Chapter Eleven
Unfortunately, the strange mishaps didn’t end with the missing signs.
On Saturday, the Moonbeam Hollow Fall Harvest Festival website was somehow hacked, with all images turning to negative.
It freaked a lot of people out – children carving pumpkins and riding waggons looked downright demonic in reversed colours.
Thankfully, the festival committee was able to fix the problem quickly.
But it served as a reminder to Blair that she needed to focus on getting to the bottom of this.
She still didn’t know how Blair, Belinda and Bianca were somehow responsible for all this festival sabotage, or how Luke was supposedly the key to stopping it.
Agatha seemed to think Pine Falls Landing was behind these pranks, but Blair couldn’t see how.
The small town was about an hour north of Moonbeam Hollow, and yes, they were having their first ever fall festival this year, but it didn’t seem anything like Moonbeam Hollow’s.
It was going to be considerably smaller and looked like it was really geared toward kids and trick-or-treating more than anything else.
Blair did a bit of online snooping on Luke Caldwell, and other than the fact that his recent social media posts were all scenic pictures in or near Moonbeam Hollow instead of his usual cityscapes, there was nothing that told Blair what he was hiding about why he was really here.
Blair even did a little search for his mother, but the woman didn’t have much of an online footprint.
Blair did find her listed as a pastry chef at a Toronto hotel, though.
Blair had no choice but to go to the rescheduled town council meeting.
She wasn’t sure she was going to learn anything, but any discussion about the festival sabotage might give Blair some clues.
She wasn’t going to bring Bianca and Belinda this time, though.
She needed to figure this out on her own.
But as soon as Blair walked out of the café toward the town hall, she saw Bianca coming out of the florist across the street. Bianca waved to Blair and immediately jogged over.
‘The chrysanthemums are all dead,’ Bianca said when she reached Blair. Bianca was wearing a short black dress with a long black satin embroidered jacket over it, along with platform boots and her bright hair loose.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know the potted mums that Maggie the florist sells every fall? They’re all dead. They were fine yesterday.’
Great. More problems. ‘Same thing that killed the roses?’ Blair asked.
Bianca shrugged. ‘I’m going to run some tests.’ She held up a plastic bag containing soil and dried orange flowers. They looked like they’d died and dried out weeks ago, not died overnight. ‘Where are you going?’ Bianca asked.
Blair shrugged. ‘Nowhere. Just walking.’
Bianca raised one brow, clearly not believing her sister. ‘Okay. We’ll walk together.’
Crap. But Bianca almost immediately started to talk about some basil seeds someone had sent her from Italy. When they passed the little parkette next to the town hall, Bianca indicated to the large oak tree next to the gazebo – the one everyone in town called the Moonbeam Oak. ‘There’s Belinda.’
Blair sighed. There was no way she was going to avoid her sisters knowing she was going to the meeting. Bianca waved at Belinda, who was reading on the bench under the tree. It was her favourite reading spot when the sun was shining, which it was right now.
Belinda waved, then got up and came toward them. ‘Where are you two going?’
‘Nowhere,’ Blair said, annoyed. Blair suddenly stilled, a thought coming to her.
Was it possible that Bianca and Belinda were knowingly behind the festival sabotage?
Maybe the prophecy was confused when it said three sisters, and really only two of the three witches in town were doing this?
But that was ridiculous. What motive would Bianca and Belinda possibly have for harming the Moonbeam Hollow Fall Harvest Festival?
Or the mayor? Not to mention, neither of them knew magic strong enough to affect someone’s memories.
Their father had dabbled in magic that strong, but after he died, there hadn’t been anyone to teach the sisters.
But Belinda and Bianca were acting so strange tonight. Blair wished that her ability to peek into people’s minds was stronger, then she might be able to figure out what was going on. But usually all Blair could do was unearth a memory about food, and that wasn’t much help now.
There were a lot of people walking into the town hall for the meeting, which was supposed to start in about fifteen minutes. There was no way Blair was going to be able to go inside without her sisters knowing.
‘You going to the meeting?’ Belinda asked.
‘Maybe,’ Blair said.
‘Anyone in particular you want to see there?’ Bianca asked.
Blair raised one questioning brow at her sister. Who did her sisters think she wanted to see at the town meeting?
Bianca grinned. ‘You don’t mind if we join you, do you?’
Blair sighed. ‘Fine. Let’s all go to the town meeting.’
The three of them went inside and took seats in the back again.
They were earlier than they had been last Monday, and a steady stream of people were still coming in, filling up the seats fast. It was clear that a lot of Moonbeam Hollow residents were concerned after what happened at the last meeting.
Blair looked around. Agatha, Raj and Aarushi were standing together near the front, talking to the treasurer.
Melody was here, too, standing with her mother.
Blair couldn’t see Mayor Hazel or Dr. Fairwood.
Gladys came to talk to Belinda about something in the bookstore. Someone sat in the empty chair next to Blair. Luke – she smelled him before she saw him.
This was fine. They were supposedly friends now, thanks to that agreeableness potion. Blair had poured the rest of that bottle down the drain – she’d had no idea agreeableness would be so dangerous.
‘Hi, Blair!’ Luke looked light and pleasant, but not exaggeratedly so.
She hadn’t seen him since she gave him that latte, and it was interesting that his friendliness wasn’t reversed after the potion wore off.
Now Blair might be able to actually get useful information from him.
So long as she was able to focus on anything except his sandalwood scent or his soft skin or his strong muscular forearms.
‘Um, hi, Luke. Surprised to see you here,’ Blair said. Which, for some reason made Bianca snort a laugh next to Blair, before Bianca and Belinda wandered over to the snack table with Gladys.
‘Yeah, well I didn’t get to ask my question about the festival booth on Monday.’ Luke paused, maybe waiting to see if Blair was going to snap at him again for even thinking about launching the bakery at the festival.
But Blair didn’t say anything. Not because she didn’t want to – she was still quite irritated that he was going to take her customers like that, but Blair’s priorities had changed since the last council meeting.
She shouldn’t be fighting for festival customers when the festival itself was hanging on by a thread.
A loud crash startled everyone, Blair included. What the hell was that? It sounded so close, like the ceiling had been cracked in two.
Suddenly, there was chaos. Some people screamed, some ran. Blair looked to the back where her sisters were, but there was too much confusion and commotion, so she couldn’t see them. Her heart was racing. What was happening? Were Belinda and Bianca okay?
‘Everyone, take cover!’ Someone yelled from the front of the room, and Blair suddenly found herself wrapped in strong arms pushing her down to the floor in front of their chairs.
It was Luke. He was completely covering her with his strong body, protecting her. Blair closed her eyes, terrified, but the warmth, the comfort of Luke’s large body surrounding her calmed her breathing.
Luke had her. Everything would be fine.
Blair had no idea what was going on. She didn’t know what that loud noise had been.
She didn’t know if she and her sisters were safe.
All she knew was that being wrapped in Luke’s arms was the most comfortable, the most protected she’d felt in years.
She held on to his strong chest and buried her face into his soft flannel shirt, his familiar and enticing scent calming her better than any tea ever could.
But Blair wasn’t safe. No Briarwood ever really was. ‘My sisters, I need to—’
‘Shhh, they’re fine,’ Luke whispered, rubbing Blair’s back while he cradled her.
‘Belinda and Bianca are under the snack table.’ His voice was low and a little shaky, like he was scared, too.
And the voice was close. So close that it seemed like it was coming from inside her instead of next to her.
She hadn’t been this close to Luke in a long time, but it felt familiar and right.
Had Luke made sure her sisters were okay before or after he covered Blair with his body?
They stayed like that, curled on the floor with Luke’s arms cradling Blair, and her hands clutching his chest for what felt like a long time, but was probably only about five or ten minutes.
The commotion around them had quieted. She heard soft talking and maybe crying.
Blair had never experienced anything like it before – terrified and comforted at the same time.
She focused on nothing but Luke’s heart beating and that sandalwood scent of his.
She had no idea what was going on, but deep down she knew that Luke would keep her safe.
She didn’t have to carry the weight of the world by herself right now.
‘Attention, we ask that everyone go straight home,’ Alex’s shaky voice in the microphone said. ‘The Moonbeam Oak has been hit by lightning. The fire department says it’s safe to go outside, but we ask everyone to please leave the area. No gawking and stay away from the parkette.’
Blair blinked. The tree was hit? Awkwardly, Blair untangled herself from Luke’s grasp.
He looked as shell-shocked as she felt. Was she supposed to thank him now?
Or . . . say anything at all? Why had he covered her like that?
Blair had to get away from the charged air she could feel between their bodies, so she turned to find her sisters.
Bianca and Belinda were crawling out from under the snack table along with about five other people. Everyone was talking loudly, checking each other to see if they were hurt. ‘We need to see the tree,’ Bianca said, clearly shaken.
The three sisters rushed outside, where a crowd was already gathering in the small parkette next to the town hall.
There was a scent in the air – a mix of ozone and earth with a heavy addition of burned wood.
The trunk of the Moonbeam Oak was split in two, and half had fallen on the park bench under it.
The tree was old – apparently it had been planted when Moonbeam Hollow was incorporated a hundred years ago.
It had been a symbol of the strength of their community since the town was created.
It was huge, healthy, and now its thick trunk was severed completely in half.
The town sheriff and fire chief were doing their best to keep people away, telling everyone to go home, but the sight of the tree on the bench was hard to look away from.
There was a light drizzle now – but the clouds weren’t nearly dark enough for thunder or lightning.
Thunder usually happened a few seconds after lightning, but Blair was almost positive she hadn’t heard thunder at all.
Did lightning ever strike without thunder?
Blair looked at her sisters. Bianca’s brow was furrowed, clearly pained to see the tree that had been a part of their lives since birth destroyed.
Bianca had loved that tree for years, since she first discovered her affinity and interest in the plant kingdom.
Belinda looked devastated, too. That bench was one of her favourite reading spots.
She’d been sitting on it less than twenty minutes ago.
She could easily have been under it when the lightning struck. Blair’s fist made a tight ball.
‘Look around,’ Belinda said quietly.
At least a dozen cats were in the parkette. Some licking themselves nonchalantly in the gazebo, some sitting and staring at the tree. More than one was asleep. And none of them looked familiar.
Something magical and dangerous was happening in Moonbeam Hollow. Blair was determined to find out what it was before someone else was affected. Or hurt.