A Witch of a Day Read online

  A Witch of a Day

  A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery Novella

  Danielle Garrett

  Contents

  Books By Danielle Garrett

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Author’s Note

  Murder’s a Witch Excerpt

  Twice the Witch Excerpt

  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 (Fall 2017)

  * * *

  BEECHWOOR HARBOR GHOST MYSTERIES

  * * *

  The Ghost Hunter Next Door

  Ghosts Gone Wild (Summer 2017)

  Copyright © 2016 by Danielle Garrett

  Edited by Magical Words Edits

  Cover Design by Alchemy Book Covers

  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.

  Created with Vellum

  Chapter 1

  In the supernatural world, any Friday the Thirteenth is regarded as sort of a miniature holiday. When it happens to occur during the month of October, a time of year that’s already festive, the entire population of the Seattle Haven goes a little crazy.

  Well, crazier than usual, that is.

  Mr. Keel, my boss at Hummingbird Brews, the Haven’s largest and most prominent potions shop, had decided to close for the day. He said it was because all of our customers would be out celebrating the impromptu holiday, but I heard through the grapevine that he was really just eager to take his new girlfriend to the shore a few hours west of the city.

  Regardless of the reason, a paid day off was fine with me.

  After Mr. Keel had shared the good news, I’d made plans to go into Seattle proper to escape the insanity. Sometimes I just needed a break from the supernatural world and Seattle’s a good place to tootle around. As a bonus, my friend Anastasia Winters was going to take a long lunch hour while I was there so that we could get together. Stacy was a witch too but lived in the human world as she worked for a hybrid event-coordination firm that catered to both humans and supernaturals.

  I had a couple of hours until I needed to leave and decided to get a slow start to the day. A really slow start. As in, I’d only left the bed long enough to make coffee and raid the cupboards for a snack. Boots, my overgrown tabby cat didn’t seem to mind. He laid curled up beside me in bed while I flipped through the pages of a magazine featuring the latest breakthroughs in potion work. I read aloud, including him in the study, but I’m pretty sure Boots was there primarily to soak up my body heat and hope for a crumb or two to fall from the last bite of Lemon Cloud I had pinched between two fingers.

  “Bootsie, did you see this?” I turned the page back so he could see the moving pictures demonstrating the correct way to harvest and store licorice roots.

  He stretched his legs out, then rolled over to inspect the edge of the plate I’d used to carry in the spongy pastry and started cleaning up the remnants of frosting that still clung to the dish.

  I sighed at his antipathy but had to agree that articles about licorice roots couldn’t compete with frosting.

  “Thanks for the conversation,” I told him as he continued to ignore me. “It’s been great.” I closed the magazine and set it on my bedside table before pushing the covers off of my legs. “I should get going anyway. Stacy will be leaving work soon.”

  I got as far as the bathroom door when a tapping sound startled me. I followed it to the kitchen and stopped short when I spotted a raven pecking at the window over the sink. Ravens were the most commonly used birds when it came to delivering government correspondence. The daily mail was normally delivered to a basket by the front door by a horde of elves that work for the Haven Postal Service, but when there was something extremely confidential or time-sensitive, the government liked to send it via a raven.

  It was a little Poe-ish for my taste, but it worked. Whenever I saw one, a little pit formed in the bottom of my stomach.

  “What now?” I muttered, my bare feet slapping loudly against the tile as I stalked to the window. I threw it open and the raven blinked at me. “Sorry,” I said, reaching forward slowly. It wasn’t the poor bird’s fault that I despised its handlers.

  The bird deposited the thick, cream-colored envelope into my hand and I groaned. As suspected, it was sealed with the Supernatural Protection Agency’s crest in royal purple wax. I set the envelope aside and handed the bird a few seeds from the dish I keep on the sill. He refused to take the seeds and gave a pointed glance at the envelope.

  “Oh, great. Now I have a bird babysitting me.” I tore the envelope open and pulled out the letter. As soon as I started reading the first few lines, the bird pecked the seeds from where I’d set them down and took flight.

  * * *

  Greetings Ms. Boldt,

  * * *

  This letter is to inform you that Mr. Gabriel Willows is scheduled for an appeal trial and we require your full cooperation to ensure that this trial is completed in a fair and orderly manner. Please contact your SPA agent as soon as you receive this message to schedule your testimony.

  Remember, Ms. Boldt, that these appearances are mandatory. Failure to comply will result in legal action.

  * * *

  Thank you and have a nice day.

  * * *

  Lana Poole

  Secretary to the President

  * * *

  “Have a nice day?” I wrinkled my nose. Did they really think that putting that at the end, would take the edge off the thinly veiled threat?

  I read through the letter again and then dropped the pages to the counter. “Bat wings.”

  Gabriel Willows was my wizard ex-boyfriend who literally would not go away. Despite the fact that he was currently incarcerated, he still managed to fly across my radar every so often. He was locked up in an SPA-sanctioned prison for using dark magic and conspiring with a ring of treasonous wizards and witches bent on undermining the entire Haven system. Their goal was to seize control of the supernatural world and raise witches and wizards up above all other supernaturals and probably humans too, eventually.

  They were a power-hungry, cunning group who lacked moral compasses.

  A lethal combination.

  In any case, the whole ring had been taken down back when Gabriel and I were still together, and because of the close nature of our relationship, I’d been dragged into the investigation. Eventually, my name was cleared but the damage to my reputation had already been done.

  Just thinking about appearing in court and having to meet Gabriel’s soulless eyes even from across a courtroom was enough to make my skin crawl.

  To say we left things unresolved would be a massive understatement.

  The letter caught my eye again and I muttered to myself as I picked it up from the counter. I
should call Harvey, my SPA agent, but I had better things to do with my time. I wadded up the paper into as small of a ball as I could manage, finding some satisfaction in the crinkling sound of the glossy paper then sent a bolt of magic through my palm and opened my hand just in time to watch the letter burst into flames. I flicked it into the air and watched it burn into a sprinkling of ashes that floated gently down to the kitchen floor like black snowflakes.

  When the letter was gone, I swept the mess up and went back to getting ready for my lunch appointment, resolving to push Gabriel, the trial, and the whole mess out of my mind. I hadn’t seen Stacy in a long time and I wasn’t going to let SPA wreck an otherwise lovely day.

  Chapter 2

  “So, tell me—what’s life like in the city?” I asked Stacy, tearing my eyes off of the view from the window beside our table. It was a surprisingly clear day despite the autumn chill in the air and I was glad that we were seated near a long bank of windows that overlooked the river below. As expected, the waterfront restaurant she’d selected as our meeting place was high-brow and fancy, with crisp white linens, polished flatware, and crystal glasses. It was the kind of place that made me feel out of my league. I was used to dinners on my sofa, or on a bar stool at the local pub. One fork, paper napkins, and shatter-proof plates.

  Anastasia—Stacy to her close friends—was hopelessly fashionable and fit right in. She wore a long, black-knit dress over plum-colored leggings. A silver belt was cinched around her waist and a pair of delicate hoop earrings caught the sunlight filtering in through the window. Her long, chestnut brown hair was swept over to one side in a long ponytail that curled just right at the ends. As we’d walked into the restaurant, I’d drooled over her perfect pair of black ankle booties. Stacy always had enviable shoes that made me think I’d picked the wrong profession; half of her tiny one-bedroom condo was dedicated to her shoe storage. Well, maybe slightly less than half, but either way, the girl had a shoe collection that rivaled most of the local boutiques.

  “Work is amazing.” She smiled, her cat-like eyes dancing. “Right now I’m working on getting transferred from the human side to the magic side of the company. I’m dying to do some really fabulous weddings and I need to be able to use my magic!” Her fingers twitched excitedly, as though she was about a second away from magically popping a bottle of pricey champagne or sending a shower of white and gold sparks around the restaurant.

  I laughed at her eager expression. “Like what? Bridesmaid dresses that are actually flattering? Now, that would be magical.”

  Stacy laughed and playfully rolled her eyes. “Just yesterday, I was at a wedding for a lovely elven couple. It was the most beautiful wedding that I’ve ever been to. The designer had these tiny, delicate, enchanted butterflies come together to make the bridal veil, then they all flew away the moment the bride got to the end of the aisle! It was a showstopper for sure. A work of genius—everyone flipped out!”

  I sipped my iced tea. “Sounds cool.”

  Stacy scoffed and shook her head. She lived for weddings and over-the-top soirees. While I appreciated a good party, I couldn’t imagine dealing with the stress and fussy details involved in planning them for a living. Stacy thrived on it, though; as far as she was concerned, the more complicated the better.

  I set down my glass. “How do they keep things separated within the company? Magic and non-magic?”

  She took a delicate bite of her soup and held up her finger. After she dabbed her lips with her white linen napkin, she replied, “Basically, there are different departments of party planners and then two different sectors: magic and non. I’m currently in the birthday party and reunions department, on the non-magic side of things.” She frowned, but quickly rebounded, her sparkling blue eyes alight once again. “But I’m hoping to work my way up to weddings by the new year. Then it’s just a hop, skip, and a dash of fairy dust over to the magic sector.”

  I laughed softly at her bright outlook. “Excellent. What’s on your plate for today? Are there parties for the Thirteenth?”

  She shook her head and finished her bite. “Not for me. Non-supers don’t throw parties on the Thirteenth. A few of my co-workers in the magic sector have events today. Even a couple of weddings.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “I’ll be at my desk, dreaming up all the things I’m going to do once I can freely cast magic and hire brilliant wizards like Roberto from Charmed Affair Bake Shoppe to make my cakes!”

  “Let me guess, you already have a fairy seamstress on speed dial?”

  “Yes, the Bippity, Boppity, Boo Boutique is very popular,” she quipped, grinning mischievously.

  I groaned. “Please tell me that you’re kidding.”

  She laughed into her glass of wine. “What are you doing the rest of the day? Having a paid day away from work must be nice.”

  I shrugged and took a bite of my pasta. “No big plans, other than this of course.”

  Stacy laughed. “Of course!”

  I speared a bite of salad. “I’m thinking of looking for a new job, actually.”

  Stacy arched her brow. “Why’s that?”

  I sighed. “Mr. Keel refuses to let me do anything. The highlights of my day are usually sweeping the floors and ringing up potions that someone else got to make. The stars and moon forbid if I even ask about whipping something up myself. He practically locks me out of the supply cupboard.”

  I hated to complain about my job. After all, most of the witches and wizards that I’d attended academy with were still looking for an angle to get into their chosen field of study. As a potions witch, my ultimate goal was to have my own potions shop or to at least be promoted to a master brewer. At the rate I was going, I’d be lucky if Mr. Keel let me prep herbs by the time I was fifty.

  “Why won’t he let you brew anything?”

  I glanced around the restaurant. The lunch hour was bustling, but the tables we were sandwiched between were both empty, waiting to be cleaned. We were outside of the Haven’s protected walls, but that didn’t mean there weren’t supernaturals wandering around. The beauty of the haven system is that supernaturals can come and go as often as they please to and from the human world. I didn’t travel into Seattle very often, even though the portal to the Haven was conveniently located in a downtown coffee shop just a few blocks from my condo on the other side of the wall.

  “He believes the rumors about my involvement with Gabriel and that whole thing. He thinks I practice black magic.”

  Stacy’s eyes popped open. “You can’t be serious!”

  “I wish I wasn’t.” I set my fork down, no longer interested in my meal. “It’s been three years, but I can’t seem to get away from what happened in San Francisco.”

  “I’m sorry, Holly. That’s terrible.”

  “Just when I think it’s over, something comes back to remind me of everything. Just this morning, I got a letter by raven—” Stacy gasped. “—telling me that Gabriel has a new trial date and that I’m mandated to testify.”

  “Again?”

  “Again.” I sighed, a pulse between my brows signaling a headache coming on.

  “What do they think you’re going to say that you haven’t already?”

  I shrugged. “I wish I knew. I haven’t called Harvey yet.” I grimaced at the thought of calling my SPA agent. He was not going to be happy that I’d already made him wait this long. The raven had deliberately stayed until I read the letter. SPA would know that I read it as soon as the bird returned to their headquarters and when that happened, they would deduce that I was ignoring their command to get in touch as soon as possible.

  “Ridiculous.” Stacy shook her head and rummaged her fork through her side salad. She picked out a bright-red cherry tomato and popped it into her mouth and her expression shifted from outrage to sympathy as she studied me. “How are you going to feel about seeing him again? It’s never easy running into an ex. I would imagine it’s even more awkward when he’s in shackles and you’re the one who
put him there.”

  “Last time, I refused to make eye contact and left without talking to him or his council.”

  “Remind me: how long were you two together?”

  “Two years.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat at the thought of seeing Gabriel again, with his dark hair, dark eyes, and, as it turned out, even darker soul. We first met during our last year at academy when we were matched up in a spell crafting class during a project that had required working in pairs. Up until that point, we had known of each other but hadn’t exchanged words. Everything changed over the course of the six-week project, and we continued to spend every waking hour together, long after the final was handed over to our professor.

  Gabriel and I had fallen hard. The classic teenage love story. We thought we had it all and that we would stay together forever. However, after leaving academy, we started going in different directions. Gabriel found a new circle of friends and I threw myself into my internship as a potion master’s apprentice. His descent into the dark arts happened right in front of me, but I couldn’t see it. I was too blinded with love and lust and every emotion in between.

  One night, we fell asleep under the stars on the rooftop of the high-rise apartment building he was living at, only to be awakened by a team of SPA agents in full combat gear. They arrested both of us. After that, I didn’t see him again. Not until the first day of his original trial, where I testified to what little I knew, mostly about his friends, in exchange for my own freedom.