Y'all Witches

by Amy Boyles

  “What happened?”

  “I got her to the infirmary. The doctor worked on her. Tried to save her, but...I’m so sorry. Hazel didn’t make it.”

  My knees buckled. I dropped straight to the concrete. My palms hit the ground hard, sending a jolt of pain radiating to my shoulders. I ignored it as racking sobs rolled through me in thunderous waves.

  In half a moment my entire world had collapsed. The woman who’d raised me, who hadn’t wanted me to be a witch but had taught me nonetheless, was dead. All she’d wanted in her last few days was a bit of happiness with a man, and I’d given her nothing but grief.

  I was probably to blame for her attack. If I hadn’t been so childish and self-centered, she would still be alive.

  I felt Alistair’s hands on my shoulders. “She went peacefully.”

  I choked out my sobs but was able to find my voice, though the words came out cracked and garbled. “Can I see her?”

  “Yes. But there was something she wanted in the end. She told me.”

  I sniffed and swiped the back of my arm over my snotty nose and wet cheeks. “What was that? Anything she wanted, I’ll do. Anything.”

  “Your grandmother wanted you to give the dewdrop nectar to me for safekeeping. At least until you know what it is you want to do with it.”

  Without thinking, I reached inside my pocket. My fingers felt numb as I grabbed hold of the glass vial. The fog of my brain clung heavy as my hand moved robotically to give the vial to Alistair.

  I glanced over my shoulder. His eyes twinkled bright as he reached for the container.

  Something snapped inside my brain. It was like a sheet tearing, parting to reveal the man behind the mask.

  “You,” I said through my teeth. “You did it. You killed Griselda.”

  Alistair gave me a cold, hard glance. “No. I didn’t kill her. But I’m willing to do anything for this. Anything for the dewdrop nectar. You want to use it on a gypsy. A woman who will be deemed innocent if she is innocent. I’ve never heard of anything so stupid.”

  I turned and rose. “It’s mine to do with as I please. And my grandmother isn’t dead, is she?”

  “Very astute,” he said.

  I tightened my fists. “When my grandmother finds out about this, she’ll annul this marriage lickety-split.”

  The hardness in Alistair’s eyes turned cold as a frozen rainbow popsicle. “There’s just one problem with that.”

  I frowned. Nothing about it seemed wrong to me. In fact, that seemed to be the solution to all the problems.

  “What’s that?”

  Before I could react, Alistair snatched the vial from my hand and said, “The one problem is that you’ll be dead.”

  He pushed me back. I lost my balance. My right foot slipped, and I careened back, into the water. I hit the pool with the worst back buster ever. I mean, I didn’t even try to bend my body so that I wouldn’t hit hard.

  My body stung like I’d been attacked by a thousand fire ants. I splashed up toward the surface as I felt a hand push my head down, under the water. I fought, hitting Alistair’s arm, trying to knock him away.

  But that old man was strong. Like, super scary strong. I clawed and scratched, pounded and jerked, but he held me fast.

  My lungs burned. They filled with water. I tried to stop it from rushing into my body, but I was gasping, fighting for air that wasn’t there.

  I began to feel myself drift, soften. My strength wavered, and I couldn’t keep fighting. Darkness creeped in the edges of my vision as my hands went slack.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Alistair’s hands released me. I floated up, letting my body buoy on the surface. The air bubble I’d blown around my mouth had helped me breathe. I’d almost forgotten about that little trick that Grandma had shown me.

  My guess was that Alistair had forgotten it, too.

  I stayed atop the water until I figured he was gone. I swam over to the side and climbed the metal steps. My clothes hung, drenched and heavy, around over me. A breeze sliced through the air. I shivered.

  “Are you okay?”

  I glanced in the direction of the voice and saw Annie walking Fifi. “Oh, thank goodness,” I said.

  She grabbed a towel from a nearby chair and draped it over me. “We’ve got to get you out of these wet clothes before you catch your death.”

  I tried to push her away, but my fingers were trembling. In fact, my legs wobbled. I don’t know if it was adrenaline or fear, but I needed to sit. I needed to gather my wits.

  “Oh no,” I said, slipping down to my knees.

  Annie tugged me back up. “Come with me.”

  She guided me through the quiet ship until we reached Griselda’s stateroom. Annie pushed me into the bathroom and handed me a robe. “Take off those wet clothes and put this on.”

  “But you don’t understand,” I said. “I’m afraid my grandmother might be in trouble.”

  She furrowed her brow. Her eyes were full of concern. “I’ll call the detective and have him come right away.”

  I shut the door and sank onto the toilet seat. Was my grandmother in trouble? Probably. I mean, Alistair had tried to kill me over the vial. What would he do to her if she found out? I’m sure it wouldn’t be good.

  I sat until the shaking calmed down. I peeled off my clothes and wrapped myself up in the robe. I opened the door and found Annie holding a cup of liquid with steam curling on top.

  “Tea,” she said. “It’ll help. Want to tell me what happened?”

  I took the cup and let the warmth seep into my palms. “Alistair Krause. He tried to kill me for the vial of dewdrop buttercup nectar. I was going to use it to find out who really killed Griselda, but he wants it for his own reasons. He’s dangerous. We’ve got to stop him.”

  Annie pulled her hair back into a ponytail. “I’ve got a detective coming. It’s a good thing I was taking Fifi on her nightly walk.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m glad you were there, too.” I rose, but my legs were still wobbly.

  “Just sit down and drink some tea,” Annie said. “You’ll feel much better. It’ll help.”

  I hugged the cup to my chest, but I still had too much in my brain to think of drinking. “I need to find Roman.”

  “I’ll get him once the detective gets here.”

  Fifi came up to me and sniffed my leg. I reached down and patted her head.

  Annie cleared her throat. “So you didn’t tell anyone about Captain Byrd being Griselda’s son?”

  I shook my head, even though Roman knew. “No, and I don’t think the captain is going to do anything about it anyway. He has too much to worry about with Maria being arrested for the murder.” I worked my bottom lip for a moment. “That’s so frustrating about the nectar. I wanted to see who had committed the murder. I know it wasn’t Maria.”

  My gaze trailed down to Fifi and the leash. “Do you take Fifi out every night?”

  Annie dragged her gaze from my cup of tea to my face. “Hmm? Yes. I’ve taken her out every night since we’ve come.”

  A low-watt lightbulb began to burn in my head. I thought back to the night Griselda was murdered and the next morning Grandma found Fifi at her door. “Griselda didn’t take her out?”

  Annie laughed. “Griselda take Fifi out? That wasn’t going to happen. That was my job.”

  A knot of realization twisted my gut. Annie smiled brightly at me, but a dark cloud hovered over my brain.

  I slowly placed the cup on the table and rose. “I’m feeling better. I think I should go. Find Roman. Maybe find the detective.”

  A snick came from behind me. I’d heard that sound plenty of times before on television, but most of the folks who tried to murder me used magic instead of guns.

  I sighed and turned around to find Annie holding a revolver at my chest. “You had to ask about the dog, didn’t you?”

  I grimaced. My heart fluttered and my hands cramped. Man, why were two different people trying to kill me the same night? This was
really beginning to be a pain in the rear end.

  I closed my eyes. “When we brought Fifi back to you after Griselda had been murdered, you said she had taken him out. But it was you. You lost the dog when you killed Griselda. But why? Why did you kill her?”

  Annie laughed. “Haven’t you guessed? Because she was going to fire me. This was my last trip with her. But what was worse was that if I was fired, I wouldn’t get the small portion of her fortune that I’d been promised. So I had to act. Luckily, I’d been on this cruise enough times to know where the gypsy stowed her ball, and since her daughter had just stolen Griselda’s earring, she was perfect to throw the blame on. But then you got involved.

  “And I deserved that money for all the years of service I’d put in with her. So many years dealing with her horrible treatment, her bossing me around, treating me as if I was less than dirt. But I was going to have the money. Except there wasn’t going to be any money if you revealed who Byrd is.”

  She scoffed. “And I was stupid enough to leave that note in the fur. The one you found. I could’ve strangled myself for that.”

  I made an O with my mouth. “That doesn’t sound like a very smart thing to do. Strangling yourself isn’t a good idea. At all. Never hurt yourself.”

  Annie rolled her eyes. “I was being sarcastic. But the one thing I’m not joking about is that you’ve got to die. No one can know about Byrd. You’re the only other person who can reveal who he is.”

  “That’s not actually true. Roman knows, and the evil Alistair revealed that he’s Byrd’s father. Oh, and my grandmother knows. There are a lot of people who know besides me. So if you’re going to kill me, whew, you’ve got a lot more to kill as well. I don’t know if I recommend going around offing everyone on the cruise ship, but you know, that’s your prerogative.”

  “Ah,” Annie yelled. “It doesn’t matter. I’m still going to kill you.”

  She pointed the gun at me, and I snatched a candlestick from a table and threw it at her. It snapped her wrist. Annie screamed and dropped the gun.

  I scrambled for the weapon, falling to my knees and throwing myself across the floor. I felt the burn as fabric sliced over my skin.

  I almost had the gun in my grasp when Annie’s foot came down on my hand. I yelled and she twisted. The assistant picked up the gun and pointed it straight at my head.

  “It’s really a shame that you had to attack me and I had to protect myself with the only means I had.” Annie cackled. “All I need to do is plop you back in the pool with a gunshot wound and say I saw Alistair leaving. Half of that’s true anyway.”

  I glared at her. “There’s one thing you’ve forgotten in all of this.”

  “What’s that?” she said.

  I gritted my teeth and said, “I’m a witch.”

  With those words I sent a spray of magic straight from my chest to Annie, knocking her down. I kicked the gun from her and snapped my fingers. The revolver zoomed into my hand. I pointed it straight at Annie and said, “It’s all over, Annie. All of it. You’ve lost.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  I kept the gun on Annie all the way to the detective’s office. Luckily there was someone on duty, and I handed her over, making sure Annie confessed to her crimes before I left. I watched as Maria was freed and Captain Byrd came to pick her up, hugging her tightly.

  Yes, I was still wearing the bathrobe, but I did call Roman to the detective’s office so I could have his shoulder to rest my head on.

  “Did you find Grandma?” I said.

  Roman nodded. “Safe and sound in her stateroom.”

  “Was Alistair there?”

  He shook his head. “No. He was out. It was all a lie.”

  I pursed my lips and nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

  We walked back through the halls in silence. Though we’d freed Maria, my heart still hung heavy in my chest. Roman curled his arm around me and tugged me close.

  “What do you want to do about it?” he said.

  I sighed. “I don’t know. I have no plans.”

  Roman touched his head to mine. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a great one in mind.”

  I perked up. “You do?”

  Roman grinned mischievously. “Yep. Let me tell you all about it.”

  The next morning Roman and I headed to breakfast early. Like, super early because we wanted to beat the geriatric crowd. Do any of y’all realize how early this is? It’s about crack of my bottom minus thirty minutes. So yes, around five a.m. we made sure we were set up in the restaurant where we’d seen Alistair and Grandma.

  Even though I was yawning and nearly falling asleep while leaning on my palm, our stakeout paid off. At about five thirty Alistair led Grandma into the dining room. They were chatting and laughing like a pair of newlyweds.

  I wondered how long that would actually last? My guess was about two more minutes.

  I raised my hand high with pride and shouted. “Yoo-hoo! Grandma, Alistair! Come sit with us.”

  Grandma waved back, and Alistair stopped dead. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost. Which according to him, he probably had.

  “Join us for breakfast,” Roman said.

  Alistair, pale as cotton, stumbled forward. Roman rose and raked two chairs back for them to take seats.

  “Dylan, I didn’t know you got up so early. How encouraging to know my granddaughter isn’t a bum.”

  I tried really hard not to be insulted by that. “Well, of course I got up early. We wanted to see the two of you. We love you both so much.” I batted my eyelashes at Alistair, who choked into his hand.

  Roman smiled. “Well, honey, that’s not exactly true. Remember you had that horrible dream?”

  I flared my eyelids dramatically. “Yes. Oh my gosh. It was a nightmare. I dreamt that Alistair—oh my goodness and heavens to Betsy, you were in it.”

  “I was?” he said, straightening his ascot.

  “Sure as two chickens, you were. My gosh, Alistair, I dreamt you wanted the vial of dewdrop buttercup nectar so badly that you tried to drown me in the pool here on the ship.”

  Alistair’s jaw dropped. “Why, that’s ridiculous.”

  “I know,” I said. “And then you left me for dead, but Griselda’s assistant happened to come along and help me out. Of course, then in my dream it turned out that she was the person who murdered Griselda, so Maria the Gypsy got freed.”

  I glanced up from the table. “Oh look, there’s Maria now.”

  Alistair’s cotton-white face paled to nearly translucent. “What?” he said.

  “She’s with Captain Byrd,” Roman said.

  Maria and the captain came over. Maria leaned down and kissed my cheek. “Dylan, I can’t thank you enough for saving me.”

  I flicked my fingers at her as if it was no biggie. You know, just because. “Anytime I can help. Anytime. You just call on me.”

  Maria leaned over. “I can’t thank you enough for risking your life to save me. If it weren’t for you, I’d still be locked in the brig.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said.

  They left. My gaze fluttered back to Alistair, who had resumed his color and was now turning a shade of red that I can only describe as candy apple with a cherry on top. I pulled a small vial from my pocket and set it on the table.

  “You know, the main thing about my dream was that you wanted this. Alistair, you wanted the vial of dewdrop nectar so badly that you were willing to murder for it. Isn’t that insane?”

  Alistair coughed. “Oh yes, definitely out of character.”

  Roman dipped his head in a nod. “That’s what I thought, too. Which is why we had a replica made. Dylan kept it on her just in case anyone tried to steal it.”

  I smacked my head. “But in my dream you didn’t have to steal it. All you had to say was that Grandma wanted you to have it. Grandma”—I grabbed her wrist—“there was this whole thing about you, too, in my dream.”

  She blinked with interest. “There was?”

  “Oh ye
s. Alistair told me that you had died.”

  Her gaze slid over to Alistair, and for the first time since they’d met, my grandmother stared at her husband with suspicion.

  “Oh heavens yes. He told me that you had died and you wanted me to hand him the dewdrop nectar. Now it’s all becoming so clear.” I propped my elbows on the table and leaned on my hands. “But you know the craziest part? The fact that it all felt so real, you know? As if it really happened.”

  I stared blankly at Alistair. Grandma’s gaze zipped between the two of us. Alistair wiped his mouth, folded his napkin and set it on the table.

  “I just realized I left my wallet back in the cabin. I’ll be right back.”

  He rose, and Detective Downey cut him off. “Alistair Krause, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Dylan Apel.”

  I smacked my lips. “Guess it wasn’t just a dream, after all. Wow.”

  Grandma worked her bottom lip like she was getting ready to chew out some old biddy who’d beat her at Bingo. “Alistair, what is this about?”

  “It’s a lie. All of it. You know how I feel about Dylan. I would never harm her. You have to believe me, Hazel. You must.”

  Grandma glanced at me. I shot her a squeamish smile and shrugged. “I don’t know. Seemed like a pretty real dream to me.” I glanced at Alistair. “Where’s the dewdrop buttercup nectar?”

  Alistair’s upper lip stiffened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Grandma reached into his coat pocket and plucked out the vial. “It’s right here. I was wondering what he was doing with it.”

  Downey’s hands tightened on Alistair. “Come with me.”

  Alistair glared at the detective. “I will not be dragged away like some sort of common criminal.”

  Downey patted Alistair’s shoulder. “Then you’ll be dragged away like an uncommon criminal, but you’re going to be tied up and thrown off the ship unless you come willingly.”

  Alistair’s face froze. He hung his head and said quietly, “I’m sorry, Hazel.”

  Grandma shrugged as Downey dragged him off. “You were right, Dylan. I never should’ve married that old coot. Well, anyway. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to get the marriage annulled.”