Witches in Wonderland Read online

  Table of Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

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  21

  22

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  24

  25

  Acknowledgements

  About the author

  Also by this Author

  Witches in Wonderland

  Copyright © 2015 by Lauren Quick All rights reserved.

  First Edition: 2015

  Cover and Formatting: Streetlight Graphics

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  1

  Vivi Mayhem stood in the back room of her magical potion shop, The Potion Garden, pouring sparkling globs of purple wax over the cork stoppers of a fresh batch of potions she’d whipped up earlier in the day, sealing the magical concoctions inside. A dozen bottles sparkled in the glowing illuma light of the workroom. A thunderous boom shook the rafters, causing Vivi to practically jump out of her skin. Dark purple storm clouds loomed outside in the dusky sky. The shop’s windows dripped with beads of rain, the wet spring day coming to a dramatic end. Her trusty assistant, Pepper, had finished helping the last of the customers and closed up the shop when she peeked into the back room.

  “Bad news, boss,” Pepper said and swung her freshly cut auburn bob. With a nervous swallow, she adjusted her green-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her pert nose. She held out a wrinkled piece of parchment. “I just found this order from earlier in the week. I think it got lost in the shuffle. I’ve been so busy studying for my potions final that I must have overlooked it.” Pepper was working on an advanced degree in potion making, taking night and weekend courses at Haven Academy’s School of Advanced Magic.

  Vivi stretched and snatched up the parchment with a forgiving smile. “I don’t know how you do it all. Working here and taking classes in your free time. I admire your ambition, but you might want to cut back a little.” She scanned the order form. “It’s no big deal. We can handle it.”

  “The order needs to be delivered today.” Pepper wrung her hands.

  Vivi raised her eyebrows in mock surprise. “No big deal. Better to just get it done. A delivery sounds fun.” The thunder rumbled. “Well, maybe not exactly fun, but an adventure at least in this weather.”

  They’d added on a discreet delivery service for special customers who couldn’t make it into the shop for personal reasons. “Let’s see what’s on the list.” Vivi reviewed the potions and, to her relief, realized that everything needed was currently in stock. “No problem. I’ll gather them up and it’s ready to go.”

  Pepper shifted from foot to foot. “I hate to do this to you, but I’ve got plans tonight. I was hoping to cut out now.” Her lips curled with a mischievous grin. Vivi detected a fresh coat of lipstick on her assistant’s normally balm-coated lips and a whiff of perfume in the air. Pepper has a date.

  Vivi returned the smile. Pepper was the best assistant she could ever hope for and worked harder than she did some days. “Not to worry. I’ll deliver the potions myself. Plus, the potion request has my name on it anyway, so it should be me to take it. You go on and have fun for a change. Whatever it is you’re doing tonight.” Vivi didn’t want to pry and let the innuendo hang in the air.

  Pepper blushed. “I’ll tell you all about my evening tomorrow. I promise.”

  “You better,” Vivi said as Pepper scurried out the front door.

  Vivi pulled a small woven basket from under the counter and lined it with a piece of cloth. Next she collected the potions for her delivery customer. Interestingly, the potions on the list were for either energy or sleeping—Pep-Me-Up Peppermint Elixir, Rise and Shine Lemon Balm Daily Kick Starter, High Five Midday Jolt, and Blue Moon Sleep Tonic. Vivi suspected the witch was suffering from insomnia and wasn’t getting a good night’s rest, which then led to her needing a jolt throughout the day.

  Hopefully after taking a sleep tonic, tonight would be different. Vivi threw in a bottle of calming Chamomile Sense Soother as a gift and packed up the potions. She wrapped a shawl around her shoulders and used a magical ward to lock the shop behind her. Her raven familiar, Rumor, cawed from his perch on the wrought-iron sign hanging above the door. “Got a delivery,” she said and showed him the basket. He cawed again and took to the sky as her escort.

  A light sprinkle of rain dotted Vivi’s face and eyelashes. She pulled her wand from her purse and whispered a spell to create a sheltering ward above her head. No reason to get damp on her way out of town, and who needed an umbrella when she had magic? The address on the delivery form was for a street on the very outskirts of Willow Realm, and since there was no portal close to her destination, she was walking. The exercise would do her good, she told herself.

  After walking for about two miles toward her destination, Vivi was mildly winded and wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her arm. The buildings of Willow Realm receded behind her as she came to the correct street. Not recognizing her surroundings, she double-checked the address, and after confirming it, hurried down the street, eager to make the delivery and get home. Back at her apartment over the shop, she had leftover baked lasagna in the fridge and a glass of red wine with her name on it.

  Vivi trudged down the winding road overgrown with leafy vegetation and wild sprawling brambles. Crickets chirped from their hiding places in the brush and armored black beetles scurried underfoot between the cracks in the pavement. In the distance a lone stone tower stood stoically at the end of the road. Odd. She’d never seen the house before, but why would she? She’d never had any reason to come this far out of town. Vivi checked the delivery card against a small green mailbox perched out front. The name of the recipient was also foreign to her: Maybelle Cinder.

  A gauzy white curtain blew out of the open window on the second floor of the tower where a faint ghostly light glowed. Vivi pulled her shawl up around her as a cold breeze sent shivers across her skin. Rumor cawed from a tree branch overhead, and she agreed: the place was spooky. Vivi hurried up the path and rapped on the hard wooden door with her cold hand. She bounced up and down on her toes, trying to keep warm. There was no answer. She knocked again.

  And again.

  “Maybelle Cinder!” she called out. “It’s Vivi Mayhem with your potion delivery!” She pounded on the door. “Maybelle!”

  Suddenly a head poked out of the window on the second floor and a long coil of shimmering gray hair spooled toward her at an alarming pace. Luckily it bounced to a stop before hitting Vivi in the head but still made her jump out of its trajectory.

  “Hello, Vivi. I’ve been expecting you. Come in, dear, and come upstairs. Will you? My old ankles aren’t what they used to be. I hate climbing those rickety things.”

  Vivi smiled and tried the door, which was unlocked. The towe
r house was spotless, filled with beautiful velvet sofas and chairs and gleaming antique furniture. A floating glass illuma lamp was more for show than lighting, prompting Vivi to illuminate the tip of her wand. She located a polished curved stairwell off to her right that led up to the second floor.

  “In here, dear,” Maybelle called.

  Once upstairs, Vivi followed Maybelle’s voice to the front bedroom with a small sitting area. A fire glowed in the small hearth, nipping the chill right out of the air.

  “I have your potions,” Vivi said holding up the basket.

  “Thank you. You can place them on the table. The gold is for you.” The witch was still standing by the window and was wearing a long lacy dress that dragged the ground. Vivi did as she said and scooped up her payment. Flickering candles covered almost every surface, which Vivi found strange. Nowadays witches used magical illuma light, only using candles when a magical spell called for it, and that was mostly for use in ritual circle casting. Strange the witch was using them now. Unless.

  “Are you all right? Is there anything else I can get for you?” A spark of trepidation ignited in Vivi’s stomach. There was strange magic in the air. Suddenly a gust of wind blew through the curtains, sending the witch’s long hair tumbling across the floor. Her dress whipped around her. The candlelight fluttered and surged.

  “No, dear. I don’t need a thing. But I have something for you.” Maybelle turned around and Vivi jerked back. The witch’s eyes were wide and milky white, her lips pale blue, and she moved trance-like away from the window, gliding a few feet off the ground over to an armchair and hovered until sinking down, her face upturned to Vivi.

  Maybelle was a sender.

  Every witch and wizard in Everland is born with a magical power called a persuasion. Even though Vivi had a potion shop, her true persuasion was prophecy, although maybe she was slipping because she hadn’t seen this coming.

  Senders were conduits, literally receiving messages from one witch or wizard and relaying it to another. The message was communicated to the sender using a magic spell, and then the sender contacted the recipient, usually in a secretive way like Maybelle had by ordering the potions, and relayed the message in person.

  “I have a message for you.”

  A chill raced up Vivi’s spine. Senders were rare and mysterious. “A message from whom?” she croaked.

  The main purpose of using a sender and not the traditional messenger system was subterfuge. The messages were meant to be secret—no delivery, no trace, no receipt, just whispers on the lips of the sender who was a stranger to both the correspondent and recipient. Local witchy opinion was that only romantics or criminals used senders—secret love notes or untraceable correspondence.

  Maybelle’s blue-hued lips moved effortlessly, her eyes wide, her gaze unfocused. “He calls himself an old friend. He says you owe him a favor for scrying on him. He’s ready to collect his debt from you.”

  “Scrying?” Vivi asked, slightly confused and then a memory came rushing back to her. About a year ago, she and her sisters, Honora and Clover, huddled in Clover’s attic using an old family heirloom to spy on a dark wizard. The thought that he considered them friends was stomach twisting, or perhaps he was being coy? She should have known the message was really from an old nemesis—the Darklander.

  No wonder he wanted to keep it secret. A dark wizard with a bad reputation, the Darklander lived in the shadows on the fringe of Everland society. Secrets and shady dealings were his business, so there was no way he would crawl out of his Dire Woods sanctuary to speak with Vivi. On the bright side, at least he hadn’t shown up at her house.

  “He wants you to find someone for him—a wizard in great danger.”

  “Why me? I’m terrible at that sort of thing. It’s not like I have a reputation as an investigator. He could hire a professional to do this for him. Or use one of his creepy goat-horned lackeys.” The Darklander had an eccentric group of witches and wizards who surrounded him, adorning themselves with the physical traits of other magical creatures. The group was in favor of opening up the wall that concealed the witching world of Everland from the Otherworld, filled with magical creatures and humans.

  Maybelle’s eyes glowed white, her thin lips moving. “I don’t know his motives only his message.”

  “If he needed an investigator, he should have asked my sister Honora. She’s the private investigator in the family.” Vivi bit her lip. No need to drag her sister into this mess.

  “He wants you. You are the only recipient of the message. You are the one he has chosen for this task.” Her words were haunting, like the web of a spider that clung to Vivi’s whole body. “He wants you to find a wizard named Devlin Strange and do it without delay. It’s imperative that you find him, but don’t approach him. Locate the wizard and report back through me. No other means of contact. Do not visit his domain in the Dire Woods. Do not attempt to speak with him or send him any correspondence with your raven. Only me.”

  “Devlin Strange,” Vivi whispered the name. A shiver shook her body. The name was foreign and yet familiar at the same time, like she knew him long ago and was being reminded, a memory rising to the surface of her consciousness. Something was on the tip of her tongue, but then the sensation faded as quickly as it came. Her mind went blank.

  Vivi definitely didn’t want to help the Darklander like they were old pals. What was he thinking? That she would drop everything at his beck and call? She did spy on him, so technically she only had herself to blame for drawing his attention to her. Talk about a big mistake. But still, why? “What if I don’t want to do it? What if I say no?”

  “Dear, I am just the sender. What you do with the message is up to you. But you must realize that ignoring anything in life doesn’t make it go away. It only makes it wait for you. The Darklander is very persistent—the message strong with magic.”

  Vivi considered the task. “I guess I could try.” There was something vaguely familiar about the wizard, a sense deep inside that she couldn’t deny.

  “And so your task begins. Find Devlin Strange. I’ll be waiting.” She sat by the fire and blinked her eyes, which returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

  Vivi said her goodbyes and hurried out of the tower, making her way home safe and sound. The whole evening had given her the creeps. Once tucked up inside her cozy apartment above her shop, she scribbled a note to Honora on a piece of parchment and attached it to Rumor’s leg. The rain and wind gusted through an open window, causing the damp curtains to flutter. She hated sending him out late at night in bad weather, but what choice did she have? She wanted to meet with Honora as soon as possible and get her advice on what had transpired that evening. Rumor cawed and bobbed his head. A little rain and thunder didn’t scare a tough bird like him.

  With Rumor sent on his delivery, Vivi gulped a glass of wine and reheated her lasagna with a wave of her wand. She settled on the sofa with the plate on her lap and took a big bite, the bubbling cheese practically burning the roof of her mouth. She swallowed with a grimace. Her mind was still reeling from meeting the sender and the strange task she had been given by the dark wizard.

  Her memory flashed back to the last time she saw the Darklander right here in her apartment a year ago when he warned her that he would be back and now he had slithered his way into her life once again. She shuddered at the thought. She hadn’t expected him to return so soon and using such discreet methods. Maybe she should contact the police and put an end to it. Luckily her boyfriend just happened to be Willow Realm’s own hunky sheriff. Lance would take care of the Darklander for her.

  But she couldn’t forget the feeling of connection with Devlin Strange in some way. Her senses tingled, her curiosity on high alert. Maybe Vivi was making a big deal over nothing. All the Darklander had really asked her to do was find someone. That wasn’t illegal nor was it nefarious, u
nless this Devlin Strange was a criminal, but the only way to find that out was to find him. And did she really want to live her life having her sheriff boyfriend come to her rescue every time someone did something she didn’t like or made her feel uncomfortable?

  Maybe she’d make an attempt to find this wizard just to quell her curiosity and make sure he wasn’t in serious danger and then be done with him and with the Darklander for good. She took another bite of lasagna, the matter settled.

  That was what Vivi told herself at least, but she had a bad feeling this was just the beginning.

  2

  The next afternoon, Vivi took the Silver Train to Stargazer City while Pepper watched the shop. Sleek buildings glided by her window, the sun winking off the sheer glass and metal surfaces. Traveling from her little town to the city always felt like she was entering another world. When the train came to a stop, she stepped out onto the bustling sidewalk. Magic crackled in the air. The perfect spring day had pulled everyone outdoors. Vivi dodged wizards and witches wearing business suits and skirts, walking leisurely down the street, staring up at the sun like it was a mirage. In her white jeans and flower-print blouse, her hair loose and curly, she felt strangely out of place on a busy workday.

  Vivi was on her way to get some advice from her sage, investigator sister, Honora, and had arranged to meet at the office of Mayhem and Liu Investigations. The name glittered in black and gold paint on the glass door of the expanded office space now that Honora had partnered up with her old rival investigator, Jenny Liu.

  Honora sat regally behind her sleek modern desk, wearing a leather jumpsuit in a buttery tan color. It wasn’t an easy outfit to pull off, but Honora did it in style. Being a flyer, she didn’t need to exercise to maintain her muscle-toned physique, though her job did require a lot of sparing and kickboxing, which she claimed kept her in tough mental and physical form. And it gave her catlike reflexes, but that was just her bragging. Her long black hair was braided and piled up on her head, finishing off the sleek look.