Three's a Coven Read online

  Amy turned to Sara. “What can you add to that?”

  “Ok, let me think. The other thunder covens are Venus, Dione, and Hyperion. I think there’s another one too, but I can’t think of it. The water ones I know are Mercury, Neptune, the moon, and… Europa. Earth is Phobos, Deimos, and Callipso, and Fire I only know Io and Mars.”

  I jotted down the celestial beings Sara rattled off as quickly as I could, trying to keep up.

  “Good,” Amy nodded. “The other coven of thunder that you missed is Miranda.”

  “Right,” Sara said. “I never remember the ones that were named after those people that human wrote about.”

  “You mean William Shakespeare,” Amy said.

  “That’s the one. What a strange name.”

  “Hey, just be glad you didn’t have to study the works he actually wrote,” I said.

  “Why, are they bad?”

  “No, I wouldn’t say they’re bad. They’re just written in super old English from like five hundred years ago, and so they’re kind of hard to follow, especially when you’re like, fourteen.”

  Sara wrinkled her nose while Amy glared at the two of us. “Right. Well, if you’re done talking about that, do you have all of the thunder covens written down?”

  She looked at me, and I nodded. “Jupiter, Venus, Dione, Hyperion, and Miranda.”

  “Good. Now, the water covens are the most important, because you’re one of them. We just don’t know which, yet. The main water covens are, as Sara said, Mercury, Neptune, the moon, and Europa. There’s also Pluto, Ganymede, Cerys, and Titan.”

  I wrote down the names in my journal and looked back up at Amy.

  “Now, the main fire covens are Mars, Io, Charon, Enceladus, and Mimas. Then, for the air covens, you have Saturn, Uranus, Oberon, Ariel, and Titania.”

  “There’s some more Shakespearean characters for you,” I said to Sara with a grin. “You should read As You Like It, it might help you remember them.”

  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream might be even more useful, seeing as that’s the play that features the characters those moons are named after,” Amy replied, giving me a ‘you should have known better’ look.

  “Oh, whoops. How do you even know that? You didn’t sneak over to the human world and take some high school English courses, did you?”

  “No, but seeing as the people in the human world are our neighbors I found it important to learn what’s important to them and their culture as well,” Amy said.

  “That’s maybe the most Amy thing I’ve ever heard,” Sara snickered.

  “I’m choosing to take that as a compliment.”

  “To be honest, it was one. As much as I make fun of you, I wish I had your ability to learn things.”

  “You would, if you just applied yourself and stopped changing the subject constantly like this. We still have to go through the earth covens. Those are Phobos, Deimos, Callisto, Rhea, Iapetus, Umbriel, and Tethys.”

  “Ok,” I said as I wrote them down in my notebook as well. “Got it.”

  “Good. Now, you’ll need to memorize those. Let’s go over the importance of covens when it comes to spells, and how an element affects a witch’s magic.”

  I got my pen at the ready; I was eager and ready to learn.

  Chapter 5

  The next morning, when I woke up, Ellie and Amy were both sitting in the kitchen, eating some oatmeal for breakfast. I grabbed a bowl full from the cauldron that Ellie had obviously made, along with a banana and a handful of blueberries, and joined them at the dining table.

  “Any news from Chief Enforcer King?” I asked.

  Amy shook her head. “No. I was working with Lita last night. When I left an hour ago she still hadn’t shown up at all. No one knows where she is, and people are starting to worry.”

  “No kidding,” I muttered.

  “Someone needs to do something,” Ellie said. “There’s been a death, and our Chief Enforcer is missing. At the very least, someone needs to try and find out why.”

  “As long as that someone isn’t us,” Amy said, giving Ellie a pointed look.

  “Why not? After all, Professor Lei was part of our coven. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather get Chief Enforcer King back sooner rather than later.”

  “That’s what the other Enforcers are for.”

  “And if something has happened to Chief Enforcer King, that’s what the person who did something to her will be expecting. They won’t be expecting us to look for her, though.”

  “That doesn’t mean we should be the ones to do anything,” Amy argued. “We have absolutely no training in law enforcement.”

  “But we have the smartest witch in the coven on our side. Who else is going to be able to figure out what happened?”

  “The shifter Enforcers who have multiple years of training in solving cases.”

  “We have experience, though. We – and by that I mainly mean Tina – has already solved two murders since arriving in Western Woods.”

  A small blush crept up my face. “It was a team effort, though,” I said. Especially when it came to saving my life afterwards.

  Amy threw up her hands. “Absolutely not. Let the Enforcers try and find King. If it turns out Professor Lei has been murdered, then ok, we can help look into it. But only because Chief Enforcer King isn’t around to help right now.”

  Ellie winked at me. “It’s only a matter of time before she caves completely.”

  Later that day, Sara had promised me we could go down to the hospital and talk to her mom. I needed some career advice. It wasn’t that I wanted to become a Healer; I didn’t. Well, not a Healer for regular paranormals, anyway. I wanted to become the equivalent of a magical vet, which was a job that didn’t exist yet. The problem was, not only was I a witch who didn’t know how to be a witch yet – sure, I could do some basic spells, but I was nowhere near the same skill level as the others in the coven – but I was really pushing a boulder uphill by deciding that I wanted to do something that didn’t even exist as a job in the magical world.

  Luckily, Sara’s mom was one of the town’s most renowned Healers, and she was willing to meet with me to help determine how I could go about becoming an Animal Healer.

  The two of us walked to Hexpresso Bean, where we had planned on meeting Heather Neach. I had to admit, I was a bit nervous.

  “Relax,” Sara said, making me realize my nerves weren’t being kept quite as under wraps as I’d hoped. “It’s going to be fine.”

  “Thanks,” I said with a smile. “I feel silly just considering this as a career path. I mean, I don’t even know how to be a normal witch yet. Who am I to think that I can start a whole new career here that no one else has even considered before?”

  “Hey, don’t think that way. You’re not nearly as bad of a witch as you think. I mean, I don’t have anything to compare it to since we don’t have any other witches here who started as adults, but you’re learning incredibly quickly. You’re already a better witch than I am, and you have just the right kind of attitude to be able to make a real big change like this.”

  “I’m not a better witch than you,” I said as we snagged a couple of seats and a table by the far wall.

  “Oh, you are. Don’t worry, I’m not offended or anything. But it’s a fact. When you cast a spell, the spell does what it’s supposed to do.”

  “Yeah, but you know hundreds, probably thousands of spells. I can count the number of spells I know on both hands.”

  “That will come with time. But, when you cast a spell, it always does what it’s supposed to. And to be honest, I’m surprised at how powerfully you manage considering Jupiter isn’t your coven. There’s something really natural to your magic.”

  “Thanks,” I said, a small blush coming to my cheeks. “I appreciate you saying that.”

  “Now, what do you want to eat?”

  “Surprise me,” I smiled as Sara made her way to the counter to order from the fluttering fairy I recognized as Aurora.


  A minute later, while I was letting my mind wander, a woman who looked like an older version of Sara, with the same fiery red hair, freckles and green eyes sat down at one of the other chairs.

  “Hello, Tina. How are you doing?”

  “Heather, hi,” I said with a smile. “Thanks so much for meeting me.”

  “Of course. It’s always a pleasure to help guide a young witch.”

  Sara made her way back over and squeezed her mom’s hand quickly. “Hi, mom.”

  “Hello, dear. I see you’ve got a day off from your job.”

  Sara nodded. “I have, yes.”

  Sara and her jobs were always a bit of a touchy subject with her mother. Heather had grown up expecting Sara to follow in her shoes and become a Healer, and when it became obvious that Sara was never going to amount to that – or to any of the other prestigious jobs reserved for advanced ability witches – Heather became quite scathing to her daughter.

  “Well, I am glad you’ve finally found something. Hopefully, you can move up the ladder from being a driver to something good.”

  “I enjoy what I do, mom,” Sara said quietly. “I like being on my broom all day.”

  “Yes, of course you do. But work isn’t always about what you like to do. Now, Tina. You wanted to ask me how you might go about becoming an Animal Healer?”

  I nodded, grateful for the subject change. “Yes, please. I know it’s a job that doesn’t exist in the magical world, but it’s the sort of thing I would really like to do. I thought a Healer might be the best person to give me guidance as to how I might go about it.”

  Heather nodded for a minute, thinking while Aurora came by with a tray laden with coffees and pastries. The coffees here were more like freakshakes – this one was bright pink, somehow, with marshmallow fluff around the rim, covered in whipped cream, sprinkles, and a glittering white chocolate unicorn horn. There was a reason it was only recommended to have one Hexpresso Bean coffee per day, and to me, that reason had more to do with the caloric content than the magical properties of the coffee.

  “I would recommend that you take some beginner Healing classes, no matter what,” Heather said. “I know they will be focused on healing paranormals rather than animals, but a lot of the basic healing principles I believe apply to living creatures of any kind.”

  “Oh,” I said, my shoulders dropping slightly. “Isn’t it super hard to qualify for entry into Healing classes?”

  “It’s difficult, but it certainly shouldn’t be impossible if you’re dedicated to it,” Heather said. “The basic classes are a lot easier to get into than the advanced ones which you would require to become a Healer.”

  “Ok. So I still have a shot, then.”

  “Yes. I think the most difficult part would be learning about animals, and their specific healing. After all, there are no classes to teach you how to take care of them.”

  I nodded. “In the human world there are the non-magical equivalent of Animal Healers.”

  “In that case, I would recommend going to the human world and getting as many books as you can on the subject, and learning everything you can. That would be your next step after taking basic Healing classes.”

  “Ok,” I nodded. “So I need to take basic Healing classes, and then learn about animal-specific anatomy as best I can.”

  “Exactly. Afterwards, I would see about taking more advanced Healing classes. You should have been a witch for long enough by then that you may get accepted, especially if you’re as gifted a witch as Sara seems to think you are.”

  I blushed slightly. “Thanks. That’s really kind of Sara to say.”

  “The most difficult part, I think, will be the transference of spells that we use for humans onto animals,” Heather explained. “Your new job may require the creation of a number of new spells, which isn’t easy. It would help if you knew what coven you were from, as it’s always easier to perform your own coven’s spells. To be honest, I would not recommend trying Jupiter’s spells to try and save the life of an animal if you’re not part of our coven. It’s simply too risky.”

  My heart dropped in my chest. “Oh.”

  “Not to worry. I’m sure you’ll discover which coven you’re from eventually,” Heather said with an encouraging smile. “This will be at least a year-long process for you. You will have plenty of time to overcome the more difficult obstacles while you tackle the easier ones.”

  “Thank you for the advice,” I told her. “I really appreciate it.”

  “Of course. It’s nice to see a young witch like yourself with so much ambition. I think becoming an Animal Healer is an excellent idea. And it’s good to get some positivity today, what with everything else that’s been going on.”

  “What do you mean, mom?”

  Heather sighed as she looked at Sara. “I suppose it’s going to be all over town later today anyway, but keep this to yourselves until then, all right?”

  Sara and I nodded, our attention fixed on Heather.

  “One of my colleagues performed the death test on Professor Lei this morning. It turns out she was murdered.”

  My hands rose to my mouth involuntarily as she said the words. So Ellie had been right.

  “Murdered?” Sara whispered, barely audibly.

  “That’s right,” Heather nodded. “She was whacked over the head with a heavy object.”

  “That can’t be right,” I chimed in. “I saw Professor Lei’s body yesterday. There was no blood or anything like that. If she had been hit over the head, shouldn’t it have looked a lot worse?”

  “Not necessarily. In this case, the bleeding was all internal. It would have looked as though she simply fell over, but when in reality, she had absolutely been killed. The magic doesn’t lie.”

  “Wow. So she really was murdered. It had to have been yesterday afternoon at some point, since Amy saw her a few hours before the exam,” I mused.

  “According to the doctor who examined the body, Professor Lei was killed within an hour of her body having been discovered. It’s really quite tragic; I worked with Professor Lei a couple of times over the years. She was an excellent astronomist and mathematician. Her husband is one of the Healers at the hospital; I can’t imagine how he’s feeling right now.”

  “I remember Professor Lei,” Sara said. “She was a hard teacher, but she was fair. She always gave me plenty of opportunity to improve my mark when my practical magic skills weren’t as good as my theoretical ones.”

  “I can’t believe somebody would want to murder someone from the coven,” Heather said. “And to do it in coven headquarters as well. It’s completely unheard of. I do hope they find Chief Enforcer King sooner rather than later so that she can get to the bottom of this.”

  Sara and I shared a look, and I nibbled at the cookie that Aurora had put in front of me. I didn’t like this new development. Not one bit.

  Chapter 6

  Once Heather left, about five minutes later, Sara went to find Ellie, and convinced her that this was a great time to take her break. Ellie made her way over towards us and plonked herself down on a chair.

  “What a crazy day,” Ellie said. “I messed up a batch of the cookies earlier, and we only noticed because Andromeda took a bite of one, and started floating up to the ceiling. It was supposed to give the eater a feeling of floating, but it wasn’t supposed to actually turn them into a living helium balloon. I came this close to having to call Amy to come over and fix my mistake, but at the last second I realized I had accidentally put in triple the amount of Pegasus feathers.”

  “So how did you fix it?” I asked.

  “By quickly using a reverse levitation spell on Andromeda,” Ellie replied. “I knew it would reverse the effect of too many Pegasus feathers in the potion.”

  “Wow, that’s crazy,” I said.

  “I don’t even know how I did it. I must not have been paying attention. I was thinking about what might have happened to Chief Enforcer King.”

  “Well, on that note, tha
t’s why we called you out here,” Sara said. “My mom was just here, and she said that it turns out Professor Lei was murdered.”

  “I knew it!” Ellie said triumphantly. “I knew she was too healthy to have just dropped dead out of the blue like that.”

  “She was hit over the head, and killed by internal bleeding,” I explained. “You can’t tell anyone until it’s official, though.”

  “So who’s investigating now that Chief Enforcer King isn’t around?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, turning to Sara. “Who would it be?”

  “Well, my guess is it would be King’s second-in-command. The Secondary Chief Enforcer,” Sara mused.

  “Ugh, not Orson Brown,” Ellie said, making a face.

  “Who’s Orson Brown?” I asked.

  “He’s the second-in-command behind Aria,” Ellie explained. “Have you ever heard of the idea that everyone rises to the level where they’re incompetent, and then stayed there?”

  “Of course, we call it the Peter Principle in the human world.”

  “Right. Well, Orson is the exception, in that he rose to his level of incompetence, and then kept going a few more rungs up the ladder. He’s basically the most pompous idiot you’ll ever come across, and he couldn’t solve a mystery if the killer dropped into his lap.”

  “So how come he’s the second-in-command in the Enforcer field?”

  “His father is the head of the bear shifters. He continually pressed to have his son moved up the ladder in the Enforcer ranks, until he landed where he is.”

  “Was there a push to make him Chief Enforcer?” I asked.

  “Oh, he pushed. So did his father. But you know Aria King,” Ellie grinned. “She wasn’t one to go down without a fight, and when it came down to it, the rest of the paranormals in town and the shifters all agreed that it was better to have someone actually competent in charge of law enforcement, so Orson missed out.”

  “And now he’s in charge of a murder investigation and the disappearance of Chief Enforcer King, presumably,” Sara said. “That basically means nothing is going to get discovered.”