Witch-Hazel takes a bite of her burger as I pour ketchup on the side for my fries.

“Holy shit,” she says with her mouth full.

“Too hot?”

“No,” she swallows her food. “This is really fucking good! The cheese and the meat? Hestia’s Tits!”

“‘Hestia’s tits’? You’re just making these up now.” She doesn’t acknowledge my barb and she starts wolfing on her burger. “Jesus Christ, it’s not going anywhere! Have some fries before you choke.”

Witch-Hazel eats one and upon realizing how good it tastes her face lights up.

“If all the food out here is this good, I might just stay,” she comments.

“I’m not enough incentive for you to stay?”

“Is that an invitation for me to...eat you?”

Someone in the booth behind me clears their throat loudly.

“Seems our conversation is too obscene for SOMEONE! So, let’s switch it up. What did you do for fun back in Ironhenge? Potion brew offs, speed enchantments, betting on unicorn races?”

“Oh, Gods no!” She stops scarfing her fries. “That’s a recipe for catastrophe!” I take a huge bite of my burger.

“How?”

“Unicorns can’t be tamed by any means. Magical or otherwise. They’re very intelligent and extremely arrogant.”

I pop a couple of fries in my mouth.

“I honestly can’t tell if you’re fucking with me at this point.”

“No I,” she puts her hand on her chest over her heart, “I swear on my life, I’m not fucking with you. Unicorns are VERY dangerous creatures if you ever encounter one-”

“Where would I ‘encounter’ a unicorn?” She shrugs.

“There’s a few hundred or so left. Some are here in America, there’s a slim possibility you could run into one,” she explains. “Unlike non-magical horses, they aren’t prey animals, if by any chance you do meet one, it’s vital that you don’t pose a threat, otherwise it will try to kill you. It’ll also kill you if you try to treat it as just an animal. We had a whole class on them once.”

“How would it know I’m doing that?”

“They’re very intuitive. It’s been theorized that they can read minds.” She tries to sneakily grab my fries but I slap her hand away. “I’m giving you valuable information that I shouldn’t be sharing, and you can’t spare me some fries?”

“I’m paying for them. Back to unicorns, can’t I just shoot it?”

“You better not miss, that’s all I’m saying. Many have died on unicorn hunts, almost every part of their body can be used for potent magical brews. A small piece of their horn is invaluable.” Witch-Hazel finishes her burger. “But enough about them, you’re probably not gonna meet one so,” she shrugs.

“What about dragons?” I’m curious about whatever magical creatures exist.

“The last ones died during what you call World War Two,” she explains. “Though not because of anything non-magical humans did, it just happened to match up like that.” Witch-Hazel sips her mint tea and twists her face in disgust. “This has way too much sugar in it.”

“We Americans like our tea sweet,” I explain.

“Well, it tastes like candy.” She then drinks it all anyway. “I’ll stick with my own tea.”

“Leprechauns?”

“Real. Rare. Reclusive.”

“Elves?”

“No. Not in any sense.”

“Pegasus’? Pegasi?”

“Hunted to extinction during the Peloponnesian War.”

“Mermaids?”

“Near extinction, not enough fish to eat, pollution has altered where they stay. It’s estimated that they’ll be gone in twenty-thirty years or so.” She says it with a note of melancholy, but with the interest like mermaids are a normal occurrence. Though, I suppose to her they are.

“Uhhh, I don’t really know any other magical animals. Most of my knowledge comes from movies and shit.” I finish my burger only to realize that Witch-Hazel has already cleaned her plate. Must be hungry. “How about werewolves?”

“Hey look, here’s your dessert.” She points out. Rhonda places a thick slice of pecan pie between us. The honey brown treat is warm and a healthy dollop of vanilla ice cream atop it is slowing melting.

“Here you go, sugars. Enjoy.” She gives us two spoons with a wide smile. “I’ll be back to check on you in a little while.”

“What does that taste like?” She leans forward and inspects it.

“Well,” I pick up a spoon and scoop up a big helping of ice cream and pie. “You tell me.” I offer it to her. The witch gives a coy smile before dipping her head and slowly closes her mouth around my utensil. She thinks on it like she’s tasting a fine wine.

“Hmmm.” Her eyes are locked on mine and she licks a bit of ice cream from the corner of her mouth, knowing I’m watching. “I’m detecting a hint of pecans.”

“Oh really? Didn’t think you’d pick up on that.” She chews slowly.

“Brown sugar, honey from a summer harvest, some extract of vanilla, pinches of cinnamon, and some kind of syrup I’ve never tasted before,” she lists.

“You have a very smart tongue,” I reply.

“I prefer calling it...experienced.” She takes the spoon from my fingers, spinning it as I did the knife. “Let’s hear your thoughts on it.” Witch-Hazel offers me up some with the same spoon I just had in her mouth.

I take the bite. The soft crunch of the pecans compliments the warm gooeyness of the filling, and the ice cream melts into sweet milk.

“It reminds me of the first time I had ice cream. It was a hot day like this, ‘cept the HQ didn’t have AC at the time. It was too hot to train so Tamara let us go do whatever. I was practicing my reading when Larkspur saw me, I was sweating bullets over my little kid book. They took me to a store and bought me some ice cream sandwiches.” I laugh a bit as I remember what happens next. “I ate those shits so fast and got a mean ass brain-freeze. I start clutching my head like it was gonna explode.”

She laughs in a melodic way, light and ascending.

“Oh I’m glad you think it’s funny, ‘cause Larkspur thought it was hilarious. They just sat there laughing at me, meanwhile, I’m thinking I’m about to die.”

The witch laughs harder and I have to say I like the way it sounds.

I want to hear it more often.

“You enjoy my pain way too much.”

“I’d be open to enjoying your pleasure too,” She says with a sultry smile.

“Well, come get some.” We lean towards each other. No distractions, no sudden interruptions. Just us and-

The door to the diner violently opens and some asshole yells,

“HANDS UP THIS IS A ROBBERY!!!”

Through all the sudden gasps the witch and I at the same time say,

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

I immediately stand up and walk over to whoever is ruining my good time. It’s two of them, both armed. Despite the stupid half masks they’re wearing, I learn all I need to know. Their eyes show how young and afraid they are. There’s no way they could be older than sixteen.

                                                      ✨🔮✨

I’m convinced that Fate has a personal problem with me kissing Hollyhock. She stands before the thieves’ guns, unafraid. But I know full well that she isn’t bulletproof, I prepare a spell in my hand under the table. I whisper an incantation, needing to project it fast if things go south.

“GET BACK OR I’LL SHOOT!” One of them yells at her.

“Oh yeah, how are you gonna do that with the safety on?”

The thief inspects his gun for a second and that’s all she needs. Twisting his wrist and pulling the gun from him, she points it at the other thief.

“Put the fucking gun on the counter, now.” He complies, clearly taken aback by the sudden turn of events. “Good.” She grabs the gun, briefly looking it over. “Serials filed off. Who gave you these guns?”

“I, uh, we,”

“What’s so hard to understand about my question?”

“I can’t tell you,” one of them says.

“Why? Is the person who gave it to you holding a gun to you right now?”

“It was Newt!” The other one answers.

“There, was that so hard?” She tucks the guns into her waistband and I dispel the magic in my hand; she’s got the situation under control. “Now get the fuck out of here and don’t do dumb shit like this again!” She scolds. “You got your whole life ahead of you, go apply for a job at a supermarket or something.” They nod quickly and run out of the diner.

Everyone in the diner starts clapping for her but the assassin raises one hand.

“Stop,” she commands and everyone immediately does. Hollyhock approaches the counter where our waitress is standing. “This is for the bill, for the disturbance, and something extra not to call the police about this.” She places a few hundred dollar bills before her. “Alright?” The waitress nods in agreement.

“C’mon,” Hollyhock gesticulates with a jerk of her head. I rise from my seat and join her.

“My compliments to the chef, everything was delicious,” I say.

“The pie was slammin’” Hollyhock adds. On that little bit of praise, we exit.

“So, do you have any other methods to catch our necromancer?” The assassin asks. It’s somewhat strange hearing her use magical terms, I don’t mind it though.

“Looking for someone reanimated by them is still our best bet. I have some other things we could try, but it’s a bit conspicuous.”

She nods in understanding as she unlocks the door to the car for me.

“I hate to derail us but there’s something I have to take care of.”

“Does it have anything to do with this ‘Newt’ person?”

“It does. He’s a member of the DeadNettles, the gang that wanted me killed. Don’t know if he was a part of that, but it doesn’t matter. Giving guns to kids is never a good idea. I want to know what the bastard is thinking.” Her voice is lined with anger. Seems whenever children are involved, she takes a keen interest.

“You really do like kids, huh?” She stashes her newly acquired guns in the glovebox and starts the engine.

“I just think kids should have to worry about school and the stupid stuff they like, not about having to steal to survive.” Her voice gets a bit less angry. “It’s too late for me, they still have a chance.”

If it means that much to her, I want to help her.

“Anything I can do?” The car lurches forward and we take off. She thinks it over for a moment.

“Can you give me a magical disguise?”

A wide smile comes across my face at the opportunity to do magic on Hollyhock.

“How fast do you need it?”

“Soon. Real soon.”

                                                Chapter End.