A Witch Too Late

by Paula Lester

  “No problem. I’m not too good in that department either, right now. Sorry about creating or conjuring or producing those mice—I’m not sure what the right word is.”

  “Conjure is correct, I believe. I’ve been after that fat one for weeks. You probably kinetically brought them from their burrow to this space,” Echo said. “Interesting. Were you hungry?”

  “For mice? No, of course not.”

  “What were you thinking about, then?”

  Cas shrugged. “A few seconds before, I was wondering if cats really eat mice or if that was a myth.”

  “I see,” Echo said. “And then you bring mice to you.” His green eyes roved over her from head to toe. “Interesting, new witch. Interesting. Ah, well. Come along. Let’s get this mission done. Would you mind picking me up? I can’t fit into the courser’s seat belt, so lying on your lap will probably be safest for me.”

  “Sure.” Cas picked the black cat up and before she could think about what she was doing, scratched him under his chin. “Oh, I’m so sorry, sir!” she exclaimed. “Is that rude?”

  “A little unseemly, I suppose, but it feels quite nice. Please do continue.” Echo began to purr a little as he settled into Cas’ arms. “Now just walk over that way another few feet, and I’ll call the courser.”

  Cas followed the cat’s instructions and braced herself, waiting for the bubble to envelope her. As soon as it did, she leapt toward a chair and buckled herself in. She intended to avoid the dizziness this time. She grabbed a nose pincher and managed to get it on before the courser started moving.

  Her quick preparations were quite effective, and this trip was much easier for her than the first one. The bubble stopped moving after only a moment or two—Cas realized that must be because they were just going across town this time.

  When the courser disappeared, their feet hit beige carpet. They stood in a small business office, but before Cas could say anything, Echo jumped down from her arms and shooed her out of a door.

  They were in a bank. Four tellers waited on customers. Cas glanced behind her. The door they’d exited was marked Burt Lierson, Manager. A cat walking across the bank’s smooth, tiled floor didn’t garner a second glance from anyone in the lobby. The security guard even tipped an imaginary hat at them as they exited.

  “Who’s Burt Lierson?”

  “I don’t know exactly. He may have existed at one point. Now witches use the office as a courser pick up and drop off. Can’t have the humans noticing anything.” Echo sniffed the air. “Ugh, wealthy people. Smells like corruption and unhappy, spoiled housewives. Come this way. It’s just a few blocks.”

  South Coast Road proved to be a pretty street with tall oak trees planted in the strips of grass between the sidewalks and the road. Cas could see a few leaves starting to change color, though it would be another month before fall was fully upon them.

  She turned around in a circle, taking in the huge, perfectly manicured lawns and giant, mansion-like houses of the neighborhood. It reminded her of TV reality shows about famous people in Hollywood. “I didn’t know there was such a ritzy neighborhood here.”

  “Yes, the well-to-do of Crystal Springs do like to show off their wealth,” Echo said, his voice full of contempt.

  “How did Tallulah get to be well-to-do?” Cas marveled at the house closest to them, which had three turrets jutting up into the sky. They reminded her of fairytale towers where a maiden might be kept awaiting a prince.

  “She’s a motivational speaker. Mostly for humans. I don’t understand why the review council hasn’t dealt with her yet. She must be charming the humans because I’ve heard a couple of her speeches, and they’re not that great. They didn’t motivate me to do anything except drown my sorrows in a shot of bourbon.”

  Cas hadn’t seen Tallulah in a long time, and she didn’t know much about witch business, but she wouldn’t put it past her half-sister to be gaming the system to her advantage. “Okay, well, let’s get this over with. This one’s 1473, so the next house on this side must be hers.”

  They arrived at a long driveway that led to an especially huge mansion. Cas didn’t know much about architecture, but even her untrained eye could see that this house was a mismatched hodge-podge of styles. There was a pillared porch, multiple delicate spires, windows that looked quite modern, and the whole thing was pastel pink with white trim.

  “Oh, this is horrible,” she said under her breath.

  “Someone has a lot of money and not a lot of style,” Echo agreed, making Cas snort out a laugh.

  They walked up to the door and rang the bell. They could hear the opening strains of Mozart’s The Magic Flute play inside the house.

  “Wow, pretentious much?” Echo muttered.

  They had to ring the bell again before the tall door finally swept open, revealing a towering, red-haired man wearing a white tuxedo. “What can I do for you?” he asked, looking down his nose at Cas and Echo.

  “We’re here to see Tallulah North please,” Cas said, smiling brightly.

  “And who should I say is calling?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

  “Cascade Lorne.” Her confidence slipped as she thought about how Tallulah probably wouldn’t be that happy to see her, and she smiled harder to try and make up for it.

  “Please come in, and I’ll see if Miss North is available.” He led them into a sitting room off the main foyer and left them there. The room was just as gaudy as the outside of the house, decorated with Picasso-like paintings in different shades of green paint, purple area rugs, and bright yellow furniture.

  “If I had the right ears to hold them, I’d definitely put a pair of sunglasses on,” Echo said, sounding disgusted.

  “Yeah, it’s over-the-top,” Cas agreed.

  “So they sent you anyway, I see.”

  The voice startled them. Cas spun around to face her half-sister. Tallulah had grown up to be about two heads taller than her, with a willowy figure and long, flowing blonde hair that Cas had always wished to have. Her makeup application was perfect, accentuating high cheekbones, long lashes, and full lips. Tallulah wore a floor-length, navy blue gown that sparkled when she moved. It was as if she was heading out to a red-carpet gala.

  “I didn’t answer their summons or phone calls for a reason, but the council never takes no for an answer.” She swept past Cas, sitting down on the edge of a bright yellow couch, crossing her ankles, and laying her hands on her lap. “What do you need with me?”

  Cas looked around for a place to sit. Nothing appeared comfortable, so she chose a yellow Queen Anne chair across from Tallulah. “Well, I’ve had quite a time of it over the past day. I’m having trouble making sense of it, but I was taken in front of a witch’s council that seems to think I just blossomed. Strange things keep happening when I hiccup or sneeze, and they’re saying I need a family member to stay with who knows about magic and can help me control my power. So they sent me to you. I didn’t know you were even living here, Lu. How have you been?”

  Tallulah’s features didn’t change or soften as she listened to Cas. She didn’t react to the use of her childhood nickname either. “I’m great. As you can see, I have done quite well for myself.” She lifted a hand and waved it around the room. “As for me helping you with your magic, I don’t see how I can. I’m quite busy almost all the time with speaking engagements, small group classes, and individual mentoring. I’m hardly ever here, really.”

  Though she hadn’t known she was holding out a small bit of skepticism on all this business about witches and magic, when her half-sister responded matter-of-factly about its existence, Cas felt a moment of shock followed by the click of acceptance. She had sneezed mice and flying pigs, was keeping company with a talking cat, and her long-lost half-sister seemed to accept magic as being real.

  “How long have you had magic?” she asked.

  Tallulah smoothed her hair and then examined her nails. “I blossomed when I was eleven. I guess you probably weren’t aware of it. Dad d
idn’t quite believe everything my Blossom Greeter explained, but he had no problem sending me away to Aunt Petunia after the council recommended it.”

  “Mom’s sister? I remember you going there, and I didn’t understand why he sent me to boarding school instead of to Aunt Petunia’s with you. I was about thirteen, I guess. It was a hard pill for me to swallow—being sent away.”

  Tallulah’s jaw muscles tightened as she clenched her teeth. “It wasn’t any easier for me. Mom died before I could really remember her, then I had this magical thing happen that I didn’t understand, and then I was sent away.” She gave her head a tiny shake and stood up. “But, that’s all in the past now, and there’s nothing to be done for it. I wish I could help you, but I don’t see how I can.”

  Cas didn’t really want to stay in this gaudy house with her way-too-perfect half-sister. But her throat clenched at the idea of being sent away from the only family she had—the only one who might be able to understand what was happening and help her deal with it. She sniffed and lifted a hand toward Tallulah, intending to plead her case, but a small line of flame shot out of her fingertips. Cas squealed.

  The fire landed on the yellow couch Tallulah had just vacated, and the upholstery smoldered. Tallulah screeched and started jumping around. She looped her forefingers together and snapped them apart. A grey rain cloud appeared over the couch. Rain dumped from it, dousing the fire. A burnt plastic smell hung in the air, and Tallulah’s face looked hard and angry.

  “I don’t have time for this, Cascade. I am not a babysitter. I have a living to make. You need to go now.”

  “But . . .”

  “No. I can’t. The council is just going to have to clean up their own problems without my help.” Tallulah turned on her heel. She swept out of the room in a cloud of blonde hair and navy-blue taffeta.

  Chapter 6

  Cas felt dazed as she and Echo made their way back to the courser at the bank. They rode it toward the Courthouse in silence. The entire experience with Tallulah had been unsettling. The idea that her half-sister had known the truth about their mother seemed unreal. But being rejected on top of that? It was almost too much to bear.

  What was going to happen to her now?

  Echo sat on Cas’ lap and purred as she stroked him absent-mindedly. The courser’s spin didn’t even bother her. At least she’d adjusted to something well.

  The purring stopped, and Echo glanced up. He could probably only really see Cas’ nose pinchers from his angle, but it didn’t stop him from interpreting the look on her face. “I’m sure it will be fine, Ms. Lorne. The council will come up with some way to help you.”

  “If they don’t decide I’m too much trouble and call the executioners.”

  “Never mind that drivel from this morning,” Echo said. “Most of the sirens were posturing. Your magical potential is quite substantial, and they’re jealous. Killing a newspring at any age would be poor optics for the council. If anything, politics will keep you breathing for some time to come. None of them, including Lavania, want to lose their seat.”

  “If you say so, Echo. I wouldn’t go back to the council at all if I could control...” Cas couldn’t quite say it out loud. Her magic. It still seemed unreal and insane. She sounded miserable, and Echo was only trying to soothe her. Cas smiled at him. “Is the Archsiren always so irritable, or was it because she had to see me so early this morning?”

  “Her husband ran off, so she’s been in rare form ever since. Yet, Lavania is always unpleasant,” the cat confirmed, his furry face twisting into what Cas assumed was a grimace. “It seems to be her nature, but I believe something in her past must have added to it. Most of the time, the other sirens keep her from being too over-the-top mean, but you do have to watch out for her.”

  Cas sighed. Lavania held her future in her hands, and she was crabby and short-tempered. Cas yawned, unable to stop herself. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said to Echo from behind her hand. “I’m starting to feel pretty exhausted.”

  “We’ll take you back to the council, and hopefully, they’ll be able to see you right away. Then I’m sure they’ll let you rest.”

  The courser arrived at its destination, and Echo and Cas made their way over to the hover tile, up to the marble hallway, and into the reception area where Waverly looked like she hadn’t budged since they left.

  “We need to see the council again,” Echo’s deep voice rumbled at the receptionist.

  Waverly set her magazine on her desk and stared down at the two of them. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? You were supposed to leave her with her sister, but you’ve gone and brought her back. The Archsiren isn’t going to be very happy about that.”

  “I’m aware of what my mission was, and it really isn’t any of your business whether I completed it or not. Your job is to let the sirens know we need to see them and take us back to their chamber.”

  Silence filled the room as the blue-haired receptionist and the small black cat stared each other down. Cas shifted her feet and wondered if she should say something to break the tense atmosphere, but she couldn’t think of anything. Finally, Waverly sighed, broke eye contact with Echo, and climbed down from her tall chair. “Fine. It’s your funeral.”

  Cas and Echo followed Waverly back to the door leading to the council chambers. Cas’ stomach did flips and her pulse started racing as they got closer. What would they do with her? Waverly stopped a few feet from the chamber door, and Cas followed so closely that she ran into the woman’s back, earning herself a frosty, blue-eyed glare. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why did we stop?” Echo sauntered up from behind the two women and sat down next to Cas.

  “Shh!” Waverly ordered and waved her hand at him.

  As silence fell in the hallway, Cas could hear that there was an argument going on in the council chambers. She recognized the voice of the angry man she’d heard through the speaker back in Dustin’s office that morning. What was his name? Lively? Livid? Livings! It was definitely him in there yelling, and he wasn’t the only one. Lavania’s voice was a shrill shriek between bursts of Livings’ furious shouting. Cas strained to hear what was happening.

  “Can I help you folks?”

  The voice seemed to apparate next to her left ear. Cas jumped away from the sound and slammed into Waverly. The receptionist screeched and glared at Cas again.

  A partially opaque wall appeared and floated about a foot above the floor and the same distance below the ceiling, situated between Cas’ group and the speaker. It was silver and looked almost gauzy, but when Echo batted at it, his paw didn’t go through or disturb it in any way. He cocked his head and looked up at Cas. “It’s solid as steel but transparent enough to see through. Beautiful work.”

  Had she made the wall appear because she’d been startled? Was it like a shield or something?

  On the other side of the strange floating wall was an even stranger looking person. It looked like a man with a long, drawn face and slicked back, shoulder-length hair. He wore a blue and green plaid bowtie and small round glasses. One eyebrow raised up above the rim of the glasses, changing his expression from serene to quizzical. The man’s hands appeared very normal, though weathered. Within them, he held a small brown, leather-bound book. And for some reason, he didn’t have any shoes on.

  Actually, that wasn’t quite accurate. Cas’ mind shied away from it at first, but she had to acknowledge the truth. She’d never make it in this strange new world by using denial to cope.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t have shoes. He didn’t have feet. Or legs, really.

  In fact, at the bottom of his neatly pressed gray suit coat, his body seemed to—end. He floated just like the wall she’d somehow conjured and was as eerily transparent.

  “These two need to be brought before the council, Denzel. Where’s Dustin?” Waverly asked the hovering half-man.

  “He’s attending to other matters. He didn’t tell me exactly what those are, and I didn’t ask. He’s been doing quite a lot of w
ork for the Founder’s Day celebrations, so I assume it has to do with that. He asked me to fill in for him in his council duties for a few hours. Is this Cascade Lorne?”

  Denzel cast his gaze at Cas, and she shivered when his eyes met hers. She hadn’t been involved in the supernatural world for much more than twenty-four hours, but even she knew a ghost when she saw one. The wall she’d produced had disappeared and there was no longer anything standing between her and the hovering spirit. Cas wondered if she could make it return by wishing hard enough.

  “Yes, that’s her. I took her to her half-sister, but the miserable woman turned her away,” Echo said nonchalantly. He looked up at Cas again. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to be so blunt. But your sister’s family values are worse than those of a tomcat in the middle of a pride of females. Turning her own sister away like that.” He shook his furry head back and forth as though he’d never heard of such a thing before.

  Waverly snorted. “Like your values are so pure,” she muttered, and Echo hissed at her. The receptionist stuck her tongue out at the cat.

  “Very well. I’ll take them in, Waverly. You can go back to your desk. They’ll have to wait here with me for a moment. The council is preoccupied with Dzovag Livings’ case right now.”

  As though to punctuate the ghost assistant’s words, Lavania’s shrill voice rang out at that moment: “Dzovag, you are walking a thin line right now. I have half a mind to curse you out of existence! Get out of this chamber. We’ll call you once we’ve decided your case. DENZEL!”

  The ghost waved a hand and the chamber door opened. A middle-aged man with a thick paunch and overflowing jowls came stomping through it, almost running into Cas. “Get out of my way, girl,” he growled.

  Dzovag Livings looked so angry that if flames started shooting out of the top of his head, Cas wouldn’t be surprised. He was dressed in an expensive blue suit tailored to fit his rotund body. The bright orange shirt and tie he wore with it made her eyes water.