“Well, obviously we can’t keep the old name, Jimmy’s Bed & Brew – so we’ve decided that we’re going to rename the place and then have a big grand re-opening party to announce it to the town. It was Mom’s idea to have the party on Halloween.”
I lifted my left lip and grumbled, “That sounds like a lot of work.”
“Mercy Mae, what have I taught you? Anything worth having is worth working for. Now quit whining. We’d like your help.”
I let out a big sigh and sat back in my chair. “Fine,” I grumbled. “What do I need to do?”
“Help setting up would be nice,” Reign answered. “We’ll probably need some extra sets of hands at the party too.”
“Oh! I’ve just gotten a great idea! What if we did like a haunted house and charged admission?” my mother suggested excitedly. “Then we could donate part of our proceeds to the women’s shelter in town? It would be a great way to really make ourselves part of the community.”
“Wow Mom. I take it you’re bored?” I asked sarcastically.
“Oh, come on. It would be for a great cause. You and your friends could help out by being part of the haunted house. You could fly in on your broomsticks to kick the evening off, how does that sound?”
Reign nodded as a slow smile spread across his face. “I’m really feeling this idea. What do you say, sis. Help a brother out?”
I shrugged. “How can I pass that up? Fine, I’m sure most of the Witch Squad will be willing to help. Maybe I can ask around at school, maybe some of the other kids will want to help too.”
Mom reached across the bar and covered my hand with hers softly. “You could probably even get Houston involved. I really like that boy, you know.”
I rolled my eyes. I loved my mom a lot, but the bad part of her staying in town was that she was going to be all up in my business even more than she had been before.
“How long are you staying in Aspen Falls anyway?” I asked.
She eyed me suspiciously. “Well that was fast. Two minutes ago you were happy that I was here. Trying to get rid of me already?”
I let out a heavy sigh. As much as I was enjoying my mother for the moment, I could already predict how much she was going to interfere with my life. “Of course not. I just need my own space. I’m in college now. I don’t need my mother hovering around all the time.”
“Don’t worry, Mercy Bear, I’ll leave you and your friends alone as much as I can.”
“I’ll keep her busy, don’t worry,” said Reign, shooting me a wink. “We have a lot of catching up to do. And a lot of work to do to get this place ready by Halloween.”
“And once I’ve helped Reign get the business off the ground, I’ll go back to Dubbsburg. I don’t want to impose on my children forever,” she sighed melodramatically.
Looking down at my plate of food, I rolled my eyes to myself.
“No imposition on my end,” Reign assured her.
I sat back and looked at Mom without speaking. While I loved her very much and was enjoying this short visit, I wasn’t sure that I wanted my mother hanging around any longer than necessary.
She looked up at me and crunched her nose at me. “Besides, it’s not like I’ve had such a great week here anyway.”
As I stabbed at my slice of pie with my fork, I looked up at her with surprise. “You haven’t?”
She shook her head. “Not really. Weird things have been happening all week.”
“What kinds of things?”
“Mmm, just little things, really. I go to grab the toothpaste and it’s not in my bathroom and the next day I find it in the kitchen, or I’m sure I’ve shut off the oven and then two hours later I find that it’s still on. Makes me feel like I’m losing my marbles. And on top of that, I’ve had this really strange sensation, like a dark cloud is hovering over my head. It’s been like that since I came to town.” Mom looked at Reign nervously. “I’ve got to assume I’m having these feelings because your father is close by. You know your grandmother bound us from ever getting too close to one another years ago. I imagine there are repercussions if we end up in the same zip code.”
“About that…” Reign began. “That’s sort of why I wanted us all to get together and have dinner tonight.”
My eyes flew to my mom’s face to gauge her reaction. It had gone pure ashen in a matter of seconds. We’d been waiting for this day to come. I knew my brother’s father was in the area, but he hadn’t revealed his name yet. Of course my mother knew his name, but she wasn’t about to spill the beans to me before Reign had had a chance to introduce himself to his father.
“Have you spoken to your father?” my mother asked somberly as a hand fluttered nervously to her neck.
Reign nodded and his eyes darkened. “Yes, I spoke to him this morning.”
My jaw dropped. “What did he say? Did he know about you?”
Reign pinched his lips together and shook his head as he looked down at his hands. “No, he didn’t know about me,” he whispered. “Grandmother never told him.”
The only sound in the room was that of Chesney chasing a ball around the floor. I sucked in a deep breath. I didn’t know what to say.
“What did he say?” Mom asked.
“He was shocked, to say the least,” Reign said, nodding. “He was angry, justifiably I suppose, at your mother.”
Mom nodded with wide eyes, but couldn’t seem to form any words.
“He said he wished that he had known about me, which I appreciated. I didn’t know if he would have wanted me – had he known,” Reign said honestly.
My mom stood up and threw her arms around Reign’s shoulders. “I wanted you and I know your father. If he would have know…” she wiped away a tear, “he would have wanted you too.”
Reign gave her a tight smile. I could tell he was working hard at reeling in his emotions. “Yeah, you know, you hope. After finding out I was adopted, I sort of created these stories in my head. About who my parents were and why they gave me up and I always hoped that I was wanted in some way. But I guess you just never know, until you know.”
I sat in my chair awkwardly, not knowing how to comfort my brother. I was glad to have finally met him myself, but we’d only known each other for a couple of weeks. Technically, we were still strangers to one another.
“Anyway, yeah, so we finally met!” Reign said after grinding at his right eye with the ball of his hand.
Mom tried to muster up a smile. “So what did you think of him?”
Reign’s head tipped back and forth with a light smile. “Eh, he was alright. He was a pretty intimidating guy,” he admitted.
I couldn’t take it anymore. “Well tell me who he is for crying out loud!”
“Oh,” Reign said with a chuckle. “Sorry, I forgot for a second you didn’t know already. Actually, you might know him. He’s a teacher at your school. His name is Merrick Stone.”
My jaw dropped and my eyes opened wide. “Grandmaster Flash is your father?”
“Grandmaster Flash?” Reign asked.
At the same time, Mom shook her head, confused. “Merrick Stone?”
I looked incredulously at my mother. “You’re telling me you don’t even remember your ex-boyfriend’s name?”
She squinted her eyes at Reign. “His name is Merrick Smith.”
Reign shook his head. “It’s Stone.”
“It’s Stone,” I agreed. “And he’s my flying teacher!”
Mom’s head swiveled around to meet mine. “Merrick Smith is your flying teacher?!”
“No, Merrick Stone is my flying teacher. And he’s the headmaster of the Paranormal Institute for Wizards. And I think he’s Sorceress Stone’s brother and the Black Witch’s brother.”
My mother’s eyes bugged out of her head. “I knew I recognized that woman!”
Reign looked between the two of us in confusion. “What woman?”
“The Headmistress of Mercy’s school. Sara. She goes by Stone now, huh? It was Smith back then. Sara Smith. I wonder w
hy they changed their last name.”
“You know Sorceress Stone?!”
Mom tilted her head to the side and swished her lips towards the ceiling. “Just barely. I only met her once. Merrick took me on a picnic and his sister, Sara, stopped by to meet me. But only for the briefest of moments. She was quite the serious one.”
What a day for big reveals! My mind couldn’t stop spinning. “This is absolutely bizarre,” I said, stunned.
“You’re telling me!” my mom said with anguish. “I can’t believe I sent you to witch college with Merrick’s family! They should put their pictures on the website!”
“Would that have changed your mind, sending Mercy to school here?” Reign asked curiously.
Mom nodded. “Absolutely! She doesn’t need to get in the middle of my drama with Merrick and his family.”
“There’s drama between you and the family?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s drama exactly, but I don’t think his family liked me very much.”
“But you barely knew them! How would they know if they liked you or not?”
“It was just a sense I got. Sara was reluctant to meet me and when she did she was very curt – almost rude. I never did meet Beth.”
“Who’s Beth?” Reign asked.
“She’s the Black Witch,” I said. “They go by SaraLynn and BethAnn now.”
“Well, I hate to say it, guys, but this is a major letdown,” I said as I slumped back down into my chair. “Of all the possible men in Aspen Falls that could have been your father … let’s just say I would have picked someone different.”
Mom and Reign both stared at me.
My mother sucked in a breath as she covered up her heart. “Mercy!”
I closed my eyes and threw both hands in the air. “I’m just keepin’ it real, Mom.”
“How is this a letdown for you?” Reign asked, offended.
His tone made me feel bad. I hadn’t intended to be spiteful or hurtful or anything, but I definitely was not on Team Stone. They were about as dysfunctional of a family as I could think of. While Jax was slowly growing on me, Merrick was incredibly intimidating and definitely not lovable father material, SaraLynn wasn’t winning any mother of the year awards in my book, and as much as I hated to agree with Libby and Cinder, I had to admit, the Black Witch was super creepy. What a family to be related to. Poor Reign.
“Sorry Reign. I just feel bad for you, I guess. Your dad’s scary.”
“Mercy!” my mother exclaimed. “That’s so rude to say to your brother!”
“Sorry Mom, sorry Reign. I just left the guy. He’s hard and distempered and I’m not going to lie, he’s a bit of a nut job.”
My mom shook her head. “That certainly isn’t the Merrick I fell in love with. My Merrick was charming and lovable and incredibly intelligent. Oh, and so handsome. Just like your brother.”
I looked at my brother’s face in a different light now that I knew who I was looking for. I definitely saw bits and pieces of the Stone family in there – the high cheekbones and the lean, lanky body. Actually his features resembled Jax a bit more than SaraLynn or BethAnn, but he had his father’s dark hair and olive skin. Reign was incredibly handsome, that was a no brainer, but I really didn’t see the same handsomeness in Merrick’s face that I saw in my brother’s. Merrick was harder and much older; he didn’t have the same youthful spirit my brother did.
“He wants me to enroll in the Institute,” Reign admitted, looking squarely at Mom.
Mom shook her head in a panic. “No! Tell me you’re not going to.”
Reign looked at her in surprise. “You don’t want me to go to school?”
“Not there. I wish I had known that it was Merrick’s school. I wouldn’t have sent your sister there either.”
“But he’s my father. Mercy’s not his daughter, why would it have mattered?”
My mother shook her head like she really didn’t want to discuss it. “It just matters. Like I said, I never thought Merrick’s family liked me. I assumed that was why he never wanted to bring me home to meet his mother. But all I’m saying here is, had I known that the Institute was their school, I wouldn’t have chosen it for my daughter.”
“But he’s my father,” Reign repeated.
“I know, sweetheart. I only want what’s best for you. If someday you decide you want to attend his school, I won’t stand in your way, but if I had my choice, you’d get to know your father away from his family. You can attend school somewhere else if that’s what you want.”
Reign let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know that I want to go to school. I just wanted to get to know the guy.”
“Then get to know him, sweetheart. But just be wary of his family.”
“See, I told you,” I said, popping another deviled egg into my mouth. “My thoughts exactly.”
{ Chapter Four}
A breeze carried me in through the front doors of Winston Hall, the girl’s dormitory at the Institute, after being dropped off by Reign and my mother. I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering as the cool evening air swirled around me. “Brr,” I chattered out loud before bumping into Alba who was just heading up the wide stone staircase to her dorm room.
She stopped walking and looked at me curiously.
“It’s getting chillier out there! What are you doing?” I asked.
She lifted a coffee cup. “Just getting a little caffeine so I can get through all my homework tonight.”
“Oooh! That sounds like exactly what I need to warm me up. Come with me while I get a macchiato?”
She shrugged. “Sure.” The two of us headed towards Paranormally Delicious, the small coffee shop in the lobby tucked in the alcove beneath the staircase. “Where have you been?”
“I went to have supper with my mom and my brother. Oh man, I’ve got some major news to share with you and the girls.”
“Ah,” she said. We walked towards the doorway silently. I could tell there was something on her mind, she seemed a little more reserved than usual. “Hey Red,” she finally began, “you, uh, didn’t say anything to anyone about what I told you the other day, did you?”
I looked at Alba curiously. I’d never seen her feathers ruffled before, but now she seemed a little uneasy. I stopped walking and turned to face her squarely. “You mean about you being married?”
Her eyes widened and her head swiveled on her neck to glance around the empty dorm lobby. “Shhh,” she hissed. “Yeah, about that.”
“Oh, of course not. You asked me to keep it a secret. I’m pretty good with secrets.”
“Oh.”
“Why? Did someone say something?”
She shook her head. “No, not really. Holly was just acting kind of weird. I thought maybe you said something to her.”
“Oh. No, I didn’t mention it. Swear.”
She nodded and pulled open one of the large glass swinging doors to the coffee shop. Following behind Alba closely, a blast of warm scented air hit my face as I entered. The strong bitter aroma of coffee mixed with sweet rolls filled my nose.
“I swear I won’t say anything, but what I don’t understand is, why does it have to be a secret?”
She took a sip of her coffee, considering my question. “It’s just no one’s business but mine.”
“Well, I know that. But do you think the girls would really care that you’re married?”
“For the love of Pete, can you keep your voice down?” she asked, looking around again. Two girls were in line for drinks, but neither seemed to even notice we’d entered the shop.
“You’re acting like a spooked horse, Alba. What’s going on?”
Her head teetered on her shoulders. I could tell she wanted to tell me something, but she didn’t want to tell me. “I don’t know. Things between me and Tony are kinda rocky.”
“And the girls can’t understand that?” I didn’t understand what the problem was.
“I just don’t want to tell them,” she whined. “Why do
es this have to be a thing?”
We got in line behind the two girls and I shrugged. “It doesn’t have to be a thing. Have you heard from him yet?”
She looked away staunchly. “Nah.”
I knew she didn’t want to appear like it hurt her that her husband hadn’t contacted her since she came to college. But I knew it did. What a jerk. I hadn’t even met the guy and I already didn’t like him.
“Why don’t you call him?” I asked her.
She snorted. “Not gonna happen.”
The two girls in line in front of us took their drinks from the counter and walked out.
“I’ll have a double caramel macchiato please - hot,” I said to the barista. Then I turned to Alba. “Sometimes guys are stupid. You can’t just expect him to know that you want to hear from him.”
“He’s my husband. You’d think that would be obvious.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think anything is obvious to guys. You literally need to hit them over the head with the directions.”
She shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I’m not crying about it or anything.”
I stuck my debit card into the machine in front of me as the barista passed me my drink. The heat immediately warmed my hands. “Thanks. Mmm, this looks so good.” I took my card out of the machine and stuck it back in my pocket as the two of us made our way out of the coffee shop and up the stairs. “Ok, well, I can’t make you do anything that you don’t want to do. But I can take your mind off of it. Come on. You grab Holly and I’ll find Sweets. Meet me in my room. We’ve got some serious stuff to discuss!”
Within five minutes, the Witch Squad was snuggled away in Jax’s and my dorm room with a jumbo sized bowl of caramel popcorn, courtesy of Sweets.
Unable to chase the chill away, I threw another sweater on over my hoodie. “Ok, girls. I called this meeting of the Witch Squad because I have some major news that you are all going to flip over,” I began, pulling my hands all the way into the sleeves of my sweater.
Jax rocked from side to side on her butt on the floor and laced her arm through Sweets’, squealing excitedly. “Is this about Reign’s father? ‘Cause I have this feeling that this is totally about Reign’s father.”
Witch Degrees of Separation: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery #3 Page 3
