“Go!” Aunt Francine told me, and I jumped into action. For a split second, anyway, until I realized I was going to have to get on my broom.
I very quickly decided that riding a broom was going to be bad enough, I certainly wasn’t going to do it while being invisible. It was after midnight now, and there was no one around. The only people nearby would be the thieves in their van, and they had bigger problems to deal with than looking at me. I pointed my finger at myself and a split second later I could see myself again. I slipped the broom between my legs, took a deep breath, thought about Cat, and pulled up.
Every instinct in my body told me to close my eyes as I shot toward the sky at what felt like a million miles an hour. I resisted the temptation, however, knowing that I’d almost certainly lose my balance the instant I did so. My eyes watered as wind flew into them, and as soon as I was about fifty feet above the tallest roof in the neighborhood, I pushed down on the end of the broom slightly, just to level myself out.
I was absolutely terrified, but I also knew Cat needed help. No matter how much I wanted to go back down to earth, no matter how much I wanted to be on solid ground, my cousin was in trouble, and I couldn’t leave her. I wouldn’t leave her. She was counting on me.
Taking a deep breath, and doing my best not to look down, I leaned forward, urging the broom onwards. It began to dart to the south, toward Green Tree Road, my vice grip on the handle ensuring that no matter what I wasn’t about to accidentally fall off this broom and plummet to my death.
Not yet, anyway. I still hadn’t actually landed one of these things.
I forced that thought out of my brain as I looked ahead. I could see Emerald Estates to the south; luckily it was one of the smaller neighborhoods, and Green Tree Road a short road at the far end of the neighborhood.
Once I was definitely above Emerald Estates, I realized I was actually going to have to look down to find Cat, and to land this broom. I tightened my grip on the broom–it was a miracle the handle hadn’t snapped under the pressure yet–and forced my eyes downwards.
Bile instantly rose in my throat as I saw how high up I was, and how far I was going to have to go to get back onto the ground. I resisted the urge to vomit all over the forest–I didn’t think the squirrels would appreciate that addition to their home–and took a deep breath.
At the far end, about three hundred feet from where I was currently floating, there rose an eerie mist. That had to be it. That was the first sign of The Others, a cold feeling and a bit of a mist. As I flew closer toward it I felt goosebumps developing on my skin, and I knew I was right.
My blood turned to ice as I looked down and saw not one, but three of The Others. They were in a triangular form, and all slowly walking toward Cat, who had been trying to get away from them. I could see her pointing, trying to use her magic–we had found out that light and fire were what they were weakest against–but it was too much. Their power was overwhelming my cousin, who was no longer able to use her magic, and they were only about thirty feet away from her. I had to do something.
And I knew that meant I had to take a hand off the broom handle.
“You owe me so many cupcakes for this,” I thought to Cat as I forced my hand off the broom handle, pictured exactly what I wanted to have happen, and pointed.
Energy exploded from my hand, so forcefully that it shot me backwards, making me lose my balance on the broom. I let out a squeal and grabbed it again with both hands, but I was now hanging from the broom, my legs dangling over the nothingness below.
Still, I knew that despite certain death if I let go right now, Cat was facing a far worse fate. I looked down and saw my spell had worked better than I could have imagined. A wall of fire at least thirty feet tall had appeared in a circle around Cat, stopping The Others in their tracks. It roared in anger, the flames lapping the night sky, like a towering inferno. I looked up at the broom and pulled it down toward me, then swung my legs back over until I was safely back on it.
As safely as one could be while still being a hundred feet off the ground and sitting on a household cleaning implement, anyway.
The wall of fire was doing its job; The Others were standing back from it, but they weren’t giving up. I could see they were going to try to push through and get to Cat anyway. I took a deep breath and pushed down on the broom handle, sending the broom–and me–plummeting toward the ground.
There was no way Cat and I were going to be able to completely beat three of them. I just had to make sure we got out of there, fast. I aimed the broom handle directly toward Cat, resisting the urge to scream as everything around me blurred from the speed, and I focused. I was one hundred percent looking at my cousin. I ignored the flames on all sides of her, though I was careful to keep the broom away from them. If we lost the broom, we’d definitely be in trouble. As I got closer and closer to The Others, energy built up inside of me, an energy I couldn’t control, and as I got closer to Cat, all of a sudden everything around me exploded in light. The last thing I saw was Cat’s face looking at me in surprise as I got close to her and leaned back as hard as I could, the broom coming to a stop more suddenly than I could have imagined, almost pitching me off the back of it.
“Get on!” I shouted, and Cat easily slipped onto the broom in front of me.
“Hold on!” she shouted as I grabbed her waist. She didn’t have to ask me twice. As Cat pulled up on the broom, I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my face into my cousin’s back as I let her lead the way. She was much better on the broom than I was anyway.
“Look!” Cat ordered as we flew up and away, but I just shook my head.
“Definitely not,” I replied, raising my voice to be heard over the sound of the wind.
“I think you killed them,” she said and I finally dared to open my eyes and look down. Sure enough, the wall of fire was still there, but where The Others had been there were now only three black lumps of fabric, a sure sign that they had been destroyed instead of just running away. More worryingly, for us, anyway, was that the fire I’d set was starting to draw attention from some of the locals. I pointed, hoping to make it smaller and more manageable for the fire department, but nothing happened. Apparently the burst of light which had probably killed The Others used up all of my energy.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said to Cat.
“Sure. I’m going to make us invisible again. Just hold on.”
Cat’s spell made absolutely no difference to me, as I’d already squeezed my eyes shut again.
“We need to go find the thieves again,” I said to Cat. “They were on Diamond Head Road.”
“Got it,” Cat said, and I felt the broom turn slightly as she led us not to the village, but just a little bit north of it. Our work for the night wasn’t quite finished just yet.
Chapter 17
“We’re going to land in a second, you might want to open your eyes now,” Cat said, and as I did so, I was relived to find that we were now slowly gliding along the road. At some point Cat must have reversed the invisibility spell, because I could see both of us, and Aunt Francine was floating about fifty feet in front of us, looking visibly relieved at seeing Cat alive and well.
As Cat leaned back and slowed the broom down to a stop, I gently placed my feet back down on the ground, and resisted the urge to bend over and kiss it. I had never been so happy to be on terra firma in my life. And I had to admit, Cat’s landing was incredibly smooth. I never would have managed that.
“Thank goodness you’re both all right,” Aunt Francine said, the relief on her face palpable.
“We’re fine,” I replied. “Where are the robbers?”
“They parked around the corner, out in one of the undeveloped lots. They’re fixing their tire now, but I don’t think it’s going to be too long before they’re finished.
“Let’s go,” Cat said, and we started walking down the street toward the corner.
“Are you ok?” I asked Cat, Aunt Francine walking along next to us. My cousin
nodded.
“Yeah. Thanks for coming. I hadn’t expected there to be three of them. They were so strong.” She shuddered. “I tried to use my magic, to make light, fire, anything. But there were too many of them. It was like nothing I tried worked. I’m glad you showed up when you did, I don’t know how much longer I would have been able to hold them off.”
As we passed under a streetlight, I noticed for the first time just how pale Cat’s face was. She was a lot more shaken up than she was letting on.
“We can go home and deal with these people another time if you want,” I offered, but Cat shook her head.
“No. I want to get the bastards who killed Sapphire Sam and took my bike.”
I nodded. “Good. Me too.”
As we turned the corner, Cat and I began to move more carefully. Aunt Francine zipped ahead with a speed I didn’t know a ghost had–did they have a limit as to how fast they could float, I wondered–and came back a moment later. “They’re still there. The empty lot four houses away on the right.”
Cat and I indicated that we’d heard, then slowly began creeping forward. As we approached the lot, I could hear the voices on the other side.
“Almost there, then we get out of here.”
“Do you hear those sirens?”
“Yeah, but they’re nowhere near here.”
“I hope not.”
In the distance I could hear the sirens as well, but I had a sneaking suspicion it was a fire truck heading to the other end of town.
“Got it,” the man said, and suddenly the woman, still wearing her mask, got up and turned the corner while carrying the old tire, and saw Cat and I. Her eyes widened.
“Get her!” I shouted to Cat, who darted forward.
“Run!” the woman shouted to the man as she dropped the tire and I sprinted as fast as I could toward the van. I heard the sound of metal clanging as the man dropped his tools, and as I turned the corner he was already running away from me, into the woods.
“Stop!” I shouted as I ran after the man into the forest. I pointed at my feet, trying to use magic to make myself go faster, but it was still no use. My magic still wasn’t working, and I quickly came to the depressing realization that a combination of eating far too many cupcakes and doing virtually no exercise didn’t lead to an entirely athletic body.
I eventually had to stop, panting as I rested my hands on my knees, desperately trying to take in as much air as possible while the sounds of the man running through the woods got further and further away. I had to admit it, I wasn’t going to be able to catch him without magic.
I wondered why on earth it hadn’t worked. I was spent from my efforts with Cat, I knew that. But could it really knock out my magic for that long?
Eventually I made my way back over to the van, hoping that Cat had been more successful than I was. As soon as I saw the woman tied up on the ground, glaring angrily at Cat who was threatening to stab her eye out if she didn’t tell her where her bike was straight away, I knew she’d been successful. To my surprise, however, the woman on the ground didn’t look a thing like Sally Wentworth. While Sally had shoulder length brown hair, this woman had long blonde hair tied back into a bun, and blue eyes.
“I’m going to call Chase,” I said to Cat.
“What happened to your guy?”
“It turns out a diet of cupcakes isn’t great for cardio,” I replied with a shrug, and Cat laughed.
“See? That’s why you need to learn how to ride a bike.”
I stuck my tongue out at my cousin as I dialled Chase’s number. When he answered there was a ton of noise in the background, including sirens. I assumed he was at the fire.
“Alice?” he answered.
“Hey. Yeah, it’s me. Listen, I’m with Cat and we’re at Diamond Head. We’ve caught some bike thieves, and need you to come and arrest them.”
“I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” I described to Chase exactly where we were, then hung up the phone, glad that he was on his way.
“What is wrong with you?” the woman shouted at Cat, who was still taunting her when I made my way back over there. She looked over at me. “Your friend here is crazy, you know that? I swear, she’s a witch.”
I laughed. “Yeah, sure, lady.”
“I’m serious! Where did she get this rope from? She just like, pointed at me, and all of a sudden I couldn’t move!”
“Of course, and I’m sure an alien is going to come right up and scoop you out of here,” I said, rolling my eyes. Cat grinned at me.
“I grabbed her wallet, it turns out her address is in a town about halfway to the city. I bet we’ll find my bike there.”
“I hope so.”
“And more importantly, I bet she killed Sapphire Sam.”
“Wait, what?” the woman yelped. “Killed who?”
“Sapphire Sam. You know, the guy who went around town trying to prevent crime.”
“No, no, no. Wait. I had nothing to do with that.”
“And why should we believe you?” I asked.
“When was he killed?”
“Sunday night.”
The woman looked so relieved I thought she was going to cry. “Look, take my phone out of my back pocket.” Cat went over to her and did as she asked. “The code to unlock it is just 1-2-3-4-5-6. Look through my pictures. On Sunday, I was down in San Francisco, visiting my sister. I didn’t come back until Monday night. There’s lots of pictures there. Or you can look at my Instagram, I posted a couple times there, too.”
Cat looked through the pictures and then passed them over to me. Sure enough, they were dated to that Sunday, and right around when Sapphire Sam was being strangled to death, this woman was taking selfies with the Golden Gate bridge lit up behind her.
I passed the phone back over to Cat just as Chase’s car pulled up to where we were. He got out of the car, his shirt soaked with water.
“What happened to you?” I asked, knowing the answer. But, seeing as Cat and I were here and definitely not supposed to have been near the fire, I pretended not to know what was going on.
“Fire down in Emerald. It’s under control now. I have no idea how it got so big so quickly, it rained only a few days ago; I would have thought there would have been enough moisture in the trees to hold it back, but I guess not.”
“You never know these days,” Cat replied. “Is everyone ok?”
“Yeah, it’s not a house, just an empty lot. My guess is some kids decided to have some fun and it got a bit out of hand. What have you got here?”
I motioned to the woman. “This woman stole a bike from a house around the corner. Their tire went flat though, so Cat and I followed them here. He got away, but she didn’t.”
The woman looked terrified now. “Look. I know that the girls think I killed that Sapphire Sam guy. I didn’t. I swear. That one there has my phone, it shows I was in San Francisco at the time.”
Chase looked over at me, and I nodded. He sighed. “Who was your partner?”
“I’m not telling you that.”
“Was he in San Francisco with you?”
The woman laughed dryly. “No. I was visiting family, we’re just in business together.”
“So you admit that you stole the bikes.”
The woman shrugged. “Might as well. I know the game, I know when I’m caught. I also know I’m not going to tell you anything else without my lawyer, because I know stuff you’re going to want to know.”
Chase sighed. “Fine. For now, you’re under arrest for theft. You have the right to remain silent.”
My mind wandered off as Chase read the woman her Miranda rights and then piled her into the back of his car. When he was done, he came over to see us.
“Do you two mind if I wait until the morning to take your statements? It sounds like it’s going to be a long night.”
“No problem,” I replied. “You know where to find us.”
Chase nodded. “So all those warnings about staying away from criminals?” he as
ked me, and I shrugged.
“I thought they were just suggestions.”
“You should have called me.”
“I should have. Sorry.”
“You checked out the phone?”
“She was definitely in San Francisco at the time,” Cat replied. “She took tons of pictures.”
“She could have just changed the time on her phone to give herself an alibi,” Chase suggested, but I shook my head.
“I don’t think so. She was genuinely terrified when we suggested she may have had something to do with a murder.”
“So we’re still back at square one.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I wish I’d managed to catch the guy. Something about him seemed familiar. Maybe his voice? But I can’t place it.”
“Are you sure you don’t remember?” Chase asked, and I shook my head.
“No, I definitely don’t. Sorry.” My brain felt muddled and groggy, I assumed from the magic I’d used to save Cat. Maybe it would come back to me.
“That’s fine,” he said. “Why don’t you head on home? I’ll process her, then come take the bikes.”
“If you find out where she’s keeping them, let me know if you find mine,” Cat said.
“Will do,” Chase replied. “I’ll come see the two of you in the morning.”
“Thanks, Chase,” I said to him as Cat and I headed back down the road.
“Well, that didn’t go too badly,” Aunt Francine said as she floated back toward us as soon as we were out of earshot.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Sorry I didn’t catch the guy. My magic didn’t work for some reason.”
Cat nodded. “That’s because of the light you made that killed The Others,” she said.
“Wait, that light… that was me?”
“Of course it was you. Didn’t you do it on purpose?” my cousin asked, tilting her head toward me, and I shook my head.
“No. I mean, I felt the energy inside me, like when I normally do magic, but it was like I couldn’t control it. I wasn’t actually sure that the light was me. I thought I’d used up all of my energy to make the wall of fire.”
Death Quixote (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Magical Bookshop Mystery Book 4) Page 10