Witch Way to the Bakery

by Zoe Arden

  "So," Colt said, taking a deep breath and adding another creamer to his coffee. "How's it going at the bakery?"

  I launched into stories of how busy we'd been and how sick Sadie still was—leaving out the part where we thought she was possessed by a dark spirit.

  "You know, I think my dad really cares about her. I think he might even love her."

  "Really?" he asked. I nodded. Colt added yet another creamer to his coffee. I watched him do it and realized that his coffee was more cream than coffee now. "Do you think he might want to marry her one day?"

  I paused and considered the question. "I don't know. He's never once mentioned getting married again to me. But... maybe." I pictured the look on his face when he'd been talking about Sadie at the bakery.

  "What about you?" Colt asked. "Do you think you might want to get married one day?"

  I choked on the sip of latte I'd just taken. Coffee and cream came out my nose and I started coughing.

  "You okay?" Colt asked, patting me on the back.

  "Yeah," I said, taking deep breaths. The coughing fit passed, and I took another sip of latte.

  Colt waited a few minutes. "So?" he asked.

  "So, what?" I said.

  "So, what do you think about it? Marriage, I mean."

  "Um... I'm in favor of it... for most people."

  "Not for yourself? For us?"

  I bit my bottom lip. "I-I don't know." I cleared my throat. "We've talked about it before."

  "Yeah, like eight months ago and not a word since."

  I was staring hard at my latte. I dared a glance at him. "Are you angry that I haven't talked about it more?"

  His brows were drawn together but they softened at my question.

  "No, I'm not angry, I just... Ava, there's something I need to tell you."

  "Is it about the tourist who was murdered?" I asked, holding my breath.

  His eyes narrowed. "What? No. Why would you think that?"

  I shrugged. I didn't want to admit that I'd overheard him on the phone the other day. I didn't want him to know that I'd been waiting ever since then for him to tell me whatever it was he'd promised Dean Lampton he wouldn't tell me.

  "No, Ava, it's about—"

  His words stopped so abruptly that I looked up at him. His mouth had tightened again, and he was looking toward the front door.

  "Mike Bison just came in," he said.

  I turned around and saw Detective Bison standing there, surveying the coffee shop with his hands on his hips. Gone were the Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. This detective was all business. He was wearing a dark gray sportscoat with a dark blue dress shirt and dress pants, and looked incredibly conspicuous. No one on Heavenly Haven dressed that way—the weather was just too hot for such things. Even Sheriff Knoxx had short sleeves for his uniform. Colt still wore dress shirts but he'd donned his sportscoat less and less since moving here.

  The detective smiled and waved.

  "You know him?" I asked Colt.

  "No, not really. He dropped by Sheriff Knoxx's yesterday a little after you'd texted me."

  "What for?"

  "Said he wanted to introduce himself."

  "I bet Sheriff Knoxx didn't like that much."

  "No. He didn't."

  Detective Hudson ordered a drink and when he got it, took a seat at a table near ours.

  "Can you have dinner with me tomorrow night?" Colt asked.

  "Dinner?"

  "Yeah. I know he can't hear us but that man gives me the creeps. I don't want to talk to you about... about everything in front of him."

  I took a breath. Did I really want to continue this discussion about marriage? Last time he'd mentioned it, I'd thought I wasn't ready. And now? I still didn't think I was ready. But I did love Colt, and if he wanted to get married and I wasn't ready for that, I owed it to him to tell him that.

  "Okay," I said. "Dinner. Tomorrow night." I just hoped Colt wouldn't be too hurt when I told him how I felt.

  * * *

  CHAPTER

  THIRTEEN

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  Back at Mystic, the lunch rush was in full swing. It was easy to lose myself in it and forget all about my conversation with Colt. The people kept coming and the door kept chiming and soon the idea of marriage was a distant memory. It wasn't until half past one and the lunch rush had died that I started to think about it all again.

  "Something on your mind?" Eleanor asked me.

  I looked up at her and shook my head.

  "You look like you just ate a toad," she said.

  I looked around. My dad and Trixie were discussing the differences between white chocolate and milk chocolate and which was better.

  "But white chocolate has no actual chocolate in it!" Trixie screeched, her face going red.

  "Precisely," my dad said. "That's why it's better."

  "How can you say that? You work in a bakery! Chocolate is like... like... like gold here!"

  He shrugged. "I prefer silver."

  She let out an exasperated cry and the argument continued.

  I looked back over at Eleanor and she was waiting with raised eyebrows and a knowing look.

  I sighed.

  "Colt might have mentioned marriage to me today at the coffee shop."

  Her eyes bugged out of her head. "Marriage? But you're only twenty-two."

  "Almost twenty-three," I corrected.

  "Yes, but so... young."

  I bit my lip and realized I was twiddling my fingers. I didn't care. "When did you know you wanted to marry Sheriff Knoxx?"

  A smile lit up her face almost immediately. "That's an easy one. I knew as soon as he asked me. As soon as he had the courage to, that is."

  "You mean, you didn't need to think about it?"

  She shook her head. "No."

  "That's not exactly helping me right now," I said.

  She pushed a lock of hair behind one ear. "Your mom had to think about it."

  I blinked. "What?"

  "When your dad asked your mom to marry her, she had to think about it."

  "Really?"

  Eleanor nodded.

  "She was pretty sure she wanted to say yes. I think she was just scared. She only had to talk it through with me and Trixie before making up her mind."

  "Why was she scared?" I'd always envisioned my parents as having the perfect marriage. That they were absolutely, madly, in love with each other always and that neither of them had ever had any doubts.

  "Well... it's normal to be scared. I mean, she was young herself. And your father was the first man she'd ever really loved. I think she was just scared that she was jumping into the deep end of the pool without perfecting her swim stroke first."

  "You mean, she was afraid someone better might come along?" I asked, shocked to think that she'd ever thought that about my dad like that.

  "Not exactly. Just... just that she wasn't sure."

  "So, how did she get sure?"

  "Well, the way that she always told it to me was that one night, shortly after he'd proposed, your dad gave her something that was so special to her, she finally realized how much she loved him."

  "What did he give her?"

  Eleanor pointed to my neck. I touched the witch's hat pendant that hung around my gold chain. My dad had given it to me on my twenty-first birthday and told me it was my mother's but he'd never told me the story behind it.

  "Your mom had her eye on that pendant for months and she didn't think he'd even noticed. She hadn't said anything. Then he surprised her with it. When she asked him how he'd known she wanted it, he said, 'Because you looked at it every time we passed by it.' "

  My eyes misted.

  "So, I have to wait for Colt to buy me the perfect present before I'll know how I feel?" I laughed.

  "Hopefully it won't take that long." Eleanor laughed, too.

  Suddenly, trumpets blared loudly from the front doors
. Eleanor and I covered our ears with our hands. A goblin in a torn, yellow dress shirt stepped inside. "Announcing his royal highness, King Zulubar, King of the Goblins."

  He bowed to us then quickly got out of the way. Zulubar stepped inside. He was dressed in a rich purple robe lined with white fur. He surveyed the bakery, his eyes landing on me. Kyrab hurried in after him. She looked worried.

  "Miss Ava Fortune," the king said, walking slowly over to me and Eleanor. "I have come to hear of your progress on the loonercullen of which we last spoke." He did not smile; he did not bow.

  Crud!

  I'd completely stalled on the loonercullen. I wasn't anxious to climb down those cliffs. I hadn't even mentioned it to Eleanor. I took a breath and bowed to him, thinking perhaps I should bow first since he hadn't yet. He just stood there.

  "Um, King Zulubar, I'm surprised to see you here. I had thought we would meet in the forest next time we—"

  "There is not enough time for that," he said, and I thought I heard irritation in his voice, though it was hard to tell. The goblins always sounded a little irritated. "The ball is drawing near, and I have received word that you are not keeping up your end of the contract."

  Eleanor's face turned pale. "Who told you that?" she shrieked.

  "We had a visitor at the palace," Kyrab said. Zulubar shot her a look and her eyes shrank back into her head. She pouted out her lips. The king's eyes softened.

  "It is all right," he told her. "Just... try not to speak out of turn, if you can. I know it is difficult for you to manage." A smile spread across his face and Kyrab's eyes lit up. He turned back to us.

  "Speak!" he barked.

  "Um..." I looked at Eleanor.

  "Sir, I mean, King Zulubar, I was going to get the loonercullen tomorrow. I, um, had to get someone to help me first. As you know, it's on the cliff and I could hardly get it alone. I'm not nearly as strong as you are, for I'm a mere witch. Not as great as the mighty goblins."

  This seemed to satisfy him. He bowed deeply to me.

  "It is good to hear. I was worried that I had made a mistake in selecting you for our ball."

  "No, no mistakes here," I told him.

  Eleanor's shoulders relaxed ever so slightly but her eyes stayed wide and worried.

  "Will you let me know once you've gotten it so that my mind will be set at ease?" he asked.

  "Of course," I told him. "Happy to."

  "Excellent." He looked around the bakery, his eyes landing on some peppermint brownies we had sitting in a display case.

  "Would you like one?" Eleanor asked. "No charge, of course."

  "No, I don't care for peppermint but Kyrab..." His eyes wandered over to her, his eyebrows raised in a question.

  Her cheeks blushed.

  "Oh, yes, thank you," she said. "Peppermint is one of my favorite things."

  Eleanor handed the brownie directly to Kyrab, who ate it in two bites. "It's delicious," she said.

  "Then we shall have them added to our menu for the ball," he said, looking at Eleanor. "I trust that is not a problem."

  "Not at all," she said.

  He nodded.

  The trumpets blared again, and the king disappeared out the door.

  Eleanor glared at me.

  "I have no idea what loonercullen is," she said, "but you'd better get it tomorrow. I don't care if it grows in the tundra. Find a way to get it!"

  * * *

  CHAPTER

  FOURTEEN

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  Lucy and I started out bright and early for Whisper Crossing. Essentially, Whisper Crossing was a large forest with a cemetery that sat on top of a hill and overlooked the sea. The cliffs that jutted out from it ran to a sandy beach littered with jagged rocks. It marked the halfway point between Sweetland Cove and Mistmoor Point and was considered neutral territory by both towns. There were certain herbs and plants that only grew in Whisper Crossing, and on any day of the week, you could find a random assortment of islanders out scouring the land for Wildebeest mushrooms or Fluffernutter root.

  "Who told Zulubar you hadn't gotten these leaf thingies yet?" Lucy asked. "What did you say they're called again? Looney leaves?"

  "Loonercullen. It's the extract made from looner leaves." I glanced at her sideways and she was trying not to laugh.

  "Sorry, but there's gotta be a host of jokes that go along with that name. Looner leaves make you looney. Looner leaves make you loonesome. Looner leaves make you loovely." She was giggling like a schoolgirl. "And that's just off the top of my head."

  "Those are all bad jokes that sound like they came off the bottom of your foot, not the top of your head."

  "I suppose you could do better?"

  "Looooocy loves looner leaves," I said and giggled.

  She rolled her eyes. "Lucy loves looner leaves? So, you're counting on the alliteration to save your joke? I don't think it works that way." Her mouth curved up at the corners.

  "And to answer your other question," I said, "I have no idea who told Zulubar I hadn't gotten the leaves yet. Kyrab said 'a visitor' but that could mean anybody as far as I can tell."

  Lucy pursed her lips. "Hmm... there must be a way to find out. Maybe we can ask Sheriff Knoxx to talk to them. He's one of them; they might answer his questions."

  "He's part goblin. I'm not sure that makes him 'one of them.' "

  "He's more goblin than we are," she said.

  I took her point but still shook my head. "No. Eleanor wouldn't like it. She'd be afraid it would impose on her relationship with the sheriff or something. And anyway, she's been trying really hard to convince herself that her marriage to Sheriff Knoxx had nothing to do with us getting the catering job. If she were to ask him to go talk to the goblins for us, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be able to kid herself anymore."

  Whisper Crossing came into view, and I slowed the car down.

  "Thanks again for coming with me," I said as we rolled to a stop.

  "It was either come with you to Whisper Crossing and watch you climb down a cliff and try to kill yourself, or go make coffee for tourists all day. Watching you sounded more fun."

  "Ha ha," I said. It was my turn to roll my eyes. "I'm not going to kill myself. That's why you're here."

  "You want me to kill you? You're my best friend. I think killing you might be crossing a line."

  "I want you to climb down the cliff. I'll spot you while you slide down the rope."

  Lucy's eyes widened. "You're kidding, right?"

  "Yeah, I am. There's no rope."

  "You are so not funny," she said.

  I parked the car at the bottom of the hill and we got out. I grabbed a bag from the trunk and we started for the cliffs.

  "You don't really expect me to scale this cliff, do you?" Lucy asked as we walked up the hill toward the cemetery that overlooked the cliffs.

  "No, just watch the rope."

  "I thought you said there was no rope," she said in an I gotcha! voice.

  "I was obviously joking. I might be crazy six days out of the week but today's the seventh day and I'm perfectly sane." I opened the bag I'd been carrying and pulled out a long, thick rope. "I enchanted it last night. We shouldn't have any problems using it but I'm not exactly a mountaineer."

  "I've never heard of loonercullen," Lucy said. "Or looner leaves. Are you sure you've got the name right?"

  "According to Zulubar, yes. And I looked it up on the witching web last night. They're rare, just like Zulubar said, and haven't been used commonly by witches for about a hundred years or so."

  "Hmmm... and here I thought I knew everything about the witching world." She shrugged. "I guess it's nice to know that I can still learn something new."

  At the top of the hill, we waded through the headstones and mausoleums that covered the cemetery—it was the oldest cemetery on Heavenly Haven—and peeked over the cliff. Some dirt crumbled off the edge. Tiny pebbles fell do
wn the hill, sending more pebbles falling after them. Rows of leaves jutted out from all angles, a bright shade of green with spots of yellow that looked like golden ladybugs, just like I'd seen on the witch's web.

  "Are you crazy?" Lucy asked. "You're going down there?"

  I had to admit that looking over the edge from way up here, I had second thoughts.

  "Are you sure this is the only way to get the silly leaves? We can't just go buy some from a florist or something?" Lucy asked, almost pleaded.

  I shook my head and bit my bottom lip. "No. They only grow in a handful of places around the world, and this is one of them."

  We stood staring down at the rocks a hundred feet below. My eyes shifted from the rocks to the water, a much more calming sight. The Atlantic Ocean was so blue that sometimes, when I looked at it, I was struck with the notion that someone had added blue food coloring or colored it in with paint.

  "I don't think I have a choice," I said. "If I don't get these leaves, Zulubar will say we haven't fulfilled our end of the contract and he'll go with another bakery."

  Lucy let out a sigh. "All right. Let's do this."

  * * *

  CHAPTER

  FIFTEEN

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  I set my jacket on the ground and tied the rope around my waist.

  "You said you enchanted this rope?" Lucy asked.