Dizzy Spells (16 page)

There was silence for a moment. “Well, you
have a point there,” Thyme said. “Why don’t you take tomorrow
off?”

“Are you kidding me?” I said. “If there’s
anything I need right now, it’s cupcakes.”

Thyme laughed. “See you tomorrow then,
boss.”

“See you tomorrow,” I said with a laugh. I
carefully set down my empty wine glass, hopped out of the bath, and
toweled myself dry.

I went into my bedroom, intending to put on
pajamas and then lie on the sofa and stuff my face with chocolate.
At that point, it dawned on me that Camino was likely to come
over.

I had not yet worn her gift, a gift that was
as thoughtful as it was bizarre. I figured that Camino would come
over at some point that night to see how I was doing, once the bush
telegraph about the evening’s events had reached her, so I
carefully pulled on the koala onesie. It was awfully hard to get
on, but I finally managed after a struggle. Next, I put on the
giant koala slippers.

I looked in the mirror and had a fit of
giggles. I looked like an evil monster rather than a nice, fluffy
koala. I peered more closely in the mirror. I had deep circles
under my eyes and looked haggard. “Well, who wouldn’t look tired
after the day that I’ve had?” I asked the bathroom mirror.
Thankfully, it didn’t answer.

My eyes fell on the expensive facemask that
I’d bought the other day. I read the label. It promised to
‘refresh, revitalize, and give the skin a rejuvenated appearance’.
That was just what I needed. The ingredients were listed as
seaweed, hyaluronic acid, green tea extract, and royal jelly.
Sounded good!

I opened the packet and smeared some on my
face, carefully avoiding the edges of the koala head-hat. To my
dismay, the substance was bright green, lumpy and awfully sticky.
Oh well, it felt soothing, and who would see me but Camino? Even
she probably wouldn’t see me, as the mask was to stay on for only
ten minutes.

I wobbled into the kitchen—gee, it was hard
to walk in the koala onesie—got a box of chocolates, and went back
into the living room.

I picked up the remote and lay on the sofa.
Willow and Hawthorn ran into the room, took one look at me, hissed,
and ran out, all their fur standing on end.

I laughed, and selected a channel—no, not
Mixed Martial Arts. I popped a chocolate in my mouth and flipped
the channel to
Love It or List It
, when there was a knock on
the door.

“Camino,” I said with my mouth full of a
chocolate truffle. I stood up, and then bend down to retrieve a
green glob of facemask that had fallen to the floor. I stuck it
back on my face and waddled to the door.

I flung the door open to greet Camino. To my
horror, it was not Camino. It was Alder Vervain.

“Argh!” he said, clutching at his throat in
shock. He stepped backward.

“Sorry, it’s only me,” I said through a
mouthful of chocolate. I was aghast. Clearly, Alder wasn’t doing
much better.

I swallowed the rest of the chocolate whole
and then had a coughing fit when it went down the wrong way. I bent
over, coughing violently. Tears ran down my cheeks, no doubt making
rivulets in the green slime.

When I recovered, I looked back up. To my
surprise, Alder was still there. I had half expected he would run
away. “I’m wearing a koala onesie and face mask,” I explained.

He nodded. I think he was trying not to
laugh. “I can see that.”

I felt my face flush, but the green no doubt
covered my red cheeks.

“Can I come in? I’d like to talk to
you.”

“Come in? Into my house?” I said. “Are you
feeling okay?”

Alder raised one eyebrow and shot me a
strange look. “Err, yes thank you. And you?”

I just shrugged and stood aside. I didn’t
have the energy to come up with a good reason not to invite him in.
I was exhausted. What could I do? I showed him into the living
room. “Please have a seat. I’ll be right back.”

He sat down, and I peered at him. Nothing
was happening to him—yet.

“Why are you staring at me?” he asked. “Is
something wrong?”

“No reason. No. I’ll be right back.” I
walked as fast as I could to the bathroom and removed the facemask
with warm water. I looked in the mirror again once I’d removed the
last of the green. My teeth were covered with chocolate. On a
brighter note, my skin did look better, but I had no time to be
pleased about that now. I waddled to my bedroom and tried to get
out of the onesie. The headpiece came off easily, but the rest
wouldn’t budge. I was just too tired to get it off.

I finally gave up. For all I knew, Alder
might be a nervous wreck by now, seeing walls closing in on him, or
he might be half way through the fireplace. I had better go and
rescue him.

I shuffled into the living room, concerned
with what I would see. To my surprise, Alder was as right as rain.
Willow was sitting on his lap and Hawthorn was sitting beside him.
Both were purring loudly. I sat opposite him, trying not to show my
surprise.

“I hope you’re all right,” Alder said with
obvious concern.

“Oh yes,” I said, feeling a bit tipsy. “This
is the first time I’ve worn the koala onesie. It was a gift. I
didn’t buy it. I bought the facemask, though.” I stifled the urge
to giggle. “I didn’t know it was green.”

Alder frowned, and then looked at the open
wine bottle on the floor next to the remains of the coffee
table.

“I’ve only had one glass of wine,” I said
defensively, “but I haven’t eaten for hours.”

“I meant, are you okay after your run in
with Dianne Longley? It looks like you had quite a struggle.” He
gestured to the broken vase and the dead wildflowers strewn
everywhere.

“Oh, yes.” I waved my hand in dismissal.
“I’m okay, though. Thanks for asking. Oh, and thanks for calling
the cops.”

Alder smiled. “You’re welcome. I came
tonight because I wanted to see if you were all right, but I also
wanted to come clean.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Dianne was the one who hired me to follow
you.”

I gasped. “She was?”

Alder nodded. “I was suspicious of her right
from the beginning. It’s obvious to me that she wanted to frame
you. I shared this information with the detectives, of course.”

“You didn’t tell me,” I said petulantly.

Alder shrugged. “I couldn’t. Client
confidentiality and all that.”

“I suppose.” I narrowed my eyes. He didn’t
care about client confidentiality when he told the police, but I
suppose that was different. But why did the house like him? And why
did the cats like him? Camino’s divination showed that Alder
harbored no ill intent toward me, but that didn’t explain why my
house and my familiars thought he was so nice. “It’s strange that
my cats like you,” I said. “They’re usually not so friendly with
strangers.”

Alder shrugged. “It makes a nice change. I’m
not too popular with some in this town.”

“Because of your parents.” I clapped my hand
over my mouth as soon as I said the words.

Alder did not appear offended, but he did
not look surprised. “I’m afraid so,” he said. “My parents did
alienate a lot of people in town. I myself became estranged from
them, in the end.”

I thought on that for a moment. “So you
don’t share your parents’ views?”

Alder shook his head. “I don’t. Amelia, how
much do you know? I mean, obviously Thyme, Camino, Mint and
Ruprecht have filled you in to some degree.”

“You mean that I’m a witch?” I sure hoped
that was what he meant, or this would be yet another embarrassing
moment.

To my great relief, Alder nodded. “Yes, but
what do you know of your paternal bloodline?”

I was puzzled. “Nothing. I only know that my
father was a witch, and his sister, my aunt who left me this house,
was a witch, too. Mind you, I didn’t have a clue about any of that
until I heard about the will. My parents did not once mention
anything of the sort. As far as I know, I never met my aunt.
Although I think I might’ve come to this house when I was very
young, because I do have vague memories of it.”

Alder fidgeted. “There is no such thing as
black or white magic. Magic is energy, so what some call black
magic, or negative spells, can be turned to good. Magic is magic.
It is whether the practitioner uses it for good or bad, that
determines whether it is called black or white magic.”

My head was spinning. “Why are you telling
me this?” Alder looked uncomfortable, and that made me nervous.

Alder stroked Willow, who was looking up at
him adoringly. “There are those who are Dark Witches by birth,” he
continued. “I must explain that this doesn’t mean that they are
evil. It simply means they have strong power to manifest negative
events, until they learn to control it. Hereditary Dark Witches are
the most powerful of all witches.”

I still wondered why he was telling me this.
Although I was somewhat pleased that the magnetic and mysterious
Alder Vervain was sitting in my living room, I was tired, somewhat
tipsy, dressed in a koala onesie, and had been set upon by a
murderer only a short time ago.

Alder looked away from me. “Your aunt
learned to control it,” he said.

It took some time for the import of his
words to sink in. “My aunt,” I said slowly. “My aunt was a Dark
Witch? A hereditary Dark Witch?”

Alder nodded.

“My father was a Dark Witch?” I
continued.

Alder kept nodding, his expression now
impassive.

“And I am…” I could hardly bring myself to
say the words. “Are you telling me that I’m a Dark Witch?”

Chapter 25

Before he could answer, there was a knock at
the door.

“I should be going,” Alder said, as he stood
up. “I hope I haven’t upset you, telling you that. It just means
that you’re very powerful, and explains why you keep setting things
on fire. It’s nothing to worry about.”

Yet I knew it
was
something to worry
about, by the way he said it. Why hadn’t the others told me this?
They kept telling me I was powerful, but they had never once come
straight out and said, “Hey, Amelia, you’re a Dark Witch.”

I opened the door to see Camino, Thyme,
Mint, and Ruprecht standing there. The latter three gasped when
they saw me in the onesie, and then all four of them gasped when
they saw Alder appear beside me.

“Goodnight, Amelia. Hello, all.” He swept
passed them with a flourish of his long, black coat.

I ushered them inside. They all rounded on
me as soon as I shut the door.

“What was he doing here?” Thyme asked.

They were all talking at once. Ruprecht and
Mint were both asking me what Alder wanted, while Camino was
complimenting me on how much the onesie suited me.

“Into the living room,” I said. I hurried
ahead of them and then threw myself backward on the sofa and
stretched out. “I’m exhausted. I could sleep for a week.” I yawned
loudly.

“You need to relax and unwind,” Ruprecht
said.

“What was Alder doing here?” Thyme asked
again.

“He told me that he was working for
Dianne—she was the one who’d hired him to watch me. He was pretty
sure she was doing it to lay the blame on me, to frame me. He said
he told the cops.”

“That was nice of him,” Thyme said
dryly.

I looked up and caught Ruprecht’s gaze. At
that moment I was fairly sure he knew there was more, but
thankfully he didn’t say anything.

Mint opened a bag and pulled out some
wrapped sandwiches. “We knew you wouldn’t get yourself anything to
eat, and we were all worried about you.”

I was touched.

Soon I was munching on a huge salad
sandwich. Willow and Hawthorn were pouncing on my koala slippers. I
think Hawthorn was trying to kill them.

“It reminds me of life, in a way,” Ruprecht
said.

I paused with the sandwich half way to my
mouth and stared at him.

He gestured to an old painting of my aunt’s,
a landscape of water flowing over rocks with a man contemplating
the scene at the edge of the creek. The painting was hanging on the
wall over an old cedar sideboard. “It’s always flowing,” he said.
“It never stops, in the same way that time flows and never stops.
It moves around obstacles, like that rock there, or that branch
that fell from the trees above. The point is that water flows, as
do our lives. We can’t control it, but we can enjoy the highs and
forget the lows.”

I think I understood. “Since moving here, I
haven’t had many lows. You’ve all been great friends to me, and I
can’t thank you enough.”

Ruprecht smiled. “You’re a special young
woman,” he said. “And you’ll only grow more special.”

My thoughts turned to worry then, as Alder
Vervain’s words came flooding back to me. I was a Dark Witch, and a
hereditary one at that. The most powerful of all witches. Ruprecht
and the others had told me I was powerful. They had just never
explained to me that the reason I was powerful was because I was a
Dark Witch.

Thyme came back into the room with another
bottle of wine.

“You know, a river is sort of like life,” I
said to her.

Thyme laughed. “You’ve been speaking to
Ruprecht.”

I laughed and held out my glass for a
refill.

Thyme nodded. “You got it, boss,” she said.
“Onto where the river of life will take us.”

I wasn’t sure where that would be, whether
it would be a well-earned break or yet more excitement. Whatever it
was, I was glad that I had my house, Thyme, and my friends at my
side. Even Alder had my back. With them, I could face anything. And
I had a feeling that I would.

* * * The End * * *

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