But Linda shook her head.
“No. No, I need to be here. I want to be here. I can’t sit around thinking about nothing but Thomas’s last few moments. He looked like he was in pain. Do you think he was in pain?”
“I don’t,” I lied. “It all happened very quickly.”
“Yes, that is true,” Linda murmured.
“Do you have any other family? Brothers? Sisters?”
Linda nodded. “Oh, yes. I’m the youngest of three. I have a brother and a sister. My brother works in construction. He works for a company that builds houses, and he casts any spells they need. They do work all over the paranormal world, so he gets to travel a lot. Right now he’s actually working in Iran, which is really neat. He always has a ton of stories to share.”
“That’s really cool,” I said. “Are there a lot of paranormals in Iran?”
“Yes, quite a few,” Linda replied. “They have a higher proportion of the older, immortal paranormals like elves, since they had significant populations there long before we did in this part of the world. My sister, on the other hand, did exactly what Mom wanted her to. She works as a Healer now, and although she doesn’t live here in town anymore, we’re still very close. We talk almost every day. She came back here yesterday, too, and is staying with me until further notice.”
“I’m glad you’ve got such a stable support network,” I said to Linda.
“Oh, yes. Georgina is everything a younger sister could ask for. She always took care of me when we were little. And I suppose as adults, as well. No matter what I need, Georgina is always there for me. I’m really lucky to have family like that.”
“You really are,” I replied, a small pang of pain hitting me in the chest. I had never had that kind of support network growing up. But then, of course, I also didn’t have a boyfriend who had been murdered right in front of me.
Linda’s eyes shot up to the sky once more. “There goes Scarlett. Watch her as she darts between the medicine balls.”
My eyes followed hers, and sure enough, Scarlett had come out the other side of the thick, green cloud. She looked like she had come out of it more or less unscathed — what appeared to be an octopus hung from the broom handle, and her hair was now soaking wet and plastered against her face — and determination was stamped on her features as the medicine balls began lobbing themselves at her, like the world’s most dangerous game of magical dodgeball.
She dipped, dived, and dodged like a master of the broom, making it past all of the balls despite their best attempts to knock her off the broom.
“Oh, that one’s going to get her,” Linda muttered quietly about a split second before one of the medicine balls hit Scarlett on the shoulder. She let out a small yelp, loosening her grip on the broom, and the octopus fell off the handle, disappearing in a puff of smoke about a second later. Scarlett’s broom began nosediving toward the ground, spinning quickly, but she got control of it and soared back up, making it around the last of the medicine balls and through a hoop at the end that I assumed was the finish line.
“Good,” Linda said, nodding approvingly.
“That was a nice catch,” I told her, and she smiled.
“Thanks. I enjoy watching skilled broom riders, and because of teaching I can pick up on the mistakes pretty easily.”
I decided to risk turning the conversation to the murder. “Do you think Mercutio could have killed Thomas?” and Linda gave me a questioning look.
“No, of course not. They barely knew each other.”
“Thomas didn’t tell you that he got into a fight with Mercutio at the hospital, then?”
Linda tilted her head to the side slightly. “No?”
“Mercutio attempted to seduce one of the Healers,” I explained. “It was a few months ago. Thomas stepped in and stopped him, and they almost came to blows.”
Linda shook her head. “He never told me. I guess he didn’t want me to worry about him. That sounds like Thomas, though he never would have actually fought Mercutio.”
“Knowing that, do you think Mercutio could have killed Thomas?”
“Never,” Linda whispered. “No, he wouldn’t have. He’s spontaneous, and he can have a bit of a temper, but deep down Mercutio is just a pussycat. He never would have planned to kill Thomas.”
I had to admit, I agreed with her.
“Did you see that?” Scarlett interrupted, coming over with a huge grin on her face. “That was awesome.”
“I was really impressed,” I said with a smile as she came over and plonked herself down next to me.
“I’m completely wiped now. Man, that really takes a lot out of you.”
“It’s the mental focus that’s required,” Linda told her. “You’re very good at flying.”
“Do you have any tips about what I did wrong?”
Linda gave Scarlett a few pointers, mainly explaining what she had told me earlier.
“Of course, I never saw you flying through the cloud, as we can’t see what’s going on in there.”
“Oh, that was fun. It was like being underwater. There were all sorts of creatures that I had to avoid.”
“You came out of it with an octopus on your broom,” I said with a grin, and Scarlett laughed.
“Yeah, I named him Billy. Unfortunately, since he wasn’t real, he disappeared when I went into that nosedive for a minute, but I got out of it.”
“You sure did.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to learn how to ride a broom?” Scarlett asked. “I can show you here. You don’t have to climb up that high and try the obstacle course.”
“I’ll happily help,” Linda added, and I was torn. On the one hand, I didn’t want to end up flying out of control and crashing into a tree. But on the other, I did want to help Linda get her mind off the murder, and seeing Scarlett flying so freely up above did look good.
“Alright,” I said. “But someone has to be ready to save me if I mess it up.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” Scarlett said. “Come on.”
I grabbed one of the unclaimed brooms from the pile and the two of them led me to the open field.
CHAPTER 22
“A lright,” Linda said, the teacher in her automatically taking charge of the situation. “If you get in trouble, Scarlett still has her broom, so she’ll go and get you. The first thing you need to do is understand the controls. To go up, you pull up on the broom. To go down, you press down on it. To go faster, press down slightly but lean your body forward.”
“How do I stop?” I asked.
“Pull back on the broom while shifting your body back. Your center of gravity affects the speed of the broom. If you move your weight forward, it’ll accelerate. If you move it back, it’ll slow down. But you can’t slow down too much while you’re in the air, or you’ll fall out of the sky.”
“Unless you’re one of the best in the world. I saw Sara Neach, the best broom racer in the world, hovering in place, practically completely still a few months ago in a competition, and it was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Yes, and you’re not there yet, so avoid doing it,” Linda said. “It’s fine to fly slowly, but not too slowly. If you feel the broom starting to drop from the sky, accelerate.”
“Ok,” I said. “Do I just throw my leg over it?”
“Exactly,” Linda said. I swung my leg over the broom and gasped slightly as the broom seemed to vibrate in my hand, and hovered in place. This was real. I was actually on a broom.
My toes grazed the ground as I clutched the handle, which all of a sudden seemed far too narrow. Surely the first time I flew I’d just fall right off, right?
“Great,” Linda said. “Now, move your weight forward carefully. You don’t want to go much higher than you are now; you just want to get used to moving on the broom.”
I had done gymnastics for a few years when I was a kid, so I had pretty good body awareness. I tilted my hips forward slightly, shifting my weight, and as I did the broo
m began to move.
“Ohhhh,” I said, not entirely sure I was comfortable with this. The tips of my shoes dragged along the grass as the broom began flying across the field. Linda kept step with me, which helped, but I still gripped the broom’s handle so hard my knuckles were white.
“Try to relax,” Linda said soothingly. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”
“Easy for you to say,” I muttered through gritted teeth, but I knew deep down she was right. I took a deep breath, letting the cool morning air run deep into my lungs, and slowly let the air out of my nose. The movement relaxed my shoulders and flowed through to my arms and hands, and I began to calm down just a little bit.
“You’re doing great,” Scarlett said, walking over to the other side.
“Am I, though?” I said with a tense laugh. “I’m more scared than I’ve ever been in my life and I’m flying so slowly the two of you are keeping up with me at a light walk.”
“It’s your first time on a broom,” Linda said gently. “You’re not going to be doing barrel rolls just yet.”
I nodded. “Sure. But let me see if I can go just a bit faster.” I needed to be better than your average five-year-old by the end of this session. The competitive part of me, the part that had worked my butt off to get into Harvard and then get the job I needed, had to do it.
“Go for it,” Linda said. “But try to stay low to the ground for now, and don’t do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”
I nodded, adjusting my grip on the broom carefully, taking another deep breath, and moving my body mass forward on the broom just a little bit more. The increase in speed was immediate, and I had to fight my instinct to pull back on the broom as I reached ten, then probably fifteen miles an hour.
Compared to most adult witches and wizards, I had to be crawling, but it felt to me as though I was on a roller coaster with no end in sight.
“Eeeeeeeeee,” I squealed slightly, but I had to admit, it was fun. I was in control, I was just barely above the ground, and it was pretty cool to realize that not only did I have magical powers, but I could ride a broom, like a witch in a fairy tale.
It was only when I spotted the large fir in front of me that I realized I wasn’t really sure how to turn.
“How do I turn this thing?” I called out to Scarlett and Linda, but it was too late. The tree was coming at me like an oncoming freight train. I panicked, let out a yelp, and yanked the broom to the left as hard as I could. The broom turned, but I had overextended myself and I fell over onto the ground, landing directly in a mud puddle.
I sputtered as I rose back to my feet, looking around carefully. Nothing on my body hurt too badly, so I wasn’t injured. The broom sat about a foot away, lying on the ground like it had no magical powers whatsoever, and Scarlett called out to me as she and Linda rushed over.
“Are you alright?”
I nodded. “I think so, yeah. That wasn’t really how I expected this to end.”
“Well, look on the bright side, you didn’t fly straight into the tree,” Scarlett offered, and I had to admit she had a point. I’d have probably come out significantly worse if that had happened.
“Let me take care of this mud for you,” Linda said, pulling out her wand and casting a quick spell. A second later, it was like I’d never landed in the puddle at all.
“Thanks,” I grinned.
“Did you enjoy your ride?” Scarlett asked, and I nodded.
“You know, I did, actually. The last few seconds weren’t that fun, but I liked the rest of it.”
“Good,” Linda said, beaming. “As long as you’re out there having fun and learning, that’s the important thing. There will be a few mishaps along the way, but thanks to Healers, they’re not normally troublesome. I’ve seen broken arms fixed in seconds.”
“Wow, really?” I asked, and Linda nodded.
“Yes. Although injuries of that severity aren’t common, don’t worry.”
I picked the broom up off the ground and walked alongside the other two witches as we headed back toward the main group. Patricia beamed at me as we reached them.
“Well done, Mina,” she said to me, smiling from ear to ear. “Was that your first time on a broom?”
I nodded.
“I think there’s a bit of natural talent there. No wonder, really, given how skilled the rest of your family is on a broom. You’d think we were an air coven, given how good your cousin and grandmother are at flying.”
“Grandma Eva is good at it as well?”
“Oh, yes,” Patricia said with a mischievous smile. “When I was growing up, Eva Sornik was a legend in the skies. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Well, so far I’m a legend among those people about a foot and a half off the ground,” I said with a self-deprecating laugh, but Patricia waved a hand.
“Nonsense. We were all beginners once, and there’s no shame in starting something new, even if it is later in life. Besides, you can’t expect to be as good as us; we’ve all been riding brooms practically since we were able to stand.”
“I do appreciate the kind words,” I said, warmth flooding through me. I couldn’t believe how nice it felt to have people — strangers, even — treating me so kindly as I fumbled my way through this new magical world.
“Of course, of course. We like to take care of each other here. We’re the coven of Venus, after all, and while love can be a force that leads to destruction, we prefer to see love as a positive force, and being loving and positive can only bring us all up.”
“I’m starting to learn that,” I said. Before Patricia had a chance to reply, Mercutio clapped his hands together for attention, and the whole group turned to face him.
“What a great session, everyone. Thank you for attending. I’ll see you next time, which will hopefully be sooner rather than later. Remember, there are sessions tonight at three, four, five, and six.”
The witches filed out together, Patricia giving me a finger wave as she left. Eventually, the only paranormals left were Mercutio, Scarlett, Linda, and myself. Linda looked as though she wanted to say something, but eventually she gave me a kind goodbye and left.
“I saw you on the broom,” Mercutio said to me. “Not bad for a first time. You’ll be running the obstacle course sooner rather than later.”
“I hope so,” I lied. After all, while flying had been kind of fun, the obstacle course looked like a whole other level that I wasn’t sure I would ever be ready to tackle. “Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Yes?”
“We heard that you had a fight with Thomas at the hospital over your treatment of Lauren, one of the Healers.”
Mercutio laughed and rolled his eyes. “Seriously? That stupid thing again? First Chief Enforcer Tyson comes over here yesterday practically accusing me of murder over it, and now you?”
I felt a little bit stupid; of course Chief Enforcer Tyson would have known about it.
“Well, I’m not hearing a denial,” Scarlett said, and Mercutio bared his teeth at her slightly.
“I deny it. I didn’t do anything to that wizard. Well, I didn’t kill him, anyway,” he added with a creepy laugh. “Thomas was an idiot.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It sounds to me like Thomas was a pretty good wizard, and you’re just a bully with a temper.”
“Thomas was a goody-two-shoes who thought he could save the world single-handedly,” Mercutio snapped. “He had no idea how the world really worked, and I’m not surprised that someone finally took it out on him. But it wasn’t me. I had nothing to do with his death.”
“How do we know?” Scarlett asked. “Maybe you decided after the fight in the hospital that you were going to make him pay. You know tons of people through the gym connections. You could have easily gotten the poison that way.”
Mercutio laughed. “Oh, I made Thomas pay, alright, but not by killing him. I don’t have a clue who did that. I got my vengeance, but in my own way. Deep down I’m a lover, not
a fighter.”
He flashed Scarlett a creepy smile, and I could practically feel her repulsion.
“How did you get your vengeance on him?”
“That’s my business,” Mercutio replied. “But it had nothing to do with his death, I’m telling you. Potions are witch stuff, anyway. If I’d killed him, you’d have found his body torn to bits in the forest. Or maybe you wouldn’t have found him. But either way, it wouldn’t have been poison in the coffee shop. That’s not how a shifter kills. Besides, I’m not about killing. I’m a vegan, after all. I believe all creatures have the right to live.”
“Alright,” Scarlett replied after a moment. “Thanks.”
“Are you done interrogating me? What’s the new witch in town doing looking into this murder, anyway?”
“I need to go back home as soon as possible,” I replied with a shrug, figuring there was nothing wrong with telling him the truth. “I have to stay in Fairy Falls until the killer is found. So I have a vested interest in finding them.”
“Well, I can’t help you there. As I said, I had nothing to do with Thomas’s death. Frankly, I wish he wasn’t dead. I benefited from him being alive. But what can you do?”
Mercutio shrugged, and I couldn’t believe how callous the shifter was in the face of a fellow murdered paranormal. But had he killed Thomas? I wasn’t sure. I kind of figured that if he had, he wouldn’t seem to be so indifferent about his death.
“Alright,” Scarlett said. “Thanks for the info. You better hope you didn’t kill him, because if you did, we’ll find out.”
“I’m always here,” Mercutio said, opening his arms and motioning around. “I’m not hard to find. But if you really want to go back to the human world, you might want to look elsewhere. You’re just going to waste your time focusing on me.”
Scarlett and I turned and left the gym, frustration growing inside of me.
CHAPTER 23
“I don’t think he did it,” Scarlett said when we reached the road.
“I’m inclined to agree,” I replied slowly. “I think Yamordir and Borbordir should be our main focus now.”
Love at First Spell: A Witch Cozy Mystery (Fairy Falls Mystery Book 1) Page 14