by Cindy Stark
Polly cleared her throat. “He’s not an innocent man, Hazel.”
She shrugged. “Maybe not. But is he guilty of this crime?”
Olivia scoffed and looked away in disgust, leaving Hazel feeling like she needed to defend herself.
“What I mean is, if you somehow retaliate, that could open a bigger can of worms. Could make things worse for the rest of us.”
Harriett snorted. “Can’t get much worse for Fauna.”
Man, they had a fantastic way of making her look like the idiot or, worse, the bad guy. “You’re twisting my words.”
Cora sent her a sympathetic smile. “I understand what you’re saying, Hazel.” She turned to the others. “She’s right. Let’s not do anything hasty. I’d like to talk to Fauna when she’s fully coherent.”
Polly tipped her head toward Cora. “I agree. It’s not the best time to decide when our emotions are running high. Either way, we need to meet with the group and discuss what’s happened today. I don’t think any of us should go anywhere alone anymore.”
Hazel nodded. Finally, someone with sense.
A young nurse with short dark hair approached and glanced at the group. “We’re finished with Fauna if you want to visit now. Two people at the most. And only family.”
Polly stood. “Thank you. We’re all family here, cousins and sisters, so we’ll quietly take turns sitting with her.”
The nurse gave them a dubious look but then turned away.
When she was out of earshot, Polly nodded at Cora. “You two go. I know she wants to see you.”
Hazel expected an argument from Harriett or Olivia, and she was grateful when none came.
She and Cora stood and walked softly into Fauna’s darkened room where the only sounds were the soft noises of monitors beeping. Hazel glanced at the machines next to her bed and the tubes and wires coming from them that had been connected to Fauna.
The nurses had cleaned the blood from Fauna’s head and hands. Purple bruises colored her swollen, ashen face. An aching wave of sadness rolled through her heart and brought tears to her eyes. Who could do something so heinous to someone with such a kind heart?
That was who the townsfolk should fight against. Not witches.
She and Cora moved to the side of the bed with the least tubes, and Hazel took Fauna’s hand.
Fauna stirred, blinked a few times, and looked at them with a hazy focus. “Cora,” she said with a weak voice. “Hazel.”
Cora placed her hand over theirs. “Hey, Fauna. We’ve been awfully worried about you.”
She emitted a noise that might have been an attempted chuckle. “Me, too.”
“What happened?” Hazel asked in a soft voice. “How did you end up at the pond?”
She blinked and gave a hard swallow. “I was out jogging when he got me. I didn’t even see him coming.”
Fauna paused, and Hazel squeezed her hand, offering support.
“He hit me. Knocked me out. When I woke, he had me over his shoulder, carrying me through the woods.”
Fauna sobbed, and Cora released a heartbreaking sigh. She lifted a hand and placed it gently on Fauna’s cheek. “I’m so sorry, sugar. Now’s probably not the best time to ask questions.”
Hazel blinked back tears. “We’re just so happy that we found you in time.”
Fauna wiped moisture from her cheeks. “He would have killed me. I know he would have.”
Hazel didn’t want to press any further, but she needed to hear from Fauna herself. “Polly said you think it was John Bartles.”
Fauna met their gazes with fear vibrating in hers. “Yes,” she whispered.
“How can you be sure? He wore a mask.”
“His cologne. I’ve smelled it before.”
Hazel hadn’t noticed cologne on John when he’d arrived to offer assistance. Didn’t mean he wasn’t wearing any. She could have been so caught up in the horrendous attack that she hadn’t noticed.
She glanced to Cora who shrugged and shook her head, indicating she hadn’t caught scent of it, either.
“I’m afraid he’ll come back,” she said with a tremor in her voice.
Hazel fiercely shook her head. “No. He won’t. And if he does, we’ll all be here to protect you.”
Cora nodded. “We’ll take turns. We’ll make sure someone stays with you all the time.”
Angst and fear vibrated from Fauna. “Protect yourselves, too.”
Hazel worried their presence made things worse for Fauna. “We will. We’ll all watch out for each other.”
Cora caught her gaze and gestured toward the door.
Hazel nodded. “We’re going to step outside now so that you can rest. Polly wanted to see you again, too, so we’ll let her. Maybe she can take the first shift of sitting with you.”
Fauna exhaled, and her eyelids drooped with fatigue. “Okay.” She paused for a moment. “I love you guys,” she whispered.
Hazel leaned over and gently kissed her turquoise-tipped hair. “We love you, too.”
Chapter Six
Hazel had waited all day for word from Peter that he was free to talk. She was in the middle of closing for the day when the text finally came through, asking her to stop by the police station.
She quickly finished her closing duties, locked the door, and headed down the cobblestone sidewalk toward the police station. The sun had gone to bed thirty minutes before, leaving the evening cool and the air scented by the earthy smell of fallen leaves.
As she neared the police station, the sound of a bad boy motorcycle engine roared behind her, and she turned. Victor fit the model-perfect image of a biker dude in ripped jeans and a black leather jacket. “Give you a lift home, goddess?”
She had to give the man points for persistence. “Actually, I’m headed to the police station to see my fiancé.”
He frowned. “Thought Polly might have talked some sense into you by now.”
“Polly can talk until she’s blue in the face, Victor. Nothing she says will change my mind about marrying Peter. I love him.”
He smirked. “You once said you loved me.”
A sharp blade of pain and sadness twisted inside her. “At the time I thought it was real love, Victor. Then you decimated it. Peter showed me the truth about love. It’s not infatuation or attraction. It’s not about making excuses for a person’s behavior to make them seem better than they are.”
He placed a hand over his heart. “Ouch. Was I really that bad?’
The fact that he asked surprised her. She arched a brow. “What? Are you actually developing a conscience?”
He tilted his head to the side as though confused. “You have to know I love and adore you, Hazel. What do you see in him? He’s not even a witch.”
A small sliver of her felt sorry for the man who’d never viewed reality the same as others. Never had to. “I admire his loyalty and honesty.”
“You like him because he’s a cop.”
She chuckled. “I do appreciate his commitment to his job and the way he cares about the people around here.”
He rolled his eyes. “Admit it, Hazel. You think he’s hot.”
She grinned. “Of course, I do. I like the whole package.”
“Better than me?”
Their conversation had turned ridiculous. “I need to go, Victor. Peter’s waiting for me.”
Just as she said that, Peter descended the steps of the police station and looked in their direction. Victor growled, drawing a laugh from her. “Have a good night, Victor.”
She didn’t wait for him to say goodbye and strolled toward Peter instead. The sight of her man, looking so very attractive in his police uniform, waiting with a smile on his face, drew her like a moth to a flame. Peter was the one for her.
She had no doubts.
He took her hand as she approached and tugged her against him. He glanced over her shoulder toward Victor for a quick second, and then claimed her mouth, marking her as his. The action gave her a small thrill.
N
othing like having her ex watch an amazing man who loved her give her a big ol’ kiss. She felt sorry for Victor that he was clueless, but she also hoped Victor suffered watching them, like she’d suffered when she’d discovered him with someone else.
When Peter released her, she smiled up at him. “How about an evening stroll through the park? I love the sound of leaves crunching beneath my feet.”
He nodded in appreciation. “Let’s do it.”
They were across the street and into the park before Victor’s engine rumbled to life, and he drove away.
She squeezed Peter’s hand, loving the life force that sparked whenever they touched. Now that many strands had woven their tapestry together over the past few months, their connection had grown fierce. “I wanted to talk to you about Fauna’s attack.”
He chuckled. “Of course, you do.”
She tugged on his hand. “No, seriously, Peter. Cora and I went to see her after giving our statements.”
The cheerfulness he’d had since meeting her dimmed to deep concern. “I saw her, too. Later in the afternoon. She’s a mess. Who would have ever thought people in Stonebridge would have to worry about personal safety while jogging, let alone during the daylight.”
She tugged him to a stop and glanced up into his handsome face, illuminated by the streetlight overhead. “It’s more than someone attacking a female jogger, Peter. Fauna is a witch.”
His concerned expression turned angry. “You think this was a targeted attack on a witch?”
She nodded. “The coven all agrees.”
She paused and released a heavy exhale. “Peter, they’re saying it was John Bartles.”
Peter’s gaze hardened, and a hush swooped in and surrounded them. “What evidence do they have?”
She gave a half-shrug. “Fauna named him as her attacker.”
“She didn’t say that to me.”
“Of course, she didn’t. Won’t, either. The coven is hinting about taking matters into their own hands.”
He released a frustrated huff. “I hope you dissuaded them. This isn’t something they should mess with. Someone else will get hurt. Or worse.”
She searched his face, hoping he could see the earnestness in hers. “I tried to tell them that. Explained that we needed further evidence. Fauna said she recognized his cologne, but I didn’t smell any on him when we were at the scene.”
“Could you have not noticed?”
She shook her head in uncertainty. “It’s possible. Though Cora didn’t notice, either.”
“Giving us further reason to not jump to conclusions. Look, I want to get this guy as much as any of you, but let’s do this the right way.”
“Trust me. I wholeheartedly agree.”
She tugged him off the paved path and across the grass covered with crunchy leaves until they reached an old wooden bench near the stream. They sat, and she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “This…this is what I need.”
He chuckled but then did the same. “I get it now. I’ve always liked being outside, but now I understand why.”
She opened her eyes, glanced at him, and smiled. “Because it allows you to connect with Source. Whether you believe that source is God, Mother Nature, or whatever. We’re connecting to what is connected to everything else on the planet. People might not realize it, but there’s a power there, one that everyone can tap into for peace and strength.”
He nudged her with his elbow. “Don’t go getting too woo-woo on me.”
She slid a sideways look toward him and tucked her hand through the crook of his arm. “Whatever. You know I’m right.”
Unvoiced laughter danced in the air between them. “Sarah never shared any of this stuff with me.”
Hazel understood that. She sometimes looked back and wondered what had prompted her to open herself to Peter, too. Things could have gone terribly wrong. “She was probably afraid.”
He remained quiet for a moment and then nodded. “Probably. I would have hoped she’d felt like she could trust me. I’m a good guy. She had to have realized that.”
Hazel scooted closer to him, soaking up some of his body heat to counter the chilly air. “But she gave you a love potion. If she told you she was a witch, you might have discovered that she’d tricked you with the potion, too.”
“I still can’t come to grips with her deceit.”
Hazel shrugged. “She was obviously infatuated with you. Wanted to be near you. Maybe you didn’t return those feelings, so she abused her power. Or maybe she felt safer around you. I kind of feel sorry for her. To be with someone that she’d forced to love her had to go against her heart.”
He nodded slowly as though absorbing her words. “Maybe so.”
Then he turned to Hazel. “I suffered because of her deception.”
That was the part that made it hard to forgive Sarah for what she’d done to the man she loved. “I know. Now that she’s passed and can see the damage she’s done, I’m sure she regrets that deeply.”
“Maybe so. My only consolation is that I had to go through that to find my way to you.”
A warm smile curved her lips. “There you go. Think of the bright side.”
“Yeah. It would be even brighter if I didn’t have to worry about you and the other witches.”
She glanced toward the gibbous moon that peeked from behind streaks of clouds in the dark sky. “I hope someday that will be the case. It’s what I’m working toward. Before that can happen, though, we have to do something about the Sons of Stonebridge.”
He removed his arm from hers and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her close. A weighted sigh slipped from him and echoed in the brisk air. “John. Wow. I know he’s against witches living in town, but I can’t picture him hurting anyone that way. It’s unimaginable. I abhor his beliefs, but I’d always thought he was against witches verbally. Not that he’d ever do anything physical about it.”
She wasn’t so sure she agreed with him. She’d witnessed firsthand that nasty side of him. But with words, like Peter had said. “I’m not totally convinced. For some reason, the man I saw in the woods seemed taller than John. But I was at a distance and had nothing to compare him to.”
Peter nodded. “Yeah. I did some quiet checking today and looked up his GPS tracking records.”
A spark of hope lit inside Hazel, and she shifted on the bench to see Peter better. “And?”
Another deep sigh. “It was off. Didn’t record anything. Hasn’t for a while now. I’ll make sure the shop fixes it.”
She couldn’t imagine how betrayed Peter must feel. He’d obviously worked alongside and trusted John for years. “What’s next then?”
“I personally supervised our technician taking DNA samples from Fauna while I talked with her. We’ll test them and see what we find.”
For half a second, Peter’s words gave her hope. “But John was on the scene, helping Fauna. If you find anything, it can be explained that way.”
“True. To a point. Hairs, fibers, things like that could be explained away. But if we find DNA under her fingernails, that’s a whole other can of worms.”
She leaned her head on him, close to his neck. Warm vibrations reached out to her and calmed her soul. “Part of me hopes it’s him because that will be one less Son of Stonebridge to harm people. But for your sake, I hope it’s not. Deep down, I think his spirit could be redeemed. He has this idea in his mind of what witches represent, but I feel if he truly understood, he could let go of his hate.”
“That’s a nice picture, Hazel. I hope you’re right.”
He reached out to grasp her hand that rested on his thigh. “Maybe it’s time we discuss in detail what you found in the library.”
Chapter Seven
Hazel’s thoughts stuttered, and she lifted her gaze to Peter. “I haven’t been hiding my library discoveries. I was just waiting for you. I know hearing about Sarah, especially her death, is painful for you.”
He gave a soft snort. “Funny, ‘cause I was waitin
g for you to be ready. You’d given me the basics, let me know to have my men watch Cora, and I didn’t want to press you for the rest.”
She smiled and shook her head. “We’re a silly pair, aren’t we? By the way, I finally told Cora today. After what had happened to Fauna, I didn’t feel I could wait any longer.”
“What did she say?”
Hazel grimaced. “She wasn’t very happy with me. She tossed around the trust thing, and she’s right. I should have told her straight away. I’d be angry if she’d withheld from me.”
He stretched his legs out in front of him and sighed. “Can you imagine how great this town would be if everyone accepted each other? We’re not the silly ones. Those who hold onto old beliefs are.”
“Yeah, and then there are those who take those beliefs too far and hurt innocent people like Fauna.”
Anger and frustration lit the air like sun glinting off falling leaves. “That has to stop, and I’m going to make sure it does.”
Hazel slipped the phone from her pocket and opened the file containing her photos. She swiped the screen until she came to the snapshots she’d taken in Timothy’s office. She showed him the one containing a reference to Sarah’s name.
He cursed under his breath. “I wish I had access to the entire notebook. I’d like to see everything he’s written. Did you see any dates?”
“I didn’t get a chance to delve too deep.”
He stared into the distance.
“I know this isn’t solid proof, Peter, but in my heart, I believe Sarah’s death wasn’t an accident.”
He nodded solemnly. “Same here.”
She paused, knowing he wouldn’t like what she had to say next. “Peter, I need to get back into Timothy’s office. I want that notebook and Clarabelle’s diary. I think I’ll take Lily’s spell book, too. No sense leaving him with spells that he might use against us.”
“No.” Peter’s response boomed out from his chest, commanding and final.
She pursed her lips. “What if it has more information that can help us than the little bit that I’ve seen?”