“All for one and all that jazz,” Carol said with a wink at me in the rearview mirror.
We pulled up at a stoplight, and I glanced over at one of the few restaurants with a drive-through. Some teen boys had just ordered, and they were all smirking, windows down, while one of them readied his phone, holding it out like a camera. My karma sense started to tingle, and my eyes narrowed. When they drove around to the window, the first guy was handed a giant shake. I pointed a finger at him as he opened the lid and threw it at the drive-through worker. Only, with karma doing its thing, the drink hit the side of the window and bounced back, soaking the whole inside of the car, and the jerks.
I could hear their howls of outrage. And the drive-through worker, a young girl, began to laugh hysterically, before slamming the window closed on them.
“Was that you?” Carol asked, and I could hear the amusement in her voice.
I shrugged. “They had it coming.”
Everyone started laughing, and I felt glad that my powers could ease some of the tension we were all feeling. One day I’d have to ask them if life was this complicated before I came back into town, because if it was, their lives were pretty dang tough. And if it wasn’t, I’d start to question if I’d brought more trouble into their lives than it was worth.
As the laughter died down, Carol started to talk, “I remember Bryan worked there in high school and he’d always tell me about--” she abruptly grew silent, and a pained look came over her face.
Beth and I exchange a look. We always suspected that the reason Carol had never gotten married, or even seemed to take an interest in dating, was because she’d never gotten over Bryan. Not that we blamed her. Out of all the kids in high school who dated people and seemed to think they’d always be together; Carol and Bryan were the only ones I thought were meant to be together.
But I’d heard, Bryan had simply left town one day with nothing more than a curt letter breaking up with her. He’d never explained why. And she’d been heartbroken.
“It’s okay,” Carol said, but her laugh lacked sincerity. “He was my high school boyfriend. I don’t care about him anymore.”
“It’s alright if you still do,” I said, gently.
“It’d be stupid to care about someone who couldn’t so much as tell me goodbye in person.” Her voice was firm, edged with anger.
“You’re right,” Deva forced out, a little too chipper. “Screw him!”
I frowned, an old memory surfacing. “Wasn’t Bryan related to Cliff somehow?”
Darn it. I’d managed to make everyone uncomfortable again.
“Yeah,” Carol said, softly. “He was.”
She stopped talking. I looked at Beth, and she gently shook her head, so I knew it was time to shut up. I’d have to ask the others about the whole situation soon. But for now, we’d focus on figuring out which witch could possibly want revenge against Roger. And more about how witch magic could be used to kill someone.
A couple of minutes later, I knew we’d reached the right place. Surprisingly, the coven house was closer to mine than I expected, and yet, I wasn’t sure I ever even knew there was a house over this way.
“I can’t believe all this stuff went on right under my nose and I never even knew,” I muttered as Carol turned up a long driveway. Halfway up it, a gate appeared from between two huge hedgerows ahead of us.
“To be fair, a lot of stuff is bespelled, so humans don’t grow suspicious,” Deva said with a shrug.
“Okay, that makes me feel a little less stupid,” I muttered.
Carol smiled. “You were never stupid, Emma.”
“You guys had to have been laughing at me at least a tiny bit in high school,” I said.
“Never!” Deva exclaimed.
And, strangely, it made me feel a little better.
“If we could’ve told you, we would have,” Carol reassured me.
“But now you’re not getting rid of me,” I said with a grin.
“Never!” They all said at the same time.
We kept going slowly toward the gate, but we didn’t have to even roll down the window before the gate opened and Carol drove on through. I realized as we entered that the hedge wasn’t just around the gate but around the entire property. It ran into the woods, or maybe around the woods as far as I could see on either side of the car. It explained why I’d never seen the house before. The thing was in no way, shape, or form visible from the road.
Around a couple more bends, the view opened with the ocean stretching on forever in the distance. The gigantic house was framed by trees and the insane view. In front of the house, a woman sat on a gold blanket reading. She looked like she’d come from a bygone age in a long white dress that had a high collar and sleeves that went down to her elbow, but even though it was conservative in most aspects it was nipped in at the waist, highlighting how tiny it was, and how curvaceous she was. The kicker was the way the skirt, which had a load of embroidery detail on it, was fanned out over the grass. All of that, combined with the way her hair was curled and pinned up, a few stray pieces waving in the breeze, made her breathtaking. She almost looked Edwardian with the dress and the way her hair was styled. I felt like someone should be painting her, she looked so picturesque.
We pulled onto a graveled area and parked. I felt insanely underdressed if this was how they rolled in the coven. She looked up as we walked past, but I was the only one who turned and waved at the beautiful woman. She winked at me, but didn’t wave back, so at least she wasn’t rude. I tugged on my flowy Rolling Stones t-shirt and pulled it down, so it covered more of my waist, not that it was a crop top or anything, but it only just met the waistband of my jeans, which now seemed like such a bad choice. I should have gone with a dress or something. I mean witches were always usually depicted that way, right? Although none of the witches I knew dressed like that, even now. Deva was in pants and a shirt, while Beth was in jeans and a t-shirt like me, though they looked nicer quality than mine. Carol was the only one in a skirt, but I knew that was just because she liked skirts, I mean, she wore mostly skirts and dresses so it would have been weird for her to show up in pants.
Deva knocked on the front door using the gigantic knocker and just like the gate, the door opened. A woman was heading toward the door as we walked into the big, cheery entryway. She was as opposite from the lady on the front lawn as she could’ve been. She wore a long, breezy, slightly wrinkled, tie-dyed dress with flowers woven into her hair and seemed to float, or glide, more than walk. Well, at least I didn’t feel quite as underdressed anymore.
“Come in, please,” the woman said. “I’m Hildy, and I’m a crystal witch, unusual I know but we’re really just a subset of earth witches.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder as though she’d just told us she was a unicorn, but since I had no idea what she was going on about, she just looked like any old horse to me. That was a little unfair, she didn’t look like a horse, she was beautiful, just like the woman on the front lawn, but something about her personality made me feel a little sour toward her. She cleared her throat after clearly not getting the reaction she wanted and said, “Now, the gate wouldn’t have opened if you all weren’t some sort of witch.” She looked at us with eyes sharper than her boho-hippy dress would’ve made her out to be. “I know you ladies.” Hildy turned toward me, pinning me with her gaze as she seemed to assess me. “But you’re new.”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am, I’ve only recently come into my, uh, powers.”
She hummed and turned toward a big set of double doors that stood open. On the other side, two younger-looking witches wearing jeans and tees pointed their fingers at ping pong balls, which bounced into little plastic red cups. “Are they playing beer pong?” I asked with a laugh.
Hildy turned and smiled indulgently. “It helps our younger members practice their precision magic while still having fun. Follow me, please.”
We walked through another room and a woman stood from a plush chair beside a mirror where another young
witch studied herself. She snapped her fingers, and her outfit went from a casual cotton dress to a long, formal ball gown.
Hildy held out her hand and waved at the woman who had been observing the clothes changing. “Khat, would you care to join us?”
The older woman nodded as she looked our group over. “Of course. Deva, Carol, Beth, lovely to see you again.” She walked toward us, but again it was more like she glided toward us, just like Hildy had.
“Tea, ladies?” Hildy asked.
No joke, a teapot, cups, saucers, a sugar bowl, and a little jug filled with milk came trotting out of a cabinet and over to the table where they floated up onto the wood surface before settling down like a cat in a sunbeam. If I didn’t know better, I would think I was in a fairy tale or an enchanted castle.
“That would be lovely, thank you,” Carol said as she sat on one of the wingback chairs that surrounded the coffee table.
The teapot poured itself into a cup and saucer that had set themselves up together and the sugar bowl and milk jug went waddling over to the cup. Carol picked up two sugar cubes and dropped them into the steaming liquid before adding a splash of milk. The steam that rose after that formed a heart shape and she smiled down at it before looking back up at us.
I was pretty sure my jaw was hanging open.
Birds chirping drew my attention away from my friend for a moment and though I saw them, they weren’t what I expected. All kinds of finches, sparrows, and bluebirds hopped around, but they were inside the wallpaper. The trees were obviously painted or illustrated somehow but the birds looked completely lifelike. It made me rethink that short story about yellow wallpaper I’d read in my English Lit class.
Khat opened a door to a sitting room and the coffee table and wingback chair holding Carol began to shuffle into the room both with a surprisingly graceful gate that didn’t spill a drop of tea from the pot or Carol’s cup. I wanted to ask if I’d accidentally taken drugs before we came over, that was how bizarre it all was, but when Carol grinned knowingly at me, seeming perfectly at ease being carried by her chair as she went by sipping on her tea, I knew I was stone-cold sober.
Once we had followed Carol and Khat in, I could see that the sitting room had no birds in the wallpaper and no tiny doorways for anything to come in or go out. In fact, the only way into and out of the room was the door we’d all just filed through, which, for some reason, made me uneasy. “Now,” Khat said. “What can we do for you?”
“We need some help, if possible,” Carol said. I’d noticed that she sort of took the lead with the witches, whereas Deva was quiet, and Beth was practically nonexistent at my side, which was unusual for her. I reached out and clasped her hand in my own, giving it a squeeze of support and encouragement as Carol said, “We need to find out if there was any major magic done on a specific night.”
Khat flicked her finger and the teapot poured tea for the rest of us as we all sat down in the chairs that were already in the room. I’m not going to lie though, the idea that the chair under me could come to life had me perching on the very edge, ready to jump up at any second.
Hildy pushed her curly hair out of her eyes. “Well, it’s doable.” She and Khat exchanged a look, but I had no idea what it meant.
Khat arched an eyebrow at us and said, “But you’d better be prepared for whatever we find.” I knew that they meant to be kind with their warning, but we weren’t exactly in a place where we could rethink things. We needed answers, and if they had a way of providing them then I’d take whatever the consequences were.
Apparently, we all felt the same because we all nodded in unison. “We just need to get to the bottom of all this,” Deva said, glancing worriedly at Beth who was barely even looking up from her cup of tea. There had been no steam heart for her, or me for that matter. I wondered what it meant, probably nothing, just the teapot being weird, I mean the thing could walk and act on its own so who knew what the steam might do.
“Finish your tea,” Khat said, her eyes gentle, but her mouth drawn into a thin line. “And then, we begin.”
Begin? How exactly would we find the answers we sought?
I had a feeling things were about to get even weirder.
14
Emma
“Come on,” Carol said, smiling at me. “I think you’re in for a treat.”
We all stood and walked away from the tea, which had been delicious, with my curiosity piqued. “What kind of treat?” Part of me hoped it was food. All the intensity I’d been feeling when it came to visiting the witches and being by Beth’s side and protecting her was giving me a serious case of stress snacking. The problem was I had nothing to snack on. At this point I’d even take those crackers that my mom used to give me when I was sick that were basically cardboard with some salt on them.
Deva turned and grinned at me, her eyes twinkling. “I know for a fact there’s no way you’ve ever done this before.”
“What?” For some reason, they all seem a little too pleased with themselves for my liking.
“Fly,” she said, softly. If someone had hit me with a feather at that moment, they probably could have knocked me over.
Fly? As in they plan to make us all sprout wings? Or were we being turned into birds? I swear I read a book once where they were turned into birds and flew to the south pole. I really didn’t want to have to fly all the way to the south pole, or the north pole. No matter where we were going, I was pretty sure I’d prefer to take a car. Not that I would say that in front of the strange witches. Who knew what could piss them off?
I realized that they were all leaving without me, while I stood in stunned silence, and hurried to catch up to the group as they walked through the foyer again and across the house. I managed to catch up to them in the kitchen. “Um, flying?” I finally managed weakly.
Beth laughed and grabbed my hand. “Come on!” It was the first time I’d really seen her look happy in the last twenty-four hours, especially since we’d come to see the witches. She’d been so much more withdrawn than normal. It was like she took the fact that they didn’t let her join as a judgement on her as a person, which I didn’t think was fair. If anything, it made them look unreasonable and a little snobby. Not that I would ever say that out loud.
Once we walked out the back door, I quickly realized what they had in mind. A row of brooms leaned up against the back of the house. All sorts of brooms. Tall ones with long, feathery brushes and shorter ones with flat bottomed brushes, ones made of every kind of wood, and even some painted elaborate colors. It looked like I’d stepped into some kind of strange art gallery, every exhibit featuring different types of brooms. It was odd. But apparently, everything was a little odd about the supernatural world.
Including me.
“Your broom will determine what sort of ride you have,” Beth explained. “A soft broom gives a cushier ride. A more industrial type of broom will be fast and efficient.”
“So, I’m looking for a soft broom,” I said.
My friends were all grinning.
Carol pointed to a sleek one. “You sure you aren’t looking for a smooth ride that will get you to where you want to go fast.”
I looked at her and my jaw dropped open. “Are you making a sexual joke?”
She pointed to one that’s bumpy, crooked, and looked like it was made of splinters. “I would stay away from that one. You’ve already had your share of terrible rides.”
I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing.
Deva leaned in. “She making sex jokes about brooms again?”
I nodded, feeling stupid.
Deva shook her head, but she was smiling. “Good old Carol, still the same as when we were teens.”
“Who are you calling old,” she said, heading for the brooms.
With a chuckle, I grabbed a broom that reminded me of what my grandmother had used, with long straw pieces on the end. If I was looking for something that would be slow and steady, I had a feeling this would be the perfect match. “How ab
out this?”
“A good choice,” Deva said. “That broom should definitely be a good ride for a beginner. You ready to try this?”
My nerves jangled, but I nodded. “I am.”
Why not? I trusted my friends not to get me hurt. I wasn’t at all sure why we needed to fly or where to, but who was I to turn down an adventure like this?
A tiny thought strays to my perfectly dependable car. It wasn’t fancy and new like Rick’s and it wasn’t brightly colored either, but it was stalwart. I knew I had a few more years before things really started to go wrong with it, much like myself. I was creaking here and there, but if I treated myself right then I would have some time before I started feeling like I was completely falling apart, or at least that was my hope.
The old Emma would’ve never done this. But the old Emma was trapped in a miserable marriage, feeling alone in a quiet house, with the weight of the world on her shoulders. The old Emma felt like she was in a slow marathon that only ended with death.
I definitely preferred the side of me that had real friends and a real life. The side of me that tried to be brave and took on the world, rather than hiding from it. So, if riding a broom was my next challenge, I’d try to face it with the same kind of grace as the group of friends I admired so much.
“We prefer traveling this way,” Khat said, as if she knew the questions that had been running through my mind. “We do it whenever we can. And it’s so much faster than walking to the woods where we need to go to do this spell.”
“Is there any trick to it?” I asked, imagining myself flying straight into the sun, or turning into one of those Halloween decorations where the witch and her broom are wrapped around a tree, like they hit it.
Beth giggled. “Nope. Just hop on and push off. The brooms are spelled. You can’t fall off unless someone curses you off.”
Each of us chose a different kind of broom. Carol, to my surprise, chose the super sleek one that almost looked like it was made from a dark brown metal. Deva chose one that was… pretty. It had been painted a sky blue and had feathers instead of straw at the bottom of it. The emerald, gold, and sapphires made them look like peacock feathers, which somehow suited Deva. But Beth, she seemed to choose the one closest to her with little thought. It was plain-looking, but with little carvings in the handle, and seemed sturdy enough.
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