by K E O'Connor
“Not really. And about that. We need to talk. I was planning on coming to see you both tomorrow. Well, it’s tomorrow now, but you get what I mean.”
Odessa grinned. “Then my scarecrows did you a favor when they kidnapped you. And I easily stopped them dismembering you, so everything worked out as it should.”
“Dismembering?” My mouth fell open. “That’s what they had planned for me?”
Storm shook her head. “It didn’t happen. Forget about it. They don’t usually go that far.”
I rubbed the tender spot on the side of my head. Being a scarecrow’s plaything wasn’t something I’d want to do anytime soon.
“We’ve also been discussing the Luna situation,” Odessa said, with a nod at Storm. “We’ve done several location spells, and all we can pick up is a faint echo. It’s as if she’s here, but not here.”
“Or she’s a ghost,” Storm said darkly.
My gut twisted. “You think she’s been killed?”
“No! I’m convinced she’s alive,” Odessa said. “We can’t give up hope. And there are still things we can do to locate her. We just need to work together on this and we’ll crack it.”
I took a sip of the sugary sweet pumpkin latte. I’d come so far in such a short amount of time since returning to Witch Haven, but still had niggling doubts in the back of my mind that I should never have returned.
What if coming back here had enraged the ghosts, and one of them took its anger out on Luna? And what if what Magda and I did all those years ago had infected the village? By returning, I’d aggravated something dark. Maybe I was behind all these problems. Would it be simpler if I left? Would the darkness retreat if it no longer felt my presence?
“A penny spell for your thoughts,” Odessa said. “You look troubled. I know it’s worrying that Luna’s missing, but we’ll find her.”
I ate my final bite of muffin. “I hate to agree with the Magic Council, but what if they’re right about me? Would it be better if I gave myself up? They could investigate to see if I was the cause of these troubles. If they took all my magic, it may neutralize the problem.”
“Or it would leave you as a shadow with no home to call your own,” Odessa said. “It’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”
“So you think I have nothing to do with the darkness creeping through the village?”
“What darkness?” Odessa said, a little too brightly to be genuine.
“One of our friends was being haunted by malevolent ghosts and has vanished, Ursa and her killer dolls are acting up, and she was telling me about other problems in the village. Neither of you mentioned those. And then there are your misbehaving scarecrows to add to the list. Should I go on?”
Storm and Odessa shared a guilty look.
“We didn’t mention anything because we didn’t want to trouble you,” Odessa said. “You’re still finding your feet. Adding to your worries may change your mind about staying. And I don’t want you going anywhere.”
“And even if you are the problem,” Storm said, “now you’re back, you can fix everything.”
I wrinkled my nose. Could I? When I’d unleashed darkness on the village with Magda, I hadn’t even been aware of what I was doing. How could I undo a problem I didn’t even know I’d made?
“Besides, you can’t leave. It’s not possible,” Odessa said.
“Why isn’t it possible?”
“We’ve been out and about, and the Magic Council has patrols at the village exits. It’s not hard to figure out who they’re on the lookout for,” Storm said.
“All this trouble, just to catch me.” I shrugged. I really didn’t want to leave, so this was the excuse I needed to stick around. “Then it looks like I’m staying.”
Odessa clapped her hands. “Yay! That’s the right decision.”
“We’ve also been hearing bad things about you from anyone Ursa’s spoken to,” Storm said. “She’s been busy telling everyone you turned her dolls into monsters.”
“She’s the only monster around here,” I said. “And that only happened yesterday evening. How come everyone already knows about it?”
“News travels fast around here. I bet she was gossiping with her neighbors before you’d even whacked Limpy with that spell. And it’s just another reason you have to stay, to make sure people don’t believe any of these nasty rumors,” Odessa said.
I narrowed my eyes, but nodded. It wasn’t fair what Ursa was doing. I already had a lousy reputation in the village, and she was making it worse.
“Then I’m definitely not leaving,” I said.
“Which we all agree is the best idea.” Odessa tapped my knee and handed me a still warm pumpkin and chocolate chip pancake. “I’m not having another friend disappearing. It’s bad enough Luna’s gone. And to make it worse, her poor uncle isn’t keeping up with the orders at the bakery, so I’ve missed out on my fresh cream cakes.”
“Surely you have enough treats to keep you going here,” I said around a mouthful of delicious, sweet pancake.
“I’m just an amateur when it comes to cake making. You can’t beat someone else’s baking,” Odessa said. “And Albert’s baking is literally magical. But he’s so stressed about what’s going on with Luna, he keeps forgetting to open on time. When I went in yesterday, several people were complaining about missing orders and late deliveries. With all the stress and worry, he may close the bakery altogether. He relies heavily on Luna, even though there were times when her baked goods were less than perfect.”
“She mentioned to me that she had trouble with her baking,” I said. “I figured that kind of magic would run in her blood. She has the gift, the same as the rest of her family.”
Odessa shook her head. “You would think that, and sometimes, her cakes were out of this world. But Luna was never consistent with what she created. Sometimes, she’d make a fruitcake so sweet and delicious that I could easily eat the whole thing, and then another time she’d present me with a piece that was so hard I almost chipped a tooth.”
“Something was going on with her baking magic,” Storm said. “I asked her about it after getting sick from eating a cream horn she gave me, but she denied there was a problem.”
I finished my pancake and sat back in the pile of hay behind me. “The ghost in her apartment said Luna was keeping secrets. I thought it was blowing hot air at the time to distract me. Was it telling the truth? It would have seen everything going on in her life since it was haunting her. Did Luna have a problem with her magic that she was keeping secret?”
“We’ll only learn the answer to that once we’ve found her,” Odessa said.
“And your location spells showed nothing useful?”
Odessa shook her head. “They were unhelpfully vague. I thought I’d mis-cast the magic, but I kept getting the same result.”
I nodded. “I did a similar spell, and it didn’t help. Hilda thinks Luna is in limbo. Maybe even trapped between worlds.”
Odessa’s forehead wrinkled. “If that’s true, then we have to get her out of there. She’ll be so scared.”
“Agreed. So what’s our next move?” Storm said.
“How about we go back to Luna’s apartment?” I said. “There could be clues I missed. The last time I was there, I was focused on getting rid of the ghosts, so I didn’t think to look for anything else. If Luna’s hiding a secret, that could be the reason she went missing, or even why the ghosts were interested in her in the first place.”
“We should go now, before it gets any lighter,” Odessa said. “The village is still quiet, so we can sneak in and out without anyone spotting us. And you definitely need to keep a low profile now that Ursa’s badmouthing you and the Magic Council is on the hunt for you.”
“I will. But Luna has to be our priority. And I just need to keep the Magic Council off my back until we find her and know she’s safe.”
“And clear your name,” Odessa said. “That’s important, too.”
It was important, but with my best fr
iend in danger, I had to get her back. The rest I’d figure out later.
Storm brushed muffin crumbs off her fingers. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go find Luna.”
Chapter 7
We headed out of Odessa’s hayloft, past a huge field of ripening pumpkins, and then a creepy field full of half-built scarecrows. Most had legs or arms, and all had torsos, but there were only a few with pumpkin heads. They watched us with glowing eyes, a sense of constrained malevolence rippling off their compact bodies.
Odessa sure knew how to make scary scarecrows.
Her farm sat on the outskirts of Witch Haven, but it was only a small village, and we soon reached a more residential area. The lanes were lined with thatched cottages with tiny windows and low doorways a hobbit would feel at home going through.
The cottages quickly gave way to modern buildings, and we turned onto the street Luna’s apartment sat on.
I grabbed Storm and Odessa. “Is that someone standing outside her apartment?”
Storm frowned. “We don’t need to get any closer to identify that’s someone from the Magic Council. Look at the officious way he’s standing. And he’s wearing one of those dumb hats they always have. They must train them to look that pompous.”
“Let’s try around the back,” Odessa said. “There’s an external staircase used for emergencies.”
After watching for a few minutes to see if the guard out the front would move on, we tried the back way in. We headed along the deserted alleyway that ran behind the apartments. It housed storage units and the large communal dumpsters used by apartment residents.
Odessa squeaked and shoved me back against the wall so hard my teeth rattled.
“Ouch! What was that for?”
She shooed me away with her hands. “Retreat! There’s a guard at the back as well.”
“They must really want to catch you,” Storm said.
We shuffled behind a dumpster and ducked down.
“There’s only one of them,” Odessa said after a few seconds of sneaking looks at the guard. “We could use a little diversionary magic on him. Or restrain him so we can get inside.”
“We don’t want anyone getting hurt,” I said.
“Don’t you want to help Luna?” Storm said.
“Of course! But... I’m done hurting people with my magic.” I chewed on my bottom lip. I really wanted to take a look inside Luna’s apartment, and that guard was standing in my way.
“I’ll deal with this guy.” Storm wiggled her fingers. “I’ll distract him while you two get inside.”
“What are you going to do to him?” I said.
“Give him something else to think about.” She waved us away, and we backed up until we were out of sight of the guard but could still see Storm.
Storm marched over to the guy guarding the door and started talking to him.
“She’s not going to hurt him, is she?” I said.
“Oh, no. There won’t be any permanent damage. All he’ll have is a mild headache,” Odessa said. “Maybe some mild short-term memory loss.”
“Memory loss!” I made a move to stop Storm, but Odessa grabbed me and shook her head.
“Storm’s magic is blunt, but it’s effective. Trust her. She knows what she’s doing.”
I nodded and forced myself not to panic. Storm Winter’s name fit her perfectly. Her magic was cold, hard, and could chill a person to the bone if she was in the right mood. Or the wrong mood, depending on which side of the spell you were on.
I chewed on a nail as I waited to see what Storm would do. I almost felt sorry for the guard, but he was stopping us from helping a friend in need, so he had to be removed.
The guard suddenly yelped and slumped to the ground.
Storm turned and gave us a thumbs up, before grabbing him under the armpits and hauling him behind a dumpster.
“Let’s move,” Odessa said.
We scurried to the back entrance, headed inside, and dashed up the stairs to Luna’s apartment, which was on the second floor.
I breathed a sigh of relief when there was no one guarding her actual apartment door. I tried the handle, but it was locked.
“Leave that to me.” Glittery magic sparkled out of Odessa’s fingers and surrounded the door handle. A second later, the door popped open.
I ducked my head around it and peered inside. “It’s all clear.”
We headed in, and I took a minute to take in the chaos. It had only been a few days ago that I’d confronted a ghost here, and the damage had yet to be cleared up. There were dried globules of ghost goo on the cream carpet, scorch marks on the walls, and several large indentations in the ceiling.
“I’ll search Luna’s bedroom,” I said. “You take the living room.”
Odessa nodded and hurried away.
I headed into Luna’s bedroom. It was painted a calming sage green, and if it weren’t for the mold flaking off the walls, it would have been a nice place to rest your head.
When we got Luna back, I’d make sure this place looked great before she moved back in. She didn’t need any lingering memories of her unhappy time here. She’d loved this apartment until it got taken over by malevolent ghosts.
I searched through her drawers, under her bed, and had a rifle through her closet, but didn’t find anything useful. I left the bedroom and headed into the living room.
“Did you find anything?” I asked Odessa.
She was just replacing the cushions on the couch. “Nothing. No deep, dark secrets to put Luna’s life in peril. What about you?”
“The same. There were no secrets hanging in the closet. But I’ve had an idea. How about we try contacting Luna while we’re here? She has a strong connection with this place. We could use it as an anchor to draw her close to us if she is in limbo.”
“It’s worth a shot.” Odessa settled on the couch and patted the seat next to her. “Take hold of my hands, we’ll see if we can make contact.”
I joined her, and we linked hands. “Do you mind leading on the magic? I’m still getting used to my new powers and they sometimes misfire. I don’t want this spell to go wrong and blast us into space.”
“Space! No, I’m definitely not dressed for space travel. And I don’t have my broomstick with me. I’m happy to help,” Odessa said. “And I’ve got something to make the connection stronger.” She pulled a small glass bottle from her pocket.
“What is it?”
“It’s my speciality ground pumpkin. The energy is concentrated because it’s been dried and then ground into a fine powder.”
“That sounds... good?”
“It’s better than good. This powder strengthens any spell.” She patted some onto her palm and did the same to me. “If Luna is out there in limbo, we’ll get to her thanks to my pumpkin powered powder.”
We held hands again, and I took a deep breath, grounding my magic and focusing on contacting Luna, as Odessa’s warm, cinnamon and spice scented magic wound its way around me.
Nothing happened for a few seconds. All I could hear was Odessa softly breathing and kept getting the whiff of pumpkin spice up my nose.
I tilted my head. “Did you hear someone?”
“No. But it could take a while before we find Luna. Give my magic time to work. It’s got a lot of places to search.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and continued to listen. There it was again. A faint female voice, and she was calling for help.
“Oh! I heard it that time. Do you think that’s Luna?” Odessa said.
“It’s hard to tell. Someone needs assistance, though. Luna, can you hear me? It’s Indigo. I’m in your apartment with Odessa. Do you see us?”
“Help!” The voice was just a whisper in the air. “I’m lost.”
“Luna, if you can hear me, say my name. We’re trying to find you. We’re going to bring you back.”
“Help me. It’s so dark in here.”
“Whoever it is, she sounds scared,” Odessa said.
“We’re comin
g for you, Luna. We’re looking for you. We won’t give up until we get you back.” Determination flooded through me. We would get her back. My best friend had to return to Witch Haven. I wasn’t letting this ghost win. And Luna going missing was my fault. I’d failed to banish the ghost who’d been hassling her, and now she was in even more trouble.
“Do you know where you are, Luna?” Odessa said.
There was silence.
“I can’t hear her anymore,” Odessa said. “Has Luna gone?”
“Luna, we’re right here in your apartment. Try to find us.” My voice wobbled. I desperately wanted her home.
“I’m not sensing anything.” Odessa squeezed my hand. “I think she’s gone.”
I glanced at her, tears making my vision cloudy. “Do you think the ghost took Luna to punish me?”
“No! And I don’t think this is about you. Well, not just you. Although I imagine the ghosts were raging mad that you put a stop to their fun.”
“Why else would they take Luna if not to get back at me?”
Odessa didn’t speak for several seconds. Indecision played across her face before she sighed. “Because of her odd powers.”
“You think her dodgy cake baking was the reason she was snatched by the ghosts?”
“It’s much more than that. Luna has been hiding something. I’ve seen her go out at strange hours of the night, yet when I asked her about it, she brushed it off and said she was having trouble sleeping. But I didn’t believe her.”
“Do you think it’s the darkness messing with Luna?” I said.
“I don’t know. Maybe. But Luna is such a good witch, that it would take something seriously powerful to push her off her path.”
Had I really messed up this entire village? Evil scarecrows, dangerous dolls, toxic hauntings, my best friend turning to dark magic. What next, a plague of frogs descending on us?
Odessa gave me a hug. “Don’t get disheartened. Luna made contact with us. That’s a great start. She’s still alive.”