My heart skipped a beat. I swallowed hard and steadied my pulse. What was going on? Had Jaden used a love spell or something to convince me to help him? Love spells were largely frowned upon by modern witches, because we respect consent and love spells by their very definition do not. But they weren’t illegal. The old guard still saw nothing wrong with them. All magic was okay by them, so long as it didn’t threaten the status quo. I’d heard stories of witches using weaker versions of love and enchantment spells to persuade others to do their bidding.
But would Jaden really stoop that low?
It was hard to imagine that he would. He might be an arrogant jerk but he wasn’t that bad. Anyhow, he didn’t need to. He was handsome and powerful. He could simply demand people do his bidding and almost no witch would refuse. Exhibit A: me.
“What is it?” he asked, watching my face. He couldn’t read my thoughts but he seemed to sense my pensiveness.
I shook my head to shake off all thoughts of Jaden, his motives, and how weirdly attractive he was lately. If it was a love spell, I needed to do my best to fight it. Ditto if it turned out to be genuine attraction on my part. There was no way Jaden Blackmore would ever be interested in me as more than a curiosity.
“We should check the trunk,” I said. “But I really don’t want to.”
Jaden’s brow furrowed and then understanding dawned. He studied the trunk with trepidation. Then he tried the driver’s side door, which I hadn’t done. It opened.
“Odd,” Jaden said.
“That’s not good,” I said. If Felix had parked the car himself, he would have locked it, wouldn’t he? I went around the other side of the car and opened the passenger side. It, too, was unlocked. I checked the glove box, which was empty except for the car’s manual and some spare change, and opened the center console. Inside, among packs of gum and fast food napkins, were his keys. I tossed them to Jaden.
We stood at the back of the car for a painfully long time. Neither of us wanted to find Felix’s body crunched up inside his trunk. But we had to look.
“Let’s see what’s in here,” Jaden said. And then he opened the trunk. I closed my eyes for a second, not wanting to see a body. “It’s clear,” Jaden whispered.
I opened my eyes. Sure enough, the trunk was empty. It looked pristine, except for a few pieces of onion peel, probably spilled out of a grocery bag, and a patch of carpet that had been gouged out in one corner. My shoulders relaxed. I was relieved Felix hadn’t been murdered and stuffed inside the back of his own car. But it was also a little bittersweet, because it meant we still didn’t know where he was.
Jaden sighed audibly.
“You really thought he was in there,” I said.
“I thought it was likely, given the circumstances.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Why on earth would he leave his car here in this state?”
“You mean unlocked with the keys inside?” I asked. “I doubt he did. Whatever happened to him, someone who didn’t want his car found drove it here, paid for a month’s worth of parking so it wouldn’t be noticed immediately, and then left. Maybe they intend to return so they can move it somewhere else. Maybe they’re hoping it gets stolen.” I shrugged. “Happens all the time.”
“It does?” He frowned hard at the car.
“Sure. Don’t you ever watch Investigation Discovery? Getting rid of the victim’s car is the perpetrator’s first move after disposing of the bod—” I stopped, trying to swallow back the last word. Felix wasn’t just a missing person, he was Jaden’s friend and fellow council member.
“You believe he’s dead even though his body isn’t here.” Jaden’s green eyes penetrated me like emerald lasers as if daring me to confirm it.
I let out a breath and closed the trunk. “I think that’s likely if someone else put his car here. And I can’t imagine why Felix, whom you said was heading home, would pay for a month’s worth of parking even if he had an errand in the area.”
Jaden turned his laser eyes on the car. He went back around to the driver’s side door and got in, rifling through the contents of the center console, finding nothing more than I had, before sorting through the trash in the backseat. I followed suit, looking for signs of blood or anything out of place. Maybe a mortal CSI unit could find trace evidence inside it but this car would never be handed over to them. That just wasn’t how witches did things.
I’d been joking about Jaden watching Investigation Discovery. I was probably the only witch in the coven with cable television. Proper witches didn’t waste their time on mortal nonsense like sitcoms and reality shows. If the council was aware of forensic science, they wanted nothing to do with it. They felt magic was superior and wouldn’t be convinced otherwise. When we finished, we had nothing to show for our efforts.
“What now?” I asked.
Jaden leaned against the car, looking lost. “I suppose we need to take it somewhere safe. If, as you said, the person who drove it here might come back to move it, we should keep it from them.”
I agreed with that. It was evidence that might help prove to the council that Felix did not leave of his own accord and we couldn’t risk losing it. “But where?”
“I cannot take it. My father would recognize it immediately and demand answers.” His father, Byron Blackmore, had no doubt voted to close the matter of Felix’s disappearance. Jaden lived in his family mansion in Bellevue. That was common for old guard witches, who tended to live with their parents until they were married. Sometimes, if the houses were large enough, they’d have their new spouse move in with them.
Really, that thought alone should have stomped out whatever budding crush I had on Jaden.
I thought of my mostly empty garage. It was a small one car garage that Val and I mostly used for storage and the extra fridge where we kept potions (you don’t want to mix magic with your food) but I could wedge this car in there if I moved some boxes around. Valerie wouldn’t be happy, but then, what else was new?
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll take it to my place.”
Jaden handed me the keys. Our fingers brushed and a jolt of electricity ran through my hand. I looked up, studying Jaden’s face to see if he felt it too, but his expression remained impassive. While Jaden watched the car, I grabbed my bicycle from the bike rack and shoved it in the (mercifully empty) trunk.
I got in the driver’s seat and ignored the chill that came over me as I adjusted the seat and mirrors. Had Felix’s killer or kidnapper sat here last? Or was it Felix, who really had run off and wanted to hide his car?
I shut the door and started the car. Jaden watched thoughtfully. He said something but I couldn’t make it out. I rolled down the window.
“Your magical skills are quite impressive,” he said.
I waited for the punch line. There wasn’t one.
“Oh,” I said, stunned. “Thanks.”
He nodded. I backed the car out of its space and did my best to drive it home without causing any traffic accidents while I replayed Jaden’s words in my head.
He’d called my magic impressive. Not a cheap trick or a lucky crapshoot. Impressive. And that made me feel way giddier than it should have.
Chapter 8
“Why is there a car in the garage?” Valerie demanded. She dropped her cooler onto her rolling cart and the bottles inside rattled.
“I’m watching it for someone,” I said, polishing off the rest of my Hot Pocket. Seth had finished his own dinner and now sat in the chair across from me studying the crumbs on my plate with his gorgeous blue cat eyes.
“You’re watching someone’s car,” Valerie said, sounding exasperated. I didn’t respond. I got up and took my plate to the sink. “You need to tell whatever strange mortal friend of yours who is incapable of watching their own car that there’s no room in our garage.”
Sometimes, I hung out in mortal coffee shops or went to the movies. Once in a while I even attended local meet-up groups for cat lovers in a futile attempt to make friends. It rarely worked out.
Being a witch meant there were huge swaths of my life I couldn’t discuss with mundane humans who didn’t know witches were anything but a Halloween costume. But to Valerie, this attempt to be part of the mundane world meant I must have dozens of strange human friends.
“It’s for Jaden Blackmore,” I told her.
Valerie straightened at the sound of his name and looked around as if he might pop out from behind the sofa. She smoothed her dress and ran a tongue over her teeth self-consciously. Valerie was dressed for tonight’s market shilling in a black dress with purple and black striped leggings. Her hair was in a ponytail and she wore thick black eyeliner. Sometimes I was tempted to buy her a costume witch hat, just to see if she’d wear it.
“Why on earth would he need you to keep his spare car?” she asked.
“It’s not his,” I said. “It belongs to Felix.”
Her eyes popped out so far I thought they might explode out of her head. “Where did you get Felix’s car?” Her voice went up an octave.
I shrugged. “I tracked it down. He wasn’t with it, obviously. I’m holding onto it until he’s found.” I didn’t add that at this point, I wasn’t holding out much hope that he’d be found alive. But I supposed there was still a chance someone had kidnapped him and was keeping him captive, though for what purpose I couldn’t imagine.
“Do you have a death wish? You can’t keep Felix’s car.” She folded her arms over her chest. “You have to turn it in.”
“I can’t. If I hand it over to the council, they’ll know I’m looking for Felix and tell me to stop. And then doing so really will be an act of defiance.” I rinsed my plate and washed my hands. “Do you want me to openly defy the council?”
“I don’t want you defying them in any sense. You’re already on thin ice!” Her outburst seemed to stun her because she cleared her throat and turned away to pull her coat off the rack. Normally, I’d have shrugged it off as Valerie being paranoid but she was acting guilty, suddenly refusing to look at me. “Get your stuff. It’s time to go.”
“What do you mean, ‘on thin ice’?” I demanded. The council had very little contact with me personally. I went to the mandatory gatherings but that was about it. I’d never been beloved by them but I’d never been in trouble.
Valerie held her head high and stared at the closed front door.
“Val! Tell me what you mean or I’m not going to the Market.”
Val needed me to go to the Market because even though I sold a mere fraction of the potions and charms she did, I still made some money and we still had bills to pay.
She remained focused on the door. “We’ll be late.”
“So, we’ll be late. Who cares? What do you mean?”
Valerie’s shoulders sank slightly. “Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing if you won’t look at me.”
I could see her jaw tighten. She wasn’t going to spill. So I went into the garage and gathered my potions, meeting her at the front door. Seth was sleeping on my bed, apparently not interested in tagging along tonight. I let him be.
“Ready?” she asked tightly.
“Do you know something about me? Like, about what the council thinks of me?”
Valerie swallowed and grabbed the handle on her cart, rolling it out the door. “Who knows what they think of anyone?”
“You do. Because you catalogue all of their responses and expressions and analyze everything they say and do to figure out what they think of you, and probably everyone else.”
I locked the front door, checking the handle to make sure it took. There’s no way anyone but Val and Jaden knew I had Felix’s car but it still made me feel uneasy, like someone was going to come looking for it. As we walked by, I made sure the lock was still on the garage. It was.
I hefted my cooler and we headed for the bus stop. “You obviously know something.”
Valerie rolled her eyes. “Avery, the council thinks the same thing that everyone in the coven does: that you’re reckless, don’t respect the rich history of spell work, and showboat with risky magic.”
It felt like a slap but I tried not to let that show. After all, I had asked. “It’s not risky.”
“How many of your attempted Frankenspells have exploded?” she asked, finally meeting my eyes.
I did not dignify that with a response, mostly because I didn’t have an exact number and estimates were high enough to prove her point. “One of those Frankenspells found Felix’s car. I used a lost object spell but I didn’t have anything from his car, so I combined it with a tracking spell and it worked.”
“Or you got lucky,” she said.
“Jaden doesn’t think so.”
Valerie blanched. I felt a little bad for throwing that in her face, but I couldn’t help it. I was tired of being called a magical hack when my magic got results.
“Jaden is playing with fire by defying the council,” she said stiffly. But I could tell the blow had landed. We made the rest of our trip to the Market in silence.
The Underground Market had several entrances: one was through a popular bar, where you had to give the bartender a code word in order to be led to a secret back room and gain access. Several entrances were literal holes in the ground, manholes hidden in alleyways and apartment buildings’ basements. The one Valerie and I used was in a parking garage. The garage was seven stories tall with steep winding roads that SUVs struggled to navigate—not that it stopped them. It was technically open twenty-four hours but the bulk of the garage’s clientele were office workers from the buildings nearby and tourists, who wanted to explore historic Pioneer Square.
We usually arrived as it was emptying out, but tonight we were a few hours later than usual and it was virtually empty, save for a few random cars left behind.
We took the elevator to the basement level. There was a locked chain-link gate concealing what looked like a boiler of some sort. Valerie pulled out her key and I went in first so she could lock the gate behind us. The boiler concealed a small wooden door. Val and I could walk through but anyone over five-foot-ten would have to duck. Inside, it opened to a ramp that led down to the back of the Market.
The trip was so routine that I opened the door without a second thought. I’d taken one step through when the world exploded.
A flash of light blinded me. I flew backward and slammed into something. The fake boiler, maybe. For a second, I was dazed. I could feel my heart pounding but my ears were filled with water. Distant sounds made no sense. My eyes burned but I could see shapes and shadows in the smoke.
I struggled to my feet and pulled a protection charm from my purse. It was one of a small batch of charms that I’d attempted to test by having Valerie throw tennis balls at me. It had worked, sort of, but the shield it threw out was small. Still, I held it firm in my hand, trying to figure out which direction the threat was coming from. I saw Valerie behind me, still on the ground. I’d gotten the brunt of the blow but she wasn’t moving.
Terror clutched my heart with a cold fist. I swallowed back bile.
Something moved in the walkway, pulling my attention. I gathered all of my power and bent down to pick up a piece of brick that had been blasted out of the wall. My palms were bloody from scrapping against the rough pavement and I made sure to wipe some blood on the stone before pushing as much magic into it as I could. I threw the stone at the shadow inside the doorway. It exploded like a small grenade. I tossed the protection charm on the ground and a small shield flew up in front of me and Val. The shadow retreated.
I stood, keeping watch, for a good solid minute. When I was as sure as I could be that the attacker wasn’t coming back, I dropped to Val’s side. She was breathing. She didn’t have any visible injuries, other than a few scrapes. As I leaned over to check her head, her eyes popped open.
“What did you do?” she yelled, but it was a I can’t hear so I don’t know my own volume kind of yell. I could only barely hear her through the ringing in my own ears.
“Not me,” I mouthed. She
started to get up and winced. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head but winced again, stopping to take a deep breath and touch her skull. “I think I hit my head.”
There was no blood but the explosion had blown us both backwards with so much force, we might as well have been hit by a semi-truck. I’d landed okay but Valerie had hit the ground hard.
I got to my feet, swaying unsteadily. My head hurt, too, but not as much as my butt, which had taken the brunt of impact against the cement, as my back and head had hit the broiler. The bruise on my behind would be big and nasty, I was sure. My hands were scraped up and bleeding. I took a few steps toward the entrance to the Market. The long, dark passage looked unmarred with the exception of a few black streaks of soot from the spell I’d thrown at our attacker and whatever explosive spell he had tossed at us. My little rock trick hadn’t done enough damage to even slow him down.
And I was sure it was a he, though why I didn’t know. Maybe my subconscious had gotten a better look at the attacker than I realized.
I cursed my lack of ready offensive spells. But then, I didn’t usually find myself in the midst of magical street fights. Even the protection charm was just one of those things I carried without ever expecting I’d ever need to actually use it.
My hearing slowly improved, sounds whooshing in to replace the silence. I heard distant sirens but couldn’t tell if they were actually distant or just muffled by my faded hearing.
“We need to go,” I said to Val. If mortal authorities caught up to us, they’d want to know why two young women were hanging out in a basement parking garage with coolers full of colorful liquids. They’d assume drugs. They always assumed drugs.
I did my best to push the door to the market entrance shut. The door had been damaged in the attack but it was a magical door, enchanted to look like a plain wall to most people and the minute it clicked closed, a shimmer of magic told me the spell was still intact. Relieved that cops wouldn’t be raiding the Underground Market, I grabbed Valerie’s arm. She fumbled for the handle of her cooler and dragged it along. Mine had fallen on its side and from the way the contents sloshed around inside, I knew most of the little bottles had broken.
Risky Magic: A Trash Witch Novel Page 5