Chapter 24
Cosmo greeted me with flattering enthusiasm. “Did you miss me so much?” I asked when he stood up on his hind legs to ask for cuddles. I picked him up and cradled him to my chest.
“I’m not averse to spending more time with you,” he conceded.
“Thank you.”
“But also, I felt a ripple when you came through the door.”
I waited for him to explain further. Nothing came.
“A ripple?” I asked finally and lowered him to the ground.
“It’s a signal you’ve interfered with electricity.”
“Sorry. I had no choice.” One of the first things he’d drilled into me was the idea that witchcraft and modern technology didn’t mix too well.
That’s why I didn’t have a microwave and all the utensils I used for our special baking had to be washed by hand instead of in the dishwasher.
I’d come to accept it as a kind of invisible pollution clogging the arteries of magic.
“You did well. There are occasions when rules have to be relaxed. Plus, you passed that threshold with flying colors. Your education is progressing at a satisfactory pace, in every way.” He treated me to a slow blink.
“I hope you’re right, because tonight I could do with all the magic I can come up with.
” I brought him up to speed while I hung up a closed sign.
As reliable and trustworthy as Ms. Vine was, I’d rather not have anyone around when I was busy in the lair.
The idea of having to explain a sudden appearance or a moving bookcase was too much to even contemplate.
I used the secret lever and stepped inside the hidden room with Cosmo. Once the door had swung shut behind us, I took out Candice’s letter and put it on the table. While I unlocked the cabinet with the spellbooks, Cosmo jumped up and touched the envelope. “You need to take this along.”
“Why?” I peered into the cabinet and my breath caught in my chest. A glow formed in the dark, settling on the spine of a spellbook up to now invisible to me. Cosmo’s ripple theory had been spot on. I’d reached a new stage in my evolution.
Carefully, I grasped it and pulled it out. My fingers twitched. I let my instincts guide me and added the first spellbook as well. It included the earliest spells I’d mastered, ones I thought I knew by heart. Maybe I didn’t after all, if my instincts were correct.
Cosmo still hadn’t answered my question. Whoever had come up with the “All will be revealed” in books obviously hadn’t had to deal with a familiar.
I settled in my chair, took the new book, and opened it. Glowing shapes rose from the otherwise blank page. They danced in the air, until they sank onto the paper and formed distinct shapes and words.
I was watching with rising excitement as I identified birch twigs, ash trees, and willows. Combined they stood for something I already had in my possession – a broom.
I almost overlooked a tiny flower flickering on the bottom of the page. “Can you say what this is?” I asked Cosmo.
He left the table with the envelope and settled on my armrest. He sighed as he scanned the page. “I’m a cat, not a gardener. That’s what you’ve got your coven for.”
“Are you talking about Ange?” As a dedicated Wiccan and nature lover, her knowledge of plants easily rivalled that of the local garden club members. “But she wouldn’t be able to see the spell.”
He flicked his tail. “That’s what paper and pencil have been invented for. Draw a picture and show it to her.”
“I should’ve thought of that solution.”
“You can’t think of everything, especially when you’re tired.”
Now that he mentioned it, I noticed my energy flagging.
“Relax,” Cosmo said, followed by a chirping sound that felt like a warm, soothing hug. “Is that better?”
“Perfect.” I made a mental note to myself to reward him with a bit of raw turkey breast for dinner. Food was a big part of our love language.
“Do you remember the spell?”
I avoided glancing down while I pictured the images and recited the words in my head. “Yes.”
“Good. Now, the other one.”
I changed books and let the other one fall open in my lap.
“It’s a spell that retraces steps.” I had no clue yet why my inner witch had pointed me to this particular bit of magic but like Cosmo’s wisdom, it would eventually become clear.
Unless this was a gentle reminder that even in occultism, practice made perfect and total recall was sadly a myth. At least it was for me.
With the two spells freshly committed to memory, I prepared Cosmo’s meal, flung a pair of pajamas, a flannel dressing gown, and my toiletry bag into a backpack, and grabbed my inherited broom and the letter. If we were lucky, this was the last day I had to neglect my library customers.
Ange picked me up accompanied by her dogs. I ruffled the two heads. “Hello, guys.”
“I thought they’d be useful, if we have to follow a trail into the woods, and Nick is on call again tonight.”
“That’s a good idea.” I added my backpack and the broom to her overnight bag. Harper and Reina were going to travel in their own car.
They were already waiting in the parking lot, complete with hat and wig. Together, in full witches’ coven mode, we went to the two adjoining rooms. “Number 7 was Tim’s,” Harper said.
I unlocked the door. “You go first,” Ange said.
“Shouldn’t we put the luggage in our room, so everything is clear for Bex to do her magic sweep?” Reina asked.
“Good point.” I motioned to Harper to unlock the other door and stepped inside, waiting for any kind of reaction. Nothing happened. Room 8 held no definite trace of Tim.
We piled our bags on one of the two queen-size beds. Mrs. Miniver and Mr. Chips snuggled up on the dog blanket Ange put down for them.
I spotted a spiderweb hanging from the ceiling, but the room was spacious, the mattresses were firm, and while this wasn’t the Ritz, it could easily compete with a three-star hotel. Maybe Tim had lowered his standards enough to entertain a lady friend here after all.
“Aren’t you going to pull any rabbits out of your hat?” Ange pulled off her witch hat and twirled it around.
“There’s nothing in this room.”
“Do you want to be alone next door or is there anything we can assist you with?” Reina asked.
I handed Ange my drawing. “Can you identify this plant?” I’d tried my best to capture the fern-like stalks and the flattened cluster of flowerheads that reminded me of tiny daisies.
She glanced at it. “I’d say, it’s Achillea millefiorum.” She noticed our blank expressions. “Common yarrow, for you non-botanists. Why?”
“I might need it for a spell.”
“You might?”
“To the best of my knowledge. We’ll see what comes up when I’m in the room.” I picked up my broom. “Give me a couple of minutes before you follow me.”
“Do you want a soundtrack to cover up any weird chants?” Ange started a playlist on her phone. “Season Of The Witch” filled the room.
I chuckled. “Maybe a little later. You are getting into the spirit of things.”
“And we’re not?” Harper opened her overnight bag and presented a bundle of oak sticks and fresh willow. “If we’re going to unleash our inner witch, we’ll all play the part.” She dived into her bag once more to bring out a copper cauldron. She and Reina danced around it. Ange joined them.
My sleuthing could wait a few more moments, I decided. I grabbed my broomstick, planted it between my legs, and danced with them. Only when the song ended did I stop. “I’ll bang on the wall when you can come over.”
Outside, I peered at the inky sky. The moon and the stars shone with an intensity I’d only experienced once or twice, down by the ocean, far away from the light pollution that even a small town like Willowmere caused.
My chest tightened. No matter how much of a jerk Tim had been, someone had taken his right to walk and breathe under this magnificent sky away from him.
I’d come here with my friends to clear Candice once and for all. Maybe that was the wrong focus. Maybe I should instead aim for exposing the killer, whoever that turned out to be.
The broom felt lighter in my hand as I unlocked the door to unit 7.
I took it as a sign. I’d arrived weighed down by my self-imposed (and my inherited) duty.
It was time I instead embraced the joy and possibilities of my unique position.
Bex Merriweather, ready to unleash her very own season of the witch.
Inside the room, dark blue carpet with light blue swirls showed a few dust bunnies in one corner. The air smelled fresh.
I took a chair and put it in the center of the room. Then I sat down, with my hands resting lightly on the broomstick, and let my witchy senses loose.
Something rustled. The twigs of the broom bristled and bent slightly, toward the corner with the dust. I rose and inspected it. The spell the book had invited me to refresh popped up in my head, and with it, a faint rectangular imprint, the shape of a briefcase or something similar, became visible.
The twigs bent further, but that was all.
The letter. Cosmo had said all would be revealed.
I took it out and held it in one hand. The other hand, I put on my heart. The connection to Candice that the handwritten message created was so strong, that I saw her with her pen, bending over the paper.
Yet nothing in this room held the slightest trace of her personality. That was good. Now, I needed to do the same psychic investigation for Skye.
I banged against the wall.
A bang from the other side confirmed that my friends had heard me.
I opened the door to wait for them.
Harper held her own improvised besom as she led the way. A few twigs escaped the cord, but I was impressed with both her workmanship and the speed.
Reina entered behind her wife. “Is it okay if we sit?”
“Sure. Where’s Ange?”
“Right here.” She stood in the open door. “I thought I’ll ask you first if I can bring Mrs. Miniver and Mr. Chips inside.”
“Of course, that is, could you take off your cape first?”
Ange appeared taken aback.
“I want to touch your mehndi. If Skye’s been here, I should be able to feel it.”
“Right. The personal touch.” She flung her cape onto the bed.
I traced the henna design on her skin with the tip of my finger until it tingled. I stopped and covered the mehndi with my palm. As with Candice, I saw Skye, wielding her henna brush. I let my senses roam. No; Skye hadn’t been here either.
My broomstick rolled a few inches as Ange rose to fetch the dogs. I stopped her. “That yarrow plant. Does it grow here?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there are patches of it in the woods behind us.”
My skin prickled. “Is it possible for us to go and find it?”
“Tonight?” Ange asked.
“Yes.”
“We’ve got flashlights enough for all of us,” Harper said. “The moonlight should also help, if Ange can identify the plant in the dark?”
“I’m not Bex but any half decent Wiccan can sniff out yarrow like a truffle hound.” Ange wrinkled her nose.