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

by C. M. Cevis

  Liza appeared in front of him just as he gave serious thought to having a panic attack.

  “Your prison is now a four foot by four foot box. And if you bump into that box, you will regret ever being born for several seconds until the sensation subsides. I hope you don’t need to lay down to fall asleep, Prince Gideon. She’s mad now.”

  She disappeared before her sentence was complete.

  42

  Luna was on her second glass of wine when Asher called. She hadn’t moved from that spot in the kitchen since she’d gotten Gideon settled in his new home downstairs. She was angry drinking, and she knew it. But in that moment, she didn’t have anything else to do. Not until the bottle ran out, at least.

  “Busy?” Asher said, her voice hushed, which meant she was at work.

  “Not anymore. Why?”

  “You are never going to believe who just walked in.”

  Luna stifled a sigh. “If it’s not either the faerie queen or that witch from the alleyway, I probably don’t care, Ash.”

  “Option number two for twenty bucks,” Asher whisper-squealed.

  Luna perked up a bit. “No way.”

  “Way. I think she’s eating here, so if you want her attention, now seems like a good time. Hurry!” The call ended.

  “I can take her,” Liza said, popping into vision beside Luna.

  “Are you sure?” She asked it, but she knew Liza wouldn’t have offered unless she was reasonably sure it was true.

  “I’m sure,” she said, nodding. “I can get her to let go of everyone here, but I need to be inside of her to do it.”

  Luna frowned. “I’m not sure I follow.”

  “The easiest way without you touching her is to put something of yours inside of something she’s about to eat. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Luna was still wary. “Alright, sis. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  ~*~

  Luna arrived at the café Asher worked in and saw the woman she was looking for through the front window.

  “What in the world made her decide that now was a good time for coffee and a croissant?”

  “Who cares? We just need to take advantage of it,” Liza responded in her head.

  Luna stepped inside and got behind the two other people in line. She didn’t want to cause a scene. Not yet.

  “Hi,” Asher said, her usual perky cashier self.

  “Hi, let me get a mocha blend medium cup. You know the way I like it.” Luna tossed a glance over her shoulder inconspicuously. The target hadn’t moved.

  “Yep. Coming right up.”

  Asher stepped away from the counter and turned to make the coffee for Luna. She grabbed a second cup and poured a hazelnut blend, black.

  “Here’s your coffee. This one here is for another customer.” She smiled and glanced in the direction of the witch. “I just have to deliver it.”

  “That!” Liza said immediately. “Do something to that.”

  Luna made a face. “Really, Liza?”

  “Yes, really,” she hissed in return.

  Luna wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do, but she could only think of one thing, and it was kind of squicky. Asher glanced from Liza to Luna and back, then gave her a quick nod, trusting in whatever she was about to do. Luna said a quick thank you mentally to her for her trust. She’d tell her out loud later.

  She reached into her bag and pulled out her wallet and a small knife she carried for self-defense. Once she handed her card over to Asher to pay for her coffee, she pressed the tip of the knife into the pad of her finger. Quickly, she dripped a few drops of her blood into the coffee. Then she grabbed a napkin, pressed it tightly against the injured finger, and grabbed her coffee, card and receipt.

  “Let me know if I can get you anything else,” Asher said, her normal parting shot to anyone that she waited on, even as she gave her a you-better-tell-me-later look.

  Luna made her way across the café and took a seat in the corner, where it was easy to see the witch. It was also easy for the witch to see her. Even as Luna focused on her coffee, she could feel the woman’s eyes on her. Luna couldn’t help feeling icky about the woman who’d been in her house without being invited. She wouldn’t know that Luna knew who she was, though. That’s what she was banking on for the moment.

  Asher finished waiting on the people in line, then made her way to the woman’s table. She smiled, put the few things down, and took the offered money. Luna could see when the woman smiled and said to keep the change.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing, sis,” Luna whispered as the woman took a sip of the coffee, her eyes wandering back to Luna’s table.

  They didn’t make it all the way to Luna’s eyes. The coffee went flying, the table was kicked over, and she began flailing as her eyes rolled back in her head.

  Screams erupted from the other guests, and one shouted, “Oh my goodness, call an ambulance!” A well-muscled young man bent to try to restrain her, and another woman knelt to help so that she wouldn’t hurt herself while convulsing.

  It was Asher who called 911. Luna stared in shock.

  “Liza?” she said in her head.

  There wasn’t a response.

  43

  Gideon felt like crap. Something was wrong somewhere, but he didn’t know what and he couldn’t find out. Curiosity had gotten the best of him and he’d briefly let the tip of his finger touch the box he was trapped in. He would not make that mistake again.

  The problem was that whatever was wrong seemed to be taking something from him, and he was getting weak. Too weak to stand. So he’d started yelling. Amazingly, she appeared pretty quickly.

  “What?” she snapped. He must’ve looked bad, because she took one look at him and immediately waved her hand. The box fell away and Gideon collapsed to the floor.

  “What is going on?” he asked. He pressed his face to the cold concrete floor. “Why am I so weak?”

  “Hell,” Luna hissed, stepping closer and putting her hand against the side of his face. Her eyes widened and she immediately snatched her hand away.

  “That witch is taking your life,” she said.

  He grunted. “What did you do?”

  “Don’t you dare try and blame this on me. This is your mess. I’m just trying to clean it up.” She stood and turned towards the stairs.

  “You can’t just leave me like this,” Gideon gasped, his mind concentrating on the pain of the iron against his skin to stay conscious.

  “Yes I can,” she snarled. “I’m going to see what’s happening. And hopefully stop it.”

  She was already out of sight when she finished speaking.

  ~*~

  After quick checks on Ferris and Valerie, who were in similar states to Gideon, and helping Valerie close up shop and driving her home, Luna headed into the hospital.

  Just a few weeks ago, I was sneaking out of here, she thought as one of the receptionists glared at her. She hadn’t had a lot of options.

  “Ms. Smith, what are you doing here again?” Luna turned in the direction of Nurse Thompson’s voice. She was one tough lady, but she knew her stuff, and was head nurse. She was someone who could help.

  “I was down Beans, and a woman I’d never seen before had some sort of convulsion. She doesn’t seem to be from around here, so I thought I’d come check on her, maybe see if there’s someone we can contact to let them know what happened.”

  Nurse Thompson gave her a look. “We have already checked for next of kin.”

  Luna gave a weak smile. “Is she okay, then? I just wanted to make sure. If she’s just passing through, she’s got no one and has just had a terrible experience in an unfamiliar place.”

  Nurse Thompson still looked suspicious, but she answered. Maybe she sympathized.

  “She’s asleep right now, but she did get here in the middle of a fit of some sort. She tried to walk herself out of the front door and just, passed out. Like a sack of potatoes in the floor. We admitted her, and she’s been out l
ike a light since.”

  “No more convulsions? It looked like she could have really hurt herself.”

  She shook her head. “Not since she got admitted, though we do have her strapped to the bed, just in case one happens and no one is with her.”

  “Can she have visitors?”

  Nurse Thompson hesitated. “I guess so,” she said, motioning for Luna to follow her.

  Small town hospitals were the best. They worried about the patient more than the bottom line, so if a new person showed up and you showed some concern about them being alone, odds were you could see them. Supervised, sure. But that was better than not at all.

  The witch was strapped down with thick leather restraints and seemed to be peacefully sleeping, though Luna was pretty sure that wasn’t the case. She looked like she’d been in some sort of fight. There was a shiner forming around her right eye, a cut lip, and some swelling around her… neck?

  “Why does she look like someone beat her up?” Luna asked, keeping her voice low.

  “Patients with violent convulsions often look a bit beat up if no one is holding them down when it starts. There’s a lot of furniture and not a lot of space in that coffee shop. The injuries likely resulted from that initial episode.”

  While the explanation made sense generally, Luna didn’t think it applied to the marks around her neck. It looked like someone was trying to strangle her.

  “I hope she’s going to be okay. Were you able to find someone to contact?”

  “Not last I checked, but they were still looking.”

  Luna smiled brightly. “I can stay here with her if you want to go check again. I won’t leave.”

  The nurse nodded and smiled for the first time since Luna had gotten there. “Thanks.”

  Once she was gone, Luna took one finger and touched it to the witch’s cold, clammy skin.

  Images flooded into her mind, as if the last hour was on fast forward, and then paused on Liza and the witch struggling, each with their hands around the other’s throat. Had the convulsions been their fight?

  “They still haven’t found any information.” Nurse Thompson yanked Luna back from the witch’s mind, and Luna stopped touching her just to be sure.

  “That’s so sad,” Luna said, trying not to sound shaken.

  “We’ll keep trying. But for now, all we can do is keep her healthy until she’s well enough to continue on to wherever she was heading.”

  Luna nodded. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do for her.”

  “I will, thank you.”

  Luna turned to leave, her mind already back on the image of her twin being strangled. The drain Gideon, Valeria, and Ferris were feeling was the witch trying to contend with Liza. She was going to keep pulling life until she killed someone if someone didn’t do something soon. The problem was that the person who could do something was already doing all she could. She was stuck in the witch’s head.

  44

  The witch’s mind was like some sort of swamp. Whatever the fae had done to link her power to her life had also affected her mind’s landscape. Ideas and thoughts were overgrown and unruly, festering and bubbling in dark corners. Everything just felt wrong.

  And that meant the woman was absolutely insane. How she managed to seem normal outside of her head, Liza had no idea. Insanity was just over the horizon, and the witch knew it.

  “I’m not here to kill you,” Liza said out loud.

  “Could have fooled me,” came the response. After they’d broken their stranglehold on each other, she had darted away. She was avoiding Liza now, but it’s not like she had somewhere to go.

  “You jumped me first. Don’t pretend to be the victim here.”

  “What do you want?”

  “You should have asked me that before you sucker punched me,” Liza muttered. More loudly, she said, “I want you to let go of the people whose lives you’re draining.”

  “Why? Why do you care? It’s not you.”

  “No, it’s not. But it’s people that I care about. People who don’t deserve to die just because you pissed off a monarch and got yourself cursed.”

  The woman sucked her teeth audibly. “And if I won’t?”

  Liza shrugged, turning in a slow circle. “I’ll find you eventually. Your mind is finite; there are only so many places you can hide.”

  “That punishment was not fair, and I shouldn’t have to lose what I was given naturally because someone got angry.”

  “That is not my call to make. You want your punishment reversed, appeal to the court that handed it down. I don’t care about your punishment—I care about what you’re doing to people.”

  Liza caught a flicker of movement in her periphery but didn’t acknowledge it. Instead, she tried to brush the mud from her clothes. The witch’s voice had come from the same place during their conversation, and the movement had confirmed Liza’s suspicions. Liza knew better than most how the mind worked, and right now, her target was outmatched.

  “Congratulations on finding people who treated you well.” The witch’s sarcasm and anger made the very ground pulse. “I’ve never had that opportunity, and instead of bending over backward to be nice and receive a slap in return, I’ve learned to look out for myself. Humans shunned me for being different and pushed me into the fae kingdom for acceptance that I never found.”

  “These people are the ones that shunned you? The ones you’re killing right now? Ferris and Valerie and who knows who else?”

  “They’re all the same,” Lianna spat.

  “No. They aren’t.” Liza stood over the witch, who turned quickly, a surprised look on her face. “I’m sorry you didn’t get what you needed, but this isn’t the way.”

  Liza punched her as hard as she could and felt Lianna’s unconsciousness rock the landscape with a shudder. With a snap, the brain shut down, the witch well and truly unconscious this time, and her mind thrust Liza out and back to her home. To Luna, who was sitting in the basement watching the prince on the floor, gasping for air.

  “Now! Break it now,” she said, shaking her sister’s shoulder.

  Luna looked up at her, surprise, relief, and panic taking turns in her expression? “Liza! What—Me?”

  Liza snapped her fingers. “Yes you. Right now. Figure it out, we don’t have forever.”

  Luna ran up to the prince and put her hands on his arm, closing her eyes.

  “I see them. They all snake into one connection that goes to…”

  “The witch. Break it.”

  Luna nodded without opening her eyes. Liza wasn’t clear on the details, but she trusted her sister.

  A flash of white light burst from Gideon and threw her sister back against the basement wall. Liza staggered toward her, blinking away the afterglow.

  “Lu? Are you okay?” Liza said, shaking her sister’s arm.

  Luna groaned and sat up slowly, holding her side. “It’s done.” She breathed in carefully and winced. “I might have injured something though.”

  Liza waited until Luna got to her feet, then turned to examine the prince. He seemed asleep, eyes closed, chest rising and falling, color returning to his pale cheeks.

  “Are you okay to check on the others, Luna? I have to know if all the links have been broken.”

  Luna nodded and started moving towards the stairs, favoring her side. “And then a doctor’s visit.”

  “And then a doctor, yes,” Liza responded.

  45

  Ferris, who lived closer to Luna, had been the first stop. He looked a bit confused to see her, but the coffee pot in his hand and his workout clothes meant he was doing a lot better than last time she’d seen him.

  Valerie, too, seemed almost back to normal, giving Luna her wide smile as she walked in the ice cream shop door.

  “You came at a good time, Luna! You know how awful I had been feeling, but then it lifted just like that!” She snapped her fingers and beamed. “I felt good enough to come back to the shop.” Then she pulled a waffle cone from its
rack and filled it with three scoops of chocolate ice cream and held it out to Luna.

  “Oh, Val, I didn’t—”

  “I know,” she interrupted. “But you checked on me. You always do. So here, on the house.”

  Luna smiled and took the cone. “Thanks.”

  “Thank you,” she said, winking. Luna stepped aside to allow her friend to wait on the person who had come in while they were talking.

  “Oh thank goodness,” Liza breathed as Luna stepped outside with her ice cream and a smile. “It’s over.”

  “Hopefully.”

  “Oh no you don’t. Don’t you pessimist this one away from me. People aren’t getting sucked dry by a mysterious, insane witch anymore. That is a win, even if she is still alive.”

  Luna frowned. “She’s still alive? What’s to stop her from doing this all over again, maybe somewhere else?”

  Liza shrugged as Luna licked a melting chocolate drip. “She can’t get to them without doing it herself, and I don’t think she can. Think about it: Why would she even bother with a middleman if she didn’t need one. Especially a prince, hm?”

  She had a point. Either way, that prince was going home, and both he and his witch friend were going to become the fae kingdom’s problem again.

  Someone came up and linked arms with her, startling Luna so much she almost dropped her ice cream.

  Zelda whooped and steadied her. “Fancy meeting you here. I’ve barely seen you the past day or so.”

  Luna laughed, giving her guest’s arm a squeeze. “Good gravy, it has only been a few days, hasn’t it?”

  Zelda’s eyes were bright with purpose. “So I was thinking, your backyard looks a little sparse.”

  Luna frowned. “Hey, I like my yard.”