“If it’s the soul that fuels ghosts, and shades are like angry ghosts, what fuels them?” Landon looked legitimately curious.
“That’s a good question.”
He smirked. “I stumped my super witch. That’s kind of fun.”
“I’m not a super witch. Aunt Tillie is.”
“Aunt Tillie is powerful, but you’re the super witch. She knows it, too.” He leaned back and put his arm around my shoulders. “I’ll always love you. Forever and always.”
“Just don’t opt to become a shade and we won’t have a problem.”
“Fair enough. I ... .” He broke off and narrowed his eyes as he stared across the road. “What is that?”
I followed his gaze, expecting some sort of attack. Instead, I found Aunt Tillie standing on the sidewalk across from Mrs. Little’s shop. She appeared to have some sort of animal with her ... and it wasn’t small. I started to stand, but Landon kept me anchored to his side. “Let’s see what she’s doing before we intervene.”
“That looks like a bear,” I said.
“It’s too small to be a bear.”
“Maybe it’s a cub.”
“Then it’s probably not dangerous.”
I couldn’t believe how blasé he was being. “Landon ... .”
“I want to see what she does.” He squinted to look inside Mrs. Little’s shop. “Willa is in there.”
I sat up straighter and peered into the shop window. Aunt Willa was a few feet from the door, conversing at the counter with Mrs. Little. “I don’t like that they’re chummy,” I admitted. “It makes me suspicious.”
“I’m suspicious of those two whether they’re working together or separately.” Landon moved his hand to the back of my neck and rubbed. “Go back to the shades. The guys in Salem did it to themselves because they probably thought they were going to get caught. This was a way for them to evade law enforcement. Where did our shades come from?”
Another question for which I had no answer. “It’s possible they’ve always been here and we simply never realized.”
“How could you guys not realize? You’re flitting around with magic all the time. It seems to me that you would’ve stumbled across them at some point, even if only by dumb luck.”
“I don’t know. They’re active now, and there must be a reason.”
“You think it’s the girls?”
“I don’t know. I wish I could be certain they didn’t remember anything. There must be a reason Paisley was the first victim.”
“Do you think the other girls are in danger?”
“It’s a definite possibility. We don’t know why Paisley was killed. Maybe Amelia is right and she hooked up with the wrong guy. Maybe none of them remember anything. Maybe this is all a coincidence.”
“You don’t believe in coincidence.”
“Some things are coincidence,” I argued. “This feels different.”
“What’s your next step?”
“Research.” That’s all we had to focus on. “Until I can figure out how these shades operate, where they came from and what they want, I don’t see we have much choice.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “Do you have the right books?”
“Maybe. I’ll get Clove and Thistle on it too. Clove can’t do much these days but research. Stormy’s great-grandmother was a bust. She can’t answer our questions because she’s separate from what’s going on.”
“The answers are there,” Landon insisted. “I think you’re blocking yourself from finding them because you’re so agitated.”
“I’m not agitated.”
“You’re blaming yourself for the girls acting like zombies. We have Brian Kelly running around threatening us. Say what you want — and there’s no sense denying it — but I know that you’re worried he’ll do something to get me in trouble at work.”
“I am worried about that,” I admitted. “He’s determined to pay us back. Oddly, he seems more focused on you than me.”
“I’m the one who threatened him. I warned him what would happen if he kept messing with you. He has ego issues. He’s an insecure man who pretends he’s secure. He wants people to believe he’s the king of all things, but he’s really a peasant selling potatoes.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Potatoes?”
He shrugged. “Or some other root vegetable he has to dig in the ground to harvest. He believes he’s bigger than he is, which means he needs people to believe that or his entire sense of self-worth goes down the drain.”
“Now who’s the shrink?” I teased.
“I’ve done a lot of thinking about him since he returned. I don’t trust him.”
“Nobody trusts him. He’s a tool.”
“Well, he’s going to move ... and soon.”
“We need to get these shades under control so we can focus on him.”
“Definitely.” Landon inclined his head toward Aunt Tillie. “She’s on the move.”
I watched my great-aunt start across the street. I could now see the animal she had with her more clearly. “Is that ... ?”
“A wolverine.” Landon straightened and glanced around, seemingly dumbfounded. “Where did she get that thing?”
“Aren’t wolverines extinct in Michigan?”
“They were never actually prevalent here. I think the last wolverine sighted here was in 2004.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“I’m a genius. What I want to know even more is what she’s doing with that wolverine.”
I watched as Aunt Tillie crossed the street. She seemed to be conversing with the animal, which trotted along next to her as through trained. My mouth dropped open when she reached the sidewalk directly in front of the Unicorn Emporium. What had once been a wolverine broke into six smaller animals, and those animals were easily recognizable.
“Skunks.” I jumped off the bench and ran to the middle of the street. Landon chased me.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
Was he kidding? “Do you really think she’s not going to do something horrible with those skunks?”
He stood, his eyes moving between me and the skunks. He looked torn.
“If you go over there, she won’t stop whatever she has planned,” I warned. “I won’t be able to share a bed with you if you smell like skunk.”
“That’s cold. I can’t believe you’d banish me from our bed simply because I smell bad.”
“There’s bad and there’s skunk. I can’t deal with skunk. If it becomes a choice between sleep and you, I’m going with the sleep.” The words were barely out of my mouth before a barrage of wind slammed into me with enough force to lift me two feet off the ground. “What the ... ?”
I careened toward the pavement, an ugly collision in my future, when another burst of magic swooped in from the left and tossed me toward the grass in front of the police station.
I hit hard, the air forced from my lungs, and I rolled to my knees.
“Bay!” Landon, the skunks forgotten, raced in my direction. He looked panicked.
I wanted to soothe him, but I didn’t have time. I felt malevolence as I looked up at the police station window. The shades were all there, grouped together with their gray faces and demonic eyes, and they appeared excited.
Another invisible wave of magic caught me at the shoulder, slamming to the ground again, whispers rolling over me. The shades were excited enough that I could hear them, though their words remained a mystery.
“Bay!” Landon picked up his pace and put his head down. He was going to get to me even if it killed him.
I didn’t have time to think, so I forced myself to my feet and extended my hands.
“Contego.” I created a shield as the invisible wave circled back for another hit. When it collided with the flimsy shield I’d erected, it sounded like a train running off the rails.
Sparks flew like fireworks on a summer weekend, and the tourists littering the sidewalks broke into applause.
“They don’t un
derstand,” I said when Landon finally made it to my side. “They don’t realize it’s real.”
“Are you okay?” Landon moved his hands to my face. “What was that?”
“The shades. They’re in the police station window.”
Landon looked in that direction, his gaze fierce. “Well, that’s just great.” He looked caught, a little boy who had to make a split-second decision and save the world. “What do I do?”
I couldn’t answer him. “I ... don’t know.” I turned my attention to Aunt Tillie. She stood on the opposite side of the road, her eyes scanning the sidewalk. She didn’t speak, but I could practically hear the gears of her mind working.
“They’re in the police station window,” I called out.
Aunt Tillie shifted her gaze in that direction, her forehead creasing. Then she started across the road. Up until that point, I didn’t believe things could get worse.
“Oh, no, no, no.” I shook my head and moved to intercept her. Landon caught me around the waist before I could take more than two steps. “What are you doing? They’ll kill her.”
“She’s a super witch, too,” Landon insisted. “She can take care of herself.”
“I won’t leave her.”
“Just ... wait.” He locked his arms around my waist and focused on Aunt Tillie.
For her part, she didn’t look worried in the least. She moved directly to the center of the road and raised her arms above her head. “Illisus!” she intoned.
I realized what she was going to do when it was far too late to stop it. “Duck!” I yanked Landon down in time to avoid a spinning manhole cover.
Aunt Tillie’s magic exploded in a flood of water as all the fire hydrants on the street began spouting. She spun her hands faster, the magic lifting the water until it was a wall, and then she shoved that wall at the police station.
“Oh, no way.” I couldn’t allow her to take out the building. All I could picture in my head was Chief Terry losing his second home. I intercepted the spell with one of my own. “Glacio!”
The water froze at the exact moment it hit the building, coating it in more than several inches of ice. It looked like something created for a movie. Through it all, I could see the shades. They remained in the window, moving slower than before. It was as if the ice served as a trap of some sort.
“Huh.”
“What?” Landon looked bewildered. “Seriously, baby, how are we going to explain that?”
I couldn’t worry about explanations when I was struggling to wrap my head around the shades slowing. Then I had an idea. “Give me your gun.”
“Excuse me?” Landon’s eyebrows practically flew off his forehead. “I will not give you my gun.”
“Then shoot the window.”
“What?”
“Shoot the window,” I insisted. “It’s the only way to get rid of them.” At least for now, I silently added.
Landon hesitated and then drew his service weapon. “Bay ... .”
He didn’t want to fire it. He could get in trouble for discharging his service weapon under these conditions. “Don’t worry.” I squeezed his hand. “I have another plan.”
“What is it?”
Before I could answer, I realized something was hurtling through the air above our heads. When I angled myself to see better, it became apparent that the thing flying through the air was the manhole cover ... and it was hurtling toward the window.
No.
I jerked at the sound of the new voice. It came from the trapped shades. They wanted to escape the window, but the ice was blocking them.
The manhole cover hit with terrific force, bolts of energy cascading from the impact. The glass shattered, and from within the glass I heard the screams overlapping. Then I heard one voice above the rest.
This isn’t over.
It was, though. The shades disappeared ... and then everybody on Main Street broke into enthusiastic applause and cheers of delight. They had no idea that what they’d witnessed was real.
My shoulders sank as I looked to Landon. This was not good.
20
Twenty
Landon stood rooted to his spot, his gun clenched in his hand. Aunt Tillie looked calm, although there was a fierceness in her eyes.
“What happened?” Chief Terry demanded as he raced out of the diner, Hannah at his heels. “What was that?”
“Shades,” Landon replied, his eyes moving to me as he holstered his gun. He looked shaken.
“Well, great!” Chief Terry threw up his hands. “Can somebody explain why my building is covered in ice?”
“Shades,” Aunt Tillie replied, brushing past him and heading for me.
“And the window?” Chief Terry looked at me, as if registering that I was present for the first time. His expression softened. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”
I had to laugh. Even in his moment of greatest fury he thought of me first. “Shades,” was all I could say when he knelt next to me. “They were in your window.”
“And attacking,” Landon said as he lowered himself next to me. He gingerly began feeling along my back. “They did something that actually lifted her off the ground. I thought they were going to smack her into the pavement.”
“They were,” I confirmed. “That was the plan. Then something moved me.”
“Don’t look at me.” Aunt Tillie said. “I saw what was happening, but something moved you before I could do anything.”
“So, what moved me?” I looked around. “Something shifted me at the last second.”
The sound of pounding footsteps drew my eyes to the road, where Thistle was racing toward me. Her hair stood on end and she looked panicked. I tried to stand, but Landon pressed his hand to my shoulder to still me.
“You stay right here until I’m sure you’re not hurt,” he ordered.
Rather than argue, I nodded and focused on Thistle. “Are you guys okay?” I hadn’t even thought about them. They were only two stores down during the attack. “Clove?”
“Clove is fine,” Thistle replied, though the wildness in her eyes had me questioning the statement. “I mean ... she’s as fine as she can be given the circumstances.”
“You mean the freaking ice?” Now that he’d ascertained I wasn’t going to keel over and die any second, Chief Terry was back to complaining. “There’s ice on my building, people! It’s freaking seventy degrees out and my building is covered in ice!”
“Calm down, Esmerelda,” Aunt Tillie drawled. “You sound like Margaret. Just chill out.” She bent over and stared into my eyes. “You haven’t been possessed or anything, have you?”
The question caught me off guard. “Um ... no. Why would you ask that?”
She shrugged. “They’re shades. We don’t know what they’re capable of.”
That bothered me more than I was comfortable admitting. “I’m me.”
“She’s her,” Landon agreed. “What I want to know is how much pain you’re in.”
Surprisingly, I felt okay. “I’m in nowhere near as much pain as I was after the assault in the dining room.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.” He tilted my chin so I had no choice but to look at him. “They keep going after you.”
“I’ve noticed. I still want to know why I didn’t hit the pavement. I mean ... I was going down. I was braced for it. Then something pushed me to safety.”
“Yeah, I think I can answer that,” Thistle said, drawing my eyes back to her. She glanced over her shoulder, toward Hypnotic. “We saw what was happening from inside the store.”
“Great,” Landon said. “Why didn’t you come out to help?”
Thistle murdered him with a look. “I did. Actually, Clove did, too. I tried to push her back inside, because ... well, you know why.”
“We don’t need her slammed into the ground,” I agreed.
“That’s just the thing. I don’t know that she would’ve been slammed into the ground.” Thistle looked toward the store again, anxiety lining her fa
ce. “We saw you go up in the air. Clove gasped and then — and I swear this is true — her stomach glowed. This ... burst of magic rolled out of her and I think that’s what moved you to the grass.”
I was dumbfounded. “Are you saying Clove saved me?” I asked.
“She’s saying the baby saved you,” Aunt Tillie said. “She’s saying the baby inherently knew to save you.”
That was even weirder than what I thought Thistle had suggested. “But ... how?”
“I don’t know.” Aunt Tillie stared back at the store. “But it’s pretty interesting.”
“Oh, you think?” Thistle’s snarky side could no longer be contained. She exploded. “We have a magic baby. Yes, I’d say that’s pretty interesting.”
“You need to calm down too,” Aunt Tillie chided.
“We all need to calm down,” Landon insisted as he watched the excited tourists across the street talking in hushed tones. “I can’t believe this played out in front of the entire town. How are we going to explain this?”
Hannah spoke for the first time. “I don’t think you have to worry about that,” she reassured. “Everybody in town was thrilled with what they saw. They think it’s a witch thing.”
“It is a witch thing.”
“Yes, but they think it’s performance art,” Hannah explained. “Even if they truly want to believe, they’ll chalk it up as a display the town put on.”
“She’s right,” Chief Terry said. “There’s nothing to worry about on that front. I don’t see anybody complaining.”
As if on cue, the door to the Unicorn Emporium flew open and screams emanated from inside.
“Or I could be wrong,” Chief Terry muttered.
I watched as three women — including Mrs. Little and Aunt Willa — raced from inside the store, the skunks giving chase. They appeared a little too intent on their quarry. “Aunt Tillie.” I could do nothing but shake my head.
“What?” The picture of innocence, Aunt Tillie straightened. “You can’t possibly blame me for that. I was busy fighting shades.”
“We saw you,” Landon said. “We saw the wolverine turn into skunks.”
“Yeah, how did you do that?” I asked.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Aunt Tillie’s expression was one of befuddled sadness. “And to think you would blame your poor, old great-aunt of something so dastardly. It’s disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. I’m horrified you’d say anything of the sort.”
Prelude to a Witch Page 19