Page 36 of Magic Blooms
Joshua grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight. “Play it cool,” he whispered into my ear.
Play it cool? The killer was in the same room as me and I was supposed to keep quiet?
I wanted to jump up, point my finger, and shout, but I fell completely silent as I watched our killer reach the front of the room and take the last empty seat at the council’s table.
No.
I sucked in a breath, trying not to shout my rage as the figure’s hood dropped to reveal a strange-looking woman. Her skin was so fair, it was practically translucent. Dark veins the color of bruises crawled just beneath her skin, and her dark hair hung long and limp down her back. The most unsettling part, though, was her lips.
Tinged blue as if in death—just like Karen’s had been.
Only her light blue eyes still appeared to be of the living, and that made the rest of her all the more grim.
The townsfolk around us started to murmur to each other, but I couldn't make out any of their words, couldn’t rip my eyes away from the ghastly figure before me, the killer in our midst.
“What is she?” I asked, leaning closer to Joshua. And why did the council seem so comfortable with her presence?
“I-I don’t know.” Joshua’s fear enveloped us both. I had a feeling he didn’t see many creatures he couldn’t identify. “She looks like she’s barely alive, and yet she knocked me back with no problem last night.”
“Could she be using magic to make herself stronger?” I wondered aloud. Was that why she had killed Karen? To steal her life force? Magic wasn’t meant to hurt, only help—but clearly something had gone very, very wrong with—and probably because of—the woman now seated before us.
The chattering around us abruptly stopped when one of the council members stood and cleared his throat. He was dressed in a black suit with a black shirt beneath it, by far the most formal of all attendees.
"We've gathered you here for an emergency meeting to discuss something rather dire that has come to our attention. You may have noticed there is a newcomer among us, and I'm sure you all have many questions.” He glanced down to his right and smiled at the corpse-like woman. “Fawn, why don't you tell them what you know?"
Fawn? What an innocent name for such a shadowy creature.
She nodded her thanks, then stood and crossed to the front of the stage, staring down her nose as though she didn't approve of anything she saw.
"Magical residents of Elyria," she started. Her voice was husky, deep, and it almost seemed as if an echo accompanied her words. "I won't bother you with a long introduction. My name is Fawn, and my specialty is foresight. A few weeks ago, something especially disturbing came to me. Not a vision as much as an… idea. The idea of death. Death in itself is natural and expected."
She echoed her words, as though she were speaking normally. Not for emphasis, but rather because she couldn’t help it. "This wasn't a death of one individual or even thousands. This was the death of all magic."
A collective gasp rose throughout the room, and a few people began to murmur again.
I scoffed despite Joshua tightening his hand around mine. Why should we believe anything this stranger said? I realized that I was a stranger to most of the people here, too, but I wasn’t oozing evil out of every pore. Not like Fawn.
Her eyes locked with mine before she continued. "I traced the origin of these feelings to your town. I am here to discover the meaning of it. While my instincts are vague, I am trying to bring about a vision."
The head councilman from before came forward to stand near Fawn and lend his support, although even he didn’t seem to be comfortable standing too close by her.
"Now y’all know we don't make a habit of working with dark practitioners, but Fawn here has gone out of her way to bring us this warning. Before calling today’s meeting, we gathered a team of local seers, and each one of them was able to verify the authenticity of Fawn’s vision. Magic is in danger, which means our very way of life could soon go extinct. That is why the council has ruled that Fawn must be aided at all costs in her mission.”
That was it. I couldn’t just sit here and allow this to happen. I shot up before Joshua could stop me. "She's a killer! That's the woman who killed Karen Harrison, and she broke into Art's office yesterday to complete the last steps of her dark ritual. She should be in jail, not on stage!"
A few shocked gasps followed my declaration, but the general level of surprise was far from what I’d expected.
Joshua moved to my side, wrapping his arm around my waist and whispering in my ear, "Polly, enough. Come sit back down."
I pulled away from him. I didn't care about making a scene. In fact, I bet poor Karen would appreciate my scene. She’d screamed her head off over seeing a little pig; I could only imagine how much she'd scream if she knew she’d be murdered, that her body would be defiled by a dark magic practitioner. She deserved justice. Not the entire town playing host to her murderer.
Fawn tilted her head to an almost unnatural degree as she considered me. Then she smiled, this jarring display of friendliness somehow more intimidating than if she’d outright snarled at me. "We've met before, you and I."
A chill slammed into me. I didn't answer, neither confirming nor denying her accusation.
"Fawn has already informed us of the actions she’s taken so far in pursuit of her goal," the councilman announced without an ounce of shame in his voice. "She came to us last night after the incident at Art's, deciding it would be better to work with us outright rather than continuing to dart about in secret."
“I did kill that woman, but only because it was necessary. I chose someone who wouldn’t be missed to minimize the impact of this sacrifice on your community,” Fawn admitted, her eyes locked on mine.
