Witch Bane and the Croaking Game

by Cat Larson

  “I thought about that in the beginning too, but I’m not sure if it’s too late now.”

  “Worth a try, right? It’s better than doing nothing.”

  “And you’d go with me?”

  “Of course, I would.”

  “Okay, yeah. Why not? It can’t hurt.” Actually, having another pair of in-the-know eyes and ears could help a lot and… “Oh shoot.” Sage didn’t own a car. “My car’s out of gas.”

  “Fortunately, there’s an invention called a gas station that can help with that problem. Or we can borrow Griffin’s,” she quickly added, no doubt figuring out what my true problem was.

  “No, absolutely not.” He’d probably just invite himself along, and I didn’t want to worry about keeping my words in check.

  “I have an idea. Why don’t you open the shop?”

  “Where did that come from? We were talking about a car. And no.”

  “Stop being so stubborn. At least consider it.”

  “I’d have no idea how to run this place, what the majority of the stuff even is. I’ve gotten in trouble letting people in before—imagine what would happen if I actually opened for business.”

  “You can’t keep her store closed indefinitely.”

  “Not indefinitely. Just until she returns.”

  “She has bills to pay, and it’s not like she’d object to you earning a little money on the side while you’re running it. Start small. Just open a few hours a day or limit what’s for sale. People miss this place. Everyone’s wondering what’s going on.”

  “She’s on an extended vacation, remember?”

  She rolled her eyes. “They’d accept that load of bunk a lot more if her beloved shop wasn’t left to mold and rot.”

  “Geez.” And she says I’m dramatic? “I’ll think about it, okay? That’s the best I can do.”

  “Thank you. Now, let me see this grass you told me about.”

  I dumped out one of the blades that I’d shoved into my pocket a couple of days earlier. I was eager for Sage to “talk” to it in the hopes that it might reveal something about the spell Violet cast on Fernando.

  “Do you recognize it?” I asked, holding it up in front of her.

  “If it looks like grass, feels like grass, smells like—”

  “Can you just tell me what it says, please?” I placed the piece in the palm of her hand. And here I’d been worried about her reaction to learning I was a witch? It seemed almost laughable now. Sage had conversations with plants.

  She closed her hand. “She calls herself Chimera.”

  What—a third name now? “Nothing about Witch Bane or Goblin Grass?”

  She shrugged. “She doesn’t really feel like talking right now.”

  “She doesn’t feel like it? Wait, it’s a her?” Sage nodded. “But it’s also a local species. You said that’s your specialty.”

  “I’m able to communicate with her, but there’s not a lot I can do if she doesn’t want to communicate back. Do you talk when you don’t want to? Hmm?”

  “Okay, fine. Maybe later, then. Unless you think it’d help if we went right to the source? I’m sure Mrs. Zweifler wouldn’t mind us in her backyard.”

  “No, that wouldn’t matter. The whole plant or a blade of it, it’s still the same essence. There’s nothing else we can do right now; if she’s not up for a chat, then—hold on…” She lifted an index finger. “Huh. She just told me she doesn’t belong here.”

  “Doesn’t belong where—Bigfoot Bay? But Mrs. Zweifler said the plant keeps growing back after it’s pulled.”

  “I don’t know. She just keeps saying she’s misplaced and wants to go home.” I scrunched up my face. What? Sage held the blade a few more minutes then handed it back. “That’s all. Sorry.”

  “But I don’t get it. If the plant belongs somewhere else, it’d be a non-native species and you wouldn’t be able to talk to it at all, right?”

  “That’d make sense, but I don’t know. Sorry I can’t be more help. I guess she’s just stubborn. You should really be more understanding since you two have a lot in common.”

  “Ha-ha.”

  She cracked a smile. “Although, she’s much more laid-back than you.”

  “Is that right? How exactly can a plant be laid-back?”

  “Samm! They have personalities just like us. Geesh. Don’t be so high-and-mighty.”

  “Okay? So, moving on… Now, if this is a live-and-let-live plant like you say, wouldn’t that contradict what we already know about it? How can it be involved in a frog spell and be used as a deadly poison? You’d think it wouldn’t be so sinister.”

  “I highly doubt the plant jumped into a potion all by itself or into someone’s mouth. Don’t blame her.”

  “Yeah, I guess. And for all I know, Gavin could’ve been making everything up. Goblins. Ha!” I gave her a sideways glance.

  “Yes, goblins can be confusing creatures,” she agreed. “They speak the truth while simultaneously twisting it, but they’re mainly harmless, only wreaking havoc on themselves. They’re just out for fun.”

  “Some fun.”

  “Well, it does take one to understand one.”

  “So, I hear.”

  “It’s not very common to get mixed-up in their games.”

  “Lucky me, then.”

  Okay. I guessed goblins were real too. What next?

  Turned out, I shouldn’t have been asking a question I wasn’t ready to hear an answer to.

  “Wow,” she said. “We just talked about something outside your normal realm, and you didn’t even flinch. You’ve come a long way.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a positive.”

  She laughed. “Of course, it is. No more secrets, right?”

  “I already agreed to that. You think I’m still holding something back?”

  “Not you. Me.”

  I gave her a quizzical look. “Okay…”

  “I’m a fairy.”

  Epilogue

  I am a witch.

  My fiancé is an enchanted frog.

  My best friend is a—gasp—fairy.

  The local Irish pub owners are leprechauns, the younger one engaged to a fabulous coffee-making elf, with customers consisting of a gang of goblins.

  My ex-boyfriend’s ex-fiancée is a demon—or should be.

  And oh… did I mention my best friend is a fairy?

  Who would have ever thought the first statement on my list was the easiest one to swallow? Surely not me before coming back to Bigfoot Bay. My three-week-younger self would’ve said being a witch was the most shocking confession around.

  I ambled out of Violet’s bedroom in the dark of the night, a few minutes into April Fools’ Day—or Goblin’s Day, depending on if you preferred your pranks harmless or deadly.

  I couldn’t sleep. All my nights had been restless without Fernando here, even though I knew he was in loving and capable hands over at Sage’s. I think…

  Stop it! I chastised myself. Sage was still the wonderful and caring friend I’d known forever. I still loved and trusted her. This changed nothing. Or did it?

  Talk about a bitter pill. All my life I’d believed fairies to be bloodthirsty, devious little things who would sink their jagged teeth into your back the second you turned. There was a reason for the phrase “away with the fairies.” It meant you were out of your mind, probably from being in their presence for too long.

  Although, I couldn’t remember where these strong opinions had stemmed from. They were just ingrained in me. Fortunately, I’d never had to deal with one of the creatures, never had to worry about protecting myself, inviting them into my thoughts—until now.

  All that stuff about Violet leaving out a bowl of water to placate them had just been a ploy to get Damon off my back, but all along I had a living, breathing one right beside me.

  When I’d told Sage I needed a little time to digest her secret, I felt ashamed of myself, but I wasn’t about to lie to her. I really did need some time to figure out how
I’d gone from “What’d I do to deserve such an awesome best friend?” to “Holy Rosemary’s baby, my best friend is a fairy.”

  “Don’t believe everything you think,” is what she’d left me with.

  I lit a candle and sat on the floor with the spellbook. Maybe in combination with the flickering fire, the book would reveal something to me.

  I stared at the pages for what felt like an hour, thinking at one point I saw faint words appearing, but no, it’d just been a trick of the flame. And here I’d severely limited my coffee intake for like the past ninety hours, allowing only a teensy-weensy cup into my system. And for what? All I’d done was deprive myself of one of the greatest pleasures in life.

  In another six hours, as soon as the sun made an appearance, I was going to brew a full pot and drink it all.

  I sighed, feeling more like a defiant child than a full-grown woman. I set the book down. It wasn’t even my destiny to follow in my family’s magical footprints. My path was meant to be walked on common ground. Even if I’d wanted to change my mind, the universe would just laugh at my expense. I couldn’t even see the spells, much less perform them.

  What am I supposed to do now? I was stuck in the middle of two worlds. Too normal for a witchy life. Too witchy for a normal life.

  Dancing candle flames caught my eye. The fire parted then joined together, revealing a… salamander?

  I rubbed my eyes. What did I expect? I was gazing into a candle in the wee hours of the night while sleep deprived. Of course, I’d see things.

  Wait, are those spots on the salamander? A memory slammed into me, making my heart feel like it was going to burst. Griffin and I… I think it was the summer before starting kindergarten. We were in the forest and we found a spotted salamander half-hidden amongst the fallen logs. We knew it was injured, but for the life of me, I couldn’t recall how we knew that.

  We had adopted it together, returning every day to feed it captured bugs, making sure it had a safe place to hide from predators. We could barely take care of ourselves, but I believed we knew what we were doing. It was just one salamander out of many, but I’d like to think we made a difference to that one.

  We’d named it… Max Harper.

  Since we hadn’t been able to determine if it was male or female, we each picked a name from our favorite book and combined them. And… wow. How had I forgotten about this memory until now? Not even the mention of Griffin’s pseudonym had triggered anything.

  I dazed out for a bit longer then decided to pack it up. What good would it do me lollygagging in the past? I just needed Fernando changed back, and all would be well again. We’d pick up right where we left off, and in no time at all, we’d be walking down the aisle—not leaping as Sage had implied.

  I had to hold the faith that it would all work out. Griffin and I would make a life together and… Abort! Abort!

  Fernando and I. Ugh. I hung my head. Why in the world did I keep doing stuff like that?

  I was seconds away from blowing out the candle and going back to bed when it felt as if a strong breeze had blown in from somewhere. A napkin floated into my lap, the one with Griffin’s handwriting scrawled across it.

  Amor vincit omnia.

  Love conquers all.

  Lucky me. I can communicate with spirits.

  And before I know it, I’m investigating the suspicious death of a family friend and turning up more dirt than a graveyard.

  Too bad for the residents who have something to hide.

  What ghost around, comes around.

  * * *

  Don’t miss the fourth book in the Bigfoot Bay Witches cozy mystery series!

  Read Witch Haunt

  Thanks for reading!

  I’m loving the direction the series is going so far, and I hope you are too!

  I have at least two more books planned before everything is wrapped up. Of course, it won’t really be the end of Samm and Bigfoot Bay, but it will be the end of the overarching storyline. She’ll still have many more misadventures in her hometown, and I could never run out of new paranormal characters to toss into the mix…

  There’s a lot more in (Violet’s) store, so I hope you stick around for the ride!

  Also, feel free to sign up for my list if you want to stay updated on new releases and sales. See you there!

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  Bewitchingly yours,

  Cat

  About the Author

  Cat Larson never has to look further than her own backyard for inspiration - her small, eccentric Midwestern town with its own cast of colorful characters provides plenty of fuel for her imagination.

  She’s surrounded by acres of untamed forest and lakes with no shortage of peculiar characters to write about. While sipping her first of many cups of coffee for the day and popping handfuls of wild blueberries, Cat is greeted by the extended family of frogs who share her land.

  However, unlike her stories, none of these frogs were once human (that she’s aware of).

  Also by Cat Larson

  The Bigfoot Bay Witches Series:

  Witch on Ice

  Bewitched Brew

  Witch Bane and The Croaking Game

  Witch Haunt

  The Witch is Back

  The Big Day Brew-HaHa