Amie hadn’t asked to be a Light Witch. The Goddess had bestowed that power on her for a reason. And I really didn’t think that reason was to be locked up by the witches’ council for having ‘more power than it was safe for one witch to have’. Personally, a part of me thought that rule was in place just so the higher up council witches would have a steady source of power to draw on.
Yes, I was a council witch. But that didn’t mean I always trusted the council’s mode of operation one hundred percent. I sure as heck didn’t when it came to Amie’s freedom being taken away because of a gift from the Goddess herself.
“Opal?”
“Yes,” I said slowly. “Are you free now? I could be at your place in about half an hour.”
“That would work. Oh, and Opal? As this may turn out to be council business, it needs to stay between the two of us. No matter what. Do I have your word as a Ravenswind that you won’t share what I’m going to discuss with you?”
Double drat. This was sounding more and more serious. But what could I do? She had me over a barrel here. I wasn’t comfortable keeping secrets from my family. Well, secrets not involving my love life, anyway. But I desperately needed to know how much she knew.
And, even more importantly, what she intended to do about it.
“You have my word.” Now, please Goddess, let me keep it.
Because when it came right down to it, I’d protect my family at all costs. Even if that meant breaking my lifelong streak of keeping my word.
Family was everything.
Chapter 3
I was on pins and needles all the way to Patricia’s house. It was the first time I’d visited her since they moved it. Lock, stock, and barrel, as they say.
She’d had a nice little set-up where the house had been previously. This one was even better.
More room to roam. Especially as the girls really didn’t mind if she crossed over onto the property that they still kept the rights to. They owed Patricia. She could have taken the entire estate and kicked them out.
When all was said and done, the individual they'd originally bought the estate from hadn't really had the right to sell it. That right should have been Patricia's. She could have taken it back for herself. All of it. But she hadn't.
I liked to think that meant Patricia could be won over to our side of the whole Light Witch thing. But I just wasn’t so sure that would be the case.
If there was one thing that Patricia believed in more than magic, it was following the rules. Even when the rules turned out to be wrong.
Pulling off to the side of the driveway in front of her house, I got out, pausing briefly to admire her new landscaping. It looked good. The small flower bed lining the front of the house was actually a tiny version of a witch’s garden. But then, it would take a witch to know that. The flowering plants would be lovely on their own. The fact that they produced spell ingredients was merely an added bonus. Of course, they weren’t to the flowering part of the seasons quite yet. But I could imagine their beauty in the late spring and summer.
And yes, I knew that I was less admiring the landscaping and more procrastinating the dreaded conversation. I was also trying to get my wits about me. I didn’t want to be so on edge that I let out more than what Patricia already knew.
That could happen if I wasn’t careful. And this was too important for that kind of slip up on my part.
Probably wondering why I hadn’t yet knocked, Patricia opened the tiny front door on her tiny house and looked at me.
“Lovely little garden you’ve got here,” I said, putting off the inevitable a few precious more seconds.
“Thank you. I try. There’s a bigger version in the back. I’ll show you later if you want. Of course, it will be far more impressive in a few months.” Then she stepped to the side of the doorway. The message was clear.
It was time.
The inside was pretty much exactly the same as on my last visit, even though the house had then been many miles away from its current location. They’d done a good job moving it.
“Who would have thought you could just pick up a whole house and move it like this?”
She smiled at me. “I have to admit, I had my doubts. But the movers were great. Only had to pack the breakable stuff. They said I didn’t even have to do that, but I like to err on the side of caution.”
Yeah, that was part of what had me so worried.
Patricia motioned over to the sitting area. I debated between the love seat and the chair. Then I settled down into the chair. I rather thought I needed the space to myself.
She poured us each a fresh cup of coffee from a warming pot on her small kitchen counter, then sat them on the small coffee table between us.
I reached over and took a sip. The day had just enough of a chill to it that the warmth felt good. And yes, it might also have been one last-ditch effort at procrastination.
“I never thought to ask you why you called me,” Patricia said slowly. “Sorry about that. I’ve been rather preoccupied with this other issue, I’m afraid. What was it that you wanted?”
And there she was handing me yet another opportunity to put off the conversation, but I’d reached my peak of all that. If I didn’t get this over with soon, I was half afraid my poor heart would up and give out on me.
“We can deal with that later. Family matters first.”
“Ah, yes. I kind of figured that would be your answer.” She stood to retrieve a couple of envelopes from her desk in the corner. Then, after a very brief hesitation, she handed them to me. “These were left in my mailbox. I checked for fingerprints. There were none.”
I arched an eyebrow. “You know how to do that?”
She nodded. “I do.” She gave me a sad smile. “I do have a past, you know. Part of that past included a brief stint in law enforcement.”
The other eyebrow joined the first. How had I not known that? But thinking about it, that little piece of information actually explained a lot about Patricia. How she went into the council’s enforcement group so readily. Why she believed in following the rules, no matter what. I understood her a bit better at that point.
“What made you leave it?”
Patricia shrugged. “I’m not totally sure, really. I guess I just got tired of the politics.”
Thinking back to Orville and the issues he might have if we did come forward with our relationship to the public, I could understand the whole politics in law enforcement thing. That would be a tough thing to handle.
And in case I hadn’t mentioned it before, my family weren’t the only ones with secrets. Patricia had one too. She was a werewolf. I think that probably factored into the political angle of things. Some people were really funny about people who were different from them. Especially if that difference involved sprouting fur and fangs.
Didn’t matter one whit to me. She was a good person... and a gorgeous wolf.
I looked down at the envelopes now in my hand. “What are these?”
“Open them and see for yourself. And you should know that I’ve personally verified what the notes say. They are accurate.”
Opening the first of them, I pulled out a single sheet of paper. The writing was in the form of block print letters. And in pencil, rather than ink. That was rather odd.
Then I read the words, and the fact that the author had used a pencil rather than a pen no longer mattered. I felt greatly relieved, and massively worried, all at the same time.
This wasn’t about Amie at all. That was the relief part.
The worry part came when I realized that the family member affected was my sister, Sapphire. In a not so round-about way, that is.
It has been brought to my attention that you might be the person to contact with information of a witch behaving badly. If not, it is my sincere hope that you will pass this along to the correct person.
I’m quite sure that witches would have some kind of organizational body to handle rouges. At least I do hope that is the case.
Be
cause it is my fear that I know of just such a rouge.
Archimedes Mineheart Senior.
Please see the enclosed news clippings. I think it would be of great interest to you if you took a closer look at these happenings.
The note wasn’t signed. I looked closer at the envelope. Two small newspaper articles were inside. I pulled them out and read them. Nothing serious, but at the same time, rather worrisome. Especially after my recent visit with Sheriff Orville at the Grayson farm.
These stories were similar. Nasty pranks that could have gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Swallowing, I opened the second envelope. Another newsletter clipping. Same type of story too. The accompanying note was shorter this time.
Please do something before he goes too far.
A lot of people would ask why the author of the notes hadn’t gone straight to the police if they had insider information like this. Not me. I knew why.
For one thing, the police really didn’t like to acknowledge that witches existed at all. And they really, really didn’t want to acknowledge that some of the said witches actually had genuine power. It had taken power to pull off these stunts. At least, it sure looked that way on the surface of things.
I was betting I knew what tied them all together too. Something else that law enforcement, other than my own Orville who was special in that regard, wouldn’t take seriously.
A tiny little spell mark.
I took two deep breaths before pulling out the picture of the spell mark Orville had found on the back of old Mr. Grayson’s neck. I’d swung by his office on my way to pick it up. No sense in hiding it from her. She’d likely be getting another envelope tonight with the news of this latest event.
Patricia still hadn’t said a word. Silent as the grave.
Looking down at the picture in my hand, I grimaced. But I still didn’t hand it over. I was having problems with putting what might be one more nail into Archie’s magical coffin. Especially as it would appear there were already three solidly in place.
“I don’t suppose you’d happen to have a picture of Archie’s spell mark on hand?”
She nodded, then pulled out a drawer in the coffee table. Funny. I hadn’t seen that drawer before. Probably a reason for that. Especially considering what she pulled out.
The sketchbook wasn’t an overly large one, but it was nicely bound in leather. The type a professional artist might use.
One more thing I didn’t know about Patricia. That’s when I realized that for an unofficial member of our newly formed Team Destiny, we didn’t know a lot about this woman. Other than the fact that she’s both a witch and a werewolf. And that werewolf part of things was a fairly recent news flash.
Once we were past this latest hurdle, I thought it was high time we got to know each other a bit better. Maybe bring in the whole team on it. Well, the whole getting to know each other, not this thing with Archie.
She flipped to a page in the book and turned it to me. A simple faded yellow circle with a dark blue triangle inside. If one didn’t look at it too closely, one might mistake it for a bruise. Yet another reason the police wouldn’t be the ones to handle this.
I glanced down at the picture of old Grayson’s neck. It was a match all right. It kind of made me proud that my Orville had caught it. The other investigators had missed it entirely. Just showed me yet again how important it was to keep Orville in his position of sheriff. We needed a man that didn’t let big clues like this slip past them.
Of course, the downside to that was when the clues led straight to family.
Chapter 4
It took a lot of persuasion on my part, but I finally convinced Patricia that the right thing to do was to lay all this out to Archie and Sapphire and see what they had to say.
Not that my sister was in on the whole thing. Other than by being married to Archie, I mean. That was way too much involvement to suit me as it was.
She was quiet on the drive over. Too quiet.
See, Sapphire wasn’t Archie’s first wife. She was actually his third. I’d never had the pleasure, or displeasure according to Sapphire, of meeting wife number two. But wife number one? Well, she was sitting right next to me in the car.
“Tell me straight. Does this sound like Archie to you?” After all, she knew far better than I ever would.
She shook her head. “No. Not at all.” She turned her face to the window. “But people change, you know. I really don’t know the man that well anymore. He’s so different from the man I married all those years ago.”
Yeah, well, he was probably happier for one. I didn’t think their marriage had ended all that well. Divorce is never entirely a pleasant thing for either party. And I think he and Sapphire dated back a long, long time. The marriage was kind of new, but I didn’t think the love part was.
Well, that was it. My whole conversational plan shot down the drain. Needless to say, the rest of the drive was spent in an uncomfortable silence.
I don’t know what Patricia’s mind was doing, but mine was busy worrying about what my sister had gotten herself mixed up in. And just what Archie was up to.
We hadn’t called to let them know we were coming. This was going to be a kind of surprise attack, if you will. We didn’t want to give them time to prepare their stories. Not that they would, but still. If it made Patricia happier, I was okay with the surprise thing. Even if it did go against my grain a tad.
Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with a drop-in visit. Not to my sister anyway. But the timing wasn’t the greatest. It was getting close to meal time. Sapphire, being the little homemaker that she is, would most likely insist on feeding us. And somehow, considering the situation, that simply didn’t seem right.
I pulled off their circular drive and looked over to Patricia. “So, are you okay if I take the lead on this?”
She looked at me. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but are you up to it?”
I hated it when people told me to not take something the wrong way, and then they went and said something offensive. I mean, what is the right way to take something like that?
“I wouldn’t have asked to take the lead if I wasn’t, now would I?”
She gave a half-hearted shrug. “Suit yourself.”
That still didn’t really answer my question, but I was too antsy to get this over with to press the issue. I stepped out of the car and made my way to the front door, with Patricia only a step behind me.
When Sapphire opened the door to find us standing on her front porch, she broke out in a grin. “Oh, thank the Goddess! I do hope the two of you are hungry. I hate to eat alone.”
One step into the house and the smell of my sister’s lasagna hit me. And my stomach had an instant response to the smell too. Come to think of it, that one small bite of brownie hadn’t gone all that far.
“Why are you eating alone? Where’s Arch?” Patricia asked, looking around her.
At first, I thought that maybe she was just taking in the grandeur of the place. Then I remembered that she had once lived here too. Most likely, she was comparing things now to the way they were in her day.
How does one go from living in a mansion like this one to a teeny, tiny house? That couldn’t have been easy.
Then again, she seemed to really love that little home of hers. Who was I to judge for that? She just might be happier there.
“He’s working late again, I’m afraid. This case he’s working on is taking up all his waking hours, it seems. He’s too wrapped up in it personally, I’m afraid.”
Patricia and I shared a look. This wasn’t good. Archie was a homebody. Or at least he had been since marrying Sapphire. For him to be spending so much time away... well, it didn’t bode well for him. Not with the evidence of foul play with magic building against him. I’d kind of hoped that Sapphire would be his alibi, and we could put this entire thing to bed early. Looked like that would not be how this went after all.
“What case would that be?” I asked.
/> “The Tomlin one, dear. The young boy that was caught pretty much red-handed in that string of bank robberies. Do you recall that?”
I did. “Archie agreed to represent him? Why would he do that? Everyone knows the boy is guilty as sin.”
She gave me a weak smile. “I’ll admit it isn’t like Archie to take on a case where the client’s innocence is in question to him. But this is different. Archie owes his father a favor, and the man called it in.”
“Must be one heck of a favor.”
Sapphire didn’t seem all that certain. “I wouldn’t know. Archie refuses to talk about it. Kind of upsetting, actually. Before this, I honestly believed we didn’t have any secrets from each other.”
Patricia snorted, then quickly apologized. “I’m sorry, Sapphire. I know that you and Arch are much happier than the two of us ever were, but that man has skeletons in his closet that you wouldn’t believe.”
Now both of us were looking at her. She swallowed. I could only assume she was regretting her words.
“Do tell,” Sapphire said, arching an eyebrow at her. “And I’d greatly appreciate it if you could start with the Tomlin skeleton. That’s the one that is bothering me the most at the moment.”
Patricia looked at her for a minute, then looked at me with a shrug. “What do you think?”
I knew what she was asking. Did we take the time to have dinner with Sapphire and appease her curiosity? Or did we head on into Oak Hill to see Archie?
That last option was the one I really wanted. If only I’d known he was working late, that would have been the one I went with for sure. But as it was, we were here. And leaving Sapphire without a detailed explanation wouldn’t be easy.
Taking a deep breath, I looked Patricia in the eyes. I fully expected her to buck on my decision. Not that she really could object too much. I was the one with the car keys, after all. “I say we have dinner. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
Witch Reborn Box Set: Books 1-3: Includes Gemstone Coven Holiday Shorts 1 & 2 Page 20