Page 39 of Hexes and Hiccups
He jerked towards her, the dangerous vial in his hand falling out from between his fingertips. Daisy launched the potion over her head, aiming it directly at his feet. The world seemed to move in slow motion as Daisy ducked out of the way, watching as Tessa shoved the examiner behind a cabinet and fell alongside her. Daisy’s potion smashed against Wesley’s feet, and a puff of pale blue smoke filled the air all around him. It wrapped and transformed into a spherical shape, covering the old man’s entire body.
At the same time, the dangerous potion cracked and exploded against the floor of the examiner’s office. The floor swallowed itself instantly, creating a menacing and wide hole within the office. It creaked and moaned and shifted till the potion finished. It hadn’t wiped everything out but it was substantial enough. Tiles fell and cracked as the hole swallowed it up. Behind the cabinet, Sasha and Tessa remained unharmed, allowing Daisy to let out a deep breath she didn’t realize she had been holding.
Daisy picked herself off the ground when the floor stopped moving. Beside the hole, Wesley was safely trapped within a bubble-like sphere. It bounced and jiggled as he poked at it, his shouts and screams muffled slightly by it. Daisy inched closer to him, bewildered by the venomous look on his face. She recognized the man to have been sour, but never inherently evil. Suddenly he was something else entirely, showing a dark side he might’ve never planned to show. Daisy shuddered as he screeched and slammed old, wrinkled fists against the bubble.
“Daisy,” Tessa called out as she held the examiner in her arms. “You did it.”
Sasha cried and sobbed into the empath’s clothes, not daring to let her go.
“You’re alright,” the empath cooed, rubbing her hand across the girl’s back. “Don’t worry.” She looked up at Daisy, a smile on her face. “Everything’s coming up daisies, now.”
As Daisy retrieved her phone from her satchel, avoiding looking at Wesley’s angry expression, she dialed the Sheriff’s number, and pressed it to her ear. Everything was coming to an end, the trouble that Willowbrook had been drowning beneath slowly fading. So much hate and heartbreak began it all, an otherworldly obsession that went far too out of bounds, ripping a daughter away from her mother. Daisy only wished there couldhave been a better ending for Evelyn Harper, though she found comfort in hoping that Hecate watched over her well.
“Sheriff Dalton,” she said once the phone stopped ringing. “It’s Daisy Fields.”
“Ms. Fields! To what do I owe the pleasure of a phone call at one in the morning?”
“A case solved.”
18
Daisy
Midway through summer, Fields’ Herbalstook on a new sort of business. Willowbrook flourished as the days grew longer and warmer, a gentle breeze carried from the nearby mountains soothing the sun’s unbeatable gaze. Tourists took to main street easily, spending their time window shopping and lazily relaxing within rowdy cafes. Lemonade stands were almost at every corner, and always had a long line wrapped around them.
The rumors that had once plagued the town dwindled out and faded away. No longer was there writing on windows or the sidewalks, not even on billboards or on the sides of parked trucks. Whatever gossip that still remained was whispered between aisles, cooed across shelves, or kept entirely deep within one’s silly heart. Willowbrook had learnt its lesson, and no one was in any rush to turn it back to the way it once was, those short three weeks ago.
Life slowly returned to normal for Daisy. After solving their case and ridding the town of Wesley Sharp’s cruel and vile intentions, things began to be as they should have been. The Witch Council visited the shop with a loud and resounding apology for Tessa. Never again would they mistrust their CovenInquisitors, or dare to question Daisy’s outright instincts that proved to be right, time and time again. The rumor once written about Iskra, claiming she practiced dark magic, disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.
Though Daisy knew young Tyler Stevens to have been the true hero within their story, he no longer dove relentlessly into Lake Silverpine’s misty waters. What he had seen, what had been uncovered through his reckless nature, would not leave him any time soon. Daisy felt sad for him, though it was possibly for the better. There were countless other adventurous things for him to excel in, things that didn’t normally end with a body being found trapped within a sunken and drowned car.
Daisy leaned heavily against the counter at Fields’ Herbals,too stunted by the heat to do any more cleaning. The lunch rush had piled in and quickly taken their leave, a mess of vials and bottles left in their wake. Tessa, much to her surprise, swept and cleaned diligently, a slight whistle leaving her lips and a hop in her step. Ever since her name had been cleared, Tessa had a newfound air about her, one that was steeped in confidence. The empath deserved it, and Daisy had only wished for it to have come to her sooner.
“Look at you,” Tessa called out from the opposite side of the storefront. “Like a lump on a log! Wake up, Flowers!”
Daisy sighed and shook her head, trying to rattle the cobwebs out of her brain.
“Let me guess,” the empath mused teasingly. “Was someone daydreaming about herbelovedEthan?”
Daisy’s cheeks flamed a shade of red at the sound of his name. “No,actually.”
“Then what’s with that blush?”
She waved her hand in the air, trying to dismiss her, despite being unable to deny it. No, shehadn’tbeen thinking about Ethan, but sometimes, all it took was the littlest of mentions tomake her heart stammer. If there was anything she had become more sure of from their previous case, it was how much she wanted to make sure that Ethan remained in her life. He was the brightest star within her sky, and she was desperate to see more of his constellation. If it wasn’t for Ethan, Daisy wasn’t sure how she would’ve been able to cope with what they saw at Lake Silverpine. A shudder rolled down her spine just at the thought of it. It was shaded by their romantic evening together, the music from Swing Time pulling the despair right out of her.
“Oh, yeah,” Tessa teased again. “With that dreamy look on your face, I just know you’re thinking about Mr. Handsome Lawyer.”
Before she could say anything, a familiar figure walking by the store caught Daisy’s eye. It was Riven, the dragon who had once been petrified by Wesley Sharp. It turned out that the dragon never actually saw who casted the spell upon him, though he remembered the events leading up to it quite well. Riven had realized Wesley was the culprit behind Evelyn’s death all those years ago, and sought to see justice served, when he met his untimely fate. Luckily, the Council managed to free him, days after Wesley was subdued.
“Is it foolish of me to still expect some sort of gratitude from Riven?” Daisy wondered aloud.
Tessa scoffed. “More than foolish.”
“Well,” Daisy mused, “hopefully he’ll have a different view on gossiping about people.”
“Did you hear about Fern?” Tessa asked. “She recovered very well, despite her age. The Council said they’d keep an eye on her, just to be sure, but she’s good.”
Daisy smiled. “I’m glad. Perhaps the information about what happened to her daughter will provide her with some closure.”
