by Sonia Parin
“Actually, no I can’t. I’m too weak,” Rebel said.
Here we go, Lexie thought. “I suppose you’ll be drawing up a list of demands.”
“How many blueberries can she possibly eat? She’s only small. I say give her what she wants so she quits whining. It’s annoying.”
“That’s it. We’re heading back.” Slacker turned into the main road and headed toward Cat’s cottage.
“What about Octavia?” Her personal assistant had a knack for putting everything into perspective and making sense of the most ludicrous ideas Lexie could come up with. If anyone could guide her toward some sort of solution, she could.
“If she made it this far, she’ll make it all the way,” Slacker reasoned. “How do you think she found you?”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Octavia has her ways. She’ll never admit to it, but she’s been spending a lot of time at Mirabelle’s mansion cataloguing her library. She’s bound to know something.” Also, Octavia had a thing going with one of the O’Rourke detectives. She’d met Dodge O’Rourke during Halloween and the two had since been more or less inseparable. “Maybe Dodge O’Rourke mentioned something.” Lexie leaned forward.
“What?”
“There’s a hitchhiker up ahead.” Lexie narrowed her eyes. “She’s got blonde hair.”
“Yes, I see her,” Luna exclaimed. “But she’s not wearing the trench coat. Maybe she switched disguises.”
The hitchhiker wore shorts, walking boots and a blue baseball cap. If it turned out to be Octavia, Lexie decided she would give her a raise, then she remembered she didn’t actually pay Octavia.
“Slow down. I think it might be Octavia.”
Slacker grumbled. “How do you know you can trust her?”
“I have to trust her. My mom sent her to me and Octavia is thorough. She must have a solid reason for coming here otherwise she would not have risked it.”
Slacker fell silent. He stared straight ahead.
“Are you experiencing some sort of catatonic state or are you getting in touch with the O’Rourke Group?”
He didn’t answer.
“Slow down,” Lexie hollered.
At the last minute, Slacker snapped out of it and slammed his foot on the break. “Need a lift?”
Chapter Fourteen
“Which O’Rourke detective are you?” Octavia asked as she settled into the backseat.
Luna clambered up to Lexie’s shoulder and leaned her chin on it. “Hello, Octavia. This is Slacker.” Luna purred. “It’s good to see you. Blonde hair suits you.”
Octavia grinned. “You think so?”
Luna nodded. “You should keep it. I hear blondes have more fun.”
“I think you’re right. Instead of making me look inconspicuous, I seemed to attract more attention with it. So what have I missed? Catch me up.”
“Lexie’s been given a fairy,” Luna said, her tone suggesting she’d rolled her eyes. “Her name is Rebel.”
Lexie sighed. “Can you two catch up later? I need to know how Octavia found us.”
“It wasn’t easy. I haven’t been able to pick up on a single thought from you and I’ve never been to Catherine’s cottage. I figured she’d come to your rescue but I only had a vague idea of where to start looking. I’ve been at it since you disappeared, making sure no one followed me. I caught a commercial flight here. Do you know how many hours that is? Finally, when I got to Melbourne airport I took a chance and transported myself here. Or at least, to this general location.”
“So you’re sure no one followed you.”
Octavia nodded. “I changed disguises along the way. I’ve been a redhead, a brunette with gold highlights and finally a blonde and, Luna’s right, blondes do have more fun. I had better luck hitchhiking as a blonde than as a brunette.”
“Have you spoken with Dodge?” Octavia had been seeing the O’Rourke detective for a few months now and not a day went by without talking or seeing each other.
“He told me to stay right out of it and then he clammed up. Why would he do that?”
“Because this is bigger than either of you realize,” Slacker said.
They all stared at him.
Lexie growled, “Now you tell us? What else do you know?”
When he didn’t answer, Octavia patted Lexie on the shoulder. “New dress?”
Lexie nodded. “I guess you could say I’m battle ready.”
“So where’s the fairy? I’ve never seen one in real life.”
Lexie lifted her hand to show Octavia but Rebel had clearly moved. “She must be hiding in my hair somewhere.”
“Has she been vetted?” Octavia asked and, lowering her voice, added, “She could be a spy.”
Lexie heard Rebel blowing a raspberry.
“What was that?” Octavia asked.
Lexie shrugged. “Some people clam up, others blow raspberries.”
Luna flicked her tail in Lexie’s face. “You’re avoiding asking the obvious question. I wonder why that is? Are you afraid?”
“I thought Octavia might need time to catch her breath.” In reality, Lexie had been putting it off. “Okay, here goes.” Lexie turned and asked, “So… How is Mirabelle?”
“Oh, I see. You’re pretending everything is fine.” Octavia straightened. In the blink of an eye, her clothes changed from shorts and a t-shirt to her practical suit and she resumed her usual Miss Efficient posture. Her shoulders squared, her chin lifted. Her hair, however, remained blonde.
“And?” Lexie pushed.
“No one has seen her since before you disappeared.”
“Is that all you can tell me? I need more. Is there any proof I killed her? A trail of blood. Something. Anything?”
Octavia gave a slow shake of her head. “Nothing.”
“So why has the finger of suspicion been pointed at me?”
“Actually, I think it’s more a finger of accusation. I believe a special dungeon is being prepared for you.”
“Octavia. That doesn’t help.”
“Oh, I thought it might. You see, that leaves no doubt. Suspicion is more open-ended and gives us something to work with. Someone is clearly out to get you.”
“Octavia. Whose side are you on?”
Octavia gave a firm nod. “My loyalty remains steadfast.”
“Could you be more specific? Is that loyalty to me or to the Coven Disciplinary Board?”
“Yes… to you, of course. That goes without saying.”
“Out of curiosity, has there been a bounty placed on Lexie’s head?” Luna asked.
“Hey, are you about to sell me out?”
Luna pressed her nose against Lexie’s. “Would I do that to you?”
“I guess not.” Lexie glanced over at Octavia. Since coming to work for her, her personal assistant had been working toward trying to reinstate her coven. What would she do to pay her dues? Would she cut a deal with the Coven Disciplinary Board to erase her ancestors’ crimes?
Reading her thoughts, Octavia said, “I am offended. Deeply offended.”
Slacker turned into a side road and put his foot down.
“Brace yourself,” Lexie warned. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
When they arrived at the cottage they found Cat waiting for them at the door.
“I’ve been fretting and worrying, thinking something might have happened to you. What took you so long?”
Lexie reached for one of the shopping bags. “Luna insisted we had to go shopping.”
“That’s right. Blame me,” Luna grumbled.
Cat inspected their grocery bags. “I hope you paid with cash. You don’t want to leave a paper trail.”
“Slacker took care of it.” Lexie grinned and patted her empty pockets. “Has Jonathan come up with any new drawings?”
Cat nodded. “He’s been pulling his hair trying to figure out why he kept drawing a figure with a trench coat, a fedora hat and blonde hair. Do you know anything about that?”
Octavia stepped out
of the Jeep and waved.
A fireworks of sparkles shot out of Cat. “Hello. Welcome to my cottage. I love your hair.”
Taking a couple of grocery bags, Lexie said, “Jonathan will be so pleased to know he’s not losing his mind. Let’s go in and put Jonathan out of his misery.” Along the way, Lexie explained how Jonathan had been drawing as a way to recapture her activities over the last few days. “None of it makes sense. Perhaps you can throw some light on the matter. By the way, it only took you eighteen odd hours to fly here, where were you before that?”
“Before catching my flight I tried to see what information I could find out so I went to… and then… but I had to go to…”
Lexie groaned. “On your way here, did you happen to drop by my apartment?”
“Actually, yes. That was my first stop. Why do you ask?”
“In case you didn’t notice, you just spoke with gaps.”
“What gaps?”
“I believe someone put a spell on my apartment. It’s affected all our memories.” Lexie stopped. “When’s the last time you saw Mirabelle?”
Octavia gave a firm nod. “I’d been organizing some books on binding spells and I wanted to tell her I’d catalogued them with cross references to names and dates, that was three days ago. We spoke briefly and then… because she… suddenly… oh, and…” Octavia gasped. “What’s going on? Why did I only hear some of my words?”
* * *
Luna leaped up onto the table. Strolling around it, she mused, “The only one here not affected by the memory loss spell is… drum roll… the fairy.”
Rebel scowled. “I have a name.”
“Luna, we are not going to turn on each other,” Lexie warned.
“Says she who put my name at the top of the suspect list,” Cat muttered under her breath.
“I already apologized for that,” Lexie offered. “Rebel didn’t go anywhere near my apartment. She has no reason to suffer from memory loss. Slacker’s memory should be intact but we can’t test it because no matter how many times we question him, he’ll refuse to answer.”
“Octavia could flick her blonde hair and bat her eyelashes,” Luna suggested. “I’m told men respond to that.”
Octavia looked up from the drawings she’d been studying. “Jonathan did a really good job capturing my general likeness.”
“That must mean something. He’s been having trouble with everyone else.” Lexie pointed at the drawing with the shadowy figures that had turned out to be Mirabelle and Whip. “Do you have any theories? I can’t figure out how I could appear to myself… as myself in more or less the same space.”
Octavia shook her head. “It makes no sense at all. You’ve never been to Cat’s cottage. Or have you?”
“Which part of memory loss don’t you get?” Lexie looked at Cat. Would she lie to her face? Cat swore Lexie had never visited her.
She’d never questioned Cat’s loyalty. She’d never had reason to. Until now.
Lexie shook her head. She had to trust Cat and everyone else. They were incorruptible. Although…
Everyone had a price.
* * *
Lexie looked over her shoulder to make sure no one had followed her. Reaching the end of the hallway, she sat down and crossed her legs. She’d make that doorway open again. “Somehow, that is… assuming I actually had something to do with it appearing the first time.”
She went through the motions, relaxing and focusing on her breathing and while she usually closed her eyes, she decided to keep them open and fixed on the wall.
Her focus became so intense, at first she didn’t notice she’d levitated off the floor. She even ignored the aroma of pizza wafting around her.
The fact a doorway had opened and she’d appeared to herself had to mean something. Had she tried to send a message? This had all started with her dreaming about telling Mirabelle off and when she’d appeared in the mirrored hallway, she’d been arguing with Mirabelle and Whip.
When had that happened? And if it had actually happened, why couldn’t she remember?
The questions rolled in and circled around her mind. When? How? Why? When she saw a light flicker, she held onto the questions, repeating them like a chant. Finally, the doorway appeared again.
“Hello Lexie, person of interest.” She watched her other version stride along the mirror image of the hallway with Luna beside her exactly as she had the first time. When she reached the end of the hallway and turned, the shadowy shapes appeared. Mirabelle and then Whip. “It’s a replay,” she whispered. She really had sent a message to herself.
“I agree.”
Lexie recognized Slacker’s voice and while it took her by surprise, she managed to keep herself levitating until the doorway closed again. When it did, she eased herself down. Instead of getting up, she slumped flat on her back and looked up at the ceiling.
Slacker started humming.
“What’s that tune?”
“Message in a bottle by The Police.” Slacker strode up to her. “You’re right. You sent yourself a message.”
She hummed the tune under her breath. “Great. Now I won’t be able to get it out of my head.” Lexie pointed at the wall. “And how exactly did I just trigger that again?”
“Your presence could have been enough.”
She sat up. “If I went to the trouble of trying to contact myself, why didn’t I write something down so I… as me… now… could read it? And how did I know I could even make a doorway appear? How did I know I’d even be here, now?”
“Because you are you and you know yourself best,” Slacker said.
“I’d like to think so, but I’m actually a work in progress. Half the time I don’t have an opinion about anything. Some days I like chocolate ice cream, other days I think pistachio is the best flavor ever and I must have been nuts liking chocolate.”
“That’s a trait in itself, but I was actually referring to you knowing how you really feel about things that matter. I’m sure you’ve never questioned your loyalty or your dedication and determination.”
Lexie’s mouth gaped open. “Dedication? You clearly haven’t heard about me dragging my feet.”
“That’s not what I’ve heard. Anyway, Mirabelle and Whip are with you. They could have suggested it.”
“What? Appearing to myself?” Lexie chortled and shook her head. “You obviously don’t know Mirabelle. She’s never been forthcoming with information.” Lexie surged to her feet and faced the wall. “I just made the doorway appear again by thinking about the argument I had with Mirabelle.” Sensing Jonathan, Lexie turned. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” Jonathan said.
“No, actually, I mean… Hey, I just sensed you approaching.” Had she developed a new skill?
Jonathan held up a drawing. He’d captured the moment Slacker had approached her. Lexie noticed something in the corner. Looking up, she spotted Rebel hovering by the window.
“Hey. How long have you been there?”
Rebel meandered over. “Sorry. I couldn’t help it. Where you go, I go. Someone has to watch your back. What if something had happened to you?”
Jonathan dropped his gaze to the drawing. “Everything else is the same as the first drawing I did.”
“Did you notice the hand gesture on the drawing?” Rebel asked.
“Huh?”
Rebel held her hand up. “You’re holding your hand palm up as if to say stop or stay.”
Now that she thought about it, yes. Her other self had held her hand as if gesturing… “It’s not as if I have a choice. Cat said she can’t send us back until the end of the lunar cycle.”
Rebel hovered close to her nose. “Cat can’t send you back but can you return on your own steam?”
“Huh?”
Chapter Fifteen
“No, absolutely not.” Cat crossed her arms and firmed her lips. “Have you forgotten why we came here? You were about to be taken into custody and thrown into a dungeon.”
Lexie swung away an
d stomped around the sitting room. “What if that’s what they want me to believe. They… whoever is responsible for casting a memory loss spell.”
“On the other hand,” Cat said, “What if they know you only too well and realize that if they make you believe you’re a suspect, you’ll do everything in your power to hunt them down and you’ll walk straight into a trap.”
Luna leaped up onto Lexie’s shoulder. “Has Rebel been feeding you strange ideas? What if it’s a trick to get you to go back and you walk straight into a trap?”
“That’s what Cat just said.”
“Oh, sorry. That fairy is living in my head rent-free. I can’t stop thinking about her.”
Lexie closed her eyes and tried to calm the swirl of thoughts rampaging through her mind.
She could trust Cat. Her own cousin wouldn’t turn against her. She knew nothing about Rebel, but Lexie couldn’t think of a single reason why the fairy would want to harm her.
Her ‘other self’ must have known enough to warn her to stay. Stay where? Here? Or had she meant to tell herself to take it easy and not panic?
Lexie lifted her hand and mimicked the gesture her other self had made. “Bide your time, Lexie.” She looked at the others. “I didn’t look happy with the plan Mirabelle and Whip must have come up with.” She gave a firm nod. “It’s time. I have to do something. They could be in danger.”
Cat strode up to Slacker and jabbed a finger against his chest. “You. Why don’t you stop her? Lexie has to stay here.”
Lexie smiled at the sight of her cousin standing up to the formidable presence of the O’Rourke detective. “Cat, you should put that finger to good use and make him tell you what he meant earlier when he said this is bigger than we realize.”
Cat jabbed him again. “Yeah, what she said.”
Slacker looked down at Cat, his lips quirked up and he winked at her.
Cat tried to stifle her giggle. She really tried. Her shoulders shook and Lexie could see her fighting to keep her eyes locked with his. To her credit, she held on for as long as she could but in the end she burst out laughing. “Sorry. Maybe you should let Luna bite him.”