Old-School Witch

by A. A. Albright

  His eyes looked from left to right. ‘Because … because I … I felt guilty again. And also, Roger asked me to start addressing him as Konstantin, Heir of Orlok. He’s not the heir of anything. He was a vampire born to a bank clerk who was turned by a blood inspector. He has about as much power as the Count from Sesame Street.’

  Greg punched the air. ‘That’s who he reminds me of. You like human TV too, Radu – I mean Jack?’

  He nervously wrung his hands. ‘I … yes. Yes I do. I find it very entertaining. Of course I have to watch it in secret, as humans are considered inferior in this household. A lot of things are forbidden in this house. Which is why this job began to seem like it might be much more unbearable than Witchfield. So I decided that it all should come out after all, so I can get some rest in prison.’

  ‘Hey, isn’t Count Orlok a fictional movie character based on Dracula?’ Dylan pointed out.

  Roger shook his head irascibly. ‘He is not fictional. He is …’

  ‘He is fictional,’ I said. ‘He was the vampire in that Nosferatu film. A Dracula rip-off, I think – great movie though. Anyway, I need to ask you both about the ring.’

  ‘What ring?’ The butler’s eyes darted towards his master.

  ‘Ben was wearing a ring,’ I told him, carefully studying his reaction. ‘It was missing from his body.’

  He blinked for a moment, looking almost relieved that I’d not said more about it. ‘Oh. Yes. Yes, well, I stole it. Yes, that’s right, I stole it because I like to keep souvenirs of my crimes.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Dylan. ‘So you’ll be able to show us where it is then?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, it’s in my bedroom upstairs. Honestly. This is the truth I’m telling you. My master had nothing to do with this. If he didn’t tell you it was me in the photo, it’s because he didn’t recognise me. Like I told you, I compelled him to forget. But now I want him to remember. I want everyone to remember. Please, arrest me. Punish me. Take me away from this ridiculous man!’

  ≈

  While the Wayfarers took Jack Burns into custody, Dylan, Greg and I searched his room. As we looked around, I couldn’t help but feel a little depressed. It was just about large enough for a single bed and a small wardrobe. In it there were two spare suits, some underwear, and a red-stoned ring.

  I picked it up in a gloved hand, examining it. ‘What do you think?’ I asked Greg. ‘Norma said Ben’s ring was the colour of your favourite lollipops.’

  ‘Strawberry Chomp-Chomps,’ he said. ‘It’s definitely the same colour. This has to be the ring.’ He moved his scanner over it. ‘Although there’s absolutely no power that I can read. Didn’t Norma say it was an important part of the spell to seal something or other into the school?’

  ‘She did,’ I replied with a sigh. ‘But I’m seeing no magic either. Maybe it’s like the stone. Maybe its magic is hidden somehow. I just wish we could talk to Marnie or Felim so we’d understand exactly what they did at that school. And what they were sealing in.’

  ‘All the same,’ said Dylan. ‘The ring seems to make the pieces of Radu’s – I mean, Jack’s – story fit, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Does it?’ I countered. ‘If he kept it as a souvenir, then where’s his souvenir from Marnie’s murder?’

  ‘I guess you’re right,’ Dylan conceded. ‘But it’s still a pretty solid confession, one I think the judge will buy, too. I just wish his story had implicated Roger. I would love to arrest that annoying little gnat.’

  19. The Witch is Back

  I woke up face down on my bed, with the broom on one side, Fuzz on the other, and a raging headache.

  ‘You look rough,’ said the cat. ‘Must’ve been all that pacing you did last night.’

  I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and stroked his head. ‘I was waiting for Jared to get home. I must have fallen asleep.’

  ‘Well, you fell face first into your pillow and started to snore at about two in the morning, so yeah, I’d say you fell asleep all right,’ said Fuzz. ‘If only you’d held out for five minutes more, and you would have seen Jared. He got back to the Vander Inn right after you began to sound like a chainsaw that needed oil.’

  I sat up, staring at him. ‘You couldn’t have woken me?! Gee, thanks Fuzz. Well, at least he’s home now. I might go wake him up to talk.’

  He jumped down onto the floor, stretching. ‘Not much point. He went out again about an hour ago.’

  I took in a deep breath, reminding myself of how much I loved my furry familiar – even when he was being the most annoying cat in the world. ‘Fine. I suppose you’ll be wanting your breakfast.’

  He smiled up at me. ‘Why yes, my witch. That would be lovely.’

  ≈

  After feeding Fuzz and getting ready for work, I stopped by the shop for some muffins. Norma was standing behind the till, knitting a blue and white jumper with a pair of handcuffs on the front.

  ‘This is for Detective Quinn,’ she told me with a smile. ‘He popped in a few minutes ago to tell me he caught Ben’s and Marnie’s murderer.’ She leaned closer to me, lowering her voice. ‘Of course, he also told me it’s a “special case”.’ She used air quotes. ‘So I won’t be able to go to the trial.’

  I had a sudden, vivid image of Norma sitting in the Wyrd Court, watching the supernatural criminals get sentenced for their crimes. She’d probably knit a scarf for the judge. ‘Well, he’ll be happy he’s getting a sweater.’ I stood back from the counter so she could get a good look at my tulip cardigan. ‘I thought I’d give this one a go. There’s a bit of a chill in the air this morning.’

  ‘You look lovely in it, my dear. And I’ll tell you what else – I’ll be knitting you many, many more sweaters. Sure, Detective Quinn tried his best, but I know he’d never have caught the killer without you.’

  I smiled weakly and paid for my muffins. As I left the shop, I couldn’t help but feel unworthy of Norma’s praise. Sure, Greg and Dylan had confirmed that Jack Burns was the one who’d repaired Greg’s slashed tyres and refilled his fuel tank. He’d even been a perfect match for the prints found at both scenes. But none of that explained where Felim was, or what he and Marnie had sealed into the school all those years ago. Even if we’d caught the murderer, I was far from certain that we’d actually solved the case.

  ‘Ah, Aisling, just the woman I was looking for.’

  I stopped walking, staring at Adeline Albright. She was wearing shorts and a sports bra, and a pair of boxing gloves. She still had her usual two pairs of glasses on, and probably some more in that gym bag she was carrying.

  ‘I guess you’re on the way to training.’

  ‘Back from,’ she said, pulling off her gloves and tossing them into her bag. ‘I’ve a big cage fight tonight, so I had an early session.’

  ‘Oh, we were hoping we’d see you at the hen party.’

  She shook her head. ‘I’ll have to get straight back to Julian afterwards, I’m afraid.’ Julian was Adeline’s familiar, a cat that never seemed to do much except sleep. ‘I just thought I’d pop over before work to tell you what myself and Arthur dug up. He would have come himself, but he’s at a chroniclers’ conference.’

  I pushed open the door of the Daily Riddler and led her to my desk. ‘I’ve lost count of how many of those things I’ve avoided since coming to Riddler’s Edge.’

  ‘I’d advise you to keep on avoiding them.’ She dragged over a chair and stuck a flash drive into my computer, turning it on. ‘I should have been there myself but I made my excuses. Now, thanks to what Norma told you, I think I might finally have figured out what that stone is.’ She took a deep breath, as two pictures appeared on my screen. Both were of large stones, and both of them looked nondescript. One was more of a rounded boulder, the other was a taller pillar-shaped stone. Neither looked much like the one at the school.

  ‘These things don’t look like much – I hadn’t even heard of them until you brought them to my attention. But just like the stone you came across, they’re very powerful. The
y’re known as Seal Stones.’

  By now, Grace and Greg had heard us talking and had come to stand near my desk. ‘What Norma told you was quite accurate, actually,’ said Adeline. ‘The stone is used to seal a person in – or their essence, anyway. It’s used to stop witches from rising from the dead and gaining immortality.’

  I frowned. ‘Isn’t that more of a zombie issue? Wait … are there zombies?’

  ‘Of course there are zombies, but let’s leave that for another day, shall we? Now, you’re right – witches don’t generally rise from the dead. But there have been cases where particularly powerful and evil witches have planned their own deaths just to get the heat off themselves. And then they’ve come back via a pre-planned resurrection spell, one that will let them live forever, and give them more power than they ever had before. There would have to be a large sacrifice in order to make that kind of dark magic possible, though.’

  ‘A sacrifice?’ Greg was sucking on a lollipop (and it was the colour of the ring’s stone, just as Norma said). ‘A sacrifice like maybe burning down a school filled with innocent children?’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Adeline with a sad nod of her head. ‘Clearly there was someone, here in Riddler’s Edge in the Year of the Walrus, who attempted precisely that spell. They set the school on fire so that they could use the dying children as their sacrifice. They would die, too, but with the aim, obviously, of coming back to life. But whoever performed the Seal Spell stopped the witch’s resurrection from happening.’

  ‘Felim,’ I said. ‘It was Felim Moon, along with Norma’s sister, Marnie.’

  Adeline lifted a brow in interest. ‘That sounds plausible. I’ve checked with Marnie’s coven in Connecticut. She was an incredibly powerful witch. And Felim is an exceptionally powerful wizard, too. The spell they performed is incredibly rare and difficult – as I said, I hadn’t even heard of it myself until now. The use of the stone makes it possible to hide all traces of the spell, even from fae eyes.’

  ‘But why hide it?’ Grace questioned. She was drumming her fingers against her jawline, looking impatient. ‘I mean, seal the evil witch in – that I can understand. That’s all well and good. But they wiped everyone’s memory, too. I mean, even the vampires forgot. Was it really necessary? And even if it were, surely Felim and Marnie didn’t have that sort of power. It’s one thing being powerful, but it’s quite another thing to be powerful enough to wipe the memories of vampires like the Montagues.’

  Adeline shook her head. ‘But you see, the Seal Stone is an OAP. It has truly awesome power, no matter how innocent it looks. It really can hide all traces of past evils. And it needs to, too. All evidence of the spell and the event needs to be wiped from living memory. Because the moment the evil event or person is remembered, the weaker the seal becomes.’

  She wiped her glasses, looking anxious. ‘It’s really very irritating, isn’t it? We don’t know who they were trying to seal in, but they would have had to go through certain steps to make the spell airtight. Everything associated with the person would need to be destroyed. The remains of the sacrificed children would have needed to be destroyed, too.’

  Greg and I looked at one another. ‘There were no remains at the school,’ he said. ‘But there were bits and pieces of school life in every room. Personal items, too. Except …’

  ‘ … except in the room at the top of the tower,’ I finished. ‘There were no clothes, no books, no anything. So whoever lived in that room …’

  ‘… might have been the person they were trying to seal in,’ said Grace. ‘And the yearbook might have been the one, surviving item from the school. The one thing Felim and Marnie overlooked. But would it have been enough to weaken the spell? To start people remembering again?’

  ‘It would,’ said Adeline with certainty. ‘And it did, too, by the sounds of things.’

  ‘But you still haven’t touched upon the ring,’ I pointed out.

  ‘Well, no,’ Adeline admitted. ‘But that’s because the news is so very, very depressing. You see, the stone and the ring work in conjunction. As Norma said, the stone had to be removed by Felim or one of his descendants. That, as we know, has already happened. Once the stone was removed by Mark, that would have freed the essence or the soul of the witch in question. Having the Historical Society there would have been ideal. Lots of able bodies to choose from.’

  ‘So do you think this witch has come back from the dead?’ I pressed. ‘And possessed someone already?’

  ‘I would say so, yes,’ said Adeline. ‘The witch is most definitely back. Because Aisling, you said you could feel no magic from the ring, so that leads me to believe that the witch has managed to find someone – most likely Felim – to go through with the rest of the ritual.’

  She polished her glasses once more. ‘The ring, you see, is known as a Magic Binder. Any power the witch held before death – and any extra power and, of course, immortality, that the sacrifice would have granted – all of that power is in the ring. You would have seen it, felt it – heck, the thing would have had so much power that anyone would have felt it. And if you didn’t feel it, I’m afraid that means that the witch is fully back, with all the power and immortality they ever wanted. Tell me, do you know how Ben came to be wearing the ring in the first place?’

  ‘No idea,’ I replied, unable to hide the hopeless tone in my voice. ‘Norma lied about him finding it in the box of bric-a-brac so that the ring would be in our radar. But how Ben got it? That’s still a mystery. One thing’s for sure – we need to ask the de Balfes a lot more questions. This whole thing kicked off because of a yearbook that was found in their attic, so I’m betting there’s a lot more they have to tell us.’

  ≈

  There might have been a lot more they had to tell us, but unfortunately they had disappeared off the face of the earth.

  ‘I’m beginning to think this might be the one case that even you can’t solve,’ said Greg. ‘No offence.’

  ‘None taken,’ I told him. ‘I think you might be right.’

  We were drinking coffee at my desk, hours after speaking with Adeline. We had only just begun the muffins I’d bought that morning, even though it was almost going-home time.

  The day had been horrendous. Even my father had stepped in to help us. He’d attempted to track the de Balfes and Felim, but to no avail. We’d been to Witchfield, too, where Jack Burns was awaiting his plea hearing. He had not been helpful. He was refusing to speak to anyone, except to assert his guilt, over and over again.

  But he couldn’t be guilty. For one thing, his story was too convenient. And for another, why would a vampire need to perform a sacrifice in order to become immortal? The spell Adeline described was meant for a witch – an extremely evil witch, one who was almost certainly back from the dead.

  Exhausted, I picked up my handbag and stood up. ‘I’ve got a flying lesson,’ I said. ‘And then Nollaig’s hen party. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at the wedding?’

  He gave me a goofy smile. ‘You will do, actually. And while I’m there, I think I might ask Pru to dance. And if that goes well, I might just work myself up to asking her for a date. What do you reckon?’

  I did my best to return his smile. But the truth was, no matter how much Pru might like Greg, she was never going to agree to a date. I had no idea what it was she’d seen in their future, but I knew it wasn’t good. ‘I reckon … I reckon you should play it by ear,’ I said, swinging my bag over my shoulder and leaving the office.

  20. Cackling Hens and Sly Stags

  I was the oldest person at the flying lesson, but I’d half expected that might be the case. Despite the fact that one of the teenage girls looked like a proper little know-it-all, I wound up being the teacher’s pet of the class. Of course, the broom was to blame. It lined up first for every exercise, and made sure I couldn’t fly any faster, or any higher, than Amelia directed.

  All in all, it was a little frustrating. There were barriers in the beginners’ field, meaning I couldn�
��t have flown very high even if the broom hadn’t been such a brown-noser. I had really hoped that having the wind in my hair would give me a moment of clarity and help me solve the mystery. But there wasn’t much of a breeze when I was only a few feet from the ground.

  Despite the disappointing class, I fully planned on returning. And not just because the broom would beat me black and blue otherwise. It was fun to spend time with Amelia. She was unlike any other Albright I’d met so far.

  When I left the flying club, I travelled straight to my room at the Vander Inn to get ready for the party. I’d been to a few hen parties in my life, and they usually involved drinking, clubbing, and some very dubious gifts to the bride. Nollaig’s party was going to be nothing like that. Pru was hosting a casino night at the Vander Inn for her poker-loving mother, and evening dress was essential.

  Once I’d squeezed myself into a long black dress, I didn’t go straight downstairs. I headed for Jared’s room instead, knocking hopefully on the door. When there was no answer, I shot off a quick text message to him:

  Need to talk. I’m at the Vander Inn. Where are you?

  A second later, I heard a buzz in his bedroom. I eased open the door, and saw his phone lying on his neatly made bed. Sighing, I turned on my heels and headed to the party.

  ≈

  I had never been much of a gambler, but tonight I hated it more than ever. We were playing a game of poker, and every time you folded you had to drink a shot or perform a dare. I was not a good poker player. So far I’d chosen to take two dares, and had regretted both immeasurably. I’d been forced to drink coffee with milk and sugar (my personal nightmare combination) for the first dare. The second was far, far worse. I had been dared to text Dylan with the following soppy message: