Mist Murder Read online

  “I’m sorry, I know that this is far from anything you ever hoped to get out of life,” Esmeralda said. “But I want to know how you are doing. The process of handing things over to you is going to be difficult for both of us. What are your thoughts about the news?”

  Maggie swallowed hard, trying to clear the lump in her throat. There was a rush of words waiting to get out of her head, but they were all negative, self-doubting sorts of words. Maggie held them back, determined not to make her mother feel any worse than she already did.

  “It’s a lot,” Maggie finally said. She thought carefully about her next words, trying to phrase everything in as positive a way as possible. “I’ve been having some doubts about my magical abilities, so I know it’s something I’ll have to work on. It just seems like something that is totally out of my wheelhouse and that I’ll have to work really hard at.”

  “Thankfully you were born a witch,” Esmeralda said, winking at Maggie. “And I know you don’t believe me, but you are an incredibly powerful witch. You will need to start doing some inner work so that you can harness all of that power. I don’t think your problem is being unable to do magic. I think the magic is so big that it feels overpowering and that scares you.”

  Maggie thought back to some of the magic she had done before. She had made protection bubbles so big that she felt like she couldn’t control them at all. The idea of magic wasn’t what scared her. Honestly, the idea of being magical was growing on her a little bit. But the idea of creating something that she couldn’t control was what made Maggie worried. It especially worried her if Esmeralda could no longer control it either.

  Esmeralda forced the hot chocolate mug back into Maggie’s hands and she took another drink. Thankfully, it had not been refilled again as Maggie could feel that she had already drunk way too much of the sweet drink. It was sloshing around her stomach like a big chocolate wave. Maggie felt like if she tried to magic up a protection bubble right now, it would smell like chocolate.

  “So where do we go from here?” Maggie asked. She wanted to change the subject. She didn’t like talking about her mother losing her magic. “What do you think happened to Linda?”

  “I can honestly say that I don’t know,” Esmeralda said with a sigh. “Ned was a great suspect and Nancy is an even better one. But there is something that doesn’t seem right. Maybe neither of them did it. Who else would be a good suspect? Or, at least, who would have a motive to kill Linda?”

  Maggie bit her lip as she thought through everyone she had seen in or around Cauldron/Kitchen Things in the past few days. Linda certainly wasn’t a pleasant woman to be around and if she was judging simply by people Linda had been rude to, half of Grimwood Valley would be on her list. She was able to narrow it down to three people.

  “Lou was not happy with her,” Maggie said. “He felt like she was running his store into the ground. Abby didn’t like working with her and admitted that she was just waiting for Linda to be gone so she could take over. And Mariah is obviously on her father’s side.”

  Esmeralda glanced sideways at Maggie, cocking one eyebrow up. She studied Maggie’s face before she said anything. Maggie pretended she didn’t know what her mother was about to say.

  “You can’t add someone to the suspect list just because you don’t like them,” Esmeralda said.

  Maggie sighed. She knew it seemed petty, but if Mariah was going to be stuck back in high school days with all of her drama, Maggie sometimes felt like stooping just as low.

  “Okay fine, Mariah isn’t on the list,” Maggie said. “But Lou has an alibi while his daughter was actually at the class. Maybe he did all of the thinking and she just carried out the dirty work. I wouldn’t put it past Lou to make his daughter do the dirty work so that he could keep his hands clean.”

  “In general, your idea seems fine,” Esmeralda said. “But I think you are forgetting that Mariah is his pride and joy. There is no way that he would ever make her take the fall for anything, especially not a murder.”

  “What about Ned?” Maggie asked. “Is he still on the suspect list?”

  “I think technically he is on the list, but I’m not really considering him a suspect,” Esmeralda said. “Is there anyone else to add?”

  Maggie wracked her brain, trying to think of anyone else who would at least have a motive to kill Linda. Finally, she shrugged. Those four were the only people who seemed to have a motive and only three of them had the opportunity to poison the crone.

  “Okay, well let’s table that for now,” Esmeralda said. “I have something that I need to teach you.”

  A shiver went up Maggie’s spine. She didn’t like the sound of that. It seemed even more ominous after Esmeralda’s revelation about her disappearing magic.

  “It’s time for another magic lesson,” Esmeralda said.

  Even though her mother was practically gleeful at the thought of magic lessons, Maggie tried to sink back into the cushions again. The day just kept getting worse and worse.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Esmeralda grabbed Maggie’s hand again and pulled her up and out of the couch cushions. This time, she pulled Maggie all the way up to her feet. Maggie felt like slinking back down, but she knew that her mother was not going to put up with her shenanigans. And Maggie felt like she couldn’t pull any shenanigans, not after finding out the news that her mother had told her.

  First, her mother walked her through the steps to do a magic spell. Esmeralda started every magic lesson this way and Maggie sort of hated it, but she went along with it. She felt annoyed like a teenager whose teacher was making them go back to the basics.

  Maggie showed her mother the proper hand placements and then focused on pulling the magic up from inside of her. The way her mother had explained it, there was something almost like a well of magic deep within each witch. To do any magic, the witch had to dig down deep within the well and pull up enough magic for the spell. The well wasn’t infinite and if a witch wasn’t careful, it could run dry for a while. But through careful magic, a witch could learn to use magic while also making sure to continue magic production.

  At least, that is what Esmeralda said. Maggie understood the bit about the well of magic because she could feel it. It was almost like there was a small space down by her stomach where her magic was stored. Maggie usually imagined that it was pink and sparkly, so somewhere deep inside was a well of pink, sparkly magic just swirling around and waiting for Maggie to decide to use it.

  What Maggie didn’t understand was how to replenish the magic or where it came from. Esmeralda said that asking where magic came from was a little like asking where humankind came from. There are lots of feasible explanations and everyone had a different idea so no one was right or wrong. Maggie was pretty sure that she hadn’t had to work at replenishing her magic so far because she spent a lot of time avoiding using her magic. Or she had been avoiding magic.

  Once Esmeralda was satisfied with the first two steps, she taught Maggie the magic word. Usually, her mother avoided telling her what the spell was actually going to do. Esmeralda said she did that because Maggie was powerful enough to do the spell without knowing, but Maggie figured it also kept Maggie from getting too nervous or anxious about it.

  “The magic word for this spell is deprendo.”

  Esmeralda let the word roll off of her tongue like she was speaking Italian. Maggie knew there was no hope of her being able to pronounce it like her mother pronounced it, but Esmeralda had told her before that as long as she was close, it would count.

  “Deprendo,” Maggie said. “Deprendo. Deprendo.”

  She kept her hands glued to her side, not wanting to produce any magic before Esmeralda deemed that the word was sounding good. Once Maggie could do these spells out loud and gain control of them, she could start producing magic without saying the magic word. Esmeralda only had to think of the magic word for it to work. Maggie wondered if she would feel less self-conscious when she reached that stage.

  “Good, g
ood,” Esmeralda said, clapping her hands together. “I wish it were always this easy to teach witches magic.”

  “What other witches have you taught magic to?” Maggie asked, but Esmeralda ignored her question.

  “Now this spell needs a little explanation,” Esmeralda said. “I know that a lot of the time I like to have you figure out what the spell does by just letting you loose, but this one needs instruction. I’m going to have you close your eyes and I am going to do a bit of magic. Then you are going to use the spell to detect where I did the magic. If you’re really good, you might even be able to unravel it a bit and figure out what magic I did.”

  “So you’re teaching me to do magical hide and seek?” Maggie asked.

  Esmeralda scowled at her, her eyebrows drawing together. She made her hands into fists and put them on her hips. Pushing on hip out to the side, she chastised Maggie.

  “This is much more serious than that,” Esmeralda said.

  “But if we are the only magical beings around, why do we need this spell?” Maggie asked. “Aren’t there more important spells you should be teaching me? I’ll only be detecting us and maybe Ned, if he’s lucky.”

  Esmeralda snorted before quickly covering it up by thrusting her hip even more violently out to the side while pointing her finger at Maggie. She practically looked like she was being a little teapot, but the discomfort of the stance made her pull it back a bit.

  “Have you forgotten about the death problem?” Esmeralda asked. “I was able to detect it using this spell. Things seemed fishy to me and I used this spell to see what had contributed to the deaths. An enchanted tractor, a walkway radiating magic, there were things at each death scene that had been infused with magic. I don’t know where it is coming from or who or what is making it, but at least I can detect it. In fact, I’ve been using that spell at each crime scene. Now you need to be able to do the same. After I teach it to you, I’d like you to use it at Cauldron Things to see if you can figure it out also.”

  Maggie shuddered a bit when Esmeralda mentioned the “what” that might be making the magical death problem in Grimwood Valley. That seemed like something out of a movie that would be too scary for Maggie to watch. She never would have imagined that she would face it here in her hometown.

  “Now, can I trust you not to open your eyes?” Esmeralda asked.

  She eyed Maggie closely as though she didn’t quite trust her own daughter. Maggie had to admit that she understood why. It would be all too easy for her to simply cheat and not have to do any magic that day. But after being hit with the news of being expected to take over the family business sooner rather than later, she would never dream of cheating. She needed all of the practice she could get.

  Maggie nodded at her mother and squeezed her eyes shut. She shut them so tightly that her face was all squeezed up together. She was probably a sight if anyone happened to be walking by, not that anyone was probably taking a walk at night in the paranormal fog since they would also be drenched by the cold, sleety rain. But as always, her anxiety was there to play the “what if” game with her.

  Even with her eyes closed, Maggie could tell that her mother had stepped closer to her, presumably to test that she was really shutting her eyes and not just pretending. There was a slight breeze that hit her face. Esmeralda must have been waving her hand in front of Maggie’s face to test her. After Maggie passed the test, she could hear her mother walk away.

  Esmeralda seemed to be walking in circles around the room, this way and that to try and throw Maggie off of the scent. Maggie took some deep breaths as she tried to push all of her anxiety away. There had been enough negative emotions and news that day. Perhaps if she was able to lost herself in this magical hide and seek game, she could negate some of that negativity.

  One time, some well-meaning person had told her that maybe she should try to do some visualizations. Esmeralda didn’t seem to be ending her circling of the room any time soon, so Maggie took the opportunity to visual some positive things.

  First, she saw herself as the new head witch of Grimwood Valley. As ridiculous as it sounded, she pictured herself wearing a big shawl like her mother did. Perhaps she would feel like she had actually taken on the mantle of Head Witch if she literally put something one. So she pictured herself wearing a big, black cloak with a hood on the back. It was flowing and dreamy, but as Maggie pictured herself pulling the hood down to expose her face, she could tell she was all business. She imagined herself walking around Cauldron Things and inspecting the tables and potion materials that had been used in the potion making class.

  Then, she pictured herself in the normal world. Here, she was dressed in a pair of jeans and a knit black sweater. Maggie pictured herself and Jill out for dinner and drinks together, like any two friends would do. She saw herself laughing and having fun, not worried about what anyone else was thinking of her. She was even eating and drinking without the anxiety of someone judging the food she had or how messy she might accidentally be. Maggie loved seeing herself look so free.

  Her imagination took a surprising turn and suddenly she and Jill were headed out to a bar where a cute man asked her to dance. In an even bigger shock, imaginary Maggie agreed and whirled around the dance floor with the man while Jill looked on and cheered each time they were in her vicinity.

  She lost herself in the vision, feeling a smile crack her face wide open. Maggie couldn’t remember a time in her adult life when she had felt as free and wild as dream Maggie felt.

  Suddenly, Maggie realized that she no longer heard her mother puttering around the room. She almost opened her eyes up right away, but then remembered why she had them shut in the first place. Maggie squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, hoping her mother was almost done.

  “Mom, are you all ready for me to open my eyes?” Maggie asked.

  “Yes, you can open them now,” Esmeralda said. “I’ve been ready for a while, but you were lost someplace happy and I didn’t want to pull you back from that.”

  Maggie opened her eyes. Her mother was perched on the end of the couch, one leg crossed over the other and her mug of hot chocolate in her hand. Maggie couldn’t quite tell how long her mother had been sitting there watching her, but for some reason, she didn’t feel self-conscious. Maybe the visualization really did work.

  “Now, I did a few things around the room and only one of them is pretty hard to find,” Esmeralda said. “I wanted to make sure that you were successful, so I didn’t want to hide anything, at least not this first time. The next time we might make it a bit more challenging for our magical hide and seek.”

  Esmeralda’s eyes twinkled again. They were almost like stars sometimes and Maggie was glad to see it. It told her that Esmeralda forgave her for Maggie inadvertently downplaying the importance of magic or something like that.

  “Now go ahead,” Esmeralda said. “Cast the spell and walk around the room. See what you can find.”

  Maggie put her hands out, making sure to shake them a little at the wrists to loosen them up. She tended to be too stiff with it sometimes. As soon as they were loose and comfortable, she took a deep breath and imagined the well of magic within herself. Once she felt ready, Maggie shut her eyes and said the magic word.

  “Deprendo,” Maggie said.

  The magic word came out strong and confidently, not like the usual whispery, quivery voice that she used to say the magic words. It felt good, like she was commanding things to reveal themselves to her, not meekly asking them to.

  Opening up her eyes, Maggie could hardly believe what she was seeing. The entire room seemed to be glowing. There were four spots that seemed to stick out even more, but the entire room was lit up like it was on fire. Maggie wasn’t sure she had done it right.

  “What’s wrong?” Esmeralda frowned. “That sounded like it came out great.”

  “The entire room is lit up,” Maggie explained. She tried to find the words to describe exactly what she saw. “Like there are four places where the circles of ligh
t are really strong, but the rest of the room is bright too. Did I do it right?”

  Esmeralda’s face went slack as her eyes opened wide. Something must have gone wrong. Maggie’s mind started racing with possibilities. Perhaps the entire room was on magical, invisible fire and she should start trying to put it out somehow. Maybe that was why it was so bright.

  “What happened?” Maggie asked. “Did I doom us all?”

  “No, you did it so well that I think you’re seeing all of the magic that’s ever been done here before,” Esmeralda said. “I’ve heard that could be a possibility, but I’m not sure that even I could do that. Maggie, I think you just produced a more powerful spell than I ever have.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Maggie looked around the room again. Her mother’s explanation made sense, even if it seemed totally ludicrous. This house had been a house of witches for as long as it had been standing. It was ramshackle and seemed on the verge of falling over but was held up by magic. There was no way that Maggie could be seeing all of the magic that had been done in this room. It must have been decades if not centuries of magic.

  “How does that even work?” Maggie asked.

  “I’ll explain in a minute, for now, go find the things that are glowing brightest before the spell wears off,” Esmeralda said.

  Maggie nodded solemnly, focusing on the task at hand. She went to the nearest circle of light. It was around a gingerbread cookie that had been on the tray and was now enchanted so that it was doing a little dance. She pointed to it and looked at her mother, who was suppressing a laugh behind her hand. Leave it to Esmeralda to have a little fun.

  After finding a pillow that had a cat tail and a picture on the wall that was enchanted so that the occupants were moving, Maggie even managed to find the hidden magic, which was that Esmeralda had hidden a magic spell inside of a log in the fireplace. Maggie had been confused at first, but with a nod from her mother, she had used magic to lift the log up and magically split it.