Banishment and Broomsticks (Emberdale Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 2)

by Kali Harper

  “Love is blind,” Sammy said, having read or overheard my thoughts. “It’s likely she meant well—”

  “But she hid it from us.” My words came out in a growl and I gripped the counter top. “You warned me. You told me something didn’t feel right—”

  “Inside Morpheus’ shop, not around Lucy.”

  “We should’ve gone back with her. Caught her before she tried… God, I can’t believe she’d cover something up like this.”

  “Let Lance handle Lucy,” Maggie said, her voice gentle as she smiled at me. “You need to focus on those girls.”

  “They could be on their way home by now.” Without Lucy around to keep tabs on Mark, there was no telling where he might’ve gone.

  “Actually…”

  “You’re hiding them?” What is it today with everyone?

  Maggie nodded, and when she looked to Sammy, he turned back for the living room. Wherever he was headed, I had a good idea of what we’d find once we got there.

  Of all the years I’d lived at the old inn, I’d never been in the attic. The thought of rafters falling down on me was enough without actually walking on them. So when Sammy stopped underneath the hatch, I almost laughed. Lance had scoured the top floor of my place looking for the girls, but he’d never thought to look here. It wasn’t like it was hidden, either. The hatch was at the end of the hall in plain sight.

  “He probably looked but didn’t see them,” Sammy said, glancing up at the ceiling as I pulled down the ladder.

  “What do you know about this?” I asked them both, testing the ladder before making my way up to where the girls were hidden.

  “Nothing.” Maggie’s smile gave her away. “You can ask them yourselves. I would’ve called but—”

  “Ghosts can’t use cell phones. I know.” It would’ve been a huge help, that’s for sure! Halfway up the ladder, something shuffled above me, followed by a very soft hiss of breath. “Darby, it’s me. I have Sammy and Maggie with me. Everyone else is gone.” When she didn’t come over to the hatch, I continued my climb, carefully crawling on my hands and knees in the dark until I found an old light which didn’t even work. “I swear, you both aren’t in any trouble. We’re worried.”

  “He wants to erase her memory,” Darby cried out, “can you believe it? I can’t let him.”

  “I know, and I wouldn’t ask you to. Izzy’s your best friend, and best friends should be protected from all magic. I conjure things,” I told her, “so Izzy’s in no danger around me. Is it okay if I sit?” I found them in the far corner of the attic, the rafters creaking whenever I moved.

  “Not there,” Izzy said, her words quick. “There’s a nail.”

  “Oh, thank you.” After finding a safe, if not terribly uncomfortable spot to sit, I faced the girls and hoped my voice didn’t shake as much as I thought it did. “I know you’ve already gone over things with Lance and possibly your uncle, but if there’s anything you left out in your story, I need to know. Please. All I want to do is keep you both safe, but I can’t help if I don’t have all the details.” When neither one responded, I went on. “I met with the man who works next door to The Magician’s Closet. He told me the clocks in his shop stopped at 12:15 AM. I’m guessing it’s because of how much time had slowed before whoever was after Morpheus cast their Turning spell. Unless you know something else.”

  Izzy wouldn’t have much information to share as magic was still new to her, but even as Darby lowered her gaze, I could see she had something she didn’t want to share.

  “You aren’t in any trouble,” I told her, “and I know you’d do anything to get someone to listen to you. You slowed time, didn’t you?”

  “I tried, but time was already off once we got there,” she admitted, her voice tight, “I just wanted him to hear me out before he sent us away.”

  “You asked him before, didn’t you?”

  “After my trial, I asked if it was possible to bring a friend. No one believed I could finish, so maybe they’re wrong about Izzy as well.”

  “And he said no.”

  “I thought if he could see her and hear what we had to say, then maybe—”

  “He’d let her in.”

  “But I swear, we didn’t do anything. By the time I noticed the books along the ceiling and saw what was going on, we were stuck in that stupid pile of books.”

  “Izzy, is this true?” No doubt the girls had rehearsed their story while everyone was away, but I decided to ask anyway.

  “All I remember are shadows and a woman’s voice.”

  “Lucy’s?”

  “No. She sounded old, but we couldn’t see anything. She was terribly upset, yelling at someone.”

  “But you never heard their voice.”

  “It was familiar,” Darby admitted, “but it was so garbled because of where we were, I can’t say who it was for sure.”

  Realizing there wasn’t much else to tell, I slowly made my way back over to the hatch. “I’m going to make some hot cocoa. It’ll be waiting for you when you come down.”

  I knew what Sammy was going to say even as I finished making my way down the ladder. Before he could, I walked away from the attic and headed back downstairs.

  “They know something,” he hissed, his fur bristling.

  “I know, but they’ve already been through enough. Let them come down, then we’ll talk some more.”

  “The longer Morpheus remains in the other realm, the harder it’ll be to get him back!”

  “Is there a reason why Richard can’t bring him back on his own?” Surely there was a reversal spell that didn’t require us to know whoever banished Morpheus in the first place.

  “It’s more involved than that,” Sammy said as we into the kitchen. “They need to let him back in, and if someone is running around banishing whoever they want, bringing Morpheus back will only anger them.”

  “But he can reverse it, can’t he?” I asked, putting the kettle on the stove once I’d filled it with water.

  “Yes, Richard can along with the help of the Celestials. It isn’t a simple spell to bring one back. It will require most of Fairmount, including us.”

  “Why us?”

  “Because we were the first to discover it.”

  “But it only takes one person to banish him?” That didn’t sound right.

  “Sending one away from our realm isn’t as hard as bringing them back,” Sammy said again, sighing as he did. “I can’t go into detail about it, but just as there are Celestials in Fairmount, there are older, stronger guards in the place Morpheus was sent. They aren’t keen on letting someone go as most who are sent there deserve it.”

  “What if we went in after him?” Darby asked, leading Izzy into the kitchen where the two of them took their places at the table.

  “Too risky,” Sammy said, excusing the suggestion altogether. “What happens now is up to you. Lucy’s gone with Lance after trying to cover for your uncle.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “You humans with your bleeding hearts. She saw the footprint from his boot and tried to wash it away.”

  “You mean the ones he had to throw out because the sole was coming off?” When I looked at her, she continued. “He doesn’t wear boots anymore. Hasn’t for close to a week. He had his sneakers on this morning, in fact.”

  “So no combat boots?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then why is your uncle running around asking Alex about a Seer’s charm?”

  “Because he wants to marry her,” Izzy said with a laugh. “What? Weren’t you listening to him in the car?” She was looking at Darby, her eyes bright as she came to a completely different conclusion than the rest of us had. “You told me he’s terrible with words and trips over them most of the time. He’s even blurted out a few off-color comments before—nothing bad—but he doesn’t have a filter. Then, today in the car as he was driving through Fairmount, he stopped to ask the guy in a trench coat if he’d seen Caleb. I thought he was trying to get thi
s charm or whatever it is for me, so I didn’t say anything, but he worked so hard to find the guy and to clean off his shoes once we got here that—”

  “Wait, he found Caleb?” I asked.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Darby, what charm did your uncle get?”

  “Nothing. Caleb said he was all out and to come back next week. Strange, he didn’t live in Fairmount. You can get to him from there though.”

  “Show me.”

  Convincing Maggie and Sammy to stay behind with Izzy wasn’t easy, and when Sammy tried to follow us, Darby summoned her broomstick and demanded I get on.

  “Shouldn’t I take my first flight solo?” I asked, climbing on the back of it.

  “You want to drive?”

  “No, that’s quite all right. How are you planning to get to Fairmount without a portal?” When Darby presented a piece of chalk out of thin again, I laughed. “You have all the answers, don’t you?”

  “I try, though I can’t say I have one for Izzy. I don’t want to come here without her.”

  “You don’t have to, you know.” I watched as we flew by the shops of Emberdale, their details a complete blur as Darby steered us toward Harris’ bakery. “Having magic doesn’t mean you need to live near it.”

  “You live here,” she said, stopping short of the bakery so we could dismount before she dismissed her broom. “It doesn’t seem so bad.”

  “It isn’t, but I was already here by the time I found out about my magic. You’re different. You have a choice.”

  Darby spoke as she drew on the wall, the portal flickering once she’d finished. “If I stay with Izzy, there’s a small chance I’ll lose my magic.”

  “Who says so?”

  “My uncle.”

  He was resorting to scare tactics? I exhaled hard. “What’s more important to you? Magic or Izzy?”

  “Izzy.”

  “Then there’s your answer.” I placed my hand on her shoulder before she could walk over to the other side. “Not living in Emberdale, Fairmount, or any other magical town doesn’t mean you’re turning your back on your magic.”

  “My uncle wouldn’t agree.”

  “That’s because he’s had magic longer than you and probably can’t imagine his life without it.”

  “I wanted this so badly, Astrid. To know I was different and for someone to recognize it.”

  “But now?”

  “If Izzy can’t join me, what’s the point? I have no connections here. No one to talk to. I guess I’d have my uncle and Lucy, but they’re so into each other.”

  “I know what you mean, and if it makes a difference, you have me. We might be twenty years apart, but if you ever need to talk magic or vent, all you have to do is call.”

  “Or write,” she added with a smile. “I like writing.”

  “Then write.” Facing the portal, I hesitated. “What should I expect once we’re on the other side?”

  “We have a second portal to go through. It’s on the far side of Fairmount Square inside one of the old subway tunnels. They don’t use them anymore, but they don’t enforce them, either.”

  “So folks like Caleb can go unnoticed.”

  “Yes, and he can come and go whenever he wants. The mayor kicked him out, did you know that?”

  “I did, for practicing bad charms.”

  “Not bad,” Darby explained with a partial shrug. “Different.”

  Different. I suppose that’s what one would call Black Magic, because it was definitely different. Far as I was concerned, anything having to do with hiding one’s intentions or removing their memory was bad.

  As we prepared to cross over to Fairmount, I wondered if leaving Sammy behind was such a good idea. He’d always been with me, and while I still had his wards along with my own magic, the thought of not having him as a buffer made me sick to the stomach.

  Izzy needs him more. Sammy might not have thought so, but without him to keep her safe, anyone could’ve hurt her or taken her away. I could’ve called Lance, but then he’d be more involved, and it was easy to see the girls already hated what was going on without having more people around. Like it or not, I had to keep both girls safe, even if it meant not having my familiar for a little while.

  “Lead the way.”

  Chapter Ten

  The old subway system Darby had mentioned spanned under most of Fairmount, and as we entered the old, unlit tunnels, it was interesting to see the dark underside of such a bright city. Witches and wizards of all kinds set up shop down here, from brooms and wands to other things such as enchanted trinkets and charms. Many of them were quiet and tucked out of the way behind portals of their own, but those who sat out in the open seemed no different from those who worked the streets above.

  One of them, in fact, reminded me of Darien. She even had the same look as him, her skin pale while wearing a long dark gown.

  “Vampire?” I asked Darby, leaning close to her so the woman wouldn’t overhear.

  “Yup. Shifters come down here as well. They aren’t welcome up top.”

  “How come they let them stay here if they aren’t welcome?” I asked, following Darby down one side of the subway tunnel.

  “They have nowhere else to go, and whatever happens down here isn’t Fairmount’s concern.”

  “And what happens down here?” Away from the Celestials, I could only image the terrible things that might’ve happened in such a place.

  “Less than you’d think. They may seem like a shady bunch, but they all mean well. They’re just trying to make a living, you know?”

  “How come Lance didn’t mention it?” The entrance to the subway stations was out of the way and not something I would’ve come across on my own, but surely he came down here once he realized Morpheus was gone.

  “Darien runs things down here,” Darby explained.

  “But I saw him up top.” In fact, I always saw him along the same stretch of shops as before.

  “He and the mayor of Fairmount have an agreement where Darien’s welcome up there so long as he doesn’t hide what’s happening here. Everyone here respects Darien, even the wand seller who tries to take customers right from underneath Darien’s nose. At least, that’s what my uncle told me.”

  Glancing at our feet, I frowned when I stepped in something wet. Even with the few lights overhead, it was hard to see where we were going. The tiled walkway beneath our feet sloshed as we walked through old rainwater and mud.

  “That explains where the mud on his shoes came from,” I said as Darby faced the wall nearby.

  “Izzy and I cleaned ours off before we got in the car,” Darby said with a nod. “Anyway, Caleb set his place up in the woods. It isn’t uncommon for stuff to find its way over here. You ready?” She summoned her broomstick, holding it tight as she started to draw a new portal.

  “Is there something I should be worried about? How did your uncle’s car fit down here?”

  “He didn’t bring the car, silly. We walked.”

  “But I thought—”

  “Izzy trusts me. I told her she’d be okay, but to play along. There,” Darby said, standing back as a new portal opened in front of us. The image on the other side was covered in static, but when Darby stepped over to the other side, I did the same, my heart dipping into my stomach as everything I knew about Fairmount was pushed to the back of mind.

  In front of us stood a beautiful forest scene, tall redwoods climbing high above a small cabin. Thunder rumbled in the distance, the ground under our feet soaked with rain.

  “Where are we?”

  “New York,” a man said, coming around the side of the cabin, his hair plastered to his face. “Hey, weren’t you here before?” He looked to Darby who hadn’t moved since we arrived. “You came with that lanky fellow. As I said before, I’m out of stock until next week. I need to wait for my supplier.”

  “To make charms?” I asked, stepping between them.

  “I need herbs, ones those of Fairmount aren’t willing to give
and I’ve run out of in my own garden. There, now you know. Who the heck are you?”

  “Astrid, a friend. I only came here to find out what the charm’s for. It’s all I ask.”

  “So you can report me? Look, lady, what I do down here is no one’s business but my own. I no longer sell in Fairmount, but if Richard and his lackeys want to start enforcing those of us here, he can do it himself.”

  “He ran you out of town before?”

  “Yeah, what’s it to you?”

  “Did Morpheus agree?”

  “Morpheus had no say in it. Everything Richard does is because it’s what he wants or what he thinks is best for his city. He’ll push out anyone he can to make room for his Utopia or whatever it is he’s planning. I don’t keep up on the guy, but when he threw me out, I was happy to be rid of him.”

  “Couldn’t you have left on your own?”

  “From Fairmount?” He laughed. “Are you kidding? That’s like asking someone to leave the most prestigious job they’ve ever had. No one ever leaves Fairmount unless they’re asked to.”

  “Or banished,” I added, which resulted in a stern look from Darby. “What? It’s true.”

  “Banished? Who’s banished?”

  Before I could think things through, I told Caleb everything I knew about Morpheus’ banishment, including what everyone had said about him. Once I was through, Caleb turned to head inside, glancing back over his shoulder as he did.

  “There’s warm stew over the fire if you’re interested. That said, I think this conversation is best done in a more private setting, if you get my drift.”

  “I thought you said Richard doesn’t enforce what happens here.”

  “He doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean others should overhear.” He spoke as we entered the cabin, placing his coat on a rack by the door. “Folks down here aren’t fond of strangers, even if they do bring us business. We live simple lives these days and tend to barter with one another more often than not. Still, talking about the banishment of Morpheus, one of the most powerful beings I know, is bound to turn a few heads. No need to cause a rising panic unless you can contain it, eh?”