“Hello, Amy,” the woman – she had to be a fairy – said. “And you must be the new witch in town,” she continued, looking over at me.
I nodded shyly. “I’m Tina.”
“Well, welcome to Western Woods. Why don’t the two of you have a seat, and I’ll bring out exactly what you need. I’ll make sure Ellie comes out as soon as she gets a minute.”
“Thank you, Aurora,” Amy replied. “That would be perfect.”
“And don’t you listen to what anyone around here says,” Aurora said, leaning towards us carefully. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re completely welcome.”
“Oh, she doesn’t know anything about that yet,” Amy said, and Aurora’s eyes widened as she floated back.
“Sorry!” she said. “I didn’t mean to speak out of turn.”
“It’s all right,” Amy said. “She’s going to find out soon anyway, so it may as well be from you.”
“What are the two of you talking about?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you when we’re at the table,” Amy said. I smiled at Aurora as Amy took me by the elbow and led me towards a nook Sara had found. Four overstuffed arm chairs surrounded a small round table, and Amy and I sat down, with me looking at my new friend expectantly.
“I didn’t want to tell you earlier, but it turns out last night Aria King was right. Philip Vulcan was murdered, and with word spreading that there is a new witch in town, a few people have made it known that they don’t think it’s a coincidence.”
My eyes widened. “People think I killed this guy? I didn’t even know him.”
“We know that,” Sara nodded. “But murders are very rare here. We haven’t had one in years. I think people are scared, and they’re reacting without thinking.”
As I looked around the room, I became all too aware of the eyes on me. I sunk deeper into my chair. I really didn’t want to be the center of attention right now.
“So who was the man that was killed?” I asked.
“He was a part of our coven. Well, he married into our coven. He and Myrtle met while they were both on holiday in a paranormal town in Hawaii. He was originally from Arizona somewhere, and moved here to be with Myrtle back in the 80s. He’s been a part of our coven ever since, although his powers are still linked to Io, a volcanic moon, and his powers were very much strengthened around fire.” Amy sighed. “He wasn’t much of a wizard, and to be totally honest, I’m not sure their marriage was very happy. Philip was always out drinking, and he hopped from job to job. Still, I can’t imagine who would have wanted him dead.”
“So how do we stop people from thinking I killed him?” I asked.
“Well, we have to wait for Chief Enforcer King to solve the crime and arrest someone else,” Amy said.
“What if she doesn’t do it?” I asked. “What if she can’t find the murderer?”
“We should investigate ourselves,” Sara said, leaning forward in her chair, her green eyes sparkling excitedly. “After all, this affects the coven. But more importantly, if we figure out who killed Philip, it means no one would have any reason to be suspicious of Tina anymore.”
Amy gave her an askance look. “Do you know how terrible an idea that is?”
Sara shrugged. “It’s not as terrible an idea as doing nothing and leaving Tina here to be a pariah in her new town. Lita told us to make her feel welcome, and frankly, I think helping solve a murder that half the town thinks she committed falls under that purview.”
Amy opened her mouth to argue, but before she got a chance to reply, a short woman with wavy brown hair tied back in a ponytail that reached halfway down her back made her way over to us, a huge smile on her face.
“You must be Tina! Hi! I’m Ellie,” she said, wiping her hands on the cat-print apron she wore and plopping herself down on the last open chair around the table.
“Hi, Ellie,” I said with a smile. “Thanks for the cinnamon buns. They were delicious.”
“I’m glad you liked them.”
“You’ll have to teach me how to make that potion you added to them for energy. That would definitely have come in handy when I was doing my high school exams.”
“You got it,” Ellie said with a grin. “Now, how do you like the magical world so far?”
“It’s unbelievable,” I said. “Like, seriously. I woke up this morning and half expected all of this to have been a dream. A part of me still doesn’t really think this is real.”
Ellie laughed. “That sounds about right. I can’t imagine finding out now that I was a witch.”
“Plus, it’s harder with Philip being killed,” Amy said. “Apparently, a bunch of people think Tina might have done it.”
Ellie’s eyes widened. “Oh no, I was hoping she wouldn’t find out about that.”
“Aurora let it slip.”
I put my face in my hands. “Great, so it is true. I’ve been here less than a day and I’m already a pariah.”
“I think we need to solve the murder ourselves,” Sara said to Ellie. “After all, the sooner the real killer is found, the sooner Tina’s name is cleared, and the sooner she can really get a normal life started here.”
I almost laughed at the use of the phrase ‘normal’. Nothing about this place was in any way normal. The point was emphasized when just then Aurora came by with what looked like three giant freakshakes - the coffee-filled Mason jars had chocolate sauce dripping down the side, more whipped cream than I could fit in my mouth at once, and they were topped with chocolate shavings, sprinkles, gold shavings, and had a cute straw and a drink umbrella sticking out of them. It was like the coffee Chief Enforcer King had brought me earlier, but taken to a whole new level.
“Here are all your coffees, crew,” Aurora said with a smile before floating away, her wings beating at a million miles a minute.
“What is this?” I asked, my mouth dropping open.
“Oh, this is a standard Hexpresso Bean coffee,” Amy explained. “There’s coffee in there, and whipped cream, and the sprinkles are magical – basically, whatever you need for that day, you’ll get. So, if you’re writing an exam and need to be hyper-focused, you’ll feel that. If your boyfriend just broke up with you and you feel like you’re going to cry, it makes you feel happy for a little while.”
“Wow,” I said, eyeing the coffee with a combination of curiosity and fear. “What happens when you drink too many of these and get super fat? Can the sprinkles burn calories?”
Sara laughed. “I wish! You’re not really supposed to have more than one a day; the effects of the sprinkles last for twenty-four hours.”
“Ok,” I said, picking up one of the Mason jars from the table and taking a sip through the straw. To my surprise, it wasn’t actually overly sweet. There were definitely chocolate tones to the drink, but I could still taste the rich, creamy taste of the espresso shot beneath it. Licking some of the sprinkles, gold leaf and whipped cream off the top of the drink afterwards, I had to admit, it was one of the better things I had ever tasted.
“It’s good, right?” Ellie grinned, as if she had read my mind. “I swear, I’ve put on a good twenty pounds since I started working here. Anyway, I agree with Sara. We need to investigate this murder.”
“Sometimes I swear I’m the only person here with any sort of common sense,” Amy argued. “Solving murders is Chief Enforcer King’s job. Even if we did think this was a good idea, we’d have no idea where to even start.”
“I do,” Ellie said. “A couple of the coven wizards were in here this morning. Eric Grom and Randy Tonner. They were talking about it; it’s how those of us working here found out about the murder. Anyway, Aurora said that they were discussing it while they ordered, and they said that last night at The Magic Mule, Philip had been throwing money around like it was nothing. Apparently, he bought an entire round for the bar.”
Amy raised an eyebrow. “That’s strange. He had always gone from bad job to bad job; I can’t think where he would have gotten that kind of money from.”
“Exactly,” Ellie said triumphantly. “So there’s a lead for you to follow. Where did Philip get that money from, and why?”
“Still,” Amy argued, “this isn’t our fight.”
“Oh come on, you’re intrigued,” Sara said with a smile as she took another sip of her coffee. “This is a problem, and you can’t let a problem go without trying to solve it.”
Amy opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again. “Fine,” she eventually said. “I’m a little bit curious.”
“So that’s everyone on board,” Ellie said. “Well, that is, assuming Tina is ok with it.”
“I think so,” I said slowly. “I don’t want to get in trouble, though.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be careful,” Sara assured me. “Besides, Amy has been sucking up to everyone in town since she was a baby. As long as she’s involved, none of us will get into any kind of trouble.”
“I do get the impression that she’s a bit of a Hermione,” I said with a smile.
“Who?” Amy asked.
“Wait, do you guys not have Harry Potter here?” I asked, and I was met with three sets of blank stares. “Wow. Ok, well, I think I’m in. I’d rather not have everyone hate me straight away.”
It wasn’t enough that I had just moved to a strange paranormal town where no one had ever heard of Harry Potter; now I was investigating a murder, too.
Chapter 8
As we left Hexpresso Bean about half an hour later, I couldn’t help but notice on the way out that every eye in the place seemed to be following me. Idle curiosity as people found out about the new witch in town? I hoped so, but I had a feeling it was more than that. Were they wondering if they were watching a murderer leave the coffee shop?
I put my head down and rushed out behind my friends, like some sort of scandal-ridden celebrity doing her best to avoid the paparazzi.
I followed Sara and Amy down the street until we reached a cute little cottage, painted white, with huge windows at street level that displayed mannequins dressed up in all sorts of clothing. One of them wore a long, dark cloak, another, with fluttering fairy wings, had on a cute black summer dress with pink polka dots. The third had on blue jeans and a tight, grey T-shirt with a black blazer on top. My mouth dropped open as the mannequins began to pose as the three of us walked past, moving really quite naturally considering they weren’t alive. They weren’t alive, right?
“Those aren’t, um, real, are they?” I asked Amy as we walked past the window, eyeing the mannequins somewhat suspiciously.
Amy laughed. “No, of course not. It’s just magic that makes them move. Randy, who owns the shop, was the one who figured out the spell to make them pose for visitors.”
That was a relief. As we walked through the front door, an old-fashioned bell rang to indicate our arrival, and a part of me was a little bit taken aback at how low-tech it was.
The entire store was filled with rack after rack of clothing, but instead of being organized by gender or by type of clothing - undergarments, nightwear, that sort of thing - they were organized by paranormal type.
On the wall to my right, a large sign read “Elves”. Next to it was another sign, this one reading “Witches”. The sign on the left wall indicated that those clothes were all designed for shifters, and a sign hanging in the middle of the room, presumably by magic, made it obvious that the clothes in the center were all for fairies.
“Come on over here,” Sara said, leading me towards the right hand wall.
“Don’t vampires live here? Where are their clothes?” I just had so many questions.
“Oh, if you take the stairs to the right, that leads to the basement, where all the vampire clothes are kept. That way they can shop in the dark, which is how they prefer it.” Sure enough, there was a set of stairs on the right hand side of the shop, leading to a basement level.
“Yes, but a witch like you could never pull off the clothes a vampire would wear,” a man’s voice said from behind me, and I jumped slightly.
Turning around, I was faced with a jovial-looking man with a round face, and huge glasses that gave him a real bug-eyed look that somehow suited him.
“With your brown hair, and slightly tanned skin, you absolutely must wear something more colorful than the blacks, whites and navy blues the vampires prefer. It would be a crime against the paranormal community for someone with your complexion to dress in such drab colors.”
“Tina, this is Randy, the owner of the shop here,” Amy said with a smile. “Randy is an absolute genius when it comes to dressing witches.”
“And where might you be visiting from?” Randy asked, as he made his way towards one of the racks and began frantically going through the clothes.
“I’m not visiting, at least, not really. I’m new to Western Woods.”
“New, you say?” Randy said, pulling out a gorgeous blue halter top that seemed to shimmer in the light. “Now this, this will go beautifully with your eyes.”
“She only found out yesterday she has magical powers,” Sara explained. “This is all very new to her.”
“Ah, well it has been quite some time since the coven has found a new member,” Randy said. “From one coven of Jupiter member to another, let me welcome you to town.”
“So you’re a witch as well?” I asked.
Randy laughed. “Technically, wizard is the phrase for a man, but I’m not one to be picky when it comes to gender use. You really are new to the magical world, aren’t you?”
I nodded, just as something came to me. “Wait, you wouldn’t happen to be Randy Tonner by any chance, would you?”
“That’s me.”
“You were one of the men who saw Philip Vulcan at the bar last night, before he was murdered, right?”
The expression on Randy’s face fell. “Yes, what an absolute tragedy. Eric – he’s my husband - and I were enjoying a drink after work last night when Philip came in. He seemed happy for once, which was nice. I knew that he was having trouble at home, since Myrtle came in the other week with a number of her friends, loudly discussing her marital issues. Most of them revolved around money.”
“But we heard that he actually had money last night,” Sara said. I couldn’t help but notice Amy was glaring at the two of us; she obviously still wasn’t completely sold on this idea.
Randy nodded quickly. “Yes, Eric and I both noticed. He was throwing Abracadollars around like it was nothing. At one point he bought a whole round for the bar.”
“Do you have any idea where he got the money from?” I asked. This time, Randy shook his head sadly.
“No, I haven’t got a clue. It’s quite sad. Philip might not have been the best husband - or the best worker, for that matter - but he wasn’t a bad guy. He certainly didn’t deserve to have his head caved in outside the bar.”
“His head was caved in?” Sara asked.
Randy nodded. “Oh yes, it was really quite horrid. One of the vampires was just coming in to start his shift around eleven. He went around the side of the building to come in through the back entrance, and as he did so he passed the broom rack at the side of the building. That was where he found Philip. He ran inside and called out to us to help, and we immediately did. Unfortunately, it was quickly evident that we were too late to help Philip in any way.”
“So Philip must have died sometime before eleven,” I mused.
“Oh, it couldn’t have been very long before then, either. Patricia Trovao had just finished a double shift, and had a quick drink with Eric and I, and she left just after ten-thirty. She lives on the outskirts of town, so she takes her broom everywhere. Hers would have been on the rack, so if Philip had already been killed she would have come across the body.”
“That narrows it down to sometime between ten-thirty and eleven o’clock, then,” Sara said.
“Great, now we have a whole bunch of information that we’re not going to do anything with,” Amy said, glaring at the both of us.
“Oh, come on, Amy,” Sara said.
“The more we find out, the more likely we are to clear Tina’s name sooner rather than later.”
“How on earth are you a suspect?” Randy asked, turning to me.
“By virtue of being a new arrival on the night of the murder,” I said with a shrug. “I had absolutely nothing to do with it, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping the rumor mill.”
“No, simple things like facts don’t seem to be stopping anybody from making up whatever stories they want these days,” Randy said, shaking his head sadly.
“Why don’t you try on that top?” Amy asked. “Randy’s right, it really does suit you. And you need to start dressing more like a real witch.”
On that note, all the talk of the murder ended, and Randy quickly got to work digging through the racks to find me a number of clothes that would make me look like I really fit in here in Western Woods.
Two exhausting hours later we finally left the shop, with promises that a magical delivery system would ensure that the bags of new clothes would be magically delivered straight to the living room at home. I had to admit, Randy really did know what he was doing. I was pretty sure there was some magic involved in the clothes that I now owned, since most of them shimmered or shone differently depending on the angle I was at, or the way the sun hit them. It wasn’t until I was in the shop that I noticed that Amy and Sara’s clothes all really did the same thing as well.
Witches, it seemed, liked to match comfortable, darker pants, with brighter, more adventurous tops. Sure enough, as we left the store, I couldn’t help but realize that I finally did look a lot more like Sara and Amy. I was now wearing a pair of Navy blue leggings and that same light blue halter top that Randy had picked out for me first.
It was nice, in this warm weather in Western Woods that seemed to match the warm Seattle weather pretty well.
“Great, now you look like one of us,” Sara said. “Now we just need to get you a wand.”
Chapter 9
“So is this going to be like Harry Potter, where an old guy in glasses finds me a wand that chooses me, based on the hair in the middle and what the wand is made of?” I asked as we walked down the street.
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