Frosting Disaster

by Zoe Arden

  * * *

  .

  Sheriff Knoxx stood with a solid grip on Sally. She was in handcuffs, which only made her angrier but there was nothing she could do about it. She had no wand, no defense, and she wasn't going anywhere.

  As soon as the cuffs went on her, the rest of MAPP crumbled. First Bebe, then Vivian, were handcuffed by COMHA agents. Elwin Muster managed to tackle two other MAPP women who were still running around. The rest of the COMHA agents gathered up the rest of the MAPP women and put them all together in a group while things got sorted out.

  Dean Lampton was fuming. He stomped across the ballroom, outside to the lawn, then back into the ballroom, which was in a worse shambles than it had been after the first mayor's ball. The cake was still standing though. Well, sort of. The top few layers had toppled over but the base of the cake remained strong. Tadpole stood around licking the frosting. The rest of the familiars who'd attended abstained. The smell of skunk was quite strong and off-putting even to Snowball and Tootsie. The rest of the party patrons filed out of the room as quickly as their feet would allow without tripping over each other.

  I watched as Sally, Bebe, and Vivian were all led out of the ballroom one by one. Sally's face was blotchy and red. Her eyes were a painful bloodshot color that looked as though they must have burned terribly. Tadpole's spray was potent if nothing else. She would be okay after Dr. Dunne flushed her eyes out but she would probably smell like skunk for a month.

  "This is ridiculous!" Sally shrieked as Sheriff Knoxx put her in the backseat of his car. Bebe's eyes widened when he tried to put her in beside her.

  "No!" she shouted. "Uh uh, no way. I'm not getting in there. Not with her! Can't you smell her?" Vivian echoed a similar sentiment.

  Lucy stood near her sister, Megan, who was shaking her head. They were both snapping pictures with their phones.

  "What are you doing?" I asked.

  "They're for Facebook," Lucy said. "It's time these MAPP chicks got a taste of their own medicine."

  Megan nodded her agreement and moved in for some close-ups of Sally's skunked-up face. Sally turned away and shouted for help from inside the sheriff's car but no one was listening.

  After much protest from Vivian and Bebe, Colt finally agreed to take them to the sheriff's station in his own car. Dean ordered him to erase their memories but Colt declined. He said that that rest of the COMHA council had decided that erasing memories was going too far. Dean mumbled something about unfair practices but quickly decided that it didn't matter.

  "I'll have them banned from Heavenly Haven forever," he shouted. "Not just these three, all of them. The whole lot of MAPP." His eyes opened to a brilliant shine. "Better yet, I'll ban them from North America. Send them to Europe or... or... Antarctica!" He scratched his head. "Is the Tundra still a thing? Do you think that's better than Antarctica?" He nodded to himself, answering his own question. "Yes, the Tundra has a certain ring to it. That's where they'll go."

  He walked off, his phone in his hand, ready to make whatever phone calls were necessary to force MAPP into being banned to the Tundra.

  Before Colt left, I asked him what he thought would really happen. I doubted that Dean could really ship anyone off to the Tundra but still... something had to be done. Especially with Sally. She'd killed Randall and tried to kill Renee.

  "I don't know," Colt said, "but I can take a guess. I imagine that Sally will be tried in a witch's court. She'll probably have to stand charges on murder, attempted murder, disruption, and a host of other things I can only imagine right now. Using an unauthorized wand stolen from a COMHA agent is almost as big a deal as the attempted murder charge."

  "What about everyone else? The rest of MAPP, I mean."

  "Not sure. Probably a fine, maybe a little more. I think it probably depends on how many of the videos made their way onto the Internet."

  My eyes widened. "Did their videos get out?"

  "A few of them, from what we can tell."

  "Oh, no."

  "It might not be as bad as all that. We're just gonna need to wait and see."

  "We're still okay, right? You and I?"

  His answer was a soft kiss on my lips. When his eyes opened again, though, they moved from me to Damon and back again.

  "I'll tell him I can't see him anymore," I assured Colt.

  He nodded and said no more about it.

  When he was gone, I walked slowly over to Damon. His face was still pale but his eyes seemed clear.

  "You okay?" I asked him.

  He nodded. "Betsey broke up with me." He looked at the ground and back up at me.

  "Maybe she'll come around," I said. "Give you another chance like Colt did with me."

  "Maybe but I don't think so." He sighed. "I was at the hospital when I overheard my mom on the phone with Bebe. They were talking about tonight. I got here as fast as I could but I guess it wasn't fast enough."

  "You did what you could," I told him, feeling bad for him. "How's your mom?"

  "All right. She'll be out tomorrow."

  "Good." I hesitated. "Are you staying on the island? Now that you and Betsey broke up, I mean?"

  He shrugged. "I haven't decided yet. Sometimes I think I should go. Sometimes I think I need to stay here. Like it's a challenge I need to face; to get past all the problems I've had here. They just seem to follow me wherever I go."

  I let out a breath. "I can't see you anymore," I said quickly, pushing the words out. "Not even as friends." I paused. "I'm sorry. I wish I could but Colt means a lot to me and after what happened... I just can't."

  "I get it," he said. "I hope things work out for you guys. Colt's not such a bad guy."

  "Thanks. And I hope things work out for you. If not with Betsey, then someone else."

  We stood in silence a while and when Trixie and my dad finally came to get me, Damon and I parted with a bittersweet hug. It would be the last one we ever shared.

  * * *

  CHAPTER

  FORTY

  .

  .

  .

  * * *

  * * *

  .

  When the bell chimed over the bakery door two days later, I looked up, thinking that nothing could surprise me anymore. Then I saw Renee standing there and I knew I was wrong. I wasn't just surprised to see her, I was shocked.

  Colt had been right about Sally standing trial in witch's court. She was set to go before COMHA in a few weeks and it looked as though she might be going to a witch's prison. She was looking for a lawyer who would take up her case and help her stay in a human prison if it came to that but so far no one seemed interested.

  Bebe and Vivian had both proven that they had nothing to do with Randall's murder or the attempted murder on Renee. They were banned from Heavenly Haven for the rest of their lives but would face no jail time. However, they had both been given, as had everyone in MAPP, a hefty fine, which they had to pay to cover the costs of repair to the ballroom as well as for disturbing the peace. I didn't have an exact figure but I was told it was several thousand dollars each.

  Renee had gotten off the hook to an extent. Since she'd been in the hospital when everything went down at the second mayor's ball, she wasn't being held liable for any of the damage. A lot more damage had happened the second time around, as it turned out. Her fine was confined to events at the first ball and was therefore far less than the other women in her group, and she hadn't been banned from Heavenly Haven forever, just for six months starting tomorrow when she was set to depart.

  "Hi," Renee said. "Is it all right if I come in?"

  I shrugged and looked behind me at the door to the back room where Eleanor and Trixie were. My dad was home taking a day off.

  "I guess so," I said. I didn't much care for the idea of being alone in a room with Renee but I didn't think she was about to kill me. At least... I didn't think so. I was afraid Damon might come in behind her but when he didn't show up, I relaxed just a tad. Things between me and Colt had been a lot better
the last couple of days, and I didn't want to ruin our streak. Then again, did two days really count as a streak? Whatever, it was close enough.

  "What do you want?" I asked her, cutting right to it. She took a breath and held something out to me. It was a small folder. "For you," she said.

  I took it from her uncertainly and looked inside.

  "My picture!" I said, my heart giving a thump in my chest to let me know it was as excited as the rest of me. I looked behind it and saw Lottie's picture there, too. There were several copies of each. "I thought maybe they hadn't turned out or that you'd gotten rid of them," I told her. That was something else I'd been wrong about. These pictures were perfect; crystal clear. A large halo of light blue light was shooting from my fingertip as I pointed it toward the sky.

  "I'd give you back Trixie's wand, too, but Sheriff Knoxx already has that."

  "I know. He gave it back to her the other day."

  "I-I'm sorry. I never thought that Sally would actually kill anyone. Or try to kill me. If I had known that she was actually going to go that far with things, I would have stopped her."

  "But you didn't know," I said. "Now you do."

  She nodded. We stood staring at each other uncomfortably. "Are those peanut butter brownies?" she finally asked, indicating a sample plate set on our counter.

  "Yeah. Want one?"

  She hesitated. "Is... is there anything in them?"

  "Just a little something to perk you up for your day," I told her and winked.

  She took one of the samples, popped it in her mouth, and swallowed. Her eyes lit up. "It's good."

  "Thanks. How about a whole one? On the house?"

  She nodded her thanks and I packed one into a small box for her. I thought about it then added a second.

  "Who would have thought that my love of chocolate and peanut butter would save my life?" she laughed.

  I looked up at her with confusion.

  "Haven't you heard? I thought maybe Damon told you."

  I shook my head. "No. I haven't talked to him. Told me what?"

  "Well, after Sally was arrested, she gave the sheriff and your boyfriend the spell she'd gotten off the Internet, the one she'd used on me and Randall. Turns out it's a real spell, just a very old one. A heart stopper, I think Dr. Dunne called it." She cleared her throat. "As strange as it sounds, peanut butter is one of the countermeasures against it. If I hadn't been so nervous these last couple of weeks and stuffing my face with peanut butter brownies every two seconds because of it, I might have died like Randall."

  She laughed again, a nervous laugh.

  "Wow, that's... that's really something," I said, for lack of anything better to say.

  "What about you?" she asked. "Have you heard anything about that COMHA agent who lost his wand? The wand that Sally used to, you know... kill Randall."

  "Yeah. Apparently, he hasn't had his wand for weeks. He's been hiding it from everyone; he was scared to tell Dean Lampton. I don't blame him. I think Dean lost his mind a little when he found out that one of his agents had lost a wand."

  "I can imagine," Renee said.

  "Colt said the guy's been suspended for a month and might not be able to return. Dean is still discussing it with the rest of the COMHA delegates. I think if it was up to him, he'd probably ship the agent off to the Tundra."

  We shared a laugh and I thanked her again for returning the pictures.

  "They're the only copies. I destroyed all the others."

  "Lottie will be relieved to hear that."

  "Not that it would matter much anyway," Renee said. "Everyone thinks the videos that got uploaded from the last ball are all fakes. No one believes any of it. They say the pictures are Photoshopped and the videos are CGI."

  "I know. So..."

  "So?"

  "So, where does that leave you? Are you done with MAPP or just revamping it?"

  "Done," she said. "I still don't trust... your kind… but I guess I can learn to accept things the way they are. The consequences of not accepting it are too disastrous." Then, much quieter, "I don't want to turn into Sally."

  Eleanor and Trixie burst out of the back room just then. "You'll never believe the news we just got!" Eleanor shouted. They paused when they saw Renee. She blushed, said hello, then turned quickly for the door.

  "What was she doing here?" they asked. I showed them the pictures and they nodded approvingly.

  "So what's your news?" I asked. They were excited about something. Their faces were flushed and they were bouncing off the walls.

  "You'll never believe it," Trixie said. "I can hardly believe it myself."

  "What?" I asked, getting excited myself.

  "Otis called," Eleanor said. "The ball is back on."

  "You're kidding."

  "Nope. And this time both us and Sweets n' Treats are making cakes. A collaborative effort!" Eleanor was ecstatic.

  "Well," I said, scratching my head. "I guess third time's the charm."

  * * *

  Epilogue

  .

  This time, the ball was a success. There were no MAPP women to worry about but Otis took the extra precaution of securing a team of both COMHA agents along with Sheriff Knoxx and his deputies, just in case. They patrolled the perimeter of the building.

  Colt was in charge of the COMHA team. Dean was none too happy that he'd gotten back together with me but Colt was still the best agent he had so he'd decided to let it go. I suspected that he thought we wouldn't last much longer but from the way Colt was dancing with me tonight, I knew he was wrong. There was no way that a man could move like that and not be in love.

  He spun me around the dance floor. I felt as light as air. When the song ended and he kissed me, my whole body tingled. This was how every kiss should be and with Colt, they always were.

  I walked to the punch bowl and Colt went to check in with his agents. I saw Otis standing with Tadpole on his arm.

  "Hi, Ava," Otis said.

  "Hi."

  "Having fun?"

  "I sure am," I told him. "Seems like everyone is."

  "I really like the cake you made with Sweets n' Treats."

  "Thanks, I do, too. We just tried to work with your theme—unity—and that's what we came up with. It turned out pretty nice, huh?"

  Tadpole nodded emphatically.

  Our cakes, one from each bakery, had been made in conjunction with each other instead of in competition with each other. The cakes were eight feet tall twins. They were pure white and had been decorated with edible flowers of all shades and varieties. A bridge made of modeling chocolate and fondant, along with a special touch of magic, ran from one cake to the other, connecting them. I thought it was a fitting testament not just to Sweetland Cove and its inhabitants but the entire island. No matter what happened in our little towns, we were all united by this island and our love for it.

  Given the theme of "unity" for this ball, a lot more of Mistmoor had turned out. Even a few fairies had come, though not Betsey or her mother. Damon was also conspicuously absent, and I thought that was probably a wise decision on his part. Megan and Lucy walked past us. They smiled at us, though Megan's smile was much more curt than usual.

  "You think she's still mad at me?" Otis asked. "I hated to fire her like that but when I found out she was the leak, I didn't have another choice."

  "It's not your fault, Otis," I told him. "Besides, I'm sure she'll love interning at COMHA. It seems right up her alley."

  "I still can't believe it was her who was leaking everything. Who would've thought?" He scratched his head and I remained quiet. Tadpole suddenly jumped up on his hind legs, balancing on Otis' shoulder. He pointed toward the door. My heard did a double flip as, for a moment, I thought he'd seen Renee or one of her friends.

  "Oh, good," Otis said. "The goblins came." He walked to the door and greeted them warmly. King Zulubar—the king of the goblins—shook Otis' hand then bowed low to the ground. His skin was a scaly gray-green color and his nose was long and poin
ted. He was taller than you would have expected a goblin to be but still on the short side—about five feet high. The rest of the goblins were similar in their features.

  There was a small group of them, perhaps eight or so. They looked around the ballroom, their eyes taking in all the little details. King Zulubar's eyes stopped on the cake. Otis led him over to it and handed the goblin king a slice. He picked it up with his hands and shoved the whole thing into his mouth.

  "Delicious," he happily declared and the rest of his entourage dug in. He looked at me. King Zulubar and I had met a few times, usually under odd circumstances. "Did you make this cake, Miss Fortune?" he asked.

  "I helped make one of them. The other one was made by another bakery, Sweets n' Treats." I wanted to give credit where credit was due. Polly had mentioned in passing, when we were setting things up, that business had picked up for them lately and I was glad.

  "Would you be interested in making a cake for our upcoming goblin ball? It will be taking place next month."

  "A goblin ball?" I asked. It had never occurred to me that goblins had balls. "Yes! I mean, I'd have to check with my aunts but I'm sure they'd be happy to."

  "Wonderful. I shall have one of my workers forward you the details."

  I couldn't believe it. Another ball. A goblin ball, no less. My mind conjured up images of goblins in ballgowns and tuxedos. I thought that was probably far from how it would actually be, though, and couldn't wait to find out. There was never a dull moment in Sweetland Cove.

  * * *

  THANK YOU

  for reading my book and

  i hope you have enjoyed the story.

  Frosting Disaster is Book 7 in Sweetland Witch Series.

  If you have enjoyed reading Frosting Disaster , I believe you will be interested in checking out the next book.