Deadly Curiosities (Haunted)

Deadly Curiosities

This is an excerpt from my new novel, Deadly Curiosities, which is in bookstores and online now!

By the next morning, I had recovered from the trauma of the day before, if not the embarrassment. Fortunately, being Sunday, we didn’t open until noon, which meant that I could spend the morning in the back going through some of the more benign pieces. Teag handled the ‘mundanes’, items that didn’t set off my magic radar. Right now, we didn’t have any ‘spookies’ in stock except for the opera glasses, and I was grateful. Teag hadn’t told me yet where he had put the glasses and I wasn’t about to go looking at them. I had no desire to see those glasses any time soon.

Still, the tragedy of the fire stuck with me. I hadn’t slept well. My dreams had been dark, or lit by flames, and once I had woken with my heart pounding and my palms sweaty. That man with the withered face kept showing up in my nightmares.

I was mostly recovered by the time Monday morning rolled around, although I hoped that none of our customers had attended the play on Saturday.

“You doing okay, Cassidy?” Teag stuck his head in the back room.

“A little tired, but that’s all,” I admitted. “The coffee is definitely helping. Thank you.” Teag had come in early and had the coffee pot in the shop’s small kitchen already chugging out liquid wakefulness before we opened for the day. It was exceptionally thoughtful of him, since he didn’t drink the stuff, but he probably figured I’d need it more than usual today. Teag had a large mug of tea, his beverage of choice.

“I put in a call to Trinket,” Teag said, standing where he could keep an eye on the front of the store and still carry on a conversation with me. “I got her voice mail, and I asked her to give me a call.”

“Maybe she caught wind of what happened at the play and decided to high tail it out of town for a while,” I said with a lopsided grin.

 Teag grimaced. “Maybe. But she has to come home sometime, and I doubt she’s skipped town just because of you.” He paused. “In the meantime, I’ll check the Darke Web.”

Teag’s gift with information makes hackers look like newbies. If it’s anywhere online, no matter how well hidden, he’ll find it. That goes beyond the Dark Web, used by mortal criminals, and into the currents of information shared by the supernatural, magical, and immortal communities, the Darke Web. Law enforcement can’t break the enchantments, but Teag wanders those digital pathways like a native son. If it was out there, I knew he’d find it.

I’d felt like skipping town after what happened, but I figured it would blow over faster if I just faced the music. Although the physical effects were gone, the embarrassment lingered on. Even now, two days later, I’d settled for toast and peanut butter at home instead of my usual muffin at the bakery down the block, not quite willing to answer questions yet or dodge curious gazes.

 The front door opened and the bells clanged against the glass. “Cassidy? Teag?”

 Andrea Andrews, owner of Andrews Carriage Rides, was one of my best friends, and one of the most connected business owners in Charleston. I took a swig of my coffee for sustenance, and squared my shoulders. “Hi, Drea,” I called.

 Drea gave me the once-over when I stepped up front. She was a dark-haired whirlwind, a petite bundle of energy who could rival a hurricane for being a sheer force of nature when it came to business. She had built her family’s carriage ride company from one carriage to a fleet of twelve, and expanded into specialty tours, including one of the top ghost tours in the city.

 Clutched in her hand was a bag from the Honeysuckle Cafe, my favorite bakery. I could smell the fresh blueberry muffin, my usual breakfast selection, all the way across the store. “I brought you something,” she said with a grin. “Somehow, I figured you’d skip your morning muffin.”