Cozy Witch

by Tess Lake

  Up on the rooftops, the glittering pink trail stretched across them off into the distance. We followed it three roofs across until we came to a gap that we couldn’t jump. We had to go down the fire escape and this time we went out onto the street to walk the rest of the distance, occasionally Aunt Cass forcing one of us to climb a fire escape to check the direction of the glittering pink path.

  As we walked, we talked about all kinds of random things. You would almost think were out for a Sunday afternoon stroll rather than trying to track down a monster. We teased Kira more about her boyfriend, talked about how business was going at Traveler and the Chili Challenge.

  “Speaking of that, I want Will to help me grow my chili garden,” Aunt Cass said to Luce.

  “Um…” Luce said, obviously trying to think of some lie as to why Will wouldn’t be able to help.

  “There’s no point making anything up. I know he has the time, so let’s get it happening,” Aunt Cass said.

  “Do you promise it’s going to be a standard chili garden though? He knows we’re magic, but I don’t want him to get, like, saturated in it,” Luce said, worried.

  “Of course they’re going to be standard chilies,” Aunt Cass said, a little too quickly for my liking. She always played a bit fast and loose with the truth. I think that particular statement hinged on what her version of “standard” was.

  “Yeah, and I don’t want Ollie getting involved in too much either,” Molly said, looking at me.

  “Involved in what? I only have him doing some research,” I protested.

  “No, you don’t. You have him looking up witchy things and he’s probably going to find papers that all contradict each other again,” she said.

  “He’s a librarian and I think he’s okay. He knows we’re witches now. If he finds some strange things he’ll assume it’s magic,” I said.

  “No, he won’t. If he gets too much magic then he might not ask me to marry him!” Molly said, the sentence practically ending in a shriek.

  There was a moment of quiet as we continued walking down the sidewalk in the general direction of where the pink path was leading us.

  It was a worry the three of us had regarding our men given what had happened to our moms. Our three fathers had had us and then, apparently, within a very short time had all decided to leave our moms and us behind. It was a common problem amongst witches. It was difficult to hold onto a man once he learned the truth about you. But what could you do? Try to keep it secret and not be your full self? There was no good solution.

  It was Aunt Cass who broke the silence. “Ollie is madly head over heels in love with you. Don’t worry about him doing a bit of research,” she said.

  Molly gave a double blink. I think she was expecting, as the rest of us were, that Aunt Cass was going to hit her with some snark, to tell her to suck it up princess or something like that.

  “We’re nearly at the end of the path, I can feel it,” Kira said.

  We made our way down another alleyway, this one more grimy than the first one. There were trash cans lining one side of it and from the smell of them they hadn’t been emptied in a few days. With the blistering sun during the day cooking them it didn’t smell good. We found our way to a fire escape and clambered up it until we were on the rooftop. The glittering path went across five more roofs before coiling around itself in a corner. We carefully followed the path until we reached the final rooftop.

  “This is where whatever it was that made those marks went to,” Kira said.

  “But there’s nothing here,” Luce said, looking around.

  She was right–it was a standard rooftop. It was a bit dirty, there was an exhaust outlet not too far away from the building below, and there was nothing particularly special about it at all.

  “Let’s look around first,” Aunt Cass said. We looked around but even after a few minutes of searching the rooftop didn’t yield any more clues.

  “Maybe the monster or whatever it is came to sleep here?” I ventured.

  “No, I don’t think that’s it,” Molly said, staring, looking down into the street below. She pointed to the building across the road.

  “Oh, hey, it’s the Chili Challenge,” Kira said.

  “Maybe the monster wasn’t sleeping here. Maybe it was watching the Chili Challenge,” Molly said.

  “It wouldn’t be watching the Chili Challenge, it would be watching Aunt Cass,” Luce said, diving off the deep end.

  We all came to stand against the side of the building and looked down. From our vantage point, there was a perfect view of Aunt Cass’s office, where she would sit with her feet up on the desk, tapping away on her laptop.

  Aunt Cass turned to Kira. “If we give you a bit of power and you cast the spell again, do you think we could find any more trails?” she asked.

  Kira shrugged, looking quite unsure. “Maybe, we could try it, but I don’t know,” she said.

  “It’s up to you. Do you want to?” Aunt Cass said.

  “Sure,” Kira said after a moment.

  Sharing magic between witches is easily done. Most the time it’s usually holding hands or touching each other, skin to skin contact, like a hand on a shoulder. Sometimes it standing in specific positions like a ritual.

  Tonight we gathered in a circle, me putting my hand on Kira’s shoulder and on the other side Aunt Cass doing the same.

  This broke down a moment later when Kira had to pull away because of the frost creeping from my palm. I had to leave the circle and stand by, not touching anyone. Kira took a deep breath and pulled on the magic and we lent our power. I tried to give her as much as I could, but without that direct contact it was significantly weaker. I did feel the spell this time though, almost caught a glimpse of how I could cast it myself. The magic flowed through Kira, coiled around her feet and lit up the glowing pink path like it was made of bright neon. A bolt of light shot down it. Gleaming bolts of pink jolted out across the rooftops in different directions.

  “Wow,” Molly breathed as the night lit up around us, appearing as though there was a pink spider web laid across Harlot Bay. One of the trails headed in the direction of Truer Island, going down to the water and then we could see it faintly in the distance on the beach across the bay. There were others heading across the town, always on the rooftops. I looked up the hill towards Torrent Mansion and there were multiple pink trails heading up into the forest, and one that appeared to be circling the mansion.

  “Whatever that thing is, it’s been up to the mansion a few times,” I said.

  “That’s all I have,” Kira said in a strained voice and let the spell go.

  In an instant the pink lines faded away, leaving us standing on the dark rooftop.

  I summoned a small ball of light, which didn’t work too well. Instead of the normal warm yellow I got a cold white as though I had pulled a ball of ice into existence. Even the light coming from it felt cold, so I snuffed it and let Molly do the honors.

  “Any idea what to do next?” Kira said in a tired voice.

  “We go home to sleep and then, we need to set a trap,” Aunt Cass said.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” I asked, turning the small perfume bottle over in my hand.

  “Guaranteed to work, just don’t use too much,” Aunt Cass said.

  I looked suspiciously at the perfume bottle. It was one Aunt Cass had reused. Printed on the front was Sunshine by Bella Bing.

  I wondered briefly if Molly knew that her mortal enemy Bella Bing now had a perfume line?

  “I guess I should try it out then,” I said.

  “Dab it on like perfume, don’t overdo it,” Aunt Cass warned again. I opened the top of the perfume bottle and took a hesitant sniff. I could still smell the original perfume which was vanilla and sickly sweet, something that teenage girls wear and douse too much of it on themselves. Behind that was the scent of the potion. It smelt like a felled tree.

  I put my finger over the bottle, tipped it
upside down and back again, and then gently dabbed a droplet of it on my neck.

  The effect was immediate. From my finger where I’d touched the potion to my neck there was an immediate burst of heat that spread out over my entire body.

  I reached out and grabbed the test glass of water sitting on the kitchen bench.

  “It’s looking good so far,” I said when frost didn’t immediately appear. A moment more and I was convinced Aunt Cass’s experimental potion appeared to have worked.

  “I think we’re good to go,” I said, feeling happy.

  “Make sure you don’t use too much though. There’s enough in there to get you to midnight and then, like Cinderella, you’re gonna turn into a pumpkin,” Aunt Cass said.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s the carriage that turns into the pumpkin not Cinderella,” I said.

  “I was thought she was the one that turned into the pumpkin. Makes more sense to me, messing with magic and all that,” Aunt Cass said, now heading for the door.

  “What are your plans?” I called out.

  “Buildin’ mah trap,” Aunt Cass said in her best southern accent and then she was gone.

  I was wearing a skirt that was light and flimsy, but it had a small pocket where I could fit the perfume bottle.

  I slipped it into the pocket and then went to check myself in the mirror. Top was looking nice, slightly demure, not too much, makeup was on point. I had the slightest of bags under my eyes, thanks to staying out late at night and working hard through the day, but in the dim light of Valhalla Viking I’m sure I would look great.

  I was wandering around the house, tapping away at my phone when I heard Jack’s truck coming up the driveway. For the first time since his parents had arrived, I got to see him alone. The man had barely stepped in the front door when I jumped on him, wrapping my arms around him and kissing him with all my might. It was a good thing the moms were nowhere to be seen because I’m sure they wouldn’t have approved of this public display of affection. When we finally pulled apart, he was gasping and his eyes were a little wild.

  “Wow, you’re warm, did that slip witch power wear off?” Jack asked.

  “Nope, I have a potion and that’s just as good,” I said.

  I was thinking that if we finished dinner early enough perhaps I could see Jack alone and take another dose of the potion so I wouldn’t be a freezing Ice Princess. The idea of sneaking in through his bedroom window like we were teenagers was very appealing.

  “You look amazing, and as much as I want to stay here instead, we’ve gotta go,” Jack said.

  I smooched him again, harder this time, briefly contemplated dragging him inside into my room, and then reluctantly decided to follow him out to his truck. There were parents to impress. Parents who I’d barely spoken to at the family dinner and who’d seen me then run off into the forest, chasing after Aunt Cass, like a crazy person.

  With Aunt Cass’s potion helping keep the ice at bay, I was going to be witty, charming and personable. By the end of the night they were going to love me.

  As we drove down the hill I couldn’t stop looking at Jack. It’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I kept touching his arm, feeling the strong muscle beneath his shirt and I’m sure I was smiling at him with a dopey expression on my face. We were halfway down the hill before Jack pulled his arm away.

  “Ouch, your hands are cold again,” he said, startled.

  There on the sleeve of his shirt was a frost pattern from where I’d been touching him. It seemed the tiny droplet of potion had already worn off.

  “Not to worry, I have the solution right here,” I said.

  I opened the perfume bottle and touched my finger to its neck, this time rubbing the small droplet of liquid between my fingertips. As before, the wave of heat burst over me and when I touched Jack again, my hand was warm.

  “So you need to keep dabbing that stuff on yourself and you’ll be okay?” Jack asked.

  “That’s the plan,” I said and gently tugged on his ear.

  I had the urge to run my hands through his hair, to grab him and kiss him again. Between all the work I’d been doing with Red, and the fact that his parents were here, I hadn’t seen him in ages.

  As if reading my thoughts, Jack glanced back at me with a look that sent a shiver down my body, and it definitely wasn’t anything to do with being cold.

  “I’m quite looking forward to when my parents depart,” he said, sounding like a formal eighteenth-century gentleman.

  “Me too,” I purred, perhaps heading a little too far in the sex kitten direction.

  Jack grinned as we drove down the hill and into town. As usual, most of the parking spots were taken so we ended up having to park over near the beach. Jonas and Peta were the ones bringing Jack’s parents to dinner tonight. Apart from seeing his parents and trying to impress them, I was looking forward to seeing Peta and Jonas too. When I used to work in my office, I would often chat to him as I passed him down the stairs or he would come up sometimes. Occasionally, yes, this was trying to get the inside straight on his brother Jack.

  I was excited to talk to Peta about the Cozy Cat Café. Molly and Luce had set it up next to Traveler, but been overwhelmed until Peta had stepped in and taken it over. She was now in control of it and it was a thriving business. I had a standing offer of a job there. After Writerpalooza was over I was going back to unemployment unless of course I took Carter Wilkins up on his offer. So it looked like my future would include some waitressing. Working with one of my best friends? It sounded great.

  We parked near the beach and then walked hand-in-hand all the way back to Valhalla Viking. This is the place where Jack and I had one of our very first dates. It seemed a lifetime ago. It had been a night of great food and wine and merriment, but then our romantic walk on the beach had been cut short when an arsonist had struck, burning down a building in town. Like tonight, I had been suffering under the burden of a slip witch power. Thankfully, tonight I had a potion that would take the edge off it. As long as I remembered to apply a drop every now and again I was sure I was going to get through the night with no problems.

  As we approached Valhalla Viking, we saw Peta, Jonas, Jon, and Jas waiting for us. Jack squeezed my hand and whispered in my ear “By the way my mother has been asking about marriage quite a bit so have fun with that,” he said in a rush. I didn’t have a chance to reply because we were suddenly at Valhalla Viking.

  “There she is, the girl who goes running into the forest to save wild animals!” Jon said with a great smile.

  “Here I am!” I said back in a loud voice and then gave him and Jas each a kiss on the cheek. We had a round of hugs, me grabbing Peta and pulling her against me. By the time we walked into Valhalla Viking I was feeling like I was floating off the ground I was so happy. I had my boyfriend, my friend, Jack’s brother and parents, and a night of good food ahead of me.

  The inside of Valhalla Viking was dimly lit and all around the place were shield maidens dressed in Viking clothes serving great hunks of meat off the bone, pitchers of mead and other alcoholic drinks. We made our way to a semi-private back booth and then slid in. I sat in at the end, only remembering at the last minute that I might have to slip away to apply more of the potion. Jack was beside me and then Jonas, on the other side of the table was Peta, Jon directly across me, and Jas in the middle.

  We’d barely sat down when one of the waitresses came up with a notepad that looked incongruous with her braided blonde hair, horned helmet, and enormous breastplate.

  “Can I interest you all in some mead?” she asked.

  “Mead would be wonderful,” I answered, smiling back at her. The shield maiden disappeared and returned in record time before we’d had a chance to start talking. We were given enormous tankards, and then she sat a jug in the middle of the table that looked like it held about a gallon of mead.

  “Enjoy. I’ll be back soon,” she said and vanished.

  Jon filled all of our tankards and we held t
hem up to say cheers.

  “Here’s to saving wild animals and true love,” he said.

  “Here’s to amazing writing studios and what they might mean,” Jas added.

  I felt Jack poke me under the table in the leg. Yes, I had recognized mother meddling as well as he had.

  We all took a big gulp of our mead after saying cheers. It tasted of spices, cloves and orange with a honey flavor underneath. After my gulp, I felt it plume in my stomach and seemingly go straight to my head.

  “Your Aunt Cass is quite the wildlife warrior. Did you end up finding the wild pig?” Jon asked me.

  Oh right, the lie that Jack had told. “No, we didn’t find it unfortunately. It seems like it moved on from the area, but it’ll probably be back,” I said.

  “Your Aunt Cass is an interesting woman, isn’t she? She’s running the chili business and then she’s brave enough to go out into the darkness at night to see if there’s an injured animal that’s strong enough to knock over trees,” Jas said.

  “It’s okay, you can say eccentric, we know she’s eccentric. She loves all animals great and small,” I said.

  “Most of them are hardly wild anyway. They’re practically tame they see the Torrents so often,” Jack said, stepping in with a quick lie.

  “What wild animals are you talking about?” Peta said, blundering in.

  It was so unlike Peta, who would usually be able to play along without any notice whatsoever. She’d been at the dinner, too. Perhaps the mead had gone to her head too?

  “The wild pigs that are up near the cottages in the forest. We thought one of them had been injured a few nights ago, remember, and Aunt Cass had gone out there to see and I’d gone with her,” I said trying to transmit a lot more information with my gaze. Peta gave a double blink and then smiled at me.

  “Oh right, yes, the wild animals,” she said.

  “So Jack tells me you’re writing a book? He showed me the delightful writing studio he’s been working on,” Jas said.