The Mayhem Sisters (3 page)

Vivi began again. “I witnessed a kidnapping. A young witch taken by a dark wizard. She’s in terrible danger.” Her words came out quick and sharp. “You have to help her.”

Juniper glanced up from her notes.

“Slow down and tell me everything you saw,” Sheriff Gardener said.

“He carried her in a sack through the Dire Woods. I don’t know exactly where he’s holding her now. I just know he’s going to hurt her.” Vivi touched her forehead as the memory of the vision flooded back. “I felt it. She’s weakening, and she’s so cold and alone.” Vivi felt clammy as if the room had grown hotter, and the sheriff must have sensed it.

“Keep going. You’re doing fine,” he said, encouragingly.

“She’s in a tight dark space. It’s cold and dank.” She rubbed her arms without thinking. “The sorcerer’s performing terrible magic. I don’t know what he’s using her for, but it’s the blackest magic I’ve ever sensed. You must hurry, before it’s too late.”

“Too late?” The sheriff’s strong gaze held her steady.

“I think he’s going to kill her.” Vivi swallowed. She didn’t want to tell him that she also saw him standing over the witch’s dead body in the woods. Not yet.

Juniper let out a small gasp.

“Keep writing,” he said to her. Juniper’s pen flicked fast across the page.

“Can you identify him? Tell me everything you can about these two.”

Vivi continued, “He was wearing a hood. It was too blurry to see his face.” Her brow furrowed in concentration. She focused her attention on the grain in the wood table and tried to recall exactly what she had seen, hoping any detail would help with the investigation. “It kept shifting. I couldn’t see where he was holding her.” She let out an exasperated sigh.

“Wait, I thought you said the girl was in the Dire Woods?” The sheriff propped his chin in his hand, a slight frown forming on his face.

“She was at first. That was where he went after he captured her. I just don’t know where he took her. It’s not a big help, but I think he’s keeping her in a tight cold space. You should check out the woods first, maybe look for caves or abandoned tunnels or an old well.” Vivi thumbed the pages of her journal, scanning her notes while trying to gage their reactions.

Juniper stopped writing. She and the sheriff exchanged a widened look of disbelief, coupled with a barely disguised eye-roll on Juniper’s part. He tilted his head and readdressed Vivi with a kinder tone.

“When exactly did this happen?” His brow arched inquisitively, and under other circumstances she would have considered it sexy, but now she was in the uncomfortable position of having to reveal parts of herself to him that she hadn’t even faced herself.

“That’s the thing that I wanted to keep just between us.”

“You can tell us in full confidence.” He gave Juniper a narrowed glance, and she nodded. “Nothing leaves this room.”

“I saw it happen this morning, but I can’t tell you exactly when she was taken or where. I believe she’s already been kidnapped, but is still alive. That’s why we have to hurry.” Vivi watched Sheriff Gardener’s face for a hint of expression. A muscle flinched in his neck. His jaw tensed.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” he asked.

“Well, um, if you think I had a premonition, then yes.” Premonitions were not as strong as visions; in fact, most witches got premonitions all the time, but Vivi wasn’t ready to totally come clean, even with the sheriff.

“Vivi, this sounds a lot more complicated than a premonition.” He sat up straighter in his chair.

“It sounds like a full psychic vision,” Juniper blurted out. “Did you have a vision?” The tone of her question was curious, almost fascinated.

Obviously, Vivi wasn’t fooling them with her subtlety. She had expected the sheriff would need a little convincing, but she thought once he heard her story, he would take action, search for the kidnapped witch, and she could fade into the background.

“We should be focusing on who this witch is and what’s going to happen if we don’t find her. We have to help her. I won’t let her die out there alone in the woods.” Vivi’s attempt to ride the fence on her
persuasion
was shot. Time to admit what little she knew about her magic. “The one thing I know for certain about my visions is that the clearer the image, the closer in time. The scene in the Dire Woods was sharp, almost entirely in focus, which means it either just happened or is about to.”

“That’s good to know,” Juniper said. “Helps with a timeline.”

“The consecutive visions became fuzzier, meaning they happened later in time, and they were progressing.” She flipped through the pages of her notebook, checking what she had written down, trying to make sense of her
persuasion
.

“Vivian Mayhem.” Sheriff Gardener shook his head. His gaze was sympathetic, but his stance was firm. “You aren’t a registered prophetic seer. You’re not even a clairvoyant that I know of. No one in your family is. So how are you seeing future events all of a sudden?” He gave her a stern, yet slightly bewildered look. “I thought your
persuasion
was potions.”

“I know I’m not officially a psychic witch, but you have to help me. I can’t walk away from this and pretend it didn’t happen.” She had to convince him. Lance was her best chance. “Please, I know what I saw.”

“Who’s this witch? Do you even know her name?” he asked.

“No, but that shouldn’t matter. She’s a witch. She’s one of us.” Vivi ran her fingers over the engraved words in the wooden table—
coven of one
. “It’s your job to protect our realm. You have to help her.”

“I know what my job is, and I also know that at this sheriff’s department we only use the word of registered seers, and you’re not one of them. I can’t go chasing this.” He stood. His chair legs scraped against the floor.

“You would risk a witch’s life?” she asked. Panic bloomed inside her chest.

“She has a point,” Juniper said.

“Am I the only one who realizes that we have no proof the mysterious witch has been kidnapped yet? I understand your concern, but you think you saw something, in what may or may not be a vision.” His brow was pinched. “I can’t send out a team to check this on your hunch.”

Vivi stood too quickly, her chair slamming to the ground. “It’s not a hunch. I saw him using blood salt and black ash. I felt her fear and emptiness. I smelled the soot in the air, and the skin on her wrists was broken. He’s hurting her, yesterday or now or in an hour.” A searing pain shot through her head that made her wince.

“Calm down.” He tried to reach out to her, but she pulled back before he could touch her. There was something soothing in his touch, and the last thing she wanted in that moment was to relax. “I want to help you. I do. It just sounds so strange. Perhaps the vision was a bad dream.” He slipped his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels.

She bit the inside of her cheek.
Bad dream? Try nightmare.
“I guess that’s the problem with prophecies. They appear as blurred images with flashes of emotion. I felt another witch’s choking fear, but I don’t know her name. The black magic terrified me to my core, but I can’t identify the wizard casting the spell.” Vivi had come this far. She couldn’t back down now.

The sheriff took a deep breath and let it out slowly in a controlled exhalation, as if the long exhale gave him pause to think.
Not a good sign,
she thought.

“No rule book or procedure for you to follow either,” Vivi said. She grabbed her purse, seeing how this was going.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone that you could
see
?” he asked. His voice lost its edge and was more curious than accusatory.

“For the exact reason that you’re staring at me right now. You think I’m crazy, or worse, you think I’m wrong. And you know what? I might be. I could be totally wrong, but I have a feeling deep in my bones that I’m not.” In the time she had been in the office, Vivi’s confidence had grown, or perhaps she just didn’t care about appearances anymore.

“I don’t know if I can help you, but there might be someone here who can,” he said, seeming to relent.

“Thank you.” She wondered who he was talking about—a special deputy, maybe.

“Don’t thank me yet. In fact, I was a little surprised when I saw you today.” The sheriff motioned over his shoulder for Vivi to follow him.

“Why’s that?” she asked. They made their way down a hallway that veered to the left. He stood aside, gestured to a small waiting area.

Sitting in a chair, clad in worn leather and flying gear, mud-splattered boots propped up on a desk, was one tough-looking witch. She glanced up, a devilish grin spread across her face. “What are you doing here? Have you been a
bad
little witch?” Her voice was smoky with a cool edge, like a jazz singer’s.

Relief flooded over Vivi. Finally, she had caught a break, and had never been happier to see her little sis, Honora. If she had to choose anyone to be by her side in that moment, it would be her no-nonsense, driven sister.

“Two Mayhem Sisters in my office in one day,” the sheriff said. “What are the odds?”

“Why do I have the feeling we’re going to get really busy really fast?” Juniper asked, striding over to her desk.

E
ven though Honora was the baby of the three sisters, she was the toughest—lean and mean, the tallest by at least three inches. She had long obsidian-black hair that she wore with blunt bangs and tied in an elaborately woven braid to keep it from tangling when she flew. Her flying goggles, flecked with insects, dangled around her neck. Her jacket was casually thrown over the arm of a chair.

Flying was one of the witching world’s most coveted
persuasions
, and her sister was a gifted fly-witch who made her magical talents appear effortless. Honora was physically stronger than other witches, since a flyer’s bones and muscles were built to withstand the force of being airborne. They were also mentally tougher, had faster reflexes, and were utterly fearless. Having these qualities often led flyers to take up dangerous occupations, and Honora was no exception, running her own private investigation company.

Vivi’s eyes must have been as wide as two full moons.

“You okay?” Honora asked, her boots thudding to the floor as she sat up in her chair upon seeing her sister.

“Not really,” Vivi said. “What are you doing all the way out here in Willow Realm? Not exactly your stomping grounds.”

Honora lived in the glittery cosmopolitan mecca of Stargazer City and, unless she was visiting her sisters or working a case, rarely ventured this far from her beloved urban domain.

“Got a job. I’m looking for someone.”

Goosebumps prickled Vivi’s skin. Could they be searching for the same witch? “Is she in her early twenties? Does she have long strawberry-blonde hair? Pretty? Very thin?” the words spilled from Vivi’s mouth in a desperate flood.

Worry spread across Honora’s face. “No. Vivi, sit down. What’s going on? What are you doing in the sheriff’s station?”

Vivi sunk into the chair next to her sister. “I saw something,” she whispered. “Something really bad. Honora, I had a vision.”

Honora closed her eyes for a brief second, as if gathering her thoughts, and shook her head. “Damn. We should have said something sooner. Clover and I both wondered if there wasn’t more to your
persuasion
, but we thought you would tell us when you were ready. I had no idea it was this serious.”

“It’s not your fault. I should have said something, but I didn’t want to deal with it, and now I’m here.”

Honora gave her sister a knowing nod. “Well, it must have been pretty bad for you to come to the police. Like, criminal bad.” Honora glanced over at Sheriff Gardener. “What are you going to do about this, Sheriff?” she asked.

“Me? I was hoping to hand the problem over to you.” He raised his eyebrows and gave them both an affable shrug. “This isn’t an official case. Vivian isn’t a registered seer. She’s a potion maker as far as I’m concerned.” He shifted nervously under Honora’s penetrating gaze. “A very fine potion maker, I might add.”

“Oh, please. Don’t give me that.” Honora glided over so she was face to face with the sheriff. Dressed in her dark brown leathers, she was almost as tall as he was, with broad shoulders and an athletic build. Imposing was an understatement when it came to Honora. She was strong and smart, and she knew it. Confidence danced off her skin like a spark.

“My sister came to you for help. I’m guessing she already told you all about her vision. The question now is are you going to help us or not?” Honora had a way of getting right to the point, which she liked to sharpen.

Vivi let out a long breath that she had been holding in her chest. Her sister’s determination was infectious. All she needed was for one person to believe her.

“I’ll help,” Juniper said, stepping forward from behind her desk. “Whatever I can do. Organize a search party, call in the dogs.”

“Hold on there, go-getter,” Sheriff Gardener said to his eager deputy assistant. “No, you won’t.”

“How am I supposed to prove myself if you never let me do anything?” Juniper pleaded her case. She was wiry, her crisp uniform gaping around her thin arms.

“This isn’t about you, Juniper. It’s about Ms. Mayhem.” The sheriff crossed his muscled forearms over his chest and addressed Honora with an annoyed glance. “I’m not your whipping boy. We follow the rules in this town. From your reputation, I realize you like to make your own rules, but you can’t come in here and just boss us around.”

“I think I just did,” Honora said.

Juniper made a little squeak noise.

Sheriff Gardener didn’t even flinch but moved within inches of Honora’s face.

“I’ve known the Mayhem sisters a long time. I’m not afraid to say no to you. I thought you could help your sister. Don’t know why she came to me in the first place.”

“Looks like she made a mistake, putting her faith in the wrong wizard,” Honora jabbed. Vivi wedged her way between the two before a fight broke out. “Stop. Please, I don’t want to make things worse.”

Juniper took a tentative step toward her boss. “We can sense for a magical signature. See if there’s anything out there worth investigating. The black magic Vivi described in her vision would definitely leave a stain,” Juniper said. “Then if we find anything, we can head out. With Honora in the air and the three of us on foot, we can at least make a pass of a small area.”

“The voice of reason,” Honora said and gave Juniper a little bow.

“That’s all I’m asking for.” Vivi held the sheriff’s attention, his warm gaze softening toward her.

He didn’t look away. His shoulders relaxed and he paused, considering the suggestion. “The Dire Woods isn’t a picnic spot. The forest is wide and deep. One flyer, a wizard, and two witches aren’t going to be able to cover it on foot without a detection spell done first. We’ll try to identify trace magic, and if we find something, I’ll order a small controlled search.”

Vivi wanted to hug him. “Thank you, Sheriff. You won’t regret this.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” He turned to Honora. “You sure her vision doesn’t have anything to do with the job you’re on?”

“I’m looking for a guy named Maynard Luck. He’s a really nice wizard, part of a flying club I used to belong to. He went missing a few weeks ago. So, at first glance, no, but you never know in the private investigation business,” Honora said. “I came to check your files. He has a small cottage out here in Willow Realm where he does a lot of practice flights. Since I was here, I wanted to see if you had anything on him.”

“Let’s get moving then and fire up the detection spell with the dragon glass. Hope it shows us some magic out in the woods,” he said, giving Vivi a reassuring nod.

Witches were not impossible to locate. Magical devices like scrying mirrors and locator spells made finding someone pretty routine for a witch with magic detection skills. Hiding took talent, cloaking was a tough spell to master, and any magical object that could hide a witch left an energy signature. Because Vivi didn’t know who the kidnapped witch was, the only thing they could use to identify a location was magical residue left from sorcery. If the witch was being held against her will, then cloaking her took layered spellcraft. Vivi hoped the sorcery she saw in her vision was enough to leave a glaring magical signature that would lead them right to her.

While the preparations were being made for the detection spell, Vivi filled Honora in on details of her vision. “What if we don’t find anything?” She shifted nervously from foot to foot. “What if I’m wrong?”

“We’ll deal with that later. Hold off your worrying until after we learn the results,” Honora whispered.

“It’s my fault. I’ve been ignoring my
persuasion
for so long, I don’t even know my own power. The vision was a series of images and emotion. I couldn’t give the sheriff a solid timeline of events. We could be too late to detect any magic.”

“You know what they say, timing is everything.” Honora rubbed Vivi’s shoulder. “If the magic is as black as you say, he probably has a taste for it. He’s practiced, Vivi. We’re going to catch him.”

Her sister was so certain. It was exactly the kind of pep talk she needed. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Juniper guided Honora and Vivi into the room the sheriff’s department had dedicated to surveillance, location, and scrying. Illuma light glowed from the wall sconces. Vivi rubbed her arms against the chill as they all gathered around the edges of the room. Once they were settled, Sheriff Gardener released a lever in the wall, lowering a heavy glass table from the ceiling by three thick ropes. A map of Everland was etched into the opaque and milky surface that was warped and uneven. The history books revealed that the magical substance called dragon’s glass had been forged by the fiery breath of the deadly mythical beasts, at the edge of the witching world where the land met the sea. The ancient history of the fabled world never ceased to amaze Vivi with its misty seaside and fiery magical creatures. But dragons hadn’t been seen for centuries, and all that was left of them were mysterious tales and chunks of magical glass.

The sheriff took a bottle from a shelf and pulled the cork. He poured a mixture directly onto the center of the table. The fluid pooled like liquid silver, metallic and reflective, that beaded and flowed across the glass surface. Next, he waved his wand over the silvery pool and spoke the activation spell. The mixture acted like a homing beacon, seeking out and locating magical traces in the woods, trying to find a clue that would lead them to the missing witch.

Sheriff Gardener continued with the spell and the liquid trembled and swirled around the glass surface as if alive. When he reached the part of the spell narrowing down the location to a specific region of Everland, they all joined in and whispered, “Dire Woods, Dire Woods, Dire Woods!” A chill went through the room.

The silver surface undulated with the voices of the witches, and at their command, stretched itself thin over the table into a wiry snake that rolled over the surface of the glass map, searching for a signature of dark magic. When working perfectly, the metallic liquid beaded up like mercury, circling an area on the map, then pooling open so the center of the circle revealed a location, but in this case, the liquid kept moving, seeking.

“Let’s see if we have a sign.” The sheriff leaned over the table, his gaze trained on the silver orb.

They watched and waited.

Nothing happened.

The room grew awkwardly silent.

“Try the spell again,” Honora said. “You could have uttered the incantation wrong.”

“I’ve never had a problem before.” He narrowed his eyes at her, but relented with a shrug and went through the spell again.

The second time, they still got nothing. They waited a few more minutes, but as the stillness grew it seemed pointless. Nothing showed up on the glass. No black magic had been detected. Vivi felt defeated. She had been so sure. Juniper began packing up.

“We can’t stop now. There has to be something else we can try,” Vivi said.

Juniper opened her mouth to speak, but the sheriff nudged her with his elbow before his assistant could get any words out. “There isn’t anything we can do.”

He cleared his throat, causing Juniper to twist up her mouth in repressed silence. “We tried. I’m really sorry. I know it doesn’t seem that way now, but I am.” He turned his broad back on Vivi, avoiding her gaze for the first time.

That was strange,
she thought. Something was up with him.

Honora pulled her shoulders back in defiance. “We’ll do the search on our own. I’ll help you.”

Vivi could tell by his reaction to Juniper that the sheriff was hiding something, and she wasn’t about to leave without finding out what. “Can you two give us a moment alone?”

Juniper and Honora filed out of the room.

“Can I ask you a question?” Vivi asked.

“Sure.” He tucked his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels.

“Why aren’t you doing everything you can to locate the witch?” It was her turn to be direct.

He raised his brow. “Here, I thought I was doing you a favor.” He snorted. “I can assure you, I take my job seriously. We used the glass, didn’t we?”

“You’re going through the motions, so if that’s a favor, then yes, you’re doing the bare minimum. But you can do more. I know there’s something you’re holding back.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, creating a barrier between them. “You don’t understand.”

“Then make me.” Talking to him was like trying to pry open a clam.

“My job isn’t as simple as it may seem. And what you’re asking me to do would violate protocol.” He cleared his throat.

She didn’t remember Lance being so uptight and by the book back at Haven Academy. “What protocol? What are you talking about?”

He hesitated, standing firm.
Stubborn wizard.

“I can stand here all day, and I’m not leaving without an answer.” She crossed her arms loosely over her chest, matching his stance, and realizing they both needed to work on their trust issues.

His gazed shifted to the floor, unable to keep eye contact with her. “Let’s just say I’m under certain rules and restrictions by the council.” His voice lowered to practically a whisper.

“What does that mean?” Why would the council care about Willow Realm? They were small potatoes in the witching world, unless it wasn’t them they were worried about. “It’s the Dire Woods. That’s what you’re avoiding?”

“I’m not avoiding, just following the rules concerning magical monitoring of the woods.” He rolled his eyes as if she had just pried some precious secret from him. “See, I shouldn’t have told you that.”

Vivi’s brow knitted. She considered what he had said. “You’re saying we aren’t allowed to know what’s going on in the Dire Woods? You aren’t allowed to monitor magic?”
That was interesting and a little scary.

“Pretty much. Searching those woods is advised against. It’s frowned upon, if you know what I mean. There are things going on in Everland that the council doesn’t want the general public knowing about.”

“Then we have to do it. Don’t you see? The fact the council doesn’t want us poking around is practically proof that something’s going on out there.”

“Vivi, a lot of bad stuff, suspect magic, and downright weirdness goes on out there all the time. The council advises law enforcement to stay out of it and let their team, the Hex Division, handle things, and I’m inclined to agree.”

Hex Division was an elite police force that worked directly under council orders and handled the most dangerous cases.

“We need to act now.” The image of the bound witch flashed in her mind’s eye. “She won’t last long. I don’t know how I know this, I just do.” Vivi brushed her hair out of her face. “I’ve made mistakes in the past, but this can’t be one of them. I can’t wait. If you won’t help me, then Honora and I will go out there totally blind and alone.”