Witch out of Luck Page 8

  “I’m afraid I don’t know.” Helen led the way to the store cupboard and took my broom from me to put them both neatly away.

  “Okay,” I said. “Do you know if the police have questioned the High Fliers at all? They were flying over the lake on that day, so one of them might have seen something.” I should have asked Clare, but it’d slipped my mind.

  She locked the store cupboard. “I’m not on speaking terms with any of the High Fliers. If they’re witnesses, I’m sure the police will want to talk to them.”

  Hmm. It might be worth asking, but the High Fliers weren’t my biggest fans, not since I’d rescued Alissa from their clutches when she’d fallen under a personality-altering spell and had to wrestle her off a broomstick in mid-air. Still, if they’d seen anything at all, they might count as witnesses. Then again, they wouldn’t be thrilled if I mentioned their names to the police behind their backs. If Helen didn’t know them, then I’d need to ask Alissa.

  I said goodbye to Helen and made to leave the witches’ place, only to spot Rita beckoning me into the classroom. My heart sank to see the disappointment on her face.

  “Sorry I’m not making progress.” I walked into the classroom. “I don’t know why I can’t adapt to a broomstick when I can fly just fine on my wings and boots. Maybe that’s why the broom won’t cooperate with me.”

  Her lips pursed. “The broomsticks aren’t sentient. They’re under a spell.”

  “A spell to make them fly?” I asked.

  “Yes. Perhaps there’s something interfering with that spell. Do you always wear those boots when you fly?”

  “I guess I do,” I said. “I can’t exactly get rid of the wings, though.”

  “No, but try without the boots,” she said. “You’re more than ready to take your Grade Three exams in wand-work and other areas, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to fly.”

  My face heated at her words. Rita didn’t hand out praise often. “Do witches typically have stronger and weaker areas? Maybe flying is my weak spot.”

  “Maybe,” she said. “However, considering how it’s tied to your fairy powers, maybe there’s something more going on there.”

  “I like flying,” I said. “I’m just not confident about depending on a stick of wood to keep me up in the air.”

  “Maybe that’s your answer, then. Confidence. Or focus. You were a mile away through most of that lesson. I saw.”

  “I’ve had a lot on my mind,” I admitted. “Uh, Rita, weird question. Is your divining power like Seeing?”

  “It’s related,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons I was assigned as your mentor. Madame Grey suspected your powers were similar to Tanith’s, and we didn’t have an available tutor with mind-magic. But sensing the truth of a person is similar to sensing the future.”

  Interesting. “So—my lie-sensing and paranormal-sensing powers are almost a hundred per cent accurate, right? Is it the same for divining?”

  “No,” she said. “What you can do, Blair, is incredibly rare. Your ability can see through almost any deception. That’s not the case for divining powers. Do you remember the divining spells got confused when you first came to town? They couldn’t tell if you were a fairy or a witch.”

  “I don’t know about seeing through any deception,” I said. “My power got confused a few times.” Like when I’d met that pirate ghost by the lake. He’d been a wizard, but after that, he’d been a vampire. If someone was two types of paranormal at once, my ability could only see one of them.

  But there was only one time it’d outright refused to work: when I’d encountered Inquisitor Hare, the man who led the hunters and owned the prison where my dad was locked up. When I’d looked at him, I’d been hit by a wave of fear unlike anything I’d ever experienced in my life, and my ability had bounced off an invisible shield. I’d thought the hunters were all humans, but no human had ever set off my paranormal-sensing power before. I suppressed a shiver at the memory.

  Rita said, “Every power has its limitations. Even yours. As for divining, I would go as far as to say it’s more accurate than Seeing, because you’re seeing the present, not the future.”

  I leapt on that. “Is Seeing always inaccurate? They say old Ava’s predictions never come true, but I heard she makes most of them up. I ran into her granddaughter the other day, though, and she seems to take it very seriously.”

  Rita waved her wand and moved a stack of papers on the desk. “Each seer is different. It’s not a common talent. It is common for seers to take their powers more seriously as soon as a prediction comes true. However, if one vision turns out to be real, it doesn’t necessarily mean everything will.”

  “How does it work?” I asked. “Is it like dreams or visions, or is it like my power, where they look at a person and just… know things?”

  “It’s different for each seer,” Rita said. “Ava… as far as I remember, she used a crystal ball. That helps focus her powers.”

  “What’s Annabel’s, do you know?”

  “Why the sudden interest?”

  “She claimed she recently developed the gift but had no signs before,” I explained. “She also ended her relationship with her boyfriend because she had a vision of them breaking up, but she said he wouldn’t have had reason to end it otherwise, and… I don’t know, it seemed weird. Is that normal for seers?”

  “I’m no expert on the seeing gift, but it behaves in ways unlike other types of innate magic. Perhaps it’s possible to develop the gift in adulthood… but Madame Grey is the person to ask, not me.”

  “I thought she said Seeing was wishy-washy,” I said. “Anyway, Annabel broke up with her boyfriend—an elf—and he went off the rails. Now he’s a potential witness to Terrence’s death, except he was so drunk that day he doesn’t remember any of it. I wondered if I could get Annabel to talk to him…”

  “Blair,” said Rita admonishingly. “I thought you might have taken a break from encroaching on Steve’s territory.”

  “Helen asked me to help out,” I said, but I knew it wasn’t worth pushing the issue. “I thought Steve was too occupied with the new jail. I didn’t know Madame Grey was going to put it together that fast.”

  “Oh, you’ve seen it?” she asked. “It took an entire coven to construct the place without removing any of the prisoners, but with hunters in town, it was better to act sooner rather than later.”

  “Hunters?” I echoed. “If you mean Nathan’s family, they’re not on duty.”

  “Blair, I’m sure you know well that everything they witness in the town will make it back to the main branch. We’re taking no chances.”

  “Oh.” That meant the Inquisitor would hear all about the glitter, my cat, the elves and the pixie. Maybe then he’d strike me off his list of people to hire. There had to be a silver lining somewhere. “All right, I just wondered. See you in a bit.”

  I didn’t need a seeing ability or lack thereof to sense that the universe had no intention of giving me a break. And I still hadn’t heard from Nathan.

  When I reached home, it was to find Alissa buried under a pile of cats. Or rather, cat. Whenever Roald tried to snuggle close to Alissa, Sky batted him away.

  “He’s being downright needy today,” she said, her voice muffled by Sky’s fur.

  “Again? Sky, what is it?” I walked to the sofa and he practically threw himself at me, purring like a lawnmower. “What’s with him?”

  She sat upright and lifted Roald into her lap. “You tell me that. I’ve been at the hospital all day chasing patients around who escaped from the ward for long term residents.”

  “What, Old Ava?”

  She shuddered. “Don’t talk to me about that woman. She’s going through a phase of trying to wander out of the ward whenever anyone looks away from her. I think she needs a friend, but there’s only her granddaughter to take care of her and… never mind. How’d the lesson go?”

  I sat down on the sofa, and Sky sprawled on my lap. “Alissa, do you know how
to get hold of the leader of the High Fliers?”

  Her brows shot up. “The lesson went that well?”

  “No, it was a disaster. Again.” I stroked Sky behind the ears. “But the High Fliers might have seen what happened to Terrence. They can see everything from up in the air. It’s the last lead I have now.”

  “Ah,” she said. “I guess you didn’t manage to get through to Steve? You didn’t try, did you?”

  “His friend Angus is the one in charge of this investigation,” I said. “But Clare—the receptionist—seemed convinced he wouldn’t budge unless I get the elf to go there in person. Which is about as likely as Steve joining the High Fliers himself.”

  “The leader of the High Fliers is named Robyn,” Alissa said. “She’ll be running another practise session by the lake tomorrow. Not sure she’ll speak to you after last time, though.”

  “I’ll deal with it,” I said. “The elves want me to do the impossible. Bracken is totally addled, and I think the only way to get him to sober up is to get Annabel to talk some sense into him. But she’s certain she did the right thing in ending their relationship.”

  “You spoke to her, right?” She stroked Roald, who purred.

  “Yeah, she’s absolutely convinced she has the seeing gift and it was the right thing to do. Did Ava mention her?”

  “No, she didn’t,” Alissa said. “I mean, she predicted all our doom a dozen times, but that’s standard. And tried to curse us. We locked her wand up in storage ages ago, but half the staff are outright refusing to work on her ward now.”

  “Ouch.” I winced. “Yeah, sounds rough. So she’s still giving out bogus predictions?”

  “Yep. Like I said, standard. I wouldn’t think Annabel would take her own visions seriously after hearing Ava’s rants.”

  “Rita told me seeing is way less accurate than divining,” I said. “Or anything else. I wonder what prompted her to take that vision seriously? There must be another reason.”

  “Miaow.” Sky prodded my pocket. My phone buzzed. Nathan. Oh, no. I was not ready for this conversation. I might never be ready.

  Alissa raised a questioning eyebrow. I mouthed Nathan at her. She mimed answering the phone.

  No time like the present. I took my phone into the bedroom so the cats wouldn’t interrupt and tapped the screen.

  “Hi,” I said. “Uh. Sorry about the other day.”

  “There’s no need to apologise, Blair,” he said. “I got your messages. Besides, I think you gave Erin more entertainment than she’s had in months.”

  “I thought hunters’ lives were always entertaining.” Oops. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up. But I’d gone to such lengths to avoid mentioning the subject during that disastrous evening and it’d all fallen to pieces anyway.

  “I told the elves that they’re not to interrupt me again,” I said, when he didn’t respond for a moment. “The reason they did that in the first place was because I brushed them off when they tried to ambush me on the way to work. And as for the pixie, I don’t know why he flipped out like that. I thought Sky understood that he’s not supposed to follow me to important events, so I don’t know why he felt the need to show up.”

  “Maybe it was too soon,” Nathan said. “To meet my entire family at once, I mean.”

  My heart sank. “Okay. I understand that.”

  Please don’t let this be going where I think it is.

  “Erin is insistent on seeing you again before she leaves town,” he said. “I wondered if you wanted to come on a walk with us this weekend.”

  “Really?” What, he wasn’t breaking up with me? Or keeping me at arm’s reach until his family left and I could get away with unleashing havoc to my heart’s content? “I should be able to manage that. Are they staying all weekend, then?”

  “They’re heading back up north on Sunday,” he replied. “That okay? It’s fine if you want to sit this one out.”

  I should, for all our sakes, but I hadn’t seen him all week. My resolve weakened. I couldn’t do anything too heinous on a walk, right?

  “It’s been a long week, but I want to see you.” He’d given me a second chance, but considering my track record, it was risky. Especially with Terrence’s death and the elf king’s demand hanging over my head.

  “I miss you, too, Blair,” he said. “See you soon, okay?”

  I clicked off my phone, more determined than ever to resolve the case. For a start, I needed to question the High Fliers.

  I made my way to the lake after work the following day. Despite Rob’s constant presence, the workday had been relatively low-stress. Maybe there was something to be said for having a highly efficient werewolf in the office who dealt with all the problem clients. Better than nothing, and definitely better than Blythe.

  As I’d expected, the High Fliers were swooping around the lake in their usual death-defying formations when I went down the path to the shore. I stood and watched for a minute, then I walked to the lake’s edge. A number of merpeople swam in the shallows, waving at me. I recognised one of them as the blue-haired merman who’d found Terrence’s body.

  “Hey,” I said, waving back. “Is that elf here, do you know?”

  The merpeople turned away to converse among themselves. After a moment, the merman who’d found Terrence’s body swam away from the group to join me.

  “Hello, Blair,” he said. “The others are worried about the police coming back.”

  “Is that likely?” I indicated the sloping hill leading to the falls. “You did see the elf, right? He’s a suspect… did you know?”

  “Him? No.” His eyes widened. “No, he didn’t kill the boy. I was helping him hide his bottles when the body washed into the river.”

  Truth. “Wait, so he didn’t drown under the falls, then?”

  That meant he must have drowned in the lake and either washed into the river… or someone had moved his body into the cave.

  “Not when I was there.” He lowered his gaze, shame on his face. “The elf’s people were shouting at him, saying he was a disgrace. I felt sorry for him.”

  “Thanks for telling me,” I said. “I’m going to talk to the High Fliers and see if they spotted anything from the sky.”

  I walked away from the shore, more certain than ever that Terrence hadn’t drowned by the falls. If the merman told the truth—and my lie-sensing power told me he did—it meant that the High Fliers were more likely to have spotted him. They couldn’t see the falls, but the rest of the lake was visible from up in the air.

  When the broomsticks landed on the ground in a swoop of bright-coloured cloaks, I waited for the other High Fliers to leave, hovering at the edge of the woods to avoid being spotted. It was a wonder they could fly at all in those costumes, but I supposed those huge cloaks would act as effective parachutes if they fell off their brooms.

  Seeing the witch who led the High Fliers was alone, I approached her. Robyn wore a bright purple hat which much be magicked to stay attached to her head, since it never fell off even when she was hanging upside-down in mid-air.

  “Oh, it’s you,” she said, in less than enthusiastic tones. “I’m afraid it’s too late to join our summer event, but there’s a waiting list for the next one.”

  “Er, I’m still at a beginner’s broomstick level,” I said quickly. “But I wondered if I could ask you a question? It’s about the student… the one who drowned over the weekend. You were here, right?”

  “Yes, we were,” she said. “Terribly sad. Accidental drowning, was it?”

  “Not sure about an accident,” I said. “The police are investigating it as a potential murder, and I wondered if any of your people might have seen anything. You know, from up in the air. He drowned in the lake, but his body was found near the falls.”

  “Not to my knowledge,” she said. “Are you helping the police with the investigation, then?”

  “I’m helping Helen. She’s my tutor for broomstick lessons and she was in charge of the students on that day, so I thoug
ht I’d ask. Since there aren’t any reliable witnesses from ground level, I wondered if any of your fliers had seen anything.”

  “Well, I can certainly ask,” she said. “I like Helen. She has spirit.”

  I wasn’t sure if she was implicitly saying I didn’t, but I’d expected her to refuse to help me after I’d yanked Alissa out of their ranks. But Robyn seemed pretty level-headed for someone who spent most of her free time hanging upside-down from a broomstick.

  “Thanks,” I said gratefully. “That’d really help.”

  Robyn leapt on her broom and zipped over the lake to some of the departing fliers, stopping them in their tracks. I followed more slowly around the shore, wishing there was a spell I could use to borrow some of her broomstick-riding talent for the exam. It seemed ridiculous that every single member of the group had more talent than fifty of me put together. Maybe I could body-swap with a High Flier for the duration of the broomstick test. Or at least ask them for useful tips. I’d bet none of them had ever tutored a fairy witch before.

  By the time I caught up to their group, several of the fliers waited, looking at me curiously. All of them wore bright cloaks and carried their broomsticks on their shoulders.

  A pale woman wearing red was the first to speak. “You’re Blair, right? Robyn said you wanted to talk to us.”

  “I just wondered if any of you saw what went on at the lake on Sunday,” I said. “When Terrence drowned. Did you see anyone fall in?”

  “I did,” she said. “A boy and a girl. They climbed out afterwards, though. It looked like they were having fun.”

  “Oh, I think I saw that,” I said, recalling when I’d spotted two people fall off a broom into the lake. “But I wasn’t really paying attention.”

  “They tried to mimic our broomstick-hopping,” said a dark-skinned witch wearing blue. “This boy tried to jump onto the back of the girl’s broom. I think he was trying to impress someone.”

  Trying to impress someone… like the sirens? “Did you see what he looked like?”

  “No, we were too high up,” said the blue-cloaked witch.