Witch Way Out

Book 3: Full Moon Mystery

by Cate Conte

Genres: Amateur Sleuth; Mystery; Craft & Hobby Cozy Mysteries

Synopsis

Charmed meets Murder, She Wrote in Cate Conte's latest Full Moon Mystery, as an unexpected death completely rocks the Spring Equinox Fair and it's up to crystal shop owner Violet Mooney to uncover the truth to settle the mayhem.



When Violet Mooney's coworker and fellow witch calls to say that their Connecticut crystals shop, The Full Moon, has been selected as a vendor at the Spring Equinox Fair, it's welcome news. Ever since she learned about her magickal ancestry, Violet has been struggling to learn her craft while staying out of trouble. It's no easy feat when her family seems to be the target of a power-grab within the realm, putting the entire magickal community on edge—and setting Violet on a mission . . .



With her investigation conjuring more questions than answers, Violet tries to focus on the Fair, which is being run by one of her personal heroes. Horatio Hale is a proponent of ethical crystal mining, but apparently not everyone is a fan. Violet is shocked when she goes to attend a meeting and finds Horatio dead—with an axe stuck in his chest. To uncover the motives behind the mayhem in both the mortal and magickal worlds, Violet is going to need more than a crystal ball. And it'll take all the powers she's been honing—plus some she didn't know she had—to save herself . . .

Release date: March 28, 2023

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 304

Sample

If it wasn’t for the puddle of slime waiting for us, things would’ve probably turned out a lot differently that night.

Sadly, this wasn’t the first time a puddle of slime had greatly influenced my life. I’m still working through the repercussions of the previous puddle of slime from two months ago, which, admittedly, led me here to this one, on this night, in a leprechaun private investigator’s office with a hot, sexy witch lawyer and my current liar of a boyfriend by my side.

Maybe I should explain. My name is Violet Mooney, and I recently discovered I was a witch. Not just any witch, but a combination of a Ravenstar and Moonstone witch, which, according to pretty much everyone I talk to who knows about stuff like this, is a big deal.

I know what you’re thinking. Most people don’t simply stumble upon the fact that they’re a witch at age thirty-two. I would tend to agree with that. In my case, it’s kind of a long story. Suffice it to say my long-lost mother, queen of the Ravenstar clan, showed up one day out of the blue—well, actually in a cloud of purple smoke and glitter—when I was in big trouble. Turned out my dad, who was half witch, and my grandma Abby, who was literally the high priestess of the Moonstone family, had been keeping me from my mother per my dad’s wishes via a spellbound necklace that wouldn’t allow her to locate me as long as I was wearing it. On the day I’d accidentally broken the necklace, my mother had found me. And she’d brought along my half-sister Zoe. They’d both appeared in a swirl of sparkles at the police station, where I was being questioned for murder. And no, I wasn’t doing any drugs that day.

I’d been a little wary—okay, a lot wary—of letting my mother into my life, especially since I didn’t understand why she’d been gone for twenty-seven years. But since my dad and Grandma Abby had both passed away, I had no one else that was an actual blood relation. Plus Fiona—that’s my mother—does not take kindly to the word no. So we became a family. Kind of. And I became a witch. Or, as Fiona would put it, I stepped into my rightful heritage. Which meant the seat on the Magickal Council I’d inherited from my Grandma Abby, just waiting for me to claim it; powers to learn about and hone; a very complicated life in the mortal realm where I still had my crystal shop, The Full Moon; and, apparently, a bounty on my head from people who did not want to see the next in line on either the Moonstone or Ravenstar families take any position of power and perpetuate the current governing structure.

So that’s my new year so far. And that’s without the other bit involving Todd, my current boyfriend, and Blake, the sexy lawyer, both of whom stood next to me. Trust me, that’s another story altogether.

Blake had gone into full-on alert mode when we’d arrived at Mac Finnegan’s office for a debrief and instead found . . . this. Mac Finnegan was a leprechaun PI and yes, that’s really a thing. The awaiting slime led Blake and me to believe that Mac had been the second magickal being in less than two months to have been genied. Todd, meanwhile, had gone into shock, unless he was just a really good actor. I figured he would pass out any moment now.

This whole thing was a mess. I mean, I was already mad at Blake for this little stunt. Now I was facing another genieing because he’d dragged me here. It had been less than five minutes ago that I’d been standing on a street in my quaint little town of North Harbor with Todd and Blake. Blake had pulled us away from a double date with my best friends Sydney and Pete—their first date, I might add—promising me that a lot of the questions bubbling up about my life, my grandma Abby, and Todd and his family were about to be revealed. By Mac.

But Mac didn’t appear to be in a very talkative state at the moment.

I focused on the putrid-smelling puddle of slime, trying to tamp down my horror, not to mention my nausea. Unlike with Mazzy Diamond, the first being I knew who had been genied, this time I knew what I was looking at. And that it wasn’t good. I saw a few red hairs in the puddle that hadn’t disintegrated yet, but other than that, there were no identifying features left. I finally looked at Blake, trying not to breathe in the smell. “Please tell me that’s not Mac.”

Blake didn’t respond. He was staring too, and judging from his expression, the confident, always-got-the-answer guy had left the building.

By the looks of things, nothing was getting revealed tonight.

Unless that was the case all along, and this had been nothing more than a clever ruse to get me to let my guard down. But by whom? Mac himself? Blake? Had I been the intended victim tonight and something had gone awry?

I tried to push those thoughts away. I hated to be so suspicious of everyone—it was not my nature—but recent events had definitely skewed my perceptions of, well, all beings.

See, I’d recently learned that not only was Todd from the Sageblood family of witches, but so was Blake. The Sagebloods were the third most powerful family in this realm, after the Ravenstars and Moonstones, and the ones who practiced the darkest magic. As a collective, they also hated both my family lines. Todd had kept this from me the whole time we’d been dating. When I’d found out Blake was also related, I’d felt betrayed, although Fiona swore on her powers that Blake was the family outcast and nothing like them. The circumstances were not black and white in either case, but it still made me very edgy.

“Stand back.” Blake finally spoke. He lifted his hand and waved it in my direction, a quick motion that I might not have even noticed if an invisible wall hadn’t suddenly come up, stopping me from getting any closer.

“Hey!” I protested.

He turned to, I presume, do the same to Todd, but stopped short. We both stared at the empty space where Todd had stood a moment ago.

Gone. Not even passed out on the floor.

Blake muttered something that sounded like a particularly offensive mortal curse word. “Stay here.” He did a quick sweep of the office we were in and the one next door. Upon his return, he grabbed my hand and pulled me away, out the back door and into the alley behind the building. It was a cold night, dark and quiet out here under a sky full of glittering stars. I had no idea how late it was or if time even worked the same way in the witch world.

I was getting freaked out now. “Blake, what is going on here? Where is Todd?”

“I don’t know, Violet.” He looked grim. “I’m guessing someone snapped him up and got him out of here.”

“Like who? Someone from his family? Well, your family,” I said pointedly.

He gave me a look that said he wasn’t in the mood. “Probably.”

“Well, what did Mac want to tell us?”

“I don’t know. I wanted you to hear it with me, so I asked him to hold on to the information. Then I came and got you.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you messing with me?”

The shock on his face was so raw that I instantly regretted my words. Maybe I was naive, but even though he was a witch I didn’t think he was that good an actor. When he spoke, his voice was almost robotic. “No, Violet. I am not messing with you. If this is Mac, then this is bad. I’m sorry I brought you here to find . . . this.”

“Blake—I’m sorry. I just—”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I was pretty sure I’d hurt him. Now I felt terrible. I didn’t know what else to say, though, so I kept my mouth shut.

We both stood there quietly, absorbing the situation. “So what do we do now?” I glanced around nervously, worried that the genie who had gotten Mac was lurking in the shadows, waiting for the opportunity to get to us too. I’d been living with this constant, gnawing fear ever since someone had genied Mazzy, another witch, in my shop, an event that had put me under a microscope in my new community. And things had just gotten a thousand times worse.

“We need to call the police, right? Which ones?” I’d been introduced to a lot of different police forces in this new world, and I wasn’t able to keep them all straight yet. We were in a specific district, which had its own police presence, yet the Magickal Police—the highest police force in the land— were involved in the genie investigation, so it was probably them. And yes, it was all confusing to me. I’d grown up mortal and knew only the state and local police.

Blake didn’t answer right away. He faced the building and closed his eyes. His lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Then he put his arms up in kind of an X shape in front of his face. I watched, fascinated, waiting for something to happen. I had no idea what because I wasn’t really up on all the spells yet. But there was no lightning strike or other outward display of anything. Instead, there was complete silence. Then Blake turned to me.

“Come on,” he said. “We need to get out of here.” He grabbed my hand, and everything went black.

When I opened my eyes, we were standing in a fancy office, one that I’d never seen before. And it definitely did not belong to a rough-talking private investigator leprechaun. This office had class. Dare I even say it was fancy, with expensive-looking art and pristine, modern furniture. It looked like a suite of some sort, judging by how high up we were.

A coffee service hovered in the air next to the desk. If I hadn’t been so freaked out, I would’ve totally demanded to know how I could get that at my shop, although I imagined it would be a little weird for Syd. Sydney Santangelo was my shop manager and best friend who didn’t yet know I was a witch—another problem that needed addressing. On the immaculate desk, a laptop computer was typing on its own. When I went near it, it slammed shut, as if rebuking me for trying to get a peek at whatever confidential stuff it was doing.

From the way Blake moved into action and settled behind the desk, I assumed it was his office. Which meant we were at some kind of law firm.

“Sit,” he said. “I need to call Bell, but first I want to alert my contact on the Squad.”

By Bell, I assumed he meant Theonius Bell, the chief of the Magickal Police Force. And by the Squad, I assumed he meant the Stalker Squad. I’d recently learned about them. They were the special forces of the magickal police—although I kind of wondered why you needed special forces in a magickal police force. Weren’t they all special?—and they investigated the worst crimes that magickal beings committed on each other. Since genieing was at the top of the list, not to mention a crime that, before Mazzy, hadn’t been committed in a century, they had been brought into Mazzy’s case. With a second one, they’d be all over this. There was only one problem with the Squad—they’d been investigating me. And yet I’d never met any of them, which gave me pause about how this investigating was occurring.

“Wait! They’re already looking at me because someone sketchy put them up to it. Won’t this make it worse?”

“No. Dewin can be trusted.”

“Dewin?”

Blake nodded. “Dewin Mallor. He’s one of the top-ranking investigators in the Squad, but he’s the real deal. No politics, no bull—just truth and justice. There aren’t a lot of guys like him nowadays. He’s running his own investigation on the side.”

“Is he a witch?”

“He’s more like a sorcerer,” Blake said. “A little more powerful than us.”

I didn’t even want to know what that meant.

“Anyway, Bell can make the formal announcement to his colleague over there after I tell him, but it won’t hurt to have Dewin in the know first. Give me a minute.” The phone receiver lifted and hovered next to Blake’s ear. I could see the buttons lighting up, dialing a number, then Blake spoke.

“Dewin. It’s Blake Alexander.” A pause. “I’m not so great at the moment. I have to call Bell but wanted to speak to you first. There’s been a second genieing. And I’m afraid it’s Mac Finnegan.” Another pause. “It was his office, he was the only one I was meeting. I don’t know for certain, but almost positive.” Blake’s eyes were on me even as he spoke to the person on the other end, and his steady gaze made me squirm.

I was still working out what I felt for Blake. He was kind of my witchy life coach, a position to which my mother had appointed him, and one he had embraced wholeheartedly, if not with some amusement, at least until things like this had started happening. All I knew for sure was that he was hot, he was kind, and he’d been really good to me over the past few weeks, despite the whole not-telling-me-who-his-family-was thing. I believed him when he said it was because he didn’t want me to think he was like them, or aligned with them in any way. In a place where I wasn’t sure whom to trust, Blake seemed to be one of the good ones, his family ties aside.

But that was something I was still unpacking.

“I found him. I didn’t touch anything. I put a protective spell on the whole building so no one else can go in. I had Violet Moonstone and Todd Langston—aka Sageblood—with me. Yeah, that Violet Moonstone. I know, Dewin. Trust me, it’s definitely got something to do with her. I’m telling you that so you have the whole story, but I don’t want it getting out that she was there.” He listened, then said, “Okay, thanks,” and hung up.

I gaped at him. “You told him Mac’s genieing had something to do with me!”

“It does,” he said calmly.

I stood, almost knocking my chair over. “Are you kidding? I was with you the whole time!”

“Not like that,” he said impatiently. “Of course he knows you personally didn’t have something to do with it. But it’s because Mac was looking into this case, which is related to you. Better to just put that out there so they don’t spin their wheels looking through everything else he had going on.”

“How can you just know that?” I asked, incredulous.

He tilted his head in a Seriously? gesture.

I sat back down, my heart suddenly heavy. “So it’s my fault this happened to Mac.” I thought of the little man who’d appeared in my shop a week or so ago. While his size jibed with how I’d always imagined leprechauns, the rest of him was nothing like the caricatures we’d grown up with. For one thing, Mac was surly. There was no green sequined jacket, striped pants, and happy pot of gold for this leprechaun. Mac dressed all in black and spoke in a deep, husky voice that hadn’t really fit his appearance. He’d had two of his leprechaun counterparts, Goldie and Shiloh, with him. They all dressed the same and basically had the same demeanor. At first I hadn’t liked him much. He wasn’t friendly or forthcoming. But Blake had convinced me that he was the best. I knew Fiona trusted him too. And it seemed like he got stuff done. No nonsense, no games. He just wasn’t much for friendly conversation. Or someone telling him how to do his job.

What would happen to his firm now? Would Goldie and Shiloh be able to keep going? My mother was going to lose it. She’d hired Mac. And now this had happened because of me. I already felt guilty enough about Mazzy. She was a journalist, both in the witch realm and here in the mortal world. We’d met when she was doing a story on fraudulent psychic practitioners and had tried to put me in that category. Needless to say, we hadn’t hit it off well. At the time of her genieing, we’d come to a truce—but she’d clearly made someone else angry. Angry enough to commit the worst magickal felony ever, and in my store no less.

“Violet, of course it’s not your fault. Stop blaming yourself,” Blake said. “That’s not what I was getting at. I wanted Dewin to know what Mac was working on. That’s all. If he doesn’t know this, his team could possibly walk into something bad. They will need to be super careful. But Dewin is the only one I’m telling that you were there, okay? I’m not even telling Chief Bell. Which means you can’t tell anyone either. Violet.” He waited until I focused on him. “This is very important. You cannot tell anyone you were with me there. Do you understand?”

“Yeah. I understand.” I had a million questions about why he wasn’t telling Bell, but I wasn’t even sure I wanted to hear the answer at this point. I dropped my head back into my hands, rubbing my temples. “But what about Todd?”

Blake’s lips thinned. “I’ll handle Todd. Once I find him.” He reached over the desk and lifted my chin so my eyes were level with his. “It’s not your fault,” he repeated. “And we’ll get Mac back. Don’t worry. Now I have to call Chief Bell, okay? Just hang tight.”

I tried to smile and nod, but inside I was devastated. And terrified.

What was going to happen to all of us before this was over?

Saturday/Sunday

Part of the reason my new life could be so disconcerting was the stark contrast to the normalcy that existed in my mortal life. Upon my return to my cozy apartment from my eventful evening with Blake, our slimed leprechaun, and an incredibly distraught Chief Bell, I realized I’d missed a bunch of phone calls and texts. For a moment I had a paranoid thought that someone else had been genied, then realized if that was the case other witches wouldn’t be sending me text messages about it; they’d probably just show up in a poof of smoke or a shower of glitter to give me the news.

The texts were from Josie Cook, my part-time employee, lifelong friend, and also fellow witch. I scanned them while I listened to the voicemails, which were also from Josie. Finally, after a bunch of urgent Call me now and I have amazing news messages, Josie finally got to the point in the last voicemail.

“Violet. I have no idea where you are but you need to call me! We got a call from Horatio Hale tonight. They had a last-minute cancellation for booth space at the Spring Equinox Fair. The flower essence vendor put the wrong flower in one of her essences and ended up in the hospital. Anyway, we got a booth! We need to be there by seven tomorrow morning to set up. I’ll meet you there. I left Syd a message too. We should have her working the shop while you and I handle the fair. Call me!”

I let out a squeal that woke my orange cat, Monty, who was sound asleep on my bed. His head snapped up and he glared at me before returning to his curled-up position, tail landing over his eyes. “Sorry,” I said. “But this is a huge deal! Do you know how long I’ve wanted to be part of the Equinox Fairs? And Horatio Hale?” I nearly swooned. “He’s a legend!”

Monty ignored me. Clearly, he didn’t know about the prestige of being invited to one of the two major fairs on the circuit. Spring and Autumn Equinox fairs were legendary within our alternative healing community. And Horatio Hale was a huge name. He was a champion for ethical sourcing in the crystal world and aside from being one of the most reputable sellers, he’d also made a name for himself as an activist, speaking on every available platform he could find to educate people about ethics in our industry. I’d been following his work for years, sometimes watching his YouTube videos to the point where I could recite them verbatim. I’d followed his exposés on sourcing in the Congo and Myanmar, and watched his takedown of a consortium in the US that was hiding severe environmental damage at a Texas mine. Not only had he built a business on crystals, he had done it by uncovering and buying only from the vendors who went through rigorous sourcing protocols. Crystals—like anything else, I supposed—had a dark side to them. Many of the stones came from countries without any kind of regulation, not to mention lax or even nonexistent labor laws. Some came from the United States, but from mines that caused extreme pollution and contamination to the earth. Many sellers cared about these things and were careful about where they bought crystals. Others saw the stones as purely a money-making opportunity and tossed aside any care for human rights, the environment, or even the violence and conflict that came from fighting over mines and land from which the crystals were sourced.

As someone who believed wholeheartedly in the healing power of crystals, it seemed quite counterintuitive to purchase them from dark origins. How could something help you heal if it had bad energy attached to it? I only used a few vendors whom I trusted completely, and that was in large part due to what I’d learned from following Horatio. To get him as a supplier was really hard—he had a wait list. I’d been on it for years. So the fact that he had called my store was . . . well, I was having a fangirl moment.

But Monty didn’t care, and Xander, my other cat, was nowhere in sight. Xander was a magickal cat. He was sleek and black and moved through both worlds like a ninja. He’d shown up in my life right before I met my mother. It had definitely not been an accident. And he’d saved my butt a few times already. I guessed in technical terms he was my familiar, although I didn’t want Monty to feel shortchanged by that title so I never used it out loud. I figured Josie would be a better option with whom to celebrate, so I called her back.

“Jeez, took you long enough. Were you out with Todd this long?” Josie demanded without so much as a hello.

I did not want to get into anything about this evening. I couldn’t anyway. News would be out soon enough, but I didn’t need to be the one breaking it. “Sorry. I ended up, uh, running into Blake. Just got home.” It wasn’t totally a lie.

“Blake, huh? I thought tonight was your double date with Syd and Pete. And Todd.”

“Yeah, it was. But hey, it’s late. Let’s focus on the matter at hand, shall we? Horatio? I’m dying over here. This is amazing news!” News I did not want to ruin by reminders of my train wreck of a relationship and the genieing of an innocent.

“It really is. Horatio was very complimentary of our shop. He knew about us. He sent me the floor plan of the space. We have a good spot, Vi! It’s a little pricey, but they’re giving us a discount since it’s so last minute.”

“That is so exciting! I don’t care how much it costs. This is such great exposure. We’re gonna need to be up at the crack of dawn to pack up,” I said.

“Already figured. I packed a few boxes tonight.”

“You did?” I asked, impressed.

“Vi,” Josie said with amusement. “I’m a witch. It’s pretty easy.”

I burst out laughing. I really needed to remember to use my powers more to make my life easier. “G. . .