Spell Maven Mysteries- The Complete Series

by J L Collins

  Fi had been easy—she was already busy hanging out with the cousins with Jax at her side and didn’t seem to mind at all that I was going out for a little while without her.

  Erie and Isobel had double-date plans with their significant others, so I was obviously not in on that, and wished them happy trails. Aunt Ginevra told Reaghan she would keep an eye out on Declan, Helene, and Ciara while Reaghan and Dromythyus went to have lunch with Dromythyus’ parents. My brother and Brennrie were still sleeping after a long night out. And Oisín? He was off doing who knows what and where.

  Of course Uncle Gardner was already back at the office, overseeing Tiberius’ death case as well as the search for Delaney Drakar and the other two top Dark Market players. No surprise there.

  Which left only one person left.

  “What are your plans, Gwennie-Bee?” Aunt Bedelia strolled past me in the kitchen as I loaded up a small linen bag with some muffins from breakfast earlier. “Are you going out somewhere?”

  I did my very best to think of exactly what I’d hoped would keep her out of my head. Sully’s dark, curly hair infiltrated my mind and I could practically feel the recoil as she hurried to get out of my thoughts.

  “I’m not sure. I just saw these muffins and they reminded me of Sully,” I lied. “He’s an excellent cook.”

  She looked mildly impressed and slipped her teal-rimmed glasses down her beakish nose, smiling. “Is he, now? I’m glad to see you have someone to learn a thing or two from.”

  I put on a smile and nodded. “He is. He’s tried to teach me and I’m… attempting to learn. Apparently cooking doesn’t rub off on me very well, though.”

  “Hm. And so you’re hanging around the house today? It might be a good day for me to help Ginny with the cleaning. With fourteen extra people in the house, it’s quite the task to keep everything organized.”

  I really didn’t want to have to lie again, so I shrugged and changed the subject. “Just be glad you don’t have to do laundry.”

  She raised a brow at me. “What does that consist of?”

  “Washing and drying clothes. And folding them and putting them away. It’s probably the most time-consuming chore, at least for me and Fiona-Leigh,” I answered, amused by the way Aunt Bedelia’s face scrunched up.

  “I see. Well. If you do go out, maybe go enjoy a nice walk in downtown? They’ve set up the Fairy lights around the town square, from what I’ve heard.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Maybe I will.”

  Aunt Bedelia’s eyes narrowed at me as I finished tying up the bag. “Mmhmm. Word of the wise—try not to get involved in things that you have no business getting involved in. I know you. You’re just itching to get out there and get in the thick of things. Aren’t you?”

  There was no way out of this one. “No…? Well, I mean… not exactly. I—I promise, Aunt Bee. I won’t go messing around in the MARC or anything.”

  She gave me a curt nod, though I had a feeling she didn’t entirely believe me just yet. “Good. Gard already has his hands full as it is.”

  I mean, I wasn’t really lying. My plans for once, did not involve the MARC or anything of the like.

  Now magical research? That was a different story.

  I was careful not to track any snow inside the massive and beautiful Athenaeum of the Unseen—Spell Haven’s library and museum of sorts. The cathedral ceilings and stained glass were weather-repellent, so you could still make out the sunshine without several inches of snow piled on top.

  Jolene, one of the assistant librarians, waved at me as I came in. “Good to see you, Gwen. Do you need any help with anything today?”

  “Hi, Jolene. No thanks. I’m just browsing for now,” I said, careful to sound casual enough. Not that what I was doing was against the rules or anything, but I didn’t need anyone else worrying about what I was up to.

  I headed toward the back of the main level, trying to remember where the Stealth section was. It used to be one of my most-read spots back when I was training to be a Shadow Hand. I used to take pride in being the stealthiest—which I kind of had to be without the power of Siren magic in me.

  A dusty wooden sign hung from the end-cap of an aisle reading ‘Stealth Magic — ‘A - L.’ The corner of my mouth quirked up as I placed my tote bag on a nearby desk, ready to dive in.

  “’Baneful Banishing for Beginners’… hm. No.” I ran my fingers along several shelves, trying to remember the book that was sticking up in the back of my mind. “‘Ear Confusion—the Modern Guide to Sound Distortion.’ Nope. That’s not it, either.”

  A familiar plum-colored spine seemed to be sticking out a little more than the books surrounding it, and I tilted my head to read the title, immediately recognizing it. “‘Hidden in Plain Sight.’ Here we go! Perfect.”

  One down, at least. I decided to take another look through the next aisle over to see if I could find a couple more books that might help. I ended up with three altogether, and sat down at the table, cracking open the first one.

  I mumbled to myself as I thumbed through the pages, stopping at a vibrant painting of a Witch hiding in plain sight near a rogue werewolf, obviously on the hunt. Now that werewolves could control their shifting and their altered states for the most part, they weren’t such a threat. But a Witch in hiding from the law… well, a cloaking spell would be a very handy thing to have in their back pocket.

  And if I could mimic the same one Delaney Drakar may be using, then that meant I could potentially figure out how to disable it. Then it was open season for the Shadow Hands on that scumbag.

  I took out my notebook and scrawled my own version of the notes, careful not to miss the correct dosages of the ingredients needed to do the spell. Frog spawn, sneezewort, dark moon water, plus a dozen or so other ingredients for this particular spell. I sighed. This was going to be fun trying to procure from the Apothecarium without raising any suspicion from Aunt Bedelia.

  To be thorough, I read through the other two books, another hour passing by before I finished and came to the conclusion that the first spell was my best bet. It was definitely the most powerful which mean it was the most likely pick for someone trying to hide from the most specialized force in the realm.

  I quickly scooped everything up and checked out the books from the Athenaeum, thanking Jolene before heading out. My next destination was the Apothecarium. Hopefully Aunt Bedelia wouldn’t mind me scavenging through her stuff. I was going to pay her for it, at least. I just didn’t need her to know about it just yet…

  The cobblestone road was slippery underfoot, the drop-in temperature probably the culprit. I had to regain my balance several times after tripping over myself. The coziness of the Apothecarium was a much-needed departure from outside, and I was careful not to make too much noise as I got inside. The last thing I needed was to trip the alarms and have Aunt Bee flying down the road in a panic.

  I glanced down at my list and found what I needed. She was out of the lemongrass, but I was able to replace it with black Witch’s salt, both of them being used as protection against magical maladies when performing a very involved spell.

  Once I packed everything into a big paper sack, I tapped on her register with my wand, transferred my money over to her, and said a little silent thank-you for the stuff. And out the door I went.

  I was half-way set up at Hag’s Pond, wanting to test the spell in an area next to a running water source. Only half the pond was frozen, and the creek leading into it was still trickling in, so it was the perfect spot. Albeit a little chillier than I would’ve liked, but I made sure to bring an extra warm afghan just in case.

  A small blaze of bright orange fire appeared a foot away from me as I bent down to start placing everything into the cauldron in the middle of my crystal grid. Inside the flames of the fire message was a note from Erie. I paused to read it.

  ‘We’re done with the double-date. Did you want to go hang out? Maybe grab a few drinks from Harm’s Charm?’

  The sky overhead was alre
ady heavy with clouds—I wouldn’t have a whole lot of clear daylight left if I didn’t hurry.

  I whipped out my wand from my new wand sheath at my waist and spoke into it so it could send my word back to her.

  “How about later? I’m in the middle of something right now, but I should be done in a couple of hours. Meet you there at six?”

  I waited for another minute after sending it off, before I got my reply.

  ‘Sure. See you there.’

  I smiled. Good. Now time to get to work…

  The pounding at my temples was like a steady drum melody beating against my head from all sides. I slumped forward, groaning.

  “That’s an awful lot of effort to go through for someone who’s supposedly only ‘curious’ if Drakar could pull off a strong enough cloaking spell,” Erie said, patting me on the back. “You’re a determined thing aren’t you?”

  I groaned again. “Don’t mock me.”

  “Well. I’m just saying. Didn’t Aunt Bee say something about keeping out of it and letting the pros handle it? No offense, obviously. Heck, didn’t my dad?”

  I wasn’t going to dignify her questions with answers. Because of course she was right. But that didn’t mean I was going to outright admit it. “The spell should have worked.”

  I winced as I rubbed my shoulder. Back at Hag’s Pond, everything seemed to go pretty swimmingly at first . I thought I had it working and even tried summoning some of the nearby cardinals that were swooping around in a tree next to the pond I thought maybe if I could cloak myself from them that would be my answer. And at first they didn’t see me. Then they flew right above me and proceeded to let loose on my head, my shoulder, and down my back all at once. I was so shocked I’d accidentally rammed my shoulder into the tree hard as heck.

  Needless to say, I had suffered in the hypothermia-inducing temperatures to try and wash the nasty stuff off of me before quickly warming back up with my wand. And that was only one of my tests that had gone wrong.

  She chuckled. “Yeah, maybe. You might have missed a step. Or maybe trying to alternate black salt for lemongrass did it. Either way, I think you deserve a break from thinking about that deranged woman for a while, don’t you?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Did someone say they needed another round?” a deep voice boomed behind the bar. Arcas stood there with his massive arms folded across his even more massive chest, looking directly at me. “Do you want another, Gwen?”

  “I’m seriously contemplating it,” I tried to laugh, only half-joking. I wasn’t usually the drown my sorrows kind of person, but considering how much my head hurt, it certainly wouldn’t have made matters any worse. “Yeah, actually. Why not?”

  Arcas’ wide mouth cracked into a grin. “I’ve got you my friend. Another Sparkwater special coming right up!”

  Erie laughed as he mixed another Sparkwater up for me and waved him off when he offered her another beer. “I’m good. But thanks.”

  The next level up, I could just barely make out the forms of a Witch and Selkie having an argument outside one of the red doors that led to the other part of Arcas’ business, of the brothel variety. I made it my goal when I came in here, to try and ignore anything going on above my head, but this was too loud to look away from.

  The Witch cornered the Selkie—which I knew she was instead of a Witch because of her seaweed-like hair—and he was much too close to her for her comfort with the way she was smacking him off of her or trying to.

  “I’ve already told you, loser! I’m retired for the night! It’s not happening!” she yelled, pushing him backward.

  But his sloppy grin told me none of what she was saying was getting through to him. “Come on, Selene. We could make some real magic happen in there.”

  Selene was not having it. “Arcas!”

  Naturally my friend was already on it, his bullring quivering as he moved. “‘Scuse me, ladies. Apparently that guy thinks this Minotaur is playing games. I already told the bastard once… he’s outta here,” Arcas said, pointing to himself, his voice rumbling in a near-growl as he slid out from around the counter and stormed his way up the stairs.

  The guy’s eyes grew wide as plates as Arcas picked him up by the back of his sweaty shirt and literally dragged him back down to the bar, the Selkie watching on with a relieved look on her face.

  I took a few sips from my drink, shaking my head as Arcas tossed the guy out on his butt. “People being jerks really is a universal thing, I swear. And at Christmas, too.”

  Erie leaned back against the bar, not so subtly glancing upward. “Christmas. Is that like another winter holiday?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. It’s a big deal in the Human Realm. Especially where I live. People go crazy, but it’s fun. Me and Fi go to all the little holiday things around town. Plus it’s part of my job. I do all the photography for those types of events for the Union-Gazette, so I have to attend anyway. They have little re-enactments, guys dressed up like Santa Claus—”

  “Santa Claus?”

  I laughed, despite my headache. “Yeah. He’s basically a super jolly for-the-kids version of the Holly King. He delivers presents underneath the Christmas tree, which is sort of like a decked-out fir tree with ornaments and garlands and lights hanging from it. Oh, and he hides more presents in stockings on the mantle, too.”

  Erie blinked. “That’s a lot of gifts. I bet the human kids eat it up.”

  “Oh, you have no idea. There’s this one day a year where the humans will go out shopping in hoards. I’m not kidding—actual hoards. It’s called Black Friday, in fact. Their stores have all these sales and people will wake up in the middle of the night to go line up outside the stores for their gifts they want to give. It’s seriously nuts.”

  “Sounds like a special kind of nightmare.” She took a slow sip from her beer. “So you and Fi are going back the morning of Christmas?”

  “Just for a couple of days. We’ll be coming back here on the 27th. I kind of want to spend as much time here as I can since I don’t know when the next time is I’ll be able to take time off to come up and visit.”

  “Might as well fit it all in now, then. What about Sully? Where does he fit into your Christmas plans?”

  I bit my lip. “Well, he’s at his parent’s cabin in Tennessee right now. Another state, I mean. He’s supposed to come back home Christmas afternoon, so he’ll spend the evening with us I think. That’s what we talked about, anyway.”

  A smile spread across her face. “Oh, yeah? You two going to do some gift-exchanging?”

  “Yeah, I actually picked up a couple of things for him from the—oh. Erie!” My cheeks burned. Clearly we were talking about two different things here.

  “What?” she said in an innocent tone.

  I shook my head. “Stop that.”

  She put her beer back down, nearly dowsing the front of her shirt. “Don’t be such a prude, Gwen. I know you way better than all that. Remember when you told me about the first night in the tent with Adam? And how big—”

  I shoved at her hard. “Sh! Someone’s going to hear you!”

  Erie pointedly looked around us, taking in the various sorts in the bar. Then she looked above us to where the stairs led to a very drunk werewolf who was serenading the half-naked Elf at his side, sloshing his drink all over the place. “I don’t think anyone’s really going to care. Just saying.”

  “Well, I do! And… I don’t know what the deal is with Christmas night other than he’s coming to have dinner.”

  She sighed. “You’re not going to invite him to stay the night?”

  I shrugged. “I just think it would be really awkward with Fiona-Leigh being there, that’s all. For both of us. I can only imagine the faces she’ll make the next morning…”

  “Who cares? She’s almost fifteen. And she’s a smart girl—I doubt she’s going to embarrass you about it. She’ll probably go out of her way not to talk about it, in fact. And she likes Sully, as far as I can tell.”

  She
did have a point there. Sully was the first real boyfriend I’d had in a very long time, so it wasn’t like I had anything else to compare our relationship to in terms of how she handled it, but she did really like him. At least I had that on my side.

  “She does. And they get along very well. He’s very into living sustainably which is something that’s important to her, too. I don’t know…” my voice trailed off. “Am I crazy for being nervous about it?”

  “About him staying the night?”

  I nodded, glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention. Arcas was at the other end of the bar, serving a glass of something dark to a weary-looking Vampire in the corner.

  “Yeah, I guess. Is that weird?”

  “Not really. And you told me before that you already sealed the deal, right?”

  I snorted, quickly covering my mouth. Apparently the booze was hitting after all. “We have, at his place anyway. Not in my house.” I hated to think of the comments from Oisín. I’ll probably never hear the end of it whenever Sully does stay the night.

  “Oh, okay then. Well in that case, what’s to be nervous about? Keep your wand up and out of sight and you’re all good to go! And most importantly—try to enjoy your holiday with them. I know you keep talking about your relationship with Sully as if it couldn’t possibly last and—uh-uh, let me finish,” she said, cutting me off, “and I know that’s just because you don’t want to put all this hope into it and it not work out. I get it. Your track-record isn’t stellar, or very long at all, in fact. But you can’t let that keep you from enjoying your time with him, Gwennie. Just trust me on this.”

  Erie polished off her bottle and placed it back down on the bar where it sank into the bar top and disappeared. She smiled approvingly. “It’s nice to see him using a little magic to help himself around here.”

  I stared down at the countertop, nodding. “Yeah. I’ve been pestering him about it. I’m glad he finally took my advice.”