“Aiden?!” Eve scooted back into the room only to catch a glimpse of Aiden falling face first onto the carpet with evidence of Ruby’s ridiculously bright pink lipstick a burning mark of shame on his mouth. She flipped him over quickly going through her first aid training. 

“You moron. You complete and utter moron. You’ve just doubled my work load. And all you had to do was watch…” 

“Are you okay up there? I thought I heard something get knocked over.” Mrs Sutton’s nasal voice echoed up the stairs drawing closer. 

Eve eased her way to the door keeping it partially closed as she faced back down to Mrs Sutton. A rictus grin plastered all over her face. If Eve could manage it she was going to have this curse broken before explaining that her supervisee had kissed Mrs Sutton's comatose daughter like a complete moron. A horny teenage moron at that. 

“Oh no Mrs Sutton we’re all fine up here. I just accidentally gave Aiden a surprise and he jumped a little bit. You know how heavy-footed teenagers can be?” 

Mrs Sutton gave her a questioning expression but then left it alone. 

“If you say so Ms Lagarde. If you need anything I’m just going to be out in the garden.” 

Eve nodded the biggest, happiest, friendliest customer service smile she could manage on her face as she watched Mrs Sutton head back downstairs. Her head ached like hell, it happened often enough even when she wasn’t dealing with mistakes but now it screamed at her. There was one way to relieve it quickly but it tended to make others nervous.  

“Screw it, no one to see now.” Behind her dark glasses, she clicked her witch sight on. She would keep it on for the rest of the day if no one else was around. They taught you over and over again from when you were a little witch that the sight was dangerous that witches couldn’t sustain it without physical symptoms, headaches, nausea even blindness. It was why they all got told only to be used for fifteen minutes maximum. Eve had always been confused by that, she found it more painful to live with her sight off than on. 

Eve shut the door behind her as she leaned against it her heart beating and head settling. She took a moment to look down at the handle and breathed out a sigh of ease when she saw the key in the lock. She twisted it shut, an internal voice yelled protest. This was an act that could cause mistrust from the client. 

“Hah.” Eve answered the voice aloud. Mistrust would be low on the list of problems if Aiden was found with his mouth smeared with her daughter’s lipstick. 

“Damn I’ve been thick.” Eve sighed as she took a closer look at both Aiden and Ruby’s lips. It was very faint but she could see the tiny flickering motes of light that made up how she saw magic. She took out a tissue from the box beside Ruby’s bed wiping away the pink from Aiden’s face. It would be a good enough sample to search with from now on. 

With a more focused item to search for she began to go back through the drawers looking for a make-up bag. It was at the bag of her underwear drawer drowned under some rather lacey lingerie itself a rather frilly mess. Pouring it onto the floor a good thirty lipsticks and glosses spilled onto the carpet. 

“One day, I will turn up to work and every damn curse will be straightforward. The cause will be obvious, the counter spell will not cost me dearly to perform and there won’t be frilly bloody pink panties and lipsticks.” 

Eve growled the words to herself as she began to open up each lipstick looking for a magical trace or the right colour. 

“None of them...” She wanted to laugh. Of course, it was none of them. Even though the trace had been faint on the two teenagers’ lips who slept in noisy little burbles beside her, once Eve had a trace she could spot it instantly. It had always been an odd point of contention between her and her teachers back at school. They were always sadly disappointed in her lack of talent elsewhere but whenever the sight tests were brought up she scored higher than the sorcerers who were innately better at sight than most. The memory of Mrs Falstaff’s face becoming a mask of horror when she had to tell Eve to turn off her sight after an hour long session because she had forgotten it was even on had got her through many a bad day. It always felt like she was blind till the sight was on, that daily she crippled herself by acting normal. 

“Come on trust yourself.” Eve breathed, she focused on the sample of lipstick on the tissue ignoring her revulsion at the colour she let her gaze drift as you might do trying to get an optical illusion to work, slowly the particles of light began to dance till they were bright, brighter even than the autumn sun streaming in through the gothic arch of the tower window. She could see two paths of those magic particles to follow one so fresh she could almost taste it, instead she followed the older path to the window seat cushions. A sheet of paper was carefully wrapped around a lip-gloss that gleamed with magic. 

“Gotya.” She read through the note first before opening the lip-gloss.  

Dear Ruby, 

You’re my best friend but if you’re really that desperate for some guy then this will give you what you want. Pop on the gloss and the next time you wake up your Prince Charming will be hovering above you. 

Love You, 

Dani 

Eve carefully placed the note to one side, instead glancing at Aiden. 

“Guess you're not the only idiot here."