by Zoe Arden
"He's just taking pity on her. She's got it bad for him. He knows what that's like. He had it pretty bad for Polly until they broke up."
"Damon dated Polly?"
"Yeah. Things between them didn't end well."
I was shocked to learn Damon and Polly had ever been an item. Until now, I hadn't even been sure whether witches and humans could date. The way Damon's eyes kept drifting to Polly made my stomach churn. He was staring at her like it caused him pain to be around her.
"Anyway, Brendan and Slater are friends, so Damon's friends with Brendan by association. He'd never scoop in on Brendan's wannabe girlfriend."
"But Damon doesn't mind his own cousin dating his ex?"
Campbell shrugged and spun me on my heels. I knocked into Polly again.
"Ow! I said watch it, measle blossom!" Polly screeched.
"Hey, there's no need for that language," Slater said, cupping his hand under Polly's chin. She melted.
"Maybe I need some air," I told Campbell.
"Sure," he said, looking warily toward the patio door.
"I'm fine alone," I told him.
"You sure?" he asked, ever the gentleman.
"Yeah. Stay here. Keep dancing. Eat something sweet."
"Actually, I do have a piece of cake I've been saving."
I knew it. Everyone on this island had a serious sweet tooth.
"Go get it. And thanks for the dance."
Campbell hurried toward the kitchen, and I stepped outside and into the cool night air.
"Nice night, isn't it?" I turned to see Damon looking up at the stars. When had he drifted out here?
"It is," I said, almost too taken aback to respond. He was actually talking to me!
His head snapped around and his eyes widened. "Oh. It's you." He walked away without another word.
"What did I do?" I muttered to myself.
Soft footsteps clopped on the brick pathway.
"Nothing," a new voice said.
"Oh, Brendan. Hi." I felt my cheeks coloring. "How are you?"
"The same as you," Brendan said, twisting a purple, fuzzy stem in his hand. Small balls that looked like pearls bounced on it as he moved it around his palm. I remembered seeing it in the back room at The Mystic Cupcake. "Out here looking for answers. Finding nothing except darkness and empty space."
"Depressed much?" I asked, trying to be funny
I'd finally started getting the hang of telling humans and wizards apart. Trixie had told me it was all about the eyes.
"Look for the gold," she'd said. "All wizards and witches have it."
I saw tiny flecks of gold swimming in Brenden's eyes, even in the dark. Warlock.
"Let me ask you something," Brendan said. "You're a witch. Why do witches like human men?" He was looking at me so earnestly I felt compelled to answer him. I just didn't know what to say.
"Um..." I stammered. "I don't know. I grew up around humans, so I guess I'm just drawn to them." I looked back through the glass patio door at Damon, who was dancing with Megan again. Brendan followed my gaze, looking miserable.
"Love sucks," he said, then shoved the purple stem he'd been twirling into his pocket and skulked off. I turned back to the stars and sighed.
An earth-shattering scream rose into the night, making me jump.
Through the patio door, I could see a crowd gathering around the perimeter of the room. A woman was screaming. I hurried inside. The crowd had opened up, leaving two people in its center.
Felicity stood there, her mouth hanging open. Campbell was dancing around her, his hands flying unnaturally through the air. His head was tilted at an odd angle and his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth, like a thirsty dog. He was making strange grunting noises that almost resembled words.
"Grrraamaric," he yelled. "Ooohlalala!"
"He's drunk!" someone yelled.
Campbell swung his hips around and bumped into Felicity, who stumbled away from him.
"All right, all right, break it up," Felicity's boyfriend, Lincoln, said.
He was the sheriff of Mistmoor Point and the crowd parted for him as he came through. Even if he hadn't been a sheriff, I suspected the crowd would still have parted for him. At six feet tall, with bronze hair and blue eyes, he made quite a figure in the middle of a crowd.
"Okay, Campbell. Time to go home," Lincoln said, clamping one hand down on his shoulder.
Campbell yanked Lincoln hard, sending him flying across the room. Everyone gasped. Campbell stopped, looked around, then let out a strange gurgling sound. He fell to the floor. His face was bright blue.
Felicity hunkered down next to him. She gave him one hard shake then looked up at the rest of the room, her mouth gaping.
"He's dead," she cried. "Campbell's dead!"
* * *
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
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.
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* * *
I had the feeling I'd just lost the only friend. …
* * *
.
"All right, women to one side. Men to the other," Sheriff Knoxx barked. His large frame moved around the room at a slow and steady pace, eying each individual as if we were all responsible for Campbell's sudden death. He was attempting to separate the men and the women who'd been at the party. As if the different sexes might conspire together if left alone.
He stopped and looked at me longer than anyone. His nostrils flared. I could feel his hot breath from two feet away. It had the unpleasant smell of boiled cabbage.
"This is dumb," Sheriff Maxwell muttered a little too loudly.
Knoxx snapped his head around, his dark eyes blazing. Since Lincoln had been the only officer at the party when Campbell's death occurred, he'd automatically assumed control. Now that Knoxx was here, a turf war had broken out.
"My town, my rules," Sheriff Knoxx said. His voice was like an out-of-tune bass—grungy yet oddly musical.
"I was the first officer on the scene," Lincoln said.
"You were off duty. At a party." Knoxx spat out the last word as if parties were akin to eating garbage.
"Still," Lincoln said. "Seeing that I was the first officer here, I think I should—"
"This isn't Mistmoor Point," Sheriff Knoxx said. His face was turning violent shades of purple. "Your way of doing things won't work here. You're out of your element."
Lincoln opened his mouth to protest. Felicity put a restraining hand on his arm. He glanced at her and sighed. I could tell he hated to admit that Sheriff Knoxx was right. He had no jurisdiction.
Too bad. I thought we'd all have been a lot better off in Lincoln's hands.
I wondered if the rivalry between the sheriffs stemmed merely from the competition that came between law enforcement units, or if it ran deeper. Although Felicity and Lincoln had shown up to my party, they were the only two from Mistmoor—other than the mayor and his wife, who gave me the impression they went anywhere free food was offered—to be here. No one else from Mistmoor had bothered to come.
Trixie and Eleanor had told me not to be offended. The rivalry between Mistmoor and Sweetland went back twelve hundred years, when Sara Sweetland married Patrick Mistmoor. One of them cheated on the other shortly after their wedding, though the accounts differed depending on which side of town you lived on.
There was supposed to be a cliff somewhere on the island where you could hear Sara's cries as she threw herself off it after her marriage dissolved. Or was thrown off. Depending which version you believed.
I scanned the room for my aunts. They had disappeared just after Campbell's collapse and were nowhere to be seen.
"There you are," Lucy Lockwood said. She appeared at my side from out of nowhere and grabbed my elbow, spinning me toward the patio door. "We've gotta get out of here."
"Why?" I whispered. "I didn't do anything. There's no way anyone can blame me for Campbell. I wasn't even in the room when it happened."
"Are you kidding me?" Lucy screeched. "Everyone saw you two da
ncing together. I can just see tomorrow's headline for the Witches Herald." She held her hand up in the air, writing on imaginary paper. "Bakery Reaper strikes again."
"Bakery Reaper!" Now it was my turn to screech. "You made that up. No one's calling me that."
"Everyone's calling you that. Now grab your purse and let's go."
We were almost to the door when Sheriff Knoxx's loud voice boomed across the room.
"Hold it! You two. Ava Rose and Lucy Lockwood. Get over here."
We turned slowly toward the sheriff.
"Yes?" I asked in what I hoped was a calm, measured tone.
"Let me see your wand," Sheriff Knoxx said, holding out his hand. It was an order.
I instinctively stepped back from him, holding my purse with both hands like it was filled with money instead of makeup. Aunt Eleanor had taught me the expando spell. Inside my purse, I'd been able to store not just makeup, but shoes, a change of clothes, and Lucy's loaner wand.
I saw Lucy glance sideways at me. I hadn't used her wand for anything since she'd given it to me a few days ago at Coffee Cove—I'd been too scared. The only thing I'd done with it was make sure Aunt Eleanor and Trixie saw it so they wouldn't question me further about my own wand. From a distance, our wands looked identical. Most wands did.
"I didn't do anything," I told Sheriff Knoxx. He grunted and I could have sworn blue smoke erupted from his nostrils. What was he? Part dragon?
"Until we know precisely how Campbell Price died tonight, I am checking all wands. Starting with yours."
His hand hovered in the air. I felt Lucy stiffen beside me. I waited for her to say something. To give me up and tell everyone I had her wand, not my own. But she kept quiet. I had no idea how much trouble I could get into for using a wand that wasn't mine. I didn't think it was illegal, but I had the feeling it wasn't considered proper.
Lucy was the only friend I'd made in Sweetland Cove. The only one who didn't seem convinced that I was a murderer. I couldn't give the sheriff her wand. What if it got her into trouble?
"Sheriff," I said, clearing my throat. "I, um, don't think... I can." It sounded lame, but I really didn't know what else to say.
"Ava!" Aunt Eleanor cried running toward me. Trixie nipped at her heels. They were waving frantically at me. I wasn't sure whether they were telling me to make a run for it or eat more lemon peppy bars. Where had they disappeared to, anyway?
Eleanor arrived at my side, breathless. "Sheriff Knoxx," she breathed. "Ava has nothing to hide. Do you?" she asked, turning to me.
"No," I said. Eleanor nodded, as if that settled everything.
"If that's true, then the girl should have no problem handing over her wand for inspection," Knoxx said. "But so far, she's resisting."
I hated the way he'd referred to me as 'the girl' like I wasn't even standing here.
"Oh, just give it to him," Trixie said. I gaped at her, shaking my head. I realized Lucy was no longer at my side. She was watching from the sidelines, with the rest of the party.
"I can't," I told Trixie.
"Why not?" Trixie asked.
"Because." I could feel every eye in the room on me. I was positive they were all whispering Bakery Reaper over and over again.
"You can give it to me here," Sheriff Knoxx said, his voice had dropped an octave. His growl was so deep it almost hurt my ears. "Or I can take you down to the station, throw you in a jail cell, and take it from you."
My heart was racing. In the corner, Damon was still as a statue, his face ashen. I'd forgotten all about him. Campbell had been his friend. That made two of Damon's friends who'd died since my arrival on the island.
"What about the humans?" I whispered. "I can't pull out my wand in front of them, can I?" I asked, thinking for a second that I'd beaten the sheriff at his own game.
Sheriff Knoxx looked around, then snapped his fingers in the air. "Perplexio unami," he said. I saw Damon's eyes glaze over.
"A confusion charm," Knoxx told me. "The humans won't know what's going on now. You're out of excuses."
I could see Lucy lingering by the patio door, watching me.
"Just give him your wand, Ava," Eleanor said.
"Come on," Trixie chimed in. "You don't want to be arrested."
I bit my lip and pulled Lucy's wand from my purse. Sheriff Knoxx grabbed it from me.
"Was that so hard?" he asked.
Lucy's face turned red. She stormed from the room. I had the horrible feeling I'd just lost the only friend I had in Sweetland Cove.
* * *
CHAPTER
TWELVE
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* * *
"Don't you know? It was a human
who murdered your mother."
* * *
.
My aunts had lost their minds. It was the only explanation. Instead of letting me sit home and hide, I was in the back room at the bakery, sitting on a stool, pouring through Magical Herbs and Plants: Volume 1.
"I'll never be able to memorize all this," I complained to Tootsie, who had curled up in my lap with no intention of moving. Rocky lay nuzzled at my feet.
"Tootsie knows Ava is like her mama. Tootsie likes Ava. She is a powerful witch." Tootsie laid his scruffy orange head back in my lap as if that settled everything. I scratched behind his ears as he purred happily. Rocky rolled over, exposing his furry white belly.
"Rocky agrees," he said and closed his eyes. I reached carefully down, so as not to ruffle Tootsie, and gave his belly a rub.
Eleanor came through the back door. She was dressed in a long, black dress made of silky fabric that flowed around her like it was light as air. If she'd had a pointed black hat, she would have looked like the embodiment of Halloween witch costumes I'd grown up with.
"How are things going?" she asked.
"Fine, I guess. How many volumes are there?"
"Only ten. You'll be finished in no time."
Only ten? Ugh.
I watched Eleanor check a peppermint-intelligence pound cake she'd put in the oven earlier. I'd been dying to know where she and Trixie had disappeared to at the party. It seemed strange to me that they'd vanished right after Campbell's collapse. Maybe they had their own ideas who was behind some the strange deaths that had been occurring and they'd gone to investigate. If they knew something, I wanted to know.
"So," I asked, hoping I sounded casual. "Where did you and Aunt Trixie run off to last night?" I tried to keep my eyes on the book. I didn't want her knowing how badly I wanted to know.
Eleanor's eyes shifted to the floor. "What do you mean?" she asked, a little too lightly.
"Right after Campbell's death, you and Trixie disappeared. I couldn't find you anywhere."
Eleanor's cheeks turned bright pink.
"Oh, that," she said, checking the pound cake again. The sweet smell of peppermint wafted through the air, waking me up.
I could tell Eleanor was stalling but couldn't figure out why. If she and Trixie were onto something, why wouldn't they tell me? Unless... they had somehow been responsible for Campbell's death. But that was ridiculous. Wasn't it?
Trixie came through the door just then, her face red. "Sheriff Knoxx is out front," she said, looking frazzled. "He wants to talk to Ava." She was dressed all in pink and it only made her face look that much redder.
Eleanor's fists curled at her side. The silver bangles she wore clinked together. "Will that man ever leave us alone? Sometimes his goblin really comes out. In the most unpleasant ways."
I blinked. "Did you just say Sheriff Knoxx is a goblin?"
"Only part goblin," Trixie corrected. "I think an eighth or so." She looked to Eleanor for confirmation.
"Yes, his mother was a true witch, but his father's side... they have a questionable lineage. Not that goblins are all bad, you understand. They're very intelligent. They just happen to have very bad manners."
Trixie looked through the porthole-style window in the door. "He's snooping arou
nd out there," she said. "And he's drooling over our peanut butter dream bars like he hasn't eaten in a week. We'd better get out there."
I reluctantly rose from the table. Tootsie jumped onto the floor and went to find a corner to curl up in. Rocky stayed where he was.
I stuck a bookmark in Magical Herbs and Plants to save my spot, and something caught my eye. The page I was on had a vivid illustration of a plant with fuzzy purple stems and white pearl-looking things hanging from it. Boxie Quills. It was the same plant I'd seen Brendan twirling in his hand last night at the party. It was also the same plant Eleanor had grabbed from me and locked in a box my first morning at the bakery.
At the top of the page, just above the illustration, the word DANGER was printed in giant red letters. Just beneath it in italics was a warning: Poisonous. Keep out of reach of children, humans, and dim-witches.
A million questions exploded in my brain at once. What was Brendan doing with a poisonous plant? What were Trixie and Eleanor doing with it here at the bakery? Before I could read just how and why it was so dangerous, Trixie grabbed my arm and yanked me away from the book.
"Come on," she said, dragging me out front.
Sheriff Knoxx greeted me coldly, as usual.
"Ava, I have some follow-up questions for you."
He held up Lucy's wand.
"I suspect you know what I'm going to ask you."
I bit my lip and tried to keep a steady gaze. I'd tried going by Coffee Cove early this morning to apologize to Lucy, but once I'd gotten there, I'd chickened out. What if she wouldn't accept my apology?
Sheriff Knoxx was staring at me hard.
"Er..." I squeaked.
"You know that wands have to be registered, don't you?" Sheriff Knoxx asked. "And that the magic worked with them leaves an imprint? In the human world, it's equivalent to guns and ballistics reports. There's no way you can hide this."