I made my way to the front counter, where I was greeted by a fairy I hadn’t seen before - short, wavy brown hair reached her shoulders, framing her sparkling blue eyes that matched her fluttering wings perfectly.
“Oh, you’re the new witch in town, aren’t you?” the fairy asked.
I nodded with a smile. I was pretty used to this question by now. “That’s me,” I replied. “I’m Tina. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Bluebell,” she replied with an equally friendly smile. “It’s nice to see some new blood in town. I feel like a lot of the paranormal towns are far too insular and we would benefit a lot from an outsider’s experience.”
“Well, thank you,” I said with a smile. “I’m not sure I have that much to offer the town, but I do my best.”
“That’s all any of us can do, isn’t it?” Bluebell replied. “Now, what can I get for you today?”
My eyes were drawn to the cabinet of baked goods that I knew had been infused with some of Ellie’s skilled magic, and as my stomach growled I knew I wasn’t going to be able to resist.
“What are these hocus-focus cupcakes?” I asked, my eyes drawn to the row of gorgeous white cakes topped with sprinkles that shimmered in the light.
“Oh, they’re fantastic,” Bluebell replied. “Not only do they taste amazing, but if you’re doing something that requires intense concentration, they help you focus on the job at hand and avoid distractions. Back when I was at the fairy Academy, those cupcakes got me through quite a few exams.”
“Sold,” I replied with a smile. After all, if I was going to try and learn whatever I could about the dead elf, I figured a little bit of focus could only help. “I’ll take one of those and a coffee as well.”
“Sounds good,” Bluebell replied. “I’ll add it to the coven’s tab.”
Apparently, word had gotten around that I wasn’t to pay for anything, but rather the coven was going to cover all of my costs until my magic reached a level that was suitable enough for me to work a job. I fully intended to pay the coven back for everything they bought me up until then.
“Thanks,” I said, shooting Bluebell a grateful smile.
“Not a problem. Find yourself a seat, and I’ll bring it all out to you when the coffee is ready.”
“Could you ask Ellie to come out and say hi if she gets a chance?” I asked. I wanted to tell Ellie everything I’d found out from Sara as soon as possible.
“Sure thing,” Bluebell nodded. “I’m pretty sure she has a break coming up, so she should be out shortly.”
I took a seat in a hard backed chair at a small square table that had just been vacated by a couple of vampires. About a minute later, Ellie came sauntering out from the back, and plopped herself down on the chair across from me with a smile.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “I wasn’t expecting you to come in today.”
I leaned in close, not wanting anybody at nearby tables to overhear. “Sara texted me a little while ago. She was driving one of her bosses and he literally died on her broom. He was an elf, so it has to be murder Sara tells me.”
Ellie’s eyes widened as she clamped her hands over her mouth. “You’re joking.”
“I wish I was. I went over there, and I spoke to Sara. She’s worried about not only her job, but also being arrested. And I mean, we obviously know that Sara would never do anything to hurt anyone, but how can Chief Enforcer King know that?”
Ellie nodded. “Especially with her being a new hire and all. Oh man, this isn’t good at all.”
“I know. I told Sara we would do our best to find out who actually killed Lorondir.”
“Did you say Lorondir? He’s the one who was killed?”
I nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“He’s probably the most famous lawyer in town. He has been working in Western Woods for literally thousands of years.”
“Seriously?” I asked. This time it was my turn to have my eyes widen.
Ellie nodded. “Yeah. I mean, elves are immortal, and a lot of them are incredibly old. Lorondir once told me about how he used to hang out with Socrates, who was a wizard, but preferred the human world to the magical one.”
“That’s insane,” I whispered. “But wait, how come there aren’t like a trillion elves around if none of them ever die?”
“It’s incredibly difficult for them to reproduce,” Ellie explained. “For one thing, there are very few female elves. In all of Western Woods there are like, ten of them, and hundreds of male elves. So as a result, most elves don’t end up having children. And for the ones that do, both parents have to be elves for the child to be immortal. An elf can have a child with, say, a shifter, and while the child could have all of the elfin characteristics magic-wise, they would live as long as a shifter would, but eventually die naturally.”
I nodded slowly. My thoughts immediately turned to Kyran, an elf that I spoke to occasionally. I wondered how old he was; I had kind of assumed that he was about my age, since that was how old he looked, but I suddenly realized for the first time that he might have in fact been centuries, if not millennia old.
“Anyway,” Ellie said, getting the conversation back on track. “What do you know about Lorondir’s death?”
I shrugged. “Not too much, yet. Sara says there was no blood that she noticed on the body, so it’s unlikely that someone ran up behind them and stabbed him. She also said that they drove on her broom basically at street level, since the elves don’t like being high up in the air.”
“So that means anybody in the street could have attacked him, as long as they did it subtly enough that Sara didn’t notice.” Ellie frowned. “There are a lot of problems with that theory though.”
“Exactly. Like, the fact that Sara didn’t remember passing anybody in town. Although, she may simply not have noticed them. Plus, it would’ve been a huge risk for the murderer. There would have been no guarantee that Sara would not have noticed them, and how would they have known that Lorondir was going to come by that day at that exact time?”
“I agree. Do you have any idea of what might have actually happened?”
I nodded. “I think he might’ve been poisoned.”
Ellie nodded slowly as she thought about the words. “Yeah, that actually makes a lot of sense. If he was poisoned, then he might have ingested the poison before actually getting on the broom, and its effects may have been delayed for a little bit.”
“I assume the magical world does have poisons in it?”
“Of course,” Ellie replied. “We have access to most of the human world poisons, things like mushrooms that grow in the human world also grow here. Plus, witches and wizards are able to make special potions that can cause death.”
“Are elves able to make potions? What about shifters?” After all, I didn’t know too much about the paranormal world, and I wanted to make sure I had all of the facts before we got started. Just then, Bluebell came by and placed the coffee and cupcake down for me with a smile.
“Here you go, do you need anything else?”
“No, that’s great, thanks,” I replied with a smile, trying to resist digging into the cupcake with gusto. The coffee was a work of art in itself as well. Rather than a plain latte and a cup, the coffee’s here came in large mugs, and looked a lot like freakshakes you’d find in the normal world. This one had rainbow colored syrup running down the side of the mug, which was filled with coffee that had a suspicious pink tinge to it, and was topped with copious amounts of pure white with cream, multicolored sprinkles, and a few different colored candy sticks on top just to finish things off.
It was a good thing that it was recommended to only have one Hexpresso Bean coffee per day; I was pretty sure my waistline wouldn’t appreciate it very much if I had any more than that.
As I dug into my food and drink, Ellie answered my question.
“Shifters can’t make potions at all,” she replied. “If they go through the steps, nothing happens. For someone to be able to make a potion, they have t
o have a certain magical ability inside of them, or the magical energy doesn’t transfer to the cauldron, and shifters are missing that. Their magic is different. Some elves have the ability to do it, since they do have magical powers that are similar to ours, but not all. The older and wiser the elf, the more likely they are to be able to make potions. A lot of them don’t bother even trying, since if they get it wrong, it can go really wrong. Playing with potions is a real risk for elves.”
“But then, so is murder,” I replied. “If an elf was desperate enough to murder Lorondir, I could see them being desperate enough to try making a poisoned potion.”
“That’s a good point,” Ellie said. “And on top of that, there is no guarantee that whoever did it didn’t simply ask a witch or wizard to make that potion for them. That person, when they find out about the murder, would probably keep quiet because they wouldn’t want to be implicated.”
I nodded. “So if he was poisoned - and I think we should stick with that as our working theory, because it seems most likely - then it likely happened at his office sometime.”
“I think so,” Ellie said. “Is that where you’re going to go after this?”
I took a big bite of the hocus-focus cupcake and momentarily ignored Ellie’s question as I savored the sweet frosting mixed with moist cake. This was easily the best cupcake I’d ever had in my life. When I opened my eyes, I suddenly felt an intense concentration. This was definitely the focus part of the cupcake kicking in.
“Sorry,” I said to Ellie, finding my voice picking up speed slightly. “I just had to savor that for a moment; that was the best cupcake I’ve ever eaten in my life.”
Ellie grinned. “Don’t ever apologize for enjoying food I’ve made. I love hearing about it.”
“To answer your question, yes, I think visiting the law offices is probably the best way to go.”
“I wish I could go with you, but I’m stuck here for a few hours still. You should text Amy though; she knows her way around the paranormal world pretty well, and you’ll be more likely to get a lot of information with her around.”
That was definitely a good idea. I glanced at my watch; Amy was due back from the Academy where she was taking advanced courses any second. Pulling out my phone, I sent her a quick text asking her to meet me here. That would give me a little bit of time to gather my thoughts, maybe come up with a plan, and definitely finish eating this cupcake before she got here.
“I have to head back into the kitchen, since my break is over, but let me know what the two of you find,” Ellie said. She stood up, and I gave her a quick hug, promising to let her know anything we discovered before she made her way back to work.
Chapter 4
“You’re out of your mind, you know that?”
I supposed I shouldn’t have expected any other reaction from Amy. After all, Amy was basically Hermione, but in real life. A total book nerd, and an incredibly gifted witch, Amy was completely opposed to breaking the rules in any way – well, most of the time. And that definitely applied to investigating a murder when we had absolutely no official links to law enforcement.
“What other options do we have?” I asked. I had just finished explaining to Amy everything that had happened that morning, and she was definitely not on board with our plan.
“Oh, I don’t know, how about leaving it for the professionals?” Amy replied sarcastically. “After all, don’t you remember what happened last time? You almost died.”
“I know. That’s why we’ve decided that if we do figure out who did it, we’re going straight to Chief Enforcer King. We’re not going to do anything stupid this time.”
Amy narrowed her eyes at me. “Do you not remember that last time you were also swept off a broom by someone the murderer had hired as well?”
“I know, but he hadn’t actually meant to try to kill me,” I replied. “It was an accident.” After Sara and I had reported what had happened to the head shifter, Jomund came to see me and apologized, explaining that he hadn’t realized that I was so new to broom riding that I wouldn’t be able to stay on my broom when the wind from his dragon wings hit me.
“Killing someone by accident is still killing them,” Amy said, crossing her arms.
“Fine, you don’t have to come. But Sara’s in trouble, and she was there for me, and I’m going to do whatever I can to be there for her now.”
Amy let out a long, dramatic sigh. “And of course, I can’t let you go to the offices by yourself. After all, you barely know your way around town. Do you even know where the law firm is?”
I shook my head sheepishly as I realized I probably should have asked Ellie that before she went back to work.
“All right, let’s get going then,” Amy said.
“Does that mean you’re going to help?” I asked, trying to keep the enthusiasm out of my voice.
“It doesn’t look like I have any other choice.”
Ten minutes later, with my coffee drunk and my cupcake eaten, Amy and I walked down the street towards a large, wooden building. It had been painted white, with dark exposed beams accenting the sides. A large sign above the door announced that we had arrived at the Western Woods Law Offices. This was definitely where we wanted to be.
“So who needs a lawyer in the magical world, anyway?” I asked Amy. “Is it the same as in the human world?”
Amy nodded. “Yes, more or less. If someone has committed a crime, they need a criminal lawyer. If someone is looking to sue another paranormal, they need a civil lawyer.”
“What type of lawyer was Lorondir?”
“He was a criminal lawyer. And in fact, he was one of the best criminal lawyers in the entire paranormal world. He was often called away to other paranormal communities and hired by their defendants for representation.”
“Does that mean that paranormal laws are enacted across towns? Or does every town have its own laws?”
“While each individual community is able to create its own laws, the overriding set of laws that rule Western Woods is the same across every paranormal town. So someone who learned to become a lawyer here can practice law in any paranormal town in the world.”
“So Lorondir would have definitely defended a number of murderers, right?”
“That’s correct,” Amy nodded. “I know there was one high-profile case a couple of years ago where Lorondir spent almost six months away. I believe he ended up losing that case, but when his client appealed with a different lawyer, the initial ruling was overturned.”
My eyebrows rose. “That doesn’t sound like the work of one of the world’s best paranormal lawyers.”
“No, and in fact I think it was one of the reasons why Lorondir was considering retirement. I know I had heard around that he was thinking about it, but evidently he hadn’t gone through with it just yet.”
The two of us stepped through the front doors and found ourselves in a high ceilinged reception area, with plush red carpet and a friendly-looking fairy behind a large desk looking up at us politely.
“Hello and welcome to the Western Woods Law office,” the fairy told us, her pale green wings fluttering behind her. “How may I help you on this fine Wednesday morning?”
If she had heard about Lorondir’s death - and at this point, how could she not have - she was hiding it very well. This fairy was definitely a professional.
“Hi,” Amy said to her. “My friend here recently had an encounter with a dragon shifter, and we would like to speak with an attorney about potential damages.”
The woman looked past Amy and over at me, and I flashed her a shy smile. I could see the curiosity in her eyes, and I knew she could tell that I was the new witch in town, but that she was far too polite to mention anything.
“Of course. While I don’t have anything available right at this moment, in one hour Manarwa has a slot available. You’re welcome to wait here, of course, or you could come back then.”
“Thank you, we’ll just wait,” Amy said with a smile, leading me towards a w
aiting area in the corner where plush, leather chairs surrounded a large, live-edge coffee table covered in magazines. It appeared that even in the paranormal world, waiting rooms were still exactly the same as back in the human world.
Amy and I sat down next to each other and a couple of chairs, and I couldn’t help but notice that Amy had specifically picked chairs that gave us a perfect view of the room: we could see anybody coming in or out, and we could see what the receptionist was doing at any given moment as well. Amy also had a notepad and a piece of paper out; she evidently had come a lot more prepared than I had.
In an attempt to not look super suspicious, I flicked through the magazines, trying to look like I was just after some reading material.
Better Homes and Covens
Vampire’s Digest
Elf Weekly
Vampire Fair
Shifter Living
I grabbed a copy of Better Homes and Covens and began flipping through it. Mostly ignoring the articles, I peeked over the top of the page and paid attention to everyone who came in and left.
Frustratingly, this law office seemed like a high turnover place. I had hoped that there would have only been five, maybe six people who would have been in here early enough to poison Lorondir, but given how many people came and went from the door behind the reception desk that seemed to lead to the offices, it appeared I had no such luck.
Amy, however, was scribbling down names as people came and went. She was obviously familiar with most of the clientele in this place. I was suddenly thankful for the fact that she had decided to come after all; she was right when she said that I would have needed her help.
“We need to find out who Lorondir saw this morning,” I whispered to Amy. “After all, Sara called me just after eleven, which means that someone who was here before then has to be the poisoner.”
Two Peas in a Potion Page 2
