Witch out of Luck Page 10

  “But when did it start?” I prodded, resisting the impulse to turn him in and see if Steve’s interrogation chamber did a better job of prompting his memory.

  “She ended it, not started it.” He slumped, sitting down on a rock. “Nothing I do will ever let me forget her.”

  “So you do remember?” I asked. “She must have mentioned her grandmother to you, right? Ava is a seer, but Annabel didn’t have the gift until recently.”

  “Seeing? Yes… she saw… she had a crystal ball.”

  Now we were getting somewhere. “Did she mention having a mentor?” I asked. “Because her grandmother said that she couldn’t learn without someone to teach her.”

  “Ava,” he said. “No, no, she told me not to tell Ava.”

  “About what?”

  There came a loud screeching from the shore, and he jumped violently, tipping onto his side. “Abomination!”

  “That’s the gargoyles,” I said. “I told you, someone just drowned. Are you positive your magical lightning didn’t hit someone on a broom?”

  If I turned him in, I could say goodbye to ever getting any help from the elves. If I didn’t, an innocent woman’s death might go unpunished. Not to mention I’d be in trouble myself if Steve found out I’d been talking to Bracken. But the only way to jog his memory was for him to sober up, which would take too long. There were memory potions, but I didn’t know if they worked on alcohol-induced memory loss.

  The elf snapped his fingers and vanished. I blinked at the spot where he’d stood, stupefied. That answered the question about whether or not elves could use glamour, then.

  Shuffling footsteps retreated downhill, telling me he was getting away. I hovered on the spot, mentally kicking myself. I could just picture Steve’s face if I reported an invisible elf as responsible for a crime. From the sound of Bracken’s stumbling, there was a risk of him falling into the water, too, but since I couldn’t see him, he’d have to swim to shore alone if he did.

  Three more gargoyles landed on the shore. I turned my back, leaving the elf behind. Nothing for it—I’d have to come and speak to him again when he’d de-glamoured and turned visible again.

  As luck would have it, Steve spotted me as I approached the High Fliers again.

  “Blair Wilkes,” he said. “How did I guess you were involved?”

  “Blair was with me,” Alissa said. “Laurie was flying over the lake when she fell off her broom.”

  Steve grunted. “Practising magic, were you? I’ve heard stories about the chaos you cause whenever you have a wand in your hand.”

  “It’d take more than that to bring down a High Flier’s broomstick,” Alissa said, narrowing her eyes at him. “Blair didn’t even have her wand out.”

  Steve grunted and turned to speak to the High Fliers’ leader. I hovered on the spot, undecided. If the elf reappeared later, I’d come back for a second questioning and hope he was more willing to talk this time. Until then, I doubted Steve would appreciate being led on a wild elf chase.

  Beware the wild one, old Ava had said. No kidding.

  I saw the red-cloaked High Flier a few metres away, dabbing at her eyes.

  “Hey,” I said to her. “Steve finished interrogating you?”

  “For now.” Her eyes shone with tears. “This makes no sense. She had the skill to fly through a storm and come out in one piece.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” I said, my gut twisting. Mentioning the elf would only make things worse, but I wished I knew how to help.

  “I don’t think it was an accident,” she said quietly. “But why would anyone kill her? We’re all on the same team.”

  “Did you see anything before she fell?” I asked. “I mean, maybe something hit her broom and knocked her in.”

  “I doubt it,” she said hoarsely. “Our brooms are fitted with spells which prevent us from slipping and to protect us against misfiring spells from our own wands, extreme weather conditions, things like that.”

  “Wait, they’re protected from every type of magic?” Even an elf’s magical lightning? I’d bet that also fell into the category of ‘extreme weather conditions’.

  “I don’t know about every type, but unless someone flew into her in mid-air and physically pushed her off, it can’t have happened via magic.”

  That changes things. Unless it was a siren’s song that’d caused her to fall, but no sign of them appeared in the lake. Just quiet, still water, a growing crowd—and no elves in sight.

  Sky woke me up on Sunday by prodding me in the leg with his claw. I sat bolt upright, wincing. I hadn’t slept well, and I’d almost forgotten I was supposed to be meeting Nathan’s family again.

  I’d spent yesterday evening looking up possible ways to jog the elf’s memory without causing him to glamour himself invisible or throw me in the lake. Alissa had suggested replacing the alcohol in his bottles with a potion designed to clear his mind. If I wanted to go the clandestine route, there were substitution spells that would let me transplant my own concoction into the elf’s bottle without him knowing, but that would require finding him—a tricky task if he was still invisible.

  Sky gave me another vigorous poke with his claw.

  “Ow. Okay, I’m getting up.” I climbed out of bed, glancing out the window. “Normal,” I whispered. “Sky, I’m going to be completely normal today.”

  “Miaow.”

  “Who am I kidding? Myself for one.” I ran around my room in search of clean clothes. Great start… I’m having a one-sided conversation with my cat.

  In the end, I selected a plain T-shirt and jeans. Wearing anything nice on a hike was a waste of time. I also decided to wear my Seven Millimetre Boots. They were the most suitable boots I had for hiking, and after the glitter incident, I doubted anyone would bat an eyelid if I started levitating.

  A text came from Nathan—Meet us by the lake.

  Wait. I’d hoped they wanted to walk in the nearby hills, not by the lake. Nathan must know about the High Flier’s death by this point, but I’d bet he’d neglected to mention it to his family. The High Fliers shouldn’t be around, but I hoped the merpeople and sirens avoided the shore, for all our sakes.

  After I’d dressed and showered, I told Sky firmly to stay put, bribing him with a bowl of his favourite food. Then I left the flat, hoping I hadn’t made a mistake by not handing the elf over to the authorities. I doubted they could keep their hands on a drunk, invisible elf who really didn’t want to be caught, but he and the sirens had better stay as far from the shore as possible if they didn’t want a run-in with Nathan’s family.

  I used my levitating boots to save time until I reached the road leading to the lake, then landed and walked the normal way to the shore. Emphasis on ‘normal’.

  Nathan and the others were already there, waiting for me. Here we go.

  “Hi,” I said, wishing I’d spent the night looking up a spell to erase their memories of the other evening instead. “It’s a lovely day.”

  Spectacular conversationalist, I was not. Nor was I a great tour guide, especially when they wouldn’t want to hear about anything magical. Here’s the cave where the drunken elf lives, and here’s the pirate ship which used to be haunted by a wizard’s ghost. Yeah, not happening.

  “I suppose it’s picturesque, at least,” Mr Harker commented.

  “Yes, it is. Especially in summer,” I said. Normal. I could do normal. “I think we should walk… this way.” I vaguely gestured in the opposite direction from the woods.

  “Where are the falls?” asked Erin.

  So much for that idea. “They’re up the path by the woods, but you don’t want to go there.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  Everyone looked at me, Nathan included.

  I shrugged. “We’d have to walk by the forest. The path’s slippery and not that safe.”

  Stop talking, Blair. I was with a group of people who’d all hunted rogue werewolves for a living. A slippery path wouldn’t bother them a bit. They w
ere also dressed more appropriately for hiking than I was.

  “Right, the paranormals divide up their forest into territories, don’t they?” Nathan’s father said. “They seem to do that everywhere.”

  Jay nodded. “Yes. Most of our calls are because one of those shifters has accused another of trespassing on their territory. You’d think they’d do a better job of marking it out to avoid these situations.”

  “It’d be simpler if they didn’t live near human towns at all,” Mr Harker said.

  I fidgeted, hoping there weren’t any shifters nearby. The last thing I needed was to have to mediate a fight between a hunter and a werewolf.

  “Absolutely,” Jay said. “Separate territories are what they need, as far from one another as possible.”

  “I assume you’d ask the shifters first without making assumptions about what they need?” The words came out before I could stop them.

  Mr Harker scowled at me. I looked past him—and froze. A small figure staggered beside the lake, a bottle dangling from his hand… and very much visible. Oh no.

  “Let’s go this way!” I stepped to the right, away from the lake. “There are hills… and fields.” Note to self: never go into tourism.

  “There’s an elf,” Erin said, staring at Bracken. “And… is that a wine bottle?”

  I sent a silent plea to Bracken not to notice us, but worse, Erin moved in his direction. I hurried behind her, though I hadn’t the faintest clue what to do. It was too late to stop the others from seeing him. I winced at their shocked murmurs as the elf staggered to the side, the bottle dragging on the muddy shore.

  “I remember the crystal ball, Blair Wilkes,” he proclaimed, before vomiting on his own shoes and passing out.

  “Friend of yours?” Erin asked me.

  “Nope,” I said. “Definitely not.”

  “He knew your name,” Jay said.

  “Everyone knows my name,” I said stupidly.

  “Right, you’re notorious.” Erin winked.

  I wished I could evaporate on the spot. “No, I’m just the newest citizen in town.”

  “I thought the elves didn’t live in the town,” Eric observed, eying the elf’s unconscious body.

  “Uh, they live in the forest.” Of all the times for the High Fliers not to be here to distract everyone.

  “We should take him home, since the forest is right there,” Erin said. “He’s adorable, isn’t he?”

  “He’s drunk,” commented Mr Harker. “And off his territory.”

  “This is more neutral territory,” Nathan said. “Anyone can come to the lake via the main paths.”

  “I know where he lives,” I said. “I can take him home.” If he woke up and heard one of them make a disparaging comment about the elves, he might start shooting lightning bolts, which was the last thing any of us needed.

  I pulled out my wand. Erin mimed ducking for cover and Eric laughed. I flushed, but gave my wand a flick, levitating the unconscious elf into the air. Jay and Eric stepped back out of range as though expecting me to drop the elf on them. As for Mr Harker, he must think I was completely deranged by now.

  I am never going to live this down. If Nathan and I get married, Erin is going to tell this story at every single family gathering for the rest of my life. Along with the pixie incident.

  A merman popped up out of the water, watching me levitate the elf uphill. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Helping him back to his hideout,” I said. “He mentioned a crystal ball. Does he do that often?”

  “Crystal ball?” He shook his head. “No, he’s never mentioned it before.”

  “Never mind.”

  I left the elf on the slope leading down to the falls, wishing I’d brewed up a memory potion after all. Or a spell that would turn me into a tree for a few years until the humiliation of the last week wore off.

  “Blair, let me do this bit,” said Alissa.

  Trusting her expertise, I let her take over the potion making. We’d opted for a cross between one of the anti-hangover potions the local pub put in the witch cocktails and a potion that enhanced clarity of the mind, using Alissa’s advanced textbook. We took it in turns to cut up the leaves and scatter powders and herbs into the small cauldron I’d got as part of my basic potion-making kit. The potion was not for beginners, but Alissa said she’d used a similar version to help out the notorious elf who kept ending up in hospital due to his drunken exploits.

  Sky wound around my ankles, purring. “Hey,” I said, scratching behind his ears. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen the pixie?”

  “What do you need him for?” Alissa asked.

  I crouched down to give Sky a proper stroke. “No reason. I just haven’t seen him for a while. Unless he thinks I’m going to yell at him for screwing things up with Nathan.”

  “I thought it was the elf this time.”

  “Don’t even remind me.” I shuddered. “Erin found the whole thing hilarious, but the others looked like they wanted to have me committed. And I wasn’t the one who collapsed drunkenly into a lake.”

  “Maybe you should have stayed at home.”

  “I realise that now.” I ripped up a few leaves and tossed them into the cauldron. “I only helped the elf because Nathan’s father and brother were saying some questionable things about the elf community and I didn’t want him to wake up and throw a bolt of lightning at them.”

  “Ouch.” She looked into the cauldron. “To be honest, that elf sounds like a lost cause. Are you sure this potion will work?”

  “I’m the one who’s supposed to be asking that question.” I sighed. “I have to try. Wouldn’t hurt to find out why Annabel can suddenly see the future either. I feel like it’s connected.”

  “You only need to prove his innocence, right?” Alissa delicately chopped up a few stems with a sharp knife.

  “Yeah, but I’m not sure he is. He was shooting magical lightning over the lake when the High Flier fell off her broom. They say the brooms are protected, but who knows how elf magic works?”

  “He was shooting it from his hands?” she asked. “Huh. I didn’t know elves could do that.”

  “Nor me, until he did it.” I threw more leaves into the cauldron, my temper sizzling like the flames on the stove. I was mostly annoyed at myself. Nathan’s family thought I was a freak. The pixie had ditched me, the elves were indifferent to the fact that one of them might be a murderer, and no other suspects had shown up in relation to the High Flier’s death.

  I was sure the two deaths were linked, but until Bracken got his senses back, guesswork was all we'd have. I needed to be as devious as an elf to get a confession from him.

  10

  Dawn came, and I forced myself awake so I could take the potion to the lake before work. Since Alissa had supervised every step, I was confident the potion wouldn’t poison him. Now all I needed was to find the elf, assuming he wasn’t still invisible.

  “Better hope it works.” I lined up a row of empty bottles on the kitchen table to practise the swapping spell again. As I waved my wand, the potion leapt from one bottle to the next without spilling a drop. I’d been practising since last night and I’d normally be thrilled at how quickly I’d mastered the spell, but I wouldn’t get a second chance if I spilled the whole thing. No pressure, Blair.

  I secured the lid on the bottle, put the potion in my pocket and left for the lake.

  The town was deserted at this hour in the morning, and nobody accosted me as I flew through the cobbled streets. It was too early for the High Fliers to be out, and the lake was silent, reflecting the dappled sunlight.

  As I neared the shore, I spotted a siren swimming in the shallows. Recognising her as the same siren I’d spoken to after Terrence’s death, I moved closer until I stood inches from the lake’s edge.

  “Hey,” I called to her, and she flipped over on the spot, splashing me with lake water. “Wait, don’t swim off. I want to talk to you for a minute.”

  “What about?” She
floated closer to shore, propping her elbows on the bank.

  “Did you see what happened yesterday? When that High Flier fell into the water?”

  A moment’s hesitation. “No.”

  Lie.

  “Look, you can tell me. I’m not going to report you.” Unless you committed the crime, that is. “What did you see?”

  “I saw her fall off her broom.” She fidgeted. “They’re always doing it. I forget how easily humans can drown.”

  True. “You weren’t anywhere near her, were you?”

  “No…” She broke off, her gaze dropping. “I was, and I know what you’re going to say, but I wasn’t singing. I can’t sing.”

  Lie.

  I blinked at her. Of all the lies to tell, why pick that one? “You… can’t sing?”

  She winced. “I can, but I don’t like to sing. I’m out of tune on every note. The others laugh at me whenever they hear me.”

  True. Huh. I’d never have expected to run into a siren who couldn’t sing in tune. It must be demoralising, considering bewitching humans with their beautiful singing was their trademark.

  She looked up, her eyes widening. I turned around, seeing a winged shape approaching in the distance. Make that three of them. Oh, no. The gargoyles were coming.

  The siren dove underwater, leaving me standing on the shore. Hovering around here alone made me look guilty, and if I went looking for the elf, I might bring the gargoyles after both of us. If he was even visible, let alone sober.

  I snapped my fingers to switch into fairy mode, then again to turn myself invisible. Hoping they hadn’t seen me in the seconds before I vanished, I flew over the lake to avoid being caught in the air currents from the gargoyles’ massive wings. I flew high, admiring the glitter of the sun in the water like fractured glass.

  Then I spotted someone approaching the lake from the woods. Not a gargoyle, but a human. Annabel.

  I halted in mid-air and watched her walk up the path. She must have come out of the woods. Was she planning to make up with Bracken? If she was, and the police caught her hanging around, they might both get arrested. I hovered on the spot, debating whether to risk approaching her.