Soulmates, Doorways, and Other Unruly Magic (Dowser 9.5)

By Meghan Ciana Doidge

This is what happens when the dowser and her two BFFs, Kandy and Kett, find themselves bored and restless. Mix in magical doorways, and other dimensional ramifications, and cupcakes and chaos are guaranteed to ensue!

Dowser 9.5 is a short novella (17k) written in celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1).

Soulmates, Doorways, and Other Unruly Magic is a novella of the Dowser series, which is set in the same universe as the Oracle, Reconstructionist, Amplifier, Archivist, and Misfits of the Adept Universe series. It contains potential spoilers for every novel in the Adept Universe, and — at minimum — should be read after all the Dowser series books. But it will be better enjoyed if read after the second book in the Archivist series. The ideal reading order is as follows:

•Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1)
•Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 2)
•Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser 3)
•I See Me (Oracle 1)
•Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser 4)
•Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser 5)
•I See You (Oracle 2)
•Artifacts, Dragons, and Other Lethal Magic (Dowser 6)
•I See Us (Oracle 3)
•Catching Echoes (Reconstructionist 1)
•Tangled Echoes (Reconstructionist 2)
•Unleashing Echoes (Reconstructionist 3)
•Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic (Dowser 7)
•Misfits, Gemstones, and Other Shattered Magic (Dowser 8)
•Graveyards, Visions, and Other Things that Byte (Dowser 8.5)
•Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9)
•The Amplifier Protocol (Amplifier 0)
•Demons and DNA (Amplifier 1)
•Bonds and Broken Dreams (Amplifier 2)
•Mystics and Mental Blocks (Amplifier 3)
•Idols and Enemies (Amplifier 4)
•Instincts and Impostors (Amplifier 5)
•Endings and Empathy (Amplifier 6)
•Misplaced Souls (Misfits 1)
•Awakening Infinity (Archivist 0)
•Invoking Infinity (Archivist 1)
•Compelling Infinity (Archivist 2)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Meghan Ciana Doidge
• Release date: Jun 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9781989571705

Meghan Ciana Doidge

Meghan Ciana Doidge is an award-winning writer based out of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada. She has a penchant for bloody love stories, superheroes, and the supernatural. She also has a thing for chocolate, potatoes, and cashmere.Novels (in order of release): After the Virus, Spirit Binder, Time Walker, Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1), Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 2), Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser 3), I See Me (Oracle 1), Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser 4), Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser 5), and I See You (Oracle 2), Artifacts, Dragons, and Other Lethal Magic (Dowser 6), I See Us (Oracle 3), Catching Echoes (Reconstructionist 1), Tangled Echoes (Reconstructionist 2), Unleashing Echoes (Reconstructionist 3), Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic (Dowser 7), Misfits, Gemstones, and Other Shattered Magic (Dowser 8), Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9), and Demons and DNA (Amplifier 1).Novellas/Shorts: Love Lies Bleeding, The Graveyard Kiss (Reconstructionist 0.5), Dawn Bytes (Reconstructionist 1.5), An Uncut Key (Reconstructionist 2.5), Graveyards, Visions, and Other Things that Byte (Dowser 8.5), The Amplifier Protocol (Amplifier 0), Close to Home (Amplifier 0.5).Coming in 2019: The Amplifier Series.Awards: Praxis Screenwriting Award. Kindle Book Award: Finalist (Dowser 1) and Semi-Finalist (Dowser 2 & 3; Oracle 1). Member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.WARNING: author has been known to manipulate characters with chocolate, sex, and fantastical plotting. Readers beware www.madebymeghan.ca

Book preview

Chapter One

Ipulled a hot muffin tin laden with cupcakes from the oven, holding it for a moment while I poked at the centers to test their doneness. Even after all these years, working with fresh fruit — in this case, raspberries — always seemed to force me back into guessing at baking times. Guessing and baking really didn’t mix. Not well, at least.

There was some chemistry to it, of course. However — spoiler alert — the sciences had never much interested me.

The tin was getting a little too hot to hold, searing my fingertips even through my oven mitt. But I persevered, poking lightly at a couple more cupcakes and judging the bounce back. Because as stupid as that sometimes made me appear, persevering was what I did.

The mini-cakes were currently perfectly domed and lusciously dark. The scent of tart raspberry twined through that of the dark cocoa … but if I overbaked this type of cupcake, they’d get dry and crumbly. If underbaked, they’d be just … yuck.

Deciding to let the cupcakes cool for five minutes before rendering my final judgement, I set the now-way-too-hot tin on top of the oven, shaking my singed fingers out of my oven mitt with a slight hiss.

Dowser.

Alchemist.

Wielder of the instruments of assassination.

Dragon slayer.

Elf slayer.

And still not immune to 350-degree burns.

An overtly noisy flip of newspaper broadcast Kett’s disdain at my brilliant display of stalwartness.

Judgemental vampire.

Ignoring the ancient asshole perched on a stool, his back ramrod straight and his icy-blue eyes glued to one of the dozen foreign daily newspapers he read, I crossed around the stainless steel workstation that bisected my bakery kitchen, eyeing the buttercream I was also in the process of mixing.

Yes, printed newspapers. Not digital. Because while the vampire might have been currently hanging out with me in the twenty-first century, he’d been remade over a millennia before.

It was Sunday, late morning. The bakery was closed, and I was test baking a new cupcake recipe in small batches. Hence the smaller mixer set next to my left elbow. Dark-chocolate-raspberry cupcakes, topped with a dark-chocolate-raspberry buttercream. At least that was the plan.

I dipped a spoon into the buttercream I’d just churned, tasting it. The cocoa content was near perfect, but I’d had to add more icing sugar than I preferred, and it was swamping the tartness of the raspberry a little too much. Maybe some … lemon? More pureed raspberry would only thin the consistency more than I liked. I wanted buttercream, not a glaze.

Kett flipped another page of his newspaper, which he held like a shield between us — though only because that made it easy to scan it as quickly as he read. His white-blond hair was long enough to fall over his broad forehead. His skin wasn’t any paler than usual, but there was something … listless about the elder vampire. There had been for weeks.

Not that I was currently any perkier.

The memory of the last time I’d had sex was getting a bit hazy around the edges. Don’t get me wrong — any romp with Warner was freaking brilliant. But what was the point of being married if weeks could slip by without him in my bed?

And for all I knew, with the way time worked differently in the dragon nexus or whatever other pocket dimension my warrior husband might have been wandering through, he likely felt as though he’d been away for a few hours at most. While I was on the verge of … of …

I shoved an entire spoonful of the buttercream in my mouth, distracting myself from the direction of my thoughts. I didn’t even bother grabbing a clean spoon. No one but me, and Kandy of course and always, was going to be eating this batch of —

Kett quirked an eyebrow at me over the edge of his newspaper, in one of his patent-pending micro-expressions.

It’s my buttercream, I said indignantly. Well, as indignantly as I could manage while sucking a heaping mound of icing off a spoon.

And honestly? Once I started eating directly from the bowl, I had already admitted it was just going to be one of those days.

I’d had a lot of those days now.

In a row.

Kett flipped a page of his newspaper — then gave up the pretense of reading it. He was flipping the pages too slowly and with way too much emphasis. So he folded it neatly, then tapped it on his knee. Distractedly. In one of the most vivid displays of emotion I’d ever seen from the ancient vampire. At least while just hanging around my bakery kitchen.

I shoved a third spoonful of buttercream in my mouth, then crossed to the pantry to retrieve some lemon. Fresh squeezed might also add too much liquid. But the dried zest I’d bought from Olive, a witch of the Godfrey coven who specialized in growing citrus, might work as well. I wasn’t a huge fan of bits of things in my buttercream, though …

I could try both.

Okay.

I was seriously bored.

There was just no denying it.

I was test baking cupcakes in anticipation of it