Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON TWO (Ongoing)

Part 2.3

I watch the woman in front of me warily. She has eyes like drops of persimmon, a small petulant mouth, and curls of glittering amber. Little magic hearts hide amongst the curls, in shades of green, orange and silver.

When I speak, my voice is unusually quiet. "What do you want, Emmeline?"

Emmeline, my stepmother, fixes me with the soft glare I've known since I was three years old. "You didn't attend your mother's memorial this year."

"I never attend that," I reply brusquely.

"Your father would like it very much if you did."

I would like it very much if my father hadn't married Emmeline barely a year after my mother's death, but hey. We don't always get what we want.

"What do you want, Emmeline?" I repeat, this time with a small sigh.

"I need you to fix things with your mother, Lily. We can't keep going on like this."

The meditation class Addy dragged me to, I have to admit, has been a lifesaver. I take a deep breath now, and hold it. Then I release it slowly. When I'm good and calm I say, "I don't know what you're talking about, Emmeline."

My stepmother's gaze drops. When she raises it, her look is hard and angry. The hearts in her hair blaze green. "It's your mother, Lily. Your mother is back."

*

I don't know what this crazy woman is talking about. My mother died in a cart accident when I was three. She knows that better than anyone.

"My mother," I say angrily, "is dead."

She scoffs, the hearts in her hair settling into a subdued silver. It takes all the professionalism I can muster not to reach across the desk and snap her dainty neck.

"Since the memorial, we've had fires break out throughout the house. Strange fires, animated. They leap and surge, as if they are creatures with their own minds. My maid has a scarred arm to show for it." Emmeline's soft glare returns, along with a bitter curl of her lip. "Do you know what your mother's favourite animal was, Lily? It was the phoenix."

I refuse to nod, but I know what she's talking about. The legendary Sactaphranian bird said to rise from its own ashes. They say there are a couple left in the Deadly Desert.

"Your mother always said that if she died, she would come back as a phoenix. And here she is, rising from the ashes to mock me."

A deep rage stirs within me. My mother didn't die just to spite Emmeline. And if it weren't for Emmeline, my mother wouldn't have died at all.

"Your mother has made it clear she won't rest," Emmeline continues. "Whatever you did, Lily, you need to go back and fix it."

For a moment, all I see are butterflies. Butterflies, black and deadly, surging within me like a living wave. My pendant throbs violently against my chest. Then I'm in control again, the anger safe behind a wall of restraint.

"I don't know what you're talking about." My voice is still hot, much hotter than it should be for a professional speaking to her client. I want to help it, but I can't.

Emmeline shakes her head. "I'm sorry, Lily, but I know. I know you killed your mother."

*

Black butterflies shoot from my fingertips. I barely have time to register the shape of a cat before it's in front of me, snarling viciously.

My rage dissipates. I draw a ragged breath.

Do not let the darkness consume you, Lily. Onyx's eyes are wild but steady. Fight it.

I don't know if I can. It's threatening to bubble up again already. The First Witch is knocking at my door, and I'm almost ready to let her in. This woman, I can't deal with her. But Onyx is right. I must.

Emmeline is nervously watching the spot where a vase of tulips had been mere moments ago. "What kind of spell was that?" she quavers. "The flowers were there, then they vanished."

"It's a Witch Doctors Inc special," I snap.

She turns her gaze to Onyx. "Why is that cat still here? I thought you said it died."

"What?!" I splutter. "I never said - "

I shall live for aeons after she has expired, Onyx huffs.

Emmeline shifts her gaze back to me, as if Onyx is nothing but a distasteful inconvenience. "Lily, I don't know what you did, or how you did it, but I know it was you. I went to see Seraphine after the fires started. She told me there was something wrong with you. Something unnatural. You hadn't wanted your mother to leave that day. You were inconsolable in your nanny's arms when you wailed that you wouldn't let your mother go. Moments later, the cart crashed."

I close my eyes. Black butterflies dance against my eyelids. When I speak, my voice holds a blackness that hollows out the air around me. "Get out, Emmeline. I never want to see you again."

*

Big Boss looks down his spectacles at me. "You told a client," he says, "to 'get out', and that you never want to see her again."

I'm not going to sugarcoat this. That's what I did. It was unprofessional. It made the company look bad. And I absolutely, one hundred percent, did it.

Big Boss sighs. He removes his spectacles and wipes at the dust with a handkerchief. Without them, his eyes are warm and brown. Wrinkles spider out from them. "Your intellect is remarkable, and your reasoning is top notch. You work hard and you dedicate yourself to the task at hand. But you need to work on your people skills."

I bite my lip to keep from retorting. That woman accused me of killing my mother. She said it right to my face. And the worst thing is, a part of me fears that she's right. That even in childhood, I was evil incarnate.

"It won't happen again," I say quietly, "But I can't take this case. I'm too close to it."

Big Boss watches me with curiosity in his eyes. They aren't so warm anymore. "Mrs Hartfeld asked for you specifically. She believes you are the only one who can help her."

"But I'm not," I say flatly. "There isn't an angry ghost haunting her. Any Witch Doctor can show her that."

"She does not want any Witch Doctor. She wants you."

She wants me. What a joke. She's never wanted me.

Big Boss's gaze never leaves my face, but something in it changes. Kindness? Pity? Something else? "Lily, we all make mistakes. We all wish we could take an eraser and smudge out sections of the past. But we can change. We can rebuild. We are stronger than we know. You can solve this case. You can put your feelings aside, and act with professionalism. You are capable."

The thing in his gaze that I can't name softens, blurring back into the nothing it came from. "Go back to your childhood home, Lily. Take Adamantine with you. You will succeed."