Beached & Bewitched

by Emery Belle

  “Speaking of which,” Glenn said, straightening his beret and hitching up his pants, “I’m going to go find Dr. Humphrey and let him know that you’re awake. It’s almost time for your next round of potion, and he’ll be glad to know he won’t have to pour it down your throat while you try to batter him over the head with his stethoscope.”

  He shook his head and chuckled, then bounded out of the room with a speed that belied his advanced age. Hunter followed, muttering something about needing to find a watermelon whiplash, leaving me alone with Garnet.

  She dragged a chair up to my bedside and settled into it, giving my hand another squeeze. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she whispered, her eyes swimming with tears. “After Kellen left the station, I sent a sparrow to Glenn and we headed right down to the newspaper offices. I saw Kellen carry you out, and I thought… I thought…” She swallowed and shook her head, then looked away quickly so she could wipe her eyes.

  A terrible thought struck me, and I tried to sit upright, only to be knocked flat on my back once more. “The man in black!” I said desperately, craning my head to see around the room, as though he might be standing in the corner, watching me… but this time, he’d be welcome. “Is he okay?”

  “Who are you talking about?” Garnet studied me carefully as I continued looking around the room, but he was nowhere to be found.

  “The man in black!” I insisted. “He saved me from Percival’s spell… he jumped in front of me and absorbed the light… it’s the only reason I’m still alive.” I was babbling, desperate to make Garnet understand, frantic to know what had become of him. But she only shook her head slowly, her mouth turned down in a frown.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Wren.” She felt my forehead again and glanced toward the door. “I already told you, Percival’s spell backfired. There was no one else in the room… Kellen did a full sweep of the building before he removed Percival’s body, just in case someone else was in on it.”

  She gave me a placating smile, which did nothing to soothe me. “I think you just need a little bit of rest, okay? You’ve been through a lot tonight. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

  She leaned down to give me an awkward hug, and my eyes welled up in gratitude for her friendship. Even though she was wrong, and I knew it. The man in black had been there… he’d been there all along. There was no way he was a figment of my imagination. He was too real, too solid.

  But I decided to drop the subject, at least long enough for me to work out what had happened.

  Garnet hugged me one more time and headed for the door, her long hair swinging behind her. As she reached the hallway, a thought suddenly occurred to me, and I called after her.

  “What happened at Fiona’s?” I asked as she popped her head back inside the doorway. “Did you ever figure out what she was trying to hide?”

  “Oh, that.” Garnet threw back her head and laughed. “I figured it out, all right.”

  She looked behind her to make sure no one else was in earshot, then walked toward me and lowered her voice. “You know how Fiona Thane tells everyone that her exercise regimen is the thing responsible for keeping her looking so trim and toned? She’s always strutting around in these tiny little outfits to promote her broomrobics classes and those awful weight loss retreats she holds all over the island—that’s how she has so many clients. Everyone wants to look just like her, and she promises they can, as long as they follow her instructions. Well, as it turns out, the old toad is a complete fraud.”

  She pulled a brochure from her pocket and smoothed it out, then held it out so I could see it. “Arctic Blast” was scrawled across the top of the brochure, and underneath it was a picture of a yeti wearing a winning smile. “Freeze your fat away, iceberg-style!”

  I frowned up at Garnet. “I don’t get it.”

  “I also found an unpaid bill,” Garnet said, wagging the brochure in my face, “for the same day Cassandra was murdered. Don’t you see? Fiona has been visiting a fat freezing clinic this entire time to keep herself in shape—her whole business is nothing but a sham! If anyone finds out about this, she’ll be ruined. Just think, Wren—you can blow this story wide open in your column. Talk about making a name for yourself!” She looked almost gleeful.

  “I don’t think so,” I said quietly, remembering the look on Fiona’s face as she momentarily let her guard down when describing how Cassandra’s column had destroyed everything she held dear in life. She may be an ice queen—literally, apparently—but underneath the façade was a woman who was hurting… badly. Hadn’t she already been scorched enough by someone else’s pen?

  “Ah, well, it’s up to you,” Garnet said, looking disappointed. “But if you change your mind…” She shoved the brochure back into her pocket and gave me a wink, then practically skipped out of the room. I watched her go, then closed my eyes and burrowed myself further under the covers, trying to calm my racing mind.

  Right now, the only thing I needed was for warm, wonderful sleep to carry me away. I was determined to forget about Cassandra, Percival, and the mystery of the man in black…at least until tomorrow.

  The next morning, I padded through the hospital hallways, surreptitiously poking my head into open doorways and trying to avoid attracting suspicion. I was on a mission, and nothing was going to stand in my way.

  A nurse wearing light blue robes hurried by, her wand clutched in her hand and a harried expression on her face, and I pretended to be studying the cafeteria menu taped to the wall until she passed. “Try the flamingo stew.” An elderly man hobbled up to me and began reading the menu over my shoulder. “Unless Harold is making it. He always puts in way too much fish salt. I keep telling him it’s overpowering the flamingo, but he just can’t get it through his thick head.” The man knocked on his own head to demonstrate.

  “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, my stomach churning unpleasantly as I watched a woman push a cart laden with steaming trays of stew past me. The man lifted his nose to the air, let out a sigh of contentment, and shuffled after the cart. He waited until the woman entered a patient’s room with a tray before glancing both ways, giving me a wink, and snatching three bowls of stew before hobbling away as fast as he could.

  I continued walking, peering into every room I passed, disappointed by the faces staring back at me, or napping, or slurping down flamingo stew with gusto. He had to be here, somewhere, and I was determined to get some answers, once and for all.

  When I came to the last room, my heart began to beat a little faster. This was it, I thought, straightening my hospital gown and smoothing down my hair. I knocked once, then pushed open the door. The room’s occupant was hidden behind a white curtain, and I tiptoed over to it, then drew in a breath and whispered, “Hello?” into the silence.

  A terrible hissing filled the room, and the curtain began to shake violently as though it were caught in a tornado. As a gray cloud lifted up from the ground and swarmed overhead, I began to run backward, keeping my eyes on the curtain and whatever creature might be lurking behind it. When I reached the doorway, I ran into something very solid, and felt a pair of large hands steadying me.

  “Looking for something?” a male voice rumbled, and I could hear an edge of laughter in it.

  I swung around and found myself staring up into a pair of bottomless brown eyes that twinkled ever so slightly. The scar running across the man’s cheek seemed to glow in the hospital’s overhead lights, and his luxurious black hair curled around his ears, making me long to run my fingers through it.

  Did I mention before that he was gorgeous? Like, melt-my-lady-bits gorgeous. But I digress.

  “Who are you?” I breathed out as the man in black led me back toward my own room. As we walked, I could tell by the way other people’s eyes slid right past him that they couldn’t see him, but to me, he was as solid—as deliciously masculine—as ever. My heart began racing out of control as he took my arm and steered me gently to my bed, and as I perched on the e
dge of it, I became acutely aware of the puke-green hospital gown I was wearing.

  “Who are you?” I asked again, crossing my arms over my chest in an attempt to cover the gown. “And why have you been following me?”

  He leaned casually against the wall opposite me, his long black robes sweeping the ground. At least now that I had heard his voice, had actually spoken to him, I knew I wasn’t going crazy.

  Unless…

  I stared hard at him. Was he even here now? Or was he just a figment of my imagination?

  Worried, I twisted the end of my hospital gown between my fingers. He saw what I was doing and let out a low rumble of laughter. “I assure you that you’re perfectly sane,” he said, reading my thoughts. “I’m—”

  Before he could continue, the door to my room burst open and Sebastian practically ran in, carrying an enormous bouquet of wildflowers and looking as though he might punch someone. “I just heard what happened,” he said breathlessly, setting down the wildflowers and coming to stand beside me. “I’m so sorry I left you alone last night, Wren, I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m such an idiot.”

  “You’re not,” I said, taking his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. From the corner of my eye, I saw the man in black melting into the shadows. Though he had begun picking at his nails with the tip of a dagger he had pulled from his boot, I could tell from the way his dark eyes occasionally slid over Sebastian that he was listening intently.

  I focused my attention back on Sebastian, who still looked miserable. “Percival cursed you to get you out of the way… there was nothing you could have done,” I explained. Over the next few minutes, I filled Sebastian in on what had happened after he left. He listened, his eyes growing rounder by the second.

  “I can’t believe it was Percival,” he said, blowing out a breath. He waved his wand and conjured up a beautiful porcelain vase for the wildflowers, then arranged them inside. “He always seemed like such a good guy.”

  “I think he got in over his head,” I replied. “For what it’s worth, he seemed remorseful in the end… although not remorseful enough to spare my life and accept his punishment.”

  We sat in silence for a while, digesting everything that had happened over the past few days, until Sebastian saw me smother a yawn behind my hand and got to his feet. “You need to rest,” he said, then hesitated for a brief moment before leaning over and pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

  He started to leave, then stopped and pulled a small envelope from his pocket. “I almost forgot—when I stopped at the front desk to get your room number, the witch behind the counter asked me to bring up your mail. It’s from Lady Winthrop.” He tucked the letter beneath the vase of wildflowers, and after offering me one last smile, tiptoed from the room.

  I went to reach for the letter, but my hand went limp as exhaustion flooded my bones, and I let my head fall back against the pillow. I glanced toward the man in black, but he was nowhere to be found.

  I thought about calling out to him, but my eyes were suddenly so heavy that I let them drift closed, resolving to allow myself a few blessed hours of sleep. The mystery of the man in black would have to remain unsolved for another day. And as for the message Lady Winthrop had for me that was so important she was sending mail to my hospital room…

  It could wait. I’d already had enough excitement for one week.

  Afterword

  Thank you for reading Beached & Bewitched, the first book in the Magic Island series! If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon to help other readers find out about my books.

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  The magic and mayhem continues with the second book in the series, available soon!

  About the Author

  Emery Belle is the author of paranormal cozies featuring plenty of magic, mystery, and a dash of mayhem. When she isn’t dreaming up new worlds or wandering around the house with her nose in a book, you can find her digging her toes in the golden sand beaches of Southern California (sadly, she hasn’t found the ferry docks for Magic Island yet), fitting in a serious game of bowling, or chasing around an overly excitable, and overly large, rescue pup.