“You’re a traitor! You were always the worst witch. You have no idea what you’re doing. Don’t you know who I am in this town?”
“If you don’t shut your pie hole, I’m going to cast a spell to do it for you,” I threatened, waving my wand at him. “Besides, if I’m such a terrible witch who has no idea what I’m doing, what does that make you?”
“I need medical attention,” Kaminek whined, changing tactics. “Can’t you get me a healer or something? I need something for the pain.”
“I need something for the headache you’re giving me. And frankly, after what you did to Danielle, I think a little bit of pain is the least you deserve.”
I left Kaminek on the floor, making my way into the hallway and leaning down against the wall, pressing my head against the cool tiles.
It was over. It was all over.
Chapter 24
About three minutes later, Chief Enforcer Loeb burst through the doors to the Academy, her eyes immediately scanning the hall until they fell on me. She was closely followed by Andy, and I grimaced. I didn’t even want to know what my hair looked like right now, and on top of that, I was half-covered in pumpkin guts. It definitely wasn’t the sexiest Halloween costume ever.
“Althea, are you alright?” the chief enforcer asked, and I nodded.
“Yeah. He’s in the classroom there. I cast a paralyzing spell on him, so he shouldn’t be able to move.” I motioned toward the door and the two enforcers rushed in past me. I heard Andy muttering a few spells, and a moment later Chief Enforcer Loeb was leading Professor Kaminek out of the room, his hands cuffed behind him.
“I’m going to need you to come down to the enforcer headquarters to tell me what happened,” Chief Enforcer Loeb told me. “Andy can take you there. I’m going to take Professor Kaminek in myself.”
The two of us watched as the chief enforcer left, then Andy turned to me.
“I don’t usually wear pumpkin innards as a fashion accessory,” I explained, and Andy burst out laughing.
“I didn’t think so. I wanted to thank you for taking the heat for the spell I cast earlier, too.”
“Hey, you saved Vinnie. I’m the one who should be thanking you. I don’t know what I would have done if Kyle had eaten him.”
“Yeah. It wasn’t a great situation, to say the least. But I’m glad Vinnie is ok. He seems like a good goat.”
“He is. I mean, he’s snarky as anything, loves to head-butt people, and only listens to me about half the time, but I like him.”
“I’m not surprised. He sounds a lot like you,” Andy said with a smile that hit me like a punch to the gut. Absolutely not. I was so not going to get involved with another wizard. Not since Sean had broken my heart. I had sworn off wizards for good, no matter how hot they were or how thick their drawl was.
“If you mean absolutely incredible, then I’ll take it,” I grinned. At least now when I spoke to Andy I didn’t sound like a complete and total idiot.
“I do,” he said with a good-natured laugh. “But seriously, are you alright? Do you need medical attention? I didn’t get a good look at Professor Kaminek, but it sounded like you had quite the fight in there.”
“You have no idea,” I replied. “But I’m fine. Just a little bit shaken up. He got it worse; my poisoned pumpkins did a number on him before he managed to blow them all up.”
“I’ll mourn their death in battle,” Andy said solemnly, and I punched him lightly on the shoulder.
“Hey, they might have just been enchanted, but they saved my life.”
“I am seriously glad to hear it. And Vinnie wasn’t here?”
I shook my head. “He’s probably still on the couch napping. I left him at home.”
“Good. Are you ok to come down to the station? For what it’s worth, things have calmed down a fair bit. Chief Enforcer Loeb sent Kyle home and had a long discussion in private with the other shifters. I think she really drilled it into them that what Kyle did was totally unacceptable.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“She’s a good boss. I was worried that since she’s a shifter as well, though a lion and not a wolf, she would have been on Kyle’s side. Honestly, it’s another reason why I was ok with you taking the credit for that spell.”
I grinned. “Don’t worry, I got your back. I told Chief Enforcer Loeb it was me as well, but I’m happy if you want to tell her the truth.”
“Thanks,” Andy said. “I might do that. I don’t want to keep secrets from the boss, and all.”
“Yeah, of course.” I said that, but I’d kept secrets from my bosses tons of times. Then again, maybe that was why Andy had a career and I managed to lose every job I’d ever had.
The two of us walked in silence toward the town hall. It wasn’t an awkward silence, though; it was the comfortable kind. I had to admit, I was pretty shaken up. I hadn’t honestly expected Professor Kaminek to kill me. And yet, he had tried. He had been going to kill Leda, too.
I was definitely not going to tell her about that part of the day’s events when I recounted the story.
When I got back to the enforcers’ office, Andy stood near me protectively as we entered the open office, but sure enough, there were no issues with the enforcers. A few of them looked abashedly away as I came in, and the one who had kept threatening to arrest me even muttered an apology as I walked past. It looked like, sure enough, Chief Enforcer Loeb had put the fear of a lion shifter into them.
I was led straight into Chief Enforcer Loeb’s office, and I shifted uncomfortably in the chair as I looked around. The last time I had been here, I had broken in, and Jack had let me off scot-free.
“Are you going to be ok here?” Andy asked, and I nodded.
“Yeah, thanks. I’ll shout if anyone comes in trying to kill me.”
Andy grinned at me and made his way back out into the main office. Chief Enforcer Loeb returned about five minutes later, immediately sitting down and asking me to recount everything that had happened, apologizing for making me go through it so quickly, but telling me it was best to get an accurate version of events immediately afterward.
“I can do better than that,” I said, pulling out my phone and plonking it on the desk between us.
“What’s this?” she asked, eyeing the device.
“I recorded the conversation, and I suppose the entire battle between the two of us. I just wanted him to admit he’d killed Danielle. I didn’t think he’d actually try and kill me afterward.”
“Well, this should be the proverbial nail in the coffin, then,” Chief Enforcer Loeb said, picking up my phone. “Mind if I text this file to myself?”
I shook my head and she tapped away for a minute, until her own phone binged a moment later.
“Thank you,” Chief Enforcer Loeb said. “I’m glad Danielle’s killer has been arrested, and that you’re not hurt. Although I do have to say, I’m a little bit concerned by the fact that this is now the second enforcer investigation in which you’ve almost ended up dead.”
“That’s fair. But, I mean, I feel like the key word here is ‘almost.’” Boy, did this part of the conversation feel like deja-vu. I couldn’t wait to get the I-told-you-so lecture from Willow later.
“No, it’s really not,” Chief Enforcer Loeb said, crossing her arms. “Murder investigations are for paranormals trained in this sort of thing, not for amateurs.”
“Right. But if I managed to find the killer before you, am I really all that amateurish?”
“Seeing as you were just about killed, yes. You did find the killer, I will give you that. But you need to let us do our jobs, too.”
“Right. Sorry,” I said, trying my best to sound sincere. Thanks to me, and only me, my name was now cleared in the community and I could go out without people crossing the street to avoid me. I might have just about died, but I was fairly certain it was worth it.
“Alright. Well, I’ll listen to this recording and come by your place if I have any questions. I’ll let you go
home and rest for now.”
“Thanks,” I said gratefully. I definitely felt a wave of exhaustion passing over me, the events of the day catching up to my body. I got up, left the enforcer’s office, and made my way back to the shed, texting Willow to bring pizza so I could tell her what had happened.
Because oh boy, did I ever have a story to tell.
Book 3: Potion Sickness: When a local vampire is killed, and the Enforcers have trouble finding the culprit, Ali is on the case. But as she gets closer to the killer, she finds herself ending up in more danger than she expected.
Will she be able to bring the murderer to justice before she becomes the next victim?
Click or tap here to preorder Potion Sickness (releasing January 27th, 2020) now.
Also by Samantha Silver
Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed Get with the Potion please help other readers find this book so they can enjoy it, too.
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Check out the next book in this series, Potion Sickness, by clicking here: http://www.samanthasilverwrites.com/potionsickness
You can check out my other books, as well. I highly recommend the Pacific Cove series, where Megan, who you met in this book, is the main character. You can read those books by clicking the link below:
Dark Chocolate and Death (Book 1)
White Chocolate and Wands (Book 2)
Chocolate Truffles and Trouble (Book 3)
Or you can discover any of the other series I write by clicking the links below:
Pacific North Witches Mysteries
Willow Bay Witches Mysteries
Magical Bookshop Mysteries
Pacific Cove Mysteries
California Witching Mysteries
Cassie Coburn Mysteries
Ruby Bay Mysteries
About the Author
Samantha Silver lives in British Columbia, Canada, along with her husband and a little old doggie named Terra. She loves animals, skiing and of course, writing cozy mysteries.
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