Scarlett shook her head. “Sorry. I’m pretty sure Chief Enforcer Tyson would hunt me down herself if I did.”
“How about you?” Zayne asked, his eyes shifting toward me. Color rose in my cheeks as he looked at me, and it took everything I had not to look down at the ground.
“Nope,” I said. “Not this time.”
“Well, what if I offer to buy you lunch?” he added with a wink, and I laughed, the sound coming out slightly more high-pitched than I’d intended.
“Not this time. Besides, don’t you have a story? You were in Yamordir’s office, after all.”
“Right, and I had to leave straightaway because you set his plant on fire. I didn’t get a chance to look around at all. But I’ve submitted that story. Keep an eye on next week’s issue of the Ogopogo. I think things are going to be changing at the hospital pretty soon.”
“Well, if you’re such a good journalist, you’ll be able to find out what’s going on in there on your own,” Scarlett said, taking me by the elbow. “Come on, Mina. I know I’m exhausted, and I’m sure you’re feeling the same way.”
I let her lead me away from Zayne, who called out after me. “That offer for lunch still stands.”
EPILOGUE
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like cooking at all,” Scarlett said. “Plus, I’m betting you’re looking forward to getting back home. But if you’re willing to stay in the paranormal world for another couple of hours, we have a great Chinese restaurant here.”
“Chinese sounds great,” I said. I was with Scarlett on this one. I was crazy hungry, exhausted, and didn’t have an ounce of desire to cook.
Thirty minutes later I was busy shoveling chow mein into my mouth while Scarlett was on her third attempt at picking up a piece of sweet and sour pork with her chopsticks. Eventually, she gave up, stabbed the piece of pork with one of the pieces of wood, and shoved it into her mouth.
“Just like the Chinese do it,” I said with a laugh, and she flipped me off.
“Hey, you’re not even trying to use the chopsticks.”
“That’s because I know my own limitations, and I’m maximizing the speed at which I can eat,” I replied, an errant piece of noodle spilling out of my mouth and onto my shirt.
“I don’t think you get to judge me anymore,” Scarlett said, raising an eyebrow.
I was going to miss her when I went back to New York.
Deciding that I wanted to spend the night in my own bed — and eliminate the risk of getting trapped in this world once again — I decided to go back to New York as soon as we finished dinner.
“Thanks for everything,” I said to Scarlett, warmly, as I was getting ready to go. “I truly appreciate it.”
“Hey, that’s what family is for. If you ever decide you want to come back to Fairy Falls, you’re always welcome here.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh, and there was one more thing I wanted to teach you before you left,” Scarlett said with a mischievous grin.
T wo hours later I was back in New York City, standing in front of the statue of Hans Christian Andersen and wondering if the last two days had been some sort of fever dream. Or maybe I’d been drugged. That was a thing that happened, right?
No, of course it wasn’t. If someone had drugs that good, they weren’t going to waste them on some random person. At least, I didn’t think they would. It wasn’t as though I was an aficionado or anything. I didn’t even know what really made good drugs.
I held the wand Scarlett had given me in my hand. That was real enough. And so was Pawdrey, standing next to me, her tail swishing slowly as she eyed some nervous-looking pigeons walking along the ground about thirty feet away.
“Come on, Pawdrey,” I said to my new familiar. “Let’s go home.”
The next day as I walked to work, the energy in the city felt different. I was normally so energized by the thousands of people in suits, walking hurriedly to and from their businesses, ready to tackle the day. I was one of them, striving to become the youngest partner the firm had ever had.
But today I focused on the flaws. All I saw were tired eyes, the dark circles beneath them covered with layers of flawless makeup. I saw people powered by caffeine — and sometimes more. I saw people who put their careers in front of everything, and for the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted anymore.
No, I told myself firmly. This was what I wanted. This was what I had worked for. I was going to get that promotion, and I was going to have the life I’d always dreamed of.
Steeling myself, I walked into the nearest Starbucks, ordered a Venti caramel latte, and walked the rest of the way to the office, ready to face the day.
By ten thirty I still wasn’t feeling quite myself. My mind kept drifting back to Fairy Falls, to Scarlett, to Grandma Eva.
“Friends and family don’t pay the bills,” I muttered to myself. “The only person you can count on in this world is you.”
I had told myself those words so many times before, but this time they rang hollow. I sighed as I looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows of my office and down at the ant-like people on Madison Avenue below.
“It’s because you’ve just had an adventure,” I told myself. “It’s an adrenaline rush. Give yourself a few days, and you’ll be back to normal.”
About an hour later, there was a knock at my door.
“Did you enjoy your weekend?” The smirk on Louise’s face betrayed the complete lack of sincerity behind the question. “Personally, I had a great one. Friday night I got a phone call from Jeremy Stronach. He was very happy that I managed to bring on Alton as a client. Oh, yeah, we’re on a first-name basis now. It could have been you, but I guess some of us are just more responsible than others. Well, I had better leave you to your work. Not that anything you’re doing will come close to matching the new client I signed.”
Louise smirked at me once more and turned on her heel without another word.
Jessica flew into the room a moment after Louise left, horror written all over her features.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “She just walked right in. I couldn’t stop her.”
“It’s alright, Jessica,” I said, raising my hand with a smile. Three days ago, Louise’s gloating would have annoyed me to no end. But now, I just couldn’t bring myself to care.
My assistant slunk back away as I leaned back in my chair.
Ok, I was lying. I still cared that Louise had stolen my client. I cared about the fact that she was a snake, trying to slither her way up the corporate ladder rather than climbing it. Louise was all about subterfuge, gossip, and taking shortcuts wherever possible to get ahead — including, I knew, lying about one associate that she considered to be competition and getting her fired. I knew Louise had hacked the man’s email and sent a tirade railing against the partners to the whole firm, as she’d bragged to me about it the following day.
As someone who worked their butt off every single day and who thought positions in the company should be earned without cheating, it did get me heated every time I saw her tactics working, but it wasn’t going to be for long.
I tapped my fingers on the desk. Louise’s day would come.
Later that afternoon I received an email from Jeremy Stronach, telling me about a last-minute meeting in the boardroom taking place that day at four. I sent Jessica down to Starbucks to get me another coffee — whenever I met with the partners, I felt it best to be alert — and at exactly three fifty-eight I walked down the hall into the boardroom, where the partners were waiting, along with Louise. Her face had a real cat-that-ate-the-canary expression on it. Great.
On top of that, there was a cake in the middle of the room. There was never cake, unless someone was getting promoted. You had to be kidding me.
My heart sank as I realized Louise was going to get the promotion I had wanted. The promotion I had worked my butt off for. The promotion I had solved a murder to get. No way.
I had told myself I was
n’t going to do this, but enough was enough. I had slipped my wand carefully into the inside flap of my jacket. It was securely tucked in there, and as I sat down, I pulled it out and carefully held it under the table.
Another two junior executives arrived, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before the meeting got underway, celebrating Louise, who now shifted in her chair, a smug look on her face.
I whispered under my breath as I focused on the magic inside of me. “Venus, full of beauty and youth, make this woman tell the truth.”
The jolt of magic passed through my fingers and escaped through the tip of the wand. There was no immediate effect, so I couldn’t be certain the spell had worked, but I was fairly sure it had. I would know in a few minutes, either way.
Right on cue, Jeremy Stronach chose that moment to call the meeting to order.
“Alright, everyone, welcome. As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, on Friday Louise here was able to sign Alton Kristal from K&K as a client. They’re a billion-dollar company, and this partnership will do wonders for the firm.”
Jeremy paused, and scattered clapping broke out while Louise preened, enjoying her moment in the spotlight. “I don’t know how you did it, Louise, but good job.”
“It was easy,” Louise said. “I just had to delete the appointment from Mina’s assistant’s calendar so she’d forget to remind her.”
Louise’s hands clasped themselves against her mouth. She looked horrified.
“Excuse me?” Jeremy asked, turning toward her. “You must be joking.”
“No, I’m not joking. That’s exactly what happened.”
A low murmur ran through the room as the other attendees tried to figure out what was going on. I hid a smile. I knew exactly what had just happened: my spell had worked.
Scarlett had explained to me that it was impossible to use magic to get people to reveal important secrets — like the fact that they had killed someone, for example — but the smaller the lie, the easier it was to get people to admit to them with magic. And it was easier to make the spell work on humans than it was on paranormals, so even an inexperienced witch like me could manage it.
I knew Louise would never admit to killing someone with this spell — and as much as I disliked the woman, I highly doubted she had ever done anything of the sort — but admitting to having deleted the meeting from my calendar wasn’t beyond her. No wonder Jessica was so upset.
“I’m…I’m sorry,” Jeremy said. “You’re admitting to having sabotaged your colleague’s meeting so you could take it over?”
“Of course. Mina works much harder than I do, and she’s naturally more talented. I can’t compete with that, so I do what I have to to get ahead.”
Louise’s eyes filled with tears as she tried to stop herself from speaking, but it was no use. The magic was too powerful.
“Alright, I’m going to have to ask you to leave your desk,” Jeremy said in a firm voice. “Your employment here is terminated.”
Louise ran out of the room as a low murmur rose up from everyone.
“Well, you don’t see that every day,” said the man next to me, who I knew was one of the top people in the finance branch of the company.
“No kidding,” I replied. I put my wand away carefully, breaking the connection. The spell was over, and Louise would go back to normal, but there was no way she was talking her way back from that.
“I want IT to send someone to Mina’s assistant,” Jeremy was saying to his own assistant. “Look into her claim that she deleted the event. It should be easy to confirm, and that’s all we need. Louise is fired.”
A sense of satisfaction rose inside of me. The meeting was cancelled and I went back to my desk. I sat down, took a deep sip of the coffee I’d barely started on, and wondered if maybe the cake that ended up uneaten was going to make its way to the breakroom.
Despite the fact that Louise had been fired, I still couldn’t shake that feeling that something was wrong. By six o’clock, as I stared at the screen, I found myself thinking about the workout at Mercutio’s gym, and wondering if Scarlett was crushing it while Patricia cheered everyone on.
No, I didn’t belong here.
I typed a letter at my computer, printed off a copy, signed it, left it on Jessica’s desk, and took the elevator back down to the ground floor. As I stepped out into the street, I pulled out my phone and texted my cousin.
Am I still welcome if I want to move to Fairy Falls?
Her reply came a moment later.
Abso-freaking-lutely.
I smiled. This was crazy. It was so unlike anything I’d ever done, and I’d just thrown away everything I’d spent my whole life working for. And I had never been more confident that I was making the right choice.
I was a witch, and I was moving to the paranormal world. I was going to get to know my family.
Book 2: Hex Over Heels: Mina Tiller has just moved to the paranormal world, but her first potions lesson goes horribly wrong when she ends up on the bad side of a local witch, and that same witch shows up murdered a few hours later.
With Mina and Scarlett both prime suspects, the two of them decide their only choice is to solve yet another murder. But between navigating magic lessons, Pawdrey Hepburn deciding to use up all her nine lives at once and discovering things she never knew about her family, Mina's wondering if she's going to be able to keep it all together and solve the case before she finds her new life is actually going to be spent behind bars.
Click here to read Hex Over Heels Now!
ALSO BY SAMANTHA SILVER
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Or you can discover any of the other series I write by clicking the links below:
Western Woods Mysteries
Pacific Cove Mysteries
Pacific North Witches Mysteries
Willow Bay Witches Mysteries
Magical Bookshop Mysteries
California Witching Mysteries
Cassie Coburn Mysteries
Ruby Bay Mysteries
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Samantha Silver lives in British Columbia, Canada, along with her husband and a little old doggie named Terra. She loves animals, skiing and of course, writing cozy mysteries.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Untitled
Also by Samantha Silver
About the Author
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Love at First Spell: A Witch Cozy Mystery (Fairy Falls Mystery Book 1) Page 16