The Local Cafe Thyme for Treats was owned by the Innskeep Family, so naturally, people just called it Innskeep, which greatly annoyed Camila, who went through every version of the cute name for months.

The large sign screwed to the stone storefront was black with bright mint green letters that stood out against the soft limestone storefront, and Tegan would know, since it was right across from Sharpe's Antique and Oddities, their windows facing each other.

but today Tegan was sitting inside, in the small little Conservatory that was attached to the back sitting room, the windows were tinted

so she could watch the world go by while having some sense of privacy while she stuff her face.

Large shelves stood in the corners, Dark brown with teal little railings to keep the open tins, and a few wooden crates with the

Innskeeps Tea Company logo held all kinds of plants.

Ah, yes, the Innskeep Tea Company, founded 378 years ago by an elder male witch who'd built the business long before the witch trials caught up to him and took his wife instead.

Don't ask which one, just know he got the fuck out of there, fleeing south with his three kids and whatever stock he could carry, landing in a small river town of Dorrance.

Settled and sold his Stock, quickly building his local brand with his daughter and her familiar, a long, deep grey mountain cat.

The morning air had the perfect balance of chill and expected warmth as the day went on, with mist coming down lazily from the mountains. This brought a crowd of people to the shopping district, and it felt like most of them were packed into the Innskeep’s cafe.

Tegan’s chair had been shoved, tripped over, and knocked into multiple times.

She huffed and mopped up her coffee.

Why are so many fucking people in this room?

"Assholes." Lottie hissed as she moved away from the spreading mess, her eyes never leaving

Leaving her phone, she felt around for a napkin and tossed it into the puddle.

"Thanks for the help." Tegan hissed, grabbing clean napkins.

"That's what I'm here for."

Tegan slapped the napkin, swiping at it as she glared at her cousin.

To say she was more than a little annoyed would be a huge understatement.

She was still way too pissed off with the way Ethan had just abandoned her last night, and now the asshole was ignoring her calls this morning.

She had tried, but he wasn't in the shop, so she was here. Camping out in the cafe across from her workplace on her day off, waiting to see if he tried to sneak in.

She was not going to let him get away with this slight.
However, perceived it was!
She thought bitterly, glaring into her new cup of coffee.
The whipped cream that had been carefully set onto her frozen mocha was melting and looked more like a lump of curdled butter. “That’s gross.” Aria sat down across from Lottie, who was too busy texting on her phone to even look at them.

Aria looked like she was about to say something, but Tegan cut her off. "Ignore her..I actually wanted to ask you about something."

"Ohhhh, is this about the love triangle?" She teased, taking a sip of Tegan's drink while watching her with mischievous eyes.

“That’s gross.” Tegan immediately took the drink back. “You could’ve at least asked.”

"Love Triangle?" That got Lottie's attention, completely missing the context of what just happened.

"What? No! There is no Love Triangle." Tegan stated quickly, before Aria could say anything, because she knew exactly where the young witch was going, and she didn't want to deal with that mess right now. “If anyone had a love triangle, it would be you!”

“Me!” Lottie choked on her drink.”

“I see what you put in those little snacks of yours!” Lottie went on a tangent, defending herself and making an excuse that Shawn was calling. She took the “call” and turned her back on them like she was suddenly very busy.

Tegan stared at the back of her head. “Real subtle, Lottie. Real subtle,” She rolled her eyes and turned to Aria. “Anyway. You know a bunch about Shifters.”

“Well, Yeah.."

“Are Shifters stronger than Warlocks?”

“Depends on the shifter, I guess.” Aria shrugged. “I mean… when it comes to Warlocks, generally most shifters are powerless. Like Lycans, I guess.”

“Aria!” Lottie gasped and turned to the young witch. “How could you say that! Isn’t loan a…” She dropped her voice down like she was about to spill state secrets,

“Shut up!” Aria and Tegan both yelled.

Anyone in Dorrance who was anyone knew of Aria’s “forbidden” romance. If you said it was just the old Traditionalists that cared, you’d be so wrong. There were a lot of young traditionalists too, hate begets hate as they say.

“And he technically is only half.” Aria snapped, giving Tegan a look she knew all too well.

“No.”

“It was only going to be a little one,” Aria muttered, pouting like a child.

“You aren’t going to curse my cousin Aria.” Tegan hissed.

“Fine.”

“Good, now how many kinds of Shifters are there?”

Aria sighed, clearly thanking whatever god was up there.

“There are more than I can think of at the moment; there are a few subspecies as well.” Aria pulled her sleeve up to reveal her forearm away from Lottie’s prying eyes.” I know about 5 major houses, like any other Mythic, they have insignias branded on them.” She tapped her forearm to where her own insignia was.

It marked her as belonging to the house of Innskeep.

“What else do you know about shifters?” They both jumped; neither one noticed Lottie had hung up her “call” and turned back to them.

“What?”

“I was asking what else you know about the shifter?”

Tegan tensed, eyeing her cousin with skepticism. Was Lottie really interested? What could she possibly gain from asking? Tegan was even more confused because Lottie had just given her an entire lecture about Mythics, and that lecture ended with a book getting thrown at her face.

“Well, shifters are shifters; everyone knows about them.” Aria waved a dismissive hand when Lottie informed her that she did, in fact, not know anything about shifters and pushed harder.

She glanced down. Her whole face changed.

Yeah. That wasn’t good.

Tegan and Lottie jumped when Aria slammed her phone onto the table with a huff. “They are all liars and thieves, sneaky little pricks the lot of them.” The witch mumbled bitterly at Lottie’s prodding.

Tegan sighed, already exhausted because she realized that Loan had just broken up with her friend, again, the third time this month...

Tegan felt her ring tingling; not that Aria would hurt her, it was just a warning tingle.

Magic was unpredictable, and mixing it with a pissed-off witch? Things normally went boom.

She needed to lighten the mood quickly.

“Which of your teas is the best seller? Isn’t it the one you sneak potions into?” she teased, twirling the straw of her frozen coffee between her fingers.

“You say that like we are succubus or something,” Aria said with disgust. Everyone knew succubi used body fluids to manipulate people… any body fluid.

Lottie frowned, but Aria and Tegan didn’t pay attention to her. “We help people. Just without them knowing it.” Aria defended her family's long-standing tradition.

Lottie’s eyebrows knitted together as she watched Aria joke, her grip on her cup tightening. Lottie's heartbeat was so loud in her ears that she had to take a few deep breaths to try to keep her calm.

“Tegan?” Tegan looked and could practically see what her cousin was thinking. People shouldn’t talk like this, witches, potions, drugging people. It was wrong, wasn’t it? Shouldn’t Tegan agree with her? “Stop it.”

“Lottie?” Tegan jumped when Lottie’s chair hit the ground. The laughter died as she stood there glaring down at them. “What’s wrong?”

“Stop it!” Her voice cracked

“Stop what?” Tegan grabbed Lottie’s arm, stopping her from running off. “Lottie?” The emotions on her face were passing too quickly; Tegan couldn’t even read her cousin's face.

“You joke about ruining people’s lives like it doesn’t matter.” She hissed, keeping her voice low so the other customers couldn’t hear, but she wasn’t talking to Tegan; her eyes were locked on Aria’s, and if looks could kill.

Tegan’s brow furrowed as she tried to figure out if this was a joke or not, because it would be pretty fucked up if she was serious, after everything she had done to get Ethan to fall back in love with her.

And she was now running away.

Great.

“Lottie?” Tegan tripped over her chair as she tried to run after Lottie, who was running down the sidewalk. Her ankle was already bruising when Aria helped untangle her. “I have to; she is going to pitch a fit.”

“Go on, we both know she is going to have a meltdown.”

“I just feel like every time I get a minute to myself, that’s when Ethan needs help in the shop, Lottie is having a breakdown, or there is a monster in the river trying to eat people. “She grabbed her phone and shoved it into her pocket as she vented.

“What river monster doesn't like a snack or two?" Aria teased as she finished Tegan's drink.

Tegan huffed. "You know what I mean."

"Ah, the life of a warlock's apprentice must be so hard." Aria dragged a finger down her face, mocking a tear.

“I am not his apprentice!”

“Really? What are you doing this weekend?”

“Regis needs me to pick up some blueprints or maps or something from…” Tegan stopped talking when Aria was giving her a smug little smirk. “Ugh! Shut up.”

“You do their bidding; fetch the coffee, and you are learning magic.”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something that Regis told me today.” She wasn’t sure if she should tell Aria everything Regis had told her, but she was one of the only people she could talk to.

Aria nodded. “Later, when you finally get that vacation.”

“If only that were possible.”

“Maybe a spa day.”

“I’ll text you later.” Aria waved when Tegan ran down the street after her overly dramatic cousin.

Tegan didn’t even look back. Figures. Something always came up.

The café felt quieter without her, even with people still talking around them.

Aria stayed in her seat, watching the corner where Tegan had disappeared, that uneasy feeling settling deeper in her chest.

She didn’t even notice her mom sitting down next to her at first.

“Honey?” Warmth spread along her arm as her mom placed a hand on it. The older woman took in her daughter’s expression.

“Mom?” Aria glanced at her mom before looking back to where Tegan had disappeared. “Do you ever get a bad feeling?”

“All the time.” Her mom reached out and patted her cheek before getting up and heading back inside.

Aria sighed as she stood to follow her mom, but stopped short, her eyes drifting back to the shop. “Ethan, you jackass. Every time you do something stupid, those two get into a fight.”

She turned to leave; then froze. The unease settled into her stomach as she stared into the dark, empty window of the studio. “Damn it, Tegan.”

She scoffed to herself, ready to joke that Tegan’s paranoia was rubbing off on her. She was just about to, a small smile tugging at her mouth.

The shadow moved. Jerked inside the darkness of the studio.

“Shit.”

She stumbled back and, with her heart pounding, she scurried after her mom.