Shifters and Sabotage

by Lily Webb

  Katelyn stared at me wide-eyed as I hurtled forward. She threw her hands up in panicked surrender, sloshing champagne on herself, but I jabbed my wand through the air at her, anyway. “Trudo!” I shouted. The glass flung from her hand and tumbled through the air, showering the attendees below with its contents, until it crashed to the ground and shattered.

  “Zoe, what on earth—” Katelyn started, but Sam and Heath needed no explanation. Sam shifted into a golden retriever, his fangs bared, and Heath immediately reached for his wand in his robes and glanced around the room for the source of my panic. In a matter of seconds, Beau, Olivia, Mallory, Raina, and — to my surprise — Marissa had joined me in surrounding Katelyn.

  I stood as still as possible, my eyes narrowed for any hint of something sparkling. My heart thrummed in time with my breathing and time itself seemed to stretch into slow motion as I waited to glimpse even the slightest movement.

  Then, floating over the center of the table, I spotted a barely visible twinkling. Without thinking twice, I stabbed my wand at the source. “Stop that pixie!” I bellowed and ran toward the table to jump on top. I kicked dishes of food out of my way as I ran after the pixie until I got so close I could hear its furiously beating wings buzzing in my ear like a pesky fly.

  Beau, Sam, and Olivia ran alongside me on either side of the table, leaping over it and snapping at the pixie without success.

  “Obstupefacio!” I shouted and jolted as a paralyzing spell erupted from the tip of my wand. It hurtled through the air in the pixie’s direction, but at the last second, the tiny creature barrel rolled to the left, and the ball of magical light soared past it to crash into the wall beyond, knocking dust loose from the ceiling. If we didn’t stop the pixie soon, it would fly right out the open door to safety.

  But as the creature flitted toward the door, an earsplitting roar echoed through the chamber, and I skidded to a stop on the table as Marissa’s massive bear frame reared up in front of me. She raised a tree-trunk sized paw and swiped at the pixie in one last desperate attempt to stop it, and the tornadic force from the swing sent the insectlike creature spiraling toward the ground. It thudded against the cement with a pitiful squeak and lay dazed. Two of its wings had bent beneath it in the crash, and the other two fluttered without success.

  Before it could recover, I dashed down the table, scooped up a nearby wineglass, and leaped. I landed on my stomach with a thud and clapped the wineglass over the pixie.

  “Obstupefacio!” Heath shouted from behind me and the wineglass illuminated as the spell struck, stunning the pixie inside. Its tiny little limbs stuck straight out and its wings froze in place. I rolled onto my back, relieved, until a simultaneous bark and meow jolted me upright. Beau and Olivia had frozen in place, and a shimmering veil had appeared around both of them.

  “Beau! Are you—”

  A deafening pop interrupted me. I covered my eyes and face from the force and blinding light of the veil around Beau and Olivia as it expanded. When I lowered my hands, two very confused humans sat where the dog and cat had before. The magic cast on them had broken!

  As if he might disappear if I didn’t, I bolted to my feet and ran to Beau to throw my arms around him. “You’re back! You’re finally back!” I shouted as I buried my face in the crook of his neck and sucked in heaving breaths of his familiar, comforting scent. I planted kisses all over his neck and face.

  “Oh, my goodness! I missed you too, Zoe, but I’m okay, I swear!” Beau laughed and squeezed me so tight I thought I might pass out, but I never wanted him to let me go. From the corner of my eye, I watched as Katelyn and Sam ran to Olivia to check on her. Miraculously everyone seemed okay.

  A furious buzzing sound stirred me back into reality. I released Beau and spun to find the pixie flitting around the wineglass, bumping into the sides and beating on the glass with its microscopic fists.

  “Let me out! Let me outta here!” it screeched, its voice like the sound of nails against a chalkboard.

  “Zoe, wait, don’t get too close!” Beau called after me as I stood and walked to the glass, but I paid him no attention. I crouched down and peered inside. Though the pixie’s skin was a pale shade of blue and its limbs were thin and frail, it still bore a striking resemblance to Rose.

  “Gotcha, Rose,” I said as I tapped the glass. She bared her tiny, razor-sharp teeth at me and scratched wildly against the translucent walls of her glass prison. She hissed and kicked the glass as Heath approached.

  “Incarcero!” he shouted and a flash of light enveloped the glass, trapping Rose inside. “Is it her?” he asked over my shoulder.

  I nodded. “I’m sure of it.”

  “It shouldn’t have been permanent!” Rose squealed, barely audible. “It was a prank gone wrong. I’m sorry, Zoe, y-you have to believe me! I never meant to hurt anyone!”

  “Well, you did, and now you have to answer for it.”

  “Please, Zoe! I’m begging you! Things just got out of hand and—”

  “Save it for your trial, Rose,” I interrupted and went back to the safety and comfort of Beau’s arms. He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead and squeezed my waist.

  “Dear Lilith, you have no idea how much I missed this,” he said into my hair.

  “Oh, I think I have some idea. But I’m sure Luna will be the happiest of all that you’re back to normal.”

  Beau held me at arm’s length and looked me straight in the eye. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

  “Are you serious? I’d never have left you like that. You mean the world to me.”

  He beamed. “Likewise. Now come on, let’s go home.”

  Nothing sounded better.

  Chapter Fifteen

  When I woke the next morning, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Beau lay on his side facing me, and Luna had curled up against his chest. Beau rested an arm over her, but she didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. Their chests rose and fell at exactly the same pace, and though my initial reaction was to feel jealous, I couldn’t find it within me to begrudge either of them.

  Despite how often Luna complained about having Beau in the house — especially while trapped in his golden retriever form — I knew she didn’t hate him anywhere near as much as she claimed. In fact, I would’ve bet she loved him just as much as I did, which was saying something.

  And really, how couldn’t she? In a short amount of time, Beau had become as much an integral part of our family as Grandma Elle had. Which reminded me… Maybe Grandma wasn’t so wrong about the reason for our next meeting. The only thing that could bring her back to Moon Grove now was, well…

  I shook my head, determined not to let my mind get away from me by chasing impossibilities, and focused on the small but beautiful moment right in front of me. I’d had Luna for as long as I could remember — and she’d rarely approved of anyone I kept company with, especially men — so to see her sleeping against Beau was almost worthy of a picture to prove that it ever happened.

  As much as I wanted to snap a photo, I couldn’t get to my phone without waking one or both of them. Luna was a notoriously light sleeper, and one of her favorite activities was to tattle on me, so I knew better than to roll over and reach for my phone on the nightstand. If she woke, she’d run her mouth until Beau did too, and it would ruin the whole moment.

  Instead, I crept slowly and quietly out from under the covers and made my way to the bedroom door. We’d left it open so Luna could come and go as she pleased overnight, but I gently closed it on my way out to prevent any sounds or smells from disturbing my sleeping giants.

  In the kitchen, I pulled a frying pan out from a drawer and placed it on the stove. After all he’d been through, the least I could do for Beau would be to bring him breakfast in bed the same way he’d done for me. I wasn’t half the cook he was, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

  I slid across the tile in my socks to the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of eggs. Cooking wasn’t really my forte, but I knew how to make a me
an pile of scrambled eggs and toast — thanks to Grandma Elle — so I cracked several eggs into the pan and set them frying, all while resisting the urge to whistle while I worked.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cooked for anyone besides myself. When I lived outside Moon Grove, I usually ordered takeout or stopped at a restaurant on my way home from work, and while I lived with Flora, she wouldn’t dream of letting me touch anything in her kitchen — which probably wasn’t a bad idea, all things considered.

  While I scrambled the eggs with a spatula, Grandma Elle kept coming to mind. Some of my earliest memories revolved around being with her in the kitchen. She’d handmade a custom step stool for me so I could help her with whatever it was she was cooking, though my “help” more often amounted to nothing more than messing it all up. Still, Elle never seemed to mind. She’d pat my head and whisper, “Yer doin’ a great job, Sugar,” then silently prepare a backup batch without me noticing.

  A soft bark stirred me out of me reminiscing, and my heart shot up into my throat at the sound. I turned and found Beau standing at the entrance to our bedroom in his golden retriever form — with another letter in his mouth!

  “Oh, no, not again!” I howled as I darted toward him. I dropped to my knees and held his head between my hands. “Are you trapped? Can you shift?”

  Beau whimpered and pawed at my arm. The letter dropped from between his teeth and fluttered to the floor where it landed facedown. Though I would’ve rather run for office all over again than read it, I had no choice, so I scooped it up with a knot of dread in my throat.

  I turned the letter over and, despite Beau’s slobber that’d made the ink run, my name was still visible on the front of the envelope. I froze in place, staring down at the letter in horror. Thankfully, there wasn’t any potentially cursed food or drink to accompany it. Beau nudged my arm with his cold, wet snout and whined.

  Luna slinked around the corner of our bedroom with sleep boogers thick in the corners of her eyes. She wiped one with a paw and groaned. “What in Lilith’s name is all the commotion out here?”

  I held the letter up to her. “Good question.” Beau nudged me again, harder this time. “Do you want me to open it?” He barked once, short and loud, which I took as a yes. Against my better judgment, I bit my lower lip and slid my finger under the seal to tear open the envelope.

  To my surprise — whether good or bad, I couldn’t yet say — the handwriting on the piece of paper inside looked nothing like Katelyn’s or Rose’s impersonation of it. The writing was short, brusk, and barely legible — and definitely Beau’s.

  “What is this…?”

  Luna rolled her eyes. “Ugh, just read it and get it over with already, would you?”

  I glared at her for a moment, mostly to give myself time to prepare, and glanced back down at the letter in my shaking hands:

  From the second we met at the town’s gates,

  And with the discovery of each new clue,

  I’ve realized you’re something great

  And I’d love to spend my life with you.

  I glanced up at Beau with tears in my eyes. “Is this what I think it is?” He barked and rubbed his side against me, encouraging me to read the rest.

  It doesn’t have to happen today, tomorrow, or next year;

  I’d be willing to wait a decade or two.

  I just hope one day I’ll live long enough to hear,

  “‘Yes, Beau Duncan, I do.’”

  “Is this a joke? Are you really proposing to me right now?” I asked, hearing my voice as if outside myself. I dropped the letter as the room spun around me in a whirl of color and confusion. It landed less than a foot away from Luna. She speared it with her claws and pulled it closer.

  “What else could he be asking with a cheesy thing like this?” Luna scoffed, but her sarcasm barely registered.

  “This isn’t funny, you jerk!” I shouted, though I flung myself at Beau and wrapped my arms around his middle to squeeze him tight. He whimpered and squirmed against me, and when I pulled back, he’d shifted into his human form. His laughter filled my ears, and his bear hug nearly pushed all the air out of my lungs, but I didn’t have it in me to care.

  “I take it that means you approve?” Beau asked.

  “Approve?! Other than the not-so-funny delivery, of course I do! I had no idea you could write something like this, I—”

  “Gee, thanks,” he interrupted, smiling wryly.

  “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that, you know, you’re a broadcaster, a journalist, so I didn’t think poetry was up your alley.”

  “Let’s just say I’ve done a lot of reading lately for research.”

  “Ugh, don’t remind me,” I groaned, but the memory of the letters from Rose stuffed into Beau’s desk drawer flashed through my mind at the mention, anyway.

  “Sorry. Anyway, you haven’t given me an answer yet, Miss Clarke.”

  “You haven’t asked me a question, either, Mister Duncan. You kinda buried the lead on this one.”

  Beau chuckled and shook his head. “Fine, then let me be concise and to-the-point, like a true journalist: Zoe Clarke, will you marry me?”

  I paused and scratched my chin. “Can I do some research and get back to you on that?” Beau’s face fell, but before my joke could do more damage, I swept into action. “I’m joking! Yes, a thousand times, yes!”

  With a sound somewhere between a whoop and a woof, Beau scooped me up in his arms off the floor and spun me around more times than I could keep track of while showering me with kisses.

  When he finally set me back on solid ground, the room wouldn’t stop spinning — and my heart felt like it might never come back to earth after the way he’d sent it rocketing to space.

  Beau wiped the tears from the corner of my eye with a thumb. “We’ll have to share the news with Eleanor and to invite her to the big event.”

  My stomach lurched at the thought. “But she’s in the protection program now. What if she can’t—”

  “Shh,” Beau interrupted my anxious snowball. “We’ll make sure she’s here for it, whatever it takes.”

  My body jolted as a thought struck me like lightning. “Heath! Heath can get a message to her somehow. He’s already done it, that’s why she wrote to me recently.”

  Beau beamed. “Then that’s all there is to it. So, after Heath and Eleanor, who should we tell next?”

  “Somehow I don’t think Rose would appreciate the news,” I said, and Beau burst out laughing.

  “You always find a way to laugh at things, don’t you?”

  “If you can’t laugh, even at yourself, then what else do you have?”

  Beau pecked my forehead with his mouth and stared me in the eyes. “You haven’t stopped surprising me since we met, and I doubt you ever will. That’s what I’m most looking forward to.”

  My heart and throat swelled simultaneously, choking off my words. “Are we… Are we really doing this?”

  “Well, you already said yes, so I think you’re committed,” Luna answered, and I couldn’t help laughing.

  “Only if you want to,” Beau said. “I know it’s sudden, especially with everything that’s happened lately, but I’m more convinced now than I ever was that you’re the right one for me. No one else would’ve done what you’ve done for me, and you and I just make sense together.”

  “I dunno about that — lots of people around here love you — but point taken,” I said, and lodged my face in the comforting space between Beau’s head and shoulder. He rubbed my back while we moved in slow circles together, dancing to a song that only the two of us could hear.

  Luna cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to interrupt the moment, as gagging as it is, but it smells like there’s something burning in the kitchen.” Her nose pricked at the air.

  “Oh, crap, my breakfast!” I howled and freed myself from Beau’s grip to dash to the frying pan on the stove. Inside, the eggs had turned coal black and hard as hockey pucks. I groaned a
nd emptied them into the sink.

  A moment later, Beau sidled up and wrapped an arm around me. “Looks like I’d better keep doing the cooking.”

  “Thank Lilith,” Luna sighed, and we both laughed.

  “Maybe we should just go out for breakfast today,” Beau suggested. “You know, to celebrate.”

  “That sounds perfect,” I agreed, and made for the bedroom to change out of my pajamas with Beau right behind me.

  I had no idea what to expect when I let my boyfriend — er, fiancé — move in with me, but now that he had and we’d taken a major new step together, I never wanted to be without him again.

  Book 8: When a mysterious new fortune teller accurately predicts the death of a client, Zoe Clarke wonders if there’s more to the mystic than meets the eye.

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  Turn the page to read chapter one, or

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  Crystals and Criminals Excerpt

  Chapter 1

  I’ve never been a good host, a fact that stuck out like a snapped wand as I stood like a stone against the stream of my family and friends pouring into my living room.

  The noise of their voices flooded the space and my ears — a sound that should’ve been comforting but only made me anxious instead. There were too many people and too many conversations, but they were all there for me at my invitation.

  Beau wrapped an arm around my waist, and I jolted at the unexpected touch. “What’s the matter, Zoe? Cat got your tongue?”

  I leaned into him and placed my lips near his ear so no one else could hear. “No, sorry, I’m just a little overwhelmed by all this.”