Love at First Spell: A Witch Cozy Mystery (Fairy Falls Mystery Book 1) Read online

“A visitor?” I asked, confused. I didn’t get visitors.

  “He says he’s a walk-in, but he’d like to be a client.”

  Any other day, I would have said no. We didn’t get walk-ins. I didn’t have time to deal with walk-ins. If the head of marketing of a major corporation wanted to see me, they made appointments. But knowing my luck over the last twenty-four hours, this would be the owner of the Yankees.

  “Sure, send him in,” I said, clearing off my desk and grabbing a notebook in which to jot down anything important. It was probably just going to be the owner of some food cart looking for free advertising, but I was down in the dumps professionally, and I just couldn’t take the risk of spurning two important business leaders in two days.

  A moment later the door to my office opened, and in walked the guy with the weird pointed ears from the street the night before.

  I smiled politely at him and motioned for him to have a seat, and I was very glad to see he left the door open. I put my phone in my lap with my contacts open, ready to call security at any moment, just in case. I still wasn’t convinced this wasn’t some sort of weird stalker-type.

  “Thank you for seeing me,” he said. “I know you don’t know me, but I think I might know something about you.”

  My finger was hovering over the button to call security.

  “So you’re not here to have my company do advertising for yours?”

  “No, sorry,” the man said. “My name is Kyran, and I’m an elf. I’m here to ask you if you know you’re a witch.”

  “You can either leave now, or I’m calling security,” I said.

  “Wait, please don’t,” Kyran said, holding up his arms. “Do you know your mother?”

  “My mother? Of course I know her.”

  “Then ask her if you don’t believe me. What do you think happened in that crash yesterday? You should have been hit by that taxi, but you weren’t. Instead, the whole front of it crumpled. Haven’t you asked yourself why that was? You unleashed an explosion of magic that you may not have known you had.”

  “I need you to leave now,” I said.

  “Ask your mother,” the man implored, and he put a business card on the table. “Ask her, and then if you want to know more, call me. Anytime, day or night. You have magical powers, Mina.”

  And before I had a chance to do or say anything else, the man turned and strode out of the office. I grabbed the card he left on the desk and fingered it slowly. Well, that was easily the strangest conversation I’d ever had in my life. I leaned over to the recycling bin and just about dropped the business card in it, but at the last second I instead shoved it into the back of one of my drawers and tried to forget about it.

  But as the day passed by, I couldn’t forget about it. And when six o’clock rolled around and I was one of the few people left in the office, I decided to call my mom.

  My finger hovered over the green button to dial before I pressed it. I hadn’t spoken to my mother in probably at least a year. She had wanted money. She always wanted money. My therapist in college said Mom was a narcissist, and that it wasn’t my fault that she had never been the kind, warm, and affectionate mother that other people seemed to have. I eventually had no choice but to cut her off.

  This was ridiculous. I was being ridiculous. What did this guy know? Absolutely nothing. He was just another crazy New Yorker going on about magic and me being a witch. I was going to have to let security know not to let him in the building again.

  But one thing he said did niggle in the back of my mind. I still wondered how that taxi got wrecked if it didn’t hit me. It couldn’t have been magic. That was ridiculous. Insane, even. But I still found my finger pressing down on the green button to dial my mom.

  She answered on the second ring.

  “Mina?”

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Oh, darling, how are you? It’s been so long. I miss talking to you, you know.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I just wanted to see how you are.”

  “Well, you know, money is really tight. We’re not all high-powered businesspeople like you are over there in New York. How are things going for you?”

  “Look, Mom, I have to ask you something.” I paused and took a deep breath, then dove right in. “Are you a witch?”

  There was silence on the other end of the line. “What do you mean? A witch? Like, as in a bad person? No, of course not. I know that therapist of yours poisoned you against me, your own mother, but I’d never do anything to hurt you. You know that.”

  “No, I don’t mean that. I mean, do you have magical powers?”

  Again, there was silence on the other end of the line. “Magic isn’t real, Mina. You know better than that. Of course I’m not a real witch. Now, don’t ever ask me about that again.”

  Three beeps suddenly reached my ear, and I realized Mom had hung up on me. I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it, more confused than ever. That was completely unlike her. Mom never hung up the phone first. She loved the attention from her daughter too much.

  What on earth was going on?

  I reached into the drawer and took out Kyran’s card. What kind of name was Kyran, anyway? There was a number on it, for an area code I didn’t recognize. I dialed, and he picked up on the second ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi. It’s, uh, it’s Mina.”

  “Oh, hi,” he said politely. “Did you speak with your mother?”

  “I did,” I replied. “She denied knowing anything about magic.”

  There was a pause for a moment, then Kyran spoke. “But you don’t quite believe her.”

  “She just… she acted strangely. But at the same time, she wasn’t acting strangely at all. Magic isn’t real. She was right on that point.”

  “No, Mina, she wasn’t right. Magic is real, and it exists. And you’re one of the lucky paranormals gifted with it. I’ve been asking around. About thirty-five years ago, a young witch matching your mother’s description disappeared. She was presumed dead after disappearing from Fairy Falls, but a body was never found. It’s very possible that she simply moved to the human world. If she changed her identity and never used magic again there would have been no way to track her down.”

  I closed my eyes. “No. Magic isn’t real. It can’t be real.”

  “It is, Mina. I work as a liaison between the paranormal world and the human world. Why don’t I tell you how to get to the paranormal world? There’s a portal that links New York with New Fang, a vampire city, in Central Park. Do you know the Hans Christian Andersen statue?”

  “Yeah,” I said cautiously.

  “Be there tomorrow at nine in the morning. Touch the head of the duck, and you’ll be transported to New Fang. I’ll meet you there and take you to Fairy Falls, where your family and your coven are from.”

  “This is insane.”

  “I know it sounds that way. My fiancé was actually in the same situation as you, where she didn’t know she was a witch. She was transported to the paranormal world by accident. But you’re a witch, Mina, and I’m giving you the opportunity to discover your people. I’ll be in New Fang tomorrow at nine in the morning. If you want to find out where you came from, I can show you.”

  Kyran hung up the phone and I stared off into space for a while, considering his words.

  This was stupid. I was being stupid. Magic wasn’t real. Why was I even considering that it might be? It just wasn’t. Everyone knew that. I was twenty-eight years old; I was way too old to believe in that sort of thing. Heck, even when I’d watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch growing up I knew that magic wasn’t real, and I was about eleven years old.

  No, Kyran was obviously just a crazy guy with an agenda. Mom hung up on me because I was being insane, accusing her of having magical powers. Nothing more, nothing less.

  Maybe I’d gotten a concussion when I saved that dog. That had to be it. I wasn’t thinking straight. I briefly considered going to the emergency room, but no, I had t
oo much work to do.

  I was going to forget that I had ever met that Kyran character, and if he ever came into the office again, I was getting a restraining order.

  Besides, tonight was Friday. I was going to go home, relax a little bit, and then just do a little bit of work from home on the weekend before I got right back into things on Monday.

  And yet, at five minutes to nine the next morning I found myself standing in front of the statue of Hans Christian Andersen in the middle of Central Park. He was holding his hand out to a little duck.

  “This is ridiculous. You’re ridiculous,” I muttered to myself. I knew it was crazy. But if I touched the duck’s head and nothing happened, well, that was it. I could move on with my life.

  I didn’t know why I wanted it to be real. Maybe it was because Kyran seemed nice. Doctor Kayla — my therapist — was trying to get me to seek out important relationships with other people. But that had never gone well for me. My mom was a narcissist who only used me to pursue her own goals. My father had left her before I was even born. I’d been bullied at school, and my one boyfriend in undergrad ended up cheating on me. I just wasn’t made for relationships. Instead, I focused on what I was good at: working hard. By doubling down on my studies when everyone else my age was hanging out at the mall, I got into the Ivy League, and when they were all out partying, I was studying for exams I would eventually ace.

  But was I now so starved for human relationships that I was following a crazy person’s directions to a paranormal world that almost certainly didn’t exist?

  I looked around to make sure Kyran wasn’t about to come out and attack me. But no, there was no sign of him. A mother was distracted by her daughter in a stroller on the path not far away, but that was the only other sign of life. A calm, quiet summer’s morning. That certainly wouldn’t last long; in less than an hour tourists and locals alike would be packing the trails in the city’s largest green space.

  Feeling a bit silly, I walked to the duck and touched the statue. And everything began to spin.

  CHAPTER 4

  Y ou know that feeling when you’re on a roller-coaster and it goes over that first big drop, and your stomach feels like it’s going up into your throat? That’s what it felt like when I touched the duck’s head. And then, a split second later, it was over. I was standing in the middle of a different city, next to a statue that just looked like a large drop of blood made of brass.

  “Welcome to New Fang,” someone said next to me. I looked over and let out a small yelp. It was a vampire! An honest-to-goodness vampire. He wore a vest suit and had black hair slicked back, and sharpened fangs. His skin was paler than a Canadian’s in the middle of winter.

  I knew New York was weird, but this was a whole new level of crazy.

  “Mina,” a familiar voice said, and I spun around to find myself facing Kyran. “I’m so glad you came.”

  “So this...this isn’t some sort of trick? You didn’t lace the duck’s head with LSD or something? I’m actually in a new world?”

  “You are,” Kyran confirmed. “This is New Fang, one of the largest vampire cities in the world. But we’re only here because every portal in the human world takes you to a specific portal in the paranormal world. When you’re in the paranormal world, you can then take the portal anywhere else. Walk back up to the statue, touch it, and say ‘Fairy Falls.’ I’ll follow you a second later.”

  I had to be dreaming. This was some sort of weird illusion, right? So there was no harm in actually doing it. I stepped back up to the statue that I’d just popped out from, and the vampire smiled at me.

  “Thanks for stopping by,” he said. I just gulped and nodded in reply, touched the statue, and said as clearly as I could, “Fairy Falls”.

  I got that same feeling in my stomach once more, closing my eyes instinctively, and when I opened them a couple of moments later I was back in the Pacific Northwest. I knew those mountains, I knew those trees, I knew that smell anywhere. This was where I’d grown up.

  Kyran appeared next to me a moment later.

  “Welcome home,” he said to me as I looked around. We were in the middle of a small field, with a single large tree in the middle of it, which was apparently the portal. To my right was a small town made up of low-rise brick buildings, with large streets and not a single car in sight. Straight ahead were a few small hills, and to the left a larger mountain, from which flowed a huge, cascading waterfall, dropping at least two hundred feet.

  “This isn’t home. I’ve never been here before,” I found myself saying.

  “No, but this is where your family is from, originally.”

  “How do you know? What if the witch you were talking about isn’t my mom after all?”

  “Then you never would have been able to pass through the portal,” Kyran replied. “You would have touched it and nothing would have happened. The fact that you’re here at all shows that I was right, and you’re a witch.”

  “How did you know?” I asked. “How did you find out about me?”

  “When the taxi hit you, you emanated a powerful magical force to protect yourself. It was powerful enough to have been sensed here in the paranormal world, and so we knew there was a witch using her powers in New York City. I was sent to track you down, and to find out where you came from.”

  “So it’s true. I really have magical powers?”

  “Yes. It will take some time to get used to, I know. But the people here can show you how to use it, and to harness that power.”

  “How long will it take? I have to be back at the office on Monday, and I’d like to get some work done this weekend, too.”

  Kyran gave me a friendly smile. “Almost all paranormals choose to live in this world instead of the human one,” he explained. “If you choose to embrace your magical powers, you’ll at the very least have to come to the paranormal world to take lessons. You’re not allowed to use magic in front of humans.”

  I frowned. “Well, I can’t live here forever.”

  “You might think that now, but you might change your mind as well, when you meet your family.”

  “I’m not great at relationships with family,” I muttered, and Kyran gave me a sad look.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. For what it’s worth, I don’t know why your mother left, but I do know your grandmother and have known her for most of her life, and she’s a wonderful person.”

  I really wanted to turn and run the other way. After all, if someone was related to Mom, they couldn’t be that great, could they? But something deep down inside me, the curious part of me, wanted to stay. I didn’t know any of my family. Mom said she was an only child, that both her parents were dead, and that neither one of them had had any brothers or sisters, either. And now it turned out that was a lie?

  Or was I still dreaming? I wasn’t even sure anymore. If this was a dream, it certainly felt real. And I had a feeling I would have woken up by now if I was just unconscious and not actually living through this.

  “So it’s true, then,” I said to Kyran. “Magic actually is real.”

  He nodded. “Yes. I know it’s a lot to take in, but you’re a witch, and you do have a family, and I think it would be good for you to meet them.”

  “What do they do?”

  “Your grandmother founded a local business that makes potions aimed at helping people to love more.”

  “So she makes potions so people will fall in love?”

  “Not directly. It’s impossible, even with magic, to make a potion that would force someone to fall in love with another paranormal that they wouldn’t naturally fall in love with. It’s just not possible. But your grandmother’s potions are designed to spur a more loving feeling in people in general. For example, she has a series of anxiety-reducing potions for people who find themselves in stressful situations, so that they can not only feel better about themselves, but also are less likely to get angry with other people. She also has some kindness cupcakes, which are miniature chocolate cupcakes inf
used with a crème to which has been added a potion that makes you think about what another paranormal might be going through. A lot of paranormals in Fairy Falls eat one on days where they’re feeling a high level of stress and know they might say something they might regret without it.”

  “Sounds like she needs to open up a store in New York,” I said with a grin. Honestly, as soon as he started talking about it my mind started whirring away with marketing ideas. It was just how I operated. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to implement any of them. I still had a full-time job in New York, and I had no intention of moving here. I was just here because… well, I wasn’t honestly sure. Curiosity? That had to be it. Just pure curiosity. I was sure my family would end up being just as toxic as my mother, and that I was going to have to cut them off, too. I would do what I always did: focus on my work, and when I finally became partner at the firm, I’d be happy.

  I could buy a small townhome in Manhattan, and maybe even save up for a small place in the Hamptons. I wouldn’t have time for a pet, but that was fine. I was completely content living on my own. Those were my life goals, and I had to stay focused on them.

  “It’s only six thirty here right now, so the store won’t open for a few hours, but your grandmother is an early riser who’s always at the local coffee shop first thing,” Kyran said. “I assume you’d like to meet her?”

  I paused for a moment. Did I want to meet her? All of this seemed so sudden. Now that I was here, I was starting to get cold feet.

  “I promise she’s not bad,” Kyran said.

  “Ok,” I replied. “But I reserve the right to leave at any time.”

  “Of course. I realize this is a lot to take in. Come on, Charmed Coffee is just around the corner.”

  I took a deep breath and followed after Kyran, looking around the whole time. There were a few people around, but they all looked, well, normal.

  “Do witches here wear hats, and robes, and that sort of thing?” I asked as we walked along a cobblestone street toward the brick buildings. The lamps were all the old-style types you’d expect to see in London, with hanging planters full of brilliant summer flowers on each of them. It was early enough that the sun hadn’t quite peeked out from behind the mountains to the east, but it was still warm enough to be comfortable. I’d forgotten just how much I enjoyed summer mornings in the Pacific Northwest. It certainly beat the rising heat from the concrete that was a constant companion in New York City.