by Willow Mason
“This is why nobody asks you anything,” Jared growled. “Now, will you let Meep finish?” He gestured to the chihuahua, who ran over to shelter behind his legs.
Gareth’s eyes bulged and he snatched his daughter’s hand, dragging her off the couch. “No,” he shouted when Wendy reached back for Paisley. “She’s got you under a spell.”
“That makes more sense,” the supreme said with a nod. “And it’s against every regulation in the book. Familiars aren’t allowed to mess with bonding. How could any witch trust their companion if the process is open to manipulation?”
“Meep.” I knelt in front of the dog, catching his glance when he tried to twist his head away. “Are you telling the truth?”
He snorted and danced a step away. His face curled up in misery.
“Of course, not. Anyone can see that.” I scratched behind his ears until his rear leg began to stretch out in delight. “Did she use the spell on Wendy?”
“Just concocting it is so far outside of the boundaries that it doesn’t matter.” Genevieve’s voice was tight with anger. “The only difference is the level of sanction we apply to you.”
“Why did…” I swallowed as the cat swivelled to face me, her ears pressed flat against her head. “Do you know why Violet abandoned you?”
“Having a child who’s allergic isn’t a—” Genevieve broke off as I shook my head. “What?”
“Sara’s not allergic to cats. It was a lie.”
My spine locked in place with a painful twinge, my shoulders hunching as the muscles tightened into rock. “She found the treasure?”
“Paisley.” I waited until the cat looked directly into my face. “What was the treasure?”
“If the treasure wasn’t what he said, what was it?”
We phoned Carson but he didn’t know where such an item would be. “Violet didn’t care much for jewellery,” he apologetically told me, as if it were a crime. “Because of that, I know each piece she did have, inside-out. She just wouldn’t have an amulet. She hated wearing anything around her neck.”
He couldn’t place it with Evie either and Wes just sounded lost. “It could be hidden in our stock, somewhere, but I can’t think where. Are you sure Jac had it?”
No. I wasn’t sure of anything.
True, but our options were limited.
“Can you describe it in detail?” I could send out a searching spell but only if I had a clear target in mind. The last thing we needed was to chase over half of Briarton, finding every single amulet in existence.
I stared at my fingertips as they prickled with pins and needles. “The stone in the cemetery.” The blood drained out of my face, leaving it numb. I’d touched it. I’d moved it. Was there a ‘Bad witch’ sign coming for me?
I spun on my heel, running out the door. “We need to get back there.”
We ran, following the same path as before. Our foot traffic over the past few days had worn it into an easily followed track.
“Remember the days when I didn’t know there was a graveyard out back?” I said between pants to Annalisa. “They were good times.”
A sobering thought.
“Over here,” Jared called, leading the pack. “We can cut around the back of the gate and come in from a different angle. If he’s expecting us, that might catch him off guard.”
As if we had a plan.
Even though we were the length of a rugby field away from the plot, I heard the cawing of birds above our thundering feet, my heaving chest, and the blood pulsing through my ears. One swooped down from behind me, scoring my scalp so blood trickled down my face.
I kept running but held a hand up, warding off another attack.
Andrew greeted us at the gate, howling and screaming warnings in turn. “Get away. The murderer’s here! GET AWAY.”
I would dearly have loved to follow his advice, but I bent nearly double and followed Jared’s lead, running around the side of the gate. The twisted wrought iron did nothing to disguise us but the overgrown grass sprouting along the edge shielded most of our passage from view.
“Group together,” Patrick shouted. “We can fend them off easier if we stand in tight formation.”
I wasn’t sure the ragged clump we formed counted but I hit out at an attacking bird while Jared stopped another behind me.
“Now what?”
I turned to Genevieve shocked. “You’re the supreme. Shouldn’t you be the one telling us that? How do you destroy a powerful object?”
“Find it first.” She sent out a quick pulse of magic that sent a nearby crow tumbling to the ground. “Before this lot take us all down.”
Patrick took a talon to the cheek as he dropped his guard. “Look.”
It was hard to when my eyes wanted to hide away from stabbing beaks, but I forced myself to stare around me. Taken individually, the birds were small projectiles, each intent on doing harm. Together, they were starting to take a larger shape. A man, looming over us. King Kong on a muscle training day.
“Stop them forming,” I yelled, hitting one bird with my fist, and zagging a line of magic to hit another from the sky. “Get them with your magic. They’re more susceptible to it than punching.”
Patrick groaned, then yelled in victory as he kicked out and caught a crow swooping in to attack from below.
“Try to find the amulet,” I yelled to him. “We’ll cover you.”
He ducked under another avian projectile, vaulting over the gate to reach beyond Benedict
’s grave. With a cry, he dropped to his hands and knees, feeling through the long grass.
I shook my arms, concentrated my mind, and pulled up all the power I could harness. The magic bolt that shot out of my hands was fiery hot but tiny. Even though it struck its target, sending charred feathers into the air, the bird didn’t fall.
Once again, I tried, yelling in frustration as another reed-thin ray hit its target. “Bigger. I want bigger.”
Another burst hit a crow and it swelled to ten times its normal size. “Not the target,” I yelled at my hand as though it had deliberately misunderstood me. “The ray. Make the ray bigger!!!”
This time, a fat wedge of power struck at the birds, catching five in one blow. The stunned creatures hit the ground like falling rocks.
“There are more coming,” Aunt Florentine cried, pointing skywards. A black cloud of birds homed in our group, vengeful as a swarm of wasps.
With a gasp, I saw they were aimed to the back of the gravestone, where Patrick now scooped out handfuls of earth.
“Jared,” I called out, pointing. He nodded and jumped into the air, taking down half a dozen birds and clearing a path as I ran towards my business partner.
Annalisa joined me, tearing through the cemetery, and landing in a pounce beside Patrick. She jumped and caught a bird in mid-air, snapping its hollow bones with her powerful jaws.
“There’s a MURDERER ON THE LOOSE,” Andrew screamed. “WHY ARE YOU DOING NOTHING TO HELP?”
“Jeez, buddy. We’re trying the best we can.” The adrenaline coasting through my body turned the retort into a shout.
“Benedict’s murdered bride,” Aunt Florentine called out. She heaved a breath in, then held it as she sent out a ball of magic to knock another raven from the sky. “At least, that’s what the town historians would have us believe.”
“COME OUT. YOU PROMISED TO HELP.”
“I did help.” A beautiful apparition rose from the grave, filtering straight through Annalisa’s body and making her face twist in fright. “I tried to warn you. In the shop, I poured out my sorrow. When none of you listened, I tucked the bad witches away somewhere safe.”
The spirit tipped her head back, ghost tears streaming down her face. In an instant, the melancholy gripped me, turning my legs to rubbed until I collapsed to my knees.
“Please stop,” Jared choked out, his face rippling with the change. “I can’t bear it.”
“It follows me wherever I go,” Scarlett whispered. “All the life Benedict took from me when I refused his hand, it drips from me. I can’t stop it. The tap never runs dry.”
Meep tipped his head back and howled. Ferdinand, clinging to his collar, turned iridescent blue, his skin shimmering like it was encrusted with sapphires.
“HELP THEM MORE.”
Scarlett turned to Andrew, a soft smile lighting her face. “I bet you would’ve made a good husband.” Her expression turned to fury and she spat a blob of ectoplasm onto Benedict’s grave. “Not like this one.”
The crows stilled, jostling each other on gravestones as they landed, giving up the sky.
Under her thunderous gaze, I shrank away, unable to meet her eyes. The amulet sat in front of me, giving off a gentle glow.
“When they called Benedict forth, it dragged me and Andrew along with him.” Scarlett laughed, the sound sharp with malice. “Those kids didn’t know what they were doing. The treasure was never what they believed it to be. My amulet. The one Benedict gave me when my father tried to force me into marriage.”
“What do we do?” I pleaded, still unable to meet her eye. “How do I stop him?”
“Perhaps you don’t,” she said. The kind tone made her words even harder to hear. “Perhaps everybody just has to live with the consequences.”
“You said you put the bad witches somewhere safe. Why would you do that if you wanted them to come to harm?”
Scarlett’s form twisted, her face shoving close to mine though the bulk of her body stayed a few metres away, hanging over her grave. “Maybe I changed my mind.”
“Violet has a small baby.”
“She had a cat too, but she didn’t mind walking out on her when it was convenient.”
“THERE’S A MURDERER ON THE LOOSE. WHY AREN’T YOU DOING SOMETHING?”
“They were just kids,” I said, ignoring everything else to focus on Scarlett. “Teenagers who thought they could find treasure to help their families. Are you going to abandon them to Benedict for making a stupid mistake?”
“Why not? My family abandoned me.”
“And we all know how that made you feel.” I thumped my chest as my voice thickened. “It hurt you so badly that even a taste of your memory makes it hard for me to breathe.”
Scarlett’s face grew so large and angry that the sky around us darkened. She swelled upwards, Andrew keeping pace with her until together, they clouded out the late afternoon sun.
She grasped hold of Andrew’s outstretched hands and the two spirits began to whirl. Faster and faster. Their shapes blurred with speed, melding into one form, creating a vortex that fluttered the sleeves of my blouse.
Faster and faster. The pull of their energy sucked a crow from the sky. It only managed one raucous squawk before it vanished.
“Feed us,” Scarlett commanded. “We need more strength. Feed us whatever energy you have.”
“Here,” Patrick shouted, scanning an area of heightened activity on his machine. “You can pull power from here.” The second his display lessened he ran to another spot. The poltergeist’s sent out trailing wisps of their form to scoop the energy from the air.
“We need more.”
I cast a bolt of magic into their swirling centre, shielding my eyes as it exploded into light. Each witch and familiar in turn gave up what they could, adding to the power.
Another bird was dragged into the whirlwind, and another, and another. My cries of victory turned to distress as they fought against the current and ascended. Once again, they joined to turn into the loose form of a man.
Their caws grew in volume, coming in fast on top of each other until my ears defined them as words.
“You can’t stop me. It’s my time again. This town is MINE!!!”
The ugly sounds made my eardrums recoil. I tried to summon another burst of magic—something, anything—but my well was dry.
“You want to know what’s mine, Benedict? The amulet. My engagement present.”
Scarlett shoved her face near mine again, her eyes large enough to fit my entire body. “Give it to me. Throw it as hard as you can.”
Annalisa ran to my side.
I plucked the stone from the ground, surprised at its warmth. The shape fitted neatly into the palm of my hand.
Lining up the shot, I drew my arm back, my thumb tracing out the engraved crow on the porous surface. “Bigger,” I chanted under my breath, hoping some trace of magic lingered. “Make it the biggest it can be.”
I catapulted it forward, releasing at the perfect point in the swing so it hurtled into the grotesque murder of crows, cawing their defiance.
The amulet hit them dead centre, exploding into a ball of light, flame, and feathers. In a split second, they were sucked out of existence, Andrew and Scarlett imploding until nothing remained.
With a whimper, I patted my body, checking it still had all the appropriate bits and pieces. “Is everyone okay?”
“Okay? No,” my aunt said. “Alive. Yes.”
“Well done, Desdemona.” The supreme’s voice was shaken but strong. “We’ll keep you on.” She swung in a circle. “Well done, all of you.”
Patrick’s phone warbled and he fished it out. Between the skintight jeans
and his trembling fingers, it took some manoeuvring. “Hey, Wes. Is everything all right?”
My phone rang, joining Patrick’s. I answered, not recognising the number. “Desdemona? It’s Carson. I…” He gulped, swallowing so loudly the phone’s mic picked it up. “Evie and Violet. They called me.” This time he burst into relieved tears. “They’re back.”
Chapter Nineteen
“That’s the third paying customer today,” Wes whispered to me as Jac finished up at the counter. “To give you some perspective, we’ve now got larger receipts for this morning than we had all of last week.”
I thought of the cheque sitting untouched in my office drawer. Perhaps this month I could splurge on letterhead stationery. Or a Netflix subscription.
“Spending it already, are you?” Patrick said, nudging my side. “I can read your face like a book. You know, if we do ever get the chance to present that cheque, we probably owe Jared something from it.”
“Despite his loud and continual opposition to the idea.”
“Or because of it.” Patrick smiled. “There might be some substance to that reverse psychology, after all.”
“Speak of the devil…”
Jared entered the store, sporting an enormous grin. He was far enough from the full moon that his facial hair had settled down to manageable human size; his beard retreating to show the hard line of his jaw.
At the counter, he came to an abrupt halt. “Hey. Wasn’t expecting to see you two here.” He sidled back a step.
Wes winked at me. “Now you’re scaring away potential customers. We just can’t get a break.”
“We’re going,” Patrick said. “There’s a load of paperwork I need to send through to the paranormal society if I want to keep my licence up to date.”
I snorted. “You know our supreme doesn’t care about that sort of thing.”
“Sure, Briarton is lax but other towns still need reassurance that I know what I’m doing. Humans contracting out my services are already freaked out. They don’t need a lapsed PI number to add to their worries.”