by Amy Boyles
“Soar.”
He would rise.
“Dive.”
He was fall.
“Shoot fire.”
Girlfriend, dragon spat a flame.
I jumped. “Holy shrimp and grits. So this is it. This is the connection.”
I felt it in my heart that Hugo was supposed to be mine, so when Barry appeared in the distance, I started feeling all Mother Bear, ready for a fight to the finish to see who would become the little dragon’s owner.
“Come,” I said to Hugo.
The dragon drifted down, beating his wings until he settled on my shoulders.
“You’re early,” Barry said.
“Yeah. Betty was a tyrant last night. She was just awful. I slipped out early this morning, trying to get time with Hugo. He’s such a sweet dragon.”
Barry patted Hugo’s head. “Yeah. He’s going to be great in Witch Vegas. Seriously. He’s got the exact right temperament to train for shows.”
“I’m sure going to miss him,” I said.
Barry smiled. “You can visit whenever you’d like.”
“Thanks,” I said.
I uncoiled Hugo from my shoulders and squeezed him tight before handing him to Barry. “Let me know when you’re settled in. I’d like to see him.”
Barry hugged Hugo to him. “Will do.”
He walked off toward the woods. I waited for Betty to give me the signal.
My heart pounded. My breath hitched. Betty was closest to where Barry had come from. She would have watched him pull up.
I squeezed the button on my communicator. “Betty, what’s the word?”
Static filled the air until I finally heard a crackle. “A truck’s pulling up to where Barry is. Looks like we were right. As soon as he had Hugo, Barry was going to do a deal.”
“What are we waiting for? Come on,” I said.
I ran toward the woods, breaking branches and snapping twigs as I rushed over the grass. I saw two vehicles up ahead.
And I saw two men—Barry holding Hugo and Axel preparing to take the dragon from him.
“Everyone stop! Police!”
Suddenly, Garrick Young and company stormed into the woods. The police, looking like extras from the cast of Van Helsing, surrounded the two men, raining down order on them.
Axel’s face twisted with fury. Before he could take hold of Hugo, he clapped his hands and disappeared.
I crumpled to the ground as police swept past me, grabbing Barry and forcing his hands behind his back.
“Don’t move,” Garrick said. “You’re under arrest.”
As he started to read Barry his rights, the Dragon Tamer screamed that he was innocent. That he hadn’t done anything wrong.
I stared at the scene, totally confused. My head swam from disbelief. Everything seemed to move in super slow motion.
I didn’t register anything until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I glanced up to see Betty wearing thick black glasses and smoking her corncob pipe.
“Looks like we got the villain,” she said.
Then why do I feel so bad?
TWENTY-THREE
“Mr. Dragon Tamer says you asked him to take care of Hugo.”
“Is that his real last name?” I said. “Dragon Tamer?”
I sat in Garrick’s office. Betty sat beside me. I suppose she’d come along for moral support, or simply to make sure things went the way we needed them to go.
My stomach was so knotted I wasn’t sure which way that was.
“Yep,” Garrick said, beating his thumbs on the armrests of his chair. “Says that you wanted him to take the dragon.” He opened a manila folder. “But if this guy is who we think he is, he’s been grinding up dragons for quite a while and selling them on the black market.”
I grimaced. “Thanks for the image.”
Garrick pinched the brim of his hat and ran his fingers along the line. “Dragon Tamer swears he was handing the creature off to someone else who wanted to buy it from him.”
“And how did someone else know to contact him?”
“Been in contact with him,” he said.
I pushed up. “But that’s not what Hattie Hollypop said. She said that Barry was a well-known dragon bloodstone dealer. That’s where she’d gotten hers from.”
“Yep,” Garrick said. “Barry confessed to selling stones, but said he got them from Mysterio.”
I clicked my tongue. “So they were in on it together. Mysterio was buying up dragons and then turning over the stones to Barry to sell.”
“But that’s as far as it ever went with Barry,” Garrick said. “He would sell some, but he swears he never had more than a few to sell at any one time.”
I sank into the chair. “So where does this put us? What about Axel?”
Garrick’s mouth tightened. “I’ve been unable to reach Mr. Reign.”
I cracked my knuckles and raked my fingers through my hair. “So basically we’re nowhere.”
Garrick shot me a knowing look. “I’m still investigating. I don’t know what y’all ladies are doing running around in a forest with walkie-talkies and setting up dragon purchase deals, but my suggestion is to leave this sort of thing to the professionals. Let me investigate and if you want to sell a baby dragon, I think you should sell him from your own shop legally—not in the backwoods.”
Heat flushed my face. “Okay, officer. You’re right.”
Betty rose. “Come on, Pepper. Let’s go.”
We walked out of the station. “So what does any of this mean?” I said.
“It means we got the wrong man,” Betty grumbled.
“And it also means Garrick said to stay out of it,” I said. “Probably for the best. It’s all a bunch of random events. Besides, I’ll never know what my mother wanted to tell me anyway.”
Betty fisted a hand on her hip. “I’ve been telling you what she wanted you to know—she loves you. Would you stop asking about it? There were three things in life your mother loved—the smell of gardenias, your father and you. Four—me, as well.”
Properly chastened, I hanged my head. “All right. But I still feel like this whole thing was a bust. Axel’s clearly involved. Barry was selling. Mysterio was buying up dragons. But we still don’t understand why Mysterio was murdered. Not that any of it matters.”
“Because your heart hurts,” Betty said.
“Yeah.”
She wrapped a grandmotherly arm around my shoulders. “Everything will turn out all right in the end. It always does.”
I forced a smile. “I’m sure you’re right.”
I followed her to the house, where Cordelia and Amelia had changed out of their green and brown and into normal clothes. “Well, that was all in a good day’s work, don’t you y’all think?” Amelia said.
I shrugged. “I suppose.”
Cordelia and Amelia exchanged glances. “Are you opening your store today?”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve closed due to special circumstances.”
Cordelia flipped a strand of hair over her shoulder. “Why don’t you come with us? We’re going out for ice cream and shopping.”
A genuine smile tugged on my lips. “Will there be banana splits involved?”
Amelia fingered her pixie cut hair. “You bet. And I’m sure we can manage to throw some jelly beans on top.”
I laughed. “Okay. That sounds great.”
We left, but not before I gave Hugo a pat on the head. Betty promised to take good care of him and my cousins and I set off for Marshmallow Magic, my cousin Carmen’s store.
Carmen sold all sorts of sweets and she even had an ice cream counter where she scooped up sundaes, shakes and cones, along with molded chocolate bats and hard sugar-candy frogs.
Everything was delicious.
I ordered a sundae with chocolate sauce, marshmallow topping and of course, cinnamon jelly beans.
We sat at a booth. I licked my lips as I eyed my concoction.
“That looks heavenly,” Amelia said.
<
br /> I moaned as the marshmallow and cinnamon hit my tongue and slid down my throat. “It is. Want a bite?”
“Yes,” she said, giggling.
We exchanged bites of our treats until we were so stuffed and exhausted from the sugar rush that each of us sprawled on our seats.
“Do y’all feel up for shopping?” Cordelia said. “Or would y’all rather hang out here and melt into the cushions?”
I laughed, pushing up. “I’m ready for some retail therapy. Where are we going?”
“I was thinking Witch’s Wardrobe. I saw a pair of web earrings I want.”
“Oh?” Amelia said. “Do you need them for a date?”
Cordelia raked her fingers through her hair. “Okay, fine. I guess it’s time for me to finally fess up.”
“We’ve been waiting for you to do that,” I said. “I can’t wait to hear all the details.”
Cordelia rolled her eyes. “Zach and I broke up three weeks ago.”
“What?” I said. “You never told us.”
“I didn’t want to give Betty the satisfaction of knowing. She’s never liked the fact that Zach and I were long distance, so I kept up the pretense. Then I met someone.”
“Garrick,” I said.
She glared at me. “Yes, Garrick.”
“You don’t have to hide it from us,” Amelia said. “We like Garrick and we trust your instincts.”
Cordelia’s shoulders relaxed. “I was afraid y’all would judge me. Garrick and I are going slow, but I really like him.”
I grinned. “I like him, too.”
Cordelia smiled. “Good…Now, let’s go get some spider web earrings.”
We went to the house and picked up our cast iron skillets to fly over to Witch’s Wardrobe.
It was mid-afternoon. The sun suspended high in the sky. We landed near the clothing store. Gretchen Gargoyle greeted us when we entered..
Cordelia went straight to the earrings and I walked around while Amelia perused the cobweb undergarments.
I found a bright blue tunic that I figured would look great with my red hair and might not make the freckles on my nose stand out too much. I slipped into a dressing room and changed. The dress felt good, but I wanted a second opinion. I exited the room.
Gretchen met me outside. “That looks great, Pepper. Though it needs some accessories. I think I’ve got a belt that would look perfect. Just came in. I haven’t even put them out. Follow me, sister, and I’ll get you squared away.”
Her excitement had me curious. I followed Gretchen to her office.
“Darn, they must be in the storeroom. I thought I’d left them in here. I’ll be right back.”
“Pepper,” Amelia called out.
“Yes,” I answered.
Amelia and Cordelia popped into the office.
Amelia ran her fingers over her pixie cut. “If you’re going to be a few minutes the two of us are going to step over to Spellin’ Skillet and grab some supper so that Betty doesn’t have to cook.”
I glanced at Cordelia. “Did you already pay for the earrings?”
She raised a bag in reply.
“Okay. I’ll be here.”
They disappeared and I took a minute to glance around the office. On the table lay an ashtray with half a cigar snubbed out in it.
I peered closer. It looked like the exact same type of cigar I’d seen in Mysterio’s room at the inn.
But Mysterio didn’t smoke.
Then who did the cigar belong to?
My gaze drifted to the opposite side of the desk. On the corner sat an open box with plastic bubble packaging overflowing from the lid.
“Are these the belts?”
I peeled back the cover expecting to see belts, but instead I found stones. Dark blood-colored rocks.
My fingers numbed. My jaw dropped as the pieces of the puzzle finally fit together.
The cigar I found in Mysterio’s room. Axel had said his brother smoked, that he had traded illegal objects, but Axel hadn’t said what kind. Then there was the fact that Axel hadn’t seemed to recognize me at the police station or out on the street when we bumped into each other.
My fingers were still on the box when I heard Gretchen re-enter.
“Well, well, well, I was hoping you wouldn’t look in there.”
I turned and saw Gretchen in the doorway. She pulled a gun from her pocket and pointed it at me.
My heart thundered. “What are you going to do with me?”
“Why, kill you, of course.”
TWENTY-FOUR
I stared at the gun leveled at my chest. You know, it never failed to surprise me that witches that used magic in their everyday lives relied on guns to kill people.
It was something I didn’t understand.
“So you got rid of Mysterio,” I said.
Gretchen smirked. “Figured it out a little too late, didn’t you?”
“Better late than never, they always say.”
Gretchen rested her gun hand on her other arm as if to stabilize herself. “We were partners for years. Mysterio purchased the dragons and I took care of the other side—the dirty work, so they say. But Mysterio got greedy. He wanted to cut me out of our deals. Yes, he loved to have affairs with women. None of that bothered me. I didn’t care. All I wanted was the money.”
She backed up and jerked her hand for me to exit the room. “I’m not going to shoot you in my office. Too big a chance of bloodying up the carpet. I want you to head to the sales floor. The linoleum will be better for clean up.”
How thoughtful of her.
I shuffled to the front. Gretchen snapped her fingers. A CLOSED sign swung into place and large black drapes shuttered the windows.
“My cousins will be right back,” I said.
She smirked. “By that time you’ll have disappeared. I’ll pretend not to know where you’ve gone.”
I hated it when killers had decent plans. “Then what happened? Mysterio double cross you? You might as well tell me before you kill me.”
“He cut me out of several deals and I discovered he was going to desert me completely. I couldn’t have that. I make too much money from the stones,” Gretchen snapped. “So I concocted a plan.”
Just then, a figure emerged from the back. He looked exactly like Axel but I could see a small tattoo peeking out from above the top button of his shirt.
“Adam Reign, I presume,” I said.
He smirked.
“How’d you figure that out?” Gretchen asked.
“The cigars. Found one in Mysterio’s room and another in your office.”
Gretchen shot him a scathing look. “I told you to clean those up.”
“No big deal,” he said.
“I thought you were your brother,” I said. “He didn’t tell me he had a twin.”
Adam smiled. “I’m the better looking one, I think.”
Though he did look almost identical to Axel, there was something just a little rough around the edges about him. It wasn’t something I would have noticed if I didn’t know that they were twins, as I’d mistaken Adam for Axel a couple of times already.
I turned back to Gretchen. “What kind of plan did you concoct against Mysterio?”
With the gun pointed at me, she confessed. “That night, Adam went up to Mysterio’s room to ask questions about who to buy stones from. Mysterio happened to write my address on a paper.”
Adam agreed. “I ripped it off and spelled the cape using a potion Gretchen had made.”
“But why didn’t Mysterio sell you the stones himself? If he was cutting you out of deals, Gretchen, wouldn’t Mysterio have wanted to sell to Adam?”
“He was acting nervous,” Adam said.
The potion. The one that Betty had spelled Hugo with probably made Mysterio a nervous wreck. After all, when we saw him right before he died, he nearly threw the cage at us as if it was on fire.
“It didn’t matter if Mysterio sold Adam the stones or not. The point was to get close enough to him to
spell his cape,” Gretchen said.
She smiled. “Even though I wasn’t the original designer, I know a trick or two to make clothing do what I want. I knew that the cops would suspect me because of my relationship with Mysterio and my talents with fabric, so I dragged out those old letters to point to Idie Claire Hawker. It was simple and easy.”
“And then you discovered I had a dragon and wanted him for yourself.”
Gretchen’s face twisted into a sick grin. It sent a shudder through me. “You know what’s funny? I didn’t even know about your dragon until that day you came into my shop with it around your neck. I told Idie Claire that Hattie attended Sunday yoga because I figured you’d need her bloodstones, given the ripped off note you’d found that held part of your mother’s message. You made a big enough deal about it that I knew Hattie would be someone that could help you decipher it.
“So that’s how we all ended up at yoga. I figured if I made your dragon seem dangerous enough, you’d either decide to sell him or we’d steal him. I cast a spell that made a little bit of his inner dragon come out against the cats and dogs. I figured if he was a public nuisance you’d be more willing to get rid of him.”
“So you watched the house,” I said. My gaze bobbed around the room. I was looking for a chance to escape, but with Gretchen and Adam in the store, my chances of dashing were slim.
“And we almost had him,” Gretchen said.
My gaze shifted to Adam. “But he torched you.”
“Sneaky little dragon,” he spat. “He attacked me hard enough that I ran off.”
“But not before Axel showed up.” I put all of that together. “The dragon was in such a fury that he then turned to Axel while you escaped. Scared of a baby dragon, are you?”
Adam crossed his massive prison-workout arms across his chest. “Once you go missing, it’ll be easier to swoop in and steal him.”
“There’s no way I’m going to let that happen.”
The voice shot out from behind Gretchen. Both criminals whirled around. Standing in the hallway, a halo of light glowing around him from the open office door, stood Axel.
I almost dropped to my knees in thanks.
