by Kali Harper
“Sammy, help me please,” Kat said when I didn’t see anything.
To his credit, he purred a bit of encouragement in my ear, the soft vibrations making it tickle. I batted at him while still staring at the book, my eyes going wide as the letters literally transformed into common English. Magic 101? An original book with an even more original title. What luck!
I rolled my eyes and gave it back to her. “You never told me you had a thing for illusions.”
“You see it though, right?” She sounded hopeful, her lips tugging at the corners.
“So what? I can cast spells now?”
She ripped the book from my hands and hugged it to her chest. “Goodness no, that’s far too advanced.”
I couldn’t tell if she was kidding or not, so I decided to play along. “So no flaming fingertips? Oh, how about incantations? Can I alter time? Maybe make Maggie materialize out of thin air?”
“Astrid, this is serious.” Bless her heart, her expression didn’t change. In fact, as silence fell between us, I started to believe her.
“You’re good. You’re really, really good.” Had the entire town gotten a script and rehearsed while I was asleep?
“To an outsider’s eyes, our entire town would seem crazy.”
“I’m not an outsider, though,” I reminded her. “I’ve lived here for five, almost six years now.”
“I know, but you can live here and still not understand everything. The reason I wanted you to see that book is to find out how much of Maggie’s gift has passed down to you.”
Maggie’s gift. “And here I thought Felix told the best riddles.”
Instead of answering me, Kat took my hand and practically dragged me through the shop. The towering books from yesterday were in the same place they were before, but as soon as she got too close, they scattered like a swarm of butterflies.
“Did those books—”
“Fly?” Was she cackling?
“What on Earth is going on?” I asked her, watching as another pile of books dispersed then came together once we’d gone by. Sammy wove between them, running behind us as Kat took me to the far end of the store. “Have they always done that?” I couldn’t believe what I was saying. Of course they didn’t!
“Yup,” Kat replied, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Yup, what?”
“They’ve always flown, but you couldn’t see it.”
“I’m seeing it now!” I gestured to the books that had since fallen into stacks on the floor.
“Only because Maggie died. That came out wrong but… hear my out?’
“Could this day get any weirder?” When she touched my hand, I said, “Oh please don’t make this any worse.”
“I won’t, promise. I’m going to make it even better.” She danced around me. In a second, a basket of daisies would materialize in her hand and she’d skip around in circles singing how the cat jumped over the moon. “I get how this looks, but trust me.”
“You’re my best friend. I can trust you and think you’ve gone mad at the same time.”
“True, but it helps if you don’t separate the two. You might want to sit down for this.”
“You’re the second person to say that to me today.”
“And after seeing those books are you going to listen this time?”
She had a point. With Sammy at my feet, I plopped on the floor, absently stroking his fur as Kat trembled in front of me. “Excited?”
“Yes.” She squealed. She actually squealed.
“No problem. I didn’t need to hear out of that ear.”
She stuck out her tongue then took on the most serious expression I’d ever seen. “Whatever you do, don’t blink.”
“Why would I—”
“You’ll miss it if you do.”
“Miss wh—oh jeez!” I scrambled away from her, or at least what I assumed was her, knocking into one of the many shelves which toppled over and started a Domino effect across the entire store. The shelves banged behind me, but I was frozen in place, my heart skipping a beat as I stared at—
“A fox?” I managed, my voice shaking more than I cared to admit. There was a fox in Kat’s shop. A real, live, breathing fox! “Where’d Kat go?”
“I told you not to blink,” the fox—Kat said. At least I think it was Kat. It certainly sounded like her, and if I looked hard enough, I could’ve sworn I saw its lips move.
“How hard did I hit my head?”
The fox in front of me chirped—laughing, I realized. “You can’t wish me away that easily.”
There it was again! Kat’s voice. Coming from a fox. I must’ve hit my head a lot harder than I thought. Wait until she got a load of this!
“Well?” the fox asked, running a paw over its fluffy tail. “What do you think?” When I didn’t answer, it turned a circle and sat right in front of me. “It’s okay, you know.”
“What is?” I asked, amazed when my voice still worked.
“If you want to pet me. Everyone does.”
My hand reached out in her direction, but I held it back. “I’ll pass, thank you.”
“You’ll have to give into it eventually.”
“Oh, and what’s that?”
“The magic.” Before I could say another word, the fox vanished, replaced a moment later by Katherine.
“Hoo-kay. I’m going to leave now.” I’d planned to stand up and make a dramatic exit, but I still couldn’t move. “What’s wrong with me?”
“You’re in shock,” Kat offered, sitting opposite of me. “I also might’ve cast a little spell.”
“Seriously?”
“A tiny one.” She held her fingers apart. “I promise it’s for your own good. You go out there now and you’ll never speak to me again. I’m your best friend.”
“You’re my only friend,” I corrected her.
“And as your friend, it’s my duty, no, my responsibility to break the news to you.”
“Which is?”
“You’re a witch.” She made it sound special. Important. I’d even say she was proud of it. “More to the point, you’re becoming one.”
“Right.” What else was I supposed to say? We’d already gone to crazy town and back. I was at a loss for words on what else I could do, much less what I was supposed to say under such insane circumstances.
“Tell me something. Ever since this morning, have you noticed anything different?”
“You mean feelings?”
“Or what you see. Has anything in town changed?”
“Well, Maggie’s sign is faded. Oh, and the cart outside Mr. Clark’s stand has one short leg.”
“Anything else?”
“You mean aside from the flying books and the fact you can turn into a fox?” Did I just say that?
She giggled. “So you admit it. You saw magic.”
“I didn’t see anything. You were there one minute and gone the next. Another illusion.”
“Wish me away all you want, but you can’t blame the bewitched books on me. I had no part in it.”
Glancing over my shoulder, I cringed at the dozen shelves I’d managed to knock over. “I’m really sorry about the mess.”
“It’s fine. It’ll get fixed. I’m more concerned about you.”
“Me? How come?”
She met my gaze, but the wide grin I was used to seeing on her was gone. “Because sometime tonight, tomorrow, or maybe next week, this is going to hit you. When it does, I need you to tell me so I can help you through it.”
I nodded and averted my gaze. Maggie, what did you do?
“How come I’m only seeing these things now?” I asked, playing with the laces to my shoe.
“You’d have to ask Maggie.”
“And seeing as that’s impossible?”
“Maggie was a charmer.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
“No, what I mean is she was a charmer.”
“You already said that.”
“Will you let me finish?” She crossed her
arms over her chest, but the smile gave her away. “Maggie was one of our best witches. An enchanter, actually. She could charm anything. It’s what she did at the bakery.”
“And here I thought we sold cookies,” I deadpanned.
“What seemed like cookies, muffins, and tarts to you were edible charms.”
“That doesn’t explain why I never saw anything.”
“You were enchanted. Maggie went to great lengths enchanting your home, your clothes, even your morning coffee. She made you see what she wanted you to see and hear what she wanted you to hear. She kept you and the town safe.”
“If the secrecy here was so important, why let me stay?”
“Because magic’s in your blood and as much as you’d like to fight it, it would’ve come out eventually. Maggie knew this, and to keep watch over you, she enchanted the entire town.”
“So you didn’t know about me?” Had I appeared magical like everyone else?
“I did. We all did. The only difference was you couldn’t see us. Think of it as a one-way piece of glass. Where you saw a normal town with normal people living there, we saw a very normal girl who didn’t fit in with our magical ways.” She reached out and took my hands, holding them between us. “But now you do.”
“One of us, right?”
She batted at me. “Oh stop. In any case, Maggie was one of the best. Those muffins you brought me every day were suppressants. They kept me from shifting.”
“But if Maggie had enchanted me—man, that sounds weird—if she’d enchanted me, why hide your animal form?”
“Because there’s no telling when she might’ve slipped.”
“And now that she’s gone, it’s okay for me to see all of this?”
“No. It’s okay because you saw the books fly like birds. You saw the writing on the binding to that book.”
“And what about Sammy? Was the Whisperer a talking cat or—”
“Adelle’s a shifter like me.”
“So, everyone in the town has magic?”
“Yup, and pretty soon, so will you.”
“I can hardly wait.” As if I needed anything else on my plate right now. I hadn’t asked for this and it was probably the last thing I needed. Still, talking about magic was better than why we were here.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
“I hope so.” There was no way I could do this on my own.
Kat and I sat in the back of her shop for what felt like hours, and as she went on about various incantations and me having to awaken before becoming a witch, I thought about Maggie, her apple tarts, and how Every Last Crumb would never be the same again.
Chapter Five
The rest of the day was a complete blur. Between Katherine’s lessons on magical creatures, her ability to shift, the other shifters in town, and Sammy’s glare, I’d had enough. So when Kat offered to take me home, I didn’t argue.
Our walk back to Maggie’s was slow and quiet. My thoughts kept going back to earlier this morning and Sammy waking me before everything blew up in my face. A part of me wished I’d actually let the Whisperer or whatever she was do her job. What if Sammy had seen something? Seeing as I wasn’t a shifter or an animal whisperer, it wasn’t like I could ask him myself. But maybe Kat can.
“Can you talk to animals?” I asked, breaking the silence between us.
“Me? I don’t know. I guess it would depend on the animal.”
“But in your shifted form, as a fox,” I explained, “is it possible?”
She shrugged. “I talked to a squirrel once.”
“Oh, and how did that go?”
“He was nuts.”
I snorted which resulted in a death glare from Sammy who couldn’t be bothered with Kat’s jokes and her attempt to cheer me up. “Now I remember why I like you.”
“Because I’m cute and cuddly?” She batted her eyes and glanced over her shoulder at a long bushy tail that materialized behind her.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“More than you could possibly know.” She turned to me and held my hands between us. “I love I can talk to you about this now. You have no idea how boring it was keeping it to myself.”
“You didn’t have anyone else to talk to?”
She dropped her hands and kept walking. “I did, but they aren’t as much fun. You get me. You always have.”
“Aside for the fact you can turn into a fox.”
“Okay, so there was that, but everything else? No one else gets my humor.”
“I’m sure Maggie would.” I got quiet then, letting the subject drop completely as I shoved my hands in my pockets.
“As for your earlier question, I can try. You want me to talk to Sammy?”
“Would you? It doesn’t have to be much. I just want to know if he saw anything.”
“He’s your familiar now,” she pointed out. “Eventually you’ll be able to ask him yourself.”
“We can’t wait that long.” How long would it take anyway? Days? Weeks? Maggie deserved her peace. The sooner the better.
“Hmm, I see your point. Okay, I’ll give it a shot but no promises. Foxes and cats don’t exactly see eye to eye. Even if Sammy agrees to talk to me, that doesn’t mean he’ll understand a word I say.”
“But he can understand me, can’t he?” I knew he could. Even before I knew about the magic in this town, Sammy listened to me. There were also times I knew he’d understood me.
“Bit and pieces,” Kat offered, placing a hand on my arm as we turned the corner.
My heart skipped then. On the outskirts of town, away from the rumor mills stood my house along with Maggie’s. We were actually in a cul-de-sac, but for whatever reason, the town had only ever built two houses out here. It may have been far from the hustle and bustle, but I liked it. It was quiet, secluded, and suited me just fine.
Still, seeing the yellow tape in front of my house, wrapped from tree to tree and even around the mailbox, forced a pit into my stomach. It was the same feeling I’d had earlier this morning, made better by Kat’s company and her endless supply of puns.
“Maybe you should stay with me tonight,” she said after a long moment, stepping in front of me to block my view of what was currently an active crime scene.
I considered her offer but thought better of it when Sammy stepped off the sidewalk, quickly running toward the house. My house. “Sammy, we aren’t allowed in there.”
Looking at Kat, I already knew what she was going to say. “It’s against the law,” I told her, the knot in my stomach getting even tighter as she went after him.
“Only if we get caught,” she threw back over her shoulder, transforming into a fox a moment later before disappearing into the large white tent.
“We are so dead,” I said if only to myself, glancing back the way we came to make sure we weren’t followed. Then, taking a breath, I chased Kat into what was once my house.
Under the tent and inside the front foyer of my home, everything was right where I’d left it. The floorboards in the hall still creaked and there was still a wine stain in the living room. It wasn’t until I reached my room when I realized something was wrong. The sheets on my bed were rumpled, almost as though I’d slept here and hadn’t bothered to clean up. Normally this wouldn’t have bothered me as I was known to leave my bed a mess in the past, but I knew I’d made it before I left. I’d even told Maggie about it because who knows who’d be in the house once the exterminators arrived.
The differences didn’t stop there. The drawers were pulled from my dresser. Hangers with the clothes still on lay in a heap on the floor.
Footsteps in the hall sent a shiver down my spine, causing my breath to catch until Kat joined me.
“What happened here?”
I shook my head. “I wish I knew. Whoever did this must’ve been looking for something.”
“Any idea what that might be?”
Until this morning, I was as normal as they came. “How many
people knew Maggie had me in her will?”
“No one. Not unless someone shared more than they were supposed to.”
“Lance knew,” I said after giving it some thought.
“Which probably means Ida did as well.”
“She did complain about the tent on my house yesterday.”
“She complains about everyone.”
“But she made a huge stink about this tent even though it was supposed to come off today. She said it was an eyesore.”
“Then I guess having it under investigation won’t help.”
“No, it won’t.” I was starting to hate the thing as much as Ida did.
“What now?” Kat asked, scanning from one corner of the room to the other. “Do you think they saw this?”
“They being Lance and Max? I don’t see why not. The entire place is locked down.”
“But no one’s watching it. Shouldn’t someone be posted outside?”
There was that. “We should probably go before we get caught.”
“Spoken like a true criminal.” Lance stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest. “Ladies.”
I spun around, taking Kat’s hand in mine as I did. “We didn’t do anything.”
“Then can you explain what you’re doing in an active crime scene?”
“It was Sammy,” I said, gesturing around the room even though I had no idea where he’d gone. “He ran in here. Kat was walking me home—to Maggie’s when he ran off. I couldn’t let him come in here alone. Maggie entrusted him to me.”
Given the way Lance looked at us then with one eyebrow raised, he wasn’t convinced. “It’s a crime scene, Astrid. Didn’t you see the yellow tape?”
“Oh, is that what that means? I thought we were celebrating Halloween early this year. Besides, you told me I couldn’t go into the bakery. You never said anything about my own house.”
“I told you to avoid it. Besides, the tape should’ve been your first clue. Come on, Astrid, this is serious.”
“So am I! You think I wanted to come in here after what happened today? I was already thinking about selling the place because the thought of setting foot in this house makes me sick to the stomach.”
“But you did it anyway.”
