by Zoe Arden
What color cake do you want? What color dress do you want? Pure white or off-white? What sort of flowers? What type of lace?
It was giving me a headache. At least one thing had been settled easily enough—the reception would be at The Mystic Cupcake. I just wished I knew where the wedding would be.
After a half hour, I called Damon's cell. "Hey, it's me. Where are you? I'm at Mack's. Call me."
I hung up, irritated, and sent a text.
WHERE R U? DID U FORGET?
I watched my phone, waiting for some response. When none came, I finished my last cheese stick and paid my bill. Eleanor and Trixie would be wondering where I was if I didn't get back soon. They were suspicious of long lunches, usually because whenever I took one, I was sneaking around spying on people or breaking into places I shouldn't go.
I left a generous tip for Natalie and made my way back toward the center of town. Mack's Bar was on a small hill, and I was glad it was easier going down than going up, especially after three wine spritzers and a basket of cheese sticks.
My phone rang, and I jumped to answer it. "Where are you? I waited forty-five minutes!"
There was a moment of silence and then, "Ava?"
My heart beat out of my chest. "Colt?"
"Yeah. Who'd you think it was?"
I laughed nervously. "Lucy. She stood me up." I figured it was always safest to blame your best friend, because they'd have to back up your lie no matter what. They were your best friend.
"Ohhh," he said as if that explained it. "Well, Lucy's not known for her punctuality."
I bit my lip and said, "Yep. She's kind of a flake sometimes."
I just hoped Lucy didn't kill me later when I told her she was my new alibi. I hated lying. Liars always got caught. "I've gotta go," I said, telling another one. "Eleanor needs me. I'll stop by after work."
"No, go on home. It's supposed to storm tonight, and I don't want you getting caught in it. I'll just see you tomorrow."
We hung up and I said a silent prayer that lightning didn't strike me down. Little lies were no big deal, were they? I bit my bottom lip and pled ignorance to my own question.
* * *
CHAPTER
THREE
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A tiny voice called to me from the foot of my bed. "Mama?"
I opened one eye and looked at Snowball, my fluffy white familiar. She was staring at me with wide green eyes and long lashes. I looked out the window and saw gray sky too dark to detect any clouds even though I was sure they were there. Light rain pelted against the side of the house.
"Hey, Snowy," I said and reached out one hand to stroke her soft fur. Snowball took a step forward then nudged her head over my hand. Her pink, wet nose rubbed over my skin, but her ears were standing upright.
"Something wrong?" I asked her.
Snowy stopped rubbing my hand and looked at me. "Mama was not awake. No one in house is awake."
I screwed my face up. "Well, I'm awake now," I said, not understanding. Snowy didn't normally get nervous when we were sleeping. "It's still early. Come lay down with me." I patted next to my pillow but Snowy shook her head.
"Snowy thinks Mama is late to bakery." She licked one paw and ran it over her head. "Very late."
"Late? No, my alarm hasn't even gone—"
My voice choked in my throat. I looked at the clock on the nightstand. Digital numbers flickered back at me: twelve-oh-oh. I shot out of bed and grabbed my cell off the dresser where it was charging. The battery light was only a tenth of the way full and my phone blinked a message at me—Alarm silenced after ten minutes. I'd either forgotten to turn the volume up last night before going to bed or I'd slept right through it. The actual time stared blankly back at me.
"Crud!" I yelled and ran out of my room, Snowball bouncing at my heels. "Dad! Aunt Trixie!" I yelled, banging on their doors. "Get up! We overslept! It's seven-thirty!"
Doors shot open, and Trixie stared back at me, bleary-eyed. My dad's hair was sticking up all over his head, like it had gotten suctioned with a vacuum and hairsprayed in place.
"What are you talking about?" Trixie asked, rubbing her eyes. "My alarm hasn't gone off."
"The power went out last night. Snowball just woke me up." Trixie blinked uncomprehendingly back at me. I grabbed hold of her shoulders and gave her a gentle shake. "It's seven-thirty!"
My dad finally seemed to grasp the notion. He jolted back into his bedroom and reemerged five minutes later wearing a pair of jeans, an inside-out shirt, and two mismatched socks. Half of his hair had been combed, the other half had resisted his attempts to tame it and stood up all the more out of protest.
Trixie called for her own familiar, a fluffy orange cat named Tootsie. He sauntered quietly forward from his hiding place in the hall closet, yawned, and stretched his back out. "Why didn't you wake me?" she demanded.
Tootsie blinked at her. "You didn't ask Tootsie to."
Trixie let out a groan that made Snowy jump. My cat ran forward, a blur of white, and pounced on Tootsie, eager to exercise some energy.
Trixie looked at me and my dad, her eyelids still drooping but getting better. "Go, if you're ready. Don't wait. I'll be right behind you." She dashed back into her room, muttering under her breath, "Why didn't Eleanor call?"
I thought that was a good question. Why hadn't Aunt Eleanor called? She lived not far from us in a two-story house with her husband, Sheriff Zane Knoxx. She was probably already at the bakery, wondering what had happened to us.
My dad and I beat Trixie to the bakery. When we got there, it was still locked up.
"We're supposed to open in ten minutes," my dad said, looking at his watch as he unlocked the doors and we stepped inside, shaking off the rain.
"I know," I groaned. "Where's Eleanor?" It felt like we'd just entered the Twilight Zone, where nothing was as it seemed. Eleanor was normally the first one here, not the last.
"Maybe her power went out too," my dad said.
"My phone's almost dead. It didn't charge much last night."
"I'll call her. How long was the power out, anyway?"
I shrugged. "No idea. When did it come back on?"
My dad shrugged. "No idea. It's certainly back on now though."
The bakery lights shined brightly as we flicked the switches up. Low humming noises sprang to life, and slowly but surely things began to seem normal again.
My dad picked up the bakery's landline and held it to his ear. The chime over the door jingled just as he pushed the first number. Eleanor came hurrying in.
"Oh, my roses," she said, pushing down the hood from her rain jacket. "It didn't look like that much rain from inside the house."
"What happened to you?" my dad asked, hanging up the phone.
"Our power went out. I had no idea it was so late until Rocky woke me up." Rocky was Eleanor's familiar. I wondered suddenly why my dad didn't have one. It had never occurred to me before, but he was one of the few wizards I'd met since coming to Heavenly Haven almost two years ago who didn't have a familiar.
"Well, remind me to thank Rocky later," my dad said. He shot me a look. "And I'm picking up a can of tuna for Snowball on my way home."
"She'll think you're the bees knees if you do that," I said.
My dad laughed. "Bees knees? That expression's as old as I am."
"Sadie says it a lot. I think it's rubbing off."
My dad smiled. He was glad Sadie and I were getting along so well. She was the first woman he'd dated since my mother's death almost twenty-three years ago. I knew he was planning to propose to her, I just didn't know what he was waiting for.
We set to work, getting the ovens going and the display cases filled. Trixie showed up a few minutes after Eleanor. No one talked, we were too busy for idle chatter. The one good thing about the storm was that it was keeping customers at bay, giving us a chance to catch up. Even the tourists we
ren't coming in. Tourists tended to dislike the rain even more than residents.
I didn't really mind the rain. It hardly ever rained on Heavenly Haven, so it was nice when it did. Rumor had it that the Witch's Council had cast an ancient spell over the place a century ago, ensuring it was always sunny and warm, but not too warm. It was a lot like living on the equator, except we were nowhere near it. Hurricanes never hit us even though we were out in the middle of the ocean. The mainland was about an hour by ferry. It was a great place to live.
Eleanor wiped her hands on her apron. "Well," she said, glancing at the clock on the wall. It ran on batteries so hadn't suffered from the ill-timed blackout. "I guess we're caught up. Now we just need some people to start coming in."
"It can't rain all day," I said. "Not here."
Eleanor tapped her fingers on the counter as we all hovered around waiting.
My dad said, "So, was Sheriff Knoxx late this morning too, then?"
I pictured Sheriff Knoxx puffing out his chest and letting out a roar when he realized he'd overslept. He was part goblin and had a goblin's temper.
"He wasn't late," Eleanor said. "He left for the station hours earlier, around midnight."
"So, the power was still on at midnight?" Trixie asked.
Eleanor nodded. "He woke me up on his way out to let me know he was going."
"I didn't think he did nightshifts," I said. "He says that's what his deputies are for."
Eleanor's eyes suddenly shone with a combination of excitement and anxiety. "Someone else went missing last night."
Her words hung in the air. "Missing?" Trixie squeaked. "That makes three, doesn't it?"
My dad nodded.
"Where are they all disappearing to?" Trixie asked, looking nervously around the bakery as if one of the rainy shadows might jump out and grab hold of her, dragging her off somewhere.
Eleanor said, "Now, now, we don't really know that they're missing. I mean, no one can find them, but that doesn't mean that something's happened to them, it just means that they're gone." She was attempting to be the voice of reason. "The one last night was a tourist. Tourists come and go all the time; we all know that."
"So, what was so special about this tourist?" Trixie asked. "How'd anyone notice a missing tourist anyway? Did they have family with them?"
Eleanor leaned in and spoke almost conspiratorially. "She was traveling alone. Apparently, she's a writer from the mainland and wanted an interesting place to finish her book. She's been staying at the Tabernacle Hotel down on Main Street. Last night, she ordered room service, and when they brought it up to her, no one answered. The manager of the hotel got worried and opened her room up, only no one was there. She was just gone."
"What about her stuff?" I asked.
"Gone, too."
We all looked at each other.
My dad frowned. "She might've just decided to leave town."
"During the storm?" I asked. "There weren't any ferries going out at midnight."
"She could've hired a private boat to take her to the mainland, or maybe she just switched hotels," my dad said.
"That's right," Trixie said, "maybe she wanted to skip out on her bill. She wouldn't be the first tourist to try that, would she?"
"Then why order room service?" I asked, hands on my hips.
No one had an answer for that.
"That's two tourists and one part-time resident," I said. "And they're not all traveling alone. Something funny's going on here."
Eleanor shook her head. "Zane's looking into all those possibilities. For now, let's just assume there's nothing to worry about."
The door chimed just then, and Natalie Vargas stepped inside. The gray sky hadn't lightened at all since we'd arrived.
She shook herself out like a cat who'd just been given a bath, then she looked at us. "Good morning," she said, beaming. "Today's a beautiful day, isn't it? I adore the rain." Since getting the bar, Natalie's day-to-day mood seemed to have gone from bleh to zing!
"Glad someone likes it," Trixie muttered.
Natalie stepped up to the counter, our first customer of the day, and if this storm continued, probably our last.
* * *
CHAPTER
FOUR
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By evening, the storm had ended.
"I'm glad the rain's over," said Trixie. "I was afraid we might have to cancel our appointment."
I glanced up from my phone. I thought I'd heard it buzz and had run to check it, hoping it was Damon. It had just been a test for the emergency broadcast system.
It was killing me not knowing whether Damon was ignoring me on purpose or if something had happened to him. It had been a long time since we'd dated, but that didn't mean I didn't still care about him.
"What appointment?" I asked Trixie.
A sly smile spread across her face and she looked at Eleanor.
Uh oh.
My senses were suddenly on alert. "Trixie... Eleanor… what appointment?" I demanded. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end. I'd begun to trust those hairs. They only stood up like that when there was something fishy going on. I turned to my dad.
"Don't look at me," he said. "I had nothing to do with it."
My throat felt dry. "With what?" I nearly shouted. "Somebody tell me what's going on."
"Oh, all right," said Eleanor, glancing at the clock. "It was supposed to be a surprise, but since I haven't figured out how to get you down there without telling you..." She paused dramatically. I held my breath. "...we booked you an appointment at the Bridal Barista!"
I groaned. "The Bridal Barista?" It was possibly the tackiest bridal shop ever.
If the name wasn't bad enough, the place itself was. It was one of only two bridal shops in Sweetland Cove and smack in the center of town. I walked past it almost every day and had become accustomed to spotting large, poofy gowns with far too many layers that looked as though they must itch.
The Bridal Barista was known for its experimental dresses as well as the more traditional ones. On display in the front window at this very moment stood a rainbow-colored wedding gown made of taffeta. Each ruffle in the skirt was a different color—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The bodice itself was all yellow, but according to the sign in their window that could easily be switched out for whichever color you preferred.
"I'm not ready to try on dresses," I told them. "I haven't even finished with those magazines you gave me yet."
"Too bad," Eleanor said in a sing-song voice. "The appointment's already been made." Her eyes were sparkling. She was wearing a long, gypsy-esque skirt of purple, blue, and green that reminded me of a peacock. Next to Aunt Trixie, however, her choice of clothing appeared sober.
Trixie was dressed in bright pink tights that almost hurt your eyes to look at, a striped zebra skirt, and a matching pink blouse to tie it all together. To top it off, she was wearing a zebra-striped headband with little pink pom-poms jutting out at odd angles.
I rolled my eyes and shot another look at my dad. "Help?" I whispered in a tiny squeak.
He shrugged. "Sorry. Nothing I can do."
"How could you not tell me what they were planning?" I asked him, trying out my "how dare you" look. I'd been working on it for the last few weeks, learning from Eleanor, who was the master of the expression.
My dad's face colored slightly. "Your aunts told me you had to try on dresses, and I had to defer to their judgment on the matter. Without your mother here, I'm lost on these things. Girl stuff." He shook his head as he said the words. "Girl stuff," he repeated and shrugged.
I let out a sigh. My phone let out a loud ring and I jumped for it.
"Hello?" I said without looking at the number.
I listened, scrunching my face together as the voice on the other end droned on.
"No," I finally told them. "I'm not interested in refinancing
my car. Especially since I don't have a car."
I hung up with the telemarketer and started gathering up the extract I'd been fiddling with. I was working on a new potion that was sort of a cross between happiness extract and joyful exuberance. It was a subtle difference, but if I could crack it I was pretty sure we'd have a product that would make people elated without sending them bouncing off the walls. A nice, subtle happiness. That's what I was after.
"What's with you today, anyway?" Trixie asked. "Every time the phone rings, you jump."
I looked up at her. "Do I?"
She nodded. I shrugged and took my extraction equipment into the back room, where I should have been working on it anyway. It was only because we were so slow that I'd taken it out front. I sorted my stuff out on my work counter and when I looked up, Trixie, Eleanor, and my dad were standing staring at me. Eleanor was giving me her look.
Uh oh.
"What?" I asked.
"You didn't answer my question," Trixie said, her arms folded across her chest.
Eleanor said, "There's something you're not telling us."
"No, not really," I said, trying to play it off like it was nothing.
My dad looked at me. He gave me Eleanor's look, and I was surprised to find that he'd copied it perfectly. I cringed under his heavy stare.
"I've just been expecting to hear from an old friend is all, and they haven't called yet. Or texted. Or anything. And I'm just a little bit worried."
All three of them furrowed their brows and looked at each other.
"What friend?" my dad asked.
I bit my bottom lip. "What time is the appointment?"
Eleanor said, "In about a half hour. We ought to leave soon." She paused a moment. "What friend?"
