The truth was that I wanted my powers. Okay, so I could move a pen. That was something. Next, I needed to be able to do more things: bigger things. Those were skills I’d have to learn over time. Right now, I couldn’t do that.
I couldn’t do anything.
The coven leader of Which Village was here, and she was ready to take me down. There was no doubt in my mind that she had a way of hexing me just like she hexed my mother.
“Your mom had a soft heart,” Helena said. “That was always her problem. She was weak.”
Maybe that was true.
“She wanted to save everyone, including the werewolves.” Helena made a gagging sound, as though this was the grossest thing she’d ever heard. “Can you believe it? Werewolves.”
I shook my head, trying to break the curse that kept my mouth shut. Where was a wild shapeshifting cat when I needed one? If Jasper was around, he’d be able to distract Helena so I could get away.
As it was, I was all alone.
It was just me versus Helena, and I had a feeling I was going to lose this battle.
“Your mom was kind of a busybody,” Helena continued her rant. “She was secretive and weird and no matter how many times I told her not to create a potion to save the werewolves, she couldn’t help herself. It was horrible, really. Who does that? Nobody needs to save a werewolf. We only need to be free of them.”
I watched, waiting. Eliza hadn’t shown up, and neither had Japser, and the innkeepers were still stuck inside.
So this was it.
This was how I was going to die.
I’d come so close to solving the mystery of my mother’s death, but in the end, I’d completely botched it, hadn’t I? I’d made the mistake of thinking I could be brave, or that my powers would magically present themself.
It hadn’t happened.
I tried again to scream.
Nothing.
I thought of my mom and how much I missed her.
Nothing.
Then I thought of Stanley.
I thought of the way he looked on our wedding day, and I thought of the way he always smiled at me and told me that he believed in me. I thought of all of the memories I’d missed out on with him, and I thought of how much I missed him.
And I screamed.
And my voice was loud.
Helena looked shocked as I managed to break the seal of her magic and to scream loudly at her.
“H-H-How?” She whispered. She looked at her hands and back at me, as though they were somehow going to give her the answer that she was looking for.
“You killed my mother,” I whispered. “It was you this whole time.”
I opened my mouth to scream again, but before I could, she started shaking her head.
“Stop!” She yelled. “Don’t do that again!”
“Nothing she could have done could have been bad enough to murder over,” I shouted. “Nothing!”
“You don’t know what it’s like!”
“And now I never will.”
I saw something move from behind one of the cabins. Helena’s back was to them, and she couldn’t see them, but I could, and I wasn’t scared. It was the monster I thought existed, but I hadn’t been able to find.
The werewolf who crept toward Helena was big, towering over both of us. It must have been close to eight feet tall, if not taller. It was easy to see why the magic users in town didn’t like the werewolves coming around.
I understood why she wanted to hunt them.
But I also understood that she was wrong.
My mother had been right. Someone who couldn’t control their ability to shift should be helped – not condemned. Helena had every chance to change her mind about killing innocent weres, but she hadn’t.
She’d fought to the bitter end, and now it was her time.
She noticed me staring behind her, and she turned just as the werewolf reached her.
“No,” she shook her head. She raised her hands and started to whisper a spell, but it was too late, and he was too close. It was so early in the morning that the charmed moon of Which Village was still bright in the sky, and the wolf was still wildly strong and wickedly fast.
The werewolf raised his paw, and he brought his claws down across Helena’s throat. She fell to the ground without a fight, and she laid there, completely still.
I didn’t have to look at her to know that she was totally, completely dead. I also didn’t regret the fact that she had died. She’d killed my mom, after all. She’d committed murder. If the werewolf hadn’t shown up when he had, she was going to kill me, too, and then probably Leslie and Lionel. He’d saved us all.
I looked up to thank him, and when I saw his eyes, I stopped moving.
I knew those eyes.
“Stanley?” I whispered, biting my lip. It had to be him. I had to believe it was him.
The werewolf just stared at me.
“You’re the one who threw the rock, aren’t you?” I asked.
He nodded.
“You wanted me to find you.”
Again, a nod.
“I missed you,” I said.
The werewolf looked like he wanted terribly to talk to me, but he couldn’t. This seemed to infuriate him, and with a growl, he turned and ran off into the surrounding forests, and I was left alone.
Eliza pulled into the parking lot just as the werewolf disappeared between the trees. At the same time, Lionel and Leslie seemed to be able to leave the inn, and they came over immediately.
Everyone started talking at once. Nobody could believe what had happened. A werewolf, in town. Can you believe it? Nobody could believe it.
I could, though.
I knew that werewolf, and he had saved me more than once, and he probably would again soon.
“Are you okay?” Eliza asked, and I nodded even though I didn’t think it was true.
He was alive, and he was in Which Village, but how was I going to find him? Stanley had been my everything for as long as I could remember. Now that we’d found and caught my mother’s killer, I wanted to find him.
“You’re safe now,” Eliza said, wrapping her arms around me. “We all are.”
“The police are on their way,” Leslie said. She held up a cell phone, showing us that she’d been able to reach someone.
“We’ll need to get a new mayor,” Lionel grumbled.
“Eliza would make a good one,” Leslie pointed out.
“Me?” Eliza looked up sharply. “I don’t know if I’d make a good mayor,” she said. “I’m just glad that Helena received the justice she deserved.”
I hugged Eliza, pulling her close, and I whispered the same thing to her that she’d said to me minutes earlier.
“You’re safe now,” I told her. “And everything’s going to be okay.”
Epilogue
I stood in front of the space where the house was being constructed. It was lovely, and I couldn’t quite believe it was going to be mine. Eliza and Natasha stood on either side of me, looking at the house. It wasn’t anywhere close to being finished, but we could all imagine exactly what it was going to look like when it was done.
Eliza had the floor plans for my mom’s home, so I was literally having the same house built in the same spot. It might be weird or morbid, but it was sort of my way of celebrating my mom. It also gave me a great excuse to be close to the village while I tried to figure out where my husband had run off to.
If my mother’s notes were true, then Stanley didn’t remember things that happened in his werewolf form. When he was a human, he only knew things that he’d experienced as a human. That meant he might not remember that he’d found me. He might not even remember that he’d saved me or that he’d sought vengeance on my mother’s killer.
“It’s going to be beautiful,” Eliza said.
“You’ll make a great neighbor,” Natasha added.
“Thanks,” I said. “I hope it’s everything I’ve ever dreamed it could be.”
“She’d be pr
oud of you, you know,” Eliza said.
“I like to think that,” I agreed. I didn’t know if I’d done anything worth being proud of, but I tried my best to stay strong and make good choices, and I knew that with my new friends, we’d be able to change the world together, starting with Which Village.
“Hey, it’s the mayor,” an old woman yelled from next door.
“Hi Fiona,” Eliza waved. She’d been a shoe-in for the position. Fiona was going to be my next-door neighbor, and even though she hadn’t liked my mother very much, she seemed to like me okay. That was good news for me. It meant that my life was going to be a lot easier than I thought.
“I’d like to talk with you about noise ordinances,” Fiona said, walking over. She jerked her head toward the property in front of us. “Because the construction here is quite loud, and it disturbs me.”
“Well, I’d be happy to discuss this with you,” Eliza said.
“You would?”
“Absolutely. Why don’t we have tea together tomorrow at my office?”
Fiona nodded happily and went back to her house. Natasha and I just stared at Eliza.
“You’re going to have tea?”
“To talk about the noise?” Natasha added. “Those construction workers are the quietest ones I’ve ever been around. Trust me when I say that the loudest thing on our block is her.”
“It’s all politics,” Eliza waved her hand. “Besides, it gives me something to do and someone to eat with now that my roommate is gone.”
“Sorry about that,” I blushed. I was still staying at the inn. I liked having my space, and the truth was that Eliza did, too. I still came over once a week for lunch and to talk about ways I could find my husband. I’d started really searching for him, and I’d even bought some books on werewolf hunting. Not that I planned on hunting him, but if I was going to find a werewolf, I needed to know where to start.
I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. One adventure had ended. I’d figured out who hurt my mom, and I’d learned that I am actually a witch. Now it was time to start solving the next mystery of my life.
Where was my husband?
And why couldn’t I find him?
“Hang on, Stanley,” I whispered. “I’ll find you.”
It was a promise.
THE END
For updates on future releases and to read the next story when it is released, please follow L.C. Mortimer on her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/authorlcmortimer
Author
L.C. Mortimer loves books almost as much as she loves coffee. When she's not on a caffeine-induced writing spree, she can be found pole dancing, traveling, or playing with her pet hamster, Neko. Mortimer loves reading, playing video games, and spending time with her husband and kids. Please make sure to join her mailing list here.
Hybrid Academy: Year One
Do you love academy stories full of adventure and magic? Check out Hybrid Academy: Year One. It’s on Amazon now! You can also keep reading for a sneak peek!
"This isn't what I ordered." The tall man in the suit looked at the coffee and sneered. He thrust the cup back at me. A little bit sloshed over the side of the cup and onto the counter. "And you'd better clean that up."
Biting back irritation, I managed a smile.
"Of course. Anything else I can do for you?” I asked politely. Inside, I felt anything but polite. This guy was being a total jerk, as always. I knew for a fact that his coffee had been made perfectly. He just didn’t like me because I couldn’t do magic.
He wanted Maggie to make his drink.
“A free bagel couldn’t hurt,” the man said, jerking his head toward the display of blueberry bagels.
“I’ll have to get my manager’s permission,” I said. “Please wait just a moment.”
I scurried to the back of the café and knocked on the door to the office.
“Come in.”
I yanked the door open and peered inside. Tony was sitting at his desk with his ankles crossed over the top. He looked bored out of his mind.
“What do you want, Maxine?” He asked.
“It’s Max,” I said. “Not Maxine. And there’s a customer who wants a free bagel.”
“We don’t give out bagels for free,” Tony said with a yawn. He was obviously bored. He was always bored at the café.
“I know, but he said that his drink was wrong and he wants to be compensated with free food.”
Tony glared at me and got up with a huff. He acted like it was my fault that he was the manager of the café or that he had to leave the safety of his office to come do his actual job. Whatever. I’d been dealing with Tony ever since I started working at the café. He was neither a good boss nor a team player, so I tried to stay as far away from him as possible. Besides, something about Tony made me uncomfortable, and I couldn’t quite pinpoint why.
“Is there a problem, Lionel?” Tony asked the tall man.
“Yeah, your em-ploy-ee,” he dragged the word out sarcastically. “Messed up my drink. I asked her nicely if she could fix it.”
“Not a problem,” Tony said. He jerked his head toward one of my coworkers. “Maggie, make Lionel a new drink.”
Maggie shot me a nasty look but nodded and started the drink. The café wasn’t busy and the drink wasn’t complicated, so I wasn’t sure what the big deal was. Actually, I had the distinct feeling that Lionel’s original drink had been just fine, but that he wanted a bagel out of the deal.
Correction: he wanted a free bagel.
Tony and Lionel sat and chatted while Maggie made the drink. I cleaned up the spill on the counter before starting to check our inventory. I wasn’t a magic user, so I couldn’t just summon cups whenever we ran out of something we needed. Instead, I’d have to trot back to the stockroom, find what we needed, and carry it back. It was kind of a drag for everyone, which was just another reason nobody liked me.
By the time I left work that day, I was tired, exhausted, and spent.
And I knew my grandmother was going to be beyond pissed that I was late.
*
I ran up the steps to the little log cabin where I lived with my Grandmother. My heart was pounding, racing, and I silently begged it to stop. Slow down. It needed to chill out, to be honest. Overreacting never turned out well for anyone, least of all me.
I smelled sweaty and I was tired: both signs that I left work much later than I should have. I didn’t want her to give me a hard time about it. Mémère had enough to worry about. She didn’t need to be concerned that my boss still wasn’t letting me leave on time or that my customers were constantly giving me a hard time.
That’s the price I paid to work at a café in Brooksville.
Nobody liked me because I was poor, and an orphan, and I couldn’t do magic.
All of those elements combined to make me one of the most disliked people in town. Despite trying to have a charming personality and showing kindness to the people around me, I somehow still managed to catch the eye of every magic-user within shouting distance, and not in a good way.
I glanced down at my work clothes. My once-white blouse was now splattered with coffee, no thanks to Maggie and Justine for their “assistance” at work. My jeans had fared just as poorly. They had a few new stains, a new tear, and smelled slightly questionable. I sighed. Mémère was definitely going to notice something was wrong.
I hated to make her worry.
I hated to make her sad.
She worked so hard to raise me, to take care of me, that the idea of letting her down again filled me with stress and anxiety. I wished for the millionth time that I could use magic. I wished that I had a wand, that I knew spells, or that I had, you know, powers. I wished that I could whisper a few carefully practiced words and somehow whip up an appearance she could be proud of.
But I couldn’t.
In my case, practice hadn’t made perfect.
I stared at the front door of our home for a long minute. My breathing finally began to stabilize
and I began to feel like everything was going to be okay. Maybe it would. Maybe everything would be fine. One bad day at work wouldn’t kill me.
A hundred bad days at work wouldn’t kill me.
Besides, I owed Mémère everything. Without her, I wouldn’t exist. I would have died when my parents did. I would have been killed or lost or starved. No one else in this place was about to take in a little orphan kid who couldn’t do spells. Nobody. Yet my grandmother was ready.
My grandmother was brave.
I reached for the door and pressed my hand against it, but I didn’t turn the knob. Not yet. I needed a few more minutes to be alone with my thoughts, to focus on the fact that today had been the worst day yet. Today seemed different somehow. Part of me thought that after awhile, things at work would get easier. I thought that they’d improve and that I would finally begin to connect with people who understood me.
I was so wrong.
I’m not understood now, just like I wasn’t understood before.
A tear slid down my cheek and I brushed it away. I look around wildly, like someone could see me, even though I was completely alone.
“I know you’re out there,” I heard her voice through the door. “Come on in, love. I won’t bite.”
I gulped.
Yeah, my grandmother definitely knew something was up. She didn’t want me working in town, anyway, but I had convinced her that I needed to. The reality was that I knew she didn’t have a lot of money and I felt bad for not contributing to our family. The café didn’t bring in a lot of money, but I was finished with school and wasn’t really doing anything else with my time.
There weren’t a lot of job prospects in Brookville, but the café was something. It enabled me to make some money, spend time socializing, and get to know people who lived near me. It meant I could be around other people, for once. It meant I could explore the world, if only just a little.
A Hex a Day (Which Village Book 1) Page 11