Behind the Eight Spell Read online

I found myself nodding along in agreement. Tora had a good attitude; I liked her immediately.

  “I see you’ve already met Tina,” Ellie said, motioning over to me as she took her hands from the dough and cast a quick spell to clean them off.

  “Yes,” Tora replied enthusiastically. “I must say, I’m extremely impressed by this place.”

  “Have you been here before as a customer?” Ellie asked, and Tora shook her head.

  “I’m afraid I haven’t had the opportunity to, yet. I’m a new transplant to Western Woods; my mother moved here years ago to be with her side of the family after my parents got divorced, and while I stayed in Illinois where I grew up, Mom has had some health issues recently and I figured she could use the help. So I moved here a couple of weeks ago and heard about the job opening.”

  “Well, in that case, let me get you one of our most famous items,” I said with a wink, making my way back out into the main serving area. Sara was helping a customer, but questions were written all over her face.

  “It’s going well,” I mouthed at her as I grabbed a cinnamon bun and some cutlery and headed back to the kitchen. The relief on Sara’s face was palpable. As soon as Tora saw the cinnamon bun on the plate, her eyes widened.

  “Wow, this is not fairy-sized.”

  “That’s right,” Ellie laughed. “Although we do have a few fairies here who have managed to eat them on their own. Go ahead, dig in.”

  Tora shot me a smile of thanks as she took the knife and fork from me and had an enthusiastic bite of the cinnamon bun.

  “They say fairy dust is supposed to make any sadness in your life disappear, but I don’t think our magic holds a candle to this cinnamon bun,” Tora said when she finished. “This is absolutely incredible. I’ve never tasted anything like it, and now I don’t ever want to taste anything else for the rest of my life. This is it. I’m on a cinnamon-bun only diet until the day I die.”

  Ellie grinned. “Thanks. Old family recipe.”

  “So what makes you want to work here at the bakery?” I asked, looking at Tora. “After all, there are quite a few places in town hiring.”

  “I’m not going to lie to you, I really like food, in case you couldn’t tell,” Tora said with a grin. “Besides, I asked around about this place. From what I’ve heard it’s incredibly popular, and that was absolutely essential to me. I worked customer service in places that didn’t get too many people, and I just can’t work that way. I’m at my best when there are six orders going and everyone is rushing around, trying to serve everybody but at the same time making sure that every customer gets a great experience and leaves feeling as if they were the only person in the room.”

  Ellie nodded. “Yes, that’s absolutely what we’re going for. And it’s a hard balance to hit, since you also don’t want the people in line thinking you’re wasting time by chatting with the current customer.”

  “That’s right,” Tora said. “I’m a pretty driven fairy, and to be completely honest, that’s the other reason why I tried for a job here. Some of the other fairies in town warned me not to work for you, that you and your friends are a little bit strange. Is it true that one of your friends is actually trying to become a lawyer?”

  “It is,” I confirmed, glancing at my phone to check the time. “She should actually just be finishing up her first exam now.” I hoped that wasn’t going to be a turn-off for Tora. The paranormal world was still very strict when it came to the way various species should act, and a lot of its citizens were uncomfortable with paranormals acting outside the mold.

  “See, that’s the thing,” the fairy said. “I’d love to do something else with my life. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy serving people, and making their day just a little brighter energizes me like crazy. But I also feel like I want more out of life, and I feel like this is a group that might understand that more than most places that are hiring here in Western Woods.”

  Ellie nodded. “That’s all I need to hear. When can you start, Tora?”

  The fairy beamed, her wings fluttering at a million miles a minute in excitement. “Oh, really? That’s wonderful! Thank you so much! I’m available anytime starting tomorrow.”

  “Great. Why don’t you come in tomorrow at six, and we’ll give you a run-through on how the point-of-sale system works?”

  “Fantastic. Thank you so much.” Tora reached forward and shook Ellie’s hand, then mine. “I’m looking forward to working with you both.”

  I packed up the rest of the cinnamon bun for her and she left.

  “I think that was the right decision,” I said with a nod, and Ellie looked visibly relieved.

  “Oh, you think so? Good. I was so nervous. I really wanted to hire her. She seems perfect, but at the same time, I wasn’t sure if I was rushing into things.”

  “No, I think it was the right call,” I said. “Did Amy’s research help you at all?”

  “It did, actually,” Ellie said with a grin. “She had some stuff written down about creatively checking to see if the person would deal with problems unique to your business. That’s why I was buried in a mound of cinnamon bun dough. Well, one of the reasons. I figured if she didn’t want to touch a hand with a bit of dough on it, she probably wouldn’t do great working in an environment like this one, where being sticky and messy at the end of the day is kind of par for the course.”

  “Good thinking,” I replied, impressed. “I liked her attitude. She seems like she’s got a good head on her shoulders, and she’s a positive person. I like her emphasis on making sure each customer has a memorable experience.”

  “That’s right,” Ellie said. “Me too. I guess we’ll see if reality lives up to the interview tomorrow. Can I ask you to come in and help out again? I might not need you the whole day, but it could be helpful for those first couple of hours while Tora gets settled in.”

  “Sure,” I replied. “No problem at all.”

  I made my way back out and gave the good news to Sara.

  “Oh, I’m so excited,” Sara said, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet with glee. “She seemed really nice.”

  “Yeah, she is,” I confirmed. “I think she’ll be good to have around.”

  Before I had a chance to say anything else, though, our next customer came in and Sara and I found ourselves facing the second long rush of the day.

  But now there was an end in sight. Ellie had hired her first employee, and I was really looking forward to getting to work with her.

  Chapter 5

  The rest of the day flew by, and the next thing I knew it was four o’clock and time to close up shop for the day.

  “Have any of you heard from Amy?” I asked as I locked the front door behind our last customers, but Ellie and Sara both shook their heads.

  “She had her first exam today, didn’t she?” Lucy asked, and I nodded.

  “That’s right. She’s a bit nervous.”

  Lucy laughed. “Amy Perkins? Nervous? She’ll have nailed it, like she nailed every single exam she ever took. I know I’m younger than you three, but she was a legend at the Academy when I came through. Our professors would speak about her in hushed tones; she was revered like a goddess to them.”

  “We know,” Ellie said wryly. “It’s insane that she thinks there could be any chance she wouldn’t do well. But that’s Amy. She always panics until she gets the result back, and considers anything under ninety percent to be a complete and total failure. Think I should text her?”

  “No,” Sara replied. “If she thinks she did badly and she gets a text asking how it went, that might send her into a downward spiral. She’ll be home when we get there. That way, if it did go badly, we can at least stop her from throwing herself into the lake in person.”

  Ellie laughed. “Good thinking. Alright, let’s get this place cleaned up, and then we’ll talk Amy off the ledge.”

  “If we’re lucky it was entirely a multiple-choice test and maybe she has the results already,” I offered as I pointed my wand at the m
op and a moment later it began to dance along the floor, deftly avoiding the chairs and tables while still cleaning the floor underneath.

  “True,” Ellie said. “We don’t generally do a lot of those as witches, but this is unchartered territory. Who knows what those elves do for their exams?”

  Fifteen minutes later, the three of us walked through the front door. I listened closely for the sound of crying, but I didn’t hear any. That was a good sign, right?

  “Amy?” I called out after a minute. “Amy, how did it go?”

  Nothing. There was only silence.

  “Amy? Are you here?” Sara called out, but again, there was no reply. I frowned and made my way into the house. There was no sign she had been here at all since this morning.

  “Oh boy,” Ellie said. “Maybe it went worse than we thought.”

  “Should we try the library?” Sara suggested. That was usually a good place to try and find Amy.

  The three of us headed off in that direction, making our way to coven headquarters, where Estelle Thurman was manning the door. She grimaced at us when we came in.

  “What are you three doing here? Shouldn’t you be hanging out with Amy? She had that big exam today. I bet you she failed. She was given this opportunity just because she’s Amy Perkins, and I bet it was too much for her.”

  I wanted to punch Estelle right in her smarmy mouth, but I just rolled my eyes at her instead. “We’re looking for Amy. Is she in the library?”

  Estelle shook her head. “I don’t think so. She left after the exam, looking worried, and didn’t come back.”

  “Right, because no one gets past you,” Ellie replied. “We’re going to go check anyway.”

  “Suit yourselves,” Estelle replied, immediately turning away from us. I followed the others down the stairs into the coven library. This place was one of the most incredible libraries I had ever seen. It belonged in one of those Buzzfeed articles I used to read back in the human world with pictures of amazing library interiors. The walls were lined with shelves, floor to ceiling, filled with leather-bound books. Ornate columns gave the place an old-world feel, but I didn’t stop to appreciate any of it.

  Instead, Ellie, Sara, and I walked around every inch of the place looking for Amy. But she wasn’t here either. A bad feeling began developing in the pit of my stomach. If Amy wasn’t at home, and she wasn’t at the library, there weren’t all that many other places she was likely to be.

  “Should we check the gardens?” Ellie suggested, worry written all over her face. Obviously I wasn’t the only one of us concerned for Amy’s safety.

  “Let’s ask Lita first,” Sara suggested. “After all, we are here. Or maybe we should check upstairs at the Academy? Who knows, she might just be in this building somewhere.”

  The two of us nodded, but after a thorough search of every room in the building, we still saw no sign of Amy. Lita, the head of the coven, had been out of town the entire day according to Estelle, but she promised to tell her we had stopped by.

  “I…I do hope you find Amy,” Estelle said, biting her lip. I knew the two of them were fairly antagonistic toward one another, but it was nice to see that deep down even Estelle didn’t want anything bad to have actually happened to Amy.

  “Thanks,” I told her. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

  Estelle nodded, and the three of us left the headquarters, making our way toward Coven Gardens. There was still not the slightest sign of Amy.

  Bile began to rise in my throat as every terrible possibility ran through my brain. What if Amy had been in an accident? What if she’d been kidnapped? Was that even a thing that happened in the paranormal world?

  “I’m sure she’s fine, you guys,” Ellie said, but her voice wavered as she said the words. “Let’s go home for now.”

  I nodded and the three of us went back to the house. Amy still wasn’t there. None of us had the energy or desire to cook, so for a while we just sat at the dining room table. I was sure we were all having the same terrible thoughts, but none of us wanted to say them aloud.

  Eventually, Ellie slapped her hands on the table. “That does it. I’m going out to find Amy.”

  “I’m coming with you,” I replied.

  “Hold on,” Sara said. “We’re all over the place, because we’re not thinking about this how Amy would. Have we checked in with her family? Have we let Lita know? No, we haven’t. There might still be a completely reasonable explanation for all of this.”

  I nodded along, realizing Sara was right.

  “Yes, or we should check the hospital. Maybe she’s hurt herself.”

  “Ok,” Ellie said. “We split up to cover more ground. I’ll go see Lita at coven headquarters and ask around if anyone there has seen her, though it’s getting late and I don’t think there will be too many people around.”

  “I’ll go see her family,” Sara said. “I spoke to her mom just the other day, and I know my mom has a few days off so I won’t get any extra info at the hospital.”

  “So that leaves me with the hospital,” I said. “Got it.”

  “We meet back here again in two hours, ok?” Ellie said. Sara and I nodded. My mouth was firmly set; having something to do at least made it feel like we were getting closer to finding her, regardless of whether or not that was actually the case.

  This just wasn’t like her at all.

  I made my way to the hospital, my hands deep in my pockets, doing my best not to worry. The sun was about to start setting, and I bit my lip. I didn’t want to have to go through the night without knowing where she was.

  The thing about Amy was that she was a good witch. Scratch that, Amy was an excellent witch. She could get herself out of almost any situation. For her to have disappeared like this without telling anyone was so out of character, and at the same time, I couldn’t believe it would actually happen like that.

  The truth was, I just couldn’t imagine any situation where Amy wouldn’t be able to get the upper hand. And yet, I couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. Amy had been there for me so many times in my life, I was going to do whatever it took now to save her if she was in trouble.

  I made my way to the hospital, but she wasn’t there. I even asked the nurse working at the counter if anyone of her description had shown up, in case for some reason she was there under a different name, but again, no.

  Amy was terrified of the portals. She wouldn’t have left town, there was just no way.

  Worry began to take me over once again. I texted the other two, giving them my news. I found out from Sara that she hadn’t been in touch with her family, either. And Ellie replied a few minutes later that she wasn’t at coven headquarters either, and that Lita had returned from her trip and was going to make enquiries. She was just as worried as the rest of us.

  I passed by Coven Gardens on the way home and decided to stop by there just in case. After all, the lake always gave me comfort. Probably because it was the biggest source of water around here, and I was a water witch.

  With the last of the afternoon light waning, I made my way toward the water. I found myself wading in up to my ankles.

  “Titan,” I whispered, closing my eyes and inhaling deeply, like I was inhaling the very power the water below me commanded. “I need to find Amy. Please, give me a sign.”

  I didn’t know what I was expecting. Probably nothing, really. I was clutching at straws, desperate for anything that might give me a clue as to the location of my friend. I just didn’t have any other ideas.

  That was why, when I opened my eyes and stared deep into the water, I gasped. Staring back at me was Amy. She was in a dark room, by herself, her face barely lit. Some magic had obviously been used to keep her still, as the only part of her that moved was her eyes. They weren’t panicking, darting from side to side. They moved slowly, like she was taking in every single inch of where she was being held. She was obviously in trouble.

  I couldn’t make out anything except for her face, and the darkness in the
room next to her.

  “Amy!” I shouted into the figure in the lake. Her eyes darted around then, as if she could hear me and was looking for where the sound came from. “Amy, can you hear me? Blink twice for yes.”

  Amy blinked twice.

  The wave of relief that washed over me was so strong I almost burst into tears, but I knew this was more important. I had to figure out where Amy was, get any clue I could.

  “Amy, do you know where you are? Blink once for no, twice for yes.”

  Amy blinked once.

  “Who took you? Can you tell me that?”

  One blink. I assumed that meant she couldn’t talk. Or maybe she didn’t know.

  My mind raced as I desperately tried to think of something—anything—that was a yes or no question and that could help lead me to Amy.

  Before I had a chance, though, the water began to ripple and the image began fading.

  “Amy!” I shouted. “Amy, don’t worry! I’m going to come and get you!”

  She blinked once, and then disappeared. I knew that was Amy telling me to leave her alone, that it wasn’t worth it. But I didn’t care. I was going to find her. My eyes blurred with tears as I stared at the dark waters of the lake once more, Amy’s image having disappeared completely. Where on earth could she be? How was I going to find her?

  I sprinted back home, but when I got halfway there, I paused. There was only one person who could be behind this. It was my father, Titan. It just had to be. He was trying to lure me in, using Amy as bait.

  Bile rose in my throat as I fought back the urge to vomit. I had never even considered that he might use my friends to get to me. How could I have been so stupid? Here I was, thinking he would come after me, and me alone. How could I have predicted that my friends might get caught in the crossfire? Should I have seen it coming? After all, it made perfect sense. Only Titan could be powerful enough to take on Amy and win. Titan had to be the one who showed me the vision of her in the water. It wasn’t the power of Titan the celestial being, it was the power of Titan, my biological father who thought so much of himself he took the name of one of the gods as his own.