“All of it,” I said with a laugh. “I’m afraid I’ve never been able to say no to a good, sugary snack.”
“Oh good, me too,” Scarlett said, heading into the living room. She grabbed a purse that was just sitting on the couch and began rummaging through it before pulling out a handful of crumpled bills. “Here you go. It’s not much, but it’ll let you buy a few things in town.”
“I…I can’t take this,” I said, trying to hand the bills back, but Scarlett waved my arm away.
“Don’t worry about it. Consider it a welcome gift from one cousin to another. Anyway, tell me all about why you’re stuck here.”
“Well, I actually have a really good job in New York. I’m an advertising agency executive, and I’m trying to make my way up to partner.”
Scarlett let out a low whistle. “Wow, alright, I’m going to have to step up my game professionally to keep up with you.”
“Why, what do you do?” I asked, and Scarlett shrugged.
“Just some stuff here and there. Odd jobs. I haven’t really found my passion in life yet. Mom wants me to go work for her at the company, but no one wants to work for their mother.”
“I agree with that,” I replied. “Anyway, I was at the coffee shop, and there was a wizard who died. And Grandma Eva said he was poisoned.”
“What?” Scarlett asked. “Someone was murdered and you didn’t open with that? Who died?”
“A wizard named Thomas,” I offered. “He’s a Healer at the hospital. His girlfriend is named Linda.”
Scarlett’s mouth dropped open. “Wow, Thomas Sade died?”
“If that’s him, yeah. He was just drinking coffee at the coffee shop, and then he started coughing, he collapsed, and he was dead. Grandma Eva used magic and the coffee he was drinking from glowed red; she said that meant it was poisoned.”
“Wow,” Scarlett repeated, shaking her head. “That’s crazy. There hasn’t been a murder here in years.”
“Really?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine.
“Yeah, this is usually a nice, quiet little town. There was one murder maybe ten years ago that I can think of, and that’s it.”
“Well, now it’s my turn to be surprised. People in New York are always killing each other. It’s practically a hobby.”
“Yeah, because it’s a big city. But not here. Anyway, why does that mean you have to stay here?”
“Chief Enforcer Tyson thinks that if I leave and it turns out I did it it’ll be way too hard to find me in the human world if I disappear like my mom did,” I replied. “So she wants me to stay in town until the killer is found. But the problem is, I can’t really do that. I have a job, and I have to keep it.”
“So take some vacation,” Scarlett offered, and I laughed flatly.
“I’m literally not even sure what my contract says about vacation time, that’s how often I use it,” I replied. “If I want to prove that I’m devoted enough to the firm to become a partner, then I have to be that devoted.”
“Are you serious?” Scarlett said. “That’s not a life at all. What about calling in sick?”
“Same thing. Even if you’ve got a cough, or a cold, or something, you have to come in to work. I’m going to say I was in an accident and I needed to get surgery or something. And I’m going to have to find a doctor who can fake the note for me.”
“Oh, that’s no problem, I can do that for you,” Scarlett said. “Magic makes everything easier.”
“Really?” I asked, touched by her instant generosity.
“Of course. Faking Healer notes to get out of doing things was a skill of mine back when I was at the Academy. I used to do it for my friends all the time. And people who weren’t my friends. I charged them money, and I used that money to buy candy,” she added with a wink, and I laughed. I really did like Scarlett, and it felt nice to have someone to talk to. She was very outgoing, whereas I wasn’t, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“Anyway, I would be expected to work from my hospital bed as well. I was thinking I might have appendicitis. That comes on pretty quickly and requires surgery.”
“Well, the one thing I’m wondering is what happens if the case takes Chief Enforcer Tyson too long to solve?” Scarlett said.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if it takes her a day or two to solve the case, that’s cool. But what if it’s a week? Two weeks? What do you do then?”
I felt the blood draining from my face just at the thought of it. “Then I guess I lose my job. There’s no way around that. I would be fired for sure. You can’t just go around skipping work for two weeks. And even if by some miracle they didn’t fire me, there would be no room for advancement. My career would be over. I’d be stuck where I was instead of at the top of the corporate ladder.”
“So we can’t let that happen,” Scarlett said firmly.
“Well, there isn’t anything we can do about that,” I said. “It’s all up to Chief Enforcer Tyson. Is she a good cop?”
“Sure,” Scarlett said. “She’s fine. But she’s also only had to investigate one murder in the last ten years. She might be rusty, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes her some time to figure it out.”
I groaned. “Great. So I’m going to lose everything I’ve worked for in my life because I was in the wrong coffee shop at the wrong time.”
“There’s never a wrong time to be at Charmed Coffee.”
“How do you know that was where I was?”
“Because there are two coffee shops in town, and they’re like a gang. The coffee shop you frequent lets people know what side of the coffee wars you stand on, and our family are Charmed Coffee people.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling dumb. “I didn’t realize coffee wars were a thing.”
“Don’t worry, that’s not important right now. Right now, what’s important is making sure that killer is found. You seem like a witch of action, am I right?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding.
“Then let’s find the killer ourselves.”
“What?” I asked, balking.
“Well, it’s the perfect solution, isn’t it? You don’t have anything to do while you’re here except pretend you’re working from home. I don’t have anything to do because I just so happen to be a bit in between jobs right now. You have to get back to the human world as fast as possible, and the only way to do that is to make sure the killer is found. So let’s find him. Or her, I’m not sexist.”
“This is all so much to take in at once,” I said, rubbing my hands against my face.
“Right, it must be. Here, let me show you to your room. When you’re ready, come on out and we’ll go hunt down the paranormal who killed Thomas and get you right back home where you need to be.”
CHAPTER 9
Scarlett led me down the hall and to the left, where the guest bedroom was already set up. It was spacious — bigger than my whole living area back in New York — and very cute. The entire wall against which the bed was placed was covered in barn wood, and sheer white curtains covered the window, letting copious amounts of light in. In the corner was a tall green plant, and a wooden vanity added texture to the space.
I sat down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, trying to calm down.
So much had happened in the last couple of hours I almost couldn’t believe it. A part of me was still convinced I was going to wake up in a few minutes, sitting up in my bed and thinking about this stupid dream and how silly my subconscious was for thinking magic was real.
But at the same time, I had been here for a while now. If anything, seeing that wizard die should have thrown me out of the dream and back into the land of the awake. And yet, it hadn’t. I pinched myself. Nothing. I was slowly coming to grips with the fact that this was real. Magic was real. I was a witch. And I was currently stranded in the paranormal world.
And I couldn’t help but admit that Scarlett’s reasoning made sense. After all, I could get some of my work done from home, but it was still the weekend. I did
have some time to myself. And the best way to get ahead of this would be to go back to the office. The only way to do that was to have the case solved.
So what if we weren’t professional cops ourselves? Whatever we did couldn’t hurt, surely? If we found anything that looked interesting, we could always tell Chief Enforcer Tyson.
Decision made, I got up from the bed and headed back out into the living room.
“So?” Scarlett asked, turning toward me with a grin. “Are we going to find a killer?”
“We sure are,” I said.
“Great,” she replied. “I have a giant collection of notebooks. Let’s grab one and make a list of suspects.”
“And I overheard the entire conversation between Linda and Chief Enforcer Tyson,” I explained. “I can tell you exactly who they knew in that coffee shop.”
“Perfect,” Scarlett said with a grin, jumping off the couch and heading to a small hutch behind the dining table. She pulled out a giant pile of pens and notebooks and brought them over to the coffee table.
“Choose your poison,” she said, then clasped her hands to her mouth. “Whoops, probably not the best choice of words right now.”
“Wow, this is quite the collection,” I said with a laugh.
“Collecting cute notebooks is my dirty little secret,” Scarlett replied with a grin. “And of course, when you have pretty notebooks, you have to have pretty pens to go with them. Unfortunately, I never have as many things to record as I do opportunities to buy the books, so a lot of them end up unused.”
I picked up a cute little book covered in cartoon French fries with the text “Fries Before Guys” on the front.
“I like this,” I said with a grin.
“Sounds good,” Scarlett replied. “It’s yours. I’m going to go with something a little more on-brand for someone hunting down a killer.” She picked up a plain white notebook on which sat two crows, with the text “attempted murder” below, and I laughed.
“Perfect.”
“Great. Now why don’t you run me through everything Linda said?”
I went through the story as best I could remember, and then got to the part where Linda explained who they knew in the coffee shop.
“She said there were two elves who worked at the hospital with Thomas. One was a Healer, and another one worked in the administration.”
“Ok,” Scarlett said. “I don’t know who those might be, but Grandma Eva will know. We’ll call her and ask, later.”
“Won’t she be curious as to why we want to know?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about Grandma Eva. She’ll probably think it’s hilarious. She’s a kindly old woman, but there’s a mischievous side of her that just loves to stick her nose into things. My mom, on the other hand, is the kind of person that you should under no circumstances tell about our plan.”
“Got it,” I replied. “Then there was Mira, the fairy working the counter; Andrea, a witch who went to the Academy with Linda; and a wolf shifter that she didn’t name who knew Thomas.”
“Ok, we’ll ask Grandma Eva about the wolf shifter too; if he was in there at the same time as she was, she’ll know who he is. Andrea must be Andrea Bolt. She’s about the same age as Linda. Linda and I came through the Academy together, but she was three years older than me.”
“Do you think Andrea could have killed Thomas?”
“I really can’t think of why she’d want to,” Scarlett said, frowning. “I knew Thomas to say hi to. Not much more than that. Well, I can’t say I know Andrea much better than that either. But I’ve never heard of the two of them even knowing each other.”
“What does Andrea do for work?”
“She’s a Magical Fixer.”
“A what?”
“Sorry, I keep forgetting all this stuff is completely new to you. A Magical Fixer is a skilled position in the paranormal world that’s done by witches and wizards. They have an all-encompassing knowledge of magic and are called in to fix any mishaps local citizens or businesses might have.”
“Oh, so like what we would call a handyman, but more prestigious?”
“Exactly. Only the students with the highest marks are taken on as Magical Fixer students.”
“What kind of problems could a business have that would require a Magical Fixer?” I asked.
“It could be anything. If a witch or wizard messed up the ward to keep out intruders in the middle of the night, they might have to call one in to fix it back up if it’s beyond their own skill. Basically, if someone casts a spell with consequences they don’t want, and it’s beyond their skill to fix, they have to call in a Magical Fixer.”
“And what if the problem is so bad even they can’t fix it?” I asked. “Has the paranormal world ever ended up in a Godzilla situation?”
Scarlett grinned. “It’s cool to have someone that I can talk to about human world movies, finally. I actually get that reference. But no, so far there hasn’t been anything so bad as that. The worst I know of was back in the nineties, there was a wizard working at a construction site in a town down in Florida. It was the middle of summer, and it was hot, so he thought he’d create a bubble that would generate some air conditioning for the job site. Unfortunately, he messed up the spell, and instead of just creating a small, air-conditioned space, he generated an ice demon that went around freezing everything it could. Half the town was encased in ice before one of the local Magical Fixers came in, but they couldn’t figure out how to undo the spell. They had to call in the best Magical Fixer from Canada, who knew all the spells to unfreeze things, before it got under control. I was too young to really understand it beyond finding the whole story hilarious, but it’s one of those legends of the paranormal world now.”
“Alright, I’ll make a note to never cast any spells, seeing as they can go wrong,” I said with a grimace.
“Where’s the fun in that? Come on, let me get you a wand. I’ll teach you how to cast spells straightaway.”
I shook my head. “Thanks, but ummm, maybe not right away, if you don’t mind. It’s all been quite a lot to take in, this idea that I’m a witch. I’m not sure I really want to try magic just yet.”
“Suit yourself, but I want to be there when you give it a shot,” Scarlett replied. “Let’s go down to the shop. We’ll ask Grandma Eva who the other paranormals we need to talk to are.”
CHAPTER 10
M aking a mental note to get my work done as soon as we got home, I followed Scarlett and the two of us headed back into town. The Love Shack was a cute little store right on the main street, Aphrodite Way, in one of the gorgeous old-style brick buildings that lined the large avenue.
Stepping inside, I was pleasantly surprised to find that instead of being stuffy, packed to the gills, and overwhelming with scents, the Love Shack was actually quite modern. The huge windows at the front let in tons of natural light that bounced off the light brown hardwood floors. The shelves were generously spaced and none reached past my shoulders, which allowed the eye to look all the way to the back of the store, adding to the impression of space.
“Hi there,” a cheery voice said from the counter. “How can I help you today?”
My eyes followed the sound and landed on a tall and slim woman with curly red hair and gorgeous green eyes. Her cheeks were dotted with freckles and her smile was friendly.
“Hey, Victoria,” Scarlett said.
“Oh, Scarlett, hi. Sorry, I didn’t recognize you for a second. I’ve just taken off my glasses to do some paperwork.”
“No problem. This is Mina, my cousin.”
“A cousin? I didn’t know you had a cousin.”
“Neither did I until about half an hour ago. She’s new to the paranormal world.”
“Are you really?” the woman asked, stepping around the counter and coming toward me. “How lovely to meet you. I’m Victoria. I work as a potion maker here at the Love Shack. So, when you say new to the paranormal world…”
“She had no idea she was a witch,” Sc
arlett finished.
“Well, welcome to your new life,” Victoria said, taking me into a warm hug. I liked her immediately, but I was also completely floored. I’d never had anyone take such an immediate liking and care to me. “Is there anything I can do to help your transition? I’d be thrilled to help you learn how to make potions. I’m from the coven of Callisto, you see.”
“Oh, you’re not from the coven of Venus?” I asked, and Victoria shook her head.
“No, there are many different covens. While it’s true that most of the witches and wizards who live here in Fairy Falls are members of the coven of Venus, my family and coven are originally from Illinois. I got tired of the weather there, though, and moved here three years ago for the lifestyle. The coven of Callisto is an earth coven, so I’m better at making potions than anything else.”
“What are the different coven elements?” I asked.
“There’s lighting,” Victoria started, counting the covens off on her fingers. “The coven of Venus is a lightning coven. Then there’s earth, which my coven, Callisto, belongs to. Fire covens are pretty common as well. There’s a town near here called Pacific Cove whose coven is Mars—that’s a fire coven. Then there are water covens, of course, and air covens.”
“Wow,” I said. “So there are a lot of covens out there.”
“Dozens,” Scarlett confirmed.
“So anyway, my offer stands. If you ever need anything, please let me know.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “I’m not going to be here long, though. I’m just staying in Fairy Falls until the paranormal who murdered Thomas is found, and then I’m going right back home to my job.” Assuming I still had a job to get back to, that was.
To my surprise, Victoria looked genuinely crestfallen. Why would she care about me? She had just met me.
Love at First Spell: A Witch Cozy Mystery (Fairy Falls Mystery Book 1) Page 5
