The Witching Flavor (A Cozy Mystery Book): Sweetland Witch

by Zoe Arden

  "Ava! Help me! Anastasia's got me locked up like a... like a murderer."

  "Dad! Hold on! I need to find a way to open the door."

  His voice sounded so small and far away behind that heavy metal frame. I shot a look to Anastasia and saw she was breathing.

  Thank the witches. I didn't kill her.

  Despite everything that she had done, I didn't want her dead. Between Pennyweather and the goblins, there had been enough death already.

  I forgot all about Anastasia and started trying to get that darn padlock open. Where were Eleanor and Trixie when I needed them?

  "Helhorona!" I cried, tapping the lock with my fingernail. It shined a little brighter as if I'd just given it a polish.

  "Texamanko! Lassomatoo! Klank riggum!"

  I tried every spell I could think of that I had learned in my six months on Heavenly Haven. When that didn't work, I kicked it over and over again until I thought I'd broken my foot.

  "Anastasia," my father said calmly. "Have you tried the key?"

  "Key?" I asked, searching the ground around me.

  "Anastasia has a key. For the padlock."

  Of course. Duh. Why hadn't I thought of that? But where was I supposed to find it?

  The landing we were in was small, nothing more than an eight by eight square. But it was decorated. A few shelves lined the wall behind me with knickknacks. I began rummaging through them, looking for the key I needed to let my father out.

  Anastasia groaned.

  "What are you doing?" my father asked. I could tell he was ready to snap but reining it in for my benefit. I couldn't blame him. He must've been locked up for hours.

  "I'm looking," I told him. "Just give me a minute."

  "Have you tried searching her?" he asked.

  "Her?"

  "Anastasia. Search her. She's always got the key on her."

  I looked across the room, where Anastasia's body lay, and saw something shiny gleam at me from around her neck. I'd seen it the day she'd locked Lucy's diary up in the cupboard. I walked quickly over and knelt beside her.

  "There's a key around her neck," I said, leaning in to examine it closer. "But I don't think it's the right key. It's for a cupboard upstairs."

  "Of course it will work." I could hear my father's voice tense. He sounded strange. Almost muffled. Like he was underwater.

  "I don't know, I think I should keep searching for—"

  "Ava Rose Fortune! Stop being such a dim-witch and open this door!"

  I started at my dad's words. In all of our years together, he'd never yelled at me like that. Let alone called me names.

  "D-Dad?" I pushed the tears back. Something wasn't right.

  "Honey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell like that. I'm just... tired. I think Anastasia gave me something... a potion or something. It's making me feel funny. I'm having trouble breathing. I need a doctor."

  "Hold on," I said as tears washed down my cheeks. "I'm coming." I ripped the key from around Anastasia's throat and walked to the door.

  A tiny voice squeaked out from behind me. "Ava."

  I turned and saw Anastasia trying to prop herself up on her elbows. She looked bad. She could hardly even sit up. She burped and purple goop bubbled out from between her lips.

  "Anastasia..." I gulped as I forced my eyes from her.

  "Ava, stop." She was so weak she couldn't even yell. That didn't stop her from shooting daggers at me with her eyes, though. "You don't know what you're doing."

  "I'm sorry I hurt you, but you shouldn't have messed with my father."

  "Why would I let Lucy go?" she asked suddenly, getting to her knees.

  "What?"

  "If I was only holding Lucy to hurt her or... kill her or... or whatever you think I was doing, why would I just let her go?"

  My mind raced. Anastasia had a point. A very small one, but a point nevertheless. The one thing I hadn't understood in all of this was Lucy. Granted, Lucy's memory was still a bit fuzzy, but she'd said that she thought Anastasia had released her. Not that she'd escaped, but that Anastasia had let her go.

  Anastasia had killed the goblins. She'd killed Pennyweather. She'd probably used their blood to summon the draugr she hoped would help her take over the world. Had she succeeded?

  Even if she had... why free Lucy? I shook my head, clearing it. None of that mattered now. There would be plenty of time for answers later when I had my father back by my side and knew he was safe.

  My dad scratched at the door like a sad, pathetic animal. "Ava, hurry. I don't feel well. I think I'm blacking out."

  "I'm coming," I told him, then jammed the key into the padlock.

  "No! Don't!" Anastasia screamed so loudly that it pinched my eardrums, making my head throb all over again.

  The knob turned. The door clicked open. An awful stench filled the air, pushing me back. I stumbled over Anastasia, who was still kneeling on the floor.

  "No!" she cried. "What have you done?"

  A skeletal figure stepped from the room. Its eyes glowed a haunting red. It had just enough skin hanging off its bones to let us know it used to be human.

  "Hello, Ava," it said to me in my father's voice. "Thanks for letting me out."

  "Draugr," Anastasia breathed beside me. "Ava... run!"

  * * *

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-FOUR

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  Seeing the creature I'd been envisioning for the last two weeks step from behind Anastasia's basement door, I thought I'd gone insane.

  "Is that real?" I asked.

  Anastasia was already up and grabbing my shirt, pulling me up the stairs with her. Apparently, whatever spell I'd hit her with earlier had worn off upon seeing the draugr.

  "Is that really... I mean, really a...?"

  "Draugr?" Anastasia finished for me. The creature let out a roar from the bottom step that rattled the windows in the house. "Yes," she said. "It is."

  We got to the top step, and Anastasia slammed the door shut. I had never been more grateful for a door in my life.

  "Step back," Anastasia ordered. This time, I didn't ask questions.

  She closed her eyes and began chanting something soft and sing-songy. She finished just as the draugr slammed against the door. I was terrified it might break, but it seemed to be holding strong. For now.

  "Now what?" I asked her.

  "Hide," she whispered. "That spell I cast won't last for long."

  I followed Anastasia back out to the main room of the store. There was no good place to hide. The room was filled with glass counters and small tables with display items.

  "Here," Anastasia said and pulled me into a broom closet that was hidden by a curtain. It was so tiny I could feel her breath blow against my face as we huddled together.

  "Why don't we just leave?" I asked her.

  "Because," she snapped. "You let it out, now you have to help me get it back in."

  "Help you? How?"

  "Do you have any idea how hard I've worked to contain that... that thing?"

  "You should never have summoned it in the first place," I snapped back.

  She stared at me, wild-eyed. "Oh, my roses. I don't defend my daughter or her actions, but there's one thing she was right about. You, Ava Fortune, are a dim-witch."

  I clenched my teeth, trying to control myself. "I. Am. Not. A. Dim-witch."

  "You are if you still think I'm the one who conjured that thing up."

  I scrunched my brow, not sure what to believe anymore.

  "If you didn't summon it, who did?"

  Anastasia expelled a deep breath.

  "Polly." Even in the dark, I could see her eyes drop toward the floor. Embarrassed. "And Slater. It was mostly Polly though. Slater didn't know a spell from a hole in the wall."

  "I don't understand. When? How?"

  "Draugar aren't just created overnight," Anastasia said. "They take time to grow. To
simmer. Just before Polly went to Wormwood, she found a book on dark magic. She used it to conjure the draugr. She didn't anticipate being locked up for a year."

  "So... Polly did this?"

  Anastasia nodded.

  "I had no idea. I found her diary one day after she'd gone, and I was horrified. I couldn't believe it. I spent my time searching for it, trying to figure out where she'd hidden it. I didn't have my powers, so I couldn't use magic to help me. It was only recently, when my powers were restored, that I was able to find it."

  "Why didn't you tell someone? Sheriff Knoxx? Or my aunts? Anyone!" I was so mad I thought steam might come flying out my ears like a train whistle.

  "I was scared to. Polly was in Wormwood and I was alone. I didn't want to go to Wormwood, too. What if they'd taken my powers away like they did Polly's? I know it sounds selfish, but you have to believe I did everything possible to stop it."

  "What about Lucy? Why did you kidnap her?"

  "I had to. I was having visions. Awful, terrible visions of Lucy being... eaten alive. I knew they were real but didn't think anyone would believe me, even if I told them what was happening."

  I thought of the dismissive attitude everyone I'd talked to had taken when I told them about the draugr. I could understand what Anastasia was saying, though it pained me to do so. I didn't like the idea of having anything in common with her, just now.

  "I did the only thing I could think to do," she continued. "I took Lucy and held her here until I was certain the danger had passed."

  "How were you so certain?"

  "The visions stopped.”

  "If you could do that with Lucy, why didn't you do that with Pennyweather? Why let her die?"

  It was the image of Melbourne, broken and calling for his lost love, that haunted me when I thought of Pennyweather. I was afraid it was an image that would never fade.

  "I didn't let her die on purpose. I was having so many visions I could hardly keep them straight. They mostly centered around your family. You, your father, your aunts. Pennyweather didn't seem to be a top priority. When I finally realized the draugr was going to take her, I went to find her, but I was too late."

  "So that's why you've been following me and my family?"

  "Yes. I wanted to make sure that no one else died."

  "But all those goblins died," I said accusingly. "Are goblins just not important enough to bother saving?"

  I felt a teensy bit guilty. I was looking for holes in Anastasia's story. I wanted a reason to be mad at her. I wanted someone to blame.

  "I can't see goblins," she said. "Only witches. My visions just don't work like that. I had no idea goblins were being taken until you told everyone. Besides, the draugr's only using them for food, like he did with Pennyweather."

  "What do you mean?"

  "You and your family are different. It doesn't want you for food."

  "What does it want us for then?"

  "Revenge."

  "Revenge? For what?"

  The draugr let out a blood-curdling scream just then, and the floor beneath us shook. "Hold tight," Anastasia said.

  "What about my father?" I asked. "Does the draugr have him?" Now that I knew the draugr was capable of imitating voices, I was worried what that might mean. How could I believe anything? Had that really been Eleanor on the phone?

  "I don't know. I should, but I don't."

  "What does that mean?"

  "I was having so many visions of your father I stopped following you and started focusing on him. Every time I thought he was going to be taken, the draugr drew back. It was almost like he was toying with me."

  "When's the last vision you had of him?"

  "A few hours ago. Only this time I finally had everything I needed to stop the draugr. I went to your house to confront it and your father was gone when I got there. For a while, I wasn't sure I'd be able to stop the creature, but then," she opened her hands toward the sky, "praise the almighty witches, I did it."

  "So if you stopped it once, you can stop it again, right?" I asked hopefully, but she was already shaking her head.

  "I used everything I had getting it here. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to stop a creature as powerful as a draugr? It took countless hours of practice spells. Not to mention the fortune I spent on goat meat."

  I grimaced at the mention of goat. What was it with draugar and goats, anyway?

  "If I wasn't part pixie, I'm not sure it would have worked. Even if I had the power to recapture the creature, the goat's meat is completely gone. And I used every drop of tanzanite in the store. I had everything I needed for one capture. I thought that was all I would need. Until you let it out."

  I bit my bottom lip.

  Oh, warthog.

  She was right. I'd let that thing out.

  Fresh roars erupted from the backroom. A heavy thud, like a pile of bricks being dropped from the Empire State Building, sounded in the back.

  "Is that what I think it is?" I asked Anastasia.

  "I'm afraid so."

  The draugr had successfully busted down the only door left standing between it... and us.

  * * *

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-FIVE

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  "Out!" Anastasia shouted, pushing me from the closet. We could hear the draugr clomping around in the back, searching for something.

  Is that something us?

  "I thought you said to hide?" I whispered as she pushed harder on my back.

  "That was before."

  "Before what?"

  "Before I realized that if that thing finds us in this closet, we have nowhere to run. We're sitting bait if we stand here.

  "Good point."

  "We're safer out here, where we can face it head on."

  I was nodding my agreement until the draugr actually stepped out of the backroom. My breath caught in my chest, making me cough, and every thought fled my head in rapid succession.

  Down in the basement, I hadn't fully appreciated the draugr's size. I knew this was a creature who used to be human, but there was almost nothing left to indicate that. It was at least eight feet tall. Its anorexic frame was surprisingly large. It looked more like a skeletal Sasquatch than a former human.

  Pieces of skin clung to its bones. Old clothes lay tattered across its body, covering the most important parts but not much else. The remnants of a once-handsome face hung in chunks from its cheeks. The human behind the draugr looked vaguely familiar.

  Was it possible I had met this person in their former life? Before Polly had worked her wicked magic on him? I tried looking closer, searching the face for something I could use to recognize it by.

  Its gray, scaly skin gave nothing away. I shook my head as silver fog settled over my eyes. The stench of the creature was almost too much to bear. It was making me woozy.

  "Why does it smell so bad?" I asked, trying to hold my breath.

  "It's the stench of death. How else would you expect it to smell?"

  It moved slowly toward us, sizing us up. Or maybe it was just toying with us. A game of cat and mouse.

  "Oh, roses," I whispered to Anastasia. "What do we do?"

  "Just stay still," she whispered back.

  I wasn't sure why we were whispering. It's not like the thing couldn't see us. Were draugar like rabid dogs? If you ran, they would chase, but if you stood still, they would stand still with you?

  I didn't dare move. The draugr stood just in front of the door that led from the front of the shop to the back room. It filled the frame almost completely and had to bend at the neck a few times to stop its head from hitting the ceiling.

  How Anastasia had ever managed to capture this thing on her own was beyond me. Maybe later, when this was all over—and, hopefully, we were still alive—she could tell me just how she'd done it. For future reference. Knowing the correct way to capture a draugr might come in handy one day. I
f you could apprehend a thing like this, you could apprehend anything.

  I couldn't hold my breath any longer. I let it out and when I inhaled again, the stench seemed five times worse. It reminded me of the last time I'd been at Whisper Crossing, searching for clues to Lucy's disappearance. It was the day Snowball had discovered that Anastasia was following me. I'd smelled what I thought was rotten eggs. The draugr must have been nearby even then. Waiting. For me.

  This smell was even worse. Like bad blue cheese. I didn't know whether that meant its decay was increasing or it was simply growing riper the longer it stayed above ground. Was there even a difference? Every time I breathed it in, I felt like I was breathing in thick vapor saturated with poison.

  "Why were you at Whisper Crossing the day I went there looking for Lucy?" I suddenly asked.

  "You're asking me about that now?" Anastasia cried. The draugr cocked its head to one side as Anastasia and I backed slowly toward the front door. I hoped it wasn't locked.

  "I might not have another chance," I told her.

  "I was there to grab you," she said. "Like I grabbed Lucy. For your protection. Only your familiar caught me lurking around. She ran after me and the draugr changed its mind about taking you when it realized you weren't alone."

  My foot caught on something on the floorboard and I staggered. The draugr let out a wild noise and jolted toward us.

  "Ignatio Plumegard!" Anastasia yelled and a surge of energy shot out of her fingertips.

  The draugr went flying backward. He smacked head first into one of Anastasia's glass countertops, and for a moment I thought she'd knocked him out. Then he began to wiggle.

  "Come on," Anastasia said, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward the door. "We've got to get out of here."

  "I thought you said we should stay and fight. Get it back under your control."

  "Ha!" Anastasia laughed. "I think I may have been delusional. I had it locked up, but I have no idea how long that basement door was gonna hold it. Honestly, when I got it back here, I'd expected it to be passed out for hours."