Party Ghoul

by Sarina Dorie

  Vega clung to her broom as she propelled it to go faster. Wind rushed through her hair, and a thrill went through her. She hadn’t flown this fast for years.

  The criminal had managed to get a head start, but she must not have been able to sustain the time-magic spell that enabled her to move at such speeds. Most people couldn’t. Vega was gaining on her when the murderer opened up a portal in front of her, showing a lush green forest beyond.

  “Not after all that work I put into repairing school wards!” Vega growled.

  Now her enemy would truly pay.

  Vega continued after her. The murderer shot through the portal. The dilation of space started to close like the aperture of a camera. Vega held out one hand and forced celestial energies back into the portal to widen the diameter before she flew through.

  They were flying above a coniferous forest that stretched on for miles. Vega didn’t know which realm they were in. They could have been anywhere.

  She didn’t like unfamiliar territory. The rules for using magic in the Morty Realm were different from those in the Unseen Realm. As for being in the Faerie Realm, that presented its own dangers. Being hunted and eaten by bloodthirsty Fae was only one of them.

  The murderer glanced over her shoulder. Her hair was less blue, and she looked younger now. She’d lost some of her glamour, probably due to all the magic she was using.

  She lopped a fireball at Vega and continued to flee. It was small, and her aim was off. Vega used her old air pelota skills to change the arc of the ball to sweep around her and back toward its origin. She funneled more heat into the fire.

  Her opponent glanced again over her shoulder, realizing what Vega had done with just enough time to dodge out of the way.

  Vega extinguished the fire before her opponent could take control of the flames and hurl the fireball at her again. Vega started up a new sphere, gathering the moisture in the air to create an orb the size of her head that she chilled into ice as she flung it toward the criminal.

  Her opponent had slowed as she used more magic to shoot spells at Vega. All of Vega’s air pelota and flying skills came in handy as she dodged and multitasked with casting her own spells.

  It was considered cheating to send a ball through a portal in air pelota. Fortunately, this wasn’t air pelota.

  Vega shot her ice ball into a portal so that it disappeared and reappeared in front of them, hurtling toward her adversary from a new direction. It was enough to distract the murderer from the next portal Vega created directly in front of them.

  Vega hadn’t selected just anywhere. She’d chosen a similar setting, another forest, in the hope that the murderer wouldn’t notice the change right away. It was a forest Vega knew well, the one outside Lady of the Lake School for Girls. She shot through the portal after Janis’s niece, closing in on her.

  The other woman batted away Vega’s heat and fire spells, transforming them into boulders. Rocks were an unusual choice of weapon, not one a skilled air pelota player would use because it was more difficult to control that amount of mass as it hurtled through the air. It wasn’t anything Vega couldn’t handle, but she wondered if the other witch had just given away her weakness.

  If this other witch excelled at using the elements, but not other forms of magic, Vega needed to exploit that. She turned one of the rocks hurled at her into a ball of plant energy like what she had used on the gnomes, though this one was larger. When her opponent attempted to bat it back toward Vega and transform it into something else, she couldn’t. The plant magic exploded around her, vines shooting out and binding her. The force knocked her off her broom, and she fell toward the trees.

  Her fall was slowed by a levitation spell, though it wasn’t a very good one. She crashed through the canopy of trees. Vega glided down at a more leisurely pace, finding the other witch a moment later. Janis’s niece struggled to free herself of her vines on the forest floor. Vega cast a stronger spell of plant magic over her, sealed her lips together with a jinx so she couldn’t incant any spells, and tied her hands behind her back with vines.

  The purse was on the ground several feet away. It was open, and gnomes were crawling out. Vega gathered them up and dropped them back in before she finally had a chance to catch her breath.

  She had just used multiple spells at once, sustained someone else’s portal so it wouldn’t close on her, and opened two more without injury.

  It shouldn’t have surprised her. She was clever, accomplished, and masterful in all forms of magic. Why would she have assumed she would be inferior in her abilities with portal magic.

  Even so, her adrenaline was now catching up with her. She gave a shaky laugh, glad the danger was now over.

  A moment later, Hildy arrived on her broom, gasping for air. “Well, I can see why they selected you as a flyer-ed teacher.”

  Just as Vega had thought, Hildy hadn’t been able to fly with the speed needed to catch this criminal. As with most things in her life, Vega succeeded where others failed. She didn’t know what the world would do without her brilliance.

  Vega closed the purse to be sure no more gnomes escaped. Also, she wanted to make sure Hildy didn’t look inside when she collected evidence. She intended to let Hildy take all those gnomes with her.

  Those gnomes would then be someone else’s problem.

  Vega held the purse out to Hildy. “I should be returning to my class. I imagine they’ll be done with their warmups.”

  As Hildy nodded to the purse, her voice was creaky and ancient sounding. “When you were tricking the confession out of this woman, you said you used the gold to buy pizza. Did you actually spend money from this purse? You do realize that’s evidence, don’t you?”

  Vega could see there were times the truth was far from appropriate, mostly because it would get her in trouble. And more than that, she would look incredibly inexperienced and foolish.

  Vega waved Hildy off, feigning innocence. “Of course not! Do you actually think I would spend five thousand dollars on pizza?”

  If it ever came into question that five coins were missing from the items Vega handed over, she could claim the gnomes had eaten them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  All Roads Lead to Gnome

  On Tuesday before dinner, Vega wrote to Mrs. Gordmayer and explained that the gnomes were gone from the school, and the wards were repaired. She didn’t hear back, so she assumed that was good news. Hopefully, that meant the principal would stay away on vacation while Vega continued to get rid of gnomes.

  If all went well, Principal Gordmayer would continue to stay away until Friday.

  Vega missed the Tuesday-night happy-hour special at her favorite jazz bar because she was busy ensuring her school truly was free of gnomes. Instead of stalking men on the dance floor during the Wednesday lady’s-night special at Café All Hexed Up, she was stalking gnomes.

  She would be rewarded for her maturity and responsibility, she told herself.

  On Friday afternoon between lessons, Vega found Mr. Gordmayer at his desk. He was more tanned than usual and smelled like coconut oil.

  “How was Hawaii?” she asked.

  “Magical.” He placed a hand on his chest, his expression becoming dreamy. “We got to try hula dancing and a luau. I loved pretending to be ordinary Morties on vacation.” He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Sometimes it’s fun being someone else for a while, but it’s nice to be home.”

  Vega wondered if Janis’s niece had enjoyed stealing someone else’s identity—until she’d been caught. She was certain it was far more enjoyable choosing to be someone else than having a transformation forced on her, like when Vega became a cow because she accidentally got beef in her food.

  “Ms. Bloodmire, I would like to see you for a brief moment,” the principal called from her office.

  Vega’s smile faded. Mrs. Gordmayer had gone on vacation to Hawaii, and stayed the entire time as planned, yet she still managed to sound pissed.
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  Mr. Gordmayer winked at her. “You’ve got this.”

  Vega ducked her head down to avoid the gaze of the dragon above her head in the elegant office. Mrs. Gordmayer didn’t look younger, only more tan. Vega wondered whether that meant the fountain-of-youth spell hadn’t worked—or it had only been temporary.

  It seemed as though if it had worked, she would be in a better mood.

  Some people had resting witch face. Mrs. Gordmayer had resting witch face, resting witch posture, and resting witch voice. Nothing about her exuded friendliness or gratitude.

  The principal clasped her hands before her on the desk. “I understand you had a loud party while we were away.”

  Vega wondered who had ratted her out. Surely not Ms. Chamapiwa or Orsolya. Had it been the custodian? If only Orsolya hadn’t changed the record from classy swing music to modern trash. That had surely been the detail that had given the party away.

  “I invited some other teachers and trustworthy people I knew to help me repair the school wards.” Vega hoped to use this moment to make herself look good. “The gnomes had chewed holes through our wards, and one of the companies thought other invasive species were getting in as a result. I attempted to repair the spells myself several nights in a row, but there was too much damage. As an adept teacher of protective magic, with experience teaching wards—”

  Mrs. Gordmayer put up her hand to silence her. “I already know you taught wards last year during your internship, and you probably think showing off your skills with fancy wards will impress me enough to convince me to hire you for the vacant position as wards teacher.” Her face puckered up in a scowl even more intense than the one she currently wore. “I have no interest in all the good deeds you performed on the school’s behalf in the hope of gaining my favor.”

  Vega’s hope deflated. She had put all that work into good deeds, and this was the extent of her reward? A crabby response from the principal?

  Mrs. Gordmayer had a way of seeing through her semigood intentions for the manipulation it actually was. Vega was ashamed of herself for being so pathetically transparent and pitifully desperate.

  The principal bit out her words. “I want to know about the party. As I understand it, there were drugs, alcohol, and loud music.”

  Vega forced herself to contain her indignation. “I played my record player outside after we finished creating the wards. I provided pizza, cake, soda, and beer. There weren’t any drugs.” It was true as far as she knew. She left out the detail about the hard alcohol. Most of those leftovers had gone to the brùnaidhs anyway.

  The principal’s eyes narrowed. “I found a cigarette discarded in the rosebushes.”

  “That was probably one of the flyer-education students. No one who helped with the wards was a smoker. I cleaned up all the food and garbage.” Vega didn’t add that such a task was beneath her, but she had performed that duty anyway.

  The principal tapped her nails against the vast expanse of empty desk between them.

  “Tell me about the flyer-education student that was supposedly poisoned.”

  Vega wanted to laugh at the principal’s tone. Mrs. Gordmayer said it like an accusation.

  Vega cleared her throat. “Mrs. Penelope Angelopoulos’s flying became erratic during her lesson. She died during class. I tested to see how she had died to see if another student had murdered her. She had been poisoned. Later, I found a corpse in her purse. Both bodies are now in the care of the Department of Magical Violations. They’ve apprehended an adult student who was behind one or both deaths.”

  She thought she had worded things well to take the heat off herself and not make the principal worried about her school’s reputation.

  The principal stared at her for a long moment. “That will be all, Ms. Bloodmire.”

  Vega was being dismissed? Just like that, without even acknowledging her good deeds? “What about the gnomes?”

  “What about them?” Mrs. Gordmayer crossed her arms, as much a curmudgeon as she had been before her vacation.

  “Didn’t you notice? There aren’t any more gnomes around? I caught them all.” Vega believed in giving credit where it was due, especially if she was the one who had done the work.

  “That has yet to be seen.”

  What did Vega have to do to impress this woman? “I did catch the gnomes. You don’t have to spend the school’s budget on relocation.”

  “Ms. Chamapiwa told me you did an admirable job collecting them and repairing property damage they caused.” The principal made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “She assured me you didn’t use any forbidden magic or dispose of them illegally. However . . . I’m not going to ask where you relocated them to.” Her expression remained suspicious. “Next week, I will survey the grounds with a professional to ensure all gnomes are actually gone and not hibernating.”

  Hibernating? That had to be a joke. None of the books talked about gnomes hibernating in the summer.

  Vega would be sure to stalk the grounds each night and ensure no gnomes were left. Now that the principal was back, she would give all gnomes to Orsolya to put in cold-iron cages until they could be relocated.

  Vega left the principal’s office, her throat tight with despair. She wore her disappointment on her frame like a heavy—and very unfashionable—cloak.

  Mr. Gordmayer whispered, “I think that conversation with Allegra went very well, don’t you?”

  Vega couldn’t tell whether he was teasing her or being serious. She refrained from making a sarcastic comment that the principal would probably overhear.

  Mr. Gordmayer waved her over to his desk. Vega didn’t feel like being offered a cookie or told some insipid story of how his wife wasn’t as bad as she pretended to be. Mr. Gordmayer was obviously in denial.

  She dragged herself over to his desk to be polite.

  “I brought you back something from our trip to say thank you for handling the gnome situation for me.” He grinned like an idiot.

  Vega hoped it wasn’t cookies. He removed a can of macadamia nuts from behind his desk and handed them to her. “There isn’t any butter or eggs in these. I figured they would be safe with your food allergies.”

  She didn’t correct him. It was an improvement that he remembered she had dietary restrictions.

  “That is kind of you.” She clutched the can of nuts to her chest. Possibly it was the only good thing that had come out of all of this.

  Maybe seeing Castor work magic and having another opportunity to dance with him hadn’t been a bad experience either. She was ready to stop pushing him away and get over her past.

  She turned away to go to dinner but stopped when Mr. Gordmayer started speaking again.

  “I overheard Allegra mention you were helping out with the school wards to show off your skills.” He leaned in closer, his smile growing wide. “She thought Ms. Chamapiwa made those wards when she saw them. She was impressed, even if she won’t admit it to you. I was impressed. You did a good job.”

  Vega stared at him in utter shock. She couldn’t believe her ears. As crabby as Mrs. Gordmayer was, her husband was the yin to her yang.

  Vega swallowed the nervousness at the idea of asking him for a favor. “You probably also overheard that I’m interested in the position to teach wards in the fall.”

  He nodded.

  “Would you—do you think—” Vega’s façade of poise and confidence faltered. “I know Mrs. Gordmayer doesn’t want to hire me. How can I show her I’m perfect for the job? Is there anything I can do to better my chances to be hired for next year?”

  He ran a hand through dark hair speckled with silver. “You already have an academic record showing good grades in college. That’s in your favor. You need two letters of reference from credible sources that list your professional qualities. I would suggest Mr. Reade and Ms. Chamapiwa because of their reputations of expecting excellence. I believe both can attest to your skills creating wards this summer as a . . . rem
inder of your job-worthy qualities.”

  She nodded.

  “And I’ll put in a good word for you.” He lowered his voice even more and winked. “Also, next time you apply for a job, don’t send away someone you think is your competition. Let your assets stand on their own.”

  Her eyes went wide in surprise. He knew! If he was whispering, she assumed the principal didn’t.

  Apparently Mr. Gordmayer wasn’t as dumb as he looked.

  She nodded again, trying not to show her shame. “Yes, sir.”

  Vega strode out of the administration wing, hugging her macadamia nuts to herself. When she finally remembered she was holding them, she read the ingredients on the back label to be sure there was nothing extra included in the seasoning that she couldn’t have.

  The last ingredient was bacon drippings.

  “What? No!” This had to be a sick and twisted joke.

  She turned the can over. The macadamia nuts were kalua-pork flavored. The universe was so unfair.

  Vega hoped Mr. Gordmayer’s recommendation to his wife would be better than the mixed blessing of macadamia nuts she couldn’t eat.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  A Reformed Party Ghoul’s Just Deserts

  During Vega’s second week of teaching, no one died. On Friday night, she was ready to celebrate. She went to Café All Hexed Up. She spotted Amy across the room and waved. Amy sat in a booth with Ermenjarta Pedreira. Unlike Amy, who wore all pink, Ermenjarta wore a sensible black dress.

  Amy waved and turned to her friend, gesturing to Vega and then Ermenjarta. Vega wondered if Amy’s friend didn’t recognize her from the week before. Not everyone had vivid orange hair and backward feet to set them apart, but Vega managed to stand out in her own way.

  Men in the club certainly appraised her with interest.

  Vega sauntered up to the bar and ordered a drink. She joined her two friends, but the live band was loud enough to make conversation difficult without using magic to dampen the sound. Usually she welcomed music that drowned out awkward chitchat she had no interest in participating in, but tonight she wouldn’t have hated being able to talk to Amy and her friend.