Until the Broom Bristle Breaks: A Murder, She Witches Mystery by Kat McGee

Author:Kat McGee [McGee, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Towering Pines Publishing
Published: 2024-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Returning to the Three Witches Bookstore, I welcomed the morning creak of the floorboards. Every step reverberated with the echoes of the strangeness that had overtaken our quaint, beloved town. Seeing Cassius near the front counter was a balm to my frayed nerves, his presence grounding me amid the swirling tempest of uncertainty.

“Thank goodness you’re here,” I said, exhaling a captured breath. My voice was shaky, betraying the tumult within. “But where’s Jollingsmore?”

Cassius ran a hand through his dark hair, the gray at his temples catching the light. A hint of worry flashed in his eyes, mirroring my own. “We got separated in the woods. One minute he was there, the next... gone.”

“Yeow!” Elzadora shot up the staircase, her tail stiff, and arrowed straight up. “Wizard and witches, be on alert!”

My heart lurched into my throat as we hurried up the stairs. On the roof, we discovered the rooftop garden in disarray of trampled herbs and scattered soil.

With Elzadora snapping small magic bolts from her tail tip and pouncing around his work boots, Nigel Moonroad, bushy-headed and scruffy-jawed, ceased rifling through Violet’s prized collection of fresh plants. He was more on edge than I’d ever seen a wolf shifter. His hands trembled, eyes wide with fear, caught in the act.

“Nigel,” I said, stepping forward, my voice sharper than intended. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Sidestepping, the wolf-shifter handyman scurried away from Elzadora’s swatting paws and snapping tail magic, his movements jerky. “Octavia! I, uh, I was just looking for... um... that rare herb Violet mentioned a while back.”

Violet crossed her arms, her expression icy and unyielding. “I don’t recall discussing anything about herbs with you.”

Nigel swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing like it wanted to escape his throat. “You must have forgotten.” His smile revealed sharp canine teeth. “It was something about... enhancing magical properties.”

Cassius’s narrowed gaze bore into Nigel. “Why don’t you tell us what you’re really after?”

Nigel’s shoulders slumped in defeat as he glanced between us and the door. His evasive answers weren’t cutting it. I suspected something more was at play here, like a motive buried deep beneath the earth of his supposed mystery plant.

“I thought maybe there was a clue here,” he said gruffly, “something that could shed light on who’s manipulating all of us so we shifters and witches and such can once again find peace in Grimstone Grove.”

A wave of realization crashed over me, leaving me breathless. We had been looking at the wrong places, tangled in a web of apparent suspects and surface-level evidence. Nigel’s words cut through the fog of my fixations.

Yes, we were being misdirected in a real-life mystery, led astray by red herrings.

Without warning, Nigel’s form blurred and shifted. Within seconds, the man was replaced by a hulking werewolf. The sight was jarring, sending a shock through my system. With surprising grace for such a large creature, he lifted his snout and howled a forlorn, lonely sound, then bounded past us to leap off the building, disappearing into the morning mist.

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