Reaper Rituals in Witchwood Read online

  “We should go soon,” she said.

  I nodded. “Have you ever been on a stakeout?”

  She smiled. “Well, actually, a couple years ago, a friend and I actually stalked a guy—so—there’s that.”

  Definitely not what I was talking about. “Perhaps we’re thinking of different things,” I said. “Let me get dressed and we can set off.”

  Over a hundred people were standing around outside the large entrance into Witchwood forest. There were police vans and cars everywhere, and an abundance of officers taking names of all the volunteers.

  I clutched my tote bag closer. “No real names,” I said. “I’m Sarah Smith, and you’re—”

  “Bethany Smith, your daughter.”

  My stomach sank. She really wanted to play into this dynamic. I couldn’t blame her, nobody questioned families, even if we didn’t quite look the same. “But you’re younger than you are—and—” a brainwave, I smiled. “And you knew Destiny. In fact, you were really close, and this is a matter close to your heart.”

  “I don’t think I can cry on command,” she sighed.

  “I can poke you in the eye.”

  A police officer approached us, dressed in a thick layer of clothing—he must have been boiling up in the thing. Sweat rested across his brow. “Names, please.”

  “I have a question, officer,” I said. “What happened to the girl?”

  He sighed, dotting his pen on his notepad. “If you’re a reporter, please speak to someone else. This is for volunteers.”

  “We are,” Cassandra said. “I was close to Destiny.” She let out a single sob.

  “We’re just here doing our duty,” I said. “Sarah and Bethany, Smith.”

  He noted the names and then pointed to another man. “Vests are over there.”

  “Ack,” Cassandra grumbled at the sight of the bright yellow hi-vis jackets being handed out. “Not my colour. Not my colour at all.”

  “The cost of a good investigation,” I said. “We need to get to the gates, so I can plant these.” I rattled the tote bag resting on an arm. “Cry if you must to distract people. I believe in you.”

  “For the investigation,” she said.

  Before getting the vest, I hurried to the opening of the gate. A loud cry came from the back of Cassandra’s throat, leaving people running to her aide. I quickly knelt, placed a crystal, said the words, and hurried to the next spot. They were easily disguised, it wasn’t too much out of the ordinary to see stones and rocks the milky shade these stones were.

  Cassandra stopped the sobbing. “I miss her so much. I just miss my friend.”

  I swore I saw actual tears. Actual tears.

  FIFTEEN

  Slowly, we made into the forest. I hated the fact we were surrounded by a bunch of people, everyone doing their own amateur investigating, pointing at random objects and theorising its use in the recent attacks.

  “I can’t believe this is where it happened?” an excited voice broke out.

  “We’re looking for anything suspicious,” a police officer shouted. “If you find something, call an officer over. Do not touch it. I repeat, do not touch it.”

  “So?” Cassandra said.

  I rolled my eyes at her. “If we see something, we definitely pick it up,” I told her in a whisper. We didn’t have time to help the police with their investigation, not while we were doing our own. “Be on the lookout for a midsection of trees. Four in a square formation.”

  “Next trip wire?” she asked.

  “But we need somewhere that looks well-travelled.”

  We walked alongside others from the town, they raised their voices and shouted about what they’d do if they found the person responsible. Anger was contagious, it was a powerful energy.

  It was another warning sign.

  “I’ll take a shotgun and—” a man shouted.

  “—not if I get to them first!” another chimed.

  The police were using it, the solidarity and anger.

  We walked a little slower, dropping back to the thinnest line of people searching the grounds and the trees. I wanted to get the entire thing over with; being around so many people made me nervous. Nobody would know I was a witch, unless they were a supernatural creature hiding.

  Cassandra reached for my arm, hooking her hand under it. “Think I’ve found some.”

  We were about ten minutes inside the forest, and there it was, a set of trees in a square, one at each point.

  “We will need a distraction,” I said. “We will need something so people don’t come over and look for us.”

  “Unless—”

  “Unless?”

  “You pretend to find something,” she said. “If you spend a little time there, you can then call one of the officers over and tell them what you’ve found.”

  It was definitely one way my actions would fit the narrative. We were playing into the officers’ hands.

  We dropped back completely to the trees. Cassandra scanned the ground most likely in search of something lost, on the off chance someone would ask her what she was doing.

  I placed crystals on the ground, one at the base of each tree trunk. The words came from my mouth and quick from my tongue in the fastest time, lighting each crystal briefly.

  “Done yet?” She grumbled.

  “Oh, well who do we have here?” A voice called out. I froze in place, bending over to look at the crystal on the ground.

  “Did you find something?” Cassandra raced to my side.

  “Oh. I—um—”

  “It’s me, from the café,” the man said.

  “Oh. Goodness.”

  He chuckled. “Doing my bit for the community,” he said. “The Lord Mayor would have been himself, but you know how busy they can be.”

  “You know him?” Cassandra asked.

  “Harry, was it?”

  Raising his eyebrows in surprise, he nodded. “And yours was, Sarah!” He snapped his fingers as his tongue landed on the name.

  I didn’t think I’d see him again. “I thought you’d be back in Canterbury,” I said.

  “Not while this is happening,” he said. “They’re asking the Lord Mayor to say a couple words on the situation.”

  That meant more press. My stomach squeezed a little harder in pain. “Surely he’s too busy.”

  “He is!” Harry laughed. “I know, I run his schedule.”

  Cassandra gasped, looking at the clock on her wrist. “I didn’t realise what time it was,” she said.

  “Everything okay?” he asked. “Sorry, is this your—”

  “Dau—” Cass began.

  “Sister,” I added. “My sister, and we’ve got to be going. I forgot we had something to do.”

  “Good luck with it,” he said, waving his yellow hi-vis jacker around. “I’ll be joining the rest of the search party.”

  As we hurried off, Cassandra let out a series of hums, each time getting slightly deeper. “You didn’t tell me about your friend.”

  “He was in the cafe,” I said. “Not important. He asked me if I wanted to help with a petition to get the forest closed. That’s probably what he’s out here doing.”

  “He seemed nice,” she grumbled. It wasn’t often she’d compliment a human.

  At the gate stood two police officers chatting to themselves. They gave us an odd look as we approached them. Perhaps we were the first people to leave before the search had ended.

  “Sorry,” I said feigning a panic with a hand clutched to my chest. “It all got to me.”

  “It’s scary in there,” Cassandra said.

  “Thank you for volunteering your time,” they said together.

  We stripped ourselves of the bright yellow jackets we’d been made to wear, we stood out like sore thumbs. I handed them both to an officer.

  “Question,” I began.

  “Okay,” he grinned. “What is it?”

  “Are you here all night?”

  Folding his arms against his chest, he nodded. �
��Certainly. And anyone found in there after dark will be arrested on the spot.”

  I continued to clutch my neckline, my fingernail scratching slightly. “Thank you,” I said. “I’m worried sick this could happen to someone close to me.”

  “No need to worry,” he said. “We’re on the case.”

  Perhaps I should have flipped it on him. He need not worry, as there were two very capable witches on the case, and this was anything but human.

  SIXTEEN

  Back home, we had a whole lot of planning to get through. All the wires were in places, but it was a waiting game of which wire would trip first and how fast it would take us to get there. I’d told Cassandra the story of the witch who was arrested, and now I was about to tell her something that went against everything.

  “We need to into the woods again tonight,” I said, kicking my shoes off and pinning the tote bag on a hook.

  “What about what you told me?” she asked.

  I sighed, weighing the options in my hands. “It means we have to be extra cautious.”

  “We could go in disguise as officers.”

  “Definitely not,” I said. “Then we would be imprisoned.”

  “So?”

  “We need to be in there,” I said. “I hate to get this close when there’s police officers involved, but we can use the moonstone and we also have dark clothes.” It was easier this way, there wouldn’t be many officers on guard, not like they were after finding a body.

  She nodded. “And the familiars?”

  “They’re coming along,” I said. “We need to be in the middle of it all. There’s a strength inside those woods, and we need to be in the middle of it to find out what it is. These creatures attack at night.”

  She rolled her eyes. “We’ll need weapons too.”

  “We are weapons,” I reminded her. “Don’t forget that. You have the witch thread, you can spin that over a creature, but fair warning, they’re stronger than they look.”

  It struck me that Cassandra hadn’t yet captured anyone. She’d been beside me, along for the ride, she hadn’t caught any monsters in the act—and the times when we had been in the situation, she’d been in a different realm, and the first time, she was very much a fish out of water—expected, given it was her first time.

  “And if the wires are tripped,” I continued. “We’ll need to be around to get there. We need to watch the area.”

  She glanced at the time on her watch. “So, we’ll wait until it’s dark out.”

  I snapped my fingers at her. “Yep.” I was happy to be out during the dark—I had embraced it my entire career. I was the midnight witch for a reason; any case that goes bump in the night was a case for me. It was only the afternoon, and we had many hours ahead of us before we’d be back at the forest gates.

  “I guess I’ll be napping beforehand,” she chuckled.

  “And I get to come along?” Jinx snapped. “Because I’m sick of being cooped up indoors.”

  She scoffed. “You decide to stay behind. It’s not my fault you’re worried about people getting inside.”

  I eyed them both suspiciously; I wasn’t sure if they were all Jinx’s own insecurities, or perhaps some of Cassandra’s had worn off on her.

  Jinx was a typical familiar from a family of rich witches; and being thrust into the world of normal humans, there was apprehension on both sides.

  As Cassandra caught Jinx up on what had happened, I put the teakettle on to boil. I’d be napping in a few hours and I couldn’t afford to get any extra caffeine in me before I was ready to wake up and attack the night like I had done my entire career.

  Laying my book of shadows out on the table, I scrolled through to find the section I’d submitted on energy beacons and spots. The last one had been in Durham, and that was disbanded. I’d never been at the centre of one. It was alarming; I couldn’t feel it, but every other creature around me could. It wasn’t like I felt the one in Durham either, but it was easy to spot when I wasn’t in the midst of it, and the case had been brought to me. This time, I’d have to bring this to the Council—unless they already knew.

  “Busy?” Cassandra asked, catching me in the middle of a thought.

  “Oh, no,” I said, pinching my glasses back in place on my nose. “Just doing a little extra research.”

  “I’m worried about what you told me, about the woman who died,” she said. “Jinx doesn’t think it’s a good idea, but now you’ve changed your mind.”

  I nodded to the seat opposite me on the table. I slammed the book of shadows shut with a thud, and as it closed, the book vanished back to its secret hiding spot inside the house. “It’s not that I’ve changed my mind,” I said. “But we’ll need to be in a forest, and I can’t think of anything other than a teleportation spell—and right now, those are too draining on the resources I have left.”

  She nodded, clutching at her neckline. “Okay,” she said. “And what if we get caught?”

  I smiled. “We can call on Philip.”

  “Oh?” she winked. “He teleports?”

  “Yes, fortunately.”

  When I was much younger, I’d called on Philip often to help me out in sticky situations. He’d teleport me out of places, but each time I’d owe him a favour, and sometimes those favours involved a three-course meal. I wasn’t proud of it, but it was the best of a bad situation. Now, I wouldn’t have to do any of that, because he technically worked for the Council.

  “But do you trust him?” she asked.

  Not at all—but I couldn’t tell her. “He works for the Council,” I said. “It’s his job to help us.”

  “You know something I don’t,” she said, eyeing me with a pinched squint—closing in on my secret.

  I threw my shoulders into a hunch. “True,” I said. “I’m older than you, I should know more.”

  “I mean about this.”

  Did she mean Philip and his ankle bracelet? Or did she mean the man who’d been watching us from afar in the shadows? Perhaps she was referring to the energy beacon emitting strong pulses out to the rest of the supernatural world.

  I gave her another hunched shrug. “Must be in your head,” I said. “Maybe we should take our naps early.”

  “I’m gonna have a tea,” she said, standing. “Want one?”

  I grabbed the cup from the side of the table. “Got one.” It was cold, but it was still drinkable. I’d been so absorbed in what I was doing with the book of shadows that I’d forgotten the drink altogether. It was easily done.

  “Is Greg coming over today?” she asked. Her favourite topic of conversation.

  “No idea,” I said. “He didn’t say anything about it. Think he’s done most of the work out on the garden now.”

  Cassandra stood on her tiptoes, looking out through the window above the sink. “It’s coming together, I guess.”

  “Well, he’s the best at what he does,” I said. “If you saw the state of it before he worked his magic, you’d be impressed as well.”

  She fell quiet.

  Tonight would truly be a test. It was our first overnight case together, and probably her first. It could flop, or it could be a huge success, there was no saying—but we had our tripwires in place. My fear now was they would be tripped before we arrived, and the entire case would be blown—in the worst possible way.

  SEVENTEEN

  I woke from my nap to Ivory pecking at my bedroom door with her beak.

  “What’s the plan?” she asked.

  I rubbed my eyes and glanced at the clock. The blurred red numbers were barely visible without my glasses. It was just after 9 P.M. “Give me a minute to adjust,” I said beneath my grumbling voice. “Is Cassandra awake?”

  “Yeah, she’s in the kitchen making coffee.”

  I sniffed at the air. Coffee was a key component and made up at least thirty per cent of my bodily liquid, alongside tea, of course.

  In the kitchen, Cassandra placed two cups on the table, her shaky hands gave away the information that
she hadn’t slept.

  “How many cups have you had?”

  “Three,” she let out in a squeal. “I’m just—”

  “Nervous?” I asked.

  She nodded along. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

  Ivory tapped a talon on the floor.

  “Uh. We get it, you’re in here,” Jinx hissed from behind Cassandra’s legs. “Don’t you just hate being left out?”

  “I’m sorry your owner doesn’t allow you independence,” Ivory said. “You rely on her to feed you, care for you, you’re nothing but a spoilt rich familiar without a hope for living in the real world.”

  “Ivory!” Cassandra gasped.

  I chuckled. “Oh, she doesn’t hold back.” Jinx deserved it, as did Cassandra sometimes, but I couldn’t be the one to tell them—I’d be the mean one—and Ivory already embodied that about me. “We’ll all have to get along this evening, as we’ll be working together.”

  “Working together?” Jinx grumbled.

  Ivory tapped her talons once again. “Out in the forest?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  She chuckled. “Good luck keeping that pretty white coat clean.”

  I snapped my fingers. “We should be leaving within the hour,” I said. “The plan is to be in the woods in search of anything. We’ve done a little work earlier this afternoon, putting tripwires in place, but I now realise, we didn’t set a failsafe in place.”

  “Failsafe?” Cass asked.

  “If someone crosses it, they’re captured,” I said, gesturing with my hands. “Something like that, anyway.”

  An excitable oohing came from her mouth. “Like one of those nets.”

  That was one idea—but we hadn’t done it, so it wasn’t any bother talking about it.

  “If there’s anything out there, we’ll find it,” I said. “I sorted moonstone before I went for my nap. I’ve also got some more of the crystals from the kit.” I still hadn’t managed to get any more crystals other than what had been used for the tripwires, and the ones that came already prepared in the starter kit I’d been hoarding for a long time collecting dust. “Oh. Snap.” I planted the palm of my hand firm on my forehead. “Destiny is being buried tomorrow.”