell. Combining the two is a good idea.”
My heart took up a rapid staccato when his eyes rested on me a little longer than was necessary. His cheeks pinked a little as he looked away.
“Let me help you clean all this up,” I offered, picking up the small cauldron and taking it to the sink.
“Thanks.”
Between the two of us, we had the potion bottles stoppered up, stowed in my bag, and the cauldron collapsed in a matter of minutes.
“Do you have time to come over tonight?”
It felt so weird saying the words out loud. When I’d first met Jo, I would never have asked him over to my house. Though he really had been a jerk at first, he’d also been there for me when I needed him. I couldn’t explain it, but I felt deep down that I could trust him.
“Sure. Sounds like that room is important, and could help us in the case, so the sooner, the better.”
Only then did I realize that I hadn’t gone through my closing routine yet. I groaned.
“I’ve still got to lock up the apothecary and finish closing. Do you mind waiting just a few minutes?”
“No problem.”
I hurried into the office and closed the apothecary door, making sure the secret doorknob was securely latched. I rang out the cash register, turned off the lights, and swept the floors in the back room.
“All set. You ready?”
