Aunt Tillie’s glare was withering. “I’m not jealous. Why would you even say that? It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Amusement flitted across Landon’s handsome features. “Tell me more.”
“Don’t tell him anything.” Aunt Tillie jabbed a finger in my direction. “It has nothing to do with you. You don’t need to stick your long law enforcement nose into this. Just ... stay out of it.”
Landon’s eyes lit with exaggerated merriment. “Oh, something tells me I’m missing part of the story. What’s going on? I want to know what to expect.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Aunt Tillie quashed the urge before I could utter a single word.
“Why do you even care?” she challenged. “No, I seriously want to know. This gathering has nothing to do with you.”
Landon wasn’t about to be dissuaded. “That’s not true.” He used his “practical” tone, which often drove me crazy. I had a feeling that was his aim with Aunt Tillie. “Bay is my girlfriend. She’s a witch. These other witches are coming to town for some ritual. I’m obviously curious about what this entails.”
“It’s a solstice celebration,” I explained. “It basically involves a blessing, a lot of alcohol and a bit of naked dancing.”
“Oh, good,” Landon said dryly. “I don’t see nearly enough naked dancing.”
Aunt Tillie rolled her eyes. “Such a pervert.”
While stroking Peg’s head, Landon looked back at me. “Give me the rundown on these witches. I don’t need the nitty-gritty, but I want to know why Aunt Tillie has her nose out of joint. If there’s going to be a problem, I want to be prepared.”
“There won’t be a problem,” Aunt Tillie insisted. “I have everything under control.”
Those were empty words, but Aunt Tillie would never admit it. “Most of the witches are fine,” I volunteered. “They’re earth witches who spend all their time cooking and gardening.”
“Like your mother and aunts.”
I nodded. “When it comes to coven work, very few witches are as powerful as us,” I continued. “We’re something of anomalies in the paranormal world. That means we’re often revered ... and sometimes feared. The only witch who does neither is Hazel Weller.”
“Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.” Landon rubbed his hands together before grabbing Peg around the waist and transporting her to his lap. The pig was in absolute ecstasy as he petted her. “Who is Hazel Weller?”
“She’s a nobody,” Aunt Tillie automatically responded. “If there was a witch hierarchy — which there’s not — she would be on the last rung. She’s a bottom feeder.”
“Tell me how you really feel.”
“I just did.”
Landon stared at Aunt Tillie for a long beat before switching his gaze to me. “What’s the deal with Hazel Weller?”
“She’s stronger than the other witches,” I explained. “She’s not an earth witch. In fact, she’s a fire witch, which makes her stronger than us.”
Landon didn’t look convinced. “I don’t believe that’s possible. You guys are the strongest.”
“See.” Aunt Tillie preened. “He’s smarter than he looks, and we’ve trained him well.”
“Perhaps ‘stronger’ wasn’t the correct word,” I hedged, shrinking under the weight of Aunt Tillie’s glare. “Fire witches are rare, especially in this area. We get more earth witches and air witches in these parts.”
“Which are you?” Landon looked genuinely curious. “I thought you were a necromancer.”
“I am. That’s an entirely different thing. It doesn’t play into my elemental magic.”
Landon dragged a hand through his dark hair, confusion evident. “I’m not sure I understand.”
I couldn’t blame him. When it came to magic, I’d fallen down on the job explaining things to him.
“Necromancy isn’t an elemental power,” I started. “I’m mostly an air witch with a touch of water and fire.”
“You just said fire witches were rare.”
“True fire witches are very rare. Hazel is a fire witch and nothing else. It’s ... odd.”
“It’s evil,” Aunt Tillie corrected, stirring. “Every witch who has ever gone evil has been a fire witch. It’s like being a Slytherin.”
Landon’s lips quirked. “I see.”
“That’s not true,” I protested, pinning Aunt Tillie with a quelling look. “Don’t tell him that. I don’t want him to fear fire witches. We have some fire in our lineage.”
“I will never be frightened of you,” Landon promised. “Frightened for you is a different story, but we’ve decided to table that discussion for the remainder of the evening. I want to know more about this specific fire witch.”
“There’s nothing wrong with her,” I offered hurriedly. The last thing I wanted was Aunt Tillie riling up Landon. He rarely fell for her shtick, but there were times he lost his head and embraced whatever conspiracy theory she was floating for the week. Now was not a good time for that to happen. “She’s a perfectly nice woman ... who has a tendency to mouth off, talk down to Aunt Tillie and try to compete with her on every front.”
“Oh, wow.” Landon’s eyes lit with genuine mirth. “You’re saying she’s another version of Aunt Tillie.”
“You take that back!” Aunt Tillie poked a threatening finger into his chest. “I am nothing like that woman.”
“They’re fairly similar,” I acknowledged, taking an inadvertent step back when Aunt Tillie trained her furious gaze on me. “Aunt Tillie is way better, though.”
Landon snickered. “I have no doubt. I don’t understand why you stopped having these gatherings if they were such a big deal. I mean ... if they’re so important, why cease having them?”
I risked a glance at Aunt Tillie and found her watching me with an expectant gaze.
“Well, tell him,” she prodded after a beat. “Blame it on me, like your mother does.”
“I have no intention of running into a burning building twice in one day,” I countered. “I don’t blame you for what happened. In truth, I was happy when the gatherings stopped. Mom, Marnie and Twila used to go crazy when it came to planning. It was a relief when things came to an end.”
“I need more information than that,” Landon pressed. “What happened?”
“There was an incident,” I offered, choosing my words carefully.
“Oh, let me tell it.” Aunt Tillie made a face. “You’ll do it wrong.”
Landon remained where he was on the floor, Peg curled into a ball on his lap and snoring lightly. She was all tuckered out after the initial excitement.
“Hazel wanted to institute a coven council,” Aunt Tillie started. “She thought it was best to have a panel of witches who could dole out punishment for certain individuals if they stepped out of line.”
“And she didn’t want you on the council.”
“I didn’t want to be on the council,” Aunt Tillie shot back. “There’s nothing worse than telling others how they should act. I mean ... nothing.”
“I would argue that it’s worse to be on the receiving end of other people’s orders, but this is probably a bad time to argue about the merits of that,” I offered.
Landon met my gaze. “I definitely wouldn’t go that route this evening. You’ll tick me off if you even try.”
“See, he would be good on a coven council,” Aunt Tillie drawled. “He loves bossing people around.”
“No, I love keeping people safe,” Landon countered. “That’s neither here nor there, though. I want to hear more about the witch council.”
“You really don’t,” I said. “The story isn’t as entertaining as you envision. Hazel wanted to institute a council. She had a lot of people who agreed with her and was well on her way to setting up elections — where she would be the head witch, mind you, by design — when Aunt Tillie instigated something of an uprising.”
Landon’s shoulders straightened. “Oh, now we’re getting to the meat of the story. What did you d
o to Hazel?”
“I didn’t do anything to her,” Aunt Tillie sniffed, averting her gaze. “I simply made the others aware that she would be an absolute tyrant if we gave her any real power. It’s not just the big things Hazel wanted to control. It was the small things, too.”
“Like what?”
“Like what spells could be cast and when,” I volunteered. “She wanted to make everyone in the coven request permission before using their magic. That information was hidden deep in the bylaws she’d been working on, almost as if she was trying to hide her true intentions.”
“Oh.” Realization dawned on Landon’s face. “She wanted to take away your autonomy.”
“Exactly.” Fury sparked in Aunt Tillie’s eyes. “She wanted to be the one to say who we helped ... and when we helped ... and how we helped. I’m not living in a world ruled by anyone other than me.”
“Why didn’t you run against her?” Landon asked. “I mean ... it seems to me the best way to ensure that she couldn’t institute her plans was to make sure she had no real power.”
“I don’t want to be in charge,” Aunt Tillie replied sharply. “I know you believe the opposite, but I’m a big fan of free will.”
“The coven sort of fell apart when all the sides started fighting,” I said. “This will be the first time everybody has been together in more than a decade. I wouldn’t be surprised if the council is brought up again.”
“And I’ll be right there to squash it again,” Aunt Tillie promised.
Landon’s smirk couldn’t be contained. “Is it wrong that I’m looking forward to the drama? It’s nice when the fighting doesn’t revolve around us for a change, isn’t it, Bay?”
I wasn’t exactly on the same page, but he wasn’t altogether wrong. “It will be interesting,” I agreed. “I’m a little curious to see how things go myself.”
Five
Dinner went exactly as I’d expected. It was two hours of recrimination and threats from my mother and aunts. Thistle wisely opted to stay home, so I took the brunt of the admonishment, to the point I felt wrung out by the time we left.
Landon, full of tacos, nachos and flan, was in a great mood when we tumbled into bed. He’d managed to avoid being the bad guy and yet I was still verbally flogged to within an inch of my life. He was still smiling when we returned to the inn for breakfast the next morning.
“We need to buy groceries so we can eat at home occasionally,” I complained as we walked into the inn. We’d parked at the front so we could head to town once the meal was finished, so at least I didn’t have to risk running into Aunt Tillie before I had a dose of coffee in me.
“Why would we want to do that?” Landon asked. “We have the best breakfast in town within walking distance.”
“You’re just saying that because you can smell the bacon from here.”
“Like I said, it’s the best breakfast in town.” He kissed my cheek before picking up his pace. He could detect bacon from a hundred feet away. Despite his love for Peg, there was no way he was giving up the crispy goodness that was his favorite food.
Chief Terry was already seated at the table drinking coffee when we arrived. He slid his gaze to us and I was disappointed to see annoyance lurking in the depths of his normally kind eyes.
“How long are you going to punish me?” I lamented as I slipped into my regular spot, which happened to be located on his left. “I said I was sorry.”
“You’re only sorry because you got yelled at,” he replied as Landon grabbed the coffee carafe from the center of the table and started pouring. “You don’t believe you did anything wrong.”
That wasn’t entirely true. “What I did was moronic,” I countered. “But I had to check. I couldn’t stop myself.”
“And that’s why I’m still angry.” Chief Terry turned his attention to Landon. “There’s a state fire inspector on the scene. He’s expecting us in an hour. I figured you would want to be part of this even though we have no reason to believe this was anything other than a lone targeted attack … at least right now.”
“I don’t have anything pressing otherwise, so you figured right,” Landon said. “Besides, we don’t know that it won’t happen again. If this was about the fire instead of a specific victim, things could go badly. We need to make sure that we don’t have an arsonist on the loose.”
I’d done enough research on firebugs to know that it was the blaze itself that excited them. Once they got the urge, the only thing that usually stopped them was death or incarceration. “Could it be a teenager?” I asked. “Don’t fire fanatic tendencies usually start during the teen years?”
Chief Terry didn’t immediately respond, so Landon took pity on me.
“In a hunch, yes,” he answered. “But that’s not always a given.”
“Oh.” I frowned at Chief Terry. I hated it when he was angry with me. “I really am sorry.” My voice was low as I leaned my head against his shoulder. “You can’t stay mad forever. It’s not fair.”
Landon smirked as he slid his arm around the back of my chair. “We both know you’re going to forgive her. You’re not going to be able to hold out. Why not get it over with now and stop torturing her?”
Chief Terry’s eyebrows migrated higher on his forehead. “I would think you’d be as angry as me,” he argued. “She could’ve been killed. I know you would miss her if something happened.”
“I would most definitely miss her,” Landon acknowledged. “But she did what she thought was right. She knows it was a stupid move. I don’t see how dragging this out helps anyone. She’s sorry.”
“I am.” I jutted out my lower lip and stared soulfully into his eyes. “Please don’t be angry.”
He held my gaze for an extended beat, much longer than I thought he would be able to manage. Finally, he heaved a sigh. “I’m not being mean just to be mean. You need to be careful, Bay. You could’ve died.”
“I know. I’m really sad. I hate it when you’re angry with me. It makes almost dying even worse.”
“Oh, that was beautiful,” Landon teased, grinning as Chief Terry huffed. “How can you be mad at this face?” He grabbed my chin and gave it a squeeze. “I mean ... look how sad she is. Do you want her to cry?”
“Knock that off.” Chief Terry pushed Landon’s hand away from my face. “I can’t just switch off my emotions. I’m angry. You have no idea how afraid I was when I heard you were in that building, Bay. We could hear the ceiling give way. I imagined it was falling on you.”
“That was probably hard for you,” I said solemnly. “The last thing I want to do is upset you. I love you so much.”
“Oh, geez.” Chief Terry slapped his hand to his forehead. “You make it impossible to stay angry with you.”
That was my goal. “So ... you forgive me?”
“I forgive you but reserve the right to call you an idiot for the next week.”
I cocked my head, considering. “I can live with that. Just don’t be angry. I hate it when you’re angry.”
“I’m not angry.” He sipped his coffee and shook his head, glaring as Landon snickered. “You just double-teamed me and I don’t like it. I preferred it when you were the one yelling because she did stupid things.”
“Yes, but that never ends well for me,” Landon noted. “This is really the best of both worlds. I get to annoy you and keep my Bay happy. In turn, she keeps me happy. What’s not to love about that?”
“I’m going to lick all the bacon before you get a chance to eat it,” Chief Terry warned. “I’m going to laugh like a loon while I’m doing it.”
“That won’t stop me from eating it.”
“You’re a sick man.”
“Yes, but I’m a sick man who can eat his weight in bacon. That should be an Olympic category if you ask me.”
“Only you would think that.”
CHIEF TERRY AND LANDON WERE ALREADY standing in front of the burned-out husk of the blacksmith shop when I pulled myself away from a few curious looky-loos on Main
Street. They had their heads bent together, talking in hushed tones, which I found interesting. Before I could ask them what they were conversing about, a hint of movement caught my eye inside the building.
“Is someone in there?” I asked.
Landon slid his eyes to me, confused. “No. We’re waiting on the state arson investigator. He was here already and went to the diner for breakfast. He’s ten minutes out.”
That made what I saw doubly confusing. “Someone is in there.”
“What do you mean?”
“I saw someone inside.” I was firm. “I swear it. I’m not making it up.”
“You rarely make things up, sweetie. It’s just ... I don’t see anyone. Are you sure the wind isn’t moving something?”
“I’m pretty sure I know the difference between a person and the wind.”
Chief Terry and Landon exchanged weighted gazes before Landon put his hand to the small of my back and prodded me forward.
“Then we’ll check it out,” he said. “Be careful and watch your step. There are a lot of fallen boards with nails in them.”
I wasn’t worried about a nail going through my foot — although that would suck — as much as I was interested in figuring out who would have the gall to enter a burned-out building that was marked off with police tape.
Chief Terry took the lead, making sure to position me between Landon and himself. If they thought they were playing it coy with their protective stances, they were wrong. I had other things to worry about, though. The whispers were back inside my head and they were loud enough to send a chill down my spine.
“I don’t think it’s a human,” I whispered, my blood running cold as one of the voices began talking.
“She’s back,” it said.
“What is she doing here?” another voice answered. “She shouldn’t have returned. It isn’t safe.”
“She needs to go. I told you she wasn’t all that smart.”
“Hey!” My temper got the better of me and I brushed past Chief Terry to enter what used to be the workshop ahead of him.
He growled and grabbed me by the back of the neck before I could put too much distance between us. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Wicked Witches of the Midwest Mystery Box Set Page 63
