Torrent Witches Box Set #1 Books 1-3 (Butter Witch, Treasure Witch, Hidden Witch)

by Tess Lake

  I’d finally managed to get myself to concentrate on the papers, mostly land transfer documents, when my cousins and Kira came racing up the stairs to my office.

  “There’s another one of those strings!” Kira exclaimed.

  “We can see them too!” Luce said.

  “Let’s go investigate!” Molly added.

  “Is that a good idea? If we’re seen again in another place that burns down, we’re going to be in serious trouble.”

  Molly waved her hands at me as though brushing away my concerns.

  “Yes, but we go there and then catch the arsonist and then you’re let off scot-free,” she said.

  A sudden thought occurred to me.

  “Did you close down the coffee shop for this?”

  “They’re doing some renovations,” Luce said. “So it is a good time to go investigating.”

  I looked at the papers, which may as well have had boring written all over them.

  “Okay, but let’s make sure we’re not being tailed by anyone, if that’s possible.”

  “I have it covered,” Molly said.

  At first when they stepped into the room, I couldn’t see the red lines, but after a minute of being near Kira, they appeared. Amongst the various colors there was a new line, deep red and vibrating gently. A red line emerged from me and tangled up with it. Kira had one coming from her doing the same. There were none connected to Molly and Luce.

  “So weird it’s just you two,” Luce said, waving her hand through the lines.

  We locked up the office and went to Molly’s car. She took a deep breath and cast a concealment spell over the entire car.

  Normally I would say this was an incredibly stupid thing to do. The more people you have looking at you the more energy it takes. Basically, if you try disappear in a crowd it could exhaust you so badly you pass out within five seconds. Somehow, Molly seemed fine. I felt the concealment ripple around us and then she started the engine and we took off.

  “How are you not unconscious right now?” I asked, seeing the tourists filling the streets.

  “Slight modification of the spell. People can see us if they’re not interested in seeing us. The spell only affects anyone who might be watching us deliberately.”

  I was impressed with that until she gave a gigantic yawn about half a second later and blinked sleepily at the road. We turned a few corners and then Molly waved the spell away, shaking herself to wake up.

  This time the line led directly to what you would very charitably call the lower socioeconomic end of Harlot Bay. The houses in this part of town were quite cute, and some of them were large because they were built a very long time ago, but on the whole the entire area was rusting and broken down. There were even a few abandoned houses. I was sure that the red line was going to end in one.

  Sure enough, we soon pulled up out in front of an old wreck of a house. The gardens were overgrown and there was a thick hedge blocking most the view. There was no one in sight, so we didn’t bother casting another concealment spell. We went through the rusty front gate and up to the house. The hedge wall blocked anyone on the street from seeing us. Molly knocked on the door, but no one answered. She quickly declared the house was obviously abandoned. Luce cast an unlocking spell and soon we were inside, standing at the foot of some stairs where the red line terminated.

  “This place would burn like crazy,” Luce said, looking around.

  It appeared that whoever had been living here had moved out without taking many of their possessions with them. Every room was filled with ancient furniture. It seemed they’d been halfway through packing before they’d left. There were piles of ancient boxes sitting everywhere, some of them half-filled. Underneath the staircase there was a small room where it looked like they’d collected every newspaper and receipt they’d ever received and put them in a big flammable pile.

  “Shall we take a look around?” Molly asked.

  Molly and Luce went off together to explore upstairs and Kira and I took the bottom floor. The house wasn’t creepy like the creepy murder house where we’d placed the, beacon but rather just dusty and abandoned. It felt like a family had possibly lived there at some point. I don’t know what would have led them to leave the house with only part of their possessions. There weren’t any signs of anything bad.

  We went through lots of drawers and cupboards but didn’t find anything unusual. There were old electricity bills in one, carryout menus in another. Molly and Luce returned from upstairs and reported that there was nothing interesting up there. Just more boxes and newspapers stacked around the place.

  We reconvened in the dusty lounge room, taking our places on the sofa and chairs after whacking them to ensure no spiders were hiding.

  “So, what we do now? A stakeout?” Molly asked.

  “I guess the arsonist can’t burn it down if we’re here. Perhaps we’ll catch them,” I said.

  “What if it’s a fire spirit, though? Will we even see it?” Luce asked.

  I shrugged. I hadn’t asked Aunt Cass what exactly a fire spirit looked like. In my mind it was a flame with a happy face, like something out of Japanese anime. In reality it could look like anything, including being totally invisible. For all I knew, the splotch of dirt in the corridor could be it.

  “We could stay here and see if anything happens,” Luce said.

  Lacking any other ideas, we did exactly that. Molly parked her car around the corner in case something did happen.

  There was essentially nothing to do in the old house, so we mostly ended up talking and spending time with our phones. We played a variety of word games and things like that, and after the day dragged on for a million years, it was eventually dinnertime and we were all getting hungry.

  “Should we go home?” Luce asked at about seven o’clock.

  “If this place is going to burn down, one of us needs to be here,” I said.

  The red line was still deep and dark, terminating at the foot of the stairs. We agreed that we would stay, and Molly and Luce went off to grab some takeout. They were gone almost forty-five minutes before they returned with delicious Indian food and gossip.

  “We saw my mother! We think she was meeting someone,” Molly said before stuffing some naan in her mouth.

  “We’d just bought the takeout, and we saw her walking down the street in the distance. She jumped into this car we didn’t recognize and drove away. We didn’t see who was in the driver’s seat, but it was definitely a man,” Luce said.

  Months ago, Molly had come to believe that her mother was possibly having an affair. She suspected it was with Sheriff Hardy at the time. We’d followed Aunt Ro until we lost her trail one night and since then we hadn’t really uncovered any evidence that she was seeing anyone, so we’d let it go.

  “Mom said that she’s been acting extra spiky recently, which we all know is true. You think it could be about this mystery man?” I asked.

  “No doubt about it. If she’s cheerful tomorrow, then we definitely know something is going on,” Molly said.

  “Your mom has a secret boyfriend?” Kira asked, giggling.

  “We think so. And we would only use that information against her in the most loving way,” Molly replied.

  “You could put a magical tracker on her car,” Kira said.

  “What’s a magical tracker?” Luce asked.

  Over dinner Kira explained the concept of a magical tracker. It was almost the same as the beacons Kira and I had placed around town. You stuck it on whatever you wanted to track, like a car, and then cast a spell on it. It was such a low-level spell it would be practically impossible to detect against the background magic in Harlot Bay.

  “The only problem is you need a certain type of crystal,” Kira explained.

  “Who taught you that?” I asked.

  “My grandma, actually. She taught me a few cool things.”

  It was the first time I’d heard Kira talk about Hattie without sarcasm. Obviously living with her was not fun, but
I guess that’s the thing with relationships: there might be bad but there is usually some good. Once more, it occurred to me that I really wished there actually were schools for witches, but that’s not the way it worked. Magic is a personal thing taught from witch to witch. What works for one doesn’t always work for another. Our moms and Aunt Cass had taught us plenty of things, but there was lots they hadn’t.

  We finished dinner and then kept talking about all kinds of things together as the night wore on. But we soon realized our mistake. Were we actually planning on sleeping here? Sure, there were beds, but there was no bedding. The prospect of staying up all night together wasn’t appealing.

  “We could stay here and then you guys could come back after midnight and relieve us?” Molly offered.

  “Yeah, I guess,” I said. It wasn’t the best plan, but what else could we do? If we all went home and then the house burned down, we’d lose the opportunity to catch either the person or the fire spirit that was the cause.

  Kira and I took Molly’s car and drove home with an agreement to come back at two a.m. There was no family dinner again tonight (no guests) so Kira and I watched television and talked with Adams. At least today he wasn’t smelling so much of lavender.

  Before it got too late, I set my alarm and went to bed, starting to feel excited that tomorrow I’d be having a lunch date with Jack.

  It seemed I’d hardly closed my eyes when I woke up to my alarm. It was one thirty in the morning.

  I looked in on Kira, who was fast asleep, and almost decided to leave her there. Then I realized if I were at the house by myself and something went wrong, I might need some help. Besides, I needed someone to keep me awake. So I woke her up. We had some coffee and then drove back to the house.

  We met a very tired Molly and Luce. The house hadn’t burned down and they hadn’t heard anyone or anything unusual. Kira and I both spent the first hour sitting on our phones, doing anything we could to entertain ourselves and stay awake. It was around three in the morning that the red line that had terminated at the foot of the stairs pulled away, out the front door.

  “Did your Slip magic disappear?” I asked.

  “No, something else is happening,” Kira said. We rushed outside to see the red line retracting down the street like fishing line being wound in. It vanished around the corner so quickly that we knew there was no point in chasing it. Even if we had a car we probably wouldn’t catch up.

  “What do you think happened?” I asked, looking up and down the darkened street. There were still other lines faintly shimmering in the darkness, but no red ones that felt like they were fire.

  “Maybe whatever it was changed its mind?” Kira said.

  Now the big question was whether we stayed in the house for the rest of the night. With the line gone, it felt like this place definitely wouldn’t burn down, but then what if we went home and then the red line returned?

  Despite the fact I could hear my soft bed calling me from all the way up on the hill, we reluctantly decided to stay in the house until morning. Kira ended up falling asleep, but I managed to stay awake until the sun rose. The house didn’t burn down, and I called Molly and Luce to pick us up.

  Chapter 14

  Kira and I ate breakfast before going to sleep. I guess this is one of the advantages of being self-employed and having a failing business: if you need a nap, you can have one. Besides, today was my lunch date with Jack, and there was no way I’d be turning up with giant bags under my eyes.

  I woke up around ten and quickly got myself together to head into town. I still had Carter’s papers to read through and also didn’t want to miss Jack if he arrived early. I checked in on Kira before I left, but she wasn’t in her bed. Aunt Cass wasn’t down at the main part of the house, either.

  I was tired and driving along in a somewhat bleary way, the air-conditioning on full blast, when I came to a halt at a stop sign. There was a lot of traffic (tourists), so I sat there looking left and right until I happened to see a familiar shape in the window of the house on the corner.

  It was Adams!

  A rosy-cheeked woman with graying hair was scratching him under the chin.

  What the hell?

  I quickly found somewhere to park, suddenly understanding why my cat smelled like lavender all the time. I marched up to the house, which was a modern white-walled place, two stories with a beautiful garden. I stopped at the window and saw Adams sleeping on a white sofa. The woman was nowhere to be seen, so I rapped on the window and he jerked awake. The moment he saw me, he jumped off the sofa and dived behind it.

  “I can see you!” I called out.

  “No, you can’t!” Adams said from behind the sofa.

  I banged my knuckles on the glass.

  “You are in so much trouble, mister,” I said.

  I knocked on the front door. A few minutes later, the owner of the house opened it.

  “Yes? How can I help you?” she asked.

  “Hi, you have a cat in there sleeping on your sofa who I think belongs to me.”

  From where I was standing I could see Adams’ black paws behind the sofa. He was hiding and keeping silent.

  “Oh, do you mean Rodrigo? He’s been visiting for years.”

  “Rodrigo? That’s his name?”

  “Oh yes, we first met him about ten years ago when we’d returned from a vacation in Spain. He came in meowing like he’d never eaten in his life. It was raining and the poor thing was shivering from cold. So we started feeding him. He probably comes by every second day.”

  “Really? That’s fascinating,” I said, trying to stop myself from gritting my teeth. “I guess maybe I must be wrong, then. He looks so much like my cat at home. Actually, my cat is quite heavy and so we’ve been forced to put him on a diet recently. For example, we had to declare just this morning that he’s not getting any more cheese for quite a long time.”

  Adams poked his head out from behind the sofa, a look of horror on his furry face. The moment the old lady looked at him, I drew my finger across my throat and gave him a glare.

  “Oh, this one loves cheese. I think we go through about a block a week,” she said.

  With the door open I became aware of the scent of lavender floating out. There were potpourri bowls spread everywhere throughout the house.

  “Sorry to bother you. I’m going to pick up some diet cat food for my cat, who is going on a severe diet the moment I get home,” I said, directing most of my comments to the furry feet behind the sofa.

  The lady said goodbye to me and then I walked back to my car. When I got in, Adams emerged from under the passenger-side seat, yawning like he’d been asleep.

  “Good morning,” Adams yawned, showing me his white teeth. “I must have fallen asleep in the car.”

  “Oh, really? That’s how you’re going to play it? I didn’t just see you sitting on the sofa in that house, Rodrigo?”

  Adams sat on the passenger seat and started washing himself.

  “I’ve been asleep under the seat the whole time. Is there another cat in there who looks exactly like me? Is he handsome too?”

  “Yes, there is another cat in there who looks exactly like you. And he’s going on a diet.”

  “A diet? Why would you put me on a diet? I mean him.”

  “Because you need to lose weight. You’ve been sneaking off to eat cheese at other people’s houses. Is your name even Adams? Or is it Rodrigo? Julio? Emilio?”

  “You shouldn’t be mean to hungry cats,” Adams said sulkily.

  I knew I wouldn’t be able to get very far with him. Lying cats were even worse than teenagers. A teenager will flatly deny things even in the face of overwhelming evidence, but a cat would literally steal the cheese out of your hand in front of you and then claim that he’d never eaten or stolen anything in his entire life. Still, I had to make it clear to him that it wasn’t exactly safe to keep visiting the same people for such a long time.

  “I know you might like seeing them. But if you visit th
e same people for such a long period of time and you don’t look like you age, then they’re going to get suspicious.”

  “I only visit people for ten years,” he mumbled.

  “What? So even when we weren’t living here, you were visiting?”

  “I’m allowed to visit!”

  Adams, being a magical cat, has the strange ability to show up in unexpected places. I leave him at home when I go to work and I often get a call from the moms telling me he’s in the Big Pie storeroom or somewhere else he shouldn’t be. I had no idea he could somehow transport across entire states, though.

  I pulled out my phone to check the time. It was now almost eleven and looked like I wouldn’t get much work in before Jack arrived for lunch. Adams took this opportunity to leap up and shout into the phone “Call PETA!”

  What he didn’t know was I actually have a Peta stored in my phone, an old friend who had moved away. We’re mostly now only email and online friends. The phone dialed and picked up before I could stop it.

  “Hey, Harlow!” Peta said.

  “She’s starving a little black cat!” Adams called out.

  I shushed him quite severely, putting my hand over his mouth and pulling the phone away.

  “What was that? Did someone shout out something about a cat?” Peta asked.

  “Oh, hey, Peta, it was Molly being silly. Sorry I accidentally dialed you.”

  “That’s okay. We should actually talk soon anyway, catch up.”

  I promised Peta that we would, then hung up. I shoved my phone in my pocket before I let Adams go.

  “Calling Peta isn’t going to help you,” I told him.

  “They protect animals great and small,” Adams said, quoting an advertisement that he’d seen once.

  I didn’t have the time to explain to a greedy little cat the difference between PETA and Peta, so I let it go.

  By the time I got to work, Adams was snoozing on the passenger seat. He wanted to stay in the car, so I put the window down and told him to stay out of sight.

  The remaining hour until lunch seemed to drag interminably. I tried to distract myself by reading through Carter’s papers, but it was all boring property transfers and none of them were in order. Some were from the 1950s, some the 1970s, a bunch from the 1930s mixed up with the 1980s. Properties would appear, but with misspelled street names and mixed-up lot numbers.