by Lily Webb
Dead Over Heels
Visions & Victims Book Six
Lily Webb
Contents
Newsletter
Previously in Starfall Valley…
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Broomsticks and Burials Excerpt
The Magic & Mystery Series
The Visions & Victims Series
About the Author
Copyright © 2021 by Lily Webb
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Newsletter
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Previously in Starfall Valley…
Dead on Target Re-Cap
Psychic sleuth Selena Smith has never been a fan of the woods, especially when they’re inhabited by a giant, dangerous werewolf!
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Using her newfound powers of foresight, Selena was able to tame the beast and save the day…
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… But a prominent reporter has just arrived in Starfall Valley, and she’s brought bad news.
Though each mystery in the Visions & Victims series stands alone, the series reads stronger together.
Chapter 1
The afternoon’s sweet, sticky summer air washed over me as I stepped out the front doors of the Kindred Spirits Inn for the first time in what felt like months. The sun still hung high in the sky, casting blindingly bright rays across the grounds that surrounded the castle and bringing an involuntary smile to my face.
“Maybe Blair was on to something,” Jadis, my best friend and coworker, said as she stepped out behind me and spun in a slow circle with her arms thrown wide. “It would be a pretty awful waste to work through this weather.” She fluffed her lilac curls, sending them bouncing across her shoulders, and sighed. “Besides, I don’t think we have many days like this left before it gets unbearably hot.”
“I hope you’re wrong,” I said, though I suspected she wasn’t. While the temperatures were still perfect in the shade, they teetered on insufferable in the direct sunlight.
“You’re always such an optimist, Selena,” Jadis teased, and rolled her eyes at me. “But if you’re right, then we’d better not waste another minute standing here talking about it. What do you wanna do?”
“Honestly, I don’t have a clue,” I laughed. “It’s been so long since I’ve had a bonafide day off that I’m not sure what to do with all the free time.” That was part of the reason I’d been so reluctant to take the day off in the first place, despite my aunt Blair’s insistence. If we’d stayed at the inn, we at least could’ve pretended to be occupied with busy work.
After several busy months of check-ins throughout the winter and spring, what Blair referred to as the “summer slump” had finally arrived, which meant that there wasn’t enough work to go around among our front desk staff of four: myself, Jadis, Aunt Blair, and her wife, my aunt Kiki. Thorn, our PR rep and my boyfriend, however, still had more than enough work to occupy his time, much to his chagrin.
Jadis repeatedly lifted her eyebrows at me. “Wanna wander around Starfall and see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into? I still haven’t really gotten to see much.”
“To be fair, neither have I.”
“Then it’s settled! Come on,” Jadis said, and trotted down the inn’s front steps without waiting for me to agree.
“Do you have any idea how long of a walk it’s gonna be from here to there?” I called as I hurried after her, anyway. “I’m sure Blair would let us take her car if we asked!”
Jadis halted and spun on her heel to glare at me. “First off, we aren’t vampires, Selena,” she said, and I snickered as she seized one of my arms and pushed up the sleeve of my work robes that I now desperately wished I’d had the foresight to change out of. “Second, I dunno if you’ve noticed, but after months spent working in that dark inn, your poor skin could use some sun.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” I said, glaring at her equally pasty complexion.
Jadis shrugged. “I’m goth; it’s part of the look.”
“Uh huh, sure,” I said and yanked my sleeve back down my arm; I didn’t want to blind anyone we might pass on the way into town.
Gravel crunched under our feet as we walked down the winding drive that cut through the dense ring of trees that surrounded the inn. “Hey, what do you think ever became of the lycan?” I asked, thinking about the seven-foot tall super werewolf that had stalked the woods just a few weeks ago. We hadn’t heard a peep from it since the night it unexpectedly saved me from a deranged beast hunter and tore away into the trees.
“I bet it ran up into the mountains. Could you imagine being that hairy and living in this heat?” Jadis quipped. Though it was the lamest joke I’d heard in a while, I couldn’t help laughing because she had a point.
“That would be pretty awful, wouldn’t it? I mean, it’s not like the poor thing can shave it off.”
Jadis threw her head back in a wild cackle, then clapped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry. I’m just picturing this giant, naked mole rat standing in front of us, and suddenly it isn’t so scary anymore.”
“Maybe you wouldn’t feel that way if you’d faced it down.”
“Probably not. You’re not still scared of it though, are you? I mean, if it hasn’t come back to gobble you up by now, I think it’s pretty safe to say it won’t.”
“I’m not scared. I just think about it sometimes. Is it lonely out there?”
Jadis snorted. “It’s just like you to be worried about the mental wellbeing of a beast that almost ripped you to shreds.”
I shrugged. “I’ve always been a bleeding heart.”
“I know, and that’s exactly why you keep finding yourself cornered by wild creatures in the woods.”
“Ouch. It stings because it’s true,” I said, and we laughed together as we continued down the winding, mountainous path that eventually dead-ended at the entrance to Starfall Valley, the magical town I’d called home for the last several months but had barely seen.
Sweat trickled down my neck and into my robes where it ran down my back, but I didn’t mind as much as I normally would’ve. As hot as it was, I had to admit that it was nice to enjoy some time outside alone with Jadis. Since we’d moved to Starfall together, a lot of things had kept us from hanging out as much as we did before, namely my relationship with Thorn.
Jadis always claimed to be supportive, and she swore she didn’t mind if I spent more time with Thorn than her. Though she’d never said or done anything to contradict that, I still felt guilty about it. Back in Denver where we met while working in a café together, she’d been more than my best friend — she’d been my everything, and if it weren’t for meeting her, I don’t think I ever would’ve put the pieces of my life back together after it’d falle
n apart.
“Have you heard anything from your parents since we moved here?” Jadis asked, as if she’d read my mind. Given her affinity for tarot and a general talent at reading people, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she’d picked up on my thoughts.
“That’s creepy,” I said, and she crinkled her brows at me.
“What is?”
“I was just thinking about what life was like back in Denver.”
Jadis laughed and shrugged. “Chalk it up to witches’ intuition. So, have you?”
I shook my head, embarrassed to admit it. I knew my parents weren’t happy with me for deciding to drop out of school — they’d made that abundantly clear when they effectively disowned me afterward — but that was half a year or more ago. Did they really not care about me or what I was doing these days?
“Shame on them,” Jadis snapped. “I mean, I knew they were jerks, but how can any parent go this long without at least trying to check in with their kid?”
“I try not to think about it, honestly. Besides, I have my family here.”
Jadis slung one arm around my shoulders and nuzzled her head against mine. “You’ve got that right. Who needs ‘em?”
“Not me!” I said, though I didn’t fully mean it. As happy as I was in my new life in Starfall, and as much as I pretended not to care about how things had devolved with my parents, it still hurt. Thankfully, Jadis’ intuition kicked in again, and she changed the subject.
“So, things are getting pretty serious between you and Thorn, huh?” she muttered with a devious smile. Though I willed my cheeks not to flush, they betrayed me.
“I dunno if I’d call it ‘serious,’ but yeah, things are going well.”
“You two are exclusive now. If that’s not serious then I don’t know what is.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Okay, fine. You’re right. I guess it’s serious.”
Jadis beamed at me with a twinkle in her eyes. “I’m so happy for you, Selena. Seriously.”
“Thanks. I’m pretty happy too, honestly,” I said and couldn’t stop a beaming smile from splitting my face. “After everything that’s happened in the last year, I really never thought a relationship would be on my radar.”
“Well, to be fair, you also probably never expected to learn that magic is real and you’re a witch either.”
“Good point.”
“So, do you think the two of you will end up settling here in Starfall?”
A coughing fit overtook me, eventually turning into a sputtering wheeze. “W-what? Things aren’t that serious.”
“Not yet, anyway,” Jadis said. “But you’re in luck, looks like we’re here.”
And not a minute too soon, I thought, though I didn’t dare say it to her. Sure, things with Thorn were going great, but how could she already be thinking about the two of us settling together? I didn’t even know what I’d be doing in the next two minutes, much less in the next two years or more.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get over how cute this town is,” Jadis said as she looked around at the closely placed buildings that branched off in every direction down streets that were too tight to allow cars to pass through. “Where should we start?”
I shrugged and pointed at the massive spire of the Starforce Tower, which served as the headquarters of Starforce Technologies, the biggest magitech company in the paranormal world, and the number one employer in Starfall Valley. “That’s the town center. If you keep it in view, you can’t get lost, so I guess we can go pretty much anywhere.”
“I still think that thing looks like a cheap knockoff of the Space Needle, but don’t tell Thorn I said that.”
I laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ve thought the same thing.”
“Hey, do you think we can go up to the top of it, though? You know, to get a lay of the land?”
“I guess there’s only one way to find out. We can figure out where to go from there,” I said and headed north up Stardust Street, the main road in town that led directly to the tower.
“You seem like you really know your way around already.”
“Not exactly. I just remember going this way when I was here with Thorn a while back.”
“Ah, yes, on one of your fifty first dates.”
I glared at Jadis. “Hilarious. Come on,” I said and kept moving up Stardust Street. Unsurprisingly, given the heat, there weren’t many residents outside, unlike the last time I’d walked down the street with Thorn. Magic could do a lot of things, but even witches and warlocks couldn’t handle high temperatures for long.
But where the people were lacking, the political advertisements were abundant. Everywhere I looked, I found another poster, and all of them seemed to be targeting the same person: Starfall Valley’s mayor, Morgan Nash. I’d met him recently when he’d stayed at Kindred Spirits for a business summit, and I thought he was a pretty good guy, so I didn’t understand the slogan screaming at me from all the posters: “Put Nash in the Trash; Vote for Leo Blackwood!”
“Do you hear that? I wonder what’s going on?” Jadis asked as we drew closer to the town square, and though I had to strain to hear, eventually scattered shouts bounced down the narrow street to my ears. Between the distance and the echo, I couldn’t be entirely sure, but it sounded almost like people were cheering for someone or something.
“Is there some sort of magical sports game going on?” I wondered aloud.
“I don’t think so. It sounds like too small of a crowd for that. Let’s check it out,” Jadis said, and hurried past me toward the source. I hustled after her, sweating and huffing, until eventually we entered the town square and found a throng of at least a hundred people gathered around a raised podium in the center of the square.
A white-blond warlock wearing an expensive looking deep blue suit stood behind the podium. His icy blue eyes flashed in the sunlight as he glanced out over the heads of the crowd below and beamed at them, revealing perfectly straight and white teeth.
“As last night’s unfortunate events proved, Mayor Nash is crashing and burning on the job of keeping the residents of Starfall Valley safe!” the warlock said, and his magically amplified voice boomed across the square. The crowd roared, and some of them threw their fists in the air.
“Wait, what happened last night?” Jadis shouted in my ear over the noise of the crowd.
“No idea,” I answered, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Still, I couldn’t help wondering if whatever had happened was why we didn’t have any guests at Kindred Spirits.
“Hey, look! There’s a cop over there,” Jadis said, pointing at a tall woman standing at the edge of the crowd with her back to us. The letters “SVPD” screamed in bright yellow from the back of her vest. For a moment, I thought it might be Officer Aimes, the officer we’d had a few too many encounters with thanks to problems at the inn over the last few months, but the woman’s height suggested otherwise. “Should we ask her?”
I shrugged. “I guess it can’t hurt,” I said and moved along the edge of the crowd toward her. As if she’d sensed us coming, the police officer turned around just as we reached her and raised her perfectly sculpted eyebrows at us.
“Can I help you with something?” she asked over the noise of the crowd, who were shouting about whatever the speaker had said again. The words “Officer Eva Dunham” flashed on the golden tag pinned to her chest as she moved.
“Uh, yes, hi. My name’s Selena, I work up at Kindred Spirits so I’m a bit out of the loop. My friend here and I were just wondering what happened last night?”
Officer Dunham’s brows crept further up her forehead. “You really haven’t heard?”
“No, we haven’t.”
Officer Dunham lifted her police cap to smooth some stray black hairs away from her forehead and sighed as she plopped the cap back down. “Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Mr. Blackwood here found a dead witch on his property this morning,” she said, and as the crowd roared enthusiastically again, my heart plummeted into my
stomach.
“Oh, my… Do you know who she is?” Jadis asked as I tried to gather myself.
“We do, but I can’t comment. It’s an active investigation,” the officer said.
“Wait, then why is Mr. Blackwood up there blabbing about it if the body was on his property?” Jadis asked, and Officer Dunham chuckled.
“Good question. The quick answer is that candidates for mayor aren’t bound by the same laws I am.”
Well, that explained Mr. Blackwood’s fancy suit and oratory skills. “So this is some sort of campaign rally then?” I asked, slowly coming back to reality.
“Exactly. An impromptu and inadvisable one in my opinion, but what do I know? I’m not his campaign manager. I’m just here to make sure things don’t get out of control.” Despite the wand holstered to the officer’s hip, I didn’t think one cop alone would be enough to contain this crowd if they got too rowdy. “Anyway, if you think you have anything that could help us, stop by the station and file a report.”
“Sure, thanks,” I said, and pulled Jadis away before she could pepper the officer with more questions.
“How in Lilith’s name did we not hear about this until now?” Jadis asked incredulously.
“I dunno. I know we’re a little isolated up in the mountains, but it’s not like we live off the grid or anything.”
