“I have a lot to talk about,” she replied as she tossed her bag somewhere in the backseat. “Pippa and I did some investigative work today and I think we figured out that Dean has an alibi. I don’t think he’s involved with Maisie’s murder.”
“You’re positive about this?”
She nodded. “He’s still a scummy guy, but he wasn’t responsible for what happened to Maisie. Pippa and I overheard him talking to Demi about what he was up to that night. If he was actually guilty, he would have slipped up in that moment.”
Blaine let out a sigh, revving up his car engine and beginning the drive towards Witt’s End Diner. “I hope you’re right. We’re gonna pass by that haunted house soon.”
“Wait, really?” Thea asked abruptly, turning towards him. “Can we make a quick stop? I’ve been wanting to take a look around the place but I haven’t had the time to. I want to find out if whoever killed Maisie really did use magic to do so.”
He glanced at his wristwatch. Humming, he diverted from the usual course and made a right turn earlier than anticipated. The haunted house soon appeared in their view.
“We have a few minutes to spare,” he said, driving the car into the makeshift parking lot that encapsulated the haunted house. “I hope Pippa and Jesse don’t get too bothered if we show up a couple minutes late.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Thea replied, waving it off. “They’ll understand.”
As the two of them approached the building, a man dressed in black waiting in front of the entrance stood up straighter. The man recognized Blaine, considering the police had been scouring the area for the past couple days.
“Are you here to look at the crime scene again?” he asked, mainly directed towards Blaine. “We’ve cleaned up the place a little bit, but we haven’t really touched the room where it all happened, y’know?”
“Show us the room, please,” Blaine said.
The man nodded quickly, leading the way inside. Thea was astonished that they were still going through with the haunted house, even after what happened to Maisie. A small part of her felt that it was a bit disrespectful. Someone died, and yet, they were acting as if nothing had happened.
The situation made her feel a bit uneasy, but she bit her tongue and followed behind Blaine as they headed towards the crime scene.
“We’ve rerouted the path in here so that no one walks into that room,” the man explained, tossing a glance over his shoulder at the two of them. “Business hasn’t been impacted too badly, surprisingly.”
“Seriously?” Thea piped up.
“Yeah. It’s kind of crazy, to be honest. Some people have been saying that they’ve been seeing ghosts now, but I think they’re just playing around,” he replied, accompanied with a small laugh. “They’re probably just imagining things.”
Thea pressed her lips into a thin line, remembering her encounter with Julie in the same vicinity as this haunted house. If she was able to see and talk to her, was it possible that she could do the same with Maisie? She didn’t know, but that was something to pry into later.
Taking out a set of keys, the man unlocked a dark mahogany door and held it open for Blaine and Thea. They entered cautiously, peering around the scene for anything useful to the investigation. Her gaze was promptly drawn to the ritual circle on the ground. She pointed at it weakly.
“Is... is that...?”
The man had a giddy expression. “It’s sick, isn’t it? I’ve had a few of my co-workers say that the circle is super legit. Someone could probably do a ritual with it or something.”
Blaine crossed his arms over his chest. “And how did this circle get here in the first place? Who sketched it out.”
“Beats me,” the guy replied, heading out the door to wait for them outside. “But whoever did it is pretty cool. It really adds to the feel of the room. In different circumstances, we would have totally added that circle to other parts of the house. People love the sinister feel.”
As Thea watched him leave out of the corner of her eye, she began to focus on her magical meditation. She stared at the ritual circle, studying its various lines and symbols drawn on the wooden flooring. After a few seconds, she saw that there was a faint aura surrounding the circle. The energy was weak.
Even though the circle wasn’t active in that moment, the faint traces of magic left behind indicated that it was used at one point. Someone in the recent past was responsible for this.
Nudging Blaine with a shoulder, she quietly asked him for a pen and paper. He carried a small notepad with him, which he handed over to her. Hastily, she sketched out the circle and the details accompanying it. However, she left it incomplete by omitting some of its final details.
“Do you want to stick around for a couple more minutes?” Blaine asked, motioning towards the door. “If you want, I can wait for you outside and you can finish up whatever you have to do in here.”
“No, it’s okay. We can leave soon,” Thea replied, gazing down at the ritual circle on the ground once more.
As they left, she made an effort to smudge the circle and erase some of its key lines with the sole of her shoes.
“So what did you think about the room?” Blaine asked as they exited the haunted house. The man who guided them shot them a wave as they left, one that Blaine reciprocated. “That place creeps me out, not gonna lie. And that room...”
“Yeah,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself. Goosebumps were already forming. “I didn’t like that room either.”
“Do you know what that ritual circle was for?”
She shook her head. “I don’t. Maybe Granny does. All I know is that whoever killed Maisie knew how to use dark magic. And that’s horrifying.”
Chapter 16
“Hey, Thea, can you pass me the salt?”
Pippa didn’t receive an immediate response, which was to be expected. Thea’s eyes were glazed as she stared outside the window of Witt’s End Diner. After sharing a knowing look with Jesse, Pippa cleared her throat and tried again.
“Thea!”
Snapping out of her daydream-like state, Thea jolted upright and glanced around her surroundings. She blinked a few times, remembering where she was and who she was with.
“There she is,” Jesse said with a teasing edge to his words. “We thought we lost you there, Thea.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, rubbing the drowsiness out of her eyes. She soon leaned over and gave Pippa the salt she asked for. “My mind was just... somewhere else.”
“We could tell,” Pippa replied, accepting the salt. She sent Thea a warm smile. “Don’t worry. You didn’t miss much. Jesse was just rambling about another one of his projects again.”
“I wasn’t rambling,” he countered, sticking a forkful of chicken alfredo into his mouth. “I was explaining to Blaine the importance of watering down your paints. It’s a crucial step to do, especially if you’re working with something pretty small. You don’t want your paint to clump up and ruin the entire piece.”
“There he goes again,” Pippa said, motioning towards Jesse. “Rambling.”
“To be fair, I find all of this very interesting,” Blaine said, in his defense. Jesse sent him an appreciative nod. “I’ll be sure to consider all of this one day, Jesse.”
“See?” Jesse said, turning towards Pippa. “Someone here likes it when I ramble.”
Thea found it easier to relax, watching the new couple in front of her share amusing banter as they enjoyed their meals. The wine did wonders to soothe her, as well. Before she knew it, she was more enthralled with the conversation than with the sketched circle in her pocket. It had been the main thing occupying her thoughts since they arrived at the diner.
That spot in her mind was eventually assumed by Blaine. He seemed eager to ask her something once Pippa and Jesse began speaking about meeting each other’s families, now that they had become official.
“I think it’s about time we did the same, don’t you think?” Blaine asked.
&nbs
p; Thea furrowed her eyebrows, not catching on. “What do you mean?”
“Well... I wanted to ask you if you were willing to meet my parents tomorrow,” he said, smiling at the way her eyes widened significantly. “They live about an hour out from Ardensville, but my mom is organizing a big lunch to celebrate my dad’s birthday.”
“And... you want me to come with you?”
“Of course,” he replied, as if it were obvious. “I’ve talked to mom about you and she’s been wanting to meet you for a while. I figured that this would be the perfect time to introduce you.”
Thea’s cheeks turned soft pink at that. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she responded with a shy grin. She faltered for words.
“I-I’d love to go,” she said. She sighed reluctantly, glancing at Jesse. “But I wouldn’t want to leave Jesse alone at the shop for the entire day.”
“Oh, c’mon. You act as if this is going to be the first time you’ve left me alone in A Stitch in Time. Not that I’m complaining though,” he answered, throwing his hands up in defense. “This isn’t some ordinary occasion. You’ll be meeting Blaine’s family, so I’ll be happy to take charge while you’re gone.”
“I can help, too!” Pippa jumped in, scooting closer towards Jesse. “I have some free time tomorrow. I can drop by and make sure he doesn’t destroy the place.”
Jesse rolled his eyes playfully.
“So it’s settled then,” Blaine said softly, gazing at Thea. “We’re going.”
She nodded. Soon overwhelmed with a mix of excitement and nerves, Thea downed a gulp of red wine and felt at ease once more.
“Is everything alright over here?” Eleanor asked as she passed by, taking some dirty dishes back to the kitchen. “You guys are enjoying the food, right?”
“Definitely!” Pippa exclaimed, pointing towards her plate. The food was nearly gone. “I think this is the best dinner I’ve had in a long while.”
“I second that,” Jesse replied as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.
Eleanor let out a satisfied hum. “I’m glad. We have to keep up with Maline Cuisine, you know? That head chef of theirs is no joke. Not even ruffled by the death of one of his staff members.”
Thea picked up her gaze at that comment.
“It’s kind of weird, now that I think about it,” Eleanor said, resting her hand on her hip as she mused upon past memories. “It was around this time last year when I lost one of my own servers. It was sudden, too. Very strange.”
“Was her name Julie, by any chance?” Thea asked abruptly.
“Yeah,” Eleanor replied. “Julie Walters. I knew that she wasn’t well-liked around here. The other girls would talk about that often, but she was efficient nonetheless. Got the job done every time. It’s a shame that she died, she was still so young.”
Thea swallowed thickly, remembering the night at the haunted house where she encountered Julie’s ghost. There was a lot of sadness in Julie’s eyes, enough to make Thea’s heart feel heavy at the mere sight. If Julie wasn’t liked by the girls she worked with, she wondered if they may have had anything to do with her murder.
Noticing that the table went quiet, Blaine made the initiative to break the tension. “Thank you for the food, Eleanor. It was delicious, like always.”
“Oh, you’re always so nice, Blaine,” she replied, patting him on the head as if he were a child.
He chuckled, while Jesse and Pippa both laughed at the sight.
However, Thea didn’t seem to notice what was happening. Her hand drifted down into her pocket where the crumpled note was. She felt at the paper, relieved that she hadn’t lost it. Eleanor’s comment made the cogs in her head start turning again.
She was grateful for her friends and the fun evening they shared together, but Thea knew they couldn’t waste more time. She wanted to head home and talk to Granny as soon as possible.
Chapter 17
“You’re quiet again.”
Thea laughed dryly. “I mean, can you blame me? After what we saw at the haunted house?”
“So that’s what you were caught up on,” Blaine said, tapping the side of her temple with his finger. “I was wondering where your head kept running off to while we ate dinner.”
“It was hard to keep my mind off it,” she admitted, letting out a small exhale as they parked in front of her house. “And when Eleanor mentioned that Julie used to work for her... I don’t know. My thoughts became even more fuzzy.”
“Granny to the rescue then, huh?”
“Like always,” she said with a smile as they exited the car.
Once the two of them arrived inside, Granny quickly deciphered the complex look on Thea’s face. The uneasiness in the air was amplified when Thea pulled out the note from her pocket and showed her the circle. Grimacing, Granny took the paper in her hands.
“Where did you find this...?” she asked softly.
Thea shared a quick look with Blaine. “At the haunted house. In the room where Maisie died. The guy there mentioned that the circle was part of a ritual.”
“He’s not wrong,” Granny replied, handing the note back to Thea. “I can’t remember the exact spell, but I recognize those lines and symbols. Whoever drew this out didn’t do it with good intentions on their mind.”
As Sybil entered the room, with her high tail and curious eyes, Thea was struck with an idea.
“We can do a scrying ritual, can’t we? To see where else this circle may be in Ardensville?”
“It doesn’t hurt to try,” Granny said, departing into the kitchen to fetch a shallow bowl.
“Can you help me with this, Sybil?” Thea asked, lowering herself to sit on the ground. Blaine did the same. “You’re the expert at this.”
“I probably can,” the familiar replied, whiskers twitching as Granny returned with the bowl filled with water. “I’m not liking the energy I’m getting off of that paper, though.”
“No one does,” Blaine mumbled, fiddling with his thumbs.
With Granny and Sybil’s help, Thea closed her eyes and focused on making the ritual work. She described the full ritual circle, with its various symbols etched across the drawing. Although Granny tried to direct, they all knew something was amiss. There was nothing appearing in the water’s reflection. It remained dark.
“That’s curious,” Granny said, staring at the bowl.
“What? Is the ritual not going to work?” Thea asked.
“Not in the way we hoped it would,” she replied, using a nearby chair to help her stand. “Don’t worry, though. I have an idea.”
Sybil purred. “Her ingenuity amazes me sometimes.”
Granny returned with a map of Ardensville, as well as a lead weight with string over the top. Thea moved the bowl of water out of the way so that Granny could set the map in its place. From there, she held the weight over the map.
Thea and Blaine let out low gasps simultaneously as they watched the weight begin to move around on its own. The weight spun around sporadically, wobbling for a few moments before its movements stabilized. As they focused on the object, they realized that it was forming a figure 8 pattern around two main points on the map.
Granny frowned at the sight. “When there’s more than one place where a symbol can be found, the object is unable to decide between them. That’s why we’re seeing it move back and forth. It doesn’t know where to stay.”
“So it’s not giving us precise locations then, either,” Thea added, making a mental note of the spots where the weight kept hovering over.
“Well, all of this circling is telling me that there’s something obstructing a more accurate scry,” Granny reasoned. “Probably a ward of some kind. Or maybe this person decided to use some quartz near the ritual circles.”
“Whoever this is, they must have a good idea on how to use magic. They’re probably a magical being themselves,” Sybil commented slowly, stretching out her paws. “They even knew how to cover their own tracks.”
Fetching a pen, Thea marked
the spots on the map where the ritual circles must have been. They were lousy approximations for now, but it was better than nothing. Blaine nudged at her elbow, pointing at one of the locations she marked.
“That’s one of the major apartment complexes in town. A lot of people live there, so I assume it’s going to be a pain in the neck figuring out where the circle is and who was responsible for it,” he said.
“We’ll figure it out,” Thea replied confidently, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We’re a good team. I’m sure that we’ll be able to narrow it down.”
Blaine smiled. He nodded towards the other point of interest on the map.
“And over there... that’s in a residential area. The suburbs. Most of the people living there are families. It should be easier to ask around and see if anyone’s seen anything suspicious.”
“So when we have the time, we start off in the residential area?” Thea asked, tapping her pen on the spot.
“That would be our best bet.”
Overhearing their conversation, Granny excused herself and retreated into the adjacent room. Before leaving, she cleaned the materials off the floor and took them with her.
Thea remained seated beside Blaine as they watched her leave. Sybil raised her a head a little higher before stalking out of the room quietly.
“Are you excited for tomorrow?” Blaine asked once they were alone.
“Of course I am,” she replied, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I can’t wait to meet your family. You’ve already met mine.”
“They’re going to love you, I’m sure of it,” he reassured, wrapping his arm around Thea and pulling her closer. “I feel like you’re going to get along great with my mom.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. You’re both weirdos so I bet you’ll mesh well with her,” he joked, planting a quick kiss on her temple.
She laughed. “You’re so sweet.”
“I’ll pick you up tomorrow later in the morning, okay? I’ll even bring you some coffee for the trip. It’ll take a while to get to my parent’s house, but it’s going to be worth it. I promise.”
Ghoulish Magic (Tabby Kitten Mystery Book 5) Page 6