by Ruby Loren
The letter, cut out using a magazine I couldn’t identify, simply said that they were safe and staying ahead of things. I’d guessed it had been impossible to write anything more specific. After all - they didn’t know if my post was being intercepted or even if the Council was watching my every move. I wasn’t too sure of that myself, but things were quiet… and I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.
I placed my elbows on the counter and sighed.
“Why the long face?” Hemlock asked, crawling out from where he’d been hiding in a box, poking Erebus’ sleeping form with a stick. I thought I’d heard him muttering something that sounded like a spell, but I was going to pretend I hadn’t heard it. Erebus was impervious to magic, and perhaps it would help them bond.
“I want to say that everything is back to the way it used to be in Wormwood and that it’s the same old Wormwood I’m seeing when I look out the window, but I can’t help feeling like the other shoe’s about to drop,” I told him.
“Don’t look now, but I think it’s dropping,” Hemlock said, before slipping away to watch events unfold from his usual high vantage point.
I looked across at the shop door to see what he was talking about.
A man dressed in black was standing there watching me. I hadn’t even heard the door open, but that didn’t surprise me. The man from the Council who’d dragged Aunt Linda away had returned… and this time, I had a feeling he’d come for me.
Erebus woke up with a little growl. The man in black’s forehead might have creased for a moment. He looked around warily, before walking further into the shop. It would appear that he knew about my new, furry friend. That didn’t surprise me. Chloe had mentioned she was working for the Council… and now here they were, presumably to do what she couldn’t.
“My name’s Aleister Root. I’m the head of the Official Council of Witches. Regretfully, we didn’t get a chance to be introduced the last time I was visiting here, and I was otherwise engaged during the court proceedings.” His eyes skated back and forth as he spoke to me, surely looking for signs of where Erebus was. Being a magician with a standard set of powers, he couldn’t see the hellhound… and he wouldn’t, until it was too late. There was a reason the Council used devils to do their dirty work - hellhounds were magic eaters. They were perfect for dispatching witches and magicians.
I inclined my head. I still had many questions about the Council, but after their guards and their woman in white had attacked Minerva and me with full intent to kill us both, I wasn’t going to waste time on pleasantries.
The man in black looked like he had his fair share of questions, too, but I wasn’t prepared for what he said next.
“I’m afraid I come to you today bearing grave news. Your father has been missing for ten years. Today, he was declared legally dead. It was only when this happened that his lawyers opened the sealed papers and discovered his identity as your father. In his will, he leaves everything to you. His legacy is now yours… you just need to visit the lawyer’s office in Camden and sign a few papers.” The man’s dark eyes watched me. They were black, just like Constantine’s, and I sensed a similar sort of power radiating off him. The two men struck me as somewhat alike. I certainly wouldn’t be trusting this stranger with anything.
But did I believe his story?
The magician cleared his throat and looked surprisingly awkward. “I know it must be difficult for you to discover the identity of your father, only to have him taken away again, but I want you to know that I am only here today to offer you the information and my condolences.” Even as he said it, his eyes burned with the accusations and questions that he wanted to throw my way, but he held his tongue.
“Who was he? My father, I mean…” I said, realising the man in black hadn’t mentioned his name.
“His name was James Monroe. The details mention that he has some sort of business empire, but I’m afraid I don’t know much more about him.”
“Do you know if he was… if he had magic?” I asked.
Aleister looked thoughtful. “I saw nothing at all in those papers to suggest that he was anything other than a normal person, not gifted in the supernatural in the slightest. The only reason the lawyer contacted the Council was because the will was originally made for your mother.” His expression flashed with regret when he said it.
My mother had died a year ago. I was more sorry now than I’d ever been that we hadn’t been close. If her sisters were anything to go by, I’d missed out on her magical side and all that it meant.
“However…” Aleister continued, “…appearances can be deceptive.”
We looked at each other for a long moment, the ominous man in black, and the woman with the power to send him to another dimension.
“Here’s the lawyer’s address,” he said, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket and laying it on the counter that stood between us. He never took his eyes off me when he did it. To my right, Erebus growled, eliciting a sudden flash of alarm on the man in black’s face.
I smiled back at him, the perfect shopkeeper. “I appreciate you stopping by to tell me this.” That was as close to a thank you as he was going to get.
He had just given me the knowledge I’d been searching for my whole life - a chance to know who my father was and possibly an opportunity to solve the mystery of my magic.
“This isn’t the end of business between us. I’ll be seeing you,” Aleister said, before ruining that final ominous note by backing away from the source of the growling, all the way to the shop door.
I watched him pull it shut behind him and then fling a handful of powder onto the ground, before disappearing in magical fashion. I didn’t doubt the truth of his last words. I’d known the Council would hold a grudge after the jailbreak we’d pulled off, but some small part of me had hoped they’d decide to live and let live.
I sensed that this strange meeting, heralding the court-ruled death of my father, due to his mysterious disappearance, was only the start of things to come.
The other shoe had definitely dropped.
Books in the Series
Mandrake and a Murder
Vervain and a Victim
Feverfew and False Friends
Belladonna and a Body
Aconite and Accusations
Prequel: Hemlock and Hedge
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Ruby Loren
Also by Ruby Loren
MADIGAN AMOS ZOO MYSTERIES
Penguins and Mortal Peril
The Silence of the Snakes
Murder is a Monkey’s Game
Lions and the Living Dead
The Peacock’s Poison
A Memory for Murder
Whales and a Watery Grave
Chameleons and a Corpse
Foxes and Fatal Attraction
Monday’s Murderer
Prequel: Parrots and Payback
DIANA FLOWERS FLORICULTURE MYSTERIES
Gardenias and a Grave Mistake
Delphiniums and Deception
Poinsettias and the Perfect Crime
Peonies and Poison
The Lord Beneath the Lupins
Prequel: The Florist and the Funeral
HOLLY WINTER MYSTERIES
Snowed in with Death
A Fatal Frost
Murder Beneath the Mistletoe
Winter’s Last Victim
EMILY HAVERSSON OLD HOUSE MYSTERIES
The Lavender of Larch Hall
The Leaves of Llewellyn Keep
The Snow of Severly Castle
The Frost of Friston Manor
The Heart of Heathley House
HAYLEY ARGENT HORSE MYSTERIES
The Swallow’s Storm
The Starling’s Summer
The Falcon’s Frost
The Waxwing’s Winter
JANUARY CHEVALIER SUPERNATURAL MYSTERIES
Death’s Dark Horse
Death’s Hexed Hobnobs
Death’s Endless Enchanter
Death’s Ethereal Enemy
Death’s Last Laugh
Prequel: Death’s Reckless Reaper
BLOOMING SERIES
Blooming
Abscission
Frost-Bitten
Blossoming
Flowering
Fruition
