“Yes, thank goodness. However, the incident obviously made both sides very angry. They were each pointing accusatory fingers at the other. The foxes accused the wolves of being no-good aggressors, while the wolves figured that those young-lings were only acting out in their own self defense.”
Something told her that the identities of those wolves were worth getting into. If the event happened ten years ago, she wondered if Tony or even Max had something to do with it. After all, they seemed to be some of the younger wolves of the community.
Could this have been a final act of retaliation as a result of what happened?
Snapping out of her daze, Thea sent Granny a warm smile. “Thank you for telling me all of this. I really appreciate it. The details about this case were confusing.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it, Thea. I’m happy to help,” Granny replied. “I’m sure you’re surprised to hear what I mentioned about your father. It was definitely shocking to me at the time, but I wasn’t going to stand in the way of what Alistair wanted to do.”
Thea mused about her parents again, as she usually found herself doing. “Do you think we can go to the library to try and find more information about all this?”
Granny let out a short laugh and pushed herself out of her seat. “I thought you’d never ask.”
The thought of looking deeper into the history of the town sent a short, sharp thrill down Thea’s spine. A small part of her wanted to conduct some research about the shifter communities with Granny by her side.
But another, deeper part of her wanted to keep asking questions about her parents and the lives they led before Thea was born.
Before they had somehow vanished into thin air.
Chapter 7
It was 8 o’clock in the morning when Thea felt her phone vibrating near her head. Groggily, she opened one of her eyes and checked her notifications, wincing at the sudden brightness.
It was Blaine.
Mira finally admitted that she gave the bracelet to Tony, but she won’t tell us why.
The message was enough to make Thea sit up in her bed, contemplating the next steps to take in the case.
“What is it?” Sybil asked, hopping up onto the bed and craning around to read the text. She wrinkled her nose in reply. “So what does this mean now?”
“It’s a relief to hear her confirm that she gave him the bracelet,” Thea reasoned slowly, her brain still sluggish from sleep. “Our next challenge will be figuring out what type of relationship Mira and Tony had that would prompt her into giving him the bracelet.”
Seeing how cold the girl became when Thea tried to ask about it, she knew it was going to take them a while.
Thea snatched up her phone and rattled off a reply to Blaine.
Right now, I’m trying to learn more about the histories between the wolf shifters and fox shifters. I’ll tell you everything I manage to find out soon.
She typed up the message quickly and sent it. Afterwards, she wondered if she should ask him about the incident that Granny mentioned between the young wolves and their attack on the fox. Figuring that it wouldn’t hurt to try, she sent another message.
Also, Granny mentioned something about an event between the foxes and wolves that happened a while ago. Apparently, some young wolves attacked a member of the fox community and got away with it. Do you know what I’m talking about?
It only took a few seconds for Blaine to respond with an answer.
No, I haven’t heard of that happening. Do you think it’s related to the case in some way?
Thea sighed, giving her honest opinion.
Potentially. But I’m not sure. When she mentioned young wolves, I immediately thought of Tony and Max. Can you look into it some more and see if there’s anything more to this?
Blaine’s text bubble immediately appeared once she sent that text.
I’ll see what I can do. If I find anything interesting, I’ll let you know.
“Always good to have friends in high places,” Sybil remarked loftily, glancing over the exchange.
Thea playfully shoved her familiar’s head away so she couldn’t oversee the brief thank-you text she sent to wrap up the conversation. Even though she would have happily spent the whole morning talking to him over text messages, he was busy and so was she.
She almost fell out of bed, remembering that she had a magic lesson with Aunt Tiegen soon. One look at the clock and Thea already knew she was going to be late.
THE TOWN HALL HELD a tense silence as she made her way in. Thea took the familiar route towards the mayor’s office and almost stopped dead in her tracks once she caught sight of her aunt waiting impatiently in front of the door of her office. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she wore a stone-cold expression.
Thea swallowed thickly once her aunt was made aware of her presence. Aunt Tiegen didn’t say anything as she passed by and took a seat in front of her desk. Instead, she heard the door close behind her and the loud clack of her aunt’s shoes against the flooring.
“You’ll never get better at this if you don’t make magic your first priority, you know,” Tiegen said.
At that, Thea clenched her jaw to prevent a crass response from falling from her lips. She wanted to make magic her priority and she has for a while. However, there were other responsibilities in her life. For one, she had her shop to worry about. Not to mention, Ardensville needed some help solving murder cases. How was she supposed to drop all of that just to learn some magic?
These words were heavy on her tongue, but Thea forced them down. Saying them out loud would have landed her in some hot water.
“You’re right, Aunt Tiegen,” Thea managed out quietly, averting her gaze. “I’m sorry for being late.”
Her aunt stared at her silently for a few seconds, before making her way around the desk. She leaned against the wall, legs crossed at the ankles.
“As a quick warm-up, I want you to use your focus and identify some magical objects in this room. Think you can do that for me?”
Thea nodded. She was more than capable of that. Within the next few minutes, Thea had managed to point out every single item in the office that teemed with a magical essence. While she expected her aunt to give her some words of encouragement when she finished, she received no such thing.
Instead, her aunt took a few steps forward and stood in front of Thea, beckoning her to rise from her seat.
“I want you to slap me.”
Thea gaped at her. “What are you–? Aunt Tiegen, I’m not going to do that.”
Tiegen rolled her eyes. “Thea, you don’t have a choice in this matter. Hit me. As hard as you can.”
Even though Thea was at a loss for words, the look on Tiegen’s face told her that she was being serious. Her hand was trembling slightly as she raised it to strike it across her aunt’s face. Funnily enough, Thea was wincing more than Tiegen was.
However, it never got to that point. As Thea brought her hand forward, it was stopped a foot before Tiegen’s face. She tried again to the same result, which earned a small laugh from her aunt.
“That’s a shielding spell,” Tiegen explained, once Thea’s confused expression subsided. “They’re closely intertwined with warding spells. Both of them either warn of intrusion or stop them entirely.”
For the next half hour, Tiegen demonstrated the proper movements and incantations that Thea needed to learn in order to properly complete the spell on her own. Some small progress was made, but the two of them acknowledged that there was more work to be done.
“I want you to practice this with Sybil every night. You’re not as refined as you should be,” Tiegen said, which earned a small huff from Thea. “Don’t worry. You’ll get better in time.”
“I sure hope so,” Thea mumbled, gathering her belongings as she took her leave. “I’ll practice with Sybil, though. I promise.”
“Good,” Tiegen replied candidly. “I’ll know if you don’t.”
As Thea closed the office door behind her, the phone in her p
ocket vibrated as it received an incoming call. Taking it out, she saw that Blaine was calling her. He must have found something important.
She hurried out of town hall and made sure she was alone before accepting the call.
Chapter 8
“What’s going on, Blaine?” Thea asked. “Did you find something?”
“I think so. It looks minor, if I’m being honest, but it’s still interesting. I wanted to get your thoughts on it.”
Thea heard some ruffling of papers on the other side of the line.
“Turns out,” Blaine said, “a woman named Ada Davis tried pressing charges against the Lopez family a couple years ago because of a violent attack.”
“And did anything come out of that?”
“No, it doesn’t seem like it. It says here that they examined her injuries and they determined them to be from dog bites. The Lopez family was let off the hook,” Blaine explained. “It kind of matches up to what you were talking about, doesn’t it?”
“Of course it does. Did you get an address for Ada Davis? I think I should visit her and talk to her about whatever happened,” Thea said, searching through her bag to pull out a small notepad and a black pen.
“Woah,” Blaine replied. “Are you sure you want to go? I mean... what if the fox shifters don’t like you? You can end up getting hurt.”
“Blaine, I’m pretty sure I can take care of myself. You shouldn’t worry about all that,” Thea responded, clicking her pen. “So, do you have an address? The case isn’t going to solve itself, you know.”
EVENTUALLY, THEA MANAGED to coax Blaine into giving her the address of the fox shifter. However, she did heed his warning about the fox community not liking her. She figured that was going to be the case.
As a result, Thea made her way over to A Novel Idea to try and convince Pippa into coming with her. Knowing her friend, she was going to agree no matter what. Not to mention, it would help to have a fellow fox shifter around as she talked to this woman.
“Pippa, are you busy right now?” Thea asked her the moment she entered the small shop.
Closing her book, Pippa straightened up out of her seat with a curious flare in her eyes. “What’s going on? What are you up to?”
“I need to go talk to Ada Davis. It seems like she has some history with the wolf shifters and I want to find out more,” Thea explained.
Pippa let out a gasp, covering her mouth with a hand. “Ada? You want to talk to her?”
Thea furrowed her brows at that reaction, wondering if it was a good thing or not that she wanted to talk to the woman. “Yes, I do. Why? What do you know about her?”
“She’s....” Pippa calmed herself down, lowering her voice. “She’s one of the elders of the fox shifter clan. She’s pretty important to all of us!”
“Wait, so do you have a good relationship with her or something?”
“Well, think about it this way. She’s the one we go to when any of us have a problem,” Pippa said, settling herself before getting into the details. “The fox shifter community isn’t that tight-knit. We respect each other and all that, but we don’t consider each other family or anything to that extent.”
Thea nodded, fascinated by the dynamics that exist within their clan. “So Ada is some sort of leader in this community?”
“Yes. She’s like the backbone. If anything happens to one of the fox shifters or if there’s a fight of some kind, we all go to Ada. She helps us out in any way she can. Everyone knows not to mess with her or get on her bad side.”
“Do you think there’s some sort of wolf elder as well? For the wolf shifter community?” Thea asked. Pippa took a moment to think about that. “I mean, if the fox shifters have one, I’m assuming the wolf shifters must have some sort of leader that they look up to, as well.”
“I think they do,” Pippa replied. “But I don’t know anything about them personally. That’s something Ada might know. If you want, you can ask her about it when we get there.”
“I didn’t know I was going to be talking to an important leader of your community today, Pippa,” Thea muttered, watching as her friend gathered her things to take her lunch break. “When Blaine told me her address, I just figured I would be talking to some regular member of the fox clan.”
Pippa laughed, linking her arm with Thea as they made their way out of A Novel Idea. “Don’t be so worried, Thea. I’ll be by your side. I won’t let the fox shifters do anything to make you uncomfortable, I promise.”
“Thank you for that,” Thea said, a small sigh of relief escaping her.
The two of them hopped into Thea’s car. She pulled out the small piece of paper on which she scribbled Ada’s address. Passing it over to Pippa, she ignited the engine.
“By the way, how is Mira doing?” Thea asked out of the blue. “Is she okay? I hope that she’s been taking things easy. All of this must be a lot for her.”
“She’s been... all right. As good as she can be, given everything that’s been going on,” Pippa replied, almost sadly. “She’s been too scared to go outside, so she’s just been spending all of her time holed up in the house.”
Thea frowned. “Does she worry about the wolf shifters possibly doing something to her?”
“I think so. She’s considered one of the suspects in the case so they think she had something to do with it,” Pippa explained, swallowing thickly. “I worry about her. So much.”
As they waited at a red light, Thea leaned over and took Pippa’s hand in her own. She gave her a comforting squeeze.
“We’ll figure out who killed Tony and get your little sister freed from this mess soon. I promise.”
With a small smile, Pippa nodded in agreement. “Thank you, Thea.”
Chapter 9
“Is this the place?” Thea asked, parking the car a good distance from the house.
They made it into a nice neighborhood. It was calm and quiet. For a moment, she thought back on what Jesse mentioned between the difference in lifestyles between the fox shifters and the wolf shifters. A small pang hit her heart.
“Yep, this is it,” Pippa confirmed, clicking the seat belt off of her. “Do you want me to knock?”
“Yes please.”
There was a knot in Thea’s stomach as the two of them made their way towards the front door. Just as she promised, Pippa stepped up and knocked on the door a few times. While they waited, Pippa linked her arms with Thea again. The action was comforting, even if Thea didn’t admit it aloud.
Before they knew it, the handle jiggled and the door opened.
A woman was standing in the doorway, gazing at them from head to toe with piercing green eyes. She seemed utterly apathetic towards Thea’s presence, but did somewhat soften when she turned to Pippa. She must have sensed that she was a fox shifter.
“Ada, how are you? Do you remember me? I’m Pippa Paulson.” Pippa motioned towards Thea. “This is Thea Beal. She’s my best friend.”
Ada let out a small hum as she stared at Thea. In the back of her mind, Thea silently thanked Blaine for warning her against coming alone. Her nerves would have been off the charts if she had decided to talk to Ada by herself.
“What are you doing here?” Ada asked, directed towards Pippa. “And why did you bring...?”
By the look on her face, she was referring to Thea. Pippa frowned, but as she opened her mouth to respond to Ada and defend her friend, Thea patted her on the arm. Even though she was wary of Ada, Thea had mustered enough courage to speak.
“We wanted to talk to you about the recent murder that happened. A wolf shifter was killed. Do you know anything about it?” Thea asked.
Ada’s eyes narrowed significantly. However, she figured that if Thea had a fellow fox shifter vouching for her, she couldn’t have been too dangerous. The woman opened her door a little wider, allowing Pippa and Thea to come in.
As Thea observed her, she noticed the cane she used and the slight limp to her walk.
“I have nothing to do with that case,” Ada
said eventually, her voice reverberating loudly against her house’s walls. “You shouldn’t expect me to care about what happens to those wolves. That’s none of my business.”
“Do you have an alibi?” Thea prompted.
Ada snorted, resting her hand on her hip. “What, are you some sort of police cadet in training?”
Pippa clenched her jaw, but once again, Thea subtly told her to stand down. This wasn’t worth fighting over.
“Are you two really surprised that those wolf shifters are surrounded by violence? That’s all they're good at. It was only a matter of time before something like this was going to happen.”
“So you’re not upset about it at all?” Pippa asked softly, tightening her hold on Thea’s arm. “That boy, Tony, was pretty young. I don’t think he deserved that–”
“A lot of people don’t deserve a lot of things,” Ada interjected coldly. “But these things happen to them all the same. Like I said, I’m not surprised.”
This indifference was coming from a place of contempt, Thea knew it. Even though she was taking a leap of faith at asking, she decided to do so anyways.
“Are you still mad about what happened to you?” she asked, and when Ada furrowed her eyebrows, Thea continued. “Are you still angry at the Lopez brothers?”
Ada’s nostrils flared. Thea fully expected the woman to bark back at her with a menacing retort of some kind, but surprisingly, it never came. Instead, she leaned down and took the edge of her skirt in her fist, lifting it up to reveal her battered leg.
Thea and Pippa froze up at the scene. An extensive, jagged scar lined the entirety of Ada’s leg. The dark red wound was a nasty sight, and Ada knew that. She didn’t allow the two of them to gawk at it for long.
“I was wandering the woods as a fox when those three wolves came out of nowhere to attack me. It was unprovoked. I didn’t even have time to defend myself or revert forms. As you can see, they got me pretty good,” Ada said, limping over to the living room. “I now have permanent damage to this leg. I’ll never be the same again.”
Adventure Magic (Tabby Kitten Mystery Book 3) Page 3