by Mara Webb
“Do I ever?” Daphne smirked. “Sadie, why don’t you take a seat and I’ll get you some toast.”
“Sure, drowning sure did make me hungry,” I smiled. “That… that was a joke,” I offered lamely. None of them offered so much as a hint of a smirk. Whatever, I wasn’t staying here long so I would soon be back where my friends would enjoy my brand of comedy.
“Well then I will make you some eggs as well,” Daphne said. There was a giant roasting pan on the counter, inside sat a raw chicken that Daphne was stuffing with herbs and spices. She used some string to tie the legs together, then washed her hands. She turned to the stove behind her and began pulling out pans from cupboards until she found one she was happy with.
“So, you’re Sadie Alden,” one of the women said. It was a statement, not a question, so I wasn’t sure how to respond.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, reaching up to mime a ‘tipping of the hat’ motion. Why did I do that? Had I swallowed so much sea water that I’d lost my mind? I was acting like a total dork, but was this worse than usual? Or had I never realized I was like this?
“I can’t believe you’re here,” another added.
“Yeah, it’s crazy, huh?” I grinned. “Anyway… could one of you point me to a phone? I could do with calling my friends and letting them know where I am. It’s gonna get pretty wild around the islands if my friends can’t find me, they are probably out searching already.”
“We don’t have phones here, or service for a cell phone,” Daphne said, placing a plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of me. “But maybe we could sort something out after today’s events.”
Everyone else at the table nodded and I found myself suspecting that they didn’t have an interest in me leaving this island. What was this place? How was I going to let Kate and Effie know that I was okay? Would Ryder come looking? Would Miller even know I was gone? I was going to have to find a way home without them.
7
I ate slowly. I was pensive, deep in planning mode and also trying to respond appropriately to the barrage of questions coming from the other women at the table.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” one asked. Oh boy, how long have you got?
“N-yes,” I blurted. “I mean, not yes. So, no.”
“You don’t seem sure,” Daphne smiled. “There’s a guy, right? Someone you have your eye on maybe, or that has his eye on you.”
“Er… I guess,” I shrugged. There were audible gasps, and I tried to gauge what was prompting such a reaction. “It’s a little bit complicated, but I’m sure it will all work out fine, at some point.”
“We don’t get a lot of men around here,” a voice called from the doorway. This was a new figure, an older woman with deep wrinkles around her mouth that were either caused by a lifetime of smoking or pouting. Her skin was papery thin, allowing every blood vessel in her face to be visible giving her a strange purple-blue hue.
“Oh?” I replied. “Sounds kinda perfect to me,” I joked.
“I didn’t say we didn’t have any,” she countered. “We have just the right amount of them to cause problems.”
“Been there, am I right?” I laughed, nudging Daphne with my elbow. It turned out Daphne wasn’t going to be my ‘Kate’ on this island, so I made a mental note to stop trying to be funny.
“Girls, don’t you have things to be doing?” the woman announced to the room. The six women, including Daphne, scrambled away from the table and hurried out of the kitchen door. Their voices grew faint as they walked away from the building to a distant place.
“Should I have gone with them?” I asked.
“They are heading to the square. It is the first day of May you know, a big deal in the witch calendar,” she said. “I’m Bryony, I’m sure you’re quite confused about who we all are, and I doubt that many of the others bothered to introduce themselves.”
“Sadie,” I offered.
“Yes, I know,” she replied, not smiling even slightly. “Do you know why we celebrate May Day?”
“Y’all like the sun?” I grinned.
“To put it in laymen’s terms, yes,” she chuckled. Hey, a laugh is a laugh, even if it is coming at my own expense because this woman thinks I’m not too bright. She stepped closer and I could see that her hair was a dark grey color, a few streaks of a bright silver nestled in among the pewter. “You don’t know much about the history of magic.”
Again, it wasn’t framed as a question, but a statement. I shook my head.
“There is going to be a party on this island the likes of which we haven’t seen for an age, you should go out and enjoy it,” Bryony said. “It’s truly a once in a lifetime event.”
“Okay, but then can you help me get a boat back to the main island?” I asked. It was worth a shot, right?
“Why don’t you see how you feel when we get to sundown?” she said. “You might have changed your mind by then.”
Changed my mind? What, I was just supposed to have such a good time eating candy floss, or whatever they were going to be selling here, that I would abandon my friends and my home? It would have to be some pretty good candy floss. I pointed out of the door that the others had left through and turned to Bryony, raising an eyebrow to silently ask, ‘should I go?’
“Be my guest,” she smirked, darkly. I didn’t like that expression one bit. I took my plate over to the sink and hurried out of the door, looking back over my shoulder just in time to see Bryony tracking me with her eyes, like a cat watching a bird.
I was out on a cobble street and taken aback by how different the design of the town was compared to the high street on the main island. It looked like old movies about London, I half expected an old man to toss me a large coin after shouting, ‘You there, what day is this?’ and demanding I bring him a Christmas turkey. That was a ‘Christmas Carol’ reference that I knew Kate would have appreciated.
I passed people in the street that all seemed totally bewildered by my presence, staring and whispering to each other as I followed the sounds of music and laughter. I really hadn’t ever acknowledged May Day before, so it was weird to see how many people in Hallow Haven celebrated it. I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me into a doorway, my feet struggling to keep me upright as I stumbled.
Before I could even get a look around, I heard a door close behind me and I realized I was inside another building, now nose to nose with a total stranger.
“Are you Sadie Alden? Is it really you?” the stranger asked. She was a young woman, early twenties with glacial blue eyes and milky skin. She was so close to me that I could see her eyelashes clumped together in the way that they do when they get wet, had she been crying?
“Yeah. I’m not really in the mood to be kidnapped today, I’ve had a rough twenty-four hours,” I said, smiling at her and hoping I wasn’t in a dangerous situation.
“S-sorry for dragging you like that, I just heard that you were here, and I was hoping to speak to you. My name is Fleur, and my sister is missing. I know that you are the head of the witch police, or whatever you call it,” she said.
“Peacekeeper, but what you said also kinda works,” I replied.
“Well, I was hoping that you could help me find her. You can do that, right? You look for clues and track down the bad guys and put them in jail,” she rambled. What was I supposed to say? That I just sort of tag along when Miller does all those things, but without him I’m just a new witch with no idea what she’s doing. No, if she is dangerous then I shouldn’t get her riled up.
“Start from the beginning,” I said. “What is your sister’s name?”
“Holly. Her name is Holly, and she has been gone for three days,” Fleur said. She had taken a few steps further into the room at this point and slumped into an armchair in the living room, the front door opened right into it. The house was, how do you put it politely? Cozy.
“Have you reported her missing?” I asked. She furrowed her brow at me.
“Yeah, I just told you about it,” she replied, let
ting out a scoff-laugh sound as if it was funny that I didn’t know that.
“Oh, I mean have you told any police officers on the island? Or called the main island and told the sheriff?” I said. Of course, the sheriff had been missing himself for a good while, so maybe Holly had run off with Miller and they were in some secret place hoping to never be found.
“We don’t…” she sighed, pursed her lips and closed her eyes for a moment. She was calculating the right words to use, she needed to carefully omit something. She had secrets; I could tell. “We don’t adhere to the human rules here, so you are really the only one that would be of any use.”
“I see,” I said. Me? There was no training to be the peacekeeper. My cousin Greta got killed and now I had the job, that was it. Kate and Effie had helped me out with some basic magic education, but other than that I was just making it up as I went along. But aren’t we all? “So, you haven’t told anyone else other than me?”
“It’s not like I haven’t tried. My sister is everything to me, I want her to be okay more than anything and no one will hear me out,” she sighed.
“You want me to help you look for her, I can help you,” I offered. I was a sucker for a sad face, that much was clear. Fleur, although a total stranger, looked upset enough that I felt compelled to help. “Do you have a picture of her? We can show it around town and see if—”
“I don’t think anyone can know you’re involved,” she snapped. “I mean, I was told to let it go. My sister is married, that’s pretty rare around here and I’ve just been told to keep my nose out because I don’t understand what being a wife involves.”
“Well, it rarely involves disappearing, or so I’ve been lead to believe,” I smiled. “Why don’t you walk with me to the town square, we can talk on the way and you can show me around. Maybe point out where you last saw her, that sort of thing.”
This seemed to lighten her mood, but only slightly. I didn’t feel as though she was a threat to me anymore, despite having been dragged into her house unannounced.
“Okay,” she agreed. She stood up and walked across the room towards me. “Do you have siblings?” she asked.
“No. Only child, I was adopted actually so I guess there is a chance…” I realized that it was more of a casual question and that she wasn’t looking for an autobiography. “Only child,” I repeated.
“My sister and I drifted apart for a little while, but we were just getting back to how things used to be,” she admitted. Fleur pulled open the front door and we stepped back out onto the cobbles.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Marriage happened. Like I said, it’s a rarity here and I guess it is more time consuming than I gave it credit for. After the ceremony, it was like all of her priorities had changed. Maybe I’m just naive, but I thought we would still get to hang out. I know that she is missing though, I just know it. She has a routine that is pretty much set in stone. She gets fresh pastries on the weekends, she’s first in line at the bakery without fail.
“I set my alarm to wake up so that I could talk to her while she waited, it’s the only chance we get to speak without her husband around. She always seems so happy to see me and I know she was trying to get more time away from the house so that we could see each other more. She wasn’t there though. I went to the house and her husband wouldn’t discuss it.”
That was a red flag.
If I’d thought that people were staring at me before, it was nothing compared to the attention I was getting now that I was walking with Fleur. Everyone was dressed in long dresses with floral detail, their hair often braided elaborately, and each was whispering to the person beside them. No men, weird. I didn’t see a single man all the way from Fleur’s front door to the square where the festivities were beginning.
Fleur didn’t have much to add about her missing sister, or at least she wasn’t willing to talk about it out in the open. All she’d said was that she didn’t know where to start looking, and that the last place she’d seen Holly was visiting a dressmaker’s, it’s just off the square.
I couldn’t gauge how large the island was, but it seemed to have a denser central area than the main island. Everything here was crammed together as if they didn’t have a lot of space. I could see flowers hanging above store windows and a small stage had been built but was currently empty.
“All this for May Day, huh?” I said, looking around.
“There is also a wedding this week, tomorrow actually,” Fleur replied.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, well they are rare events but when they do happen it’s a huge deal. There aren’t a whole lot of eligible bachelors around here, but we just got ourselves a new one not too long ago and he’s been matched!” Fleur seemed surprised by how exciting she found it all, and quickly composed herself. “There’s the lucky groom-to-be! Right over there!”
I looked in the direction that she was pointing and had to muster every ounce of strength in my body to stop myself from dropping to the ground.
She was pointing at Miller.
8
I felt as if the sky was falling down on top of me. He was here, standing on the other side of the square only a few dozen feet away from me. My memory of his face hadn’t done him justice. When he had disappeared, my mind struggled to conjure him. I wanted to hold onto the image of him stepping closer to kiss me, the smell of his skin… it was all so distant now.
“Are you okay?” Fleur asked. Did she want the real answer? The real answer was that if I opened my mouth to speak, I might scream loud enough to shatter glass. The real answer was that I was watching a man, my man, standing beside a woman that I had to assume was his fiancé, and my heart was thumping violently in my chest in protest.
How could he be getting married tomorrow? What on earth had happened since I’d last seen him that could have led to this? Had he been engaged already? I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, because the last time I’d suspected he was cheating on me was when I’d found a woman in his house, but she turned out to be his supervisor, or whatever you want to call it, from The Bureau.
Of course, Fleur had just told me that he was getting married, so it was hard to misinterpret that.
He met my gaze. The thumping in my chest stopped, just for a moment, and everything was quiet. I couldn’t even hear the laughter of the women around me now, all I could hear was the gentle movement of the air around my head. Was I about to faint? He looked pained and began to walk towards me.
“I need to leave,” I said to Fleur, staggering backwards and trying to make my way through the crowd.
“Sadie, the festival is about to begin, you should stay and… you look pale, are you sick?” she called out. I was putting distance between us, that’s all I had the ability to do. Fleur started to follow me, and I turned to face the direction I was walking, apologizing as I wormed my way back to the cobbled street that I’d walked down earlier.
If I had to swim away from here, I would do it. My legs just needed to hold out until I got to the beach, let me collapse down on the sand and give in to tears for a minute or two, then get into that water and swim home.
Was I crying? The noise I had blocked out was becoming an almost shrill whistling sound, like I’d turned a TV to a station that didn’t exist. Couldn’t witches fly? Wasn’t that the whole point? I should find a discarded broomstick and get as far away from this island as I could.
“Sadie!” Miller shouted. My legs stopped moving, as if I wasn’t in charge of my body anymore. The street was empty, everyone was in the square and the two of us were alone, or at least I thought we were. I turned to face him, terrified of what I would feel when I saw his face again, only to see Fleur jogging up behind him.
“You guys move fast!” she panted. “What’s going on?”
“I need to speak to her. Alone,” Miller snarled.
“You can’t be alone with her, you’re getting married tomorrow,” she explained.
“Give me this,” he said. “I am beg
ging you, let me speak to Sadie. You can keep us in eyesight if it would make you feel better.”
“You have five minutes, but I’ll be right up there,” she said, eyeing us both. What did she think we were going to do in the middle of a street? I watched her retreat and braced myself. Miller turned back to me and he looked as wounded as I felt.
“Sadie, what are you doing here?” he asked.
“That’s what you’re opening with?” I exclaimed. “Are you mad that you got caught? You left me! You walked away in a huff because, what, you think Ryder and I are doing something behind your back? Well, you sure showed me.”
“It’s not what it looks like,” he said, stepping closer. I stepped back to prevent him from closing the gap. “Sadie, you need to hear me out.”
“I don’t need to do anything. You’re getting married tomorrow, right?” I asked. Please say no.
“Right,” he replied. A tear fell from my right eye and rolled slowly down my cheek. I thought I would have been bawling by now, but the full force of this hadn’t hit me yet. “But—”
“Congratulations,” I managed, cutting him off and turning to walk away. I heard hurried feet as he ran toward me, hurrying in front of me to block my path.
“It’s not what you think, I promise you. I can’t talk here, but I need to speak to you. Have you met the healer yet?” he asked. I shook my head.
“They were supposed to come and check me over this morning, but I came out here instead. I must have missed them,” I said, flatly.
“I will send her to you. Go back to wherever she was supposed to meet you and wait. Tell them you’re sick or something, just stay out of sight.”
“Is this real?” I said, looking him straight in the eye and seeing that he was on the brink of tears also.
“Go back and wait. Trust me,” he said. At that, he began to hurry back up the cobbles toward the square and I was left alone, or as alone as you can be under the gaze of a woman you met half an hour ago.