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

My heart rolled. “Why?”

“I’m not exactly sure. He asked that I be available for a meeting. He wants Landon present ... and Hannah.”

That didn’t sound good. “Did you call the inn?”

“Hannah is awake and feeling ragged. They’re slapping her back together. The meeting is in two hours.”

“Well, great.” Landon exhaled heavily and dragged a hand through his hair. “Whatever he wants, it can’t be good.”

I was one step ahead of him. “You know it’s Brian.”

“I don’t know that.” Landon kept his tone even, likely in an attempt to keep me from freaking out. “We have more than one enemy. It could’ve been Amelia.”

“What could’ve been Amelia?” Chief Terry asked as he slid onto the picnic table bench next to me. “Did I miss something?”

Landon filled Chief Terry in on our conversations with Todd and Amelia. Chief Terry started swearing before Landon wrapped it up.

“Well, that’s just freaking great,” he grumbled, lifting his eyes to the sky, a gesture he did when I was a kid and he was trying to keep from yelling at us after catching us doing something stupid. “This is not good, Bay. You have to do something.”

“What am I supposed to do?” I was surprised at how pragmatic I sounded. “Do you want me to kill a teenager?”

Chief Terry looked around to make sure nobody had heard. “Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Look, Amelia is angry. Actually, she’s downright furious. But she knows she’s not strong enough to take us on.”

“She’s a teenager,” Chief Terry said. “Just because she’s aware of it doesn’t mean she believes it.”

“Oh, she believes.” I flicked my eyes to where the girl continued to glare. “Because of what happened, she understands about power. She knows that she wants it back.”

“Why not just go to Hollow Creek and do what she did the first time?” Landon asked. “Is there anything stopping her from turning those shards into another round of magical mayhem?”

I nodded.

His eyebrows hopped in surprise. “There is? What?”

“Me. I didn’t just modify her memory. I bound her powers, just like I did with Dani Harris before I allowed her to leave town.”

Landon stroked his chin. “Wait ... did I know you did that?”

“I don’t remember telling you I did it, but it seemed the thing to do.”

“I thought her powers weren’t real,” Chief Terry argued. “You said she collected magic from Hollow Creek and shaped it into something it wasn’t. If that’s the case, how can you bind a magical being?”

“That was the easy part. The hard part was digging in those girls’ brains and deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. There’s a reason I fashioned things so they would have intense headaches if they tried too hard to remember.”

Landon stirred. “Amelia mentioned a wall.”

“I couldn’t really remove the memories. I had to bury them. Apparently she was strong enough to dig for them.” I thought about what I’d said. “Or I did a poor job of constructing the spell and it wasn’t difficult at all.”

“I’ll believe the former,” Landon said, resting his hand on top of mine.

“I could’ve screwed up,” I said. “Until that night, I’d never modified anybody’s memory in that manner. I mean ... there were a few memory spells I messed around with as a kid, but Aunt Tillie has always done the heavy lifting on that front.”

“I still don’t believe it was you,” Landon argued. “You did fine with the other girls.”

“Or maybe Sophia and Emma are weaker than Paisley and Amelia.”

“Do you think Paisley remembered, too?” Chief Terry asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure out why she had to die and I come up with nothing. Did Amelia kill her friend because she didn’t remember? Paisley was stabbed several times.”

Chief Terry nodded. “Five.”

“Doesn’t that speak to overkill?”

“And we’re back to Criminal Minds,” Landon noted with a wink.

“I’m just saying that five wounds indicate a frenzied attack. If it was a calculated murder, one stab should’ve been enough. Two at the most.”

“Unless we’re dealing with teenagers. Bay, no matter how worldly Amelia seems, she wouldn’t have been comfortable killing Paisley. Maybe she panicked and wanted to make sure she was dead so Paisley couldn’t tell anyone.”

“And then what?” I challenged. “Did Amelia drive to Paisley’s house, kill her parents without leaving any blood behind and dump the bodies on her own with no magic at her disposal?”

Landon bit his lower lip. “Maybe Sophia and Emma helped her.”

I tried to picture the three girls moving bodies. “That only works if they managed to drag the Gilmores’ bodies into the woods. Can you see the three of them doing that? They might like having the occasional cocktail in the woods, but they’re not going to spend hours out there digging graves. It’s not as easy as it looks on television.”

Landon arched an amused eyebrow. “How do you know that? Did Aunt Tillie force you to bury bodies when you were a kid or something?”

“Not bodies. Wine.” I answered before thinking better of it and then gave Chief Terry a guilty look. “Sorry.”

Confused, Landon switched his attention to Chief Terry. “What is she sorry about?”

“I caught Tillie in the woods when the girls were little,” Chief Terry replied. “She was out by my deer blind. It was dumb luck that I found her.”

“Not so much,” I countered. “Aunt Tillie purposely picked that spot because she believed someone would have to be stupid — or have a death wish — to go anywhere near your blind.”

“Of course she did.” Chief Terry rolled his eyes. “Anyway, they had shovels and guilty expressions on their faces. Bay was about nine. She burst into tears when she saw me.

“Then Clove followed suit,” he continued. “Clove, of course, was manipulating me. Bay was upset because Tillie instructed her to lie.”

Landon smiled. “Let me guess. Rather than make Bay cry harder, you swallowed whatever story they told you.”

“I didn’t swallow it. I knew Tillie