Spell Booked (Retired Witches Mysteries Series Book 1) (26 page)

There was a candle burning beside a bed with a huge, moth-eaten canopy over it. I saw a figure pushed up on several large pillows, a black comforter pulled up to her chin.

I stepped closer to get a better look. I couldn’t feel any life here at all, and no magic. I realized why when I was finally beside the bed.

The rogue witch was dead. I couldn’t be sure for how long. She’d certainly been alive the night before when we’d cast the mirror spell. Her head was thrown back, mouth open. She looked as though her last act had been screaming at the world. A heavy boline, perhaps the one that had been stolen, was protruding from her chest.

“Mother is angry,” Lisbet whispered. “She wants you dead too, Molly. I’m sorry.”

Clearly, Joe’s partner had lost it. The situation was too dangerous to remark on her loss of reason. Even though the witch was dead, Lisbet’s predatory insanity closed around me like a smothering cloak.

“She doesn’t look angry.” I peered into the dead face. My knees were knocking, teeth chattering. “She looks at peace. She promised you magic?”

“That’s all I ever wanted,” she said. “I would have done anything to be like her. I wasn’t born a witch, but she said I could be one if I helped her. It should have been my birthright, like you and your friends.”

The pathetic plea in her voice—not to mention the dead witch before me—rendered me speechless.

Lisbet came up close to me. “Do you know what she said to me this morning?”

I swallowed hard. “What?”

“She told me that she’d lied to me. Can you believe it? She said she couldn’t give me magic. I suppose you already knew that, huh Molly?”

I nodded. “No one can make you a witch if you aren’t born with magic.”

“Interesting.” She jerked the boline from her mother’s chest. “She also told me that the amulet you wear is very ancient and powerful. But there’s only one way to remove it once a witch has put it on. You have to die.”

Life is fragile.

Protect mine, all ye elements of the universe.

I felt the knife at my throat and her arms wrapped around me. She was small and thin, but she was whipcord strong.

Staying calm wasn’t an option anymore. This was the way she’d killed Olivia. I could feel her hot breath on my cheek. One of her hands was in my hair, pulling my head back for the cut.

I gagged on fear and the stench around us. I couldn’t even think of a spell that could help, much less form the words for one.

“Hold it right there, Lisbet.”

I hadn’t even heard the door open behind us, but suddenly Joe was there. I could barely make out his familiar form.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see someone.

“I’m your partner, Joe.” Lisbet’s voice was normal and pleasant. “You won’t shoot me.”

“Let Molly go,” he said. “Put the knife down and let her go.”

“Why are you even here, Joe?” She didn’t move at all. “You’re supposed to be on the other side of town.”

I could feel her tears flowing onto my face. Her heart was pounding, and she shook all over. Seeing Joe there had changed everything.

“We’ve been investigating you, Lisbet. You’ve been crazy since we started this case. I was almost too close to it to see what you were doing. I found the mask with Olivia Dunst’s blood on it at your apartment. The fibers matched the ones we found on her. I was waiting to see what your next move was. I didn’t expect this to be it. There are officers waiting downstairs. I wanted to come up alone and face you. You’re my partner. You deserved that much.”

“Joe.” Her voice was barely audible. She moved her hand from my hair and wiped the tears from her face. “You weren’t supposed to get involved in all this. I didn’t want to hurt Molly. But I need this last kill—for her magic and the amulet. My mother is wrong. I can finally be a witch.”

“No, Lisbet.” His voice was gentle. “You killed someone. There’s only one thing that’s gonna happen now.”

“An eye for an eye, right?”

“No, Lisbet. It doesn’t have to be that way.”

The knife had gone slack against my throat. Her arms were limp but still clinging to me. I closed my eyes and muttered a spell for protection. It was all I could do to keep my thoughts together long enough. I hoped it would work.

I put my hand on my mother’s amulet and forced my will through it. It created a shock wave effect that shoved air molecules between us. It threw her away from me. I took a step back, prepared to defend myself if I needed to.

Lisbet made a growling sound in the back of her throat and leapt toward me. A single shot rang out in the dismal apartment. She dropped to the floor.

“Are you all right?” Joe came quickly across the room. He checked Lisbet first, his gun still in his hand. “She’s dead.”

He put his arms around me and held me tight.

“I’m fine.” I put my arms around him and hoped I’d never have to let go. “You really came without backup, didn’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“There’s that sound in your voice. I can’t describe it, but I can always tell when you’re lying.”

Elsie and Brian plunged through the door.

“Are you okay?” Elsie pinched her nostrils tightly together with her fingers. “What’s that
smell
?”

“I think it’s this dead witch.” Brian was staring at the body on the bed.

“Quiet,” Elsie warned. “There are people
without
magic in here too.”

I turned to Joe. “I think Dorothy is here somewhere. We have to find her.”

We searched the whole disgusting building and finally found Dorothy asleep on a cot in the basement. She was cold, but she still had a pulse.

“I think Lisbet murdered her mother before it was the right time to perform the ceremony to strip Dorothy of her magic,” I said with a grateful heart.

“It would have killed her,” Elsie whispered.

Elsie and I kissed her pretty face and bestowed what blessings we could on her. Brian did the same with a little more gusto than was needed. Olivia wouldn’t have liked it.

Joe called for backup and an ambulance.

“There are a few things we need to find before your crime lab gets here,” I explained, careful what I said.

He nodded. “I’m going outside to wait for backup. It’ll only take a few minutes. Make it quick.”

Elsie stayed with Dorothy. I found a light switch in the bedroom, and Brian reclaimed his wand. There were some other missing magic tools there too, but many more were gone—including our spell book. We took everything with us to distribute back to their owners.

Cassandra joined us a few minutes later. “Oh good. Matilda is finally dead.”

“Glad we could help out.” I was annoyed and sarcastic, no apologies for it.

“She was one of the old ones.” Cassandra peered into Matilda’s face. “She came here with her father from Germany more than four hundred years ago. She was very strong.
Some
members of the council were afraid of her.”

“So you used us to get rid of her for you,” I accused. “She led us around, making us think Brian had killed Olivia.”

“Not exactly.” Cassandra touched Matilda’s cheek. “Let’s give her the send-off she deserves.” At her touch, Matilda’s body shook and fell apart, eventually becoming a fine gray powder. “Bye-bye.”

“She killed Olivia, and no telling who else.” I wished I felt better, knowing Matilda and Lisbet were dead. Instead, I just felt numb.

“She didn’t actually,” Cassandra explained. “Her daughter did the dirty deeds for her. Matilda hasn’t been out of bed in months, but she still had plenty of magic to cloak her daughter and the tasks she sent her to do. That’s why the council couldn’t see what was going on.”

“And you knew all this?” Elsie demanded.

Cassandra shrugged. “We suspected she was stealing magic artifacts, but we couldn’t prove it. Now it turns out that she didn’t steal anything or kill anyone. It’s not our problem.”

“No,” Brian said. “She got her daughter to do it for her while you looked the other way. We all know she couldn’t become a witch by stealing artifacts, but this way you and the council didn’t have to do anything.”

“You could have told the witch and her daughter what they were doing wouldn’t work,” Elsie suggested. “You could have spared us all a lot of heartache.”

“The important thing is that witches weren’t technically involved.” Cassandra smiled.

“What about our spell book?” I asked.

“I don’t know what Matilda had her daughter do with the things that were stolen.” Cassandra’s expression was sincere for once. “I’m sure it will turn up somewhere. In the meantime, you have other witches to recruit.”

“Don’t look at me.” Brian turned away. “This isn’t the kind of witch I want to be.”

“Well, the police will be here soon. I guess I should be going too.” Cassandra regally bowed her head. “On behalf of the Grand Council of Witches, we thank you for your service.”

I could hear sirens coming toward us. Cassandra was gone with a puff of smoke and the scent of roses.

“How does she
do
that?” Brian scratched his chin. “I thought it was impossible.”

We walked out of the old building together. Joe was waiting by his SUV.

“What are you going to say?” I asked him.

“I’m going to say that Lisbet came at me when I confronted her with the facts about these deaths. She was out of her mind. I’ll be on desk duty for a while.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe she was going to kill you. What happened to her? I don’t understand.”

The sirens were getting closer. “I’ll tell you what I know later. I love you.”

“I love you too. Get out of here.”

I didn’t like leaving Dorothy, but I knew Joe would see to it that she got good care. I hoped she would be all right. Elsie was already trying to conjure flowers we could take to her hospital room.

We drove away from the house of horrors before the police arrived. I watched Brian leave before me and thought we’d never see him again.

But he met us back at Smuggler’s Arcane. “What?” he asked when we saw him. “I needed some time to decompress before I faced anyone else. Not that anyone is gonna believe me when I tell them about this.”

“At least we have Dorothy back again.” Elsie made chai tea that smelled heavenly.

“That’s right.” I looked at Brian. “It was your idea to use the lightning bolt, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “It’s the only trick I know. I’m not sure I could’ve done it without Elsie. It only seems to work when I’m around a fire witch. Maybe someday I can do an earthquake or something. That would be good in a case like this too.”

“I’m thankful nothing like
this
ever happens to us.” Elsie measured tea into cups. “We aren’t those kind of witches.”

“Good.” Brian was checking out our books. “I’d hate to think I had to face this kind of thing every day.”

I glanced at Elsie. Did that mean he was staying?

There was a pounding on the shop door. Brian jumped. We muttered a protection spell together.

The door burst open anyway. Olivia’s staff appeared on the counter as the door slammed closed again.

“What now?” Elsie’s eyes roamed the shop.

“Oh, girls!” Olivia appeared with a rapturous expression on her ghostly face. “You aren’t going to
believe
what happened. The Bone Man had some interesting ideas about things he and I could do. That was all he wanted from me.”

“Huh!” Elsie shook her head as she put the tea and cups on the table.

“That’s right. Even dead, I’ve still got it.” Olivia laughed as she circled the room. “And that old Bone Man has it going on too.”

“That’s amazing.” I sat at the table with Isabelle. “We have plenty to tell you too. It’s nice to have you back.”

“It’s nice to be back,” Olivia said. “Did you find Dorothy?”

We called that night to check on Dorothy. She was sleeping. The nurse said to call back in the morning. We called back in the morning, and Dorothy was gone. The doctor had released her.

That was when the real worry started. We called everywhere and went to her apartment and Olivia’s house. We couldn’t find her. She wasn’t at the library. She wasn’t answering her cell phone. Even Hemlock had no idea where she could be.

“Do you think this is part of the spell the witch had her under?” Olivia fretted. “How could she just disappear?”

“What about a lost spell?” Brian suggested. He’d surprised us by showing up at the shop that morning. “Or a finder’s spell?”

We were about to head down to the cave when the door chimed as it opened.

“Dorothy!” Elsie and I got to our feet.

She smiled. “Hello. I’m here to collect those old books for the library that you wanted to donate.”

Elsie squinted. “Is that all you have to say to us? What happened to you, child?”

She looked fine. Not a hair was out of place. Her clothes weren’t even wrinkled.

But her brown eyes were blank. She stared at us and at the shop as though she’d never seen us before.

“The witch took her memory,” Brian said. “She doesn’t know us.”

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Dorothy said pleasantly, “could you get those books for me? I have to get back to the library.”

“I’m not sure what books you’re talking about,” Elsie said. “Where is your stone?”

“Yes!” Olivia clapped her hands soundlessly. “If she has her magic tool, she might regain her memory.”

“You called about some books.” Dorothy was beginning to sound suspicious. “If you don’t have the books, or you’ve changed your mind, that’s fine. I’ll come back later.”

“Wait.” I thought of an old spell that was supposed to restore lost things. I wasn’t sure if Dorothy’s memories would qualify as lost things, but it was worth a try. “We were about to have tea. Elsie will look for those books. It should only take a few minutes. Won’t you join us?”

I could tell she was uncomfortable with the idea, but being Dorothy, she didn’t want to be rude.

“I guess that would be okay.” Her eyes roamed the shop again. “You know I’ve seen this place lots of times on the way to Two Sisters Book Store. I’ve thought about stopping in but never did.”

“Please, take a look around,” I invited. “I’ll make your tea.”