Page 9 of Bewitched By the Wicked Witch
"You changed your wards," she grumbled as she worried her lip, dry from the winter weather moving in.
"Why aren't you in school?" I asked with a lift of my eyebrow as I waved my hand over the door of the hut and walked inside.
The inside wasn't much better than the outside. It looked dilapidated; a hedge witch's paradise. Only I wasn't a hedge witch. I moved across the room past the old wooden furniture placed in the natural-looking living area to what appeared to be a back door.
"Bev is missing," she said before I could even ask why she wasn't in school. "But it's not just her, Sage. Four girlstotal—Ashlynn, Chrysanthemum, Periwinkle, and now Bev. All of them mixed-blood witches. All of them just... gone."
My chest tightened. Again, I waved my hand, silently saying the enchantment with my back to Paige, who I could hear shivering behind me. My gaze flicked to the fireplace on the left. It gave the illusion of being used, but no one ever lit a fire there. There wasn't any practical reason to heat this area.
I waited a brief few seconds as the enchantment recognized my magical signature, and the panel appeared. It opened and I stepped close, allowing it to scan my eye. As it did, the door unlocked, and inside, the elevator waited. I stepped inside as Paige followed, and we descended a level into the earth, where I lived and worked.
"The authorities are calling them runaways?" I asked as the elevator descended.
"Of course they are. Because who cares about shifter-blood witches, right?" Her voice cracked. "But Bev wouldn't run away. None of them would. Someone's taking them, Sage."
I turned to Paige, eyeing her again, waiting for her answer. A long breath escaped her as blonde hair fell from her ponytail, brushing her expressive blue eyes. Though a cousin several times removed, her mother had been my mother's best friend. Despite our differences in coloring and the age gap between us, she always felt more like a little sister. Like me, she was an orphan, raised by our gran, Bertie.
"Gran's going to lose her shit if you are caught skipping again." I narrowed my eyes at her. Her hands twistedtightly in front of her, fingers knotted as if trying to hold onto something, anything. She clasped them until the knuckles turned white, her brow wrinkled as she continued to worry her dry lips. "What's wrong?"
I thought of the symbol I'd seen outside Hexes and Brews, the way the coffee shop had gone silent in my presence, the fresh missing posters that seemed to appear overnight.
The elevator dinged open, and my shoulder brushed hers as we moved out together.
"This is different," she muttered, her face going ashen as she fidgeted with a string unraveling from her blue knit sweater. Her voice lowered to a whisper. "These girls would never run away. Not all four of them."
I didn't know much about the other girls, but I knew they were all friends of Paige's. During Paige's birthday parties or celebrations, most of her friends gave me a wide berth, keeping their distance. Despite Paige's insistence that I wasn't a bad person, I'd told her many times not to spread that untruth. They still refused to come near me, which was exactly what I wanted.
My gran, Bertie, and Paige were all I needed in this stupid magical town. A hiss made me turn to see my over-fattened black Maine Coon, Cosmo, glaring in a way only cats could, as if to remind me of his existence. He could feel my thoughts. I rolled my eyes at him, thinking as loudly as I could,as if I could forget you.
"It took you long enough," he complained, his long-haired tail twitching in the air as he tilted his nose up. His starlit gaze traveled over my body before narrowing in disapproval. "You forgot my danish."
"Cindee wasn't working today. They had a new employee, Cate," I informed him. "Best not to eat anything from her. You might turn into a dog or frog."
"I suppose it's good that you didn't bring me back one," he sighed, his cat shoulders visibly slumping in sadness as he fell dramatically. "But now I will waste away to nothing. A shadow of my former magnificent self."
"Oh, shut up. You are the fattest, most spoiled familiar I've ever met!" I retorted, my hands going to my hips.
Paige's smile returned, slow and easy, her gaze flicking between us as the tight line of worry around her eyes gradually eased. "Goddess, I will never get used to that," she said, moving across the open room and falling into a chair.
Cosmo rose to his massive paws and stretched out his rounded belly, resting it on the ground briefly before he strutted off. Familiars were hard to find. Very few witches these days had one. Why? Because familiars found their witches, and they would only bond with the most powerful of them. I'd just been unlucky enough to get the biggest, laziest of them.
"I should've named you Garfield," I called after him. He ignored me. His tail went higher, twitching as he disappeared around the corner to the kitchen. Most likely to get into something in the cabinets. Such a powerful ancient being, and yet his desire for snacks still led him.
Cosmo called out from the kitchen as I heard the creak of a cabinet opening. "You know very well that this isn't even my true form. I'm a majestic creature of power and grace." He paused dramatically. "Also, I'm getting quite tired of living on those awful kibble pellets you insist on buying."
I rolled my eyes. Show off.
"Yes, I'm well aware of your 'majestic' form, too. Still doesn't change the fact that you spend most of your time napping and eating," I retorted, as he hissed in mock outrage. He stalked back into the room, his head held high as he gave up the search for snacks to defend his honor instead.
"I'll have you know that I am a creature of refined tastes and sophisticated needs," he said, sashaying his overly large black bottom to the sofa next to Paige before he plopped down and began cleaning his fur. "Perhaps if you found yourself a companion of equal refinement, you wouldn't spend so much time with your little mechanical friend in the bedroom drawer?—"
"That's enough!" I interrupted him, feeling heat creep up my neck.
"I'm simply suggesting that perhaps some social interaction with actual people might improve your disposition," he continued innocently. "The sounds coming from your room at night suggest you're quite lonely?—"
"Cosmo," I warned, anger shimmering beneath me as black shadows and stars of my magic began to form at my fingertips, only irritating me further as I groaned and fisted them tightly.
Paige's gaze flicked between the two of us before she began giggling, the tension finally leaving her shoulders. "I am so glad you gave him a voice where he could speak to anyone. This is the best!" Her lips stretched into a wide grin, and my irritation dissipated seeing her smile. It was rare to see her truly smile these days.
