Death Quixote
Magical Bookshop Mystery #4
Samantha Silver
Blueberry Books Press
For Meghan, who as far as I’m concerned definitely has magical powers.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Also by Samantha Silver
About the Author
Chapter 1
What do you do when your family’s obviously trying to kill you? Well, your grandma, anyway.
“I’m not getting on that broom,” I said, crossing my arms. Grandma Cee looked up at me, her small frame handing the instrument that would surely eventually lead to my death toward me, its old-fashioned bristles poking at me as she prodded the broom into me.
“Do you want to die a slow and painful death at the hands of The Others, where they steal your soul, or do you want to learn to be a real witch?”
“I feel like there’s probably a healthy middle ground somewhere between those two options that doesn’t involve me getting on that death contraption again,” I replied, stubbornly crossing my arms, refusing to take the broom despite the poking.
“Mother! What’s happened to the broom? If you’re out there trying to get Alice to go back on it, I’m not going to be happy with you!” came a shout from inside the house. It was Sage, my aunt, who had witnessed my near-death experience the last time I’d gotten onto a broom, and had since decided that Grandma Cee was not to be trusted to teach me magic all alone.
“She’s out here, she’s trying to get me on it!” I shouted.
“Snitch,” Grandma Cee muttered at me as Sage came flying out of the house, wearing a Gingham dress and an apron like a perfect 1950s housewife, carrying a little toy broom in her other hand with a frog’s face on it, that was about two feet tall.
“You’re in for it now, snitch,” my cousin Cat said from where she was relaxing on an easy chair, watching the battle of wills between myself and Grandma Cee.
“Absolutely not!” Sage said, striding over to Grandma Cee and grabbing the broom out of her hand, and handing her the kids’ one instead. I had a bad feeling about this.
“If you’re going to insist on teaching her how to ride, at least do it with a reasonable broom.”
Cat looked at me and snickered, and I glared at her. “You’re not helping,” I said.
“I’m not here to help, I’m here to be entertained,” she replied.
“Wrong!” Grandma Cee said, turning her wrath on my cousin. “You’re also here to learn, since your development as a witch is woefully under acceptable standards, a fact that I blame on your mother’s lax attitude in raising you. Seeing as you insist on going after The Others with your cousin here, you’d both better improve your skills if you don’t want your souls painfully sucked from your bodies and used to power the engines of evil.”
Grandma Cee was absolutely terrifying when she got on a roll.
“Yes, Grandma,” Cat squealed in reply. I had stopped breathing at one point during the tirade without noticing it, and when Grandma Cee handed me the toy broom, I took it without question or snarky comment.
“Now, you’re going to learn to fly on this.”
“Is it going to try to kill me like the other broom?” I asked. My first experience with learning to fly on a broomstick ended with me falling into the tree at the front of the property after the broom plummeted toward the ground.
“Don’t worry, Alice. The children’s broom is designed for learning. It won’t go higher than three feet off the ground, no matter how hard you try,” Sage said.
I eyed the broom suspiciously; I still wasn’t sure I trusted it, but Sage, so far, seemed intent on keeping me alive. Grandma Cee seemed to be more of the opinion that only the strong survived, and that throwing someone into the deep end was a great way to see if they were strong enough.
“Ok,” I finally agreed.
“I’m totally snapping a picture of this and sending it to Peaches,” Cat grinned, sitting up in her chair as she realized I was about to learn to fly on a children’s broom, and I stuck my tongue out at her.
“You will do nothing of the sort!” Grandma Cee ordered. “In fact, you are being rather useless just sitting around here not doing anything. I want you to go to the back of the property and practice your teleporting spells. If you manage to transport yourself from the backyard into the kitchen, you’ll have earned the right to come back out here and mock your cousin.”
Cat shrugged. “Works for me.” She stood up from her chair and made her way to the back of the expansive backyard while I looked carefully at the broom.
“Now, remember,” Grandma Cee told me. “Flying is all about subtlety. You want to go forward, you lean forward on the broom slightly. To go up, you raise up the broom, but again, subtle!”
“Subtle, subtle, subtle,” I repeated to myself as I looked at the broom. I actually felt a little bit silly, getting on a children’s toy to learn how to fly. The last time I got on a broom I’d panicked as soon as it started moving, and that was what had led to one of the most horrifying experiences of my life.
This time, I knew the same thing wasn’t going to happen. This was a kids’ broom; it was probably the same broom Peaches and Cat learned to ride on when they were like, three years old. It wasn’t going to kill me; it was height limited anyway. As long as I could keep the speed down, it would be fine.
As soon as I placed the broom horizontally, it began to float in the air at around hip height. I climbed gingerly on it and pushed away the feeling of wanting to puke as I felt myself sitting on a one-inch wide piece of tubing and nothing else. My feet dangled below me, and my heart leapt up into my throat.
“Relax, Alice,” Sage said from her spot by the door. “Before you start trying to move, you need to be comfortable on the broom.”
“How can I relax?” I practically squealed, holding the handle of the broom with a death grip. “I’m literally hanging in the air on a tiny little broom handle.”
“Just let her fall off it a few times so she realizes it doesn’t hurt, and she’ll be fine,” Grandma Cee said, waving away Sage’s suggestion.
“I have fallen off a broom, and not only did it hurt a lot, but I also almost died!” I practically shrieked, my heart pounding in my chest. Every second I spent on this broom felt worse, but a moment later I realized Sage was standing in front of me.
“Give me your hands,” she said, holding hers out, and I looked at her suspiciously. I felt a bit bad; Sage had always been incredibly nice, warm and welcoming, and unlike her mother had yet to do anything with me that nearly led to my death, but I wasn’t exactly in a trusting mood right now.
“I can’t, I’d have to let go of the handle.”
“That’s exactly what I want you to do,” she said with a small smile. “Look, it’s going to be fine. I won’t let you fall backwards, and if you fall forwards you’re just going to drop about a foot onto the ground. You’ll land on your feet.”
I looked down and realized that Sage was right. I felt a little bit s
illy about panicking over such a small height, but in my defense, I had been traumatized the last time I tried this.
“Ok,” I finally said, carefully taking one hand off the broom and gripping Sage’s hand, then doing the same with the other. She winced as I held onto her as though for dear life, but didn’t say anything.
“Now, I want you to loosen your grip. Come on, you can do it.”
With a bit more encouragement, I slowly began to loosen my death grip on Sage’s hands. “There you go,” she continued. “See? That’s not so bad now, is it? Now, relax. I want you to take three deep breaths with me. One, two, three. Now, roll your shoulders. You have so much tension in them right now.”
Slowly but surely, I began to actually relax on the broom. Eventually, the panic that had been gripping my chest like a vice began to release, and I started to move with more of a natural flow.
“That’s it,” Sage said with a smile. Good work. Now I want you to put one hand on the broom handle, and keep holding onto my other hand, ok?”
“Sure,” I said, managing to answer without sounding like I belonged in an insane asylum for failed witches who didn’t understand how brooms worked. I did as she asked.
“Now slowly, put just a little bit of pressure on the front of the broom. Super slow, super light pressure. Like you’re patting a tiny little scared puppy.”
I did as Sage asked and gasped as the broom began to move under me. “You’ve got this, I’m staying with you,” Sage said as the broom began to slowly inch forward. Unlike the last time, it didn’t immediately shoot skyward like a rocket.
With Sage holding my hand like I was a toddler learning how to ride a bike, I crept forward on the broom and we did a slow circle around the backyard. Cat was watching me from the back fence, laughing, but I ignored her. I was entirely focused on the broom, and trying not to die.
“All right, I’m going to let go of your hand now,” Sage told me, and she slowly slipped her fingers away from mine as I gripped the broom once more. I did a full circle by myself, and I managed to not fall over, panic or do anything really ridiculous.
“I’m doing it! I’m really doing it!” I cried triumphantly.
“Now make the broom go higher,” Grandma Cee ordered. “Pull up on the handle, slowly.”
With my confidence having grown, I did as she asked. I was really, really cautious about pulling up slowly, and the broom began to rise.
“Lean into the broom as it goes up!” Sage called out to me, and as I did so I immediately felt more balanced; it no longer felt like I was going to slip off the end at any second.
Pretty soon I felt confident enough to start doing bigger circles around the yard. Even Cat, who was teleporting herself from spot to spot around the yard, eventually nodded at me.
“Good job! You don’t look like a toddler anymore!”
I waved at her, feeling awesome, as I zipped around the backyard, about three feet off the ground, my toes dangling toward the grass. It was funny; while I had been so scared of flying on a broom before, now that I was getting the hang of it–and had the confidence of the children’s broom that wouldn’t go any higher than I was comfortable with–I was not only enjoying it, but it made me feel like a real witch.
After all, I didn’t have a wand, or a pointy hat, or a wart covered nose. Up until now, none of the real witch stereotypes applied to me. But here I was, riding a broom! Like a real, live witch should.
I let out a whoop as I made the broom go even faster, until the house and fence behind became a bit of a blur.
Suddenly, however, Cat teleported to a spot directly in front of me. We both let out a cry of surprise, and I yanked back on the handle of the broom to try and stop it, but it was no use. The broom collided directly with my cousin, and the two of us fell to the ground together in a giant tangle of limbs and broom parts.
“Are you both all right?” Sage called out as she ran toward us.
“What kind of idiot teleports directly in front of a broom? I told you to teleport to the kitchen!” Grandma Cee complained.
“I didn’t know that was where the broom was going to be!” Cat exclaimed. “I wanted to practice some easier spots before I teleported to inside the house.”
“Do you think The Others are going to give you a few practice tries before they eat your soul?” Grandma Cee asked, her hands on her hips.
“We haven’t even seen any of them in weeks,” Cat complained. “Not since Alice killed one. Maybe they’re going to leave us alone.”
“Mark my words, they absolutely are not,” Grandma Cee warned. “I guarantee you they are out there, plotting. They will return, and they will return stronger. We need to be ready when they do.”
“I certainly don’t feel any stronger right now,” I muttered to myself. Untangling myself from Cat, I slowly stood up, and immediately felt pain shooting through my leg. “Ow!”
“Just walk it off, you’ll be fine in a minute,” Grandma Cee muttered.
Cat grinned. “Awwww, isn’t that adorable? Your limp matches your boyfriend’s.”
I glared at her as I limped around the backyard, the pain diminishing slightly, but not completely. My back was also pretty sore. A few weeks ago, while learning to ski I’d accidentally maimed my boyfriend–and the chief of police here in Sapphire Village–Chase Griffin. He’d strained his MCL because of me, and while he was no longer on crutches, he definitely still had a bit of a limp.
Cat got up as well, seemingly unhurt from our adventure.
“Well, I think that’s enough for one day,” Sage said. “I want to make sure Alice is ok before you get them to do anything else.”
“Absolutely not! My lesson isn’t finished!”
“It is for now,” Sage said, crossing her arms. “And that’s final. Girls, go back to Sapphire Village.”
“You two had better be back here in a few days for more lessons!” Grandma Cee ordered. I looked down at the children’s broomstick and found that it had snapped in half during our accident. I really did not have any luck with riding a broom.
“We will, Grandma Cee!” Cat said. “But for now, we’re heading home.”
“Sorry about the broom,” I said to Sage, handing her the two broken pieces.
“Oh don’t you worry yourself about that, dear,” she replied, pointing at it, and a split second later the broom was good as new. “Peaches won’t admit this, but she broke this one dozens of times growing up.”
Cat and I laughed. Peaches was Cat’s sister, and my other cousin, and her grasp on magic was, well, erratic. Her spells often didn’t do quite what she intended, and as a result she had been banned from the backyard while I learned to fly and was currently in the house in the room she’d converted to do her art. Sage’s face turned serious.
“I am glad you learned how to fly today, Alice. I know Grandma Cee is a bit overbearing, but she is right. I think The Others will be back, and we don’t know when. Please be careful in Sapphire Village.”
“We will, mom. Love you!” Cat said, planting a kiss on her mother’s cheek before the two of us made our way back through the house and to the street.
I looked up at the sky, which today was a deep purple color, with the false stars of Brixton Road shining up above. Brixton Road was a paranormal sanctuary in the middle of the forest outside of Sapphire Village, deep in the mountains of Oregon. Cat and I headed back to the portals, which would magically transport us back to Sapphire Village, my new mountain home.
“Ready?” Cat asked, and I nodded.
“See you in a second!” she grinned, jumping through the bright pink portal which indicated that we would be heading back to Cat’s Cupcakes, my cousin’s bakery that sat right at the base of the gondola to head up the mountain.
I grinned and followed her a second later, the novelty of all this magic stuff still not having worn off completely.
Chapter 2
“It’s freezing in here, you need a better spot for your portal,” I said to Cat when I reappeare
d inside the walk-in fridge of her shop.
“This place is subtle. Besides, you’re still such a Florida person. The temperature’s in the eighties outside. This is actually a heatwave for May.”
“Pffft, this is like, normal May weather,” I replied.
“I can’t wait until mid-January where I’m sure I’ll find you curled up in the fetal position, having frozen to death because the temperature reached single digits,” Cat teased, and I shivered.
“Ugh. Don’t remind me. Maybe I’ll be one of those people who spends my winters back down in Florida.”
Cat laughed as we left the walk-in fridge. It was just about eight o’clock; the bakery had long since closed, so we were alone in here.
“Do you want to grab some pizza on the way home and chill with me and Muffin for a while?” I asked Cat as we made our way to the front of the shop. Muffin was the cat I’d inherited from my aunt, a cheeky little grey tabby who liked food and beanbag chairs.
“Only if you leave me and Muffin alone with the pizza,” Cat joked, and I stuck my tongue out at her. “But seriously, I’m totally in, especially if you want to watch some Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Netflix with it.”
“Sounds good,” I said, nodding. “We’ll stop in at Pickles’ Pizza on the way.”
“Cool, just let me take this bag of trash to the dumpster out back so it doesn’t smell when I come back here in the morning,” Cat said, and I followed her out the back door to where the locked dumpster was. After all, Sapphire Village was black bear country, and leaving garbage unlocked in the village meant bears eventually had to be killed when they became accustomed to human food and were no longer afraid of us.
Death Quixote (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Magical Bookshop Mystery Book 4) Page 1
