Wicked Witches of Coventry- The Collection

by Sara Bourgeois

  Chapter Thirteen

  Thorn was more than a little sheepish when he arrived a few minutes later. “I’m sorry I underestimated Hattie,” he said. “And I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.”

  “Apology accepted,” I said.

  “But,” and then he had to ruin it, “you are not an investigator and you’d be better off staying out of my way.”

  “Hey, Thorn,” Annika sniped, “I’ll have you know that we’re excellent investigators. We set this trap to catch Hattie, and we did it.”

  “Well, that was stupid, reckless, and probably illegal,” Thorn said.

  “You’re just mad that I’m a better investigator that you,” I said and instantly regretted it. He’d just gotten under my skin.

  “I’m going to take Ms. Driggs into custody now,” he said curtly. “I hope the three of you can stay out of trouble for the rest of the night.”

  When he was gone, I invited Annika and Remy to stay in the guest rooms. I hadn’t really done anything with them yet, but it appeared that the house had taken care of that for me.

  We were up until almost dawn waiting for the adrenaline to wear off. I began to worry that Hattie would escape Thorn’s custody.

  “No, she won’t be able to get away. Thorn can arrest witches who break the law and hold them because he’s under a powerful protection spell cast by the law-abiding witches in Coventry. It gives him the unconscious ability to nullify their harmful magic and arrest the resistors. But he’s not a witch and has no idea he’s been given that power,” Remy said when I expressed my concerns.

  “This wasn’t exactly the best introduction to our little town, but are you going to stay in Coventry?” Annika asked.

  “I was just planning on staying here long enough to fix up the place and sell it, but how could I walk away from my legacy and my potential power?” I said. “Plus, who would leave friends like you guys and Meri?”

  Meri purred when I included him and rubbed him between the ears. He was kind of a snarky little beast, but at least he was being nice when I needed him the most.

  I was a little worried about how Amelda would react to the news that I had no intention of leaving. More than that, I was concerned about how Thorn was going to take it. The look on his face when he’d left earlier told me he wasn’t exactly thrilled with me, and we’d barely gotten along during our interactions. Added to that was the fact that he probably thought I was nuts.

  But why did I care? It wasn’t like we had to be friends. We just had to find a way to make peace with each other. Plus, it wasn’t like I was going to be involved in another murder mystery…

  Epilogue

  I’d finally drifted off to sleep on the sofa. Despite me offering the guest rooms to Remy and Annika, they were asleep in their sleeping bags on the floor.

  The scratching noise had returned, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I’d assumed that the incident I’d had before was either a nightmare or Hattie messing with me.

  But as my eyes came into focus, I saw the woman in the white gown again. She was scratching on the front door, and then she drifted through it.

  I stood up and padded my way quietly to the front door so as not to wake Meri, Remy, and Annika. As I closed the front door behind me, I saw her standing in the front yard, then she drifted across the street to a field on the other side of the road. There was a low fence, but I easily stepped over it.

  The area was a small section of forest between my neighborhood and the main part of town. I’d seen it every time I came out of the house, but until then, I’d never given it any thought. As the woman in white disappeared deeper into the trees, I felt compelled to follow her.

  Something hard on the ground caught my foot, and I fell down to my knees. When I looked back to see what had tripped me, I found the bottom portion of a gravestone that had broken off some time in the distant past. My eyes scanned the area, and I saw that there were more headstones. Some of them were broken, but others were just obscured by weeds and vines. I’d stumbled into some sort of unmarked cemetery.

  The woman in white was gone, but the wind began to pick up. It rose until it was nearly a deafening howl. Black mist began to rise up from the graves, and the smell of roses filled my nostrils. I had to cover my ears because the wind became so loud that it made my head pound.

  I turned and ran out of the forest area. I’d thought I was only in the cemetery for a minute or two, but as I climbed the fence and crossed the street, it occurred to me that the sun was breaking the horizon. Somehow, it was morning.

  And in my driveway was Thorn’s cruiser. He was sitting on my porch.

  “What were you doing in there?” he said, looking me over. I must have been a mess with windblown hair and dirt on the knees of my pajamas.

  “Thought I saw a dog run in there,” I said quickly.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, and I saw something that looked like genuine concern and affection on his face. It caught me off guard again when he brushed some of my hair away from my face.

  “I’m okay. But I should ask you why you’re on my porch at the crack of dawn.”

  He pressed his lips together in a line for a moment. “That’s why I’m here. I wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah,” he said and took a step closer to me. “I don’t know what it is about you, Brighton. The hair. Your energy. All of it… It intrigues me in a way I didn’t expect.”

  “Oh,” I said and swallowed the nervous lump in my throat.

  “Does that bother you?”

  “No,” I said, but then I got this weird feeling of discomfort.

  It was like I was worried that Remy might be watching. And I suddenly didn’t know if I cared if Remy was watching or not because why would I care about that? It wasn’t like I liked Remy, was it?

  All of that was running through my mind as Thorn leaned in. He moved his hand under my chin and tipped my face up. “I want to kiss you,” he said, but then he lingered there for what felt like an eternity. When he didn’t move the rest of the way in, I bit my bottom lip in anticipation.

  I nodded my head yes, because Thorn had successfully drawn my attention completely to him. I wanted him to kiss me too, and I’d figure out the rest later.

  A nanosecond before his lips touched mine, his radio squawked, and I jumped back a foot. There was a fight at the tavern.

  “I have to go,” he said. “Another time?”

  “Another time,” I confirmed.

  But as I went back into the house and saw Remy asleep on my living room floor, I found myself happier than I expected that we’d been interrupted. His eyes opened as I made my way toward the kitchen.

  “Coffee?” I whispered.

  “Yes, please,” he whispered back.

  He pulled himself up off the floor and followed me into the kitchen quietly. I put the coffee on and got a couple of cups from the cabinet.

  “An interesting night,” I said absentmindedly.

  “Yeah,” he answered. “So what were you doing outside?”

  “Oh, that? Well, this house is haunted, and I followed a ghost across the street to a haunted cemetery.”

  “Really?” He perked up. “I’d heard rumors that there was a secret graveyard in Coventry, but I’ve never been able to find it. Figures it’s across the street from your house.”

  “I don’t really want to go back there alone, but do you want to go check it out when we’re done with our coffee?” I asked.

  “That would be awesome,” he said, and then that endearing blush crept across his cheeks again.

  “It’s a date.”

  Grab the next book in the series here: Doom and Broom

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  © Sara Bourgeois 2019

  This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons alive or dead is a coincid
ence.

  Doom and Broom

  Chapter One

  Noises waking me up from a dead sleep had become a normal occurrence at Hangman’s House, but the one that had pulled me from my sleep on that occasion was different. It sounded a lot less like the ghosts who liked to disturb my slumber and more like the times Hattie Driggs broke in to steal my books. I sat up in bed and looked around the room to confirm that I was alone. I was, other than Meri still sleeping next to me.

  Hattie was in jail awaiting trial, so I knew it couldn’t be her. Or could it? Had she tricked the guards at the jail the same way she’d tricked everyone in Coventry? Perhaps she’d come back to exact her revenge.

  I heard the hall closet on the first floor close and eased out of bed as quietly as I could. Seconds later the back door slammed, and I ran down the stairs to find that the intruder had escaped. I hurried to the back door and looked outside, but all I saw was the blur of someone running away. Then they were gone. At that point I couldn’t even have told you if it was a man or a woman. Just a blur.

  I guess I should have been grateful that they didn’t murder me in my sleep, but when I remembered that they’d been in the hall closet, my heart sank. There was no way that it was just a coincidence they’d been going through that closet. Some of my most valuable craft tools and relics were kept in there.

  After retrieving my phone and calling Thorn, I opened the closet door to find out what the intruder had taken. It wasn’t hard to figure out. The little wooden box I used to keep a protection amulet Meri helped me make was placed on the floor right inside the door. They’d left it there for me to find.

  When I opened it, the amulet was gone and there was a note written on a scrap of white paper in its place. I took the little sheet of paper out of the box and my blood began to boil as I read it.

  Tuttlesmiths are not welcome in Coventry. We don’t want your kind here – Langoria Skeenbauer

  She’d even signed it. I couldn’t believe she’d had the audacity to put her name on it, but I quickly discovered why she’d been so bold. Thorn arrived and I gave him a recounting of the morning’s events before I found the note. I handed it to him and waited for him to say that he would arrest her at once.

  “Brighton, I know this is scary, and I will talk to Langoria, but you know that you need to improve the security around this place. You’ve had multiple break-ins. Why don’t you have better locks yet? Where are your security cameras?”

  “I thought people in small towns didn’t need stuff like that,” I said.

  “They usually don’t, but your house and whatever you’ve got in here seems to be valuable and of particular interest to a lot of people. I’m not sure why people started breaking in after you moved in when the place was vacant forever, but they have. I told you before to improve the locks. I hope you’ll listen to me this time.”

  He was lecturing me. I’d been the victim of another crime, and Sheriff Thorn Wilson was lecturing me again. I didn’t know what was up with him. I hadn’t seen him much lately, but it felt like our acquaintance had become far more adversarial.

  “Are you going to arrest her?” I asked as I planted my fists on my hips. “And you’re lecturing me. I know it’s the middle of the night and I’m tired, but it feels like you’re talking down to me. I don’t appreciate it.”

  He pressed his lips together in a line before speaking, and I knew I wasn’t going to like what he said before the words even came out of his mouth. I could just feel it.

  “I said I’ll talk to her, but that note isn’t enough evidence for me to arrest her, Brighton. A lot of people around here consider Langoria a pillar of the community. She’s on the town council, you know. It’s possible that someone doesn’t like you being here and doesn’t like her leadership. She can be strict on things because she wants Coventry to stay a nice place to live. It’s possible that someone was just trying to kill two birds with one stone.”

  “First of all, it sounds like you’ve already made up your mind that she’s not guilty,” I said with an exhausted huff. “Secondly, are you trying to say someone might have set her up? Like, they didn’t like her ruling on the price of a dog license in Coventry and decided to frame her for burglary?”

  “I will talk to her,” he said. “If it was her, you can rest assured that I will arrest her.”

  “I don’t feel assured,” I said.

  “What’s going on, Brighton?” His eyes softened. “It almost feels like you’re more upset with me than you are about the break-in.”

  He was right, but I didn’t want to admit it. While the amulet had meant a lot to me, and I wasn’t sure I could afford to replace the items I’d used to make it, I was more upset about him. He’d been practically ignoring me since the night he’d almost kissed me on the porch. I thought there would be some kind of follow-up. Like maybe he’d come back and try the kiss again or ask me out on a date. But there had been absolutely nothing. Thorn had ghosted me.

  I had been spending time with Remy as we tried to figure out the secrets of the cemetery across the road from my house, but that hadn’t stopped me from wondering why Thorn had gotten so close and then completely withdrawn. As much as I’d tried to forget him, I couldn’t. And that made me wish I could hate him, but I couldn’t do that either. It sucked.

  “I think if you have to ask that, then I probably never had any reason to be upset,” I said.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” The edge returned to his demeanor.

  “It means that you run too hot and too cold for my blood, Thorn Wilson. I don’t know what kind of game you were playing when you almost kissed me, but I don’t appreciate people playing with my emotions.”

  “Playing with your emotions? Brighton, I’ve seen how much time you spend with Remy. It’s a good thing I didn’t kiss you or I’m the one who would have ended up looking like a fool. I’ll let you know what I find out about the investigation,” Thorn said coldly over his shoulder as he turned to leave.

  “That’s what you’re worried about? You’re worried about what people think? That’s what’s kept you from me?” I called after him.

  But he’d already shut the door by the time I got the rest out. I was pretty sure he didn’t even hear it. If he did, he’d kept walking away anyway. I didn’t need a man like that in my life.

  So why did my stomach ache so much after our spat?

  I’d thought about going back to bed, but I was too wound up. Instead, I waited until the courthouse was about to open and headed down to the town square to make bad decisions. The town council would be heading into their offices, and I wanted to be there when Langoria Skeenbauer arrived for work.

  I knew I’d never be able to see her once she was in her office, but I could confront her if I waited outside. So that’s what I did.

  Not knowing exactly what time Langoria would get to work meant that I had to stand outside the courthouse for a while. The morning was chilly, and I kept my back to the building. A shiver ran down my spine, and I wasn’t quite sure if it was because of the nip in the air or my memory of the white ghoulish figure I’d seen in the upstairs window.

  The basement of the courthouse where Remy worked in the archives didn’t bother me. But there was always a bit of apprehension when I took the elevator that it would mistakenly take me to the top floor, and I’d be face to face with the thing I’d seen. The only thing worse would be if it showed up at my house.

  When I was just about to give up because I assumed that Langoria had gone in a back entrance and I’d missed her, a black Lincoln pulled into one of the reserved parking spaces in front of the courthouse. A woman in a navy-blue skirt suit with her hair in a precise updo stepped out. She had a briefcase in one hand and a coffee in the other.

  I’d never met Langoria in person, but I’d seen her once before. Remy and I had stopped into Mann’s to get diet soda and frozen pizza one evening before we headed over to the cemetery. It had become somewhat of a traditional post “poking around in the graveyard
” meal.

  Langoria was at the small butcher counter scolding the embarrassed teenager behind the glass about the lack of good steak in Coventry. I was shocked at how harsh she was being over something the teenage clerk couldn’t control.

  Remy had said the woman was his Aunt Langoria and that was just her personality. He said that she was probably top five of his least favorite aunts. I’d asked him how many aunts he had, and he just shook his head and kept going to the frozen food section.

  The woman who’d exited the Lincoln was the same one I’d seen in Mann’s Gas and Grocery that day. The smug expression on her face was unmistakable, as was her thin, upturned nose and high, stenciled-on eyebrows.

  If I’d been a more experienced witch, I might have felt the power coming off her. I certainly would have felt it increase as she got closer to the node in the ley line that I was standing on.

  Both fortunately and unfortunately, the town square was busy at that time. People were coming and going from the courthouse, library, and the assorted shops. It was fortunate because it meant that Langoria couldn’t destroy me with her magic. It was unfortunate because it meant there were quite a few witnesses to my confrontation with one of the most powerful women and witches in Coventry.

  “Can I speak to you for a moment?” I said as I stepped out from behind the memorial statue into Langoria’s path.

  “Absolutely not,” she said and moved to step around me, but I moved with her and cut her off.

  “Please, just for a moment. I think we can work this out between us,” I said quietly.

  “I think I made my opinion clear. Please move.”

  Her voice dripped with venom, and I knew then if there weren’t people around watching, she would have done something terrible to me. If I were smarter, I would have been afraid that she’d come back later to exact her revenge. Langoria had already proven she wasn’t afraid to break into my house. And the long arm of the law in Coventry had proven that he was too eager to overlook her offenses.