Trouble's Brewing (Stirring Up Trouble Trilogy 2)

“Of course you do.”

Christmas had exploded in the mall, with red and green decorations, and the nonstop Christmas music. Little kids waited impatiently to see Santa and to ride the tot-sized train.

Mom and I found some delicious hand lotion at one of the department stores, and we agreed that the vanilla scent was perfect for the gift packages. Unfortunately, we didn’t accomplish much more, and I realized I had no idea what to get Jake.

“I was thinking about Milo and his family,” Mom said. “I know Bill and Marjorie would love to have autographed volumes of Martin’s work on potions.”

“Mom, you are brilliant! I know exactly which one Milo would like.”

“If only everyone else were so easy,” she said as we walked to the parking lot.

“I guess Finn wouldn’t want his own work. Maybe we should get him a vacation. Then he’d actually have to take a vacation.”

“Maybe,” Mom said. “What he might like most is a friend.”

“I can try to brew him one, but the Council will probably get ticked off.”

“Not funny,” Mom said, but she was grinning. “I wish we could brew him a friend.”

I wished I could brew her a date.

On Thursday, I was sitting in class when it hit me. A stroke of genius. Well, maybe not genius. It started with the guy wearing the Vampire Weekend T-shirt across from me. Then I remembered Brice’s South Park T-shirt from this morning. Finn the potions master didn’t need anything. He had the resources to buy whatever he wanted. The Finn we should be shopping for was the nineteen-year-old, the young college guy that he appeared to be. Mom had helped him with his wardrobe, and he was working on behaving and speaking more like a teen. He needed the full pop culture education. He needed a season’s worth of South Park, Family Guy, The Big Bang Theory, and Sponge Bob. The DVD collections would be perfect gifts.

In between classes, I texted Mom.

She texted back before the bell rang. Brilliant!

By the time I got home, Mom had already stopped by Target and bought the DVDs. She’d also picked up a T-shirt with Brian, the dog from Family Guy, and one of Stewie with his freakishly shaped head.

“Want to help me wrap these?” she asked.

“No. I want to work on the substitution tonight.”

“Okay,” she said, scooping up her purchases. “I can’t believe we already got Martin taken care of!”

Finn finally arrived on Thursday night, and I decided to reveal my surprise. I couldn’t contain my excitement any longer. “Finn,” I announced. “I’m only a couple of days away from perfecting the unicorn horn solution.”

Finn didn’t look up from his laptop. “That’s nice.”

“No, really. Finn, I’ve almost got it. Unicorn horn!” I said proudly.

Finn looked at me this time. “Zoe, are you quite serious?”

I nodded. “Yes! I wanted to wait until I had it complete, but I’m too excited. I’m so close. I think I’ll have it by the end of the week.”

“Show me,” Finn said, not a hint of excitement in his voice.

Did he not believe me? I wrinkled my brow in consternation. “Um, okay.” I took out all of the ingredients, and then got my favorite cauldron. “I used the limestone plus four cat’s meows, plus a few other tweaks on my original choices with the ingredients for the enlargement of inanimate objects potion.” I opened the back door and motioned to the giant flower pot on the patio. It was the size of a large trash can. “The potion should have yielded better results. The flower pot should have reached about ten feet tall and five feet in diameter.” I stopped to see Finn’s reaction. “It’s not perfect, but I’m close.” I was ready for the accolades now.

“Oh dear,” Finn said, his expression solemn. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I only gave you permission to pursue the substitution because I thought there was no chance of you succeeding.”

His words hit me like a punch to my gut. “You thought I couldn’t do it?”

“I clearly underestimated your gift.”

“You knew about the toad slime. Why would you think I couldn’t do it?”

“I apologize, my dear. I have handled the situation quite poorly.” He sank down onto a stool. “Finding a substitution for unicorn horn is dangerous.”

“Dangerous?”

“Yes. The one potion ingredient with the most potential for weaponization is unicorn horn. Unicorns are scarce, and while witches have developed some terrifying weapons from the substance, they haven’t been utilized because of the cost and the tracking procedures for orders of unicorn horn.”

“Weapons? Like guns?”

“Like ultra-powerful nuclear bombs.”

Oh. I sat down as the news sank in. A substitution for unicorn horn wouldn’t help cure cancer. It would destroy lives instead of saving them. And I had almost discovered it. “Why didn’t you tell me this in the first place?”

He shook his head. “I can only apologize.”

“You thought I couldn’t do it. So you just let me waste my time.” I thought about the hours I’d spent thinking, planning, experimenting. The wasted time over Thanksgiving with my desperation to get back to work. “I could have been working on something else!”

“Zoe, you have to stop your experiments and destroy all your notes on unicorn horn immediately. You haven’t shared your findings with anyone, have you? What about young Milo?”

“No. No one.”

“Hey, guys,” Mom said, coming in from the garage. “How’s your session going?”

“It’s terrible,” I said.

“Not well I’m afraid,” Finn admitted.

Mom set down her purse, took in our serious expressions, and pulled up a stool. “Tell me. How bad is it?”

“Rather horrid.”

“Mom! The unicorn substitution has been a waste of time. Finn didn’t expect me to succeed, so he didn’t tell me not to do it. He didn’t tell me that unicorn horn is dangerous and can be weaponized.”

“Oh, Zoe,” Mom said.

“Child,” Finn said. “I cannot tell you how incredibly sorry I am about this situation. I believe I have learned a difficult lesson, a lesson as difficult as the one you are facing now.”

“I really doubt it,” I said.

“Annie, why don’t you pour us each a glass of tea, and we’ll adjourn to the living room. There is something I haven’t told either of you, and I believe it’s time to ‘come clean’ as they say.”

This did not sound good. I glanced at my mother. She didn’t have a clue either, and the whole situation was way too familiar. The last bad news an adult had shared had been my parents telling me about their impending divorce.

Mom went to the refrigerator and removed the pitcher of tea. She pulled three glasses from the cabinet, and then she used the ice dispenser to fill each with ice. I watched her as if her actions were enthralling, but I needed something to focus on, something to cling to.

Finn helped her fill each glass with tea, and then he handed me one. Mom placed the tea pitcher on the top shelf of the fridge, and Finn led the way into the living room. Mom took a seat on the couch, holding her tea glass tightly in both hands, and then gestured for me to sit next to her. I did, sitting as close as possible.

Finn sat in the arm chair, and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “The decision to hide this from you wasn’t mine in the beginning. The Council covered this up decades ago.

“Zoe, you asked me once about the margarine substitution. I gleaned from your questions and those of Milo that you suspected I had a hand in it.” He shook his head. “In fact I did not.

“I described some of the more troubling aspects of the dead man’s toe experimentation. The crimes committed were not insignificant. The obsession involved was quite honestly terrifying. The work itself, however, was brilliant. As I believe we discussed, the contribution to potions science was the greatest of the century.

“The witch involved, the brilliant potions master, the woman who made this revolutionary contribution…” Finn paused and gave me a pitying glance. “Zoe, the woman who stole body parts from hundreds, possibly thousands, of graves… was your great-grandmother.”

Chapter Fourteen

My jaw dropped. How could I be related to the woman who discovered the substitution and not have any idea? How could my mother not know? Did my grandmother know?