Spell Maven Mysteries- The Complete Series

by J L Collins

  But Uncle Gardner, with the white and silver threading through his dark beard and hair, simply looked at me. In this light, it was easier to see how he’d grown older in more ways than one.

  “You’re right, Gwendolyn. I made a mistake, and I put those that I love in grave danger by not knowing it. The entire system and Institute will have to be gone through with a fine-tooth comb, just as you’ve said. Things haven’t been the same for a while now, and while there are many different factors that maybe you aren’t aware of, you are right that it needs to be changed.” He looked back to Tristan, who was just as shocked as the rest of us. “Forgive me, Tristan. Forgive me for of being so harsh on you before, and although I don’t completely agree with what you’ve done, I am willing to hear you out, and as I’ve said, I will make sure you are completely protected no matter what.”

  Aunt Bee burst into tears even louder than before, using her flowy bell sleeve to blow her nose as Aunt Ginevra put her arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “You two, I swear!”

  Was it just my imagination, or did Uncle Gardner smile at his sister? When he turned back to me and pretended to roll his eyes at her antics, he nodded his head toward the direction of the piano in the parlor. “Can I have a word?”

  The two of us left the others behind, though I saw Fiona-Leigh watching me when I looked back over my shoulder.

  Uncle Gardner sat down at the piano bench, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together. “Will you forgive an old man his previous prejudices? I certainly understand if you don’t wish to. But Gwendolyn — Gwen, I think I can speak for everyone here when I say that I’ve missed you terribly. Having you around again made me realize how much I’ve put every ounce of my life into the MARC. Even with my own three children and Ginevra, I should have been there more. And you risking everything to help find and save your brother only made me painfully aware of how much I missed both of you. Of how much I missed your father and even your mother. So much has happened since you left, but may I be honest here with you?”

  “Yes?” I said, my voice barely above a whisper and shaking. I definitely had not been expecting him to say any of that.

  “I wish you to come back home, Gwen. All of us do. You could build a life here just like you had before. I need you back at the MARC. Not only will I give you your title back, I’ll ensure that Fiona-Leigh has private tutoring for whatever she wants to learn. It’s completely up to you. She can even train with Erie if she would like. Erie informs me of Fiona-Leigh’s interest in creature science. She seems like a lovely young woman, very much like her mother . . .”

  At risk of completely losing it, I sat down next to him, letting my head lay on his broad shoulder for the first time since I was a child. “I truly appreciate everything you’ve ever done for me and my brother, sir. And thank you for everything else, as well.” Looking out across the parlor and into the foyer where Fiona-Leigh was still standing, her arms around herself, watching me intently, I sighed. “But I know where I belong. With my daughter and the life that I created for her. I can’t just yank her out of that. But thank you, thank you so much for telling me this. You’ll never know how much it means to me.”

  There was a resigned sadness in his eyes as he placed his hand over mine and squeezed tightly. “As you wish.”

  37

  The Dye Job

  “Should we put some butter on this?”

  Fiona-Leigh plopped down onto the couch next to me, holding the big plastic bowl of what must’ve easily been three bags of microwave popcorn.

  I dove my hand into the bowl, popping a few of the kernels into my mouth. “Hm. I think it could use a good butter to salt ratio.”

  Jax jumped up onto the arm of the sofa, sniffing the air around us. I tossed a piece of popcorn toward him and he immediately snatched it up, both me and Fiona-Leigh giggling.

  After the possibly the longest twenty-four hours ever and grudgingly staying the night in Spell Haven thanks to my aunt’s nagging, Fiona-Leigh and I were back home in Midnight Pitch, safely curled up under one of my old blankets and ready to pick the latest cheesy horror movie to watch. Horror movies aren’t really my thing, but whatever I could do to make her feel better, that’s what we were doing.

  She skimmed through the Netflix queue, scrunching up her face with each gory looking title. “Ooh, Mom look. What about Zom-Beavers?” She was pointing to a picture of a woman in a bikini holding up a stake, spread-eagled in front of what was probably a zombie beaver. Or at least a beaver with rabies or something.

  I laughed. “Yeah. That looks like pure gold. Remind me why we’re watching stupid horror movies again?”

  But she just rolled her eyes at me, nudging at me with her elbow. “Oh, come on. Live a little.”

  “I feel like I’ve done enough living to last me the rest of my life, funny enough,” I mumbled before shoveling in a mouthful of popcorn.

  “How did all of that go, by the way?” Oisín drawled from the doorway, before pouncing onto the coffee table in front of us, stretching out his legs. He had the air of someone who could not care less, but I knew better.

  “Thanks to you, we were able to get Gentry to confess. I mean at least you helped a little anyway.” I held up my thumb and forefinger until they were barely apart.

  Fiona-Leigh grinned at him. “We couldn’t have done it without you, Osh. Seriously. You were a huge help.”

  Despite the casual stance, Oisín jumped square into Fiona-Leigh’s lap, purring against her, tickling her nose with his fur.

  “I love you even though you kind of want to take over the world,” she giggled, hugging him carefully.

  I had just pushed play on the remote when there was a knock at the door. I frowned at Fiona-Leigh. “Who could that be?” We weren’t expecting anyone as far as I knew.

  I gave her the bowl of popcorn and got up, walking quietly toward the door in case I didn’t want to deal with whoever was on the other side of it. But when I looked through the peephole, my cheeks burned. It was Sully, pushing a dark curl behind his ear and patiently waiting outside.

  I bit my lip and opened the door as casually as possible. “Hey!”

  “Hey,” he said, giving me a sideways grin. “I just wanted to come by and return your muffin tin. I’m getting ready to go into work tonight and happened to notice your lights are on. Not that I was waiting or anything. But I just figured I’d drop it off on my way out.”

  He held up the muffin tin, sort of waving it around and I took it, unable to get rid of the grin from my face. “Thank you. I uh, hope you liked them.”

  He quickly nodded. “Oh yeah. They’re really good. It’s funny though, I only had a couple — the girls must’ve eaten the rest of them.”

  “Sorry about that!” Fiona Lee said through a mouthful on the sofa.

  He chuckled and pushed his hair back behind his ear again. Geez, did this guy have any clue just how adorable it was when he did that? “Well, I better get going. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

  I nodded. “Sure, sure. See you around.” I waited until he gave an awkward little wave and walked off, carrying a backpack on his shoulder, before closing the door.

  Of course all eyes were on me as I turned around, Fiona-Leigh downright smirking at me.

  “Apparently I was wrong about Gentry, but you totally have a crush on Sully!”

  I playfully shoved at her, rolling my eyes and grabbing another handful of popcorn. “Let’s just watch the movie, huh?”

  After taking a long, much-needed hot shower, I met back up with Fiona-Leigh in her bedroom, ready to tuck her in.

  “Hey Mom? Can I ask you something and you promise you won’t get all weird about it?” she asked me softly, drawing her knees up under her chin.

  I sat down next to her on the bed, searching her face. “Sure.”

  “How come you never told me what really happened with my dad? I mean you kind of just glossed over the whole thing. It used to not bother me but now that I know m
ore about your life when you were younger . . . I’d kinda like to know more about him, too.”

  This was not what I thought she was going to ask. “Honey, I understand you wanting to know more about him and you’re totally right. I should’ve been more upfront about it with you. I promise you I will tell you everything you want to know. I just need to . . . find the right words to say. It was pretty painful for me, going through all of it the first time around. Will it be okay if I take a little bit more time before I tell you the whole story?”

  She regarded me with wide eyes but nodded. “I guess so, yeah.”

  I felt terrible about not giving her what she wanted right away, but thought I could offer her up something else instead, to help make up for it. “I need you to know that everything I’ve done for you was to protect you. And I know I’ve already told you all that, and you probably don’t want to hear it again, but it’s true. My life was very complicated when I was younger, and then suddenly you were here, and it all kind of made sense to me. So you’ll have to forgive me for not wanting to give up that little bit of peace I’ve had with you. I’m going to be 100% honest with you from now on, Fi. And I want you to be honest with me too . . .”

  She raised an auburn eyebrow at me. “Okay.”

  “I’ve used magic on you before. I’ve used it when you were little and getting ready to run into the street chasing after a toy, and I used it the other day when you wanted to come with me and Gentry to Arcadia. I didn’t want you there, I knew it was too dangerous for you and I made sure I enchanted these earrings,” I said as I gently tucked a strand of her red hair behind her ear, “to ensure that you would stay put. Now, before you say anything,” I quickly added, seeing the look on her face, “I know it was messed up, okay? I shouldn’t use magic when you without you knowing. And I’m seriously so sorry, honey. I’ll never do it again, you have my word.”

  She let my words sink in a little bit before finally speaking up, tilting her head to the side. “I mean I get it. I know why you did it, and yeah I’m mad, but whatever. I understand Mom.”

  Wait. What? I had to sit back, and clutch my chest. “Seriously? That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?”

  The corner of her mouth quirked up. “Yes? Unless you want me to be super bratty about it, of course. Because I can totally do that, too.”

  “No, no. That’s quite all right. Save it for when I don’t let you get the cool tattoo you want in about three years.” I pulled her into a tight hug, running my hand through her silky hair just like I used to when I would rock her to sleep at night. “I love you so much—you just don’t even know, Fi.”

  “I know, Mama. I love you too.”

  As I sat back, I looked at the face of my daughter, unable to see anything else but all of her perfect beauty and the memories we’ve had. If going through all of this had proven anything to me about my daughter, it was that she was stronger than anyone could ever conceive. I smiled, suddenly remembering there was something else I wanted to tell her. “I know you’re tired, but there’s just one more thing I wanted to tell you, and then I’ll leave you alone.”

  “You’re not going to tell me that I secretly have a sibling or something, are you? Because that would be so cool, just saying.”

  I pulled my wand out of my bathrobe pocket, slowly shaking my head. “Not exactly . . .”

  I pulled my hair down from the messy bun I had it up in, letting it spill down my back. It was something I never did much with, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

  “From damp to dry. From chestnut brown, straight and lean, wash this spell out squeaky clean,” I said softly, pointing the wand at my hair.

  In the mirror hanging on the back of her closet door, I watched transfixed, as my brown hair started losing the color of its roots—or rather they started changing color. From the part in my hair down to the very ends, my usual straight, mousy brown was replaced by a pale lilac twisting into slight waves, the silvery highlights of it glinting in the light.

  Fiona-Leigh’s mouth dropped. “I—I don’t understand? How did you do that? Why did you do that?”

  I chuckled. “Getting rid of spells is much easier here than trying to make new ones. Would you believe that this is actually my natural hair color? I had to blend in with the humans when we came here, and I couldn’t exactly pull off purple hair and not get noticed. So . . . I’ve been dyeing my hair brown ever since. What do you think?”

  She slowly shook her head, though a dumbfounded smile spread across her face. “Honestly? I’m living for it. I’m still kinda mad that I didn’t know my mom was ahead of the mermaid hair trend, though. But this might just be my favorite thing about you being a Witch, yet.”

  The End.

  Snitch Witch

  1

  A Change of Weather

  Each channel flickered on the TV for a split-second before abruptly changing to the next. My daughter’s freckled hand lazily held up the remote, pointing it over her head at the screen, while the other one scrolled through her phone. From my angle, all I could see of her head was the ever-growing length of soft red hair flowing over the edge of the couch.

  I did my best not to grit my teeth too hard. “Why bother with the TV when your nose is already buried in a screen?”

  The TV was off in an instant, the remote dropped down to the floor, forgotten.

  “Not necessary,” I grumbled from in the kitchen, squeezing the last remnants of French dressing over our salad bowls. “You know, it would be great if instead of being all grouchy with me, you’d at least tell me what’s wrong.”

  There was a dramatic sigh before her pair of heavy Doc Martens stamped across the floor. Each step was louder than the last.

  “Seriously, Mom?” Fiona-Leigh was leaning against the end of the counter, a scowl twisting her pretty features into an expression I could only explain as ‘teen-angst chic.’

  “Seriously,” I repeated, biting my tongue to keep from mocking her. The last thing I needed was to stoke the flame. “Just spit it out, honey.” Even though I was busy searching the drawer for forks, I could feel her eyes on me.

  Truth be told, I really didn’t want to have a conversation with an amped-up fourteen-year-old. And it couldn’t be something simple like her wanting a tattoo, to pierce her nose, or even to chain herself to a tree in the face of deforestation—no. It had to be this particular subject.

  “I just don’t see what the big deal is! Aunt Bedelia already said she could teach me at the Apothecarium! I wouldn’t be in anyone’s way and it’s not like I can actually do magic or anything. At least I could help out there. I could learn something. It’s better than being here, away from our entire family. A family you didn’t even tell me about, in case you forgot. . .” she let her voice trail off as she folded her arms across her chest.

  “You do not need to remind me, Fiona-Leigh. I’m the one who missed them every day, in case you forgot,” I snapped, unable to help myself.

  “Because you chose to!”

  Sucking air in between my teeth, I tried steadying myself. Even though I knew Fiona-Leigh was still somewhat resentful about me keeping the secret of my magical hometown of Spell Haven and the fact that I’m a Witch from her, I didn’t expect her to just fling it back in my face like that.

  “You aren’t wrong. It was my choice, and I can’t go back and change it. But that’s not the point here, Fiona-Leigh. It’s that you have an entire life here—your friends, your school, everything you’ve ever known is in Midnight Pitch. Are you really so eager to give all of that up?”

  She rolled her eyes as if I were the one sulking. “I wouldn’t have to give it all up, Mom. I could still visit.”

  “Oh, right. Because no one would wonder where you’d gone, and why they couldn’t reach you on your phone.” I skirted around her, setting the bowls of salad down on the kitchen table. “And there’s nothing to learn if you can’t contain the magic necessary to cast or to use—”

  “—potions, yeah I get it. I’m
not a Witch so I can’t sit with you. Whatever.”

  We locked eyes over the table.

  A raspy whistle let loose from somewhere around Fiona-Leigh’s feet.

  “My, my, looks like someone’s having a bit of a tiff, wouldn’t you say, Jax?” Oisín’s velvety voice purred as he stretched out his long front legs, his large furry behind and tail sticking straight up. Jax, our overzealous dog, spun around in a circle.

  A frown pulled at the corners of the black cat’s mouth. “Ugh. Why do I even bother attempting to talk to you when all you understand is how to lick your own butt?”

  Ignoring him, I reached down and scratched behind Jax's fluffy white ears. "Besides, you spent a good portion of the summer in Spell Haven with everyone. Why can't we just agree that you spend summers there, and the rest of your school time here at home with me?"

  I was honestly so tired of this argument that I was willing to fall back on bribery if I absolutely had to.

  Apparently, this wasn't going to be good enough for her, though.

  "Yeah, I got the summer there, sort of. I mean it's not like you let me stay there the entire summer or anything. I really wouldn't have —"

  “–and what about everything else here? What about Marina? All the plans the two of you made during the school year? It's like ever since you found out about my past, you want nothing to do with your own life. And I can see why Spell Haven is so intriguing to you, honey. For someone who didn't grow up within the magical community it must seem like the shiniest, brightest thing around. But your life is great too. I just wish you would pay more attention to it. I'm worried that… now that you know everything, you're not paying as much attention to your grades, to your friends—heck—even to us here in your own house!"