A Cold Case in Spell

by J L Collins

  Next to him, was a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and bright green eyes that reminded me of fresh-mown grass. She sat slightly forward in her chair to make room for the silky gossamer wings that fluttered at her shoulders.

  “Amortencia Fell. I’m the fairy elder as you can see. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Though she didn’t sound that pleased.

  “I’m Christopher Hughes, but usually people just call me Chris around here. I’m the head of my construction company. And I’m the shifter elder in town,” a man across from her announced, taking his ball cap off to nod toward me. “This lot is pretty formal but they’re not that bad.” He gave me a toothy grin, and if it weren’t for the pointy ends of them I would’ve taken him for a regular old Joe.

  A woman with inky black hair that fell to her waist stood up revealing, well, a lot. Her form-fitting short black dress was covered in dark red roses, and she had matching red lips that curved into the perfect cupid’s bow. She was rocking the whole pretty goth girl look and when she offered me an amused grin, I understood why.

  “I’m Natalia Florescu, darling. And I lead the vampires as their elder. I came to town in 1840 and they still haven’t been able to get rid of me,” she said with a girly giggle.

  “Wow. That’s… that’s a long time,” I sputtered, realizing that this was the first time I’d said a word since stepping inside the room. Of course I would say something ridiculous like that.

  But that didn’t seem to bother her, and she gave me a little wave before the man closest to us stood up with his arms behind his back. Ash sat up straighter in his seat.

  “Mathias Stern. Fire magic.”

  I wasn’t sure what to expect from the fire elder, but Mathias Stern made a heck of a lot of sense. His skin was dark and smooth, covering muscles that implied some serious gym time. Wide eyes regarded me with pure suspicion. I could understand Ash’s movement—Mathias Stern didn’t seem like someone you wanted to cross.

  Beatrice cleared her throat again. “We are missing our nautical representation, but Titus is the head of that lot. Unfortunately they are seemingly still stuck under the lake’s ice.”

  Everyone nodded, murmuring shared condolences for whoever the nautical folks were. I knew nothing of this kind of thing but I knew that being stuck under ice couldn’t be good for anyone.

  Beatrice stuck her beaky nose in the air. “That covers the introductions. I should also add that we’ve brought you here because we have cause for concern regarding your sudden appearance in town. You,” she now looked at Ash, “Are here because there are questions the rest of the council and I have for you.”

  Ash chuckled though there was no humor in it. “I don’t doubt it.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “But first, if your friend there would like to explain herself.”

  I glanced over at Ash, a lump rising in my throat. “I, uh. Okay.” I slowly stood, feeling like it was appropriate and it set me on equal footing with Beatrice. “I’m Lindsey Warren, but I go by Indie. I’m from DC… well, originally Maryland, but it’s all kind of the same thing around there. Oh, and I work at the University of Maryland as an assistant professor in the English department. I found this place while driving down Route 321. I was looking to do a little hiking, maybe find some good Instagram-worthy shots of the waterfalls around here. I saw the sign for Charming Springs, and I drove up the mountain. And that brought me here. That’s all I know.”

  “What’s an Instagram?” Chris muttered to Natalia, who just shook her head. None of what I had just said seemed to please Beatrice.

  “I see. You saw the sign?” Everyone else looked at one another.

  I shrugged. “Yes. ‘Charming Springs, 2.2 miles.”

  Verity, the woman in the pantsuit, held up her finger. “What kind of witch are you? Or are you a shifter? I apologize if you are, it can be impossible to tell sometimes.”

  This time it was my turn to laugh because yeah, that was a funny one. “I’m not a witch, or a shifter for that matter. I’m just a regular person.” Was that the right thing to say? I didn’t want to insinuate that these people weren’t regular… did I?

  But Verity shook her head. “That must not be the case. This town is only accessible to those with magic in their blood, whether that be through the shifter gene, being undead, having elemental powers, or what have you. So you must in theory, have magic in your blood. That is the only answer.”

  She was not being brusque but more matter-of fact, and I didn’t like how assured she and everyone else looked.

  I searched for the words, my throat drying up as they tumbled up. “It’s impossible. I’m thirty-six years old, Miss McGuiness. I think I would know if I had magical powers by now.”

  Something glinted in Beatrice’s eyes, but it was Gallows, who spoke up, his ears twitching. “Magic powers in witches and wizards at least, are often too weak to display without the proper anchor in place. In all honesty, Charming Springs is most likely the first magical anchor you’ve come across. There aren’t very many out there, even in America.”

  “Magical anchor?” I repeated.

  “A place that has magic tied to it,” Ash whispered as he stood up. “It was my thought as well, but Indie doesn’t seem to possess any powers that I can tell, so we should really focus on—”

  “She may not seem to possess them, but that does not exclude her from a rightful inspection. We will need to test her capabilities as well as further question her,” Beatrice said, cutting him off. “It’s that simple.”

  I held up my hand. “Wait, wait. What does that mean exactly? A rightful inspection?” The heat flooded to my cheeks. “Because I will tell you up front that I’m not submitting to any kind of interrogation without a lawyer present. I know my rights. And I’m definitely not letting someone feel me up to look for a witch’s mark or whatever it is you do to test for magic blood.”

  “Indie, sit down!” Ash hissed, but I yanked my hand away from him as he tried to grab it.

  “Oh, is that so? You will not permit us to question you without an attorney? We shall see about that. And as for the other thing, this isn’t Salem, my dear. We don’t turn on our own kind. Though it does make me wonder… it can’t be just a coincidence that you turning up did something to break our sleep spell.”

  It was hard to keep composed. “Can’t it though? Because I have nothing to do with your weird frozen in time spell, okay?” I turned to look each one of the rest of the council members in the eyes. “I just want to get out of here and back to my road trip. Preferably with some gas in my truck, if possible. And I’m sure no one wants the new girl stirring up trouble as she’s already implying, so why don’t we come up with a solution to get me out of your hair? Really, it’s a win-win.”

  “Excuse me, Miss Warren! I think that’s quite enough—”

  “Sorry. Did you say frozen in time spell?” Amortencia Fell asked in her tinkling voice. “How do you know about that?”

  I bit my lip. Was I not supposed to say anything? Luckily for me, Ash stepped in again.

  “That’s on me. I explained to her what happened before I had a chance to tell you myself. Which is why I’m here, of course. And before you even ask,” he said, watching Beatrice carefully, “There is no need to be angry with the new witch in town. She had nothing to do with it. If you want to be angry with someone, try Mother Nature and Father Time.”

  Everyone spoke up at once.

  “A frozen in time spell? As if we weren’t cold enough!”

  “Did they cast it, then?”

  “Why were you awake?”

  “What broke it?”

  But Beatrice smacked her hand down on the glossy surface of the table, the huge sapphire ring on her hand thunking loudly. “That’s enough! Miss Warren, we will decide the next course of action to establish your power fealty, if you are indeed a witch. There will be no circumventing that, I’m afraid,” she said viciously. “Ash, will you please escort your friend out of the room? We have private matt
ers to discuss with you. Alone.”

  I barely got a word out before he was pulling me along after him out the door. The doors shut behind us and I wrenched my arm back.

  “Will you stop that? I’m not a dog on a leash, for crying out loud!”

  His hazel-golden eyes flashed. “You don’t get it, do you? You have to submit to the test and it’s a hell of a lot easier when you don’t badmouth the head of the Special Council.”

  I grit my teeth. “Maybe if she wasn’t such a b—”

  “Sh! She has very good hearing when she wants to. She is an air witch, after all. Listen, I get it. You have no idea what’s going on, but you’re just going to have to trust me. Sit down. I shouldn’t be that much longer. Then I’ll take you back to your camper if you want.”

  I wasn’t about to stand here and pout. I rolled my eyes and shooed him away. “Fine. Go do what you have to do. But I do not like this, not one bit. And you can tell her I said she needs to learn better people skills. She reminds me of my second-grade teacher, Mrs. Crisp. Old, insolent, and just as heinous.”

  There was a flicker of a smile on his face, but it was gone just as quickly as it came. “Just stay put.”

  I plopped back down in the chair, counting the ticks on the ornate clock hanging behind me in the lobby. Just as I was sure I was going to make a break for it, the doors to the conference room opened back up and everyone inside filed out, talking amongst themselves. Gallows yowled as Chris accidentally stepped on his tail, and Amortencia and Natalia were having a lively conversation while Amortencia flitted a couple of feet in the air.

  A few people came down from an elevator on the other side of the room, and while some walked down different halls, two older women barely able to do more than shuffle, made their way over to Beatrice. She gave them both a disdainful look.

  “I thought I asked for my purse as well?” she snapped, grabbing a notebook of some kind from the taller witch, who I realized a moment later actually sported a pair of gossamer wings just like Amortencia’s. Oh, so maybe she’s a fairy.

  The other woman, holding Beatrice’s scarf and coat, offered them to her wearing an apprehensive expression on her round face.

  “Sorry, Bea,” the fairy said, adjusting the Sunday hat over her poofy white hair. “We’ll get right on it.”

  But Beatrice just snatched the coat and scarf, shaking her head. “No need, Geraldine. I’ll get it myself, as I always must. You two… I swear.”

  With that she click-clacked away on her low heels, not bothering to give me a second look and leaving her two friends staring after her.

  Part of me felt bad for the poor old women, but the other part of me felt somewhat vindicated that I wasn’t wrong in my hasty judgment of Beatrice Wimberly.

  Ash was the last to leave the room and came over looking exhausted. “Let’s go.”

  5

  Wood Hag

  Before I’d realized it, I was riding alongside Ash through a whirl of space that raced around me, depositing us both into the woods. I stumbled blindly, gritting my teeth.

  “Will you please stop teleporting me places? Haven’t you ever heard of consent? I’m pretty sure you could cop kidnapping charges on that, you know.” I spun around, realizing a second too late that I was talking to a tree.

  Ash was already crunching his boots through the snow, heading further in. Here the woods gathered together tighter, evergreen treetops overlapping, blocking out more and more of the sunlight and giving way to less and less snow on the ground. At the very least, it was far less than the usual foot or so of the white stuff around town.

  Ahead, he knocked snow off of his boots, shaking more snow toppling down from above.

  It was hard not to laugh at the perturbed look on his face.

  “Where are you going?” I called after him.

  “We are going to a friend’s,” he replied, wiping the stray snow away from his hair.

  A friend’s, huh? I wasn’t exactly sure if that was a good thing or not, but I stalked after him, careful to throw my hood back over my head before knocking the caked-on snow off of my boots too.

  The woods were not a sudden wide expanse as I imagined most supernaturally inclined forests to be, but instead had a single worn path hardly wider than if Ash and I were to put our arms out standing next to each other. It was almost like walking down a hall of trees.

  “Are you going to say anything else?” I finally asked, getting tired of the silence.

  He paused. “What do you mean?”

  “Really? I mean what just happened back there. What did the council say to you?”

  “The only thing I can really tell you is that I’ve held them off from immediately holding a testing of your power. For now. The thing they’re most concerned about is the curse, the spell, and the state of things in town. Hopefully with their minds on those things they’ll be too busy to worry about you.”

  I thought about that for a minute and as he started walking again, I stopped him. “Wait. So that’s great that they don’t want to make me submit to whatever they had planned, but that doesn’t help me get out of here. I was hoping—”

  Ash shook his head. “There’s no hoping. The elders and I have no knowledge of how to break through the barrier around town. No one has been able to and believe me, plenty have tried.”

  I couldn’t help but pull my bottom lip in between my teeth. “So I’m stuck. I’m really, truly stuck here.”

  He looked like he was about to say something but thought better of it and gestured for us to keep going. “We’re almost there.”

  We rounded a turn in the path, and I my eyes went wide. Tucked in a small clearing was a rather cozy little cottage that would’ve been right at home in a fairytale about singing princesses and talking animals. Which was ironic, considering. Maybe magical forests were truly like I’d always read about?

  Around it were twiggy bushes dotted with bright red winterberry holly all dusted with snow. The windows of the cottage let out light through the cracks from within, and the door was a royal purple shade. If I had to take a stab at whoever this friend was, I imagined them to sport a pair of those fairy wings like Amortencia Fell and Beatrice’s friend. It seemed only fitting.

  Ash knocked on the door, flashing me a thumbs-up in a surprising turn of events. Confused, I returned the gesture just in time for the door to creak open.

  In the doorway stood a woman with hazel eyes that bore into mine with curiosity. Her burgundy hijab complemented the pretty hazel and paired well with her Sahara-warm skin. It looked like she had hastily thrown everything on with a small single dark curl escaping her coverings. No wings, though.

  “No need to stand out in the cold,” she said softly and made way for the two of us to come inside.

  I was surprised to see Ash smile at her, but even more surprised when he turned to give her a brief hug.

  “Fatima,” he said, looking around the room. “It’s been a while.”

  She nodded, smiling warmly as we followed her further inside of her cottage. It was a warm and bright place, candles on practically every surface, a well-kept stone fireplace, and lots of gold, navy, and red accents everywhere. A set of white ladder-like steps led up to what appeared to be a loft bed. It had a bohemian meets Snow White feel to it, and I was constantly finding my eyes drawn to different things.

  “It has, indeed. Eleven years if memory serves,” she said with a chuckle. “And you,” she said as she turned to face me. “Are quite the local celebrity from what I hear.” There was something of an amused expression on her face though it wasn’t intimidating.

  “I suppose. I’m Indie. Indie Warren,” I said, sticking my hand out to shake hers.

  Her hand was warm as she took mine. “Yes, I’ve heard. My name is Fatima Rahal. Resident fire-powered woods hag.”

  My jaw dropped. “Wait, what?”

  But she just chuckled, pleased with herself. “No, I’m only joking. No one calls me that to my face.”

  While I was t
rying to decipher her possibly sarcastic humor, Ash went and made himself comfortable on a small winged back chair. “Should I start with the good news or the bad news?”

  She tapped her long fingers against her cheek. “A certain bird told me about the meeting today. I’m assuming they’re calling for your head now?”

  Ash kicked back. “Not exactly. They require my assistance in helping solve the puzzle of the time spell. But what concerns me more than the council’s wishes is figuring out this situation.” He gestured toward me with a rather flabbergasted look on his face.

  I glared at him. “I am not just some situation. Need I remind you that I didn’t ask to get stuck here, it just sort of happened?”

  He opened his mouth, about to reply when Fatima stepped in. “Okay, we know the situation that Indie is in.” She looked at me with a thoughtful gaze. “I’m sure it’s been explained to you about the town being unfindable to those without magic.”

  “Vaguely.”

  “I’m sure you are shocked to find that you are a witch, which is understandable. Most people find out from the moment they’re born, while you are a different story.”

  “I’m not a witch. There’s just no way. I get that there is this thing with the town being unfoundable or whatever everyone calls it, but I think it’s entirely possible that maybe that went out the window when I showed up. Maybe it wore off between the time you all fell asleep eleven years ago and now,” I said, sitting down at the round table she was directing me to.

  The surface of the table was covered in circle after circle of symbols I’ve ever seen before outside of a fantasy movie. I started to trace one, but Fatima sat down abruptly, somehow managing to whip up two steaming cups of a sweet fruity tea and place them between us.

  Fatima splayed out her hands on the table in front of her. “Indie, there are powers that pull stronger than others, and you can feel the energy coming off in subtle waves of those using their magic. In other words, I am able to tell if you were a witch whether the power in you is dormant or not. And you, Indie, are most certainly a witch. The question is which type? Where will your loyalties fall when we find out?”