A Hex a Day (Which Village Book 1)

by L. C. Mortimer

  I was supposed to meet a cat shifter at midnight at the place where my mom had died.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  *

  "Something's different about you this evening," Eliza said, looking at me. We were eating dinner together. It was a simple meal of grilled cheese sandwiches and raw carrots, but I didn't mind. I hadn't felt like cooking, and apparently, Eliza never cooked.

  "I've been thinking about my mother."

  It was a half-truth. The whole truth was that I'd been thinking about who killed my mother and I was ready to go find them. That truth meant I was going to have to face whoever thought it was okay to kill a poor little witch who wasn't causing problems for anyone.

  Well, I guessed that wasn't quite true.

  She had been causing problems, hadn't she?

  My mother had been causing a lot of problems for people. She'd been causing a lot of chaos in town with her hexes and her potions and her desire to find a solution to werewolves and their ability to shift.

  "What about her?" Eliza asked carefully.

  "When do you think my powers will come in?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, you said witches in my family get their powers on their birthday, right?"

  "Their 35th birthday."

  "Yes."

  I gestured around the room and then at myself.

  "You aren't 35 yet."

  "I've been 35 for two hours and nothing's happened," I pointed out.

  "It's your birthday?"

  "As of 4:00 this afternoon, yes."

  "You didn't tell me that."

  I looked at her.

  "Was I supposed to have told you that?"

  Eliza sighed and shook her head.

  "It kind of seems like you're keeping secrets from me, little witch."

  "Not at all," I said. "It's just that I'm not really sure what you want from me. More than that: I'm not sure what you need from me."

  "Honesty."

  "Okay, I'm honestly 35. When should I expect my powers to appear?" I asked. "Am I supposed to do something? Is there like, a ceremony I'm supposed to partake in?"

  Eliza looked at me carefully. She set down the last bite of her grilled cheese sandwich. Her baby carrots were left untouched. She cocked her head carefully, looking at me like she was searching for answers herself.

  "I don't know."

  Okay, not the answer I was looking for.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, I don't know," she shrugged. "I was born a witch, love. I've always had powers. Women like your mom are rare."

  "That doesn't seem very fair."

  "I suppose it's not."

  "Did she ever tell you how she knew she was a witch?"

  "We didn't talk about it a lot," Eliza admitted. "Your mother was a very private person."

  "Mom? Private? I'm shocked," I said lamely. Private didn't even begin to describe the way my mother acted. She was so far past private that it was crazy.

  My mother wasn't exactly self-absorbed, but she was pretty damn close. I didn't judge her for running off the way that she did. I was just frustrated that even in death, I was missing her. She was dead, and I still couldn't get answers. This time, I couldn't get answers that I seriously needed.

  I needed to know what was going to happen to me. I needed to know how I could get my powers. It wasn't hard for me to believe that I was a witch in my heart. I'd seen so many wonderful, strange, and incredible things on my journeys throughout the world.

  To me, this just seemed like another journey.

  It was something new, and something undiscovered, and it was something that I desperately needed.

  "I'm sorry I'm not more helpful," Eliza finally said. "We can go to the library tomorrow, if you like. Maybe we can find some more books."

  "Maybe," I said noncommittally.

  "Have you had a chance to look through your mother's notebook?" She asked, reaching for a carrot.

  "What about it?"

  "I was wondering if there were any notes in it about your upcoming transformation from human girl to witch goddess."

  "The only stuff I've read in there is the stuff about the potion she was working on. Honestly, there wasn't anything helpful."

  "Pity," she said.

  "I agree."

  We finished eating in silence, and then Eliza and I loaded the dishwasher and went our separate ways. She went to her office to finish some work for the evening, and I went upstairs to relax and read before I went to meet up with Jasper. Mostly, I wanted to avoid the weird talking plants in her office.

  Besides, I wasn't going to tell Eliza about my outing. After all, it wasn't really any of her business. I was an adult woman, and I could leave the house if I wanted to. It felt strange, living with someone else. It was past time for me to make a decision about my future. I’d had a week to think about it, but I still had a lot of questions about what happened to my mother.

  I promised myself that once I’d solved the mystery of what happened to Mom, I’d decide whether Which Village was the kind of place I could grow old in. Maybe it was a place I really would want to stay forever, but maybe not.

  But I needed my own place.

  I made a mental note to start looking for houses or short-term rentals the next day. As soon as I did that, I could get my own space, and I could spread out, and I could relax, and I could make some plans for how I wanted to start living my life.

  Mom was dead.

  She wasn't coming back.

  It was time for me to start dealing with it.

  As soon as it was time for me to meet Jasper, I grabbed my phone and shoved it into my back pocket. I had my wallet in the other pocket. My car keys went into my front pocket, and I looked at the bedroom window.

  Should I sneak out?

  For just a moment, I considered it. The truth was, though, that this wasn't a 90s rom-com. I wasn't a teenager trying to sneak out on a date. I was a grownup. More than that, I was a widow. Possibly. If I wanted to go for a drive, I could. Eliza couldn't stop me, and somehow, I also thought that she wouldn't.

  Her bedroom door was closed, and when I got downstairs, I saw that her office door was, too. The lights were off. She'd gone to bed, I suspected, and I headed outside to my car.

  Eliza didn't have any sort of alarm system on her house, which was weird to me. She'd given me a key to the front door, though, and I locked it before getting in the car and driving off.

  For just a moment, I wondered if I needed to be concerned about being followed by anyone lurking around in the darkness, but I quickly brushed that off.

  It was a stupid idea, really.

  Nobody was going to follow someone like me around town. Nobody. I didn’t know nearly enough about life in this world, and I certainly didn’t know enough about my mother to inspire someone to follow me. The idea was sort of silly, actually.

  I made it to my mom's place in record time, but I still parked down the street. I wasn't sure if Natasha was home tonight, but I didn't want to risk alerting her and her nosy eyes as to someone hanging out at Mom's.

  Quietly, I got out of the car and closed the door. I locked the car, but cringed as it beeped and the lights flickered, reaving my existence to anyone who might be paying even the slightest bit of attention.

  "Shit," I muttered. I paused, waiting for someone to notice me, but nobody did. As soon as I was certain that I was safe, I started walking toward the house.

  When I reached it, I looked over the damage, assessing the situation. Despite the fact that it was midnight, I could see the house. The moon was bright. Which Village always seemed to have a really bright moon.

  "It's charmed," a voice said from behind me. I turned around to see Jasper standing there. Unlike our previous encounters, he was fully dressed this time.

  "Excuse me?" I said.

  "The moon. I noticed you staring at it," he explained. "It's charmed."

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means someone wante
d it to look bigger, so they made it look bigger."

  "I guess that makes sense."

  "So, you're Alicia's daughter."

  "That's what they tell me."

  "What else do they tell you?" He asked carefully.

  "What do you mean?"

  I wasn't really in the mood for games, but I knew perfectly well that I was going to have to play some in order to get the information I needed. The truth was that Jasper knew something about my mom's disappearance. He might not know what it was that he knew, but he knew it all the same.

  Now I needed his help.

  More than anything else, I needed to know what had happened to her, why she'd been killed. I needed to know what was so important about her research that someone would want to silence her.

  And then there was Stanley.

  I didn't want to tell anyone out loud that I thought my late husband was back from the dead. This might be a wizarding sort of place, but I knew enough to know that seeing dead people? That was a fast way to end up in a hospital. Eliza hadn’t had me committed, but maybe she had been simply being nice. Perhaps she’d been doing me a favor because of her relationship with my mom.

  "You've been spending a lot of time with Eliza."

  "Yeah."

  "What has she told you about your mother?"

  I looked over at the ashen remains of my mom's house. Jasper turned, looking at it, too. We were standing to the side of where it used to be, and we were partially obstructed from view by a couple of bushes.

  "Walk with me," he said.

  "Where?"

  "Let's walk away from here. Never know who might be watching."

  He jerked his head toward Natasha's house, and I shrugged. We started walking down the driveway and then to the sidewalk. Then we made our way down the street, away from familiar houses and watchful eyes.

  "Why did you ask me about Eliza?" I wanted to know. I shoved my hands in my jean pockets. Now that Jasper and I were alone, and now that he was actually dressed for the first time ever, things felt a little more comfortable.

  He didn't seem quite so scary.

  "There's a lot about Which Village you don't know," he said.

  "Then why don't you fill me in? No offense, but my mom is dead, you're super sus, and you have no idea what I'm capable of."

  "Ah," he said. "Is that a threat, little witch?"

  "I'm not little."

  "Nor are you a witch."

  "Excuse me?"

  "You don't have your powers yet."

  Silence fell. I stopped walking and turned and looked at Jasper. He knew. Somehow, and I didn’t know how, he knew that I was a total fraud. I really didn’t have my powers yet, but how could he possibly know that?

  "Who the hell are you?" I whispered.

  He smiled, grinning brightly, and stuck his hand out.

  "Jasper Jacobson," he said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

  Chapter 8

  Jasper shook his head when he realized I wasn't about to shake his hand.

  "Pity," he said. "We could have been so great, you and I."

  "Stop stalling," I said. I put my hands on my hips and looked at him. We were in the middle of some random neighborhood by that point, and I was certain that if anyone looked outside and saw us, they'd think it was some sort of domestic dispute and they'd come kill us.

  "You want me to give it to you straight?"

  "Please."

  "Your powers will come naturally on your birthday."

  "Okay."

  That was in two days. I wasn't really sure why I'd lied to Eliza about my powers or about my birthday. I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable around her, but I hadn't been able to pinpoint why. There was just too much information to deal with, yet at the same time, not nearly enough.

  "You haven't told anyone you don't have your abilities yet," Jasper said.

  "No."

  "Why not?"

  I was silent.

  "You don't trust Eliza," he said.

  "That's ridiculous. She was my mother's lover."

  "Was she?" He asked.

  "Excuse me?"

  "Was she your mother's lover?"

  "What do you mean?" I asked, staring at him.

  "Did your mother ever mention Eliza when she spoke with you?"

  No.

  She never had.

  She had been wildly private. Besides, my mother and I had barely spoken at all. She had been invested in her own life and I'd been invested in mine. Things had been simpler that way.

  But was he trying to say that Eliza had lied about her relationship?

  I decided that I needed to take charge of the conversation and the direction that it was going. Jasper was trying his best to confuse me and get me wound up. That wasn't going to be very good for me.

  "Who are you working for?" I asked. "Why don't we start with that?"

  "I'm a shapeshifter."

  "Yeah, I got that."

  "I live with other shapeshifters."

  "Okay?"

  "And one thing that shapeshifters really hate is having to deal with werewolves."

  "Okay."

  "We don't like the fact that they give all shifters a bad name."

  "Explain to me the difference again. Please."

  "Shapeshifters are born this way," Jasper explained.

  "Can you shift into anything?"

  "No. Each person can change into their destined animal shape, and then back into their human form. That's it."

  So, he could be a cat, or he could be a man. Got it.

  "And werewolves are different from you how? What's the difference between a wolf shapeshifter and a werewolf?" That was the part that was so tricky and wild to me.

  "See that full moon?"

  I looked up at the moon. It was so bright, and so beautiful, and so wonderful.

  "Have you ever wondered why there is a full moon almost every single night in Which Village?"

  I had. It didn't seem scientifically possible. Then again, a lot of things didn't seem scientifically possible, but that hadn't stopped anyone from going nuts in town.

  "Yes."

  "It's charmed."

  "I believe you mentioned that."

  He rolled his eyes.

  "Look, it's charmed because people want to force werewolves out of hiding. Werewolves can't control when they shift. If there's a full moon, and the moonlight touches a werewolf at all, he'll change into his monster form. He can't control himself in that form."

  "But shifters can."

  "You know that we can."

  "Why would anyone want to force werewolves out of hiding?"

  "Because people in Which Village don't like werewolves," he said. "The people here believe in a type of magic that only applies to the select chosen ones."

  "Meaning?"

  "Meaning if you aren't a witch or a wizard around here, you're considered trash."

  "But you're a shapeshifter. Do they think you're crazy?"

  "Do you see any friends around me?" He gestured. "The only reason I'm not dead is because people thought I was your mom's pet."

  "Do you know what happened to her?"

  "No," he said. "But I do know that Eliza isn't telling you everything."

  "How do you know that?"

  "Because she's the one who paid me to go through your mom's stuff," he said. He looked around wildly, then, and cocked his head as though he had heard something. "Time for me to go."

  He shifted into his cat form, then, and his clothes were just a pile on the ground. I stared at them for a second before realizing that there was no way I was going to leave clothing on the middle of the sidewalk. I picked it up and dropped it behind a bush. If Jasper wanted to come back for it later, he could.

  Then I kept walking.

  I'd only made it a few more feet when, sure enough, someone came around the corner. The bright lights of a car were on me and slowed down as they approached. I raised my arm, covering my eyes, and when the car stopped, I lowered my hand.<
br />
  "Eliza?" I asked when I saw her.

  "I was so worried," she said. "Is everything okay?"

  "Yeah," I said. "I just went out to clear my head."

  "All the way across town?" She raised an eyebrow.

  "Yeah," I said. "I couldn't sleep, and I do my best thinking at night."

  "I see," she said. It looked like she didn't believe me. "Well, if you're sure you're okay."

  "I'm fine," I said. "I'll be back when I'm done."

  "Just lock up when you come inside."

  "You got it."

  She drove away slowly, and I watched as her car disappeared around the corner.

  Was Jasper right?

  Was there more to Eliza than met the eye?

  I didn't like the idea that he could be right about my mother's passing. I also didn't like the idea that I had somehow been tricked by Eliza. The problem was that I didn't have anyone I could turn to or ask.

  Stanley was gone and my mother...well, she was really gone.

  I went back to my car, and I drove back to Eliza's house. When I parked, I thought I saw movement at one of the windows. Was she waiting up for me? Watching?

  I went into the house, up to my bedroom, and climbed into bed without taking off my clothes. The next day, I'd find somewhere else to live. It was time.

  *

  As it turned out, there weren't many short-term rentals in Which Village, so I found myself back at the inn. While Eliza was a little upset at losing her roommate, I explained that I needed some space until the funeral. Once that happened, things would be a little calmer, I assured her. I also promised that we'd meet up for regular lunch dates.

  Eliza wanted to know if I was going to continue to look for my mother's killer.

  "No," I lied. "I think that we'll let the police work on that."

  She seemed like she didn't believe me, but that was fine. Eliza didn't seem like the kind of person who was going to push, and I was happy with that.

  The truth was that the inn was fine. I still didn't understand all of the magic surrounding it. How was it possible that the insides of the cabins seemed so much bigger than the outside? How was it that everything always smelled perfect?