“Melonfall,” she said, grinning. Her face was covered in tiny cuts and her nose was rapidly purpling, as if it had been broken. “Get it? Like melon ball, only fall, because I fell—”

  “—I get it.” I chuckled. “Here, let me fix your face.”

  “No!” Tessa said, swatting my hand away. “Save your magic. I’ll be fine.”

  “Alright,” I conceded, “but the sooner we deal with that nose the better chance there will be of it healing in place.”

  “Let it go crooked, then. My face could use a bit of character,” Tessa said lightly, dabbing blood from her nostrils. “Let’s go pay our friend Lily Windermere a visit.”

  We made our way through the gardens, toward the narrow wooden door that led to the Northeast kitchen. It was unlocked, to our considerable relief, and led us into the dark, stone-walled kitchen. We spent a moment letting our eyes adjust, then took in our surroundings.

  “Mara said they were in the office,” I whispered. “So we’ll need to get across the house to the lake side.”

  “Speaking of,” Tessa said in a hushed voice, “Where do you think Mara’s off to? I thought for sure she’d be watching for us...but then she would have met us in the garden.”

  “I’m sure she’s around here somewhere,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  We crept out of the kitchen and into the hallway, flattening ourselves against the wall. All the heavy, velvet curtains of Windermere Manor had been drawn, plunging the house into almost total darkness, despite the fact that it was barely after noon.

  “Spooky,” Tessa whispered as we stole across a darkened ballroom. The carved busts of long-gone Windermere ancestors glared down at us from atop marble pedestals.

  After a few minutes of creeping through the maze-like halls of the manor, we finally found the entrance hall.

  “Okay,” I said, “let’s just get halfway up the stairs and...”

  My foot made a splashing sound as I stepped into the entrance hall. I heard a second splash, followed by Tessa’s exasperated sigh.

  “Darn water-witches,” she hissed. “She’s already flooded the place.”

  The grand staircase had been turned into a veritable waterfall. Inky black water...lake water, based on the smell...streamed down the steps and spilled out onto the marble floor. Whatever Lily was doing on the second floor, I suspected that it wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “Let’s just...go slow,” I told Tessa. “And try not to slip.”

  We waded through what was probably a good six inches of icy water on our way to the staircase. We climbed slowly, holding the rail for stability as water fell around us, carrying the occasional tattered lily pad or cattail.

  Once we’d reached the top, the source of the deluge became obvious. At the other end of the hall, where the door to the office should have been, stood a shimmering wall of dark water illuminated by a slice of daylight coming from somewhere in the office. The water sloshed and spewed where it touched the door frame, soaking the carpet below and seeping into the upstairs bedrooms. I watched as a small, silvery fish wriggled free of the water wall and tumbled into the shallow river below.

  “Well...this is just perfect,” Tessa snarled, taking in the scene.

  “Shh,” I shushed her. “Do you hear that?”

  Lily’s voice, cold and clipped, echoed down the hall.

  “Let’s try again,” Lily said. “How did you know about the poison?”

  I froze, bracing myself for some kind of attack, but soon realized that she wasn’t speaking to us. We couldn’t see where she was standing from our vantage point on the stairs, so I began to move forward, hoping the rushing of the water in the hall muffled my splashes.

  “The autopsy,” I heard Ada Gallagher gasp. “There were signs consistent with—”

  She was cut off by a sudden slap of water, followed by a splash.

  “THERE WERE NO SIGNS,” Lily screamed. “Your turn! Tell the truth or your sister is going under.”

  “We suspected intoxication,” Ethan Gallagher sputtered, “From the impulsive nature of—”

  “LIAR!”

  The water around us surged and I heard both Ada and Ethan Gallagher cry out briefly before their voices warped into gurgles and ragged gasps.

  Chapter 19

  Tessa and I had made it about halfway down the hall, but upon realizing what was happening in the office, we abandoned all attempt at stealth and broke into a run, slipping and splashing down the hall.

  “I’ll find whoever it is you’re protecting,” I heard Lily sneer. “And I don’t need you alive to get that information. You missed your—what the...?”

  Tessa and I slid to a halt in front of the wall of water, which came up to chest level. Lily was sitting cross-legged atop the water, next to an open window that was vomiting lake water into the room. Both of her hands extended toward the struggling Gallagher twins, who were currently submerged and seemed unable to break the surface of the water. Lily’s head snapped to us and she narrowed her eyes.

  “Well...would you look at that,” she said coolly. “The Goodsprings coven figured it out. I’m surprised, honestly. Aunt Amelia always made it sound like the lot of you were about as sharp as throw pillows.”

  I could see the detectives just below the surface, struggling as if trapped beneath ice. I knew they wouldn’t last much longer under there.

  “You go for the Gallaghers,” I whispered to Tessa. “I’ll distract Lily.”

  With our weakened magic, our only hope was to try and get Lily to lose concentration long enough for the spell to be broken.

  “What was that?” Lily called. “It’s rude to whisper. Especially as a guest in someone else’s home.”

  I stepped forward, into the water. I felt it start to weigh me down immediately...Lily was trying to pull me under. Good. The more she focused on me, the less attention she could spare on Tessa and the detectives.

  Tessa waded in behind me and began moving toward the submerged detectives.

  “Stop!” Lily snapped, sending a small, razor-sharp wave crashing toward Tessa. The latter put out a hand and swatted it into a puff of steam.

  “Don’t wear yourself out, kid,” Tessa said. She made a decent attempt at sounding cocky, but there was a hitch in her voice that betrayed her exhaustion. Deflecting that wave likely cost her the majority of her remaining magic.

  “We’re not too worried about you,” I said suddenly, starting to wade toward the enraged water-witch, “Are we, Tess? It looks like you know a couple of tricks, sure, but you needed that potion to kill Amelia, didn’t you? Couldn’t take her one-on-one?”

  Lily’s face contorted. The viscosity of the water around me shifted and congealed, until it felt as if I was moving through four feet of molasses.

  “Potion?” She let out a short, harsh laugh, “I’m not some pot-scouring earth-witch. I just knew that my dear aunt couldn’t tell hemlock from fennel. A sprig on her fish dinner was all it took. Simple and elegant. None of that cauldron-and-candle nonsense you ridiculous hags like to play with.”

  Behind me, I heard the popping and sizzling of heat meeting water as Tessa struggled to free the drowning Gallaghers. I searched my mind for something, anything that would force Lily to focus on me. One of the upended lily pads that had floated in with the lake water bobbed along beside me. I snatched it up.

  “Hey Lily,” I shouted. “Catch.”

  I threw the lily pad at her. It hit her square in the face, splattering her with pond scum and flower petals. She sat there for a moment, stunned, chunks of oozing green algae sliding down her face. I looked over to Tessa just in time to see both detectives burst out of the water, coughing and gagging.

  The good news was that the spell was broken and I had Lily’s full attention. The bad news was that I had Lily’s full attention.

  “You dirty mud-witch,” she seethed, scraping the pond scum off with a trembling hand. I found another clump of vegetation and hurled it in her direction. She shrieked as a cattail hit her forehead and exploded on impact, releasing a cloud of pollen that clung to her wet face and hair.

  The water around me iced over and froze within seconds, immobilizing me.

  “Uh...Tessa?” I said, eyeing the spear-like icicles forming in both of Lily’s hands.

  “I’m on it,” Tessa said breathlessly. “Sorry in advance.”

  I was temporarily blinded by a flare of white light and felt a wave of heat wash over me, cracking the ice and singeing my eyebrows.

  “Thanks,” I said, blinking away the afterimage and trying not to inhale the acrid smoke from my burning hair.

  Lily hurled an icicle toward me, propelling it with a blast of silver water magic. It was inches from my face when Tessa shattered it with a fire bolt.

  “That’s all I’ve got, darling,” Tessa wheezed, falling back on one of the bookshelves for support, “It’s all you now.”

  Lily drew her other icicle back, preparing for a second attack. That time, I was ready. I mustered up all the magical strength I had left, seized a hold of another lily pad, and held it out in front of me. It swelled and fanned out, growing to ten times its original size in the space of a blink. I pushed ahead, using the enormous green pad as a shield. I heard a dull thump as Lily’s icicle bounced harmlessly off the rubbery surface and splashed into the water.

  “Hands up,” I heard two weak, rasping voices say in unison from the other side of the room. Ethan and Ada Gallagher had drawn their pistols and were pointing them at Lily.

  “Come on,” Tessa said weakly. “With everything you just saw, you still think guns are going to be of any use here?”

  They were of use, as it turned out. Just maybe not in the way the Gallaghers were hoping. In the time it took Lily to scoff at them and work up the wave that knocked them both off their feet, I had finally made my way across the room. I peeked over my gigantic lily pad and met her eyes. They were the same striking blue as Amelia’s had been and were narrowed with the same anger and disdain that I’d seen the late Miss Windermere wear so many times before. I was close enough now to hear Lily’s panting and see the way her shoulders slumped—having used up so much magic, she now looked as exhausted as Tessa and I.

  “You’re outnumbered,” I told her, lowering the lily pad “And out of magic. What’s your plan, Lily?”

  Her face was twisted into a mask of loathing. “I put up with that hag for years,” she spat. “I spent every summer here, learning magic instead of going to camp. Talking to fish and frogs and every other slimy creature under the water instead of making friends. Managing the old lady’s schedule and social calendar like some sort of assistant. It was only natural when she named me her heir. And then...Thomas.”

  “Amelia’s fiance?” I asked, surprised.

  “Suddenly I’m supposed to be okay with this stranger getting to decide how my family’s money is spent? Deciding what to do with my money, that I earned through decades of ‘Yes, Auntie Amelia,’ and ‘Whatever you say, Auntie Amelia,’?”

  “Are you KIDDING me?” Tessa shouted, “This was about money?”

  “Told you,” Ada Gallagher said hoarsely.

  “Money drives people to do terrible things,” Ethan added.

  “What are you two even doing here still?” Tessa snapped back, “Don’t you get what’s going on right now? Run! She’s a witch. Magic is real. Get out of here while you can. Geez!”

  I turned my attention back to Lily.

  “So you killed Amelia before Thomas married her and cut you out of the inheritance,” I said. “And made it look like a drowning...with water magic, I assume.”

  “Very clever,” Lily mocked. “You got me. Are you going to take me to jail now, detectives? You’re looking a bit...out-of-sorts.”

  “Yes,” Ethan said. “And yes. Nearly drowning will do that to you.”

  “Wait,” I told them. “We have to Silence her first.”

  Never before in Goodsprings history has a witch ever committed a crime so egregious as to warrant a Silencing. Banishment, maybe, but the Curse of Silence is only reserved for witches who have done unforgivable things, like murder.

  “No!” Lily cried, her face blanching.

  “We’ll need Mara,” Tessa said solemnly. “And the night to recharge.”

  “What is this about?” Ada asked, looking between the three of us.

  “Silencing.” I said quietly. “Taking away Lily’s magic forever. I assume you’ll want that to happen first if you’re going to try and hold her.”

  “Please!” Lily pleaded, voice quivering. “Please, no! I won’t use it, I swear...”

  “Tessa and I have used up all of our magic for the day,” I continued, ignoring her. “And we’ll need to have the third member of our coven here to do it anyway, so it needs to wait until tomorrow. Until then, we have to figure out how to keep her—”

  “—NO!” Lily shrieked. “I won’t let you!”

  She vanished in a puff of mist. When the vapor cleared, there was only a fat, pale frog swimming in the water where she had been.

  I sighed, shook my head, and scooped up the frog.

  “What...on earth...,” Ethan said slowly. “...just happened?”

  “As you can see, she has turned herself into a frog,” Tessa said unhelpfully.

  “Yes,” Ada frowned down at Lily the frog. “So she did.”

  “Every witch can take an animal form,” I explained. “This must be Lily’s. It takes a tremendous magical effort to undo...enough that she won’t be able to change back for quite a while. And if you stay too long in animal form...you can get stuck.”

  “So she’s like that...forever now?” Ethan asked.

  “Probably,” Tessa said, “unless another witch helps her out...” she lowered her head to speak directly to the frog, “...which we won’t.”

  “And that’s better?” Ada asked. “Than being Silenced?”

  “Yes.” Tessa and I said in unison. Ada looked at Ethan, who shrugged.

  “We’ll watch over her,” I assured the detectives, holding Lily the frog out for them to inspect. “We will need to start looking for a new water-witch. They will be able to keep her in check if something goes awry. Hopefully they aren’t opposed to a froggy familiar.”

  “She tried to drown us...” Ethan said, shaking his head. “With magic.”

  “Crazy, huh?” Tessa said, patting him on the back. “You learn something new every day.”

  “Let’s just get out of here,” I turned to the detectives. “We’ll go over everything later. For now...we are going to have to ask that you keep this to yourselves.”

  “Yeah,” Tessa nodded. “Or we’ll turn you into frogs too!”

  “Tessa! No, we won’t.”

  “Who would we tell?” Ada threw up her arms. “No one’s going to believe that we just witnessed a magical showdown between an heiress, a chef, and a smoothie...um...smoothie artist?”

  “Smoothie artist is great. What do you say we all go home, get some rest, and meet up later tonight to talk things over?”

  “How about we meet at Goodsprings Brewery,” Tessa suggested. “I think we could all just a stiff drink and first round’s on me.”

  Ethan and Ada nodded, looking perplexed and confused, and followed us out of the flooded office.

  Chapter 20

  We found Mara just outside Windermere Manor, sprinting down the road toward us, soaking wet. I motioned to the detectives to stay back while Tessa and I pulled her aside.

  “What happened to you?” I asked, taking in her soaked clothes and streaked makeup.

  “I hit some sort of anti-magic ward!” She gasped, trying to catch her breath, “It popped me right out of wild form!”

  “What?” Tessa said, “When was this?”

  “As soon as I got close to the Manor!” Mara wheezed, clutching her side. “Luckily I was flying over the lake so I didn’t fall to my death...but goodness that was awful. I had to swim all the way from the center of the lake. What happened with Lily? What did I miss? Oh, y’all look terrible...”

  “Thanks,” Tessa said. “As for what you missed...a lot. Lily’s a frog now.”

  She pointed at Lily the frog, who croaked reproachfully from between my hands.

  Mara’s eyes went wide and she opened her mouth to start what I assumed was a tornado of questions.

  “We’ll catch you up on the way,” I said. “Come on, the detectives are going to give us a ride back to town.”

  They dropped the three of us back at my place, where we all took turns showering, napping, and sipping sweet tea. Mara helped us clean and dress our various scrapes and bruises and I examined Tessa’s broken nose, taking notes for when my magic would replenish enough to fix it. We sat out on the porch as Allie ran down to the pet store to get a tank and some food for Lily the frog, watching the sunset and talking about what to do next.

  Very few non-witches had ever been made aware of the existence of the Goodsprings coven. Mara’s father, Mr. Gale, was the only one I’d ever personally known to be entrusted with our secret. But the cat was out of the bag now, at least as far as the Gallaghers were concerned.

  “How much should we tell them?” Mara asked. “How much do we even want them to know?”

  “They already know far more than I’m comfortable with. It’s not that I don’t like them...I think they’re both fine people, actually...it’s just...”

  “It’s weird.” Tessa said. Mara and I nodded our agreement.

  “It could be good, though,” Mara said after a moment. “To have some people on the other side of things. They could help us.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “Well,” Mara said thoughtfully. “A witch was just murdered...by another witch. That could have very easily blown our whole cover. It could be useful to have some officers of the law vouching for us if something were to make it to the public’s attention.”

  “Hmm,” Tessa said. “Personal law enforcement. I like it.”

  “Not like that,” Mara laughed. “But you know what I’m talking about.”

  “Speaking of law enforcement,” I said, gesturing to the setting sun, “shouldn’t we be going? They’ll be waiting for us down at the brewery.”

 

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