Unbaked Croakies: A Magical Cozy Mystery with Talking Animals (Enchanting Inquiries Book 1)

by Sam Cheever

  I looked around the small but comfortable cab. “This is cute.”

  Lea’s grin widened. “I love my Bee. I carry a lot of plants and supplies in it.”

  “Yeah, I can see how you could get a couple of geraniums and a really small flower pot back there.”

  “Har!” she said, her lips twitching. “You’d be surprised by how much this little truck holds.”

  We headed for the park, Lea driving faster than she should because we needed to catch up to Alice. Fortunately, the Keeper drove like an elderly man, slow and a bit wobbly since she was generally looking everywhere but at the road.

  We finally spotted Alice up ahead, her car weaving from side to side like she was drunk.

  “Does she always drive that way?” Lea asked, her voice filled with concern.

  “I’m not sure. I’ve only been in the car once with her. She does wobble around a bit when she drives. But I didn’t think she was that bad.”

  The car slowed slightly as it came to the park entrance and then sped up again, zipping past the turn.

  “What’s she doing?” Lea asked, pressing her foot on the gas to catch up.

  “Maybe she spotted us,” I suggested.

  “Not a chance,” Lea said, shaking her head. “This cloaking spell is fool proof.”

  “Then she must have never intended to go to the park,” I said, a feeling of dread oozing through me.

  We followed Alice in silence for ten more minutes, my chest tightening with every passing mile because I was beginning to realize where she was going.

  I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure. If I was right, Alice wasn’t playing for the right team. And my life was going to get exponentially more difficult if that was the case.

  “What in the world?” Lea asked as Alice turned into the driveway of a well-known business.

  My stomach twisted painfully at the realization that my suspicions had been right. “No, no, no. Alice, what are you doing?”

  Lea parked the truck on the street, half a block from the entrance to Gnomish, Inc. and under a tree so the silvery glow of a quickly rising moon wouldn’t highlight its presence there.

  I slumped in my seat, silent and miserable.

  Lea’s gaze scoured me. “What’s going on, Naida?”

  I turned a miserable gaze to her. “I wish I knew. But it doesn’t look good.”

  “Do you think Alice is working with them?”

  I shrugged, chewing my bottom lip as I tried to consider all the possibilities. “Maybe they threatened her again,” I said. “It’s the only thing I can think of that might make her do this.”

  “This is bad, Naida,” Lea said softly.

  “I know.”

  “Maybe it’s time to call the police.”

  I realized she was right. It was highly doubtful Alice was meeting a PTB as she’d said. And if she was giving a dangerous artifact to the bad guys…

  I sighed. “If we call the police, they’ll arrest her.”

  “Yes.” Lea’s tone was gentle, as if she realized what the current mess was going to cost me and understood my reluctance. But it would be selfish of me to think about that. The cost to Enchanted and potential future victims was more important than my worry about a job.

  “Okay,” I finally said. “Let’s call Grym.”

  Lea grabbed her phone from the cubby between the two seats and started to dial. I watched Alice go into the building and felt sick to my stomach. “How could you?” I murmured softly.

  Something moved beyond the lights at the front of the building.

  A shadow shifted.

  I turned to watch as a slim figure slid from the shadows and stood staring up at the building. And then disappeared in a burst of soft green light.

  I reached over and put my hand over Lea’s. “Hang up.”

  She gave me a look that was tinged in impatience. “Naida…”

  I shook my head, pulling her phone from her fingers and stabbing the button to disconnect. I handed it back to her. “We can’t call Grym.” I opened the door and started to climb out. She grabbed my arm.

  “What are you talking about. We can’t go in there. It’s too dangerous. It’s going to be everyone against us.”

  I gently disengaged myself from her grip. “You’re right, you should stay here. If I don’t come out in twenty minutes, then you can call Grym.”

  “Naida!” She made an outraged sound as I slammed the door on her concern.

  Lea climbed out of the truck and ran after me. “Why can’t we call the police?”

  “Because I don’t want to get Sebille in trouble.”

  “Sebille?” Lea frowned in confusion. “Why would she get into tro…” A lightbulb went on behind Lea’s pretty turquoise gaze. “Ah. What in the goddesses favorite Spanx is going on here?”

  “I have no idea. But I’m about to find out.”

  I stopped and grabbed her hand. “I meant what I said. You should stay here. There’s no point in both of us getting bludgeoned by gnomes.”

  “As reasonable as that sounds,” she said, her expression wry, “I can help. I want to help.”

  I didn’t have time to argue, so I nodded and took off running, Lea hot on my heels.

  16

  You Are In Violation Of The Queen’s Directives

  I realized as we hurried toward the front door that we were going to be in trouble if the door was locked. Sebille was inside already and didn’t know we were there, so she couldn’t let us in.

  I glanced toward the parking lot and it was empty except for Alice’s car.

  So, who was Alice meeting?

  The whole thing was just a mess. I was terrified that, when I found the answers, I wasn’t going to like them any better than the questions.

  We tried the door and it was, of course, locked.

  How had Alice gotten in? Had someone let her in? Or did she have a key?

  My head was starting to hurt from all the questions.

  Lea touched my arm, leaning close as she pulled me away from the door. “I can get us inside,” she said in a whisper. “But I suggest we look for a back door. We don’t want to stumble face-first into whatever’s going on in there.”

  A grand suggestion.

  I nodded, following her around the building in search of a less conspicuous entrance.

  We found one half-way down the first side. The building seemed empty, all the windows dark, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes on our every movement.

  Her hand on the doorknob, Lea’s voice rose and fell in a low, rhythmic chant, sending a stream of magic into the lock. A beat later, it clicked open. We moved quickly inside, finding ourselves in an unlit back hallway that appeared to only service a water fountain and two restrooms.

  We moved quickly down the short hall and jolted to a stop when we realized it fed directly into the lobby.

  A voice echoed through the open space. Alice sounded as if she was about fifteen yards away, but it was hard to understand her because of the echoing effect.

  We stood just inside the hall, pressed against the wall and listening carefully. When Alice stopped talking, no one responded for a long moment.

  Then I heard a low, rumbly sound that might have been a voice.

  Or it could have been my stomach complaining that it was empty.

  Judging by the glare Lea was throwing me, I was pretty sure it was the latter.

  I placed a hand over my stomach as if that would stop its grumbling, and eyed the immediate area beyond our hidey-hole.

  The tree wasn’t too far away. Its dense trunk blocked our view of Alice, but I was judging from the sound of her voice that she wasn’t far from the front door.

  I thought of the line of wooden gnome soldiers in that area and felt the blood rush out of my face. Alone against that army, Alice wouldn’t have a chance.

  Unless Sebille decided to help her.

  I thought about that for a minute and realized they could be working together. Maybe Sebille was backing A
lice up on some kind of sting.

  But then, why hadn’t they included me? Anger sifted through me and away. I’d certainly earned the right to be included. But the memory of the beat-down I’d gotten from the gnomes the last time made it hard for me to seek out that kind of “adventure” again.

  Yet, there I stood.

  “We need to get closer,” Lea whispered.

  I nodded in agreement and we carefully moved out of the hallway, stepping quietly to a spot behind the green space. Using the wide umbrella of the massive tree as cover, we crouched in the shadow of its branches and watched in surprise as Alice, standing in the middle of the entrance lobby, suitcase still in hand, spoke to the wooden soldiers lined up along the wall.

  They stood as they had before, eyes dull and lips curved in smiles that seemed even more malevolent than the last time. I suffered a full-body shiver that made my teeth clack together from the memory.

  “…poisoned the magic with her mark,” Alice was saying. “I’ve been trying to fix it, but I need her to do it, and she’s resisting my influence.”

  I frowned at the words coming out of the Keeper’s mouth. Who was the she Alice was talking about? I thought she’d been the one to mark the suitcase and stop it from working.

  Alice seemed to be listening to something, although I couldn’t hear anyone else speaking.

  “I know we had a deal…” she said, looking nervous.

  My stomach twisted. My worst fears realized. Alice had been working with the gnomes. But then, if that was true, why had she hurt Gido?

  “I’m doing everything I can. You need to give me more time…” she said, a pleading note in her voice.

  I eyed the row of gnomes, wondering who Alice was speaking to. But I couldn’t discern any movement or indication that any of them were alive.

  They all looked exactly the same.

  All had rounded forms. All were carved with coats that were painted blue and trousers that were painted a golden brown. All had clunky black boots carved on their feet, and all wore conical hats that were a dull, weathered burgundy color.

  Every face had beady black eyes, a bulbous nose, and a sharp chin.

  Alice suddenly lifted her head and looked toward the tree.

  We hunched lower as her shadowed face stared in our direction.

  I was afraid to move. But I was aware of Lea chanting softly beside me. I would have loved to ask her what she was doing, but I didn’t dare make a sound.

  “What is it?” a deep, gravelly voice asked.

  The sound of it made me jump in surprise. But Lea looked pleased.

  Alice turned her gaze back to the line of gnomes, lifting it above their heads. “I thought I heard something,” Alice said.

  The shadow on the wall behind the gnomes shifted slightly.

  I reached over and clamped my hand over Lea’s. She stopped chanting, her gaze sharpening on the lobby.

  The gnomes began to move and my heart started to pound with dread.

  Then something amazing…and horrifying…happened.

  The wall shifted forward, peeling away from the shadows and forming into a gnome that looked a lot like the one in the office we’d searched the night before.

  Only it was ten feet tall if it was an inch.

  The enormous gnome had blended into the shadows, giving the impression of being part of the wall. How was that possible?

  “Cloaking spell,” Lea whispered as if answering my unspoken question. “I’ve been sending an interference spell into it.”

  The gnome was not only enormous compared to the wooden soldiers arrayed around his feet, but he was also not a minion. His tall form was leaner than the others, and it was covered in a dark suit with a white shirt and red power tie. The gnome’s head wore no conical hat, and his hair was pure white, thick and wavy around a face that was all craggy planes and chiseled lines. He had a long, carefully trimmed beard that fell to a point below the knot of his tie, shaggy brows, also pure white, and a thick mustache that fell over the corners of his mouth to mingle with the beard.

  Most importantly, I’d seen him before. I knew who it was.

  Lea turned to me. “We’re in trouble.”

  Aaaannnnddd, my heart redoubled its efforts to claw its way out of my chest. In fact, it was beating so hard, I barely noticed the buzzing of a large insect as it flew past my ear.

  But I definitely noticed when the bug stopped its flight in midair and hovered between us and the giant gnome, hands on hips and a glare on its tiny face.

  Sebille!

  The giant gnome glared down at the sprite, his hostile gaze over-scored by twin slashes of angry white brows. “Princess Sebille, what are you doing here?”

  “Gerrard Gnomish the First, you are in violation of the Queen’s directives. I’ve been sent to warn you to cease your activities immediately or face her wrath.”

  The gnome’s angry eyebrows lowered even further over the beady black eyes. Gerrard Senior took another step forward, the weight of his tread making the branches above our heads tremble. The wooden soldiers spun out of his way, scattering in all directions to keep from being crushed. “You overstep yourself, Princess,” the giant gnome ground out. “You are not your mother’s enforcer.”

  Sebille’s wings buzzed faster, sending her a few feet higher into the air. “You’re right,” she said, “I am not an enforcer. I am simply carrying a message from her. If you refuse to acquiesce to the warning, she will be forced to descend on Gnomish with an army of the fae.”

  Gerrard’s wide forehead creased between his eyes. “To what purpose?” he growled out.

  That seemed pretty obvious to me. Which made me wonder what he was up to.

  As if reading my mind again, Lea said, “He’s stalling.”

  I nodded, wondering if Sebille was aware.

  She seemed pretty savvy, and she’d definitely been around supernormals longer than I had. But I just didn’t know.

  I glanced at Lea. “If you were working on something to help us get out of here, you might want to step it up a bit.”

  Lea nodded. “I need to grab a piece of this tree…”

  I moved to the side, out of the view of the three in the lobby, and leaned over the short wall that encompassed the green space. Squinting through the darkness, I located what I’d been looking for streaming down the trunk in messy lines. My fingers grasped a thin but sturdy vine and tugged, extracting a portion that was long enough to reach Lea. “I don’t know how all this works,” I told Lea, “…but Sebille magicked these. Would there still be magic inside them?”

  Lea nodded, her eyes taking on an excited glow. “This is perfect. I just need a couple of minutes to concentrate.”

  I nodded and moved away, my thoughts on that suitcase. I noticed that Alice had dropped it to the floor and was watching Sebille with obvious suspicion, her hands lifted and energy encompassing them in a charcoal gray glow.

  I frowned. That didn’t look right. Alice’s magic was the color of mine. A pale silver.

  Then I concentrated, tugging on the magic hiding in my core, and let it seep through me, giving me the power to envision Alice’s aura.

  I blinked in horror at what I saw. Pure black energy swirled around her, oily in its blackness and unusually intense, as if gathering for an attack.

  Spikes of it speared from her fingers and lashed the floor beneath her feet.

  Alice was building magic. And I was afraid I knew what she intended to do with it.

  I glanced at Lea, finding her sitting cross-legged on the floor inside a circle she’d made with chalk. The vine was laying across her two palms and it was glowing, the energy slowly crawling up the climber and moving toward the tree.

  It was going to take her a few minutes to do anything useful.

  I needed a distraction.

  But to do what I needed to do, I also needed an infusion of energy.

  Closing my eyes, I pictured the magic coiling in my core and concentrated on building it. I pulled energy from my c
ells, propelling it into my core in an effort to create pressure. When I reached the end of my internal magical stores, I sent questing fingers of energy into the air around me, finding it a rich source of more magic and pulling it close. That was much harder. I hadn’t learned to extract energy from the air around me. I’d barely learned how to pull it from my own stores.

  But dire circumstances called for drastic measures.

  Vaguely aware of the voices on the other side of the tree, I reached for the green space, finding pockets of Sebille’s residual magic nestled among the flowers and bushes there. I carefully extracted the magic where it was willing to be collected, and gave up on the stuff that clung too closely to the plants.

  I didn’t have the strength or the time to force that magic to me.

  When I felt as if my skin was tighter for the buildup of internal energy, I opened my eyes and sent my consciousness across the room, fixing it on the suitcase Alice had abandoned.

  The energy left my palms in a thick wash, rather than the tidy ribbons Alice was able to expel.

  My magic shot past the tree, sending its branches into motion like an errant breeze, and hit the suitcase with a whoosh. The suitcase wobbled a moment and then toppled to the ground with a loud thump. The sound was ominous in the magic-drenched air and I flinched, ducking as Alice’s gaze shot to where I stood.

  A rictus of a smile curved on her homely face, and for the first time I noticed she wasn’t wearing her glasses. That surprised me because I didn’t think she could see without them. She shoved her hands outward, palms facing me, and expelled a dense arrow of oily black magic toward my hiding spot.

  It shot toward me like a cannonball and smashed into the tree, slicing off a good-sized branch and sending a cascade of deadly debris down on my head.

  Somehow I managed to avoid any serious damage. And when I looked up, there was a glossy umbrella hanging on the air above my head.

  My gaze skimmed to Lea. Her eyes were open and she was smiling, a dense spider web of magic written on the air before her, and her fingers twisted into the ends.

  She’d given me a protective shield.