If the Broom Fits (13 page)

My eyebrows shot up as my brain scrambled for something to say. “That's a terrible pick up line.”

He laughed and stepped inside. “I told you it was strange.”

I forced a smile. “I'm not sure how to respond to that.”

He looked around the shop like it was the first time he had been in it. “In the dream your ceiling had stuff falling from it and we were investigating a serial killer. I know this is beyond bizarre, but it's really sticking with me. I thought coming over here might help.”

“Has it?”

He shook his head. “Actually everything looks exactly like it did in my dream.” He looked up at the sign in the window about palm reading and fortune telling. I waited for him to have the same reaction he had before. He surprised me. Totally. “Do you also do dream interpretation?”

“Nope,” I said too fast. “It's all a bunch of crap.”

He laughed. “How about we just try a palm reading?” He held out his hand.

I stared at it, afraid to touch it. What if that dislodged more memories? “As you can see,” I gestured to my coat that I was still wearing, “I'm getting ready to close up shop for the night. Maybe another time.”

His eyes lingered on the lapel of my wool coat for a moment before he reached forward and brushed his fingers against it like he still wasn't sure any of this was real. “You're missing a button,” he said softly.

Everything in me went cold. That's what caught in his office. I waited for him to produce the button, but he didn't. He just continued to stare thoughtfully. “It's been gone for ages,” I said.

He blinked and his eyes narrowed slightly. “You should think about having it fixed. Any idea where it is?”

I shook my head, trying not to look guilty.

“Pity. It's a nice coat.” He pulled his hand back from me. “I won't keep you. It's getting dark, so if you're heading home, you shouldn't wait around. But I look forward to seeing you again.” He opened the door to let himself out.

“It was nice meeting you,” I called after him before the door could close.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out. Leslie. Finally.

I
glanced
from the door Leslie had just departed through, then to the mysterious spell box, then back to door again.

“Damn it,” I mumbled as I shut the box and took back my key.

Her bag was gone from the hallway, so I went downstairs. The sky outside the living room windows was dark and foreboding, and the storm howled. No matter what Katrina and Jessica had going on, we couldn't get out of here tonight—and Leslie couldn't just take off without me. I was surprised by the relief that fact triggered. I found her in the kitchen, cell phone pressed to her ear, nodding.

“I know,” she said. “I just don't think we can leave tonight. It's snowing like crazy. t might take us a couple days to get back unless Selene can come and get us…I don't know if Frost will come or not…No, I didn't ask her…Fine…I said
fine
… No, I'm not grumpy…I don't care how I sound…Okay, bye. Be careful…I will.” With a heavy sigh she put her phone in her pocket, turned the burner on the stove to high, and filled the kettle with water.

“I'm sorry,” I said.

“For what?” she asked, not looking at me.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. How was I supposed to know what set her off? Was my telling the truth? I told her coming here would have nothing to do with the coven and yet she came anyway. That was her choice, not mine. It wasn't my fault we were stuck here. Maybe she was mad I left her alone with the other, potentially dark, coven. Okay, that probably was an asshole thing to do.

“I don't know,” I finally said when my internal analysis had gone on too long. Besides she would know the truth. Her empathic abilities would ting at any attempt to lie.

She half snorted, half laughed. “Then why are you apologizing?”

“Because you're angry and I don't want you to be angry with me. Look, you're right. I am selfish. I've only ever had myself to consider so it doesn't come naturally for me to consider other people. I'm making an effort, but I can't change overnight.”

She shook her head, but at least she turned around. “I'll make you some tea. Read your text messages.”

I sat at the dark wooden table and pulled out my phone. The first message was from Jessica.

“Found a weird pattern of deaths in the news, think they are connected. Two of them shop at the store. Looking into it more, but attaching links. Frost, this is more your area. What do you think?”

I clicked on the first link. It was about a girl who was found strangled in her apartment. The police believed the boyfriend did it. The neighbors said they fought a lot and the boyfriend was missing. Not unreasonable.

I selected the next link. This one was an older lady who committed suicide but the situation was similar. According to Jessica both victims had similar marks on their necks. All in all, it sounded thin to me.

My hand went to my neck, however. Orion said my father was strangled to death by Ornias. It had been over thirty years, though. Surely they weren't connected. It had to be a coincidence.

Her next message came a few hours later. “There are more unsolved strangulations. A lot more. Dude, seriously, look at these.” She sent more links.

I followed the links—each led to similar stories, true, but the deaths were spread out geographically and over a wide span of years. And in most cases, someone was caught for the crimes—yet there were nagging factors that couldn't be accounted for, like each death occurred between December and the first week of January. Cause of death was always strangulation of some variety.

I rubbed my forehead. Orion showed up after a lifetime of ignoring me and suddenly claimed I was “ready.” All on the same day Jessica stumbled across these murders that just so happen to be in the exact same way my father died. I went back and looked at all of the deaths again, noting where they were from. At first glance it appeared random, but they were far from it. “Do you have paper?” I said.

Leslie handed me a small notebook and pen. I jotted down dates and locations then reorganized them by date. “There's a pattern,” I whispered.

“Jessica thinks so too.”

I shook my head. “No, she doesn't see it. She couldn't. She doesn't know what to look for. Whatever she thinks, she's wrong. The locations, the dates, all of it. It's following
me
.”

Leslie raised an eyebrow. “Everything isn't about you.”

I wanted to laugh, but I was still too shocked. “Seriously. I lived in each of the places one of these murders happened. The two deaths of people who shopped at Enchanted—this is the first really small town targeted. It's also the first one I've spent any time in. It's been looking for me.”

She sat down across from me. “What is?”

“The thing that killed my father. Ornias. That's what Orion called it. He said it was a fallen angel.” Orion hadn't come because I was ready for anything. He'd arrived because I was out of time. Ornias had found me, but why did he want me? Orion said I had to set my mother's wrongs right. Was he talking about Ornias? What the hell was I supposed to do against an angel? What were any of us supposed to do against an angel?

Before I could even call for him, an icy breeze came through the house, and Orion appeared. “Can't you just use a door? You're hell on a heating bill. What do you know about Ornias?”

“You ask questions that will only confuse you as they did your mother. I have learned my lesson with her. I cannot give you the answers, but you can find them. The answers you seek are here. Everything you need to understand the road before you is under this roof, but you are running out of time,” he said slowly, nodding for emphasis.

Leslie nodded back.

“Please believe me, if I could do more…” Orion met my eyes. What your mother began must be set right. It's the only way.”

I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, he was gone. “Jessica and Katrina need to come here,” I said at the same time Leslie said, “We need to get into that room.”

“Agreed,” we both said.

Leslie was immediately back on her phone and I went to look at the room behind the red door again. I picked up a knick-knack on my way. I squatted down in front of the door and looked around for signs the massive room was an illusion. I still couldn't see any. Either the doorway crossed into a different dimension or it was the best illusion I had ever seen. There was only one way to find out. I tossed the polished stone raven into the room. It exploded into a fine dust as soon as it crossed the threshold.

“Holy crap,” Leslie called from the kitchen. “Are you alive?”

“I'm fine—but the room is definitely rigged.”

Leslie came around the corner. “Jess and Kat are going to try to get here. Obviously they can't drive either, but they'll see if they can get Selene or Sy to bring them.”

I nodded.

“Why are we bringing them here when Ornias is back there?”

“Because if he is after me, then he can use them to get to me. Selene is probably okay in the castle. She's harder to get to than the other two. Besides, we're stronger together. Plus, Orion wanted us here for a reason. I have to believe this is where we need to be.”

Leslie stared into the fake room. “What about your other coven?”

“I don't think they're doing this.”

“That's not what I meant. Should we ask them to join us?”

I looked back over my shoulder. “Using them against me would be entirely ineffectual, so I don't know why he would target them.”

She shook her head and sighed. “No. To make us stronger. The more witches the better, right? It certainly wouldn't hurt. A fallen angel.” She shook her head. “I'm not sure we can handle that.”

But “we” didn't have to handle anything. If Orion was right, this was my problem. The coven was only in the crosshairs because I was with them. I couldn't waste time thinking about this. “Do what you think is best.”

“I already did,” she said. The kettle squealed from the kitchen and she went to prepare the tea. “They're on their way.”

I tried a couple simple spells to disarm Winter's spell, but nothing worked. I was out of ideas about how to make it through the room's protection spell. My thoughts drifted back to the box. Maybe that was the spell we needed. Orion wanted me to find it for a reason.

I ran up the stairs, grabbed the box, and carried it back down to the kitchen table. Leslie sat our tea down and I tapped the pen against the surface of the box. “We might need this spell.”

She nodded. “We might. Can you tell what it is?”

I shook my head. “It's jumbled. There are arrows giving some direction, and other parts of it are written backwards. I'm going to have to write it down. It could also be a trap.”

“What's one more trap?” she asked with a wry smile. “At this point, we need to start taking chances or Ornias will find us before we have any idea what to do about him.”

I rubbed my bottom of my lip. I hated that everything I knew came from Orion. It was too easy to be influenced.

“For what it's worth, I don't think Orion wants to hurt you,” Leslie said. “He really doesn't seem like it.”

“But he trusts my mother. What if he's wrong? What if she was all dark by the time she died and she misled him. You've seen a dark witch at work firsthand. They can be as compelling or sympathetic as they want when it suits them. The result is always the same, though. Everything they do is for their own benefit.”

“I don't know that we have a choice,” Leslie said. There was a knock at the front door that she rushed to answer. Moments later she led in the other coven, minus Alexis who had apparently refused to come.

Leslie explained the situation to them as I carefully copied the spell out of the box, making sure to leave most of my letters unconnected. Like runes, words themselves in the wrong hands often had their own power. When I finished the spell and looked up, everyone was watching me work.

“None of you have to stay unless you want to,” I said.

They exchanged glances and Aisha spoke first. “We can help. We might not be as strong as you, but we each have our own talents. Can we take a look at the door?”

“Knock yourself out.” I looked back down at the spell in my hand and read over it. It wasn't to unlock the room. I could feel the scowl on my face immediately. What the hell was this spell for? I read it again. It wasn't dark magic. It looked like a summoning spell with a couple variations, but nothing too suspicious.

I reached into the box and rapped my knuckles against the wood, hoping for a false bottom or anything that would be more helpful than this. But it appeared to be just as it seemed. A box with a spell written in it that magically produced the night sky in incorrect patterns. Why would my mother leave me a key to this?

I slammed the key down on the table.

“Problems?” Leslie asked, looking up from her phone.

“This spell is completely useless. All of this is completely useless.” I pushed the box away.

She reached over and slid the notebook to the middle of the table so she could read what I had. She pressed her lips together, but her smile was evident. “Did Orion say who the box was from?”

I shook my head. “It was my mom's.”

“Not likely. It's obviously enchanted. It wouldn't continue to work this long after her death. My guess is that it was a gift specifically meant for you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“The spell. It is fairly rudimentary. Even a very young witch could use it to talk to the person on the other end. So the question is who does this lead to”

The knowing gleam in her eye could only mean one thing. “You think you know.”

She nodded. “I'm not telling you though. I learned my lesson with Corbin. Cast the spell. See what happens.” She looked back at her phone as it softly jingled at her.

I tore off the sheets of paper and tossed them into the box then closed it, putting the key back around my neck. I'd worry about it later. “Are Jessica and Katrina coming?”

Leslie nodded. “Sy is bringing them. Selene is staying at the castle to research Ornias because the elves have better records than we do. Once we are all here, we have to figure out how to get into that room, how to bring Ornias to us, and then how to send him back to where he came from.”

“Maybe we can use the door,” I said. If my mother had used the door to bring him here, surely we could use it to send him back. All we needed was the spell. So long as Orion had been right on the timing and she wasn't already a dark witch when she opened the door to Ornias, then it shouldn't be a problem.

“That's as good a plan as any. If we can find the spell.” She looked longingly at the room beyond our reach.

“Can you actually hear what I'm thinking or are you just that good at reading what I'm feeling?” I looked over at her.

A big hearty laugh shook her shoulders. “You aren't nearly as mysterious as you think you are, Frost. We all think we are so different from other people, but we're not. I can feel your emotions. I may not always know where they come from but given context, they aren't hard to decipher.”

“I think you might be better at understanding them than I am,” I grumbled.

“Now that I have no doubt is true. You're utterly hopeless.”

I shook my head. “I'm going to check the other coven's progress with the door.”

They were all huddled around the doorway, quietly arguing with each other.

“You're not doing it right, Dom,” Angel said, hitting him. “Look how sloppy that is. You want to kill us all?”

“Then do it yourself.” He threw the chalk at her. “You're the one who told me to do it.”

“Stop it, you two,” Aisha said with a sigh. “Angel, you make the circle. You have the best handwriting of any of us. We can't afford to mess up here. This is Winter Darkmore's spell. Dom, get some black candles.”