Looking for Mr. Good Witch (22 page)

I am a witch,

I do not fear.

I hold my magic strong.

I do not fear.

“I'd like my amulet back, witch,” the sea creature that had been Portia said as she leapt toward me. “He had no right to give it away. He knew I'd be back for it.”

I was mindful of the spikes on her claws. I had a feeling that was what Joe and Suzanne remembered stinging them in the back. No doubt those spines contained poison.

“It's mine now. It's been in my family for hundreds of years.” I held the staff between us.

“Magic, Molly,” Olivia reminded me. “Do something with your magic. You can't hold her off with the staff. And you might break it.”

I glanced up at her. “Seriously? This thing is trying to kill me. You can't even use the staff anymore.”

“Yes, but who knows what will happen to me if the staff is destroyed.”

I couldn't disagree with that.

“Just give me the amulet,” Portia's new form demanded. “I
don't want to hurt you. You've been as deceived by MacLir as I was.”

“You killed those boys,” Elsie shouted. “Don't think we feel sorry for you.”

“I didn't want to hurt them either,” the sea witch said. “Every hundred years I must return to the land and mate with a witch. If I don't, I'll die. I've fought to stay alive. I won't give up now. I've found the right one, finally. I don't need any others. Give me the amulet. Leave me in peace. I swear you won't see me again.”

I couldn't help it. I felt bad for her. She was right. This was what the Bone Man had made of her. None of it was her doing except for keeping herself alive.

But I had to harden myself against her. It was obvious she was talking about Brian being her last victim. While I felt pity for her, I couldn't let her kill him—if she hadn't done so already. Logic told me that we wouldn't have found her here if she'd finished her deadly ritual. She'd be back in the sea and far away by now.

“Olivia's right,” Elsie shouted as I tried to keep the sea witch from taking my amulet. “We need magic to fight her.”

“I'm working on it.” I pushed the sea witch back with the staff. “I can't think of a spell. Can you?”

Her forehead furrowed. “I'm thinking of a protection spell. Remember that wonderful spell that makes a shield? Maybe that would work.”

“Maybe—if I could remember it.”

“It's something like
Protect me now from harm and fear. Lead me to shelter that is near
.” She panicked. “Oh dear. That's all I can remember.”

“The enchanted bubble,” Olivia called out. “You just did that, Molly. Use the enchanted bubble.”

“That won't keep her out,” I reminded Olivia. “I need something stronger.”

The sea witch's mouth opened to laugh at me. “Poor Molly. You can't fight me with water magic. I
am
water magic.”

Her spiny claws were getting closer. I couldn't hold her back much longer.

“Oh, the hell with it!” Elsie yelled out a spell and held her sword high. It burst into flames just like the image we'd seen in the spelled mirror. “Begone, I command thee!”

The sea witch made a horrible shrill noise and reached for her.

Elsie swung her blade without an instant of hesitation. She chopped off one of the sea witch's claws. The creature cried out in pain and anger. The smell was terrible. I hit her with Olivia's staff, using one hand while clutching the amulet with the other.

The sea witch ran out the door. Elsie and I stood paralyzed for a moment. It only took that long before the glamour affecting the guesthouse was gone too.

The guesthouse was in no better shape than the main house. The roof had collapsed and the windows were broken. There was no furniture. Everything around us that had made the guesthouse hospitable was gone.

“She's gone.” I realized that wasn't a good thing. Though I was afraid for my life, I ran through the debris to find her. There was no sign of her outside in the yard or in the street. She might have looked like a cucumber, but she moved like a jellyfish.

Dorothy was sitting up and holding her head when I returned. “What happened? Where's Portia? Did I miss something?”

Elsie pushed back her hat and carefully sat on what had once been an old sofa. “That's a long story.”

“It can't be that long.” Dorothy glanced at her watch. “We've only been here for twenty minutes.”

“We should talk while we search for Brian. I have a feeling he's in here somewhere. It's unlikely she'd let him out
of her sight if he's the right witch for her.” I set down Olivia's staff.

“That was a close one, girls,” Olivia commented. “Wait. I see Brian over there. I can't believe that sea witch's glamour was so good that we didn't even notice him. Where do you think she learned to do that?”

“What?” Dorothy frowned. “The sea witch? She was here?”

We pushed aside old chairs and fallen pieces of the ceiling and walls to reach the tattered bed where Brian lay. Olivia kept a running commentary to explain what had happened after Dorothy had passed out.

“I guess I was lucky I didn't end up like Joe and Suzanne,” Dorothy said. “What about Brian?”

Elsie put her hand on Brian's forehead. “He's dead. She must have finished the spell before we got here. She was just playing with us.”

Dorothy sat beside him and took his hand, heedless of the spider-infested, moth-eaten draperies around her. “He
can't
be gone. There must be a spell or something to bring him back.”

“We don't bring back the dead, Dorothy,” Elsie said. “It's just not done.”

“I've read about it in some of the books at the shop.” Dorothy cried as she argued.

I covered her hand with mine. “We don't do that kind of magic. The price is too high. When it's someone's time to die, we have to respect it.”

“What's the price?” Dorothy yelled. “I'll pay it. I don't care. He can't be dead. How can it be his time to die when the sea witch killed him?”

“You don't understand,” Elsie said. “The price is another life. Another soul that isn't ready to go. You can't pay that price. You'd hate yourself.”

“We have to save him.” She fell on top of him. “I can't lose him this way.”

Despite the shock and sadness of Brian's death, Elsie and
I realized we couldn't let Dorothy continue grieving in this way until her emotional magic was triggered and she did something she'd regret.

Together we recited a sleeping spell that we'd used to help when both our children had colic as babies. It would ease her sorrow until she had a chance to live with her loss for a while.

“It's for the best,” Elsie said when Dorothy was asleep beside Brian on the bed.

“I know.” I wiped the tears from my eyes. “I don't know what to do now.”

Elsie leaned on her sword with the point jammed into the wood floor. “The sea witch is gone. You can't take her back to the Bone Man. We can't take her to the council for justice. Brian is dead. We screwed up.”

“There has to be something we can do.” Olivia ghost-stroked Dorothy's dark hair. “My poor baby.”

“We can't leave him,” I said. “We have to get him—and Dorothy—out of here.”

“We should take him back to the shop,” Olivia replied. “We have to call Cassandra and his parents. Oh, girls, this is the worst thing that's
ever
happened to us.”

Elsie pointed at the sea witch's claw that she'd lopped off. “I know we can't do anything about it right now, but later maybe we can use this to lure her back and kill her.” She stabbed it with the sword and wrapped it in her scarf. “I never liked that scarf anyway.”

All deeds great and all deeds small,

All deeds must balance through it all.

Elsie and I managed to get Dorothy and Brian to the car. It was part magic and part physical strength. We were both exhausted by the time we were done.

We took them to Smuggler's Arcane. Dorothy was awake and a little calmer when we got there. She checked on Brian again. He was slumped in the backseat beside her. “He's cold. I guess you were right. He's dead. What do we do now, Molly?”

“I'm so sorry.” I got out of the car and hugged her as we cried. “We should call his family and let them know.”

“I can't believe this is happening.” She put her hand to her forehead. “He was supposed to be all right now. We were supposed to win. We're the good guys.”

It wasn't easy to get Brian into the shop. It didn't seem right to ask Dorothy to use her magic to transport him inside—besides, it was still daylight and there were shoppers at the other stores in the Cotton Exchange. We couldn't risk it.

We wrapped him in an old blanket and were barely able
to lift him between us. Going up the stairs with him was grueling—one stair at a time with a moment to catch our breaths between. I was glad no one called the police when his hand slid out of the blanket and flopped out on one side.

We put him on the old wood floor and covered him with a dark blue cloth that had been embroidered with moon-blessed silver threads. There was nothing else to do but call Cassandra.

When she appeared, her gown was like blue smoke around her thin body, her black hair surrounding her beautiful face. She lifted the moon cloth. “What have you
done
?”

“We tried to save him from the sea witch,” Elsie told her. “It was more than
you
or any of his family tried to do.”

“Abdon is going to be furious. Brian's parents are going to want revenge,” Cassandra warned.

“Let them,” I told her, though I didn't feel as brave as my words. It was more than just me. It was Joe and Mike, Elsie and Aleese, Dorothy and even Olivia. They could take everything from us. “You know where to find us.”

“What about the council catching the sea witch and making sure she doesn't ever kill again?” Olivia whimpered.

“We'll deal with this first,” Cassandra said.

“Which is what got us all into this mess in the first place!” Elsie raged.

“I'll take him to his family, and then consult the council. Stand away.” She moved her hand and his covered body began to rise from the floor. “The Fuller family will remember this loss for years to come, ladies. I'm sure the council will try to mitigate that rage, but you might have to stand trial for it.”

Cassandra disappeared with Brian. Sobbing and covering her face, Dorothy collapsed at the table.

Joe texted me. I had to wipe tears from my eyes to see what he said. He and Suzanne were being discharged from the hospital. “I have to go.”

“We'll be all right here, Molly,” Olivia assured me. “Go on.”

Half an hour later I was at the hospital as Joe and Suzanne were being released. I watched as they got out of their wheelchairs at the pickup ramp.

“There you are.” Joe kissed me as he got in the front seat. “I was beginning to worry about you.” He studied my puffy, red eyes and tear-stained face. “Everything okay with the club?”

“It's hard to say right now.” As soon as Suzanne was in the backseat, I hurried out of the parking lot. It was hard to keep my voice from trembling and not let my feelings show. “I'm sure the two of you are off the rest of the day. Where can I take you, Suzanne?”

She gave me the address of a hotel on Market Street, where she was staying. I managed to make it through several traffic lights as they turned red by swerving around any slower moving traffic.

“Are you in a hurry to get back to the club?” Joe frowned. “I think I might be about to give you a ticket for careless driving. What's wrong?”

“I'm in a hurry.” I tried, but I couldn't smile at him. “It's not like I actually ran a red light,
Officer
. I have to get back.”

“Leave her alone, Joe,” Suzanne said. “She's a woman on a mission. Thanks for taking me to the hotel, Molly. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No. I'm afraid not.” I pulled into the hotel parking lot and dropped her at the front door with a squeal of brakes. “Feel better, Suzanne. I'll see you later. Call if you need anything.”

“Thanks.” She laughed. “I will. But I'll be sure to wait until after your mission is accomplished.”

As soon as she was out of the car, Joe turned to me. “Don't leave until you explain.”

“There's not time now.” I put my foot on the gas. “The club has an emergency. Something—terrible—has happened. Brian is dead. I wish I could explain more right now, but I have to drop you off and get back. I don't want to leave everyone for long.”

“Brian is dead? What happened? Is everyone else okay?” He stared at me. “Tell me what happened. What's going on?”

“Really, Joe. I
can't
tell you. Not now. You know what I mean. Please don't make this any harder than it is. I'll tell you everything later.”

“Are
you
in danger, Molly?”

“No. For now, the danger is past. We have to figure out what to do next.” I drove in the same haphazard manner from the hotel to our house. “I have to go. Do you need anything? There's plenty of food in the refrigerator. The doctor said you should rest. I'll see you later.”

Joe's dark eyes were filled with questions and fear. “I don't like this. I wish you wouldn't be involved in club activities that could be dangerous.”

I kissed him and smiled, though I knew there were tears in my eyes. “Don't worry. We're going to make it right.”