by Elle Adams
Charity’s mouth opened and closed a few times like a goldfish, then she and her twin looked away. “The title of Head Witch is a coveted one. As this is your first year…”
“You thought I shirked my duties as a host to start murdering my competition?” Madame Grey shook her head. “The police will question the witnesses—”
“There was only one witness,” said Patience, eyeing Shannon. “Who might have committed the crime.”
“I have no quarrel with your coven,” she said. “And the Head Witch position is frankly not worth risking my life. I intend to leave the town and travel home tomorrow.”
“Guilty conscience?” Patience turned on Madame Grey. “If she leaves and takes the weapon with her—”
Madame Grey’s mouth pressed together. “I’m afraid that until the killer is caught, I must ask you to stay put. All of you.”
Charity’s eyes darted around our group. “The culprit is here among us. If any of you leave town before we sniff you out, we will take it as a declaration of war against our coven.”
Shannon sank onto the bench again, her face milky white. Not guilty—but then, who was? The killer had sneaked in and out of the garden like a ghost. Like, in fact, the thief.
“Go,” said Madame Grey. “I will check the scene for contamination. Blair, might I ask you to question everyone who was present in the house more thoroughly?”
Patience looked defiantly at me, as did Charity. A definite sense of wariness showed in their expressions. Were they worried about my lie-sensing power because of the murder, or did they have something else to hide?
One way to find out.
7
“Did you see Grace today?” I faced Shannon across the bench, figuring it was best to start with the person least likely to bite my head off. “When was the last time you spoke to her?”
“At Madame Grey’s place,” the blond witch answered promptly. “She left early, saying she didn’t sleep much last night and that she wanted a nap. I think I kept her awake when I was sleep-talking.”
Thanking the cocktail that I hadn’t been awake through that, I recalled my run-in with Grace earlier. Shannon’s account seemed to fit with what I’d seen of the pink-haired witch. “So you stayed at the witches’ headquarters after she left?”
“For another hour, yes,” she said. “Then I came back here and decided to sit outside in the garden for a while. It’s too stuffy indoors.”
More like too full of Aveline. Still, my lie-sensing power didn’t react to her words. “Okay, thanks for talking to me.”
I turned to the twins next, who both narrowed their eyes at me. Don’t look at me, it was Madame Grey’s idea.
“When did you first notice your mother was missing?” I asked the twins.
“Half an hour ago,” Patience said sourly.
Lie. I stiffened. “Are you sure?”
Her twin dabbed at her eyes. “Of course we’re not sure. You’re interrogating us and she’s just lying there on the ground…”
“Madame Grey did offer to move the body.”
“Nobody touch her,” Patience spat. “Not until the police get here.”
I had my doubts she’d let Steve or his fellow gargoyles touch the body either, but I pressed on. “Do you know anyone who would have wanted to harm her?”
“We might have had our arguments, but we’re family,” said Charity. “We would never hurt one another.”
True. “Okay. Unless Vanessa has a confession to make, it seems we have ourselves an invisible killer.”
Aveline grunted. “Can I go back inside now? My hip aches. I don’t know what’s taking Vanessa so long.”
The sound of the front door opening came from inside the house, and all eyes turned in that direction.
“I believe that’s her now,” Madame Grey said.
Alissa disappeared into the house first, and I heard the murmur of voices in the hallway. Then she and Vanessa came outside.
“What’s going on?” said Vanessa. “Mother, why are you out here in the garden? You know how your allergies act up around lavender.”
“Grace is dead,” said Aveline. “And you’re the only remaining suspect.”
Vanessa gasped. “I’ve been gone for the last hour. You can’t possibly think I—”
“Blair?” said Madame Grey.
I blinked in surprise at having the reins handed over to me. “When was the last time you saw Grace?”
“When she left Madame Grey’s office, of course,” said Vanessa, her voice tremulous.
“True,” I said. “You didn’t see anyone else here who shouldn’t be?”
“No, of course not,” she said. “I’ve been out for most of the day.”
True.
Several gargoyle-shaped shadows appeared overhead. And here come the police.
“Steve knows we weren’t here when it happened, right?” I asked Madame Grey. The grumpy gargoyle was not my biggest fan.
“Yes, he does,” said Madame Grey. “I’d suggest you return to the house in any case.”
“Wise idea,” Alissa muttered. “I wouldn’t put it past Steve to pin the blame on us to avoid ticking off the Head Witch.”
“Nor me.” I followed her and Nina back into the house. “So we have either an invisible killer running around or one who can commit murder without leaving a trace behind.”
“Or someone put a curse on Grace and set it to go off later,” Nina added. “Which Steve wouldn’t guess, so we’d better hope the Rosemary witches let Madame Grey examine the body.”
“I did try a few spells on her when they weren’t looking,” Alissa whispered. “Enough to figure out that it must have been dark magic that killed her, but a rare type, and not one I’ve seen before.”
“I feel so secure sleeping close to the murder site,” I said, with a shudder. “Even camping outside isn’t appealing now, to be honest.”
“It’s okay, you can stay upstairs in my living room if you like,” said Nina. “There’s more space, and no Head Witch. It’s up to you.”
I smiled at her. “Might take you up on that. Thanks so much.”
In an improved mood, I packed my suitcase and carried it upstairs into Nina’s living room. Her flat looked much like mine had before Aveline had unleashed her personality all over it. And it didn’t contain any Head Witches, alive or dead, which was a bonus.
Or any murderers.
Work was a trial the following day. I’d found it almost impossible to sleep the night before, so I kept dozing off at my desk. My mind had spun in circles, running over every detail of the questionings, but I couldn’t figure out how any of the witches might have avoided confessing.
Having a potential killer in the house didn’t encourage restful sleep. It was far from the first time I’d been targeted by a murderer—and this time, I wasn’t even a direct target. No, all the signs suggested someone was committing murder using the Head Witch’s sceptre.
The twins had eventually surrendered their mother’s body to Madame Grey for examination, but since Dr Appleton had faked his own death using convincing magic, the process for evaluating the cause of death took longer. Until then, we could only assume the sceptre was responsible. The one bright spot was that Aveline had made such an impact on Steve and the other gargoyles that he’d limited our questionings to less than ten minutes and then flown home.
I’d all but forgotten about Rob’s offer to give me a bottle of the werewolf potion until he approached me as work finished for the day and handed me a small bottle. “Two drops will suffice. Just make sure she doesn’t see you.”
“Goes without saying,” I said. “Thanks for this. You might have saved all our sanity if it works.”
“I do my best.”
I pocketed the bottle, and my phone buzzed with a message from Alissa, telling me that Madame Grey had called another rehearsal for Samhain’s event that evening.
Wonderful.
Sky had slept on my head while I was staying in Nina’s living ro
om, so I hurried home to fetch him before making my way along the winding path to the lake.
Madame Grey waited on the shore, her cloak swirling around her ankles and her white wand aglow as we gathered around her.
“Silence!” she said to the assembling crowd. “You might have heard the sceptre was stolen from the Head Witch this week. However, we have decided to go ahead with the ceremony as planned, to show these thieves that we will not allow them to intimidate us.”
What’s she playing at? How was it possible to hand on the title of Head Witch without the sceptre? Unless she was planning to use the ceremony to draw the thief out of hiding. Who knew?
To nobody’s surprise, the rehearsal didn’t go well. Sky was in one of his moods, forcing me to carry the pointed hat myself and nudge him along whenever he curled up stubbornly on the grass. It’d rained overnight, and as a result, walking in the grassy hills was like trekking through a swamp. Regardless, somehow Sky managed to find a dry spot of earth to sleep on every few feet.
When three students started a fight, Madame Grey halted the procession and went to intervene. The rest of us stood shivering on the hillside, damp and miserable, until she dismissed us.
Sky yawned and padded away down the muddy path. I hurried to catch him up and halted at the sound of raucous laughter from the academy students further down the line. Among the laughs, Rebecca’s voice drifted over. “Leave him alone!”
Oh, no.
Rebecca stood in a defensive pose among the other witches. At her feet sat her new familiar, curled protectively in front of his witch. Sky padded towards her on silent paws. I didn’t stop him, but I followed close behind.
“That idiot familiar of yours was walking in the wrong direction,” snickered one of the girls. “Is he too stupid to tell left from right?”
“Well, they do say sometimes familiars take after their owners,” sneered a blond girl. “Or the other way around.”
“Shut up,” Rebecca said, her voice brittle. “He’s not stupid. At least I have a familiar.”
“I’d rather wait for a good one than settle for that mangy old thing,” said Sammi. “Did your mum give it you as a punishment for failing her?”
“What?” said Rebecca, her voice catching. “What do you mean by that?”
“Duh, your mum wanted you to turn everyone in town into your personal servants,” put in the first girl. “You failed, so she kicked you out.”
Their blond companion laughed. “Look at the pathetic thing, he’s hiding behind you. Pity he’s too fat to hide. What are you going to do when it’s time to ride a broomstick? You’d never get off the ground.”
They all laughed.
“At least I know how to fly,” Rebecca shot at them, picking Toast up. “He’s not fat, he’s just fluffy. Like you have big heads but no brains to speak of.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.” Sammi pulled out her wand. “You told on me to my grandmother, didn’t you? You little sneak. See how you like your familiar now.”
She pointed her wand at both of them, but Sky got there first, butting into the back of Sammi’s legs. Her wand slipped, and the spell hit one of her friends instead. Sammi fell into the mud with a shriek of dismay.
“Did you do that?” The girl got to her feet, her face flushing, glaring at Rebecca. “I’ll show you—”
“MIAOW.” Sky positioned himself in front of Rebecca and Toast.
“Everything all right over here?” I gave up on my stealthy approach in the hope of stopping Sky from terrorising everyone with his monstrous form. Even if the bullies did deserve a wakeup call.
“Aren’t you the fairy witch freak?” said the blond witch. “Sammi said you turned her transparent.”
“She did,” said Sammi.
“It’s true,” I said. “Leave Rebecca alone.”
“She started it,” said Sammi. “She and her mother tried to get my grandma kicked out of town. She never should have been allowed into the academy.”
“Rebecca was manipulated. It wasn’t her fault,” I said.
Sky gave Toast a sniff. He walked around him, once, twice, then he bared his teeth at the other witches. The blond witch got out her wand.
“He bites,” I warned. “He’s also the one who took out Peter the wizard, so I wouldn’t use magic on him.”
“No way,” said the blond witch. “Is she right, Sammi?”
“Sammi?” Madame Grey called from the other side of the crowd. “Come on.”
Shooting Rebecca a venomous look, she stalked off, her friends following suit.
With trembling hands, Rebecca set down Toast at her feet. “Thanks,” she mumbled, then ran off before I could reply.
I had the sinking feeling I’d only made things worse. I’d hated it when nobody had stood up for me at school, but Sammi had a grudge and a half against Rebecca’s family. Until she dropped that grudge, getting through to her would be difficult at best.
When Alissa and I got home, we found the house deserted. Suspiciously so.
“Where are the others?” I walked into the hall, marvelling at the blessed quietness of the Head Witch’s absence.
“I think my grandma mentioned taking them out for dinner after the rehearsal.” Alissa unlocked our flat door, yawning. “So we have the flat to ourselves. I kind of want an early night, to be honest.”
“So do I.” I walked into the living room, remembering belatedly that I’d left my suitcase up in Nina’s room. “I guess non-coven leaders aren’t invited to this dinner.”
She arched a brow. “You want to go to the same place Aveline is?”
To spike Aveline’s drink with the werewolf potion. Then again, if I got caught, I might well be accused of trying to poison the Head Witch. I’d been lucky to escape a grilling from Steve today as it was. “No, but I’d have liked to solve this sceptre business. If someone in our house stole it, might they have hidden it in their room?”
Probably not, given Aveline’s thorough search of the place, but you never knew.
“Good point.” She discarded her coat and hat, scanning the living room. “I’ll check Aveline’s room first.”
“You mean, mine.” I removed my own coat and went to leave some food for the cats. Sky had taken up his usual position on the sofa with an air that suggested that Aveline would have to pry him off with both hands if she wanted him to move. “I think we’ll have to decontaminate the place when she’s gone. Is Aveline still leaving clumps of hair all over the shower?”
“Ugh.” Alissa shuddered. “I can’t get that dye off the walls either. I keep thinking Grace’s ghost is going to walk up to me. Pink hair and all.”
“Thank you for that mental image,” I said. “I’m never sleeping again. It’s bad enough that any of us could be next.”
“I know.” Alissa backed out of my room. “No sceptre, but she wouldn’t have left it in such an obvious place. Besides, she’s turned the place inside-out enough times since she moved in.”
“You’re telling me.” I checked the kitchen cupboards, then peered into the bathroom. “Is Nina upstairs?”
“Yep,” Alissa said. “I’ll check the flat next to hers.”
“And I’ll check the other downstairs flat.” I gave the living room one last scan, willing my fairy senses to show me anything out of place. Aside from the giant marshmallow-coloured sofa, that is. And Grace’s hair dye. She’d even left a bottle of it in the bathroom. Grimacing, I tossed it into the bin.
Sky got up and followed me as I left the flat, reaching up with his paws to bat at my pocket. I found the bottle of potion Rob had given me and removed it.
“Hey, Sky,” I whispered. “Can you sneak in there and put two drops in Aveline’s drink? It’s a potion to make her more friendly and relaxed. Considering she already suspects me of plotting against her, I shouldn’t push my luck. You’re stealthier than I am.”
Sky meowed smugly at the flattery and took the potion bottle in his mouth. After the fuss he’d kicked up at the ceremony rehea
rsal, his lack of argument proved he was as keen to bring Aveline under control as I was.
Now all we had to do was find a killer. Preferably without running into Grace’s ghost. Why had Alissa had to go there? I was jumpy enough already.
I accessed the other flat using an unlocking spell but found no signs of the sceptre in any of the rooms. Someone had made the ‘borrowed’ fireplace disappear, at least. If only they’d do the same for the giant pink sofa which took up half our living room.
I jumped at the sound of footsteps. Calm down. Ghosts can’t make a noise, right? Exiting the room, I found Alissa coming downstairs.
“Nothing up there,” she said. “The Rosemary witches are neat freaks, compared to Aveline. The place is spotless.”
“Even Grace’s room?” I asked, thinking of the dye all over the bathroom walls.
“I guess her daughters cleared out her room,” Alissa said. “Maybe we can convince Shannon or Vanessa to move upstairs so you can have your room back.”
“I’m not so keen to sleep next to the ground-floor window with a killer wandering around, funnily enough.” I shook my head. “Why is Madame Grey going ahead with the ceremony instead of looking for the killer?”
“Because the twins are refusing to let her get involved.” Alissa’s mouth tightened.
“They’re threatening to bring in their own coven members to lead the investigation, which would imply to everyone involved that our town isn’t capable of handling crime investigations.”
“Why do that? We all know the thief hasn’t hidden the sceptre in the house, and anyone from outside town wouldn’t know where else to look.” I tensed at the sound of the door opening, but it was only Sky, slipping back into the hall. He purred to let me know that he’d delivered the potion as promised. Now all we had to do was wait for the effects to kick in.
“Blair, you look shifty,” said Alissa. “What are you and Sky plotting?”
“I may have asked him to slip Aveline the werewolf potion.”
She frowned. “How much?”