Hexes & Hot Chocolate (A Stella Storm Cozy Witch Mystery Book 3)

by Amy Casey

  He looked at me, eyes wide, sweat forming on his head, and I started to wonder if perhaps I’d made a mistake telling him the truth after all.

  But then he just looked into my eyes and he said two words that changed my mind once and for all.

  “Holy f…”

  I laughed. And I knew right then that Steve was on side. That he understood—even if he didn’t truly understand. That he’d always known there was something amiss about me anyway, but now he knew for definite that his suspicions went far beyond his wildest dreams.

  I walked over to my door with him. Stood there with him, as the light shone down on the street now.

  “So,” he said.

  “Oh don’t start that again.”

  He smiled. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around,” he said.

  I nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, you will.”

  It felt like there was more to be said. It felt like this couldn’t possibly be the end of it.

  But then he just took a deep breath and nodded. “See you,” he said.

  “Yeah,” I said. “See you.”

  A pause. A moment to be filled—filled in any way possible.

  But it wasn’t.

  It wasn’t.

  Steve walked away, off into the distance.

  I stood there by my doorway, still waiting for something, anything.

  He didn’t look round. Not once.

  And not long after that, Steve was gone.

  It was time.

  Chapter 8

  So considering I’d already visited Nightthistle before, finding it was going to be easy, right?

  Yeah. Yeah, I was wrong about that.

  It was early morning already, but it felt like this day had dragged on forever. The sun was bright and warm. Goosridge had looked beautiful when I’d left. So gorgeous that it made me want to stay; to take Rocky out for a walk, to see all the happy faces in Witchy Delights that’d be lit up by the sun alone.

  And Steve.

  Steve…

  As I drove towards the point on the sat nav where I’d transported to Nightthistle last time, I thought about the goodbye we’d shared. Was there something there? Of course there was. I’d be a fool to pretend it was ever any different.

  But I’d told him the truth.

  I’d got the truth off my chest and handed it over to him.

  And what was I expecting to happen?

  How was I expecting everything to go down?

  Was I expecting him to lock me up for my abilities? Or to spread my secret? Because I could just deny it. I could just pretend he was the mad one. After all, it wasn’t the kind of thing people readily wanted to believe—unless they were into conspiracy theories or something like that.

  But he hadn’t looked like he wanted to share a thing anyway. Sure, he’d reacted with shock, but not in the way I’d expected.

  So that was one hurdle. That was one more person back in Goosridge that I could rely on, that I could trust.

  Except I wasn’t in Goosridge anymore.

  I was going somewhere different entirely. Somewhere far more unpredictable. Somewhere I didn’t know the community. But more dauntingly than any of that, somewhere magic was prevalent.

  I had the advantage in Goosridge of knowing I was working undercover, and that my abilities were my stealth strength.

  How was I going to cope in a place where abilities were widespread?

  How was I going to cope in a place where I didn’t have the upper hand? In fact, quite the opposite—a place where I was just small fry and nothing more?

  I’d called Dad before I’d set off. Told him I was going away for a short while. He hadn’t asked where I was going. I wondered if deep down, he already knew.

  He’d said I was in too deep back when I’d solved my first case, after all. And now I’d actually seen Nightthistle… it felt like the world of magic had its claws well and truly digging into me.

  I noticed the turn in the road where I’d managed to enter Nightthistle last time and I felt my stomach knotting. This was still such a big jump. Because I knew that Curtis’ death was going to have taken a big toll on my family back in Nightthistle. And again, I hadn’t exactly broken things off on good terms with my extended family last time I’d seen them. How were they going to respond when I just showed up again and told them Curtis had asked me to investigate his murder?

  I licked my dry lips as I stopped at the turn in the road. I had no idea what was going to go on over in Nightthistle. I didn’t even know the ways people could be murdered, let alone who might’ve done it.

  But there was one thing worth noting, and that was that Curtis clearly had some kind of faith in me. It might be misguided, might be misplaced, but he had faith in me. And I had to take that as a compliment.

  I got out of the car. Took a good look at it. There was no knowing whether it would even be here next time I came back. In fact, there was a good chance it wouldn’t be.

  But hell. It was an old banger anyway. I barely used it in Goosridge. I’d almost got rid of it several times.

  Good job I hadn’t. I wasn’t sure public transport to Nightthistle was going to take off anytime soon.

  I walked over to the spot where I’d entered Nightthistle last time. Stood there a few seconds. Focused my abilities and waited for the fairy to appear to transfer me to the other side.

  But nothing happened.

  I cleared my throat. Refocused my attention. “Hey, fairy?” But when nothing happened this time, and the time after, I started to wonder whether something was wrong. Whether it was the way I was saying the words or whether it was something else.

  The fact remained.

  This was the only way I knew how to get into Nightthistle.

  And as things stood… nothing was happening.

  I looked around. Because I remembered what’d happened last time. The fairy, or whatever he was. He’d emerged. Appeared out of nowhere. And then, as cynical a dude as he was, he’d transported me to the other side.

  But without him, what could I do?

  I thought about driving home. Disappearing from here completely. Because this was the decision being taken from my hands. Curtis had given me a chance, and I’d accepted it—but there was nothing I could do if I couldn’t get there, right?

  I went to turn around, to leave, when I saw him.

  It was just as amusing as the last time I’d seen him, to be honest. That little physique. The way he hovered there. And the tiny leaf over his private parts.

  He scanned me from head to toe and he sighed. “Stella Storm,” he said. “To what do I owe the displeasure?”

  I didn’t like the guy, obviously. He was rude and he was patronising. But I could step over there and hug him right now.

  “It’s Curtis,” I said. “My… my cousin. Something’s happened to him. Something bad.”

  “Yeah,” he said, as if it was just common knowledge. “Yeah, I know.”

  “You do?” I said. “Oh good. Because that’s why I need to get to Nightthistle. Curtis came to me. He asked me to help him. So here I am. Do your thing, leaf-pants man.”

  He scanned me from head to toe again. He clearly didn’t approve of my sense of humour. He looked at a booklet that he conjured up out of nowhere and then he sighed. “I’d love to. Truly.”

  “Then go on. What’s the wait?”

  “The wait is…” He slammed his book shut. “I can’t.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean you can’t?”

  “Your family is at the centre of controversy. So I can’t just go letting anyone linked to your family in and out of Nightthistle now, can I?”

  He turned around. Started to float away. Left me standing there, feeling like quite a fool.

  “What’re you saying?” I asked.

  He looked back at me. And for the first time on his cynical little face, I saw a smile.

  “I’m saying there’s not a cat in hell’s chance you’re entering Nightthistle. So you’d better disappear from here. Fast.�
�

  “But—”

  I went to throw myself at the fairy.

  But the time I’d had the chance, he’d already disappeared.

  I was alone.

  The gate to Nightthistle was shut.

  And I didn’t know what the hell to do next.

  Chapter 9

  You know what they say about detectives who can’t even begin to solve a case because they can’t even get to the bloody place where the detecting needs to go down?

  Nah. Me neither. I don’t know what they say about them at all. But whatever it is, I’d imagine it isn’t very complimentary.

  The morning sun glared down on me. I could feel my face itching all over. I’d forgotten to apply my moisturiser before I came out, so I’d given myself a burst of moisture using one of my easier, quicker spells. But I’d applied too much. And I knew for certain that I was going to break out in no time.

  Yeah. This really wasn’t boding very well for me, was it?

  I looked around at my surroundings. The quiet road beside me. The grassy verge all around me. My car sitting there, just waiting for me to hop inside. And I knew what was happening here. I was being forced off the investigation. Surely that alone was reason enough to suspect. I mean, I found that little fairy fella funny, but who was to say he wasn’t involved, somehow?

  Maybe it was a stretch. Maybe I was looking too deeply at things.

  But one thing was for sure.

  I needed to get to Nightthistle. But I had no idea how I was going to get to Nightthistle. Not now my one entry route had been firmly denied by this little imp.

  No offence if imps are actually real. There’s a good chance, considering there’s such a thing as trolls, etcetera. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings. What kind of a monster would do such a thing?

  I sat down on the grass. Felt the dampness of the morning dew seeping through my jeans. Usually, I’d be pissed at such a turn of events, but right now I really couldn’t care less. I needed to think. Think back to things I’d been told about Nightthistle. Think back to see if there was potentially any other way I could get there through things my family told me. After all, they surely wouldn’t just rely on one little fairy, would they? There were surely other ways to transport between the two places, right? This wasn’t a platform 9 3/4 situation. This was reality.

  Although admittedly, reality was shaping up to be far weirder than Harry Potter right now.

  I lay back on the grass. Stared up at the sky. And once again, I started to wonder if maybe giving up would honestly be the better option. It would be the easier option to take, for sure. I could go home, see Rocky and Beatrice—who I was already missing. I could make things right with Steve and train Annabelle up to full standard running Witchy Delights. I could go jogging with Mary… All the things I deep down really wanted to do, which had been denied me because—

  I stopped, then. Jolted upright. Because something had come back to me. Something had returned. A memory. A memory of something Aunt Hilda had told me, way back when I went to see her at Dad’s about what’d happened to Thomas.

  “You have a God-given right to be in Nightthistle, Stella. Whether you bloody well like it or not, and whether I bloody well like it or not. There isn’t a thing I or anyone else can do about that. All you’ve got to do is stand your ground and… boom.”

  The way she’d said those words. The way she’d made clear the right I had to be in Nightthistle. The more I thought about it, the more I started to believe there was something in it. That perhaps I was supposed to be there after all, no matter what anyone told me.

  So I did something that, were there anyone around, would no doubt make me look totally mad.

  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and screamed, “NAKED FAIRY!”

  I listened to my voice echo and repeated it, again and again, jumping up and down, stamping on the ground.

  “NAKED FAIRY! NAKED FAIRY! COME BACK HERE, YOU LEAF-DONNING LITTLE BRAT! NAKED FAIR—”

  “Are you alright, love?”

  I stopped and opened my eyes right away.

  There was an old man standing there, wife and two kids beside him, a dog in front of both of them. Ramblers. Who was looking at me with… well, a mixture of concern and fear.

  I felt my cheeks burning, looked over my shoulder like they were speaking to someone else. “What, me?”

  “You were the woman shouting something about a nude fairy, weren’t you?”

  “It was ‘naked fairy,’ actually. And yeah. Yeah, I was.”

  I said it matter of factly because I guess all I could do was own my mistake right now and make it seem like there was a logic behind what I’d been doing, as embarrassing as it might be.

  “Okay,” the man said, as his wife grabbed his hand and muttered something in his ear. “Okay then if you’re sure you’re—”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Just… just enjoying the weather.” I smiled.

  The man smiled back, clearly hesitant. “Righto.”

  “Bye.”

  The group rushed off without saying another word.

  I almost tumbled to the ground with embarrassment when I heard a snigger.

  I turned around.

  The fairy was hovering there.

  He was covering his mouth with his hands. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. He was the happiest I’d ever seen him.

  “Wow,” he said. “Just wow. I mean, I found you pretty annoying at first. But that… that display there. That was something else. I mean you can come right into Nightthistle if you’ll do a regular performance like that.”

  “Really?”

  “No,” he said.

  I took a sharp breath in. “Good to know you were amused. But we need to talk.”

  “I don’t believe we do,” he said. “I mean, we spoke enough already about everything there is to talk about. You aren’t coming into Nightthistle. Not in the current climate.”

  He started to fade away.

  But this time I latched on before he could.

  “I have a birthright to be there.”

  He stopped. Turned around. “What?”

  He looked rattled. Which for the first time, actually gave me energy, charged me up, made me believe. “I am Stella Storm. And whether you want to let me in or not, you can’t deny my heritage. And you can’t deny my right to be there. Would you like me to report you to… well, to whoever you serve?”

  He frowned at me. “You don’t even know who I serve.”

  “Try me,” I said.

  He looked flummoxed by that. Like he couldn’t quite figure out whether I was serious or not.

  “You’re bluffing,” he said.

  “Oh, am I? Or… are you just being obstructive?”

  “I’m just following procedure—”

  “My family go back eons. If eons are a thing. I think eons are a thing. An eon is bigger than a decade, right?”

  The fairy man looked even more caught up. “Um, yeah. I think an eon is a quite a long time.”

  “Then you’ll know my family traditions. You’ll know the significance of me being here right now. And you’ll know that when one of my family members is murdered and crosses over the threshold to ask me for help, then I’m damn well going to listen, aren’t I?”

  The fairy lowered his head. “I—I guess—”

  “So you let me into Nightthistle. You let me cross over. Otherwise… well. I’d hate for anyone to find out you’ve been obstructing an investigation, wouldn’t you?”

  The little colour that was on his face faded, right there. He shook his head. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Again. Try me.”

  A pause. A silence. A block in the road.

  “I have family too,” he said. “Young ones who I care about. Who I provide for.”

  “Then if you care about your family, you’ll let me in.”

  “I’m not a monster.”

  “You’re not. You’re a fairy. There’s a difference, I believe.”

  He si
ghed. Scratched his head, adjusted the leaf covering his privates. He still looked unsure, uncertain.

  “You just have to let me cross over,” I said. “I won’t cause trouble. Quite the opposite. Whatever state Nightthistle is in after the murder… I’m going over there to make things right. Not to destabilise things. You understand that. Right?”

  He swallowed a lump in his little throat. And when he shook his head, puffed himself up, returned his mean demeanour, I thought he was going to reject me once again.

  But this time, he said: “You can go in. But no funny business. Absolutely no funny business.”

  I stepped over him, so relieved that I could kiss him.

  “Hey,” he said, holding up a hand. “I said no funny business, didn’t I?”

  “Sorry. Sorry. It’s just—”

  “Now. The nature of your visit.”

  “What? You know the nature of my visit.”

  “It’s… just for records, you know? Play along here. I’m doing you a favour, okay?”

  I nodded. Took a deep breath. Then I looked back at my car, at the bright sky, at the fields all around me, and the cautious looking ramblers hurrying off into the distance. “I’m here to solve my brother’s murder,” I said.

  The fairy tilted his head. “Do you mind if I just put ‘family business’?”

  “What?”

  “Well. I appreciate the dramatic moment and all that, but it’d just make filing this a lot easier.”

  “Oh. Right. Sure.”

  He nodded. Put his pad away (where he put it, I still didn’t know, and I dreaded to think).

  Then he held out a hand.

  “On my count, you focus all your transportive energy,” he said.

  “How do I—”

  “You just strain a little. Like you’re having a dump.”

  “Classy.”

  I took his hand.

  Then I took another deep breath.

  “Three. Two. One. And…”

  I tensed.

  Thankfully not for long.

  In that instant, I felt my form shifting, felt my sense of self deteriorating, crumbling up into a mist.

  When I opened my eyes again, I was standing at a height, looking down at the town of Nightthistle.