Curses and Candy Canes: A Paranormal Mystery Christmas Anthology

by Tegan Maher

  The dragons followed after her, the second one, with white and blue scales, shooting yet another burst of flame towards her. He was too late; Sara had moved out of the way seconds earlier, but the heat of the flame caused the ice on the lake where the fire had hit to melt instantly.

  Sara pressed herself close to her broom and began darting around a set of trees planted quite closely together. It was too tight a fit for the dragons, so they flew above the trees, looking down uselessly as Sara weaved her way expertly around the trunks.

  I knew Sara was a good flyer – she was one of the best in the world – but I also knew that if she mistimed any of her moves by a split second she was going to fly directly into one of those tree trunks.

  My hands flew to my eyes and I looked through my fingers as she weaved around for a little while before suddenly pulling straight up on the broom and shooting towards the sky, flying directly between the two dragons, who, in their rush to catch up to her, ended up flying straight into one another.

  The black-and-red dragon was caught off-balance for a second but recovered quickly, and he beat his wings faster to try and catch up to Sara, but the blue-and-white one lost his balance completely and landed on the lake ice, with a roar of surprising escaping his jaws.

  A huge crack filled the air, and the next thing I knew the dragon had fallen into the lake and began flailing his wings about in a panicked attempt to escape the frigid water.

  “Daria!” Sara shouted, realizing what had happened and immediately reversing course, flying down to the dragon. “Daria, shift back, make it easier for us to help you!”

  Daria instinctively shot flames high into the air, but even I could tell the strength in her was fading. She thrashed around while Sara flew above her. The dragon ignored Sara’s pleas to shift back to human form; given how she was thrashing about I doubted she could even hear Sara.

  “Grab my broom,” Sara insisted, but it was no use. Daria was panicking, and there was nothing she could do. The other dragon flew around in circles, obviously not knowing what to do.

  I pulled out my wand. I wasn’t entirely sure what spells I knew that could help, but I had to try something.

  “Jupiter, god of thunder, this water is freezing, make it warmer,” I said. It was a spell I used whenever I took a long, hot bath and the water inevitably cooled, allowing me to steep for even longer. In this case, the spell worked. The ice began to crack, and seconds later the entire lake had returned to liquid form. At least now hypothermia was going to be a little bit less of an issue.

  “Jupiter, god of lightning, I need a lasso, make it tightening.” This time, a rope flew from my wand, the end of it attaching itself to the dragon shifter’s flailing wing. “Sara, help me,” I called out as I tried to drag the dragon back towards the shore. I wasn’t nearly strong enough, but the other dragon flew over immediately. It picked me up with its talons and began dragging me away from the shore as I gripped the wand as hard as I could, bringing its water-logged companion along with it.

  Eventually, Daria reached the shore and shifted back into human form. I looked into the face of a pale, blonde woman who was absolutely drenched to the bone and shivering like crazy.

  “Oh, Daria,” Sara said, flying down to the ground and hopping off her broom, letting it fall to the earth. “Are you alright?”

  “Hold on,” I said, pointing my wand and casting another couple of quick spells. The dragon was immediately dried off, and after I cast my second spell she looked around amazingly, holding her arms out.

  “Did it suddenly get warmer in here?” she asked.

  “It’s a heating spell,” I answered. “I learned it a few weeks ago; it keeps witches warm in the winter when we’re outside. I figured you could use it.”

  “Thank you so much,” Daria said to me. “For everything. You saved me.”

  “Is she alright?” a man asked, approaching us. His black hair was streaked with red; this was obviously the other dragon.

  “I am, thanks, Andre,” Daria replied with a smile. “That was an unfortunate turn of events.”

  “I’m sorry, you guys,” Sara said. “I never should have brought us this close to the lake.”

  “It was an accident, don’t worry about it,” Daria said with a wave of her hand. “I’m glad your friend was here, though. You saved me.”

  “I’m sure between the three of you you’d have been fine without me,” I replied.

  “Who knows what would have happened if I’d tried to cast those spells!” Sara said. Her magic had a tendency to be a little bit unexpected. Sara was an incredible witch on the broom, but her spell-casting skills left a little bit to be desired.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re safe,” I said to Daria. She smiled.

  “Thanks. Me too. I think Andre and I might head off. I’m going to go sit in front of a fire for a while. Same time next week, Sara?”

  “Yes, please! That is, if I haven’t scared you off.”

  Daria laughed. “Please. Getting to chase a witch on a broom around is the best exercise I’ve gotten in years.” She and Andre waved at us and began heading back down the path towards town while I took a closer look at Sara.

  “Your hands are freezing!” I exclaimed. They were practically white, with little blue dots forming on them. “Do you know what that is? That’s frostbite!”

  “It’s fine,” Sara said, rubbing her hands together. “It was just a long day of practice, that’s all.”

  “Have you ever heard of gloves? Or even magic? I hear that’s a thing in this part of the world.”

  “I can’t cast the hand warming spell properly,” Sara said mournfully. “And I forgot my gloves at home, but I still had to practice. Do you think anyone else is skipping practice because their hands are cold?”

  “Well, seeing as two of your competitors live in Hawaii and Arizona I don’t think that’s an issue for them,” I replied with a small smile. “But you’re going to have trouble holding onto that broom handle if your hands fall off from being frostbitten too badly.”

  Sara shrugged. “It’s not that bad. I can’t even feel them anymore.”

  “That’s not a good thing!”

  I pulled out my wand and immediately cast the warming spell on Sara too, who basked in its warmth for a minute. “Mmm, thanks for this,” she said. “That does feel good.”

  “If you want to feel even better, Ellie is at home baking Christmas cookies right now.”

  “Oh, that absolutely does,” Sara replied, picking her broom up off the ground. “Let’s go for it. Hey, did you hear that someone stole the orb off the Christmas tree last night?”

  “I did,” I replied slowly. I didn’t want Sara to know that half the town thought she had done it if I could avoid it. She sighed.

  “I know everyone thinks I did it.” Well, there went that plan.

  “Who told you?”

  “Daria,” Sara replied. “She asked me when I got here if I stole it. I had no idea it was even gone. I can’t believe everyone thinks it was me.”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “But don’t worry; we’re doing our best to find the person who actually took it. Your reputation will stay intact.”

  Sara smiled at me. “You guys are the best, you know that? I should have known you’d do something amazing like that for me.”

  “Come on, let’s get some cookies into you. Cookies are a great way to cure any ailment.”

  “I’m pretty sure my mom would disagree with that.”

  “Ok, maybe not all ailments. But I think there is some science about sugar helping you out when you feel sad.”

  “I’m willing to give it a shot, anyway,” Sara said with a laugh.

  Chapter Six

  When the two of us got home we were instantly greeted by the warm aroma of freshly-baked cookies.

  “Welcome back,” Ellie said. “I made sugar cookies.”

  I took my shoes and jacket off in record time as Sara and I made a beeline towards the kitchen. Sure enough, one of the wire
cooling racks was covered in cookies unlike any I had ever seen before. The Christmas tree cookies had lights which changed color intermittently, and the stars topping them glimmered in the light. The snowman cookies had arms that moved, and the ones in the shape of snowflakes spun around slowly, like they were actually drifting towards the ground.

  A second batch of cookies looked like regular human-world cookies, with an orange tint and slightly off-white frosting. Those had to be the pumpkin sugar cookies Ellie had mentioned that morning.

  “These look amazing,” I said.

  “You can take some. Go ahead,” Ellie motioned, and I picked a Christmas tree and took a big bite of it. The warm cookie melted in my mouth, followed by the sweetness from the icing, and I declared then and there that if I had to pick only one thing to eat for the entire rest of my life, it was that.

  “You must like the cookies, you haven’t even realized I’m here,” a voice said, and I peeked into the living room to see Kyran, my boyfriend, sitting on the couch with a plate full of cookies in front of him.

  “Hey!” I said, making my way over and giving him a kiss. “Sorry. You know how excited I get over cookies.”

  He laughed. “Fair enough. They are pretty amazing. Anyway, I got your text, and some information.”

  Ellie glanced over at Sara, like we shouldn’t be talking about this in front of her.

  “Good,” I said. “Sara knows that the whole town thinks she stole the orb.”

  Ellie groaned. “Great. Who spilled the beans?”

  “Daria,” Sara replied. “You know her, the dragon shifter that works security at the bank?”

  “Oh yeah. She’s a good dragon,” Ellie replied. “I wish she hadn’t told you about that, though.”

  “Tina says you’re trying to find the paranormal who actually stole the orb?”

  “That’s right,” Ellie replied. “Hopefully Kyran can help us.”

  Kyran shrugged. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get too much out of the elves. I went to see Normordira’s husband. He’s keeping everyone away from her, but she’s on bed rest, so I assume she’s not a suspect herself.”

  I nodded. “That’s right.”

  “Well, anyway, her husband has been at her side for the last three days. Hasn’t left it. Her brother went to the Christmas tree lighting, but he didn’t stay long. The elves are all far more worried about Normordira’s baby than they are Christmas celebrations. It’s been so long since there’s been an elf child in town, and now with the high-risk pregnancy, the Christmas tree is kind of a low priority.”

  “I guess I can understand that,” I replied. “Still, you didn’t get any information that might help?”

  “Sorry,” Kyran said with a shrug. “I will say that while the brother was there, he wasn’t especially forthcoming about it. I had to find out about it from a couple of shifters who saw him; the brother initially lied to me and said he had been holding a vigil for Normordira and the baby at the time.”

  “That is interesting,” Ellie replied. “I wonder why he would lie about that. Possibly to hide a guilty conscience.”

  “It’s possible,” Kyran said. “I also looked around as much as I could get away with trying to find the orb, but I saw no trace of it. That’s to be expected, though.”

  “Right,” I nodded. “Ok, so we don’t have any proof of anyone having done it, but we also don’t have enough evidence against anyone to fully eliminate them as suspects. Although I think we’ve more or less written off Estelle.”

  “That’s correct,” Amy said. “I don’t think she did it. Well, hopefully we’ll think of something soon.”

  “Yeah,” Sara said, her voice trailing. I felt so bad for her; I knew she hadn’t stolen the orb, but somehow everyone in town seemed to think she was the prime suspect. I didn’t know how, but I was going to solve this case. I just had to.

  The next morning I woke up early, unable to sleep.

  “Either sort yourself out or get out of bed,” Mr. Meowgi eventually muttered. “Some of us are trying to get their beauty rest, here.”

  “You spend literally the whole day sleeping,” I replied, but I got up and made my way down to the kitchen in search of some of the cookies Ellie had cooked the night before. I sat at the counter, thinking about the case. There had to be something we had missed. Hopefully these new and delicious cookies could help me figure it out.

  And then, it hit me. I knew who had stolen the orb.

  I waited until the sun came up and it was the middle of the morning before asking Amy to come back to the hospital with me.

  “Sure,” she said. “What for?”

  “I know who took the orb.”

  Amy raised her eyebrows. “Who was it?”

  I told her, and she shook her head. “No way.”

  “Well, let’s go find out.”

  Twenty minutes later we were in the hospital waiting room once more. Amy asked one of the assistant Healers if she could get Audrey to come out and speak with us, and a moment later she was there.

  “Well hello there, young witches,” she said to us with a friendly smile. “What brings you back here to see me today?”

  “We know you’re the one who took the orb,” I said softly. I could feel Amy holding her breath next to me, and while Audrey’s face initially looked like she was overcome with anger, it was quickly replaced with a sigh of resignation as her eyes fell to the floor.

  “You’re right. It was me. I really did hope I’d be able to keep it under wraps for another day. How did you find out?”

  “You mentioned the hot chocolate they were serving at the ceremony,” I replied. “That was the first night they were using the new recipe, which means you had to have been there at some point. That means you lied to us about where you were that night. You saw the orb, and you went back afterwards, when everyone else had left, and you stole it. You have it at your home, and you plan on sneaking it into the hospital tomorrow before Danielle’s surgery.”

  Tears welled up in Audrey’s eyes. “You’re right, of course. I’m just so scared for her. I know it was wrong, and I know I wasn’t supposed to do it, but Danielle’s my only daughter. And the idea of those two little girls growing up without a mother…”

  Audrey trailed off and she held up a finger motioning for us to hang on a second while she dug a couple of tissues out from the purse sitting on the chair next to her. She wiped her eyes, took a couple of deep breaths, and started again. “You can’t imagine what it’s like. I keep thinking about the surgery. I know it’s risky. I know the chances of success are low. And when I saw the orb being put on the tree, I knew that was my best shot. My best shot at saving my daughter. I knew it was the wrong thing to do, but I had to try. She’s my little girl. She’s everything to me.”

  I put an arm around Audrey. “Hey, it’s going to be alright,” I said, looking over at Amy.

  “You know we’re going to have to make sure the orb gets back to the Christmas tree, right? We can’t let you use it before the surgery,” Amy said softly, and Audrey nodded.

  “I know. And I am sorry. I heard that most of the town thinks it’s that young witch, that friend of yours. The one who rides her broom in the competition. I’m so sorry; I never wanted anyone to think it was her, and I hope you’ll tell her I apologize for the trouble I’ve caused her.”

  “I’m sure she’ll understand,” I said.

  “I do hope so. I’ll turn myself in to Chief Enforcer King.”

  “Why don’t you let us go and tell her?” I offered. “That way, you don’t have to leave Danielle for any longer than you need to. And maybe Sara can come along and help convince her that there’s been no harm, no foul.”

  I knew I was putting words in Sara’s mouth, but I knew my friend well enough to know that she would understand Audrey’s reasons and wouldn’t begrudge her.

  Audrey began to cry into her tissues. “You young witches are so lovely and understanding. I’m so sorry for what I did. I’ve felt awful this whole time.”<
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  “We understand,” Amy said. “You would do anything for your daughter.”

  “I would. And if the worst happened, well, I would be able to get through my own pain. But to imagine those two little girls, growing up without a mother… Well, that’s just not right, is it? I couldn’t let that happen. I’ve just felt so helpless, and this seemed like the one thing I could do to try and make a difference.”

  “I think the best thing you can do to help is to keep being there for Danielle,” I said. “You’re obviously a wonderful mother who loves her very much, and I’m sure your ongoing support means the world to her.”

  “I hope I’ll be able to continue doing that,” Audrey said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Chief Enforcer King decides to throw the book at me. Hopefully she’ll at least wait until after the surgery to lock me up. Please tell her I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

  “I’m sure given the extenuating circumstances an agreement will be able to be reached,” Amy said, placing a hand softly on the woman’s shoulder as she got up. “Go and be with Danielle now. We’ll speak with the Chief Enforcer.”

  Audrey nodded, and the two of us left, Amy giving Audrey shoulder a reassuring squeeze before leaving.

  “I hope Chief Enforcer King will understand the extenuating circumstances,” Amy said as we left the hospital. I pulled out my phone and texted Sara, asking her to meet us at the town hall, telling her we knew who had stolen the orb.

  “I think she will,” I replied confidently. “She’s always been a good Enforcer, and she’s always been fair. I think at the very least she’ll be willing to let any punishment slide until after the surgery.”