A Witch on Mintwood Mountain (Witch of Mintwood Book 4)

by Addison Creek

  Given that he had showed up at the farmhouse in secret and had worn a cloak to talk to me in public, I thought they might be right about that.

  “So, that’s why you were so unhappy to see her?” I prodded, thinking back to the town hall meeting and how Gerry had looked as if she’d seen a ghost.

  “Yes, I hadn’t told you yet, which I knew I was supposed to do. Harriet was pleasant enough about it, but insistent. My son likes you, but I was worried that you wouldn’t want me in Mintwood after you found out that I was a witch.”

  “I’m happy to have you here,” I said, “especially since you’re Liam’s mom. He’s a good friend of mine.”

  “He’s a good boy,” said Gerry.

  “So, can she stay?” asked Harriet.

  “Of course,” I said. “She’s been here longer than I have. I can’t imagine Mintwood without her!”

  Gerry beamed for the first time all night.

  “Anyway, sorry to have interrupted your evening,” she added.

  “We do have business we need to discuss with Aunt Harriet,” I said ruefully.

  “Maybe I can help,” Gerry perked up.

  I exchanged looks with my aunt. She was the one who knew Gerry. My aunt nodded.

  Quickly, I told my aunt what had happened with Hank Smith. She asked what state the shop was in and I explained that it was in complete disarray. She asked where the spare key was, then got up to go put the shop back together so Jasper wouldn’t have us arrested.

  “But you can’t go alone,” I said.

  “Watch me,” she shot back. “I’ll be fine.”

  “What if Hank Smith is still there?” I said.

  “He’s unlikely to stay in the same place for long,” said my aunt, “especially after attacking a witch.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Gerry offered. “Lemmi’s right. You shouldn’t be going alone. This way I can just go home afterwards.”

  My aunt accepted this plan, and the two of them left. I watched them go. Then a ghost bird fluttered past the window, reminding me about Paws.

  Suddenly the cat popped up from his box, scaring the daylights out of me. I jumped backward and glared.

  “Sorry! I just want you to know that I’m ready to help! Anything you need!” Paws panted.

  I shook my head. Never a dull moment.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The next morning I woke up with two goals. The first was to continue the search for my grandmother’s ghost. The second was to prepare for my final trek to Mintwood Mountain, which I intended for that same night.

  “What about Farmer Franklin?” Charlie asked.

  “I think I’ve figured that one out,” I said.

  Charlie and Greer both looked up at me. Aunt Harriet had out late putting the gift shop back in order, and she was sleeping in. “I won’t skimp on sleep,” she had asserted. “I need my beauty rest!”

  “Tell me,” Charlie urged.

  I shook my head. “I’ll tell you after we find Chloe. I need to go back there to be a hundred percent sure.”

  Charlie sat back, looking petulant. “Fine, but I’m going on record as not believing you! I think you’re just stalling for time.”

  “You’re going to have to offer proof,” Greer agreed.

  Biting my lower lip, I thought I might have an idea. My grandmother had crammed any number of things into the kitchen drawers, one of which was completely devoted to notepads. I pulled out one that had red hearts floating on the sides and scribbled a name. I folded the piece of paper and said, “Greer, can I trust you to keep this piece of paper safe until it’s time to reveal the true culprit?”

  “I think I can manage that, seeing as how I never cared to begin with,” said Greer. She was hurrying through a late breakfast because she had another date with Deacon later in the day. He had a fancy dinner thing to go to with his family, but they were going to hang out for a while before that.

  “Are you telling me that paper doesn’t say ghost?” Charlie asked.

  “It doesn’t,” I said. “There’s a name on it. You’ll understand once you see it.”

  “I don’t see why you can’t just tell me now,” Charlie complained. “But fine. I accept this challenge. I’m going to try and figure it out by myself, since you did.”

  “You do that,” I said.

  “Okay, I’ll write an article to appear in tomorrow’s paper saying that a reliable source told me it wasn’t ghosts,” said Charlie. “I’d rather know what it was before I write it, but I guess I can’t.”

  “Yes, Mayor Clabberd did want me to solve the mystery before election day, so a piece on the day everyone is going to vote should help,” I said.

  “I can’t wait to find out who did it,” Charlie muttered. She looked as though she was going to start arguing again, but finally she gave in. “Fine, I’ll write it.”

  With the piece of paper tucked safely into Greer’s pocket, we got down to the business of ghost hunting. Charlie had decided to work from home instead of going into the office, mostly because Lena was angry that Charlie didn’t have more dish on the election, the hikers, and everything else in the news. Charlie had said she was going to write a couple of articles today, but so far she hadn’t even changed out of her pajamas.

  “Half the point of working from home is being able to stay in my pajamas,” she explained.

  “That’s actually the whole point,” Greer quipped.

  “Have you looked through the book of spells yet?” Charlie asked.

  “Yeah, I did, and I can’t find anything that seems relevant,” I said.

  “We’ll help you,” said Greer. “There have to be more books.”

  With that encouragement I went up to the attic and came back with several more thick volumes about magic. We spent the next hour poring over them, and after Greer left for her date, Charlie and I kept going. Well into the afternoon my aunt appeared, looking as fresh as a summer’s day.

  “Sleep well?” Charlie asked.

  “Yes, very,” my aunt smiled. “I hadn’t done magic like that in a long time! It was a lot of fun! I do miss it sometimes as I travel around.”

  “Was there any sign of Hank Smith?” I asked.

  My aunt shook her head. “I have a feeling he isn’t far away, but I also have a feeling we won’t be able to find him easily. I’m not too worried about it though, he’s probably going to find us before long.”

  “That’s comforting,” Charlie muttered.

  “We haven’t discovered anything about spells for finding missing ghosts,” I said.

  Harriet grimaced. “Yes, I was afraid of that. Usually witches are the last folks who might have to find such things.”

  “Is there anywhere else we can look?” I asked.

  My aunt breathed out a sigh. “We’ve exhausted our own direct options. I was hoping we’d find a spell, but if we can’t the only other thing I can think of is to ask a ghost to find us a ghost.”

  Charlie and I exchanged looks. The way my aunt said it made us nervous.

  My aunt’s idea was simple. Ghosts had a lot of knowledge about a variety of things, but there was a certain set of people who were now ghosts who had a lot of knowledge specifically about ghost hunting.

  Witch hunters.

  Yes, that’s right. The very people tasked with tracking us down did so in part by finding ghosts. They couldn’t see ghosts themselves unless a witch gave them a piece of jewelry like the pieces I had given Charlie and Greer, but they had other ways of finding ghosts just the same.

  “Who are we going to see?”

  “Cobalt Wolf,” said my aunt.

  “That’s quite the name,” I said.

  “His mother was eccentric,” she replied.

  Evening brought the start of an eventful night.

  Greer had returned from her date with Deacon, glowing as per usual, and the four of us were piling into the Beetle. This time we brought a map, water, and other supplies for our midnight hiking expedition. We had to find Chloe, or all
would be lost. But first, we had to go and see the ghost of a witch hunter.

  Cobalt Wolf was buried in a private cemetery on the edge of Mintwood, not too far from the scene of the stolen tools crime.

  “Whose property is Cobalt buried on?” I asked my aunt. “And what relation does Cobalt have to Jasper?”

  I was afraid of the answer.

  “He’s buried on Jasper’s grandfather’s property,” said my aunt. “He’s Jasper’s great-grandfather.”

  “Does he want to see us?” I asked.

  “I’m going,” said Paws, who was already sitting on my car when we came out. Tank was sitting at a good distance, looking furious.

  “Fine,” I said, shrugging as if it was no big deal.

  Paws, who had clearly been preparing for a fight, deflated a little. “Oh, okay, great,” he said, hopping into the car and sticking his tail in the air at Tank, who hopped away in a huff.

  “Glad to have you back,” Charlie beamed as Paws wound his way into her lap.

  “I can’t imagine Cobalt doesn’t want to see us,” said my aunt calmly, undeterred by the cat and rabbit sidetrack. “He probably wants to alert the others, given that he’ll be talking to two witches.”

  “So, what makes you think he’s going to help?” I said.

  “Dark witches and dark ghosts are bad for everyone, including witch hunters. Cobalt won’t want his family in danger,” my aunt explained.

  “You think you can make him see reason?” Charlie asked.

  “Certainly. I’m sure he’s a perfectly reasonable ghost,” said my aunt.

  If Paws was anything to go by, that was an oxymoron of epic proportions.

  “Are there any ghost dogs there?” Paws asked.

  “I thought you were here to help,” I said, glancing at the cat in my rearview mirror.

  “I am, certainly. Ghosts dogs would be a delight,” Paws said quickly.

  “Thought so,” I muttered.

  After what felt like an eternity, we drove past a pair of sturdy gates set into a wrought iron fence that stretched out of sight.

  “Creepy,” Charlie whispered.

  “You can say that again,” said Greer.

  Aunt Harriet had me keep driving further down the road, but eventually she told me to pull off to the side.

  “Does the fence stretch this far?” I whispered.

  “Certainly, but I have a way around that.” My aunt was wearing her witching hat, which gave her a formidable air but made me nervous about what she might do next.

  We pulled as far off the road as possible so that cars driving past would have a hard time seeing the Beetle. Then my aunt led the way into the woods. This wasn’t a scraggly forest like the one on Mintwood Mountain, but a nicely kept woodland that was easy to walk through. The trees were sparse, as if they had been planted intentionally as opposed to having grown up randomly like most of the woods around Mintwood.

  It didn’t take us long to reach the cemetery. When we did, my aunt stepped up, pulled out her wand, and moved it in a smooth motion as she whispered a spell. A stream of sparkles sped from the wand to twine around the gate, and in a moment it swung silently backward.

  “Open,” she said, turning to us. Charlie, Greer, and I walked through the gate and Aunt Harriet brought up the rear. Silently, she closed the gate behind her.

  Despite the long fence, the cemetery was small, with only about twenty graves. I saw no ghosts anywhere.

  “Where are they?” Charlie asked. She was looking around nervously; apparently trespassing didn’t bother her unless we were trespassing on Wolf property.

  “This is the gravestone,” said Harriet. She walked up to the largest monument in the place, which sat smack dab in the middle. Cobalt Wolf had died in 1962, having lived for eighty-nine years.

  “A good life,” my aunt commented.

  “What is the meaning of this?” a gruff voice demanded. We froze. A large ghost with a scruffy beard and massive shoulders came right up to us. He reminded me of Jasper in the way he walked and in the way his hands dangled near his legs.

  “Mr. Cobalt Wolf?” my aunt asked.

  “Who wants to know?” he demanded.

  “Don’t listen to them, Blue,” said another ghost, striding out of the woods next to the first one. This ghost looked a lot like Cobalt Wolf, only without the beard. Three more ghosts, all women dressed from another time, trailed after the two men. None of them looked happy to see us.

  “I’m Harriet and this is my niece Lemmi. We’re witches,” said my aunt.

  Cobalt Wolf snorted. “Of course you are. I knew that. Makes it all the more necessary that you explain yourself before I call my son out here to deal with you.”

  “We came because we need your help,” said my aunt.

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” sniffed one of the women. Her sharp features suggested that she didn’t tolerate nonsense well. She would do well at the farmhouse, I thought.

  “It’s a matter of life and death,” I said.

  “We’re already dead. So we don’t really care,” said Mr. Wolf.

  “A dark witch is trying to take over Mintwood from Lemmi. They have dark ghosts to help,” said my aunt.

  This got all five of the ghosts’ attention.

  “Does my great-grandson know?” Cobalt asked.

  “Does he know he’s a witch hunter?” my aunt shot back.

  “I always found answering questions with questions very irritating,” he commented.

  “I guess we’ll never know, then,” said Harriet.

  Did Jasper know he was a witch hunter? If he knew, then he knew I was a witch. But in that case I would have thought he’d behave quite differently toward me. If he didn’t know, why hadn’t his grandfather told him by now?

  “Let’s get this straight,” said the second man. “You can’t handle other witches by yourselves, so you come to witch hunters for help?”

  “We need to find a ghost. We don’t know how to do that, but you do,” I said.

  “Oh, the younger one speaks. You should mind your elders and remain quiet,” said Mr. Wolf.

  “Believe me, I mind them,” I muttered.

  Greer gave me a sideways grin.

  “Are you saying we should do this to help protect witch hunters?” said Cobalt.

  “It’s for the benefit of all of us, including the witch hunters. That is, your own family,” said Aunt Harriet.

  Cobalt Wolf stroked his beard, deep in thought.

  “Send them away and call your son,” said the harsh-looking woman.

  Another one of the women shushed her. “Let him think.”

  “Have you looked for this ghost you’re seeking?” Cobalt asked my aunt.

  “Yes, I have. I turned to spells, but we don’t have any that would be effective,” she said.

  “Oh, you do. They just aren’t in the usual books. I know your mother was unusual, but even she couldn’t get her hands on those books,” he said.

  My aunt scrunched her nose, and I realized that she had known something like this was true, but hadn’t wanted to say anything to me.

  Cobalt Wolf looked down at Paws for the first time, and the cat, shockingly enough, stayed silent. Maybe he really was afraid that I’d replace him with a rabbit.

  “Are there really dark witches?” he asked.

  “Yes,” said Paws, “and these witches are very good, so we need all the help we can get.”

  Phew, at least some things hadn’t changed.

  “Please help us. We don’t know what else to do,” I said.

  “I can find her,” said Cobalt eventually. “I can.”

  “How can you find her if we haven’t been able to find her?” I demanded.

  “I can go places that you can’t,” he explained. “Who would you like me to find?”

  He was confirming what my aunt had said. We had tried to find spells that would help us find my grandmother, but that hadn’t worked, and if the last Witch of Mintwood had
n’t come back on her own by now, it wasn’t likely that she was going to.

  “My grandmother Evenlyn. The last Witch of Mintwood,” I said. “And I’m wondering: what’s in it for you if you help us?” I was suspicious of how willing he was to help.

  “My grandson and my son have been through enough. We don’t need any dark witches or ghosts hanging around here. If I can help, I will. Just don’t tell either of them.” He rolled his eyes as if to imply that his family was temperamental.

  “Okay, so you’re just going to find Evenlyn for us?” I asked skeptically.

  “Certainly. I don’t think you’ll have very long with her though,” he said. “Not if you’ve already buried her body. Witches don’t tend to stay long as ghosts.”

  My heart pulled at the thought of seeing my grandmother and then having to give her up again, but I agreed.

  “Now, get out of here before my son comes along. I don’t think I could explain helping you to him.”

  “Should I at least stay?” my aunt asked.

  “No, you are no longer needed,” he explained. Then he turned away, having nothing more to say.

  We didn’t waste any time leaving him to it. Even as we walked away, he appeared to be marshaling the troops and making plans.

  We dropped Harriet back at the farmhouse. I could see that Paws was poised for me to ask him if he wanted to get out of the car and stay, and when I didn’t ask, I heard a distinct sigh of relief.

  “On to Mintwood Mountain! Let’s solve this case once and for all!” exclaimed Charlie.

  We drove yet again to Mintwood Mountain, all of us hoping that this would be the last time. Chloe was still lost up there somewhere, and in order to get to the bottom of the Missing Hiker Mystery we just had to find her. Paws was with us and being very helpful, as he had been all night.

  “Are you sure you know where you’re going this time?” the cat asked.

  “I brought a map, and I traced out where we’re supposed to be,” I said.

  “I brought four flashlights,” said Greer.

  “I would ask you what logic you used to think that was necessary, but I doubt it would make any sense,” Charlie muttered. In any event, we each got our own flashlight.