Jenks lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “No, but he’s on the roof beside the window. Tink’s titties, I never see the thing move. One minute he’s here, the next he’s there, and when he’s not asleep, I don’t know where he is. At any rate, it might be better than putting them under your bed. Ivy said the guy who blessed the church said the belfry was super holy.”

Super holy, eh? Maybe I should sleep up there. Worried, I pushed the books to the corner to make room for the rest of the under-counter stuff. “I don’t know….” My nose tickled as I weeded through the stack of herbs I’d been messing with to modify an existing charm to give Ivy a measure of control over her blood lust. It wasn’t going well. She didn’t like trying them out, taking them on her dates so if it didn’t work, I wouldn’t have to fight her off. Nothing seemed to have an effect, and I wondered if she was really trying them or just telling me she was. Ivy didn’t like my magic touching her, though she thought me blasting anyone else was cool.

Jenks dropped to land beside the curse books. His tiny features were worried as he watched me shake a sheaf of feverfew to get the tansy off it. “You aren’t going to keep that, are you?” he asked, and I glanced up from picking cat hair off it.

“You don’t think I should?”

“They aren’t pure anymore.” He kicked a dry stem, making little chips fall off. “You got pieces of rosemary on the coneflower, and coneflower seeds sticking to the dandelions. Who knows what they will do, especially if you’re experimenting.”

I looked at the pile of dried herbs thinking it would be a lot easier to just chuck it out the back door, but I was afraid that if I did that, I might simply give up. Adapting charms was hard. I could follow a recipe, but my mother was like a gourmet chef, and I had never appreciated that until I tried to do it myself. “Maybe you’re right.”

Mood souring, I shook out a brown paper bag and shoved a year’s worth of gardening into it. The rasping sound cut through the silence, and I felt sick as I wadded the top of the bag down and jammed it all into the trash under the sink. Turning, I deemed the kitchen reasonably clean. The rack was empty, and I wondered if I should just give up on the charm for controlling Ivy’s blood lust. Ivy wasn’t helping, and it was really hard. Depressed, I slumped into my chair at the table.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Jenks,” I said, putting my elbows on the table and exhaling with a sigh. “My mother makes it look so easy. Maybe I’ll get farther if I mix some ley line magic with the earth charms. I mean, ley line magic is mostly symbolism and word choice, making it more flexible.”