Freaky Witches (A Mystic Caravan Mystery Book 7)

by Amanda M. Lee

  “It was definitely wise.” Landon stroked his hand down the back of Bay’s hair to get her attention. It was a simple and sweet gesture that almost made me smile. He gave her a quick kiss when she turned to him, and then lowered his voice. He thought he was speaking so quietly I couldn’t hear him, but I had other ways to listen.

  “I want you to be careful, Bay,” he whispered. “I know you trust these people, but we don’t know enough about them for me to risk your life, so ... I think you should come back with me.”

  Bay’s lips quirked as she met my gaze. She knew I could hear him, which was mildly fascinating. “I think I’m going to stay with Raven and Poet for a bit. You said you needed to know what the original symbol means. Now we have more symbols. I’m going to make that my primary focus for the day.”

  He sighed, his hand remaining firm on the back of her head. “Bay ... .”

  “They’re not going to hurt me.” She didn’t bother to whisper. “They think you’re funny, though. I’m sure we’ll have a great time talking about you behind your back once you leave.”

  “Definitely,” I agreed, bobbing my head when Landon slid his gaze to me. He looked tortured at the prospect of being separated from Bay. “I’m dying to hear about the bacon costume you want her to wear.”

  Raven barked out a laugh. “I’m more interested in having her describe what you look like naked,” she drawled, amusement rolling off her in waves. “Either way, we’ll find something to entertain ourselves.”

  Landon didn’t look thrilled at the prospect. “Thistle, maybe you should stay with Bay.”

  “Who’s going to show you the girls when we get back in town if I stay here?” Thistle challenged. “Besides ... Bay is perfectly fine. They don’t want to hurt her. They are, however, having a grand time messing with you.”

  “I figured that out myself,” Landon said dryly, rolling his eyes. “Fine.” He exhaled heavily, resigned. “We’re heading back to town. I expect answers on these runes, Bay.” He directed the statement to his girlfriend, but kept his eyes on me. “If something happens to her ... ,” he trailed off.

  “Nothing is going to happen to her.” I considered messing with him further but I could read the worry in his head and recognized that wasn’t fair. It would be no different if someone messed with Kade regarding me, and that wouldn’t exactly be a happy affair. “I promise.”

  Landon sighed before tapping Bay’s chin to get her to look up. He gave her a quick kiss before stepping away from the trees. “I’m not going to pretend this situation isn’t weird,” he said after a beat. “I don’t fully understand what’s going on here, and I’m pretty sure that’s by design. It won’t matter if something happens to her.”

  “Nothing will happen to her.” I meant it. “We’re going to work together to figure out the meaning of the runes. That’s all that’s happening here.”

  “And we’ll probably talk about your butt,” Raven added, earning a scowl for her efforts.

  “Call me when you get back to the office, Bay,” Landon instructed.

  “I will.”

  Thistle lingered for a few seconds after Landon and Terry disappeared into the trees, sharing a weighted glance with Bay before disappearing with the others. She was needed in town. That left Bay outnumbered by Raven and me, but she didn’t look worried about the shifting power structure.

  “Have you ever seen runes like this?” she asked, pointing toward what most people would assume was chicken scratch.

  “No.” I moved closer to her and hunkered down to stare at the rune. “It’s interesting. I feel as if I should recognize it, but I don’t.” I cast a glance over my shoulder and found Raven staring at a different tree. “You’re old,” I reminded her. “Do you recognize the runes?”

  “Not offhand, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never seen them,” Raven replied, tilting her head to the side so her silver hair spilled over her shoulder in soft waves. “Look at the top of the trees. There are eyes carved into them.”

  “Eyes?” I made a face as I lifted my chin to stare in the direction she indicated. Sure enough, higher up, there was a huge eye carved into the tree. It seemed to be staring directly at me, and was surrounded by a triangle. “I’ve never seen that symbol before.”

  “Me either,” Bay said, her expression grim. “It kind of reminds me of the symbol of rebirth.”

  That was an interesting observation. “It does,” I agreed. “Usually there’s another triangle inside of the triangle for rebirth, though.”

  “Yeah.” Bay appeared lost in thought as she circled. “There’s another one up there.” She pointed. “And up there.”

  “There’s a fourth over here,” Raven noted.

  We circled the clearing three more times to make sure we caught them all.

  “Four,” I noted, my mind busy. “There are four eyes at regular intervals. I doubt that’s a coincidence.”

  “It’s the four corners,” Bay announced as she thoughtfully tapped her chin. “Earth. Air. Fire. Water. North. South. East. West. Witchcraft is often practiced in fours.”

  “I thought it was threes,” Raven challenged.

  “It can be done in threes. We do it in multitudes of threes sometimes. We’re more powerful when calling to the four corners.”

  Intrigued, I leaned forward. “How does it work?”

  “North is earth,” Bay replied. “It’s always earth. The others shift. East can be air or fire. South can be fire or air. West is always water. It’s the middle two that can shift. If you practice your craft often, you tend to pick one route and stick with it.”

  “What’s your route?”

  “East is air, south is fire,” Bay answered automatically, her eyes going back to the runes on the trees. “I feel as if I should recognize these.”

  She wasn’t the only one. “Do you use runes a lot?”

  She shook her blond head. “Rarely. We’re more into charms, curses, potions and spells. Runes are more archaic.”

  “You look worried,” Raven pointed out.

  “I’m worried that someone is determined to make Darren’s death seem ritual in origin,” Bay said. “I don’t think that’s ever a good thing.”

  I could agree with her there. “So ... what do you suggest we do?”

  “Find out the meanings of the other runes,” she answered simply. “There’s meaning to the drawings themselves, and meaning to the order. I’m sure of it.”

  I tugged my phone from my pocket and started snapping photographs. “I’m guessing we’ll need these for our research.”

  Bay smiled. “Does that mean we’re researching together?”

  “Even though your boyfriend will probably hate it, I think we’ll move faster if we share knowledge.”

  “I agree.” Bay was relaxed when she fell into step with me for the walk back to the fairgrounds. “You don’t have to worry about Landon,” she offered after a moment, calm. “He’s mostly talk. He’s a worrier by nature, and he doesn’t fully understand our world.”

  That was something we had in common. “Kade is the same way, but he’s keen to learn.” That was mostly true ... other than the fear he was constantly living with, of course. “How did you and Landon hook up?”

  “It was on a case,” she replied, her lips curving at the memory. “He was undercover with a bunch of meth-selling bikers. I thought he was a jerk. He thought there was a chance I was a murderer because he kept catching me sneaking into a corn maze so I could investigate after a dead body was found strung up in the center of things.”

  “It sounds like a match made in heaven,” I teased.

  “We worked things out.” She was serene as we picked our way through the dense foliage. “We have a bit of a problem,” she said after a moment. “By ‘we,’ I mean your group and my group as a whole. You don’t fully trust us, and we don’t fully trust you. It’s going to make for strange bedfellows.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t see a way around that, do you?”

  She shook her
head. “Aunt Tillie senses your power.”

  “I sensed her power, too.”

  “She’s ... the suspicious sort.” Bay snickered to herself, clearly enjoying whatever thought flitted through her mind. “She’s not a bad person, mind you. She’s merely set in her ways.”

  “Anyone worth their salt is set in their ways,” Raven said as we escaped the trees. “I have work to do at the House of Mirrors. I’m assuming you can do your rune research without me.”

  I nodded. “Thanks for serving as backup earlier.”

  “We served as backup for each other,” Raven said, her eyes sliding to Bay. “You’re not going to attack Poet, are you?”

  Bay snickered. “I’m not. You don’t have to worry about your friend.”

  “Oh, she’s not my friend.” Raven was calm. “She drives me crazy. I simply don’t want her to die. She’s part of our foursome.”

  Bay pursed her lips, suddenly intrigued. “That’s right. There were four of you erecting the dreamcatcher. You don’t call to the four corners, but you do use magic designed to be issued in fours.”

  I’d never really considered that. “Do you think it’s important?”

  Bay shrugged. “I honestly don’t know,” she said after a beat. “There were four eyes, and I find that interesting. You work magic in fours..”

  “You mostly work in threes, though,” I argued. “It’s you, Clove and Thistle.”

  “Not for the big spells. For the big spells, we add Aunt Tillie into the mix.”

  “So, you work in fours, too.”

  “We do,” she agreed. “I don’t know that it’s important. I do find it interesting.”

  We lapsed into amiable silence for a beat, both of us considering our options. Finally, I was the first to break it. “So ... what do we do?”

  “Find the meaning of the runes. It’s the only thing we can do.”

  “I don’t suppose you have any rune books?”

  “Not really,” she admitted. “Thistle and Clove might.”

  “Before we head over there, I have a few books we might be able to check in my trailer.” I pointed toward the home I shared with Kade. “Come on. We might be able to find something in there.”

  INSTEAD OF COMMENTING ON our limited space, Bay let loose a low whistle as we entered the trailer.

  “This is kind of nice, huh?”

  I smiled at her reaction. “It’s probably not as nice as your house, but it’s home to us. We like it.”

  “I live in the guesthouse on my mother’s property,” Bay explained. “Clove, Thistle and I used to live together, but we’ve been changing up living arrangements of late.”

  That sounded intriguing. “Why?”

  “Clove is getting married and moved in with her fiancé. They live in a lighthouse.”

  I’d seen glimpses of the lighthouse through the trees when we’d arrived. “I’ve always thought it would be cool to live in a lighthouse.”

  Bay chuckled. “Me, too. Clove has worked hard to fix up the Dandridge with Sam — he’s her fiancé — and it’s a lovely space.”

  “And she’s not far from you,” I pointed out. “You’re still in the same town.”

  “We are,” she nodded.

  “What about Thistle?” I found I was curious about their family dynamics. I couldn’t help myself. They seemed extremely attached to one another, something I wasn’t used to when it came to a genetically linked family. I loved the family of my choosing, but she loved the family she was born into. They were different worlds, and yet seemingly similar.

  “Thistle lives with her boyfriend Marcus. He converted one of the downtown barns into a house. It’s ... great. I wouldn’t have thought a barn could be that great. It’s perfect, and Thistle is a nonconformist, so she works well with the odd space.”

  I thought back to the first day we landed in town, to when we saw Thistle crossing the street and entering the stables. Now it made sense. “So ... you live by yourself now,” I mused. “Is that considered a weakening of your power base?”

  “I live with Landon,” she corrected. “He moved in with me when the others left. It’s been a learning experience.”

  “How is it that he can be stationed in such a small town? I would think the FBI wouldn’t allow that.”

  “They didn’t at the beginning,” Bay agreed as she accepted the book I handed her and started flipping through it. “He commuted for more than a year, and then earned a promotion that allowed him to make demands on where we lived. I would’ve moved to Traverse City if it came to it, but he didn’t want that.”

  “Because he loves your family as much as you do,” I surmised, thoughtful. “You live in a family that’s made up of people you were born to and others who you chose. I don’t like to think about the family I was born into because it’s painful. I love the family I chose, though.”

  “I guess I never really thought about it,” Bay mused. “You’re constantly on the road. I’m guessing that means most of the people in your unit don’t have a home base.”

  “No,” I agreed. “We’ve made our home together. You were born into your family, and yet you add on to it. Landon ... Terry. They are your family.”

  “They are.” Bay smiled. “I would miss them more than some of my actual blood relatives.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, well, Tillie is clearly an acquired taste.”

  “That’s putting it mildly.” Bay’s eyes moved to the next page in the book before stilling. “Huh. Look at this.”

  Conversation of family fell by the wayside as I leaned over to stare at the symbols. “Those were on the trees,” I said excitedly.

  “I know.” Bay read the block of text beneath the symbols. “Gnomes. Sylphs. Salamanders. Undines.”

  I ran the words through my head. “Sylphs are butterflies.”

  She nodded. “You know your stuff.”

  “You’d be surprised the weird things I have to know in this world. How else would I know what undines are?”

  “They’re water nymphs,” Bay said. “I know it, too. I’ve never seen one in person or anything, but I know what they are.”

  My eyes automatically traveled to the window, which faced the food area. There, Nixie and Naida chatted to themselves, seemingly without a care in the world. “Do you think water nymphs are important to what we’re facing?”

  Bay shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m more interested in the fact that we have another foursome attached to the corners.”

  I jerked up my head, surprised. “What do you mean?”

  “Gnomes are for earth. Sylphs for air. Salamanders for fire.”

  “Undines for water,” I finished, realization washing over me. “I’m starting to think you’re right about this four corners business.”

  “In the immortal words of Aunt Tillie, I’m always right.”

  “What does it mean? Why is it important?”

  “That, I can’t answer.” Bay dragged a hand through her flaxen hair. “I don’t know why it’s happening now, or why. I don’t know who is doing it. All I can say with absolute certainty is that we’re dealing with someone — or multiple someones — who plan on utilizing the four corners. That’s all I know.”

  “That is ... not a lot to go on.”

  Her smile was rueful. “You’re telling me.”

  13

  Thirteen

  Bay stayed through lunch, and she seemed to enjoy herself. Nellie was in full “I’m going to make you laugh or else” mode, and he was keen to ask her questions about Tillie.

  “Is she single?”

  If Bay found the question odd she didn’t show it. “She has a beau of sorts, although he’s extremely intermittent. She only goes to him when she has a particularly annoying task she’s about to embark on and knows the rest of us will shoot her down if she tries to include us.”

  Never one to be dissuaded, Nellie kept peppering her with questions.

  “I heard she was married,” he pressed. “She didn’t have any c
hildren of her own?”

  Bay shook her head. “She helped raise my mother and aunts. I think she was fine with that. In the end, she had to take them full time ... although Marnie and Mom were mostly grown. She likes to boss people around and was fine being the favorite aunt.”

  “You spent a lot of time with her as kids, right?” I popped a fresh blueberry in my mouth as Kade settled next to me. He seemed intrigued by Bay’s presence, but he was the protective sort and wanted to make sure he served as a barrier should she try to attack. I didn’t foresee that happening, but Kade wasn’t the type to lower his guard until he was absolutely sure.

  “We did.” Bay smiled as she forked a chunk of watermelon. “She enjoyed making us her sidekicks. I used to think my mother was nuts letting that woman be in charge, but now I see there was a method to her madness.”

  “And what was the method?” Raven asked.

  “We didn’t always play well with others,” Bay explained. “We were unusually close to one another, but that turned off many kids our age. We were ... targets, I guess would be the right word. Aunt Tillie taught us how to deal with our enemies and stand up for ourselves.”

  “She sounds awesome,” Luke noted, adopting a far-off expression. “My grandmother was a mean old biddy who threatened me with silver bullets whenever I got into her knitting stuff. It sounds much more fun to have an Aunt Tillie.”

  Bay made an odd face at the mention of “silver bullets” but didn’t comment. She was clearly figuring out the dynamics of our group — and quickly — but she wasn’t interested in forcing us to reveal our secrets. I liked that about her.

  “Aunt Tillie was ... a force to be reckoned with,” Bay said. “It’s hard to explain. For a time, I believed she didn’t like us all that much because she was always complaining about having us with her. Now I realize that was simply her way. She likes to talk tough, but she’s got a heart in there, buried deep down inside.”

  “You love her,” I noted, smiling. “She’s a pain in your backside, but you love her.”

  “I love her,” Bay agreed. “That doesn’t mean I’m not looking for the occasional circus to adopt her.”