After assuring the head witch that it was okay to bring her children, I hung up and told the others she was on her way. The Safe Harbor Café materialized a little flower phone for Tony the Wasp to call his wife. I wondered what the receiver looked like on the other end of the call. Usually, I was pretty sure that whoever we were calling just had a cellphone. But any being in our territory could petition the café to manifest a phone for them to ask for aid. That would have been how his wife contacted us in the first place.

A beige minivan pulled into our parking lot, and a short White woman, wearing yoga pants, got out. She went around the side and removed two kids. The older one, she held by the hand, and the younger one, she strapped to her chest in a carrier. For a moment, I tensed up, worried that a normal was going to walk in here to see a fairy man flying around, but then I recognized Ashley, the head witch.

When she got to the front door, the young witch stopped and knelt down. She pulled her older child down next to her. I realized they were communing with the café on some level. I hadn’t seen a witch do that before, but this was the first time I had called one in on official business. Witches came to eat often enough, but rarely for something official like healing. They tended to handle their own trouble.

Mother and daughter placed their foreheads to the stoop, and I heard the muffled complaints of the younger child about being squashed by its mother. They entered the restaurant, and the mother spoke up, saying, “Hey, sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Thank you for coming on such short notice. I want to get Mr. Wasp here home as soon as possible. Do you need a high chair? Can I get anything for your little ones?”

“Nah, I’ll just wear the baby, unless anyone objects?” She looked around at us questioningly. I didn’t care if she wore her kid. Lily and the fairy didn’t mind either. “Right then. Thank you. Could you get my daughter something to eat? What kind of dessert do you have?”

“I made some buttermint ice cream yesterday. Would you like that?” I asked, careful to address my question at the young girl. She buzzed with power. I couldn’t tell if she was unusually powerful or just so young that she hadn’t learned to shield it yet. It was slightly uncomfortable to stand near her, and I had to struggle not to back up.

“Yes, please, Guardian.” Her voice was very polite and soft. She spoke with a soft lisp, which accentuated her young age. Ashley led her daughter over to a booth as far away from the door as she could get. When I came back from the kitchen with her dish of ice cream, I found the spirit of the café had manifested her a collection of crystals to play with while she waited. She was levitating them in the air and shooting them with beams of light to make them flash and shine. The fairy had flown over to enjoy the show, and she was showing off for him. It was an impressive display of magic. I waited off to the side with her ice cream, unwilling to interrupt her moment.

When she noticed me, she looked embarrassed and lowered the rocks.

“That was amazing!” I told her with a big smile. It really was. I set her ice cream down in front of her.

“Thank you,” she said in her soft lisping voice, then she looked down suddenly. I wondered if she struggled with feeling pleased with my praise and embarrassed for calling attention to herself. The witches were deep in the broom closet. It was possible that this was the first time she had been allowed to do magic outside of the house.

I went back to the table in the center of the room, where Lily was sitting with her now empty coffee cup. There was a perfect red lipstick stain on the rim. I sat next to Lily, and the fairy landed on the table. The head witch stood and rocked her baby back and forth. She did a funny little hip drop on each side, but whatever she did worked because the kid was quiet and snuggled to its mother’s chest.

“As guardian and healer, I petition the witches to hear the complaint brought by the fairy, known as Tony the Wasp.” I fumbled to recall the correct language. I hoped she would still listen to me. Sometimes the precise wording didn’t matter, but when it did, it mattered a lot.

“I, Ashley, high priestess, speak for my coven and all unaffiliated witches who seek our protection. What do you wish of us?” she asked. I was relieved that we weren’t standing on ceremony.

“I was contacted to heal this fairy.” I looked down at the little man and continued. “When Mr. Wasp came to me, his wings were torn off, and a dark spell infected the wounds on his back.”

“Have you removed the spell?” Ashley asked, and she peered at the fairy. I could tell that she was using her second sight because her hair began to float around her. Lily must have been focusing like hell to keep her powers in check. She hadn’t blocked the kid’s powers, and if Ashley was using her second sight, then she was able to use magic as well. I looked over at Lily. She looked pressed and perfect.

But I could tell by the way she gripped the spoon until her knuckles turned white that she is working hard to keep her magic in check. I wanted to reach out and pat her arm or something, but I knew that would just distract her. Turning to Ashley, I said, “Yes, I did. I off-loaded the spell onto a rock. I was going to disillusion it in a bit of salt water, but I thought you would like to see it.” I got up, went behind the register, and got the hematite in its containment pouch.

“Is it safe to handle in this form, or should I put the baby down?” Ashley asked me as I handed her the pouch.

“It’s usually inert. I wouldn’t feed it to the baby, and if you probe it too much, it may snap at you, but I think it should be fine. Lily here can unleash her powers and clear it out before it settles in. But, you know, I mean, it’s your baby. So, you should do what you think is best. I can get you a high chair if you want to set her down.”

“It’ll be okay. He’s pretty powerful in his own right, and that protects him. Besides, I may never get him back to sleep.” She stared fondly down at him.

I wondered if I should apologize for misgendering him but decided not to mention it and wordlessly handed her the bag with the rock in it.

“Thanks. Can I have a glass of water and a bowl?” she asked.

“Sure.” I got them for her, then went back to sit by Lily and the fairy. Ashley glanced at Lily for a moment, then backed up a ways. Lily relaxed her death grip on the spoon, and I could see the lines it left in her palm. Ashley made a face, then stuck the rock in her mouth. She sucked on it and swished it around. I could tell from her hair moving—because the wind wasn’t in the room—that she was doing magic, but I wasn’t sure what kind.

Finally, she spat the rock out into the bowl and began rinsing out her mouth. The water she spat into the bowl was black-tinged, but when she looked at me to speak, her gums oozed blood. “Nyx help me, that was a foul thing.” Without further comment, she grabbed a saltshaker and shook it over the bowl until a puff of black smoke appeared over the water, signifying that the spell was broken. Ashley covered her son’s nose and mouth and blew the smoke toward Lily. Lily relaxed, and the smoke blinked out of existence.

Ashley walked to the front door, opened it, and hurled the bowl into the parking lot. I wasn’t sure if I would need to sweep up the glass later or if the café would dispose of it. I’d have to look later. Investigating black magic was risky, and I didn’t want her to think I was ungrateful. I waited for her to speak again. She needed a moment to collect herself. My first instinct was to offer her food since that’s what I always did, but it seemed gross after she’d been sucking on a black spell.

“I know the taste of that magic. I thought I knew my sister, but apparently not. Justice will be done this very night, Mr. Wasp.” Blood covered Ashley’s teeth, and her speech was slurred like her tongue was swollen.

“Is this a real sister or a colloquial one?” I didn’t mean to ask that question, but it was an important thing to clarify before I asked her my next question.

“Just a manner of speaking. She is a member of my coven. I’ve known her all my life, although we aren’t terribly close. If we had been closer, I would have found her out before this.”

“I hate to ask, but some women are missing. Do you think this witch could have had anything to do with their disappearance?” Lily asked, a bit more eagerly than she was perhaps polite.

“Women are missing? What type of women?” Ashley asked.

“A wolf named Alice, a dryad named Vasiliki, and a vamp named Samantha. She’d only been turned a few weeks. She went missing over a month ago. Her sire swears it wasn’t suicide and that something bad happened to her,” Lily said.

“Goddess, I hope not! I admit it’s possible. But then she wouldn’t need to go around and rip the wings off fairies. I’d also hate to think we missed such evil in our midst. Missing this was huge, Mr. Wasp; we owe you a debt. One that cannot easily be repaid. We are willing to honor it tonight at the coven meeting, or I can carry the debt.”

“You don’t owe me anything except vengeance,” the fairy said.

“Will witnessing her punishment satisfy the blood debt?” Ashley asked him.

“Will there be actual blood?” he asked. He flew away from Lily and toward Ashley.

“Of course, Mr. Wasp. We haven’t taken all the teeth out of our magic. Not yet, anyway.” She grinned at him. I shifted uncomfortably at her blood-thirsty words. The trials were my least favorite part of being a guardian.