Putting on the Witch (20 page)

Brian kicked his foot against the wall. That seemed to explain the mystery noise.

“I still think we should take this to Abdon,” Oscar said. “It's the best lead we've had on Makaleigh's death so far. I know it will be hard to catch or contain Hedyle or Drago, but the council should be able to come up with something.”

The witchfinder was still skeptical about Hedyle and Drago being responsible for Makaleigh's death. He also didn't seem convinced that the council could come up with a way to imprison two of the most powerful witches in the world.

But Oscar seemed to be on the same page with Brian, and he thought his job could be on the line if he didn't tell Abdon what he knew. He left right away, leaving Antonio in charge of Kalyna. We all stared at the thin, rather pathetic shifter. It was hard to imagine that at any moment she could turn into a huge black killing machine.

“I do not like it.” Antonio finally turned away from her. “Drago and Hedyle do not need to meet here. They could be anywhere in the world before and after this ball. Why decide to be here now?”

“Wouldn't that go along with them killing Makaleigh?” Dorothy wondered. “They had to be here to kill her. They knew she'd be at the party with a lot of other witches. It was a good opportunity.”

He considered her words. “Bah. I still do not like it. I do not believe these two powerful witches chose to kill Makaleigh with a dagger, of all things. I am sorry. I just do not see it. There is something more that we are missing. Our haste to locate a killer and resolve the issue blinds us to the truth.”

I considered that Antonio might not be eager to return to his prison. That could color his view on whether or not the killers had been found. I didn't blame him. The longer it went on, the longer he was free. I couldn't imagine what it was like for him to live in that hellish prison.

“Maybe the council will take into consideration the work you've done for centuries and free you.” I tried to comfort him. “It's been a long time. Everyone deserves forgiveness.”

His eyes were hungry for resolution behind his mask. “That may not be true for me, Molly. You are a kind soul. Not all are willing to release their hatred.”

Oscar returned with two security guards. They took Kalyna with them. She hung compliantly between them as
though drained of all energy and hope. Antonio went too, with a beautiful bow in my direction.

“I hope that was the right thing to do.” Elsie chewed on her bottom lip as she worried.

“I hope so too.” I dumped the water from the bowl but couldn't empty my thoughts as easily.

There was a party organized in the ballroom for grumbling witches who were bored and looking for something to do. The Fuller family was trying to show sympathy for the rest of us.

Abdon, Yuriza and Schadt went all out with multicolored fountains where partygoers could dip their cups for various types of drinks. A dozen tables held elaborate foods and desserts with ice sculptures on each table. Every food imaginable was available for even the most sophisticated palates. A lot of it I didn't recognize. Stone potatoes?

For entertainment, games of magic were organized. Some were simple gambling competitions, while others were games of flying. A few younger witches were throwing a magic football that returned when it was thrown. There were also magic light shows for the rest of us who didn't want to participate.

Laughter greeted us as we got downstairs. We were bored
and grumbling witches too. It had been a few hours since Oscar had taken Kalyna. We'd spent time in the rooms talking and playing cards, worrying if we'd done the right thing or the best thing. Dorothy and Brian had found other ways to occupy themselves with the adjoining door closed and locked between the rooms.

“This really stinks that I have to wait up here while you get to go to a party.” Olivia stamped her ghost foot before we left, but without physical substance, it wasn't much of a protest.

“We just can't figure out any way to safely hide you,” Elsie told her. “We have to be careful, since everyone is on high alert after Makaleigh's death. You wouldn't want to be exorcised by the council.”

“No. I wouldn't,” Olivia agreed. “Being a ghost isn't much fun. I thought it might be—going through things other people couldn't go through and such—but it sucks.”

“I'm sorry,” I told her. “We probably won't be gone long. Try not to get into trouble. Elsie is right. No one is in a forgiving mood right now. Cassandra has given us a distinct warning.”

“All right, Molly. I'll just be here, flying around the room, bored out of my skull. If Brian and Dorothy don't go with you, I might just sneak a little peek in there.”

“Don't you dare.” Elsie's voice was stern. “You had your turn at that kind of thing. Use your imagination. I'm sure you can recall how it went.”

Olivia sighed, making anything made of cloth ripple around the room.

“Nice ghost trick,” I commended. “You're coming right along with your ghostly powers.”

“Thank you. I just wish there was a school or something you could go to and take classes. I need someone to train me like you all are training Dorothy.”

“Let's go, Molly,” Elsie urged. “I'm starving.”

We left Olivia on her own. I didn't blame her for being upset and a little depressed.

“I wish we could help her,” I said to Elsie as we went downstairs.

“She'll figure it out. Ghosts have been haunting people for thousands of years. She's just feeling sorry for herself and whining about it.” Her eyes flashed. “Is that spumoni?”

Elsie went to get a crystal goblet full of spumoni. I dipped my cup into the chocolate-flavored champagne. It was bitter, so I handed it off to one of the servants and tried the strawberry champagne. It was much better.

It seemed as though we'd been locked in the castle for centuries instead of hours. No wonder everyone was bored and grumpy. I noticed the remaining council members mingling with the “ordinary” witches.

Only Abdon wasn't present. I knew where he was and tried not to think what they might be doing. I hoped Kalyna would be all right. Not everyone was as fortunate as I was to have a protector. Joe always told me that I had a soft heart for the underdog.

“Hello, Molly.” It was Hedyle in a beautiful gown that seemed to be made of pale green sea foam. “Are you enjoying the party?”

“I'd rather be home,” I told her honestly. “I'm not really much of a partygoer.”

“Neither am I.” She watched several couples float by during a magic waltz, their feet never touching the floor. “The island I live on is very remote. I share it with only a few goats and the families who tend them. I do some healing for them, and they give me milk and cheese. I've lived many years this way and seen a hundred generations born on my island.”

“That sounds very peaceful.” I glanced at her. “And lonely.”

“Sometimes,” she agreed. “But mostly I am happy with my own company.”

I nodded, wondering if she was going to ask me about Makaleigh's last words again. I was even more set to deny her now than I had been when she'd first approached me.

“What about you?” she asked, turning to gaze at me with her pale blue eyes. “Is there someone in your life?”

“Yes.” I sipped my strawberry champagne. “My husband and my son.” I didn't feel threatened telling her. It was common knowledge that I was married to someone who wasn't a witch and that my son had no magic.

“How wonderful. It is one of the few things I regret, not having children. They are a blessing to be cherished and protected.”

Was that a hidden warning about Mike? I hoped not, because his safety from the council would always be top priority for me. I would protect him with my last breath if necessary.

“I don't know a mother alive who wouldn't be willing to show her fangs at the idea that her child might be harmed.” I hoped that was clear enough for her.

How long was she going to stand there before she badgered me about Makaleigh's last words? It seemed like I could feel her intent without her voicing it.

“I hear you had a surprise visitor when you came to the castle. A shifter, I believe.”

“Yes.” Were we finally getting to the heart of the matter? “Brian's girlfriend wanted to surprise him with a familiar for his birthday. She didn't realize it was a shifter.”

“Odd, that, since she is a witch.”

“Yes, except that she's still in training. She was raised in a family without magic. She didn't realize she was a witch until recently.” I didn't go into the fact that none of us knew about the shifter. She knew the truth too. I was sure Drago revealed his plot for sneaking into the castle to her.

“Olivia Dunst's daughter, yes?” Hedyle smiled at me. “I was dismayed to learn that Olivia had chosen to stay here after her death. It's not something I would have expected from a witch of her lineage. And who is the girl's father? Is he a witch?”

I turned to stare at her. Surely she knew the truth of the matter. What game was she playing?

I was getting tired of playing. “Her father is Drago Rasmun, as I'm sure you know. Olivia gave her up at birth to protect her from Drago. I believe he is still considered a renegade outside of the council, isn't he?”

“Drago is a renegade, but a very powerful one,” she said. “He has lived almost as long as I. No doubt he could have found his daughter at any time if he'd really tried.”

“What are you trying to tell me?” Yes, she was a member of the Grand Council of Witches and as such deserved my respect, but I felt that she was toying with me. What response was she looking for?

“I was only making small talk, Molly. I believe that's what you call it. I don't concern myself with renegades or their daughters. But I would like to know what Makaleigh said to you as she lay dying. That is important to me.”

“It comes back to that.”

“Yes. What she said may have been very important. I would hate for that information to fall into the wrong hands.” Her gentle eyes skewered me like a shish kebab. “I won't wait much longer for your response. Then I suppose it will be you and your amulet against me and my magic, hmm? Good evening, Molly. Enjoy the festivities.”

I watched her leave, angry and scared. Her threat had been plain against me and Mike as well as Olivia.

Elsie joined me there with a full plate of food. “I saw her. What did she want? The words again, I guess.”

“You would too if you were afraid you were going to be
found out.” I took a sweet pickle from Elsie's plate. “I guess that means we're not done. We have to figure out what those words mean, even if it's only Makaleigh telling everyone about Drago and Hedyle's relationship.”

“Let's do it.”

Brian and Dorothy were finally moving around outside their bedroom when we went back upstairs. Olivia was talking to them about her pregnancy—mostly spent under the city streets of Paris hiding from Drago. She'd given up so much to keep her daughter safe. I knew she considered him to be a real threat.

“How was the party, girls?” Olivia asked when she saw us.

“It was okay, if you like that kind of thing,” Elsie answered. “The food was good. And Hedyle was threatening Molly again.”

“She still wants those mixed-up words that you got from Makaleigh?” Dorothy asked, her pretty face a rosy shade that matched Brian's.

“Hedyle also wanted to talk about you, Olivia,” I said. “And Drago and Dorothy. She was threatening everyone who matters to me if I don't give her Makaleigh's last words.”

“What did she say about me?” Olivia demanded, coming
close enough that I could almost see through her to the wall behind.

“She was upset about you being a ghost,” I told her. “She also said Drago could have found Dorothy anytime he wanted.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Dorothy wondered.

“I think the whole conversation was just to see if she could get me to tell her what I knew. She said I could pit my amulet against her magic.”

“I'd like to pit my baseball bat against the side of her head,” Elsie muttered angrily. “The nerve of her!”

“Secrets travel fast in the council,” Brian said. “You can't tell anyone those words if you don't want them to get back to her, Molly.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “I still think that the best thing we can do is to find out what the words mean. That way, no surprises from Hedyle or the council. We can take matters into our own hands.”

Elsie groaned. “I hate code stuff. We already know that Hedyle and Drago killed Makaleigh because she found out about their love affair and that Drago smuggled himself into the castle using Brian's shape-shifting cat. Why do we need any more information?”

“There is probably more to the story than what we know,” I said. “And I can't stand Hedyle threatening me every few minutes. I have to know what those words mean so I can deal with her on my level. She threatened Mike, Elsie. I can't let that go.”

“You're right, Molly.” She took my hand. “I'm sorry. We should figure out those words if for nothing else than to get her off your back.”

Dorothy sat at the desk again. “I'm ready. Let's do this.”

“You mind if I go get something to eat?” Brian dropped a kiss on Dorothy's neck. “I'm starving. I promise to come right back up and help out.”

“I'll come with you,” Elsie said. “I'm not good with riddles. We can let them figure it out. I can show you where the best food is too.”

“Sounds good to me.” Brian held out his arm for her. “Let's go.”

“Elsie?” I questioned.

“Like he said, we'll be right back up. I can't let him go alone, since the killer might be looking for him.”

“All right. But don't waste time down there, please,” I capitulated.

“So what were these words again?” Olivia asked.

“Aba. Mho. Ord.” I repeated the words that felt seared in my brain. It was hard to imagine now that we had to do a discovery spell to find them. I felt like they'd been inside of me for an eternity.

“Those aren't really words.” Olivia flitted around the room. “Words don't sound like that.”

“Old words did,” Dorothy said. “It wasn't until later that words got so fancy. People didn't have huge vocabularies before the sixteenth century. They only used words they needed. But these could also be mixed-up letters. If Makaleigh knew Hedyle might try to take them from you, Molly, she might have mixed them up on purpose.”

Dorothy, Olivia and I tried variations of the letters in different orders. Nothing seemed to work in a magic or a normal way. We switched them back and forth until I was actually dizzy from looking at them. Nothing.

“What if the letters are actually related to numbers?” Dorothy suggested.

We tried changing the letters to numbers, but that didn't seem to work either. An hour later, Elsie and Brian came back, and we were still hard at work at determining the meaning of the words.

“I guess we got back too soon.” Elsie sank down on the bed.

I lifted a brow in her direction.

“Just kidding, Molly. Of course I'm glad to help. I just don't know what to say.”

Brian and Elsie added their ideas to the mix. Nothing we came up with seemed to be the prize we were looking for.

“Maybe it's really not anything,” Brian said. “Just because Hedyle thinks it means something doesn't mean it does, right? She's having an affair with Drago. That's enough to make anybody paranoid. I don't know what would happen if Abdon found out.”

“I don't know.” Dorothy got up from the chair and stretched her long, lean body. “He might be right. Maybe it is just gibberish, Molly, like we thought to begin with. Just because we found it with the discovery spell doesn't make it important, does it? You heard what you heard. People say weird stuff when they're dying.”

“Maybe she meant to say something but just wasn't able to,” Brian added.

“Anyway,” Dorothy said as she put on her shoes, “since no one brought me any food back, I'm starving. I'm going to get something to eat before it's all gone.”

“I'll come with you,” Brian offered.

“I don't know.” She pretended to be angry. “You didn't bring any food back. Maybe you should stay here.”

“I'm sorry.” He kissed her hand. “Really sorry. I could hold your plate and you could just walk around and eat. How does that sound?”

She smiled at him. “That sounds pretty good. You can come.” She glanced at me. “I think Elsie is asleep. You want to come too, Molly?”

“I'm not hungry.” I took her place at the desk. “You two go on. I'll stay up here and keep looking at this.”

“It's nice that someone is going to keep me company for a while. I wish I had a big glass of that pink champagne,” Olivia said wistfully.

“Okay. We'll be back in a while,” Brian said.

Elsie had begun to snore softly. I smiled at her smooth face. She was so much happier since she'd met Larry the werewolf. How could anyone think that was a bad thing? And yet I knew there were witches who would scorn her, as they did Olivia, if she married him.

I looked at the paper with Dorothy's neat handwriting on it. I'd never asked, but I was willing to bet she was very good in school. She wanted to please everyone. I'd always found that quality in my best students. They were in for a few rough patches—no one could please everyone all the time—but they were driven to accomplish what they saw as their personal goals.

Olivia came down from the ceiling like a shower of stardust and draped herself artfully on the desk. “This is all happening so fast, Molly. I expect Brian to ask Dorothy to marry him in the not-too-distant future. I could be a grandmother. You know how I always said how much I hated that idea of being someone's grandmother when I was still alive?”

“I know.”

“Well, I lied. I'm excited about the idea. I just wasn't happy about getting old. Now I don't have to worry about that part of it, do I?”

“I guess there are good things about being a ghost.”

“There are. And look what I can do.” She stared at the closet door. It took a few moments, but it slowly opened with an unnerving creak.

“Olivia!” I applauded. “That's wonderful. You've been practicing.”

“I have. I just have to get some of my old mojo back.” She smiled. “And I can levitate things. I can also do this.”

I stared at her, and she appeared completely solid. “You don't even look like a ghost. How are you doing that?”

Her image changed immediately, becoming more like a
movie projection of herself again. “I can only do it for a moment or two right now, but I'm getting stronger. I know I won't ever be a witch again, but I want to be the best ghost I can.”

Sitting back in the chair, I congratulated my friend. We'd grown up together with Elsie, who took babysitting duties for our parents when we were very young.

“I was just thinking about Dorothy and how sweet and pleasant she is. She reminds me so much of you. You were always driven to please people and do the right thing. Even though you weren't in her life when she was a child, it was a trait she picked up from you.”

Olivia cried ectoplasm tears that ran down her face. “Why thank you, Molly. You know I've always loved and respected you too. I think you should consider coming back as a ghost when you pass. The world will still need you for another hundred years.”

“I wish I'd known you two were going to spend the whole time telling each other how wonderful you are.” Elsie yawned as she sat up. “I would've gone down with the children for more champagne.”

“Well, don't let that stop you,” Olivia told her. “I think alcohol makes you a better person, Elsie Blair Langston!”

“Thank you.” Elsie frowned when she saw me still sitting at the desk. “Haven't you deciphered those words yet, Molly?”

“No.” I put down the pen that I'd picked up. “We've looked at them from every direction. I don't know what to say.”

There was a discreet knock at the door. “Molly? Are you in there?” It was Antonio.

“Hide,” I whispered to Olivia. She flew into the closet, closing the door behind her.

“Help me get off the bed.” Elsie threw her feet over the side. “I think this must be a feather bed. It's like sinking into a cloud. But it's hard to get out.”

I helped her, and we made ourselves presentable before I answered the door. The witchfinder stood at the threshold, the white mask covering his face, black hair spilling on his shoulders.

“Something has happened. I wish I did not have to be the one to tell you. Please hear me out before you pass judgment.”

“What is it?” I asked him, alarmed by the tone of his voice.

“The shape-shifter is dead.”