CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
When I got to my shop a few minutes later, dragging my bruised ego behind me, Josie was already there. I was so happy to see her. Not just because we needed to talk about Oscar and Mazzy, but because I needed to feel like someone sane had my back.
“Jose. Thank God.” I dropped my bag on the counter and hugged her.
“Wow. Hi, hon.” She hugged me back, then pulled away to look at me. “You okay?”
“God no. It’s been a week.” I leaned against the corner of my desk. “I really need your expertise. Remember the stone that burned my hand?”
She nodded.
“Well, I just got my hand burned by something else that someone touched. Another mortal.” At least I thought he was a mortal. Honestly, I had no idea anymore about anything.
Josie frowned. “Okay. That’s weird.”
“I know! Can you please help me figure out what it means?”
She thought for a second, then went out back. When she returned, she had her phone. “Just a sec,” she said. “I know someone who might know. Ember. She’s into all kinds of phenomena like that.”
“Ember from the Magickal Council?” I was surprised, but maybe I shouldn’t have been.
“Yeah.” Josie glanced up from her texting. “We went to school together.”
Small world, even in witch terms. “She doesn’t seem that friendly,” I said.
“Eh, you just need to get to know her,” Josie said.
I watched as her fingers flew over her phone keypad. “They’re both mortals, right?”
“Yes. One of them is—was—Nicole. The girl who was killed.”
Her fingers stilled and she raised her eyes to me for a moment before she began typing again. “She said it could be a couple things, but most likely mortals who had some kind of contact with a dark force could hold onto that energy. It’s not a supernatural thing, it’s just an absorption of some kind of evil. And then they both came into contact with you, and you felt it—because you’re a witch and you can feel things.” She glanced up at me again, and now her gaze was curious. “I didn’t know you felt things like that, though.”
I didn’t either. I frowned. “Mortal people encountering dark forces?”
“Yeah. It’s more common than you think,” Josie said. “Mortal people can come into contact with all kinds of things they have no clue about.”
“I felt a shadow around Nicole when she was here for her reading,” I said. “It’s actually why I felt like she was in trouble. But I didn’t feel that with the other person.”
“Were you reading the other person?”
I shook my head no.
She shrugged. “That’s probably why.”
“So he’s in danger too?” I was getting more freaked out by the minute.
“I don’t know,” Josie said. She came and leaned on the counter next to me, sliding an arm around my shoulder. “This thing with Nicole. It’s got you all messed up, huh?”
I sighed. “A lot of things do right now. Speaking of which, I need to talk to you about something else.”
“Oh, boy. Sounds like we need some uninterrupted time for this.” Josie waved a hand and the sign on the door flipped to closed at the same moment as the lock clicked. Then she turned and looked at me. “Well? Let’s go.”
I followed Josie out back, feeling kind of like I was heading to the gallows. I wondered if she had any idea what had gone on at the council meeting. Maybe she’d been expecting this conversation.
I realized I still didn’t know much about Josie’s witch life. She’d always been my friend here on the mortal plane, and that’s how I still thought of her. But she was friends with Ember, and she knew things that I had no clue about, and she probably had powers I still couldn’t even imagine.
It all made my head spin.
I pulled my desk chair over to the small table so we could sit together. “Hey, I did want to ask you. Did you order an obsidian scrying mirror?”
She looked blank. “I don’t think so. Why?”
“There was one here the other day.”
“Really? Where? I’d like to see it.”
“It’s, uh, gone,” I said. “It broke. Anyways, no big deal. I just wondered where it came from.”
“Syd, probably.”
“Yeah. Probably.”
“So what’s up?” she asked.
“It’s about the council meeting,” I said. “The one where I had to give my statement. About Mazzy.”
Josie nodded. “How did it go?”
I got up and got some water from the cooler to stall for a minute. “Not great. The cops don’t really seem to know what they’re doing. They let Oscar take over.”
“Oscar?” Josie leaned forward to accept the paper cup I handed her. “Why?”
“Because he was acting as chair since Fiona had a conflict. You know, me.” I turned back to get more water for myself.
“Ugh.” She made a face. “I forgot he was second chair in cases like this.”
“Yeah. Well,” I cleared my throat, “he was a bit argumentative. Seems to really want to pin this whole thing on me for some reason.”
“Violet, that’s not going to happen. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I know, but ...” I sighed and drained my cup. “Jose. There’s no easy way to say this and I’ve been so worried about it since I left that stupid meeting.”
“Sounds serious,” Josie said with a smile. But her smile faded when she realized I wasn’t smiling at all. “What, Vi? What happened?”
I forced myself to look at her. “Oscar said he got an anonymous tip that you were here. And he suggested that he was going to get the cops to question you too. That we conspired on this whole thing to get rid of Mazzy.”
That was the second anonymous tip related to that day—the first being that the genieing had happened. I needed to dig into that more too.
“Vi, I told you, Oscar’s reaching. He wants to cause trouble. And if he can cause it with your family, all the better. You know he doesn’t like them. And you, by extension. I’m sorry you have to deal with that. But you don’t need to let this guy get in your head.”
“I’m not letting him get in my head. But I’m worried about you. Look, I don’t know much about the witch’s law enforcement code but I’m guessing that lying about who is at a crime scene is just as bad as it is down here in this world.” I waved my arm around to emphasize our current environment. “So they can’t know!”
“Vi, we didn’t do anything. Nothing is going to change that. Just relax.”
I couldn’t believe she was so chill about this. Especially since I’d been freaking out about it for almost two days. “I haven’t talked to my mother since then. I’m not sure if she’s mad at me or not.”
“Why would she be mad at you?”
I shrugged, a bit defiantly. “Because I used my powers on Oscar to put him in his place.”
Josie started to laugh. “You didn’t.”
“I did. And Blake thought it made him mad and I should watch out. So now I’m worried about you because he seems to have his sights set on both of us.”
Josie continued to look unfazed. “So what do you want to do about it?”
“I was hoping you’d have some ideas. I’m kind of new around here,” I said.
“Let him blow off his steam. Chief Bell isn’t going to give in to him just because of his family. He can come off as a little wussy but he does have integrity.”
“That’s your bright idea? Jeez, Josie.” I crumpled my cup and tossed it in the trash. “Listen. We need to figure out who did this to Mazzy.”
That caused some tension. I watched with interest as Josie’s jaw tightened. “And how exactly do you propose to do that?”
“I’ve seen her, Josie,” I said. “I’ve seen her in my crystals. She needs help and everyone else is taking their sweet time.”
“Violet—”
“No, just listen,” I said, ignoring the protest I saw building on her face. “Mazzy is on borrowed time. I mean, I didn’t like her that much or anything, but I don’t feel like she deserves this fate. And they’re messing around worrying about you and me when they need to be focused on who is actually responsible for this!”
“That’s right,” Josie said, her voice dropping a few octaves. I recognized it as her stern voice. In the entire time I’d know her—nearly twenty years—she’d only used the stern voice on me one other time, when I’d had a fight with my dad and told him I wished he’d left me instead of my mother. “It’s for them to focus on. The police. Not you.”
“Yeah. Well, that’d be great, but they’re not. So we need to figure it out. I thought you’d be all about helping. Don’t you want to help?”
She pointed a finger at me. “Violet, don’t let me catch you messing around with this thing. I mean it. I’ll tell Blake, I’ll tell Fiona, heck, I’ll tell the police. Stay away. Do you hear me?”
I wasn’t sure what to say for a second. Josie was usually the first one to offer to help someone in need or right a wrong. Why was she resisting Mazzy’s predicament? “Fine,” I said. “But what if no one figures it out in time?”
Josie shook her head and pushed her chair back. “It’s not your concern, Violet. You have a lot of other things to focus on now. Keep your head down, answer their questions, and let them do their jobs. Now I’m going to open the store.”
I stared at her as she got up and headed out front. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Josie was scared. Was it what happened to Mazzy, or the whole Oscar thing? Was he more dangerous than I was giving him credit for?