by R M Connor
“Vargas. He was on the phone, telling someone to ‘clean up the mess.’ I think we’ve run out of time.”
Maisie cursed under her breath.
“I need you to trust me, but I think Jessica Freki is working with him.” She had been arguing with Sasha at the Christmas party, leaving shortly after Sasha ran into the bathroom. It’s possible she had gone that way without me noticing. She had the Wolfsbane perfume. And she was conveniently ‘out sick’ right after I was attacked. “We have to stop her.”
I sped through Wildewood, only slowing as we rounded the square. I had been to Jessica Freki’s house only one time. Tessa had been dropping off a few things from Odds ‘n’ Ends and I happened to be with her. I knew it was close to the bed and breakfast Maisie had lived in for months before she moved in with me. I hoped she was still there and that we had a chance to stop her.
Through the trees, the setting sun on the horizon created a deep orange, the clouds above were dark blue and red. Driving faster than the speed limit allowed, we finally reached Jessica’s street. I slowed, seeing her house. Pulling over a few houses before hers, I let the truck idle as it dawned on me that we might be heading into a dangerous situation. I couldn’t just walk into Jessica’s without a plan.
She had to be the person behind all of this. Even if I didn’t understand what she was gaining from it. It was possible Vargas was forcing her through the use of Wolfsbane. I knew he was pulling the strings . . . I just wasn’t sure who was pulling his.
“What are we doing?” Maisie unbuckled her seatbelt to twist in her seat to face me.
“I’m thinking.” I closed my eyes and laid my head against the worn-out steering wheel.
Sophia said Jessica wasn’t feeling well. If I had thought this through, instead of running toward danger like an idiot, I could’ve come up with a plan. I could’ve picked up some soup and used that as an in. I looked around the floorboards and spotted a to-go bag from Mikes. Grabbing it, I opened it and gagged at the rancid smell within. It would have to do.
If nothing else, the smell might incapacitate her and give us an advantage.
“Okay. Here’s the plan,” I climbed out and looked at Maisie over the hood of the truck. “We are just here to check on her, to see if she’s okay.”
“And if she doesn’t welcome us with open arms?”
Biting my bottom lip, I took in a deep breath. “Then we wing it.” We’re witches, for crying out loud. We could handle a dog. A very large, ferocious, wild dog.
My pace slowed as I walked up the path to Jessica’s front door, a knot forming in the pit of my stomach. The door was cracked open, the frame split as if it had been forced. Making as little noise as I could, I held my breath and pushed the door further open with the sleeve of my sweatshirt.
We walked into a well-lit house, but it was quiet. Too quiet. Maisie touched my arm. She put one finger to her mouth and another to her ear, tilting her head. I stilled my breathing and listened. I heard a soft gasp, someone struggling for breath. The bag slipped from my fingers and I ran toward the whimpering.
Bounding up the stairs as fast as I could, I poked my head into the only open door and saw Jessica. She was lying on her bedroom floor, still in her pajamas. One of her slippers had been knocked off, the other just barely hanging onto her toes. I could barely make out the rise and fall of her chest but I could hear her unsteady breathing. Dropping to my knees, I hissed from a sharp pain radiating through my leg. I grabbed her hand and her eyes slowly rolled to look at me.
“Jessica.”
Foam dripped from the side of her mouth. She had been poisoned. Her lips moved, barely. Her fingers tightened on my hand just enough to notice. I leaned closer, trying to hear what she whispered, but without being able to breathe, her voice was so soft I struggled to make it out.
“Stop.” She took a breath. “Sophia.”
Her grip loosened and her hand slipped from mine. “No, no! Jessica!” I patted her cheek but her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Dammit! I wasn’t expecting this. If I had thought Jessica was in danger, I would’ve brought the tincture Connie had given me. “Please wake up!” I shook her.
Maisie walked into the room and I turned my head to look at her, tears running down my cheek. “Call Russell.”
I watched as Jessica’s breathing slowed, and repeated what she said over and over again in my head: Stop Sophia. Was the sheriff’s niece behind all of this? Were they working together? I bumped into her dresser, the contents knocking over and I noticed the perfume from her boutique in its pretty, chiseled glass bottle. She didn’t have a cold. It had been making her sick for days, but someone had come to finish the job. Had Manuel been talking to Sophia on the phone?
I picked up the empty bottle, the atomizer had been yanked off and was lying beside it. Maisie yelled up the steps for me to come on. She met me in the foyer. “We have to go.” She pulled me from the house, grabbing the rancid to-go bag off the floor. “Russell’s coming, but he warned us we should leave.”
Giving Maisie the keys, I walked in a daze back to the truck, this time climbing into the passenger seat. She drove past Jessica’s and made a U-turn. Pulling the truck over on the neighboring street, we could still see the house.
“Did she say anything?” Maisie finally broke the silence as we waited.
“Stop Sophia.”
“Vargas’ niece?” Maisie jerked her head toward me. “She murdered her own aunt?”
And Jessica. And probably Eugene. She was trying to win the role of alpha for her uncle by any means necessary and these three got in the way. I stared at Jessica’s house. It felt as if I had been holding my breath until I heard the sound of a siren. A patrol car turned onto the street, followed by an ambulance.
Maybe they had come in time, but I doubted it. I was certain Jessica had lost the battle the moment her hand slipped from mine. Tears stung my eyes and I quickly wiped them away. Officer Russell ran into the house and, a moment later, back out to the EMS carrying a stretcher.
Sophia had fooled us. She had fooled me.
Was this what Manuel Vargas wanted? When he told her to clean up her mess, was this what he intended? He lost his wife. Jessica was murdered. All for what? Peaceful Acres? What could be so important about that land?
I glanced at Maisie, who was staring intently at Jessica’s. She wiped a tear from her eye. I could never imagine doing anything that would cost her life. How could he sacrifice his wife? I would do anything to keep Maisie safe. Anything.
The EMS came out of Jessica’s house with a black body bag strapped to the stretcher. My body shuttered and I leaned back against the seat, letting out a deep sigh. They had been too late.
“Dammit!” I slapped the dashboard. I leaned down, resting my head on my knees, trying to breathe away the panic swarming me.
“Let’s go home,” Maisie whispered as she put the truck in drive, taking a longer way around, so we didn’t have to go past Jessica’s.
There was nothing else we could do here. Officer Russell would take care of it, and probably hide the link to the sheriff. The law was not on our side this time, because the big guy in charge was the problem.
Ethan and Michael were waiting for us as we pulled into the driveway. They sat on the concrete steps that led into the kitchen under the carport. Ethan stood when the truck engine turned off. He walked to the truck and pulled my door open. His bright-blue eyes searched my face.
“What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t keep how distraught I was from him. A tear slid down my cheek. Ethan wrapped his hands around my waist and helped me out and onto the driveway. I had moved too fast, too abruptly at Jessica’s. I could feel my pulse under the bandage. With the back of my hand, I wiped away a stray tear. “Jessica Freki is dead.”
Michael’s lips parted. He and Ethan exchanged a worried look. “How?”
“Sophia poisoned her.” I limped past them into the kitchen.
Maisie laid the map she’d found at the gas stat
ion on the table, opening it to expose all of Wildewood. On the top left corner, it read “Adventure in Wildewood!” There wasn’t much to do outside of shopping and hiking, but little did the creators of the map know, Wildewood would become more interesting than just visiting the waterfalls.
I placed the glass jar of Forget-Me-Not oil beside the map, taking a glance at Michael. “Did you find anything of your father’s?”
He handed me a tissue covered in blood. Wrinkling my nose, I pinched the only clean spot and took it. “Dad had a nose bleed last week.”
Maisie brought one of my larger, chrome mixing bowls over and placed it beside the map. We almost had everything we needed; the bloody tissue, a match from the junk drawer near the sink, and the Forget-Me-Not oil.
“All that’s missing is the pendu—” I stopped at the sound of something skittering across the floor.
Harold appeared on the table, grinning from ear to pointy ear. He held up a pendulum. “I told you Harold knew where one was.”
“What the hell is that?” Ethan asked, putting a hand on my shoulder. I could feel him trying to move me backward, but I wouldn’t budge.
Harold tucked his head into his shoulders, his grin turning into a frown.
“It’s a hobgoblin.” I shrugged Ethan’s hand off and looked at both men. “Be nice.”
I took the pendulum. It was more of a smokey quartz, not completely clear but hopefully, that didn’t matter. “Where did you get this from?” I asked.
“The same place your book was.” He grabbed his ears and pulled them down over his eyes. “Don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad,” I reassured him. Though, I couldn’t say the same for the mayor. “Thank you, Harold.”
Maisie opened the grimoire to the location spell. She read the directions out loud. Placing the bloody tissue into the bowl, I then dropped in exactly five drops of the oil. As it was absorbed by the tissue, I held the match against the box, ready to strike.
“What is lost, is now found,” Maisie recited in Latin.
I struck the match against the box then dropped it into the bowl.
A plume of smoke rose as the fire quickly consumed the items. Picking up the pendulum, I held it over the map. Together we repeated the spell. The smokey-colored stone began to swing back and forth in long strides.
I could feel the heat radiating off Ethan’s body as he stood behind me. Bean jumped onto the table and Harold took a few timid steps backward until Bean laid down. His eyes moved back and forth, watching the pendulum. The swings became shorter until it moved in a tight circle. It felt heavier than before.
A knock came at the door, causing me to jump and lose hold of the metal chain attached to the pendulum. The knocking became more frantic. Ethan rushed into the hallway, and I could hear Jennifer’s voice.
“Is Michael here?” She brushed past her brother and into the kitchen, still wearing her Just Treats apron.
Her eyes widened as she looked at the table, probably just as unsure about Harold as the rest of us had been. I watched as her gaze swooped from him to the slightly smoking bowl in front of me and then to Michael.
“We have to go.”
Michael’s shoulders tensed. “What’s going on?”
“Eugene—” She licked her lips. “Vargas is challenging him.”
Michael pushed away from the island. “He’s alive.” He let out a sigh of relief.
Jennifer motioned for him to follow. “Hurry.” She looked at me for a second before walking out of view.
Without saying goodbye, Ethan and Michael ran after her. I followed to the door and watched them climb into her small, dark-blue sedan. My stomach started to knot. There was no way Eugene was in any shape to fight Vargas, even as a wolf. If I was right, he had been poisoned just enough to subdue him and probably slowly brought to the brink of death the way Jessica had been.
I knew this wasn’t our business, we weren’t werewolves, but when did I ever listen?
I shut the front door and met Maisie in the hallway. “We have to follow them.”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Eugene is in trouble!” I pleaded.
“But they’re . . .” Maisie followed on my heels as I walked back to the table. “The last time you were around a wolf, you almost died.”
Running my hand through my hair, I looked at her over my shoulder. “Eugene will die. We have the antidote he needs.”
Kicking myself, I realized I should’ve stopped them before they left but it was too late now. The car was gone. I didn’t even know where they were going. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. Opening them, I saw the pendulum standing straight up, its point digging into the map. I pulled it away, seeing an indention in Peaceful Acres. He had been there all along. No doubt Sophia had used Wolfsbane to mask his scent, that’s probably why the boys hadn’t been able to find him.
Ethan’s truck was still in the driveway, but we needed to get to him fast, and preferably undetected. I held my hand out, the broom beside the trash can shaking to life. It slammed into my palm. “If you want to stay, I understand.”
Masie’s jaw clenched and then she shook her head. “No. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you go alone.”
For once, Maisie didn’t complain about my mode of transportation. She grabbed her jacket and headed toward the back door. “Come on, let’s go.”
I followed her, pulling my own jacket over the already-thick WPD sweatshirt. while trying to hold on to the broom. Harold was on my heels, his feet making a clicking sound on the hardwood. I turned to him. “Harold. I think you should wait here.”
As I turned back around, Agatha materialized in front of the door, arms crossed over her chest. She looked down at the hobgoblin, causing Harold to scream and grab at my leg to hide. Agatha narrowed her eyes and pointed. “Where did you find that?”
“He found us.” I stepped aside, so she could see him, but he fell to the ground, still holding onto my pants and I ended up dragging him. Bean crept into the hallway; his tail swished as he observed us. Or maybe he thought Harold was a snack.
“Someone let you out.” Agatha kneeled down. Her form flickered slightly as she became more translucent.
Harold clutched at my leg, his little nails digging into my skin.
“Harold. Come here. I’m not going to hurt you.” When he didn’t budge, she sighed. “It’s me, Agatha.”
“But you’re . . .” he tugged on my pants, pushing his face between my legs to look at her. I grabbed the waist of the baggy sweatpants, afraid he was going to pull them down.
“Dead, yes. But I’m back.” She stood, her hips tilted to one side, her arms out.
Harold’s hold on me loosened. He walked around my feet, craning his neck to look up at her. “Wildewoods are so tricky.” He followed her back into the kitchen. “They never seem to stay dead.”
“Be nice to him.” I pointed at her. “We’ll be back.”
I hoped we’d be back, at least. I felt the glass bottle in my pocket as it hit against my thigh, realizing I had no idea how I’d be able to get close enough to Eugene without putting myself in danger. But at this point, I didn’t have enough time to make another plan.
“Go with them,” Agatha hissed, swiping her hand in the air from Bean to us.
Bean jumped to his feet. He padded toward us, out the door, and onto the back porch. Maisie and I got ourselves situated on the broom, though, with two people on one broom, it was never truly comfortable. He jumped into my arms and I zipped my jacket around his little body with only his head poking out.
“Subvolare!” I yelled, wrapping my hands around the handle.
The broom rose slowly, the toes of my boots scraping the ground. I heard Maisie whisper and we jutted into the night sky so fast I almost lost control. The wind blew the hood off my head as we sped toward the edge of town.
The moon was already rising, the sun having set at least an hour before. It was
large and full. If pop culture was accurate, this was a dangerous time to be around a group of werewolves. But Eugene was more important at this moment. I only wished I knew more spells I could use to keep us safe.
We veered away from the bridge, careful to stay within the town limits, otherwise, we’d be powerless, and there was nothing below to cushion our fall. Flying over the clearing at the entrance of Peaceful Acres, we hovered high above the Christmas tree farm. I spotted Jennifer’s car parked with a half-dozen other cars in the gravel parking lot.
“I don’t know where to go,” I called over my shoulder.
The location spell had brought us this far, but Peaceful Acres was large. Maisie pointed toward the ground below us. The light from the moon exposed a hefty shape running through the trees. I pulled us up further and followed the creature.
We neared a smaller clearing. Wolves and humans alike moved in the empty space. A large cabin sat tucked in the trees. We inched closer to the ground behind it. Mostly shielded from sight, it was the safest place I could think of to land.
My feet touched the soft ground. Maisie slid off the broom, falling backward. She jumped to her feet as I unzipped my jacket to free Bean. Leaving the broom on the ground, I crouched underneath a window and peeked over the frame into a small bedroom. Maisie pressed her body against the smooth logs and peered into another. She looked at me, shaking her head.
It would’ve been too easy had Eugene been alone in the cabin. He had to be around here somewhere. I just didn’t know how to find him without revealing our arrival to the others. I kicked myself, wishing I had spritzed us with that awful perfume to mask our scent. I heard a noise inside the cabin and sucked in a breath, creeping to the window Maisie stood beside.
I stopped moving but the sound of leaves crunching continued. Something was close. I looked over my shoulder and a tall figure moved in the shadows. I grabbed at Maisie, adrenaline rushing through me, my heart rate quickened and I held my hand out, a spell at the tip of my tongue.
