Shadow Witch (Torrent Witches Cozy Mysteries Book 6)

by Tess Lake

  I took a sip of my coffee and looked back at my laptop, but I just couldn’t bring myself to watch another recording just yet, so I turned back to Juliet’s journal and read another page of rather mundane things. I turned a page, expecting it to be filled, of course, with notes about eggs and hops and other such things, but instead of that, there was a heading written at the top in bold strokes:

  “We are on the hunt.”

  I’d flicked back and forth through Juliet’s journal multiple times, and I was very sure I’d never seen this page. It occurred to me that perhaps I should take a witch’s journal more seriously. I hunched forward in my seat and touched my finger to the writing, which actually did make it easier to follow along and interpret, and as I did a shock rushed up my arm and then I was reeling, the world spinning for a moment before suddenly I was on horseback.

  I was on a white horse, galloping down a dark road in the moonlight. Ahead of me was Juliet, wearing a long flowing gown. I was wearing one too, a ridiculous sort of outfit definitely not suitable for hunting witches gone bad. We’d been forced to wear them, a costume to sneak into the governor’s ball on our path to track down the shadow witch.

  I had a brief moment of thought of separation as I, Harlow Torrent, realized I was following along inside someone else, the other Torrent, my ancestor. I pulled back for an instant, almost as though I’d suddenly stuck my head up and looked around, but then the magic contained within the pages pulled me back in. The scene had jumped ahead, and we were gathered outside an old farmhouse and tiny barn. Both of us could feel the magic inside the barn. It had a rotting taste of spoiled meat.

  “This is our last chance,” Juliet said to me.

  “No, it is her last night alive,” I said back. We discarded our ridiculous dresses and were dressed in leather pants and loose shirts, much better for fighting and casting spells. Juliet had the charm—we’d only had time to make one. As we approached the barn, we saw around the side of it the carriage stolen from the governor’s mansion. The horses that had pulled it were slain, their throats cut open, the shadow witch pulling the life out of them for her own purposes. There was no point in secrecy. She knew that we were here, for we’d been tracking her for six months, coming ever closer as she sought a new body to slip into. But we still had to be wary of traps, for the witch was powerful. Juliet kicked the barn door open, the magic aiding her, and it splintered into pieces, revealing a hideous sight. There were two circles interlinked. In the left one was my teenage daughter Rosetta. Her nose was bleeding and she was flailing her hands against the invisible walls of the circle that contained her.

  “Stop moving, my love,” I called out to her.

  In the one to the right was Juliet’s daughter Zelda. She wasn’t flailing her arms but standing there, glaring with hatred at the old woman who stood at the rear of the two circles. The body of the old woman was called Violetta, but behind the eyes was the shadow witch. We’d not uncovered her name—it had been lost to time. But finally we’d found her. We took two steps before being flung off our feet by a wave of magic. I hit the horse gate on one side, and Juliet was flung against the wall, dropping the charm in the process. The witch had used the life force of the horses to set a trap for us.

  The old woman stepped into the circle, the body falling away and her true form being revealed. It was then we both sensed it as we tried to struggle to our feet, but there under the floor was the true body of the shadow witch from the last time she’d accomplished this ritual. Time moved too slowly, we were not fast enough. Not even for two mothers frantic to save their daughters. The shadow witch drew life out of mine, bringing her to the brink of death, and then used that to propel herself into Juliet’s daughter, Zelda, knocking her spirit out of her. For a moment there was a ghostly figure of Zelda standing in the circle, trapped there with nowhere to go. She turned to us with pain and shock in her eyes and tried to run back to her body, but the shadow witch had taken it, stepping out of the circle. I saw my own daughter collapse to the ground, and then another wave of magic hit us slowing us further.

  We watched in agony as Zelda flew madly in the invisible cage like a trapped bird, her life force fading away until she broke to pieces. The spell broke then too, and we ended up on the ground, Juliet screaming a raw note of pain and loss. I crawled over to my own daughter. She was cold but still breathing. The shadow witch had completed her ritual and had escaped. Juliet pulled herself up off the ground and retrieved the charm.

  “We must leave a message for when she returns,” Juliet said, her voice dark. I looked at her and saw her aura, normally light gold, was streaking black as though ink had been poured into it.

  “We must leave a weapon,” I said back to her and then stood up to pull her into my embrace. Juliet sobbed into me, her heart breaking. Her daughter was dead and her body stolen.

  I was abruptly back, the laptop sitting in front of me, my coffee sitting to the side, cold. I lifted the journal and felt something heavy slip between the pages. It fell out into my palm. A small silver locket on a chain. It was the charm that Juliet had carried, the weapon sent through time. I pulled myself up, unsteady, hitting my hand against my laptop and accidentally starting another video playing. I didn’t know how long I’d been gone, but Adams was nowhere to be seen.

  I was shaking, taking deep breaths and staring at the laptop screen when the figure I saw walking along resolved itself into Hilda. She was moving through the forest, carrying a bag full of what I knew were spell ingredients from Mr. McGregor’s Herbology. For some reason Coldwell had set up a camera pointed out into the forest. Off to the side, I saw the garden shed where Mr. Sharp had taken me. Hilda walked down a slope to where there were some large open drains that led to some tunnels and disappeared inside.

  My phone rang and I screamed in shock. The world was spinning, and I was still trying to digest what I’d just experienced. I could feel my ancestor’s deep and abiding grief. Somewhere running beneath it was a sense of shameful relief that my daughter had lived.

  It was Aunt Cass calling. Without thinking, I put the charm in my pocket and answered the phone.

  She was gleeful, not even saying hello.

  “I got through the magic on that video of that old woman stealing the files. It was Osterman, the one who goes walking with the dog. This thing has been using her body! And guess where she lives, where she just moved a few months ago? The Sunny Days Manor. The witch has to be there!”

  “I just found a video of Hilda going into the tunnels out in back of the property,” I managed to say. It felt as though my chest was constricted and I was too shocked to say anything.

  “Gather everyone, I’m coming home. Wait, I have another call,” Aunt Cass said. Suddenly I was listening to cheesy hold music. I heard the slam of a car door, and then the front door of the mansion opened and there was Jack holding two takeout cups of coffee, branded with Magic Bean.

  “Better hope Molly and Luce don’t see that,” I said weakly, the joke slipping out for some reason. He didn’t say anything but walked over and passed me the coffee. It was a relief seeing him, the mere presence of him beginning to calm me. The shadow witch, she was in the tunnels under Sunny Days Manor. But once Aunt Cass and the rest of the family arrived, we would go to confront her, and we had the weapon given to us from the past. I took a gulp of the coffee, slightly burning my tongue, and then winced at the bitter taste. Although Magic Bean had the same model of coffeemaker Molly and Luce had, on this occasion they must’ve burnt the roast.

  “I think we know where Hilda went,” I said to Jack. He nodded and then for some reason jerked his hand, splashing hot coffee on himself. I frowned and then noticed he was gritting his teeth.

  The cheesy music in my ears abruptly cut off.

  “Kira is gone! She was taken. Harlow, is Jack there?” Aunt Cass yelled down the line.

  “He’s here,” I said, or at least I think I did. The burnt taste in my mouth had turned bitter and my tongue was numb. I saw Jack shake a
gain. A tremor went through his whole body, and as the numbness spread down my throat into my limbs, I looked up into his eyes and saw it wasn’t Jack at all. It was her.

  The shadow witch.

  Chapter 24

  I awoke in what appeared to be a utility room somewhere underground. Where there had once been concrete, though, there was now only dirt. I stirred and sat up, and then felt a tremendous pain in my heart as I saw a scene that was all too horribly familiar. I was in a circle inscribed and connected to another, surrounded and joined by the third. Flailing her arms against an invisible barrier, silently screaming, was Kira. Jack was standing outside the circle, or at least his body was, but the eyes watching me were not his. Against the back wall, Hilda was slumped unconscious.

  I stood up, the lethargy of the drug vanishing. But before I could say a word, I felt her magic clamp down over me and I tasted that rotting meat. I’d reached for the charm in my pocket but hadn’t been able to get my hand to it in time. So there I stood, frozen, my fingertips an inch away from it. The shadow witch tilted Jack’s head and then smiled at me.

  “Stern and Torrent, just like the old days,” she said through his mouth. She shuddered then, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth. Jack’s entire body began shaking as though he was having a seizure standing up. When it finally passed, the shadow witch walked him over to the wall, pulled out some handcuffs from his pocket, and then handcuffed Jack’s wrist to a thick pipe.

  She shuddered again, and for a moment I saw Jack fighting her.

  “Get out,” I heard Jack say. He shook again, and then suddenly a light ghostly figure was flung out of his body. It zipped across the room and into Hilda. The shadow witch stood her up and walked around the far side of the circle, careful to keep away from Jack. For a moment Jack stood, still shaking, and then he looked up at the shadow witch.

  “Let her go,” he roared and heaved at the handcuff. Jack was pulling at the pipe, jerking his arm against it with all his might. He put his feet up against the wall and heaved again, and the pipe, solid and old, moved an inch, flakes of rust drifting down.

  “Stop him, or I will kill him,” the shadow witch said to me through Hilda’s body. I felt her hold over me weaken as she let me go slightly so I could speak. That feeling of paralysis ran down away from my face.

  “I’ll kill you,” Jack roared again and pulled the pipe. It was creaking now, and it wouldn’t be long before he ripped it out of the wall.

  “Jack,” I said. I could move my face again, finally speak, and I was beginning to gain control over my arm, managing to slowly push my hand into my pocket. Jack stopped and turned to face me. Blood was running down his hand where he’d cut himself against the handcuff. His eyes were wild with fury.

  “Harlow,” he said, his voice breaking.

  “Stop moving, my love,” I said, feeling echoes of my ancestor talking to her daughter.

  “I can’t lose you,” Jack said, desperation shaking his body.

  “You two will be fine, and if you stop moving you will live to see the end of this and many days thereafter. It is her body I am taking, and you may live with the knowledge that yet again, a Stern and a Torrent failed to stop me,” the shadow witch said.

  The control of the shadow witch was beginning to creep back, but I almost had my fingers on the charm.

  “Trust me,” I said to Jack.

  He stopped pulling on the handcuff and stood still.

  “I do,” he said.

  Kira had gone still in her circle. She was terrified, her eyes red from crying, but she was resolute. She looked the image of Rosetta, Juliet’s daughter. I realized that just like last time, that meant that somewhere under the dirt floor was the shadow witch’s body, likely Rosetta’s. The shadow witch walked around the back of the circle again. My face froze as her control returned, but I managed to touch the tip of my finger to the charm. A soft voice spoke in my ear. It was her, the unnamed Torrent.

  “You must wait until she has left the body and then open the charm and drop it to the lines on the ground. You will only have but a breath to escape the circles, and you must take her victim with you.”

  The locket grew hot against my finger, and then suddenly I had control over myself again, the shadow witch’s power pushed away by the magic of the deep past. I recognized it. It was a mixture of Torrent and Stern. Just like in the vision of the past, the shadow witch walked the body towards the back of the circle. As she hit the line, the body dropped away, Hilda’s unconscious form crumpling to the ground, and then there was a ghostly figure made of light, revealing the shadow witch’s true form.

  She was a small woman with dark hair and birdlike features. Her fingers were slender and delicate, and she looked so slight you’d think a puff of wind would take her away. Her normality was shocking. As she shed her flesh, I caught echoes of the magic spread over centuries of witches captured, their spirits knocked free so the shadow witch could take their bodies, of a yearning desire never to pass on, never to confront death, never to account for what she’d done.

  “Now,” a voice whispered in my ear. I pulled the charm out of my pocket and flicked it open, catching a glimpse of two faces. One I saw was Juliet, but I couldn’t see the other because the moment I opened the locket, the magic began to pour out and I dropped it to the ground. It landed on the line inscribed in the dirt. A color flowed out of the locket, gold streaked with black, encircling me, streaking around the outside of the circle and then surrounding Kira.

  The shadow witch turned towards me, suddenly furious, her features turning hideous as her true nature broke through. I took two steps, passing so close by her that I brushed against her spirit, feeling the power of it. I broke through Kira’s circle, tackling her, and we fell out the far side of the circle. As we crashed to the ground, I felt the touch of sharp fingers scrabble at my ankle, the shadow witch lunging for me, but it was too late and we were free. I pulled Kira up off the ground. She was breathing quickly and radiating with fury, directed at the shadow witch.

  “What is that thing?” she said in a shaky voice.

  “It’s the shadow witch,” I said.

  I staggered over to Jack, intent on opening his handcuff, but as soon as I came within arm’s reach of him, he pulled me against his body in an embrace that almost squeezed the life out of me. Behind us, the shadow witch was crashing against the walls of her cage, a frantic bird. She was howling, the noise making the room shake. But it faded in intensity as her life force, preserved over all these centuries, finally faded away. The shadow witch flung herself one last time against the barrier as the magic around us roared. I felt a pulling sensation like a whirlpool in a deep cold ocean. I couldn’t see it, but what was left of the shadow witch was pulled away, and wherever she was going it wasn’t good. When she vanished, the spell on the ground broke apart and the scent of rotting meat evaporated.

  Kira went over to help Hilda, who was slowly stirring, and Jack and I held each other tightly, both talking at once, an endless chaotic stream of promises. Somewhere in there I managed to cast an unlock spell and get the handcuff off Jack’s wrist. He’d cut himself practically down to the bone trying to free himself to save us from the shadow witch.

  “We’re safe now, my love,” I whispered to him, feeling the fading echoes of my ancestor.

  “I know,” Jack said, pulling me even tighter against him.

  Chapter 25

  The cake was dark and chocolaty and looked absolutely delicious. Eve placed it on the table and gave me a quick hug while I shoved the cards I’d been writing on into my pocket to hide it from her.

  “And so we just want to say thank you again and again and again,” she said.

  “I’m glad she’s okay,” I said.

  “Grandma is more than okay. Arlan is getting out of the hospital today and he’s going to propose to her, so I’ve actually got to go right now for that,” Eve said. She gave me another quick hug and then got in her car and drove downhill away from the mansion.


  I realized once again that I hadn’t asked her if Carter had been the one to refer her to me. I didn’t know what it meant if it turned out he had. Was he aware I was a witch? That was a thought sure to cause nightmares. Some things are probably best left unknown.

  A week had passed, every day and night pulling us further away from the underground room and the horror of the witch trying to steal a body. Once we’d recovered somewhat from that, we’d led Hilda out of the tunnels and into the grounds of Sunny Days Manor just in time to find my family and Sheriff Hardy come pelting through the bushes to find us. We couldn’t explain what had really happened, not with Hilda there, and as it was only Sheriff Hardy himself and none of his men, a quick decision was made to cover up precisely what had happened. So Jack with his injured wrist came with us, and Hilda went off to the hospital while Aunt Cass went underground with the moms to make sure the shadow witch was gone for good.

  Since that night, Jack and I hadn’t spent a single night apart, often holding each other in the dark, hearing the comforting sound of each other’s breath. Jack had refused any magical help in healing his wrist when he’d learned that it meant that we witches would take some of the injury ourselves, and although there had been quite a bit of debate amongst the family about just doing it anyway, in the end we’d decided to respect his wishes. So he was bandaged up, taking himself off to his renovation home to do work one-handed. He was only working part of the day, though, and it wouldn’t be long before he’d be coming to pick me up so we could go out to lunch somewhere. Every moment we were together, we couldn’t help but check occasionally that the other was there. He would touch my hand. I would stroke his back. We were in orbit around one another, circling and circling, pulling closer together.

  Hilda had recovered and thankfully had no memory of what had happened. When the shadow witch took over a body, she customarily blocked the original inhabitant from experiencing anything that was happening. That was, except for Jack, of course. She’d allowed him to see as she used his body to grab Kira off the street, buy coffees, drug them, and then serve one of them to me. As Jack had finally told me one night in a quiet voice, his face wet with tears, he’d fought as hard as he could, shaking the coffee in his hand, and finally propelling the shadow witch out of his body.