Magic & Malice

by Annabel Chase

  Holly rolled up a pink dress in a tube and placed it in the suitcase. “I’ve enjoyed my time here, so it’s not a total loss. Like I said, Starry Hollow is a sweet little town. Crazy crime rate for a place this size, though. I don’t envy your boyfriend, Ember.”

  “Will you go back to Rainbow’s End?” Marley asked.

  “I’ve been trying to decide. I have a cousin overseas I’ve been meaning to visit. I may spend a few months with her and then decide what’s next. I like an open road.”

  “So there are no hard feelings between you and Alec?” I asked.

  “Not anymore,” Holly said. “When I first became angry because of the potion, it got pretty heated, but once we came to our senses, the situation was clear. Like I said, Marley, if it weren’t for your potion, it would’ve taken us much longer to figure out that we weren’t compatible.”

  “I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” I said. Sort of.

  “Alec is a lone wolf,” Holly said. “Sorry, I mean a lone vampire.” She covered her mouth and giggled. “I can only imagine how he’d react to being called a wolf.”

  “He’s content with his own company,” Marley said. “That’s not a bad quality.”

  Holly gave her an indulgent smile. “You really do see the best in him. It’s adorable.”

  “It’s been really nice meeting you, Holly,” Marley said.

  “You’ve been very gracious about the potion incident,” I said. More gracious than I would have been.

  Holly closed the lid on her suitcase and zipped the perimeter. “I’m sure you’ve probably given your daughter an earful, but you seem to be doing something right, so don’t beat yourself up over it.”

  “She’s going to be punished for the first time in her life,” I said. “That’s a pretty big deal in our house.”

  “For the first time ever? That is an accomplishment.” Holly tilted her head. “How old are you now?”

  “Eleven,” Marley replied.

  “Oh, that’s when your magic manifests, isn’t it?” Holly said, completely missing the fact that Marley had not, in fact, come into her magic.

  “Yes,” Marley said quietly.

  “How exciting!” Holly said. She lifted her suitcase off the sofa and placed it on the floor. “I hope it’s everything you dreamed it would be. We all deserve to have at least one dream come true, don’t we?”

  My throat tightened. “Yes, Holly. We absolutely do.”

  My next order of business was to chew the ear off the owner of Devil’s Claw. Selling potions to minors had to be a violation of at least one law, if not more. Marley begged me not to, but I wasn’t backing down. Not to excuse her behavior, but she was eleven. This owner was knowingly and regularly selling dangerous potions to minors. There was no excuse for that.

  “Where is this place?” I asked.

  “Down this side street,” Marley replied.

  “I can’t believe this,” I said. “You’ve only just turned eleven and here we are, traipsing down back alleys to visit illicit potion pushers.”

  Marley rolled her eyes. “They’re not pushers. It’s an actual shop.” We stopped in front of a dark purple building with white trim. “See?”

  Sure enough, the sign outside read—Devil’s Claw. “Lead on, Little Miss Mixologist.”

  Marley hovered outside the door a moment before entering. Her anxiety was palpable. I hated to do this, especially because I’d wanted so desperately for her to assert her independence, but a lesson had to be learned.

  A young elf stood behind the counter. His unruly brown hair covered his forehead and the top half of his eyes, but not the tips of his pointy ears. He paled when he noticed me trailing behind Marley.

  “Hey, Stuart,” Marley greeted him.

  “Hey, kid. What’s going on?” Stuart tried to act casual, but a bead of sweat had already formed on his forehead.

  I examined the rows of herbs and other magical plants. They were prepackaged in jars and other containers, lined up in measurement order. The mixtures were labeled by name and the next line gave a description of the potion’s effect. I saw Knee-Jerk there, between Back Talk and Faster, Pussycat.

  “Are you the owner of this fine establishment, Stuart?” I asked.

  He swallowed hard. “I am.”

  “I see. And do you make a habit of selling to minors?”

  “They’re a significant portion of his customer base,” Marley interjected. I silenced her with a warning glance. I wanted to hear it from Stuart.

  “Are you licensed with the town to conduct this business?” I asked. I had a feeling the answer was no.

  The elf scratched the back of his neck. “Licensed?”

  Exactly.

  “Stuart, you have potentially dangerous substances here.” I motioned the bottles nearest to me, full of colorful potions. “Look at these.” They were organized by general outcome, simple enough for a minor to understand—anger, sadness, speed.

  Speed.

  I scanned the labels of the bottles in the row. “Stuart?”

  “Yes, Miss Rose?” He sounded panicked.

  “This potion here.” I touched the bottle labeled Stroke Me. The main ingredient was celeritas. “Have you sold any of these in the past month?”

  The elf scratched his chin. “I’d have to check.”

  I folded my arms. “I’m happy to wait.”

  He scrambled behind the counter and pulled a ledger from the shelf. He began scanning the pages, starting from today and going backward. Two pages back, he tapped the middle of the page. “Here’s one. Same day I sold the potion to your daughter, in fact.”

  “Do you have a name?” I asked.

  “I don’t keep that information,” Stuart said. “Confidentiality and all that.”

  “I remember a man here,” Marley said. “You waited on me first. He was lingering. I thought it was weird because he seemed to be ready, but he wanted me to go first.”

  “Did you recognize him?” I asked.

  Her eyes grew round. “Yes. I saw him at Balefire Beach the other day. He was with his kids.”

  My heart seized as the memory came rushing back to me. Stone had told me that Marley looked familiar. He’d even asked if she had a job in town after school. At least that meant he didn’t remember seeing her here, which was a relief. If he was capable of killing a two-hundred-year old morgen, who knew what else he was capable of? But what motive could he possibly have? By all accounts, he had money of his own. A happy marriage to Avonne…

  Except what if it wasn’t? What if, like Sterling and Aster, they’d hit a rough patch and what if Stone had stepped out on his wife? Even worse, what if Hattie had discovered the betrayal and threatened him? That would explain Fern’s hostile behavior, as well as Sampson’s version of the argument he’d heard between Stone and Hattie. Maybe ‘coming clean’ hadn’t been about a business decision but an affair.

  My gut twisted. Stone was the killer, I was sure of it.

  “Thanks for your help, Stuart,” I said. “Do yourself a favor and take good care of that ledger. I have a feeling you’re going to be needing it.”

  The tips of Stuart’s ears turned bright red. “I swear I won’t sell to minors anymore. Tell your friends, kid. Devil’s Claw is for adults only.”

  Marley gave him a thumbs up as we left the shop.

  “Why are you in such a hurry, Mom?” Marley struggled to keep pace with me on the way back to the car.

  “I need to drive over to Granger’s,” I said. “I have something to tell him.”

  “Is that man from the beach the one that killed Hattie?” she asked.

  I nodded. “And I think I know how and why.”

  “The sheriff should hire you as his deputy,” Marley said.

  “Why? So we can get tired of each other and decide we’re better off as colleagues? No more relationship plans, Marley.”

  She huffed. “I only meant because you’re good at solving puzzles, and lots of times you do it without magic.”


  “See?” I said. “Magic isn’t necessary to be awesome. It’s just an extra, like having freckles or curly hair.”

  We stopped at the car and continued talking.

  “Let’s not go overboard,” Marley said. “We both know magic is much cooler than having freckles.”

  I unlocked the car door. “Fine. Magic is cooler, and if I could find a spell to get rid of freckles, I would.”

  “I’d be okay with not having magic, Mom,” Marley said. “Really. I’ve shown that I don’t deserve it anyway. I don’t respect its power.”

  My head whipped toward her. “Marley Rose, don’t you dare. You are eleven years old and you are allowed to make mistakes. That doesn’t make you a bad person and it doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the things you want in life. Do you understand me?”

  Marley’s expression was painfully somber. “I think it will be nice to be like Dad. It’s my only connection to him, right? So I get to enjoy life as a human, like he did.” She touched the locket around her neck.

  What could I say to that? I didn’t want to make humanity sound like a bad thing—it wasn’t. “Marley, whether you have magic or not, your dad will always be a part of you. You’re half Dad, half Mom. That’s how biology works. Plain and simple. You’re not any less of me just because you don’t have magic.”

  Marley sniffed. “But I want to be just like you,” she said softly. “You’re my hero.”

  I moved back to the pavement and pulled her in for a hug. “Where did you come from, perfect child? I think the universe is playing a trick on me and I’m going to wake up and discover you were one long, wonderful dream.”

  Marley squeezed me hard. “If that’s true, then you sleep a lot in real life.”

  I started to laugh, but my laughter was abruptly cut short by a hand clamped over my mouth.

  “Don’t fight me and I might let your daughter live,” the gruff voice said.

  Then everything went black.

  Chapter Seventeen

  When I finally came to, the moon was overhead and I was deep in the middle of a forest. My waist was tied to a live oak tree. I wiggled and realized that my ankles were bound together and my hands were tied behind my back. Luckily for me, one weapon was still available to me—my big mouth.

  “Marley?” I called. Despite the sliver of moonlight, the forest was too dark to see much of anything.

  “Mom?”

  Thank sweet baby Elvis. I relaxed slightly, despite our predicament. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m uncomfortable,” Marley replied. “Does that count?”

  “Your arms and legs are tied?” I asked.

  “Yes, and I’m tied to a tree. Can you do any magic to release the ropes?” she asked.

  “No, afraid not,” a voice said. Stone stepped out of the shadows. “Your mother has a protective spell on her at the moment that prevents her from doing any magic. Another concoction I picked up from Devil’s Claw. That place is invaluable.” He crouched down and bopped me on the nose with his finger. “No one can hear you scream here either, so don’t waste your breath.”

  “How did you find me so quickly?” I asked.

  “I paid that shopkeeper to let me know if anyone came asking about the potion I bought,” Stone said. “Good thing I paid him as much as I did or you’d be at the sheriff’s office by now.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom,” Marley said. “If I hadn’t slowed you down, this never would’ve happened.”

  “Aw, aren’t kids the greatest?” Stone gave me a mock smile. “That’s one of the reasons I have to do this. Preserve my family.”

  “Is that why you killed Hattie?” I asked. “She found out about your affair?”

  He straightened and took a surprised step backward, nearly tripping on a tree root in the process. “How about that? You figured out that part, did you? I thought you’d only unearthed the potion. Now I’m really glad I got my claws in you first.”

  “Where are we?” I demanded.

  “Where does it look like?” he replied. “Nature, sweetie pie. It’ll look nice and natural when you’re torn to bits by wild animals.”

  My mind turned to Raoul. If he were within range, maybe he’d sense my distress. The forest was his domain, after all. I had to stall Stone and try to summon Raoul at the same time, unless the protective spell prevented me from communicating with my familiar, too. It was worth a try.

  “Let my daughter go,” I said. “She isn’t part of this.”

  “Oh, but she is,” Stone said. “She knows the truth.”

  “So does the elf from the shop,” I said. “Yet he seems to be walking around, living and breathing.”

  “Stuart doesn’t have a clue,” he replied. “Besides, that guy is purely motivated by money, which is something you have plenty of.”

  “And everyone knows you do, too,” I said. “That’s one reason no one suspects you.”

  “The chandelier was a nice touch, too,” he said, puffing out his chest. “I rescued Hattie right before the actual murder. Why would I bother saving her life only to turn around and kill her an hour later?” He grinned in the darkness. “Genius, right?”

  “I don’t know about genius,” Marley called. “If it were so genius, my mom and I wouldn’t be here right now.”

  “A smart mouth,” Stone said, whirling around. “Do you know what happens to smart mouths in my house?”

  I shuddered to think. “I thought your goal was to preserve your family.” I wanted his attention back on me, not Marley.

  “Of course it is,” he said fiercely. “They’re mine. I’m not letting anyone take them away from me. Hattie would have ruined everything.”

  “Don’t you think you have that a little backward?” I said. “I’m pretty sure it was your affair that would have ruined everything, not Avonne’s grandmother knowing about it.”

  Raoul, can you hear me?

  “Avonne isn’t going to leave me for someone else,” he said. “That morgen is mine. Those kids are mine.”

  If you can hear me, Marley and I are being held in a forest by Stone Beauregard. Please send help.

  “Nothing sexier than a psychotic possessive streak,” I said. “And how does your mistress feel about all this? I suppose Fern is yours, too.”

  He put his face within an inch of mine. “I take what I want and I keep what I want. That’s how it works. Understand?”

  “I guess that’s not how Hattie viewed things,” I replied coolly. “After all, she’s been the matriarch of that family for almost two hundred years.”

  “She threatened me that if I didn’t come clean, she’d tell the family at her party to make an example of me,” he seethed. “Can you imagine what that would have done to Avonne, her own granddaughter?”

  I had to agree that Hattie’s plan wasn’t ideal. Then again, Stone wasn’t exactly winning any personality contests. Either way, the answer wasn’t murder.

  “You can’t kill us both,” I said. “Don’t you know who we are?”

  Stone laughed. “I killed Hattie Rollins-Mahoney. Do you really think I have a problem taking out a Rose or two? I don’t care what your name is, doll. The only thing you are is an obstacle to be overcome by whatever means necessary.”

  I had flashbacks to my New Jersey apartment and the maniacal mobster that had come to kill Marley and me. My cousins had saved me then. Linnea, Aster, and Florian had dropped down into my living room like stars from the sky. I’d been in awe of them, not realizing that I possessed the same powers as my magical cousins. If only I could send off a beacon now, but I knew that was impossible thanks to Stone’s quick thinking.

  Raoul? Are you there? No reply and no sign of the trash panda. A wave of nausea crashed over me. I couldn’t let anything happen to Marley. She was my heart and soul. She represented all that was good in the world—the opposite of this evil wereass in front of me. She deserved to have her whole life ahead of her.

  The blade of a large knife glinted in the moonlight. “I can make it look like an a
ttack. Maybe the shifter community will be blamed.” He threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, your poor boyfriend. That sheriff should’ve been a little better at his job. How badly will it hurt him to realize he could have saved you by actually solving the murder?”

  I couldn’t think about Granger right now. All I could think about was Marley. “Please let my daughter go. She won’t tell anyone, I swear. She’s a very responsible girl. Always does as she’s told.”

  “Except buying potions behind her mom’s back,” Stone said. “I know all about that place. Why do you think I went there for my potion? It’s off the beaten track. He doesn’t tend to serve the adult community, if you know what I mean.”

  Which is why the sheriff didn’t even check there for the potion. Maybe he didn’t even know about its existence. I’d never noticed it before.

  “How did you steal the key from Sampson?” I asked.

  “I didn’t,” Stone said. “That was my plan, but when I went to his room, I couldn’t find it.”

  “Because he carried the keys on his person during the day,” I said. “And that’s when you searched his room.”

  He squinted. “How do you know when I checked the room?”

  “Because Sampson only left the key in his drawer when he was in the bedroom at night.” I paused. “So you must’ve snuck the potion into the glass of mead during the party.”

  “Sure did,” he boasted. “No one notices when I’m not around because they assume I’m on a work call. I took the opportunity to slip into the dining room while everyone was on the portico.”

  “And you loosened the chandelier, but you never intended to kill her that way.”

  He laughed. “No, that was to throw everyone off my scent. I mean, I saved her. Why would I then immediately turn around and kill her? It was like an alibi.”

  “Except you made enough mistakes that your alibi doesn’t matter,” I said.

  “And I’m rectifying those mistakes right now,” he sneered. Thunder boomed overhead, followed by a flash of lightning. Stone glanced skyward. “What in Zeus’s name? It’s not supposed to storm tonight. I checked my weather app before I chose this place.” He seemed genuinely annoyed that Mother Nature hadn’t adhered to his guidelines. What a nut job.