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

by A. A. Albright

  My mother sidled over to us. ‘It doesn’t look like there’s anything to police, far as I can see. Although I must admit, it is strange. The Peacemakers have plagued every single rally for weeks now. They’ve turned at least a dozen peaceful protests into bloodbaths. How come they’re not here tonight doing the same?’

  The Minister’s nostril’s flared. When she finally spoke, spittle followed every word. ‘You’re not supposed to be here. I’ve made my stance on the Wayfairs quite clear.’

  My mother and I shared an innocent smile. ‘You said we can’t investigate crimes,’ my mother pointed out. ‘Does this look like a crime? Oh, I forgot – the crimes only seem to occur when your so-called Peacemakers turn up. Don’t they?’

  While the Minister floundered, opening and closing her mouth and looking like she wanted to send a stream of hexes and expletives our way, the protesters began to chant:

  ‘Rights for weredogs now

  Minister Plimpton out!’

  As they repeated the chant, the Minister narrowed her eyes, clicked her fingers, and left the rally.

  14. Snowy Hollow

  When we arrived at Everest, I was a little bit dumbstruck by how amazing it all was. My childhood memories of the place had always been marred by the fact that it was where my father died. Now, as an adult, I felt like I was looking at it with new eyes.

  You know when you see those Christmas movies, about kids who wind up in the North Pole? There are all of these gorgeous little log cabins where the elves live, and a bigger building where they make the presents in Santa’s workshop? Well, when you imagine the supernatural enclave at Everest, think along those lines.

  The enclave was called Snowy Hollow, and it was situated close to the human base camp on the Nepalese side of the mountain. It was contained inside an invisible globe, with weather control within. And seeing as witches came to Snowy Hollow for the winter sports, the white stuff was always falling softly to the ground, no matter the weather in the human enclaves all around. It was, basically, a real life snow globe.

  There were perfect little wooden chalets dotted everywhere around the competition grounds. My mother had rented one on the grounds of the Snowy Inn, the largest hotel in the area. The chalet had four bedrooms. My mother and Christine were sharing one room, Melissa and I were sharing another, and the remaining rooms were for other members of our coven. Once I revealed that I believed Facility B was somewhere in the area, quite a few Wayfairs had offered to join in with the search. With so much going on back in Ireland, they would be on a constant rotation between the two places.

  I had begged Max to come along, but he remained behind at Westerly Crescent. He had shifts at the Water Bowl that he couldn’t afford to miss. He was also looking after Wolfie once again, because Jasper’s band, the Call of the Wild, were booked to play the opening and closing ceremonies at the Everest Climb.

  We had all taken our familiars along with us, so Kitty would have plenty of company whenever we were away from the chalet. I could tell that being here was stirring up painful memories for her, but she was being the strongest, cutest kitten ever. I had the feeling I might be a little heartbroken when the time finally came to reunite her with Candace.

  The opening ceremony was taking place on the edge of Snowy Hollow, at the point where the Everest Climb would begin. We took a flying sleigh from the hotel to the ceremony (no reindeer were involved – the sleigh flew using wizard technology). As I took my seat, I saw vendors walking about, selling hot chocolate, cider and mulled wine.

  Melissa grabbed hot chocolates for us all, and we sipped them happily while we waited for the ceremony to begin. It started right on time, with two hosts running jauntily onto the stage and saying, ‘Hello Snowy Hollow!’ not quite in unison.

  I recognised the male host, a famous vampire sportsman called Sven the Speedster. He had won driving competitions, biking competitions, and even excelled at skiing. He was tall but muscular, with the highest cheekbones I had ever seen, and short, bleached hair.

  Christine looked a bit hot under the collar as Sven took the mike and began to rally the crowd. A lot of women were having the same reaction. I was barely paying attention to the handsome vampire, though. I was far more interested in his female co-host.

  I peered closer. ‘Is that ...?’

  My mother followed my eyes. ‘Mandy Parker,’ she confirmed. ‘She got the co-host job at the last minute, after Veronica Berry pulled out.’

  Veronica Berry was an even more famous actress than Mandy. At least according to Dizzy. I had yet to watch one of her movies. But even if she was the worst actress in the world, I would rather a hundred of her over Mandy Parker.

  Mandy giggled and pouted next to Sven on the stage, and said something supposedly funny every now and then. The rest of the crowd seemed to think so, anyway. After what felt like an eternity, they introduced the first act of the evening.

  ‘And now,’ said Mandy, ‘let’s welcome our favourite werewolf rockers, the Call of the Wild!’

  As the crowd went wild with applause, I nudged Melissa. ‘Looking forward to seeing your boyfriend?’

  She glowered at me. ‘Callum Cool will never be my boyfriend.’

  ‘Maybe I wasn’t talking about Callum,’ I said with a wink as the band ran out onto the stage. I nodded towards the tall, handsome, blond-haired singer. ‘Maybe I was talking about him. What’s his name again? Gorgeous McLovely? Handsome McYummy?’

  Melissa’s glower remained intact. It did, however, have the sudden addition of flaming red cheeks to set it off. ‘You know perfectly well that his name is Mack McAdams. And I do not fancy him. I just ... think he’s a good singer.’

  ‘Sure. The best.’

  We quietened down, as Lovely McYummy – I mean, Mack – began to sing. His voice was spectacular, husky in places, angelic in others. He didn’t strut nearly as much as the other band members, and yet he managed to hold the audience’s attention. I guess he had it. Whatever it was. I could see why Melissa was pretending not to be smitten.

  When they finished their set and left the stage, I noticed her slump a little, as though she were disappointed to see him go.

  ‘Jasper invited us to their after-show party when he dropped Wolfie off this afternoon,’ I said. ‘Do you want to go along?’

  Her jaw began to saw. ‘Nah. We came here to investigate. Anyway, Callum will just drape himself all over me as usual.’

  ‘Okay.’ I shrugged. ‘But all work and no play seems to make Melissa a little bit frustrated. Just saying.’

  She let out a fake-sounding laugh. ‘You big eejit. I don’t have any work these days. I forgot to tell you, but Justine got around to officially firing me today.’

  I squeezed her close. ‘She’s an idiot. But she’s an idiot who’s on the way out. You saw how the crowd reacted to her at the weredog rally. It’s not just weredogs who want her out – most of the witches who turned up were chanting, too. It’s only a matter of time, maybe even sooner if we find something iffy at Facility B. And whoever comes after her will give you the sort of job that you actually deserve.’

  She forced a smile on her face. ‘I hope you’re right. Anyway, what do you say we stay for the Fancy Flyers, and then get to work on the case?’

  We bought another round of hot chocolate, then sat back and watched in amazement as the Fancy Flyers arrived in the air above. Some of them were like aerial acrobats, jumping from broom to broom, riding on each other’s shoulders, while some other riders stayed seated, looping and spinning through the air. Each and every one of them was a stunning-looking female witch, and they wore skimpy silver dresses, and crowns carved magically from ice that could never melt. Their brooms left trails of glittering snowflakes in the air, spelling out, ‘Welcome to the Everest Climb.’

  Watching it, I felt like a little girl again, amazed and inspired, and thinking that being a witch was just about the best thing in the world. But I also couldn’t help but blink back a tear or two, and I noticed that my mother was
doing the same – because the last time we watched the Fancy Flyers was the last day we saw my father alive.

  ≈

  A log-fire was burning in the grate back at our chalet, and the cats were dozing on the fireside rug. Even Dizzy stayed close to the flames, although he was hanging down from the mantelpiece as he slept. It was enough to make me want to head off to bed myself, but I forced my eyes awake.

  My mother had a huge map laid out on the table. It was a paper map, but a magical one. Pointing to an area was enough to make that area shine. You could mark parts of it with simple commands, and use it to plot out travelling times, too.

  ‘Most of the businesses in Snowy Hollow have been running for centuries,’ she said. ‘They’re well known to us. There are a dozen small broom-making factories, and not a single one is registered to Justine Plimpton. She does own property here, but it’s residential.’ My mother pointed to an area at the east of Snowy Hollow, and a large house began to shimmer. The name of the house lit up, too. It was called the Rise. ‘I suppose we could check it out, see if there’s anything hidden there.’

  ‘It’s a good place to start,’ I agreed. ‘But I think we need to do flyovers of the whole area, while we’re here. Candace told me to find Facility B, and everyone else mentioned looking for the glitch. If Facility B was somewhere at the Rise, then wouldn’t they have just told me to find the Rise?’

  The others looked thoughtful. ‘Possibly,’ Christine said after a while. ‘But what if there’s some sort of spell that Justine has surrounding her chalet? Something that hides Facility B in plain sight. Maybe this glitch they all mention is a glitch in that spell. It fails at certain times of the day or night, revealing what’s actually there.’

  ‘That sounds like Paul’s theory,’ I admitted. ‘He called me this morning, and I asked him to look out for any glitches on Fontanella’s laptop. Y’know – other than the one that’s deleted all of her emails. He started going on about a deliberate glitch he managed to sneak into a Peacemaker’s truncheon. He’d seen this Peacemaker be a total jerk to a friend of his, so Paul swiped the truncheon while the Peacemaker was having lunch one day. He made it so that every time the Peacemaker tries to electro-shock someone, he’ll electro-shock himself.’

  Ronnie whistled. ‘Impressive. Pity he can’t roll the same thing out to all of their truncheons.’

  ‘He ... um ... he might have suggested he could make that work. If there was enough cheese on offer. Anyway, what if this glitch I was told about isn’t a mistake at all? If Benny and the Jeffs wanted me to find Facility B, then one of them could have messed around with whatever spell is hiding it. The glitch could be a purposely-created one.’

  As we talked on, discussing possibilities and strategies, a knock came to the door. Melissa went to answer it. ‘It’s Gabriel,’ she said, winking at me as he followed her inside.

  I felt myself begin to flush. He was dressed like his real self, with messy hair and scruffy jeans. He gave me a shy smile. ‘Hey there. I em ... I was wondering if you’d like to come over to my chalet for dinner, Wanda.’ His eyes strayed to my mother. ‘If that’s all right with your mam, of course.’

  She laughed. ‘Of course it’s all right. Wanda doesn’t need my permission to spend time with her boyfriend. We were about to finish up here anyway.’

  ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I am kind of hungry, actually.’

  ‘And your mother and I will take the first shift at the Rise,’ Christine said. ‘Then you and Melissa can take over when you get back.’

  ≈

  Gabriel’s chalet was enormous. Thankfully, it wasn’t as creepy as Godbody House. There were comfy chairs, beautiful wooden floorboards, and a large, woven rug in front of a roaring fire.

  There was a modern kitchen, with a dining table laid out and ready for our meal.

  ‘Candles and wine?’ I said, looking at the table. ‘Very romantic.’

  He pulled me in towards him. ‘I hope so,’ he said, looking deeply into my eyes. ‘Because that’s what I want, Wanda. To spend some real time with you. To take our relationship to the next level.’

  Oh dear. Was it me or was it getting very hot in here? I felt sweat begin to bead on my forehead, and my palms grew clammy. Hot, yes. Sexy, no.

  ‘I want that too,’ I said, planting a soft but quick kiss on his lips. ‘And when we’ve found Facility B, we’ll have lots of time to get there.’

  ‘Oh.’ He looked disappointed. ‘I mean, I knew you wouldn’t be spending the night or anything. But I hoped you’d at least stay for a few hours.’

  I reached for the bottle of wine on the table, and poured two glasses. ‘I’ll stay as long as I can,’ I promised. ‘Don’t you want to find Facility B, too?’

  He took a seat and gulped his wine. ‘Sure,’ he rasped. ‘You know I do. If you say that those guys and the vampire were murdered, and that the answers are here at Everest, then I trust your gut. And I’ll help you one hundred percent. But I can’t help but fear that when this case is over, there’ll be another. And then another.’

  I sat down across from him. ‘But that’s what we do. We’re Wayfairs.’

  ‘Sure.’ He reached across the table. ‘But we’re also you and me. You, the most amazing, most wonderful, most beautiful woman I’ve ever known. And me, the guy who’s dying to spend some real time with you.’

  He was looking so intently at me that I found it hard to meet his eyes. I was beginning to think I might have a few self-esteem issues, because I could never quite believe that he did like me as much as he insisted. For now, I was going to make myself believe it, because not only was he looking particularly gorgeous tonight, but he was also looking at me – and looking at me in a way that made me feel extremely hot again.

  ‘Okay,’ I said, my throat a little dry. ‘Why don’t we skip that meal then? And spend some time together in front of the fire?’

  ≈

  By the time I arrived at the Rise, I was really regretting missing dinner.

  ‘Did you guys see anything interesting?’ I asked, speaking loud enough to drown out the rumble in my stomach.

  ‘Nothing,’ said my mother. ‘The only people to come and go have been a maid service. They gave the house a good clean, which I'm guessing means Justine will be getting here soon.’

  We were all riding wizard brooms, and Paul had informed me of a neat way to network them so that, whilst each broom was cloaked, those of us in the network could still see and hear one another. The more wizard tricks I learned, the more I wanted to go back and finish my course at Wentforth’s College for Wizards.

  Unfulfilled ambitions aside, it was a thrill to be able to sneak around and keep track of each other with no chance of being discovered. Taking advantage of the situation, I had a good long look through every window. There was no one there now. The house was bigger than your typical chalet, and had almost as many dead animals mounted on the walls as I’d seen in Godbody House. The rug by the fire was a bearskin, with the head intact.

  ‘Your hair’s a little messy,’ Christine pointed out.

  ‘It was windy,’ I said.

  Melissa smirked at me. ‘Uh-huh. Is that why your face is so flushed, then?’

  ‘No. That’s because I’m cold.’

  ‘Your eyes are shining,’ said my mother with a lift of her eyebrows. ‘I wonder what imaginary weather could have caused that.’

  I kept peering in through the chalet windows, refusing to answer. ‘Shouldn’t you two be getting on home now? I hear older ladies need their sleep.’

  Cackling like ... well, like witches, my mother and Christine flew back to the Snowy Inn.

  ‘Ronnie and Agatha will take the next shift in four hours,’ said Melissa, passing me a flask of coffee. ‘One of us is bound to see this glitch – and hopefully find Facility B.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  ‘What does “Hmm” mean? And why is your stomach growling like a monster? Didn’t you just have dinner?’

  I sighed. ‘There wasn’t time. I
wanted to get here as soon as possible.’

  Melissa sniggered. ‘Four hours sounds like plenty of time to get some food in your gob. Unless you were busy doing something else. I always did think Gabriel would be a good kisser. He’s very confident, isn’t he? I’ll bet he’s the sort of guy who takes the lead.’

  ‘I think I’ll fly around the grounds,’ I said. ‘See you when I no longer want to throttle you.’

  As I flew away from her, she echoed our mothers’ cackle and began to sing, ‘Wanda and Gabriel up a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!’ When she saw the annoyance on my face, she just laughed some more and said, ‘Bet you wish you didn’t tease me so much about Mack now. Eh, Mrs Godbody?’

  15. Chaos Chasm

  A few hours later, I turned up exhausted and ill-prepared for my flying lesson with Amelia. It was the crack of dawn, and all I’d had to eat since the previous afternoon was an energy bar. Okay, a six-pack of energy bars, three bananas and some hot chocolate and croissants that Agatha brought for us when they turned up at the Rise. But that was almost nothing for a constitution like mine.

  Breakfast would have to wait, though, because my race would be taking place the next day. I felt like I hadn’t got a chance in hell. Not that it mattered, seeing as the real reason I was here was to ferret out Facility B. Even so, I might have been harbouring the slightest competitive streak.

  ‘Oh, good,’ said Amelia as I flew towards her. ‘You’re wearing your competition gear like I asked. It can take a while to get used to the old-fashioned getup, so it’s good to practise in it.’

  All I could do was grunt. And then readjust a bit, as my cloak rode up and gathered at my thighs. The outfit I was wearing was some old competition clothing of my mother’s. The pointy hat, robe and cloak might have looked okay, if I didn’t also happen to be wearing an enormous woollen sweater, leggings, balaclava and gloves along with it all. I could do a spell to create physical warmth, but it was one of those spells that tended to waver along with my concentration – concentration which would be thoroughly stretched while I was still learning to fly a witch broom. Until I was a tad more settled on the vehicle, I had decided that winter clothing might be my best bet if I didn’t want to freeze to death.