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  Tide Dance

  A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery Novella

  Danielle Garrett

  Copyright © 2018 by Danielle Garrett

  Edited by Magical Words Edits

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

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  Contents

  Books By Danielle Garrett

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  About Danielle Garrett

  Books By Danielle Garrett

  BEECHWOOD HARBOR MAGIC MYSTERIES

  Murder’s a Witch

  Twice the Witch

  Witch Slapped

  Witch Way Home

  Along Came a Ghost

  Lucky Witch

  Betwixt: A Beechwood Harbor Collection

  BEECHWOOR HARBOR GHOST MYSTERIES

  The Ghost Hunter Next Door

  Ghosts Gone Wild

  When Good Ghosts Get the Blues

  HAVEN PARANORMAL ROMANCES

  Once Upon a Hallow’s Eve

  Introduction

  Tourist season is underway in the coastal community of Beechwood Harbor. Holly Boldt is up to her eyebrows in work. Between the coffee shop and her potion business, things are moving at a break-neck pace. But when a teenage runaway starts causing trouble around the harbor, she has to step in, especially when she realizes the terrified girl isn’t just another out-of-towner on summer vacation.

  With her posse of magical misfits, Holly’s ready to kick up some sand and get to the bottom of the guarded teen’s dilemma.

  After all, summer in Beechwood wouldn’t be any fun without a little magic mystery.

  Chapter 1

  Though the sun had gone to sleep hours before, the unseasonable heat of the day lingered well into the night. Even with the windows thrown open and a metal box fan running, my first-floor bedroom was sticky and uncomfortable. I tossed and turned in bed, much to my tabby cat, Boots’s, chagrin. The rhythmic crashing of waves beckoned to me and I threw off the lightweight coverlet. An amber eye swiveled in my direction with a disapproving glint.

  “Sorry, Boots,” I whispered, adjusting the blanket so it wasn’t touching him.

  The eye closed, followed by a thump of a bottle-brush tail.

  I stroked my fingers through his thick fur until a sputtered purr gave way to a full-on motor roar. “I’ll be back in a little while,” I told him, swinging my legs over the side of the bed.

  Boots opened both eyes and shifted them from me to the bedside clock. I could almost hear him reminding me of the time.

  “I swear, Boots, you’re worse than an old nanny goat. I’m not going to do anything crazy. I’m just going to take a quick walk.”

  Smiling, I pushed off the side of the bed and reached for a cable-knit sweater from the peak of Mount Laundry on the top of my dresser. “If you’re worried,” I continued, pulling the sweated on over the long t-shirt I’d worn to bed, “you’re more than welcome to come with me.”

  As my familiar, he was half pet, half guardian, and while Boots took his job very seriously, he was still a cat, and therefore liked all things soft and cozy.

  It was pretty clear which side was winning tonight.

  I shimmied into a pair of black yoga pants. “Or, you can stay here and keep a lookout for monsters under the bed. Your choice.”

  His tail swished. He’d been had. After a moment, he rested his head back on his paws and stared up at me, his golden eyes glimmering in the moonlight.

  I laughed softly as I gathered my auburn hair into a high ponytail. “That’s what I figured.”

  The wood floor creaked as I crossed to the door of my bedroom. Every room of the hundred-year-old home had its own sound effects: squeaking hinges, groaning pipes, scratching branches against the windows. It was all part of the Beechwood Manor’s charm.

  I slipped my feet into the pair of canvas flats I’d kicked off after working my shift at Siren’s Song, the local coffeehouse. They were covered in coffee grounds and splashes from five different types of milk, and still smelled faintly of hazelnut from an unfortunate incident a week ago when one of the new hires dropped a bottle of flavored syrup behind the counter mid-shift. A little sand and sea water certainly couldn’t hurt. They might come back cleaner than when I left.

  The historic estate stood on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean right where it pooled into the harbor that gave the town its namesake. It was a short walk down the road to a steep staircase carved into the hillside. Within five minutes, my shoes were off and my toes were buried in the sand.

  Moonlight danced along the surf, the silver light reflecting over the soft sand beneath my bare toes. The beach was abandoned this time of night. Earlier that day, it had been packed with beachcombers. Tourist season was just beginning, and it was already clear it was going to be a busy summer. I’d be trading peace and quiet for killer tips at the coffee house for the next few months.

  I tipped my head back and let the moonlight wash over my face. The energy of the tide and starlight soaked into my skin, fueling the magic embedded in every cell. As an elemental witch, I felt especially powerful when close to nature. The ocean was a source of wild and unbridled power, and whenever my head felt foggy or unfocused, I found that a walk along its shore was the best remedy.

  As a bonus, the recessed tide was a great place to find ingredients for my potion work.

  When I started walking again, I conjured a ball of light and let it dance a few paces ahead of me, casting a pale blue ray on my path. A few shells caught my eye and I stopped to scoop them up. They wouldn’t work in any potion I knew of, but they would look good on the shelf in my bathroom.

  As I rose from gathering a pearlescent stone, I caught a blur of motion from the corner of my eye. My heart skipped ahead a few beats and I quickly extinguished the orb of magical light floating ahead of me. That would be a little hard to explain to a night-owl tourist or restless local.

  I turned toward the movement and saw a hulking form lumbering out from behind one of the massive rocks that butted up against the craggy walls surrounding the harbor.

  Whatever it was, it wasn’t human. I called the light orb back into existence and frantically fed it more magic, making it grow to the size of a soccer ball. Beechwood Harbor was a sleepy community filled with humans, but I’d run into more supernatural nasties than I wanted to remember over the two years I’d been a resident of the beachside community.

  “He—hello?” I called.

  The light spread over the beach and the figure moved into the light. With a sigh of relief, I lowered my hand. “Oh. Whew.” It was a sea lion. I scanned the beach for signs of more. I’d never seen one on its own before. They usually came and went in packs. Or, whatever the technical term was for a group of sea lions. Was it a pride? No, that was regular lions.

  I took a tentative step toward the creature and extended a hand. I was far from being a Disney princess, but I had something of a knack with animals. “What are you doing out here all alone?”


  The sea lion stood frozen in place. Not so much as blinking. Fear washed off the poor creature and I took a step back, not wanting to spook it further. “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, holding out my hands. “The beach is all yours. I should get back to bed anyway.”

  Still not blinking, the creature stared up at me.

  I smiled and offered a small wave before turning away.

  “Holly?”

  I whipped around and for the second time that night, found my heart halfway up my throat, pounding out a cha-cha rhythm. The orb of light zoomed around, speeding toward the voice and illuminated a male silhouette.

  A familiar male.

  “Adam!” I screeched, holding a hand against my chest. “You scared me half to death!”

  He winced and took a step closer. “Sorry, gorgeous. I wasn’t trying to.”

  “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you with a stunning spell,” I replied, a terse clip to the words. “What are you doing out here?”

  “I was shutting everything down and I saw you leaving the house. Thought I’d come see if you wanted some company.”

  He’d probably been working in front of one of his three computer screens up in his room on the second floor of the manor. I hadn’t noticed his light on as I’d walked away from the house. Then again, I hadn’t bothered to check. We’d been dating for some time now, but things had felt distant for the past few months and, so far, we hadn’t found a way to bridge the gulf.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” I said with a shrug.

  “Looks like you already have a friend, huh?” he said, jutting his chin over my shoulder.

  I turned, surprised to find the young sea lion still standing nearby. “We were just saying goodbye,” I told Adam as I reached out for his hand. “Come on, let’s go home.”

  Adam smiled and enveloped my hand in his. We walked back toward the staircase and were halfway there when a loud cracking sound made us both jump and turn back. A flash of white light illuminated the night, coming from behind the large rock formation where I’d first seen the sea lion.

  “What in the Otherworld was that?” I asked, looking up at Adam.

  He held my hand tighter. “Bonfire popping? Maybe a little farther down the beach.”

  I scoffed and glanced back over my shoulder. “Yeah, maybe if someone dropped a firework into it.”

  “Whatever it was, it’s gone now. Come on, Holly. Let’s get out of here.”

  Begrudgingly, I gave into his gentle tug on my arm and followed him up a sand dune. After all, I had promised Boots I wouldn’t get myself into trouble.

  Chapter 2

  “I’m telling you, it was weird.”

  “What do you think it was?” Evangeline Loren, my roommate and fellow witch, asked after I’d caught her up on the midnight light show over coffee and donuts the following morning.

  “I don’t know. If I’d been alone, I probably would have checked it out, but as it was…” I trailed off. There wasn’t a further explanation needed. Evangeline had lived with Adam and me long enough to know he wasn’t a fan of my curious side. Or, as he would call it, my death-wish side.

  Evangeline nodded and stirred another scoop of sugar into her coffee. How she managed her tiny waist with her diet of sugar and take out was beyond me. I’d say it was witchcraft, but I was a witch too and struggled to keep from busting out of my favorite jeans every few months.

  If magic was involved in her enviable figure, I had no idea how to replicate it. And believe me, I’d tried. I’d once cooked up a potion that temporarily made chocolate taste like cabbage. It worked, but the potion itself wasn’t exactly like biting into a slice of apple pie, and eventually I tired of the bitter-tasting concoction.

  That was my story, anyway. In reality, I didn’t think I had the willpower to outsmart my own willpower. At least, not when it came to chocolate cravings.

  The kitchen door swung open, and Adam appeared. “Morning, ladies,” he said, smiling. If his eyes lit up when he saw us, they hosted a firework display when they snagged on the grease-splotched paper bag between us. “Mmm. I thought I smelled donuts.”

  I laughed and passed the bag over. “Of course you did.”

  “Holly was just telling me about the weird light you guys saw on the beach last night,” Evangeline said, casually dunking one end of her cinnamon twist into her coffee.

  I frowned at her. “You know that’s not a biscotti, right?”

  “Close enough,” she replied with a shrug.

  Adam fished out a cake donut and practically managed the whole thing in one bite. As a dog-shifter, he mostly kept his doggy counterpart under wraps, but there were moments where it shone through anyway.

  “It had to be kids with a couple of flashlights or something,” he said, shrugging one shoulder before reaching for a second donut.

  Evangeline and I exchanged a look. She opened her mouth but I gave a slight shake of my head and she dropped whatever it was she’d been about to say.

  “You busy with work today?” I asked him.

  “Yeah.” He licked the powdered sugar from his thumb and forefinger. “If the guy had just hired me the first time around, this would have been a lot easier. Instead, he went with that hack Diego and now the whole server is a mess!”

  Evangeline and I nodded, though neither of us understood the high-tech world that Adam lived in. As witches, we’d grown up without technology, and even now, living in the human world, neither of us saw much point in keeping up with the digital Joneses.

  I had a smart phone, but beyond phone calls, text messages, and occasional Candy Crush binges, it was a fancy paperweight. Evangeline was a little more tech savvy than me, but not by much. She had a shiny, top-of-the-line laptop at her day spa, but it was mostly for keeping track of appointments and billing. As far as I knew, it never came home with her and if she could get her staff on board, she’d probably be happy enough doing everything on paper.

  “I won’t be home anyway. I’m putting in another shift at Siren’s Song,” I said, smoothing a hand down the front of my work t-shirt that was silkscreened with the company name and logo. It was slightly wrinkled from hanging out in the dryer for more than forty-eight hours, but it was the only clean one I had.

  Stars, I really needed to do laundry.

  “You’ve been working a lot over there this week,” Evangeline noted.

  “Tis the season,” I mumbled. “On the plus side, I’m cleaning up in the tip-money department.”

  “Oh, good.” Evangeline waggled her eyebrows. “So, pizza’s on you tonight?”

  I laughed and got up from the table. “I’ll call Ziggy’s before I clock out.”

  Evangeline clapped her hands together. “Perfect! Now, speaking of work, I need to get to the salon and start whip cracking.”

  Adam chuckled. “Somehow, I find that hard to picture. When I was in last week, that new girl spilled a thing of red hair dye all over the floor and yet you were the one scrubbing the floors like you were on crime-scene cleanup duty.”

  I winced. “Yikes.”

  Evangeline crossed her arms.

  “You’re too nice, Evie,” Adam added with a good-natured smile.

  “It has nothing to do with being nice,” she replied, leaning forward with a smile. “That tile is imported straight from Italy! I couldn’t have some newbie coming in and ruining it with bleach and steel wool!”

  “She has a point,” I interjected. “Wrecking those floors would be a crime against humanity.”

  Adam rolled his eyes. “It’s tile.”

  We glared at him and he relented, throwing his hands out to stave us off before we could ready our pitchforks. “Really fancy … uh, pretty tile.”

  Evangeline looked at me and we smiled. “It’s fun watching him squirm, don’t you think?”

  I nodded, flashing her a wicked grin.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Adam scoffed.

  Evangeline leveled a finger at him. “For your information, St. James, I was actually using a cle
aning spell.”

  Adam barked a laugh. “Really? I had no idea!”

  Evangeline winked. “Then I’d say it was mission accomplished.”

  She breezed from the kitchen, calling her pizza order over her shoulder as she went—like I didn’t already know exactly what she wanted on the pie.

  “I assume you’ll take care of the rest of these?” I said to Adam once she’d gone, gesturing at the bag of donuts.

  He grinned. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  I popped up onto my toes and kissed him. “All right, then I’ll see you at dinner.”

  “See you then, gorgeous.”

  It started sprinkling on my walk to Siren’s Song, and the wind whipped the drops against my face with each step. By the time I got inside the quaint coffee shop, my hair was doing its best Albert Einstein impression. Or, maybe it was more like Alfalfa from The Little Rascals. Either way, it wasn’t cute.

  “Morning, Holly!” Rita, one of the part-timers, called from the front counter as I scurried inside.

  I waved as I made a beeline for the employee restroom and found that the reflection in the shop’s window had been a kinder, gentler version of the reality in the mirror.

  “Ugh. No weight-loss spells and no magic potion for anti-frizz. What’s the point of even being a witch?” I muttered, slicking my wayward strands into a low ponytail.

  “It’s kind of nasty out there this morning, huh?” Rita said when I joined her at the counter.

  “No kidding. Yesterday was downright tropical and then … this.” I tossed a hand at the large picture windows lining the shop’s walls. A newspaper bandied down the street, carried along by the fierce wind. “This isn’t Florida.”