by K E O'Connor
“You sneak around the front and make some noise. That should get everyone out of the house. While they’re investigating what’s going on, I’ll sneak in the back, grab the journals, and we’ll meet back here. Got it?”
“Got it. I eat the bird, squash the spider, and—”
“No! Monty, no killing my familiars. Unless you want to be turned back into a soft toy, you’ll do as I tell you.”
He chuffed out a laugh. “I’m only teasing.”
I didn’t know him well enough to figure out if that was true. “If you get the urge to eat or squash anything, then run in the opposite direction. I’d rather this mission failed than I lose my familiars.”
His tail lowered. “Leopard’s honor. I won’t let you down.”
I bit my bottom lip. It wasn’t too late to turn back, but I did want to look at those journals. There had to be more information in them about the coven messing with Witch Haven.
With a nod at Monty, I ducked behind the tree and watched him lope to the front of the house. After a few seconds of silence, he started crashing around and making a ridiculous amount of noise. Perhaps I should have told him to be a little more discreet.
I followed him a short way until I could see the front door. It didn’t take long before it slammed open. Russell burst out, cawing and circling around. Nugget wasn’t far behind, with Hilda riding on his back.
That was perfect. With all three of them out the front, I could get what I needed, and they wouldn’t know I’d snuck in.
I dashed around the back of the house and tried the door. It wasn’t locked. I eased it open and hurried through the kitchen. I took a second to breathe in the familiar smells of home, then raced into the living room. Magda kept her journals in the magic cabinet in one corner.
I pulled open the bottom drawer and instantly got a hit of lemon wax. It always smelled so sweet, it was as if the magic cabinet cleaned itself.
Inside, there were fifteen journals, all full of Magda’s scribblings.
I loaded them into the bag I’d brought with me, but had to carry the last few because I had no more room.
There was a loud thud from outside and a high-pitched squeak that sounded like it came from Monty.
I glanced out the window and gasped. Monty was curled in a ball, his body quivering. Russell was flapping over him. I couldn’t see Nugget, but Hilda stood in front of Monty, tapping her front legs on his paw.
I groaned. Please don’t tell me Monty was afraid of spiders? Look at the size of him compared to her. How could he be scared of such a small creature?
I swiftly closed the magic cabinet and headed back through the house. I got out the back door and paused. I couldn’t leave Monty to be attacked. My familiars had power, with Hilda being the most powerful. For such a small spider, what she blasted out of her fangs was scarily impressive.
I dashed back to the trees, tucked away the journals, and then dodged back around the side of the house.
Monty was still cornered by Hilda, and his whimpering sounded snotty, as if he was crying.
I blasted out a fireball which set light to a bush behind them.
Monty squeaked again and rolled over. Hilda dashed toward the fire, while Russell circled the burning bush.
I gestured Monty toward me.
He raced away, his tail between his legs, and we ran to the trees.
I gasped in a breath as we ducked down, and I grabbed up the journals. “What went wrong back there?”
“Hilda’s terrifying.” Monty’s voice quivered. “She’s so mean. And she has all those hairs on her body. She started waggling her legs and rubbing her fangs together, and I almost fainted.”
“You could have told me you had a fear of spiders.”
“I didn’t know I was scared of them until I met her. She’s an incredible familiar. You’re so lucky to have her.”
I grinned as we raced away. “And I know it. They’re all great.”
“I’m not so sure about Nugget anymore. He was rude to me. He said some naughty words. Did you teach him those?”
“No, his rudeness is self-taught,” I said. “But I got what I needed, and no one got hurt, so it was a success.”
“I don’t know about that. I’ve experienced severe mental distress,” Monty said. “I’ll need several hours of belly rubs to get over this trauma.”
“You got it.” I glanced over my shoulder. I hated hiding from my familiars, but this was for the best. If they didn’t know I was here, they couldn’t get involved, and then they couldn’t get hurt. And once all of this was over, I’d make it up to them. Because, as Monty said, they were incredible familiars.
***
I rolled over and stretched, before yawning and blinking myself awake.
My eyes focused, and I saw a pair of legs in front of me. I tensed, and shot upright to find Olympus was looming over my bed.
“I, um, good morning?” I looked around, my brain still operating on sleep mode. “You’re back?”
“I am. And I should have known not to leave you on your own.” His arms were crossed over his chest and there was a familiar scowl on his face.
I gestured for him to turn around, then grabbed my clothes and pulled them on, before smoothing down my bed hair. “What do you think I’ve done?”
“I don’t think anything, I know all. I’ve been talking to Monty.”
“Your familiar is great. Why have you been hiding him?”
He glanced at me to check I was fully clothed, then turned back around. “I’m more interested in how you managed to reanimate him. That spell should have been unbreakable.”
“I’m not sure I did. I mean, I just found him sitting on your desk. I gave him a stroke, and then he started moving around. The next thing, there was a blast of light and Monty appeared. Maybe he did it to himself.” I walked to the door. “Is there coffee?”
“There could be.” Olympus’ scowl remained as he followed me out of the room. “You must have been the one to change his form. Monty couldn’t have broken that spell on his own.”
I turned to him. “I don’t know what to say. It happened. And I’m glad it did. That’s not a nice thing to do to your familiar. You owe him some serious belly rubs.”
Olympus groaned. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been indulging him. He’s impossible once he thinks he’s got someone to scratch his stomach.”
“He’s adorable. You should be proud of him.”
“I should. But after everything he’s done to me...”
I grinned. “Go on. He said something had happened between you two.”
“Let’s leave that for another time. You’ve still got more explaining to do.”
I tipped my head back. “You shouldn’t interrogate someone before they’ve had at least one mug of coffee. What do I need to explain?”
“You need to tell me why there are three dead bodies in the office.”
My mouth dropped open. “Dead bodies?”
“Follow me.”
I stumbled after Olympus and into the office.
Monty bounced to his feet and wagged his tail. “Morning, Indigo. We’ve got guests.”
“Hey, Monty.” I scratched his head, but my attention was on the three animated corpses sitting in the visitors’ chairs. “Huh! They weren’t there when I went to bed last night.”
“They arrived not long after we went to sleep,” Monty said. “They tapped on the door, so I let them in. I’ve been guarding them to make sure they didn’t eat you in the night.”
I stared at the corpses. They stared back. Well, the ones with eyes did. “They wanted to eat me?”
“Isn’t that what all zombies want to do? They’re not talkative, but they shambled around for a bit and kept trying to get into your room. I had to get snappy with one and give him a nip. In the end, I guided them to these chairs, and they seemed content to wait.”
“What are you doing bringing the walking dead in here?” Olympus said to me.
“I... I didn’t bri
ng them here. At least, not intentionally. Maybe they followed me from the cemetery. I went there after I got my assignment and had a look around. There was nothing stirring, and I didn’t see a single corpse. I couldn’t even find Silvaria to talk to and find out more about why the dead are rising.”
Olympus scowled at me. “Did you do anything in the cemetery that would have alerted them you were there?”
I winced. I had cast a lot of magic while I’d been killing time. “I ate a pie. And a muffin.”
“What flavor was the pie?” Monty said. “I like chicken. I like all meats. Actually, I need breakfast. Olympus, can we eat?”
Olympus continued to glare at me. “Indigo, what did you do?”
“Nothing bad. I went to the cemetery, looked around, found nothing, so got some food and picked up some spell casting bits and bobs.”
“Bits and bobs? Did you cast magic in the cemetery?”
“Yes, but nothing to do with raising the dead. I was trying to find Luna.”
He rubbed his forehead. “The last time you did that, she returned as a ghost.”
“An alleged ghost, and that was only allegedly Luna. She’s still alive.”
“Even so, wherever she is, she could be stuck between worlds. You summoning your missing friend in the cemetery aggravated these corpses. They’ve attached themselves to you.”
I glanced at our ripe-smelling guests. “They don’t seem that attached to me. I’ll take them back to the cemetery as soon as I’ve had my coffee.”
Olympus heaved out a sigh. “Why did I think leaving was a good idea? I’m gone for one day and you’ve lost focus on your mission. And you’ve made inappropriate friends.”
“I lost focus on nothing. And these aren’t friends, they’re more passing acquaintances.” I walked over to the corpses, two male and one female. “Hey, there. Have you got names?”
They all looked at me.
“You’re not feeling chatty today?”
They kept on staring. It was giving me the creeps. “Is it my fault you’re here? Did you see what I was doing in the cemetery?”
No one replied to my question.
“Did you really look for any corpses when you were in the cemetery? Or did you spend all your time casting magic to find Luna?” Olympus said.
“I had a job to do, so I did it. I spent ages poking around, trying to get a corpse to bite, but everyone was asleep. Maybe the dead rising was a one-off thing.”
“No, Silvaria recorded three incidents of wandering corpses over a single day. If you’d read the file—”
“I did! It wasn’t all that interesting. Does Silvaria have any idea why they’re wandering about?”
“She doesn’t. That’s why she asked for our assistance.” Olympus studied the corpses for a moment. “Monty, keep an eye on them. Let me know if they make a move.”
“Yes, boss. I won’t leave my post for a second.” Monty wagged his tail, then growled at the corpses.
I lifted my nose and sniffed the air. Under the mildly unpleasant odor of corpse, I got a whiff of something else. Something much more delicious. “Did you bring breakfast with you?”
A smile shifted across Olympus’ face. “I might have done. You can catch me up on all your adventures while we eat.”
I grinned at Monty and gave him a thumbs up, before hurrying after Olympus.
He opened a bag on the counter of the small kitchenette and pulled out donuts and two takeout coffees.
“You sure know the way to a girl’s heart,” I said.
He glanced at me. “Is that so?”
I grabbed a donut and stuffed it into my mouth, before I made any more stupid comments. “This is good. Thanks,” I mumbled.
“My pleasure.” Olympus turned, took the lid off his coffee, and took a sip. “So, don’t leave anything out. What have I missed?”
“You’re up to speed on the corpses. The cemetery was quiet. There’s nothing to work with.”
“And what else?”
I ate more donut. “Nothing else springs to mind.”
“I’ll remind you that I have been talking to Monty. He has a tendency to overshare.”
“Oh! Do you mean our little trip to Magda’s house? That was nothing.”
“That’s a different story to the one I heard. The way Monty told it, there was an enormous spider about to savage him.”
“Monty was talking about Hilda. And you’ve met her. She’s the sweetest spider around.”
“He said she was enormous. Did you cast your magic on her? Do your familiars know you’re still here?”
“I didn’t touch them. I stayed out of the way. Monty was my distraction, so I could get into the house—”
“You went inside that house? Are you out of your mind? Your familiars could have seen you.”
“But they didn’t. Monty was great and kept them distracted out the front while I ran in, grabbed Magda’s journals, and left. I figured I might as well do something useful while I don’t have a job to do.”
“You do have a job. You should have stayed in the cemetery until nightfall. That’s when the corpses are the most active.”
“I didn’t know that. I didn’t see that information in the report.”
“That’s because you didn’t read it properly.”
I resisted the temptation to argue. “I’ll go back tonight. I need to return those guys out there, anyway. But I got the journals. That’s good news.”
Olympus passed me another donut. “Have you found something interesting in them?”
“All of them are interesting. It’ll take me time to read through them, but these could be what we need to help get rid of the darkness troubling Witch Haven. Magda could have left more clues for me to find.”
He grunted, not seeming impressed by my efforts.
“And if that darkness is connected to Bloom going missing, it could help get her back, too.”
Olympus tensed for a second before he nodded and drank more coffee. “If this witch coven took her, I hate to think what they’ve been doing to her. She’s such a sweet child.”
“If they’ve hurt her, you’ll make them pay. But focus on getting her back first. Magda was clever, and she missed nothing that went on in Witch Haven. She could have information to help us.”
“She missed the darkness that crept in and got both of you.”
I scowled at him. Despite the caffeine hit, Olympus was still grumpy. “Apart from that. And everyone missed that, including you and the entire Magic Council, and you’re supposed to be the experts around here.”
He didn’t say anything.
“If there’s anything in the journals that’ll help us, we can find it and put a stop to this dark magic.”
“You’re taking too many risks,” Olympus said.
“That’s not true. I’ve taken a few very small risks in the last twenty-four hours.”
“And you’re still keeping things from me. I know about the fight at the Magic Council. That’s not a small risk.”
I grimaced. “How do you know about that?”
“I get reports about everything.”
“It was a misunderstanding that quickly got sorted.”
“And you talked to Storm and Odessa, despite me telling you not to.”
Jeez! This guy had spies everywhere. “They were defending me, and at risk of getting arrested. If they’re behind bars, they can’t help search for Luna.”
Olympus pressed his lips together, then sighed. “I was gone for a day. Imagine what would happen if I left for a week.”
Monty bounded in, his fur fluffed up and his eyes shining with excitement.
“What is it?” Olympus said. “Are the corpses stirring?”
“They’re asleep. Or dead. I’m not sure. Either way, they’re doing nothing. I got bored out there on my own. And I need feeding.”
“Get back out there and make sure they continue to do nothing,” Olympus said.
“I also need a belly rub.” Monty looked at me.
“Out!” Olympus said. “You’re working.”
“Just a small one. Your girlfriend is amazing at giving belly rubs.”
Olympus sighed again. “Monty, you’re on duty. Those corpses are a risk to my safety and Indigo’s. Make sure they don’t move.”
“He can stay for one belly rub,” I said. “Those skeletons aren’t exactly fast moving, and we’d smell them before we see them.”
Monty’s tongue flopped out from between his teeth.
“Don’t encourage him,” Olympus said. He pointed at Monty. “Back on guard duty, or I’ll turn you into a toy.”
Monty whimpered, before skulking out with his tail down.
“He’s adorable. You should be nicer to him.”
“If I did that, I’d have familiars like yours.”
“Amazingly protective, never let me down, and help me when I really need it? How would you cope?”
“They take liberties, they run rings around you, and they act like they own that house.”
“They have lived in it longer than me,” I said. “I guess it is part theirs. Maybe I should put their names on the deed.”
“Don’t. It’ll only make it worse.”
“Our familiars are here to help us. They’re not our servants, as Nugget will be quick to tell you. And Monty is a good leopard. You should give him a break.”
“He gets plenty of breaks. And Monty is a menace. Don’t be fooled by all that adorable fluff. Now, let’s get to work.”
“Yes. I should focus on finding Luna,” I said.
“No, you need to focus on the corpses.” Olympus settled in a chair and ate a donut.
“I’ve been there and done that. The only ones I found are the ones that followed me home. If that’s all I have to deal with, then this will be an easy job.”
“Nothing is easy around this place. Take another day to investigate the corpse problem. If you don’t find anything after a thorough search of the area, I’ll let Silvaria know what happened and mark the case as closed.”
“Then I can focus on Luna?”
Olympus nodded. “You can. But there’ll be more cases coming your way soon. Being an employee of the Magic Council isn’t an easy ride.”
“And I’ll handle them,” I said. “Just as long as they don’t get in the way of me helping Luna.”