No Good Witches | ONC √

Drug Deal Adjacent

"I mean that thus far, you are the first of my clients to need to raise a whole adult woman from the dead." He said, his voice inching higher and higher up his register in that way it did when he got nervous. "There's this thing called supply and demand that you have to keep in mind when running a business."

"No..." Rebecca squeaked.

Mallory cleared her throat. "Cass?"

"Shut up!" I squeezed my eyes shut, massaging the back of my neck with my palms. "Fuck."

"This has gone way too far!" Rebecca exclaimed sounding as if she were on the verge of hyperventilating. "Cass, we should call the police."

"We are not calling the police!" Mallory snapped. "Cass is going to find us a way out of this. So?"

I opened my eyes and met her unwavering gaze. She crossed her arms. She wasn't going to let me out of this one. My fingers were in my hair now. "Fuck. Fuck."

"Cass, are you okay?" Sofiane asked me.

"No, I'm not obviously not okay! I killed someone half an hour ago."

He winced. "Well, from what I heard, you didn't exactly do it alone."

I narrowed my eyes at him in disbefiel at his statement, my hands falling from my hair, vaguely moving toward his neck. "What—was that your attempt at reassurance? Err! Wrong answer. Not comforting at all. Try again."

He grabbed my arm, and miraculously that gesture was somehow comforting. His eyes softened. "I may not have a necromancy spell. But." He looked over his shoulder at the other people stood in the room. He sighed and turned back to me. "But I know someone who does."

I sniffed, straightening. "Who?"

"Now, Cass..."

I hopped off the counter. "Where are they? How much will it cost? Can we see them now? Do we—"

"Cass! Listen to me." There was that fear again. "This person...these people...they aren't casual spell dealers. For them, its their careers and their livelihoods. Their lifestyles." He released me, shoving his hands into his pockets. "They won't take kindly to people fucking with their business."

I swallowed.

"So like...he's like...a gangbanger?" Rebecca asked. I was too scared myself to cringe at the caucasity of that sentence.

"She's." He corrected. "You'll want to see Miss Kelly. She specializes in that stuff."

"Um, excuse me." Mallory raised her hand and leaned forward into our exchange. "Sorry, but is there an option where we don't have to make a shady deal with a gang leader?"

We collectively gave her a judgmental look.

"I'm afraid not." Sofiane said dryly.

"How much do you think it will cost us?"

"A spell like that? I'd say...seven fifty? A thousand? It's hard to say. Again, not my area of expertise."

I cursed. "I'm not carrying that kind of cash."

Mallory raised her hands and took a step back. "Don't look at me. My parents don't even trust me with a bicycle, let alone more than twenty dollars at a time."

We turned to Rebecca. I raised my eyebrows at her in question. "Rebecca?"

Her eyes widened as she looked between the three of us. She crossed her arms, defeated. "Sure. I could front the money...But you guys would pay me back later, right?"

I met eyes with Mallory. "Sure," I said at the same time as her, "We'll see..."

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Come on, guys. My parents are wealthy, but I'm not made of money. It isn't fair for me to—"

"We'll split it." I said, already regretting the decision as it came out of my mouth.

But her light smile in response managed to soften the blow. "Thanks, Cass. That's nice of you."

Damn. If money was what it took to get somewhere with this girl, then I was in trouble. (Again. Not that I wanted to get anywhere with her. Because I don't like her that way. Just to be clear.)

I blinked away the gay thoughts and turned to Sofiane once more. "So that's sorted. What's next?"

"Getting there." He said. "Miss Kelly won't see you alone, but they sort of know me in those parts—or my name at least. As you know, I tend to keep a low profile."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes because he was my best friend and I love him but also because he was the only thing standing between me and a jail sentence. "Yeah, yeah, sure, so we just go to her office or whatever."

He smirked down at me and ruffled my hair. "Silly, silly girl."

"Hey!" I said smacking his hand away. "No."

He pulled out an ancient looking flip phone and turned it over, checking the label, before sighing, putting it back, and pulling out another one. When he confirmed that this relic was indeed the one he had intended on using, he flipped it open and began furiously typing. "I'm setting up an appointment." He narrated as he went, that crease appearing between his brows while he concentrated. "She hates having people show up unannounced."

"So we are going to her office, then?" I asked.

He scrunched up his face. "Uh...I wouldn't call it that..."

"Her lair?" This is from Rebecca. Obviously.

He barked out a laugh. "That's even worse."

"Who the hell cares?" Mallory asked to no one in particular.

We ignored her outburst, which only made her more irritated. In a way, I was almost enjoying riling her up—pay back for the torture that was the bike ride over here.

"Okay." He said, snapping the phone shut. "We've got a meeting."

"Alright." I nodded to myself. "So...we'll take your car—"

"No, no, no. No way. A car would be way too suspicious." He said.

"Would it?" I asked. "Would it really?"

"Ideally, we would bike..." He tapped his chin with his index finger.

"We rode here on bikes!" Rebecca interjected enthusiastically.

He smiled brightly. "Great! I'll get mine from the garage and then we'll be ready to roll."

No no no no no. "Cool!" I said, my voice strained. "Your bike is much nicer than mine. Oh!" I turned to Mallory. "Here's an idea! Maybe you would want to ride on the back of that instead?"

Her lips curled and once more that evil glint sparked behind her dark brown eyes. "Why would I do that when we were having so much fun together earlier?"

I sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that."