“Now, I know you know it’s not nice to take things that don’t belong to you.”

The boy continued to stare at me wide-eyed as I handed him back the piece of candy.

“So, if this isn’t yours . . .” I looked over to the girl whose mouth had dropped open.

The boy nodded, swallowed hard, and passed the lollipop back to her.

I gave them both a wink and headed on my way.

Given everything going on, it probably wasn’t the best time to interfere, but I hadn’t been able to help myself. Besides, no one in town really believed we were witches, even if some mothers were telling their children that in order to get them to behave.

As far as most Evenfall citizens were concerned, the Warren women were a just little different and helpful. We always, for example, had good ideas of where to look for lost pets or misplaced items like keys or reading glasses. Izzy often had just the right flavor of ice cream in the B&B’s kitchen to help ease the pain of a teenager’s broken heart, and Nora’s natural face creams were famous for giving a bounce to people feeling down. And then there was me. I, of course, had been counted on to offer comforting words to the bereaved over a cup of tea.

Still, though, now wasn’t the time to be drawing attention to myself.

After taking in the sights for a minute or two, I walked over to a teen in a green vest who was unloading vats covered in warning labels from a truck.

“My, those look heavy,” I said with a smile.

The boy wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “I’ll say. What can I do for you?”

“Do you know where I could find Rip Graves?”

“Sure,” the teen answered. He pointed at the stone farmhouse. “You can go right up. Just make sure you close the gate behind you.”

“Thank you.”

I walked up to the picket fence. My hand froze as I reached for the latch.

Yellow roses.

There were yellow roses planted on either side of the gate.

I ran my fingertips over the petals. Of course, I couldn’t be certain, but they appeared to be of the exact shade of the petal I had found the night before.

It wasn’t conclusive proof of anything, but it was something.

I let myself inside, making sure to click the gate shut behind me, then turned to face the house—

—and the two large German shepherds racing toward me.

Chapter 11

I squeezed the handle of my basket and pulled it in close to my chest.

Had this been a couple of years ago, I would have rattled off a spell that would have had the dogs far more interested in rolling around in the clover than investigating the uninvited guest on their property, but if I was truly going to live my life without magic, I had to find other ways to handle these types of situations.