Hex Over Heels: A Witch Cozy Mystery (Fairy Falls Mystery Book 2)

by Samantha Silver

  Her eyes scanned the page, and I left her to her work, going back to sit with Scarlett while I waited for Victoria to finish the potion. I took my cousin by the hand and tried to stop the tears from coming.

  Pawdrey had jumped up onto the bed and curled up into a ball next to Scarlett.

  “Is she going to be ok?” I asked Pawdrey, hoping my cat had some sort of animal sixth sense thing going on.

  “I don’t know,” Pawdrey admitted. “Her life force is fading. I can feel that. I hope Victoria comes back with the potion soon.”

  As if right on cue, Victoria entered a moment later holding the cauldron directly in front of her. She had shoved a tablespoon in her pocket and quickly removed it as she placed the cauldron on the bed.

  I peered into the cauldron as Victoria took a tablespoon from it and poured it into Scarlett’s mouth. The liquid was a semi-transparent green, like looking into lake water where algae had been growing.

  Frankly, I was glad Scarlett was the one who had to drink this potion and not me.

  Victoria repeated the process three more times, giving Scarlett four tablespoons of potion in total.

  “Will it save her?” I asked, and Victoria nodded.

  “It should, if I’ve done it right. We’ll know in about twenty seconds.”

  Victoria, Pawdrey, and I all watched with bated breath, and sure enough, before half a minute had passed, Scarlett’s shallow breathing got much deeper. Her chest began moving up and down, and a second later, her eyes fluttered open.

  She looked around, bewildered. “Victoria? Mina? What’s going on?”

  I couldn’t even reply. I just broke down into tears. “You’re alive, that’s what’s going on,” I said, smiling as big wet drops streamed down my face.

  “You were poisoned,” Victoria told her. “But you’re alright. You’ve been given an antidote.”

  “And now we know who killed Renee,” I told her. “You’re off the hook for the murder. And speaking of, I guess someone needs to call Chief Enforcer Tyson and let her know that she needs to come and pick up her criminal from the kitchen.”

  “I’ll do it,” Victoria said, getting up and grabbing her phone while I caught Scarlett up on the events of the morning.

  “Wow,” Scarlett said when I was finished. “So it was Athan all along.”

  I nodded. “Yes. Oliver robbed him, but the plan had been for Oliver and Renee to do it. She must have backed out of the plan when she broke up with Oliver, which was frankly all for the better. Oliver got caught so easily I’m not sure they would have had more success as a duo.”

  “And Athan found out about it.”

  “He must have figured out their plan. I don’t know how, but he did. Given how he allowed himself to be so easily caught on camera, I imagine they weren’t all that smart about the setup for their plan, either. My bet is he confronted Renee about it, whether to try and convince her not to do it or if he planned on killing her, I don’t know. But she ended up dead, anyway. He must have figured that would scare Oliver off from going through with the plan, but when Oliver did rob him Athan would have realized it would be awfully suspicious for Oliver to show up dead as well, especially when he was such a good suspect in Renee’s murder. Athan probably hoped Oliver would take the fall for it and he’d get away with it.”

  “What about Simon?” Scarlett asked. “Where does he fit in? Was he really just an innocent bystander in all this?”

  “He was, but I have an interesting theory there, too. Pawdrey actually helped me figure this one out.”

  “That’s what I’m here for,” my familiar replied with a careful lick of her paw. “Well, that and entertainment, of course.”

  I laughed gently at my cat. Of course she would immediately take credit without knowing why.

  “I think Simon is actually Renee’s real father.”

  “What?” Scarlett asked, her mouth dropping open.

  “Both her parents have black hair and so do both her siblings, which makes it unlikely – not impossible, grant you, but unlikely – that Renee would have red hair without at least one red-haired parent. Like Simon. Plus, while Renee shares some features with her mom and her sister, she actually doesn’t look like her dad at all. My bet is she was secretly Simon’s daughter, and that was why he was willing to lend her so much money for something that was obviously doomed to fail.”

  Scarlett gasped. “Do you think she knew all along?”

  I shook my head. “My bet is she blackmailed him. She must have figured out at some point that her father wasn’t her real father, looked into it, and discovered that Simon was her biological dad.”

  “That would fit with what we know about her,” Scarlett said. “She was in him for a lot of money, too.”

  “Yeah. I doubt she was going to pay it back with what she was going to steal from Athan, too.”

  “So that’s all done,” Scarlett said. “We know who the killer is. And he’s been arrested?”

  “Well, he will be as soon as Chief Enforcer Tyson shows up. Right now he’s in a jar in the kitchen. I didn’t know what else to do, so I used a shrinking spell on him.”

  “Great,” Scarlett said with a laugh. “That I have to see.”

  She climbed out of bed and followed me to the kitchen where, sure enough, Athan was still in his jar. He’d given up pounding on the glass and trying to get free and was now sitting on the ground, his arms crossed angrily across his chest. He glared up at me as I walked past.

  “I think we should keep him as a pet,” I suggested.

  “Good idea,” Scarlett agreed while Victoria laughed.

  “It’s nice to see you up and about,” she said to Scarlett. “Chief Enforcer Tyson should be here in a minute.”

  “I went and got us coffee and some treats from Charmed,” I said, “But they got dropped on the way back when I saw Athan. Unfortunately, I think a raccoon is probably going to have eaten them by now.”

  “That’s alright,” Scarlett said, laughing. “I’ll survive, although coffee does sound good right now.”

  “I’ll go and get some,” Victoria offered. “It’s smart for you to have some to help your body recover from the poison.”

  “Sure, we’ll go with that as a reason,” Scarlett said with a wink.

  “Can you grab some slices too, please?” I asked. “They had something called chunky monkey bread that looked amazing.”

  “Oh, it is amazing,” Scarlett said. “Yes, please.”

  Victoria took our orders and headed off to get the treats right as Chief Enforcer Tyson walked up the driveway. I had a feeling there was a long day of stories and explanations ahead of us.

  CHAPTER 26

  I t took a long time to get everything sorted out with Chief Enforcer Tyson. As soon as I told her what Athan had done and that he had tried to kill Scarlett but Victoria saved her life, the Chief Enforcer ordered a wizard Enforcer to come to the house. He reversed my shrinking spell and arrested Athan, taking the vampire away.

  “So,” Chief Enforcer Tyson said when he left, “you think Athan is the one who killed Renee.”

  “Yes,” I said, nodding as I laid out everything I had figured out. “I think when he saw us with Ali and realized we were looking into the murder, he decided to get rid of us, too. He poisoned Scarlett first and then would have poisoned me, too, if I hadn’t gotten up at five in the morning.”

  Chief Enforcer Tyson gave me a hard look. “And why, may I ask, were you looking into Renee’s death?”

  I bit my lip, caught, and decided honesty was probably the best policy.

  “It’s not like we were going to confront the killer or anything like that. But Scarlett was your main suspect, and we wanted to find out who else could have done it. Then we ran into a witch in Mt. Rheanier hired by Athan to find the money that was stolen from him and bring Oliver to justice.”

  Chief Enforcer Tyson nodded. “Yes, I’ve been speaking with the Enforcers there. Oliver has been re-arrested, and according to the prosecuto
r, they have enough evidence to take him to trial this time.”

  “Good,” I said. “He’s a terrible wizard who deserves to spend time in jail, and I hope he never steps foot in Fairy Falls again.”

  “I can’t say I disagree with you,” Chief Enforcer Tyson said. “Although it is good to know he’s not a murderer. I can’t guarantee what’s going to happen to Athan – after all, while your theory makes sense, you don’t have any actual evidence – but I can look into it further, and it’s easier to do when you know what you’re looking for.”

  “Did you suspect him at all?” I asked, and Chief Enforcer Tyson paused for a moment before answering.

  “No, honestly. We didn’t. We quickly eliminated Scarlett from our inquiries. We were focused on Oliver Farwood.”

  “So Scarlett wasn’t even a suspect?”

  “She was at first but never a prime one. We canvassed the neighborhood and found that one of your neighbors saw you walking towards home right around the time Renee was killed, which eliminated her from contention.”

  “Oh,” I said, feeling a bit silly. “Well, at least we still helped bring a killer to justice even if it was for the wrong reasons.”

  “We weren’t looking at Athan at all,” Chief Enforcer Tyson admitted.

  “Neither were we. We never considered him. It was only today that I realized what had happened, and then when I saw him break into our home, I confirmed it.”

  “I really can’t condone the fact that you meddled in yet another Enforcer investigation, however,” Chief Enforcer Tyson said. “You needed to allow me and my paranormals to solve this case.”

  “Sorry,” I replied meekly. “I know it was wrong, but we thought Scarlett was the main suspect. And it has affected her life; she lost a job because the owner was worried people would think she’d poison them or put razor blades in their cookies or something.”

  “I am sorry that happened, but it’s not an excuse to investigate a murder,” Chief Enforcer Tyson replied. “The two of you were almost killed.”

  Yes, when I thought about it, jet lag had quite literally saved my life.

  I nodded.

  “It won’t happen again.”

  Little did I know how wrong that would end up being.

  After a few hours, Chief Enforcer Tyson left, and Victoria begged off as well after making Scarlett promise she would take things easy for a few days.

  It seemed like it took an eternity, but by mid-afternoon, Scarlett and I were alone in the house once more.

  “Tonight feels like an ordering in kind of night,” Scarlett said. “I feel a vampire trying to kill me is a good reason to order pizza.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” I said with a laugh, but before I could say anything else, there was a knock on the door.

  “I promise I’m not a vampire who’s come to kill you. Open up,” Ali called through the door, and I smiled as I unlocked the door and opened it, stepping aside to let our new friend pass through.

  “I brought pizza. I figured you wouldn’t exactly be up for cooking right now,” she said as the warm aroma of baked dough floated into the house. I grabbed the hot boxes from her gratefully.

  “You’re a mind reader. We were just talking about how we were going to order some.”

  “Great minds,” Ali said, following me into the kitchen as I grabbed some plates from the cupboard. The three of us spent a couple of minutes helping ourselves to pizza before settling back on the couch.

  “Is there any for me?” Pawdrey asked, carefully climbing onto my shoulder and not-so-subtly climbing down the front of my shirt to get closer to the pizza.

  “Not right now,” I replied, pulling a piece of pepperoni off one slice and placing it to the side. “You can have this piece but not until it’s cool or you’ll throw up, and none of us want that.”

  “I don’t want to wait for my food, either,” Pawdrey grumbled.

  “Yeah, well, that’s how it’s going to have to be because I don’t want to pick up cat puke,” I said. “Conversation over.”

  Pawdrey walked over to the other end of the couch to sulk while she waited for her slice of pepperoni to cool down, and Ali started talking.

  “So I heard you found your killer,” she said. “And it turns out he was my client the whole time.”

  “Yeah, and he almost succeeded in killing me,” Scarlett replied.

  “I’m really glad he failed,” Ali said. “I guess I’ve got a bit of a battle ahead of me to get paid now. But hey, as long as a killer’s in jail, I’m happy. Who knew it wasn’t going to be Oliver?”

  “Not me,” I replied. “I still thought it was going to be him up until the very end.”

  “How did you figure it out?”

  I told the whole story to Ali, with Scarlett chiming in where she could, and when I was finished, Ali let out a low whistle. “Wow. Nope, can’t say I saw that coming. I feel like I failed as a private investigator. It seems like I should have had a sixth sense that my client was a bad guy.”

  “Nah, you couldn’t have known,” Scarlett replied, shaking her head. “I think he fooled all of us.”

  “Also, I’m pretty sure Simon is Renee’s biological father,” I replied. “That’s why he gave her so much money. I’m thinking she probably figured it out herself and blackmailed him. But don’t spread that news around. If it’s not public, I’d rather it stay that way.”

  Ali mimicked zipping her mouth shut. “That secret will go to my grave with me. If you ever meet my grandmother, don’t tell her. Grandma Rosie loves good child-born-from-an-illicit-affair gossip.”

  “Will do,” Scarlett replied. “I hope it’s not going to be too hard for you to get paid.”

  “Me too,” Ali said. “I guess we’ll see. The vampires in town will probably force him to make sure I get paid before he goes to prison. I’m on pretty good terms with a lot of them. As it turns out, when you solve their problems, paranormals tend to want to do favors for you. Anyway, hopefully things here will settle down now.”

  “Oh, I’m not sure about that,” I replied. “I’ve still got Katelyn Cross from Brooms and Brews coming after me.”

  “Is that the coffee company where they only allow witches and wizards?” Ali asked, and I nodded.

  “That’s the one.”

  “It’s a stain on the paranormal world, that place,” Ali said darkly. “If they ever give you too much trouble, give me a shout. I’ll send Grandma Rosie after them. They won’t stand a chance.”

  “Grandma Eva says that we should do things behind the scenes, that it’s the best way to get things done.”

  Ali grinned. “Grandma Rosie would disagree with that assessment. I’m all for getting stuff done behind the scenes, but if you ever want a mess out in the open, my grandmother is the witch for you.”

  “Good to know,” Scarlett said with a laugh. “Depending on what they try, we might take you up on that. They’ve hated our family forever, and Katelyn seems to really have it out for Mina.”

  “What can I say? I guess I just attract the ire of the worst people,” I laughed.

  “She’s not worth thinking about,” Scarlett said. “Just a trash witch. You’re a great member of the community, and we’re lucky to have you.”

  “Agreed,” Ali replied, holding up a slice of pizza as a toast. I couldn’t help but feel the warmth rise up my face as I realized how loved I was here in Fairy Falls and how much I loved most of the people.

  O ver the course of the next few days, things began to unfold with regards to the murder. After speaking with a lawyer, Athan admitted to everything, confessing to Renee’s murder and Scarlett’s attempted murder in order to be given a slightly more lenient sentence. By vampire standards, anyway. He was still spending the next thousand years in jail.

  And that was with a plea deal. Scarlett told me he was facing a potential four thousand years in jail. I couldn’t even fathom that idea.

  Ali managed to get paid before Athan was shipped off to Spellcatraz, for the next
millennium, so she was happy. We kept it touch, and it was nice to know I had friends not only in Fairy Falls but that I was growing a social circle all around the paranormal world.

  A few days after Athan was arrested and we had the dinner with Ali, I was walking down Aphrodite Way. I passed by the Brooms and Brews building and mentally flipped it off. I didn’t like that it was there, I didn’t like the family that owned it, and I didn’t like what it stood for.

  I wondered if Grandma Eva was right. She was a behind-the-scenes kind of worker, the woman who stayed behind the curtain and whispered into the ears of people to get what she wanted.

  Suddenly, a shadow passed over me. I looked up to see a giant balloon, bright purple, floating down the street.

  “What the…?” I said aloud as I covered my eyes to watch as it floated towards me. The other paranormals on the street all stopped to look at the balloon as well, which didn’t exactly make me feel more comfortable about this. What was going on?

  The balloon stopped directly above the Brooms and Brews building. A second later, I gasped as it popped suddenly, the sound echoing through the whole town. Something red and liquid – it had to be paint? – poured down from inside the balloon, landing directly on top of the Brooms and Brews building.

  I shielded my face but was still splattered with a bit of errant liquid. Sure enough, it was paint. I looked over at the building, my mouth dropping open in surprise.

  Katelyn Cross ran out a moment later, a blob of paint falling from the roof and directly onto her head. She looked like she’d just become the victim of some PETA protestors back in the human world.

  She looked over at the building then at me and started shouting.

  “What is wrong with you? Did you do this? You stupid piece of crap! I’ll make sure you’re sorry!”

  “I had nothing to do with this,” I replied. “I was just walking by.”