The Witch Within

by M. Z. Andrews

  9

  As the initial shock of the situation began to wear off, I couldn’t help but shake my head. Something about the whole thing didn’t feel right. Why hadn’t the Council called the paramedics or the police? Where was Merrick? And the Black Witch, where was she? Sorceress Stone was their sister after all. Was there that much of a disconnect between the siblings that they wouldn’t even come when their own sister had died? And not just that, where was Sorceress Stone’s ghost? Why hadn’t she appeared to me? How did no one in the room know what had happened? And was this really all happening right before graduation? Right after the announcement of a big “graduation project”? It just wasn’t adding up.

  As Daphne conferred with the rest of the Great Witches Council over what else she was at liberty to reveal, I looked at the group I’d come with and curled my lip. “The wicked witch is dead?”

  “Yeah,” agreed Alba knowingly. “Seems sketchy.”

  “Super sketchy,” said Cinder.

  “Sketchy that they don’t know what happened?” asked Holly.

  “Or sketchy that Sorceress Stone’s really dead?” added Libby.

  “Both,” I whispered. “If I had to put money on this, I’d guess that Stone isn’t really dead. This is a stunt. A graduation project at its finest. They get a few students to think that she’s dead and see who reacts, see what do they do, yadda yadda yadda.”

  Holly didn’t look convinced. “That’s possible, I guess. But what if she really is dead? Jax is gonna be devastated.”

  I shook my head. “There’s no way she’s really dead. Where’s Merrick Stone? Where’s the Black Witch? Where’s Detective Whitman?!”

  Holly swished her lips to the side. “I don’t know, Mercy. She looks dead. I really don’t think we can take this too lightly.”

  I threw my hands out on either side of myself, giving a little gesture towards Stone’s body lying flat on the table. “Fine, someone go take her pulse.”

  “Take her pulse?” Holly sounded horrified. “As in touch her?”

  “Well, we can’t take her pulse by looking at her,” snapped Alba. “Yeah, as in touch her.”

  Holly’s eyes widened. “I’m not touching her!”

  “Me either,” I agreed.

  “Oh, fine. Cin and I will do it.” Libby stood up, handing me her backpack. “Hold my bag.”

  With the five members of the Great Witches Council huddled in a corner, Libby and Cinder approached Stone’s body unnoticed. I jumped to my feet too. I couldn’t let this go down without seeing with my own eyes what they saw. Jax’s emotional stability was at stake. Holly and Alba either didn’t want to be alone on the chairs or they felt the same way that I did.

  The five of us stood around Sorceress Stone’s perfectly still body. Her face was relaxed and her skin looked pliable and rubbery, not taut and tense like it usually did. I fully expected her to sit up and yell at us. Perhaps even launch into a rant or send us to the tower as a punishment for being in the same room as her. But she did none of those things. She looked as if she wasn’t breathing either. If this was some kind of trick, they’d done a good job at making it look real.

  Libby reached a nervous hand out and placed her fingers on the side of Sorceress Stone’s neck. When she didn’t readily find a pulse, she moved her fingers around, hoping she’d merely not found the right spot. When that didn’t work, she took Sorceress Stone’s wrist. There had to be a pulse there. But nothing seemed to make a difference. She looked up at us with sad, sincere eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know, I think she’s really dead,” she whispered.

  My head swiveled back and forth on my neck. It couldn’t be. Really dead? Sorceress SaraLynn Stone was dead? If she hadn’t been one of my best friends’ mothers, I might have actually taken the time to think about how I felt about that fact. The wicked witch was dead. But she was my best friend’s mother. And regardless of the multitude of horrible things she’d done to my friends and myself, she was Jax’s only parent. Her grandmother could never be a parent to her. Neither her aunt nor her uncle were suitable replacements—not that her own mother had been that great of a mother in the first place, but she’d been something. She’d at the very least not made Jax an orphan! But now Jax would truly be alone!

  “Girls, this doesn’t feel right,” I whispered.

  Alba eyed the witches in the corner suspiciously. “I’m with Red. They’re acting funny.”

  As if they’d heard us, they broke from their little huddle and strode over to the table.

  “We’re still working out the next best course of action,” said Daphne. “It is my opinion that we should involve the local authorities at this point, but we’re split on that decision.”

  I nodded. “Yes! That’s exactly what we need to do!” What I didn’t understand was why they hadn’t done it already! If Stone actually was dead and this wasn’t some sort of sick, twisted game, it was time to get serious and investigate.

  “Red, if we call Whitman, word will be all over campus and all over town in two seconds flat,” whispered Alba. “We can’t let that happen. We have to be the ones to tell Jax.” She looked up at the Council. “How long ago did this happen?”

  “Not long,” said Poppy nervously. “Maybe an hour, hour and a half ago.”

  “And you’re all claiming that none of you know how this happened?”

  “Obviously, we think someone here knows. We just don’t know which one of us knows,” said Daphne.

  I frowned. “Well, in that case, we can’t trust any of you.”

  “Exactly. We’ll have to treat you all like suspects,” agreed Alba. “We’re making the decisions from here on out.” Alba looked over her shoulder at us. “Girls, can I have a word?”

  The five of us took a step back, so we could talk privately. The minute we did, the five members of the Council got into their own private huddle once again.

  “Red’s right. None of these people can be trusted. I still don’t know that I believe that Stone’s truly dead. This could still be some big act,” she shook her head. “Or, Stone could really be dead. We just don’t know. But the fact of the matter is, if she’s really dead, we need to figure out how to save her. We can’t just let her die.”

  Libby stared at Stone’s cold, seemingly dead body. “How do you expect to save her?”

  Alba shook her head. “I have no idea. We need to put our heads together, do some research, and figure it out.”

  Cinder frowned. “I don’t think we can just focus on saving her. What happens if we save her and the person who killed her freezes time and kills her again?” She shook her head. “It’s not enough to just try and save her life. We have to figure out who did this.”

  Alba nodded agreeably. “You’re right. We definitely need to solve the mystery of which of the witches can’t be trusted, but we also need to do our best to save Shorty’s mom.”

  “But what about Jax’s powers? And the curse?” I said. “We just don’t have time to do it all!”

  “You think Jax would rather have her powers over her mother?”

  “Well, no…” I’d feel a lot more confident in that answer if Jax’s mother had actually been nice to her. But in all reality, I knew Jax. Family meant everything to her. Alba was right. We had to save her mother.

  “Can’t we do it all?” asked Cinder. “Can’t we reverse the curse and save her mother and find the killer?”

  “You think we have enough time to do all of that?” I asked. “Graduation is in five days!”

  Libby lifted a shoulder. “There are five of us. We could split up.”

  Holly shook her head. “We can’t leave Sweets out of this. She’s going to want to help.”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding. “And we’ll have to do all of this without Jax knowing. She just can’t know about her mother. So until we’ve either fixed everything or exhausted our options trying, we don’t tell. It’ll kill her.”

  I looked back at Sorceress Stone. “Do you really think we’re safe to jus
t leave Stone like this while we try to figure out how to save her?”

  Libby’s eyes brightened as if a light switch had flipped on inside her mind. “I know exactly what we need to do. We need to preserve the body. She hasn’t been gone that long. I’ll freeze her body. That way, the guilty witch can’t do anything to her without unfreezing her first.”

  “It won’t hurt her?” asked Holly.

  Libby shook her head. “Not at all. Trust me. I’ve used this spell on many a dead animal while I ran to get Mother to save them back home in Sweden. That’s why I came to the Institute to study magical cryptopreservation. I know what I’m doing.”

  Holly wrinkled her nose. “Oh, that’s what crypto… whatever means? I knew that was your major, but I didn’t know what it was.”

  I looked at Libby curiously. “How long will the spell last?”

  “Until I unthaw her,” said Libby simply. “A couple of hours, a couple of days, a couple of years. It’s up to me.”

  “Good enough for me. Freeze her. We need to get started on coming up with a plan. The clock is ticking.”

  Libby nodded and held her hands out on either side of herself to motion us back. “Stand back.” She inhaled a deep lungful of air and then began to blow in Sorceress Stone’s direction.

  It took only a moment for the Great Witches Council to notice what Libby was doing. Gemma Overbrook moved towards Sorceress Stone, furrowing her brows. “What’s going on?”

  Ignoring her, Libby continued to blow, emitting a frosty white gust of frigid air. It was slow at first, but as it picked up speed, it cooled the air around and behind Sorceress Stone, forcing the rest of the Council to move away from the body. The group of them went around the table to get behind Libby. Standing next to us, they all watched in shock as Libby worked her magic.

  “What is she doing?” asked Gemma, her hand on her hip, staring at us.

  “She’s preserving the body,” said Alba.

  “Preserving the body?!” snapped Gemma. “Whatever for! This is highly inappropriate, as a member of the Great Witches Council, I cannot let this continue!”

  Gemma’s hands went up, and a bright orange burst of electrical energy discharged from the palms of her hands. She’d aimed for Libby, but as a younger witch, Alba had faster reflexes. She shot her own charge of electrical energy, deflecting Gemma’s shot. Gemma’s eyes widened. “How dare you!”

  Libby stopped blowing, but Alba didn’t back down. She looked at Gemma firmly. “Sorceress Stone is our teacher. One of you killed her. Because of that, we are taking over. Once we’ve figured out who is responsible for her murder, we will allow you to resume your authority over us. Until then, we are in charge.”

  Gemma looked stunned. “You think five veteran witches are going to kneel to five student witches?!”

  “If you don’t, you can kneel to the police and the former Great Witches Council, because we will be informing them all of Sorceress Stone’s murder. There will be an immediate inquest, and it’s highly likely that you’ll all be held in contempt for impeding a murder investigation. It won’t be long before you’re all sentenced to an eternity without your powers, and quite possibly a life behind bars. If that’s what you’d prefer, then by all means, do not kneel to five student witches.” The venom in Alba’s voice was commendable. I was proud of her for standing up to the powerful witches before us.

  Gemma’s face flushed red, but she didn’t back down. “You wouldn’t dare!”

  Daphne took hold of Gemma’s elbow. “Gemma, they’re trying to help. I don’t think we have much of a choice here. This needs to get resolved. They’re impartial. They’ll figure out the truth.”

  Gemma let out an exasperated sigh and turned her back to us.

  Daphne gave Alba a nod. “Do what you have to do, girls. We’ll follow your lead.”

  With that, Libby finished encapsulating Sorceress Stone’s body into a frosty, steaming block of ice. Through the blue-tinted slab, we could see Sorceress Stone lying still inside.

  My eyes widened. “Way to go, Lib!”

  Cinder patted her twin on her shoulder. “Now we’ve got a little breathing room and some time to think.”

  I looked up at Cinder and Libby. “We don’t have any time to spare. Alba, Holly, and I have had a lot of experience with handling an investigation. I think the first thing we need to do is interview the five of these witches and find out what they know.”

  Alba nodded. “I agree with Red. We find out what they know, what they saw, and their relationships with Stone, and then we go from there.”

  “But we should be trying to figure out how to save Sorceress Stone,” said Libby. “I think that should be our first priority.”

  Cinder nodded in agreement. “I agree. The murderer can wait. Sorceress Stone cannot.”

  Alba frowned. “I think this is where we split up. How about you two go see what you can figure out about saving Stone? The three of us will do the interviews.”

  Cinder nodded. “Yes, I agree. We’ll make more progress that way.”

  “Let’s meet in the quad in an hour or so,” said Alba.

  “I’ll text you when we’re headed that way,” I added.

  Libby and Cinder nodded and took off.

  I turned around to face the Great Witches Council. Their faces told me they were all in varying levels of shock over both the events of the morning and the fact that we’d taken charge so quickly. “Alright. Let’s get started. We’re going to interview each of you independently. We have to find out what each of you saw. So… which one of you would like to start?”

  Surprisingly, it was Gemma that stepped forward first. “Me. I’ll start. I’ve got nothing to hide, and I can’t wait to prove it.”

  10

  I nodded at her. “Alright, then. Should we step out into the hallway?”

  Gemma held her hand out. “After you.”

  Alba led the way, carrying a folding chair with her. In the hallway, she placed it beneath a wide corkboard full of posters and announcements that hung on the wall. “Please, Sorceress Overbrook, have a seat.”

  Gemma’s mouth quirked slightly. She put her hands on her hips. “I’ll stand, thank you.”

  I shot Alba a look.

  “So. We should get started. What would you like to know?”

  She wanted to be direct. I could be direct too. “I’ll be blunt. Did you kill Sorceress Stone?”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Holly’s eyes widen.

  Gemma pursed her lips. “No,” she said, her jaw tight. “I didn’t. I had no reason to want the woman dead.”

  “Do you know who killed her?” asked Alba.

  “If I did, we wouldn’t be going through all of this, now would we?”

  I blinked. Perhaps we’d come in a little hot. “How about we start with you telling us your version of the events of today?”

  “My version of events? My version of events is just like everyone else’s,” she said.

  Alba tipped her head sideways. “I don’t know about that. It can’t be like everyone else’s, because one of you killed Stone. So if you don’t mind, we’d like to get your version of the events straight from you.”

  Gemma closed her eyes, lifted her brows, and let out a throaty sigh. Whether she intended it to or not, the gestures and her body language came off as arrogant and made me dislike Gemma Overbrook. “Where should I start?”

  “How about we start even further back than today? Did you know SaraLynn Stone prior to coming here today?”

  Gemma’s mouth, which had already begun to open, snapped shut. It was as if she’d thought better of her response to that question. Her eyes skirted each of us, unable to make eye contact now. “Yes, I knew her prior to coming here today.”

  Alba peered at her through narrowed eyes. “Oh yeah, how’s that?”

  “We were old comrades.”

  “Comrades?” asked Cinder, quirking a brow.

  I looked at Gemma. Comrades seemed like an odd word choice. “Do you
mean old friends?”

  “That’s the definition of the word, isn’t it?” she asked. Her attitude was shockingly blatant. Murdering someone had to take a certain amount of spunk, and if her attitude was any indication, she certainly seemed to have the spunk to do such a thing to Sorceress Stone.

  “So you and Stone were old friends. Where did you meet?” asked Alba.

  “We met at the Institute. We were classmates.”

  “Did you keep in touch over the years?” asked Libby.

  Gemma shook her head and then kind of looked down at her hands as if she was inspecting her fingernails. “No, we did not keep in touch. After graduation we went our separate ways. Occasionally I’d hear something through the paranormal grapevine about her—what she was up to and all that. But, no, our friendship just sort of fizzled after our days at the Institute.”

  I glanced over at Holly and Alba. It had occurred to me that that might happen to my own little group of friends after we all graduated. Alba would head to the East Coast to be with her husband, and no doubt Holly would go back to the West Coast, where the sunshine and cute boys were rampant. Sweets would stay in Aspen Falls and run the bakery, at least for a while. Jax and I were the most likely to stay friends, mainly because our families were so closely intertwined, but it still worried me that it wouldn’t all be the same after we graduated in another year. Gemma’s words seemed to kind of confirm what I’d already worried about. “So was today the first time you’d seen her since you were both students?”

  Gemma nodded. “It was. And of course, SaraLynn hadn’t changed a bit.”

  “And did she recognize you?” asked Alba.

  “Oh yes. But there wasn’t a lot of time for personal chitchat. I came with the Council, and we had important matters to discuss.”

  “Important matters to discuss? Like what?” asked Cinder.

  That was when Gemma looked directly up at us again. “That is confidential information. Great Witches Council matters. Not for the public to know.”