“If you do get it, you’re going to do great,” I told her.
“I’m just not sure. I don’t have any managerial experience, and that worries me. I can make great soaps, but organizing a group of people is a whole different skill set.”
“You’re a quick learner, though, and most importantly, you’re willing to learn,” I said. “And you’re very diplomatic in general and get along with people. I think you’ll be fine as a manager.”
“Thanks,” Leda said, shooting me a grateful smile. “But nothing’s set in stone yet. I don’t have the promotion for sure. I just hope I don’t do anything super dumb to mess it up in the next few days.”
“You won’t,” I said confidently. This was Leda we were talking about. Messing up good opportunities was my thing, not hers.
“Our family was built for telling people what to do,” Grandma Rosie said, grabbing herself a second piece of pie. “You’ll be fine.”
Soon afterward, Leda got up to head home, and I offered to walk her over to the other side of town, citing the fact that I’d spent most of the day holed up in the shed and wanted to get some fresh air while it was dark and I couldn’t see the stares from other people.
We chatted nicely as we walked, and as soon as we reached the building where Leda lived, she invited me up to have a cup of coffee before heading home. Perfect.
Ok, so I felt a little bit bad about what I was about to do. But I kept reminding myself it was for a good cause. Leda would have a nice, long nap, and I was going to get information to clear my name in a murder investigation. It was basically win-win.
We went upstairs and she made coffee. “Don’t worry about Grandma,” Leda told me. “Everyone knows she’s insane.”
“Right. If anyone in this family was going to murder someone, I think we all know it would be her.”
A small smile crept up Leda’s face. “Exactly. Do you know how many times she threatened me as a kid? I think she was trying to goad me into hexing her.”
I barked out a laugh. “That sounds like her. I’m assuming it didn’t work?”
“Never! I could never hex Grandma! Even when she told me I was never going to get the puppy I wanted as a familiar, and that she had spoken with Rhea directly and had it on good authority that my familiar was going to be a newt.”
I let out a giggle. “I remember that phase, when you wanted a puppy for a familiar more than anything. I wonder what kind of familiar you’re going to end up with.” All witches had a familiar who came into their lives, but it was a mystery as to when. Generally, the universe decided for you at some point that it was time for you to have a familiar, and they came into your life then.
Neither Leda nor I had been blessed with an animal companion as of yet. I personally wasn’t picky. I loved all animals and would have been perfectly happy with a newt for a familiar.
“Who knows?” Leda said with a shrug. “A part of me is still hoping for a puppy, though.”
She handed me a mug of coffee, which I took gratefully, and begged off to go to the bathroom quickly. While she was gone, I slipped the potion into her mug, wincing slightly out of guilt.
Still, I didn’t feel bad enough to come up with a different plan, and a moment later Leda came back from the bathroom and took her mug. “Listen, I know I’ve said this before, but if you need anything over the next few days, don’t hesitate to let me know. I can’t imagine how you must be feeling right now.”
“Thanks,” I said. “You’ve already done so much for me, though.”
Leda looked a little bit confused as she took a sip of the coffee and put the mug down. I watched carefully, and a moment later her features began to shift. It was a little bit strange; I imagined this must be what hallucinogenic drugs would be like. The features in her face seemed to melt and reform, and I found myself staring straight at, well, me. Me with a horrified expression on my face.
I looked down at my hands. They were smaller and daintier than the ones I was used to; the potion must have worked. My body had turned into my sister’s, and vice-versa.
“You have got to be kidding me. What did you do?” Leda asked. “Why do you look like me?”
“Sorry,” I winced. “I need to get information, and this is the only way to do it.”
“Are you kidding?” It was actually kind of strange being yelled at by someone who looked exactly like me. Was this how twins felt all the time? “What exactly is your plan here?” Then, realization dawned on her. “Oh no. No, no, no. You are not going to imitate me to get information.”
“I really wish there was another way to do this,” I said. “Sorry, Leda.” I pulled out my wand and cast a quick sleeping spell. Leda had reached for her wand, but I was too quick. In a second, her eyelids flickered, then closed, and she fell asleep against the chair.
Boy, was my guilt kicking in now. It was one thing to theoretically use magic against my own sister so that I could investigate a murder and clear my name. It was another thing entirely to actually do it.
I mean, sure, I had used magic on my sister before. After all, we had grown up together. There had been arguments, and being the older sister—and also the less mature one—I not only knew spells that Leda didn’t, I was also willing to use them against her.
There was one instance in particular, when Leda had slighted me in some way. I couldn’t remember the details, exactly. But I knew Leda had done something to vex me. I couldn’t have been older than ten years old, which meant Leda was probably five or so.
Whatever Leda had done to me, I decided the best way to retaliate was to cast one of the new spells I had learned at the Academy. Of course, I was ten, so they weren’t the most complicated spells. This one shot a blast of water at my sister. Unfortunately, the blast hit her in the eye, she started to cry, and when I went over to see if she was ok, she punched me in the nose so hard it cracked and started bleeding.
Ok, so I probably deserved it, but when we went and found Mom, she got mad at both of us, and we both ended up grounded for three weeks.
Hopefully she wasn’t about to find out about this.
I moved Leda over to the bed and decided to crash on the couch. After all, if for the next twenty-four hours I was going to be my sister, it would make sense for me to sleep here rather than go back to the shed, where I could be spotted.
I was sure things were going to be fine. I was imitating my sister, but it was just for a day. What could possibly go wrong?
Chapter 9
I woke up the next day just after six in the morning, hit snooze three times, and finally got up. To be honest, I genuinely had no idea what time my sister got up, or at what time she had to be at work, or anything like that. I probably should have looked into that sort of thing earlier. Well, it was too late to do anything about it now.
Grabbing Leda’s phone, I ate breakfast, got dressed, and made my way to the Academy. Classes there started at eight, and I wanted to catch Danielle’s friends before their classes started. The Academy here in Mt. Rheanier was a two-story redbrick building with a dark wooden roof. The main entrance led to a long hallway lined on either side by classrooms of varying sizes—some paranormal classes required more space than others—and I hung around in the main hallway by the entrance, waiting for someone I recognized. After about five minutes, the two witches who had been with Danielle at the bar the other day passed through the door, looking appropriately somber.
“Excuse me,” I said softly, doing my best to imitate Leda’s way of speaking. They looked up, recognition immediately sparking in their eyes.
“Oh, Leda,” the first one said. “What a surprise.”
“Yes,” I replied. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I was wondering if I could have a chat with the two of you in private for a minute. It’s about Danielle.”
“Sure,” the other one said with a nod. “This classroom’s empty. We can talk there without anyone overhearing.” She passed through the door into a small room with a couple of dusty chairs and
tables and not much else. “So what did you want to talk to us about? Are you here to convince us that your sister didn’t kill Danielle?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t know whether or not she did it. But I was hoping you could tell me what you know about Danielle’s movements that night, and if you know anyone else who might have wanted her dead.”
The two witches shared a look, an unspoken communication happening between them. I held my breath, hoping they’d give me the information I wanted. A minute later, the first witch finally nodded.
“Ok, we’ll tell you. Because the thing is, we’re not sure your sister did this either. What Ali did to Danielle was horrible, and she deserves to pay for what she did, but killing Danielle? I don’t think so. Danielle goes for a run every morning at the same time. She always gets up at five thirty and goes right out. She runs a loop of the lake, and then she comes home. Without fail.”
I nodded. “So she was murdered during her run that morning.”
“That’s right,” the first witch said with a nod. “Jess and I were waiting for her to come home, and she was late. We were worried that maybe she had hurt herself. You know, sprained an ankle or something and couldn’t get back home. She never took her wand with her when she ran; she always thought that being away from magic for that forty or so minutes a day helped her think and get ready for the day.”
“So if she’d hurt herself, she would have had no way to get help,” I nodded, understanding.
“That’s right,” Jess said. “Rachel and I were about to go out and fly over the trail by the lake and see if we could spot her when Chief Enforcer Loeb came by and gave us the news.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said softly, and I meant it. Rachel’s eyes had filled with tears, and Jess’s lower lip began to tremble. I couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for them to lose their best friend.
“I just can’t help but wonder, you know? What if we had gone out there earlier? What if we hadn’t waited? What if we had just acted?”
“Then you might have been killed, too,” I replied firmly. “You may also have been too late, anyway. You can’t blame yourselves. This wasn’t your fault.”
Jess nodded. “I know. But I still feel guilty.”
“Well, help the enforcers find out who did this,” I replied. “That’s what you can do for Danielle now. Can you think of anyone who might have wanted her dead?”
“No, of course not,” Rachel said, shaking her head vehemently. “Everyone loved Danielle. She was the best.”
“Was she seeing anybody? Doing anything different lately? Acting suspiciously?”
Rachel shook her head again, but Jess just tilted hers to the side. “I think there might have been, actually. She was acting a little bit strange, and she kept going off on her own without us. I think she might have had a boyfriend.”
“Oh?” I said, my eyebrows rising.
“Yeah, actually, that’s true,” Rachel said with a nod. “I asked her where she was going once, and she told me Pacific Cove. I remembered thinking it was strange, since we don’t know anyone from there. I mean, the place has to be the same size as Mt. Rheanier. What is there even over there except that chocolate factory, and now it’s been shut down?”
“Ok,” I said, nodding. “But you don’t know who she was seeing there?”
“No. We don’t even know if it was a who. We don’t know what she was doing there at all,” Jess said. “I just don’t know who could have done this to her.”
“Alright, thanks,” I said. “I’ll let you get to class. Thanks for not immediately jumping on my sister, too.”
Rachel shook her head. “Your sister is a terrible person, and I don’t understand how the two of you manage to be related. But no, I don’t think she’s a killer.”
Well, at least I had two people on my side. They might have thought I was an awful person, but at least they didn’t think I was a murderer. That was a start. Only a couple thousand more to go.
As I left the Academy building, I wondered what it was that Danielle had been doing in Pacific Cove. Was there a way to find out?
I wasn’t sure, but for now, I had to go to work. After all, Leda was not the type of person who would skip work for any reason, and since I supposed I was technically responsible for the fact that she wasn’t going to show up today, I had better do my best impression of my sister for the next eight hours and try not to get her fired.
I tried not to think about the potential promotion Leda was up for. I definitely did not want to ruin this for her, but the potion lasted for twenty-four hours. There was no way to reverse it earlier than that. Why on earth had I made it last so long? I should have thought this through earlier.
Oh well, it was too late now. I walked away from the Academy and toward Smells and Spells, the manufacturing company my sister worked at. The company was on the outskirts of town, in a building that had been converted from a large house. The exterior walls were painted gray, with colorful bright red shutters around the windows. A large pink sign at the front announced the company name, and I stepped inside, trying to look confident.
The closer I came to doing this, the more I realized it was probably a terrible idea. After all, I knew almost nothing about Leda’s job. I knew she made soaps and bath bombs and things like that, but I didn’t know anything else. Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe I could just turn around, run off, and come up with an emergency that meant I wouldn’t be able to come in to work today.
“Leda! Good morning, Leda,” someone called out, and I closed my eyes and winced. Too late. I was committed to this plan that just seemed like a worse idea with every passing minute.
“Good morning,” I replied, turning around to face the person calling out to me. I plastered the biggest smile I could on my face. “How are you?”
I was staring back at a wizard with a kindly face and large, round glasses. He was short, with graying hair and a bit of a belly. To my immense relief, he wore a name badge. Greg.
“Great! How could anyone be anything but on a gorgeous day like this?”
I had to admit, Greg was right. The sun was out, and there was a crisp chill to the air, but just enough to nip the nose. It wasn’t so cold that I was desperate to get back indoors, as sometimes happened in the dead of winter. This was perfect fall weather, and according to the weather forecast, it was one of our last opportunities to enjoy it, as overcast weather and rain was scheduled for the next week or so.
I wanted to make a clever quip about how we were going to be stuck slaving away for eight hours indoors, but figured Leda would never say something like that, so I managed to keep my mouth shut and followed Greg through the doors.
I was totally nailing this whole imitating-my-sister thing. Now to keep it going for another eight hours. I could absolutely do this without ruining my sister’s life.
Chapter 10
The bottom floor of the building was dedicated to a retail space, where I assumed Greg worked, given that he wore a name badge. I had been in the retail shop before. It was like being punched in the face by Hello Kitty.
The walls, floors, and ceiling were all pink. An admittedly very cute shade of pastel pink, but it was still rather overwhelming at first glance. The shoulder-high shelves that ran the length of the store were a very pretty almost-turquoise green that did admittedly match the rest of the color scheme amazingly well. The ceiling didn’t have any inbuilt lights; tiny fairy lights floated around, attached to nothing, reminding me of fireflies in the south in the middle of summer.
Almost as much of an assault to the senses was the smell. Cotton candy mingled with lemon, mingled with lavender. I imagined this was what living inside a bath bomb must have been like. I actually didn’t mind the smell—it was strong without being overwhelming and it gave the store a very cozy scent.
I strode toward the back of the store, saying hi to every employee I saw, doing my best to impersonate Leda. Luckily, when you grow up with someone, you learn their tiny littl
e quirks pretty well. So I was able to give the same uneven smile, with the left side of her mouth going a bit higher than her right, and do the little finger wave she always gave to people when she saw them for the first time. At the back of the store, behind the counter, was a staircase blocked off by a thick rope and a sign saying ‘Employees Only.’ I undid the cord, stepped around it, replaced it, and made my way up the stairs to where I knew Leda actually worked.
The upstairs was a very open plan, with long, metal tables stretching the length of the whole space. There were a handful of people there already who happily greeted me as I came through.
“Morning, Leda.”
“Hi Leda, how are you?”
I said hello back as naturally as I could and began strolling down the tables, looking for a sign – any sign – that this was where my sister worked.
To my immense relief, underneath one of the tables, in a little storage space, was a cauldron. Sticking out of it was one of my sister’s favorite wands, a long piece of pine painted white and engraved with a couple of deep green leaves at the bottom. That had to be her workspace. I strode up toward it and found a list of things I had to make that day.
Perfect, this was actually no problem. I had my issues, but I was skilled at potion making, and I knew I was going to be able to handle this job no problem. Things were going to be fine.
Of course, there were a couple of minor issues. For example, I didn’t know where the pantry containing all of the ingredients was. My eyes scanned the list of products I had to make for the day—each sheet of paper had a name for the potion, an ingredients list, and directions—as I tried to subtly watch the other witches and wizards to see what they did. A couple made their way to a large cabinet at the far end of the room, which when opened revealed shelf after shelf of potion ingredients.
Get with the Potion Page 5