Valleys, Vittles, and Vanishings Read online

  “That’s a good question,” Riley said softly.

  “A very good question,” I said, staring at the door.

  3

  “Of all the luck,” Savannah said, passing me a heaping helping of mashed potatoes from her side of the dinner table and shaking her head. “Who could have imagined Crystal Mangrove would be the building inspector?”

  “I could have,” I said, holding my plate under her spoon to catch the scoop of potatoes. “You know, if a certain someone had actually gotten my mail to me on time . . .”

  “Look at these nails!” Charlotte said, flashing fingernails that had been freshly painted in alternating pink and purple hues. “And you haven’t even seen my toenails yet. Do you want to see my toenails?”

  “Charlotte, as your grandmother and head of this family, I swear that if your bare feet come into contact with the top of my dinner table, I will turn you into a cantaloupe,” Grandma Winnie said in her most no-nonsense tone. “If you don’t believe it, try me.”

  Charlotte looked at our grandmother and then wilted into her seat. We all knew better than to test Grandma Winnie at dinner time. This was a sacred hour for her, the only part of the day when all her family was together in the same room. She might not have allowed Charlotte to stay a cantaloupe for long, but you can believe that if my cousin would have been stupid enough to actually test the old woman, she’d have had to have been refrigerated for at least the rest of the night.

  “That’s a shame,” Savannah said, sneering at her older sister. “I could have really gone for some fruit salad.”

  “Enough with the bickering,” Grandma Winnie said. “All of you had better eat before I turn this entire table into Brussels sprouts.”

  “Well, don’t punish everybody,” I muttered, scrunching my mouth up in distaste at the thought of this delicious dinner being reduced to Brussels sprouts.

  “I won’t just so long as you don’t,” Grandma Winnie said, shaking her head at me.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, leaning back in my chair and looking around at the bounty of food in front of us. “I’d never trade fried chicken in for Brussels sprouts. It’s sacrilege.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” Grandma Winnie said, tapping her fingers against the floral tablecloth spread across the dining room table. As I watched her, waiting to hear what she had to say, it struck me that she must have been where Charlotte got her affinity for floral patterns from. “Though I’m sure it’s the most important aspect to you, this feud didn’t start with you and Crystal, Izzy.”

  “I know, Grandma,” I sighed. “You’ve told me a whole bunch of times.”

  “Well, I’m going to tell you one more time. Since apparently, you weren’t listening before,” she snapped.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I muttered, knowing better than to talk back to my grandmother. Heck, I didn’t want to end up next to Charlotte on the fruit tray or anything.

  “The Lockhearts and the Mangroves have been feuding over this mountain since there was a mountain to feud over,” Grandma Winnie started, leaning back and easing into her storytelling voice. “When we settled in Spell Creek, your great-great-grandfather, Harold Lockheart, stuck a flag in this place and claimed this land, the high land, for us.”

  “I know, Grandma,” I answered. “We got the highlands and the Mangrove coven got the valley. They’ve been jealous of us ever since.”

  “Is that why they’re jealous?” Charlotte asked, scrunching her nose up. “I thought it was because they all look like rejects from a Picasso exhibit. They are ugly.”

  “Not all of them,” Savannah muttered, digging into her coleslaw with her fork.

  “Seriously?’ Charlotte muttered. “Please tell me that you do not still have a crush on that Mangrove boy. You could do so much better.”

  Savannah scoffed, rolling her eyes. “His name is Lucas, and I’ve never had a crush on him. He’s just not ugly, that’s all. I am mature enough to be able to think a man is mildly attractive and not fall completely in love with him, you know.”

  “Sure you are,” Charlotte answered.

  “They’re not ugly,” I said, stabbing a fork into my fried chicken. “In fact, Crystal is very fashionable. I’m sure there are some people who would even say she’s attractive.”

  “Like Riley?” Charlotte asked, giving me a wink. I grimaced. Why did she have to be so combative, anyway?

  “Maybe,” I answered as heat rose into my cheeks, though the truth was the idea of Riley having any sort of romantic feelings toward Crystal made me want to stick my fork into the soft spot in her skull.

  “She sure seemed interested in him,” Charlotte reminded me.

  “Maybe she was, but he wasn’t interested in her,” I answered matter-of-factly.

  ‘And how do you know that?” Charlotte asked.

  “Because it’s been two days since she left The Country Cauldron and he hasn’t mentioned her even once.”

  “Such a stupid name for a restaurant,” Charlotte muttered, shaking her head and diving back into her food.

  “All I’m saying is that the Mangrove coven has been looking for a way to get one over on us for generations now,” Grandma Winnie said. “Don’t let a building permit be the thing that grants them their wish.”

  “I’m going to take care of it, Grandma,” I said. “I already called the building commission and asked them to send me a different inspector. This really isn’t a big deal.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Grandma Winnie said. “You know how the Mangrove coven can be. The last thing we need is to have any dealings with them.”

  Just then, the doorbell rang. We all looked at each other.

  “Are we expecting any guests at the B&B tonight, Grandma?” I asked, looking over at the woman.

  “Not that I’m aware of,” she said. “And there’s a sign on the front door telling guests to walk into the lobby. I’m not sure why they’d be ringing the doorbell.”

  “I’ll go see what’s going on,” I said, setting my silverware down, pushing away from the table, and walking toward the door. A sense of uneasiness filled me as I crossed through the lobby. Usually, that would be enough to give me pause. By and large, witches knew enough to heed their intuition. I had been dealing with a lot, though. What with fixing up the restaurant and getting it ready for opening, I didn’t have time to listen to my intuition, much less heed it.

  Pulling the door open, I immediately regretted that decision. There, standing in front of me, was half the Mangrove coven.

  “That’s her, Grandma Eloise,” a tall redheaded woman I recognized as Crystal’s sister Gayle said, shaking her head at me and sneering. “That’s the one.”

  “The one?” I asked, my heart beating faster. “I’m not the one. What one?”

  “Don’t play the fool with us, little girl,” Grandma Eloise, an older woman who shared the red hair that seemed to be part of being a Mangrove said, her voice hissing at me like a snake. “I know you’ve done something with Crystal, and if you don’t give her back to us, I’m going to be forced to destroy you all.”

  4

  “I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head hard and trying to make sense of what had just happened. “I’m certain I just misheard you, because otherwise it sounded like you just accused me of kidnapping Crystal.”

  I couldn’t believe these words were coming out of my mouth. The very idea of it was too insane to conceive of. Sure, I didn’t like Crystal. If I had to choose between being handcuffed to Crystal or losing the hand the handcuff was on, let’s just say I wouldn’t be entering any jump rope competitions anytime soon. That didn’t mean I would hurt her, of course. The truth was quite the contrary. Kidnapping someone would imply that you wanted them around. I couldn’t think of anything worse than having Crystal Mangrove anywhere near me. Still, the fact that her entire family saw fit to come to a place they all knew to be enemy territory told me they were desperate. It said that something had, in fact, happened to Crystal. Even thou
gh they were dead-wrong about the person responsible, the idea that she was in trouble still hit me right where I lived. Coincidentally, that was also where her entire family was standing, accusing glares and all.

  “That’s exactly what I accused you of, Izzy Lockheart,” Eloise said, pointing a long, aged finger in my direction. I shrank back a little, because any time you’re dealing with witches, especially witches as old and learned as Eloise, a pointed finger could mean a lot more than it might seem. Spells came from those fingers, and given all the experience a woman like Eloise had under her belt, there was only one person in all of Spell Creek Mountain who could tangle with her when she had her finger pointed. Luckily for me, that woman happened to be rushing up from behind me right now.

  “Eloise Mangrove, you must be itching for a whooping,” Grandma Winnie said, her voice terse and animated. “That’s the only reason I can think of that you’d have the nerve to show up at my doorstep and threaten my granddaughter with that crusty finger of yours!”

  Eloise pursed her lips at my grandmother, her body tensing as Grandma Winnie approached.

  “I wasn’t threatening her, Winnie, though I would definitely have a right to,” Eloise said, which was an absolute lie, seeing as how not thirty seconds ago, she’d said she would destroy me. Still, I felt like I was standing with my foot pressed against the hornet’s nest. One wrong move, and I’d kick it, sending hundreds of angry hornets in every direction. That was the last thing I needed. It was the last thing Spell Creek Mountain needed. A reignited feud between the Mangroves and the Lockhearts would only spell trouble for anyone who got in its path. Seeing as how small our little mountain town was, it seemed to me that the path of a feud would be wide indeed.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Grandma Winnie asked, her eyes darting from one red-haired witch to the next. We knew all of them, of course. The Mangroves might have been our enemies, but Spell Creek Mountain was still a small town. It wasn’t the kind of place where you couldn’t know your neighbors, especially if you disliked them.

  “There’s been a misunderstanding,” I said calmly, looking from one of the old women to the other and literally shaking at the thought of what all that power would do if it clashed. “They think that—”

  “There’s been no misunderstanding!” Eloise said, shaking her head, her finger still pointed at me like a loaded gun. “My granddaughter disappeared yesterday afternoon. She stopped answering her phone and never showed back up to work. She went to exactly one spot yesterday, Izzy, and that spot was your ridiculous restaurant.”

  “There’s nothing ridiculous about Izzy’s restaurant,” Grandma Winnie said. “The Country Cauldron is going to be the toast of Spell Creek Mountain. Now, if Crystal has run off, I’d consider the possibility that she might have needed a little break from you. I certainly wouldn’t blame her.”

  “You mean the same way your granddaughter needed a five-year break from you in Chicago?” Eloise shot back.

  I practically felt the anger rise in my grandmother.

  “Stop this!” I said, raising my hands in what had to be the universal sign for ‘please don’t fight.’ “I didn’t do anything to Crystal. If you’re having trouble finding her and you’re concerned, why don’t you try a locator spell?”

  Eloise scoffed at me. “Do you think you’re talking to some baby witch who hasn’t earned her broom yet, child? I know more than you could if you lived another thousand years.” She folded her arms over her chest, mercifully dropping her pointed finger to do so. “I already tried a locator spell. Whatever you did to her is cloaking her, stopping me from being able to find her.”

  “You’d think somebody who knows more than a thousand-year-old would be able to get around something like that,” Charlotte, who I hadn’t realized was behind me, snorted in response.

  “I’d keep my mouth shut if I were you, Charlotte,” Gayle said, sneering at my cousin.

  “What you gonna do, Gayle? Give me bad makeup tips?” Charlotte chuckled.

  “No,” Eloise said. “She’s going to give you an ultimatum, just like I am.” The woman took a deep breath. “You know what this week means to my family. I’m not sure how you know, but you do. That can’t be a coincidence. You want to tear down everything I’ve built, and you’re striking at us during our weak time to get that done.” She shook her head. “We’re not weak, though, Izzy. Even now, we have more power than you could imagine. You people look down on us because we live in the valleys. You think you’re better than us because your ancestor happened to get here ten minutes before ours. You couldn’t be more wrong, and we’re about to prove that to you.”

  “Prove it to us how?” I asked, narrowing my eyes as dread filled my chest.

  Eloise took a step back, revealing a flower that had miraculously sprung up through the single crack on our cement porch.

  “Crystal was my favorite,” Eloise said. “I have no qualms in admitting that, and you took her from me.”

  “Ma’am, I did no such thing,” I said, blinking hard at the woman.

  “The daisy on your porch will last three days,” Eloise said. “With each passing day, the petals will fall. Once the last petal has fallen, you’ll feel what I feel now. If Crystal isn’t returned to me in three days’ time, you’ll lose your favorite too . . . and they’ll never return to you.” Eloise smirked. “The spell has been cast.”

  “Eloise!” Grandma Winnie screamed.

  “And just to make sure you know I’m not bluffing, I’ll prove how serious I am,” she said. “You’re trying to tear down everything I’ve built. I’ll tear down what you’ve built, Izzy Lockheart.”

  “You have a nice restaurant,” Gayle sneered. “It’d be a shame if it caught fire.”

  With that, the Mangrove coven raised their right hands and snapped their fingers in tandem. They turned and walked away, disappearing into the darkness outside.

  I swallowed hard, my head spinning as I took in everything that had just happened.

  “My restaurant is on fire, isn’t it?” I asked, still looking out into the darkness where the Mangrove coven had vanished.

  “Oh, yeah,” Charlotte answered. “It’s totally on fire.”

  5

  By the time I made it to The Country Cauldron, a crowd had gathered and there was a fire truck in front of the space. That was both a good and a bad thing. Though Spell Creek Mountain was a small town, the citizens made sure no one ever lacked for anything important. We had one of the best volunteer fire departments in the state, and that was no small thing when you live in the Great Smoky Mountains. It also meant that the people of this town were concerned about me. I had received no fewer than ten calls in the brief time it took me to get from Lockheart Estates to where my restaurant sat. Each of those calls was more heartfelt and concerned than the last. These people cared about me. They wanted me to be okay, which was as heartwarming a feeling as I’d ever experienced.

  Still, having such a crowd gathered meant I couldn’t use magic to quench the fire without blowing my cover. Having a fire start in a building out of nowhere was one thing. That could have been caused by electrical issues. Having a raging fire just stop inside a building was something else altogether. I was going to have to let the fire department do their job and deal with the aftermath as it came.

  “Oh, no,” Charlotte said, pulling into a parking spot on the side of the road and looking with terror at the fact that my would-be eatery had been turned into a giant campfire. “I can’t believe they would do this. I didn’t think even the Mangroves would stoop this low.”

  “I did,” I answered, swallowing hard as I thought about all the time and money I’d put into The Country Cauldron. With one fell swoop, it had all—pardon the pun—gone up in flames. “They’re afraid and desperate. That makes people dangerous. When those people also happen to be witches, the danger factor goes way up.” I opened the door and got out. Charlotte followed. ‘They think I took Crystal. I’m surprised a little fire is all they did.”r />
  “A little fire?” Charlotte balked. “Look at this! It’s a nightmare.”

  “It’s not ideal,” I answered. “But study the fire. Look at how it’s staying contained to just my restaurant. A normal fire would have already spread to Wilson’s Pharmacy on the left and the As It Used To Be Antique Store on the right. The Mangroves are just playing chicken.”

  “Playing chicken with your livelihood,” Charlotte reminded me.

  “That’s true,” I conceded. “But as far as they’re concerned, I’m playing with their family, and that’s worth a lot more.” I swallowed hard. “If something would have happened to one of you, I can’t say I wouldn’t have done something just as bad.”

  “I can,” Charlotte said quickly. “You’re not like those people. Wanna know how I know? Because something bad did just happen. Eloise spelled a flower to take away your favorite person in the world. There’s a ticking clock over your head, Izzy, and I don’t see you setting fire to that farm in the valley they call home.”

  “Fire was never my favorite,” I answered. ‘Besides, that sort of thing won’t help me. You heard Eloise. The spell has already been cast. The parameters have been set. I might not have taken Crystal, but she’s definitely gone. That either means Grandma Winnie was right and she’s hightailed it out of town, or someone actually has taken her.” I shook my head. “My money is on the latter. Crystal might be a snake in high heels, but she’s always been loyal to her family. She wouldn’t just leave without saying anything. Besides, Eloise said something about this being a vulnerable time for them. She didn’t think it was a coincidence and neither do I. I’m not sure what’s going on with the Mangrove coven right now, but whatever it is, someone is trying to exploit it. I have to find out who that is and what they’ve done with Crystal. Otherwise—”

  “I’m going to be disappearing,” Charlotte said, pursing her lips and shaking her head.