This Spells Trouble

by Stacey Alabaster

  “But she didn’t do the spell.”

  “She didn’t NEED to do the spell,” Vicky said, pleading my case. “She had the power within her all along!”

  Geri took a deep breath. “I suppose I will just have to trust you, Vicky.” She glared at me. “But you are on probation, okay? You got that?”

  “I am so glad!” Vicky said, wrapping me in a hug so tight that I actually lost my breath for a moment as she squeezed me. But I laughed and squeezed her back.

  “I am glad as well,” I said. “I don’t know what kind of witch I am going to make, but I am excited to find out.”

  And I didn’t know what kind of detective I was going to make either, but I was excited to find that out as well.

  Epilogue

  One Week Later

  The town-wide spell had been reversed, but I still felt cautious as I waited to enter the Onyx. What if I gave myself away around Akiro in different ways? There were all sorts of ways to read thoughts…body language, for one. Glances for another.

  I was still hesitating to go in as Vicky skipped up to me on the sidewalk. She had her guitar slung over her shoulder. “Er, you do know that we work in an office, right?” I said with a little laugh before we entered the cafe. Coffee first, then work. That was the right way around.

  She laughed and said that the office could do with a little music, and that she would only play when we were going through a quiet patch.

  But there was no quiet patch now that May had un-blacklisted my name.

  I was ready to take my detective practice to the next level, and I thought that Vicky would be the perfect assistant to have on my cases with me.

  “She’s a bit of a character, isn’t she,” Akiro said after Vicky had ordered a large single-shot latte with three shots of vanilla sugar and a gingerbread cookie on the side.

  “Yes, I know how much you hate those,” I said, teasing him.

  I noticed there was a weird scratch on his arm as he handed me my coffee. He kind of hid it away when I glanced at it, but it was definitely there.

  “We should catch up. Outside of the coffee shop sometime,” he said.

  I nodded. “You can come and check on Indy any time,” I said. Now that I had her trained not to talk when mortals were around, there was no danger.

  He looked a little embarrassed. “I was thinking…maybe dinner.”

  “Oh!” I felt myself go a little hot. I tried to compose myself. “Right. Sounds-sounds great.”

  I took my triple-shot latte, smiled, and left.

  But as I walked out and the cold hit me, I realized something: I still didn’t know who had put the hex on me.

  Thanks for reading This Spells Trouble. I hope you enjoyed this first story in the Private Eye Witch Cozy Mystery series. If you could take a minute and leave a review for me, that would be really awesome.

  The next story in the series is called A Cold Spell and will be available soon. Keep an eye out for it on Amazon.

  If you would like to know about future cozy mysteries by me and the other authors at Fairfield Publishing, make sure to sign up for our Cozy Mystery Newsletter. We will send you our FREE Cozy Mystery Starter Library just for signing up. All the details are on the next page.

  FAIRFIELD COZY MYSTERY NEWSLETTER

  Make sure you sign up for the Fairfield Cozy Mystery Newsletter so you can keep up with our latest releases. When you sign up, we will send you our FREE Cozy Mystery Starter Library!

  FairfieldPublishing.com/cozy-newsletter/