Witches vs. Aliens

by Raven Snow

  “Witches vs. Aliens”

  A Supernatural Witch Cozy Mystery

  Lainswich Witches Series Book 17

  Raven Snow

  © 2018

  Raven Snow

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner & are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Products or brand names mentioned are trademarks of their respective holders or companies. The cover uses licensed images & are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any person(s) that may be depicted on the cover are simply models.

  Edition v1.01 (2018.03.03)

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  Special thanks to the following volunteer readers who helped with proofreading: Dick B, Renee Arthur, Jim T., Beverlee Smith, Sue Fay and those who assisted but wished to be anonymous. Thank you so much for your support.

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  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Authors Note

  Books by Raven Snow

  Chapter One

  “Come on, guys,” Willow urged when the rest of her hiking group was flagging. “It’s just at the top of this hill.”

  “That’s what you said two hills ago,” Margo pointed out, grumbling. She was limping at this point. When told to dress for a picnic, she had put on skinny jeans and heels. The heels couldn’t have been more than three inches, but they still weren’t much good for climbing. She had tripped, twisting her ankle at least twice. Jasper walked with his arm around her. He had dressed a little more practically, but only just. His relaxed fit, burgundy suit would be considered business casual at worst. Rowen often wondered if dressing up was a requirement when it came to her cousin picking a boyfriend.

  Rowen wasn’t too bothered by the hike. Her blue jeans and sneakers weathered the terrain just fine, and she was perfectly warm in her fleece jacket, her hands tucked in its front pockets. At her shoulder, her husband walked along at the same pace. If worse came to worse, she could hitch a ride on his back. He was a big guy, and she was petite enough for it.

  This wasn’t the first time they had gotten dragged into the woods, and it wouldn’t be the first time Rowen had exploited her husband just to annoy Margo. That said, this was the first time Willow had gotten them lost in the woods. Not that she was willing to admit they were lost.

  “We’re lost,” said Peony.

  “We’re not lost,” Willow snapped at her sister.

  Peony looked back at the others. “We’re lost,” she relayed to them.

  “We’re not- Ah! Here. This is it. See? I told you.” Willow took the rest of the hill at a run.

  Margo groaned and kept trudging upward. Rowen tried to listen past the grumbling of her cousin. She squinted into the distance and tried to see and hear what it was that had excited Willow. It sounded like people. There were already people on the hill ahead. She saw something light up in the trees like ball lightning or lackluster fireworks. In the distance, people oohed and aahed. Rowen had to fight not to roll her eyes. “I knew it.”

  “We all knew it.” Margo made no effort to conceal an eye roll of her own. “Why do you think Rose and Ben skipped out on coming?”

  Rowen hadn’t given the matter much thought, but now that Margo pointed it out, it made sense. The Greensmiths liked to get together without their parents or aunts or uncle at least once a week. Rose might be the only adopted Greensmith, but she and her husband were just as welcome and just as much family as any of them. That said, they were both busy a lot of the time. Rose led up the family-run Lainswich Inquirer while Ben was Lainswich’s chief of police. Sometimes they had to cancel plans. Rowen hadn’t thought much of it when she heard they had to cancel this week. Now that she gave it some thought, though. Yeah, it had been pretty obvious where they were headed, and it was even more obvious why Rose and Ben had given the trip a pass.

  “I don’t know why she kept this a secret,” said Peony, the picnic blanket hugged to her chest. “I knew where this was. We didn’t have to get lost first. It’s, like, right off the main road.”

  Peony was right. Rowen had seen people parking for this not far from where they all worked at the Inquirer. The hike here had been unnecessary. Margo was already complaining about the hike back. She was going on and on about how Willow would be buying her a new pair of shoes after ruining the ones she had on. Everyone ignored her, Jasper included. No one was buying anyone a new pair of shoes, and she knew it.

  At the top of the hill, there were about a dozen people sitting around already. Fortunately, the hill was a large one. It looked like some folks had had the same idea Willow had. They sat on blankets, the remains of a picnic scattered around them. A few teenagers sat without blankets, on their backs in the grass while they looked at the stars.

  Peony found a spot as far away from the other people as she could manage. The Greensmiths weren’t too well loved by the Lainswich populace. Rumor had it that they were a bunch of witches and, well, the rumors were right. Tina helped her girlfriend with the blanket. They were the newest couple in Rowen’s family—or at least the newest as far as Rowen knew. It was hard to say when their friendship had turned romantic. They had kept the whole thing private until recently. Rowen and Willow had kind of walked in on the two of them kissing which kind of launched things out into the open. Rowen’s aunts and uncle still didn’t know. She doubted they would care when they found out. If anything, they’d probably be thrilled. Aunt Lydia loved the drama of a new romance, and Aunt Nadine would just be happy her daughter was happy. Uncle Norm would probably just be largely indifferent. But it wasn’t Rowen’s business. She didn’t say anything. It was only a matter of time before someone blurted something, though.

  Benji helped Willow unpack the basket of food. Wiry, short, and bespectacled, he was Willow’s boyfriend. The two of them had moved into an apartment together a while back. He served as a camera man for the Lainswich Inquirer, on the rare occasion that video was featured on their blog. His time was divided between them an
d Channel 2. Rowen spotted his camera gear poking out of a shoulder bag he’d brought along. It didn’t look as heavy duty as the stuff he usually lugged around, but he probably meant to get some footage tonight all the same.

  “I thought we were coming out here to get away from the crowds?” Jasper kept his voice purposely quiet so as not to be heard by said crowds. He placed the lantern he’d been carrying down as he sat. Its electric light did its job in illuminating their blanket, even if it did draw some glances their way. The extra light was probably a distraction, not that this was the sort of thing Willow had likely given much mind when planning their destination.

  “I don’t know why you would think that,” said Peony with a snort, like she couldn’t believe they had expected such a thing from her sister.

  Tina looked up at the sky. She was seated next to Peony, her legs folded beneath her. “This is…” She trailed off before taking a deep breath. “This is where people have been seeing aliens, right?” She couldn’t say it with a straight face. Even in the low light Rowen could see her eyes moving over the others, like she was trying to gauge whether or not they believed.

  “UFOs,” corrected Willow. “There haven’t actually been any alien sightings yet.”

  “There haven’t actually been any UFO sightings yet.” Margo, it seemed, still hadn’t forgiven Willow for the trek out there. “It’s just a bunch of lights.”

  “It’s not just a bunch of lights.” Willow’s eyes were on the sky. “You haven’t seen it yet, not like I have. You just wait. You’ll see. Why do you think all these people are out here?”

  “Because they’ve never seen ball lightning before?” Margo guessed.

  “It’s not lightning,” snapped Willow, looking away from the sky long enough to glare. She took a deep breath. “You just wait. You’ll see, like I said.”

  “I don’t think it’s ball lightning,” said Peony, chiming in as she poked through the contents of the picnic basket. It had all been unpacked. There were a bunch of finger sandwiches, chips, and a plastic wrapped plate of cookies for dessert. “It’s faeries. If Mom was here right now, she would tell you as much.”

  “It’s not faeries.” Willow’s glare turned to her sister, as if her suggestion was just as bad.

  “How do you know?” Peony asked. Without waiting for an answer, she continued. “Seriously, we should bring Mom out here to see what’s going on. She would be able to put all this to rest.”

  Rowen knew Peony was, at least, right about one thing. Aunt Nadine would definitely call whatever was going on here the work of faeries. Rowen hadn’t seen it for herself yet, but if they were in the woods and there were lights, faeries would be Nadine’s first guess. Not that she didn’t know her stuff. “Well, if Benji gets some good footage, we can ask her,” said Rowen, trying her best to put a stop to the fighting. “And I’m sure Rose would love the footage for the Inquirer. Regardless of what’s going on here, the town is definitely talking about it.”

  That seemed to calm Willow down, at least. She nodded and turned to Benji. She gave him a hand setting up his tripod and angling it towards the sky. Meanwhile, paper plates were doled out as the food began to get divvied up.

  “Kind of weird that people are so excited about this alien stuff, isn’t it?” asked Eric, looking up at the stars after swallowing his first bite of tuna salad sandwich.

  “How do you mean?” asked Rowen.

  Eric shrugged like he regretted saying anything at all. It seemed whatever he was getting at might well be controversial. “I just mean… You know how this town usually handles supernatural stuff.”

  “UFOs aren’t supernatural,” Willow said immediately.

  “Anything strange then.” Eric back pedaled before another argument could start up.

  “Like us,” said Peony, bluntly. “That’s what you’re getting at, isn’t it? People can’t stand the idea of a bunch of witches. That makes them uncomfortable, but aliens are fine.”

  “I’m sure they’d start getting uncomfortable if the aliens moved in,” Jasper offered.

  “It’s not the same,” Willow insisted, distracted. She seemed to only be half listening to the conversation now. Her eyes were on the sky. The plate in her lap was going mostly ignored. Rowen turned her own attention to the food in front of her. “There!” Willow shouted, her voice rising in a chorus with the other people gathered on the hillside. A lot of arms shot up at once, all pointing fingers.

  Rowen nearly choked on a bite of sandwich. She pounded a fist on her chest, dislodging it from her throat with middling success. It took her a few seconds to catch her breath. By the time she looked up at the sky, there really wasn’t much to see. Sure, the sky in Lainswich was pretty. There wasn’t a whole lot of light pollution in the tiny town, especially not out in the woods. It was a clear night out and the stars were bright and innumerable.

  “I didn’t see anything,” said Margo with a weary sigh.

  “I think I saw… something,” Tina offered. It didn’t sound like she was sure about that, though. It sounded more like she was just trying to keep Willow from growing any angrier with all of them. “It was, like, a light or something, right?”

  Willow gave a little huff. “Just keep looking at the sky. It usually happens a few times in a row.”

  Rowen scanned the skies. She could feel the tension growing as they all waited in silence. “Did Benji catch it on video? I mean, we could all watch the tape. We could see what you were talking about.”

  Willow waved a hand dismissively. “It wouldn’t be the same. Besides, he’d have to stop filming to show you. Just keep watching. It’ll happen again. Just wait.”

  Rowen wanted to finish her sandwich. From the corner of her eye she could see that Peony had the same idea. She looked back down at her plate to take another bite. “Hey!” she snapped when Willow reached out and punched her in the arm.

  “Watch,” Willow urged her sister.

  Peony groaned noisily. “God, you’re so annoying.”

  Despite Peony’s complaining and the group’s obvious skepticism, it did happen again. A chorus of voices went up on the hill again as something lit up in the sky. It looked like a plane at first. It was moving in a straight line like a commercial flight perhaps flying a little lower than usual. Suddenly it moved, though. It made a sharp turn to the left. It dove downward then up just as quickly, doing a flip before vanishing into a concentrated starburst of light.

  “There.” Willow was grinning. “See? You all saw that, right?” She clearly expected some vindication, a round of apologies from all those who had doubted her.

  Margo just shrugged. “Lightning.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Willow’s smile fell from her face.

  “Faeries, I say.” Peony gave a shrug of her own. “Mom would say it was faeries too. I know she would.”

  “Are faeries a thing?” asked Benji, looking up from his viewfinder.

  “No,” Willow said immediately. “I mean, well, yeah… they are. This isn’t faeries, though! This is aliens.”

  “A UFO,” Peony reminded her.

  “Same difference.”

  “Nuh-uh. It’s an unidentified flying object.”

  Tina looked to Peony. “I thought you said it was faeries?” she asked, quietly.

  “Right. I’ve identified the object. It’s only a UFO to Willow.”

  “Whatever.” Willow looked away from her sister and around at everyone else. “What do you think?” she asked, her gaze settling on Rowen.

  “Well, I don’t know what it is for sure,” Rowen offered. “So, I guess I saw a UFO.” That was technically true. She didn’t see any point in making Willow angry. Not that she really saw what all the fuss was about either. Odd things happened. The Greensmiths knew that better than just about anyone. There could be a hundred different explanations for what they had all just seen. Still, it was a good thing it had been caught on camera. This would definitely be going up on the blog. It would draw a lot of traffic for sure.
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br />   “There’s an airfield in Tarricville,” said Jasper, his eyes still on the sky. “They were doing some construction out near it. Never did figure out what it was they were building. It could be a military base. No one really comes through Lainswich. Maybe the army is testing new aircraft or something.”

  Margo nodded like that was reasonable. “That could be it. I mean, it still looked like ball lightening to me, but military tests aren’t so farfetched.”

  “It’s not the military,” insisted Willow, though Rowen wasn’t sure why. Military aircrafts seemed more likely than aircrafts that had arrived from space. News didn’t travel outside of Lainswich much. It was a very insular town despite all the odd things that happened there. It had to do with the magic done during the town’s founding. If the military had somehow found out and was using that to their advantage, well, that was much more worrying than space aliens. Maybe that was why Willow was so insistent— though, somehow Rowen doubted it. It seemed to her that she was just insisting out of petulance at this point.

  Chapter Two

  Rose was indeed happy to have the footage. “I don’t think it’s aliens,” she said, once she and Rowen were alone in her office. Willow had just stepped out, so she kept her voice lowered just in case. Her fingers were flying over the keys as she worked on the new blog post that would contain the video.

  “What do you think it was?” Rowen still wasn’t sure what to think herself.

  “What was it you told me Jasper said?” Rose had to think for a moment. “The military, right?”

  Rowen nodded in reply. “Yeah, my vote is military.”

  “Not swamp gas or faeries or lightning?”

  Rose stifled a laugh. “No. I don’t suppose I think it’s any of those things.”

  “Aunt Nadine will be disappointed you don’t think it’s faeries.”