A Cold Case in Spell

by J L Collins

  Liquid takes the shape of whatever contains it. But I wonder what would happen if nothing did…?

  What could only be described as a blob of water roughly the size of a small apple formed and slowly made its way out of the vase, suspended in mid-air. It shifted within itself, reflecting the room just like a huge bubble. Another blob of water followed it, this one even bigger, and then more and more hovered over the tabletop until they floated higher and higher despite their weight.

  “Indie…” Fatima gasped in awe. “This is—this is amazing.”

  I laughed. “I can’t even believe I’m doing this!”

  Outside, some kind of animal let out a howl and I lost all sense of concentration. Fatima and I quickly looked at one another before all of the water crashed down on us.

  We screeched.

  Fatima’s head covering and dress were completely soaked, my clothes too. It was fair to say we resembled a couple of drowned rats. The energy work caught up to me and I yawned, surprised at how much magic could take from you.

  “After all that work, I’m in desperate need of a shower.”

  Fatima and I looked down at our sopping wet clothes and burst into laughter. I was delirious, obviously. My sides ached not only from the laughing but from the strain in them.

  “I’d say we narrowed your magic down but I’m afraid it’s looking like the complete opposite.” Fatima handed me a hair dryer with a grin. “Though I have to admit, it’s pretty amazing to be friends with an anomaly.”

  Friends. I turned away to find a place to plug it in, grinning to myself.

  Once we were as dried off as we could get, Fatima fixed us some dinner which thankfully did not include a bunch of random snack mixes put together. Ahem.

  “You know, I’ve been thinking. This could have something to do with your ancestry. Have you looked into that any yet?”

  She’d asked me earlier in the week and I told her I’d get around to it, but truth be told, I was far more concerned with the murder case than anything else.

  I winced. “I’ve been um, busy.”

  She pursed her lips together, making me feel about three inches tall. “Really? I don’t suppose this has anything to do with the search for whoever killed Beatrice? If she was murdered, that is.”

  Of course. I hadn’t told her about my little investigation, but I wasn’t surprised that she found out. I wouldn’t put it past either Ash or Goldie to let it slip.

  “It’s important to find the truth. Someone may have tried to frame me for murder, and I can’t just let them get away with it. Not to mention, justice for Beatrice and all that,” I said, pushing around the peas on my plate.

  She looked me dead in the eye. “I understand. But just keep in mind, Indie. If someone really did kill her, they’ll think they had good reason. And a witch or wizard scorned is not someone to be trifled with.”

  20

  Southern Hospitality

  I was seriously overdue for some exercise. At least the non-mental kind. Hitching rides from Ash was convenient and all, and I would much rather do that than freeze my butt off but walking around the library wasn’t cutting it.

  “But the extra fat keeps you warm,” Goldie argued, patting her own white torso. “Not that I’m saying you’re fat—don’t look at me like that! I promise I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. Wait, where are you going?”

  “Out,” I mumbled, heading to the guest room to throw on everything I needed to brave the weather. The last thing I needed were more body complexes brought on by a conversation with a non-mammal.

  I was just about to step outside when Ash caught up with me. “Going somewhere? I’m heading downtown.” He took my hand as he’d been doing every day to drop me off at Fatima’s, but this time I didn’t know what to say.

  “I uh, I don’t really know where I’m going. Fatima’s busy and I need to get out of the library for a while. I’m going a little stir-crazy. Not to mention I don’t have any access to my usual workout videos online. If I’m going to be sitting around working on my novel, I need to get moving some other way.”

  “So… where do you need a ride to?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

  “I guess downtown will do. But I was going to walk there.”

  With a sigh, he nodded out the window. “You really want to walk through that without the right gear?”

  I glanced down at his traveling cloak. “Are you really one to talk?”

  There went the usual superior eye-roll of his. “I don’t need to worry about catching pneumonia like you do.”

  That gave me the perfect opening. “And why is that?”

  And just like I figured, he ignored it. “Come on, I’ll take you with me and you can at least do your walking around where the sidewalks are cleared. There’s even a gym on Craggy Street.” I’d find out more about him soon enough.

  Maybe the gym wasn’t such a bad idea. He was right about the long trek to downtown. Normally I wouldn’t have an issue walking a couple of miles, but Charming Springs wasn’t exactly normal.

  “All right, fine. Where did you say the gym was?”

  He squeezed my hand and the world swirled all around me, hardly giving me a chance to close my eyes before we struck ground and I slipped in the salted sludge on the sidewalk. Ash grabbed me before I did and smiled down at me a little too ruefully.

  “It’s here. Craggy Street.”

  I pulled away and folded my arms across my chest. “You could’ve at least given me warning. Sometimes I think you like seeing me bust my a—”

  “Not in the slightest. But it’s rather funny to see you get all irritated by it, I have to admit.”

  “Mmhm. I would say thanks but uh, you’re a jerk and take joy in other people’s misery so I bid you adieu.” And with that, I turned to walk down the block.

  “The gym is right here,” he called out. I did not appreciate the humor in his voice.

  He couldn’t see it, but I was giving him the death stare. “I knew that. But now I’d rather just walk around. No need to babysit—I’ll find my way around just fine without you,” I said without turning back.

  It was the first time I had a chance to really explore downtown without having an exact destination in mind. The streets were mainly cleared but it looked like it was going to snow again today. The air was definitely chillier than it was even yesterday.

  Colorful pots full of plants and mid-size trees dotted the wide walkways on both sides of the street. They were bare, frozen, but certainly pretty in full bloom. In fact, the whole of downtown Charming Springs had the bones of being a beautiful area with plenty of shopping, places to sit and chat, shade from the summer sun, and fancy wrought-iron gas-lit streets lamps that I guessed were less a renovation and more a preservation choice.

  It was a shame that you couldn’t see most of it under the dreary pile of white and dirty snow.

  I shoved my hands in my pockets. There was the gym, but truth be told I wasn’t in the mood. People watching sounded much more appealing anyway, and there was plenty of that to go around.

  People came and went in all shapes and sizes, some walking with friends, some rushing off, and some tugging their kids along after them. It resembled any other downtown I’d ever been to in that way, but there were definitely some… changes.

  A family of fairies flew from one side of the street to the other instead of waiting to cross at the crosswalk like the disgruntled wizard who was holding what looked like a mini-fireball a few inches above his open hand.

  A few voices nearby caught my attention and I looked up to find a trio of birds perched on the roof of the building behind me, cackling and tweeting at each other about some other bird’s ugly moulting.

  Maybe the most concerning and terrifying thing I’d seen yet was the huge polar bear making its way down Craggy Street, ignoring the honks of the cars behind it. Some guy—clearly mentally unstable—leaned out of his car window and yelled at it.

  “Take your lunch reservation and shove
it,” the polar bear roared. He, or what I assumed was a he, kept walking and the guy in the car quickly rolled his window up.

  All I could do was watch as the bear made his way around the corner. “Sure. Polar bears just doing a little shopping, no biggie,” I said softly. “Totally normal.”

  The birds overhead must have heard me. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, sweetheart!” the bigger woodpecker shouted, sending a spray of snow my way with his thick feathery tail. All three of them laughed even harder as they flew off, leaving my hat cold and covered in snow.

  I glared at them. You know, I always used to say that birds were my favorite kind of animal. Now I’m not so sure.

  Taking my cue, I kept strolling down the walkway, pausing to look inside some of the shops. There were mainly shops that I expected, but some were a product of their supernatural surroundings.

  Fae Away was a store that catered to all sorts of fairy trinkets and items. The mannequin in the front window was hovering just like a real fairy, its wings mechanically fluttering while it modeled a short furry vest and matching boots. The sign at its feet read ‘Now you too can wear all the latest human winter fashion!’

  Well, I wasn’t far off with my guess from before. I made a mental note to read up on fairies more. The fact that they had wings, could fly, and were immune to the cold was reason enough.

  I frowned. Why couldn’t I have secretly been a fairy, instead?

  A worn wooden sign swung and creaked in the wind. The Witch Cavern. It’s either a funky witch boutique and in that case, awesome, or it’s something that might just kill me. Well, guess I better check it out.

  A little tinkling bell sounded over my head as I went inside. The windows were tinted dark with nothing but the name of the place on them, so I had no idea what to expect inside.

  It wasn’t this, though.

  A front desk receptionist sat behind a long cherry wood desk, furiously typing something on her old laptop. She looked up for a split-second, then went back to it. “How can I help you?”

  The rest of the room reminded me of the front of my favorite hair salon, except this wasn’t overpriced hair products being sold on minimalist shelving.

  There were spell books and crystals, but there were also safety goggles, scuba masks, nose plugs, fire extinguishers, ugly gray blankets, windbreakers suits that screamed mid-90s, and other assortments of very random objects either for sale or ‘rent’ as one of the large signs on the wall read. What the heck was this place?

  “Can. I. Help. You?”

  I tore my gaze away from the walls, my cheeks burning when I made eye contact with the receptionist. She looked at me from over her horn-rimmed glasses.

  “Sorry, I was just browsing. I’m new here and the shop looked pretty fascinating from the outside.” I pointed to the short hallway behind her that led to half a dozen different doors. “Pardon me for being a little obtuse here, but what is this place?”

  She didn’t look surprised nor amused. “The rooms are for testing. Your elemental powers? Each one is for a specific type. And then the salt cave.”

  A salt cave? I’d always wanted to check one out, but I had no idea how much that kind of thing would cost, and something told me that the library didn’t have an open tab with this place.

  “Oh. Okay. The uh, things for rent make a little more sense now,” I said, reddening even more.

  “If you want a room I can make an appointment. But that’s about it.”

  I quickly nodded. “No, no. That’s okay. I’ll just… go ahead and go. Thanks for the help.”

  She went right back to her computer as if I hadn’t even come in, and that left me standing here like a total idiot.

  The door to one of the rooms opened, and out came a couple of women chatting with one another. One of them had gossamer wings that jutted out of her slightly hunched back, while the other carried her purse between her thick mittens.

  I recognized them from the Special Council building—the poor women that Beatrice had verbally abused.

  “Maude dear, you really should let me take that,” the fairy said to her friend. “The last thing you need is another wrist fracture.”

  The shorter woman fussed with her purse and pulled out cash to hand to the receptionist. “Thank you, kindly. The air in the salt cave clears my lungs right up.”

  “Is that how it works? The salt caves help your breathing?” I approached them and asked with a smile. “Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt you ladies. I’ve just never been to one before.”

  They both stared at me and then looked at each other.

  The smile slid from my face. “I’m sorry. I uh… you must be going through a lot right now. I saw you in the Special Council building the day I came to town—you were friends with Mrs. Wimberly?”

  The one with wings frowned at me. “We know who you are.”

  Maude sniffed and patted her friend’s arm. “Let’s go Geraldine, dear. I still need to pick up that thing from the place.”

  Geraldine blanked. “What thing from what place?”

  But Maude kicked at her foot. “Let’s go.”

  It took her friend a moment or two to catch up, but she did and the both of them breezed past me without another word.

  Wow. So much for southern hospitality. And here I felt bad for them for how their so-called friend treated them.

  I sighed and pushed out the door myself, watching as the pair of them huddled closely whispering to each other as they went back down the way I’d come.

  I crossed the street, magnetized to the smell of fresh-baked bread. My mouth watered and I had to quickly wipe at it before it froze like an icicle as I found the sign for one of the couple of bakeries I’d seen on the map. ‘The Cake Fairy - Magic in every delicious bite!’ was practically calling to me.

  But I didn’t even get the chance to go inside. Goldie swooped down hardly two feet above me, to land on the post office box outside of it.

  “Hiya,” she said, awfully cheerful. Overhead, a striking dark falcon flew higher into the sky until it all but disappeared behind the low clouds. Goldie was watching after it, too.

  “Friend of yours?” I asked, seeing the faraway look in her eyes.

  “Maverick. He’s… a friend, yes.” She cleared her throat and pretended to pick through her feathers with her beak. “We were just coming out of The Coop.”

  “The Coop?”

  “It’s exactly as it sounds. A small aviary for the winged animals in town, sort of like our hang out spot.”

  “Ah. Maverick is a pretty good-looking bird. And… you have the hots for him,” I said, grinning at the flustered look on Goldie’s face. “What? Am I wrong?”

  “What are you doing out here, anyway? Don’t you have a murder case to solve?” she said in a very obvious attempt at changing the subject.

  I let it slide. “I needed some fresh air and exercise, remember? To help with all the extra fat?”

  She shook her wings out. “Oh please, you know what I meant. Did you get some?”

  I shrugged. “I got plenty of walking in. Stopped in this one place but that was about it. The Witch Cavern? I guess it’s a place for people to test their magic or something?”

  “Yeah, I know it. I’ve had to take plenty of Griselda’s documents back and forth. She can hardly get around nowadays. Plus she’s a blind as a bat.”

  Griselda must have been the owner of the place. “I hope she’s nicer than everyone else in there. Although I’ve come in contact with some pretty rude ones today, so who knows?” I shoved my hands into my pockets, figuring I’d hit up the bakery next time. I didn’t have any money anyway.

  “Do I need to peck some eyes out to avenge you?” Goldie asked as she flew after me.

  I threw her a half-hearted smile. “That’s very Machiavellian of you, but I’m a big girl. I can take it. They were old catty women, so I’m sure I’m not the only one they’ve been snooty to. Beatrice’s friends, if you can believe it.”

  “Oh. Yeah, Gerald
ine and Maude aren’t known for their warm hearts. They’re nowhere near as bad as she was though.”

  We moved out of the way of a whole gang of fox kits laughing and shrieking at one another as they plowed through the walkway. Being a shifter in this kind of weather probably came in handy.

  “I was trying to be nice and they pretty much gave me the cold shoulder. Then again,” I began, a new thought taking form, “talking to them about Beatrice might not be so bad though. It might give us a better idea of who would want to harm her. If anyone would know, it would be her friends, don’t you think?”

  “Geraldine might be a tougher nut to crack than Maude. She’s a halfling so she already lacks trust in other witches and wizards.”

  I frowned. “What’s a halfling?”

  “Half fairy, half witch. I think she’s half water witch. And Maude is an earth witch if memory serves me. And it does, because that’s literally my job. I don’t know too much about their friendship with Beatrice, but they were the only ones who stuck by her most of the time.”

  “I have no idea how I would get through to them. They didn’t want anything to do with me a little while ago. Maybe you would have better luck?” Goldie did seem to have a knack for spying.

  “I’ll see what I can do. I better get going, Maverick and I are meeting up at The Coop again later with some friends. I want to make sure my down is fluffed. I’ve been looking a little haggard lately, I’m afraid.”

  I just shook my head. “You look fine. Go hang out with your man,’ I said with a wry grin. “I’ll find a way back to the library.”

  21

  A True Witch

  I knocked the snow off my boots before yanking the library doors open. Guess I got my exercise in after all. I could just see my wind-chafed cheeks now, pale and splotchy.

  “Looks like you got back just in time.” Ash was leaning over a table, studying something in a huge book that easily rivaled War & Peace. He nodded toward the window where the slow fall of fat snow flurries glistened in the early evening light.