“You didn’t think your little stunt would actually make me leave town, did you?” I asked loudly. “Joke’s on you, Langoria. I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, young lady,” she said with a nervous giggle. “I’m just trying to get to work.”
I wondered what had caused the sudden change in her demeanor, but one look around answered that question. People were close by, and she didn’t want anyone to know that she’d stolen my amulet and left a note telling me to leave town. Langoria was putting on a show for those watching our exchange. She was trying to make me look like an aggressive bully. I didn’t do anything to help myself with that.
“You’re a liar. You know exactly what I’m talking about, Langoria. You left that note to threaten me. I should probably be afraid of you, but I’m not. I’m not leaving Hangman’s House or Coventry. This is my home, and it’s going to take a lot more than some idle threats to drive me out.”
“Brighton, while I maintain that I don’t know what you’re talking about, I would caution you to watch yourself. For one thing, I doubt you’re going to be in Hangman’s House long-term, but not because someone has threatened you,” she said with a sneer. “My first order of business this morning was to get a tax lien ready to file for Hangman’s House. You see, your family, and now you, are several years in arrears on the property taxes on that house. I suppose no one told you. Pity. You see, as soon as I get the lien, I’m going to file for foreclosure to sell the house to pay the lien immediately. The court will most likely give you a month at most to pay up before your house is sold to settle the debt to the city.”
“The taxes?” I asked as the wind left my sails. “That doesn’t make any sense. My family was supposed to take care of that for Maude.”
“Yes. With the taxes, fines, and legal fees, you’re looking at around ten thousand dollars,” she said and a wide, sinister smile spread across her face. “Good luck coming up with the money.”
All I could do was stand there with my mouth hanging open as Langoria stepped around me and continued into the courthouse. I had found a lot of money hidden in Hangman’s House, but I doubted I’d find an extra ten grand stuffed in a coffee can.
I waited a few minutes after Langoria went inside to go in myself. There were still people around, and I didn’t want anyone to think I was following her. I’d thought about going across the street to the Bubble & Brew Coffeehouse, but since it was the morning rush, people were lined up practically out the door. So I decided to just hang out on the square and mill around for a few minutes.
When I was certain she was gone and people had begun to move on with their day, I went inside the courthouse and took the elevator down to the basement. Part of me expected to see Langoria when the doors opened, but it was just Remy behind the counter reading something so intensely that he didn’t realize I was there until I was almost at the desk.
“Good morning, Brighton,” he said when he noticed me. “I was just about to call you.”
“Interesting reading?” I asked.
“That’s what I was about to call you… about.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. This is a contract for you. It’s a joint venture between the city archives department and the magical preservation society. Well, officially it’s the historical preservation society.”
“What is it for?” I asked as he slid the paperwork across the desk to me.
“Well, I thought that perhaps you might want to restore the cemetery across the street from your house? The city would like to hire you to do it. It’s an important part of Coventry’s history, and now that people remember it’s there, they don’t want to let it stay in that state.”
“I do kind of need a job,” I said. “That’s what I came down here to talk to you about.”
“The stars have aligned,” Remy said. “Plus, it’s right across from your house and you spend so much time there anyway, so you’re the perfect person for the job.”
“Dare I ask how much it pays?”
“The starting budget is ten thousand payment for the restoration and two thousand dollars for equipment and materials. If you need more than that, we’ll have to apply for it. The contract states that you can use the funds how you need. So if you need to hire contractors, you can do it from your budget. If you do all the work yourself, you get to keep all of the money.”
“That’s exactly how much I need,” I said. “How did you get this past Langoria?”
“My aunt? I didn’t need a council vote to get the contract. I just needed a few signatures. I went to the humans who like me the best and got the approvals I needed. But why do I feel that question was more about Langoria than the town council?”
“Probably because I used her name, dork,” I said and stuck my tongue out at him.
“You’re deflecting,” he said. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“Someone broke into my house early this morning and stole my protection amulet. They left a note,” I said.
“Oh, no. Are you all right?”
“I am.”
I told him the rest of the story about how the note was signed by Langoria. Then I told him about how I’d waited for her this morning and the thing with the taxes.
“Brighton, I don’t know what is wrong with some of the witches in the family. None of the younger cousins want to continue a stupid feud, but all of the older women keep it going. Except my mother. She thinks it’s ridiculous too, and that’s kind of made her the black sheep of the family.”
“So you believe me that it was really Langoria and not someone pretending to be her? That’s what Thorn thinks.”
“Of course, I believe you, and if you bring me the note, I can confirm it magically.”
“How about instead of bringing you the note, I give it to you tonight when you come over and keep me company while I start making plans for restoring the cemetery?”
“You’re going to take the job?” Remy asked hopefully.
“Yeah, hand over that contract. I’ll sign right now.”
“This is great. I’ll help you as much as I can.”
“I’m not paying you,” I said with a smile. “I need all that money to keep the Skeenbauer witches and the tax man off my back.”
“I would just be doing it for the company,” he said.
“Remy, are you trying to flirt with me?” I asked as I signed my name.
When I looked up, his face was bright red. “No… I mean… of course not… I just meant that I like spending time in the cemetery… well, not in general… I mean, I like spending time there with you… but not in like a flirty way… I mean, I’m not saying you’re not someone who I would flirt with just that I’m not… I don’t…”
“I’ll see you when you get off work, then?” I said and let him off the hook.
“I’ll be there,” he choked out.
Knowing that Remy would come over right after work, I’d stopped at Mann’s to pick up everything I needed to make his favorite dinner. He loved angel hair pasta with pesto Alfredo. I’d thought about getting a jar of Alfredo sauce but opted instead to make it from scratch. The noodles and pesto were store-bought, though. I only had so much skill in the kitchen, and making fresh pasta wasn’t part of my repertoire.
“I don’t need to start dinner yet,” I said to Meri in the middle of the afternoon.
“So? Don’t make dinner yet,” he answered.
“But I’m bored.”
“Don’t you have a job to do now?” Meri asked.
“I was going to wait and start that tonight when Remy got here.”
“Well, given that you’re bored, I think that sounds like a terrible idea.” Meri stretched and then jumped off the sofa where he’d been snuggled up next to my leg. “Come on. Why don’t we go over there and you can start taking some pictures?”
“That’s actually a great idea,” I said and stood up. “Do you think I should buy a new camera?”
“I think the on
e on your phone is about as good as you’re going to get unless you spend a ton of money on a professional camera. Which you don’t need. What you do need is to be careful with that money. Didn’t you say you needed all of it to pay Langoria’s extortion?”
“You’re right. I’ll just use my phone.”
We made our way across the street and I climbed over the low fence that surrounded the cemetery. My first order of business should have been to find a gate. I elected to take pictures instead as I’d become accustomed to scaling the short fence.
When I’d originally discovered the cemetery, I’d thought it was small, but Remy and I had quickly discovered that the tree line we thought was the graveyard boundary was not. If you went past those trees, it opened up into a much larger cemetery.
The small part we found was just the oldest section. The closer you got to town, the newer the graves were. The most recent grave was still seventy years old, and it appeared that use of the cemetery was abandoned after that. I couldn’t read any of the oldest graves, but some of the newer ones in the more modern section of the cemetery were legible.
I had to wonder what had happened that the graveyard was abandoned. There was still room between it and town, so it wasn’t as though they’d run out of space. Remy was doing his best to locate information in the archives for me, but he had other work to do as well. He hadn’t found anything yet.
I’d approached Ralph Badersmith at the bookstore since he was the head of the local magical preservation society, but since I wouldn’t sell him any of my Tuttlesmith books, he’d stonewalled me. I wondered how Remy had gotten him to agree to hire me to restore the cemetery given that I was not on Ralph’s good side. The only explanation I could think of was that he was hoping I’d come around on selling the books when I was desperate for information.
The oldest part of the cemetery was going to need the most restoration. “I wonder what tools I need to clean these headstones,” I said out loud.
“Magic,” Meri answered, and I jumped.
I hadn’t realized he was standing right behind me. “Would that be using magic for personal gain? I mean, I’m getting paid to restore the graveyard.”
“You didn’t use magic to get the job. You’d just be using magic to avoid damaging your ancestors’ graves,” he said.
“How do you know these are my ancestors? They might not be Tuttlesmith witches.”
“You shouldn’t make the same mistake the Skeenbauers are making, Brighton,” Meri said. “All witches are your ancestors and your family. Nothing good comes from acting as though you are separate. Look at your friendships with Annika and Remy. I’m glad the younger generation can see past the old feud, but I think it’s going to take more than that to really bring everyone together.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” Meri answered quickly. “Let’s just get started with the photos.”
“I feel like you’re not telling me something,” I said.
“Even if I’m not, you’ll find out eventually anyway. Just trust me.”
“Whatever,” I said.
“Whatever,” Meri said back.
After a couple of hours of taking photos, I figured it was time to head back home and start making dinner. I put my phone on the charger and went into the kitchen to cook.
Then I realized I needed my phone to get the recipe for the Alfredo sauce. When I went back into the living room to retrieve the phone, I nearly screamed.
Langoria stood near the fireplace with a bouquet of dead flowers in her hand. I thought it was super creepy and weird for her to break into Hangman’s House just to leer at me, and then I grew increasingly frightened as I realized she might have come to do more than that.
As I prepared myself to try and fight for my life, some things about her caught my notice. For one thing, she didn’t say anything. For another, after I’d looked at her long enough, I realized she was kinda see-through. I could see the fireplace behind her.
“Meri!” I called out and he came running down the stairs and into the living room.
“Oh, my!” he said and then hissed at her.
With that, she scowled at me more and then faded away.
“I’m going to go make dinner,” I said.
“You’re just going to ignore that?” Meri said as he followed me into the kitchen.
“I’m going to make Alfredo sauce,” I said.
“Brighton, we can’t just let it go.”
“I’m assuming it was some sort of asteroid… asternal..”
“Astral projection,” Meri interjected.
“Yeah, she was trying to attack me using astral projection, but it didn’t work because this house is too protected. Plus, she’s obviously not fond of you. Just stay close and we’ll be fine,” I said. “So now I’m going to make the Alfredo sauce and cook some noodles.”
I got the feeling that he wanted to say something else, but I just looked up the recipe for the Alfredo sauce and got to work. While I melted and blended the butter, cream, and parmesan cheese, I boiled water for the noodles. I tried not to think too hard about the apparition that had just appeared in my living room.
Chapter Two
Remy arrived just as I was putting food on our plates. He’d come over after work a few times, and I just knew the exact time he’d arrive.
“You made dinner?” he asked after walking through the back door into the kitchen.
“You mentioned one time that angel hair pasta with Alfredo pesto was your favorite, so I made that,” I said.
“For me?” Remy asked as he leaned against the counter. “You went through all this trouble for me?”
I was heating the pesto sauce up in a small saucepan and waiting for the garlic bread to come out of the oven. Remy came up next to me and peered down into the little pot I was stirring.
“The noodles are from a box and the pesto is jarred, but I did make the Alfredo sauce from scratch.” The timer dinged and I used a mitt to retrieve the bread from the oven.
“You didn’t have to do all this,” he said.
“I know I didn’t, but I wanted to,” I said. “If nothing else, it’s a thank you for getting me the contract. I need the money, and it’s great that I can earn it doing something I was practically doing anyway. At the very least I’ll have something to focus on for a while instead of just drifting around town all day. Maybe if I do this well, it can lead to other opportunities in Coventry too. I don’t exactly have a career figured out yet.”
I took the plates and set them down at the kitchen table before pouring the pesto into a little serving bowl. All that was left was the bread, which Remy was taking off the pan and putting on a plate.
“Ouch,” he said as he dropped the last piece onto the plate. “Held onto that one a little too long.” He shook his hand.
I rushed to his side and grabbed his hand to examine his fingers. They were red from a slight burn.
“Let me see if I have some burn cream in my medicine cabinet,” I said.
“I’ll be all right,” he said and shook his hand again.
I knew it stung. “Don’t be stubborn, Remy Skeenbauer,” I teased.
“Try using magic,” Meri said as he sauntered back into the kitchen. He was supposed to stay with me, but apparently, he’d wandered off.
“I don’t know if I can do that,” I said.
“Well, not with that attitude you can’t,” Meri retorted.
“Fine. I’ll give it a try,” I said. “But I don’t know the first thing about healing magic.”
“I’d do it myself, but it might be considered personal gain,” Remy said. “The jury is still out on that one.”
“What do I do?” I asked.
“Close your eyes,” Meri began. “Imagine a white light that starts from inside of you. Make that light travel down your arm to your hand. Then just envision the light from you covering his burn.”
“And that will work?” It seemed too easy.
“You can do it,
Brighton,” Remy encouraged.
“Tuttlesmiths are generally good with healing magic,” Meri said. “You’re probably not going to be able to heal a bullet wound or cure Ebola, but you can handle minor burns and the common cold.”
So I did what he said, but instead of closing my eyes and imagining a white light, I found myself searching for it instead. Amazingly, it wasn’t something I had to dream up. It was just there. The light had been there all along, but I hadn’t connected to it.
As the light passed down my arm and through my fingertips to Remy’s hand, he let out a soft sigh of relief. When I opened my eyes, he was smiling at me.
“That was amazing, Brighton,” he said. “You may be new at this, but you have the potential to be a very powerful witch. No wonder you make the aunties nervous.”
I wondered then if I should tell him about the apparition I’d seen of Langoria, but our dinner would get cold. “Let’s eat,” I said.
After dinner, it was time to head over to the cemetery. I wanted to show Remy the photographs I’d taken, but we were losing the light. I figured I could show him another time.
As we were walking across the street, I got a bad feeling. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and my stomach turned. Remy turned to look at me with a hint of apprehension in his eyes. He felt it too.
“Something’s off,” he said.
“I’m glad that wasn’t just my imagination,” I said. “Do you think we should still go in?”
“I don’t see any point in avoiding it. You can’t hide from the bad stuff,” Remy said matter-of-factly. “I’ll go first. You stay behind me.”
Again, I wondered if I should have told him about seeing Langoria in my living room, but I didn’t want to just stop in the middle of the road. I reasoned that I could tell him later when we were done in the graveyard for the evening. It was a discussion best left for a comfy chair and a cup of hot cocoa.
The first thing I noticed as we climbed over the fence into the cemetery was the heavy silence. It was unusual not to hear crickets and the croaking of frogs. They could be quite loud in the area as evening approached. The frogs especially liked to kick up a cacophony at sunset.
Wicked Witches of Coventry- The Collection Page 11
