Death Quixote (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Magical Bookshop Mystery Book 4)

by Samantha Silver

  “That’s what killed them,” Cat said with certainty. “The fire kept them away from me, but I was watching you. As soon as you got close, it was like you became the light. It radiated from you, and there was screaming from them, I could see it, but I couldn’t hear it. And I think we’re totally overlooking the fact that you actually flew on a broom!”

  I laughed. “It turns out your impending death at the hands of The Others was just the motivation I needed to actually get on it and do it right.”

  “Well, I hope to never do that again, as much as it might have helped you.”

  “Don’t worry, I don’t intend to ever get on a broom again, either.”

  “Awww, but you were so good on it!”

  “I almost puked on you.”

  “And I thank you for holding back,” Cat laughed. “Now come on, let’s get home and try and get a bit of sleep.”

  Chapter 18

  The last few days of staying up all night after a day of work, and sustaining myself entirely on naps and coffee finally got to me, and by the time I woke up the next day it was already after eleven.

  “Well, I hope nobody really desperately wanted any books,” I muttered to myself, rolling over. Maybe I could let myself sleep until one.

  After about twenty more minutes of lying in bed I realized my brain was far too active to let me get to sleep, and I made my way down the stairs and to the bookshop. After all, while we’d stopped one of the bike thieves, another was still out there, and we still didn’t know where Sally Wentworth was.

  I fed Muffin, who was making his displeasure at a late breakfast known, and then lay down on one of the couches in the store while tossing over everything that had happened in my mind. It was like there were three different strings, and right now, none of them were attached to one another. And yet, it was almost too much of a coincidence. They had to be linked somehow, right? The fact that Sapphire Sam was asking about the very bike lock that this gang of thieves was taking advantage of couldn’t have been a coincidence.

  I eventually dozed off a little bit, and woke up to the sound of the bell across the door dinging to let me know I had a customer. I shot up from the couch and flattened my hair, even more embarrassed when I looked over to see Chase grinning at me.

  “Sleeping on the job, are you?”

  “Just a little,” I mumbled back.

  “Well, it’s pretty easy to be exhausted when you’re doing both my job and yours,” Chase replied with a hard look.

  “Sorry,” I replied. “It’s just, I promised Cat I’d look into Sapphire Sam’s murder with her.”

  An amused smile crept across Chase’s face. “You do have to realize you’re putting yourself in danger.”

  “I know, but trust me, I can take care of myself.”

  “I can see that, but you’re still not actually a trained professional.”

  “That doesn’t mean I can’t help out here and there.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” Chase admitted. “You do have a knack of getting out of tough situations.”

  “Yeah,” I replied, a smug look on my face. “So what have you found out from that woman?”

  Chase gave me a look of “I really shouldn’t be telling you this but I’m going to anyway” before replying. “Her name is Liz Talbert, and she lives on a farm about a thirty minute drive away, halfway between here and the city. I received and executed a search warrant on her property this morning and recovered about three dozen stolen bicycles, including your cousin’s.”

  “Oh, Cat will be thrilled about that.”

  “I’m sure she will. Liz has been talking to her lawyer for the last hour, and she still hasn’t given us anything to go on about the man she was with. Are you sure you can’t remember who he was?”

  I shook my head. I’d thought about it as much as I could over the last little while, but I just couldn’t make the connection. “No, sorry. It’s got to be someone from town though; I don’t know anyone around here who’s not from Sapphire Village.”

  “Ok,” Chase said. “I can’t make any deals with her lawyer but I’m going to get one of the assistant district attorneys up here as soon as I can. I’d rather make a deal with a thief to catch a murderer than let him go.”

  I nodded. “That’s a good call, I think.”

  “She’ll be facing jail time no matter what, at least. There’s got to be at least twenty, thirty grand worth of bikes on that farm.”

  My eyes widened. “Wow.”

  “Yeah. I suspect she was hanging onto them for a while in the hopes that the owners would give up on looking for them before she put them up on Craigslist.”

  “Ok. Let me know what you find out.”

  “I will. And Alice?”

  “Yeah?”

  “If you’re going to go out and do some stuff on your own, please let me know. Oh, and be careful.”

  “Will do,” I nodded as Chase left.

  The next thing I knew it was just after five, and I was closing up the shop when Cat made her way through the front door.

  “Hey,” she greeted me. “Ready for your appointment with Sirona?”

  I let out a groan. “Ugh, I’d forgotten about that.”

  “Trust me, you’ll feel better after.”

  “That’s the only reason I’m going; I don’t think I can actually handle my back hurting this much anymore.”

  Just then, Grandma Cee walked through the front door. It was such a rare occurrence to see her outside of Brixton Road, I was momentarily shocked.

  “Close your mouth girl, or you’ll catch flies,” my grandmother admonished.

  “No one’s used that expression in fifty years,” I grumbled. “What are you doing here?”

  “Checking up on the two of you, after you’ve apparently made quite a mess.”

  “I went down to Brixton Road and told Grandma Cee what happened last night. I wanted her to see it for herself,” Cat said.

  Grandma Cee nodded. “I went to where The Others attacked Catherine, along with Francine. Let me tell you, it was a ridiculously stupid move for the two of you to have done.”

  Wow, Grandma Cee was mad, I didn’t think I’d ever heard her use Cat’s full name before. “What did you find?” I asked.

  “It appears you did, in fact, kill three of The Others last night,” Grandma see said sombrely. I sat down on a nearby overstuffed chair as the reality of her words set in.

  “Really?”

  I had managed to kill one of them before, and that had taken almost everything I had. I didn’t know how I possibly could have managed to have killed three.

  “Yes. Catherine says you felt as though your magic was out of your control last night?”

  I nodded and repeated to Grandma Cee everything I remembered, including the feeling that my body was building up some magic, and the dazzling light that encompassed everything just a few moments afterwards.

  “So it was me that did it?” I asked.

  Grandma Cee nodded. “Yes, it appears so. It is possible, when the body is under a lot of stress, for your magic to manifest itself in different ways. In this case, when you thought your cousin was in deathly danger, your magic took over, so to speak.”

  “And killed three Others in the process,” Cat finished. Grandma Cee nodded.

  “It appears that yes, your light spell is what destroyed them. Killing is not the proper term, Catherine, as they are not strictly living creatures to begin with.”

  “Oh, my God,” I said quietly.

  “Yes, it is quite the remarkable feat, really,” Grandma Cee said. “I suspect that is why they went for Cat and not for yourself, as they would have seen her as being the easier target.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” my cousin shrugged.

  “On the other hand, it may result in you being in even greater danger. Destroying one of them could have been a fluke. Three of them shows that you have magical powers the likes of which have not been seen in these parts in a very long time. In fact, I’m quite
certain I’ve never met a witch as powerful as you.”

  “But… I only just found out I’m a witch.”

  “That does not mean you didn’t have the powers. You need to be extra careful in the future, Alice. Now that you have destroyed three of them, they will come for you. This is no longer simply about getting a powerful soul; this is going to be about revenge, now.”

  “Great,” I said. “But I didn’t mean to destroy them. I just wanted Cat to get away.”

  “It doesn’t matter. The fact is, you did destroy them, and you dealt them a blow unlike any they would have ever faced around here. They will want you out of the way for a multitude of reasons.”

  I nodded. The last time, I had driven them into getting stronger. It appeared that this time, despite not actually trying to do anything in particular, I had painted a target on my back.

  I suddenly realized that I hadn’t tried any spells again since the night before when my magic stopped working. I quickly pictured Cat with bright red hair and pointed my finger at her, but again, there was nothing.

  “Also, my magic isn’t working anymore,” I said. “I just tried to turn Cat’s hair red, but nothing happened.”

  “Hey!” Cat protested, but Grandma Cee waved her down.

  “That’s normal as well, although very inconvenient in the current situation. Magic is more like a rechargeable resource than an infinite one. Regular spells use up so little energy that you don’t even notice it; you could change Cat’s hair five hundred times in a day using magic and it would have no impact on your abilities. But the wall of fire you built yesterday, combined with a flash of light powerful enough to destroy three of The Others would have taken an enormous amount of energy. After all, it can’t have just been a regular flash of light to have destroyed them. I suspect the light also carried all the love you hold for Cat, as your body did it to protect her.”

  “Awww, that’s so sweet,” Cat teased.

  “Is it too late to take back the spell?” I shot back.

  “Stop it, both of you. We’re all going back to Brixton Road now, since I hear you’re seeing Sirona today. Now.”

  Cat and I both mutely nodded and followed as Grandma Cee opened the portal to Brixton Road–activated by tapping a book on the shelf that no one in their right mind would ever buy. The portal was a large, glowing red circle. While it had been intimidating at first, I was now getting pretty used to the process, and I hopped in first, feeling like I’d just jumped straight into a tornado. A second later I popped out in Brixton Road, in a weird park made up of all the portals that led back to the human world, each paranormal resident of Brixton Road having a portal of their own.

  The sky in Brixton Road today was a gorgeous, deep peach color, which didn’t dull the light from the stars that shone in the sky day and night. I liked to describe Brixton Road as Candyland come to life. Everything was pastel colored, and colorful. The trees looked more like marshmallows than anything else, and the ground was soft and mushy, and felt like walking on a trampoline. Cat came through the portal a minute later, followed by Grandma Cee.

  “You take Alice to her appointment,” Grandma Cee said. “I’m going to go back to the house and talk to everyone. I have a meeting with a few other witches. We’re going to have to take care of this once and for all. It’s about time we get as much information as possible.”

  Grandma Cee turned and left without another word, and Cat led me in the other direction to go see Sirona. I had to admit, I really hoped she knew what she was doing. My back was really killing me.

  Chapter 19

  Sirona Scissorhands had a home/office combination about two blocks away from the park with the portals. The house was shaped, well, like a thirty-foot-tall butternut squash. A path made up of what appeared to be large zucchini rounds led to the old-fashioned wooden front door, beside which stood a handful of mushrooms, which ranged from three to seven feet tall. They were all white, with different-colored caps covered with white polka dots.

  A large acorn hung from above the door, shining light down onto the visitors, and a couple of windows with old-fashioned wooden shutters were haphazardly scattered around the house. It was the most interesting place I’d ever seen.

  Cat grabbed a pumpkin hanging on a string next to the door and pulled down on it, and the sound of chimes escaped from inside the house.

  “That’s the weirdest doorbell I’ve ever seen,” I said, a split second before the door opened.

  “Welcome, you must be Alice,” I heard a woman say just as the door opened. She was tall, with wavy brown hair that went halfway down her back. She was dressed casually, in an oversized sweater and jeans, and looked, well, strangely normal! Her hands certainly didn’t look like they were going to chop mine off, anyway.

  “Umm, hi,” I said, stepping over the threshold. “You must be Sirona.”

  “I am! Please, make yourself at home. And Cat, come on in, you’re welcome to stay and have a cup of tea while I fix up whatever’s wrong with your cousin here.”

  “Sounds good,” Cat said happily, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to go into the weird gourd house on my own, and as much as Sirona actually looked normal, the house definitely looked like the sort of thing you’d expect to see in someone’s garden rather than an actual home.

  As soon as I stepped inside, however, I gasped. The floor and ceiling were both made from a gorgeous, deep red hardwood. And amazingly, there were no walls in the large, round room, only floor-to-ceiling windows, which looked out to a deep, rich forest filled with pines and cedars. A squirrel ran past carrying a pinecone, looking around furtively lest another squirrel attempt to steal his treasure. At the far end of the room was a privacy curtain which was pulled back, exposing a physiotherapy bed and a chair, exactly like what I’d expect to see in a regular human physiotherapy office. The difference was, in the human world you’d never get such an amazing view.

  “I’ll let you get settled in over there,” Sirona told me. “I’ll be right there, I’ll just grab Cat a cup of tea.”

  “This is amazing!” I said to Cat. “How does it work?” After all, from the outside it looked like all of the walls were completely solid, and the surrounding area of Brixton Road was decidedly not very forested.

  “Magic,” Cat told me with a wink as she made her way to a small table on the other side of the room. I slowly walked along the floor to the bed, as though I expected it to break at any second. It was just so weird! I quickly found myself absolutely transfixed by the beauty of the woods. The view Sirona had here was, well, magical. In every single sense of the word. Just looking out the windows made me feel more relaxed, which I figured must have been the point.

  I didn’t really know what to do, so I just sat on the edge of the bed, feeling a little bit awkward. Sirona came back a couple of minutes later, pulled the privacy screen closed, and smiled at me.

  “So what can I help you with today?”

  “Well, my back’s been bugging me for a few days,” I said, involuntarily reaching back and touching it. “I don’t know if I pulled something or what, but I ran into Cat while on a broom, which hurt it initially, and then I slipped and fell from a window which made it worse.”

  I figured being light on the details when it came to the window was a good idea.

  “Ok, well I’m sure we can fix that up for you. Why don’t you stand up, facing away from me, and I’m going to have a look at how your back moves.”

  I did as requested, standing in front of Sirona. She moved her hands onto my back and I gasped, ice coursing through my veins.

  “Your hands! They’re freezing!” I exclaimed, and Sirona laughed.

  “Yes, it helps me to sense what’s happening with your body better, and the cold has healing powers. Also, I do have terrible circulation. I’m sorry.”

  After making me do a bunch of small movements–leaning to the left, then to the right, then forward and backwards–while touching different parts of my back, Sirona eventually motio
ned for me to sit back onto the bed.

  “It appears as though you do have a muscular imbalance in your back,” Sirona said. “If you were to simply stretch it out for a number of days it would likely go back to normal. However, because you’re here, there are much easier and less painful ways of going about it. I’d like you to lie down on your stomach, please.”

  I did as Sirona asked and relaxed as she pulled up the back of my shirt. Her cold hands began to run across my skin in a certain pattern, pressing down here and there, and I gasped; her hands really did feel like ice cubes. At the same time, however, there was an energy to her movements, and the more she touched my back, the more I felt my muscles relax, like I was loosening up just from her touch.

  “You really are tight,” Sirona said. “When I’m finished here I’ll give you some exercises to continue at home. But for now, I’m wondering if you’d be open to the idea of acupuncture?”

  I shrugged from my position on the bed, and already felt way better. It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and that was just from her hands!

  “I don’t know. I mean, yeah, I guess. You’re the expert.”

  “You don’t have any problems with needles?”

  “Not particularly.” I got my flu shot every year, and that was no problem. After all, it was just a tiny prick for a split second. What was there to be afraid of? “Does it work, though?” I asked. After all, I was used to lots of people saying acupuncture was all about the placebo effect, and a place like Sapphire Village, being so close to Portland, would be ripe with people who loved holistic remedies, regardless of their actual impact.

  “It does work, yes,” Sirona told me. “Basically, the needles stimulate the muscle tissue directly, causing it to stretch and release. Acupuncture for sore muscles is basically the equivalent of doing half an hour of stretching, only it just takes a couple of seconds. But we don’t have to do it if you’re not comfortable with it.”

  Thinking of how Cat had called me a baby for being afraid to ride a broom–and a bike—I knew she’d never let me live this down if I said no to a couple of small needles because I was worried it wouldn’t work. “No, I think I’d like to give it a try,” I replied, and Sirona broke into a big smile.