Prelude to a Witch, Amanda Lee [ebook reader web txt] 📗

guys okay?” I hadn’t even thought about them. They were only two stores down during the attack. “Clove?”

“Clove is fine,” Thistle replied, though the wildness in her eyes had me questioning the statement. “I mean ... she’s as fine as she can be given the circumstances.”

“You mean the freaking ice?” Now that he’d ascertained I wasn’t going to keel over and die any second, Chief Terry was back to complaining. “There’s ice on my building, people! It’s freaking seventy degrees out and my building is covered in ice!”

“Calm down, Esmerelda,” Aunt Tillie drawled. “You sound like Margaret. Just chill out.” She bent over and stared into my eyes. “You haven’t been possessed or anything, have you?”

The question caught me off guard. “Um ... no. Why would you ask that?”

She shrugged. “They’re shades. We don’t know what they’re capable of.”

That bothered me more than I was comfortable admitting. “I’m me.”

“She’s her,” Landon agreed. “What I want to know is how much pain you’re in.”

Surprisingly, I felt okay. “I’m in nowhere near as much pain as I was after the assault in the dining room.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.” He tilted my chin so I had no choice but to look at him. “They keep going after you.”

“I’ve noticed. I still want to know why I didn’t hit the pavement. I mean ... I was going down. I was braced for it. Then something pushed me to safety.”

“Yeah, I think I can answer that,” Thistle said, drawing my eyes back to her. She glanced over her shoulder, toward Hypnotic. “We saw what was happening from inside the store.”

“Great,” Landon said. “Why didn’t you come out to help?”

Thistle murdered him with a look. “I did. Actually, Clove did, too. I tried to push her back inside, because ... well, you know why.”

“We don’t need her slammed into the ground,” I agreed.

“That’s just the thing. I don’t know that she would’ve been slammed into the ground.” Thistle looked toward the store again, anxiety lining her face. “We saw you go up in the air. Clove gasped and then — and I swear this is true — her stomach glowed. This ... burst of magic rolled out of her and I think that’s what moved you to the grass.”

I was dumbfounded. “Are you saying Clove saved me?” I asked.

“She’s saying the baby saved you,” Aunt Tillie said. “She’s saying the baby inherently knew to save you.”

That was even weirder than what I thought Thistle had suggested. “But ... how?”

“I don’t know.” Aunt Tillie stared back at the store. “But it’s pretty interesting.”

“Oh, you think?” Thistle’s snarky side could no longer be contained. She exploded. “We have a magic baby. Yes, I’d say that’s pretty interesting.”

“You need to calm down too,” Aunt Tillie chided.

“We all need to calm down,” Landon insisted as he watched the excited tourists across the street talking in hushed tones. “I can’t believe this played out in front of the entire town. How are we going to explain this?”

Hannah spoke for the first time. “I don’t think you have to worry about that,” she reassured. “Everybody in town was thrilled with what they saw. They think it’s a witch thing.”

“It is a witch thing.”

“Yes, but they think it’s performance art,” Hannah explained. “Even if they truly want to believe, they’ll chalk it up as a display the town put on.”

“She’s right,” Chief Terry said. “There’s nothing to worry about on that front. I don’t see anybody complaining.”

As if on cue, the door to the Unicorn Emporium flew open and screams emanated from inside.

“Or I could be wrong,” Chief Terry muttered.

I watched as three women — including Mrs. Little and Aunt Willa — raced from inside the store, the skunks giving chase. They appeared a little too intent on their quarry. “Aunt Tillie.” I could do nothing but shake my head.

“What?” The picture of innocence, Aunt Tillie straightened. “You can’t possibly blame me for that. I was busy fighting shades.”

“We saw you,” Landon said. “We saw the wolverine turn into skunks.”

“Yeah, how did you do that?” I asked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Aunt Tillie’s expression was one of befuddled sadness. “And to think you would blame your poor, old great-aunt of something so dastardly. It’s disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. I’m horrified you’d say anything of the sort.”

“Knock it off.” Landon gave her a dirty look. “You’re not fooling anybody with that act.”

“Definitely not,” Chief Terry agreed as he waved his hand in front of his face. “Good grief. That place will have to be fumigated.”

Mrs. Little ran in a circle in the middle of the street to avoid the skunk chasing her. “Go away, you foul beast!” She tried to stomp on the skunk and missed.

“Those skunks aren’t real, are they?” I asked.

“I have nothing to do with the skunks,” Aunt Tillie insisted. “If I did, though, I would say that they will likely disappear in an hour or so. I have no actual knowledge of this, but if I had cast a spell like this, I would’ve put a time limit on it.”

I rubbed my forehead and let out a sigh. “I could hear them this time.”

Landon snapped his head back to me. He’d been enjoying the sight of Mrs. Little and Willa trying to hide from the skunks. His smile dissipated in an instant. “They talked to you?”

“They talked to each other. I couldn’t make out what they were saying because they all talked at once, but when they realized what Aunt Tillie was going to do with the manhole cover one of them yelled for her to stop. Then, right before they disappeared, I heard someone say it wasn’t over.”

“Maybe it wasn’t the shades,” Thistle suggested.

I wrinkled my nose. “Who else would it be?”

“Maybe it was her.” Thistle pointed to the building next to Hypnotic. The upstairs level had been a law office at one time but was now empty. I’d heard someone had plans to convert it into a day spa.

At first I thought the window