Enchanted Again

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 1

March

Denver, Colorado

IF SHE AGED naturally, Amber Sarga would have been twenty-six. But her gift for curse breaking cost her days, weeks, months…years.

She’d found another gray hair today. Gray hair on a gray day.

Amber was taking a break from her home genealogical business to prepare a flower bed. Halfheartedly she stuck the big trowel into the dirt. An odd scent drifted to her and she straightened. There was something in the air....

When her yellow Labrador puppies, Baxt and Zor, went into a barking frenzy, she turned. And saw a small brown being in her garden. Her mouth fell open. He was plucking a bloom from the heavy mass of her violets and dropping the flower into a jar.

He was nothing human. Small, under three feet, thin, triangular face and large triangular ears, he was definitely magic. Over the past few years, living in Mystic Circle’s cul-de-sac, Amber had gradually become aware that there was true magic in the world, and magical people.

Although they tried, the puppies couldn’t get near him. They bounced off some sort of force field. He wore boots and sturdy pants and a shirt. All brown.

Amber swallowed. “What are you?”

“I’m a brownie,” he grumbled.

She had a brownie in her garden. She swallowed again. “And you are, uh, harvesting violet blooms?”

His brown slit-pupil gaze fixed on her trowel, he gave a short nod. “You have good stuff here.” He sniffed. “Much better than Jenni’s few plants.”

He must mean Jenni Weavers, her neighbor to the south. With enough spit to speak again, Amber said, “Thank you. And you need the blooms for…?”

“Going to crystallize them as a candied accent.”

“Ah.” Amber nodded. It didn’t seem strange that a magical being would eat violets. “I have a chocolate pie recipe with crystallized violets.”

The brownie’s large eyes grew huge, seeming to take up more space on his face. “Chocolate pie,” he breathed, clutching his jar. Then he offered it to her. “Chocolate pie.” The tips of his ears quivered.

Ah, so he loved chocolate.

“I could make a chocolate pie for you. And maybe you could help me with my magical gift.”

His mouth pursed as he scanned her from top to toe. “One of the Cumulustre human offspring. Gypsy strain?”

“Huh? I’m Amber Sarga.”

He scrinched his boney shoulders together and kept his mouth shut.

The puppies’ yips increased in volume. With a flick of his fingers and a guttural mutter, the brownie cast something fine and silky at the pups. They abruptly collapsed into snoring sleep. Then he glanced at her from the corner of his eyes and bent down to caress another violet bloom. “I can candy them for you…for the chocolate pie.”

“Of course.”

“When will you make it?”

Amber raised her brows. “I’ll shop for the ingredients today and the chocolate pie will be done tomorrow afternoon.” Every time she said chocolate pie the brownie’s catlike pupils dilated a little more.

Again with the mournful eyes. He was better with the appealing look even than the puppies.

He said, “All the chocolate in Jenni’s house disappeared.”

Into a round brownie tummy, Amber figured.

A shiver ran along the ground under Amber’s soles. Her ears popped as a female brownie appeared. “What are you doing here, Pred?” She put her hands on her hips and tapped a tiny foot on the yellow grass. Her flexible triangular ears rolled close to her skull and up again. She glared at the man. “You knew she has enough magic to see you, and that she believes in magic. Why didn’t you turn invisible?”

The guy threw out his chest. “She’s Jenni’s friend and our neighbor. If she can see magic, better that she sees me than violets being plucked and vanishing.”

With a huff of breath the woman shook her head. “We agreed that we wouldn’t contact her. You know the consequences.”

“What consequences?” asked Amber.

The female brownie sniffed lustily in Amber’s direction. “As we thought. A descendant of the air-elf Cumulustre family.” The tiny woman frowned. “Cadet branch. Strain of Romani blood.”