Touch of Light: A Baylee Scott Paranormal Mystery (The Reed Hollow Chronicles Book 1)

by April Aasheim

  “Emily!” she screamed, but her cry was drowned out by the sudden closing of the orb’s petals.

  The light was gone, and one by one, the smaller lights blinked out too.

  THIRTY

  As the lights disappeared, time seemed to start up again. Seeing Laura taken by the light, most of her coven sisters fled into the woods, including their leader, Alba.

  Emily and I began our struggle towards the shore, only to be plucked from the water by Dave and Jax in their rowboat. Dave wrapped his arms around me and Jax shook his head.

  “That’s three now,” Jax said. “I’m gonna have to start charging you.”

  “Baylee! We found the spell book!” Alex called as we pulled up to shore.

  “I don’t need it now,” I said, stepping out of the boat and hugging him.

  Kela appeared, draping blankets over our shoulders.

  “Don’t be so sure,” Ella said, joining us, the staff in her hands now charred black. “If its your mother’s, we can use it to get that thing off your hand.”

  She looked at Alex, “find the spell ‘Letting Go.’”

  Alex did as instructed, nodding when he found the incantation. “I suppose this is yours now,” he said, handing the book to me.

  I read the spell, this time aloud.

  Earth, fire, rain and snow

  What’s been taken, let it go

  Binds that tie won’t keep us strong

  Honor the past, and then move on.

  “It says to focus on the item I want to let go of,” I said, closing the book.

  “Well, do it,” Ella replied, nudging me with the butt of her staff.

  “I concentrated fully, looking at my ring. It would likely be the last time I’d wear it. After all of this, I had actually come to love it. in fact, now that I thought of it, preceding most every dangerous encounter, the ring had tried to warn me. I hoped that Ella would take good care of it.

  We all stared at the ring, waiting. But nothing seemed to happen. “Guess I need more practice,” I said.

  “You’ll get it,” Ella said. “And the both of you, too.” She pointed to Alex and Kela. “We can’t have you three running around, using your talents recklessly. Your mother didn’t train you, so I’ll need to.”

  She lifted my hand, and tried to pull the ring off herself, without success. “I’ll have to keep an extra on you.”

  “Look!” Emily exclaimed. She stretched out her fingers. Her ring was gone. “I guess your magic did work,” she said, beaming at me.

  Sirens and lights broke up our gathering. Mark jumped out of his police car and ran towards us, panting. His eyes drilled into Alex. “You broke probation, Bonds. You’re coming with me.”

  Kela slunk up beside him, batting her eyelashes. “Mark, you don’t want to arrest a man for stealing a house cat when there’s a real criminal nearby, do you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Ella pointed to the forest where Alba and her underlings had disappeared. “My sister is in there. She won’t have gone far. Arrest her.”

  “Alba? You want me to arrest that old lady? On what charges?”

  “On the charge of taking my mother, and killing my grandmother,” Emily declared.

  THIRTY-ONE

  The doorbell chimed and Ella walked into The Aunt-Tea-Query, using her staff as a cane. Dave and Jax followed close behind. I stepped out of my office and greeted them. Mr. B meowed as they found seats, and curled up near the foot of Ella’s chair. Kela bounded out of the kitchen, with tired eyes and a contagious smile, and poured coffee for everyone.

  “I want to apologize for my sister,” Ella said. “She’s always been jealous of me, for one reason or another. You know how siblings can be. You either accept it, or you don’t.”

  I cut my eyes to Alex and suppressed a smile. His eyes smiled back at me.

  Ella continued. “I’ve lived a long life, as you probably know; too long, if you ask me. I never trained anyone to take over. I just didn’t have faith any of my students would protect Reed Hollow like I could, no matter how well I trained them. My foolishness, and now I’m as old and brittle as one of Alex’s bagels.” She rubbed her knuckles into her upper hip, massaging it.

  A smile lit her weathered face. “I smell cheap perfume. Tell your mother she still owes me forty dollars in tuition she never paid.”

  “Tell the bag of bones she can collect when she gets to the other side,” Mother said, materializing behind her.

  Ella nodded, as if hearing. “I used to tease your mom about her lack of talent, but truth be told, she had a magickal way about her. It seemed whatever Vivi wished for, Vivi got.”

  “If you didn’t have faith in your students,” I said, “why did you keep reforming the coven?”

  “I couldn’t do all the spell work alone. A great change requires people working together. I should have known Alba was up to something when she took over recruiting duties. She let me train them, then poached them for her own coven. The ones she left behind, I suppose, were the mice she planned to feed to the snake.”

  “I just wish I could have saved Carrie.”

  “You saved her daughter, and that’s what she was trying to do the whole time. Don’t worry about Emily. She’s lost all memory of that night, with a little help from my special tea blend. And a nice young man helped me locate her father, and now they’re going to meet for the first time this weekend.” Ella winked at Dave, who blushed becomingly. “He seems like a very nice guy.”

  “Dave or Emily’s dad?” I joked.

  “Yes.”

  “I have another question. Was Carrie… involved… in her mother’s death?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I don’t know.”

  And I didn’t. For all the memories I was capable of excavating, I often couldn’t pull out the ones people really wanted buried. Carrie had returned to town to care for her ill mother, the same mother who had sold her child away.

  “People are so complex,” I said. “There’s nothing logical about any of us, is there?”

  A soft meow turned all our heads towards the solarium. Bart strolled in, tail in the air, and nestled with Mr. B by Ella’s legs.

  “If you want the cats back, I suppose they’re yours,” Alex said, his face drawn.

  “I don’t think I have the space anymore,” Ella said. “Sugar’s pregnant. Again.”

  “Alex…” I pointed out the window. In the next yard over, Yvette sat on a bench, her head down, with a pink ribbon held taut between her hands. “Maybe we should consider sharing.”

  He looked at Bart, who seemed to have no real objection. “Indeed,” he answered.

  “I’ll be going now,” said Ella. “I have some grieving to do.”

  “I understand.”

  I escorted Ella to the door, with Mother close behind. Ella left and we watched her go.

  “I kinda miss the old broad,” Mother said.

  “Only because she said you were magickal.”

  “We finally agree on something.”

  I looked at my mother, who seemed to be in the best spirits she’d been in since her demise. “Mom, why didn’t you tell me that Carrie had written me?”

  Mother pressed her lips together, her eyes flickering in thought. “I was scared you’d end up like her. I should have trusted you more.”

  If she had given me that letter, how would things have turned out? Would I have done anything then? Or would I have been one more person to turn their back on her? I didn’t know. As I’d already come to understand, people were complex creatures.

  I turned to find Kela wiping the counter, unprompted. “Thanks for helping out,” I said, taking a seat at the bar between Dave and Jax.

  “Don’t get used to it. As soon as my karaoke career kicks in, I’m outta here.”

  “Well,” Dave said, spinning his stool to face me. “I believe I still owe you dinner.”

  “I believe you’re right. Got anywhere in mind?”

  “I hear
there’s this lovely place in Bog Hollow called Chip’s…”

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  He lifted my hand - my left hand - and massaged the place where my wedding ring used to be. “I’ll never know what it’s like to lose someone the way you did, but I have lost someone.” He kissed my hand and let it drop. “I’m here, whenever you need me.”

  “That makes two of us,” Jax added.

  Dave and his grandfather walked out the café door, and a blast of sunlight flooded into the room.

  I trudged upstairs, feeling heavy from all the goodbyes. But, at least, these farewells were temporary. I sat on my bed and peeled my gloves away from my hands, then set my pillbox hat on my nightstand.

  “Knock, knock.” Alex poked his head inside. “Brought you something.”

  “Did Yvette refuse to take Bart?”

  “C’mon. Every witch needs a familiar.”

  “I’m not a witch.”

  “Tell that to Ella. And yes, she took the cat. We have a play date set up.”

  “Dear Lord.”

  Alex entered, holding a tray. A tray of crumpets and scones!

  “Alex! Are these store-bought?”

  “Nope. Pinterest-planned. They’re my first go, so I can’t be held responsible for the taste.”

  I bit into a scone. It was so hard it nearly broke a tooth. “Maybe I’ll wait for the second go. But thank you.”

  “I, uh, fixed the attic up for you a little. It still needs lots of work, but I carved out a space for a desk near the window. And there’s some book shelves, too. You could write there. Kela said she’d help out in the antique shop. I’m hoping that’ll convince you to stay a while longer. And not just because we need the free labor.”

  “Alex, I uh…”

  “Oh, I understand.” He looked at the two suitcases still guarding my closet. “Thought I’d try.”

  “I was going to say I need a drink! That scone was Sahara-dry. What did you do to it?”

  He took a bite and put it right back down. “I think I may have forgotten to water it.”

  My brother put his arm around me. It turned out I didn’t need to leave Reed Hollow if I wanted adventure. I had all I could handle right here.

  “You’re glowing,” Alex said, narrowing his eyes.

  “I am?” I instinctively held up the moonstone ring.

  “Not that ring. The one around your neck.”

  I lifted my chain. Sure enough, my wedding ring shone, brilliant and bright.

  A sign. And whether the sun had made it gleam, or it was a message from my missing husband, or perhaps just plain hope, I didn’t know. I didn’t care.

  I was with my family, and if Ryan wanted to find me, he could look for me right here at home.

  The End

  Touch of Shadow: A Baylee Scott Paranormal Mystery (Book Tw0)

  (Coming Fall/Winter 2017)

  Want to read more by this author? Check out her book titles on the next pages.

  MORE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Coming Fall/Winter 2017:

  Touch of Shadow: A Baylee Scott Paranormal Mystery (Book 2)

  Love Paranormal Fantasy and Mystery?

  Check out April Aasheim’s best-selling Daughters of Dark Root series!

  Four sisters try their hands at love, life, and magick in this paranormal fantasy series.

  Book One: The Witches of Dark Root ~ When Maggie Maddock is called back to her hometown of Dark Root, Oregon, she is expected to take over the family coven. Will Maggie embrace her birthright as Leader of The Council, or will she run from her responsibilities once again?

  Book Two: The Magick of Dark Root ~ Maggie Maddock and her sisters are back, training under their coven-leading mother Miss Sasha Shantay to take over as the new leaders of The Council. But life isn’t as smooth as Maggie had hoped it would be. Harvest Home’s taxes have come due, and her mother’s illness has returned, stronger than ever. Desperate, Maggie and Eve devise a scheme to make money through witchcraft. And that’s when things go terribly wrong.

  Book Three: The Curse of Dark Root (Part I) ~ In this third installment of the Daughters of Dark Root series, Maggie's life is endangered by a terrible curse from an unknown source. Her only chance at saving herself, and her unborn child, is to reveal the memories kept within a set of crystal globes. They alone hold the key to Dark Root’s secret past, and who she really is

  Book Four: The Curse of Dark Root (Part II) ~ Things are tough in Dark Root. Shane is missing and presumed dead. Julianna Benbridge is haunting the town. And the mysterious curse has tightened its grip on Maggie. Can Maggie save herself and her family from the deal made with Larinda? Or will she be too late?

  BOOK LIST

  The Daughters of Dark Root Series:

  The Witches of Dark Root

  The Magic of Dark Root

  The Curse of Dark Root: Part One

  The Curse of Dark Root: Part Two

  The Shadows of Dark Root (Coming 2017)

  The Children of Dark Root (Coming 2018)

  Dark Root Companion Novellas:

  The Council of Dark Root: Armand

  A Dark Root Christmas: Merry’s Gift

  A Dark Root Halloween: The Witching Hour

  The Universe is a Very Big Place (A quirky rom-com)

  Other Books by April Aasheim

  The Good Girl’s Guide to Being a Demon – (A Woodland Creek Urban Fantasy)

  Touch of Light: A Baylee Scott Paranormal Mystery

  Touch of Shadow: A Baylee Scott Paranormal Mystery (Coming Fall/Winter 2017

  If you enjoyed the book please consider leaving a review! A short review is fine and greatly appreciated. Word of mouth is essential for any author to succeed.

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank my readers. You all have been wonderful and you inspire me every day. I know I can’t always get back to you with messages and emails, but I read every one of them. Your kind words and encouragement keep me typing long into the night.

  I’d also like to thank my family and friends for all their love and support. Writing is a solitary business, and I’m not as available as I should be, but you are patient with me and I appreciate you all.

  I’d also like to thank Lorna Simmons, for agreeing to edit this project. A good editor is every writer’s best friend.

  Finally, I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to Heather Busche for naming Baylee. I’m never able to fully understand a character, until they are given a name.

  About the Author

  April Aasheim is a paranormal mystery writer living in Portland, OR with her husband, children, and “Boots,” her sometimes feral cat.

  April has been a ‘student’ of the paranormal her entire life, and reads countless books and articles about the occult, the supernatural, and world religion. She also enjoys reading everything else she can get her hands on, except instruction manuals.

  When not writing, April enjoys dance fitness, ghost hunting, and YouTube videos.

  For more information on April and her books please check her out

  @aprilaasheim

  April Aasheim - Writer

  www.aprilaasheimwriter.com

  www.amaasheim@gmail.com