"Helen, why? I mean, not that I won't, but why do you want me to take care of Hester?"
"Because, I need a part of me to still be connected to the Coven and Hester in your care will do just that. As long as she is with you, I am with you. I am afraid there may be hard days ahead for the group and I want to be able to help you all as much as I can. Will you do this for me?" Helen smiled softly at Kat, handing the small cage to the young witch. Hester's silver moon collar glinted in the moonlight. Kat reached out her arms and took the cage from her mentor.
"Helen, of course. Whatever you want, but only if you promise to come visit her and me. Deal?"
"That is a deal. I'll be around and before you know it, things will be back to normal. As I told Morgan, I pledge my word on that."
Helen left Kat and Frankie in the parking lot with a wave out her car window. The night breeze had picked up and Kat felt chilled. She hated the idea of sleeping in her tent with Hester, listening to the other witches' reveling into the night.
"Frankie, would it be alright if Hester and I bunk with you in your RV. I'm not really in the mood to listen to everyone party half the night. Would you mind?" Kat waited for Frankie's reply but the woman simply took the cage from her hands and headed toward her RV.
"As if you need to ask," she said over her shoulder. "We need to plan how to get Helen reinstated. Let's go."
Auguries
The bell rang on the door to The Red Bat vintage clothing shop as Diedre came inside, shaking off her umbrella as she did so. After the Festival, the sky had started dumping rain and it hadn't stopped for two solid days. Diedre loved the rain so it didn't put a damper on her day - nothing these days could put a damper on her spirits. She'd managed a rather impossible feat.
"Ah, there you are. I haven't seen you in weeks. How goes it?" Michael Syon said. He was dusting a large mirror in a gold frame near the register.
"Yes, well, I have been busy, Michael. After all, your little plan of revenge takes some leg work on my part." Diedre said, running a finger along the edge of the counter. The fact that she could move her arms and touch things was still a marvel to her. For hundreds of years, she had been only a spirit - a spirit trapped in that mirror. Thanks to Michael.
"How goes it all? Everything going to plan?" He asked, smiling at her with his bright white teeth. She had always liked his smile. Now, it reminded her of some clown.
"It all goes very well. As we planned, the Head Witch, Helen, is banished from her Coven and a friend is now on the Council. It won't be long before we'll be in a position to take action against the Concierge and your ex-girlfriend, the baker. It's as you wanted."
Diedre let her fingers stroke an angora sweater and she relished the feel of the soft fur. As soft as Hester's had been when she touched her, plucking hairs for the poppet. Luckily for her, those bratty kids hadn't told anyone about seeing her in the woods, crafting the poppet. If Frankie had been a little slower, the girls wouldn’t be telling anyone anything again, thanks to the lady in the river.
"Yes, Hedy will get her just desserts for how she treated me, and even better, you are no longer in the mirror. Things are going exactly to plan. It is rather brilliant, if I do say so myself. Well conceived and well executed." Michael bowed his head toward Diedre in salute and she nodded in return. How easy it was to make him think this had all been his plan. How readily he took the credit for everything she put into motion. Soon enough he would know her true purpose, but then it would be too late.
"By Solstice, Helen will be permanently banished and the Crescent Moon Coven will be completely under my control. After that, I shall work with Morgan to take over the Council and then we shall really begin our plan. There won't be anyone who can stop us. So thank you, Michael, for your plan. Being trapped in the mirror for hundreds of years has made me appreciate everything that much more. Loyalty and friendship, especially." She smiled broadly again and came toward the Imp who had double-crossed her in life and caused her soul to be trapped in that mirror where she lived as Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary no more - she was Diedre now. Diedre who would wield a power to rival the witches of old. Nothing and no one would get in her way again.
She leaned over and hugged Michael, feeling his arms around her for the first time in two hundred years. What had she ever seen in him? He was nothing but a charlatan, and Imp too afraid to take the dark act that would make him a full demon. A creature too in love with his own self to ever love another. To think, she had almost died for him, hung from a rope by her village - hung for being a witch. If not for the mirror and his spell, she would have died. But death would have been better in so many ways to the existence she had.
"I'll reach out when I have some news. Until then, I won't be coming around. No sense stirring up suspicion. After all, the Coven knows all about you, Michael, and they don't like you one bit. I'll have to play my part." She said with a smile, giving him a farewell squeeze. With any luck, it might be the last time she ever saw him again.
Back outside, under her black umbrella, Diedre pulled out her cell phone. She tapped a message into Morgan.
She didn't expect an immediate answer, but Morgan replied within moments.
Diedre smiled and put the phone back in her bag. She walked toward the bookstore to stop in to say hello to Kat. She needed to keep her members on her side, at least for now. Kat seemed like the easiest to sway. Sage and Frankie would be much harder, but she would win them over. Naomi too, once the Council permitted her to rejoin. Mel was Morgan's problem now - she was joining the Widdershins Circle.
"Yes, Exeter, everything is falling neatly into place. This is going to be a very good year. I have a feeling." Diedre said, watching the large black bird hopping on the back of the bronze pony statue near the bookshop. Her new familiar followed her along the wet sidewalk as she entered the book shop and closed the door behind her.
∞∞∞
Notes:
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Watch for Flower Moon Waning, Book Two in The Witches of Enumclaw series, as well as the continuing adventures of Hedy and the waystation network in The Gingerbread Hag series.
Want to know more about Michael and Mary -
and how she became Bloody Mary? Read The Poppet,
a short story available on Amazon.com.
Biography:
K. A. Miltimore lives in the Pacific Northwest
and writes paranormal fantasy & cozy mysteries
in the wee hours of the morning. She loves midcentury
fashion, 80s music and nachos (not necessarily
in that order). With her husband and son,
she loves exploring quirky local towns, including
Enumclaw, WA (the setting of her Gingerbread Hag
series). Perhaps she will succeed in dragging her
family to Iceland for a tour someday. She fancies
herself a crafty person, both in projects and devilish
schemes. In addition to a love of writing, she
has a Masters in Labor & Employment Law that
she is still paying off, a fondness for great Washington
red wines, and re-watching the movies that
she has forgotten over the years.
Visit www.kamiltimore.com and sign up for my newsletter, where you receive free short stories, publication news, contests and a chance to name a character in an upcoming book.
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Pink Moon Rising: The Witches of Enumclaw Book One Page 15
