Charmed: Let Gorgons Be Gorgons (15 page)

The sadness Phoebe saw in her husband’s eyes was not just from his story. “This is not your fault,” she insisted. “What happened back then? Dafydd did that to himself. What’s happening now is his fault too.”

“But if I hadn’t--”

“
No
,” she insisted. “It’s in the job description for both of us. We’re here to fulfill the roles intended for us. That brings us up against bad things from time-to-time. Okay, all the time. But still, you are no more responsible for what’s going on now than I am for every time the Source of All Evil returns seeking vengeance. That’s just the way of the world.”

“But I feel--”

“
No
.”

Coop revealed a shy but grateful smile as Phoebe squeezed his hands. Nothing more needed to be said between them on that matter.

“What I want to know,” Phoebe said, “is how is he doing this if he doesn’t have his ring anymore?”

“He must have gotten one,” Coop said. “And if we find out how, it might tell us everything we need to know.”

Paige was impressed. Phoebe’s column was always an entertaining read, but today her sister had really outdone herself. She’d written so deeply about love and commitment and the challenges of keeping a marriage fresh that Paige wanted to orb over to Henry’s office just to tell him that she loved him. Considering how often she popped by unexpectedly when magical calamities struck, she decided to send him a text instead so his coworkers didn’t get tired of seeing her. Her message to Henry was filled with every romantic emoticon in her phone. She wasn’t usually the smiley-faces-with-hearts-in-the-eyes and kissy lips type, but she was feeling un-ironically gushy by the end of Phoebe’s column.

Even with Paige’s busy life shuffling between her kids, her Charges, and those aforementioned magical calamities that came her way, she always tried to carve out a bit of her day to read her sister’s work. The article Phoebe had written in response to the mass breakups of the couples she had married did everything it needed to do. It explained her perspective on the situation, gave some tips to others out there with marriages on the rocks, and seemed to include some kind of vague threat to some unknown “forces” that seemed to be working to pull the couples apart.

That last part was the most interesting. Thanks to a brief text message exchange the previous night, Paige knew exactly which “unknown force” Phoebe was referring to. But none of them knew what, if anything, it had to do with their gorgon situation.

Paige had stayed up with Piper late the night before testing food to see what was in it. No recognizable poisons had come up by the time Paige had to orb home to help Henry put the kids to bed. Some nights, her children were perfectly agreeable and went off to “sleepytime” without a care in the world. Last night had not been one of those times. She’d spent so much time trying to get Henry and the twins to bed that she’d hardly managed to get enough sleep herself. She’d poured herself a coffee in one of the big mugs the moment she got to Piper’s that morning.

Paige was just finishing off that coffee when Piper returned from getting her own kids and her husband off to Magic School. Paige’s niece and nephews weren’t even remotely prepared when she popped in this morning, so Paige had sent her kids ahead while Piper and Leo continued to wrangle their brood.

It was Magic Fair Day at Magic School and Leo was one of the judges for the student projects. He couldn’t take off to help like he had the day before. Not everyone had the freedom to blow off their jobs at a moment’s notice. Honestly, Piper didn’t really have that kind of flexibility either. She also didn’t have much of a choice until she figured out what needed to be done to reopen her doors.

“The kids got off okay,” Piper said as she poured herself her own, smaller, cup of coffee. “Mel is wearing two totally different sneakers because apparently that’s what looks good according to her. I eventually got tired of fighting. If she wants to be mismatched and walk with a slight limp, so be it.”

“Your daughter is destined to be a trendsetter,” Paige said. “Two different shoes is probably one of the least weird things kids at Magic School will ever see.”

“Good point.”

Paige handed the paper to her sister as Piper slipped into the chair across from her. “You should read Phoebe’s article. It’s really good. Especially for something she rushed to come up with last night.”

“I’ll check it out later,” Piper said as she put it down on the table. “I’ve got news. I didn’t have the chance to tell you while Chris was running around with his underwear on his head, but I figured out what was in the food. Considering recent events, I’m not sure why we didn’t test for it right away.”

Paige leaned forward. “I’m intrigued.”

Piper smiled the satisfied smile of a mother who figured something out after staying up working too late the night before. “Ambrosia.”

“The food of the gods?” Paige said. “So this
is
tied to the gorgons.”

Piper pulled out her cell phone. “Seems pretty likely. I didn’t want to call Suzanne too early, but I’m hoping she’ll be up by now.”

Paige considered the ramifications of Piper’s discovery while her sister waited for the chef to pick up. What she knew about ambrosia from her mythology lessons in school was probably comparable to the tales of the gorgons: a little fact mixed with mostly fiction.

“Suzanne,” Piper said into her phone, pulling Paige’s attention toward eavesdropping. “Hope I didn’t wake you.”

Paige couldn’t hear the chef’s end of the conversation. Suzanne was somewhat soft-spoken, which always made it difficult for Paige on the rare occasions she helped out in Piper’s kitchen. The look on Piper’s face suggested that Suzanne had been up already.

“I’m working on the problem and you’ll be happy to hear it doesn’t look at all like you could have done anything about it,” Piper explained. “Someone tampered with the food in your kitchen. I was wondering if you happened to have noticed a strange woman, or maybe
three
women, hanging around yesterday?”

Paige strained to listen, but could barely make out the muffled sounds of a voice coming through the line. It didn’t matter. After a few “uh-huhs” and “okays,” Piper ended the call.

“Was it them?” Paige asked as soon as the cell phone screen went dark.

“No,” Piper replied. “At least, Suzanne didn’t see any strange women. But she did have a bizarre interaction with a man who claimed to work for the health inspector.”

“Tell me she didn’t leave him in the kitchen alone,” Paige said.

“That’s the bizarre part,” Piper said. “Suzanne would
never
leave a stranger in her kitchen. And yet, she clearly recalls him coming in, but doesn’t remember him leaving. Or anything about the encounter. In fact, she completely forgot him until I specifically asked her if anyone came by.”

“Which is why she never mentioned it to us last night,” Paige guessed. “Okay, so now we have a new player in the mix. Do we think it’s the same guy messing with Phoebe? The former cupid?”

“I hope so,” Piper said. “I can’t take anymore new villains. I’ve already got my fill.”

Paige forced a smile. “Oh, but this is fun! And by
fun
, I mean incredibly annoying.”

“Tell me about it,” Piper said. “According to Leo, ambrosia isn’t intended for mortals. It’s incredibly dangerous.”

“I thought it did good things,” Paige said. “Like make people live forever, or be really strong and stuff like that.”

Piper took a sip of her coffee. “Not so much. It can be deadly. Sounds like what we got last night was a mild case.”

“If that was mild, I’d hate to see it in full effect.”

Piper put down her mug. “I can’t reopen Halliwell’s until I figure out what foods need to be replaced. I might have to restock the entire kitchen. This is going to get expensive.”

“Especially with you paying the staff for these unplanned vacation days,” Paige added.

Piper shrugged. “It’s not their fault they work for a Charmed One.” Piper added another cube of sugar to her coffee as Phoebe and Coop came into the kitchen. “Running a little late this morning?”

“P.J. didn’t like the outfit I picked for her,” Phoebe replied as she went for the coffeemaker. “It was four rounds of debate followed by two complete costume changes before Coop could beam us out.”

“All I had to deal with was shoes,” Piper said with mild relief in her tone.

“Probably for the best,” Paige added. “It gets crowded in that attic when we’re all up there at once.”

“And the fewer people witnessing my children’s clothing catastrophes the better,” Piper added as she took another sip.

“P.J. and Parker are comfortably at Magic School daycare,” Coop said as Phoebe finished off the pot of coffee, handing him a cup of coffee. He put it down on the table and focused on his sisters-in-law. “I assume Phoebe updated you on our situation?”

“As much as she could in a text,” Piper said. “And we might have an update on that too.”

Paige watched Coop’s face fall as Piper filled him in on their latest suspicions. They didn’t know for sure that this Dafydd person had been the one to poison the food at Halliwell’s, but they had enough information for an educated guess. It was probably the last thing Coop wanted to hear.

Coop was pulling Piper out of her seat and into a hug by the time she was done. “Piper, I’m so sorry that the restaurant got caught up in this mess.”

“Thanks, Coop, but you don’t need to do that,” Piper said as he released her. “From what Phoebe told me, you were only doing your job. Besides, we don’t know for sure that Dafydd was behind it or what his motivation is.”

“If it is him, his motivation seems to be getting back to me through my family,” Coop said. “I hurt the person he loved. He wants to hurt everyone I love.”

“We should let them know at Magic School to keep an extra eye on the girls,” Phoebe said, placing a hand on her husband’s arm. “Just as a precaution.”

Piper pulled out her phone and started texting. “They already keep so many eyes on our kids that it’s probably not necessary, but I’ll give Leo the heads up.”

“What I don’t get is that Phoebe said Dafydd’s not a Cupid anymore,” Paige said. “How does he have
any
power?”

“It’s not as simple as that,” Coop said. “He was never stripped of his abilities. Just his ring.”

“I thought the ring was the power,” Piper said.

“It is and it isn’t,” Coop replied. “When Cupids are reborn as cherubs we have no inherent power. It comes from the ring, which we get as soon as we’re old enough to wear it. As a father now, I’m beginning to suspect that that comes when we’re old enough to be sure that we won’t accidentally swallow it.”

“Smart plan,” Phoebe said.

“That’s why it’s so strange that the girls are showing Cupid powers,” Coop said. “Like how P.J. can beam without using a ring. I think being the child of a Cupid and a Charmed One gave her more skills than she should possess.”

“You think P.J. beaming all over the place isn’t her active witch power? That she can do other things too?” Paige asked.

Phoebe shrugged. “We’ve talked about it, but we can’t be sure. The girls are still so young. We’ll just have to watch them as they grow up. I’m sure all our kids are going to surprise us in a bunch of different ways.”

“Oh, goody,” Paige said. “Something to look forward to.” Paige often regretting binding her daughters’ powers, but it was times like these that she saw the value in the decision. She’d only agreed to do it after many long conversations with Henry, but they felt it was safer that way. With Henry Jr. being adopted with no inherent powers of his own, it just felt like, as a family, they should wait to let the girls come into their gifts when they were a little older to keep everyone safe. As logical as that decision was, Paige still questioned herself over it every single time she watched her nieces and nephews use their naturally born skills.

“But you can still use your magic without your ring,” Piper noted.

“Over time a bond forms between the Cupid and the ring,” Coop explained. “The love magic becomes a part of that Cupid. I can still access it without my ring, but it isn’t nearly as strong as when I have it. But it’s different when a Cupid is stripped of a ring. Like I told Phoebe, he would still have his magic, but trying to use it would be difficult.”

“Which is why we have to figure out where this new ring came from,” Phoebe said.

“I’m thinking the ambrosia might be a clue,” Paige said. “Far as I remember, that’s the food of the Greek gods, not the Roman ones. And Cupid was a Roman god, if I recall correctly.”

“It’s not as simple as that,” Coop said.

“Never is,” Paige replied.

“The entire Cupid Corps dates back to the original Greek god, Eros,” Coop explained. “Suffice it to say, if I’d eaten Piper’s food last night, I wouldn’t have gotten sick. It actually would have been the best meal I ever had.”

“And it would have been so nice if the gorgons and Dafydd were linked,” Paige said as she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket.

“I’m not so sure they’re not,” Phoebe said. “It’s too big a coincidence that we’re dealing with two kinds of ancient mythological powers at the same time.”

Piper clapped her hands together once, with forced enthusiasm. “Okay, then. One more mystery to add to the list!”

Paige held up her phone. “That’s not all we have for the list.”

“I’m really beginning to hate this era of being constantly connected,” Piper said. “What’s wrong now?”

“Same spells, different day,” Paige said. “Two more statues overnight. Prue just texted me the links.”

“Don’t these gorgons ever sleep?” Phoebe asked.

“To be fair, we did take some time off to deal with our non-witchy lives,” Piper said as she grabbed the phone from Paige. “Who are the latest victims?”

Before Piper could read the article Paige had pulled up the phone began to vibrate in her hand and a picture of Prue popped up onscreen. Piper pressed it to answer the call. “Hey! What’s up?”

“Piper?” Prue said. “I thought I called Paige.”

“I’m holding her phone,” Piper replied. “She’s here and so are Phoebe and Coop.”

“I’m guessing you got my text?” Prue said. “I didn’t want to bother you while you were dealing with the restaurant.”

“That’s on hold for the moment,” Piper said. “We’ve got to deal with these two new victims.”

“Three,” Prue said.

“Three?” Phoebe repeated as she looked at the screen of her own phone. “You just sent the text.”

“It didn’t make the news yet,” Prue said. “While you all slept I… kind of did something.”

“Did what?” Piper asked warily.

“It would be best if you came here,” Prue suggested.

Paige got up from the table and took back her phone. “We’re on our way.”

“I’m going to look into Dafydd,” Coop replied. “Now that I’ve know he’s involved, I’ll go back to headquarters and see what I can pull up.”

“Okay,” Phoebe gave him a kiss. “Just keep me posted. I’ve got five more couples to protect that I just don’t have the time to keep an eye on today if we’re going to deal with these mysterious statues too.”

“Will do,” Coop said as he beamed away.