Page 95 of Sigils & Spells

I stuffed the note in my pocket, then Priya and I joined the cluster.

“I don’t know who. Just that her body was found at a construction site.”

I stiffened. There was a lot of construction going on in Kingston. It didn’t mean the woman was found in the same apartment.

With a growing sense of apprehension, I wondered what exactly had been behind that door. Since I hadn’t seen an ambulance I made the assumption no one had been trapped on the other side.

“Where?” Heather asked.

“No idea.”

“How’d you hear this?” I asked.

“I, uh, know someone who works at the Medical Examiner’s office.”

“When did this happen?” Jess asked.

“Late yesterday.”

The naturals drew near, hovering on the periphery of our gathering like skittish birds.

I felt a little skittish myself. “You said they foundanotherwitch.”

“Clancy Jaeger.” The teal-haired witch piped up. “She disappeared about a month ago. Her family didn’t report her missing ‘cause of her drug problem. She’d go off for days, sometimes a week at a time. Eventually, she’d show up at the Mission and one of them would go pick her up. Except this time, the police showed up at her parents' door and notified them of Clancy’s death. They were devastated.” She shuddered. “They couldn’t have an open casket funeral because her body was shriveled up. Husk-like. As if someone or something drained her dry.”

“No,” Heather said, shaking her head. “She was hit by a car. That’s why they didn’t have an open casket.”

“No,” the stilettoes witch said. “My sis—, my friend at the ME’s told me Clancy’s body was nothing but a sack of bones. The witch brought in yesterday wasn’t in much better condition.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “The theory is Clancy was murdered by a vampire or a black witch.”

Everyone stilled at that.

A shiver raced down my spine.

“Were there bite marks?”

“Any sign of torture?”

“Maybe the two deaths aren’t related.”

Stilettoes spoke over her friends, “The police think they are.”

The front door opened again and Silas Abernathy came in. Round-faced, with an even rounder belly, and an unruly salt and pepper beard, the retired teacher carried a cardboard box, presumably filled with his location spells. He froze when he saw the pack of women.

“I guess you already heard.” He adjusted his grip on the box.

At our blank looks, he said, “The police found Raven. She’s dead.”

A chorus of “who?” resounded.

“The missing witch from the posters we put up,” Silas said as if that cleared everything up.

The only poster I remembered seeing lately was for a lost collie. A quick glance at the community board by the front door confirmed there wasn’t a missing persons poster there. From the quizzical expressions on the faces around me, no one else here had seen the posters either.

“Ah, well, maybe you haven’t seen them,” he said. “I volunteer at the Mission. Raven was a regular there. She hasn’t been in for two weeks. We were worried.” He shook his head, a mournful expression etched on his face. “Someone murdered her. Terrible. Just terrible. The police found her in the basement of an abandoned building. They think she was squatting there.”

My stomach twisted.

“Only one witch was brought in last night and they found her at a construction site,” Stilettoes snapped out.

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