“I’m doing research for a...book I’m writing,” I said, struggling to come up with a good lie on the spot. I prayed that Mrs. Abigail wouldn’t see right through it and was relieved when she nodded her head.
Feeling encouraged, I continued. “Mom told me there used to be a coven in Clover Pointe. Back when she was a kid, anyway. She said that my grandmother used to belong to one. Would you happen to know anything about them?”
A shadow crossed over Mrs. Abigail’s face and her mouth flattened into a disapproving line.
“What do you want to know about them for?” she spat and I was shocked by her disparaging tone. In all my years of knowing Mrs. Abigail, I had never heard her speak about anyone with so much venom.
“I’m just curious,” I said defensively. “I’m writing a book about witches and I figured I would start locally with my research.”
Mrs. Abigail's eyes narrowed as she regarded me.
“Witches, huh?” she asked, a suspicious gleam in her eyes. I gulped. Even now, Mrs. Abigail still had the power to scare the crap out of me.
After a few more moments of intense scrutiny, she let out a long, suffering sigh.
“I’m sure you know about the Blackwater family here in town,” she said. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“Didn’t they build that fancy country club downtown?” I asked. I vaguely remembered attending my senior prom at some kind of country club back in the day. I had also taken a couple of the firm’s higher-end clients to a country club a couple of years ago.
“Yes, Olympia Country Club,” Mrs. Abigail answered. “Built and owned by the famous Blackwater family.”
The venom was back in her voice. “The matriarch, Lilith Blackwater was still alive around the time your mother and I were little. Rumor has it that she was a practicing witch.” Mrs. Abigail paused to make a derisive sound in her throat. “Which I think is absolutely ridiculous. Magic isn’t real. That rumor only existed to scare the living daylights out of anyone who dared cross the almighty Lilith.”
“And this woman belonged to an actual coven?” I asked, intrigued.
“Supposedly,” Mrs. Abigail said, rolling her eyes. “Under the guise of some exclusive gardening club.”
Well, that explains why Grandma got involved with them. But I wonder why she left?
“Why do you hate them so much?” I asked. “What did they do?”
“Besides build a pretentious country club?” Mrs. Abigail asked disdainfully. “Lilith was always unnecessarily cruel to my mother, who worked for her for quite some time. And it seems that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Lilith’s awful daughter, Amelia, has been constantly hounding me since her mother died and she inherited the family’s fortune and businesses. She wants to buy the land that this library stands on with the intention of destroying half of it in order to build another country club. It’s despicable!”
I frowned. Even if this Blackwater family happened to know about my magical powers and could potentially help me, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to deal with them. At the very least, they sounded unpleasant based on Mrs. Abigail’s recollections.
But still, I really needed to talk to someone. If there was any chance that Lilith’s daughter knew about her mother’s coven and maybe even possessed some magical abilities herself, I could deal with some unpleasantness. Maybe I could even convince Amelia to leave Mrs. Abigail and the library alone.
“I should have an old newspaper clipping around here on microfilm,” Mrs. Abigail continued. “This so-called ‘coven’ used to participate in the local farmer’s markets. They sold flowers, herbs, fruits, and veggies. I truly despise the Blackwaters, but Lilith’s little gardening club used to have the best produce at the market. So good that it caught the eye of the newspaper, anyway. Let me show you.”
Mrs. Abigail propped up a “Be Back Soon” sign on her desk and I followed her as she made her way towards one of the back corners of the first floor. Our footsteps echoed on the marble floor before hitting carpet. We wove through several groups of computer stations before arriving at the microfilm station. Using a key attached to the lanyard around her neck, Mrs. Abigail opened up the massive filing cabinet that contained the library’s microfilm collection. After doing some digging, she pulled out a single box of film.
“I trust you remember how to use the microfilm machine?” she asked.
“Of course,” I responded, feeling equally excited and nervous. Mrs. Abigail gave me a curt nod.
“Good,” she said. “I hope this helps you with your research. If you have any other questions, you know where to find me. Although I think I’m done talking about the Blackwaters for at least a day.”
With one final, suspicious look, Mrs. Abigail left me to do my research. I let out a breath and turned my attention back to the microfilm machine. I popped in the film and began cycling through old issues of The Clover Pointe Times, the local newspaper. I cycled through scan after scan until a bold headline caught my eye.
“Local Gardening Club Star of This Month’s Farmer’s Market,” I read to myself. With a little jolt, I noticed that there was a picture included. Five women, all around the same age, posed in front of a stall. A small girl gripped the hand of the woman standing farthest to the right.
Could that be my grandma and my mom?
I quickly glanced at the caption and read the listed names.
“Pictured from left to right: Jennifer Felix, Amy Howe, Lilith Blackwater, Francis Barker, and Julia Redferne,” the caption read.
Julia Redferne! That’s my grandmother!
I smiled at the picture of her and who I assumed to be my mother holding her hand. My eyes slid to the woman in the center of the group and I felt a slight shiver run down my spine. The rest of the women in the photo were smiling, but Lilith Blackwater wasn’t.
She stood tall and imposing, and even though it was just a picture, I could swear that her eyes were boring a hole straight through my forehead. I shivered again before enlarging the image and hitting “Print.” Despite Lilith’s icy stare, I was sure my mom would appreciate the picture, as we had very few photographs of my grandmother around the house.
I can always just color over Lilith’s face with a marker, I thought to myself. Or cut her out of the picture entirely.
I quickly rewound and removed the film from the machine before grabbing the photo from the printer. As I headed back towards Mrs. Abigail and the front desk in order to return the microfilm, I felt a buzzing in my pocket.
Frowning, I pulled out my cell phone and was greeted with an all-caps message from Victoria.
“SOS!” the message read. “Need you at The Witch’s Brew ASAP.”
My phone buzzed again with another message.
“Some weird private investigator is snooping around, asking questions.”
My stomach immediately dropped and it felt like a bucket of ice water had just been dumped over my head.
This can’t be good.
Chapter 6
After returning the microfilm to Mrs. Abigail and calling out a rushed goodbye, I practically flew out of the library and into my car.
“Be there soon!” I texted Victoria.
My heart pounded and nervous sweat began to gather at my temples and on the back of my neck, despite the chilly afternoon air.
Had Josh hired a private investigator in order to dig up some dirt on me and Victoria? Was he really that vengeful?
“I wouldn’t put it past the jerk,” I muttered to myself, anger starting to mix in with my anxiety.
After what felt like an eternity, I finally pulled into an empty parking spot in front of The Witch’s Brew. There were a couple of construction vehicles parked in the other empty spots, as well as a faded blue Sedan.
I rushed through the front door to find Victoria standing behind the counter, arms crossed, and looking more than a little irritated. Across from her stood a man dressed in dark jeans and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I ignore
d him, thinking he was one of the contractors, and hurried over to Victoria.
“What’s going on?” I asked, winded by my mad dash through the door. Victoria squinted at my face, ignoring my question completely.
“What on Earth do you have smeared under your eye?” she asked, seeming to forget her irritation for a moment. “Is that mascara?”
Before I could respond, I felt a soft tap on my upper arm. When I turned around, I was face-to-face with the man in flannel and my cheeks flushed.
It had been a while since I had found any man even remotely attractive. Now, I was fairly certain that the flutters in my stomach were only slightly related to my anxiety over Victoria’s frantic texts.
The man in front of me was at least in his late forties. His jet black hair was streaked with white at the temples and his square jaw was covered in dark stubble. His eyes, a sharp blue, sparkled with humor and I noted a dimple in his cheek as a smile tugged at his lips.
I snapped my mouth closed when I realized that it was hanging open.
Good Lord, is it hot in here?
“You’ve got a little something…” The man mimed a wiping motion underneath his eye and I felt my face flush.
“So I’ve been told,” I said, self-consciously swiping at the faint smear underneath my eye.
“I’m Aidan Walsh,” the man said and there was still a little bit of humor in his eyes as he pressed a business card into my hand. “I’m an investigator with Graves Private Eye.”
I glanced down at the midnight blue business card in my hand. Sure enough, Aidan Walsh’s name was printed on it in bold letters. I squinted at the smaller script at the bottom of the card and my stomach plummeted.
“Paranormal investigations?’ I managed to squeak out. Did Aidan somehow know about my powers? Was he here to cart me off to some kind of paranormal prison? I swallowed hard and Victoria huffed behind me.
“Completely ridiculous, right?” she said. “I’ve never even heard of Graves Private Eye before. This is obviously a scam.”
“I assure you this isn’t a scam, Mrs. Barnes,” Aidan responded, shooting me a meaningful look. “As I’m sure your friend here has told you.”
Oh god, he knows about my powers. He has to.
Victoria’s eyebrows shot up and she looked at me more closely. All I could manage was a weak shrug in response.
“At least tell us who you’re working for,” Victoria demanded, arms moving to cross in front of her chest.
Aidan shook his head. “As I told you before, I’m afraid that information is confidential,” he said, and I swore I could hear Victoria rolling her eyes in response.
I chewed on my lower lip as I considered the possibilities. It was doubtful that Josh was the one who hired this agency. He couldn’t even be in the same room as me whenever I’d watch a movie with any hint of the paranormal in it. Where I considered myself to be a healthy skeptic, Josh was plan intolerant of anything not based in fact or evidence-based research. The idea that he might have hired some kind of paranormal private eye to get me in trouble was improbable. And almost downright laughable.
“Mrs. Barnes here has answered most of my questions and I’ve already spoken to Joshua Werner. But I’d like to confirm a few things with you Ms...?” He trailed off, waiting for me to supply my name. I wasn’t sure why he needed it, especially if he had already spoken with Victoria. But I answered anyway.
“Heidi,” I said stiffly. “Heidi Redferne.”
Aidan nodded and pulled out a small notebook and ballpoint pen. As he clicked open the pen, my palms began to feel clammy. I was unsure of the investigator’s intentions, or what would happen if he could, in fact, pin the electrical incident from the day before on me. On top of all that, I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of Victoria finding out about all of the magic stuff while a stranger interrogated us. Especially since I could still barely wrap my own head around it.
Swallowing hard, I quickly made up my mind. I wouldn’t outright lie to the investigator. But I wasn’t going to freely volunteer any information, either. I looked Aidan in the eyes (God, he is distractingly good looking) and nodded.
“Alright,” I said. “What do you need to know?”
“As I told Mrs. Barnes before you got here, it’s my job to investigate any potential paranormal occurrences throughout Clover Pointe and the surrounding towns.” Mia snorted at that, but Aidan ignored her. “According to my sources, there was a significant spike in energy here yesterday afternoon.”
I attempted to keep my face as impassive as possible, but I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.
“Why don’t you walk me through what happened yesterday?” Aidan continued, checking his notes. “Around three o’clock in the afternoon?”
Before I could stop myself, I was repeating the events of yesterday to Aidan.
“My ex-husband showed up around then,” I said, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. “We got into an argument and, as we were arguing, the lights started flickering.” I paused briefly before continuing. “And then, all the overhead lights blew out.”
I left out the part where I felt like electricity was thrumming through my veins. I also left out the part where some kind of invisible force field had pushed out from my body, knocking my ex-husband backward. Aidan frowned, scribbling something in his notes.
“What happens after you investigate these…paranormal occurrences?” I asked, morbid curiosity getting the better of me.
Aidan barely looked up from his notepad. “We attempt to contain it as much as possible,” he answered simply.
“Contain?” I asked. There was something decidedly ominous about that phrase and I wasn’t sure that I liked what the private investigator was hinting at. Almost impossibly, my heart rate seemed to pick up even more. It was a miracle that it didn’t beat right out of my chest with how anxious I was.
“Sometimes we issue a warning,” Aidan continued, finally lifting his gaze from his notes. “Sometimes we have to exterminate a threat.”
My knees wobbled as I felt the blood drain from my face. For God’s sake, whatever power I had running through my veins had thrown a man against a counter. If that wasn’t a threat, then I didn’t know what was.
“Do you hear yourself?” Victoria’s voice came to me as if through a layer of fog. “Paranormal occurrences? Contain? Exterminate? What’s next? Are you going to whip out a wand and cast a spell on us?”
I couldn’t hear Aidan’s response as unwelcome thoughts spun through my mind. Did Aidan already know about my so-called powers? Was he just waiting for the perfect moment to “exterminate” me as he so eloquently put it? My stomach was in knots and, almost as if on cue, static began to build up around my body. I took a quick step back from Aidan and was thankful that there weren’t any working lights around. If there were, I was certain that they would be flickering like crazy as I felt my anxiety starting to get away from me.
I backed up a little more until my butt connected with the front counter. Aidan gave me a puzzled look and I could almost feel Victoria’s questioning stare boring into me.
“Look, there is nothing supernatural going on here. Yes, I got angry with my ex-husband and we got into a little argument, but that’s bound to happen when you’re dealing with a complete asshole,” I said, willing the investigator to stay as far away from me as possible.
It would be just my luck if my power decided to fling this strange man across the room, I thought to myself bitterly.
Aidan’s eyes crinkled at the corners and his mouth twitched as if he was trying to hold back a laugh.
“Off the record,” he said, flipping his notebook closed and stuffing it back into the pocket of his pants, “I did not enjoy taking Joshua Werner’s statement. He’s a bit of an asshole, isn’t he?”
I would have breathed a sigh of relief at the investigator’s little jab at my ex-husband had I not been so worried about the building static surrounding my body.
Aidan frowned. “Do you feel some
thing?” he asked. “It feels like some kind of electrical pulse.”
I panicked. I needed a distraction. And fast.
“I need to go to the bathroom!” I yelled, practically knocking Aidan over as I ran as quickly as I could to the bathroom. I faintly heard Victoria calling after me, but the rushing in my ears was getting louder and louder the closer I got to the bathroom.
Once I finally reached the bathroom, I shut the door with a slam and made sure it was securely locked.
As the lights flickered over my head, I slid onto the cool tile of the bathroom floor and tried to take a few calming breaths. Slowly but surely, with each breath I took, the buzzing in my head subsided and the lights stopped flickering. I stared at my hands as they shook.
This can’t be happening.
A knock at the bathroom door had me jumping and I winced as I felt an uncomfortable twinge in my lower back.
I guess I’m too old to be having mental breakdowns on the bathroom floor, I thought to myself grimly. But, hey, at least my knee wasn’t hurting anymore.
With some effort and embarrassing groaning on my part, I picked myself off the floor and opened the bathroom door. Aidan stood on the other side, looking more than a little worried. Victoria was right behind him, attempting to see me over one of his broad shoulders.
“Are you alright, Heidi?” she asked. “Do you need a doctor?”
I shook my head, trying hard to prevent my face from turning a bright red. I might as well have yelled out that I had explosive diarrhea at the top of my lungs, too, for all the good my impromptu “distraction” did me.
“I’m fine. I just need some water, I think,” I said as nonchalantly as I could.
Keeping my head down, I tried to shoulder my way past Aidan. He placed a hand lightly on my shoulder and I felt a little spark, which caused me to look up at his face in surprise.
My So-Called Magical Life Page 4
