A Dragon, a Gargoyle, and a Faery Turn Over Every Stone: Urban Fantasy Meets Cozy Mystery by Nicole DragonBeck & Lisa Barry

Author:Nicole DragonBeck & Lisa Barry [DragonBeck, Nicole & Barry, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Witching Hour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2024-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18 - Claudine

The Best of All Worlds

Sunday, 31 July 2022, 8:48 AM

(Claudine’s House, Dublin)

Claudine was on her third cup of tea when the expected knock on the door came. Mallory walked in with a very grumpy expression. She was wearing her customary grey dress, and black flats, a familiar contrast to Claudine’s green and pink striped house pants and yellow cardigan.

“This is entirely too early to be up on a Sunday,” Mallory told the green witch.

“We have work to do,” Claudine said. “I’ve made tea.”

The two witches sat in Claudine's kitchen, a pot of tea on the table, next to the milk and a plate of biscuits. For the next several hours, they went through large tomes of ingredients, cross-referencing confirmed uses and theoretical uses. When lunch time rolled around, all they had were stacks of papers with a drunk spider-web tangle of lines connecting items. More than a few of them were crossed out with a neat red squiggle - Claudine’s preferred method - or a savage, black ‘X’, Mallory’s preferred method.

The green witch pulled some Kerrygold cheddar, ham, crackers, grapes and orange wedges together and assembled a poor man’s charcuterie for lunch. Mallory washed cups so they had clean ones for more tea, and opened Claudine’s last packet of bourbon creams.

“And I can’t believe you told him we were making progress,” Mallory said, savagely biting a biscuit in two. “That just adds insult to injury.”

Claudine winced, both at her tone and the crumbs going everywhere. “Did you see his face? I couldn’t just let him wallow.”

Senán crawled out of her pocket, down her dress, and went to work cleaning up, his white whiskers quivering with excitement at the treat.

“I could have. We should have something to report in the next day or so?” the other witch continued.

“We will have something to report,” Claudine said, with a confidence she didn’t quite feel.

“Yeah,” Mallory cleared her throat. “Detectives, we’d like to report we have feck all to report.”

“We might have a breakthrough.”

“More like a breakdown,” Mallory said. “Is there more tea?”

Claudine jumped up, glad to have something to do. Her mind always worked best when her hands were busy. “I think we need a different angle.”

“You think?” Mallory said. “I’ve been saying that for the last two days.”

“Okay, okay, I admit, you’re right,” Claudine said.

“Thank you.”

“However, just because you’re right doesn’t mean you’re helpful,” the green witch chastised. “We have to figure out this spell and help the Detectives, otherwise they’ll be going in blind to fight these vampires.”

Claudine winced and hurriedly closed the cupboard.

“What do you suppose would happen if they were turned?” Mallory wondered, watching the green witch with narrowed eyes. “A gargoyle is basically a block of stone, so I’m sure nothing much could hurt them, but a dragon…”

“You’re not being very nice,” Claudine said.

“I’m not being any meaner to you than you are to yourself,” Mallory said.

“Okay, let’s stay on topic,” the green witch said. “And the topic is save innocent lives from a horrible

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