by Nic Saint
Then a big piece of plaster fell down from the ceiling, and a loud crashing sound could be heard. “The guy’s destroying the whole house!” Edelie cried, and sure enough, just then a foot crashed down into the basement, and the entire ceiling was ripped away, and an evil bearded face appeared.
“Oh, this is where you’re all hiding!” he bellowed, and before they could stop him, he plucked Ernestine from their midst and was dragging her away.
Chapter 31
“What do you want with me?” Ernestine protested angrily as the big brute carried her into the garden. She looked over his shoulder and saw that the house had been half demolished by now, her two sisters crawling out of the basement and sneaking over to the greenhouse. She had to buy them some time so they could find Gran and dig her up if she was buried there.
“You haven’t shown me any of your powers yet, dear,” Joshua said in his best interpretation of Gran’s voice. It was eerie to hear Gran’s dulcet tones rolling from this monster’s lips.
“What did you do to Gran?!” she yelled, helplessly pummeling his leg.
“Oh, no, you don’t get to ask the questions around here,” he replied in a singsongy voice. He was towering over her, his big feet trampling all over Gran’s beloved flower beds and reducing them to patches of wasteland. “You promised me you were going to use your witchy trickery on me, and so far I haven’t seen anything yet.”
“I destroyed your face, didn’t I?”
“Don’t take credit for something your sisters did, dear,” he drawled. “Now I know those two are witches—real witches—but you?” He shrugged, plunking down and dropping her at his feet. “I don’t think you’re a witch.”
“I am a witch,” she insisted.
He shook his head languidly. “I think your grandmother was right. Your sisters got all the witch genes, and you were left with nothing.”
“Gran said that?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes, she did. She said Edelie and Estrella are the only talented ones in your family. Poor Ernestine is just a hopeless case is what she said.” He held up his hand. “Swear to God, those were the exact words she used.”
Ernestine was shaking her head. “She didn’t say that,” she protested feebly. After her shock dismissal from the law firm, this was yet another blow to her self-esteem. She looked up into the warlock’s bearded face. “Did she?”
“Afraid she did. Hey, it happens in the best families. Some kids get all the good genes, and some are left with the leftovers. I guess you just got the crap.”
“I’m not crap!” she stated adamantly. “I’m a witch, and I can prove it!”
“Don’t bust a gut, dear,” he said with a chuckle. “I mean, if you haven’t got it in you, there’s nothing you can do about it. Heck, look at me. I wanted to be blessed with a lot more of those powers than the universe gave me, so I went and got me some. But I realize not everyone is as resourceful as me.”
She was going to show this big brute just what kind of a witch she really was! So she raised her hands, pointed at Joshua, and bellowed, “Bindanatio!”
But instead of being trussed up like a chicken as she’d intended, the evil warlock merely giggled. “Hey, I felt that! Maybe you’re right, maybe you do have some magic in you. Not a lot, though. Why don’t you give it another shot? The second time it just might work!”
“Bindanatio!” she yelled again, waving her hands in his general direction.
He checked himself, a comical expression on his face. “I don’t know what that was supposed to accomplish, but I’m afraid it didn’t work. Just like that little reveal spell you and your sisters tried on me before didn’t work. The only reason your gran’s face dropped away was because I wanted it to.”
She sagged and sat down on the ground. “Oh, crap,” she muttered.
“Crap is right,” he said, grinning evilly. “That’s three for three, dear.”
And with these mysterious words, he went into his pocket and brought out a small pouch, then picked out three gems and rolled them in his palm.
“Three stones for three witches,” he said, hovering his other hand over them. And as she watched, she saw the three stones change color. One yellow, one blue, one red. “One stone for each of you,” Joshua supplied helpfully, “to bind you to my will.” And then he flicked his fingers, and the three stones rose up from his hand. And as Ernestine watched helplessly, they all morphed into small radiant hoops, dancing in midair, eager to begin their devastating work. She finally understood. Three hoops to kill three witches!
“You’re the invisible choker!”
“Oh, yes, I am,” he confirmed. “My stones are very sensitive instruments. They require careful calibration. Just a little bit of your witchcraft is all they need to get your signature and work their own brand of magic.” He gave her a wicked grin. “And then it’s just a matter of squeezing every last drop of witchiness from your body. Enough to last me another few years. Too bad the process is quite… deadly,” he grunted and flung the hoops in her direction.
She rolled to her side, and the hoops missed her, shooting right past her.
“Don’t worry, dear,” he yelled. “They always get their witch!”
And then she was running toward the greenhouse, the three hoops right behind her, zooming in like cruise missiles honed to her specific signature.
“Strel! Edie! Run!” she shrieked as she exploded into the greenhouse.
Inside, her sisters were digging a hole and looked up in surprise.
“No time!” she screamed as she streaked toward them, and just then the three hoops came crashing through the glass wall of the greenhouse, relentlessly hurtling in their direction.
Edelie and Estrella immediately heaved their shovels and knocked the first two hoops out of course, and Ernestine dove into a bush of gardenias to escape hers. But the things simply streaked past them and then came zooming right back. They simply kept on coming!
Just then, from a corner of her eye, she saw something familiar. In the hole her sisters were digging. A patch of beige she instantly recognized.
“Gran!” she yelled. “Look, it’s Gran!”
And as Estrella and Edelie stood sentinel with their shovels, knocking back the hoops, Ernestine stuck her hands in the earth and lay bare Gran’s body. Gran’s eyes were closed, and she quickly pressed a finger to her throat. Thank God, she was alive! Only now did she see Gran was trussed up with three similar hoops. “How do I remove them?!” she frantically called out.
She tried to think—to figure out what to do, but they were under attack, and it was hard to focus on anything other than their mere survival.
“Those things probably can’t kill Gran because she’s too powerful!” Edie shouted as she evaded another attack, hitting the hoops with all her might. “But they must be keeping her unconscious!”
Ernestine tried pulling, but she jumped back, howling in pain.
“Those things sting!”
“They’re defending themselves,” Strel said. “Only magic works!”
And magic was exactly their weak point.
“Let’s try that spell Gran taught me to disentangle my headphones!” Edelie suggested. She was the only one who still used earphones with a cord, her two sisters having switched to wireless ones a long time ago.
“Inbandtwain!” the three sisters yelled simultaneously.
There was some movement, as the hoops twitched for a moment, trying to figure out what to do, but then they tightened again, locking Gran in.
“Again! Inbandtwain!” the three sisters bellowed.
The hoops jerked, as if slapped, but remained tightly fastened.
“Once more!” Estrella cried.
“It’s no good. We have to use our hands!” Ernestine said. Which meant they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves against the incoming hoops.
Quick as a flash, the three sisters took position around Gran, forming a triangle over her, pointed their hands at their grandmother, and bellowed, “Inba
ndtwain!” This time, they put every last ounce of intention into the spell.
And this time, the hoops twitched, and suddenly seemed to tear themselves away from Gran, twisting this way and that. Unfortunately, the move had left them vulnerable to the other three hoops, which now descended upon them and slung themselves eagerly around their necks.
And in that exact moment, the greenhouse roof caved in, as Joshua crashed his humongous fist through it, showering them with shards of glass.
“Too late!” the warlock cried, as he saw the three witches dropping to the floor, wrestling with the hoops as they fastened themselves around their throats. And as Ernestine felt her air supply blocked off, the hoop tightening viciously, she saw a shadow rising up behind Edelie, growing rapidly. But then her field of vision burst into a fireworks of tiny white stars, and she dropped to the floor, fighting for air… and life.
Chapter 32
Edelie was the last of the three sisters to lose consciousness, but before she did, she saw that behind Joshua a large shadow was looming. Soon it dwarfed the warlock, and when he finally became aware of the presence of something behind him, it was too late. A bright yellow spark shot from the shadowy figure and drove into his forehead like a spike from a nail gun. And as Joshua fell to earth, his six hoops suddenly disengaged, quickly shrinking back into the colored gems they’d originally been.
The gems rolled over the petunias and the begonias and the rose bushes and tumbled through forsythias until they reached the body of Joshua, who was also shrinking fast now, and then dove into his hand. And as Edelie gasped for breath, she saw that the shadowy giant that had slain Joshua was, in fact, Gran, who was also returning to her own size now, darting a quick glance at Joshua before hurrying over to her granddaughters.
“Oh, Edie, honey!” she gasped, looking a little soiled after having spent all this time buried beneath her own petunias. “Are you all right?”
“The others,” she croaked, her voice breaking.
Both she and Gran quickly crouched down next to Estrella and Ernestine, who were unconscious. “Try a spell, Edelie,” Gran said ominously.
“But I’m likely to kill them!” Edelie protested.
“Just try, honey. And have a little faith, will you?”
“Revitaloh!” she whispered, intently willing her two sisters to be all right.
And to her intense relief suddenly they both stirred, eyes fluttering open.
“Oh, my darlings,” said Gran, hugging Ernestine, then Estrella as they sat up, still dazed.
And then Edelie, too, joined them in their group hug, and then all four of them were crying, but they were tears of relief and happiness, not sadness.
Edelie stared at Joshua, who was still lying prone where he’d fallen.
“Is he… dead?” she asked.
“Not dead,” Gran said. “I’ve merely stripped him of his powers, just like he’s stripped so many witches of theirs.”
“That’s what he was after?” Estrella asked. “Our powers?”
“Yes, he’s murdered dozens of witches over the years,” Gran said sternly, “feeding on their powers, and he was about to do the same to you three.”
“He couldn’t kill you, though, could he?” Ernestine asked.
“No, he couldn’t. I’m well-protected,” Gran said, pointing at her earrings.
Edie stared at them. “Those are the ones we gave you for your birthday.”
“Yes,” Gran said with a warm smile. “They represent the love of my granddaughters, which is the most powerful protection of all.”
“Did he kill our parents?” Estrella now asked.
Gran nodded. “He did. Your mother and father tried to steal his gemstones, the source of his power, but they hadn’t counted on the stones being imbued with his personality. The stones turned against them, and strangled them.” She shook her head sadly. “If only I’d known what they were up to, but by that point we’d lost touch. I…” She sighed. “Abra and I had a disagreement, and we hadn’t spoken to each other in over a year.”
“You didn’t want Mom to marry Dad, isn’t that right?” Edelie asked.
She looked surprised. “How do you know about that?”
Ernestine grinned. “We’ve been talking to Tavish Mildew. He’s been trying to warn us about Joshua.”
Gran pursed her lips. “Tavish Mildew. Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. He was one of your father’s friends. A thief and a warlock.”
The three girls decided not to take up Tavish’s defense. There was still too much they didn’t know about the man. Edelie followed Gran’s look as she took in the devastation of the house. Their beautiful home was demolished.
“Don’t worry,” Gran said, pressing their hands tightly. “I can fix that.” Then she gave her three granddaughters a cheeky look. “Or maybe you can?”
“Oh, no, Gran!” they all cried simultaneously, and only now did Edelie notice that both her sisters’ hair had fallen out and that their faces had suddenly turned… blue. “Um, Gran?” she asked, pointing at her sisters.
“That’s just a little side effect, honey. I’m sure it will go away.”
Just then, Estrella touched her hair and discovered it was gone. “What… I’m bald!” she bleated. “Gran, I’m bald!”
“Me too!” Ernestine screamed, who’d come to the same conclusion after patting her head. Then she saw her hands, and shrieked, “I’m blue! Blue!”
“I’m a Smurf!” Estrella wailed. “I’m Smurfette!”
“I’m bald and I’m blue!” Ernestine recapped quite succinctly.
“Oh, dear,” Gran muttered. “I guess I’ll have to fix the house myself.”
Edelie, who’d just weathered the anger of a warlock, didn’t feel like weathering the anger of her two sisters and was quickly putting some distance between herself and Strel and Stien, who were now screaming at her to undo the damage she’d done. Trouble was, she was pretty sure that if she tried that she’d only make things worse. Do something that couldn’t be fixed!
“Gran! Fix us!” Estrella yelled. “You have to fix us!”
“Yeah, Gran. Make us normal again!” Ernestine put in. “Please!”
“I honestly can’t do that, honey,” Gran said with a sly smile. “What one witch has wrought, can’t be unwrought by a witch of the same blood.”
“That can’t be true!” Ernestine screeched.
“You just made that up!” Estrella squealed.
Edelie was making her way through the house, adamant to steer clear of her sisters, when suddenly a voice called her name. A deep, masculine voice.
Chapter 33
“Christ!” Sam exclaimed as he ran toward the house. “What the hell happened here?!”
Safflower House was a mess, as if some giant wrecking ball had torn through it. The chimney was sticking out of the front yard, and the third floor had caved in, collapsing on top of the second floor.
Just then, he caught sight of Edelie. “Oh, my God! Are you all right?”
“We had a little accident,” Edelie said with remarkable equanimity.
“Did you get hit by an earthquake or a gas explosion or what?!”
“Yeah, something like that,” she said with infuriating vagueness.
“Where are your sisters? Are they all right? And your grandmother?”
“They, um…” she turned to stare into the garden, which could now be seen from the front door, the kitchen having been wiped away. Then she turned back to him and gave him a small smile. “They’re around.”
He straightened. “Look, I need to talk to you. Something came up and—”
“Gran!” Edelie called out, and the woman came shuffling up. Granny looked even worse than the house, Sam thought, as if she’d been buried under a mudslide or something. Dirt was stuck to her face and clothes.
“Are you all right, Mrs. Beadsmore?” he asked solicitously. “Did you call an ambulance?”
“Oh, no, I’m perfectly fine,” she said. “Just ne
ed to clean myself up a bit.”
Now there was an understatement, Sam thought. He didn’t get it. The house was destroyed, and here these two acted as if nothing had happened. Then he remembered why he’d come, and he affected the look of a cop who’s come bearing bad tidings. “I need to talk to you and your granddaughters, ma’am,” he said gravely. They’d stepped into the house, and now he saw that there was a big hole in the hallway, and he could look straight into the basement, where one of those big old furnaces stood. “I think we better talk someplace else, though. This place is gonna collapse any minute now.”
“It won’t collapse,” Granny Beadsmore said decidedly. “Now what did you want to discuss with us, Detective?”
“Well, it’s about your daughter, ma’am. New evidence has come to light and, um…” He glanced at Pierre, who stood looking around interestedly, like an archeologist at a particularly fascinating Egyptian dig site. “My colleague has discovered that their killer might still be on the loose.”
“The invisible choker,” Edelie said, and Sam did a double take.
“That’s right. How did you know about that?”
“Oh, I read the papers.”
She seemed remarkably unfazed, Sam thought.
“Well, it looks like the MO of your parents’ murder twenty years ago shares certain similarities with the most recent string of murders. And we have reason to believe they’re connected.” He eyed the twosome seriously. “Abra and Merrill may well have been victims of the invisible choker.”
“He’s here,” Edelie suddenly said. “The invisible choker?” she added when he simply stared at her, too stunned for speech. “We caught him.”
“What!” he cried, finding his voice again. “Why didn’t you say so?!”
“He came after us,” Edelie explained. “But we managed to stop him.” She gestured with her head. “He’s over in the greenhouse. Well, what’s left of it.”
Sam quickly drew his weapon and so did Pierre, but Gran assured him with a smile, “Oh, you don’t have to worry about him. He’s quite harmless. My girls knocked him out before he had the chance to do any real damage.”
