Chapter 31

I hit the mausoleum’s wall, then bounced to the ground with a grunt, barely missing Crane’s feet. My phone went flying, but nothing I could do about it—it wasn’t going to help me now.

Rolling, I felt a boot graze my side as someone attempted to give me a kick. With no time to lose, I jumped to my feet, digging in my pocket for the freezing potion and my emergency weapon.

Thewitch rushed forward, and I stepped sideways. A glamour potion had rendered them unrecognizable, their features not matching up in my brain, making my insides roll with the need to look away. The dim ambient light didn’t help, either.

Thisglamour was powerful magic. A much stronger potion than the thief for hire who’d tried to steal Grandma’s spellbook had used.

Ifthey’d done it themselves, I had no chance against this witch. But maybe I could keep them here long enough for Ian to come over—I had no doubt he was contacting everyone he could to come help.

Firstof all though, figure out who this was, in case they ran away when cornered.

Duckingto the side to miss another grab—aside from potions, witches needed direct contact to perform their magic—I took out the freezing potion vial and lobbed it at the witch’s chest.

Thethin glass broke easily, splattering potion everywhere. The witch froze, and I planted a hand on their face.

Letthis glamour come to an end.

Magicburst up my arm, making contact with the glamour spell. With no moon water to aid my magic, it took considerable power to get the thing dispelled.

Whichmeant my legs began wobbling immediately.

Thinkpositive, Hope. Wobbly legs do not a loser make?—

Mymouth fell open as the witch’s face sharpened into recognizable features.

“Hannah?”

Nice, friendly, helpful Hannah? Who had visited my shop almost every day, taken amazing photographs for the website, and had been my first regular customer?

Shedidn’t look friendly or helpful right now. Her expression was contorted with rage, her eyes glinting with malice.

Thefreezing potion wore off as my legs buckled, and I fell to the ground. Caught mid-lunge, Hannah missed me and went flying over my shoulder. I used the opportunity to reach for her hand.

Remaindown.

Mymagic made a weak attempt at realizing my intention, but not only did it do little to nothing, but it made me even weaker. I considered creating a ward around me like I had against the shifter hitman who’d run me off the road weeks ago, but even as my brain was wondering what to use to draw my own blood, Hannah slapped my hand away and got to her feet.

Iscrambled up unsteadily.

“Why?” I asked to give myself time. In my experience, the stereotype was correct—bad guys did love to talk about themselves.

“Why do you think?” came Bagley’s familiar voice from somewhere by Crane’s body. “Christ, witches these days. Dim as logs.”

“Not so dim, Ms. Bagley,” I said gleefully. “I caught you, didn’t I?”

“Took you long enough.”

Hannahkicked something in the ground, sending it flying through the air.

“DarlaMorris, you stop this right now.” Bagley’s censuring voice grew fainter as the object landed far away.

“So you got Bagley out of the shop.” I straightened and crossed my arms, trying to appear strong, solid, and not at all crushed or afraid.

Everyone is a suspect.At this rate, I was going to need to tattoo the motto on my forehead.

Hannahsnorted. “Of course. It was so easy.”

Shelunged, and I sidestepped, my foot catching on Crane’s arm. I stumbled but managed to right myself. It didn’t seem like Hannah had a weapon on her—other than her far superior magic power.

“Bagley gave you the alarm code, but how did you get the key?”

“Bagley’s right, you’re not very smart, are you? All you have in here”—she tapped her temple—“are affirmations and nothing else.”

Iwagged a finger at her. “If you feel the need to put someone down, ask yourself why you feel threatened by them and work on improving your mindset.”

Hannahhuffed. “Lovely.”

Shelunged suddenly, but I was too slow this time. She grabbed my wrist and immediate pain radiated up my arm all the way into my chest. I yelped and tried to shake off her grip, but it was like an iron fist around my flesh. Another wave of pain added to the first one, and I let out a blood-curling scream.

Becauseit’d just occurred to me that maybe I should broadcast my position.

Hannahcursed, and the pain disappeared even if her grip didn’t. “Be silent!”

“Or what? You’re going to kill me?”

“And then that friend of yours in the shop.”

“Please. Once you’re done here, you and Bagley are going to run so fast you’ll get lucky not to get pulled over by the highway patrol.”

Hannahsmiled slyly. “There are ways.”

Iknew she was trying to make me scared, but I wasn’t about to show her she was succeeding. Plastering a bland expression on my face, I said, “And the key to the shop?”

Hannahshook her head in disbelief. “You don’t need a key when you have an earth mage to move the metal insides of the lock.”

“You and the earth mage brought Crane into the shop. Why?” I tilted my head toward where Bagley had fallen. “Couldn’t you have done that from the start?”

“God, you’re useless.”

“Not so useless since I found you,” I reminded her. I thought about sticking my tongue out, but my intention here was to keep her talking, not have her smack me with her magic.

Asnap of pain in my wrist made me gasp.

Nottoo much of her magic, that is.

“You can’t just transfer a soul from one object into another,” she said like the world’s most insufferable teacher. “Only between objects and bodies.”

Ipointed at Crane. “Was he supposed to stay dead, or rise like a zombie?”

Hannahgrimaced with distaste, unwilling to answer.

Timeto goad her into more information. “Ah, I see. Your spell wasn’t powerful enough, was it? Or you did it wrong.”

“I didn’t do it wrong,” she snapped. “Crane wasn’t supposed to die.”

Aswe’d suspected. Surreptitiously, I checked our surroundings. How long until the cavalry arrived?

“Why didn’t you take the body with you, then?”

“The mage left, and the body was too heavy for me to move. The man is as annoying in death as he was in life.”

“Amen,” came Bagley’s faint voice.

“Once we took the body out of the shop for you,” I said, “you came back with the mage to get it out, but he refused to help you drag it away?”

Crane’sbody had been hidden so close. Why hadn’t we searched the cemetery better? Hannah had counted on anyone seeing the bundle to assume it was stuff for the tours’ setup, and she had been right.

Sheshrugged. “I only needed a finger or two.”

Itut-tutted. “Except that’s not how it works, is it? Honestly, you should’ve done better research. Research is key, you know? All the power in the world won’t help you if you get your basics wrong.” Another of Grandma’s adages, even if she was referring to food rather than magic.

Hannah’smouth curled into a snarl at my words, but before she could send another wave of pain up my arm, I planted my hand on her wrist.

Damage.

Onprinciple, Grandma and I were against causing harm with our magic. But in this case, I think we could all agree Grandma would’ve also thought it absolutely necessary.

Hannahstumbled backward with a tiny gasp, abandoning her hold on me. I took a couple of fumbling steps backward. I still had some magic left in me, but the reservoir was fast vanishing, especially as I was forced to stay upright.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Bagley said from afar. “Don’t tell me you’re going to let the child win.”

“Shut up, Ms. Bagley,” I shouted. I put more distance from Hannah and asked, “Did you do the pentagrams, too?”

Hannahbegan circling around me. Her tongue slipped out to lick her lips, possibly trying to taste my fear and how much power I actually had. I had never practiced magic in front of Hannah, and although Bagley must’ve told her my power level test had come back as barely existent, no dark witch had survived this far in life without expecting other witches to have a trick in their pockets.

AsI did.

“I did the pentagrams,” Hannah said.

“Why? To distract me?”

Shesnorted, and damn if my pride wasn’t hurt. The least she could do was be nice to me if she planned on killing me. Which she obviously did, or…

“Ms. Bagley,” I said loudly, “if you try to use my body to host your soul, I’ll come back from death and kill you.”

Bagley’sfaint cackling filled the air. “As if I’d want such a weak body.”

Takenote: what others perceive as your weakness is often your greatest strength. Especially against being murdered and taken over by an evil witch bent on living forever.

“The pentagrams were for charging the crystals for the spell,” Hannah said in an annoyed voice, glaring toward Bagley.

“Why the Cabinet? No paranormals there.”

Hannahbecame almost awestruck. “There are so many dark magic objects there. It drips with power.”

Ishivered. Good to know. “WhyCrane?”

“Everyone hates him. Once people noticed his disappearance, they’d have spent years going through everyone’s alibis.”

“And you’d be long gone by then.”

“Exactly.”

“And the blood? Did the initial spell necessitate some of his blood, and when it failed, you figured you might as well take some extra for future potions.”

“Ding, ding, ding.”

“See? I’m plenty bright.”

Hannahlaughed warmly, and my stomach rolled. Vicky had laughed like that while telling me how she and Lewis were going to stage my demise so she could take over the shop.

ButHannah hadn’t been my bestie. She had been a customer. A regular. A nice person on the outside, but we had never talked about anything beyond the weather, the day’s special, and her plans for the day.

Iwasn’t being betrayed by my best friend. I was being betrayed by my sunshine disposition and my apparent allergy to thinking everyone was really a suspect.

Verydifferent things.

SinceI was studying Hannah’s reactions to my words so closely, I caught the exact moment she decided it was time to stop pacing around me and pounce for the coup de grace.

Iput up an imperious hand. “Stop.”

Tomy surprise, she did.

ThenI pulled out a small can of pepper spray from my pocket and sprayed her right in the face.

Herunholy screech ripped the air as she raked at her eyes. I pressed my advantage. Closing my eyes and holding my breath to avoid any lingering spray in the air, I rammed into her midsection with my shoulder and sending her to the ground, where she writhed and cried and sobbed and cursed me to die, which did wonders to wipe any traces of pity I might’ve had.

Throwingthe can of pepper spray aside, I ran to Crane’s body and pulled off the remains of the cord that had been keeping his upper body rolled inside the tarp.

GettingHannah to stay still took some effort, since she kept rolling side to side, still sobbing and muttering unintelligible sentences. Eventually, I managed to tie her wrists together, then used the remaining length to tie that to one ankle, just in case.

Grandmamight’ve felt sorry for the poor witch and her tearing, puffy eyes and running snot, and perhaps she’d have gotten water to help with the burning, since her magic obviously wasn’t helping. But this witch had helped Bagley and killed Crane and nearly destroyed Halloween, so I figured Grandma would also understand if I simply leaned in and said, “Needless to say, you’re not getting free drinks anymore.”

Feelingunaccountably proud of myself, I stood in time to hear a loud growl reverberate through the air.

Heartin my throat, I whirled around, wishing I hadn’t thrown my can of pepper spray away. DidHannah have a second accomplice aside from the earth mage? A shifter?

Ahuge black wolf jumped over the nearest gravestone and slid to a stop in front of us. It was humongous, with bright yellow eyes that shone in the darkness.

Thewolf panted, looking from me to Hannah’s squirming form, then back to me. His whole body thrummed with tension and unspent power, and the thick aura of an alpha enveloped me.

Ian.

Ian, who never shifted into a wolf no matter how dire the situation or how much danger he was in.

Hehad shifted. For me. BecauseI was in danger.

Thewolf let out a low growl.

Ifroze. HadIan forgotten how to be a wolf after all this time? Was his head all messed up and he had forgotten who I was?

Hegrowled again, a guttural sound that sent goosebumps down my arms and forced me back a step.

“Ian?” I whispered. DidI have it all wrong? I studied the wolf intently. Something about the way it moved, the way it stared at me… No, this was Ian.

Thewolf took one menacing step forward.

Swallowing, I took one back.

Therewas a loud clink, and a spotlight flooded us and the mausoleum behind.

Achorus of loud gasps and a startled shriek filled the air.

Shadingmy eyes, I turned toward the noise. Key and a tour group gaped at us from the far path. Oh. Oh, no. The faulty spotlight. How was I going to explain this?

Therewas only one thing to do.

“Oh, my God!” I pointed at Ian. “It’sGarreth the Hound!”

Ianpaused. Then he tilted his head back and howled at the moon.