by Amy Boyles
“These folks give me the creeps,” Amelia mumbled.
I nodded. “You can say that again.”
“I have a plan,” Betty said.
Hope lifted me. “What is it?”
She snapped her fingers, and a round black circle filled her hand. My grandmother shaped it and placed it on her head.
I squinted at her. “Is that a beret?”
She nodded. “It is. How does it look?”
I shot Amelia a confused look. “I guess okay. I’ve never worn one.”
“What’s it for?” Amelia said.
Cordelia rolled her eyes. “She’s starting a resistance movement.”
My gaze washed from the black beret to my grandmother’s shining face. “A resistance movement?” I repeated. “What?”
“We have to resist them, girls,” Betty said. “We can’t let these witches win.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, unsure of what any of it meant. “What are we supposed to do?”
“Help me resist,” Betty said proudly. “We can’t let them get the best of us. They can take our food, they can take our homes but they can’t take our freedom.”
“Okay, Braveheart.” Cordelia patted Betty’s shoulder. “You tell us how your French resistance goes. Let us know how we can help.”
Betty’s eyes glinted with mischief. “I’ll be putting my first plan of action together soon. I’ll let y’all know what it is.”
“I can’t wait,” Amelia said gleefully. “This should be fun.”
We arrived at the park. Folding chairs sprinkled the lawn. We found some and sat. Mattie the Cat and Hugo stayed beside us, waiting patiently for the rest of town to arrive.
Finally they did. Folks shuffled in looking confused. A few threw angry glances toward me. Garrick Young, the sheriff of Magnolia Cove, walked in looking so sour if I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve thought he’d been sucking a lemon.
Cordelia motioned for him to come over.
“Craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Whole place is a mess. Got witches all over acting like they’re the law.”
“Can we do anything about it?” Cordelia said, her voice full of concern.
He nodded toward the darkly robed witches. “We’re outnumbered, and I’ve been told not to move against them.”
“Maybe our dads can wish us out of this situation,” Amelia offered hopefully.
Betty shook her head. “That’s too big a wish. You’d be asking your dads to get rid of a mess of witches. Even if they did, there’d be nothing to stop them from coming back.”
“Wipe all their memories,” she said cheerfully.
Betty shot her a sour look. “Too many.”
“It was just a thought,” Amelia whimpered.
“The resistance,” Betty said in a dark, foreboding voice. “It’s our only chance.”
As more people spilled in, I glanced over and saw Bee walking toward the stage. Seeing that I couldn’t slip away unnoticed, I tugged on Axel’s shirt.
“I’m going to talk to Bee.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Alone,” I demanded.
His jaw clenched. “You’re not to go anywhere by yourself.”
“She’s different,” I pointed out. “I know I can talk to her, reach her.”
Bee had stopped and was talking to a wizard. He looked much younger than her. He had a curly head of blond hair and looked to be pleading with her. Bee shook her head. The look of anguish in his eyes made my heart lurch for him.
“No,” Axel said.
Rufus spoke up. “Let Pepper trust her instincts. She is a head witch and may know better than most of us.”
“Please.” I searched Axel’s eyes for a hint that he would relent. “I need to speak to her alone.”
His mouth tightened, and he dragged his gaze from me, staring into the distance. “If you must.”
I gave Rufus a small nod of thanks and took off toward Bee. When I reached her, she was alone.
“Bee,” I said.
She pivoted her head over her shoulder toward me. It was as if in that moment she registered who I was. She whirled around, her silvery wand flashing in her hand.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she hissed.
Gone was the cool demeanor of the woman from yesterday. Bee appeared frazzled. She gripped my shoulders and pushed me between two magnolia trees.
She glanced around frantically. “What are you doing?”
“I wanted to speak to you. You seem like someone I can reason with. Unlike Lacy.”
Bee’s gaze darted left and right. “She can’t be reasoned with. She’ll do anything to possess your power. Girl, you don’t know how much danger you are in.”
“Yes, I do.”
“She’ll kill you for it,” Bee admitted. Her gaze crumpled in misery. “I’m sorry to tell you that, but she will.”
“Can’t you talk her out of it?”
Bee threw back her head in laughter. “No one can talk Lacy out of a thing once it’s stuck in her head. She’s relentless.”
“What can I do?”
Bee cringed, exasperated. “What can you do? Give yourself up unless you want your town to suffer.” She wagged a finger. “Or worse, they’ll turn you over.” She closed her eyes as if a painful memory had bloomed inside her head. “Like they did me.”
I curled my fingers into her robes. “You have to help me. Help my town. We must fight.”
Bee shook her head.
“Bee,” I begged. “Once you were like me. Once you were your own person, had your own dreams until I’m guessing they were stolen from you. Lacy has no right to do this. She wants me for some skirmish.”
Bee shook her head. “That’s only a front. The situation with the werewolves is coming to a head, but she wants your power simply because you don’t know what to do with it—that’s what all her reports said.”
“What if we could calm the situation with the werewolves?”
Bee frowned. “Then she wouldn’t have a leg to stand on—at least not officially. It would help.” Bee pulled away. “I must go. We cannot be seen together.”
“Won’t you help me?”
Lines wrinkled her forehead. She smoothed them as if trying to iron away stored memories. “I shouldn’t do it, but meet me tonight. Here. I’ll think on how I can help. But,” she said sharply, “I can’t make any promises.”
“Thank you,” I said hurriedly.
“Go,” she commanded.
Without hesitating, I went, racing back to my seat.
“I was about to come after you,” Axel growled.
I snaked my hand through the crook of his arm. “Good thing I got back when I did, huh?”
He mumbled something I couldn’t understand, and we turned our attention to the front of the park where Lacy now stood, flanked by Bee and Hermit.
Lacy raised her hands. “Good citizens of Magnolia Cove. The Head Witch Order has arrived in your town because our friends are dealing with an uprising with rogue werewolves.”
Axel cursed at her mention of his kind.
“The Order specializes in using head witches for our purposes, but we are short bodies, my friends, and in dire need of extra help. We have appealed to your animal talker, Pepper Dunn, but she has refused to assist our kind.”
Heat flushed my face. Murmurs washed through the crowd. I could feel the town’s ire toward me. I hated it. I wanted to disappear. Go somewhere far, far away.
“We have appealed to Pepper,” Lacy continued. “Begged her for help, but she has refused and set her pet dragon to attack me.”
I closed my eyes. “Lies.”
“And so now you have to suffer,” she said. “If you haven’t heard, your town is on lockdown. No one goes in or out. No food will arrive, either. Until Pepper Dunn turns herself in to the Order, all of you will suffer.”
I cringed.
“Unless Pepper gives herself over right now, our occupation will move forward.”
Lacy�
��s gaze locked on mine. The entire crowd shifted, and I felt a thousand stares on me.
Her lips parted into a sadistic smile. “What do you say, Pepper? Would you like to give yourself up?”
SEVEN
“No,” Betty answered before I could. “My granddaughter ain’t giving herself up to some lady who’s trying to intimidate us.”
Lacy smirked. She turned her gaze on Garrick Young. “Sheriff, arrest Betty Craple for dissension.”
Garrick’s eyes widened.
Lacy glared at him. “If you won’t, one of my witches will do it for you.”
Garrick crossed to Betty. “I’ll handle you better than they will. Come on.”
Betty glared at him. “You would arrest me?”
He cocked his head toward the robed witches and wizards. Most of them had a lust for pain in their eyes. “Would you rather they do it?”
“Good point.”
Garrick escorted my grandmother through the crowd.
Anger pulsed in me. Lacy was a bully, pure and simple. In that moment I decided I would do whatever it took to bring her down.
“Would anyone else like to argue with me?” she asked the crowd.
I was shocked that no one answered.
Not.
She smiled viciously. “Good. We have an understanding then. Starting tonight you will be put on strict curfew. Everyone must be in their homes by nine o’clock. Anyone seen outside after then will be arrested—or worse.”
I swallowed a knot in the back of my throat. Lacy might lock down this town, but no matter what, I would be out and about looking for Bee—whether Lacy caught me or not.
Lacy spoke for a few more minutes. When it was over, we packed up to leave.
“Where’s Hugo?” I said.
Axel shook his head. “He must’ve wandered off.”
“We need to find him.” I rubbed my arms, trying to slough off the bad feeling that was creeping in. Lacy hadn’t liked Hugo. What if she placed a spell on him or sent someone to snatch him away when we weren’t looking?
I felt Rufus’s gaze on me. “He’ll be okay,” he said as if he sensed what I was thinking. “We’ll find him.”
I nodded sadly. “I hope so.”
“Come on,” Axel said. “Let’s get you home before the curfew starts.”
“Okay.”
We headed back. My house was a verifiable fortress with Axel, Rufus, Cordelia and Amelia all sleeping in it.
As soon as we arrived, Cordelia set off to call Garrick to see about Betty. “I want to make sure she’s okay.”
I stayed downstairs with Axel and Rufus for a while before retreating to my own bedroom.
Mattie the Cat reached the bedroom before me and sprawled out on the bed. She blinked lazily at me when I entered.
“Don’t you be worryin’ ’bout that dragon, sugar,” she said. “He’ll be jus’ fine.”
“I hope so.”
I stared at my shoes.
“What else is botherin’ you?”
I sat on the bed. The mattress sagged beneath my weight, creaking and moaning in its familiar way. I curled one leg under the other and turned to Mattie.
“I need to get out of here tonight to meet Bee. She said she’d try to help.”
Mattie yawned. “Let me guess—you want me to sneak you out of the house even though the entire town is on curfew and there’s a crazy witch out there wanting to snatch you up.”
I grimaced. “When you put it that way, it sounds pretty insane. But yes, that’s what I need.”
Mattie rose, arching her back and stretching her front legs. “It’s against my better judgment, but I’m gonna do it. I’ll help you. But you have to be quiet as a field mouse.”
I smiled wickedly. “I will be.”
“You gonna take Axel?”
“This is my fight. I wouldn’t put anyone in danger. Besides, Axel wouldn’t let me go by myself. He’d say it was too dangerous.”
“He’s right,” she said.
I ignored that bit of judgment. “If I get caught being out after curfew, then I’d deal with the consequences alone—no matter how awful they were.”
Thoughts of Lacy filled my brain. I shoved them aside and looked deep inside myself for my courage, which was usually not in short supply.
When darkness fell and it came time, I found my way back to my bedroom and locked the door behind me.
Mattie listened to make sure no one was heading up the stairs as I opened the window and stepped onto the roof. I shimmied down a drainpipe and landed softly on the grass.
Mattie appeared in the window. “Be careful,” she whispered.
I nodded and ran off, sticking to the shadows. I reached the park alongside Bubbling Cauldron a few minutes later. I’d only noticed one witch out on patrol, and had easily evaded her by pressing myself against the side of a house until she passed.
I had at least one advantage—I knew my town. Knew all the nooks and crannies.
I arrived between the two magnolias that Bee had dragged me to earlier that day. I didn’t know what time she would arrive, but I would wait all night if I had to.
As long as nobody figured out I’d left the house and no one caught me, I would be fine.
After a few minutes I noticed a dark shadow striding toward me. They were walking funny, stilted, as if their knees were locked.
Bee didn’t walk like that, but as the figure approached, I saw her eyes glinting in the moonlight.
“Bee?” I whispered.
But something was wrong. Her face was charcoal black; so was the rest of her.
I rushed up. “Bee? What happened?”
She fell into my arms. I struggled to keep her upright but somehow managed.
Her mouth opened and shut, and her skin smelled burned as if she’d been roasted. Bile surged up the back of my throat.
Her clothes lay in tattered ashes. “Bee? Who did this? What happened?”
She worked her mouth, but no sound came out. Then her eyes shut. I laid her on the ground and felt for a pulse.
There was none.
Something bound up behind her.
I rose and tightened every muscle in my body. This was it. I would fight to the death if I had to. Someone had burned Bee to death, and I was ready for a fight.
The thing launched itself forward and landed at my feet.
“Hugo?”
My eyes widened with fright. Hugo craned his neck, and I extended my hand for him to sniff.
“Hugo, did you scorch Bee?”
A light snapped on in front of me. Lacy, Hermit and her gang of witches glared at me.
“Stop right there, Pepper Dunn,” Lacy said coldly. “I’ve got you now.”
EIGHT
“You’ve done it, Pepper,” Lacy sneered. “You’ve killed one of us—a head witch in the Order.” She smirked. “One of the three, in fact. You’re in deep now. And look”—she pointed to Bee’s hand—“it appears you’ve stolen her wand as well. It’s missing.”
“I didn’t steal it.”
Lacy approached me, her eyes glittering with happiness. I swear, I wouldn’t have been surprised if her skin turned green and she started cackling about getting me and my little dog Toto, too.
Yes, she was that evil.
“I didn’t do it,” I said. “I didn’t kill that witch.”
Lacy scowled. “I know you did. I know you sent that dragon to kill her same as you tried to do to me!”
I shook my head emphatically. “I didn’t. I swear. She was helping me.”
Lacy gasped. “Bee was helping you? How dare you lie about that.” She curled her hand around my arm and yanked me toward her. “We’ll see about getting you help now. You have no choice but to do what I want.”
Lacy dragged me away from Bee. Hugo rose into the sky and cut us off.
Lacy’s hand swept over her body. “Do you think one of your kind is going to stop all of us? We outnumber you, dragon. Your mistress may have gotten you to kill my friend, but yo
u can’t kill the rest of us.”
Hugo opened his mouth. I cringed, expecting fire to stream out, but instead he screeched. It was a sound full of anger and pain.
Lacy simply laughed.
“Get out of my way, dragon.”
“Not so fast there.”
A new voice made Lacy stop. She whirled around to see Garrick Young and a posse of his men circling Bee’s body.
She eyed Garrick as if he was an unexpected guest who’d just declared he was staying for a month. “What do you want, Sheriff?”
A light flared in Garrick’s palm. He knelt and inspected Bee’s body. “I’d say this here is a case of murder.”
“You think?” Lacy snapped. “I found Pepper Dunn standing over the body. Her dragon was here as well. The witch coaxed her dragon to kill a member of the Head Witch Order. She is a criminal.”
He nodded. “Yep, that’s what it looks like.” Before Lacy could utter one word, Garrick marched up, took me by the wrists and slapped magical handcuffs on me.
“Pepper Dunn, you’re under arrest for the murder of Bee”—he turned to Lacy—“what was her last name?”
“Sowell,” Lacy answered.
His gaze shifted back to me. “Pepper, you’re under arrest for the murder of Bee Sowell. You will come with me, where you will stay in jail until you are tried for your crime.”
Lacy’s jaw dropped. “What? You can’t do that. You can’t take my witch. She’s mine. You know that.”
Garrick shrugged innocently. “Lacy, with all due respect, you may’ve shown up in my town demanding this and that and outmanning me in some things. But when it comes to murder, investigating is still my job. Until Pepper is declared innocent, she’s mine.”
Lacy huffed.
Garrick’s eyes hardened. “Do we understand one another?”
She nodded slowly. “We do.”
“Good.” He tipped his head toward her. “Now y’all have a good night.”
Before Lacy could say anything, Garrick turned me away from the crowd. I whistled for Hugo, and he flew to us, circling the sky.
Garrick’s men formed a wall around me, making me feel like I was surrounded by a human shield.
When we were far enough away that Lacy couldn’t hear, I said, “Thanks for doing that. I appreciate it. Are you going to let me go when we reach the jail?”
