Four-Leaf Clovers
Western Woods Mystery #4
Samantha Silver
Blueberry Books Press
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
Also by Samantha Silver
About the Author
Chapter 1
I watched in horror, my hands pressed to my mouth, as a strike of lightning shot toward Sara. It moved at, well, a lightning pace, but she swerved expertly around it, avoiding its sting and pulling back on her broom, rising higher from the arena floor. Moving straight through a red-and-white ring that had to be no larger than a standard hula hoop, her red hair whipped behind her as she approached a wall of fire.
Streaking through it like a fearless warrior, she came out the other side with a whoosh, making her way through yet another red-and-white hoop. By my count, there were seven more to go. That meant seven more obstacles she had to get past. If anyone I knew could do it, it was Sara.
This was the final audition to become a part of the newest magical world sensation: broom riding as a competitive sport. Four weeks ago, I had filmed Sara’s audition tape after Ellie found a flyer advertising that they were looking for skilled broom flyers. Sara had practically convinced herself that she was never going to get a call—she figured that if you don’t dream, you’re never disappointed—but three days ago she was asked to come back to Desert Plains for an in-person audition in the arena used for duels, which was going to double as the arena for the broom flying competition.
Of course, the instant Sara asked me to come along for moral support, I said yes. That was how I found myself in the stands, watching with bated breath as one of my best friends took on the obstacle course in front of her.
As Sara homed in on the next hoop, the concentration on her face obvious even from here, a tornado of water rushed up from the floor and through the center of the hoop she was going toward. In order to make it through, Sara was going to have to go right into the tornado and upwards through the hoop. I hoped she could do it.
Steeling herself, Sara gripped the front of her broom harder, but rather than going down and up through the tornado, she flew upward toward the sky, about a hundred feet above the top of the water spout, and then dove straight down toward it.
I gasped as Sara plummeted toward the water spout—and the ground—and held my breath as she disappeared for a moment. A second later, however, she appeared right back out the other side, soaking wet, her red hair plastered to her face, from which a huge grin shone out.
She had done it!
I jumped up in my seat and clapped, letting out a squeal of pleasure at the fact that Sara was not only not dead, but also absolutely nailing this course. To see her like this, in her element, after she’d spent her entire life in Western Woods feeling like a failure because her use of magic often had, well, unintended results, was amazing. I was so proud of her.
As she darted through the last few hoops, past a few more obstacles, Sara completed the course. As soon as she passed through the last hoop, fireworks exploded from it in all directions, a cacophony of red, blue, white, and gold lights filling the arena. Doing three lazy loops around the stadium, Sara expertly guided her broom down to the stadium floor as I rushed down the steep set of steps to see her. Jumping over the barrier, I landed on the stadium floor and rushed over to Sara, taking her into a huge bear hug.
“You were amazing!”
“Thanks,” she giggled, hugging me back. “I didn’t know if I could do it, but it worked out.”
“You killed it!” I said as the water from her shirt and hair began soaking into mine. “I’m so proud of you.”
The grin on Sara’s face as I pulled away was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.
“Bravo!” a man’s voice called out, and a moment later, Eli Ring, the wizard in charge of this new sports league, made his way toward us. Eli was quite the character, coming from the coven of Saturn, a coven dominated by air. He had used a spell to make it look like he simply floated toward us rather than walked, and he was dressed exactly like a stereotypical wizard from the human world.
His robe was a deep, deep blue, covered in tiny gold and silver stars that twinkled as he walked. His long hair was white and covered with a pointy hat that matched his robe perfectly, but his clean-shaven face was free of lines, and he had so much energy that I had absolutely no idea how old he was. He could have been thirty, he could have been ninety, for all I knew.
But Eli certainly was a character. “Sara, you are a marvel,” he said, opening his arms wide as he came toward us. “An absolute marvel.”
A blush crawled up Sara’s cheeks as she smiled, her grin taking up her whole face.
“Listen. I knew as soon as I saw your audition tape that I wanted you to be a part of this new adventure, and seeing you right now has absolutely confirmed it for me. Sara, I would like to invite you to be one of the competitors in the new Golden Broom competition. How do you like the name?”
“I love it,” Sara replied, her weight moving from side to side she was so excited. I was extremely excited for her.
“Fantastic! We’re just finishing off the final auditions today, and on Friday, we’ll need you back here for the official announcement. It’s going to be aired on MSPN, obviously, the Magical Sports Television Network, and you and the other competitors will be seen around the world.”
“That sounds great,” Sara said, and I couldn’t help but notice the smile starting to slip.
“Right. If you can be here at noon, the announcement isn’t until five, but you’ll be needed for makeup and some formalities. The first competition, aired worldwide in the magical world, will be on Sunday.”
Sara’s mouth dropped open. “Wow, that’s so fast.”
“I know. We want to move quickly on this; as soon as I had the idea for this competition a few months ago, I knew we had something special. I want to get it on people’s TV screens before winter arrives in this hemisphere.”
“Sounds great,” I said, since Sara seemed to have temporarily lost the use of her voice. “She’ll be here on Friday at noon, for sure.”
“Great,” Eli said. “Again, absolutely wonderful performance! You were truly incredible out there.”
I thanked Eli again and guided Sara back toward the exit. “What’s going on?” I asked her, and when I looked at her face, her eyes were welling up with tears.
“I don’t know if I can do this, Tina.”
“What? Why not? You were amazing up there.”
“I know. But…I mean, it’s one thing to do it with just you watching. You’re one of my best friends. But now Eli keeps talking about magical television, and a magical world audience. What if I’m not good enough? What if I fail in front of all these people? Everyone in Western Woods already knows I’m a failure; I don’t want everyone in the whole magical world laughing at me, too.”
“Oh, Sara,” I said, taking her into a big hug. “What you’re feeling is natural. Of course you’re nervous. You’ve never done anything like this before in your life. And you know what? If you decide that you don’t wan
t to do it, that it’s not worth the risk, then don’t do it. You haven’t signed anything yet. It’s not like you have to show up on Friday. But at the same time, think about it long and hard. How are you going to feel if you decide you’re not going to do this, and then you watch all the others competing on TV? Will you have that regretful feeling in the pit of your stomach, that wish that you had gone for it when you had the chance? Or will you be ok with it, safe in the knowledge that you did what was right for you?”
Sara nodded slowly. “Thanks, Sara. Yeah. I think you’re right, of course. I think I need to do this. I need to try.”
“You can do this,” I replied. “No one is going to laugh at you. And if they do, well, that’s their problem. I might not be the most experienced witch out there, but I have never seen anyone do the things that you do on a broom. You are talented and amazing, and I personally think this could be exactly what you were meant to do.”
“Do you really think so?” Sara said, giving me a hopeful glance.
“I do,” I nodded, and I absolutely meant every word I was saying. I might not have known a lot about life, but I knew what it was like to lose someone, and I knew that I regretted not having a chance to say goodbye to both of my parents before they had died. Ever since, I tried to live my life with the idea that no matter what, I didn’t want to have any regrets. Because regrets were something you just could not fix, a lot of the time.
“Thank you, Tina,” Sara finally said in a quiet voice. “Thanks to you, I think I know exactly what I’m going to do.”
Chapter 2
As soon as Sara and I were on our way back to Western Woods, we decided to go and celebrate. But seeing as it was just after ten in the morning, our celebration was definitely not going to be at a bar. Instead, we decided to celebrate with copious amounts of calories at Hexpresso Bean, the local café where Ellie, one of our best friends, was currently working.
“You’re an athlete now,” I joked as we walked through the door. “You can’t just let yourself go. You’re going to have to watch what you eat.”
“On the contrary,” Sara replied. “I’m going to need all of these extra calories to keep my energy levels up when I’m competing.”
“Do you know what the format is like?” I asked.
“Yes,” Sara nodded. “Eli explained it to me while I was getting ready for my audition. In every race, there will be five witches and wizards. The race itself will work exactly like the audition, where we have to pass through those tiny hoops in the correct order, and whoever manages to do it first wins. The downside for me is that everybody is able to use spells as they wish, either to make the path to victory easier for them or to sabotage other players.”
I nodded. “Okay, so since that’s obviously out for you, you’re going to have to beat everybody by being smarter and faster on the broom only.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” Sara said. “I know that I can ride a broom. But I’m sure these other people all can as well. The difference maker is going to be how well everybody uses the spells, and we all know that I’m absolutely awful at them.”
“I think you’re selling yourself a bit short,” I replied. “You really are a generational talent on the broom. I still think you can do it.”
“I hope so,” Sara replied. “Every race, the competitors are assigned points based on how they placed. Everyone is going to do ten races and a season, and at the end of those ten races, the person with the most points wins the inaugural trophy. We also get paid based on our results in those ten races, and the winner at the end of the year gets a giant reward of something like one million abras.”
“Wow,” I said, my eyes widening. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure of the exchange rate, but one million abracadollars, the local magical currency, was definitely nothing to sneeze at.
“I know,” Sara said as she made her way to the counter. “I’m trying not to think about it, though. After all, I wasn’t even sure I was going to do this until what you said about regretting it later.”
“Hi there! What can I get you two lovely witches this morning?” a friendly fairy with glittering pastel purple wings and matching hair asked with a smile.
“We’re celebrating,” I told her. “So two coffees, please, and what would you recommend from the pastry section?”
“Well, this morning Ellie made my absolute favorite, her famous salted caramel cheesecake brownies. She even made a special one for me that she topped with glitter, but I’m afraid I can’t serve you that one,” the fairy added with a wink.
“Just a couple of normal ones sounds amazing,” I replied with a laugh. “I’ve never had that particular concoction of Ellie’s, but with a name like that, I guarantee you I’m going to enjoy it.”
“Oh, you absolutely will,” the fairy replied with a smile. “You two witches go find yourselves a table, and I’ll be over soon with your food and drink.”
Thanking the fairy, Sara and I found a table by the window at the front, giving us a perfect vantage point to look over the denizens of Western Woods as they went about their business on this gloomy, late October day.
The Pacific Northwest was beautiful, and I had absolutely loved growing up in Seattle, but October and November were gloomy at best and downright depressing at worst. I supposed it could be worse: it was only overcast today, whereas I was used to some years where torrential rain poured down on us for what seemed like weeks without end.
Still, the leaves on the trees were going from a light yellow to a deep red, and as the light breeze blew them off the branches and down onto the ground below, I couldn’t help but realize that this place had its own little charm in this season all the same. As long as it wasn’t raining, at least.
“I just sent Ellie a text to come out and celebrate with us if she gets a chance,” Sara said. “It’s funny. Now that I’ve made this decision, I’m actually feeling a little bit excited about it.”
“You should be! It’s exciting. Have you thought about what name you’re going to take?”
Sara’s eyes widened. “You mean like Miranda Thunder?”
“Exactly,” I nodded enthusiastically. “After all, this competition is exactly like the dueling competition, isn’t it? Except instead of straight-up fighting each other, you’re racing on brooms. So, you need to come up with a cool name.”
“Tina is totally right,” Ellie’s voice said from behind us as she grabbed an empty chair and dragged it over to our table. “You definitely need to start branding yourself.”
“Branding myself?”
“Yeah, like all the other athletes do. You’re going to be able to line up sponsorships, get free clothes, get the best brooms for free, all that sort of thing.”
Sara’s face began to go pale, and I realized she was balking again at the idea of being a celebrity.
“But you don’t have to do all that,” I added quickly. “You can just be Sara from Western Woods.”
“Yeah, but what’s the point? I mean, this is the perfect opportunity to get dressed up and be amazing. When my shift is over we can go see Randy, and he can come up with something amazing for you.”
Sara nodded slowly. “You know, I think I would like that. Thanks, Tina, for trying to protect me, but I think Ellie is right. Everyone else is going to have a persona, you know? I don’t really want to stand out too much, so I think I had better do it, too.”
“Ok,” I said. “How about we come up with a cool name first? I like alliterations, personally. Speedy Sara?”
“Too simple,” Ellie said.
“Yeah, that’s almost too obvious,” Sara nodded.
“The Lightning Ginger?” Ellie offered, and Sara and I both began to giggle. “Or not,” she added, looking a bit dejected.
“Sorry,” I snickered.
“I just don’t really want to draw attention to my hair color,” Sara said, fingering her still-damp hair lightly. “I like the idea of using lightning in the name, though, since it implies speed while also referenci
ng our coven.”
“Lightning Neach has a nice ring to it,” I suggested, and Sara nodded.
“Yeah, I don’t mind that at all.”
“We need Amy’s help,” Ellie admitted. “She’s better at this sort of thing than all of us combined. Heck, she probably already has a journal full of potential names back at home.”
I nodded, knowing Ellie was right. Amy was definitely better at this than we were, and I knew she’d be able to come up with a perfect name.
“Now, as for color scheme, I think that’s where I shine,” Ellie said. “We need to wait until we see Randy to be sure, but I think you need to go for the darkest possible green, since it would look amazing with your hair, and silver accents.”
“That’s a little bit too Slytherin for my liking,” I said, and Ellie and Sara both gave me a curious look.
“Human world reference?”
I nodded. “As soon as you read my Harry Potter books, you’ll get it.”
“Alright then, how about gold instead of silver?”
“Perfect,” I smiled. I loved that even though Ellie had absolutely no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned Slytherins, she still knew it was important enough to me to come up with an alternative option. That was definitely true friendship.
“Good. We’ll go see Randy after I get off work, and he’ll help us for sure,” Ellie said, getting up. “I have to get back to it, though. I’m not even really supposed to be taking a break for another hour.”
Giving the two of us a quick wink, Ellie slipped back to the kitchen at the far end of the coffee shop just as the fairy returned with a tray laden with coffees and a couple of those caramel cheesecake brownie cupcakes.
Four-Leaf Clovers Page 1
