Don't Give a Witch (Bless Your Witch Book Six)

by Amy Boyles

  “Red,” she repeated.

  I folded my arms across my chest. “Will it still work?”

  Grandma stared at me, dumbfounded. “Of course it will work. What do you think I am? Some sort of two-bit street magician who pulls rabbits out of a hat?”

  I cringed. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

  Grandma clamped her soft hand over my arm. “Come on, girlie. Let’s go mingle with some bigwigs.”

  “Okay,” I mumbled.

  I let Grandma drag me into the room. We stood outside a ring of people, doing that really awkward thing where you join a group of folks who are talking, but you do it by hovering like little leeches waiting to suck someone’s blood.

  I hate socially awkward situations.

  As soon as there was a lull in the incredibly boring conversation about who had the most fabulous winter vacation in the most exotic locale, Grandma started in on the meet and greet thing. She clasped hands with each person, that bracelet sliding over the person’s wrist.

  I kept my nose over her shoulder, eyeing the color of the stone the entire time.

  “Thomas darling, so good to see you,” she said.

  “Hazel,” a tall older man who was apparently named Thomas replied.

  “The last time I saw you, you devil, you were knee-deep in a termite bed pretending to be asleep,” she accused mockingly.

  “Oh, those were the days,” Thomas replied.

  Really, I did so much eye rolling the tissue connecting my eyeballs to my brain hurt. But boy, let me tell you that Grandma knew how to work a room. We made it from one side to the other in a little over two hours. She clapped that cuff on every single person’s arm, making sure not to miss anyone.

  And every single time the crystal remained the same colorless clear.

  This was turning out to be harder than I’d expected. I mean, what if the person who’d killed Roman’s mother and sisters was dead? I guess I’d never really thought about that until my grandma came up with her ingenious method for finding out if any of the elite were the killer.

  “They’re not here,” I said when we decided to take a ten-minute break from extroverting. I pressed my shoulder blades against a wall. The hard wooden panels weren’t exactly what I’d call comfortable.

  “Nonsense,” Grandma said. “They’re here.”

  I cocked my head toward her. “It’s been over twenty years. They could be dead.”

  She shrugged. “They could be, but in order to have sneaked up to the queen’s room, that person was someone.” She made a flapping gesture toward the crowd. “And these are the someones.”

  “I guess,” I said. “That makes sense. It had to be a person with influence and power in order to have access to the queen.”

  Grandma poked the air with her finger. “Precisely. That’s what I’ve been saying. Stick with me, kid, and you’ll go places.”

  I drummed my fingers against the wall. “Oh, I’ve already gone places. Lots of them.”

  She flashed me a wicked smile.

  “Hazel, I see you made it up here quickly.”

  I turned toward the deep baritone that intruded on us. Standing a little ways off was Frederick Cobblestone.

  Grandma fluffed her sagging hair. “Yes, I scooted out quickly. I came up here to get some refreshments.”

  Frederick quirked a dark eyebrow. His gaze washed over me as if he was judging the fact that Grandma was hanging out with a cheater, but he said nothing. He handed Grandma a glass of punch.

  “Here,” he said. “This should help.”

  The side of Grandma’s mouth curled into a smile. She took a slight step forward, took the punch in one hand, and clamped the other over Frederick’s wrist. The cuff slid onto his skin.

  I peered over, not expecting anything to happen. I mean, after all, nothing had changed so far. I sneaked a quick peek at the stone and gasped.

  It had changed to red.

  TEN

  I blinked to make sure I’d seen correctly. Had the stone really turned red? The red morphed to purple, and I realized the stupid prism overhead had caused what I initially thought was a color change.

  I let out a breath and relaxed back against the wall, letting Grandma and Cobblestone talk shop for a minute. I wasn’t particularly interested in talking about the contest considering I was banned from competing the next day and all.

  “Yes, Taylor has come along as a wizard,” Frederick said with his long, pointy nose aimed at the ceiling as if a horrible smell had wafted up his nostrils.

  “Yes, that boy’s got talent,” Grandma said.

  “And guts,” I mumbled. Who wears a Speedo in public? Unless you’re an overweight man covered in hair so thick it looks like you’ve slapped a carpet over your body, I haven’t seen it. Other than that, I don’t know who wears Speedos. They’re grosser than gross.

  Grandma and Frederick talked for a few minutes, and then we excused ourselves back to the room.

  We ran into Gladiolas right outside the mingling lounge.

  She gave me a warm hug. It felt good, almost like being hugged by my mom. “Dylan, are you okay?”

  I pulled back and nodded. “I’m fine. It’s no big deal missing a day. I can still win—you know, if a dragon shows up and I manage to slay it. That might be a winner-takes-all situation.”

  Gladiolas smiled. She fingered a tuft of bang from her eyes. “You’re a brilliant witch, Dylan. You can pull anything off, I’m sure.”

  Wow. I think my chest puffed up a little at that. Brilliant? I’d never considered myself to be brilliant before. I kinda liked it. It kinda fit me.

  Better not let that go to my head.

  Gladiolas turned to Grandma. “We need to meet later to discuss some judging protocols. How about after supper?”

  Grandma nodded. “Sounds good.” She reached for Gladiolas. She was going to shake hands with her using that stupid cuff.

  I grabbed Grandma’s arm and shook my head. I smiled at the councilwoman. “Good to see you,” I said, pulling Grandma away.

  When we were out of earshot, Grandma yanked away and sniffed. “I’m just keeping up my part of the bargain, Dylan. Trying to find a killer.”

  I shoved my hands into my capri pockets. “Gladiolas? Really, Grandma. She’s not guilty.”

  She tapped the cuff. It shrank back down to the ring. “You can never be too careful, Dylan. Why, I remember one time there was a haunting at a church. The entire congregation was terrified—afraid to attend Sunday school because a ghost kept scaring everyone away. Even a group of young teenagers with a dog had gone in to try to solve the mystery. When they couldn’t figure it out, I was called in.”

  “That sounds like an episode of Scooby-Doo.”

  “More like Scooby-Don’t,” Grandma said. “Anyway, I went in undercover as another ghost.”

  “Sheet and all?”

  Grandma snapped her neck in a double take. “Why, yes? How did you know?”

  “Lucky guess.”

  “Anyway, I went in and you know what I discovered?”

  “No clue.”

  We reached the stairs. Grandma paused and slowly tilted her body to face me. “I discovered the ghost was nothing more than a church deacon. He kept dipping a little too much into the communion wine and thought it would be fun to scare the folks away so that he could have the wine all to himself.”

  I scratched an itch at the top of my head. “Did Shaggy help you solve that one?”

  Grandma frowned. “No, I solved it all by myself. The point is, Dylan, that man was someone those people relied on.”

  “And he betrayed them.”

  “Exactly right.”

  We reached the bedroom a few minutes later. Sera and Reid were there, sitting on the bed and talking about all things magic.

  “So how’d it go?” I said.

  Reid nodded. “Good. I made the cut.”

  “So did I,” Sera said. “Two days left. We really need to find that Never Forget spell so that when I win
, there’s a prize for me to take.”

  Reid threw a pillow at her. “When you win? I think I’ve got a decent shot at this. Finally, I’m good at something.”

  I shook my head. “Crocheting bodysuits?”

  Reid nodded triumphantly. “That’s right.”

  Okay, well, whatever. “Anyone got any leads? Roman’s working on it, and I haven’t had a chance to pick his brain.”

  “I say that Taylor guy’s a good suspect,” Reid said. She flopped down on a bed and stuffed a pillow under her chest. “He’s super weird, totally creepy and wears terrible clothes. But still manages to have sex appeal. How does that work?”

  Sera stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “Don’t get any ideas about that kid.” She thumbed toward Reid while looking at me. “But I agree with her. Dylan, go search his room.”

  The hairs on the back of my neck rose. “Me? Why me? It’s your idea.”

  Sera clicked her tongue. “Because you love searching people’s rooms. You have a knack for it.”

  I rolled my tongue in the back of my throat in annoyance and sat on a straight-backed chair. “Roman’s already checked all the rooms. If Never Forget was there, it would’ve been found.”

  Grandma crossed to the mirror, grabbed a comb and proceeded to tease her hair straight up. “They may have searched the regular rooms already, but might have missed the other room.”

  I shared a befuddled glance with my sisters. “What other room?” I said.

  Grandma poked at her hair, adding some hairspray to help tease it to full height. “The room that exists on the other side of the regular room. The hidden room.”

  I smacked my forehead. “What are you talking about?”

  Satisfied that her hair had reached new heights, Grandma put the spray back on a table. “The room beyond the veil. It’s difficult to find and doesn’t always exist, but if I wanted to hide something, that’s where I would put it.”

  “So you’re saying Roman and Jonathan Pearbottom haven’t considered this detail?” Sera said. “Seasoned professionals and they wouldn’t think to look in the hidden room.”

  Grandma sighed and sat down. “They might not have thought about it, no.”

  “Why not?” I said. “I don’t understand.”

  She fiddled with a sprig of lint on her cardigan. “Because there are blips in the castle, Dylan. Not everyone is aware of them. I happen to know because I’ve fallen through one of the blips before.”

  Reid rolled her eyes. “You fell through a blip?”

  “Yes.” Grandma waved her arms dramatically. “It’s a tear in the veil. The castle has a few. Not many, but a few. They’re not well-known. In fact, most of them are kept secret. You don’t always want people to know there’s a blip.”

  “Why?”

  Grandma sighed. “You’ll have to see to understand. But I know one thing for certain.”

  I tied my hair back with a band I had on my wrist. “What’s that?”

  Grandma leaned forward. “I saw which room that Cobblestone boy is staying in.”

  “And?” Sera said.

  Grandma smiled widely. “His room has a blip.”

  “Okay,” I whispered as Grandma led us through the halls. “Let’s try not to look too conspicuous.”

  Grandma pulled a pair of sunglasses from her pocket and slipped them on. The lenses were black as obsidian and as large as pancakes.

  “Yeah, that should do it,” Sera said.

  I shook my head. “Grandma and I will go inside. Sera, you and Reid keep watch.”

  Reid spat out a strand of hair she was chewing. “What do you want us to do if he shows up?”

  “Seduce him,” I suggested.

  “Ew, but okay,” Reid said.

  “I’m kidding.” I shot her a dark look. “Don’t even think about it.” We turned a corner, and what do you know, but Taylor Cobblestone was heading straight for us.

  “Grab him,” I said to Sera. “Keep him busy for ten minutes. Take Reid with you.”

  Reid’s eyes opened to the size of saucers. “What do we say?”

  I planted my mouth in her ear and whispered, “Tell him you’ll crochet him a pair of underpants.”

  “Ha,” Reid said.

  I gave them a gentle push. Reid pitched forward, hands out. She tumbled right into Taylor Cobblestone. The guy actually did the manly thing and scooped her up, stopping her from landing splat on the ground.

  I hooked an arm around Grandma’s elbow and said, “Let’s go.”

  We speed walked away. They’d keep Cobblestone busy long enough to give me and my grandmother a chance to find this secret room or whatever the heck it was we were looking for.

  Grandma stopped. “This is it.”

  The door looked harmless enough.

  Grandma placed a hand on the wood. “Do you feel it?”

  I mimicked her action. I didn’t feel anything except cold, hard wood. “Feel what?”

  She lowered her voice to a spooky pitch. “The vibrations. Do you feel them?”

  “No. Am I supposed to?”

  “Only a true witch can feel the other side beyond this door.”

  Now I was worried. I couldn’t feel anything. Did that mean I wasn’t a true witch? I pressed my hand harder to the panel. “I don’t feel anything.”

  She smacked my back.

  “Ouch!”

  “Ha! I got you.”

  “What do you mean, you got me?”

  Grandma blinked wildly, reminding me of a feral cat. “As your other grandmother would say, I got you, toots. It was a joke. I pulled a funny on you. There’s nothing you can feel on the door. Not one thing.”

  I think I growled. “Can you just get us inside? Before this guy comes back and catches us?”

  “Touchy, touchy.” Grandma placed a hand over the knob and turned. It was unlocked and opened easily enough.

  We stepped inside. I closed the door softly behind me. The stench of sweaty man clothes hit me like an anvil had been dropped on my head.

  “Oh, that’s horrible,” I said.

  Grandma wiped tears from her eyes. Yes, the stench was that bad. “Let’s be quick.”

  “Okay, Grandma. Where’s this other room?”

  She tapped her nose and started sniffing.

  Girl, I wish I was joking. She sniffed her way from one side of the room to the other. I mean, I was holding my nose, and she was seriously inhaling it like she couldn’t get enough.

  When she reached a corner that held a pile of dirty clothes, she said, “This is it. The other room is here.”

  “There. In the dirty clothes?”

  She shook her head. “No. Behind them.”

  I raked my fingers over my face. “Great. Who gets this many dirty clothes in one day?” I picked my way across the room that happened to have clothes strewn across the floor. We’d only been here for a day. How did this guy manage to wreck his room so quickly?

  I heaved the pile of damp, disgusting garments out of the way and stared at a wall. It was lined with white wallpaper spotted with pale lemon-colored flowers.

  “Okay. What am I supposed to be seeing here?” I said, totally unimpressed. And to be honest, at this point I figured my grandmother’s looniness had burst into a mushroom cloud of crazy.

  My grandmother secured her hand to the back of my neck and gently nudged me down. My face pushed through what felt like a layer of thick film. The film stretched until I actually felt a pop.

  Everything changed.

  I was looking at a negative of the room. What was white was now black; what was black was now white.

  A cool wind splashed across my face. My nerve endings fired off. It was like I knew I wasn’t supposed to be here and wherever I was, whoever the being was controlling it—they knew I was an intruder as well.

  Cold sweat pooled on my back. I needed to be fast. I needed to find Never Forget if it was here and be done. I stepped into this strange room. Half the wall was missing, exposing the room to the el
ements. That’s where the wind was coming from. The lamps, the desk, the bed, everything looked brand-new in my world. Here it looked as if a bomb had exploded behind the castle.

  Dust covered everything. The wind whipped it into the air, sending it into my eyes. I blinked away most of the grit, but some of it remained. In fact, most of it did. I rubbed them, but it didn’t help.

  “Find the Never Forget,” I heard my grandmother say.

  I turned back. I could sort of make out her shape. Good, ’cause I didn’t know how the heck I was going to get back. I did a quick search of the room, looking under the desk and bed, but I didn’t find anything. A quick sweep didn’t reveal one bit of Never Forget.

  I was as satisfied as I was going to get that I’d searched the room carefully. I crossed over to Grandma’s shadow. Her bony fingers hooked into my shoulder.

  Just then, a dark shadow zipped past me. A cold shiver zingered down to my core. An overwhelming feeling of anger and hatred pulsed through my body. It was suffocating, like death itself had looked straight into my soul as if trying to decide whether or not it was my time to die.

  I shuddered. As I was moving back through the film, I noticed a glint of metal. On a small table off to the side sat a brass pot. I glanced around, looking for the shadow. It was gone. I snatched up the pot as Grandma finished guiding me into my world.

  When I was fully back, I bent over, slid my hands down my knees and heaved a deep breath. “That place is horrible. What is it?”

  “It’s a place you don’t want to go unless you have to,” Grandma said. “Many of the blips have been patched up, but someone forgot to get that one. I’ll mention it to Queen Em so that it can be closed.”

  “What was that shadow? I got the feeling it didn’t want me there.”

  Grandma scratched the nape of her neck so hard I thought she was trying to rub off the skin. “They don’t like us there.”

  “Who doesn’t?”

  She gave me a tender smile and patted my hand. “Just a demon. It’s very territorial. Don’t worry about it.”

  My eyes widened. “Just a demon?”

  She wiggled her head. “Yes. A demon. If you’re not doing any harm, it won’t bother you. But go in there and try to work some magic, or attack someone, and it becomes angry.”