Page 16 of Bewitched By the Wicked Witch
I blinked and focused back on her concerned face.
"You okay? You looked like you went somewhere else for a minute," she asked.
I forced a smirk. "Just plotting my next evil scheme. Nothing for you to worry your pretty head over." I waved a dismissive hand and winked.
Cindee rolled her eyes, but a small smile played on her lips. "Well, keep your schemes away from my cafe, if you don't mind. I've got enough problems without you hexing more of my customers."
"No promises," I quipped. Cosmo let out an impatient meow from the doorway, his tail thumping against the floor. "Duty calls. The fuzzy overlord demands sustenance."
"Here, take an extra danish for yourself too." Cindee grabbed one from the case. "And Sage..." She hesitated. "Just be careful, okay? With these girls going missing... Even with your reputation, I don't want anything bad happening to you either."
Unexpected warmth bloomed in my chest at her concern. I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "I'malways careful. It's everyone else who needs to watch out for me, remember?" I winked to lighten the moment. A bit of shadow and star magic formed in my hand as I flickered it to show her I was ready for anything. But I forced a grin at her, knowing that if trouble brewed in the town, they would point at me first.
Cindee shook her head, but smiled. "How could I forget? Now go, before that cat of yours stages a revolt."
With a last nod, I turned and followed Cosmo out into the crisp air. He pranced ahead of me, danishes swinging from the bag, eager to return home and enjoy his spoils.
As we walked, an uneasy sensation prickled along my spine, like unseen eyes watching from the shadows. I glanced around but saw no one, just the typical Old Hollows quiet this time of day. Everyone was at work. A restless churn stirred in my chest, like the air before a storm, whispering that something was about to shift.
Missing girls, worried friends and family, a town already suspicious of me and my "wicked" ways. As much as I tried to brush it all off, I knew deep down I couldn't ignore it forever. Trouble had arrived at Old Hollows.
Knowing my luck, I'd end up at the center of it, whether I wanted to or not. But then again, what else was new? I was the town’s evil black magic wielding witch, after all. Trouble and I went hand-in-hand.
With a sigh, I pulled my coat tighter and quickened my pace after Cosmo, thoughts churning. It looked like my quiet, reclusive life was about to get a lot more complicated.Lucky me, I thought sarcastically.
I played the part of the bad witch, but I wasn't aboutto let innocent girls disappear without doing something about it. Even if the rest of this judgmental town would probably think I was the one behind it. If only they knew the real me. But that was a closely guarded secret, buried under layers of snark and dark magic. Callum Renshaw had broken my heart, and I’d stopped trying to be good, at least in a way that I’d hoped would change people's opinions of me. I had learned the hard way that was impossible. Once people decided you were something, it was as good as written in stone. So I stopped caring, and now here I was, the wicked witch of the town.
But bad witches could do some good when it suited them. I looked up at the sign just at the junction into the downtown strip of Old Hollows: Old Hollows founded 1694. I shoved my hands deeper into my coat pockets as I watched the golden and red leaves flutter around the sign as they landed on the cobblestone under our feet.
"You have that look," Cosmo remarked, his voice slightly muffled by the bag in his mouth. I turned to look at him as he dropped the bag and stared up at me with dark star-flecked eyes. "The one that says you're about to stick your witchy nose where it doesn't belong."
"Guilty as charged." I smirked at him. "But someone has to figure out what's going on. And we both know I'm the best one for the job."
Cosmo sighed dramatically. "Does this mean I have to do actual familiar work instead of napping and eating snacks?"
"Afraid so, fur ball. Time to earn your keep." I reached down to scratch behind his ears, earning a purr ofcontentment as I snatched up the bag of cheese danishes. That purr turned to a warning growl.
"I'm not going to eat them, silly." Rolling my eyes, I turned toward the path leading out of town. "But if you want to keep carrying a bag and talking through a muffled mouth... then by all means." I offered the bag back to him.
"Actually, you have a point. You should be carrying that for me. You're already turning me into a slave laborer. I should take advantage when I can."
As we made our way back home, I started mentally cataloging everything I knew about the missing girls and the shifter community in Old Hollows. It wasn't much, but it was a start. Gran might have some useful intel too, with her long history on the town council.
Deep down, a small part of me hoped this investigation would prove to everyone that I wasn't the villain they thought me to be. That Sage Blackstone was more than just a bad reputation witch with a chip on her shoulder.
But I quickly shoved that naïve notion aside. I had a reputation to uphold, after all. And a mystery to solve before more girls vanished.
Game on, Old Hollows. The wicked witch was on the case, like it or not.
Seven
Callum
Istarted down Main Street in Old Hollows, taking in the town where Sage had grown up. In the four years we'd been together, she'd never invited me here, not to her grandmother's home or to meet old friends. They always had to come to us. Though I'd taken her home to my town many times.
Old Hollows looked like any other paranormal town that had refused to change. Cobblestone roads, streets filled with pumpkins and orange and black All Hallows' Day decorations, but the old world feel remained even with small modern upgrades like Victorian street lamps and traffic lights.
A Salem vibe persisted, as if the witches who'd fled Salem and formed this town had refused to let go of the past, keeping those memories heavy and alive. It was in the building styles, the wooden signs swinging overhead, the cobblestones forming the main road, and the way the very air felt different, older.
