“Hi there,” a familiar face said, and I smiled as Aurora’s wings beat back and forth.
“Hi, Aurora,” I said to her. “I take it you’re not working at Hexpresso Bean anymore either?”
She shook her head sadly. “No. I got the same text as Ellie did, telling me that until the whole matter of Luna’s death was cleared up, they didn’t want me serving customers anymore. Can you believe it? As if I had something to do with poor Luna’s death.” Aurora sighed. “Not that I was going to go back there anyway. If the manager hadn’t told me to leave, I wouldn’t have been able to go back. Not after seeing Luna…”
Aurora trailed off, her eyes watering for a second, but she blinked back the tears and smiled at me, a sad smile. “But what’s done is done. I can’t work there anymore, but I was lucky enough to get a job working the counter here. Have you been here before?”
“No, never,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ve just been exploring around town.”
“Well, you’re in for a treat, then,” Luna said with a smile. “This bakery is the best in Western Woods. The owner comes from a coven based in France and learned to cook there. And everyone knows the French paranormals make the best breads.”
“Sold,” I laughed. “What do you recommend?”
“The classic baguette, for sure. Take one, have a sandwich with it at lunch, and then come back here tomorrow morning and tell me how it’s the best thing you’ve ever had in your life.”
“At least you’re not overselling it,” I said with a smile.
“I’m genuinely not. I mean, ok, all fairies love carbs, and they’re not necessarily good for the waistline, but I’ve never had bread like this before in my life.”
“In that case, I’ll take two baguettes,” I said. “In case any of the others want some to eat, too.”
“Good idea,” Aurora said, taking two long, thin loaves of bread from a basket on one of the shelves and putting them in front of me. “You won’t regret this.”
I paid Aurora and thanked her. As I picked up the bread, I couldn’t help but notice that the loaves were still warm; this was really fresh-out-of-the-oven stuff, and I couldn’t wait to get home and try some.
But first, I had a wizard to confront.
Carrying my bread back with me, I made my way to the dental office. It was still at least half an hour until opening, but I hoped that Carson would start work earlier than the place opened to the public. I knocked at the front door and got no answer, so I ducked around the side of the building, made my way to the back, and knocked on the back entrance.
A moment later, the door creaked open to reveal Carson Mase with a look of idle curiosity on his face.
“Yes?” he asked. “I’m sorry, but the clinic doesn’t open until nine.”
“I don’t need dental work,” I replied. “I want to talk to you about Luna.”
The polite smile on Carson’s face fell. “You were there that day, weren’t you? I recognize you.”
I nodded, and he held the door open further. “Come in.”
Of course, this was a phenomenally stupid idea. I hadn’t told anyone where I was going, and I’d just been invited into a closed business office, where there was a very distinct possibility that Carson and I were the only two people in the building. And where he was a fully formed wizard, I was a witch who knew how to do maybe three dozen spells, and most of them were so simple that I knew their equivalents from the Harry Potter books. Of course, I didn’t know the witch equivalent to Crucio or anything equally useful if I was really dealing with a stone-cold killer.
“Did you know Luna?” Carson asked, and I shook my head.
“No. I’m new to Western Woods, kind of like you. I only moved here a few months back.”
Carson nodded. “I heard there was a new witch. You’re the one who didn’t even know you were a witch, aren’t you?”
“That’s right. I heard you had issues with your family.”
“I did. And I left them. But that’s in the past.”
“And here, in Western Woods, you were with Luna, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I heard you were with a lot of other fairies as well.”
“I was,” Carson said, the expression on his face one I couldn’t read. He made his way toward a large cauldron sitting on a work table and began to stir. “But Luna was different. Luna was special.”
“I heard you bought her a ring,” I said quietly, and Carson looked up at me sharply.
“Who told you that?”
I shrugged. “I heard it around. Is it true?”
Carson sighed. “It’s true. I was going to give it to her this weekend. We were going to go away somewhere, just for a few days. I wanted to take her somewhere warm. Luna really hated the cold weather. I was going to propose to her there. I had the perfect ring picked out. I asked one of her friends for advice but swore her to secrecy. Luna had no idea that…”
Carson trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.
“So there were no problems between the two of you? You weren’t going to dump her for the next fairy that came along?”
“No,” Carson said, strangely honest with me. But then, grief did take many forms. I imagined he didn’t really have all that many people to really talk to, from what I’d learned about him so far, and the more he spoke, the less I thought he was capable of killing Luna after all. “No, I know that my reputation among the fairy women preceded me. I know many of them think I’m the worst thing that has ever happened to Western Woods, and they’re probably right. I treated them pretty badly. But Luna was different. She had such a kind soul and a gentle spirit, and she made my life better by being in it. I loved her more than anything in the world.”
“Do you know anything about exploding puff?” I asked. After all, even if I didn’t think he was the killer, I could still explore the possibility.
“Sure,” Carson nodded. “Poisonous plant, native to the paranormal world only. Though it’s used in a couple of potions; when it’s combined with salt water its potency is completely erased and it acts as a good energy booster, like a more potent version of caffeine.”
“Do you know where you can find it here in Western Woods?”
“Yes,” Carson replied. “I needed some for a salve about two weeks ago. I had to ask around, since I’m pretty new in town, and Luna told me where to find it.”
“Ok, thanks,” I said, thinking hard.
“I heard someone’s been arrested for Luna’s death, though.”
“Yes, but incorrectly,” I replied. “Ellie would have never killed Luna, I promise you that.”
“Well, I hope whoever did do it is found and brought to justice,” Carson said, staring down at the table hard as he blinked back tears. “She was way too good for that kind of end.”
“I’m sorry,” I replied. “I hope the real killer is found also.”
With that, I headed back out into the open air. Something Carson had said made me think I was missing something. There was a clue there. But what was it?
Suddenly, my eyes widened. I knew who had killed Luna. And this time, I was certain.
Chapter 23
I sent Sara and Amy a quick text telling them who the killer was and where I was going to find her as I ran to the other side of town, to the fairy garden.
The sun was up now, and the lanterns that cast a nice glow over everything were out, but the forest still had that very ethereal, magical feel to it. Even as I stepped inside, I found myself stopping and looking around. This garden felt alive in a way nothing else on earth really did. It was like this whole forest was a living, breathing thing itself, not just a place where the local fairies came to spend their time.
As I got deeper and deeper inside of it, however, it felt rather ominous. There was no one around. I didn’t know exactly where I was going. And I had no idea if the fairy I was looking for was even here.
“Hello, back again?” I heard a voice behind me say, and I jumped about two feet in th
e air. I turned to see Bella smiling politely at me, her wings fluttering behind her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I plastered a smile on my face. This had been a bad idea. Bella was the killer. I knew she was. I had come here to make her confess, but this wasn’t the right place to do it. And I shouldn’t have come alone.
Why on earth did I never learn from my mistakes?
“That’s ok,” I said, hoping my voice didn’t betray just how nervous I was right now. “I was just looking for you, actually.”
“Oh yes? Have you found out who killed Luna?”
“I have,” I replied.
“I heard Chief Enforcer King arrested Ellie.”
“She did. But she’s wrong. Ellie didn’t do this.”
“Oh, I know,” Bella laughed.
“That’s because you did it.” That laugh had told me everything I needed to know. Bella wasn’t here to help me, that was for sure.
“I was wondering how long it was going to take you to figure that out. Or if you were going to figure it out at all. A little bit slow on the uptake, aren’t you?”
“Better late than never,” I muttered through clenched teeth.
“So, how did you know? I’m curious.”
“It was the way you acted with Carson, at the funeral. You were all over him. That was the motive, wasn’t it? Love.”
Bella clenched her fists, and I knew I was right. I wasn’t sure of all the details yet, so I figured I’d give it a shot. “You were in love with him. You knew Carson was with Luna, but that was alright. After all, Carson had been with lots of fairies in the past. You just had to wait until he got tired of her, and then you could swoop in and become his next girlfriend. But then something happened that you didn’t expect: he fell in love with Luna, and he decided he wanted to marry her. He told me he asked one of her friends for advice on a ring that Luna would like. You were that friend, weren’t you?”
Bella let out a shrill laugh. “Of course it was me. And I had to sit there, and I had to pretend that I really cared about Carson proposing to Luna, when he should have been with me. I gave him all this great advice, and he was so thankful, but he was still going to marry her. And there was no way I could have that.”
“You know a lot about plants. You’re the one who told me about the weird plants in here. You would have known where to find exploding puff.”
“Of course I do. I’ve lived here my entire life, and fairies use plants in a significant portion of our magic. It was nothing for me to find a few spores of exploding puff and sprinkle them onto Luna’s brownie when we were at the coffee shop. I was never going to be a suspect. After all, I was one of her best friends, and we had never fought.”
“The problem was, you were one of the ones who tried to make me think Carson Mase wasn’t into Luna at all,” I replied. “Everyone seemed to think he was genuinely in love with her, but not you. You kept trying to convince me otherwise, and that was suspicious.”
“Well, thanks for letting me know. I’ll make sure in the future I change my tune on that one. That way, that friend of yours will spend the rest of her life in jail, and I’ll be free to spend the rest of my life with Carson when he realizes he actually loves me. I’ve made sure to stop by and console him a whole bunch.”
I gave Bella a small smile. “If it’s anything like what I saw at the funeral, the last thing in the world Carson is after is your consoling.”
“You take that back,” the fairy snapped, her features going from mockingly friendly to pure evil in an instant. It was like the forest went evil with her, with the trees, the logs, the moss, and the mushrooms all menacingly folding in on me. I didn’t like this garden anymore. I didn’t like it at all, and I wished I hadn’t picked here as the place to find Bella.
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” she continued with a laugh. “It’s not like you’re getting out of here alive.”
Bella reached down to the ground and grabbed a plant, blowing on it toward me. All of a sudden, I began to feel dizzy. My head felt fuzzy. I didn’t know what was going on, and I began to stumble around, tripping over my own feet.
“That’s right,” Bella said. “Go deeper into the forest.”
I knew I shouldn’t do what Bella was telling me to, but my feet couldn’t seem to resist. I turned and made my way deeper into the fairy garden forest. There were more trees, and they were closer to one another. Over to my left, about fifty meters away, was a small pond of water.
I had to get to the water.
I didn’t know why. I just knew I had to. And yet, I couldn’t do it.
“Find the malfeasance mushrooms,” Bella ordered, and I found myself looking around, trying to find the mushrooms. No, this was bad. I had to stop doing it. Those mushrooms would kill me, and I knew that was the goal.
I had to break this weird spell Bella had put on me, but I had no idea how.
I needed to get to the water.
I didn’t know why, but my brain kept telling me that was what I had to do.
I needed to get to the water.
Looking at the lake, I tried to imagine malfeasance mushrooms on the other side of it. Were there some there? If I convinced my brain that there were, maybe it would go over there to have a look.
After all, there were malfeasance mushrooms here somewhere. Why not on the other side of the lake?
It worked. I couldn’t help but smile to myself as my feet started to turn and make their way toward the pond.
I stepped closer and closer toward it, hearing Bella’s shrill laugh behind me.
“That’s right. Go to the pond. That’s easier, isn’t it? Go into the pond, and don’t come out. You can drown in there, and everyone will think it was an accident.”
Was she right? If I went into the pond, was I going to drown? Still, my brain was telling me it was what I needed to do. Maybe I would drown. Maybe I would break the spell. Regardless, I was going to do it. I had to try. Because if I didn’t, I was dead anyway.
I reached the edge of the pond and lost my footing. Normally, I would have thrown my arms in front of me to break my fall or something, but under that strange spell, I was completely incapable of it. I just fell straight into the pond, landing with a giant splash that eight-year-old me who used to try and make the biggest cannonballs in the pool would have been proud of.
As soon as my face hit the water, I felt the spell I was under break. I was back.
Instead of surfacing, however, I pulled my wand out from the back pocket of my jeans where I had kept it. I needed a spell, but I didn’t know what spell to use. It had to be a good one, and it had to be quick, because I was probably only going to have one shot at this.
Suddenly, it came to me. A lasso spell! Amy had taught me the spell the other week after I’d had trouble getting a cup from the top shelf of the kitchen. As it turned out, a quick spell magically wrapped an invisible rope around the handle and brought it toward me.
I had practiced the spell a couple of times since, and I was pretty sure I remembered the words.
As my oxygen ran out, I knew I was going to have to surface. I had one shot at this, so I had to make it a good one.
Placing my feet on the bottom of the pond, I pushed upward and forced myself out of the water, my wand pointed to where Bella had been standing when I went into the water. She was closer now, making her way toward me, presumably to see if I had really drowned.
The look on her face as she saw me spring up was one of pure surprise as I shouted out the incantation before she had a chance to react.
“Jupiter, your power strong, wrap around this fairy and bring her along.”
Bella’s eyes widened as invisible ropes suddenly wrapped themselves around her, and she was dragged from where she stood over to the pond.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her arms and wings pinned to her side. “What are you doing?” Her voice was shrill now, the confidence gone from it. “You were supposed to die.”
“Not today,” I said q
uietly. “Today, we go to see Chief Enforcer King, and you’re going to tell her what you’ve done.”
I stepped out of the pond, pointing my wand carefully at Bella, who continued to thrash uselessly against the spell as I made my way out of the fairy garden—I definitely did not like it as much as I had the first time I had been in there—and toward City Hall.
As I got closer to the garden exit, I spotted Amy running toward me.
“Tina! Are you alright?”
“I am,” I replied. “And I have the real killer right here.”
“Good job with the spell,” Amy said approvingly. “That’s a more difficult spell to do on a living creature than a mug in the kitchen.”
“Thanks,” I said as the three of us headed back toward City Hall. “How is Ellie doing?”
“About as well as can be expected, I think. She’s putting on a brave face, and she’s acting like everything is fine, but I think deep down she is a little bit scared. Kilmordir is there with her now.”
“Well, let’s bring Bella over,” I said. “After all, I’m sure Chief Enforcer King would love to know what she told me in that forest.”
Bella shot me a glare meant to melt me into a puddle on the spot, but it was pointless. She was caught.
Chapter 24
“And everything you’re telling me is the truth?” Chief Enforcer King asked, and I nodded. Her face was serious, all business. We were in one of the interview rooms next to the one Ellie had been held in, but the door leading to the other side was open; this wasn’t an interrogation. It was just an interview.
“Absolutely,” I replied. “Bella admitted to killing Luna so that she could claim Carson Mase for herself, and then tried to kill me.”
Four-Leaf Clovers Page 12
