Winging It (A Wayfair Witches' Cozy Mystery #4)

by A. A. Albright

  I tapped softly. ‘Max? Are you in there?’

  There was another snore, followed by a snort, followed by, ‘Ow!’

  I pushed open the door. Max was sitting up, rubbing his head. ‘Banged it on the headboard,’ he said blearily. ‘What’s the panic?’

  I couldn’t answer him just yet. I was far too interested in the scene atop his bed. Wolfie was lying next to Max. It seemed that, until Max sat up, the dog had been in the crook of Max’s arm. But curled up in front of Wolfie ... I rubbed my eyes, not quite believing what I saw. Kitty was curled up next to Wolfie, and Dizzy – yes, you read that right – was curled up next to Kitty. It was just about the most adorable thing I had ever seen.

  ‘Taking a nap?’ I said eventually.

  Max followed my eyes, and laughed softly. ‘Oh yeah. We tired ourselves out playing.’

  ‘Playing?’

  He laughed again. ‘Kitty came up with the idea. Dizzy flew around the house with a laser pointer. We chased the dots. It was the best, Wanda. You should have been here.’

  He moved gingerly from the bed, making sure that the other three didn’t stir. ‘What do you want to do for dinner?’ he whispered as he padded to the door. ‘I mean, tomorrow night is the rally at the Wyrd Court. If this thing goes badly, tonight could be our last meal together for a while. And there’s a new Chinese take away that Rover says does the best Black Bean Tofu.’

  As we walked down the stairs together, I asked, ‘So have you spoken to Rover today? Or ... seen the news?’

  He shook his head. ‘No. Why?’

  I sighed, and headed for the sofa. ‘Come on. I think I’d better fill you in.’

  ≈

  By the time I’d told him about the Minister’s latest announcement, Max was just as depressed about it as I was. ‘So that’s it. I was already afraid that things were going to be bad now that Finn’s been fired. But now your coven can’t legally step in to help? The rally is going to be a bloodbath.’

  I bit my lip. ‘Maybe not.’ I explained Finn’s plan – or what I could of it, anyway.

  ‘That’s something, I guess,’ said Max. ‘I mean, I was going to go, bloodbath or not. But I guess it’d be nice not to get arrested just for asking to be treated the same as everyone else.’

  I patted his hand. ‘I know I keep saying things will change, Max. But they will. They already are.’

  ‘I know.’ He gave me a tight smile. ‘Just really, really slowly. So come on. Give me some good news. Did you find out anything about Candace? Or Benny and the Jeffs?’

  ‘Candace’s parents haven’t even let the kid’s school friends in to see her, so I’m not sure I’ll have any more luck. But I’ll give it a go tomorrow. I’m heading to Riddler’s Cove for another flying lesson, anyway. As for Benny and the Jeffs.’ I sighed. ‘I’m having no luck there. Hey, did Benny ever mention a vampire called Fontanella?’

  ‘Ooh, boy. Yeah, he was a bit smitten there, to say the least. Mad about her for ages. Last week she finally agreed to go on a date with him. He said it was the best night of his life.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  ‘What does “Hmm” mean?’

  ‘Dunno,’ I said. ‘Just ... hmm. Did he tell you he used to be hands on with the brooms in Plimpton’s, even doing quality control?’

  ‘Not so much told me. But I’d hear them whispering about it from time to time. Benny knew just as much as the two of them. He did wizard training, even though weredogs aren’t officially allowed to, so he could even put a wizard broom together. Benny was a talented guy, judging from what I heard them say. Jeff the wizard used to share books and teach him stuff, and Jeff the witch used to ask Benny for suggestions on the best ways to arrange the bristles or sand the wood. Stuff like that.’

  Anger and tears swelled, all of a sudden, as a memory of myself secretly studying Melissa’s magical text books came to mind. Weredogs weren’t the only ones who needed the status quo to change. I hoped that Finn’s boot-licking plan would lead to him finding something on his aunt – sooner, rather than later. I had a feeling she was just the head of the beast, but until we cut off that head, we’d never know how many others were involved.

  ‘Yeah, that pretty much echoed what Fontanella told me,’ I said, pushing down my anger. ‘But y’know, I’m not sure how honest she was. I’m having a hard time believing she told me everything she knows, no matter how friendly she may have been with the boys.’

  ‘Why? Because she’s a vampire, and who better to hypnotise three suggestible young men into stabbing themselves with pool cues?’ Max shrugged. ‘To be honest, she probably wouldn’t have had to hypnotise Benny. He was infatuated with the girl. He would have jumped off a bridge if she told him to. But ... given what the Minister announced this afternoon, should you even be investigating this?’ He shook his head and raised his hands. ‘Wait, don’t answer that. I already know. You’re going to investigate it even if it gets you arrested. Because that’s what you do. But in the meantime, my stomach is rumbling, so can we decide about dinner?’

  ‘Cat in a hat!’ I sprang up from my seat. ‘I almost forgot. I have to meet Gabriel’s dad tonight.’ I paused and glanced at Max. ‘But if you are getting Chinese, order me some anyway. I’ll be too nervous to eat at Gabriel’s, so I’m bound to be famished when I get home.’

  Max rolled his eyes. ‘You? Too nervous to eat? I’ll believe it when I see it. But you being hungry when you get home even if you stuff yourself senseless at dinner? Now that I can believe. So yeah, I’ll order enough for you.’

  ≈

  Dizzy, Kitty and Wolfie all managed to wake up in time to help me decide on an outfit. Sorry, did I say help me decide? Clearly I meant derail any ideas I might have, trash my personal taste, and make the whole process take three times longer than necessary.

  ‘Not that red top,’ said Dizzy. ‘It’s a little bit low cut. Fine for a date with Gabe, but not for meeting his dad.’

  ‘Dizzy’s wrong,’ Wolfie argued. ‘Jasper told me all men like low cut tops. You should wear the red.’

  Well, that was the red out of the question, then. I shrugged into a black blouse and buttoned it up. ‘What do you think, Kitty? Too prim?’

  Kitty looked at both tops for a long while. ‘Do you have anything else?’

  ‘I wish I did. I don’t have anything that Gabriel hasn’t seen a hundred times, anyway. I haven’t exactly had time to go shopping lately.’ Downstairs, the doorbell chimed. A moment later, I heard Max draw the door open. ‘That’s Gabriel now. I’m just going to have to go with this blouse. There’s a skirt to match it somewhere.’ After throwing half of the contents of my wardrobe onto the floor, I found a black skirt and yanked it over my bottom half, and teamed it with knee-length boots. If nothing else, at least the outfit was slimming.

  ‘You need to undo a few buttons,’ Wolfie advised.

  ‘Undo one button,’ said Dizzy.

  ‘And you’ll need a flash of colour,’ Kitty added. ‘When Candace has to wear her black robes for broom races she always puts a nice bright ribbon around her hat.’

  The kitten’s voice caught slightly as she said ‘Candace.’ The poor little thing hadn’t even been surprised when I told her I’d found out nothing new today. But that aside, she was right about needing some colour. I was looking a little on the funereal side.

  ‘Y’know,’ I said, pausing as I searched my wardrobe again. ‘I am going back to Riddler’s Cove tomorrow. And I’m going to speak to Candace’s parents no matter what. But I’ve been thinking about something. When we met you said you didn’t think Candace was in physical danger, but she was in moral danger. What do you mean by that?’

  The kitten looked down at her paws. ‘You’ve met Candace. You already know she’s struggling with who she is and who she could be.’

  I cleared my throat and looked away from the cat. If Kitty meant that Candace was struggling between being a know-it-all or a smart-arse then the cat was right. But I couldn’t insult the kid in front of her fami
liar.

  ‘I know you don’t like Candace,’ said Kitty. ‘That’s okay. Most people don’t. Well, most good people don’t, anyway. But that’s not her fault. She’s had a bad upbringing. I followed her for days before I decided whether to become her familiar or not. I was deciding between her and a little boy called Tommy.’

  ‘Tommy whose dad owns a pub in Warren Lane?’

  The cat nodded.

  ‘Hmm. I can see your quandary. Tommy was in the classes I had to take a while back, too. He seemed to have a problem with pretty much everyone who wasn’t a witch.’

  Kitty nodded sadly. ‘He and Candace have both suffered from poor role models. I wish I could have helped them both. In the end, another cat chose Tommy, and so ... my decision was made. There’s something you need to know about me, Wanda. I come from a long line of empathic animals. I mean, all familiars are empathic, to a certain degree. But my family especially so. So even though I could see all of Candace’s poor qualities, I could feel that there was something redeeming there. Something worth drawing out. With my help, she was changing, really she was. When she saw you save those weredog children in the community hall at Halloween, I felt a swell of compassion in her that I hadn’t experienced before.’

  I carefully examined my chipped finger nails. Fontanella was right – I was going to have to learn some glamour spells. I had no idea Candace had been at the community hall that evening. It had been one of the most shocking nights of my life. When Lassie’s half-sister and another disturbed witch poisoned the chocolate meant for the weredog children, I had only just stopped it in time.

  It was that very event that stirred the weredogs into their current run of marches and protests.

  ‘And after that,’ Kitty went on, ‘Candace began to speak of you in an entirely different way. She started paying more attention to stories about the original Wayfarer. She knew the words off by heart before then, but she’d never really thought about the meaning. Suddenly, she was asking her parents about the witching world, about why so many people hated weredogs. They really didn’t like that. The extra training at Everest was a distraction, if anything. They thought if she could get back to her old competitive self, she’d forget everything else.’

  I finally found a belt that might help the outfit along. It was a thick band in a copper colour. ‘But something else obviously happened at Everest. Seeing as you never saw her again.’ I buckled up the belt and looked at myself in the mirror. Only slightly less drab, but it would have to do. ‘You said her mother worked somewhere at Everest. Where, exactly?’

  Kitty’s eyes looked thoughtful. ‘I don’t actually know. It was something for the Plimpton coven, anyway, because she was often on the phone with the Minister for Magical Law. I do know that whatever she did, it was top secret. She told everyone else she did some accounting work for the Minister in Warren Lane, but that was a big fat lie.’

  ‘And Candace never gave any clues as to where her mother might have really worked? Even something in passing?’

  ‘No. But she was starting to ask questions of her mother about it. She was questioning everything.’ The kitten shivered. ‘Her mother did her best to distract her with new flying gear and other fancy presents. You know, at first I thought the whole thing was just about me. But now that I hear she’s not even been at the Flying Club ... there’s more to this, Wanda. I really believed that the biggest danger to Candace was of a moral nature. But what if there’s something worse? What if–’

  ‘Wanda! Gabriel’s been here for ages. Are you ready yet?’ Max shouted up the stairs, interrupting us. He sounded far gruffer than usual.

  ‘You’d better go,’ said Kitty. ‘I’ll think about it all while you’re gone. See if there’s anything else I might have forgotten.’

  I stroked the kitten’s tiny head. ‘Sure. But make sure you relax, too. The boys will look after you. Won’t you, boys?’

  Wolfie panted excitedly, his eyes wide. ‘We could play chase the laser again.’

  The kitten looked slightly perked up, and I left the room.

  ≈

  When I arrived in the living room, the atmosphere was a little chilly. Actually, it was a lot chilly, which concerned me. Clearly, Max and Gabriel still hadn’t gotten over their spat from the night before.

  Gabriel was standing, looking out through the window, while Max was watching television and pretending that Gabriel didn’t exist.

  I bent down to give him a quick kiss on the cheek, whispering, ‘If you don’t want me to go, I won’t.’

  Max shook his head. ‘Go. Have fun. You look really nice, by the way.’

  ‘Oh.’ I flushed. ‘Thanks. I have the three fashionistas upstairs to thank for that. Are you sure you don’t mind me going? Because if he’s being an idiot to you–’

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Max said. ‘I’ll save you some Chinese. Now get out of here before I miss any more of my show.’

  I gave him a little wave, and followed Gabriel outside.

  As we stood on the porch, he carefully examined the bristles of his broom. ‘So ... what were you and Max whispering about?’

  I let out a dainty little grunt. Yes, even a grunt can be dainty. Particularly when you’ve buckled your belt too tight. ‘I don’t get it. I thought you said you were going to sort things out with Max.’

  He had finished examining the bristles, so he turned his attention to the shaft. ‘I did sort it out. I told him I probably overreacted last night, and he shrugged his shoulders, which I took as an acceptance of my apology. We’re fine now.’

  ‘Sure. You really seemed fine – what with all the ignoring each other and all.’ I looked down at his broom. ‘Wait, isn’t your dad’s house in Riddler’s Cove? Won’t that take us forever on a witch broom?’

  Gabriel swung his leg over the broom, and grinned. ‘This is a hybrid. Looks like a witch broom, but has the power of a wizard one. We’ll be there in a flash. Trust me.’

  I climbed on the back, unsure of what to expect. My own wizard broom could certainly get me to Riddler’s Cove quickly, but it had hyper-speed – not to mention a gravity field that kept my bum firmly in the seat. This broom had no buttons that I could see, and seeing as there was no padding on the shaft, I really hoped it was as fast as he said.

  Gabriel kicked off and we rose into the sky. As soon as we were in the air, I could feel power radiating out of the broom and snaking around us. And the speed, while not as fast as my own wizard broom, was certainly jaw-dropping.

  It took us just over half an hour to get to Riddler’s Cove. We didn’t talk the whole way there, but holding close to Gabriel worked its same old magic. I soon forgot about his argument with Max. They would sort it out in their own time. Guys always did.

  9. Godbody House

  Gabriel flew over to the east side of Riddler’s Cove, but he didn’t lower down when we arrived at the rows of mansions I’d come to think of as the posh area. Instead, he rose further into the hills. As we climbed higher and higher, I started to feel dizzy. Just when I began to feel like I might throw up, Gabriel began to descend.

  I gasped at the property below. It was an enormous, ancient mansion. It looked at least as old as Wayfarers’ Rest, but so much grander.

  ‘Home sweet home,’ said Gabriel when his feet began to dangle on the ground. ‘It’s called Godbody House. Because my ancestors were incredibly imaginative. So what do you think?’

  Seeing as my first response would have been something along the lines of Holy werewolf balls, I wisely decided to keep that one to myself. It wasn’t the size, or the grandeur of the place, that was rendering me speechless. Honestly, it was the creepiness. Dizzy, Max and I had watched hundreds of old horror movies together, and this house wouldn’t have been out of place in any of them. As if to underline my thoughts, a sudden howl sounded somewhere in the distance.

  ‘It isn’t full moon,’ I said, dumbly. I knew as well as anyone that werewolves – and weredogs – could turn outside of the full moon. It wasn’t
advisable for them to do it too often, but many threw caution to the wind. Even so, there was something about that sound that troubled me more than the usual werewolf howls.

  Gabriel shrugged. ‘They tend to turn whenever they enter our land. Dunno why. We own a few thousand acres of forest and it’s always riddled with werewolves, full moon or not.’

  ‘Oh,’ I said. Again, I wasn’t sure why I was having so much trouble with the English language. Seeing as I couldn’t think of anything intelligent to say, I looked at the building instead. It was so tall that the uppermost tower was jutting into the clouds. I say uppermost, because there were many towers. There were also more gargoyles and chimeras than I had ever seen in the one place. The front door was at least twelve feet tall, and had a wrought-iron door-knocker, shaped like a bat. A bat that I swear was looking at me.

  ‘That door knocker ...’

  Gabriel grinned, and patted the knocker. ‘Hey, Dad.’

  My eyes widened. ‘What the ...?’

  ‘It’s not really my dad. He’s just using it at the moment. He sensed us arrive, so he’s looking out through the bat’s eyes. He controls the whole house himself. No servants.’

  I blinked. Gabriel’s dad must be one powerful guy. Instead of feeling impressed, though, I felt terrified. Just as I was trying to think of something I could pretend to have left at home, the door opened, and Gabriel pulled me inside.

  The hallway was dimly lit with flaming torches that lined the walls. Suits of armour stood next to paintings of dragons, bats, and toothy vampires. Gabriel spun around, arms wide. ‘Meet the ancestors. Before we pledged allegiance to the Wayfairs during the last Inquisition, we made some ... interesting choices. We’ve had dragon slayers on my mother’s side, vampires on my dad’s, a werewolf uncle who destroyed at least a dozen human villages ...’ He paused at one of the suits of armour. ‘If you want to run away, now’s the time.’