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  Witch Undercover

  A Blair Wilkes Mystery

  Elle Adams

  This book was written, produced and edited in the UK, where some spelling, grammar and word usage will vary from US English.

  Copyright © 2018 Elle Adams

  All rights reserved.

  To be notified when Elle Adams’s next book is released, sign up to her author newsletter.

  Contents

  Witch Undercover

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Thank you for reading!

  About the Author

  Witch Undercover

  Blair and Nathan have returned from a relaxing holiday by the sea ready to face a new year in Fairy Falls. The first thing on Blair's agenda is to find a way to contact her estranged father, but when a strange man shows up in town under the effects of an unknown spell, her plans are put on hold.

  Someone is revealing the magical community's secrets to outsiders, and anyone in town might be the culprit. With everyone on high alert and the annual goblin market bringing a new wave of paranormal chaos to town, it's the worst possible time for Blair's utterly ordinary foster parents to invite themselves for a visit.

  Now it's up to Blair to decide how much of her new life to share with her family -- unless the magical mayhem finds them first…

  1

  “Miaow,” said Sky.

  The little cat padded ahead of Nathan and me, downhill towards the lake. Towards home.

  Home. The first time I’d stumbled into the town of Fairy Falls, I certainly hadn’t thought I’d ever think of it as my home. But after a week away, the sight of the cluster of buildings by the lake brought a rush of emotion welling within me.

  The chill winter air bit at my exposed skin as I walked downhill. Nathan’s walking boots were designed for trekking through the hills, but my own boots would have been submerged if I hadn’t activated their levitation mode. Seven Millimetre boots—a downgraded version of the Seven League boots which had once been popular throughout the magical world—could step seven millimetres at a time in any direction, including off the ground. I got on much better with my own form of transport than I did riding a broomstick, and as a bonus, the boots made it easier to keep up with Nathan’s long-legged stride.

  As we drew closer to town, doubts began to creep in. We’d been away for a nice holiday by the sea, but I’d also travelled with another purpose: to translate the mysterious letter my jailed father had sent me on the solstice. Since the note had been written in a code I couldn’t read, I’d had to ask a specialist, but even though I’d had the translation in hand for days, I had yet to read the words of the note. Dad hadn’t been in a hurry for me to read it, given its cryptic nature, but the longer I waited, the harder it became to take the plunge. Now I was almost out of excuses. I’d be back at work tomorrow in the office of Dritch & Co, the paranormal recruitment company which had brought me into the magical world, and I’d also be starting the next round of my magical education. My best bet was to get it over with before life got hectic again.

  The winding cobbled streets of Fairy Falls had become more familiar to me than anywhere else, from the neat houses by the lake to the more modern structure of the new jail. Nathan halted outside the police station next door. Inside, I could see several of the gargoyles who ran the town’s police force milling around. I’d bet Steve hadn’t let them take the holidays off.

  “I have to go,” said Nathan. “I need to report to Steve, who’ll have a ton of paperwork saved up for my return, I don’t doubt.”

  I frowned at the police station. “You’re supposed to be on holiday.”

  “I’ll make sure he doesn’t put me on the night shift.” He pulled me into a hug. “Promise.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.” I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him. “Let me know if your sister’s back in town. I have words to say to her fiancé.”

  Nathan’s sister, Erin, had just moved to Fairy Falls herself. Her arrival had caused a stir, mostly thanks to her fiancé—who, the last time I’d seen him, had been an active paranormal hunter. Like Erin herself had used to be, along with Nathan and their entire family.

  As well as a paranormal hunter, Buck also happened to be the only other half-fairy I’d met in the paranormal world. After months of believing I was one of a kind, I had no end of questions I wanted to ask him. But right now, it was time to go home… and tell Alissa the truth.

  Worry squirmed within me at the thought. Alissa was my best friend, but because she was dating a vampire librarian who could read minds, anything I told her in confidence might end up spreading around the town’s entire vampire population even if she didn’t tell another soul. I’d been avoiding the vampires for weeks, too, given the number of secrets wriggling around inside my head, but I knew better than to think I could keep such a major secret from my best friend indefinitely.

  My heels dragged on the pavement as I made my way to the large, grand house where I shared a flat with Alissa. She was the granddaughter of Madame Grey, the town’s leader, who’d welcomed me into Fairly Falls despite my family’s slightly unconventional history.

  Really, it was a wonder I’d found my way to the magical world at all. As I’d been adopted by ordinary humans, I’d had no idea that my mother, Tanith Wildflower, had once lived here in Fairy Falls, before she’d fallen in love with a fairy and ran away from her coven. The next time she’d been heard of, she’d been on the run from the paranormal hunters and had died before they could jail her. As for my dad, he was currently serving a lifetime sentence in the Lancashire Prison for Paranormals—the most secure magical prison in the region, reserved for the worst of criminals.

  While most people believed the prison’s inhabitants to be guilty beyond all doubt, I’d spoken to my mother’s ghost a couple of months ago and confirmed that she’d committed the crime of stealing the Head Witch’s sceptre in order to protect her family. I knew she was no criminal, and my dad wasn’t either. Unfortunately, that opinion wasn’t shared by the paranormal hunters—including the Inquisitor, the owner of the prison and the reason my dad had worried about his letters being intercepted.

  The Inquisitor, who was a fairy, like me.

  I’d only guessed the truth recently, but while I’d told Nathan, there was little either of us could do about it. Even Madame Grey couldn’t stand up to the hunters. They’d deemed my dad guilty, and that was that. But despite it all, he’d found a way to send a letter to me, and soon the truth would be in my hands. One way or another.

  “Should I open the note, Sky?” I asked my cat.

  “Miaow,” he said, which probably meant hurry up. I’d dawdled enough, so I quickened my pace towards home.

  I unlocked the front door to the large house and entered the hallway, where the door on my right led into the flat which I shared with Alissa. I unlocked that, too, and Sky sidled his way through ahead of me.

  Our cosy-sized flat contained a living room laid out with plain but functional wooden furniture, a bookshelf stacked with magical textbooks—most on healing, since Alissa worked at the local hospital—and a comfy sofa and armchairs. Alissa sat on the sofa reading a book. Roald, her cat, raised his head as Sky came into the room.

  “Blair!” Alissa leapt up and ran to hug me. “I didn’t know you were back in town.”

  “Nathan had to go and report to Steve,” I explained. “
The old gargoyle will be laying on the guilt, I don’t doubt, depending on how many crimes have taken place since we left.”

  “Nothing major.” She gave me a grin. “It’s been positively quiet without you here.”

  “Ha,” I said. “In fairness, it’s Christmas. Maybe even paranormal criminals take the holidays off.”

  “Maybe,” she said. “There were a few incidents at New Year’s parties, but not enough to warrant the whole security force being sent out.”

  “Well, I’ve arrived in time to bring a new wave of chaos for the new year.” I carried my suitcase through the door to my bedroom and left it with my rucksack to unpack later. If I started now, I’d end up using it as an excuse to put off opening my dad’s note.

  “Miaow.” Sky picked up the note in his mouth and shoved it into my hands. If that wasn’t a clear message, I didn’t know what was, so I took the note with me, along with the other slip of paper which contained the translation.

  Alissa waited for me in the kitchen, making tea. “So, how was your holiday?”

  “Great,” I answered. “I mean, the weather wasn’t amazing, but it’s been nice to see more of the paranormal world and get away from the chaos for a bit.”

  I’d have been happy to avoid the paranormal hunters for the foreseeable future, too. After all, the Inquisitor had tried to hire me to join the hunters myself, which had made no sense to me, given my family history. But his words took on a whole new meaning now I knew we were both fairies. I’d need to ask my dad about it… depending on what he’d said in his note.

  Alissa finished making the tea and carried the two mugs to the sofa. Already, Sky had made himself at home by stealing Roald’s spot. I sat down slowly, the two pieces of paper clenched in my hand.

  “You wanted to tell me something before you left,” she said. “Right?”

  Where to begin? “So… my dad left me this note.” I held up the papers. “But this time, he decided to be extra cautious and write it in some kind of fairy code. I had to take it with me to a specialist who worked at a magical library to figure out the translation.”

  Her eyes rounded. “So that’s why you picked a town with a magical library.”

  “One of the reasons,” I said. “I didn’t know if it’d work, but it looks like it did. I haven’t read it yet.”

  Alissa sipped her tea. “Why not?”

  “It’s like Schrodinger’s Cat,” I said. “As long as I don’t open the note, it can’t be good news or bad news.”

  “Miaow,” Sky said, which probably meant, hey, keep me out of it.

  “I’m sure it’s not bad news,” she said. “He meant you to take the time to find out its translation, too. You hadn’t heard from him in a while, either.”

  “No, but there’s a good reason for that.”

  Since my dad had been jailed long before I’d entered the paranormal world, our only means of communication had been for him to send a pixie to deliver notes. Now I knew the man who owned the jail was a fairy himself, it became clear how big a risk he’d taken in keeping the lines of communication open.

  I sucked in a deep breath and unfolded the note. The first line said, I’m sorry I couldn’t see you, Blair.

  A few lines followed that I couldn’t read, not without the translation.

  Then I turned to the second page and read on.

  I tried to keep you out of this world. I should have known there was too much of your mother in you.

  My lungs constricted. It was suddenly hard to breathe.

  “Blair?” Alissa peered at me. “You okay?”

  I nodded mutely and read on. If you wish to stay in this world, then there are things you must know. I do not know how much you’ve heard about the reasons for my imprisonment, but there is such a thing as a Pixie-Glass that will enable us to talk directly. If you find one, I will tell you how to use it, but I cannot share any more in this form of communication.

  You might want to start with the market.

  I lowered the note, my insides churning. “Have you ever heard of a Pixie-Glass?”

  “A what?” said Alissa. “Pixie-Glass? No, why?”

  “My dad says it can help us communicate with one another so he can tell me why he was jailed,” I said. “I knew he was innocent. The Inquisitor has him under close watch, so he can’t say anything more direct in a note, not even written in code.”

  “Blair…” She paused. “Not that I don’t want you to be able to speak to your dad, but the Inquisitor is the head of all magical authority in the region. And he already knows who you are.”

  “He wants to recruit me,” I added. “Or he did, before I turned him down. I’ll talk to Nathan and see what we can do, but it’s worth looking into what this Pixie-Glass might be. The note says to start with the market. What kind of market?”

  Her brow wrinkled. “No idea. Some magical towns have a market, but this one doesn’t.”

  “Yeah… I know.” Yet another mystery. Knowing how much danger my dad’s messages might put me in didn’t quite banish my frustration at the hoops I had to jump through just to figure out what he wanted to say to me. And he was innocent, I was certain. Like my mother, he’d got on the hunters’ bad side and paid the price for it.

  “By the way,” Alissa said, “someone sent a message for you while you were gone.”

  I looked up. “Not my dad?”

  “No… it came from the normal world.” She held up an envelope covered in stamps and scribbled addresses which were incomprehensible to me.

  “What the…?” I turned the envelope over and opened it, pulling out a slip of folded paper. Unfolding it, I found a note from my foster parents, addressed from somewhere in Australia. Blair, please call us as soon as possible.

  I lowered my hands, my heart jerking into a fast beat. “My foster parents. How did they even find me here?”

  Judging by the confusing mass of scribbles on the envelope, they’d originally sent the letter to my former address back in the normal world, but nobody at that address would have known whereabouts I’d moved to. Yet through some magical intervention, the letter had somehow found its way to me here in Fairy Falls.

  “They could have texted you, right?” said Alissa. “Or called.”

  “Maybe they can’t.” My heartbeat quickened even further. “Maybe it’s urgent. It has to be.”

  Combined with my dad’s note, my worries multiplied tenfold. My hands shook as I pulled out my mobile phone and called my foster mum’s number.

  “Hello?” I said as soon as someone picked up. “It’s me.”

  “Blair!” said Mrs Wilkes. “We’re back.”

  “Back?” I frowned.

  “Yes, it was a long flight, but we’re back in England,” she said. “It’s bloody freezing, isn’t it?”

  Oh. Oh, no. I’d forgotten my foster parents had planned to return from their long trip to Australia by Christmas. “Uh, I only just got your letter. When did you send it, a month ago?”

  “I thought it’d take a while to reach you,” she said cheerily. “We’re at home now and still unpacking everything, but I’d love to see you.”

  My throat tightened. I hadn’t wanted to cut my family out of my life, but sharing the paranormal world with outsiders wasn’t allowed. No exceptions.

  “We just have to meet your boyfriend,” added Mrs Wilkes. “And see that wonderful new home of yours. It sounds like you’ve been having a great time.”

  Oh. God. What was I supposed to do? “Um, I actually just got back from a holiday with my boyfriend. Five minutes ago. That’s why it took me so long to get your letter and call you back. And I start back at work tomorrow, so I need to check my calendar and…”

  Mrs Wilkes cut through my babbling. “Don’t worry, just give me a call when you know your schedule. It’s great being back in the same country as you!”

  “I know,’ I said weakly. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  It seemed my biological family weren’t the only relatives I had to worry about
.

  2

  The following morning, I slept in late, and would have missed my alarm altogether if Sky hadn’t jabbed his claws into my leg and then climbed on my face.

  It was entirely my own fault, because I’d been awake half the night trying to figure out how to bring my foster parents into my new life without actually inviting them into Fairy Falls itself. So far, I’d drawn a total blank. While they didn’t necessarily have to come to my house, I couldn’t hide the town’s magical nature from them unless I gave a decently convincing reason why they couldn’t come and visit. Or invented an entirely new town, which was pretty much what I’d already been doing over the phone—but it was a lot easier to bluff when we were ten thousand miles apart. Now they were home, I’d need to come up with an ironclad cover story and then stick to it.

  At the moment, though, I couldn’t even find my work clothes. I ran around the flat, searched my suitcase, and was about to call Nathan and ask him whether I’d left them at his house when I spotted a sleeve poking out from under the bed.

  “Really, Sky?” I crouched down to find my entire collection of work clothes lying in a heap on the carpet. Apparently, my cat had been busy last night. “You couldn’t have left me one outfit?”

  In answer, Sky pretended to be asleep.

  I retrieved my clothes—every item now covered in cat hair—and hurried to dress for work. Perhaps Sky resented no longer being on holiday, but he was the one who got to sleep all day, while I didn’t even have time to grab a coffee before running along to work.