A Breath of Witchy Air

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Don’t worry about me. I know how to take care of myself.”

  “Be careful.”

  “I’ll be with Aunt Tillie,” I offered. “How much trouble could I possibly find?”

  Landon made a horrified face. “I really wish you hadn’t said that.”

  Eighteen

  I was still fuming when Thistle found me outside twenty minutes later.

  “What’s wrong with you?” She looked mildly curious, although her phone was clutched in her hand and I knew she would rather play Infinity Echo than listening to me complain. Still, what good were cousins if they didn’t listen to you complain?

  “Men are stupid.”

  “I could’ve told you that.” Thistle said. “What did Landon do now? Let me guess, he finally broke down and bought that sexy bacon costume he keeps threatening you with. I always thought it was only a matter of time before he made good on that threat. Now that you guys are living alone, no cousins around to risk detection, it seems to be the perfect time to whip it out.”

  I scorched her with a dark look. “I am not upset with Landon.”

  “Wow. Is it Backwards Day and nobody told me?”

  The look I mustered was withering. “Don’t you have magical skunks to catch or something?”

  “Oh, I’m over the skunk.” Thistle puffed out her chest, as if she were about to tell me something really good. “I caught the Elephant of Invincibility. Then I protected him right away and Aunt Tillie ran into a brick wall – literally – when she tried to steal him.”

  “You can erect brick walls in the game?” It sounded convoluted and annoying … although mildly entertaining, too. But why anyone would want to waste endless hours playing it was beyond my ability to grasp.

  “No, she literally ran into a brick wall.” Thistle pointed toward the side of Mrs. Little’s Unicorn Emporium. “She was so distracted trying to steal my elephant she didn’t look where she was going and smacked right into it. I took video, even though I was laughing really hard. I’m going to upload it to The Overlook’s website later.”

  That sounded like a terrible idea. “It sounds as if you’re really getting into this game. That surprises me because you were making fun of it three hours ago.”

  “I don’t like the game. I like winning.”

  “You sound like Aunt Tillie.”

  “That’s the meanest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

  “I’ve said that to you at least a thousand times,” I pointed out.

  “And it’s mean every time.” Thistle cocked her head to the side and studied my morose expression. “Seriously, what’s wrong with you? Brian Kelly didn’t come back and give you grief, did he? I will totally smack the crap out of him if he did.”

  “It’s not Brian. I haven’t seen Brian since we closed on The Whistler. I think he’s gone.”

  “Then what’s your damage?”

  I told her about my run-in with Chuck Ashton. I thought for sure her feminist sensibilities would have her siding with me. Instead she burst into a gale of hysterical laughter, bent over at the waist with her hands planted on her knees. “Oh, that is just priceless.”

  “You can’t possibly think that’s funny.”

  “I think your reaction is funny,” Thistle clarified. “I don’t think he’s funny.”

  “He’s staying at the inn.”

  “Okay, that’s funny.” Thistle grinned. “We’ll unleash Aunt Tillie on him during dinner. She’ll explain about underestimating a Winchester witch while I’m raiding her game cupboard. It will be fun for the entire family.”

  I didn’t bother to hide my eye roll. “You’re starting to worry me with this game. You used to have a life. This stupid game has managed to take over everything in three hours. Doesn’t that worry you?”

  Thistle immediately started shaking her head. “It’s not the game. It’s winning the game.”

  “That doesn’t seem any better.”

  “Then you’re looking at it wrong.” Thistle patted my shoulder. “You should check on Clove. She’s getting her stuff stolen left and right and melting down about it.”

  “So show her how to keep it safe.”

  “Then I won’t be able to steal it.”

  “Oh, good grief.” I cuffed the back of Thistle’s head as I took a step away from her. “You really are as bad as Aunt Tillie.”

  “You’re dead to me if you ever say that again.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

  I DID INDEED FIND Clove in dire straits. She sat on the couch in the middle of Hypnotic, the back of her hand resting against her forehead and a look of abject misery on her face.

  “This is the worst day in my entire life,” she announced.

  I took a pragmatic approach. “You’ve been attacked and almost killed on numerous occasions, you’ve been cursed into a fairy tale world, you’ve seen Aunt Tillie naked. How could this day be worse than any of that?”

  Clove made a disgusted face. “I hate it when you go all rational on me. Can’t you just once give in to my theatrics and let me be?”

  “Sure.” I patted her knee as I sat next to her. “This is the worst day ever, the world is clearly coming to an end, Thistle is evil … and go.”

  “Thistle really is evil,” Clove lamented right away. “She keeps stealing my stuff. She has my newly found Tiara of Total Awesomeness … and my Scepter of Unlimited Scrying … and my cute little cat with the pink tail.”

  I wanted to muster some sympathy for her – she often took things to heart others didn’t, after all – but it was a phone game and I had dead girls and a sexist pig to deal with. “Suck it up.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Suck it up,” I repeated. “This is not the end of the world. In fact, this isn’t even close to the end of the world. It’s a game.”

  “I want a tiara!”

  “Then go to Mrs. Little’s shop and buy one. She has the real thing. I’ll even pay you ten bucks if you buy it and wear it to dinner tonight because I’m sure that will turn Chuck Ashton into a total moron and Aunt Tillie will banish him from town in twenty minutes flat.”

  Clove pursed her lips. “I think I’m behind.”

  I told her about my meeting with Chuck Ashton, fully expecting her to be as outraged as I was. She wasn’t bothered in the least when I finished. “Was there a reason you couldn’t get him his coffee?”

  “I’m not the secretary!”

  “So what? He’s here to do a job and maybe help solve four murders. It would’ve taken you thirty seconds to help with his coffee.”

  “His legs weren’t broken. He could’ve gotten his own coffee.”

  “I get Sam’s coffee for him every morning,” Clove sniffed. “He’s always grateful and gives me a kiss when I bring it to him.”

  I was beyond disgusted. “I’m telling Aunt Tillie and she’s going to curse you next time you do anything of the sort.”

  “Oh, whatever. I like being a happy homemaker. Sue me.” Clove shifted her legs. “Now, what are we going to do about my stolen stuff?”

  “I don’t care about your stolen stuff.”

  “And I don’t care about you being the secretary.”

  I was absolutely at my limit. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m going to find Aunt Tillie. She’ll agree with me and be more than happy to start plotting against the new guy.”

  “Go ahead and do that.” Clove stared at her fingernails, as if surveying her manicure. “Just remember that if you agree with Aunt Tillie, you grow up to be like her. We figured that out when we were kids – and it still stands.”

  “I’m not worried about that.”

  “You should be.”

  “As long as Thistle and Aunt Tillie are playing this game, I’m not the one at risk of turning into Aunt Tillie. That title belongs to Thistle for the foreseeable future.”

  Clove opened her mouth to argue, but then snapped it shut.

  “I’m right,” I added. “You know it.”

  �
��They’re both evil,” Clove said after a beat, her hand going back to her forehead. “This is seriously the worst day ever.”

  I WAS THRILLED TO escape Hypnotic. I was even looking forward to finding Aunt Tillie because I needed someone who hated most men to commiserate with. Unfortunately my great-aunt was not the first person I stumbled across. That honor went to Danny Roberts.

  “Watch where you’re going,” I warned, grabbing his arm before he could stumble off the edge of the curb and fall on the ice. “You’ll hurt yourself if you’re not careful.”

  Danny’s expression was sheepish. “Thanks. I lost track of where I was.”

  “You should be careful about that.” I offered a wan smile as I started to walk away and then stopped myself. None of the boys struck me as overly aggressive, although Steven’s crush on me had the potential for a few uncomfortable interactions. Danny, on the other hand, didn’t seem to hate or love me. He was indifferent. That meant he could be a valuable source of information.

  “So, you’re a big fan of Infinity Echo, huh?” As far as opening lines go, it wasn’t my finest effort.

  Danny didn’t seem to notice, instead bobbing his head and grinning widely. “I love it. It’s the best game I’ve ever played.”

  “You’ve tried Risk, right?”

  Danny furrowed his brow. “What’s Risk?”

  “I really am old,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Never mind about Risk. Let’s talk about Infinity Echo.”

  “Sure. What do you want to know? I’m a level thirty-two wizard, if that’s important.”

  I couldn’t possibly see how it would ever be important. “So everyone who plays the game is a wizard?”

  “No, there’re all types of people.” Danny’s face turned animated as he warmed to his subject. It seemed the only thing needed to get him to talk was questions about the infernal game. “There are gnomes, elves, wraiths, mermen … there’s even a sphinx, if you know what that is.”

  “I know a little about mythology. So can you change what you are? I mean … do you start as one thing and turn into another?”

  “It’s a little more complicated than that. You start out as human and then evolve into something else. Your evolution depends on the things you collect and your choices while interacting with others.”

  “I see.” I honestly didn’t. “So why come to Hemlock Cove? I mean … how does this battle thing you guys have planned work?”

  “We didn’t plan it,” Danny explained. “We put in a request because of this town’s history, but we’re not in charge or anything. The developers are in charge. They decide when and where on battles and then post a notice in the game’s social rooms.”

  “Do you know the developers?”

  “No.”

  I made a mental note to track down that information. It would probably amount to nothing but it couldn’t hurt to dig a bit. “So you guys put in a request to have a battle here. I’m still not sure I understand what that means.”

  Danny’s expression showed a mild case of exasperation but he managed to hold it together all the same. “Okay, I’ll see if I can … um … make it simple.”

  I was thankful he didn’t use the word “dumb” because that would’ve set me off. “Great. I love it when things are simple.”

  “So, you basically create an avatar and log into the game.” Danny held up his phone so he could show me what he was talking about. “Everyone starts as a human, but you see this bar here? That’s where you level up. You need to make it through twenty levels before you can become something other than human.”

  “That seems like a lot of levels.”

  “It does, but the first seven or eight are really short. I mean, you level up the first time after you get five hundred points and that takes, like, five minutes.”

  “I’ll have to take your word for it.” I focused on the screen, frowning as the colored dots moved up and down the square center that appeared to indicate the downtown area. “And those dots are people, right?”

  Danny nodded. “They’re active participants.”

  “So you collect all these things people are talking about – scepters, tiaras, elephants, skunks – and you get points for doing it.”

  Danny’s eyes sparkled. “Who found the elephant?”

  “My cousin, unless somehow my great-aunt figured out a way to steal it from her.”

  “I totally want to see the elephant. Is it cool?”

  “I didn’t look.”

  Danny’s smile dipped. “Oh, too bad.”

  “I’ll remember to look next time.” I had no intention of looking but the kid seemed so sad all I could do was make the lame promise. “So, you keep leveling up and then you join with other people in battles. That’s the gist of it, right?”

  Danny looked as if I said the game was about the sky being blue. He was so flabbergasted it took him a moment to regain himself. “It’s a lot more than that.”

  “So I’ve been told. I don’t want an in-depth lesson. I’m more interested in the dots.” I pointed toward a purple one. “If you want to find someone in the game, the app tells you where they are, right?”

  “Yes. Like … here.” Danny tapped on the purple dot. “This is DirtEater28. She doesn’t have anything in her cupboard and she’s just sitting in one spot. Huh. It doesn’t seem like she’s playing.”

  I knew right away who he was talking about. “That has to be my cousin Clove. She’s feeling sorry for herself. Wait … did you say DirtEater?”

  “DirtEater28.”

  “Can someone else hack in and change a player’s name?”

  “Yeah. If you lose a small battle, the person you lose to can change your name for six hours.”

  “Thistle,” I muttered, shaking my head. “No wonder Clove thinks this is the worst day ever. I don’t suppose you can go to that magic store right there and show her how to protect her belongings?”

  Danny looked uncomfortable with the suggestion. “Well, I kind of have somewhere to be.”

  “I’ll consider it a really big favor.”

  Danny exhaled heavily. “Okay. If you want to learn more about the game yourself I’ll be around for the next few days. We’re staying at some place called The Dragonfly. It’s supposed to be positively swimming with items.”

  That figured. That just so happened to be the inn my father and uncles ran. “Just out of curiosity, what are they saying about The Overlook?”

  “Oh, everybody wants to be at The Overlook. It’s booked solid. They say it’s run by witches.”

  “Do they?”

  “Yeah. Apparently there are really rare toads, brooms and cauldrons there.”

  “Oh, well, that’s not stereotypical at all.” I forced a smile. “Thanks for the information. If you help my cousin, I’ll get you access to The Overlook all by yourself for a full hour.”

  Danny’s mouth dropped open. “For real?”

  “For real. I’ll make it happen tomorrow. Just help Clove, and then track me down after breakfast. I’m always in town.”

  Danny beamed as he shot me a peace sign and took off in the direction of the magic store. I watched him a moment, my expression rueful, and almost smacked into an approaching Landon when I turned. He wasn’t alone – Ashton the Obnoxious was with him – so I barely managed to keep my expression even.

  “Fancy running into you here,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest to ward off the cold.

  “We’re showing Chuck some of the players so he can get a feel for the game play,” Landon said, his eyes snagging with mine. “What are you doing out here?”

  “Well, I talked to Thistle … and then I talked to Clove … and then I bribed one of the players to help Clove. Now I’m looking for Aunt Tillie.”

  Landon’s eyebrows hopped. “You’re purposely looking for Aunt Tillie? I thought you were joking about that the first time you said it. You must be desperate to vent.”

  I risked a glance at Ashton. “You have no idea.”

  “Listen,
I’m sorry I upset you,” Ashton offered lamely. “I had no idea you were Landon’s chick. If I’d known, I never would’ve asked you to get me coffee.”

  “Chick?”

  “Oh, geez.” Landon rubbed his forehead. “Bay, please don’t take everything he says personally. He can’t help himself. He’s an ass.”

  “He’s definitely an ass.” I offered him a sneer as I moved to my left. “Have fun with your friend. I’m going to find Aunt Tillie.”

  “I get worried whenever you say that.”

  “You should be worried this time. I’m going to be her partner in crime for the rest of the day.”

  Landon sighed, resigned. “That right there is one of the things that terrifies me most.”

  I could totally understand that … and didn’t blame him in the least.

  Nineteen

  Five minutes with Aunt Tillie was about all I could take – she didn’t understand why I wasn’t excited to see her new virtual pet penguin – and I stopped by The Whistler long enough to look around, make sure no one had bothered to break in during my absence, and lock up.

  Steven, Michael, Danny and Eric seemed to have picked up a clutch of new friends since I’d last seen them because at least ten unfamiliar faces were grouped together in front of the coffee shop when I hit Main Street, and they all held phones and talked excitedly to one another as if something otherworldly was about to happen and they were the only ones who understood the significance. Even though I didn’t get the game, I thought it was nice they seemed to find joy in the social aspects associated with playing it.

  I headed straight for The Overlook rather than stop at the police station. On a normal day when Landon worked in town I’d tell him when I was heading home, participate in the cozy “we’re living together” social norms that people expect from couples and give him a big kiss simply because I could. I had no interest in running into Chuck Ashton before it was absolutely necessary, though, so I texted Landon instead and pointed myself toward the family property.

  Mom sat behind the front desk when I entered, her attention trained on the guest registry as I shrugged out of my coat and kicked off my boots on the mat close to the door.