by Sonia Parin
“Please don’t make me bite him,” Luna mentally murmured. “I rather like him.”
“With your permission, I’d like to try.” Rebel flew around him a couple of times. Stopping, she hovered in front of him and held his gaze.
The edge of Slacker’s lip kicked up. “What are you going to do, fairy?”
Rebel’s clothes changed colors several times. From orange to blue to purple, green, yellow... The changes picked up speed until she became a pulsing kaleidoscope of light.
“I think she’s trying to hypnotize him,” Luna murmured. “Or drive him nuts.”
Lexie rolled her eyes. “Just spit it out, Slacker.”
“Can you tell your fairy to stop it?” he grumbled.
Luna’s eyes widened. “Oh, it’s working. She’s managed to make a pest of herself. Nice trick but I’m sure it’s a natural trait with her.”
Sounding like a mosquito, Rebel buzzed around him.
Jonathan sidled up to Lexie. “I guess this serves as a warning to you. Don’t get on Rebel’s wrong side. Just give her what she wants.”
Luna leaped up and settled on Lexie’s shoulder. “I’m guessing she can go at it all day. I swear if she ever does that to me I will shred her wings. Okay, maybe I’ll only take a nibble. Fine, I’d actually bide my time and ambush her at every opportunity until she thinks she can’t get a moment’s peace. Yes, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll toy with her.”
Slacker ducked a couple of times. Putting both hands up he finally said, “All right. Call off your fairy.”
“That was too easy,” Jonathan said.
“You think? How would you like to have a rogue fairy buzzing around you? What if she pulls something out of her bag of tricks? They have fairy dust.” Lexie smiled. “Ready to talk?”
Rebel slowed down and hovered over and perched on Lexie’s shoulder. “I haven’t done that in a while. I feel dizzy and faint. This is the point where you should offer me a reward.”
“How about a chickpea?”
Slacker scowled at Lexie. “I’m here to help you and you set your feral fairy on me?”
“You call keeping me in the dark helping me?”
“You’re safe and that’s all that matters,” he said.
Why would that be a priority?
Luna twitched her whiskers. “Because you’re the incoming High Chair. You’re the future of your coven. That’s my guess.”
Lexie tilted her head in thought.
Luna purred, “If the coven is threatened, the best course of action would be to get you to safety.”
“Why?”
Luna blinked at her. “Because you’re the incoming High Chair. That makes you the next in line.”
She’d never thought of herself in quite those terms.
Lexie patted her chain mail dress. Her mom had told her to stay safe. “That doesn’t make sense. I’ve been forced to deal with dangerous situations. Why would this, whatever this situation we’ve landed in is, be any different?”
“Until now,” Luna explained, “You’ve dealt with other people being murdered and you’ve had people backing you up. Slacker said this is bigger than you realize. You haven’t been able to make sense of that and he refuses to explain. So maybe there’s something to be said for staying right where we are, at least until we know more.”
Lexie could feel a roar rising inside her. “I hope you’re not suggesting I’ve been wrapped in cotton wool. I can deal with whatever is out there. Heck, I can deal with whatever is inside me—”
They all looked at her.
Octavia strode up to her and asked in a no-nonsense tone Lexie didn’t quite recognize, “What are you talking about?”
Lexie shrugged. “It’s nothing new. I’ve sensed a dark presence inside me before and I’ve dealt with it.”
“Impossible,” Cat said. “There are no dark presences inside my cottage. Even my forest has been warded against all evil.”
“It’s not in your cottage, it’s inside my head.”
Cat crossed her arms. “That’s the same thing. Tell us about it.”
After Lexie explained what she’d seen while meditating, they all looked at Slacker.
“Are you ready to tell us more?” Jonathan asked.
When he didn’t answer, Lexie huffed out in frustration. “What’s the big deal? If I run into any trouble I can just call on the O’Rourke Group to assist.”
“That might not be enough,” Slacker murmured.
“You’re kidding me? One hundred voices descending upon us all at once aren’t enough? I’ve seen you guys at work. You’re a formidable presence and a force to be reckoned with.”
“The danger is real,” Slacker murmured.
Lexie gasped. “You just sounded like the Oracle Luna and I met not long ago.”
Slacker nodded. “We heard her warning.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lexie asked.
“That we’ve been expecting something to happen. Now it has.” Slacker brushed his hands across his face.
Lexie’s eyes narrowed to slits. Her lips parted but no words came out. Soon after hearing the Oracle’s warning, she’d met Whip O’Rourke. He’d been assigned to prevent the killer who’d been on the loose from getting to Lexie.
She couldn’t remember anyone saying the danger still existed. Lexie turned to Jonathan. “Did you know about this?”
He shuffled his feet and looked away as if wishing to be anywhere else but there.
“So why am I the last to hear about this?”
“Technically speaking, you were the first to know about it,” Luna said. “The Oracle spoke to you.”
“Can we assume Mirabelle had been at her manor when she disappeared—”
Octavia cut in, “The Hall. Mackenzie Hall to be precise.”
“Manor. Hall. It’s all the same.”
Luna purred. “Manor and Hall might sound the same to you, but they’re actually significantly different to the crammed apartment we live in.”
Lexie looked up at the ceiling and called for calm. “Let’s call it Mirabelle’s place. I’m assuming that’s where she was when whatever happened to her, happened. Octavia. You said you spoke with her.”
Octavia took a moment to think about it. “Yes. At least, I’m sure I did. Yes. I did.” She bit the edge of her lip.
Jonathan drew out a chair and sat down to draw. “Since no one can remember the last time they spoke with Mirabelle, yes, I’d say it’s safe to assume she’d been at Mackenzie Hall before she disappeared. What are you trying to get at?”
“Octavia said she spoke with Mirabelle three days ago.” It couldn’t be a fake memory. Octavia had only recently told her. Lexie paced around the room. “Then Mackenzie Hall is the scene of the crime.” And that’s where she should have headed. Instead, she’d been coerced into hiding. Even her mom had wanted her to flee, adding that the less she knew about Lexie’s whereabouts, the better. Lexie turned to Slacker. “Can I also assume the O’Rourke Group has sent someone over to investigate? I need to know someone is taking some sort of action.”
When Slacker sighed, Lexie asked, “Is that a sigh of resignation? Are you going to stick to name, rank and serial number or are you going to start cooperating?”
“If I tell you, you’re going to fly off the handle.” He pointed at her hands. “All that fireball business is new to you. Can you promise to remain cool, calm and collected?”
“That’s the most you’ve said since you arrived here.” Lexie looked at her hands. “As far as I can tell, it takes some doing for me to produce those fireballs. Besides, do you really think I’d harm anyone here?”
Rebel sat on her shoulder and crossed her legs. “You haven’t heard what he has to say yet. You might want to hold off on making any major decisions. Then again, you have fireballs.”
“That’s not the sort of advice I would give the incoming High Chair,” Luna warned. “She needs to cultivate an attitude of diplomacy and be even-tempered. High Chairs do no
t shoot first and ask questions later.”
Rebel poked her tongue out and was about to blow Luna a raspberry when Luna hissed. She scrambled onto Lexie’s head and drew her claws out.
“Go on. I dare you to blow me a raspberry.”
Rebel took flight and hovered just out of reach of Luna’s claw.
“Girls. Pipe down and play nice. Slacker wants to say something.” Lexie gave him a lifted eyebrow look.
He hitched his hands on his hips and looked down at the floor.
Before he could say anything, Lexie gasped. “The other me… on the other side of the hallway is really me sending myself a message.” She hadn’t wanted to believe it. But it had to be true.
“You wouldn’t have it any other way,” Slacker murmured.
“You knew. You knew?”
“Mirabelle tried to talk you out of it saying you were still too vulnerable to face—”
When Slacker broke off Lexie knew he’d said too much. “It can’t be anything good so I assume it’s some sort of danger.” Lexie stabbed her fingers through her hair. Luna shifted in time to avoid being poked. “Does it have anything to do with what I saw inside my head?”
“I’ve been trying to figure that out,” Octavia offered. “You haven’t come to any harm and since arriving here you haven’t faced any danger so I’m guessing that’s your inner psyche surfacing and trying to tell you something about yourself.”
“What? That I’m a beautiful bright light as well as a menacing evil force that can explode into shards?” Lexie sunk down on a chair next to Jonathan and looked at the drawing he’d been working on.
She nibbled the tip of her thumb and remembered something Whip had said a while back. Her powers were well hidden inside her. Good and bad?
“What was I wearing, I mean, the other me?” Lexie searched through the drawings and found the one she wanted. No chain mail dress. That meant she’d met Mirabelle and Whip before any of this had happened.
She speared her gaze toward Slacker. He knew more than he wanted to let on. One way or another, she’d get the information out of him. Even if she had to—
A knock at the front door had them all turning.
“Are you expecting someone?” Lexie asked.
“No.” Cat scooped in a breath. “I should go see who it is.”
“We’ll come with you.”
They all followed Cat. When she opened the door they didn’t see anyone. Then, one by one, they lowered their gazes.
Cat brightened. “Mr. Ellsworth.”
He took a step back and was about to take another when Cat stopped him. “Come in.”
Looking at everyone, he shook his head. “I seem to have interrupted something.”
“You haven’t. Come in.” Cat gestured for everyone to step back.
“If you insist. Although, I could come back later… When… there aren’t so many of you.”
“Nonsense. Come in,” Cat insisted.
Without taking his eyes off anyone, Mr. Ellsworth took a tentative step inside. As he strode in, he kept his back close to the wall.
“This way. We’re in the sitting room. I’ll light a fire for you. I know how much you like cozy fires,” Cat said conversationally. “I’m surprised you came back so soon.”
“Had to,” he said.
Everyone fell back and let him walk on ahead with Cat. When the gnome sat on a miniature rocking chair by the fireplace, they gathered around leaving enough space between them to avoid spooking him.
“I have some of those scones you like. Would you like tea or a mug of ale?”
He tapped his thick fingers against his chin. “Mrs. Ellsworth would say I should stick to tea but what I have to tell you calls for a tankard of ale.”
“Then a tankard it is. I won’t be long.”
The gnome sat perfectly still, his gaze slanted toward the others who stood back. Seeing Rebel, he smiled and gave her a small wave hello.
Rebel flew over and, sitting on a stool beside him, began a conversation only they could hear.
Every now and then Mr. Ellsworth looked over at the group and nodded.
“I bet anything Rebel is warning him about me,” Luna said. “I should go over and defend myself.”
“Stay, Luna. We don’t want to scare him away before he tells us his news.” Seeing Cat approaching, Lexie went to stand by the fireplace.
The gnome tipped his head and gave her a nervous smile.
“Here you go. A tankard of ale. I hope I don’t have to carry you back home.”
His cheeks colored slightly.
“Now. Can you tell us what happened?”
“She whose name we don’t dare utter has escaped and,” Mr. Ellsworth pointed a finger at Lexie, “She’s looking for you.”
Chapter Sixteen
“She’s taken over Mackenzie Hall. As soon as Mrs. Ellsworth and I heard, we made haste and left. I now owe Mrs. Ellsworth another second honeymoon. She suspects I already knew something was afoot.” The gnome finished his tankard of ale. His voice grew heavy as he added, “The Mackenzie gardens have shriveled. Darkness hangs over the Hall.”
Looking around the sitting room, Lexie saw everyone’s heads lowering. She had to battle the urge to clap her hands and reanimate them. They didn’t have time to wallow. “So, without mentioning her name, could someone please explain who this person of interest is?”
Jonathan turned away and strode toward the table where he sat down to work on his drawing again.
Slacker sunk down on a chair, his eyes glazed over as if in deep thought, and Cat strode over to stand next to Lexie.
“It’s not that we can’t mention her name. We don’t want to. And also…” Cat shook her head. “Her name is on the tip of my tongue but I can’t remember it.’
Slacker put his hand up. “Same here.”
“So you’re all actually admitting you know about her.” Lexie frowned. Once again, she was the last to know.
They nodded.
“Why is it I’ve never heard any mention of her?” Lexie asked.
“Because we simply don’t talk about her,” Cat explained. “We thought the O’Rourke Group had imprisoned her for good.”
“Can someone give me a hint? The first letter of her name? Something. Anything?” Lexie looked from one to the other.
Everyone turned to look at the gnome. He gave a vigorous shake of his head and gave his beard a tug. “Oh, no. I cannot say her name. Not even a fraction of it.”
Shoving her hands behind her, Lexie paced around. “So who is she? Where did she come from?” She wanted to believe someone had already drawn up battle plans but what if everyone had simply gone into hiding?
Slacker stretched his legs out. “We imprisoned her ten years ago.” He looked at Lexie.
“What’s with the look? Is it supposed to trigger something in me?” He clearly wanted to say something but he either couldn’t find the words or he didn’t want to. “Ten years. That’s before my time,” Lexie said. “As in… that’s when I took a sabbatical and even before then I never paid much attention to anything that went on around me. I knew my mom did witchy things but the whole idea of being a witch hadn’t quite sunk in with me.”
“Did you ever wonder why the daughter of the High Chair would turn her back on her heritage?” Jonathan murmured.
She didn’t have to think about it. At the time, she’d been fixated with finding a way out of attending the Lauriston Academy for Ladies and their Feline Companions where she would have been forced to wear white dresses with puffy sleeves. She’d begged her mom to let her attend a regular high school saying she had plenty of time to learn all the hocus pocus she needed to know. Knowing Lexie’s powers already existed within her, her mom had acquiesced.
During those ten years, Lexie had done such a thorough job of forgetting how close she’d come to attending the academy, when Mirabelle had recently mentioned going there on an assignment Lexie hadn’t known anything about the academy.
“I took
a break.” Lexie spread her arms out. “And here I am, ready for duty. No harm done. So far, and Luna will attest to this, I have managed to achieve a one hundred percent success strike rate.” At least in the mystery solving side of things. The landing in closets problem would have to be tackled in due course.
“You only came back because we tricked you into it,” Cat said in a soft tone. “But that’s not what Jonathan is referring to.”
“Is this something you can talk about or is it another unmentionable secret?” Lexie asked him.
Jonathan tapped his crayon on the table. “You saw her in action and you didn’t like what you saw. It spooked you and that’s putting it mildly.”
“Huh? How could I have seen her if I don’t even know who you’re talking about?”
“That’s either the result of selective memory or your mom took care of wiping the experience from your mind,” Slacker explained.
“Hang on. Does any of this have to do with the happy and evil lights I saw inside my head?”
Slacker studied her for a moment. “Knowing what was coming, you might have stored a mental image you could decipher when you needed to.”
“You mean, all those years ago I stored a subliminal message inside myself?”
He nodded. “You knew you’d have to step up to the plate and take up your role as incoming High Chair, and eventually, High Chair. I’m sure you would have left yourself a trail of crumbs. As for the message you sent yourself today… I’ve heard enough stories about you to know you were never going to be happy about going into hiding instead of confronting the problem head-on. That’s why you appear to be arguing with Mirabelle and Whip.”
Lexie smiled and shook her head. “You really think I’d store a message inside my head? I’m sure I would have left a clearer image in my mind. Something along the lines of me holding up a sign saying doom and gloom is headed your way, so get ready to zap someone.”
“It’s complicated,” Slacker said. “And you understood that well enough to leave a cryptic message. Both ten years ago and now.”
Lexie pressed her hands against her head. “Let me get this perfectly straight. You’re not just referring to the other me on the mirror image of the hallway. You’re actually saying I’ve known all along about this person whose name no one wants to mention and… and I knew I’d some day have to face her.”
