Chapter 1 #2
Adeline strolled over and wiped down Herschel’s table and glanced through the front window at Tide Street.
The cobblestone street was lined with pastel-painted buildings in soft corals, sea glass greens, and buttery yellows.
The two-story buildings all had wrought-iron balconies with ivy or ferns trailing over them and window boxes bursting with myriad flowers.
Beyond the rooftops, the bay sparkled under the late morning sun, and Adeline could just catch the mast of a shrimp boat rocking at the dock.
Moonlight Bay was a typical seaside town…
filled with supernatural tourists in the summer and over the holidays, but relatively quiet during the other months.
The turnoff for the town from the coastal highway looked like a rutted marsh road with “Private Property” signs posted everywhere.
Human cars with GPSs would glitch. Cell signals would drop.
And humans got an overwhelming urge to turn around and go eat at a nearby Waffle House instead.
But to anyone with supernatural blood or to Normals—supernaturals born into magical families, but for some reason had no magic themselves—the road cleared at a giant live oak dripping with Spanish moss, and the town suddenly appeared.
At eleven o’clock sharp, Emory Ashgrove came breezing through the archway from Moonbeam Coffee and Tea with to-go cups in her hand, her dark curls bouncing in the high ponytail.
“Hot chai with the cinnamon powder steamed in,” Emory said, handing Adeline a cup.
The two girls had been best friends since before kindergarten.
They’d grown up across the street from each other until the tragic death of Adeline’s parents when she was ten.
The minute her parents died, Grandmother Lavinia whisked her away from the only home she’d ever known and moved her into the Beaumont Estate.
Ripping her not only from Emory, but also Emory’s loving parents and Granny Edna, who at that time was living in the basement of Emory’s parents’ home.
Now Granny Edna lived at the assisted-living facility in town.
“You’re an angel,” Adeline said, wrapping her hands around the warm cup.
“I’m a fairy, but I’ll take angel as well,” Emory joked. “So, the protest this afternoon. You ready?”
The marsh on the eastern edge of town was home to a colony of freshwater cephalopods called squish-squids.
They were so ugly, they were cute. About the size of a softball, they had bulbous heads, short tentacles, huge bubble eyes, and colors that ranged from neon pink to electric purple to Kermit-frog green.
The squish-squids purified the water of magical runoff, which made them ecologically essential to the entire town’s magical ecosystem.
And a well-known developer in town wanted to drain part of the marsh to build a new building right where the squish-squids made their home.
And Adeline was not having it!
“Protest signs are in the back,” Adeline said. “Eight protesters have confirmed, and I called Miss Moody at the Moonlight Beacon, so we should get plenty of coverage.” She laughed. “It helps Miss Moody is also driving the protesters to the event.”
Miss Moody, whose real name was Maudette, was the town’s only Uber driver.
Her magical 1956 convertible Isetta was a tiny red-and-white, two-seater microcar that grew in length depending on how many people were in the party she picked up.
Miss Moody also moonlighted as a part-time reporter for the town’s only paper.
“Let’s hope this time the builder actually listens to us.” Adeline took a sip of her chai and waggled her eyebrows at Emory. “I shaved my legs just in case we get arrested, and I have to be strip searched.”
Emory choked on her chai. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!
” She scrunched up her nose. “Besides, that darn cot isn’t comfortable in the least. You’d think the town would do something about that.
” She finished off the last of her drink before tossing the biodegradable cup into the nearest recycle bin.
“Dawnya clocks in at two today, so I’ll come over then, and we’ll head out. ”
Dawnya, a mermaid, was a retired school teacher who loved to stay active by working part-time in both Adeline’s and Emory’s shops. Whoever needed her the most on the days she came in, got her.
“You aren’t leaving me behind,” Princess Muffin Top said as Emory hurried through the archway to go back to her coffee shop. “I want to see you two get arrested.”
Adeline scoffed and took a nibble of the Elderberry Delight she’d been saving behind the register.
“I’m not going to get arrested. I don’t even think the new chief of police has arrived in town yet.
So that leaves Officers Casswell and Dixon on duty.
Cassie Casswell and I have been friends since elementary. She’s never once arrested me.”
“But that Officer Dixon has no problem hauling you in,” Princess Muffin Top pointed out. “He’s done it twice in the two weeks we’ve waited for this new chief to show up.”
Adeline rolled her eyes. “Only because my grandmother insisted on it. Just so she can prove a point.”
The overhead bell chimed, and an elderly fairy with soft gray curls and a smiling, round face stepped inside. Even though her curls were gray, it was easy for Adeline to see her best friend in the older woman’s face.
“Granny Edna.” How many times over the years had Adeline wished this woman was her grandmother...instead of the one she had. Her grandmother constantly had her arrested just because she took up the cause of those who couldn’t speak for themselves! “Here for your usual order?”
“I am. One Happy Hippie Hummingbird Muffin, please.” Granny Edna Ashgrove reached inside her pocket and slid a Werther’s Original across the counter. “Good afternoon, Princess Muffin Top. I hope you are having a lovely day today.”
“I can’t complain,” the Maine Coon said. “Well, I could, but what good would it do me?”
“Have you heard the news?” Granny Edna asked. “Our new police chief, Chief Wolfe, arrived this morning. He’s down at the station now.”
Adeline snorted as she bagged the muffin. “Princess Muffin Top and I were just debating whether or not he was in town yet.”
The previous chief, Hank Dawson—a gargoyle shifter who’d kept the peace in Moonlight Bay for nearly four decades—had retired last month and moved inland to be closer to his daughter and grandkids.
The council hadn’t wanted to promote from within, so they’d opened the position to qualified supernaturals and posted it on the supernatural internet.
Adeline didn’t know much about the new hire, only that he came with a recommendation from PADA, the Paranormal Apprehension and Detention Agency, and that he had family who lived on Enchanted Island.
Granny Edna’s eyes twinkled. “I saw him walking into the station. He’s a cutie.” She winked at Adeline. “And the view of him walking in wasn’t half bad, either.”
Princess Muffin Top snorted and licked her front paw. “Which means he can be anywhere from twenty to two hundred.”
Granny Edna laughed and tucked her muffin into her purse. “You girls be careful out at that protest today. And take a sweater. The marsh gets breezy.”
Adeline watched Granny Edna exit and disappear down Tide Street, stopping twice to hand out candies to people on the sidewalk.
Emory’s grandmother had a way of making everyone in Moonlight Bay feel like they were the most important person in the room.
It was impossible to be angry at her, which, now that Adeline thought about it, was probably her most dangerous quality.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a steady stream of customers while Adeline ducked in and out of the kitchen between orders.
She mixed batter for tomorrow’s Bad-Day Brownies, rolled out Zest-for-Life lemon scones, piped batter for Pucker-Up-and-Pick-Me-Up lemon-elderberry muffins, prepped a fresh batch of Time-Twirl cinnamon roll dough, and hand-shaped two trays of Cocoa-Courage truffles.
Each recipe carried her intent—kitchen magic channeled through butter and flour.
A Bad-Day Brownie didn’t force happiness, it just reminded the customer that happiness was still an option.
Same with the Time-Twirl rolls. They took the customer back in time to a favorite memory.
There was no manipulation involved in her creations.
Adeline had just slid the last of the Time-Twirl batter into the refrigerator and was scrubbing flour from under her nails when Emory came barreling through the archway.
“Let’s go, Adeline!” Emory spotted the stack of protest signs leaning against the wall near the kitchen door and gasped. “Oh, these signs are adorable!”
Adeline dried her hands and hurried out front. She grinned when she saw Emory holding a glittery “SQUISH-SQUIDS HAVE RIGHTS TOO” sign over Princess Muffin Top’s head.
“Remove that sign this instant, Fairy,” Princess Muffin Top snapped. “The glitter is falling onto my beautiful fur. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to remove that stuff?”
Emory quickly lowered the sign. “Sorry, Princess Muffin Top. I got excited. Are we taking the Beetle Bus?”
The Beetle Bus was a neon blue 1970s Volkswagen bus with myriad flowers, peace signs, and Crescent Moon Bakery scrawled across the side in white bubble font.
“We are.” Adeline warded the archway so no one from the coffee shop could walk through, then grabbed the stack of protest signs under one arm before hurrying toward the front door where the Beetle Bus was parked outside along the curb so customers could see.
She warded the bakery from the outside, then tossed the signs in the back of the Beetle. “You have to promise to be on your best behavior, Princess Muffin Top.”
Princess Muffin Top sailed past her and jumped up into the back of the Beetle, her tail flicking menacingly. “I make no such promises, Kitchen Witch.”