Muffins, Magic, and Murder

by Jessica Lancaster

  “You’re old,” she said. “New age magic is powerful.”

  I scoffed. “Is that what you’re calling dark magic now?”

  “Whatever. I’ll be here tomorrow for the book, then I’m out of this village forever.”

  Before I could think of anything else to say, she left. I sat on the floor for a moment, resting my back against the cupboard. I knew Marissa and Noelia didn’t see eye-to-eye, but she couldn’t have been the one to do that to her mother, even if the more I thought about it, the more it made sense, only she would’ve benefitted from the book.

  CHAPTER 11

  Once I was home, I noticed the other women already waiting in the drive. They stood around something. I jumped from my car, clutching both books in my arms and my handbag swinging on my shoulder. Their faces turned to me.

  “It’s Laurie,” Allegra said.

  “What happened?” I asked, pushing through to see the ginger cat on the ground staring at them. My heart raced to think something bad happened to the poor cat, but nothing of the sort, she was in high spirits.

  “She was just telling us about what happened the other night,” Allegra continued.

  “As I was saying,” Laurie spoke. “I’ve been outside now for what feels like forever. I narrowly escaped.”

  “Aw,” Tana knelt beside the cat. “I can’t believe you had to go through all of that, if that happened to my Timmy, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  Timmy was a snake, one confined to a large glass snake tank. It was hardly plausible he would have the chance to escape from the tank without someone’s help, one of the reasons I chose a cat as my familiar, and the thought they’d have nine lives, which in experience had proved inaccurate.

  “Did you see who it was?” I asked.

  “It was dark, even for me, black. I remember seeing a pair of red eyes, they looked directly at me, that’s when I ran. I think I scratched them, but I have no idea, it was all too much.”

  Laurie was covered in dirt, not just on her paws, but all over her gorgeous fur. “Well, let’s get you inside then,” I said. I turned to the women around me. “I have some news, Noelia’s back, and she doesn’t seem happy about it either.”

  “She’s back?” Eva said. “I’d be surprised if it wasn’t her who did it, red eyes, kinda says it all doesn’t it.”

  August was already waiting by the front door. He seemed exhausted, panting out of breath, trying to get a handle on why everyone was congregating outside.

  “I stood at the top of the stairs, I wanted to see,” he said.

  “I can see that,” I chuckled. “Laurie’s here.” I let her between my legs to greet August. They’d met before, in passing, whenever Marissa would come over, mainly because of how close she lived, but sometimes cats needed their own playdate.

  We all walked through to the dining room from the kitchen. I placed both books on the table while the others gathered around, including the two cats.

  “Noelia said she only came back for this.” I tapped the cover of Marissa’s book. “But what reason would she have to tears pages from it?”

  “Unless there were more people in on this?” Allegra suggested. “I mean, what if she didn’t work alone.”

  “You guys,” Tana whined. “I don’t think it could’ve been Noelia, the bond between mother and child is strong, how can you think she did it, especially when it’s rightfully hers, she has no reason to destroy it.”

  “Maybe she paid someone,” Eva said. “You never can know, I know I would’ve done some pretty stupid things to get my hands on my mother’s book before her passing.”

  Allegra chuckled. “Your mother was very hard faced.”

  And as for my mother, she didn’t have much of anything, nothing of real substantial value at least. “We need to think of her as a suspect, she was awfully confrontational earlier. She wanted the book so she could leave.”

  “Are you going to give it her?” Allegra asked.

  “I’ll have to,” I said. “It’s rightly hers, and I’m not going to stand in the way of that.”

  Tana nodded her head to me. “It’s the right thing to do.”

  “And as much as I hate to admit it,” Eva said, gnashing her teeth together. “It belongs to her.”

  Allegra stood and clapped her hands. “I think we need to prepare to greet the full moon.” She glanced at her watch, rolling it around on her wrist. “Starts at seven-twenty-two.”

  I nodded. “We need all the help we can get.”

  “I’ll prepare the tea,” Tana said.

  “I’ll grab the crystals from the boot of my car,” Eva added. “I brought extra, because you know we need it.”

  “I’ll head out into the garden,” Allegra said. “Need to spot for the five spokes of the pentagram.”

  The full-moon ceremony was split in two, but both done simultaneously. At the centre of the five-pointed star, our pentagram there was a large bowl full of moon tea, prepared especially by Tana. We would each light a candle, blessing it with the light we needed for guidance during the next four weeks. Once both the moon incantation and the incantation to the goddesses was spoken, we’d drink the blessed tea.

  I prepared candles. One for each. In place of Marissa, our earth sign, Eva collected a lot of amethyst crystals for spirituality and balance.

  It was getting a touch darker, the sky now a hazy greyish-blue colour. We didn’t need the darkness, we needed the full moon to be visible. The five spokes were defined clearly, each adorned with the coordinating colours.

  Allegra the spirit element, stood on a white cloth. “To become perfected,” she said, taking her mark.

  “To keep silent,” Tana said, taking mark on the yellow air symbol cloth.

  The chirp of garden creatures filled the void of Marissa’s “to learn”.

  “To will,” Eva said, taking mark on the red cloth for fire.

  Followed finally by myself. Water. “To dare.”

  We each held one white candle stick, with another at our feet.

  My eyes shifted around the circle, watching nervously as they twitched their sleeves, pulling to see time on their watches. It was coming, right on cue, right above us. The full moon.

  “This evening, we gather as the Cowan Bay witch’s coven,” Allegra commanded loudly. “This evening, we celebrate the birth of the full moon and seek blessings from the goddesses above.” Allegra lit the flame on her candle with the click of her fingers. “In the bright light of the full moon, bless us safety and good health.”

  Tana lit her flame. “In the glow, bring us happiness and wealth.”

  Eva continued, clicking her fingers to spark the flame. “Let great mother moon grace us with power.”

  We paused. It reached where Marissa would chime in. Allegra lit the flame. We hadn’t discussed how it was going to be. “Let—” Allegra started as we followed her. “Let her flow over us, hour after hour.”

  I lit my flame with a snap of my fingers. “May we shine brightly under her protective beacon, and never dim in darkness.”

  We hummed together in harmony. “Blessed be.”

  Usually, we’d feel the embrace, a light warming sensation ripple through us, but there was nothing. We stared at each other, hopelessly lost.

  “For the incantation,” Allegra said.

  One we would all do together, blessing the tea at the centre of the circle.

  Goddess above,

  Goddess below,

  Goddess all around,

  Please let us know.

  Show us the light,

  Show us the love,

  Watch out over us

  From above.

  Keep darkness out,

  Keep darkness at bay,

  We offer ourselves

  As we do when we pray.

  Finalised with, “blessed be.”

  The liquid in the large pot at the centre of the circle emitted a glowing hue. It was a bright warm glow, it seemed something had worked. Around the pot were four cups. We blew
out our flames and helped ourselves to the tea. It was named moon tea by Tana because she would only make it during the full moon when it would be extra potent, but you could make it whenever you liked, that wasn’t an issue. It was just part of our ceremony.

  “Sweet,” I said, sipping the tea.

  They hummed in agreement.

  “Think I added a little too much sugar,” she said. “Or maybe cinnamon.”

  “It doesn’t fill me with you know, that wholesome feeling,” Allegra said.

  Eva tipped back the liquid in her mouth. “Like a tingle,” she said. “Usually, there’s so much more than this.”

  She was right, there was more, it wasn’t just a tingle, there were body shaking vibrations that would take us at our core, it would be a uniting of all five elements coming together in each of us, solidifying the protection.

  Once we were all cleared away. We sat back in the dining room where Marissa’s book laid open flat on the table where the pages had been torn.

  “We need to get the truth out of her,” Allegra said.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Noelia.”

  “Truth potion,” Eva suggestion.

  “I don’t think we should,” Tana said. “The implications, I don’t really approve.”

  I nodded my head slowly. “We need answers, I don’t believe she’s back only for the book, and the last I heard she was all the way up north.”

  “I second that,” Eva said. “We need answers. I repeat, dose her with a potent truth potion and we’ll see what we can get out of her.”

  “She’ll smell it a mile away,” Allegra said.

  I smacked a finger to my lips in thought. “She’s coming by the café in the morning. I could prepare a tea, we could sit down to chat, I’d like to know what she’s been doing anyway.”

  “It could work,” Allegra said with a large grin.

  “I really really don’t think we should be dosing other witches, especially not during the investigation,” Tana expressed. “If we’re caught, it doesn’t look good on us.”

  “We won’t be caught,” I said. “Once we find out she had nothing to do with it I’ll let her leave with the book, she’ll be on the road back home before lunch.”

  While Tana still wasn’t completely convinced over everything that was happening, she went along with it, it was a group decision, and it seemed like the better of two evils; asking her questions and finding out what she knew, or letting her leave and perhaps one of us would be stuck with Marissa’s murder.

  CHAPTER 12

  I set off early again to work the following morning, it was all I could think about during the night. Tana made a small mixture, potent enough to keep any witch telling the truth for a couple of hours at least.

  Sat in my car, I watched the seagulls flock outside the café. It seemed like they were trained to wait and see what food would be brought out to them. I wouldn’t be giving them the pleasure today. I had bigger things to do.

  Before opening the car door, a thunderous crash broke free from the sky above. I kept both books in my lap, stroking the covers in thought as the rain pounded on the window. In the backseat I had a jacket, I used that and wrapped the books inside it. It would keep them dry for the moment.

  With the books bundled up in the jacket against my chest, I swung my handbag around my arm and grabbed my keys, prepared to unlock the café door, even though I knew I could flick my wrist and waltz inside. I took several leaps once I was outside the car, a hop, a skip, and a jump to the café door.

  Rain scattered across my mauve batwing top and denim jeans, thankfully I’d decided not to wear a dress. Inside the café I shook myself and ran my fingers through my hair, noting the distinct change to frizz. My instinct was to rush to the backroom and drop off my things, usually I’d use the first ten minutes to sit with a crystal, but I had a liquid in my bag and I’d have to use it soon or Abi and Ralph would get suspicious.

  Once everything was away and I stored the potion in my front pocket, I straightened my appearance out, pulling the top I wore down slightly to cover the bulge.

  I was already wiping down surfaces and pulling chairs from tables when Ralph arrived. “Early again?” he remarked.

  “Keeping myself busy,” I said.

  Abi walked in afterward. “Oh, Gwen. You’ll tire yourself out being in this early every morning.”

  Smiling to myself, I batted a hand in her direction. “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

  Not long after, Noelia appeared. Abi gasped seeing her walk through the front door wearing a leather jacket and short skirt with ripped fishnet stockings.

  “Noe?” she said in a squeal of excitement.

  Noelia stepped back at the sight of Abi, it made sense, Abi had grown quite a bit and she towered almost everyone in the village. “Yeah.”

  “Sorry to hear about your mum and everything,” Abi said.

  Noelia let out a grunt, staring at me.

  Pressing my hands into my lower back, I straightened myself out. “I have what you’re looking for.”

  “Great,” she said.

  “Let me just grab us some tea and cake,” I said.

  Noelia eyed the case of cakes. “I’ll take the chocolate,” she said. “And I’ll take a coffee.”

  I wasn’t completely sure how it would react with coffee, the caffeine in coffee could counteract with the effects of the serum. “Okay.” I said.

  “Need any help?” Abi asked.

  The bell above the door rang as Ethel walked in alone. “Go see to Ethel.”

  “I’m all alone today,” she called out, untying the rain cap from beneath her chin. “Marge has a stomach flu, but you know I told her I’d take some cake.”

  “I’ll be right with you,” Abi said, leaving my side.

  I didn’t have to worry about Ralph, he’d always do his own thing anyway, never bothered much with watching over my shoulder or asking what needed to be done, he was in his thirties, he didn’t need me looking over his shoulder either.

  The only person looking over my shoulder was me, making sure nobody watched me pour the truth serum into Noelia’s coffee.

  “We’re going into the backroom,” I told Ralph and Abi as I carried a trayful of items, including a slice of cake with truth serum in the frosting. I led the way to the backroom. “I’m not sure you were here when I had this fitted,” I said to Noelia. “This is where I keep everything.”

  Noelia’s eyes lit up with wonder as she saw the room and everything inside. A look I hadn’t seen from her since she was a lot younger. “Nice,” she said.

  I made space for the tray on the table, moving the books still wrapped in my jacket. I gestured to a seat. “Please.”

  “I’m sorry about yesterday,” she said. “Emotions running high, and all that.”

  “It’s fine. We get like that.”

  Noelia sipped her coffee, looking around the room in awe.

  I unwrapped the books from the jacket, placing mine on the pedestal.

  “Is this her book?”

  I nodded. “Yep, I’m glad I got to it before someone else. In the wrong hands, it’s dangerous.”

  “That’s the reason I’m back, I couldn’t have someone else getting their hands on it,” she said. “And I knew my mum, I bet she’s got some powerful secrets buried in here.” She pounded her hand on the cover twice.

  “Is your grandma still alive?” I asked. It was something Marissa never spoke about, she spoke fondly of a father, but never a mother.

  She shrugged. “Nobody knows.” She scooped a finger through the buttercream icing and licked it. “This is delicious.”

  “Thank you, I make them fresh.” I wasn’t sure if it was working or not, so far she’d eaten some cake and drank a little coffee. “So, what have you been up to since leaving?”

  “You know, I was sixteen, I told her I could do my own thing, she didn’t approve, obviously, but I found some cool people, they really helped, still not part of a coven, but group magic is
much better now.”

  “You should join a coven.”

  She laughed. “New age witches aren’t about joining covens, we’re not about forcing a group, no, we’re all about empowering ourselves individually.”

  I hummed. “The last time I remember that happening, witches were being tried and hanged,” I said.

  She chuckled at the thought, although in the past it had been a very real life most witches led to almost certain death. “It’s different now.”

  I waited until Noelia had drank almost half the cup of coffee and devoured most of the cake. If her mother knew I was giving her cake in place of a real breakfast I’d end up with an earful on the practice of parenting, even though I’d never give my son it.

  “I need to ask,” I said, “but did you kill your mother?”

  The smile was wiped clean from Noelia’s lips. “I’m sorry, did I kill my mother? What do you think I am? No, I didn’t, I can’t believe you’d even ask that.”

  “I—I—I’m sorry, but some of the witches were thinking, it’s awfully suspicious you’re here now that your mother is dead.”

  She stood and slammed her fist against the table. “You should know better about familial bonds,” she said. “You were like my auntie, I can’t believe you’d even think that of me.” She scooped the book up into her arm and held it close to her chest.

  “I had to.”

  “Wait, did you put something in the coffee?” she asked, grabbing the cup and eying the liquid inside. “You did!” She threw it against the wall.

  Luckily the room was soundproofed. “Now we can cross you off the list.”

  “I should report you,” she said.

  “I didn’t think you believed in coven magic, how can you report me?”

  “Malpractice, those are the real people who’d string you up and leave you for dead.”

  As much as I didn’t want to think about it, she was right, if the Witches Council found out, they’d have something to say, I was surprised they weren’t here already investigating.