by M. J. Caan
“Because we have no reason to lie to you,” said Jasmin. “We are just here trying to find out what happened to the mayor, your cousin.”
“Where did you learn those protection spells you were throwing at us?” asked Torie.
“From a book I stole from my mom’s library. It’s pretty basic as you saw, but it was all I had.”
“You shouldn’t be playing with magic,” said Jasmin as she probed around the room for any other surprises.
The woman huffed and looked away. “That’s easy for you to say. How did you find me anyway?’
Jasmin took the necklace and ring out of her pocket and tossed it to her. “Magic, of course.”
“Mom. I should have known. Birds of a feather after all…” Tilda said.
“What are you talking about?” asked Jasmin, but the woman remained quiet, still not looking them in the eyes.
“Look, let’s just cut to the chase, did you kill Terry?” questioned Torie.
“No,” she replied, looking up in shock. Her reply was immediate and the look on her face told them she wasn’t lying. “Are you going to try and pin that on me?”
“No, we aren’t. But it’s what we came here to find out,” said Jasmin.
Tears suddenly flowed down Tilda’s face and she wiped them away with the palm of her hand. “How did he die?”
“You…you don’t know?” asked Torie.
Tilda shook her head. “We had hourly check-ins and when he didn’t call after he had made plans to go see you, I figured he was dead.”
“You know who we are?”
“Of course I do. Two of the most powerful witches in Singing Falls. I warned Terry not to go to you, but he said it was our only shot. Look where that got him.” She started crying again, this time reaching for her overnight bag where she removed a few tissues to dab at her face.
Torie moved over to sit on the bed next to her. “Tilda, I am sorry about your cousin. He was poisoned, by a very rare and deadly type of magical poison that we haven’t yet been able to identify.”
Tilda sat up straight. “Magical poison? But you didn’t do it?”
“No, I’ve never even met your cousin before. Why was he coming to see me the day he died?”
“Because we were at our wits’ end and didn’t know where to turn to for help. He said we needed help from a witch. A real witch that could do things that we couldn’t learn from reading books. He said that everything he had heard about you was that you were kind and generous; the opposite of what we were told.”
“What were you told about me?”
“That like all witches, you only wanted more and more power and that you increased your power through sacrificing babies and children. That was the source for all witches’ powers.”
Torie’s mouth dropped open in shock as she looked at Jasmin.
“Tilda, none of that is true,” said Jasmin. “Who told you such nonsense?”
“My mother. She said that’s why you never see witches with children, because you use them as sacrifices and that you would kill anyone that ever found out your secrets. That was why we were never allowed to talk about it to anyone outside of Singing Falls. It was this town’s ugly secret, Mom used to say.”
Torie was shaking her head in disbelief. “That is nonsense. Why would anyone tell that to children? I would never hurt an innocent and neither would Jasmin.”
Tilda sniffed hard. “That’s what Terry thought; what he had heard about you. That was why he was going to you for help.”
“Help with what?” asked Torie.
“Help stopping our parents. They had done some very bad things…and they were getting worse.”
Torie felt a cold sweat break out along her spine. She could hear the blood rush to her temples as she experienced a slight tingle of adrenaline. “Are you talking about Effie and Hattie?”
Tilda nodded. “Yes, how do you know them?”
“Well, when the police were investigating your cousin’s death, they found his mother. Bound to her bed. She was bound with black magic, and not in the best shape when we found her.”
Tilda looked confused, shaking her head as her thoughts swirled. “That’s not…it doesn’t sound right. Are you sure?”
“We were there, Tilda. We saw what had been done to her,” said Jasmin.
“What about my mother? I mean if Effie was bound with magic, my mother would have tried to free her. What did she say about that?”
Now it was Torie’s turn to be confused. “Your mother wasn’t there. She was in Oregon. She only just arrived and has been red noted with Effie. Terry, the mayor, refused to let Effie see or have contact with her sister for years.”
Tilda looked wide-eyed and then began to laugh nervously.
“Lady, I don’t know who you’re talking about, but my mother lives with Effie in that house. I am the one that lived in Oregon and just flew out. What are you talking about?”
The chill that Torie had felt in her spine suddenly turned to an iceberg that made its way into her throat.
Jasmin cleared her throat and spoke up. “Where does your cousin live?”
“He lives, or rather, lived, at that house as well. He was afraid to leave the two of them alone and would never leave the house unless it was to go to work. Other than that, he never stepped a foot outside the house. Until recently.”
“What happened recently?” asked Jasmin.
“He started texting me, said our parents had somehow tapped his phone and that they had gone too far with everything. He sent me pictures of…disgusting things, that he said they were collecting. He said they had finally figured it out.”
“Were the things they collected in small, gilded boxes?” questioned Torie, her voice beginning to shake.
“Yes. Those…body parts.” Tilda shivered and threw her arms around herself.
“Tilda, listen to me,” said Jasmin. “What did they figure out how to do?”
Tilda took a deep breath. “They have always been jealous of the supernaturals in the community; especially the witches. They coveted their power and were determined to find a way to make it their own. They collected all kinds of spell books and tomes on magic, but other than a few fancy parlor tricks—like what I just tried against you—nothing worked.
“It consumed them, this hunt for powers. At first, we thought it was all fine. They told us they wanted to become witches themselves so they could stop the real witches from terrorizing children. So we bought into it. But then, we started noticing little things. The cruelty they exhibited. The tired, southern racist tropes, and their disregard for what was right and wrong when it came to their single-minded pursuit of what they wanted.
“Terry overheard them talking about something one night, many years ago, that freaked him out so bad that he made me move across the country, far away from them. He wouldn’t tell me what it was, just that for my own safety I needed to go. They were furious of course, and I lost contact with them, even with Terry, until recently when he reached out.
“He said they had been collecting those body parts or whatever, to appease some dark power. In return, that darkness was granting them magical abilities. But the magic was only allowing them to move through realms to get to where they could find the…donors they called them, for the sacrifices.”
“Elion was right,” said Jasmin. “Sacrifices to old gods probably in return for favors.”
“Terry was terrified of what they were doing. He wanted to reach out to you two for help, but…honestly, we still weren’t sure what you were or what you might do. He sent me instructions on something he needed me to do, and I flew in the day he stopped returning my calls to help him. I followed his directions and delivered the package to you. Then I came here and haven’t left since. I wasn’t sure what to do when Terry lost contact with me.”
“What did you deliver?” Torie asked.
“A little cat,” she said. “Terry said it was a very special cat, but I just thought it was a weird-colored kitty. I left it in a
basket on your porch and then hightailed it out of there.”
Torie released a deep breath and stared at Jasmin. The implications of what Tilda had told them made her dizzy.
“Where did Terry get the cat?” asked Jasmin.
“Our parents had it at the house. It was going to be one of the sacrifices apparently. Although I don’t know why. Terry said they had already taken the heart out of the cat’s mother, so I don’t know why they would need another one. But he sneaked it out of the house one day; hid it in a warehouse we used to play in when we were kids. That’s where I picked it up.
“He was allergic to cats, you know. But this one must have been one of those breeds made for people with allergies. It seemed nice, but he texted me to be careful handling it because it bit him or scratched him or something, the morning he took it away from the house.”
Again, the witches exchanged looks as Elion’s warning about some dragons being poisonous came flooding back to them.
“Was the bite to his hand?” asked Torie.
Tilda nodded. “I think so. Why?”
Jasmin plopped herself down on the lower bunk opposite Torie.
“They played us,” she said. “Those two crazy old bats played us this whole time.”
Torie looked up at Jasmin, her eyes wide in fear.
“Jasmin, what have I let into my house?”
21
Jasmin kept her foot pressed hard against the accelerator, screeching around curves and opening up on straight ways as they hurried back.
“Okay, I appreciate the urgency as much as anyone, but we won’t do them any good if we die in a ditch before we get there,” said Torie, grasping the handle above her door for dear life.
“Yeah,” said Tilda from the back seat. “And why are you driving? Don’t you have brooms?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Torie. “We don’t fly around on brooms.” Then she lowered her voice and whispered to Jasmin. “Do we?”
The annoyed look that Jasmin gave her made her regret asking the question.
Jasmin was shaking her head and mumbling to herself.
“What’s that?” asked Torie, even though the last thing she wanted was to distract Jasmin’s attention as they hurtled down the road.
“I was just saying how could I be so stupid? Something just didn’t feel right, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Think about it. That shadow thing we saw at the mayor’s house when we went back.”
“You think that was Hattie?” asked Torie.
“Or some form of her.”
“But why would she just let us take those boxes out of there? Those were obviously very important to them.”
“No idea. At least not yet. We’ll ask them when we get back.”
“Assuming they talk,” said Torie.
Jasmin looked over at her friend, a glint in her eyes. “Oh, them bitches will talk alright. We’ll make sure of it.”
“They may not be witches, but they have to have some kind of power we don’t know about. How else would they have been able to take out a…mother cat…like that?”
Jasmin shook her head. “Don’t know. Like Elion said, there isn’t a lot known about those cats. We will add that to the list of questions.”
They arrived at the house and Jasmin killed the lights and pulled off the main road just outside of her own house. Whatever was going on inside Torie’s home, they didn’t want to announce their presence just yet.
“What’s the plan?” asked Torie as they stood at the top of the street looking down towards her house.
“We go in there Lethal Weapon style. Take them old biddies out before they know what hit them.”
“Um, what about me?” asked Tilda.
“You stay here,” said Torie. She wasn’t entirely onboard with the idea of bringing her, but until they knew exactly what they were up against, she could also see the rationale of not leaving her unprotected at a campground.
“I wish we knew what was going on in there,” said Jasmin. “At least where everyone was. It seems awful quiet for a house full of supernaturals.”
Torie jumped as a thought came to her. “I have an idea. Let me try something.”
She closed her eyes and focused her mind on a single thought. “Leo,” she whispered.
She felt a sense of vertigo as her conscious telescoped through the foliage towards her house and blasted through the walls. Everything was blurry and out of focus as she looked around, but she realized she was in her bedroom. The fact that her vision was centered mere inches from the floor was highly disconcerting.
She was seeing through Leo’s eyes. The dragon was lying under her bed peering out.
Torie could sense the dragon’s confusion and immediately sought to calm him. He recognized the touch of her mind, and she felt him start to grow at ease.
“Hi, buddy…I need to know what’s going on in the house. Can you go downstairs and show me?”
The vertigo returned as her vision began to move, sliding across the floor and out of the room. The sensation of being right at floor level was something Torie hoped she would never have to get used to. When the dragon reached the stairs and bounded down them, she felt her stomach enter her throat a couple of times. Still, he made his way downstairs and crept along one wall towards the study.
Peering around the corner, Torie could see Effie and Hattie standing in the middle of the room holding one of the boxes.
She tried to hear what they were saying, but suddenly her ears were filled with heat and the sound of rushing water. She felt unbridled anger swelling in her breast as her lungs grew hot and liquid fire filled her throat.
Leo was about to fill the room with liquid lava.
Torie asserted her will as powerfully as she could, telling the dragon to stop. She felt resistance, but then, slowly, the rage began to recede. Recede, but not disappear. It felt like it had been locked behind a door and was tapping constantly to be let out.
“Not yet, little one. Where are my friends?”
Through emerald eyes, she looked around, and on the wall to the right of the sisters she saw Fionna, her mouth gagged with a handkerchief, her feet and hands bound. She lay on her side, not struggling to move. There was a gash on her forehead, and Torie had to fight the urge to have Leo run up to her so she could be close to her friend.
Just then, Fionna’s eyes opened, and she saw Leo staring at her. She stared hard for a moment and then nodded slightly at him. Somehow, she knew that Torie was there with them. She looked determinedly at the sisters then back at Leo. Then, her vision focused on something in front of the sisters that Torie could not see.
Inching along the wall, she saw Elric, simply bound as Fionna, and she could tell the werewolf was unconscious. In front of the witches, Max was on his knees, his head moving slowly from side to side. His languid movements made it obvious he had been drugged.
Effie turned suddenly and looked at Leo. Torie was shocked at the change in the woman. She was still old, but her body had changed even more since Torie had last seen her. She was no longer stooped over but stood upright and sure of herself. The pallor of her skin had gone from translucent white to a healthier shade, and her movements were whip-sharp. Her milky eyes were still unseeing, but her hearing had obviously improved as well. Her head was cocked to one side as she focused on Leo.
Hattie turned to see what had caught her sister’s attention, looked at Leo, and waved dismissively at him as they returned to what they were doing.
He still appeared as a cat to anyone other than supernaturals.
Torie willed Leo to leave the room and return to the safety of her bedroom and his hiding spot under the bed. As he turned and left the room, she returned to her body and focused on Jasmin.
“Those two sisters are in the study. I couldn’t make out what they are doing, but they have got Elric and Fionna tied up. They’re about to do something to Max. We need to get in there.”
“What about Elion?” asked Jasmin.
Torie shook
her head. “I didn’t see him. Maybe in light of things, storming in may not be the best idea. They’re more prepared than we thought. They somehow got the jump on three shifters. And who knows what they did to Elion.”
“What if we went around back and came in through the kitchen? It’s far enough from the study that they shouldn’t hear anything.”
“Worth a try,” said Torie. “Plus, I always forget to lock those doors.”
“You know I’m telling Elric that.”
Torie ignored her as they made their way to one of the walking trails that ran along her property and followed it to the back of her lot. Once there, they were faced with the looming retention wall and the high iron bars meant to deter anyone from trying what they were about to try.
“Well, now I wish we had some broomsticks,” Torie said, looking up.
“Take my hands,” Jasmin said, holding both arms out.
Torie took them and watched as Jasmin closed her eyes.
“Spirits of light, hear my plea,
make our bodies as mist, to go where we need.”
Instantly the ground faded away from beneath them and the air around them shimmered and passed through the two witches as their physical bodies grew ephemeral; losing all form and becoming gray smoke. Unencumbered by gravity, they floated upward, passing through the bars of Torie’s fence like ghosts, only to settle on the patio beyond and reform into their physical selves.
Torie’s hand went to her head as a rush of lightheadedness struck her.
“Easy there,” said Jasmin, steadying her by gripping her arm. “The first time someone does that is always a doozie.”
“I…had no idea that was a thing we could do,” said Torie.
“Well, it’s not something we want to make a habit of; it pretty much wipes me out for a bit. But come on, we can’t stay out here.”
As quietly as possible, Torie opened the patio door enough for them to slip through. Once in the kitchen, Torie noticed three coffee cups sitting on the island. They were half filled with coffee, and if she had to bet, that was how they were rendered unconscious. She doubted that the two women, or whatever they were, would have been able to get the drop on three shifters any other way.
