by Elle Adams
Alissa’s lips pursed. “You’re right. Given the state of the town, it shouldn’t matter where we do the summoning, so we should pick somewhere nobody’s likely to walk in on us.”
“In the woods, then?” I suggested.
“By the lake would be better,” she said. “The woods are full of confused werewolves and elves getting lost in the fog.”
I used my wand to cast another light spell to illuminate the path to the lake. “Most people don’t seem to be panicking, do they? They can’t all have guessed this is happening because of the sceptre.”
“No, but it’s Samhain.” Alissa adjusted her grip on the bag of ingredients. “Besides, if the whole town shut down every time some magical catastrophe happened, we’d never get anything done.”
“Fair point. It’ll be over soon, anyway.” Once we found the sceptre, that is.
We reached the path that ran parallel to the lake. The ‘Welcome to Fairy Falls’ sign looked even more sinister than usual, lurking crookedly in the fog.
“We should stop here.” Alissa came to a halt. “If we go any further, we might walk into the lake.”
“I don’t fancy a swim in this weather.” I shivered. “What do the merpeople think of all this?”
“They’re probably hiding further away from shore. I don’t think the ghosts are haunting anywhere outside the town, so they’ll be keeping their distance.”
She seemed to be right. The lake appeared deserted, and I found a clear spot of grass on the bank, near the path up into the hills where the Samhain ceremony was set to take place. The wind howled through the fog as we carefully laid out the ingredients according to the instructions in the book.
Alissa faced the circle of herbs we’d assembled. “Grace Rosemary, we wish to speak with you.”
Silence, aside from the howl of the wind and the faint crash of the waterfall.
“Maybe we should have avoided the lake,” I said through chattering teeth. “Her ghost might try to drown us for all we know.”
“Relax.” Alissa moved closer to me. “The ghosts aren’t any creepier than anything else you’ve seen in the paranormal world, and they can’t harm you.”
“The pirate ghost wasn’t too bad,” I allowed. “Where is she?”
“Grace?” Alissa called out, turning on the spot. “Maybe she’s already somewhere else in town.”
I squinted into the fog in search of a figure with pink hair. Blurred shapes filled the whiteness, and I was sure one further up the hillside looked human-like. “Hello?”
No reply. I took a step uphill and tripped over, dropping my wand on the grass.
“There’s nobody there, I don’t think,” said Alissa. “Not Grace, anyway. We’d know it was her by the hair.”
I crouched to look for my wand. “I thought I saw someone, but maybe not.”
It’s not her. The figure was so indistinct, there was nothing to prove it might be my mother other than my own overactive imagination. Besides, Tanith Wildflower wouldn’t appear without speaking to me, right?
I found my wand and picked it up, relighting the spell to illuminate the hillside. At my feet were the scattered remains of old herbs, not part of our spell circle. Had someone else tried a summoning on this very spot?
Alissa’s phone buzzed. “Ah—it’s my grandmother. Oh—what? No, we didn’t. Why, who took it?”
“Took what?” I mouthed at her.
Alissa covered the phone with her hand. “Someone broke into Madame Grey’s office.”
My heart sank into my shoes. “The same thief as before? What did they take this time?”
“One of her books.” Alissa spoke into the phone again. “Yes, Blair’s with me… all right. Okay. Fine.” She hung up. “She’s insisting on the rehearsal being moved up to midday, since the academy teachers can’t keep their students under control with ghosts in all the classrooms.”
“She just got robbed and she’s still fixated on rehearsing for the ceremony?” I said in disbelief. “Why?”
“Because she plans to have a team of witches search the whole town while everyone else is up in the hills,” she explained. “The other witches from out of town will be participating, too.”
“Including Aveline?” Uh-oh. What if she was still under the effects of the werewolf potion? Granted, it would be an improvement, but we should be looking for the thief and the murderer, not rehearsing for a ceremony which might not happen at all, the way things were going.
“I don’t know,” said Alissa. “But the book the thief stole was a guide to rituals involving the sceptre. Perhaps she thinks the ceremony will bring the thief out of hiding. Whoever they are, they won’t stand a chance against the combined strength of all the town’s witches and wizards.”
“I saw that book on her desk.” I frowned. “So our thief wasn’t an expert on the sceptre, then?”
“Doesn’t look like it.” She pocketed her phone. “Unless they’re planning to claim the sceptre on Samhain and want to make sure it chooses them.”
“Is that even possible?” A knot of dread formed inside my chest.
“There are ways… dark magic rituals they might use to ensure they’re picked, if they’re unscrupulous enough.” Her mouth pinched with distaste. “I hope it won’t come to that. My grandmother, though… she’s worried.”
She had reason to be. If we failed to get the sceptre back today, there was nothing to stop the thief from claiming the title of Head Witch.
The rehearsal went as well as one might have expected, considering the fog, the marshy ground, and the ghosts. If Madame Grey intended to draw out the thief, they could have followed the back of the procession all the way to the lake and nobody would have noticed.
Sky not only refused to wear his pointy hat, he swiped viciously at my ankle when I tried to put it on his head. In fairness, he wasn’t the only familiar misbehaving. The owl familiars kept flying into one another in the low lighting, several cats started fights with one another, and every few minutes, a ghost would pass through the line and leave a trail of pandemonium behind. It was no wonder it took me several minutes to hear Madame Grey’s voice shouting at the front.
“Aveline—stop! Stop that at once!”
There was a flash of light. I ran out of the line towards it, ignoring Alissa’s shout of warning. What was the Head Witch doing this time?
Another flash of light, this one closer. Aveline stood in front of the procession, which had drawn to a halt. For a heartbeat, I thought she held the sceptre, but it was just her borrowed walking stick. In her other hand, she pointed her wand at the terrified-looking academy students.
“If you failed to find the thief, it must be because they’re among us right now,” she said to Madame Grey. “This ought to scare them out of hiding.”
She waved her wand, and the students scattered. Madame Grey raised her own wand, and a collective gasp rose from among the assembled witches and wizards as she turned it on the Head Witch. “Calm yourself, Aveline. You’re not thinking clearly.”
I glanced behind me, but I’d left Alissa in the fog, behind a swarm of students, all of whom were watching with frightened eyes.
Aveline waved her wand again—and stopped mid-wave, her entire body frozen on the spot. Gradually, a look of calm came over her, and she lowered her hands.
Madame Grey’s mouth flattened into a thin line. “Rebecca, what have I told you about using your powers?”
Another audible gasp came from the students. Whoa. Rebecca’s powers even worked on the Head Witch?
Rebecca looked defiantly at Madame Grey, her hands fisted at her sides. “I had to do something. She was going to attack us.”
“Go,” Madame Grey said, gesturing to the students. “Go and find your teachers. Rebecca, come here.”
“I can undo it.” Rebecca hurried forwards out of the group, her head bowed.
Sammi said in a carrying whisper, “I knew she was a freak.”
Holding Toast tightly to her chest, Rebecca burst into
sobs. “I wanted to help,” she gasped. “I’m sorry.”
“Rebecca, we’ve talked about this,” said Madame Grey, in disappointed tones. “I thought you knew better. You overpowered the Head Witch in front of an audience, with a thief in town and someone using our tools for ill.”
Her face paled. “I—I didn’t think.”
“You weren’t the only one.” Madame Grey paced around Aveline. “She’s under the effects of another spell, too.”
I clapped my hands to my mouth. “Oh, no. It’s my fault—I’m the one who gave her the potion.”
“You gave her a potion that causes agitation and confusion?” said Madame Grey.
“No, a werewolf potion. Why, did someone else…?” I trailed off. “The potion should have worn off by now.”
“Blair, take Alissa and go home,” she said. “Search the house before the others get there. Fast.”
My throat went dry. “What about the ceremony tomorrow—is it going ahead either way?”
“Yes,” she said. “It is.”
Tomorrow. Unless a miracle showed up, there would be no sceptre at the procession this Samhain.
I ran back to Alissa and our familiars, slipping in the mud and skidding to a halt at her side.
“We need to go,” I said in an undertone. “Madame Grey thinks Aveline was under some kind of spell that causes agitation and confusion, and we’re to search the house before she gets back.”
Alissa’s eyes widened. “Was it a spell? Are you sure?”
“It can’t be the werewolf potion.” I beckoned Sky to follow me, and he did. He had no problem obeying my commands out of the context of wearing a pointed hat. “The potion doesn’t have any side-effects, and it should have worn off by now anyway. I guess someone else had a similar idea.”
While I understood Madame Grey’s concern, I hoped she’d go easy on Rebecca. She’d only been trying to help her fellow students.
The house was silent when Alissa and I got home. Sky padded through the door and headed upstairs without looking back.
“Guess I was lucky he showed up for the rehearsal today at all,” I remarked.
“Hmm.” Alissa unlocked the door to our flat. “Agitation and confusion sounds like a potion, but you’d think Aveline would be careful before drinking any strange concoctions.”
“Unless she was still under the effects of the werewolf potion and wasn’t cautious enough?” I swallowed, guilt churning inside me.
Alissa shook her head. “My grandmother told me Vanessa prepares all the Head Witch’s food and drink. When she doesn’t, she uses spells to test everything for poisons.”
“So might Vanessa have done it?” It would explain why she hadn’t killed Aveline outright. She didn’t want her dead, she just wanted her position as Head Witch.
Alissa and I searched the inside of our flat, finding no empty mugs or cups with traces of an unknown potion. Or stolen books of ritual magic, come to that. Not that I expected the thief would leave it out in the open, considering nobody had seen so much as a glimpse of the sceptre since its disappearance.
“Better check the other flat before the others get back.” I made for the door facing ours. The room within was as tidy as the last time I’d seen it. No sign of anything out of place. “I wish I’d got a closer look at the textbook’s cover, so I’d recognise it if I saw it.”
“I doubt they’d have left it out in the open.” Alissa walked around the living room. “They must suspect we’ve searched the house when nobody’s around.”
I entered the room Vanessa slept in, halting beside her half-open suitcase. No books, but an odd smell hung around her folded clothes. I carefully lifted a layer of shirts aside and found a small bag that smelled distinctly of herbs at the bottom.
“Potion making ingredients.” Alissa leaned over my shoulder. “What type did my grandmother think was used on Aveline?”
“Something for agitation and confusion.” I placed the folded shirts back into position. “I don’t know what Vanessa would have to gain by using a potion on her mother if she didn’t steal the sceptre.”
Leaving the suitcase as I’d found it, I went to search Shannon’s room next. The small bedroom contained even less than Vanessa’s room, and her open suitcase revealed no hidden surprises.
That just left the flat upstairs. Alissa led the way, and I tensed at every creak in the floorboards.
“I don’t trust any of those witches,” she said, pushing on the door to the upstairs flat and finding it locked. “The twins weren’t even at the rehearsal, did you see?”
“Well, their mother did just die.”
Alissa pulled out her wand to use an unlocking spell. The door sprang open, revealing a surprisingly empty room. Even the twins’ suitcases were gone.
“Did they leave town?” Alissa strode into the room. “No… they can’t have. Someone would have seen them.”
“In that fog?” I scanned the plain furniture, the clean carpets. “Maybe the ghosts were the last straw. Or—or perhaps they thought they might be able to talk to Grace.”
“If anything, that would give them more of an incentive to stick around,” Alissa said. “I thought they’d want to find the killer before leaving.”
“Me too.”
Alissa trod across the living room, and I followed, peering into the bedroom. Traces of pink dye lay on the pillow, which smelled of oil and carpet cleaner, as usual, while an empty bottle lay on the floor.
Alissa wrinkled her nose. “She certainly left her mark on the walls of our shower. Nothing else in here, though. Maybe the twins used the potion on Aveline before they left town.”
“Maybe,” I said, but I had my doubts. Given the twins’ livid reaction to their mother’s passing, their disappearance made no sense. Had they managed to talk to Grace’s ghost among the dead, and was that why she hadn’t answered our call? It seemed unlikely, but why leave before justice was delivered?
My phone buzzed. “Hi, Nathan.”
“Hey, Blair,” he said. “I’m assuming you have the rest of the day free, so I’d like to take you out. Does that sound good to you?”
“Yeah, it really does.” It would be the one bright spark in the crappiest week ever. Okay, except perhaps for my stint in jail. And the times I’d been targeted by a murderer. Still.
I did my best to shove all thoughts of murderers and missing sceptres from my mind as I got ready for my date with Nathan, but seeing him waiting on the doorstep for me brought my brain to a screeching halt. He looked particularly handsome tonight, wearing a shirt and jeans instead of his usual hunter-style getup. Until now, it hadn’t hit me how much I’d missed him this week.
“Off duty?” I leaned in to kiss him.
“Until tomorrow morning.” He took my hand and we walked to the pub, while I recounted the latest string of disasters, from the missing book to the failed rehearsal, Aveline’s erratic behaviour and the twins’ abrupt departure.
Nathan let out a low whistle when I’d finished. “Well, it’s safe to say Madame Grey doesn’t think the police have any expertise in this case. They haven’t told us to get involved, anyway.”
“Maybe because the sceptre isn’t like a typical magical item.” I walked into the pub, finding it as crowded as the coffee shop, most tables taken by people keen to avoid stepping outside in the fog. “And because Steve and most of the security team can’t see ghosts.”
“You can’t see any in here, can you?”
I scanned the warm, bright pub. “No. That must be why it’s so crowded.”
“Our usual table is free.” He took a seat, giving me a smile. “So—what happened with the Head Witch? Still being unbearable?”
“Well, she’s improved, but only because I used a werewolf potion on her and accidentally got the dose too high,” I admitted. “But her behaviour today, flinging accusations at the students—I think the twins used a spell on her before they left as a farewell gift.”
“The twins left town?” His brow furrowed. �
�Are you sure?”
“Yeah, so it seems,” I said. “Something’s odd about the whole situation, but everyone in town already has their hands full, especially Madame Grey.”
“Perhaps they wanted to take their mother home to have a proper funeral, and intend to return later when the ghosts are gone,” he said. “Any new leads on the thief?”
“Someone who doesn’t know how to use the sceptre, judging by the book they stole from Madame Grey’s office.” I tapped the menu to order food and drink. “Unless they were waiting until tomorrow.”
“They might well be,” he said. “I don’t know how the witches plan on doing the ceremony in this weather, sceptre or none. The gargoyles can’t even fly on patrol without crashing into one another.”
I grinned. “Please tell me Steve did that.”
“No, but two others got into a collision, including the guy with permanent ink stains on his face from that printer in your office.”
I laughed aloud. “Speaking of printers, it got into a fight with a ghost last night.”
“Which ghost again?”
“I didn’t tell you about the ghost in the office?” I picked up my fork as our food appeared on the table. “It really has been a long week.”
Being with Nathan always made me feel better, and the ghost in the office yesterday seemed more amusing than irritating when I repeated the story to him.
“Luckily, most people seem thrilled to have a three-day weekend,” Nathan commented. “That might change if the ghosts are still here on Monday.”
“Hope not.” I stabbed a piece of pasta with my fork. “The fog is bad enough. If not for these boots, I’d have face-planted a dozen times on my way here.”
“It’s like that everywhere,” he said. “We’ve had to employ vampires and shifters to patrol the woods without risk of injury.”
“If it means you don’t have to risk breaking your neck, then that’s good with me,” I said.
He smiled. “My eyesight isn’t that bad, but I’ll take any excuse to get out of night-time patrols. I’ve spent entirely too little time with you this week.”
I smiled. “It’s appreciated, considering how busy you are.”