The dragon continued, listing off the achievements Blaze had managed and explaining all of the volunteer work Blaze had done. When the dragon was finished, he invited anybody who so wished to come up and speak on behalf of the dead.
The first to speak was his sister, who broke down after about thirty seconds and had to be helped off the rim of the caldera. A couple of other dragons went up and spoke afterward, and I made note of their names, thinking that possibly I should try and talk to them as I worked to solve this case.
Finally, the last to speak were Blaze’s parents. His mother trembled as she stood on the caldera rim, looking down at everybody.
“I want to thank each and every one of you who has come to remember the life of my little dragon. He was absolutely wonderful, and I’m so glad that even though his life was cut short, in the time that he did have with us, he was able to make such an impact on people’s lives. I also know that most of you are aware, but in case you aren’t, our family has put up a reward. Whoever is able to find our son’s killer will be given five hundred thousand abras from us. We want the person who did this to be brought to justice. But until then, please, let us celebrate the life of the best son a mother could ever ask for.”
Blaze’s mother broke down then, and his father guided her off the rim of the caldera and back down toward the crowd as the dragon who had done most of the eulogy returned to the same spot.
“It is time,” he announced solemnly. “Please, bring the coffin holding Blaze’s body.”
The four dragons standing on either side of the bonfire flew up into the air suddenly and disappeared. They returned a moment later, and this time, one of them had a plain wooden box in between his claws. The four dragons flew in a circle above the fire, and the shifter spoke once more.
“Deliver this dragon’s body to the flames, allow his earthly remains to disappear as he moves into the next world.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the dragon holding the box dropped it into the center of the bonfire. As soon as the box hit the flames, they exploded into a cacophony of fireworks. Blue, green, red, gold, and other colors exploded upward from the flames, the crowd gasping in a mixture of surprise and fear. The embers went out before they hit anybody, though, and instead it simply created an incredible light show as Blaze’s body was incinerated by the flames.
A lump formed in my throat as the realization that I was never going to see him again really hit me. Leda took my hand and squeezed, with me returning the action back at her.
The crowd was silent, and after a couple of minutes the fireworks dissipated, the body having been taken by the flames. The four dragons shot fire into the air before flying off.
“The body of Blaze has been taken by the flames as his soul lives on in the afterlife,” the dragon on the rim announced. “Thank you all for coming to the ceremony.”
And with that, it was all over. Everyone began to shift and talk amongst themselves, all heading back toward the gondolas.
“Let’s wait here for a while,” my sister said. “After all, down here, there’s no wind. Everyone is rushing to get back to those gondolas into town, which means there will be a long line in the windy cold.”
“Good thinking,” I said to her, my eyes scanning the crowd. Suddenly, my eyes landed on a face I recognized, and I made my way over to Jason, wanting to know exactly what he had been arguing about with Blaze before he was killed.
“Jason!” I called out. He turned and looked at me, a creepy smile growing on his face.
“Hey, you’re Ali, right?”
“That’s me,” I replied. “I heard you got into an argument with Blaze a few days before he was killed.”
The creepy smile suddenly turned a lot more hostile as Jason crossed his arms in front of him. “Oh yeah? Who told you that?”
“Doesn’t matter. Is it true, or not? Did you have a fight with Blaze just before he was killed?”
“I don’t need to answer you.”
“Sure, you don’t, but ignoring my questions definitely doesn’t make you look guilty as sin. I’m sure the Chief Enforcer would love to know what I know.”
Jason’s eyes darted from side to side, and he really did look like a rat trapped in a cage. “Fine. Yeah, we had a little bit of a fight. But it was nothing. And I sure didn’t kill the guy.”
“What was the fight about?”
Jason grimaced, as if he didn’t want to tell me.
“Look, you can tell me, or I can go straight to Chief Enforcer Loeb. Personally, I know who I’d rather deal with. The one who can’t lock you up in jail for murder.”
“I’m telling you, I didn’t kill him.”
“Help me believe you. What’s a scumbag like you doing dealing with a good dragon like Blaze?”
“It’s his sister,” Jason finally admitted. “She’s a fan of some…stuff that I sell on the side, and Blaze found out about it. He didn’t want me selling to her anymore, and I told him it wasn’t any of his business, that his sister is a grown dragon and she can do what she wants.”
“And let me guess, this stuff you are selling Bridget on the side, it’s some potions that aren’t exactly on the legal side of things, are they?”
“Hey, what can I say? They make people feel good, and who is the wizarding body to decide what potions people can and can’t enjoy?”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. The fact was, there was a zero percent chance that I would ever put anything in my body that Jason had created.
“Ok, so how did the fight between the two of you end?”
Jason shrugged. “I don’t know. We sorted it out like two grown men with mutual respect for one another and both left happy.”
“He threatened to kick your butt if you didn’t stop selling to his sister and you ran off like a scared little baby, didn’t you?” I asked, and as Jason shifted his weight from foot to foot, looking at the ground, I knew my guess was a lot closer to the truth. “Alright, tell me this. Where were you the night before and the morning that Blaze was killed?”
“Home. Sleeping.”
“Until ten in the morning?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Look, I’m not a morning person, ok?”
“Fine, can anyone confirm that you were there?”
“I do alright with the ladies, as I’m sure you can guess, but I’m kind of in between girlfriends right now.”
“So you were by yourself.”
Jason shrugged. “What can I say? One of my socks can confirm my story, since I don’t have a witch in my life right now.”
I scrunched my nose, not bothering to hide my disgust with Jason.
“Fine, go away,” I told him. I felt like I was going to need a shower as soon as I got back into town.
Jason scampered off and I made my way back toward my sister, lost in thought.
“Everything ok?” Leda asked as I made my way toward her. I nodded.
“Yeah, sorry, I just had to ask Jason a few questions.”
My sister scrunched up her nose. “I hope he did it,” she said. “I know you’re not supposed to think that about anybody, but frankly, since somebody had to kill Blaze, I’d rather it be somebody like that who nobody would miss if they went to prison. Did you know he’s been selling illegal potions to people? And they’re actually buying them?”
“I didn’t know, but I do now,” I said darkly, making a mental note to ask Willow if she knew anything about it. Being a Healer, Willow often knew about this sort of thing, because whenever anybody had an adverse reaction to potions, they invariably ended up in the hospital with her. Jason was way too terrible a wizard to manage to make illegal potions without messing up at least a few batches. I was sure of that.
The fact that Bridget had been one of his clients, however, was a surprise. I could definitely believe Blaze’s reaction if he’d found out about it. Jason was a scumbag who was breaking the law, definitely. But was he a murderer? I wasn’t quite so certain about that.
Chapter 9
By the time we got back into town about an hour later, I was a little bit stuck. I really needed access to Blaze’s phone to find out exactly what he had gone to do the night before. Unfortunately, I figured the phone was with the Enforcers, and there was going to be no way to get access to it.
I also quickly found out that I had bigger issues to deal with. I had turned my phone to silent during the funeral out of respect, and when Leda and I stepped into the gondola to go down, I groaned as I pulled out my phone and looked at the screen.
“What is it?” my sister asked.
“I think Mom found out I lost my job,” I said with a wry smile. I had thirty-two missed calls and four text messages.
Did you seriously lose your job?
You need to come and see me right now.
I can’t believe even being a plant collector was too much for you.
How on earth do you manage to lose the easiest job on the planet?
“Oh no,” Leda said, frowning in sympathy. “Do you want me to come home with you when you have to face her?”
I shook my head. “No, thanks. I think I’ll just get this over with.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the gondola glass, trying to get rid of the wave of guilt that washed over me. It wasn’t that I tried to be a bad daughter, or a complete failure. It was just that a lot of the time my mouth said things that were probably best left unsaid, or I acted impulsively in a way that sometimes got me into a little bit of trouble. I genuinely wanted to be more like Willow or my sister. I wished I could be the type of person who always followed the rules, who always did exactly what they were supposed to do, and who never got into the least bit of trouble.
Unfortunately, that just wasn’t my reality.
When the two of us reached the valley again, I said goodbye to my sister and decided to head home, figuring that getting this conversation over and done with was the best course of action.
As soon as I stepped through the front door, my mother was there, waiting, her arms crossed in front of her.
“How long have you been standing there like that waiting for me?” I couldn’t help but ask. Perhaps not the best way to start off this conversation.
“Are you too good to answer phone calls from your mother, now?”
“I was at the funeral,” I explained. “I had my phone on silent. Where’s Grandma Rosie?”
“Out with Connie trying to solve that murder,” Mom replied. “Now, what’s this I hear about you losing your job as a plant collector, and how come you didn’t tell me yourself and I had to find out from Antonia down at the bakery?”
I winced. Antonia was the town’s biggest gossip, and she thrived on having information at her disposal that could embarrass others. She would have loved announcing to my mother that I was back among the ranks of the unemployed in front of everybody.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “I was embarrassed.”
“Not nearly as embarrassed as I was, having that fact announced in front of everybody while I was just trying to buy some bread. How did you manage to lose the easiest job in the paranormal world?”
“Because of Blaze’s death, I couldn’t get the basil they needed for the day, and so they fired me. It honestly wasn’t my fault.”
My mother’s expression softened slightly. “Seriously? They fired you just for that?”
I nodded and bit back tears. “Yeah. That was all it took. I know it was a dumb job, I know it paid a pittance, and I know that I shouldn’t have lost it. But there was honestly nothing I could do.”
“Well, what’s done is done. What are you going to do now?”
“Willow is looking into what jobs are available at the hospital,” I offered. I honestly had zero desire to take a maintenance job at the local hospital. Not only did it pay just around the same as a plant collector, but it involved using magic to clean up all sorts of bodily fluids, and that was definitely not on the list of things that interested me.
“There are always manufacturing jobs as well,” Mom said. “You may have to take the portal to work every day, but at least it’s something.”
I nodded mutely. Honestly, magical manufacturing sounded even worse than cleaning up messes at the hospital. I knew what that entailed: standing in front of the conveyor belt and casting the same spell a thousand times a day at every item that passed by. I’d probably kill myself from boredom after the first two hours.
Still, I knew better than to tell my mother that I was following in Grandma Rosie’s footsteps and trying to solve the murder. I knew how she had reacted when her mother announced she was doing it; if she found out her own daughter was going to follow the same path, I could only imagine how badly she would react.
That meant I had to solve this murder quickly, before my mom started pressuring me even harder to take a manufacturing job.
“I’ll look into it,” I lied. “Now, if you don’t mind, I was going to go into town and see if I could find a local job.”
“Of course,” Mom said. “If you come by around six, you’re welcome to join us for dinner.”
I opened my mouth to politely decline, then remembered that the only thing I had in my cupboard right now was ramen noodles. “I’ll be there,” I said, giving my mom a quick wave and heading back out into the street.
I had no other options. If I didn’t want to live my life casting the same spell thousands of times, I was going to have to get this cash, and fast. And the only way I could do that was by solving the murder. Since I was fresh out of leads, I was just going to have to make some. I headed toward the town hall, my heart pounding in my chest.
After all, it wasn’t really illegal if it was for a good cause, right?
I stared up at the large Gothic building that made up town hall. It took up an entire block by itself, with large spires reaching high into the sky. Statues of gargoyles lined the steep roof, their faces looking down at me as though mocking me in this terrible idea. The dark bricks gave it a little bit of a creepy feel, and I walked toward the front door, doing a little bit of reconnaissance.
As soon as I stepped inside, I was greeted by an Enforcer, a wolf shifter who looked at me suspiciously.
“Yes?” he asked. “What brings you to town hall this morning?”
“I need to register a business,” I lied. “Third floor?”
“That’s right,” the shifter said, motioning to the large stone staircase in the middle of the building, leading up to the higher floors.
“Thanks,” I said, flashing him a smile and making my way up the stairs. When I reached the second floor, I paused. The second floor of town hall was dedicated to the town’s Enforcers, and I snuck a quick look through the window. There were six or seven shifters all sitting at their desks, with Chief Enforcer Loeb’s office at the far end.
No, I definitely wasn’t going to be able to make it through there unnoticed. Not even if I made it past the initial guard watching the front of the town hall.
I went up to the third floor, loitered for a while, then left, thanking the wolf shifter as I did so.
“Have a great day,” he told me. I made my way back home, lost in thought. I had to find a way to get into that office. I could use an invisibility spell or potion, but because the shifters had such powerful noses, they would almost certainly sniff me out even if they couldn’t see me.
I made my way into my little shed and pulled the one book I owned down from the shelf—the big book of potions every single witch in the coven of Rhea had created. We all had one, which we started at five years old, our first year at the Academy. The book was filled with recipes for every potion we had ever come across and was added to constantly.
I flipped through the pages, trying to find a recipe for a potion that might be able to help me. Then I found one. The perfect potion, designed to mask your smell so that shifters were unable to detect your odor and make you invisible to all shifters.
My eyes scanned the recipe, checking to see how long I was going to have to wait for it to
be ready. Sometimes potions could take days or even weeks before they were ready. I really hoped this one didn’t fall into that category.
A smile crept onto my lips as I moved my finger down the page and settled on the time: instant. As soon as I added all of the ingredients to the pot and brought it to a boil, my potion would be ready. Perfect. Now all I had to do was find the ingredients for my potions. That wasn’t going to be a problem.
I needed the following: six dried dandelion flowers, half a cup of fresh coconut milk, three hairs from a calico cat, two vials of water from melted snowfall, and eight stalks of naturally dried grass.
Luckily for me, all of those were basic ingredients every good earth coven witch had in her pantry. Of course, I wasn’t really a good earth coven witch, but my mother and Grandma Rosie both were, so I snuck into the main house and grabbed everything I needed. I made a mental note to remind my mother to find more calico cat hairs. There were plenty of orange, black, and white, but the calico jar was getting pretty empty. I knew my neighbor had a familiar who fit the bill, but he didn’t like me at the best of times, so I figured I’d leave the idea of going at his fur with a pair of scissors to my mom. I also got lucky in that she was out, so I didn’t even have to lie about what it was I was making.
I snuck the ingredients back into my shed and pulled out another earth witch staple: my trusty cauldron. Made of cast iron and weighing approximately eight thousand pounds despite only being a small, one-gallon model, my mother had given this one to me on my first day of the Academy. It was traditional for all witches in our coven to receive a ceremonial cauldron from their mothers when they began their formal witch education. Many were handed down through families, and mine had once belonged to my grandmother. While I owned a few other cauldrons—some cheap brass ones, primarily—this one was my favorite and I used it at every opportunity.
I looked at the instructions and smiled. This was a very easy potion to make. I put all of the ingredients in the cauldron in order. Then I took my wand and placed it over the rim of the cauldron, facing due north. Thank goodness for my phone’s compass app; it made casting spells like this way easier.
Going through the Potions Page 5