To say it was awkward, didn’t really cover it. They drove to the park on the beach. Riley wanted to play in the sand, so Avery occupied his attention while Bailey sat with Piper and Gavin on the beach. For a little while, they just watched the waves.
“I don’t know what came over me,” Gavin said. “I can’t believe I said those things…”
“Did you mean them?” Piper asked. She was angry. But, she had that cool, neutral tone. She knew how to put her emotions away when they might do more harm than good. Bailey wished she could learn that trick.
Gavin opened his mouth to speak, and then coughed. After a moment, he shrugged. “I wish I could say I didn’t… but it’s not what it sounds like, Pipes. I promise… I love you, and I love Riley, too. Sometimes, though… I feel like I’m under so much pressure. I don’t know if I can handle it. It’s hard. Trying to keep my family happy, and, well; you know Mama. She’s a handful.”
“That’s underselling it,” Piper said, only a little snippy.
“And that’s the other thing—I wish you two got along, but I know I can’t do nothing about that, Pipes. And it feels like I’m gettin’ torn in two.” He sighed, and kicked sand.
Piper glanced at Bailey, and squeezed her hand a little. She wanted something, Bailey could feel it, but she didn’t know what. She opened her mind just a little to Piper, almost afraid to let her power touch either of her friends a second time.
“…can’t stand to ask him myself. I don’t want to know where he’s going after work…”
Bailey shut it down. It was the piece missing. If it was bad, though, it would be really bad. She didn’t want to stir things anymore. She recalled at that moment that she’d heard one of the deputies thinking about Gavin and Marla… and whether he’d gone to see her recently. It was such a familiar name.
Again, she opened herself up, and reached out to Gavin’s mind. It was shaky, the same as he looked, but worse. That was the last time she did magic like that. She made that promise to herself then and there. Marla… who was Marla?
Focusing on the name was a little like sifting through the panicked, ragged thoughts running through Gavin’s head until one that matched stood out from the rest. Doctor M. Marla. Marla was a doctor… no… Gavin talked to her, sometimes twice a week. On a couch…
Doctor Marla. Of course. Marla was a shrink. Gavin hadn’t been cheating, he’d been seeing a counselor.
Armed with that, Bailey felt more at ease broaching the subject. “Gavin,” she said, “I know maybe it’s none of my business but… well, Piper’s a little worried about why you’re staying late after work.”
Gavin’s face turned red, and he dropped his eyes. “Oh… that’s…” he sighed, and turned to Piper. “I didn’t want to worry you. I got so much going on in my head, and at work, and at home… if I’d known it was eating you up I’d have told you, but Mama… well I’d rather you didn’t say anything to her. I’ve been seeing someone.”
Piper gasped.
“Gavin,” Bailey hissed.
“Oh, geeze, Pipes—no, I meant, I’ve been seeing a doctor. A shrink. A counselor. Doctor M; Marla Meisner, over in East Point center.”
Piper’s body seemed to shake something loose. She collapsed forward into a long hug with Gavin. “Why didn’t you tell me, baby?” She muttered.
“Cause I didn’t want you to think I was weak, Pipes,” he said. “That I couldn’t handle it.”
“Baby, I could never think that. I know how strong you are,” Piper said. “But all those things you said… we have to talk about all that. Either just us, or, you know… I could go with you to see the doc. Like couples counseling.”
“Yeah,” Gavin said, a mix of shame and relief in his voice. “Yeah, I guess we could.”
Bailey took that as the cue. She stood. “Well… I can’t leave you two stranded out here but it seems like you’ve got a lot to talk about. Want a ride home?”
“Just to Hap’s,” Gavin said. “My car’s still there. We might go out… you know, wait a bit to go home. What with Mama there and all…”
“I can drive,” Piper added. Gavin grimaced, and gave them both a nod.
Avery hauled Riley up to the car on his shoulders, where Gavin took him and buckled him in. They rode in relative silence except for Riley’s chatter—a secret language that only Piper apparently spoke because she responded as though it all made perfect sense—and ultimately deposited them back at Gavin’s car.
“We’ll check up on you to later on, okay?” Avery said before they left them. “If either of you need to talk, you can always call us.”
“Always,” Bailey confirmed. Everyone hugged, again, and Bailey and Avery were alone again.
“So,” Avery said wryly. “What have we learned?”
Bailey rolled her eyes. “Not you, too,” she muttered. But she sighed, and watched Gavin and Piper’s tail lights turn the far corner. “Chloe was right. She said magic can solve problems, but it’s never easy and never without a cost. I hate that Piper and Gavin are having to pay that cost.”
“Well, they’re the ones getting the benefit, if they take it,” he said. “It makes a certain kind of sense.”
“I suppose,” Bailey said. She checked the time. “I need to talk to the Coven…”
“But?” Avery asked, sensing some other alternative.
“Well,” Bailey said, “I’d rather go to them with something a little more solid, if I can. So they can’t shut me down again. Some kind of proof or, something…”
Avery put fingers to his forehead, eyes closed as he took on a dramatic face that Bailey could only interpret as his impression of a stage psychic. “I’m sensing,” he said ominously, “another dangerously irresponsible attempt at amateur investigation…”
“Har har,” Bailey said. But, she bit her lip and held up her thumb and forefinger, pinched close. “Only a teensy bit dangerously irresponsible. A crime scene.”
“The tour office?” Avery asked.
Bailey nodded.
Avery groaned, and then sighed, and finally grunted irritation; but he did put the car into reverse to pull out of the parking space. “One of these days, Bailey Robinson, you are going to get me into serious trouble.”
Chapter 13
They had to wait a bit for the cover of darkness. It seemed, to both of them, like a bad idea to go back to the Tour Office so soon after it had been broken into. Still, there was no sign of Aiden’s car out front, and the Sheriff’s department had cleared out—dismissed, no doubt, by the owner when he let them know that nothing was missing. Plywood boards covered the doors where the glass had been.
“How will we get in?” Aiden asked.
Bailey frowned at him, and held up her keys. “We don’t need to break in, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Well…” Avery shrugged. “I was just asking.”
Despite the fact that Bailey had the means and, presumably, even the right—more or less-to be in the place when it was closed, she still felt a little like a burglar herself. They parked on the street, down a block from the office, and stumbled down into the bushes off the side walk to make their way toward the place instead of just walking down the street like anyone else would have. Avery was wary of being spotted by any patrolling Sheriff.
“They always return to the scene of the crime,” he insisted. By ‘they’ he presumably meant the burglars, or just criminals in general.
Bailey did feel as though they ought to be quiet, so she didn’t engage him in an argument about the many reasons why, as she saw it, different types of criminals would not return to the scenes of their crimes. Instead, she just elbowed him a little in the side, and put a finger on her lips. Shhh.
When it seemed that no one was likely watching them from the street, they scurried up to the office building and Bailey quickly unlocked the door for them. The two slipped in, and she locked it back. Easy peasy.
That was, until someone inside the office shifted something around.
Bailey and Avery dropped into crouches at the same time. Bailey waved at a stand of tee-shirts that had been on display for longer than she’d been giving tours without selling a single one. They hung almost to the ground, and they were a blind spot in the security system, where the cameras didn’t cover. Though, of course, their transit to the hiding spot was on film, if they cameras were back up and running.
Whether they were or not, Aiden emerged from the office, possibly drawn by the sound, however quiet, of the door opening. When he was perhaps satisfied it was nothing, and that the door was still locked, he stood a moment in the middle of the room, looking at something he was holding in his hands, before wandering slowly toward the back of the building.
The two of them held their breath until they heard a door shut.
“He’s going down to the caves,” Bailey breathed.
“Why?” Avery whispered.
“I don’t know, maybe—” Bailey cleared her throat—no one else was here anymore, there was no sense in trying to be quiet; or in crouching down and hiding. She stood, and Avery followed. “I don’t know,” she said at normal voice, “but he had something in his hands. I want to check the exhibit.”
She led Avery to it, and when they went through the door, he seemed surprised. “You know… I remember being here but I kind of forgot this place existed.”
“I think it’s magic,” Bailey said. “Almost no one ever comes in here.”
“Well it isn’t well marked, that’s for sure,” Avery muttered. He looked around the place. “This is where the stone was?”
Bailey nodded, and pointed to a second empty case. “Yes,” she said, “and now there’s another one missing. That was what Aiden was looking at. What do you say now?” She put her hands on her hips and looked pointedly at Avery, who considered for a moment, and then shook his head.
“Sorry, Bails,” he said. “I’m still not feeling it. Maybe if I had something of his?”
Bailey raised both eyebrows slowly, and began to smile.
“Shut up, you,” Avery groaned. “I mean that I sometimes kind of… vibe better if I can touch something a person has held. Or, even better, something important to them.”
“You can do that?” Bailey wondered just how advanced Avery’s ability was.
He shrugged, though. “Honestly, I never know. It’s happened a few times, though. Sometimes I get vibes off of books. Just little ones.”
She left the question about what the difference between a ‘big’ vibe and a ‘little’ vibe was for later. For now, Aiden was headed to the cave, maybe with one of the stones, and she wanted to go after him and see what he was up to.
“Come on,” she said. Avery followed her out.
They opened the back door slowly, quietly, and Bailey peeked out before they emerged. Aiden was already nearly at the end of the trail. It felt almost wrong to tail him like this, but if they did catch him up to something, well… then he deserved it. Retroactively.
They skirted the bushes that lined the trail down to the caves, creeping slowly until they found a big enough section to duck down behind. Aiden was some distance away still, and they would lose him if he went very far in.
He didn’t, however. Just inside the entrance to the first cave, Aiden stopped, and looked down at the stone in his hands. He seemed to be looking for something inside the cave, and took a few more steps in before he turned and looked up at one of the walls.
And then a very strange thing happened. Bailey was certain he’d had nothing in his pockets, and nothing else in his hands, but suddenly Aiden held in one of his hands a long, slender object. It was too far away to see clearly, but it was dark, maybe brown or black. He studied the stone carefully, and then waved the rod around it a few times in a complicated series of swirls and jabs, his movements at times smooth and at others jerky and sharp. His lips moved.
Avery sucked in a breath, and grabbed Bailey’s arm. She had almost done the same thing—a glowing network of lines began to appear before Aiden, between him and the cave wall. They only lasted a few moments, and he peered carefully at them before he slashed the rod through them and turned away. He rubbed his forehead, and looked as though he might hurl the stone away.
He recovered himself, however, rather than throwing a tantrum, and started the process over again, this time working more slowly.
“I knew it,” Bailey whispered.
“What is he doing?” Avery asked.
“Magic,” Bailey said.
“Is he a witch, too?” Avery was craning his neck to get a better view. Bailey tugged him back down.
“I haven’t seen the ladies do anything like that,” she said. “And it looks… I don’t know, different. Our magic is symbolic, organic… this is almost geometric. It looks like he’s testing something. I don’t know. But I need to go see the Coven. Like, now.”
It took some doing to pull Avery away from the scene, but Bailey did, and they crouched low as they made their way back up the trail until they were around the slight bend and out of sight of the caves.
Back inside the tour office, Avery was unusually quiet. That was fine. Bailey wasn’t sure what else she could have said, anyway. Her heart was pounding all the way through the building. At the office window, she peeked inside before she walked passed, and then stopped.
She backed up a step, and took a closer look at Aiden’s desk. It was littered with white sheets of paper that had vaguely familiar patterns drawn on them, along with notations of some kind.
“Hang on a sec,” she told Avery, and checked the lock on the door. It was still the same as before, the same type as the front door, and her key still worked. She slipped in, arranged the papers over the desk, and drew her phone out. Aiden may be back any moment if what he was trying didn’t work, but these diagrams looked familiar for a reason—they reminded her of some that she’d seen in the spell book.
She snapped pictures of each sheet of paper before she re-arranged them back to where she thought they were when she started.
It wasn’t until they were out of the building and back at Avery’s car that they spoke again.
“What did I just see?” Avery asked, full of awe.
Bailey felt it too, but then she’d known magic existed for months now, and she’d seen the cave walls come alive with the story of the covens. Then, she’d been shocked and mystified as well. “Aiden has some kind of magic,” Bailey muttered, flicking through the pictures she’d taken. She turned them one way and the other, hoping that one of them would make sense. They didn’t, however. Whatever magic Aiden was versed in, it was very different than what she’d seen so far. “I have no idea what kind.”
“Was that a wand he had?” The car still wasn’t on.
“We should get out of here,” Bailey said. “I need to speak with the Coven and I should probably do that alone. Mind dropping me off at the Bakery?”
Avery nodded, and started the car. Once he had, she spoke to his question. “It must have been,” she said. “I’ve never seen the coven ladies use wands before. And our magic isn’t so flashy.” She zoomed in on some of the symbols on the picture, but hadn’t taken a high enough resolution picture to make them out. If you couldn’t see the small print symbols clearly, though, it almost looked like math.
“Do they use brooms, or something?” Avery wondered; not entirely earnestly. He was reacquiring some of his sardonic humor.
Bailey snorted. “Not as far as I know. I also haven’t laid eyes on a cauldron, all the ladies have two eyes of their own instead of one to share between them, the bakery doesn’t have chicken feet—that I’ve seen, anyway—and no one has offered me a wide-brimmed pointy hat.”
“Well, maybe your Coven isn’t all that fashionable,” Avery said, a grin plucking at the corner of his mouth.
“Hush, you,” Bailey said. She’d have laughed, but she couldn’t find it in her. There was something serious happening. But some things didn’t add up. Aiden hadn’t been aware of the stones originally; or at least, he’d
made a show of not having known they were there. He definitely did now, though. What had changed?
She stored these questions up for the coven ladies. The list was getting quite long, and she wasn’t going to take their dodging and weaving to get out of them this time. She had enough to dig up her own answers if she had to.
Avery pulled up alongside Grovey Goodies, and they exchanged hugs before Bailey assured Avery she would call him later with the skinny on all this. “I know I don’t have to tell you,” she started.
“No,” Avery said, a little smartly, “you don’t. I’ll keep your secret, Bails. Come on. It’s me.”
“I know. Thank you, Ave. You don’t know what it means to be able to talk to you about all this.”
He chuckled ruefully. “Believe me, hon; I do. Call me later.”
He left, and Bailey steeled herself for what came next. The bakery would close shortly, and then she was going to have answers.
Chapter 14
Bailey waited until the last customer had left, and it was time to close the place down. When that time came, Aria, Francis, and Chloe exchanged meaningful looks and then locked the door.
“Something’s on your mind,” Chloe said.
Bailey nodded. “We should probably talk upstairs.”
So the four of them went up to the attic. They took seats in the four chairs there while Bailey gathered her nerve.
“Is this about the spell?” Francis asked.
“No,” Bailey said. “That… well it’s done with for now. Or at least…” she sighed, “…well, the worst is hopefully over.”
“I trust you’ve learned your lesson?” Francis’ scowl was a little more scowly than usual.
Bailey only nodded. “But this is about something else. It’s about Aiden.”
A Witching Well of Magic: A Cozy Mystery (Witchy Women of Coven Grove Book 2) Page 9
