Two Can Slay at This Game: A Paranormal Cozy Mystery (Witches of Devil's Orchard Book 3) by Skye Sullivan

Author:Skye Sullivan [Sullivan, Skye]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

After the breakfast crowd dies down, the group of hikers gather for today’s trek to Orchard Point. It’s an easy trail through the woods up to a scenic vista with a breathtaking view of the ocean. I get everyone’s liability waivers (feeling like a jerk for collecting them, but my business insurance company requires it) and we get started.

It’s a good day for a hike; the sun’s out but it’s not hot. About halfway to the point, one of the hikers comments that it’s weird not to have seen anything man-made the entire time they’ve been out. He’s right. There’s nothing but trees and rocks. It makes you realize—if you’re of a philosophical bent—that humans are just renting space on this earth. We didn’t conquer it. We don’t own it. We’re only here because the earth allows it.

“Oh, there used to be trail markers out here,” I say. This is a complete fabrication. Sometimes I can’t resist telling a tall tale during the hikes. “Statues that marked the miles.”

“Like lawn gnomes?” someone asks.

“Sort of,” I say. Everything from the last few days is swirling around in my head and I’m getting a weird idea. “They were like garden statues, about a foot and a half tall, made out of bronze. They were different animals. A duck, frog, turtle, cat. But at the last mile, it was a fairy statue, wings and a wand, the whole nine yards. Until one day I was up here, it was gone. I figured vandals took it, but it didn’t sit right with me. I mean, who’s going to lug a fifty-pound fairy statue all the way down the mountain? Then, the duck was gone. Then the frog. And the turtle and the cat too. All of them, gone.”

“And?”

“And some campers in the area have given reports of seeing huge creatures. Two-foot-tall frogs with a deafening croak. A creature floating in the water with a beak the size of a man’s forearm.”

“It’s called a bill,” someone says. “Ducks have bills, not beaks.”

“Whatever,” I say. “The point is that eventually, there were reports of things in the trees. A winged creature, sparkly and fair to behold.”

“The fairy?” Mr. Duck Bill Expert says. “She came to life and made all the statues come to life?”

“Not quite,” I say. “Rumor has it that there was a curse put on a woman long, long ago. She was turned to stone, along with her four beloved pets.”

“You said the statues were made of bronze,” Mr. Duck Bill says, as if now he’s an expert metallurgist too.

“I meant bronze-colored stone,” I say.

Clearly, I’m not at the top of my game today.

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