I put a hand on Parker’s shoulder.
He flinched before glancing away. The smile that followed came a couple seconds too late to be natural.
Ugh. I was really worried about him now. Had something terrible already happened? Was he merely putting on a strong front for me and the others?
“What do you mean she came to see you?” I pressed, willing—begging—him to tell me the truth. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
He pressed his lips in a straight line, then pulled out the chair in front of him and took a seat. “I’m here. Aren’t I?”
“What happened?” I asked, refusing to leave his side even though it seemed I’d been dismissed.
“Enough, Tawny. Take your seat,” Fluffikins commanded as he paced back to the head of the table, then plopped onto his rear. “Now. Give us the full report, Barnes.”
I kept my eyes glued on Parker as I trudged back to my seat beside Greta.
Everyone waited with bated breath.
Parker folded his hands in front of him and sighed. “She caught up with me while I was on my way into the station. There were too many normies around, so I led her to an empty lot on the outskirts of town. I expected her to jump straight into an assault once we were both out of our cars, but instead she wanted to talk. Said the Town Witch job was hers, that it was bad enough her great aunt Lila had stolen it right out from under her grandfather, that she wasn’t going to let the wrong person have the job for even a second longer.”
“But you’re here now, and you say you’re okay,” I said, dumbfounded. “So, what happened?”
“Tawny, silence!” Fluffikins bellowed and followed it up with a low, threatening growl. “I realize you have a lot of questions, but you are not the one who’s in charge here.”
Parker frowned. “She told me to surrender, but I refused. That was when she attacked. I tried not to hurt her, but she came at me so fast, I couldn’t avoid…” His voice cracked, and he stopped speaking.
“We promised Lila she would remain unharmed,” Greta interjected, popping to her feet so fast, her chair fell back behind her.
Parker ran his hands through his hair and let out a choked sob. “I know. I’m so sorry. It’s the magic. With Lila’s plus my own, it’s too much. I couldn’t control it.”
“This is very worrying, indeed,” Fluffikins said with a flick of his sleek black tail.
“I would have gotten here sooner, but I didn’t want to lead Melony right to our HQ. That is, if she even managed to survive,” Parker offered meekly. “I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry if I’ve complicated matters for the board.”
“So what happens now?” I asked when no one else moved to speak. “The threat is gone, right? So everything goes back to normal?”
“But at what cost?” Greta bit out, wrapping her arms around herself as she swayed on her feet. “You’ve defied Lila’s last wish. Melony was the only remaining heir to the Haberdash legacy. Other than her grandfather, of course.”
What was going on here? None of these explanations were making things any clearer, so I asked a question even though Fluffikins had ordered me to stay silent. “So Melony would have become the Town Witch eventually, anyway? If that’s the case, why would she kill her aunt? Just to make it happen a little sooner?”
“She wasn’t ready,” Greta said, reaching down to rub my shoulder but I ripped it away. “Melony still has a lot of growing up to do first, and Lila had already become so ill. She wouldn’t have been able to fight off an attack if it had come.”
“But Parker has the powers now. Whether or not Melony is okay, the Haberdash legacy is dead.”
“That doesn’t mean the people need to be,” Greta countered.
Connie, the well-dressed head of Commerce, spoke up next. “By appointing someone outside of her family, Lila knowingly destroyed her own line.”
Greta’s bright blue eyes flashed red. It startled me so much, I kept my mouth clamped shut as the others fought. “What choice did she have? People are more important than power.”
“The girl could have grown into the role,” the middle-aged guy who headed up Agriculture said.
“Or it could have destroyed her,” Greta shot back, eyes still aflame.
“Enough!” Fluffikins shouted, and the fire in Greta’s eyes disappeared. She took her seat beside me, and I moved to the opposite edge of mine, still completely unsettled.
“What now?” she asked calmly, sweetly—but I no longer took her good nature for granted. “Beech Grove needs its Town Witch.”
All eyes turned to me. “I can’t…” I sputtered.
“The magic we gave you was only temporary,” the cat pointed out. “To become the official Town Witch, you’d need to kill your predecessor.”
Parker’s eyes found mine, and he stared at me as if seeing me for the first time.
“But Parker…” I mumbled.
“Yes, we’re in a bad spot,” Fluffikins admitted. “One person can’t fill two roles indefinitely. It leaves the region too vulnerable.”
“Then what are we going to do?” I cried, feeling beyond helpless. Rather than being resolved, things were only going to get worse. Would that mean more lives lost? I hated this.
“We’ll have to find a new liaison to the Force, but the process takes a while, unfortunately,” Fluffikins said. “Usually we are better prepared for transitions, but Lila requested that we act fast and figure out the other details once the immediate threat had been mitigated.”
“Can I help? You don’t need me as a temp witch, anymore. Right? I can do the double cop thing.” As scared as I was to be a part of this, it would be even worse to turn my back on them now.
“But you’re not an officer,” Parker said with a deadpan expression as he clenched his jaw.
“Can’t you wave your magic wand and change the records?” I asked Greta since she was closest to me.
It was Fluffikins who answered for all of them. “We’d be even more vulnerable to have someone who hasn’t been properly trained in either magic or policing in such a vital role.”
“Then what? There must be something we can do!” I was on the verge of tears now. I hated that it made me look weak, but I was weak. Then again, if the strong ones weren’t willing or able to fix the situation, doing so fell to me.
Parker stood suddenly, commanding everyone’s attention. “Actually, I believe there is something. If you’ll just hear me out…”