by Sara Stone
I immediately walked over to the spot to which the apparition pointed. Something was lying under a bush, only partially visible. I used a candle to light up the dark. A gold dagger with a jeweled handle was covered in blood. I knew it was the murder weapon. I reached for it. When my fingertips touched the handle, the jewels started to glow, sending a shock into my hand. Instead of reflexively pulling my hand away, my fingers wrapped tightly around the handle on their own. The wonder quickly grew into a searing skin burn.
Not being able to help it, I started yelling out in pain. I watched as the magic began to zip across my hand up to my arm, burning as it went. Rose and Judson were on me in an instant. Rose was chanting, holding her hands over it while Judson used his shirt to try to grab for the dagger. The magic creeping into my body was dark, showing me thoughts of what it wanted me to do. Visions of killing everyone here flashed in my mind, taking their hearts out and watching their magic flow into me through the dagger. I fought to let it go, my hand not responding, like it was asleep. Bright red welts were appearing along the path that the magic was traveling, almost reaching my shoulder when Rose got control over the curse, letting me drop the horrendous knife into Judson’s shirt-covered hands.
“Lia, you could have been killed!” She said as she pulled me into a hug.
“They left it behind on purpose,” Judson added before dropping the dagger into a bag using the shirt he had hastily taken off. I knew I was rattled when I didn’t even peek at his exposed flesh.
“The spell. It worked. I saw something point to this dagger. I thought it would help,” I sighed, rubbing the raised welts on my arm. They looked like bright red lightning bolts. It would make for an impressive scar.
“What?” Rose asked, her eyes round with shock. I don’t know if she was more shocked that it worked or that I had been the only one to see it.
“An outline of a person pointed to it, Mandy, I think, so I went to go grab it. It could have been a clue.” I realized now how crazy it was for me to just go grab something up at a crime scene, magical or not.
“More like a trap,” Judson murmured, irritated that no one seemed to be listening to him. He must have felt like a failure with me around. Anything and everything that could possibly go wrong seemed to do so. He couldn’t protect me if I were going to make such rash decisions.
“There’s more,” I said pointedly at Judson, “The dagger showed me visions of everyone dying.” Tears filled my eyes. The detail in the vision was too realistic. I saw the life draining from my friends and coven members. What I didn’t say is along with it was that I had to battle the feeling of ecstasy as everyone’s power had filled me. Was this vision the future? Would I give in for the power?
“Who is everyone?” Rose asked.
“Everyone here. It wanted me to cut out your hearts to harvest your magic. Made me feel what the power could be like. It was overwhelming my senses.” Trembling, I covered my face trying to hide the horror I felt.
“Don’t blame yourself. It was supposed to do that to you. There was no controlling it. Whoever left it behind intended for a witch to find it. Had I not been here, it’s possible you would’ve gone through with it, only harvesting the magic for the owner of that blasted thing. Those thoughts don’t belong to you.”
“It felt like they did,” I whispered, hanging my head in shame.
Rose was worried there was some kind of secondary curse at work on me, so she cast a healing spell and made sure that I was okay. She said if it were lingering, her magic would find it, but nothing happened. Whoever had placed the dagger there expected the first one to find it to do the dirty work. She then had Judson place the knife on the ground to see if she could find the user of it.
“The curse that attacked you was powerful. I would not be surprised if the perpetrator spelled it to hide the owner,” she mumbled while preparing for the spell.
She held the dagger in Judson’s shirt above a bowl filled with ingredients she brought along with her. As she chanted to herself, she submerged it into the mixture, careful to make sure the shirt didn’t touch the bowl and the dagger didn’t touch her hand. The bowl started to smoke with white puffs floating above it until we could see an outline of someone in a hood. The hood hid everything but the bottom part of their face, a feminine pair of lips and sharp chin, before it dissipated into the night.
“Any idea who that is?” Rose asked.
“No, I have no idea.”
“Let’s get out of here. Police are sure to arrive any time,” Judson warned.
Everyone grabbed up what they could while trying not to disturb anything that the police could actually use in finding Mandy’s killer if we failed. I was really hoping that we hadn’t left anything behind. The last thing that we needed to deal with was the local police bringing us in for a murder we didn’t commit, especially one so heinous. Rose had to assure me repeatedly that we would not leave traces of ourselves before I felt sure enough to head home. So much had happened, and yet we were no closer to figuring any of it out. They all went home while Judson drove me to my house, another silent drive, but this one had less tension. He dropped me off, and for the second time, I was home alone, which instantly had my anxiety running rampant.
I was terrified of a repeat issue. I stood at the bottom of the stairs longer than I’d like to admit. Eventually, I went upstairs to make my bed. It hit me that I didn’t even thank him for coming to my rescue. My cheeks heated up at the thought of him holding me through the night. I would have looked more closely at the significance of this matter if he hadn’t made it clear I was more of a job than a person to him. I wanted to forget it, yet it wouldn’t leave my mind. His warmth had made me feel at home. As I fluffed out my comforter and pillows, I tried to replace his face with Brad’s, but it just didn’t work. Maybe it was because I didn’t know him well enough yet. I wanted the normal that Brad could give me. All this magic and coven business was taking over my life.
I went downstairs after a long dreamless sleep. I worked away on the laptop, catching up on things that had fallen to the side with all my training that had gone on. I wrote out and revised an email requesting a permanent remote location for work. I knew they would make an exception, but for how long, that was unsure. I decided it would be better to get it over with instead of waiting, so I sent it to my boss, hoping for approval. Just to make sure, I worked extra hard on the reviews before submitting them to him. I was knee deep in a new manuscript when my front door flew open as Hattie walked right in.
Hattie was juggling coffee and pastries from the Roast. She sure knew the way to my heart. I was famished and washing down a few pastries with an iced latte was the best way to start the morning. We were sitting at the table with our mouths full of buttery flakey goodness when she went limp, almost toppling out of her chair. Her eyes rolled back, exposing just the whites, and without blinking, her face went slack. She started mumbling about a warehouse and danger in a low voice, too deep to belong to her.
“The darkness is coming for you.” She just kept repeating it before she suddenly blinked away the white covering her irises. She sat there for a minute before I dared to ask her if she was alright.
“Hattie...” I said cautiously. I had never experienced anything like it. I wasn’t sure what the protocol was to handle it. Was it like sleepwalking where you shouldn’t wake someone? My heart was pounding in my chest as I reached out to her tentatively.
“What did I say?” Her asking made me jump. I put a hand to my forehead as I took a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart.
“You told me the darkness is coming for me,” I whispered. I avoided her eyes, looking at the grain of the wood of the tabletop.
“That’s really bad.” Her face scrunched up as she thought about it.
“Yeah, it wasn’t great being on the receiving end of that. Your eyes did a creepy white thing, and your voice…”
“No doubt.” She nodded once before she shook the heebie jeebies off with a big drink of her latte
.
“Did you see anything else?” I perked up, hoping for some insight into the ominous warning.
“I can’t tell you that. It could alter what happens with dangerous consequences.”
We sat there in silence, both lost in our thoughts for a long time before my phone beeped and interrupted us. I picked it up and smiled at the funny text Brad was sending me. He had been texting me almost nonstop since our date. I was relieved by the mood shift that his text brought.
“Who’s got you smiling like that?” she asked, leaning her head into her hands with a big smile spreading across her face.
“That guy who I ran into outside the witch shop.”
“Have you...you know?” she asked, waggling her eyebrows.
“Absolutely not,” I laughed, “I barely let him kiss my cheek. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Hey now, my love life has fizzled out. I need to live vicariously through someone,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, in that case, I will let you know how date number two goes. He’s taking me out tonight.” I winked. I must have looked ridiculous as it sent Hattie into another fit of giggles, which ended abruptly when Judson stomped into the house.
He grabbed a pastry off the plate and shoved just about the whole thing into his mouth before pulling out a chair and plopping himself into it. Both of us just sat there staring at him for a long, drawn out minute before he even acknowledged us.
“Did I hear you say you have a date with the douchey normal guy?” he asked around another pastry.
“Um, yes, and he is not a douche.” He sure was being defensive for a guy that had no right to be.
Hattie gave me a pointed look that Judson missed. I was slow on the uptake and didn’t interpret her message, so she kept at it until Judson looked over, just about catching on to her shenanigans. She feigned distraction by her coffee cup while I changed the subject.
“Any leads on who killed Mandy?” I asked.
“Only the one we got off the dagger. How’s your arm doing?” he asked, grabbing my hand and gently tracing the burn with the pad of his thumb.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore, but the welts don’t look like they are going anywhere any time soon.”
“Speaking of, we should go pick you out an outfit, so the welts won’t show on your date,” Hattie said, walking out of the kitchen.
“I guess I will get out of your hair then,” Judson said, hovering for a second like he wanted to say something else before turning to leave.
Hattie dragged me upstairs and started rifling through my closet. She pulled out multiple outfits she insisted I try on. Before long, I had tried on just about everything in my closet before we decided on an off the shoulder navy blue top with long sleeves with a black skirt and heels. After she added curls to the ends of my hair and put more makeup on my face than I had ever worn in my life, she insisted that I take the nail polish off my nails to deter him from staring at my hand.
The welts started on my palm and swirled up my arm. I was amazed looking in the mirror at the magic she had worked on me to make them not so noticeable. I usually passed as attractive, but not so much that someone would stop and notice. After her masterpiece, I looked stunning. I self-consciously played with the soft curls hanging down my back as I stood there, taking it all in. The shirt looked semi-dressy with the skirt, but not overly so. The skirt hugged my hips, which played well with the heeled ankle boots that made my short legs look a bit longer.
“He won’t be able to keep his hands off you,” she said, nodding in approval.
“My goal is to hide my arm, not show it off by taking my clothes off.” But I secretly hoped a little bit that she was right. It would be nice to feel wanted.
“Are we going to talk about Judson?” she asked, sitting down on my bed. When I looked over, she had her head tilted and arms crossed. I hadn’t known her long, but I could read her well enough to know she wasn’t going to drop the subject.
“What about him?” I tried and failed to play it off as nothing as a knowing smile lit up her face.
“His reaction to you having a date,” she said, rolling her eyes, “That man was green with envy.”
“No, he was not. He just doesn’t want me to date a normal guy. I could mess the whole thing up if I show him my magic or something.”
“You could master in denial, you know, that right?”
“Whatever you say.”
“Mr. Stoic has a thing for you. He did come running when you needed help,” she said, all matter of fact. That alone was just him wanting to protect me.
“That’s his job.”
“His job entails holding you all night. In your bed?”
“Wait, how did you know that?” My face burned with my embarrassment. I wasn’t going to think about how good it had felt, or that he could be jealous, especially right before I go out with another man.
My phone chimed with an incoming text, interrupting the conversation.
It was Brad letting me know he was at the restaurant early. It was kind of weird, but not enough to keep me from going. Some guys were just like that, with splitting the check and the being independent type stuff. I didn’t have enough dates to be picky about it.
“Off you go,” she said, handing me my purse and walking me out to my car. I gave her a quick hug and promised to text her after. She made me swear that if it got weird, I would text her so she could fake an emergency to get me out of there.
I walked into the restaurant to see Brad sitting at the table typing away at his phone, his face scrunched with irritation with his nose crinkled up, which instantly had my stomach knotting with unease. He looked really upset about something. As soon as the waitress led me over, he dropped the irritation, immediately acting as if there had been nothing wrong. He stood up and pulled me by the hips into a swift kiss, getting a little steamy for a second date. He ran his hands down my sleeves, complimenting my outfit. Self-consciously, I hid my right hand behind me before he pulled out my chair.
His chivalry was a nice touch. He seemed to have it all going for him. He was polite, made the first move, so I didn’t feel like I was chasing him, his manners were excellent, and of course, he was nice to look at. I glanced at his phone, wondering why he seemed so upset a minute ago. He noticed me looking and went on to explain that a co-worker had messed up a job, which meant he had to step up to work a bit harder, which I could understand.
The smell of freshly baked garlic bread wafted through the restaurant, distracting me, making my stomach grumble. Brad heard it and laughed before waving down a waitress for a basket. We chatted lightly about how our days went, as I purposely sidestepped the events leading up to my hand being seared to a crisp. He reached across to hold my hand that I forgot to keep hidden away. I pulled it away quickly, before he could see the marks. The way he stared at me was giving me butterflies, it was like he was the hunter, and I was prey.
A sudden thought hit me that this was the restaurant where Mandy had been taken from, halting my good mood with a heavy stone to my belly. It hadn’t even been a full twenty-four hours since she was taken and murdered, yet here I was on a date, showing how the world didn’t stop turning for anyone. It was morbid. I drank up my water, trying to dislodge the lump growing in my throat. This was the last place she had been seen alive. She went about her work night, not knowing that she would end up lying in the woods to be found by her sister. I felt horrible being able to deal with what happened and then just going about my life after someone’s had just been cut way too short. Brad must have sensed the change in my demeanor and tried to move the conversation along. I was relieved to have the distraction taking me out of my dark thoughts as I focused back on him.
“Have you made a decision on work?” he asked. I was impressed he cared enough to remember and ask about it.
“No, I am still debating. I really don’t want to have to pack up Gram’s house if I choose to go back.” I still had no idea what the steps were from he
re. The lawyer said that the house was outright mine. Gram had lined everything up so that it had been paid off, as was the land, except for taxes. I read books all day, go through manuscripts in any genre, and even browse the newspapers, but put those types of documents in front of me and it was like trying to read gibberish. I wanted to stay here enough to have asked my boss to extend my job from leave to remote, but I didn’t feel like being that open with him.
“Well, if you need help, I got you covered in the muscle department.” I laughed. He had worn another shirt jacket, so I couldn’t be sure. For some reason, Judson’s face flashed in my mind. Why was I thinking about him now?
“I can always use some well-toned muscles.” I tried for a joke and came off as creepy. No surprise there.
Dinner was excellent. I sat there stuffed on the cheese manicotti, vinaigrette salad, and then tiramisu for dessert. I had a sweet tooth, so trying to contain myself over the homemade sweet was difficult, but he indulged me and let me have the last bite, earning himself some brownie points. If it had just been me alone at dinner, I might have ordered a second dessert to go for later. I leaned back in my chair and tucked a strand of hair behind my ears.
“What did you do to your arm?” he asked, his face showing concern.
“Um...oh...this? It’s nothing. Just got an electrical burn on an old outlet.” I tried to hide my arm with my sleeve, and he pulled it over the red welts. The pain had been gone, but as he rubbed his hand across it, the welts burned like they had just happened.
“Ouch!” I winced and pulled my hand away and tucked it against my body, trying to disperse the pain.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have touched it.”
“It’s okay. I think it’s just sensitive right now.”
“An old house can do that to an unsuspecting woman.” He shook his head. He was insinuating I had done it trying to fix something. I guess any conclusion he came to other than the truth was okay. Not that I wanted him to think I was a damsel in distress either.
