I twisted and wriggled, but still I couldn’t escape the young witch’s magical grip. I was straining hard enough to break out into a sweat, but my limbs didn’t so much as twitch from all that effort. She had me in a powerful hold, and I didn’t have the slightest hope of defending myself if this encounter turned violent.
“Melony Haberdash,” Greta growled between clenched teeth, remaining perfectly still as she stared the other woman down. “I should have guessed it would be you.”
Melony’s cruel stare softened, but her grip held tight. “Just so you know, I had nothing to do with my great aunt’s murder. Why would I kill her when I was next in line to inherit her position?”
She paused briefly, then her eyes snapped to me with a burning new intensity. “I found this one stalking around the property yesterday, and now she’s here again today. Doesn’t seem like such a coincidence. Does it?”
Great’s voice came out choked. “No, you’ve got it wrong. She’s just the temp.”
“Ha! Seems to me like you’re playing right into her hand. First she steals the magic and then she gets free training from the board by playing innocent. That’s pretty brilliant, actually. Maybe I should be taking notes.”
Greta continued to struggle beside me. A flash of movement below her hip suggested she’d regained control of her fingers but still couldn’t move her full hand yet. “She’s a normie, I swear to you. At first I had my suspicions, too, but she honestly knows nothing. She just almost killed herself by replaying the murder.”
My heart practically stopped at this new revelation. I’d almost died? Just by putting on that witch’s hat? Yikes. That meant Greta had saved me from my foible. At first I’d thought she’d cut the encounter short because she didn’t want me to discover that she was the killer, but now it seemed like she’d chosen to protect me. Is that why she was wasting time rather than giving me any real training?
Whatever her reasons for keeping me naive, I sure could use some magical ability right now.
All I had were the instincts Fluffikins had highlighted last night, but Melony had set a trap that caught us off guard. Neither Greta nor I had a chance to react before falling under her spell.
That left the one thing I’d always had, even before I knew about magic. My words.
It was time to speak up for myself. If I could convince Melony I wasn’t a threat, maybe she would let me go.
“I didn’t kill Mrs. Haberdash,” I shouted at her through tears. “I’ve never killed anyone. I shouldn’t even be here. This is clearly business that I have no part of. I never asked to be made a witch. I just write books!”
Melony studied me, sizing me up the same way Greta had earlier. She must have found what she was looking for because a few seconds later the magical vise snapped open and I fell to the ground.
“Where’s my aunt’s hat?” the young witch asked me as I picked myself up.
I turned back toward the room we’d just exited. “I’ll go get it for—”
“No!” Greta screamed, but it was too late. Melony was already charging up the stairs and into her late aunt’s bedroom.
“What have you done?” Greta muttered, still bound tightly by Melony’s magic.
“But she said she didn’t…” My words fell away. Why had I believed her when she clearly had the most to gain from Mrs. Haberdash’s untimely demise?
“She’s not the killer,” Greta admitted as she turned her head very slightly to look toward me. Little by little, the spell was thawing, but would Greta be free in enough time to stop Melony from getting away?
She grunted from the strain of trying to break the spell, then added, “I could tell she was speaking the truth with us just now, but—”
“Yes!” Melony cried from the other room, causing Greta to stop mid-sentence. “I’ve got you now.”
“Hey! What did you see? Do you know who did it?” I asked as she rushed back down the stairs, cradling the old hat against her chest, without so much as a second glance toward me and Greta. Maybe I should have continued to play dumb, but if she’d spoken truthfully before, perhaps she would do so now. My gift of verbal persuasion was the only option I had, since I didn’t know how to summon my new magic on command.
But Melony ignored us both, flinging open the front door and charging outside. As soon as the door slammed behind her, the hold on Greta released completely.
She fell to the floor, weak and heaving.
“What happened?” I asked as I helped her back onto her feet.
Greta’s eyes appeared vacant as she explained, “She used the hat to call up the murder scene just like you did, but as a more experienced witch she knows how to manipulate the memories so they don’t pose a threat to her.”
“She saw the murderer,” I said with a sharp inhale.
Greta nodded meekly. “Yes. And she’s on her way to kill him to assume the town magic.”
I’d done this. I’d found the hat and then I’d guided Melony straight to it. I still didn’t know who’d killed Mrs. Haberdash, but it would be my fault when that person met their untimely end. And it would be my fault when the crazed teenager was filled with some of the strongest magic in the region, which I doubted she’d use to make things better for its residents.
Gulp.