A/N Here is my entry for this week's Tardigrade assignment: Write a story about your character coming in contact with magic. My main character, Logan, goes looking for it in this little story. Enjoy!

Logan glanced around to make sure no one was watching him and ducked into the tiny, shadow-filled alleyway. He reached the second door on the right, a filthy, scratched wooden door, and stopped, his hand already on the faded doorknob. Was he really going to do this? It wasn't right, everyone knew that. But he'd wanted this for so long...

Logan took a deep breath, opened the door and stepped inside. A faint bell in the back of the otherwise quiet little shop made him jump. The rotting shelves were packed with old artefacts, both big and small, making the shop feel even tinier than it already was. Steaming goblets, liquid-filled flasks, some talismans here and there. To his right, Logan saw a collection of coins that seemed to be radiating, shining. To his left, the shelves held rows and rows of potions in more colours than Logan even knew existed. Each had a label on the flask, but Logan wasn't interested in them. He was here for one thing and one thing only.

"Can I help you?" asked an old lady behind the counter, who Logan hadn't seen there moments ago. Her back was bent and she had to use the counter to hold herself up. Her dark-grey hair hung listlessly down her shoulder and colourful necklaces covered her neck.

"Yes," he said, walking up to the counter. His voice cracked, but he kept going. "I want you to steal something for me."

The old lady smiled wickedly, showing two rows of rotten teeth. "Ah, you have a job for us. You know our price?"

"I do," said Logan, lifting a small leather pouch out of a pocket of his tunic. "I have it right here."

The old lady held her hand out to take the pouch from him. She weighed it in a trembling hand for a second and then nodded. "Who is our target?"

Logan hesitated. If anyone ever found out that he'd got it this way... But he had to have it. He'd spent years trying to get it, years. And he'd failed every time. It was time to let someone else handle it for him. He had no other choice.

The old lady noticed his hesitation and smiled. "You pay us a lot of money. One of our guarantees is that nobody will ever know. You can trust me. After all, we would be out of business if we weren't true to our word."

With that, Logan grabbed the piece of paper he had hidden in his sleeve and slid it over the counter to the old lady. She took it without breaking eye-contact.

"Come back in a week. We will have what you asked for."

Logan nodded, turned and left the shop. As soon as he shut the door behind him he let out the breath he'd been holding unknowingly the whole time. It was done. He couldn't go back now. He wouldn't want to. By this time next week, he'd be holding what he'd wanted for so many years: Julia's heart. She'd be hopelessly in love with him before the end of the month. He had never been able to steal her heart himself, but now, with powers he barely even understood, someone would do it for him.