Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON ONE (Completed!)

Part 4.6

"Big Boss always gives me the hard ones," I complain.

Addy licks a glob of raspberry icing from her fingers. "It's because he knows you have talent."

"I already had clients booked this morning. He should've given the case to Ruby."

Onyx makes his way to the lemon meringues. I am of the opinion, he says, that Lily should not be given any assignment where there is even the slightest risk of imminent disaster.

I snatch a meringue out of his paw and chuck it in my own mouth instead. "No treats for bad cats," I smirk.

He settles down between my pillows, unperturbed. Greed does not become you.

I ignore him and draw the curtains. The glare from the window is making me lose my concentration. The buildings in Zilitron are mostly made of magnamite, a clear crystal which can either be see-through or completely opaque. Fire quartz may not be native to this planet, but magnamite is everywhere. Where they couldn't use magnamite they've built with a less sturdy material - glass. They don't call us the great Mirror City for nothing.

I turn back to Addy, who chews thoughtfully. "Are you sure it was a vision? Not just some memory?"

"I think it was both," I admit. "You know I have flashbacks to my previous lives. This was one of them, I know it."

Perhaps you saw something from Phaedra, Onyx suggests.

I shake my head. Phaedra was a place of ice and drifting multicoloured mist. Where we built everything with magnamite, their cities rose up with the flickering flames of fire quartz. I didn't have a very wide view in the vision, but I'd know my home world. I would feel it in my bones, calling me.

"Not Phaedra. But those dolls, Onyx..." I wince, trying to bury their memory. "I've never seen anything like it. Who would make dolls like that?"

Onyx purrs softly. The vision came to you when you touched the girl, Ara. Perhaps they are connected to her somehow.

"Maybe. But there's nothing wrong with Ara. It's her mother who has the floppy arm."

Floppy, I think, like a doll.

Perhaps it is the child's doing.

"Onyx, she's what, seven years old? You think she could cast a spell on her own? Where would she even get a cauldron? Plus, there wasn't a hex on the mother. Diagnostics came up negative."

"Maybe it's a charm gone wrong," Addy suggests.

I shake my head again. "She was negative for charms too. But I can...feel the magic in her, in that arm. It's almost like I'm drawn to it."

Perhaps it is a curse.

He has a point. Curses are rare, and they require more skill than a charm or hex, as they're longer-lasting. The ingredients tend to be rarer too. But if someone really wanted to get you, really hated you that much, they could make it happen.

"I wanted to check for a curse," I say, "but some idiot took the last bottle of griffin's tears and didn't order any more. Ruby can't get me any until tomorrow morning."

I can get the griffin's tears, Onyx says.

"Uh, how exactly?"

I have my ways.

"Fine. If you get me counterfeit tears though, I will turn you into cat soup and eat you. Anyway, I'd like to change the subject. Anything but those accursed dolls." I shiver.

Addy gobbles down her meringue and obliges. "Hami wanted to take me shopping today." Hami is the word for mother in Addy's native tongue, Mamauri. "She was after a silver dress with blue crescent moons all over it. It's the latest from Cerberus Designs."

"So what's wrong?" I enquire.

"Oh, I don't know. I think it's a bit much. And she wants me to wear the charmed eye glitter, the one Maya Cerberus wore for that gala appearance. I can't just turn up to work all glittery."

That sounded just like Queen Irine. Charms, charms, more charms. And dresses. Can't forget the dresses.

"What else?" I prod, handing Addy a lemon cupcake and taking a raspberry tart for myself.

"Oh, Ruby's rounded up an investigation team." She takes a bite of the lemon cupcake and munches enthusiastically.

"Great. What are they investigating?"

"You," she replies, with another happy munch.

I choke on my raspberry tart.

"What do you mean, me?"

"Well, you know how she thinks you're a witch. She's managed to convince a few others."

I groan. "What are they calling themselves?" Don't tell me it's Witchbusters.

"Witchbusters," Addy replies. "Just kidding, just kidding. I don't know what they're calling themselves. It's something in some old language I didn't understand."

Well that's just great. I'll just add that to my plate.

"By the way," Addy continues, "whatever happened with those Laketrue sisters? Did Gloria really hex Lydia?"

Ah, to go back to that case. If only.

"Nope," I answer. "It was the boy, Gloria's son. He meant to hex his own mother, because she kept bossing him around and he was sick of it. He slipped it into her glass at a family get-together, but Lydia ended up drinking from it instead. I think he got a kick out of making it the greenfingers hex because his mother was jealous of Lydia's flower shop."

"Oh wow," Addy says. "I guess the Mirror Guard got it out of him. They're always good at that. They helped me track down a stolen purse once." She tilts her head and frowns slightly. "I didn't expect it to be the kid though. Who knew that kids could be so angry at their parents?"

"Anyone can be angry," I say quietly.

And kids aren't always as innocent as they seem.