“I can assure you, miss, that what I do is accurate and amazing. There’s a reason I’m a celebrity in the field, and I can charge a premium. I tell people what they want to hear, and that’s it. No one wants to know the bad things. I spread joy. People love me and will continue to do so. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, and no nonsensical young woman is going to change that. Good day.” He swooshed around dramatically, head held high, and strode out the door.
Imani grabbed the boxed arrangement off me and set it on the counter while I stared after him. What an ass—and I meant it in the donkey form of the word. Imani’s voice drifted to me. “You’ll have to excuse my friend. She’s going through a very stressful time. I’m sorry about that.”
“Oh, yes… of course. It could happen to anyone.” Her tone suggested she didn’t believe a word she’d just said. “That’ll be forty-two pounds.”
I turned, hand in my bag to pull out the money, but Imani had already passed over her credit card. “Hey, wait. Here’s some money.”
“Don’t be silly, love. I’ve got this.” She waved me away. While she finished paying, I grabbed twenty-one pounds out of my wallet. I knew she wouldn’t accept it now, but I’d sneak it into her pocket or car when she wasn’t looking. I hated not paying my share.
Imani grabbed the flowers, and we headed out to the car. Once we’d gotten in, she turned to me, raising the pretty arrangement slightly. “Can I trust you with these?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Just making sure you’re not still angry. Wouldn’t want you accidentally crushing them.” She smirked.
I rolled my eyes, and she laughed. I shrugged and held out my hands. She raised a brow. Who knew you could have a long conversation without speaking? I held in my laugh and nodded. She gave me the flowers, and I placed them gently on my lap. But I had to speak, because, well, my mouth didn’t like to be left out. “Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”
She started the car, checked the road, and pulled out. “So, what happened in there?”
“If he’s such a genius fortune teller, how could he not warn Liv? Maybe tell her not to go to the movies in the near future. Honestly, he took thousands of dollars from her parents, and he gave her dud information.”
“Maybe he wasn’t looking for it, so he didn’t see it. He did ask me to name a specific thing I wanted to know about. I mean, if he laid out your whole future, it would have to take hours, if not days. He wouldn’t have time.”
“Did he tell you anything negative?” My tone came out accusatory. I still didn’t like him.
“Well… no.”
“Right. He only told me positive stuff too. And honestly, if he’d have warned me about the movies, maybe I would’ve listened.”
“Ah, but see. Maybe you wouldn’t have believed him.”
“Even so, at least it would be balanced information. I think he’s full of crap. Not to mention, I felt some magic. I don’t know what he was doing with it, but I don’t like him.”
“I felt it too. It’s probably just to make the experience seem more real. Or maybe he’s like my mum, and it’s his talent?”
“Well, he should be more careful with the information he gives. He could be helping people if he wanted. He said people only want to hear good things, so he’s just doing it to be popular and have that positive association in people’s minds.” I stared out the window, into the late-afternoon gloom, scowling. We’d stopped at traffic lights, and a woman walking a dog thought I was glaring at her. She stuck her finger up at me. Oh my God! I started laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
I told Imani, and she laughed too. If only there was going to be more laughter later, but I knew there would likely be tears.
As we drove along Liv’s driveway, darkness had replaced the twilight. Gee, it got dark early here. Quarter to five in the afternoon, and I felt like it was time for dinner. As I reached for the door handle, Imani said, “Lily, go easy on the fortune-teller thing tonight. Liv’s been through enough, and she doesn’t need us getting overly emotional or angry, especially about something she enjoys. Okay?” She stared at me, authority in her gaze.
I pursed my lips, then huffed out of my nose. “Fine. But only because I love Liv, and I don’t want to upset her any more than she already is. But I can’t guarantee I won’t get emotional. It’s who I am.”
She smiled. “I know. And that’s one thing I love about you. You wear your heart on your sleeve, but remember, Liv’s going to take everything we say to heart. We want to give her hope, not make her situation sound even more depressing than it already is. Right now, if we can’t find what’s going on, she will be going to jail. The only question is, will it be for two years, or ten.”
I swallowed the nausea rising in my throat. If that happened, I didn’t know what I’d do. “Right, well, we better not let it get that far.” I opened the door and stepped into the frigid air. And where was the snow? It shouldn’t be so cold if it wasn’t going to snow. Gah, Lily, you don’t need something else to get upset about.
Imani knocked, and Liv’s dad answered. His wan smile reminded me of how I felt on a drizzling afternoon—tired and lacklustre. “I’m so glad you ladies are here. Liv needs all the support she can get.” He stood aside, and in we went. His comment surprised me because the English generally weren’t open with their feelings, especially when it came to people who weren’t part of the family. This situation had obviously rattled everyone, which was to be expected.
We walked through to the living area at the back of the house—the same one that’d had Owen’s tent in it. The room was back to normal—no bats, no tent, and no canapes. I was going to miss those canapes.
A forlorn Liv sat on the couch, and even though it hadn’t been that long since I’d seen her, she looked like she’d lost weight. Her face had thinned slightly, and her boobs were smaller—and don’t get me wrong; I didn’t make a habit of staring at women’s boobs, but that was one of the first places people lost weight, and I just happened to notice. The stress had already taken its toll. I frowned.
Beren sat on one side of Liv and her mum, the other. Both held one of Liv’s hands. She gave Imani and me a half-hearted smile. “Hey.”
“Hey,” we both said.
Liv’s mum stood. “Thanks for coming. Would you like a cup of tea?”
“I’m fine, thanks,” I said.
Imani smiled. “None for me, thanks.”
“Well, I need to get started on dinner. I’ll leave you lot to chat. If you want anything, just let me know.” She ran a gentle hand over Olivia’s head and went to the kitchen.
Imani sat in a small armchair that was near the lounge, and I took Liv’s mother’s place at her side. Beren looked at Imani, then me. “So, I was just explaining to Liv that we don’t have any strong leads yet, but there’s something we’re following up.”
I leaned forward. “Those interviews?”
“Yes. And Liv’s lawyer, Phillip Brown, and I watched the security video from the bathroom today. It clearly shows that Liv was taken by surprise and was acting in self-defence. The only reason they’ve slapped the intentional manslaughter charge is that they’re saying she knew Kate was going to go, and Kate’s friend reckons they agreed to meet up at the movies on the night of Liv’s party.”
My mouth dropped open. “But that’s a lie!”
Imani looked at Liv. “It is a lie, isn’t it? And before you think I’m blaming you, I’m not. I just want all the facts so I can help.” Imani’s voice was calm, soothing even.
Liv sniffed and nodded. “I know you’re not blaming me, and of course I didn’t agree to go to the movies with them. That would be my worst nightmare. But the police won’t believe me. They said if I didn’t like her, how come she was invited to my party.” She stared at the ground. “Now Mum blames herself.”
I shook my head. “It’s not her fault. She was just trying to do what she thought was going to make you have the best birthday ever. The only pers
on to blame is Kate, for bullying you, and her skanky sidekick for telling tall tales.” I gritted my teeth. How I’d love to lock her in jail for a few days and see how she liked it. I shook my head. What the hell had Liv ever done to them? Why were some people lower than low? And how was it they were still alive when they didn’t have a functioning heart?
“We’re getting a bit off track.” Imani leaned forward. “I know this is hard, Liv, but we need you to answer some questions. While the PIB are doing an official investigation into some other crimes with one similar detail, our investigation of your case is off the record since it’s being handled by Kent police. Lily and I want to follow some things up and do what we can to get this over with as quickly as possible. Are you up to answering questions tonight?”
She raised forlorn eyes. “Yes. I’ve spent enough time crying and feeling sick. I know I did nothing wrong, and I want to clear my name. I mean, I know I pushed her, but there’s no way I wanted to hurt her, let alone kill her. It was an accident. A very unlucky accident.”
My subconscious gave me a shot of déjà vu. Unlucky. There was something in that—I just didn’t know what. Damn my subconscious brain for being so shy. Why couldn’t it just come out and talk to my normal brain? Was that what the non-subconscious part was called? I had no idea. Or was it the superconscious, or the uberconscious? Oh… it was probably the conscious brain. Der. Seemed like neither part was working properly, which meant everything was normal. Right.
I gave Imani a quick glance, then turned to Olivia. “Liv, the night of your birthday, did Owen give you any indication this would happen? What did he tell you about your future?” We hadn’t had an in-depth conversation about it, and when we glossed over it earlier, I knew she hadn’t told me everything, probably because it was just dreamy stuff about her relationship with Beren.
“Lily,” Imani warned.
“It’s okay. I just need to know.”
She rolled her eyes, then gave me a speedy glare as a reminder to stay cool.
Liv opened her mouth, then closed it. Beren squeezed her hand. “It’s okay, Liv. We’ve already been through this, and you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about. They know you’d want to know about us.” He smiled. “But you should’ve just asked me. I would’ve told you we’re going to be together for a very long time.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. He was such a sweetie. I smiled. They were so cute together.
Liv took a deep breath and licked her lips. “Um, he said Beren and I would stay together, that we had a future, and that he would come to my rescue. I didn’t ask anything about that because I assumed he meant just sticking up for me against Kate, or even that it was that he saved me after my disaster with Ernest. And I know he didn’t really save me because I was fine anyway, but you know how people think, so if Owen saw I’d had a bad relationship, he may have thought of it that way.”
“So he didn’t warn you about anything?”
She shook her head. “Not that I can remember, and trust me, I’ve been over everything he said to me about one thousand times. He said I was good at my job, and that I had loyal friends. He said I was going to get a promotion at work one day. And he did see my past problems. He told me that I’d been engaged, but it didn’t work out and that I’d had a great loss.”
I tried so hard, but I couldn’t help it; I rolled my eyes. “Could he have researched that? I mean, he knew your full name, and it did make the news at the time.” Local Finance Manager Killed in Shootout with Police After Embezzling Millions from Unsuspecting Retirees was one headline.
Imani’s chair must have been too far away because she looked at me, and a familiar tingle of magic shivered across my scalp, then something pinched my thigh. I jumped. “Ow!” I narrowed my eyes and scowled at her. She raised a brow as if to say, I warned you.
I sniffed. “When you least expect it, Imani….”
“We’re not here to verify where he gets his information, Lily. We’re assuming he has a talent for what he does.” Imani turned to Liv. “Did you talk about anything else?”
She bit her lip. “Um, I don’t think it’s relevant, but I was upset, you know, after Kate brought up the past. I didn’t even mention anything, but he said he sees what the cosmos shows him.” Okay, so I eye-rolled again. Calling it the cosmos was so pretentious. What was wrong with the universe, or just “my crystal ball?” “He told me my weight’s been an issue, and that I didn’t have to worry, that because I was older, my metabolism had sped up, and I would never get fat again. And, in fact, I’d have to be careful I didn’t lose too much weight.”
Okay, so I’d give him that, unless he did see she was headed for hell, and she’d feel so sick about it, she couldn’t eat. I eyeballed Imani, and she met my gaze, a cautioning eyebrow raised. Hmph. This time, I folded my arms and kept my opinion to myself.
“And that’s it. We didn’t talk about anything else.” Liv sat back into the couch, likely relieved that question time was over.
I turned to her. “And how are you feeling? I mean, I know you’re upset, but are you holding up okay? You look like you’ve lost weight.”
“I’ve hardly eaten anything since this began. My stomach’s literally been in knots. Being in jail was scary and lonely and horrible, but it’s not knowing what’s going to happen that’s the worst. Plus, as much as Kate was horrible to me, I feel bad about what happened. Her family must be devastated. If it wasn’t for me pushing her, she’d still be alive.” She pressed her lips together, and a tear spilled over onto one cheek.
I grabbed her other hand. “It was not your fault. If she hadn’t touched you, intimidated you, basically assaulted you, you wouldn’t have had to push her off. She brought this on herself.”
“Here, here,” said Imani.
Beren gave a nod. “Lily’s right. And we’ll prove that in court. Don’t worry. There’s no way I’m going to let you go to jail.”
If only Beren had the power to make that happen without actually using his power. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t manipulate anything in court, like the jury’s decision-making process. Would he? If he did and Angelica found out, she’d put him in jail—I had no doubt. And as much as we were all desperate to see Liv exonerated, Beren wasn’t dishonest. We all had to trust in the system. The thing that bothered me, though, was that the process sometimes got it wrong, and innocent people were locked up.
Liv shrugged. “I don’t know, B. At this point, it’s in fate’s hands. I know I shouldn’t think like that, but how did this even happen? Right now, I feel like the unluckiest person on the planet, well, other than Kate, of course. I suppose I should look on the positive side—I’m still here. She never gets to be anywhere again.”
Now I was tearing up. “It’s not your fault. You’re the nicest person I know. You don’t have an aggressive bone in your body. Beren’s right: we’ll get you out of this. We just have to make sure the jury sees all the facts.”
“But they’ll bring up that she teased me for years, and that I hated her, that I snapped and took my opportunity to kill her.”
“Well,” said Imani, “they’re going to have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that you meant for her to die when you pushed her, and from what Beren says, the video proves otherwise.”
Beren nodded. “It sure does.”
The warmth of magic cascaded over my scalp, and I jerked my head around to look at Imani. “Don’t pinch me again! I didn’t do anything.”
She started, her hand in her handbag. “Hey, love, don’t get your knickers in a twist. I was just getting this.” She pulled out a framed photograph. “I forgot and left it at home.” She winked and handed it to Liv. “This is for you.”
The picture was from Liv’s birthday. Beren stood in the middle, Liv scooped in his arms, her legs dangling over one of his arms, and her arm around his neck. I stood on one side, and Imani on the other. Our grins were huge and maybe slightly alcohol-induced, but it was clear that we were having the best time. “Whenever you feel sad, l
ook at this and remember how much we all love you. We know you’re innocent, and we won’t stop till we’ve proven it.”
Her small smile was better than nothing, but it wasn’t big enough for my liking. Looked like we had our work cut out for us in the coming weeks. We’d have to be as supportive as possible, and I’d do my best to think of how we could distract her.
“Lily?”
I turned to Imani. “Yes?”
She lowered her voice. “When I started my spell, you weren’t looking at me.”
“No. I was looking at Beren.” I scrunched my forehead. Weird question.
“Did you see my aura glow in your periphery?”
“No. I have my other sight turned off. It’s too distracting seeing extra lights.”
“So how did you know it was me?”
I whispered, “You mean the spell?” She nodded. “Um, I just did.” Then I thought about it. It hadn’t always been that way, but during the last few weeks, ever since I’d recovered from almost dying, I could tell who was using their magic from the feel of it. I hadn’t even realised. “I can tell now. Everyone’s feels different. Like, Angelica’s has a feeling of impatience, if that makes sense. Yours is mellow and confident. Beren’s is kind and strong. Hmm, sort of like your personalities.” I shrugged.
Her eyebrows raised. “I told you, you were special. Honestly, you keep surprising me.”
Beren leaned forward to look at me past Liv. “That’s a rare skill, Lily. Only around 10 percent of witches can feel the differences in magic.”
I gasped and sat up straight. “Oh my God, that’s it! The ping of magic.”
“Shhhhh!” Liv’s eyes were wide, and she flicked her gaze to the door from the kitchen.
I slapped my hand over my mouth, then lowered it. “Sorry. I got carried away. But remember at the church we were saying there was a ping?” Liv and Beren nodded. “The night of your party, the feel of Owen’s you-know-what, and that day in the bathroom. They all felt the same.” So that’s what my subconscious was trying to tell me. Wow.
Witch Oracle in Westerham Page 8