by Lucia Ashta
“Oh.”
I’d told the Gawama women plenty about the tiny irreverent matriarch that only I could understand.
“And tell that Darnell man that skunks don’t drink,” Mindy added. “They prefer the Happy Times.”
“What?” I asked. Was she really suggesting skunks got down and toked the Gales Haven equivalent of pot?
“I said—”
“I heard what you said.”
“Then why are you asking?”
I huffed and threw my head back. This lifetime hadn’t gifted me enough patience to deal with this kind of crap.
“Do you know anything about this leprechaun situation?” I asked her instead of revealing my true feelings.
“Only that if one is indeed coming, you’d better buckle up tight. He’s gonna take you on a wild ride.”
Fantastic. Just what I needed. A crazy, gregarious leprechaun when I was already busy looking for Irma, Delise, and Maguire.
“Let’s start with Tessa’s letter,” Nan said.
With a belabored sigh, I settled into the seat next to her.
Chapter Three
When Stella began to read Tessa’s handwritten letter, none of us interrupted. Not even Mindy uttered a peep, seeming as entranced by the outside world unfolding through Tessa’s words as the rest of us. When Stella finished, Nan asked her to read the most informative portions of the three-page-long letter again.
Magic is concealed well here in Kansas, but I eventually found it, and once I did, I discovered an organized community of magic users like us, but also of all sorts of other creatures. From what I’ve managed to gather, there are predominant clans of vampires, werewolves, and other shapeshifters, along with those who don’t shift forms but aren’t human. Just yesterday I encountered a pegataur—half pegasus, half centaur—and a gnome on their travels to fulfill some important mission they were forbidden to discuss. They hailed from the Magical Creatures Academy. Yes, you read correctly. They also have schools here where they teach those with magic how to use their powers. From what I’ve learned so far, the aforementioned academy is sister to several others, among them the Magical Arts Academy, which is for witches and wizards much like us, the Magical Dragons Academy, and the Magical Objects Academy. There may be more, but these are what the traveling pegataur and gnome, both professors at the Magical Creatures Academy, shared with me.
“To think there’s a school for magical creatures like me,” Mindy whispered in awe. I was too absorbed by the new information to comment, though I was the only one who could hear her.
To think all this was going on when I lived in the outside world, and I’d had no idea, not even an inkling that I lived among magic users. I’d always thought Gales Haven was the only place of its kind. Now I recognized that belief for the ignorance that it was.
Like us, they hide their magic from humans because of the long history of prejudice and persecution of our kind. Apparently that hasn’t changed. However, the pegataur Egan and the gnome Burl informed me that there is a dangerous movement underfoot that seeks to reveal our existence. One, the Sorcerers for Magical Supremacy, has apparently been quashed. Another, the Voice, grows in strength as within its numbers it counts magical beings of all species. They seek to dominate humans, to wield our power to control them as they force our kind out of hiding.
Even though it was the second time Stella read this passage, she paused again while the weight of its implications settled over us. Darnell Adams, always composed, fidgeted nervously, straightening his perfectly straight bow tie. Luanne picked at her cuticles and Shawna gnawed on her lip. Jowelle frowned, the corners of her lips creasing. Nan alone remained stoically unmoved.
Stella continued after tucking her short hair behind one ear with a shaky hand: I’d like to remain behind a bit longer to gather more information about whether this universal threat has any potential of infiltrating our safe haven. Whether or not the barrier spell is successfully repaired, I believe this to be valuable information.
I understand that my task in leaving Gales Haven was to search for potential allies should we not manage to repair the barrier spell. At least on that front, I have definitive news. Egan and Burl introduced me to a talking pygmy owl by the name of Sir Lancelot, who is the headmaster of the Magical Creatures Academy.
“Imagine that,” Mindy whispered. “An owl … head of a school.”
He has assured me that he and two sorcerers by the names of Mordecai and Albacus, who are brothers, will find the way to aid us if necessary. He also mentioned the potential of help from a powerful intuitive witch, who dominates the elements, by the name of Clara, along with her husband, Marcelo, a highly skilled sorcerer. Sir Lancelot isn’t certain what kind of help they’ll be able to offer us, but he appeared confident that it would be sufficient to secure Gales Haven on a temporary basis. Their aid would not be a permanent measure, as they are already stretched thin with the tangible and immediate threat of exposure posed to them. The owl impressed me as highly intelligent and competent. I think we can take his word as a reasonable assessment of the situation.
Despite this possible aid, however, the only guarantee of Gales Haven’s safety in the long term is to continue keeping our existence secret. I’ll gather information quickly and return home so that I can help repair the barrier spell. It is our only true chance at survival.
Should you need to reach me, Sir Lancelot has provided an address—
“That’s sufficient, Stella, thank you,” Nan said, rubbing a gnarled hand across her cheek.
Stella folded the letter until it was an inch across. The witch was clearly nervous, unable to keep her hands still. The bright violets of her muumuu shimmered with her continuous movements.
“It sounds bad out there,” she commented. “Dangerous.”
Nan slid forward on the wooden pew she occupied. “Oh, not to fret, Stella. It’s a waste of energy. The barrier spell is repaired, so Gales Haven is in no immediate danger. Though Tessa’s letter doesn’t say specifically, it doesn’t sound like anyone was aware of our community. Surely Tessa is asking for the discretion of the creatures she’s discussing our community with. Knowing her, she wouldn’t tell anyone any information that would lead them to finding us. That Tessa is a smart cookie.”
“It’s true,” Darnell said, his hands back to hanging elegantly at his sides. “She’s wily. She won’t let on about us more than she has to. She was the right one to send as an ambassador. No matter how many publications we read about the outside world, none of them speak of magic. We needed someone on the ground to dig deeper.”
Nan stood, her unicorn purse swinging around her waist. “Darnell’s right. This is good news. Sure, there’s danger, but there always was. That was the whole point of founding Gales Haven in the first place. To avoid it. To hide from it so we didn’t have to live looking over our shoulders every damn day, waiting for the noose. Now we know more what’s out there, that there are good magic users in the world that would help us.”
She tucked her hands in the back pockets of her jeans, making them sag around the butt. They looked like skinny teen jeans, and they didn’t fit Nan well at all. I wasn’t about to tell her that. If she wanted to rock teen wear in her own way, then more power to her. I was loving her purse.
“The barrier spell is fixed from the damage Macy’s magic did,” she said. “So that’s real good. Now, we have the Delise issue. One issue at a time, we’ll get it done.”
“What about the leprechaun?” Stella asked.
“We’ll worry about him if he actually gets here. Jelly’s track record with predictions isn’t stellar.”
“But this one was real. I could tell.”
“Oh for toodles’ sake,” Darnell scoffed. “He stunk to high heaven of Beebee’s brew. There’s no way what he said was accurate.”
Stella spun on the heel of her ballet flat, clutched the folded letter in a palm, and brought her hands to her hips. She glared. “I got a feeling about it.”
“A
nd I saw Jelly.”
“Are you doubting me now? You never doubt Bessie’s magical sense, why would you doubt mine?”
“Because you aren’t Bessie.”
Stella sucked in a breath so fast her throat whistled. She recovered quickly. “I might not be a Gawama, but I’m an Egerton. More than that, I’m an individual. My magic is as strong as yours, Darnell, so you might want to pull your head out of your ass before it gets stuck up there and I shove a cork in behind it.”
A moment of silence followed Stella’s colorful threat before Mindy and Shawna talked at once.
“Oh, I like her,” Mindy said—while Shawna whistled and chuckled before commenting, “Stella, you’ve grown some brass ones.”
Stella’s muumuu vibrated with the intensity of her self-righteous fury as she continued to stare down Darnell. “Take it back.”
He huffed, not a single hair on his silver head ruffling.
“I mean it. I can do more with my magic than create a cone of silence, you know.”
“Fine.” He shrugged and arched his brows like Stella was overreacting. “It looks like it’s that time of the month for you.”
The bodies of the women in the hall, including Mindy’s, grew rigid, like we were preparing for a throwdown. The silence that followed this time was deafening. It writhed with danger like it was alive.
When the quiet drew out long enough that Darnell had the good sense to look like he’d made a mistake, Stella spoke again.
“What did you just say to me?”
“What do you mean?” Darnell laughed, but his laugh was off, as though the wizard realized how deep the shit was that he’d just landed himself in.
“I mean, do you even think before you speak?”
It would have been an odd thing to ask a man like Darnell, who was ordinarily as polished as a crystal ball. But in the circumstances it was a valid question.
“For one,” Stella began, counting off on her pudgy fingers, “I don’t menstruate anymore because I’ve already been through menopause.”
Darnell’s features scrunched in repulsion.
She snapped her fingers, making him jump. “Don’t you dare act all grossed out by a sacred and beautiful feminine process. Menstruating is empowering, you narrow-minded man. If not for our periods, you wouldn’t be here. Humanity would wither and die out without us.”
“Amen, sister,” Shawna called out.
“Whether we decide to use our power of reproduction is entirely up to us, and we are no lesser if we decide not to bear babes. That is our choice, and our choice alone. But don’t you forget who holds the ability to bear life. Newsflash, it’s definitely not you. All you do is shoot a seed out of your ding-dong that takes like half a minute, and women do all the rest.”
“You tell him, Stella,” Shawna heckled. “His ding-dong isn’t all that.”
“No, it isn’t.” Stella wove her neck back and forth when she said it, setting the sheet of violet satin encasing her to undulating like a wave. “His ding-dong definitely isn’t all that.”
“Well.” Darnell ran manicured fingers across his perfectly combed hair. “This has turned unpleasant. No need to go insulting my manhood.”
“And you had no right to act like you have an inkling of what it’s like to be a woman.”
“And you have no idea about my penis in particular.”
She smiled like a wicked lizard. “Never have I been so glad not to be familiar with a male appendage.”
“Your loss. I have skill you have no idea about.”
“Oh-kay,” Aunt Jowelle said. “I think this has gotten well out of hand.”
“Indeed it has,” Nan echoed, inserting herself between the two of them. “Hopefully, Darnell has learned his lesson.”
“Learned a lesson? That’s ridiculous. I’m a man of great experience…” He trailed off as he must have felt the laser beams shooting from every set of female eyes in the hall. “Oh, come on. You can’t be serious.”
Shawna pressed in on him. “Deadly,” she said.
“Fine. Way to overreact.”
Shawna’s dark red brows nearly hit her hairline.
This was going nowhere fast, and we had better things to be worried about then Darnell Adams’ chauvinism—or his ding-dong.
“Shouldn’t we check the Registry about Maguire?” I suggested. “It seems weird that no one knows anything about his magic.”
Nan nodded sharply. “It’s true. I asked Leonie, and not even she’s ever studied his magic before, and the girl can’t seem to help herself. Luanne…”
Luanne popped up from her seat, stalked past Darnell while looking down her nose at him—which required some skill since she was a foot shorter than him—and exited through the same side door he’d used. A minute later, she returned with the voluminous tome that recorded the abilities of every single resident of Gales Haven.
She plopped the book down on the table up on the dais with a dull thud and began flipping through the alphabetically organized book. “Contonn,” she read out. Her eyes slowly widened as she trailed her index finger down the pages. “This can’t be.”
“What can’t be?” I asked, rushing over to her. Everyone else, save Mindy, did the same.
“Maguire isn’t listed,” she said. “Neither is Delise.”
“That’s not possible,” Darnell said. “Every resident of Gales Haven, living and dead, is listed in the Registry.”
“Yeah, Mr. Smarty Pants, I know that. Delise’s daddy and momma are here, as seems to be the rest of the Contonn line.”
“Are Quade and Harlow there?” I asked.
“Sure are.”
“But no Delise or Maguire?” I frowned. “That makes no sense at all.”
Mindy waddled forward, stopping at the edge of the dais, where she struggled to climb the step. “Maybe it’s the leprechaun.”
I turned to face her. “Why do you think it’s the leprechaun?”
“Because leprechauns get off on causing trouble.”
“What’s she saying?” Jowelle asked.
“She’s saying it might be the leprechaun,” I relayed. “But she’s only saying that because she says they like to cause trouble.”
“That’s true,” Stella said, face serious. “I’ve never met one, but my granny used to tell me never to mess with a leprechaun.”
“And had she ever met one?” Nan asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“All conjecture,” Darnell started. When Stella pinned him in the glare to end all glares, he shushed, glaring back at her.
“Mindy,” I said, “have you ever met a leprechaun?”
“Oh yes. A leprechaun’s who headbutted my George and he’s never been the same since.”
I gaped. Then realizing everyone was waiting for me to interpret, I deadpanned, “A leprechaun headbutted your hedgehog husband?”
She nodded.
“Well, there’s no conjecture there, is there, Darnell?” Stella snarled.
“Come on. It’s a hedgehog,” Darnell said. “Are we going to really just take her word as proof?”
We all watched as Mindy waddled quickly backward, then charged the step, and leapt up, scrabbling to stay on the dais. She managed it. And when she started stalking Darnell, he backed away.
“She’s a bit scary for something so little, isn’t she?” he said, but he’d find no allies among us. He’d stuck his foot in his mouth a bit too deeply for one day.
As Mindy prowled, I got out of the way. We all did, giving her a clear shot at the man who’d sparked her ire.
“Um, I just remembered something I need to do.” He rushed toward the door behind the dais and slipped through it, muttering something that sounded much like, “All women are crazy.”
“I’ll show him crazy when he comes out,” Shawna promised, confirming I’d heard him correctly after all. The man apparently didn’t know when to stop.
I didn’t remember him being so narrow-minded. But then again, I was only in my twenties wh
en I left, and I hadn’t been much concerned with how Gales Haven was governed.
Mindy huffed through her little nostrils, still staring at the door that had swallowed up Darnell.
I snapped out of it first. “What about Irma? Is she still listed in the Registry?”
“Of course Irma is.” Luanne flipped a couple of chunks of the book to the front. “Lamont, Lamont.” She ran her fingers along pages, turning a few. “There. Lamont. Emma Lamont. Gerald Lamont. Jonathan…” She mumbled under her breath before finally looking back up, jaw slack. “There’s no Irma.”
Jowelle pushed between her and Shawna to grab the book. “That’s not possible,” she said. But though Aunt Jowelle read through all the names just as Luanne had, her conclusion was no different. She faced Nan. “Mom, what’s going on?”
“I have no idea. But we’ll find out.”
My nan looked as determined as I’d ever seen her.
“Okay, then,” I said. “So where do we start?”
No one had a good answer.
Chapter Four
Nan, Stella, Aunts Jowelle, Luanne, Shawna, and I decided that the best explanation for the Registry’s absence of Delise, Maguire, and Irma was that they were outside of Gales Haven’s borders. We all thought it unlikely that Irma would take Delise out of the town, but it seemed the only possible option. Maguire must have somehow found them and followed. Another unlikelihood.
But we were all out of guesses.
And there was one easy way to test our hypothesis.
Luanne hip-bumped Jowelle out of the way.
“Ow,” Jowelle said. “So childish.”
“That’s right.” Luanne smiled absently as she flipped through the book. “Smate…” She chewed on her lip, eating off a swath of berry purple lip gloss. “There’s a Sylvia Smate and a Thomas Smate.” She slammed the book shut, throwing off dust. She waved it away, pulling her head back. “No Tessa.”
“So we were right,” Nan said.
“It would seem like it.”
“But how did Maguire find them?” I asked. “Are we to assume it’s part of his magic?”