by Elle Adams
“Can I come, then?” The chicken made a soft noise like a sob. “I’m sure Anne would want me to watch the rest of the contest. For her.”
I exhaled. “Fine, provided you don’t distract the other familiars. Chloe, can you take her with you while I go to speak to Rowan?”
Chloe nodded. “Of course.”
“Thanks.” I doubted carrying a chicken around had been in her job description any more than it’d been in mine, but after yesterday’s humiliation with Carmilla, I didn’t need any more animal-related incidents at the coffee shop. Besides, I still had to carry the sceptre everywhere I went. “I’ll be there before the contest starts.”
Tansy ran alongside me as I made my way down the street towards the centre of town. I stopped outside the coffee shop to make sure no familiars were about to ambush me again. None did, but Rowan sat at a table in a corner, sipping a latte.
I ordered one for myself before approaching her. “Hey, Rowan.”
“Robin.” She looked up at the clock above the counter. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the first round of the contest?”
“I have a slight favour I need to ask you first.”
A wary expression appeared on her face. “What is it?”
“You know one of the contest entrants died yesterday. We need someone to replace her, and we can’t ask any of the other entrants in case they accuse us of being biased.”
She frowned. “You want me to enter this contest?”
“It’s a contest specifically for people who have a strong bond with their familiars,” I said. “I know it’s a big thing to ask, considering your sister is also taking part, but…”
“I’ll do it,” she said. “If I can make life difficult for Vanessa and help you out, then I’m game.”
“I appreciate it.” It was also another chance for her to show her support for me after her interview with the Blue Moon had shaken my trust in her. I just hoped Vanessa wouldn’t make her regret her choice.
The werewolf running the café handed me my coffee. “Good luck, Head Witch.”
“Thanks.” I paid for my drink before leaving the café with Rowan. “The first round is supposed to take place right at the end of the woodland path, but my mum didn’t tell me what it actually involves.”
“That figures.” She let her tarantula familiar, Ralph, climb out of her pocket as we walked, while Tansy scurried at my feet. “You look tired.”
“A chicken kept me awake all night. Don’t ask.”
I told her anyway, though, and by the time we reached the woodland trail, she was up to speed on both the murder and my dubious start as Head Witch.
“I can’t believe Grandma’s giving orders from beyond the grave,” she said.
“I shouldn’t be surprised, but she’s proving more of a challenge than my living family members.” I spotted a large crowd gathering at the far end of the path. “Here we are.”
I found Mum standing with her back to the trees, facing the contenders. Chloe and the chicken stood with the larger crowd that had gathered on the hillside to watch, but Mum beckoned me to her side in front of the other fifteen contenders. A frown appeared on her face when Rowan came to join them. Maybe she hadn’t expected my cousin to say yes.
Vanessa, on the other hand, wore an expression of shock and anger, but I simply smiled at her when she glared at me. Rowan, meanwhile, put as much space as possible between herself and her sister, though Piper didn’t look thrilled to see her either.
“Now we’re all here,” Mum said, “I will explain the rules. The primary aim of the first round of the Familiar Contest is a test of trust between you and your familiars. All the humans will be blindfolded for this round, and their familiars will guide them along the racetrack beneath their feet.”
I looked at where she pointed, belatedly noticing the trail painted onto the grass and winding across the hillside. It seemed most of the eliminated contenders had elected to come and watch the next round, since they filled the area on the other side of the track.
“Also,” she added, “no familiars will be permitted to talk during this round. I will know if they do.”
I hid a smile, figuring that that rule was there to prevent Vanessa from having an unfair advantage. Still, I resolved to keep an extra close eye on her in case she tried to thwart Mum’s instructions.
At Mum’s command, the contenders lined up at the start of the racetrack with their familiars at their feet.
“That will do,” Mum said. “Put your blindfolds on—properly, Vanessa—and secure them tightly.”
Both Mum and I watched carefully for any cheating while our familiars kept a close eye on the animals. The track itself was pretty straightforward at first glance, but once everyone had their blindfolds on, Mum raised her wand and gave it a wave. The grass on the hillside changed, creating a swampy area at the foot of a steep slope while a tangle of bushes sprang up near the finish line. This was going to be tricky.
“I heard that, Vanessa,” Tansy shouted from next to me. “No whispering to your familiar. That’s cheating. If you do it again, you’re disqualified.”
Vanessa flushed, but her familiar flew off her shoulder and landed at her feet instead.
“Both humans and familiars are to wait behind the starting line,” Mum ordered. “Robin?”
Oh, I was supposed to start the round. I held up the sceptre so that its glow was visible to the crowd watching in anticipation. “Begin.”
The race started, the contenders moving forward. Some flat-out ran, some were more cautious, but they all ran into trouble almost at once as they sank up to their knees in the swamp. There was no shortcut available, and the familiars who couldn’t fly were forced to climb onto their owners to keep from sinking. Nolan’s rat was not a fan of that, squeaking angrily as his wizard waded through the mud.
Roxy and her raven were the first to find their way out of the swamp, but Persephone Henbane and her bird and Malcolm and his cat were close on her heels. Rowan did decently well, though Vanessa overtook her when they escaped the swamp. I was sure my eldest cousin wasn’t strictly adhering to the rules—it was hard for me to make out whether she and her familiar were exchanging whispers in the general cacophony of animal noises combined with the crowd cheering on the contenders.
The next hitch came at the steep slope that followed the swamp, where several contenders tripped over or slid back down the hill due to their muddy shoes. Roxy and her raven remained in the lead, but half the contenders were still stuck in the swamp by the time she reached the top of the hill.
Things grew heated when Malcolm’s cat yowled, a sharp and sudden noise that startled almost all the other familiars into leaping into the air or running in panicked circles. Roxy and her raven took a decisive lead, while Rowan actually gained ground because her familiar wasn’t scared of sudden noises. Vanessa, meanwhile, ended up going in the wrong direction entirely until she skirted the edge of the woods.
Tansy snickered with laughter. “I hope she gets lost in the forest.”
Fortunately for Vanessa, the other contenders had lost most of the ground they’d gained, and the few that had both escaped the swamp and scaled the hill found themselves stalling when they reached the thorny, tangled bushes near the end. The thick undergrowth brought even Roxy and her raven to a standstill while the crowd screamed encouragement.
Vanessa and Persephone had almost caught up to her when Roxy escaped the trees and reached the finish line. The crowd’s screaming grew to a crescendo.
“The race isn’t over until eight of you have crossed the finish line,” said Mum. “Let go of that blindfold, Vanessa.”
I glared at my cousin, not that she could see me. She was third to reach the finish line, behind Persephone Henbane, with Rowan in fourth. The rest took a while to catch up, and Nolan and his rat and Patrick and his cat were among the next four contenders to cross the finish line.
Half the rest were still stuck in the swamp when Mum called the race to an end.
&n
bsp; “Remove your blindfolds, please.” I had to raise my voice over the clamour from the audience while the noise had sent the chicken into a screaming fit again.
“Quiet,” Mum said. “This round of the contest is over. Remember, if you reached the end of the race, then it doesn’t matter who won. There are still three rounds to go.”
Until then, the contestants had an hour to clean themselves up before the next round. Everyone was covered in mud, animals and humans alike, and it’d been harder to spot any cheating than I’d anticipated. Except for Vanessa, of course, and Malcolm’s familiar’s blatant attempt at distraction.
“Should I talk to him?” I asked Mum. “Malcolm, I mean? You heard his cat yell to distract the others on purpose.”
“He didn’t cheat, technically,” she said. “And why did you bring that chicken?”
“Aunt Shannon’s familiar has been harassing her,” I said. “I’ll use another sleeping command if she keeps screaming.”
“I thought I taught you not to use your magic on others’ familiars.”
The chicken’s wailing cut through my attempt to reply. “I think this qualifies as an exception.”
I had an hour to speak to the contenders, and I fully intended to do exactly that. Dealing with the chicken would have to wait until later.
6
After putting the chicken back to sleep and leaving her in Chloe’s care, I followed the mud-covered contenders downhill along the woodland trail before singling out Malcolm and approaching him.
He gave me a questioning look when he saw me. “Something I can help you with, Head Witch?”
I thought I detected a hint of mockery in his tone, though I might have been mistaken.
“Why did your cat make that noise?” I asked. “Did you tell him to scare the other animals?”
“No,” he said. “If they’re scared of a little noise, though, they won’t make it very far in the contest.”
His cat meowed in agreement, walking alongside him downhill.
“Don’t let it happen again,” I said, but he didn’t turn back.
“Hope he gets kicked out in the next round,” Tansy whispered in my ear.
“Same.” Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Roxy and her raven walking nearby. As I watched, she murmured something to the raven, who replied with a low chittering noise.
When Roxy saw me, she slowed her pace. “Head Witch.”
“Can you two understand one another?” I asked curiously.
“As well as any witch or wizard,” she said. “Ah—except your family, that is.”
“You have remarkable control,” I said. “When Malcolm’s familiar tried to startle everyone, yours is the only familiar who didn’t react.”
“That’s right.” She gave her raven a stroke. “We’ve been entering these contests for years. Nothing much fazes her anymore.”
“I saw your record. It’s very impressive.” It was common for witches and their familiars to have an innate understanding that went beyond words, but they’d sounded more like me and Tansy talking to one another than a typical witch and her familiar. Still, that didn’t mean either of them might be breaking the rules of the contest.
At that moment, someone else came into view who drove all thoughts of the other contenders from my mind. Aunt Shannon strode uphill, her blond curly hair flowing behind her in the breeze and her cloak swirling around her ankles. At the sight of her, tension zipped up my spine. After her absence from yesterday’s meeting, I’d hoped that she’d sit out the entire contest and leave her daughter here in her place, though I knew better than to think she wasn’t scheming with Vanessa behind the scenes. Maybe my inviting Rowan to take part in the contest had annoyed her enough to finally show her face.
“What do you want?” Tansy called out.
“How dare you.” Aunt Shannon stopped in front of me, fury etched on her face. “The sheer nerve of you.”
“You’ll have to be a bit more specific.” Frankly, I had no idea if she was referencing my new status as Head Witch or the fact that I’d helped Rowan go behind her back.
“As if it wasn’t enough to betray your own family,” she spat. “You schemed with the very person who conspired against her own mother in order to humiliate Vanessa.”
Couldn’t she even say Rowan’s name? I’d been under no illusions that she’d be angry with me for my choice, but I’d—perhaps naively—assumed she’d be too busy licking her wounds over missing out on claiming the title of Head Witch to challenge me in public. As she glowered at me, the trees rustled around us with birds taking flight and animals stirring in the bushes in response to her rage. Adrenaline jolted through me, and I held the sceptre tight, prepared to use it if necessarily.
“I didn’t recruit anyone.” I kept my tone calm despite my own turbulent emotions. “I asked my cousin to enter the contest as a favour due to the death of another contender, nothing more. It wasn’t an attempt to undermine Vanessa.”
“I suppose you’ll make the same claim about how she took Vanessa’s inheritance too.”
“She took her fair share of the money Grandma gave her,” I said. “Also, I had nothing to do with that. Take it up with Grandma if you have a problem with her giving money to Rowan—who, I might add, is an adult who’s perfectly capable of making her own decisions.”
“Maybe I will,” she said. “She won’t ever see another penny from me, I can assure you of that.”
She’d disowned Rowan altogether? It didn’t surprise me that she had, but I couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility of her trying to ruin Rowan’s new life in more indirect ways. “If you wanted her to stay in your house, then you shouldn’t have cut off her allowance and forced her to work for the coven to begin with. You made her so miserable she had to find her own way out.”
A dangerous glint appeared in her eyes. “Do you believe every word she tells you? She’s a deceiver. Look at what she did to her own flesh and blood.”
I had the sense I was facing a losing battle trying to convince her otherwise, so I changed tack. “Look, I wouldn’t have asked her to take part in the contest if someone hadn’t been murdered yesterday, leaving us one contender short. I needed a replacement who wasn’t likely to cause trouble.”
She gave a harsh laugh. “Both of you are nothing but trouble. You deserve one another.”
“Thanks,” I said as if she’d paid me a compliment. Which, in a way, she had. Rowan and I might have had our differences, but I’d sooner ride a kelpie without a saddle than do anything which might be comparable to the likes of Aunt Shannon. “Did you come all the way out here to yell at me? Or was there another reason?”
“Why would there be?” she queried.
“I thought you might have useful information to give me about the murder.” I tried to read her expression, but her face remained inscrutable. “I’m sure you and Vanessa had time to discuss the subject at length.”
“I am quite sure you can resolve this little problem yourself.”
“It wasn’t little. Someone died.” Vanessa had entered the contest on her mother’s behalf. Had Aunt Shannon asked her to do more than just secure victory? This wasn’t the first time I’d suspected her of murdering her way to her goals, and I’d turned out to be mistaken, but that was before I’d snatched her dream straight from her grasp. “Can I help you with something else, then?”
“No.” She looked me over. “No, I don’t think you can.”
“Mother!” Vanessa strode downhill and caught up to her mother, breathless. “That awful chicken bit me.”
“What did you do to her?” Hadn’t she been asleep and under Chloe’s watch? If someone had woken her up, I’d place the blame squarely on the person with the ability to influence and communicate with animals who also had a good reason to cause a public scene.
“Why would you assume I did something wrong?” she said. “You’re the one who was supposed to be watching that ghastly creature.”
“No, Chloe is,” I said. “Where i
s she?”
“I don’t know, and frankly, I don’t care,” said Vanessa. “That chicken should be locked up. You shouldn’t let it roam around.”
“You’re in a familiar contest,” I pointed out. “If you hadn’t wanted to be around animals, you should have entered the flower-arranging contest instead.”
Tansy cackled at Vanessa, who scowled at me. “You put her up to this.”
“If I could get that chicken to do what I asked, I’d have told her to stay at home,” I pointed out. “Which is what I tried to do, except your mother’s familiar kept terrorising her when she was in the garden, so I had to bring her here instead.”
“What did you say?” Aunt Shannon gave me a glare to equal her daughter’s. “You might be Head Witch, but that doesn’t give you licence to disrespect me.”
“So you’re denying that Myrtle spent the night chasing the chicken around our garden?” It wasn’t worth pressing the matter, so I turned my back on both of them. “Forget it.”
Resigning myself to losing my chance to speak to the contenders, I retraced my steps uphill until I ran into Chloe, who was hurrying towards the forest.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Minty—she’s gone.”
“Minty? Who’s that?”
“The chicken,” she said. “I got her to tell me her name before the loud noise disturbed her. Anyway—a minute ago, she woke up and ran into the forest.”
“Let me guess—Vanessa woke her up.” I turned towards the densely packed trees of the Wildwood. “Sorry I left you alone with her. I should have known Vanessa would try something underhanded.”
Tansy ran towards a tree. “I’ll have a look for her. She can’t have gone far.”
“Unless she can fly better than she let on.” I couldn’t climb trees as well as Tansy, so I let her scurry up to the canopy to survey the surrounding forest. “Did you see which way she ran, Chloe?”
“That way.” She pointed into the mass of trees. “Oh… I think there’s someone in there.”