Banishment and Broomsticks (Emberdale Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 2)

by Kali Harper

  “Mark came to pick them up.” Lucy beamed. “I thought he’d be upset with me or Darby, but he took her in his arms and that was it.”

  “Where is he?” Lance growled, narrowing his gaze when I stopped him from stepping on Lucy’s toes.

  “You need to leave,” I told him, using the strongest voice I could. It shook and wasn’t at all convincing, so I said it again. “Now, Lance.”

  “We’re in the middle of an investigation he—”

  “And we’ll still be in the middle of one if you lose your temper.” Standing between them, I waited for Lance to speak again. Instead, his jaw tightened as he excused himself and walked outside. “Give me a minute,” I said, slowly closing the door once he’d gone. Without looking out the front window, I knew he was on the porch waiting for a reason to come back inside. So when Lucy opened her mouth to say something, I cut her off and headed into the kitchen. “Tea?.”

  Lucy followed after me, her steps slow and hesitant. “Astrid—”

  “Tea first,” I told her, putting on the best smile I could as I filled the kettle and placed it on the stove. “Have you had breakfast?”

  “I… I never have breakfast.” She played with a vase of wildflowers on the kitchen table, paying particular attention to the Baby’s Breath.

  “Are those from Mark?” I didn’t really keep flowers around for the same reason I hadn’t been able to finish Maggie’s garden. Who has the time?

  “They are.” She passed me a shy smile, her cheeks a rosy pink as she pulled out a chair to sit down. “He’s a good man, Astrid.”

  “You wouldn’t be dating him if he wasn’t.” Removing the kettle from the stove, I filled two mugs with steaming hot water and added the tea before joining her at the table.

  “Then why did Lance come in here all upset? Those girls have done nothing wrong.”

  “I know that too.” I’d never been the best at talking with my family, not openly, anyway. So when Lucy urged me to continue, I tried to think of something else to talk about. It won’t help. I had about three more minutes until Lance’s patience ran out, and the last thing we needed was to discuss this while screaming at the top of our lungs. “I’d hate to ask you this, but—”

  “You need to know where he took the girls.” She stared at her tea, tracing the rim of her mug with a fingertip. Her flashy red nail polish clashed with the pastel blue of the cup, and without her lipstick to match, the color was sorely out of place. In fact, it seemed as though she hadn’t realized Mark was coming at all. If she had, she would’ve dressed herself up at least a little bit, but she hadn’t even had the time to put her foundation on. “They were going back to Fairmount to see about getting Izzy’s memory erased.”

  “Isn’t it forbidden?” Who could do such a thing?

  “It is if you try to use it on witches or other folk like us.”

  “But you’d make an exception for humans? I don’t mean to raise my voice, but isn’t there something else you could do?”

  “Like what, Astrid? Should we have her take an oath never to share our world with anyone else? She’s in no danger if she blabs to the other humans about us, but we will be.”

  “If anyone believes her.”

  “She’s a straight A student, one of the highest in her class, and usually abides by the rules. She’s hardly the girl I was.”

  I sighed and sunk lower in my chair. “Is there any other reason they may have gone to Fairmount and not gotten the erasing spell or whatever it is from someone else?”

  “Like who? Harris? Maggie told me about him yesterday. He’s too cautious to come anywhere near charms like that.”

  “But what you’re talking about isn’t a charm, is it?” Charms had a time limit. What Lucy was talking about was stronger and more potent than that. I think I’m going to be sick. “They could’ve done the same thing to me,” I told her, averting my gaze. “When you sent me here and Maggie charmed me, the rest of the town could’ve sent me away and erased my memory the same way they’re going to do to Izzy.”

  “Izzy isn’t a witch,” she reminded me.

  “Does it really matter? What if they erase the wrong thing? What if she forgets about her friendship with Darby? She’d be crushed.” That one hit her harder than I’d planned, and as soon as Lucy pushed away from the table, I did the same. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “Whether or not you meant it doesn’t matter,” she hurried into the living room, talking as she did, “but you’re right. We can’t let them erase her memory like this. She’s probably scared to death.”

  “She doesn’t know?” I asked, helping Lucy with her coat before opening the front door where Lance was waiting on the other side.

  “Mark told them he was going to show Izzy around the town and share a bit of our culture with her, but the look in his eye. Astrid, if you’d seen it—”

  “It’s okay, we’ll find them.” To Lance, I said, “They’re back in Fairmount. We must’ve missed them when we left.”

  Lucy locked the door and joined us. “They’re going to erase Izzy’s memory.”

  “Not yet they’re not.” Lance took his cell out of his jacket pocket and punched in a handful of numbers before putting it to his ear.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “Richard. If they’re going to do what I think they are, they’ll need his approval.”

  “The mayor of Fairmount?”

  “Yes. He may have his own rules on how magic is handled in his city, but once I explain how critical Izzy is to our investigation, then maybe—” He held up his hand as someone spoke on the other side of the line. “Richard Fisher, please. Tell him it’s Lance Barker. Yes, yes, everything’s fine. Thanks, Kelly. I’ll tell her.” There was another pause, and when Richard picked up, Lance stepped away.

  “He’ll get things sorted out,” I said, taking Lucy’s hand in mine. “He may be harsh when he wants, but Lance is one of the good guys, I swear.”

  “I know, dear. I just don’t like being scolded like that. It was terribly unprofessional.”

  I had to agree, but then, this wasn’t just any investigation. I’d seen Lance work cases from Maggie’s murder to simple theft when nothing else was going on. He always kept his wits about him unless kids were involved. I didn’t have to ask to know he had a soft spot for them and had a greater need to protect them over anyone else. I can’t say I’d ever felt the same way until after Darby and Izzy arrived. Now, all I wanted to do was to keep them safe, and I barely knew them.

  “Richard will do what he can, then speak with us once we arrive,” Lance said when he joined us again, pocketing his phone. “I just hope he can stop them in time.”

  “You said they’d need his approval,” I told him, walking behind Lance along with Lucy and Sammy who’d caught up to us once we left the property line.

  “If they want it done correctly, yes.”

  “Mark would never turn to that,” Lucy insisted.

  “Probably not, but it’s something to consider if they didn’t meet with Richard. Whatever happens, we can’t let Izzy’s memory go until after we locate Morpheus. She’s the more talkative of the two, and if Mark has her memory erased, the chances of us getting any information from Darby will be lost along with it.”

  We reached Fairmount in record time. Lucy insisted we go by broomstick through Harris’ portal, but Lance opted to take his Station Wagon instead. Sitting in the backseat took me back to the first time I was in his car. He practically lived out of it at the time, working so late into the night he rarely left his desk. I had to wonder if this case would be the same way, only between two towns instead of one.

  “If Richard is the mayor of Fairmount, why haven’t I seen any police?” I asked, filling the silence between us.

  “They exist, but they’re different from what we have in Emberdale,” Lance explained, turning down a side street by Laura’s flower shop. “The enforcement here are known as Celestials, the most powerful witches and wizards of our time. I
t’s their job to keep the wards in place and put out an alert if anything seems suspicious. You never see them because they’re cloaked.”

  “But they know you’re trying to find Morpheus, right? Why not ask for their help? Maybe they saw something.”

  “If they had, Morpheus would’ve been back by now. No, the reason I’m working the streets instead of them is because not many realize they’re there, including our suspect. I’m only telling you this now so you understand why Fairmount has no need for law enforcement. Something like this doesn’t usually happen.”

  “Well, it has, so maybe they need to rethink things a little bit.”

  “Maybe they do, but the Celestials have other things to watch for aside from the goings-on in Morpheus’ shop.”

  “What about the outside?” I asked once he parked the car.

  “As I said, they have other things to watch for. Unless someone acted suspiciously, their attention would’ve been elsewhere.”

  I didn’t believe that for a second, and after getting out of the car and helping Lucy with her door, I could tell I wasn’t the only one. “Someone saw something, I’m sure of it.” But like Darby and Izzy, whoever did was likely covering for someone they cared about. And here I thought we’d work on this together.

  “Nothing like old times,” Sammy chimed in, walking at my feet as we crossed the street.

  Things were going so well too. Lance had let me help with an investigation, actually let me help, and now he was starting to put roadblocks in the way of our progress. “You don’t think he suspects Lucy, do you?”

  Sammy was quiet for a long moment, and it was then I really wished I could read his mind. Still, whatever thought process he went through was unknown to me, and when he spoke again, his words forced the air from my lungs. “She did act strange in Morpheus’ office. What about when you suggested the police? Do you remember how she acted after that?”

  I did, and it had bothered me ever since. We’d all been shaken up by the discovery, but there was one point Lucy seemed a little more out of sorts than everyone else. She’d spent time in Morpheus’ office by herself, so who knows what she could’ve done by the time we joined her.

  “Lucy would never—”

  “Don’t finish that sentence unless you’re sure,” Sammy said, following me as we walked into Richard’s office. Deep in thought, I almost didn’t catch what Sammy had said until he clawed at my pant leg. “Think about it. The guidance spell, never telling you this was your calling. There are things she’s kept from you before.”

  “To protect me.”

  “Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?”

  Anymore, I wasn’t so sure. Standing beside Lucy, I couldn’t imagine her wanting to hurt Morpheus. She was so focused on getting my first broomstick, there was no reason she’d want to get rid of him, was there? If there was, why ask me to go and see him in the first place?

  “Maybe she’d already done it and needed an alibi,” Sammy offered, sounding a little too proud of himself for my liking.

  “You don’t like her because she isn’t Maggie.”

  “No, I don’t like her because we were just starting to get somewhere with your magic, then she walks in to claim victory. Maggie was there for you.”

  “I know, and I won’t ever mistake what she did for something Lucy never could’ve done.” But my aunt couldn’t have banished Morpheus, could she?

  The mayor’s office wasn’t at all what I expected. Porcelain gargoyles perched on pedestals all around the room, their eyes fixed on us as we sat down. Sammy jumped in my lap, his fur raised higher than I was used to, and when he shivered, the aftershocks went all the way up my arms. Without saying anything, I stroked the fur between his shoulders and all along his back, moving on to scratch his chin once he settled in my lap.

  “We don’t normally allow familiars in here,” Richard said, glaring at me with a pair of ice-blue eyes. “They disturb the air.”

  “Sammy’s Astrid’s familiar,” Lance explained, “and was present when these two discovered Morpheus was missing. He’s a witness, same as them, and I’ve not once seen Sammy do anything to disturb others.” Then, Lance laughed. “He is a cat, after all. He lays about much of the time, so I can assure you, the last thing he’s planning to do now is disrupt whatever balance you have here.” He took his seat and removed his pad of paper from his breast pocket. “Sadly, our investigation hasn’t gone far.”

  “Which is why you wish to keep the human’s memory intact,” Richard said with a nod, placing his arms on his desk. The dirt under his nails didn’t resemble someone sitting in a cushy office chair at all, but then, things were different whenever magic was involved. “You’ll have to excuse my earlier comment. Some come in here with dark intentions, and I can’t know what those are if my gargoyles can’t sense them.”

  “Celestials?” I asked, looking from the odd statues to Lance.

  “In one form, yes,” Richard answered for him. “She knows about the Celestials?”

  “She’d asked about how the law’s enforced here,” Lance said, shrinking in his chair the slightest bit. “Hiding them in the shadows is unwise, Richard. Especially now when we could use their intel for something else.”

  Richard wiped at his eyes, his voice weary. “I’ve questioned each of them about Morpheus. Once we got word he was missing, in fact. So, you mind telling me why I had to hear about this from Darien instead of you? We can handle our own investigations, Lance.”

  “I understand, but…” Lance sighed, and over the next five minutes explained our time with the Canundrum along with the girls stuck inside it. “So you see, we thought Morpheus was hidden inside the book. If he was, there would’ve been little reason to report it as we could easily get him out and uncover whoever had put him inside the books in the first place.”

  Richard took a long breath before he spoke again. “And once you realized the Canundrum wasn’t him?”

  “I made a few calls, the first being to Darien as I knew he’d be up and was in the area at the time.”

  “You didn’t tell me this,” I told Lance. “Is that why you left in such a hurry the other night?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t let whoever was in the Canundrum know I was aware of the truth in case it was our suspect.”

  “But they aren’t,” Richard said, looking between us. “You’re sure these children couldn’t have done this, even by accident?”

  “Darby’s finished her first trial recently,” Lucy explained, “but she’d never be able to do this on her own.”

  “Even if Morpheus refused to give her friend the magic she felt Izzy deserved?”

  We were all quiet for a long unnerving moment. None of us had even considered Darby. She was just a kid, and if she needed to pass all of Morpheus’ trials in order to reach her full potential, then I couldn’t see why she would’ve been able to cast one of the most powerful spells ever known.

  “She could never weave such magic,” Sammy said.

  “Not alone, no,” Richard agreed. “Because you’ve started this on your own, I’ll allow you to continue unhindered. However, if I learn you’re protecting the child, Lance, there will be consequences.”

  “Of course. Thank you so much for your time.” Lance stood to leave, pausing short of the door. “So they never came here about Izzy?”

  “No, and none of the Celestials have seen them going into Oswald’s, either. Get to them before they find other means.”

  Lance nodded and led us outside. Once we were back out on the sidewalk, he looked to me and said, “We’ll find them, but whatever you do, don’t question the Celestials. They need to remain hidden. The fact I told you about them could’ve had us thrown out. Enforcement isn’t their job. That falls to Richard and Richard alone once we find out who did this to Morpheus.”

  “And if it was Darby?” I asked, swallowing around the lump in my throat.

  “She’s a minor and would only lose her broom. Whoever helped her, however,
will receive far worse.”

  Looking at Lucy, I didn’t have to ask her who she thought was at fault. Her eyes filled with tears, and when I took her hand in mine, she ripped it away and started for the car.

  “Let her go,” Lance said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “She won’t be able to help when she’s upset.”

  “All the more reason to go after her,” I told him, frowning when he held me in place.

  “No. The more time you spend now comforting your aunt is time wasted in what could be our last chance to find these girls before Mark does something he shouldn’t.”

  “According to Lucy, he isn’t answering his phone,” I said, removing my cell from my pocket when I got a text.

  “Then let’s make this quick.”

  After Lance joined Lucy back at his car, Sammy and I headed to The Magician’s Closet. If there were any answers on where the girls or our suspect may have gone, they would’ve been here. Standing out on the sidewalk with Sammy in my arms, I hovered between going inside and waiting for Lance. The idea of going into the shop a third time made me uneasy. Our first visit got us into this mess and the last one wasn’t much help at all. What would this visit bring? Would time still be slowed to a crawl? Would the books be on the ceiling again?

  Before I could duck inside to find out, an older gentleman stepped out of the library next door, his brows furrowed in my direction.

  “You there, haven’t I seen you here before? Up to no good, I bet. You’re holding the sidewalk down, is that it?” He was walking straight for me, and I couldn’t decide whether or not to run from this tiny man or to laugh at his obvious Napoleon complex.

  “I’m sorry?” I asked, setting Sammy on the ground between us.

  “You planning to hover out here all day?” He put both hands on his hips and glanced up at me. “Goodness sake, child, have you no manners at all? Speak.”

  Using Sammy as an excuse to get down to the old man’s level, I stooped beside him and stroked his fur, meeting the other man’s eyes. “I was going to go in, actually.”