"That and I've never actually had anybody I was willing to curse," admits Isabella. "I'm not of Metis's opinion that in the name of practice it's okay to do it to random people once or twice, and people pay attention to that sign she has up."

"...I mean, if you need candidates, I can come up with a few," he says.

"Yeah? Who?"

Wryly, "I don't tend to get names."

"That'll make it harder," muses Isabella. "Not necessarily impossible. Does introduce a risk of mistargeting."

"Well, how do you target these things?"

"There's several ways, and really there's always a risk of mistargeting, because any one of them can go wrong, but you can get it down to acceptable levels - not more problematic than driving a car and risking hitting someone. The most essential way - I don't think I know a way to curse a person without - is to use something that has some connection with them. A place they've been, a person they've met, a thing they've owned. But adding the name, and a good long poem about the properties of who exactly you mean to hit, and then sacrificing a critter of some kind in effigy while being very clear in your mind that this critter represents the one person and not the other, all stack up to help."

"Person they've met," he snorts. "Yeah, I'll say."

"Yes, well. You could also take me to the relevant location or produce one of their shoes and that would work just as well."

"Montreal," he says succinctly. "And I don't exactly keep souvenirs."

"Bit of a flight. Metis would give me the days off if that was what it took to get me to do a practice curse, though."

"And you might have to break into somebody's apartment. Which would be a help with the souvenir thing, I guess."

"I don't really want to break into somebody's apartment," says Isabella. "My dad wouldn't approve. I don't think it's particularly likely he'd find out, but I do rather care what he'd approve of anyway."

"He'd approve of you cursing somebody, but not of you breaking into their place to do it?"

"He'd approve of me cursing somebody that I would be liable to choose to curse. Especially if they committed a crime and managed not to get convicted. Well. Approve is the wrong word. He'd look at me for a while and then he'd ask me if it had been a good idea and then when I told him yes he'd change the subject."

"He's surprisingly understanding about extralegal witchy activities, for a cop."

"Good for him."

"Yeah, things would be worse between him and my mother if - actually, come to think of it, I don't think she does anything extralegal. Casual border-crossing is not actually illegal for witches. But he'd definitely get along worse with his in-laws if he weren't."

"I'm getting the sense I might not hate your dad."

"Were you likely to before learning this? On the off-chance you ever encounter him?"

"Well, he's a cop."

"Not fond of cops?"

"They're usually not fond of me first."

"Why?"