by Elle Adams
“Is there?” I walked into the forest, skirting a large oak tree. That chicken was more trouble than she was worth. I should have known bringing her to watch the contest had been a mistake.
“Hey, Robin.” Rowan popped out of the bushes, still covered in mud and grass from the race. “Is my mother still around? I ran in here as soon as I saw her.”
“She’s with Vanessa.” I pointed vaguely towards the path. “Have you seen a chicken? Apparently, she bit Vanessa and then ran into the forest.”
Rowan snorted. “I thought you put the chicken to sleep.”
“I did, but Vanessa woke her up,” I said. “You should go back home and clean up before the next round of the contest.”
“I’d prefer to avoid my mother.” She rubbed her grass-stained hands on her trousers. “Speaking of whom, I’m guessing she isn’t happy I entered.”
“No, but she blamed me for inviting you,” I said. “Besides, won’t it feel good if you end up winning against Vanessa?”
“Not if it causes her to try to ruin my new life.” Rowan lowered her gaze. “I should probably drop out.”
“No.” She might have had a point, but dropping out of the contest wasn’t going to make her mother any less likely to retaliate against her for turning her back on the coven and her family. “Don’t forget I’m the one she’s mad at. Besides, you know Vanessa doesn’t stand a chance of winning the contest. That Roxy is pretty much a certain victor.”
“Found her!” Tansy yelled from nearby.
Chloe, Rowan, and I moved through the trees until we saw Tansy’s bright tail sticking out from a bush. Sure enough, a feathery lump sat underneath.
I crouched down at her side. “Minty?”
The chicken whimpered but didn’t say a word or move.
“What did my sister do to her?” Rowan crouched next to me. “Ah… Minty… you shouldn’t run off into the forest. You might get eaten by a fox.”
“Not sure that’s helpful, Rowan,” I said out of the corner of my mouth. To Minty, I added, “I won’t let Vanessa go near you again, okay? But we have to leave. Come with me.”
Minty crept out from under the bush, and I kept an eye on her as we made our way downhill. We’d need to avoid the path if we didn’t want to run into Aunt Shannon or Vanessa, but Minty jumped at every small noise in the bushes, and I had to stop her from running away again at least twice. Once we were far enough from Aunt Shannon to risk veering near the path again, I glimpsed Malcolm walking out of the forest himself, still covered in mud. At the sight of him, Minty gave another loud squawking noise and flapped her wings.
I shushed her, keeping an eye on Malcolm’s back. “What’s the problem?”
“Did you know him?” Tansy asked. “Malcolm, I mean?”
“Maybe his cat tried to eat her,” said Rowan. “That was his cat causing trouble in the race, wasn’t it?”
“Yes…” My frown deepened when I spotted someone else walking through the trees, too far away for me to make out their features. I squinted, seeing dark hair, a slight frame. “Is that Nolan?”
“What’s he doing in here?” Rowan asked.
The chicken made a distressed noise and ran in completely the wrong direction, forcing me to hurry to catch up to her. “Come back.”
Minty ran in circles, flat-out refusing to set foot back onto the path, and I had to employ yet another sleeping command on her in order for Chloe to pick her up and carry her back to the woodland trail.
“You don’t want her back in the garden, right?” Chloe asked. “There’s a cage in your office, I think, so we can put her in there until she wakes up.”
“What did Grandma need a cage for?” On second thought, I probably didn’t want to know. “I’d let her roam around the coven’s garden, but Myrtle might find her there too.”
Keeping her sedated in the office wasn’t exactly a great long-term solution, either, but I was out of any other ideas. Rowan and I parted ways at the end of the woodland path, while Chloe and I took the chicken to the witches’ headquarters and found Carmilla sitting expectantly on the doorstep. “There you are. Where have you been?”
“I had to find a runaway chicken.” I indicated the feathery lump in Chloe’s hands. “What’s going on?”
Carmilla stretched, arching her back. “Someone tried to break into your office.”
Chloe nearly dropped the chicken. “What?”
My heart lurched. “When?”
“Less than five minutes ago,” she said. “When you were gallivanting off.”
“I wasn’t gallivanting off.” I’d been in the forest… and so, by the looks of things, had half the contenders. “Wait, did you see the intruder?”
“No, but I heard a male voice,” said Carmilla. “I think he was casting an unlocking charm on the door.”
“And?” I pressed. “What did you do?”
“The voice woke me up, so I yelled until he bolted.”
“Where to?” I looked up and down the road, but the intruder would have disappeared by now.
“I’ll look.” Chloe set the chicken down on the doorstep and then hurried down the road, leaving me staring after her.
Who tried to break in? It couldn’t have been Aunt Shannon unless she’d recruited someone else to do her dirty work while she’d been marching around the woods. Besides, my family was aware the office wasn’t unguarded. On the other hand, the contenders might not have known it was under watch by a ghost and her familiar. Might one of them have tried to break in?
After picking up the chicken, I followed Carmilla into my office before examining the door as if in the hopes of finding signs of a mark from the intruder’s wand. Chloe came running in a moment later. “I’m sorry, Head Witch. I can’t find the intruder.”
“They didn’t get into the office. Don’t worry,” I said. “Grandma’s ghost hasn’t come back yet?”
“No.” Carmilla hopped onto Chloe’s desk. “Might I suggest leaving a mousetrap of sorts near the door?”
“I don’t have a mousetrap.” Or did I? If there was a cage somewhere among all those cabinets, then there might be a mousetrap too. “Carmilla?”
“Don’t ask me.” The cat yawned. “What is that chicken doing in here?”
“I need to find a cage for her,” I said. “Or set her loose in the garden and hope Myrtle leaves her alone.”
“I’ll get the cage.” Chloe ducked behind the cabinets, while I set the chicken down on the desk. Tansy, meanwhile, began opening the desk drawers and riffling through the contents.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Found it.” Tansy hopped out of the drawer and held up an ink bottle. “This is invisible ink which glows in the dark. If you put that on the door, the intruder will be unmasked the instant you see them in the dark.”
“I prefer the mousetrap idea, personally.” Then again, knowing me, I’d forget and put my own hand in it. “All right.”
I took the bottle of ink from Tansy and set about daubing it carefully onto the door handle. When I returned to my office, I found that Chloe had put Minty into a small cage.
“I don’t think she should stay unwatched,” she said.
“I know, but I can’t carry her around everywhere either.” I debated waking her up, but she’d raise hell when she found herself in a cage, and I didn’t quite dare set her free in case she panicked and got herself lost in the woods again. “Put her out in the yard.”
“Sure.” She carried the cage out of the office, while I checked the time and found that I didn’t have long before I needed to be at the contest’s next round.
And to think I’d assumed that being Head Witch would mostly consist of attending tedious council meetings.
7
When I made my way back to the woodland path, Rowan called out from behind me. She’d changed out of her muddy clothes, but her boots were still caked in mud, and her blond hair was damp and windswept.
“Hey, Robin,” she said. “Malcolm said the next round of the contest is a
scavenger hunt in the forest. Not sure why he told me, but I’m not complaining.”
“Huh. I didn’t know.” Was that why Malcolm and Nolan had been wandering around the woods earlier? “I didn’t have time to ask, though, because someone tried to break into my office while I was gone.”
“Your office?” She blinked in confusion. “Oh, you mean Grandma’s old office. Who tried to break in?”
“No idea. Carmilla woke up when she heard someone trying to use a spell on the door, but she didn’t see who it was.” And Grandma’s ghost had been inconveniently absent at the time. “It also can’t have been Aunt Shannon or Vanessa, because I ran into them right before I got back.”
She grimaced. “Yeah, that’s weird. So the attempted break-in happened when we were looking for the chicken in the woods?”
“Yes.” Which ruled out at least two or three of the contenders but not all of them. Persephone Henbane, for instance… though Carmilla had insisted the person she’d heard had been male. I’d definitely seen both Malcolm and Nolan in the forest, so who else did that leave? At least the ink I’d put on the door would clue me in if the intruder was foolish enough to try again, so there was nothing to do but try to put it out of my mind for now.
Rowan and I followed the woodland path, joining the other contenders heading in the same direction. Malcolm was among them, and I found myself wondering how he’d found out the nature of the second round of the contest when he’d seemingly spent the interlude wandering around the woods with his familiar. I didn’t quite know what to make of him, to be honest. His familiar had been aggressive towards the other animals, but he’d also given Rowan information on the contest. Had he done the same for the other contenders?
I quickened my pace and caught up to Malcolm. “Hey. Can I have a word?”
“Another one?” He glanced down at his cat familiar, who flattened his ears at me.
“You knew this round was due to take place in the forest.” No point in beating around the bush. “How’d you find out?”
“I heard someone telling… what’s her name again? Vanessa?” he replied.
Aunt Shannon. Of course she’d wanted to give her daughter all the advantages she could get, and he must have overheard their conversation while he’d been wandering in the woods. Given that I’d seen Nolan in the forest, too, he might know as well.
“Is there any reason you told my cousin?”
“Which cousin?” he asked. “Rowan, right? I figured she’d want to know. It’s only fair, since her sister already knew.”
“Fair” was not a word I would have used to describe his behaviour so far, but unless he’d magically teleported himself back into the forest after breaking into my office, he couldn’t be the intruder I was looking for. “I just wondered.”
Tansy tugged on a strand of my hair. “Look who it is. I wonder what he was doing in the woods.”
Nolan walked past, his rat scurrying along at his feet. I veered in his direction and caught him up. “Can I have a word?”
He gave a nervous nod. “Sure.”
“I saw you in the woods earlier,” I said. “Were you looking for the next round of the contest?”
“No, I got lost when I wandered off the path,” he said. “I was looking for a shortcut back to the inn, but I didn’t realise the woods were that twisty.”
“You’ve never been to the Wildwood before?”
“It’s not out of bounds, is it?” he asked. “I know it belongs to your coven…”
“No, it’s fine.” The only people officially not allowed in were reporters. “I take it you found your way back eventually?”
“Yeah, with two minutes to spare before I had to come back.” He gave an attempt at a smile. “That’ll teach me to leave the path.”
Hmm. He’d been wandering in completely the wrong direction, but I’d done the exact same thing on my first excursions into the Wildwood as a child.
A squeaking noise from by my feet made me aware that I’d almost trodden on his rat. “Oh, sorry.”
The rat gave me a baleful look, but Nolan put on an apologetic expression. “Sorry. He doesn’t like being held, so I have to let him walk.”
“I thought not.” His familiar seemed a little antisocial to say the least, and I was kind of surprised he’d lasted this long in the contest. Regardless, I knew he couldn’t have been the one who’d tried to break into my office. Not unless he was capable of being in two places at once, that is.
The image of the chicken’s freak-out when she’d seen him in the forest sprang to mind, but she’d already been panicking at the time, and I wasn’t sure she’d even recognised him. Leaving her behind had been the best available option, I knew, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that I ought to have tried harder to get her to answer my questions about Anne’s death.
In the meantime, I reached the end of the path, where the contenders gathered in the same spot as they had before the prior challenge. The winding racetrack had vanished, but the spectators’ numbers had grown since the last round had ended.
Mum stood in front of the forest, Horace prowling around her feet, while Chloe talked to her in a hurried whisper. She must have been explaining the break-in and the chicken’s absence. Here we go.
“Robin.” Mum’s gaze pinned me to the spot. “Why exactly didn’t you inform me of the break-in yourself? Did you at least call your brother?”
“Carmilla said she scared off an intruder, but she didn’t see who it was,” I explained. “They never got into the office, and I figured Ramsey would want more proof than that.”
“You thought wrong.” Her eyes narrowed. “You also seem to have lost that chicken.”
“She’s in the coven’s garden,” I said. “She ran into the forest earlier when Vanessa decided to scare the living daylights out of her, so I thought it would be safer to leave her behind.”
“I hope you made the right choice,” she said. “As for the intruder, I’d advise you to take further measures to ensure that they won’t escape next time.”
“I will,” I said. “Trust me, the next person who tries to break through the door will be easy to find.”
“I looked everywhere around the building, but they’d already gone by the time we got there.” Chloe wrung her hands. “I’m sorry, Head Witch.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said. “They clearly ran fast, and it’s not as if anyone actually saw them. Carmilla said she heard a masculine voice, but that covers a lot of people.”
“We’ll deal with that later.” Mum’s gaze travelled across the contenders on the hillside. “Everyone’s here. Let’s begin the next round.”
Mum walked out to address the contenders, some of whom were still covered in mud from the previous round. Eight remained, and this round would bring that number down to four.
“For the second round of the contest,” she said, “you’ll be divided into two teams. All witches and wizards will wait here on the hillside while your familiars hunt for a number of tokens in the forest and bring them back to you. The first team to retrieve ten tokens will win.”
“So our familiars are going to do all the work?” Vanessa asked.
“No,” said Mum. “Each of the two groups will receive a single map of the area, and you’ll give your familiars instructions on how to find the tokens’ locations. It will be a team effort, because all four members of the winning team will advance to the next round. The losing team will be disqualified.”
A murmur of unease passed among the gathering contenders while the audience waited with bated breath. Everyone knew that if one team was weighted in favour of past winners, they were almost certain to come out on top.
To make it fair, Mum had written the name of each contender on a scrap of paper, which she proceeded to draw from a bucket, like a low-budget Goblet of Fire, or so Tansy whispered in my ear. I stifled a laugh, though I found myself as tense as everyone else when Mum began to draw the names for each team. Roxy and her raven both looked calm, but everyone
else was visibly on edge, even Piper and Rowan, who weren’t necessarily looking to go ahead to the next round despite the appealing notion of beating Vanessa publicly. Their familiars paced anxiously, and all eyes were on Mum when she drew the first set of names.
In the first team, Roxy and her raven were to compete alongside Persephone Henbane; Patrick, the skinny blond wizard with a tuxedo cat familiar; and Vanessa, who looked very smug when she saw Roxy was on her team. Persephone looked incredibly relieved, too, though she avoided my gaze when I looked in her direction.
Piper, on the other hand, found herself teamed with Rowan, Malcolm and his striped cat, and Nolan and his rat.
“The first team is to stand over there.” Mum pointed to a spot partway down the hill’s right side. Then she pointed to the left. “And the second team will wait there. You have five minutes to discuss strategy among yourselves before sending your familiars into the woods.”
She handed each team a map of the forest which displayed the area the scavenger hunt would take place in. Good thinking, because while Piper, Rowan, and Vanessa were familiar with the Wildwood, the majority of the contenders weren’t, and Vanessa wasn’t exactly a team player. Typical that she’d ended up on the team of the reigning champion, but the attempted break-in had reminded me that the outcome of the contest was the least of my worries at the moment.
I watched both teams as they discussed their strategies for finding the tokens and winning the scavenger hunt. The second group was mostly silent, with Piper and Rowan studiously ignoring one another, and Malcolm and Nolan weren’t particularly talkative, either. I caught Piper’s eye and smiled before approaching the other team instead. The first group was a little more talkative than the other, with the exception of Vanessa. Maybe she hoped to coast through on Roxy’s expertise, a plan which might actually work for her. The fact that she and her familiar knew the forest well would work in her favour too. While Roxy did most of the talking, Persephone and her bird were hanging onto her every word, with Patrick occasionally chipping in. Figuring I wasn’t going to hear much of interest, I returned to wait with Tansy, Mum, and Chloe.