That meant I had to be smart with the spells I cast. Smarter still would be to avoid casting any at all, but I couldn’t keep the shield up forever, and Barry was definitely out to kill me.
I had absolutely no idea where we were, so I didn’t know if there were any lakes nearby. Being from a water coven, the element always made me feel better, and increased my energy levels. I needed a spell that would help.
“You’re not going to go calmly, are you?” Barry muttered. “That’s all right, I’m pretty sure I can overpower someone who’s been a witch for all of five minutes.”
I broke the shield spell, leaving myself exposed, and pointed my wand towards the sky. “Titan, give me rain!” I shouted. I had no idea if it was an actual spell or not; in fact the odds were that it wasn’t. But I was desperate, and I figured that calling upon my own coven’s celestial being would be better than calling on Jupiter.
To my surprise, the clear, sunny sky was immediately covered in thick, black clouds that opened up and began a torrential downpour that soaked me to the bone within minutes. Even as my hair plastered itself against my face, I could feel my energy levels rising, as Barry shrank back.
“Titan?” He asked. “What on earth?”
I stepped towards him, and pointed my wand at him, but he was too quick.
“Jupiter, god of Thunder, snap that wand so she can’t but blunder.”
I gasped as suddenly my wand cracked in half, and as I cast my own spell, nothing happened. Barry grinned as he stepped towards me, and I dropped the shards of my now useless wand.
“I told you that you wouldn’t be able to defeat me,” he said. “You’re only delaying the inevitable. Give up now, and I promise to make it a quick death.”
“You won’t kill me,” I said. To be completely honest, I didn’t totally believe the words myself. But at least now I could cast spells again without worrying about my energy levels. The rain fell so hard I actually had a hard time hearing Barry’s words, but he stepped towards me, his wand pointed directly at my face.
“We’ll see about that. Jupiter, God almighty, strike down this witch-”
He never got to finish his spell. Even as Barry was incanting, I had grabbed one of the spare wands that Ellie had given me that morning and thought of a spell of my own. I had closed my eyes and incanted it inside my head as hard as I could, and when I opened my eyes and pointed the wand at Barry, it worked.
My new favorite spell, the spell that caused water to gush from my wand in a giant torrent, hit him square in the chest and sent him flying backwards into a tree. I had just enough time to notice the look of shock on his face before his head smashed into the trunk and he fell to the ground. I broke the spell and rushed over to him, kicking his wand away, but he was dead.
Chapter 25
I don’t know how long I stood there, staring at Barry’s body as rain continued to pound through every inch of my body. But eventually, I heard a voice call my name, and it snapped me out of it.
“Tina! Tina, are you all right?” It was Sara, on a broom. She was soon followed by Lita, Amy, and Ellie, each on brooms of their own. Sara landed next to me and looked at Barry’s body. She immediately took me into a giant hug.
“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s all going to be okay.”
“What happened here?” Lita asked as soon as she landed, making her way to Barry’s body. She checked to see if he was alive, then turned to me. “What’s going on? Why was Barry here?”
“He killed Florin,” I said. “He was going to kill me, too, because we were getting too close to the truth. He told me once he killed me, which he planned on making look like an examination accident, he was going to come for Ellie, Sara and Amy, too.”
The tears came then, the emotions overwhelming me. “How did you know to come?”
“When we saw the sky,” Amy said softly. “The rain came so fast, it had to be you. I told Lita you were probably in trouble, but I didn’t say how I knew.”
I nodded glumly. “I don’t really know how to make it stop, sorry,” I said.
“I can take care of that,” Amy replied, pointing her wand to the sky. She muttered a quick incantation and immediately the clouds dissipated once more, bringing back the cold, clear weather from earlier. The sun’s rays beat down on my face, but I still felt cold down to my bones. I had just killed a wizard. Accidentally, yes. And I did it to save my life. But that didn’t make it much easier to take in.
“Did he tell you anything?” Ellie asked.
“Not really. He admitted to killing Florin, and told me that we were getting too close to the truth, and that was why he was going to kill us, but I had figured it out before. The third challenge, where the ground turned to molten mud, helped me figure it out.”
“How?” Sara asked.
“My shoes were covered in the stuff. See? It’s gross. And yet, there had been no mud near Florin’s body.”
“That meant that Barry had already been past, and had cast the spell to get rid of the mud,” Ellie said, understanding. “So he had to have been in that area.”
“Which meant he lied to us,” I said. “He had ample opportunity to kill Florin. That day, when he sent us to the vampire warehouse, he was hoping that we’d be killed by them, not only so that our investigation would end, but so that it would throw even more suspicion on the vampires.”
“But what about the thing Kyran is investigating?” Sara asked, and I shrugged.
“I guess it had nothing to do with it. The other vampires were innocent. It had been Barry the whole time, upset over the fact that his sister was dating a vampire. When he saw that not only was Florin dating his sister, but he was also trying to flirt with fairies, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. After the coffee stall closed up for the day Barry hunted him down and killed him.”
Ellie shook her head. “And he tried to kill you.”
“He would have succeeded, if it wasn’t for you,” I said, motioning to the broken wand on the ground, only a few feet away. “He didn’t know that I had two extra wands in my pocket. I had to cast a spell without saying the words, and it worked.”
Amy’s eyes widened. “It did? Really? You didn’t speak the incantation at all?”
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I just really, really knew I needed the spell to work all the same, and it did.”
“That’s incredible,” Ellie said, looking at me wide-eyed. “If anything it confirms the information we got earlier. No one else would be able to cast a spell without speaking like that without years of practice. Amy is the only one among us who can manage it.”
“And even then, I’ve only been able to do it for about two years,” Amy said. “I agree with Ellie. But we can’t talk about that here.” She glanced over at Lita, who was coming towards us.
“Right. Time for everyone to go home,” she said. “I’m going to get Chief Enforcer King to come here and have a look at the body. From what you tell me, it’s an obvious case of self-defense. Although how on earth he knew you were going to be here, I have no idea.”
“Ellie and I mentioned my examinations when we were within earshot of Barry the other day,” I offered. “He overheard us.”
“Ah, that explains it,” Lita nodded.
“Hey, speaking of, what score did Tina get on the third part of the examination?” Amy asked. We all turned to look at Lita.
“The reports are all in,” Lita said. Turning to me, she explained. “Since I can’t see what’s going on, everything is tabulated automatically via magic. You’ve received extra points for using a different coven’s spell to get away from the molten ground challenge, and scored a total of eighty-seven percent.” She raised her eyebrows. “That is a phenomenal score for the third challenge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a witch or wizard from this coven score that high.”
“Really?” I asked, surprise etching itself all over my face.
Lita’s eyebrows raised slightly. “Yes, that’s what it says. Well. That certainly is intere
sting. No wonder you were able to pass the other two examinations. A witch of your level of natural instinct would have had no problem getting up to speed.”
We all exchanged a few looks. To be honest, I had not expected to score that highly on the third part of the examination. Should I have given up to hide the fact that I was skilled? How could I have known? I’d had a few indications that I was a naturally talented witch, but nothing like this. I was sure that given as I was so many years behind in my education compared to everyone else that my score would have naturally been quite a bit lower.
“Alright, well, you should all get going,” Lita said. “Take my broom, Tina. Amy conjured it out of nothing for me. When you get back to town can you send my co-ordinates to Chief Enforcer King and tell her to come here? There’s no service here.”
“We will,” Amy promised, and the four of us rode up into the sky. I followed the others, who knew where they were going much better than I did, and as soon as we got home Ellie and Sara put me into a hot bath while Amy called Chief Enforcer King, with Ellie promising me cinnamon buns by the time I got out.
I sank deep into the bath as I tried to relax and come to terms with everything that had happened. By the time I got out, I felt a bit better, all the more so when I got back to the living room and found a fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon bun sitting on a plate in front of me.
“Thanks, guys,” I said gratefully as I dug in. I didn’t realize just how hungry I was. After I plowed through the first bun, Ellie passed me a second one with a laugh.
“I can’t believe you’ve got the all-time best score on the third part of the examination,” Ellie said, shaking her head. “That’s incredible.”
“Let me guess, Amy had the best score until now?” I asked, and Amy shook her head.
“No, I actually failed the third part.”
I was so shocked my fork stopped halfway towards my mouth. “What?”
“It’s literally the only test I ever failed in my life. I got the best score ever on the second portion, but in the third part, I panicked. I didn’t keep a cool head, I wasn’t able to think things through, and I failed miserably. I didn’t even make it past the first challenge.”
“Wow,” I said.
“No, it makes sense. I’ve got a very analytical mind, and I work very hard to memorize what I can, but I don’t have that natural talent that you do. There’s an agile grace to your magic that I don’t have. I’m much more robotic.”
Ellie nodded. “You really do. Like, how did you know what spell to use to change the weather?”
“I didn’t,” I admitted shyly. “It was a last-ditch attempt. I was so tired, I knew I needed water to be able to cast any more spells properly, so I just called on Titan to make it rain.”
“Boy did Titan answer,” Sara said, shaking her head. “So you have no idea if you cast a real spell or not?”
“No,” I admitted. “I mean, it must have been close, for it to have rained that hard.”
“Yeah, I think if there was any doubt as to which coven you belong to, it’s gone now,” Amy said. “That’s insane.”
We spoke for a few more hours, eventually ordering pizza since cinnamon buns does not an entire meal make, before finally, I begged off, saying that I wanted to get a bit of sleep. I said goodnight to everyone, and as I slipped under the covers, holding Mr. Meowgi close to me, I was thankful that no matter what, I had some wonderful friends I could always rely on.
The following day, Kyran came by, looking a little bit disheveled. “I heard you solved your crime and killed the murderer,” he said to me when we were settled in on the couch. “Are you alright? Like, really alright?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I think so. Thanks.”
“If you ever decide you need to talk to someone, I’m here. Seriously, let me know. I know that it was self-defense, but that doesn’t necessarily stop your brain from feeling guilty.”
“I will,” I said, grateful for Kyran’s care. He was really the best boyfriend ever. “How’s your investigation going?”
He grinned. “Great. There’s going to be a number of vampires arrested today for human world crimes. It turned out, Florin wasn’t part of the gang, but his cousins were. He found out about them and was blackmailing them.”
That explained why the cousins had suddenly started being nice to Florin a few months ago, and what we had overheard in the forest before the funeral.
“So you got your whole crime circle?”
“I think so,” Kyran nodded. “Eight vampires in total, mainly from Western Woods and Spokurse. The human world is safe once more, at least for a little while.”
“Good job,” I said with a smile. “I’m proud of you.”
“And I’m proud of you.”
“We should make a crime fighting squad,” I said with a smile, leaning into Kyran’s chest. “We’d make a good team.”
Kyran laughed. “I’ve spent way too long working on my own, I’m afraid I’m permanently a lone wolf. But hey, I’m always happy to help you with whatever you need.”
“Right now, I need another cinnamon bun.”
“Coming right up,” Kyran said with a laugh, gently moving me off of him as he got up and went to the kitchen.
Yes, life was definitely nice here in Western Woods.
Book 7: Seven Year Witch: It's the opening day for The Witching Flour, and Tina is ready to help Ellie start her new bakery in whatever way she can. She just doesn't expect that to mean investigating a murder!
When one of the first customers at the new bakery is poisoned, Tina jumps into action. Rather than letting her friend wallow in despair, Tina convinces the whole crew they need to find the real killer, before the death toll rings for the bakery, as well. But with word of strange happenings elsewhere in the paranormal world, the girls are on high alert. Has Titan returned, and is he looking for his long-lost daughter?
Amy has been preparing Tina for the inevitable face-off with her father. But how will she react if it turns out he is alive, and coming for her? And will they manage to find the person who poisoned Ellie's customer before everyone is driven away from her bakery?
Click or tap here now to order Seven Year Witch (on pre-order, available October 3rd, 2019)
Also by Samantha Silver
First of all, I wanted to thank you for reading this book. I well and truly hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I loved writing it.
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Want to read more of Tina’s adventures? The seventh book in the Western Woods Mystery series, Seven Year Witch, is now available for preorder on Amazon, set for release on October 3rd 2019. Click here to preorder it now.
Other Western Woods Mysteries
Back to Spell One (Western Woods Mystery #1)
Two Peas in a Potion (Western Woods Mystery #2)
Three’s a Coven (Western Woods Mystery #3)
Four Leaf Clovers (Western Woods Mystery #4)
Five Charm Fire (Western Woods Mystery #5)
Seven Year Witch (Western Woods Mystery #7)
Willow Bay Witches Mysteries
The Purr-fect Crime (Willow Bay Witches #1)
Barking up the Wrong Tree (Willow Bay Witches #2)
Just Horsing Around (Willow Bay Witches #3)
Lipstick on a Pig (Willow Bay Witches #4)
A Grizzly Discovery (Willow Bay Witches #5)
Sleeping with the Fishes (Willow Bay Witches #6)
Get your Ducks in a Row (Willow Bay Witches #7)
Busy as a Beaver (Willow Bay Witches #8)
Magical Bookshop Mysteries
Alice in Murderland (Magical Bookshop Mystery #1)
Murder on the Oregon Express (Magical Bookshop Mystery #2)
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br /> The Very Killer Caterpillar (Magical Bookshop Mystery #3)
Death Quixote (Magical Bookshop Mystery #4)
Pride and Premeditation (Magical Bookshop Mystery #5)
Wuthering Homicides (Magical Bookshop Mystery #6)
Moonlight Cove Mysteries
Witching Aint’s Easy (Moonlight Cove Mystery #1)
Witching for the Best (Moonlight Cove Mystery #2)
Thank your Lucky Spells (Moonlight Cove Mystery #3)
A Perfect Spell (Moonlight Cove Mystery #4)
California Witching Mysteries
Witches and Wine (California Witching Mystery #1)
Poison and Pinot (California Witching Mystery #2)
Merlot and Murder (California Witching Mystery #3)
Cassie Coburn Mysteries
Poison in Paddington (Cassie Coburn Mystery #1)
Bombing in Belgravia (Cassie Coburn Mystery #2)
Whacked in Whitechapel (Cassie Coburn Mystery #3)
Strangled in Soho (Cassie Coburn Mystery #4)
Stabbed in Shoreditch (Cassie Coburn Mystery #5)
Killed in King’s Cross (Cassie Coburn Mystery #6)
Ruby Bay Mysteries
Death Down Under (Ruby Bay Mystery #1)
Arson in Australia (Ruby Bay Mystery #2)
The Killer Kangaroo (Ruby Bay Mystery #3)
About the Author
Samantha Silver lives in British Columbia, Canada, along with her husband and a little old doggie named Terra. She loves animals, skiing and of course, writing cozy mysteries.
You can connect with Samantha online here:
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