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

by Tess Lake

  “Come to see the fire fire fire,” Hendrick said with a sly little smile.

  That was when the floor cracked open, an enormous hole appearing near the locked door, flames roaring up from underneath.

  It wasn’t a magical fire created by a distraught witch. The lunatic Hendrick must have set fire to the mansion before we’d arrived. We’d been pulled by his madness, somehow dragged by the connection between him and Sophira, and now we might die here.

  Sophira screamed a note of pure rage and more of the photos burst into flames. To our right, the floor cracked open and a gout of flame lashed out, nearly touching the ceiling. This one definitely was magical. I could feel it pulling on the magic around us as Sophira’s rage and fury took form.

  Hendrick clapped and laughed, grabbing at his brother’s arm and pointing at the new flames.

  “Fun fun fun, see see see?”

  There was another crack as the floor between us split, flames forming a wall and separating us from Dominic and his insane brother.

  “Sophira, you have to stop, please. We need to get out of here,” I yelled over the sound of the roaring flames.

  “He destroyed my family,” Sophira growled.

  Just as I was about to punch Sophira in a desperate attempt to knock her out, Kira stepped in front of her and took hold of her hands.

  “Remember what I was teaching you. You have to center yourself. Take a breath, relax. If we take them out of here with us, they’ll go to prison forever,” Kira said.

  For a moment the magical flames roared higher as Kira battled with the desire to burn Dominic and his brother to death. She’d likely kill us too, unintentionally, her pain was so great.

  But then she took a breath and the magical flames all subsided.

  “Okay,” Sophira said, pressing her forehead against Kira’s.

  The wall of flames between us and Dominic and his brother were not magical, unfortunately. I grabbed hold of the girls and skirted around them. The air was full of smoke, choking us, and the entire room was ablaze. All I could hear was the cracking sound of wood burning. If this mansion was like ours, it probably had complete floors beneath us. They were on fire and it wouldn’t be long before the entire mansion collapsed. Hendrick ran towards us, trying to stop us from leaving, but Kira thrust out a hand and the fire poker flung across the room and embedded itself in the wall. Then she swiped a hand at the door and it smashed off its hinges.

  The corridor was filled with flame, too intense for us to run through.

  There was no escape.

  “I’ve got this,” Sophira yelled.

  I sure as hell hoped she did, because I could barely breathe and couldn’t see for the smoke and flames. The magic pulled around me and then we were standing in a clear spot, like a bubble, that was as cool as a fresh winter day.

  Kira yelled out and suddenly Dominic and Hendrick were in front of us, running. We bolted after them, the bubble of cool and clean air making a passage for us. As soon as we passed, the flames roared in behind us. I could feel the soles of my shoes melting.

  Before Dominic reached the front door, Jack smashed it open. He pulled Dominic and his brother out and then the three of us collided with him, crashing out of the mansion and landing on the gravel outside. We scrambled up and ran away from the mansion.

  “They’re the ones who burned the houses!” I yelled, pointing to Dominic and Hendrick. Dominic was trying to pull his brother away from the burning mansion but wasn’t having much luck. Jack raced over to them and shoved both of them facedown onto the ground and told them to stay there if they ever wanted to walk again.

  The scream of the fire engines made itself known over the roaring sound of the mansion going up in flames. Something exploded inside and the windows shattered outward, littering the ground with bits of broken glass and flaming embers. It wasn’t long before the fire department was there and then the police. Dominic was pleading with his brother to shut up, but he kept talking about the fire and laughing, pointing, saying it was the best one yet. It wasn’t long after that we were being treated for minor burns, and sometime later I found myself standing by the side of an ambulance with Jack in front of me, my hands around his waist, my head against his chest, listening to the slow beat of his heart.

  Chapter 25

  I was sitting in the park, sipping the last of my very delicious coffee supplied by the new and revamped Traveler. It’s amazing how quickly things can change. Just a week ago I’d escaped a blazing mansion, and now here I was wearing some awesome 1950s-style swing clothing, waiting for my… I guess you could say boyfriend?… to return with ice creams to follow our spectacular lunch (Jack’s famous sandwiches).

  It was still summer, but a fall day must’ve come early because it was a cooler than usual, which made it just perfect for sitting in the park and having a picnic.

  Things had broken, but now they were well on their way to be repaired.

  Big Pie Bakery was gone, burnt to the ground, but that hadn’t stopped the moms. Not one bit. They had immediately started baking out of the home kitchen and were doing delivery runs around town with their baked goods. There was even a fundraiser planned to help rebuild the bakery coming up in a week once the latest wave of media buzz that had swamped the town faded away. The rash of fires in Harlot Bay hadn’t made the mass media until the bakery had burned and everyone realized at once that there was actually an arsonist at work. As usual, all the major reporting networks descended on the town just so they could stand on the beach with the waves behind them and solemnly make statements like “this sleepy seaside town is once again the scene of tragedy…” with their fake faces on. Their desire to drag out the story to try to make it even bigger was squelched when Dominic’s brother Hendrick readily confessed to setting the fire that had burnt down Big Pie. He’d been behind quite a few fires (including the one that killed Lenora Gray) and although Dominic claimed that he was mentally ill and insane, eventually he’d given in and confessed that he’d known about his brother’s behavior. The story had turned very dark when it was discovered that Dominic had occasionally fed his brother addresses of properties that he wanted to buy. Hendrick would then try to burn them down. It appeared Big Pie Bakery was one of those addresses. Dominic wanted it burned down to put financial pressure on the moms so they would then sell Torrent Mansion. We discovered that Aunt Cass had pretended to be April and had called both Dominic and Coldwell to tell them she wasn’t interested in selling. This had apparently prompted Dominic to set Hendrick loose.

  The police were now digging into all of Dominic Gresso’s real estate dealings and those of his father, who had died in the late 1980s. His cause of death was listed as a heart attack, but the story had come out that the family had paid off a local coroner to say that. In fact, Dominic and Hendrick’s father had died of burns suffered to his body after a fire he’d set turned against him.

  Dominic had even apparently handed over his father’s journals, which contained information on other crimes committed in building their real estate empire. He was doing everything he could to reduce his eventual prison sentence.

  As for Sylvester Coldwell, he was denying he knew anything about the arson. He claimed he and Dominic were old friends and he was merely visiting Hendrick, who rarely left the mansion. Thus far, Detective Moreland hadn’t found anything, but we suspected it wouldn’t be long before Coldwell went down.

  Not everything was wrapped up nicely, but it was good enough for government work.

  I took the last sip of my delicious coffee and let out a sigh as I looked across the park. The big peak of tourists had passed, and although the town was still packed, it would slowly drop away until it was ours again. Traveler was looking amazing, fully renovated, and now Molly and Luce were making money hand over fist. They were making so much that within six months they might be able to pay to have Big Pie rebuilt.

  Kira and Sophira had moved to Hattie’s house two days ago. I admit I already missed having the two teenagers arou
nd. Yes, they were snarky and sometimes sullen and would probably die if they didn’t look at their phone every thirty seconds, but they were also hilarious and warm and, most of all, brave. In my brief conversation with Aunt Cass, she’d told me that Hattie had agreed to take it easier on them.

  During my daydreaming, I suddenly felt a presence next to me. I looked up, hoping to see Jack carrying two ice creams, but it was John Smith instead, looking down at me. I quickly glanced around. There wasn’t anyone nearby, so it was safe to talk.

  “Hey, John,” I said, giving him a smile.

  “Talica Moore, I presume. You and that dress are looking fine,” he said.

  The smile froze to my face as I frantically tried to think of what to do. Obviously John had mistaken me for someone else. But this was amazing news! Talica Moore! Who was that? I had to be careful. He might reveal more that I could use to track down who he actually was.

  “The one and only,” I said and winked at him.

  John smile grew broader and he winked back. Whoever he thought I was, he obviously liked her very much. Maybe his girlfriend? Wife? Then his grin faltered and he frowned at me. The air around us chilled as though a cloud had covered the sun.

  “I’m cold and it’s dark. I’m stuck. Why did she interfere?”

  “Who interfered?”

  John jumped back, scared, and when he next looked at me, I knew that he was no longer seeing whoever this Talica Moore was.

  “Harlow,” he said, his voice rough. I saw Jack over to my right, walking towards us, an ice cream in each hand. John looked across at him and then down at me.

  “I see it’s all on track, then. Time to do it again.”

  “Do what?” I asked.

  “What? Sorry, did you ask me something?” John said.

  “Here, quick, take it before it melts,” Jack said, rushing up and handing me a dark chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone.

  The feeling of cold vanished the moment John forgot everything. I smiled at Jack and took the ice cream. Jack sat down beside me, taking a bite of his peppermint chocolate chip.

  John looked at the two of us and then waved happily, putting his hand over his mouth to indicate he knew I couldn’t answer when someone else was around who wasn’t a witch.

  “See you later, Harlow! So good to see you found someone!” John said happily before fading away.

  “Something wrong?” Jack asked. I turned to him and looked into those beautiful eyes. Today they were more green than blue. In the sunlight they were almost emerald.

  “Everything is okay. I think,” I said.

  I kissed him, tasting the faintest hint of peppermint on his lips from the ice cream, smelling the freshly cut grass around us and hearing the sound of the seagulls high above squawking against the wind.

  “I really think everything is going to be okay,” I repeated. I didn’t know what had happened with John – something seemed to tug at my mind like a word lost on the tip of my tongue.

  I looked at Jack. There was something deeply right about this former tourist sitting with me under the warm sun.

  I just knew everything would be okay.

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  Thanks for reading my book! More witch stories to come. If you’d like an email when a new book is released then you can sign up for my mailing list here. I have a strict no spam policy and will only send an email when I have a new release.

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  xx Tess