A Witching Well of Magic: A Cozy Mystery (Witchy Women of Coven Grove Book 2) (7 page)

“
Oh,” Aiden said, waving fingers, “that won’t be necessary. You may as well take the day off. I’ll get in touch when this mess is sorted.”

“
Okay,” Bailey said. “If you need me, give me a call. My offer stands.”

“
I do appreciate it, Bailey,” he said. “Everything, in fact. You’ve been a tremendous help here.”

She only smiled, and gave him a final wave before she left.

A single warning glance from Sheriff Larson was all the admonishment Bailey got as she made her way back to the perimeter. When she was far enough away, she called Avery. The witches needed to know, but they were just as likely as not to keep secrets and tell her not to worry about it. Avery, on the other hand, loved nothing more than a mystery; and this one she intended to solve whether the Coven liked it or not.

“
Wait, slow down,” Avery said when Bailey relayed the story in a single, long breath. “Someone broke into the tour office and stole, what, a rock?”

“
Not just a rock,” Bailey groaned, “it’s… look, the stones from the cave are carvings; they’re almost as old as the caves themselves. They’re priceless artifacts. If someone stole them, maybe it has to do with Martha Tells’ supposed plan to reveal the ‘secret’ of the cave writings.”

Avery leaned back in his chair across the library table from Bailey. “Okay, I’ll bite. So… but you think it was Aiden?”

“
Maybe he didn’t think anyone would notice,” Bailey said, “but when I pointed out to him that the stone was missing he didn’t want to report it to the Sheriff. He said he was going to hire a PI.” She rolled her eyes.

“
Maybe he is,” Avery said. “Why would he need to fake stealing it? He owns it, doesn’t he?”

“
For the insurance?” Bailey proposed. It did sound thin. If he wanted to get money off the stone, he could have arranged an auction or just put it up on Ebay. “I don’t know… maybe to draw more media attention to the Tour Business.”

“
Hmm.” Avery was not convinced.

“
Maybe he’s in league with someone else,” Bailey suggested. “Like Gloria and Trevor.”

“
I’ll be honest,” Avery said. “I don’t think we’re looking in the right place. Aiden… I just don’t get that sense from him. You know I read people pretty well.”

Bailey bit her lip. If only he knew the irony in that. This would be so much easier if she could just tell him precisely why it was all so strange. “Just look at the time line. Martha Tells is murdered in the caves. Poppy goes to prison. Aiden buys the business from her, has all sorts of weird questions about the caves, and who made them—”

“
Questions you’ve had for years. Go on.”

“—
yes, alright, I have; however, just a few days after Aiden shows up someone breaks in and steals one of the stones?” She scoffed. “Gloria and Trevor have been in town for months now. If they were in on it, they’d have done it when no one was watching the place. So would anyone else. Why wait until now?”

Avery only shrugged, and shook his head. He drummed his fingers on the table. Bailey wanted to shake him. Why wasn’t it as obvious to him as it was to her? She supposed there were parts he didn’t know; if he knew them, though, would that make a difference? She stood from the table and went to the water cooler in the corner to get something to drink.

“
Plus he’s just a little too smooth, don’t you think?” She said as she did. “I mean, with that face and the way he dresses, and the way he talks… it all just sort of screams con-man if you ask me. You know I saw Rita the other day—”

“
Rita’s normally out of town this time of year,” Avery said quietly. “I wonder if Thomas is coming to visit. Been a while since I saw him. Probably he’ll just avoid me.”

“
She said something about her nephew coming to visit,” Bailey said. She turned from the cooler with her cup and returned to the table. “I didn’t know his name was Thomas. Do you know him? Why would he avoid you?” She waggled an eyebrow at her friend.

But Avery didn’t answer her immediately. Instead, he stared at her, eyes narrowed and suspicious. “Yes, I do know Thomas. We didn’t go to school with him, he lives in Portland with his father and only visits every few summers. I met him last time he was here. How do you know him?”

“
I don’t,” Bailey said. “You just said you wondered if he was coming to visit.”

“
No, I didn’t, Bee.”

Bailey froze, scrambled for something to say. She checked herself—yes, she’d slipped. She closed herself off, tucked the chatter of minds back to where it belonged. She’d been so intent on convincing Avery to suspect Aiden, she hadn’t realized she was opening herself up again, trying to connect with his mind. “I… you’ve mentioned him before, I think.”

Avery raised one eyebrow. “I certainly have not.”

“
What? Sure you have… at some point. You must have. Maybe I know him from somewhere else.”

“
No, Bailey, you don’t. I can tell that you’re lying to me, Bee.” He shook his head slowly, and gazed at everything in the room except her. When he did finally look at her again there was a light of recognition and discovery in his dark eyes. “Bee, answer me honestly. And I mean it...this is important.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table as he clasped his hands together. He was deadly serious. “By important, I mean that our friendship is staked on your answer important. Tell me the truth.”

“
Avery, I don’t know what you—”

“
You heard me thinking, Bee, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question, it was a deduction.

“
That’s… there’s no such thing as… how could I have heard you thinking, Ave?” But she was shaking a little, and it was difficult to look at him, and her fingers were picking at the table. She stopped them.

“
I feel like that’s possibly a good followup question,” Avery said, “but it isn’t an answer. You’ve been acting really strange lately. Like, pod person strange. I hardly ever see you anymore, you’re completely out of touch with everyone and everything; I thought at first maybe you were just in shock after what happened with Martha and Poppy.”

“
There are things about your whole encounter with her that don’t make any sense,” he went on. “And people talked about it for about five minutes after it was all done and then it just went away, and no one thought to ask how you knew Poppy had done it.”

“
I didn’t,” Bailey said quickly. “I didn’t. She and Chloe and me were there and she just… I don’t know, she felt guilty about it and had to relieve her conscience and—”

“
You and I both know Poppy didn’t have a conscience. You read her mind, didn’t you?” He peered at her, not with fear, but with… disappointment. “You really think I couldn’t keep your secret, Bee? Is that why you won’t tell me the truth?”

Bailey took a deep, long breath. She was already in so much trouble with the Coven—she thought, anyway, it was so hard to tell with those women—and the last thing she wanted was to be deeper in it but… if Avery figured it out himself, then, maybe the rules were different? And besides, there had to be exceptions. She wasn’t going to let her friendship dissolve just because they had some old, dusty tradition.

And Avery could keep a secret. She’d kept his for years, and he’d kept it for… well, since he was a little kid, at least, probably. And when Avery had been ready to come out, he’d confided in her first, before anyone else. Didn’t she owe him? Magic was all about costs and exchanges and the importance of oaths and promises and such… there was a whole rune devoted to it. Gyfu, it was called; it looked like a letter X. It meant that nothing is ever given with getting something in return, and visa versa.

Avery was still watching her, waiting.

“
I…” Bailey steeled herself, and begged silent forgiveness from whatever it was that governed magic, and the caves, and the Coven. “It… started just before Martha was killed,” she said, so softly she could barely hear herself speak.

And yet for as light as the words were, the moment they were out of her mouth and in Avery’s astonished ears, they took with them a crushing weight. Once it was gone, the rest of it came out. The coven, Martha’s past, her training with Chloe and Aria and Francis—Avery figured that out easily on his own almost the moment Bailey admitted what she was.

And she told him about the Caves.

“
You just wouldn’t believe how… amazing, how beautiful it was, Ave,” she said. “They took me inside, and sang this song… it was in all sorts of different languages and at the same time kind of… not in any real language at all. And I felt this presence… it was warm, and comforting; it was like being hugged by the air, or the ocean, or the mountains. And the paintings… oh, Ave… they… they moved.”

“
What do you mean moved?” He asked, mystified. Now that it was out he’d driven straight past angry and betrayed, and right to excitement to hear all about it. How could she have imagined it would be any different?

“
I mean they moved. The letters sort of, slipped around on the wall and rearranged themselves until they made sense. I didn’t even have to translate, I just sort of knew what they said. And you know in the first cave there’s a sun and moon, and some animals, and that kind of landscape that everyone thinks is so funny—a picture of a mountain in a cave?”

“
Sure,” he said.

“
It came to life. It told a story. About… well…” Bailey paused. Maybe telling the story she’d learned was going a bit too far.

“
More secret tradition stuff?” Avery guessed.

Bailey shrugged. “Sort of, yeah. They make a really big deal about it. I don’t know exactly why, but I think there’s something about our history—witches, I mean—that’s supposed to stay hidden to keep us all safe.”

Avery sighed. “Well… that makes sense, I suppose. Still, maybe just the, ah, ‘cliff’ notes?” He winked.

It took her a moment. “Dork,” she muttered, but she chuckled. Cliff notes…

“
Well… it seems that, a very long time ago, there was a tribe that split up. One side wanted to stay where they were, and the other thought something bad was going to happen. So they left. And they traveled around the world using… well, using magic. But their magic started to weaken; it was tied to their homeland. So they had to find other places, places that were… it doesn’t really translate… sort of asleep. And they woke them up, but it takes a long, long time.”

“
And?” Avery pressed.

Bailey shrugged. “And, that’s the short version. I guess each cave tells another part of the story, but I’ve only seen the first one.”

Avery sat back. “And, the words tell this story?”

“
Sort of,” Bailey said. “They talk about how it was done.”

“
How is it done?” He wondered.

Experimentally, Bailey actually did try to tell him. She’d never had a chance to test the Geas before. But when she tried to explain that there were spells, progressive enchantments that reached into the earth and gathered the spirit of the place into one locale to wake it up, her tongue cramped in her mouth until she gave up. “I can’t,” she said.

“
More secret stuff,” Avery grumbled, irritated at being left out of the club.

“
No,” Bailey said, “I mean I’m incapable. I can’t talk about the… what the writing says.” She winced as her tongue cramped around the word ‘spells’. “Its magic, it’s called a geas. I had to accept it to see the story and understand the writing. When I try to talk about it, my tongue cramps.”

Avery’s eyes rose. “Wow. So… magic, huh?”

“
Magic,” Bailey said simply.

He was quiet for a moment, weighing something. When he spoke, it was slowly and carefully. “Well, I think I might have a secret to tell you, too. Since we’re sharing.”

Bailey tried to think of a secret Avery had that she didn’t already know. Of course she couldn’t but, what was left?

He smiled at her. “I’m absolutely certain that Aiden didn’t steal the stone.”

“
How’s that?” Bailey asked.

“
Because, my intuition never lies. And, it’s not just instinct.” He shrugged. “Ever since I was fifteen or sixteen, I just sort of… know things, sometimes.”

Aria had talked about something like this when she listed the exhaustive number of ‘gifts’ there were in the world. But, the women always talked about magic as if it were something specific to women. In the story on the wall, the history of the covens, all the people with magic had been women. “Do you mean,” Bailey clarified, “that you guess right?” There was a difference between a lucky guess and genuine prescience.

“
No,” Avery said. “I mean… I get a funny feeling in the middle of my brain, like… sort of like a flower bud. And it opens up, and then…” he shrugged. “I just… know something. I can’t control it, but I can almost always tell when people are lying, and when I meet a person it’s like I know them. Not like reading their mind,” he assured her. “I don’t know… like auras and stuff. That’s how I know it wasn’t Aiden that took the stone. He just wouldn’t do it. I can’t explain how it feels, but it’s true. I can’t say he isn’t somehow… involved? No… responsible. But not intentionally? It’s fuzzy.”

Well. That was a useful bit. She wished she could ask the Coven about it but, well… she’d be in a lot of trouble.

“
Ave, that’s… amazing.” She sighed, with relief and with other emotions, mixed and tangled up in it. “Oh Lord, it feels so much better not having to hide it. I’m sorry I kept it from you.”

“
It’s okay,” Avery said. “I understand, I guess. Just… maybe don’t keep secrets anymore. Either of us. Deal?”

“
Deal.”

“
Now, that does mean we have another problem,” Avery said.

“
Oh?” Bailey wondered if he was going to press her to tell Piper as well. Did Piper also have some secret gift no one knew about? How far and wide did this thing go? The whole town?