Chapter 1
Sasha’s P.O.V.
I throw open the front door to Foxglove Sister’s Apothecary & Café and step inside.
The bell jingles out a merry tune. Pretty sure it’s This is Halloween from Nightmare Before Christmas, but I could be wrong.
Cold autumn air rushes in behind me along with a slew of sunset painted leaves. They skitter along the weathered floorboards before coming to a rest beside the lilac painted cash register. There are dried flowers glued to its surface making it look like it was taken from nature.
Yes, I know the name is a mouthful, but like my little sister Selene says, ‘the best things in life are big enough to choke on.’
I remove the cashmere scarf from around my neck and place it on an antique coat rack Sadie thrifted sometime last month. At eighteen, she’s the youngest of us Foxglove sisters.
I turn slowly and take in our lovely apothecary and café. It’s an hour before opening, so all is peaceful before the morning rush.
The aisles of the apothecary are fully stocked with bundles of herbs and satchels of spices. An entire shelf of pillar candles forms a rainbow. Their various sizes blend into one since Sadie color coordinated them two months ago.
Crystal suncatchers and windchimes hang from the ceiling, twinkling softly as I pass. My magic reaches out on its own to touch them.
The café portion of our business is on the other side of the building. Both halves are separated by a stained-glass wall. The teens in our small-town love coming here to take their social media pictures in front of it. Just last year we had seven groups come through for prom photos.
Since Sadie graduates this year, she’s determined to hop on the trend.
As I listen closer I realize I can hear her and Selene arguing from the back.
As the eldest I’m saddled with being the leader, and the peacekeeper. It’s a good thing too considering Selene’s wild nature and Sadie’s innocence cause them to fight at every turn.
I take a deep breath. The thick tang of cinnamon lingers in the air along with subtle notes of ylang-ylang, rose petal, and raspberry.
A love potion. Interesting.
I take a moment to ponder which of our clients ordered such a potion. The humans in this small town see our business as a nice little gimmick. They believe in it, but not entirely. We’re a cute, quirky addition to their tourist attraction town, and we’re more than happy to let them think that way.
They don’t need to know that we’re all that stands between them and evil.
So, for now, my sisters and I are perfectly content with our situation. The apothecary even did well enough in its first year for us to renovate the old manor a block down the street. We had inherited it from our late grandfather and spent many summers there as children.
That’s where we truly became close. The manor changed everything between us.
“Sister witches!” I sing loudly as I cross the storeroom floor, my suitcase in tow. The boards creak out a familiar song that brings a smile to my face. “Hello?! Yoo-hoo! Where is my welcoming party? What’s a girl got to do to get a little attention around here?”
As I walk through a set of old-fashioned swinging doors into the stock room even the sight of my sisters arguing can’t wipe the smile from my face.
This is the first of many times I had to leave for a week for a convention seven hours away. It’s how we remain up to date on providers for our stock. Finding quality herbs for a good price has been becoming harder and harder with all of these ‘new age’ stores popping up.
Half of them don’t even have real quartz!
Pretty soon I may have to let Sadie start that garden she wanted.
Neither Selene nor Sadie stop shouting at one another as I enter the room. I hadn’t expected them to. The two of them together were explosive. Even their magic reacted accordingly.
Wooden shelves line the walls filled with potion ingredients both magical and non-magical. Some of the bottles glow like fireflies. Their colors change or pulse softly in the low light. Others sing or hum or whisper to be set free. Potion ingredients were pesky things.
Standing in front of the old workbench my sisters and I built when we first moved in are two familiar blondes.
The Foxglove women are known for being cursed with three things: Beauty, wit, and a fuck-ton of magic. We also have our terrible luck with men, but that’s never bothered my sisters and I.
Adopted as we are, there’s a reason we look near identical. Our foster parents had an idea of the kind of child they wanted, and we were it. Blonde, blue-eyed, athletic. Yeah, they’re superficial assholes, but I still can’t help but try for their attention.
They picked us up as infants and that was that. Sisters.
At twenty years old Selene has a solid foot of height on the youngest, Sadie. Sadie turned eighteen two months ago, but the kid hasn’t grown since she was fourteen.
Her short height, curly blond locks, and darling blue eyes are what make all the boys in town love Sadie. It was what makes us forgive her on the rare occasions she gets herself into trouble.
Sadie has on an adorable sweater that flatters her slender figure. The seam stops just a few inches above her jeans and furry boots. My eyes linger on the flat strip of her exposed stomach.
Selene, on the other hand, doesn’t have an innocent bone in her body. Where Sadie is willowy and soft spoken, our middle sister is all curves and attitude. Both of which she uses to torment us and the men in this town.
Her dress is both short and low cut. The cream-colored fabric swishes around her toned thighs. Selene’s blessed in both departments and this dress shows it.
She’s so going to make a killing in tips today. That was why we put her in the café.
“Don’t you dare go pinning this on me, Sadie! You said two tablespoons of mugwort. Tablespoons, not teaspoons.”
Not a love spell then, but a lust spell. Those were always fun.
Sadie’s cheeks turn pink the way they always do when she’s flustered or panicking. On a bad day that blush could go all the way down to her toes. It’s just the cutest thing.
“T-That doesn’t change the fact that you’re not supposed to just t-throw them in there, Selene!”
There are only two things that could bring out Sadie’s stutter and messing with her potions is one of them.
It’s only then I notice the genuine panic on Sadie’s face. It creases her brows and makes her plump lips twist into a pout. I move forward without thinking, spurred on by worry that my younger sisters have somehow gotten into trouble while I was away.
“What happened? What is it?”
Both of them stop what they’re doing and spin around to face me. They let out identical gasps, which causes me to laugh because they already look identical with their blonde hair and freckled noses.
“Sasha!”
“Sashie!”
They leap at me with smiles lighting up their angelic faces. Golden hair flies in all directions as I abandon my suitcase and launch myself into their embraces. We’re a tangle of limbs and torso’s, flush and moving, giggles ringing out into the storefront. I move against them with a grin, hands pulling them tighter as I think about the week we spent apart.
Being primarily raised by nannies we were quick to learn that all we have are each other.
Selene’s eyes are brighter. They get like that when she’s thinking about trouble. She’d gotten Sadie and I grounded for three months with that wicked look of hers. We had only been children at the time, but Sadie never forgot being separated from her precious books.
“We missed you so much!” Selene says in her sing-song voice. It’s that delicate purr of hers that gets all those tips. Her hands crawl up my arms as she playfully groans. “Never leave us again, we can’t stand it. We’re like those expensive Persian cats. You don’t leave us behind. If you do we vomit on your carpet or something like that.” She adds with a distasteful wave.
Sadie’s pert little nose wrinkles. She has a love-hate relationship with Selene’s foul mouth.
“That’s horrifying. Can we not talk about vomit this early in the day?”
I extract myself from the two of them despite the yearning to hug them some more and place my hands on my hips. “Good point. Let’s not talk about vomit. Let’s talk about what I just walked in on between you two.” I wag my finger between the two of them. “Why were you fighting and why are you brewing a lust potion this early?”
Selene flicks her golden locks over her shoulder. They’re pulled up into a long ponytail that exposes her neck. A neck Sadie and I witnessed plenty of boys sucking on when she wanted to piss one of us off.
Say what you want about the youngest being a menace, but it’s the middle children you want to look out for.
Sadie’s face immediately turns red. My mouth dries as it travels down her neck, spreading across her chest like a wildfire. Whatever this is it has her shaken up badly.
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “S-Selene got an order from Jacob Fletcher. H-He wanted a lust potion. She was s-supposed to fill it yesterday, but she wanted to suntan n-naked in the backyard.” Her eyes flick between the two of us and her blush deepens. It must have been a long week without me here. “I t-told her I’d just do it myself, but she wanted to s-supervise me even though I’ve been doing fine on my own.”
Selene and I had begun Sadie’s training when she was sixteen. We found out we were witches just a few years before, our magic awakening one full moon when Selene and I had been dabbling in some silly ritual we found in our late adoptive grandpa’s attic.
Since she was now legally an adult we were trying to back off a bit more, but it’s hard.
Sadie is the youngest of us. The gentlest. The nicest.
“Again, you said two tablespoons of mugwart.” Selene interjected. Her tongue darts out to run over her lip as she frowns. “You should have paid more attention, Sadie. This is why you still need supervising. What if you bottled that and gave it to the poor human?” Her stern demeanor cracks like glass shattering on stone. Her lips twitch. “He’d have a hard on for a month.”
While Selene descends into immature snickers, Sadie continues to frown.
“None of that matters because he won’t be getting his hands on it since it exploded in my face!” She points at herself, her voice ending on a hysterical shriek. Suddenly her breath hitches. Those blue eyes of her widen. Her pupils enlarge and she swallows heavily. “I-I think I’m beginning to feel the effects. I can’t work like this. We need an antidote before I—” She bites down on her lower lip. “I feel a bit woozy.”
Smothering my concern until it reached a controllable level, I place a hand against Sadie’s forehead. She leans into my touch, her eyes fluttering. I briefly admire her long lashes whilst mourning my own. A sound comes from the front of the shop. The bell jingles and Kirby, our assistant, calls out in greeting.
Sadie’s lips tremble and a quiet groan escapes her.
“You can’t work like this. Not until it’s out of you system.” I sigh and close my eyes. Jealousy tugs at my gut as I turn to Selene. “Selene, take care of her while I help Kirby with the shop. Hurry before she starts harassing the customers.”
Ten minutes home and I’m already back at work.
