Alexandra's Riddle (Northwest Magic Book 1)

by Elisa Keyston

  The thought of that conversation still made Cass grind her teeth. As if the mother’s age was any kind of excuse. If they knew she was walking home when she wasn’t supposed to, they should have taken steps to ensure that she stopped. The Kowalskis weren’t paying attention to her, and Lily knew it. No wonder she had gravitated to Aunt Alexandra.

  But Lily’s home life wasn’t the only thing Cass had on her mind these days. She kept having the dream. Not the first part, which had seemed, to Cass’s relief, to be a one-off. But the last part. She’d be having a normal dream, like the recurring one she always seemed to have about I-5 turning into a roller coaster and her brakes being out, and then all of a sudden, bam: We interrupt your regularly scheduled nightmare for one about a thousand times worse.

  “We’ll all die.” Always “we’ll all die.”

  The frequency with which this dream was occurring had Cass more than slightly concerned. Recurring dreams didn’t always mean premonitions—after all, she was pretty certain that, no matter how often she had that dream, I-5 was not going to suddenly morph into a roller coaster anytime soon.

  But Cass had the unshakable feeling that this dream did mean something. She just didn’t know what.

  In the dream, Green and Lily warned her not to disturb the warren. But what was a warren? When Cass had done an internet search for the word, after filtering out people named Warren, she’d found that it was what you called an enclosure for raising rabbits. But she was pretty sure there weren’t any rabbit warrens on Aunt Alexandra’s property. That would be a difficult thing to miss.

  It seemed logical that the first step to figuring out how to not disturb the warren would be to find out what the warren was in the first place. But the question was how. Without Aunt Alexandra here to consult, she’d have to figure it out on her own.

  Which was how she found herself poking around the non-fiction section of the library that Wednesday afternoon. It was a lull period, with few patrons in the building. Darcy was setting up the children’s corner for the first homework hour of the school year, Lily helping her by sharpening pencils. Cass decided to take advantage of their distraction and surreptitiously look for books on local history.

  Or at least she thought she was being surreptitious. Right up until a male voice behind her said, “So, the librarian is a history lover. Good to know.”

  Cass nearly jumped out of her skin, whirling around to see Matthew McCarthy standing in the row behind her. The shelves in this section were only half-height, so he could see easily over the top of them. He grinned at her, one hand on the strap of his messenger bag in a casual pose that still somehow made him look like a Greek god.

  “So, what’s your favorite period?” Matthew asked.

  Cass blinked repeatedly at him. “Huh?”

  Matthew laughed. “Your favorite historical period,” he clarified, gesturing to the shelves before her.

  “Oh. Oh,” Cass said, flushing. “Sorry. Um, I’m not—that is—well, I do like ancient history. Greece, Rome, uh… all of that.” She wanted nothing more than for the floor to open up right now and swallow her. She sounded like a complete idiot, even though Matthew was smiling and nodding amicably. “But that’s not what I was looking for,” she added. “I was looking for some books on local history. Um, you know. Being new in town and… stuff.”

  “Oh, I saw something a couple weeks ago you may like,” Matthew said, moving down the aisle and coming around into hers. “Down here… yeah, here we go. They have some of those Images of America books Arcadia Publishing does.” He gestured to a selection of narrow volumes grouped together: Roseburg, Myrtle Creek, and Land of Umpqua.

  “That’s perfect, thank you,” Cass said. Her face was still burning. “Some librarian I am, huh? If the patrons have to show me where books in my own library are.”

  Matthew laughed. “No worries. You’ve been here even less time than I have. I won’t judge you until you’ve been here at least another month.” He gave her a sly wink that left her rooted in place in a melting puddle, and headed back to the children’s corner.

  “Hi, Mr. McCarthy,” Lily said when she saw him. “Are you helping with homework hour?”

  “Every other Wednesday,” Matthew said cheerfully. “Are you the only one here?”

  “So far,” Lily replied, smiling shyly.

  “Don’t worry, it’ll pick up as we get further into the school year,” Darcy said.

  As Darcy got Matthew situated, explaining the process and getting him signed in to clock his hours, Cass’s weakened knees finally gave out and she sank down onto the floor, leaning back against the bookshelf and closing her eyes. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her embarrassment—and her pounding heart.

  “What are you doing?” she heard Darcy ask a few moments later. She opened her eyes and peeked up to see her coworker standing over her, struggling to suppress her laughter. “You look like you’ve been struck by lightning. Or were you just struck by the new fourth grade teacher?”

  “Will you shut up?” Cass hissed, leaning forward and peering down the aisle to make sure Matthew wasn’t looking in their direction.

  Darcy chuckled and sat down on the floor beside Cass. “I wouldn’t blame you. He is pretty hot. Smoking, in fact.”

  Cass felt her face burning like a bonfire. “I hadn’t noticed.”

  “Oh, really,” Darcy teased. “So you’re just sitting here on the floor because it’s a comfortable place to be?”

  Cass cursed internally. She knew her red face was completely giving her away, but she still stubbornly said, “Seriously, I’m not interested in Matthew McCarthy.”

  “All right, then, so you won’t mind if I make a move on him? After all, it’s not often that an eligible bachelor under the age of fifty shows up in Riddle.”

  Cass couldn’t respond.

  It didn’t matter, though, because Darcy just laughed even harder. “Okay, okay. I’ll keep him out of bounds until after Christmas. But if you haven’t made a move by then, I’m not making any promises.”

  If I’m even still here by Christmas, Cass thought distantly. She was being ridiculous. She had no intention of staying here in Riddle. And she had no intention of dating Matthew McCarthy. She should be telling Darcy, “Sure, go for it!” She should be giving them her blessing. But she couldn’t get her stupid mouth to move.

  “What were you looking for, anyway?” Darcy asked, changing the subject.

  Cass let out a breath of relief, grateful to steer her thoughts in another direction. “Local history. I’m trying to find out more about my aunt’s property.”

  “Oh, there’s nothing about that in these books,” Darcy said, crossing her legs. “Stuff like that would be in the historical society’s files.”

  “Do you know where their building is so I can check it out?” Cass asked.

  Darcy laughed. “Right now it’s in my basement. My dad’s an officer,” she explained. “He’s working on organizing the archives to eventually be housed in the Douglas County Historical Museum in Roseburg, but I don’t think he’s going to be done with it anytime soon. If you want, I could ask him if he’s come across anything relevant.”

  “That would be a huge help,” Cass said gratefully.

  “Sure thing. I’ll let you know if I find anything.” Darcy got to her feet, leaning down and offering her a hand. Cass accepted it and stood shakily. “In the meantime, could you do me a favor and clean up the bulletin board in the foyer? It’s out of control. If you could recycle anything irrelevant or out of date, that would be great.”

  Cass nodded and headed into the foyer. Darcy wasn’t kidding—it was an absolute mess. Fliers were stacked on top of each other four layers deep. Several of the bill posters hadn’t brought thumbtacks, instead attaching their fliers to other papers with tape, which made separating them a tedious matter. By the time she’d gotten the board cleaned off and re-hung the fliers that were still relevant, an hour had passed.

  She was just pushing a thumbtac
k into the corner of a flier advertising the upcoming Fall Fest when she heard a male voice behind her for the second time that afternoon.

  “Fall Fest, huh?” Matthew asked.

  “Yeah,” Cass said, flushing. “Buried under four dozen advertisements for a babysitter, most of them from the same person.” Matthew laughed, and Cass asked, “You heading out?”

  “Yup. That hour flew by, huh? Lily did her homework silent as a stone, didn’t seem to need any help. I sat there reading and feeling useless. But, hey, I get paid for it, so…” Matthew shrugged.

  “It will get better as the school year goes on,” Cass said with an encouraging smile. “After all, fourth grade is when they learn fractions, right? You’ll have the whole class in here by the end of the month.”

  “Geez, I hope not. That would be one extreme to the other,” Matthew said, laughing again. Then he gestured to the notice on the bulletin board behind her. “So, Fall Fest. You going?”

  Cass’s mouth flapped open and closed a few times soundlessly. “I hadn’t given it any thought,” she managed at last. “I mean, I just found out about it when I unearthed the flier.”

  “When is it, next weekend?”

  Cass glanced at the flier for confirmation. “Looks like it.”

  “We should go together. The newbies should stick with each other at times like this.”

  Cass’s mind whirled, looking for an excuse to tell him no—this would be a bad idea—she definitely should not go to the Fall Fest with Matthew McCarthy—but to her consternation, her mouth moved of its own accord. “Sure,” she said.

  “Great,” Matthew replied with a grin. “It’s in the city park. Do you want to meet here first?”

  “Sounds good,” Cass replied numbly.

  “Great. I’ll see you then.”

  He gave Cass a little wave and, adjusting his messenger bag, headed out the door of the library. Cass stared after him, dumbstruck. She wasn’t sure how exactly that had happened, but there was no getting out of it now. She’d made a date with Matthew McCarthy.

  Not a date, she reminded herself. He never called it a date. But it was as good as one. She needed to watch her step. She’d promised herself after the last time that she would not get involved with anyone romantically again. The way her heart was hammering right now spelled nothing but trouble. Whether it happened next week or five years from now, she would eventually get a premonition about Matthew. And there was only one way it could go. The same way it always went for her and her stupid Faery Curse. She wouldn’t let her powers destroy yet another relationship.

  She had to keep her feelings for Matthew firmly in the Just Friends territory. And then she needed to get out of Riddle. The sooner, the better.

  Over the next week, the town erupted in a flurry of activity. A few days after that Wednesday in the library, Cass noticed a nylon banner stretching over Main Street announcing the upcoming festival. All the local businesses hung signs in their front windows advertising the event and the special deals or menus they’d have available on the big day, or, if they were going to have a booth in the park, an invitation to stop by and see them there. In addition to the typical carnival-style games that usually went along with a festival like this, there was also going to be an Autumn Market where local vendors would be selling everything from vintage clothing to hand-carved wooden curios to flower crowns and bottles of essential oils. There was also going to be a live band and a biergarten. The Fall Fest was big business, Darcy assured her, and she could expect all of Riddle and much of the population of neighboring towns to show up as well.

  Cass realized Darcy hadn’t been exaggerating as she drove down Main Street the day of the festival. Every parking space up and down the street was full, as were all the parking lots. She wound up parking several blocks away, barely managing to wedge her sedan between a large pickup and an SUV and quadruple-checking to ensure that there wasn’t a fire hydrant or an obstructed driveway that could lead to a ticket.

  As she walked toward the library, the crowd of people grew thicker. This many people wouldn’t fit in the park itself; the street around the park, including around the library, police station, and community center had been blocked off, and pedestrians milled across it, checking out vendor stalls set up on the sidewalk and in the parking lot.

  Despite the crowd, Matthew was nowhere to be seen. He probably couldn’t find a place to park, either, she thought, sitting down on a bench outside the locked library doors. She looked around at what she could see of the park between the crowds. The creek wasn’t visible from here today; only the tops of the trees could be seen over the heads of the passersby. The leaves on most of the trees were still completely green, with only a little bit of color showing at the very tops of some of the maples. Autumn was officially starting on Monday, but today it still felt like summer.

  A little while later she heard a voice calling her name, but it wasn’t Matthew. She looked up to see Lily skipping over to her, her father trailing a short distance behind her.

  “Hey, Lily. Are you here with your parents?” Cass asked, glancing at Mr. Kowalski.

  “Just my dad,” Lily replied, an odd look on her face. Not so much of disappointment—more of resignation. “My mom had plans with her friends in Roseburg today.”

  “And I’m afraid I won’t be here long myself,” Kowalski added. “Last minute business meeting, you know how it is.” Before giving Cass a chance to respond, he said, “Speaking of which, have you given my offer any further consideration, Ms. Russo?”

  “I’m, uh, still thinking about it,” Cass said, glancing around to see if anyone was paying attention to what they were talking about.

  “Well, the offer still stands, but it won’t be open forever. I’m going to need a decision from you soon,” Kowalski said, his smile not reaching his eyes.

  “Right. I understand. I’m still getting everything sorted, but I’ll keep you posted,” Cass said, trying to ignore the way her skin crawled when she spoke to him. A premonition, or just dislike for the man?

  “Of course,” he replied. “Well, Lily, I think we better get going.”

  “Already?” Lily cried. “But we just got here!”

  “I know, but I don’t have a choice. I have to get to my meeting, so I need to get you back to the house.”

  Lily looked crestfallen. Cass hesitated a moment before sighing and saying, “I’ll watch her. And I’ll bring her home this evening.”

  “Oh, would you?” Kowalski said, the tone in his voice leading Cass to wonder if he’d been expecting her to make the offer all along. He seemed bored and relieved to have someone taking Lily off his hands. Cass gritted her teeth. “That’d be great. I’ll see you both later, then! Be good, Lily,” he added in a more stern voice. Lily nodded and sank down onto the bench beside Cass as her father strolled away.

  “You’re not going to sell Ms. Alexandra’s house to him, are you?” Lily asked when he had disappeared into the crowd.

  Cass looked at her in surprise. “To your dad?” When Lily nodded, she said, “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “You know what he’s going to do with the woods, don’t you?” Lily’s frown cut deep lines into her cheeks, making her look far older than she was. An adult expression on a child’s face.

  “I have a bit of an idea, yeah.”

  Lily whirled on her. “You can’t let him! What would happen to my friends if the woods were cut down? They’d have nowhere to live!”

  Cass shifted uncomfortably. “They’d find somewhere to move to,” she lied.

  “No, they wouldn’t! They’d just fade away without those trees. You know that. You can’t do that to them, Ms. Cass!”

  If it wasn’t before, Cass’s skin was really crawling now. The words from her dream, spoken in Lily’s voice, kept echoing through her mind. “The warren must not be disturbed. We’ll all die.”

  Before she could respond, she heard Matthew’s cheerful voice call out, “Cass! Lily!”

  Lily shot one last
glare at Cass before looking up at her teacher. “Hi, Mr. McCarthy,” she said, smiling cheerfully as if the conversation of just moments before hadn’t even happened.

  “Your parents aren’t here?” he asked Lily, glancing around.

  “My dad just left,” Lily replied.

  “I told him I’d bring Lily home after the festival,” said Cass.

  “Do you have any friends you’re going to meet here, Lily?” Matthew asked.

  Lily’s face colored in the bright sunlight. “No,” she said, looking down at her feet.

  “Well, that’s okay. We can keep you company, right, Cass?” He shot Cass a glance, his eyes seeming to ask whether she was okay with this.

  Cass felt her heart melt even more than it had at just the sight of him. She’d had no intention of letting Lily wander the festival alone, but she hadn’t known how to ask Matthew, for fear that he’d be annoyed by one of his students following him around on his day off. But he’d been the one to suggest it, without a moment’s hesitation.

  Watch yourself, Cass, her brain snapped, even though the rest of her was resolutely paying zero heed to the voice of reason.

  “Absolutely,” Cass replied, smiling wide in spite of herself. “What do you want to do first, Lily?”

  Lily jumped to her feet. “I want to check out the games at the carnival!” she said eagerly.

  The crowd was thick as the three of them made their way across the park. Darcy hadn’t been kidding with her estimation that the whole town would be there. The carnival area was set up across the park from the library. In between was the farm produce display area, where farmers across Douglas County had set up booths showcasing their wares and selling the best produce of the season. Cass noticed her neighbor Connie and her husband rooting through the apple selection in the shade of a canvas awning at the Cindersap Orchard booth. Over the last several weeks she’d managed to avoid Connie with the exception of bumping into her once while checking her mailbox, which was mounted next to Connie’s on the east side of the street. She hoped her nosy neighbor wouldn’t turn now and see her with Matthew. That would be sure to get Connie talking—and talking, and talking…