To Love a Witch

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Are we going to break in?” Thistle asked, struggling to keep up with me. Her legs were shorter, and usually it took her a good fifteen minutes to fully wake up. Right now, though, she was alert and ready.

  “Probably,” I replied grimly, looking up at the second-story windows for movement. There was nothing. “We have to go in.” I looked over my shoulder, searching for Landon. He was almost directly on top of me.

  “We do,” he agreed. “I have probable cause. You guys should wait here.”

  That wasn’t going to happen. “We need to stick together,” I insisted. “You’re not going in there without us.”

  “She’s right,” Thistle said. “You need us to watch your back.”

  Landon didn’t look convinced but he relented. “Okay, but I’m in charge. Do what I say.”

  “Oh, you’ve been waiting for this moment since you met us, haven’t you?” Aunt Tillie chortled. “This must be an exciting day for you.”

  Landon ignored her and tried the door handle. It was locked. He raised his foot to kick it in, but I stopped him by extending a hand.

  “There’s no reason to destroy it,” I said. “Just ... let me.” I whispered a spell and the door slowly opened.

  “You’re feeling pretty good about yourself, aren’t you?” Landon shook his head but there was a slight curve to his lips. “Be quiet,” he instructed as we stepped into the house. “I’m not sure what we’re dealing with here, but I can’t believe it’s good given the hour.”

  I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

  Once inside, Landon cocked his head and listened to the sounds of the house. It was quiet — eerily so. He seemed to be debating which direction to go when something whispered in the back of my brain.

  “This way.” I headed for the stairs, not even looking over my shoulder to see if the others followed.

  “Bay,” Landon growled, giving chase. “You can’t just wander around the house without invitation. Besides, I said I was in charge. That means ... .” Whatever he was going to say died on his lips as we hit the top of the stairs.

  There, things happened rapidly. It was difficult to wrap my head around what I was seeing.

  Valerie’s ghost floated in the middle of the hallway, her eyes glowing red. When she turned to face me, the hatred flowing through the room caused my stomach to shrivel.

  “Is that a body?” Thistle asked from somewhere behind me.

  “Heather Castle,” Landon said grimly. “She owns the house.” He moved to step closer to the body, and that’s when I realized he didn’t understand the danger was still present. He couldn’t see Valerie’s ghost. Even if he could feel the chill, his instincts would take over and he’d want to check on the woman to see if she was still alive.

  “No!” I blocked him before he could cross the threshold. I was desperate to keep the others safe even as I wanted to determine what had happened. “Why did you do this, Valerie?”

  “Is there a ghost here?” Thistle asked suddenly, freezing.

  “It’s more than a ghost,” Aunt Tillie offered. “It’s ... something more.”

  The wind in the room picked up. I kept my eyes on Valerie rather than letting the rattling picture frames hanging on the walls serve as a distraction. “What did you do to her?” I asked. “Is she still alive?”

  Valerie’s eyes flashed brighter. She was completely consumed by ... something. I didn’t even know what to call it. I’d never seen a phenomenon like this, and fear pervaded my heart as I tried to gain control of my emotions.

  “You don’t belong here,” Valerie intoned.

  “We heard her screaming from across the lake. We had to come and see.”

  Valerie shook her head. “You don’t belong here.” She was firm. “I don’t belong here either. This was supposed to be my life — but she took it.”

  “But she didn’t,” I argued. “She might’ve taken Eric, but this life was never meant to be yours.” I was uncomfortable with the way she looked at me, but I couldn’t stand around doing nothing. If Heather was still alive, she needed help. There was no time to waste. “I’m going to move closer.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Landon hissed, his lips close to my ear. “I can’t see that ghost, Bay, but I can feel her. It’s not a good feeling.”

  “We have to check on Heather.” I took a long stride forward. “Just let me check on her.”

  Valerie watched me with curious eyes as I tentatively crossed the room. I thought she would allow me to help the prone figure — right up until the last second. When I reached out to check for Heather’s pulse, Valerie grew enraged.

  “I said no!”

  A wall of ghostly energy smacked into me as the irate specter lost her grip on reality and attacked. Instinctively, I lashed out with my necromancer powers. I intended to shred the spirit even though that was always the choice of last resort as far as I was concerned. She surprised me enough to make it necessary, but it failed. She continued forward, the magic glancing off her as my eyes widened.

  She hit me hard, dark magic pulsating from her, and I found myself flying back toward the stairs. I thought I would tumble to my death, images of my neck snapping as I fell end over end flooding my mind, but a pair of strong arms caught me before I could fall.

  “I’ve got you,” Landon grunted, his arms encircling me. “You’re okay.”

  For the moment, that was true. Valerie’s rage grew more pronounced when she realized I wasn’t about to fall victim to her power.

  “You don’t belong here,” she bellowed, the room reverberating as her anger took shape. “This was supposed to be mine. I’m taking it back.”

  Her magic was so great that the skylight above us shattered when she screeched again, shards of glass cascading down upon us.

  Aunt Tillie was the first to react this time. She sent up a wall of magic to collide with the glass, causing it to fly in thousands of directions rather than rain down on us.

  My breath came in ragged gasps as Landon held me tight and protected my face.

  “What was that?” he asked when he finally found his voice.

  That was a very good question.

  Thirteen

  Chief Terry was furious when he arrived at Heather’s house.

  “Do I even want to know what happened here?” he demanded as he took in our faces. His hair was a mess, making me think he’d been woken from sleep, and I couldn’t help but wonder if my mother had been running her fingers through it as they ... completely tainted my dreams for the rest of my life.

  “We were at the camp,” Landon volunteered. He’d insisted I sit and collect myself before trying to walk down the stairs. I was convinced it was an elaborate plot to keep me close so he wouldn’t have to worry about me, but I was too tired to argue any point, let alone that one. “We heard screaming and came to check it out.”

  “You drove?” Chief Terry’s forehead wrinkled. “I didn’t see any vehicles outside.”

  Landon hesitated. “We came by canoe.”

  “You responded to a scream across the lake by canoe?”

  “Aunt Tillie made it go so fast,” Thistle offered from the spot on my right. “We were here within five minutes.”

  “Oh, well, that will be fun to explain to the medical examiner,” Chief Terry barked. “Why can’t you guys ever have an outing that doesn’t end in us having to come up with an elaborate lie? Is that too much to ask?”

  “Apparently so,” Aunt Tillie replied as she studied the art on the wall. She seemed unbothered by the body on the floor, but the look she shot me was full of curiosity — and a bit of concern. “How are you feeling, Bay?”

  The question caught me off guard. “I’m fine.” I forced a tight-lipped smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’m okay.”

  The shift in subjects threw Chief Terry. “What happened to Bay?” He moved in my direction, concern lining his features. “Are you sick, sweetheart?”

  “Oh, now you care,” Thistle muttered, earning a grin from
me.

  “I cared,” Chief Terry argued, hunkering down in front of me. “Why are you so pale? Did something happen?”

  Landon, who flanked me, ran his hand down the back of my head. “I can’t say I’m sure what happened.”

  “She was attacked by a ghost,” Thistle offered helpfully.

  “A ghost?” Chief Terry made a face. “I don’t want to hear that. Ghost stories give me indigestion.”

  “It wasn’t just a ghost,” I argued, my mind rushing back to Valerie. “She was ... different.”

  “It’s a female ghost?”

  “Valerie Lennox,” Landon volunteered. “Bay saw her when we were out here yesterday, tried to talk to her. When we arrived tonight, apparently Valerie was hovering over Heather’s body. Bay tried to talk her down, but it didn’t go well. Valerie did ... something ... and basically threw Bay down the stairs.”

  Chief Terry straightened, all signs of weariness vanishing from his well-worn features. “She was thrown down the stairs? Why aren’t we taking her to the hospital? That’s a long drop. She could have internal injuries.”

  “I didn’t get thrown down the stairs,” I argued. “She tried, but I never made it that far. Landon caught me. I’m fine.”

  Chief Terry looked to Landon for confirmation.

  Landon nodded. “She didn’t hit the ground,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I’m not worried. I just ... I thought you were supposed to be able to control ghosts, Bay. I don’t want to call your powers into question, but it didn’t seem you had control of anything.”

  I scowled at him. “What a weird way to kick me when I’m down.”

  “I’ll make him smell like cookies tomorrow,” Aunt Tillie offered. “But oatmeal raisin so he won’t benefit from it. That should be good payback.”

  Landon shot her a look. “Oh, no. It’s too late for that. You could’ve made me smell like chocolate chip cookies three hours ago, when it benefitted me, but you’ve lost your chance.”

  Aunt Tillie snorted. “We’ll see about that.”

  “We will,” he agreed, firm. His eyes came back to me. “Do you know what happened? Is Valerie a poltergeist, like Floyd?”

  I held out my hands, unsure. “She’s stronger than a normal ghost,” I replied finally, searching for the right words. “She’s different. She could affect her surroundings without expending much effort, and there was ... evil ... in her. I don’t know how to explain it.”

  Landon switched his attention to Aunt Tillie. “You must know what happened.”

  “Why would I know?” Aunt Tillie shot back.

  “How many times have you told me you know everything?”

  “Well, that’s true.” She flashed a smile but it didn’t make it all the way to her eyes. “I don’t know what it was. It was hard to see from my spot on the stairs. I had a big, beefy FBI agent in front of me, which made it difficult to figure out what was happening. I thought I saw at least one thing of interest, though.”

  “The red eyes?” I prodded.

  Aunt Tillie nodded. “Yeah. I’ve never seen that before. There was something else fueling her. Bay is right, she’s more than a poltergeist. And the fact that Bay couldn’t control her ... well, that makes me think we’re dealing with something else entirely.”

  “Oh, well, that’s always what I want to hear in the middle of the night,” Thistle said. “There’s nothing better than a new monster to fight. What’s to stop this thing from popping into houses all over town and killing people for the fun of it?”

  “Nothing,” I answered. “The thing is, it still had Valerie’s memories. It seemed propelled to act because of her feelings. I thought I saw Valerie watching us from across the lake earlier. I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t say anything, but she looked normal a few hours ago.”

  “You said that she was acting weird at the house earlier,” Landon said. “You were convinced something was going on with her.”

  “She didn’t know she was dead. That’s not uncommon.”

  “But you said you sensed something different about her.” Landon refused to let up. “Don’t second-guess yourself now. Something clearly happened, and I want to figure out what it is before we run into this ghost again.”

  “What could it be?” Chief Terry asked, his eyes moving back to the body on the floor. “Do we know what killed Heather?”

  “Her neck is broken,” Landon replied. “That’s pretty obvious. I didn’t know ghosts could do things like that — but it seems that’s what we’re dealing with. It’s a murderous ghost.”

  “Or enhanced poltergeist,” Thistle argued.

  Landon pinned her with a look. “Same thing.”

  “Not even close,” Aunt Tillie said. “It doesn’t matter. This ... thing ... is definitely different from the other ghosts we’re used to going up against. It had a lot of power. Given the fact that Valerie has been dead for two weeks at the most, she’s either lying about not realizing she was dead or something else is fueling her.”

  “And what could that be?” Chief Terry asked.

  Aunt Tillie shrugged. “I have no idea, but we’d better figure it out. If we don’t, someone could get killed during our next meeting of the minds.”

  Landon’s eyes flashed with fear as he turned back to me. “Is there a way for you to gain control of her? I ... I know you were caught off guard this time, but you’re a necromancer. I thought you were more powerful.”

  “I am more powerful,” I supplied, wearily rubbing my forehead. “But I’m not omnipotent. Nobody is.”

  Aunt Tillie raised her hand and cleared her throat. I didn’t give her a chance to speak because nobody was in the mood for that particular diatribe.

  “You’re not omnipotent,” I argued, shaking my head when she looked as if she was about to argue the point. “Nothing is. No one. This magic is still new to me, but I tried exerting power over her. It was a reflex, to protect myself. It didn’t work. Not even a little.

  “It wasn’t that I briefly gained control and she shook me off,” I continued. “I never had control. She didn’t have to listen to me, which means I’ve either lost my necromancer powers — which doesn’t seem likely — or we’re dealing with something else entirely.”

  “Well, great.” Landon’s expression was sour. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to know we’ve got some new, fresh horror killing off people to deal with. That fills me with such joy.”

  Aunt Tillie rolled her eyes. “Suck it up. This is the life you chose when you took us on.”

  Landon blew out a sigh and then leaned over to press a kiss to my forehead. “You guys need to get back to the camp. Chief Terry and I will take it from here. In the morning, go straight to the inn for breakfast. We’ll meet you there.”

  My heart dropped. “You think you’ll be here all night?”

  He nodded, grim. “We have to explain this somehow.”

  I hadn’t considered that. “I’m sorry.”

  “You didn’t cause this, Bay. You have nothing to be sorry about.”

  The words made sense, but things still felt off. I might not have been to blame, but I couldn’t help thinking I’d missed something.

  “YOU GUYS LOOK TIRED,” MOM announced when Thistle, Marcus, Aunt Tillie and I filed into the dining room the next morning. We’d stayed at the camp, watching the house across the lake for signs of movement, until Hazel returned with the sun to take over Dani duty.

  For her part, the young teenager seemed annoyed that we’d gone on an adventure without her. She complained bitterly as we made coffee and cleaned up our mess. She was angry — her emotions were close enough to the surface that I could feel them rippling — but she held it together when she realized we were too tired to put up with her crap. After that, she sat in her chair and glowered until Hazel returned. She didn’t even bother saying goodbye.

  “We had a long night,” Thistle said, immediately reaching for the coffee carafe as Twila pressed a hand to her daughter’s forehead. “I’m not sick. I’m just tired.�
�

  “And crabby,” Marcus added, sliding into his regular seat.

  I was morose as I took my spot, flanked by empty chairs because Landon and Chief Terry hadn’t arrived. “Any news from them?” I asked, gesturing toward the chairs.

  Mom’s expression was hard to read as she shook her head. “No. I’m sure they’ll be here soon. Landon can smell bacon from ten miles away.”

  “The lake is farther than that.”

  “Terry didn’t say where he was going.” Mom’s furrowed brow made me uncomfortable enough that I refused to make eye contact with her. “He just said something happened and he probably wouldn’t be back. I didn’t realize it had anything to do with you guys.”

  “Yes, he was thrilled when he found out,” Thistle drawled.

  “We still don’t know what happened,” Marnie reminded us. “Was it bad?”

  I heaved out a sigh and rubbed my forehead. “You could say that.” I launched into the tale, leaving nothing out. When I got to the part about Valerie’s ghost attacking me, my mother sucked in a breath and immediately looked at Aunt Tillie.

  “I thought that wasn’t possible,” she challenged, unable to hide her annoyance. “You said Bay could control ghosts now and it would make her more powerful than the rest of us combined.”

  That was interesting. Aunt Tillie had never said anything of the sort to me. “What?”

  Aunt Tillie kept her focus on Mom. “I said that in secret. Secret!” Her eyes flashed with annoyance. “You can’t say things like that in front of her. Now she’ll get a big head. We already have this one pretending she’s queen of Hemlock Cove.” She jerked her thumb toward Thistle. “We don’t need to add an overblown Bay ego to the mix.”

  I was offended. “Hey!” At least I thought I was. “I just don’t understand. How is being a necromancer going to make me more powerful than you?”

  Aunt Tillie’s eyes narrowed. “Nobody is more powerful than me! I’m the queen and you’re all my subjects.”