The Liar, The Witch and The Cellar (Welcome To Witch County Book 2)

by C. M. Cevis

  Luna laughed. “I do try. I came here for peace. If that means I can share it with someone else who needs it too, I am more than willing.”

  “You are an absolute treat. And that soaking tub is calling my name right now,” Zelda said with a sigh.

  “I’ll run into town now. If you want to take a walk or something, don’t worry about the doors. This place is safe—you can leave them unlocked without concern.”

  “Says the lady who got extra locks installed,” Liza hissed. “I’m sure she saw how new the front door locks looked.”

  If Luna could have elbowed her, she would have.

  “I thought places like that only existed in books and movies,” Zelda said.

  “Calidity is like the place those books and movies are based off of,” Luna replied with a grin. “My cell number is by the phone downstairs. If you think of something you need while I’m gone, just give me a call.”

  “Will do. Thank you.”

  Luna felt warm, as if Zelda had genuinely meant that thanks and not just said it because it was the thing you always said at the end of an encounter. She backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.

  “Is she like she was in the coma dream?” Liza asked as they walked down the hallway and headed down the stairs.

  “She looks the same,” Luna replied. “But she was livelier.”

  “I wonder if whatever it is that she needed peace from is why she isn’t.”

  Luna grabbed her purse and car keys from the side table. “No idea. I wish there were a way to tell.”

  “We could help her.”

  “How? We don’t even know what’s wrong.” Luna stepped through the front door and closed it behind her before heading off the porch and towards her car, an SRT Hellcat that she’d grabbed a few years ago and loved more than several other things and a few people.

  “We’ll figure it out. You’re good at getting people to talk, and I’m good at reading people. At this point, I feel like it’s essential that we know for sure if this is the same woman from your dream or not. And if it is, how would whoever was controlling it have known.”

  “Better yet, how did he get so much right? And what, if anything did he miss?”

  Luna climbed into the car with a sigh, tossing her bag onto the passenger’s seat when Liza appeared beside her and said, “That would raise a lot more questions than just how he got it right.”

  “Yeah. I don’t think I like any of those questions.”

  “I don’t either,” Liza replied as Luna backed the car out of the driveway.

  11

  The line rang a few times before Graham picked up, but he did answer. He always answered.

  “Before I say hello, please tell me that nothing is wrong.” He sounded strained.

  “Rough day?” Luna asked, killing the engine of the car and adjusting her Bluetooth earbuds as she stepped out.

  “Very.”

  “Nothing is wrong. I just have a favor to ask. For my peace of mind.”

  Graham audibly exhaled. “Oh thank goodness. What’s the favor? At this point, I’ll do anything that doesn’t have to do with fixing something I didn’t break.”

  Luna chuckled as she strolled down the sidewalk toward the small grocery store. Walmart was about thirty minutes away, but she preferred supporting the small family that ran the grocer.

  “When was the last time you heard anything about my family?”

  Graham took a moment to think. “When your father got arrested a few months ago. Why?”

  “Can you make sure that he’s still actually in jail?”

  Luna could almost hear Graham thinking. “Sure. But why am I double checking on something that I’d have been notified of immediately if it had changed?”

  “My peace of mind, remember? Just make sure he’s still in there, please. And check on my brother, if you can.”

  “Yeah, sure. I can do that. I’ll do some quick digging and call you back.”

  “Thanks, Graham.”

  There were a few heartbeats of silence, and then, “Are you sure there isn’t something going on that you aren’t telling me about?”

  Luna debated telling him, then went for it. “Did you know that people can dream when they’re in a coma?”

  Pause. “I did not.”

  “Well they can. And my dream has made me a little paranoid about some things. I had a second set of deadbolts installed on my front and back door because you suggested it to me in the dream.”

  “As long as you know I didn’t actually suggest that to you, it’s not a bad idea. Even all the way out there in the country.”

  “Yeah, it was. So was making sure that I know where my family is.”

  “Right,” Graham agreed. Then he paused again, and Luna almost heard things click in his brain. “You mentioned going to therapy for PTSD nightmares, and I just assumed it was for things in your past. But it isn’t, is it.”

  “You’re a quick one, Graham.” She sighed. “The nightmares are variations on my coma dream.”

  “And when does therapy begin?”

  He sounded like Liza. “I have an appointment tomorrow.”

  “Let me know how it goes.”

  “Will do,” Luna replied, eyeing the produce through the store’s front window. She wouldn’t go inside until they were done talking.

  “Alright. Guess I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Okay. Hope you have a better day from here on.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Graham laughed.

  12

  Graham called into the jail to verify that Luna’s father, Edmond, was still there. He felt a bit silly making the call, but if it made her feel better about her safety, it was fine. He’d feel a little silly to make someone else feel a lot better.

  Edmond had been picked up for a mistake he’d made in his public life—the legal one that involved running a large pharmaceutical company. The authorities had never been able to get anything from the illegal side of the business to stick, which was pretty par for the course when it came to criminals who were also intelligent and had business sense.

  The brother, Matt, was a bit harder to track down. Rumors said he’d taken over for the illegal side when the father had been arrested. No surprise there, but Graham was surprised with how smooth the transition had gone. If anything, the off-the-books business was quieter than it had been before. That meant it—and Matt—was harder to track.

  Luna’s mother, Marie, had stepped up to run the legitimate company. She’d almost doubled the value of the company in the five months she’d been in charge, which made some people wonder if she’d set Edmond up just to get him out of the way.

  Graham remembered a conversation he and Luna had had a few months after she’d gone into witness protection about her mother. She’d said that her mother had never fully agreed with the other side of her father’s business, but when she’d seen the kind of money it brought it and the life she was able to afford because of it, she had stopped objecting as much. She’d just demanded that the family business not come home with anyone. The day that her children became involved with things, she’d left for a week saying she’d needed a break, but she’d never said that she didn’t want them involved. Even if they didn’t want to be involved themselves.

  Luna’s family was interesting, Graham would definitely give them that.

  Graham made calls to everyone he could think of and only pinned down one piece of information: No one had heard from Matt in weeks. And no one knew why.

  The agent sighed and folded his arms across his chest, looking down at the notes he’d taken over the course of the research. He hated giving Luna with incomplete information, but nothing he’d found made him think he was going to be able to find more. This was it, and all it did was bring up more questions.

  Graham’s cell lit up with the caller ID picture of his boss, and he let his head drop. Honey Gladwell was one of the toughest women Graham had ever met, and he was proud to have her as a boss. That said, she was a bit to
o sharp, and it led to her bumping heads with her agents when she asked more questions than they wanted to answer.

  “Yeah, boss.”

  “I hear you’ve been making some calls about your favorite person’s family,” she asked.

  “I have.”

  “Something you want to tell me?”

  Graham sighed audibly. “Not really.

  Honey actually chuckled. “Tell me anyway.”

  Crap. Honey might not take kindly to Graham doing a favor for one of his charges. Especially one that had him digging into the past that they were expressly supposed to stay away from. “Luna asked me to double check on the status of her family. She’s been having some paranoid dreams lately and thinks that knowing for sure will help her feel better.”

  “Are these dreams related to the coma?”

  Double crap. How had she known about the coma already? He was going to hear about that one. “Possibly. She’s going to a doctor soon, and she’s going to let me know what the doc says.”

  “Good. Let me know as well, please. She’s a strong woman, but even the strong ones can’t carry everything.”

  Honey would know. “Yes, boss.”

  “Have you let her know what you found yet?”

  Which meant she wanted to know if he found anything interesting. “Not yet. I’d heard some odd rumors about her brother and wanted to try and confirm what I could before I went back to her with incomplete intel.”

  “Odd like what?”

  “Like he hasn’t been heard from in weeks. Missing meetings, not returning important calls, things like that.”

  “That’s not an efficient way to run a business, legal or not.”

  “Right,” Graham replied. “I knew he’s been trying to avoid drawing attention to things like his father had, but from what I’ve found—”

  “It’s like he’s missing,” Honey finished the sentence.

  “Yup.”

  Honey sighed. “I was hoping you’d found different than I had. I’m concerned that neither of us can find the man. And I doubt he’s dead somewhere. Someone would have found out or snitched by now.”

  Graham agreed. That was the nature of the black market—a complex network of loyalties and betrayals where nothing stayed secret for long.

  “So, what, he just fell off the face of the planet?” Graham asked.

  “It looks that way. I’m not giving this one up, and I think Luna might be onto something without knowing it.”

  “Yeah,” Graham breathed.

  “You can tell her what we know now. But tell her we’re still looking into her brother. We’ll update her again when we know more.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Graham replied with a grin.

  Honey laughed. “You know I hate being called ma’am.”

  He did.

  “It’s respectful.”

  “It makes me feel old.”

  “I’m older than you are, Honey, and I’d bet no one else in that office would guess your actual age. Except me because I know how old you are.” Graham chuckled.

  “And if you tell anyone, I’ll bury you in paperwork.”

  “I know, I know.” He held his hands up in surrender like she could see him doing it. “I won’t breathe a word.”

  “I’ll see you in the morning, agent. Not tonight. You get yourself a beer or three and watch a movie or something. No more working.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  Honey laughed. “I’m going to kill you.”

  13

  Luna hung up the phone and set it on the table beside her plate. Zelda had gotten up early, made herself a thermos of coffee, and headed into town to take in the sights. Once she’d been seen off proper, Luna had called Graham back.

  Knowing her father remained under lock and key made her feel a bit better, but knowing her brother was seemingly missing had not. Especially since in her coma dream, her brother’s dead body had shown up at her house right after Zelda. If that happened outside of the dream, Luna might actually lose it more than she already was. Her anxiety was already elevated as it was, waiting for the next thing to happen.

  “What do you think happened to him?” Liza asked.

  Luna shook her head. The last time she’d seen her brother, they hadn’t parted on the best terms. After she’d calmed down, she’d figured they’d make up later. He’d probably figured the same. But there hadn’t been a later.

  Neither of them had initially wanted anything to do with the shadow side of the business. They’d both imagined working on the legitimate side, which lined up with what their mother seemed to want.

  Luna had a hard time thinking about her mother. A deep-seated resentment questioned what would have been different if her mother had said something—to her children, her husband. Things could have been different.

  Instead, Luna and Matt worked their way up through the pharmaceutical company, learning as they went. Then their dad tasked them with seemingly innocent errands that snowballed, and before either one knew it, they were neck deep. They became invaluable to their father, noticing mistakes and offering cover-ups. Leaving him would have decimated both him and the off-the-books business he ran. Neither of them had the stones to do that, but late at night when they were alone, they’d sometimes talk about how they would get out if they got the chance.

  Luna was the only one who had.

  “Unless this was his way out?” Liza mused.

  “Stop listening to my thoughts.” Luna sighed.

  Liza held her hands up. “Hey, you can shut me out whenever you want to.”

  Luna’s gaze dropped to her hands in her lap. “I hope this was his way out, sis. I really do.”

  “Even knowing what he’s done?”

  Luna nodded.

  Her twin looked thoughtful. “He’s a jerk… but I hope this was his way out too.”

  They sat there in silence for several minutes. Then the front door opened.

  “Hey Luna,” Asher called before appearing in the doorway of the dining room. “Hey… Liza. I am going to have to get used to there being two of you,” she said, running the words together.

  Liza laughed. “Take your time.”

  “So I can still see you because I’m close to Luna, right? That’s how this works?”

  Luna shrugged. “Proximity is part of it, but the bigger thing is that you’ve got some of my juice left in you.”

  Asher made a face. “Can we not describe it that way again?”

  Luna almost snorted. “You know what I mean. It’ll wear off, and you won’t be able to see her again without either my help or the candle’s help.”

  “Oh.” Asher’s face fell a bit. “I was hoping it would just stick.”

  Liza leaned over and put her hand over Asher’s. It didn’t have the weight or the warmth behind it, but the sentiment was there. “I’d miss you too, even though I’d be able to see you just fine.”

  Asher giggled.

  “There’s probably a way to make it last longer. Let me see what I can dig up,” Luna said.

  “Literally?” Asher asked, looking apprehensive. “I know you sometimes dig up ingredients for your spells.”

  “It works, doesn’t it?”

  Asher stuck out her tongue in Luna’s direction, and her friend promptly returned the favor.

  “Are you here avoiding helping you mom clean out something else?” Luna asked, getting up and wandering into the kitchen. She wasn’t hungry, but munching something seemed a good idea.

  “No, just bored. Figured I’d stop past and see what you were doing.”

  “Nothing.” Liza sighed.

  “She is correct.” Luna co-sighed.

  “Boo.”

  “Indeed,” the twins said in unison.

  “Want to help us with some research?” Liza asked.

  Luna eyed her sister, no idea what she was about to ask Asher to chip in on. She was reasonably sure it wasn’t something she wasn’t supposed to know about. Pretty reasonably sure.

  “Can I do that?�
�� Asher responded.

  Liza nodded. “We’re just looking through some books. It would go quicker with a third set of eyes.”

  Asher grinned and clapped her hands, suddenly excited. Her enthusiasm always made Luna laugh.

  “What are we looking for?”

  “At a high level, we’re looking for spells to close or lock something. We’re trying to protect something magical, so a magical lock is best, but not a permanent one. One that we can pass through when needed.”

  Luna felt no need to interject, so she didn’t.

  “And normal locks won’t do?”

  “We assume no. There were magical locks before, but they were broken completely, and we don’t know how to replace them.”

  Asher pursed her lips and nodded. She was pretty quick. “And since it had pre-existing magical locks, you figure they’re probably needed.”

  Liza nodded. “Yep.”

  Asher turned to Luna. “You don’t know how to lock things?”

  Luna shook her head as she pulled down a bag of chips that she didn’t really want to snack on. “Not really. I can keep something where it is, per se. And even then, it depends on what it is that I’m keeping. But a lock that can be unlocked without being broken isn’t something I’ve ever had to do before. I’m not even sure it’s something that I can do—I might need a different kind of witch.”

  Liza made a face. “I hope not. We’d have to call whoever performed the spell whenever it needed maintenance or a tweak in how something is handled.”

  “Which is why we’re trying to figure out a way to handle it.”

  Asher glanced at Liza. “Can you help her? Since you guys have different abilities?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not sure what use psychic powers would be in this case. Besides, when we’ve tried combining our abilities before, the results were…”

  “Unpredictable.” Luna finished.

  “If we can figure out a way for Luna to handle it, since she’s the one that can pick stuff up and such, it’d make things a lot easier,” Liza continued.

  Asher shrugged and smiled. “I’m not sure what I’m looking for, but I will totally read through all the books and bring up everything that I think might help.”