by Zoe Arden
I pushed the hair from my face and saw the ferry coming in toward the docks. I'd never forget my first ride over to Heavenly Haven on it. I was so excited. So scared. It seemed far away now. My whole life before coming here seemed like a distant, faded memory. Bits of New York City would always be with me, I couldn't escape that, but in just over a year I'd turned from a city girl into an island girl. A small-town island girl, no less.
My gaze shifted from the ferry to the docks it was heading toward and my heart skipped a beat. Damon was standing there looking out. The wind whipped his hair around his head. I watched as he pushed his face into the wind instead of turning away from it. That had been one of the things I'd loved about Damon—not many people wanted to walk into the wind. It seemed like a grand metaphor for his life—always walking toward things, never running from them. Until, of course, he'd dumped me and left the island. That had shattered any remaining image I had of him.
But he was back now, and that was all in the past.
I took a breath and walked toward him. The sand was soft and my feet sank into it with every step I took. Damon didn't hear me approaching, and he didn't see me until I was almost on top of him. When he did, his eyes widened.
"Ava," he said, his low voice rich and musical.
"Hi," I said, hoping to keep things light. "I'm glad I ran into you here." He started moving quickly away from the dock back toward the sand. There was a wide stretch of beach between the dock and the sidewalk, the main road running beside it. He was hurrying toward it like he was trying to get away.
"Look," I said, trying to keep up with him, "I'm sorry about the other day. I appreciate what you—"
"It's fine," he said. "You should probably just go. I'm—"
"I'm not going anywhere until we hash this out," I told him, irritated. He was blowing me off.
"Forget about it. Really. I'm sorry, too." The speed of his steps only increased. "You need to leave now before—" I reached out one hand and put it on his shoulder, forcing him to stop and look at me.
"I'm trying to apologize," I told him.
"I know. And I said it's fine."
He looked anxious. His eyes kept drifting from me back to the dock. The ferry had landed and people were beginning to disembark. My eyes watered as the wind crashed into my face. I blinked several times and when they finally cleared, I understood Damon's apprehension.
"Your mom is here," I said, not sure why I was so surprised. He'd warned me about this very thing, and even though I'd intended to find out what she was up to, I hadn't intended to meet her upon arrival. She stepped off the boat and looked around, her dark hair whipping into a tangled mess. Her eyes landed on me and Damon and her mouth dropped open.
"I better go. You should have told me you were waiting for her."
Damon let out an exasperated laugh. "I tried but you're as stubborn as you ever were." I wished suddenly that the Sweetland docks weren't the main ones for the island. If Mistmoor's beaches weren't so rocky, the ferry could have docked there sometimes and I might have avoided this mess.
A woman's voice screeched behind us. "What is she doing here?"
We spun around just as Betsey LaGrange came into view. Her pale skin and platinum hair—even lighter than my own—almost sparkled in the sunlight. The wind whipped around her but didn't seem to affect her. It was as if she were walking in an invisible bubble. I'd heard that fairies could affect nature like that, I'd just never seen it done until now. She was wearing sunglasses and when she took them off, just for a second, I could have sworn her eyes were pink and silver glitter. I blinked and they were a bright blue. Almost too blue. It looked fake.
"I was just leaving," I told Betsey. The scowl on her face was almost as unpleasant as the one on Renee's as she stormed toward us. I realized now that Renee wasn't alone. There were several members of MAPP with her; I recognized them from television. They were all wearing equally disturbing scowls. My breath caught. I'd wanted to keep tabs on Renee while she was here but I wasn't expecting her MAPP buddies to be traveling with her. I hurried off, leaving Damon to fend for himself. I'd been told before that my mom's side of the family had an ancient curse hanging over our heads. At times like these, I wondered if it might be true.
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CHAPTER
FIVE
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"Is that them?" Lottie Mudget asked, holding her Witchmobile phone out to me so that I could see the screen. Natalie Vargas peeked over my shoulder to see it, too. I looked at the picture on an online news site of women holding picket signs that said things like Down with Paranormals and Humans Not Predators and nodded.
"Yes, that's them," I said.
Natalie had come into the bakery with Lottie early this morning and informed me, my dad, and my aunts that Renee was back in town with a bunch of MAPP members. I'd made the mistake of telling them that I already knew that; that I'd seen them get off the ferry. It was just one example of how I could sometimes open my big mouth and step in it even worse than Lucy. No one would leave me alone until I gave them details; specifically, who else I'd seen besides Renee.
Lottie looked triumphantly at her screen and nodded. "I thought so. Sally Edgerly and Bebe Luvalle. Sally's the pudgy blonde, and she's bossy from what I hear. She and Bebe are sort of second-in-command to Renee and never seem to go anywhere unless they're together." She studied the picture a little closer. "I think that's Vivian Henderson behind them. She's not really anything, just a pretty face. More of an understudy, if you take my meaning."
"So, what are they all doing here?" Trixie asked, apprehension in her voice. I couldn't blame her. Damon had said his mom was coming to meet Betsey. If MAPP buddies were with her, though, then that meant I'd been right all along. She had something else up her sleeve.
"Can we all stop talking about MAPP just for a moment?" Eleanor said and handed Randall his chocolate bear claw. He'd liked the last one so much that he'd had to come back for seconds. He gobbled it up in about two seconds and asked for another. Eleanor just pulled out the tray, set it on the counter, and pushed it toward him.
"What about the mayor's ball?" Eleanor asked. "That's what I want to know about."
"No news is good news," said my father. "Otis must still be deciding."
"Yes, but how long does it take to decide?" asked Trixie, frustrated.
"Don't worry," said Natalie. "Mystic will get it. You're much better than Sweets n' Treats. Plus, there's the Polly factor." There were murmurs and groans from the rest of us. Polly was still a sore subject for us. "No one wants to go to something she's helped to cater. What if she, you know, tries something?" Natalie lifted her eyebrows and made a slicing motion across her throat.
Randall wiped the crumbs off his mouth and spoke up. "Aw, Polly gets a raw deal. She's not so bad. Besides, she never actually killed anyone, just tried to."
"And Wilma herself isn't so bad," Lottie said. "She's quite nice, actually."
Natalie shot her a look. "I see. Well, looks like someone here has a new best friend."
Lottie's cheeks burned. Ever since her twin sister, Paisley, had been murdered, she and Natalie had become fast friends. But their relationship seemed to consist of a lot of bickering.
"I was just saying," Lottie said and reached for one of the bear claws, her cheeks going pink.
"People will come around to Polly eventually," Randall said.
Natalie rounded on him. "There is a good reason that people don't trust Polly Peacock. Do you know what she tried to do? Her and that boyfriend of hers Slater Winston?"
I shuddered at the mention of Slater's name. Slater was human but he was pure evil. He'd wanted to destroy every witch in the world, a lot like Renee and MAPP though much more vicious. Polly had tried to help him, later claiming that he'd conned her into the whole thing. She said she'd been duped by his good looks and smoldering charm. I thought that was just an excuse, as did mos
t people. Though I had to admit... the one time she'd apologized to me for everything that she'd done, she'd seemed sincere.
"I know," Randall said. "But still... she's changed. I think." A blush crept into his cheeks and I wondered if it was possible that he had a little crush on Polly. She was young and pretty, even with her checkered past.
"It's naïve wizards like you who make life for normal witches and wizards impossible!" Natalie shouted. "Of all the absurd things I've heard... Polly Peacock changed? You have no idea what you're talking about." Steam was practically coming out of her ears.
"Anyway," Randall said shrugging and trying to change the subject, "I gotta go. I'm going to that Witch's Council meeting on integration." He beamed at us like he'd said he was going to collect on his million dollar lottery winnings. The Witch's Council was made up, essentially, of a bunch of local do-gooders. They were kind of like COMHA except on a much smaller scale and were focused entirely on Heavenly Haven, whereas COMHA focused on the wider witching world.
"You're in favor of integration?" Lottie asked, surprised.
Natalie's jaw dropped even more than it already had. Her eyes narrowed to slits.
"Sure. I think it just makes sense that paranormals come clean to the humans. Tell them we're real and show them we're harmless. Mostly."
There was a rule in the paranormal community that humans weren't supposed to know about magic but you couldn't always help it if they found out, especially the few humans who lived on Heavenly Haven. The unwritten rule was that if they already knew, then you could discuss it with them. If not, then you had to keep quiet.
Randall grabbed one last bear claw as he headed for the door. "I mean, that would put an end to all this MAPP business once and for all, wouldn't it?"
"True..." Lottie said though she looked skeptical.
"We could even show them how to use wands and things so that they'd see they're safe."
Natalie's face turned purple at the idea of teaching humans how to use wands. She was about to start yelling at him again when Renee Tellinger burst through the front door. Her eyes landed on me as if they'd been drawn there.
"I want an explanation," she shouted, making a beeline for me. Her face was twisted into a snarl and her eyes were two black slits. She nearly collided with Randall. He jumped out of the way just in time. I could see her MAPP friends peeking in through the window behind her, their mouths hanging open, deep worry lines etched on their faces. There were three of them. The same three I'd seen getting off the ferry with her the other day—Bebe, Sally, and Vivian—and they looked as though they thought Renee was about to die.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, backing quickly away from her. Eleanor, Trixie, and my father each took a protective step forward. I was glad Trixie had listened to Eleanor and left her mood ring at home today or else it would have been glowing a violent red right now and probably burned our retinas.
"I want to know what your relationship is to my son."
I blinked, not quite understanding. "We don't have a relationship, other than being friends. Kind of."
"Then why were you with him on the docks the other day? I saw you two standing there looking all cozy. That elf girlfriend of his saw it, too."
"Betsey's a fairy, not an elf," I said as my face burned crimson. I could feel the eyes of my aunts, father, Lottie, and Natalie all turned on me. I'd told them that I'd seen Renee come in with her friends but I'd left out the part about being with Damon when I'd seen it. I wasn't sure why exactly; it's not like I'd done anything wrong. We'd only been talking. But still... they already had the wrong idea and all we'd done was talk.
"I was walking on the beach and bumped into him. That's all."
"That's what he said," Renee snapped. She saw a sample tray with chocolate peanut butter brownies sitting on top of one of the glass display cases. She grabbed it and started shoveling the samples into her mouth, talking with her mouth full as she paced the room.
"First a witch," she said, though it came out sounding more like, "Fust a weech," because her mouth was so full. She swallowed. "Now a fairy. I thought she was human. He said she was human. Oh..."
The door chimed and Sally peeked into the shop. "Renee!" she shouted. "You're eating their food!"
Renee stopped pacing, another brownie halfway to her mouth. She dropped it back onto the plate, horrified, then set the plate on the counter and backed away from it like it was toxic gas.
"What was that?" she asked, pointing to the plate. "What did you give me?"
"We didn't give it to you," Trixie snapped. "You took it. Those were our samples."
"What sort of poison is in them?"
Her necklace slipped from around her neck and a large silver charm shaped like a four-leaf clover clattered to the floor. Renee jumped and let out a shriek. A flash of sunlight came in through the window, almost like it had been attracted to her cry. Outside, her friends shrieked, too. I groaned but I actually felt kind of bad for her. She was being ridiculous but she was clearly scared out of her mind.
"It's okay," I said, picking up the necklace and holding it out to her. "All the brownies had in them was some tranquility extract. Clearly, it doesn't even work on you."
"Oh, my head feels light," she said. "I'm getting dizzy."
I turned to Trixie and rolled my eyes. I was still holding the necklace. "Here, I'll fix your necklace for you," I said, trying to calm her down. "The chain's broken. All I have to do is—"
"Don't you touch it! I don't want your magic anywhere near me!" She grabbed the necklace back and began fussing with it. Randall took a step toward her. She gasped and slipped the necklace into her pocket.
"You really need to relax," he said. "Witches and wizards aren't so bad."
Renee threw her shoulders back and shot him a look that could kill. "You wouldn't say that if Ava Fortune had hexed your son."
"I've never hexed Damon," I said, losing any sympathy I'd felt for her.
"That's probably what every witch says," she yelled. She looked around like she wanted to make an escape but I was blocking her path to the door. She saw the tray of bear claws Randall had been eating. She picked one up and chucked it at me. I ducked just in time. It flew past me and hit Randall square in the face, landing in his open mouth. His eyes bulged slightly and his face turned red. He put his hands to his mouth and tried to pull the bear claw out but it seemed stuck there.
"Randall?" I asked as his face glowed a cherry red. "Are you okay?"
He blinked at me a couple of times then fell to the floor, unconscious.
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CHAPTER
SIX
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"He's choking!" Natalie shouted. "He must've swallowed too big a piece of bear claw."
Everyone scrambled. Renee backed up against the furthest wall possible, her neck stretched high and her face tight. She looked like she was about to pass out herself.
My father and Eleanor ran for Randall; he was lying still on the ground. Trixie ran for the phone, and I ran to get some water.
My father used the Heimlich maneuver on him but nothing happened. Eleanor tried magic but still nothing. I threw the water on his face, hoping to snap him out of it. All of it failed. Finally, my father sat back and looked at Eleanor.
"He's dead," my dad said, surprise and confusion sounding behind his words. Eleanor nodded her agreement.
"But..." Trixie said, pressing the phone to her ear. Natalie let out a stifled scream.
"How can he be dead?" I cried. Renee let out a soft cry and I swiveled back toward her. "What did you do?" I demanded.
"Nothing," she said in a voice so small it was barely a whisper. "I-I didn't mean to hit him with the bear claw." Tears welled in her eyes. She looked to the shopfront window and realized her friends had disappeared.
"Ava, I doubt being hit with the bear claw is what killed him," my dad said.
; "Then what did?"
He looked at my aunts and when they offered no explanation, he turned to Natalie and Lottie. They shrugged.
"He must've choked," Natalie said. "It's the only thing that makes sense."
"But if he was choking then why didn't the Heimlich maneuver work on him?" I asked.
"B-Because you're witches," Renee said, her voice still small.
"The Heimlich maneuver works on anyone," I snapped.
"Oh."
Eleanor took the phone from Trixie, who was still holding it like a shield. "I'd better call Zane. He can sort this all out."
"Maybe I should call Colt," I said and pulled out my Witchmobile. They were the only types of cell phones that worked on the island.
An hour later, both Sheriff Knoxx and Colt were pacing around our bakery. Neither were very happy. At least the body was gone. Sheriff Knoxx had arranged for Sweetland Hospital to come and retrieve it.
"Tell me again what happened," said the sheriff.
Renee was sitting at a table, looking pale. She'd refused even a glass of water when we'd offered her one. "I threw the bear claw. It hit him. That's it."
He looked to us for confirmation. We all nodded.
Natalie cleared her throat. "Sheriff, do you think I might be able to leave soon? I'd love to stay but my children..." She looked impatiently at her watch but when she looked up it wasn't impatience that I saw but hard grief. She looked as if she'd been slapped in the face.
Normally, Natalie wouldn't want to miss even a second of this sort of thing. She was sure to get asked about it later by the townspeople. Colt and Sheriff Knoxx had blocked off the entrance to the bakery and a line had formed at the window, trying to peek inside and see what was happening. Deputy Elwin Muster was doing his best to keep people back but he wasn't quite cut out to deal with such a crowd.