Akasha pouted. “Dad said you’re going to get her arrested or something by the faeriekin, so why can’t we just come back?”
Dad and I exchanged a look. “I don’t think they’re going to arrest her,” I said. “Just take her powers away. So she’ll still have the house. But the sooner we get moving, the better. Mom comes home for lunch sometimes, so we need to be gone before noon.”
With that plan of action, each of us went off to our own rooms to get started. In my bedroom, I found that my school bag was left on my desk, with my cell phone still inside. Well, after this afternoon I wouldn’t have to worry about my mom using it to track me, so I brought it.
It was hard to decide what to take and what to leave behind. My room was filled with things that I’d collected for sixteen years and I didn’t want to lose it all. I packed clothes, including my spare school uniforms, my notebooks full of poetry, my photo albums and the pictures from my bulletin board, and my camera equipment. I grabbed the snow globe that my grandmother gave me for Christmas, and my favorite doll from when I was a kid. I left the blue dress that my mother made for my thirteenth birthday, the one that I always wore for special occasions. I’d finally have to pick out a new dress.
Then I went into the bathroom that I shared with my sister and packed my toiletries. It would make a huge difference, staying in a strange place, if I could have the shampoo and the toothpaste that I liked. I kept looking at the clock, worried that we were going to run out of time. What if Mom called Dad at the hospital and found out that he wasn’t there? What if she came home early for lunch?
I loaded my bags into the car, and then I helped my dad carry down the boxes of papers and journals from his study. We filled up the trunk of the car and the back seat. I would have to take my broom back to the castle, because there wasn’t going to be any room for me in that car.
It was so weird, trying to pick and choose the pieces of my life that I wanted to save, and pack them all into a few bags in the car. I had lived my whole life in this house. I didn’t know what it felt like when most people moved, but this hurried packing in secrecy, throwing together a few things and running, breaking up my family—it was so strange. Ever since I’d come back from Faerie the day before, nothing felt quite real anymore, and this was the weirdest moment yet.
I looked at my dad, and he threw his arm around my shoulders. “It will be okay, sweet pea. As long as we just have each other, we’ll be okay.”
“I hope you’re right,” I told him. The big test would come in just a few hours. I looked at Akasha. “Do you have everything?”
Akasha had brought down almost as many boxes as my dad. “This isn’t even half of my books. Could we come back for a second trip?”
I looked at my watch and shook my head. It was almost noon already. “We can’t risk it. We have to go, now. You didn’t leave boxes all over the floor, did you? If she sees that everything’s gone, she’ll know that we left and she’ll come after us.”
My sister glared up at me and folded her arms. “She’s not a monster or an axe murderer.”
I stepped in front of her and leaned forward. “This woman is controlling our thoughts and our emotions with illegal, invasive, manipulative magic. We don’t know what she’s capable of, or how far she’s willing to go to keep us here. We have to get away from her to keep ourselves safe.”
Akasha started to cry.
Dad reached over and put his arms around her. “It’s okay, sweetheart, it’s going to be okay. Rosa, you don’t need to frighten your sister by exaggerating like that. We’re just going away for a few days until Mommy and Daddy can figure some things out.”
I sighed and took a step back. I wasn’t going to argue with them any more right now. Once the spell was gone, we could talk about what happened next. The important thing for now was that they got out of the house.
“I’ll see you guys back at the castle.” I grabbed my broom off the ground. “It’s time to go.”
That afternoon, everything was going according to plan. I was there just outside Crowther to meet up with my friends. We waited by the side of the road until Kai called and confirmed that Mom was at her store.
We drove by my house once, but the windows were dark and there were no cars in the driveway. Glen parked across the street and we got out.
Ashleigh had a look of concentration on her face. “I’m putting up a glamour to hide the smoke, just in case it drifts far enough that the neighbors could see it.”
Glen looked around the yard. “I’ll stay here in the front to be the look out and watch the spells.”
I looked at Heather and Ashleigh. “Okay, will you guys come with me?”
We went out to the backyard. I handed salt to Ashleigh and Heather. “Help me make a boundary around the gardens,” I said. “A line around the outside, so we protect the forest, and another on the inside, to protect the house. Make sure that it doesn’t have any gaps.”
The three of us started to walk around the gardens, tracing a line of salt. I started close to the house, following the path around the back porch.
When we finished, I looked around, making sure that we hadn’t forgotten anything. Heather had traced around the backyard fence, and Ashleigh had protected the garden shed. Then, looking up at the house, I remembered the planters on the porches. “We have to get those plants, too.”
So, first on the back porch and then out front, we went to each pot and planter and uprooted whatever was growing inside. Most of them were probably just decorative, but I wanted to be thorough. Nothing growing could survive. My mom had also trained vines of jasmine and honeysuckle to grow along the porch railings. I pulled them off, one stubborn twining vine at a time, unwinding them from the wood. We gathered every one of them and made a pile in the center of the backyard.
I knelt by the pile of uprooted plants. “Stand back,” I warned the others. “Go out into the street. I want to make sure that everyone is clear of this.”
Ashleigh held out a pack of matches. “Will you need these?”
I shook my head. “No. This has to be a magical fire. I can start it on my own.”
When they left, I looked down at the pile of green plants. They would not burn easily. But in my mind I remembered the dragon’s fire, burning so hot all around me that I was afraid it would melt my skin. I called on that fire and the pile burst into flames.
I walked to the fence gate. When I turned to look over my shoulder, I saw that the flames had already spread to the nearest flowerbed. The fire seemed like a living thing itself, eagerly reaching out to consume every leaf and blossom, leaping easily over the paths and boundaries between beds. I went through the gate to the front yard and started more fires on either side of the driveway.
I walked out into the street and joined my friends, who were all standing there staring at the fire. No one said anything. As we watched, the flames spread, twisting and writhing, reaching up to burn the plum trees that I’d eaten from every summer, the blackberry bushes that had scratched my arms when I hid in them as a child, the flowers that I’d picked and woven into wreaths when I pretended to be a Fae princess. They were all turning into smoke and ash. As I looked closely, I saw the flames spread up just to the line of salt, but they never crossed over. The house was safe.
When the flames had died down to embers, I went back to Glen’s car and took my broom out of the trunk. I flew over the house and the yard once, checking to be sure that the gardens were completely destroyed and the fire wasn’t going to spread any farther. It was an eerie sight, that blackened and smoking wreck. Everything smelled of fire—and a little like incense, where the herbs had burned. I didn’t have to do any magic to check what I wanted to know: I knew that the stink of my mother’s spell was gone for good.
The rest of Halloween went by without event. I hung out at the faeriekin party with Kai and my friends, and let the festivities take my mind off of everything. Glen and Ashleigh went to the Court meeting without me, and afterward Glen let me know th
at they were taking their time to review the evidence and decide what to do.
Thursday morning, the first day of November, Ashleigh and Glen drove my sister and me to school. Heather joined us by the bus stop. Akasha hurried away into the school building by herself. I noticed that she opened the front door on her own.
I caught sight of Kai standing by himself. That reminded me that I had one more thing that I had to do. I walked over to him. “Thanks for all of your help with everything.”
“Yeah,” he said, “no problem. You let me know if you need anything else.”
I smiled and stepped closer, reaching out to touch his arm. “I can think of one more thing you could do for me.”
Kai started to smile back. He raised one eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“I need a date for this Saturday. Are you free?”
“Hm, let me check my schedule.” He put his arms around me. “Did you have any other crazy adventures planned, or will this just be a regular date?”
“I don’t know what a regular date is, but I think I can come up with something crazy for us to do.” I leaned forward and kissed him.
THANK YOU
Thank you for reading Small Town Witch! I hoped that you enjoyed it. Either way, I would love to hear your thoughts on the story. Please consider writing a review on Goodreads, LibraryThing, or the store where you purchased this book. Your feedback can help other readers decide whether or not they might want to try the book out for themselves. Word-of-mouth is the most important way for new books, especially ones by indie authors, to get discovered by readers.
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Read More
Are you ready for more adventures? Follow these links to read the next part of the series:
Witch Hunt (Fae of Calaveras #2)
Teen witch Rosamunde broke the spell her mother, Rosmerta, used to control her family and reported the illegal use of magic to the Faerie Court. So her mom became a fugitive from the law, taking Rosa's younger sister Akasha with her. When none of the faeries can track down her mother, Rosa realizes that she'll have to be the one to find her mom.
Rosa takes a dangerous risk: getting close to the mysterious exiled Unseelie who helped her mother go into hiding. To gain their trust, she'll have to break the rules. Her faeriekin friends, Ashleigh and Glen, and kitsune boyfriend, Kai, worry that she's getting in too deep. But for the chance to confront her mother and save her sister, Rosa will sacrifice anything--maybe even the things that she believes in the most.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kristen S. Walker wishes she was a pirate mermaid who could speak with sharks, but she settles for being an author, blogger and nerd. She currently resides in San Jose with her family and rescue cats, but she grew up in the mountains of Northern California, running barefoot through the woods and chasing imaginary dragons. Her fantasy novels for teens and adults explore diverse characters, detailed worlds, high-stakes adventures and emotional journeys in what some have called “chick-lit with magic sprinkled in.” When she's not writing, Kristen teaches preschool and occasionally dresses up in cosplay.
Enjoy a free preview of Fae of Calaveras #2: Witch Hunt, now available.
Rosamunde
The day after I burned down Mom’s garden was complicated.
I had to go to school like nothing had happened. Everyone was groggy the morning after Halloween, but there were still tons of rumors floating around the tiny school. Was my mom using an illegal spell to control my family? Did I break it myself? Was the Faerie Court going to arrest my mom?
Some questions I could have answered easily—yes, I broke the spell—but I didn’t know what was going to happen next. I was trying to talk Dad into filing for divorce, and we’d have to find someplace new to live. I didn’t know how Mom would react. And I was still waiting to hear what Count Duncan would decide to do about Mom breaking the law.
So I ignored the gossip, and my friends helped to deflect questions away from me, too. I sat next to Kai all day long and he held my hand, letting everyone know that we were officially a couple now. I tried to concentrate on getting back into the swing of school and the new normal for my life.
When school ended, Ashleigh and Glen were waiting for me when Heather and I came out of the photography lab. Their faces told me right away that something was wrong.
I felt the little bubble of calm that had been around me all day disappear. “What happened?”
Glen cleared his throat. “I just got a call from one of my grandfather’s assistants. The Count reached a decision about your mother.”
I didn’t think things would happen so fast. I took a deep breath to steady myself. “He already reached a verdict?”
Glen shook his head. “Nothing that final. A task force was assigned to investigate the allegations against her and find out the truth before they take any permanent action. But right now, it looks serious enough that they decided to put a temporary restriction on her powers. There’s a ward over the house and her store so that she can’t perform any magic.”
“That’s good, though,” I said, but their expressions were still too unhappy. “That means that she can’t try to do something to me for breaking her spell. I’m safe.”
Ashleigh put her hand on my shoulder. “When your mom found out what the Count did, she took off. We don’t know where she is anymore.”
I looked up at the sky. I couldn’t absorb this information right now. I always thought that I would have one more chance to talk to her, at least to find out why she’d done this. To tell her how I felt.
Next to me, Heather gasped. “No! You mean that she’s running rogue out there somewhere?”
Glen nodded. “Our best hunters are already working on it—”
“Rosa!”
We all turned to look and saw Kai running toward us from the main school building.
r /> He raced up and threw his arms around me so tightly that I could barely breathe. “Rosa, I had to make sure that you were still here. Your mom came before class was over—”
“My mom is here?” I spun around and looked at the parking lot, at the road in front of the school, up at the sky—nothing. There was no sign of her car or her broom.
Kai shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know which way she went. But she took your sister with her. I was afraid that she came to take you, too.”
Glen had already taken out his phone and started dialing. “I’ll tell the hunters that she was seen here. Maybe there’s still time and they can catch her.”
“Akasha wanted to get the rest of her books. She could have gone home.” I turned to Glen. “Can you give me a ride to my house?”
“Of course.” He looked at the others. “We’ll all go.”
There was no sign of Mom’s car in the front driveway. I unlocked the front door and ran inside. Downstairs, everything looked the same as when I’d left it the day before. I ran upstairs to check the bedrooms.
Akasha’s room didn’t look like it had been touched since she packed yesterday morning. The boxes of books were still on the floor, and her closet was full of all the toys and other things that she didn’t take to the castle.
I ran across the hallway to my parents’ room. A few drawers in the dresser were sitting open and half-empty. Some of Mom’s clothes were lying in piles on the floor, as if she had packed in a hurry. The closet door stood open and I could see that her organized system had gotten messed up in there, too.
I had one place left to check. I went up the second flight of stairs into the attic.
The room had been stripped bare. All of Mom’s magical tools, all of her herbs and other ingredients that she stored up there, were totally gone. The furniture was pushed all over the room. Boards were missing from the walls and floor, leaving behind little dark holes, all empty now. I would never know what she had been hiding.