Baffling Blend

by Kennedy Layne

  “How do you know that, Ted?”

  Can we just take this back to the teashop? There are spots on my coat where I’m missing a few tufts of fur that are getting quite drafty at the moment. Not entirely comfortable, if I do say so myself.

  “I overheard Mr. Rye on the phone.”

  “You overheard Rye talking to Aunt Rowena?” I asked, trying to simplify my question in order to get the answer that I so desperately wanted. “Is that right?”

  “No.”

  Funny how I always forget how frustrating it is to talk to a walking stick of wax.

  “Ted, who was Rye talking to on the phone?” Heidi asked, jumping into the frying pan with me. She’d been by my side while trying to solve one of Ted’s riddles before. “Do you know?”

  “Yes,” Ted replied with an affirmative nod. “Miss Bree.”

  I don’t know about you two, but Ted managed to shock me with that answer. Maybe he misunderstood the question. Try again, and this time make sure to jog his memory about how the only two non-supernatural beings that know about witchcraft is my soulmate and the good ol’ sheriff.

  “Ted, it’s very important that you think back to Rye’s phone conversation,” I advised him, completely agreeing with Leo that having another person know our secret could mean the end as we knew it. Aunt Rowena had let it slide that Heidi was in the know, but even I knew better than to let her in on the fact that I’d also revealed our secret to Liam. “Are you telling me that Rye was on the phone with Bree when he told her about his plans for the dreamcatcher?”

  “Yes.”

  Ted’s one-word reply was like a stab to my heart, along with a little twist at the very end. Oh, this complicated our already overly complex situation. Even Heidi appeared to not know what to say in this situation, and that alone said a lot more about our problem.

  I do believe I feel an asthma attack coming on, Raven. I honestly didn’t think things could get worse than the squirrelpocalypse, but now we’re dealing with a chickadee Armageddon mixed in with a side of witchcraft meltdown. Not a good combination. I can’t breathe, Raven! Help!

  Chapter Nine

  “Tell me it’s not true,” I demanded, brushing past Rye when he opened his front door. There was no time for decorum. Heidi quickly followed behind me with Leo in her arms, which wasn’t an easy feat since he’d been feigning an asthma attack ever since leaving the cottage. “Tell me that you didn’t tell Bree Stonehedge that you’re a warlock.”

  Rye quietly closed the door behind him, but not before glancing outside to ensure that no one else was with us. At least, that’s what I assumed he was doing, unless his cautious behavior meant something else entirely. I waited for the palm of my hand to warm to give me some sense of danger, but it remained annoyingly cool.

  Just accept it, Raven. You’re defective.

  “You’re not one to lecture me about sharing our little secret,” Rye pointed out after crossing his arms. He didn’t seem to want to budge from his place by the door, so we stayed gathered in his living room. “Do you think I haven’t noticed Liam watching me more closely? The fact that Heidi is standing in my living room also speaks volumes, doesn’t it?”

  I might be feeling a little better. Do you happen to have any edibles in that bag of yours? This is going to turn into quite the scene, and I’m not going to want to miss a moment of it.

  “In my defense, I told Heidi about my abilities when I was coming to terms with my lineage being dumped on me out of nowhere. Unlike you, I only found out at the age of thirty,” I pointed out, hating that I was now on the defensive. Not only was I a horrible liar, I also hated conflict. “As for Liam…well, it’s simple. I love him.”

  Rye raised an eyebrow at my declaration, as if I was missing something.

  Oh, this is bringing back horrible memories from last night. I think I need those edibles for another reason altogether. Why can’t my short-term memory issue wipe out those graphic images? I mean, what they were doing was so—

  “What is he talking about?” Rye asked in alarm, raising his arms to his head in disbelief. “Leo, did you see me with Bree last night? Did you pop into my house uninvited?”

  Oh, I feel another asthma attack coming on. I’m so sorry, Raven. I’ll try not to put the bus in reverse. Raven made me do it, cheater. I had no choice in the matter. You know how she can get, and I’m the one who has to live with her ire.

  “Whoa,” Heidi exclaimed, setting Leo down on the couch before she held up her hands in astonishment. “You and Bree had—”

  “Yes,” I interrupted Heidi with a whisper. “I might have forgotten to tell you that part.”

  “Some best friend you are,” Heidi muttered, crossing her arms in offense. “I thought Ted just overheard a conversation between friends, or that maybe Bree was an actual witch herself. That wouldn’t surprise me, you know. But this? I’ll admit that this revelation has thrown me off balance.”

  “Enough.” Rye ran his hands down his face in frustration. Even I could see that we’d lost control of the situation, and the fact that my mother’s life was still hanging in the balance wasn’t helping any. “Yes, Bree and I are dating. We’ve actually been seeing each other for quite some time, but my private life is just that—private.”

  The tote that I was carrying with my laptop, wallet, and cell phone seemed to be weighing more and more the longer we carried on our conversation. A quick glance revealed that Leo had his head shoved inside the opening.

  “Stop that,” I whispered, attempting to come up with a solution to salvage the rest of the day. Rye’s answer began to knit together a new scenario, and one that might very well be to our advantage. “Aunt Rowena doesn’t know about you and Bree, does she?”

  More secrets?

  Leo’s head popped out my tote as he sat back on his haunches. His bent whisker began to twitch in irritation.

  You all seem to be forgetting that I have short-term memory issues. How can you ogres expect me to keep track of all the secrets around here when I can’t even remember what I had for lunch yesterday?

  “No, and I’d like to keep it that way.” Rye signed in resignation, motioning for us to follow him into the kitchen. Heidi and I exchanged speculating glances as we followed a few steps behind. “Look, I’m doing my best to help Rowena out with the coven war. I also understand why you want to keep your distance, Raven. With that said, you don’t understand how bad it’s getting between the two factions. They’re resorting to whatever means necessary to win.”

  Please tell me that you’re not referring to black magic, cheater. I can only handle one attempted murder at a time.

  “Attempted murder?” Rye stopped short of pulling a chair out from the kitchen table. The shock written across his features said it all. “It appears we’ve both been keeping secrets from one another.”

  Oh, that wasn’t why Raven didn’t tell you. She just didn’t want the Wicked Witch of Windsor to know the pesky little details about the blonde witch.

  “Going by the look of horror that just crossed Rye’s face, I’m going to guess that Leo just spilled the beans about your mother,” Heidi murmured, leaning in toward me even though the cat was already out of the bag…no pun intended. “Okay, Rye. Here’s the truth. Raven had a dream that a blonde witch was standing over a boiling cauldron, using not-so-nice ingredients in front of a picture of Regina. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this blonde is trying to get rid of Regina, but we haven’t figured out why. To sum the rest of it up, Raven doesn’t want Rowena to know. We’re all aware that the woman is not to be messed with, and we have no idea how she might take advantage of the situation. I’ve seen Rowena’s temper, and we should probably stay off her radar, if you get my drift.”

  I didn’t like that Heidi had given away our hand so soon, but she was certainly a better bargainer than I was…as evident from her next statement. No wonder Leo loved her so much.

  “Seeing as we have something that we’d like to keep secret, as do you,” Heidi
pointed out with a wave of her hand, “I suggest we come to some sort of agreement that benefits both parties.”

  I do love her, Raven. We’ll one day stumble over a spell to make her a feline. I just know it.

  Rye pointed toward the other chairs as he went about making us some coffee. I certainly wouldn’t turn it down. The much-needed sleep had been very beneficial, but I still had a few cobwebs that needed to be cleared out. I needed to be operating on full capacity if I wanted to come away from this conversation with the upper hand.

  “If we’re going to have this discussion, you have to be willing to hear about what has been taking place up in Windsor,” Rye warned, filling the disposable coffee holder with ground beans that he’d purchased from my shop. Just the smell of the rich Colombian coffee had my taste buds watering. “Fair enough?”

  Heidi nudged me in the shoulder, but it wasn’t because she had been removing her jacket. I did follow suit though, figuring we were probably going to be here for a while. Leo was no longer in his chair, and a quick look around showed that he’d left the kitchen.

  “Fine,” I agreed in a clipped manner to make sure that Rye was aware of just how much I didn’t want to have this conversation. “Give me the bullet points without the sob story. We all know that Aunt Rowena could have gone about trying to take over the council in a more politically acceptable manner. She all but asked for this war.”

  “I won’t disagree with you there, but there’s more to that particular story which is only for her to tell,” Rye said rather cryptically as he finally pressed the brew button. He sat down across from both me and Heidi, leaning back in his chair as he started his story from somewhere near the end. “I might have stretched the truth earlier this morning. Aunt Rowena has been looking for the other dreamcatcher, but I told her that I haven’t found it yet. It is true that she wants to use the two ancient artifacts to manipulate the future. She is past the point of looking at this with any measure of clarity.”

  If that’s the truth, cheater, then where are the Z-extracting demons now? They’re certainly not in this house. Oh, I should warn you. If you’re wondering what that horrible smell is near the back door, it looks as if your familiar left some garbage behind your coatrack. Raccoon familiars. What can you do with them?

  “You’re telling me that you lied to Aunt Rowena?” I asked, completely dumbfounded that Rye could do such thing. Granted, he’d lied to me as well, but it was the former that had me in shock. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I love her like a mother, and I’m trying to protect her from those in the coven who would see to it that she was eliminated.” Rye leaned forward, setting his forearms on the table. “Rowena was practically drained of her abilities last week due to a hex bag that had been stuffed in a shrub right outside her front door. It had made her home resemble something more like a cage in which she couldn’t escape. Don’t get me wrong. She knew something was wrong immediately, but she couldn’t use any of her magic to find the source. I had to drive up to Windsor and cast a spell of my own to locate the hex bag.”

  “They’re finally turning on one another,” I muttered, really not surprised that it had come to this. “I don’t understand why the coven just doesn’t break in two. There’s nothing wrong with the two groups going their separate ways without hard feelings.”

  Uh-oh.

  I wanted to hit my head on the table in front of me at Leo’s exclamation. It meant that a random thought had invaded that hard head of his that might shed light on why the two factions were willing to resort to black magic to get their way.

  “You don’t know,” Rye said in disbelief before pushing up from the table so that he could pace back and forth across his kitchen floor twice. “How could you not know?”

  “I don’t need to have to your witchy senses to know that this is bad,” Heidi muttered, quickly standing so that she could pour the three of us coffee. “We shouldn’t know whatever it is you’re about to tell us until we have something to solidify our nerves.”

  You’re going to need something stronger than coffee, and I’m definitely going to need any treats that you have in that bag. I forgot all about that hulking piece of rock. My beloved Rosemary always said that it would be what destroyed the coven, and that she was happy never to set eyes on it again. Who would have thought it would come back to haunt me?

  “What rock?” I asked, pausing briefly to relay Leo’s thoughts to Heidi. “Rye, what is he talking about?”

  “The Windsor Stone sits in the middle of a field in the back of the coven’s neighborhood.” Rye took one of the porcelain mugs from Heidi as he continued to explain why the coven couldn’t separate peacefully. “It’s been used for generations upon generations to speak to our ancestors.”

  “And neither side wants to lose that powerful touchstone or the ability to talk with their ancestors,” I murmured after thanking Heidi for my own cup of coffee. Something about this story didn’t add up, though. “There are other ways to speak to our ancestors. I’ve done it. You’ve done it. What makes this rock so special?”

  “It’s said that whoever leads the coven will be the chosen one.” Rye rubbed his forehead as if what he was about to say was beyond our comprehension. “Raven, this enchanted element gives the leader the ability to walk among the dead. He or she would be able to have all the knowledge of our past generations with a simple touch to the stone.”

  Don’t worry, Leo replied around a mouthful of catnip. He must have found the loose-leaf baggie that I had hidden in the bottom of my tote. It’s not like the rock has worked in years. Maybe that’s why I didn’t tell you about it. Out of sight, out of mind.

  And just like that, I comprehended the depth of the coven war.

  “No one on the council has been able to walk among the ancestors on the other side, have they?” I asked, wrapping my hands around the warmth of the mug. “That’s why Aunt Rowena believes the coven has lost its way and needs to expand their views and ideas. It also explains why the others on the council believe they’ve strayed too far from the origins of our ancestors. They all seek to regain the power of the ancestral touchstone.”

  “Raven, we’re not talking about the stone not working in the last year or two,” Rye warned, claiming his seat again. “It’s literally been decades since anyone has had its power.”

  It all made sense now, especially having caught Aunt Rowena in the act of thinning the veil even further back on All Hallows’ Eve night. I’d caught her red-handed in the cemetery with Rye, who’d known all along what her true intentions had been at the time. She’d been trying to communicate with our ancestors regarding the Windsor Stone.

  “I still don’t understand why you’re hiding the dreamcatcher from Aunt Rowena.” Nothing I came up with made sense as to what had changed Rye’s mind about helping her, with the exception of our earlier conversation. “Wait a second. You’re afraid that if she gets her hand on the second dreamcatcher that you’ll be putting everyone in danger, including Bree.”

  This is turning into one of those soap operas that Elsie and Wilma are always watching in the afternoons, only our situation can have us all turning into toads. I’ve never tried eating flies before, but I do hear they are high in protein.

  Leo was now lying on the tiled floor with his head still in my tote bag. Most of his body wouldn’t fit, so he was lying flat with all four legs spread out. I could just imagine the granules all over my laptop that were left over from the catnip he’d consumed, but that was a problem for later.

  “I’m also looking out for Rowena,” Rye countered, as if he was now just realizing how disloyal he was being by going against her wishes. “She’s letting her anger get the best of her after the latest hex bag debacle. They’re all resorting to new lows, and it’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt.”

  “So, what did you tell Rowena about Raven?” Heidi asked skeptically, taking a sip of her coffee without leaving a lipstick stain on the edge. I could never manage such a feat. The
fact that I was thinking about such a trivial thing told me that those five hours of sleep I’d gotten this morning weren’t nearly enough. “I mean, Raven called and left her a message. Granted, she didn’t say anything about the premonition she had last night. Rowena still has to be wondering what you did with her dreamcatcher.”

  The Wicked Witch of Windsor is going to turn us all into toads. I really don’t want to eat flies. Just thinking of the crunchy texture makes me gag.

  “If you throw up in my tote bag, I’ll be the one to turn you into a toad,” I warned while waiting for Rye to answer Heidi’s question. He was being just vague enough that I began to worry about all these lies that we were losing track of in our bid to save the ones we loved. “Rye, what did you tell Aunt Rowena about the dreamcatcher?”

  “I told her that you threw it in the bay in your exhausted mental state after not being able to sleep for days.” Rye didn’t even blink, though the rest of us did in our silent pleas of praying we’d heard him wrong. “It will keep her busy enough for me to figure out what to do with the relics so that neither side can resort to something that could cause real harm to what’s left of the coven.”

  Sweet angel of mercy! Tell me I didn’t just hear that whopper of a lie!

  Leo scrambled out of my tote bag, though he did sway a bit when he sat on his back haunches. Flakes of catnip clung to his fur as he narrowed his gaze at Rye in contempt.

  What type of dingleberry would go and do something so foolish? Now we have no choice but to pack our bags and leave. This is it. The end of life as we know it. We’ll have to go on the lam, but we’ll need to stop in Alaska to get as much catnip for the road as possible. I’ll have to finish my letter to Skippy, of course.

  “We’re not going anywhere,” I stated, anger coursing through my veins at the fact that Rye would do something so foolish. “Why would you lie to Aunt Rowena? You put a bullseye on our back, Rye, and everyone I care about. You—”