Seashells, Spells & Caramels: A Cozy Witch Mystery

by Erin Johnson

  “Marrying Princess Shaday,” I said, my throat dry. At least it didn’t burn, like it had in the dungeon. In fact, my body felt remarkably free of pain. Tired, but better than I’d thought possible. Still, my heart felt heavy.

  He nodded, his eyes flicking to my face, then back to the floor. “It’s a political alliance. I’d only met her a couple times before yesterday. ‘Normal people have love, people like us have power,’ my father always says. My mother says there are many different kinds of love, and respect and affection come with time and knowledge of each other and—”

  He waved his hand as if pushing the thoughts away. “And anyway, a few months ago my father informed me I’d be marrying Shaday. My whole life is planned. When you’re a prince, you’re born into your job, there’s no choosing, no option to be a baker if I wanted to, or date or….” He shook his head. “So when Nan passed—” He stopped and swallowed. “No. When Nan was murdered, but we didn’t know that at the time, I wanted to do something to make the Water Kingdom known for its bakers, like the Earth and Fire Kingdoms are. So I had the idea to hold a contest to generate interest. Amelia, she’s coordinated our royal events for forever, put it on with my secret backing. And….”

  He ran his long fingers through his hair. “And, it was stupid, I know, but I thought, just once, I wanted to be like a normal person. So I submitted a bake, anonymously of course, and Rhonda chose it. I got in.”

  He looked up at me, his thick brows lifted, pleading. “Please understand, as the prince no one tells me anything straight. They treat me differently, whether they mean to or not. I wanted an unbiased opinion, to know if I was any good, and when I got in, I was thrilled. I knew I had to turn it down, but it felt so good just to be chosen, and the more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself I could make it work in disguise. Amelia refused, obviously, she thought I was mad, but I convinced her. We had to keep it a secret from my family, especially my father—he’d have been furious to know I was still baking after all these years.”

  That explained those knowing looks between him and Amelia that had made me suspect them of conspiring together. I let out a heavy breath as I thought over the rest of his words. “I know how hiding it feels. I kept it a secret from my adopted family, too.”

  He looked up and our eyes locked. Hank’s blue eyes shone in his paler than normal face. He’d ingested a lot of poison, too.

  He licked his lips, and I realized I’d been staring at them a little too long. “Right. You were saying?”

  We’d leaned toward each other, across the narrow space between the beds. Hank shook his head. “Right. Well, Amelia only allowed me to enter if I could guarantee my safety. So we brought Francis in. He’s an old family friend. Like, he knew my great-great-grandfather old—and he’s a vampire. He can materialize anywhere, is immortal, and has ancient magic. He makes a good bodyguard.”

  I arched a brow. “How is having your bodyguard as a judge fair?”

  Hank grinned. “Rhonda was the only real judge. I mean, Francis has a pretty good palate, but only Rhonda’s thoughts and reactions factored into who won and who was eliminated. Even she didn’t know Francis was a fake judge.” He rolled his eyes. “Though of course, the seer’s now claiming she knew all along.”

  I thought about the competition. “I guess she did vote you out. If Francis was biased toward you, you would have won, right?”

  Hank nodded. “Yeah, you beat me fair and square. I was not happy about that, and I said some stupid things. I’m sorry.” He looked at the floor again. “I knew going into the contest that I needed to keep my distance from all the other competitors. It’d be too easy to slip up, and I also just felt it wasn’t fair to lie about who I was when forming friendships.”

  He sighed. “Plus I had to sneak back into the palace each night to be the prince again and come up with excuses for why I’d been away all day.”

  “I saw you sneaking! So that’s why.”

  He nodded. “But it happened anyway—I came to care about people. Wool became like a brother to me, and despite trying to convince myself I disliked you… I just couldn’t. And those feelings of confusion—I channeled them into that last bake without meaning to, then blamed it on you.”

  “You tried to dislike me?” I shook my head, smiling all the same.

  He sighed. “Ugh. I thought, since I’d worked so hard to give myself a fair and unbiased competition, I wanted to compete against only the best, to really test my mettle. And I thought you, who had just discovered she was a witch and had no knowledge of magic, couldn’t possibly give me a true challenge.”

  He laughed. “I’m an idiot. You challenged me more than anyone else in that tent. And not just in the baking—I couldn’t understand how you saw through my facade.”

  “How did I see through your disguise?”

  “You’re a swallow, Imogen.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Yeah… sounds a bit… er, you know.”

  He chuckled. “Oh, I know. I’m one, as well. You can imagine the teasing I got from four older brothers on that.”

  He leaned toward me and gestured with his big hands. “See, most witches and magical folk draw their energy from within themselves. So if they’re tired or hungry, for instance, they won’t be as powerful. But they just need to rest or eat to generate more power. Swallows, like you and me, are different and quite rare. I’ve only ever met one other. We pull our energy from things around us—living things, like trees or other people, or from the ocean or music, and take that energy into ourselves and use it for magic or baking, for example.”

  Ah. That explained those sexual-tension-filled cupcakes.

  “Does it—does it hurt the other things?” I fiddled with the edge of a sheet, thinking of the guards I must’ve pulled energy from at the festival. They’d collapsed.

  Hank nodded his head to the side. “It can.”

  My face must’ve fallen because he reached out and rested his warm hand on my forearm.

  “It doesn’t usually. Once you know how to use your magic, you’ll make sure you don’t hurt anyone.”

  “But I haven’t been able to control it, at all.” I looked him square in the face, and chewed my lip. “I hurt those guards, didn’t I? Oh God, did I kill them?”

  Hank shook his head and squeezed my arm. “Imogen, no. You defended yourself out of instinct, and they’re all fine. It was like you just took all their energy and they crashed. But they slept it off, I promise. And you didn’t know how to use your magic before because the advice everyone gave you doesn’t work for a swallow.”

  I blinked back tears, still feeling awful about the four guards.

  “I’ll help you learn. I promise. Once we’re both better, we’ll do lessons.”

  I looked back up at him. “But you’re the prince and you have to do princely things and that doesn’t involve associating with commoners in unicorn tees—” My eyes opened wide, a sudden thought occurring to me. “You sent the clothes, didn’t you?”

  Hank blushed—actually blushed! He looked away, then grinned up at me, shyly. “I-I just wanted to do something nice for you.”

  I bit my lip and smiled. Why, oh why did he have to be a prince? With his face so close to mine, I couldn’t think those things. “So, tell me about Pritney and Nate. Ugh.” I shook my head. “I can’t believe I actually kinda liked the guy.”

  Hank swallowed, his eyes bright. “What? With those biceps, I kinda liked the guy, too.”

  I grinned. His hand still rested on my forearm, and I wasn’t about to tell him to remove it.

  “He and Pritney infiltrated the palace months ago, Pritney as a baker and Nate as a medic. Pritney used spells to ingratiate herself with Nan. She knew her routine and how she went into the woods each night. She waited till she was next in line for the royal baker’s job, then she and Nate coordinated. She went out of town and filed a false police report at the exact time of the murder a country away, to give her a solid alibi. Meanwhile, she told Nate where to find Nan in
the woods, and he gave her a potion that induced a heart attack. Pritney thought she’d positioned herself to be promoted, and she would have been, had I not had the idea for the competition.”

  Hank shook his head. “Their goal all along was to have Pritney in place as head baker so she could poison the cake at the Summer Solstice festival and kill me and my family, as well as the Fire Kingdom’s royalty. She and Nate are part of the Badlands Army. Francis took Nate into custody from the dungeon, and the police managed to nab Pritney as she tried to hijack a hot air balloon and escape. Nate’s clammed up, but the police actually got Pritney to talk. Apparently she’s enamored with Horace, the leader of the Badlands Army, but she and Nate have clashed. I think they’re jealous of each other, and she was all too happy to blame their failed plan on his interest in you.”

  “Me?” My heart quickened in surprise.

  “Says you distracted him.” Hank’s eyes flicked to my face. “Guess I’m not the only one.”

  My throat grew tight. “What now?”

  “They’ll be tried in court.”

  I shook my head. “So, using my magic, I pulled energy out of the guards to knock them out, and then pulled the poison from the cake?”

  He nodded. “If you hadn’t pulled from the guards first, you wouldn’t have had the strength to withstand that much poison.”

  I remembered Nate running with me through the halls. “Why did Nate take me to the dungeon?”

  “I think he wanted a secluded place to try and heal you.”

  I nodded. “He said I’d sympathize with the Badlands Army, and that Horace would want me for my powers.”

  Hank cocked a brow. “I dare say he would, but there’s no way you’d be one of them, Imogen. They’re violent and don’t care who they hurt to get more power. You could never be like that, you’re too kind.”

  My throat grew tight again. “And then you…?”

  “I watched him take you out of the hall. I knew something was wrong when he went right, instead of left toward the infirmary. The dining hall dissolved into pandemonium, slowing me down. I followed the trail of confused staffers who pointed me in your direction, and when I got to the old dungeons—we don’t use them anymore—the door stood ajar. I think he must’ve lifted the keys sometime during his months in the palace posing as a medic. Anyway, I’m not sure how much you saw or remember, you were pretty out of it. But Nate and I fought, and I disarmed him.”

  “You pulled from him.”

  Hank nodded.

  “And then you pulled the poison from me.”

  He sighed. “I got some, but it’d worked its way through your whole system. So I called on Francis. He materialized and drank more of your blood.”

  “Oh my God, am I a vampire now?” I gripped the sheet with both hands.

  Hank’s eyes widened, and his mouth pulled into a grin. He squeezed my arm and happy tingles shot through my body. “No. Ha, no. You’re not a vampire. Francis filtered a lot of the poison out of your blood. Then he brought us here, and the healers did the rest.”

  I looked at Hank till he met my eyes. “Thank you for saving me.”

  His face lit up and he laughed. “I tried to save you. Tried, being the key word.”

  I grinned. “All right then. Thank you for trying to save me.”

  He bit his lip. “And thank you for actually saving me. If you hadn’t barged up to the high table and made the biggest stink I’ve ever seen, my whole family and I would be dead.”

  “Stink, huh?”

  He chuckled. “You’re going to be the talk of Bijou Mer for years.”

  “Well, if you’d just listened to me….”

  “And admitted in front of my father that I’d secretly entered a baking competition and had fallen for the—” His eyes grew wide, and he stopped, looking away.

  My heart felt so large I thought my chest might explode. With him so close I could lean a few inches and our lips— I had to stop thinking like that. I grasped for the thread of our conversation. Me accusing him, right. “I’m sorry I thought you capable of, you know, of killing Glenn and Nan.”

  It took Hank a couple of breaths to answer. “You knew something was off, and you trusted your gut. You don’t have to apologize for that.”

  “So, earlier when I asked how I could see through your disguise. That was because I’m a swallow, you think? I was pulling your facade down?”

  He nodded and met my eyes again, then his gaze dipped to my lips. “Could be.” He blinked slowly. “But like I said, I’ve never met anyone like you before. Maybe when two swallows meet—”

  “There’s some kind of reaction? Like we’re both pulling from each other?” I definitely felt a pull. I leaned closer to him, past the edge of my bed.

  He nodded and his lips parted, his eyes focused on my mouth. “Maybe that explains what I felt when—when I pulled the poison from you, and in the pantry when….”

  My mouth slid to the side in a grin. Our faces were so close. He smelled like almond extract. “Maybe in the interest of magical knowledge, we should test this theory.”

  He grinned. I wanted those lips. The room seemed brighter, and I realized that golden threads swirled between us, sparking and popping like live wires. Hank followed my gaze and saw them, too. When he looked back up at me, I saw the same hunger and desire I felt spelled out across his face.

  He leaned forward, and just as his nose brushed my cheek and his breath brushed across my lips, wood doors slammed and we jerked apart. The golden threads snapped and fizzled out.

  Guilt and disappointment broiled in my stomach as the king and queen strode down the long room, followed by Hank’s four brothers and their wives and Princess Shaday and her family. His fiancée, I reminded myself.

  Their heels clipped down the white tile floors, echoing through the large, open space. The nurses rushed out of their office and bowed low. As the royal families reached Hank’s bedside, I looked away, embarrassed.

  I noticed I had a side table. Atop it sat an enormous bouquet of flowers, with an aqua-colored card sticking out. I plucked the card and tried to drown out the tears of the queen and the teasing of Hank’s brothers as they crowded around him.

  “Oh, my baby,” the queen moaned.

  “Mom, you’re smothering him.”

  I focused on the card. To Imogen, for when you wake up. None of the flowers are poisonous, I promise, but I wouldn’t try eating them. Aw, probably a terrible joke, sorry. I hope that either these flowers or my dimwitted note make you smile. Hank.

  His letters had started out large, then the writing had gotten smaller and smaller as he ran out of room, until I had to lift the note to my face to read the signature. I chuckled, my chest flushing warm.

  No. I set the note on the table. I must not feel giddy over an engaged man’s dorky note. Then how come I did? I shook my head to clear it, my nerves on edge from blocking out the royal family as they talked over each other and laughed and cried behind me.

  My feelings softened when I noticed the plate of cranberry scones. A note tucked beneath the plate read, In case I’m not here when you come to. I’m sure they’re not as good as yours, but hope you like them all the same. Love, Maple.

  My heart swelled with gratitude, and also an ache to see my friend. I had so much to tell her. I opened another note in a sealed envelope with well wishes from Wool, Rhonda, Bern, Lillian, and Zeke. I hugged the note to me, grateful to have met so many kind and caring people.

  In an instant, my heart fell and tears welled in my eyes. As soon as I felt better, I’d have to leave and head back to St. Louis. Maybe I could (cough, cough) pretend to be ill for another month or two or forever, so I could stay.

  I gasped with gratitude when Maple burst through the wooden doors. “You’re awake!” She sprinted down the long room, slowing when she spotted the royal family, her fair skin turning bright pink. She walked stiff legged up beside my bed, her eyes widening further when she spotted Hank in the bed beside me, and dropped into a low curtsy.


  When she rose, the queen smiled at her, and she turned a deeper shade of red. Hank and his family resumed their talk, and Maple plopped down onto the bed next to me.

  “Oh no, I shouldn’t bounce you.” Her hands flew to her mouth.

  “It’s all right. I actually feel surprisingly good.”

  “So I can hug you? It won’t hurt?”

  “Please.” I opened my arms wide and she threw hers around me. We hugged and rocked for a while.

  “I’m so glad you’re all right,” Maple said into my shoulder. “I’ve been so worried.”

  I squeezed her tighter. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

  “Are you feeling well enough to tell me what happened?”

  I nodded and filled her in on everything, from thinking Hank was disguised as the prince, to being kidnapped by Nate and saved by Francis. I left out the part about kissing Hank until we could be together in private.

  Maple scowled. “I can’t believe that Nate would do that. He’s a killer!” We sat in silence for a moment. “Oh!” She clapped her hands. “I have such good news though, I can’t believe I didn’t tell you right away!” Maple’s blue eyes glowed and she took my hands in hers.

  I couldn’t help but smile back. “I could use some good news.”

  “Well, with Pritney arrested, I was the runner up, and… I’m the new royal baker!”

  “Ahhh!” Our screams startled the royalty beside us into looking over, but I was too happy to care. I threw my arms around Maple again and we hugged and laughed. “You’re amazing, you know that?” I told her. “You deserved it from the beginning. I knew you’d win, I knew it!”

  “And the best news is….”

  “It gets better?” I raised my brows.

  “I get to bring on staff, remember? So how about it, want to work in the royal bakery?”

  A rush of happiness filled my chest. I nodded through the tears that streamed down my face. “Yes,” I managed to gulp out. “A thousand times, yes!”

  We hugged again and rocked. My future looked much rosier. I was going to get to do what I loved most in the world, bake for a living, in the most magical, beautiful place I’d ever been. I cried big happy tears on Maple’s shoulder. A thought occurred to me. “You get to hire one more person from the competition, right?”