A Witch's Concern (A Witch's Path Book 4) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: Michelle

  Chapter 2: Elron

  Chapter 3: Michelle

  Chapter 4: Elron

  Chapter 5: Michelle

  Chapter 6: Elron

  Chapter 7: Michelle

  Chapter 8: Elron

  Chapter 9: Michelle

  Chapter 10: Michelle

  Chapter 11: Michelle

  Chapter 12: Michelle

  Chapter 13: Michelle

  Chapter 14: Elron

  Chapter 15: Michelle

  Chapter 16: Michelle

  Chapter 17: Michelle

  Chapter 18: Michelle

  Chapter 19: Michelle

  Chapter 20: Elron

  Chapter 21: Michelle

  Chapter 22: Michelle

  Chapter 23: Michelle

  Chapter 24: Michelle

  Chapter 25: Elron

  Chapter 26: Michelle

  Chapter 27: Michelle

  Thank You

  Also by N. E. Conneely

  About the Author

  Connect with N. E. Conneely

  Copyright © 2015 N. E. Conneely

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or author. Requests for permission to copy part of this work for use in an educational environment may be directed to the author. This book is a work of fiction. References to historical events, real people, or real locales are made fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A WITCH'S CONCERN

  N. E. Conneely

  This one is for all the amazing people who have taken a chance on my books.

  I couldn't have done it without you.

  Chapter 1: Michelle

  The sun was out, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and from the inside of my car it looked warmer than it was. Georgia was good at that, fooling you into thinking it was in the sixties on a winter day when you'd be lucky if it hit forty. The chill didn't bother me today though because my parents were finally getting married, and that was something to celebrate.

  The car lurched to the right, and the steering wobbled. I slowly pressed the brake and started searching for a place to pull off the road. Luckily I was on the four-lane, and it was only a few hundred feet until the road opened up into a valley, a rare flat spot in the north Georgia mountains. Thanks to the generous nature of the road folks, the paved emergency lane was more than wide enough for my car and dropped off onto a generous, grassy shoulder.

  I was out of traffic, even if I was ten miles from any town, and it was a frequently traveled road, so someone would come by. I looked over my shoulder before getting out and walking to the front right corner of the car. The rolling mountains and the sun casting long shadows over the valleys caught my eye, and I took a moment to appreciate the view.

  Lately I'd been taking more time to enjoy the crisp winter air, breathtaking views, and fiery sunsets. Life had come at me hard and fast, and I had been faced with more than my fair share of tough choices. The cost of killing the demon, Gremory, weighed heavily on me. Sylvia, the elf Gremory had been possessing, had been willing to die if that helped prevent evil from prospering, but that didn't change the facts. I'd killed her. I killed her because that was the only way to kill Gremory.

  Time was slowly taking the sting out of those memories, but I could still hear her screams in my sleep. More often than I'd like, Sylvia's screams would morph into the masculine yell of my mentor, who had died that same night. Varro had only been in my life for a matter of days, but in that time he had left me with lifetimes of knowledge to study. His passing had left a void that no one had been able to fill.

  A cloud passed over the sun, changing the shadows and giving me a different view of the same hills. The pine trees swaying in the breeze kept the hills green even in the middle of winter. This was the time of year for endings and beginnings, which had been plentiful lately.

  I wasn't the only one changed by that night. Elron, a good friend who was becoming something more, had watched his former love burn alive. I'd been sure that killing Sylvia would be the end of my relationship with Elron, but we'd managed to hold on to each other. It was hard to see either of us finding happiness with anyone else; who could understand what we'd been through except the other person who was there?

  When the sun reclaimed its spot in the sky and the wind settled down, I shook off the melancholy reflections and studied the car. It was just my luck to get a flat tire on the way to my parents' wedding. One way or another, I needed to get back on the road because I had to be there. My father had only been in my life for a few months, and my absence would disrupt the happy event.

  I glared at the tire, which was now resting on the rim. Kneeling down, I found four large nails sticking in the rubber. It could've been the deep shadows on this side of the car, but I thought I saw more nails on the inside of the tire.

  I checked the other tires, and so far they seemed to be holding out. Muttering nasty words, I popped the trunk and moved my suitcase and duffel bags to the backseat. Then I pulled up the mat and started extracting the jack and wrench.

  A car whizzed past as I got down on my hands and knees, peering under the car to find the notch where the jack needed to go. With the jack in place and only a few turns from taking the weight of the car, I started breaking loose the lug nuts. Bracing myself against the car, I brought my foot down on the end of the wrench. It hardly budged. I did it twice more before it swung easily. I was working the wrench onto the next lug nut when a car pulled in behind me. Dusting off my hands, I got to my feet and shaded my eyes with one hand.

  The man who got out of the driver's side was in a charcoal suit. A lady in a chic midnight-blue pencil skirt and matching jacket emerged from the passenger side, and through the windshield I could see two people in the back of the car. It would be nice to think that these people were here to help me, but my recent experiences had left me skeptical. It wasn't that long ago that three witches in pencil skirts had tried to abduct me. I'd managed to escape, but that didn't make me feel better about this situation.

  Besides, in this part of the world, I was more likely to have Bubba in his jacked-up pickup truck with a coon dog in the back and a gun under the front seat come to my rescue than a group that looked like they had stepped off a runway. I held my ground and kept my mouth shut.

  "When we saw you out here all alone, we had to stop. Do you need help?" the lady asked.

  "Thank you for the offer, but I have this under control." This felt very wrong, like I was being set up. Considering how many nails had found their way into the one tire, it was surprising that the others were fine. If a tub of nails had spilled, one tire wouldn't have attracted all of them, but it would be child's play for a witch to sabotage the tire that way.

  "Nonsense. Josh knows his way around a wrench. He'll have you back on the road in no time." At the woman's words, Josh took off his jacket and draped it over the seat.

  "That's a lovely offer, but I don't need the help." My voice was firm, but it didn't have any impact on the lady.

  She waved her hand and Josh started my way.

  "Please leave." Somehow, I didn't think they were going to listen to me.

  Her smile faltered, and she ducked into the car for a moment. When she returned, the
re was a wand in her hand and the two ladies from the backseat were getting out.

  On the side of a highway with my car on three wheels wasn't the best spot for us to face off. Considering how quickly Josh was covering the ground between us, I didn't have much time to come up with a plan.

  I shot a blast of energy at the woman, turned, and sprinted for the tree line. My odds weren't good against four witches, and any fight I could walk, or run, away from was a good fight.

  The first baby pine was at my side when someone knocked into me from behind. I hit the ground hard, air whooshing out of my lungs. While I lay there stunned, my hands were wrestled behind my back and cold metal was clipped around them.

  "Very good, Josh. Now the charm," was the last thing I heard.

  Chapter 2: Elron

  "Elron?"

  I completed the thrust, lowered the sword, and pivoted to face the stairs. "What is it, Landa?"

  Landa, one of the brownies who owned the lodge we lived in, came down the stairs with a phone in her hand. She and her husband, Mander, were four feet tall with big brown eyes and matching skin. What they lacked in height, they made up for in magic.

  Right now Landa looked worried. "Have you heard from Michelle lately?"

  The restlessness I'd attributed to nerves took on a new meaning. I'd thought I was suffering from nervous energy or a lack of exercise, but I now realized it had been something else entirely. The Call, a feeling that pushes some elves out of their sensible lives and into lives of excitement and danger, had been full strength for so long that I'd forgotten how it felt to get a gentle nudge.

  "I have not heard from her since she left for the wedding. What is amiss?" The Call ramped up, and I knew something had happened.

  Landa relayed my answer to the person on the other end of the phone. I returned the sword to the rack on the wall, but that did not distract me from her conversation.

  "If I hear from her, I'll call you," Landa said. There was a short pause before she said, "I know you will. Call me when you decide. 'Bye."

  Landa hit a button on the phone and turned to me. "Michelle hasn't gotten to Greg's house and isn't answering her phone. They're worried."

  Greg was Michelle's father. He was marrying Michelle's mother, Nancy, and Michelle had left for Greg's house hours ago.

  "Have they checked with the police? Maybe an urgent case came up." Even as I said it, I did not believe it since Michelle would have called to let her parents know she would be late if she had taken a case. Surely she would have told the departments she worked with that she was busy today.

  "No, they wanted to check with us first." Landa sounded troubled. "This isn't like her."

  "May I use the phone?" I held out my hand.

  Landa handed me the phone, and I dialed a recently memorized number. The recorded voice directed me through the phone tree, and a moment later I was leaving a message for Officer Rodriguez. I would have preferred to talk to him in person, but this was the next best thing. Rodriguez was a hedge-wizard and Michelle's primary contact with the police here in Cherokee County.

  "They didn't say they wanted to contact the police," Landa said in an exasperated tone.

  "Rodriguez could check with other departments to see if Michelle is working a case. If she is not and has not shown up by the time he returns my call, I will ask him to look for her." Regardless of what her parents wanted to do, I knew something was wrong. I wouldn't have this feeling for any other reason.

  Landa sighed. "I don't see the harm."

  "Exactly, and I will feel more comfortable if the police are looking for her." I handed the phone back to her.

  "Hmm, I don't see you being comfortable waiting to hear from the police."

  "I do not have a choice as it is prudent to remain here until I receive more information."

  Landa studied me before speaking. "I'll be preparing dinner if you need or want company."

  "Thank you." I followed her up the stairs. "I may join you after I retrieve my phone."

  "I'll be making dinner either way."

  "Of course." I shut the door to the weapons room and headed to my apartment.

  The Call increased its intensity, as did the nagging sensation that I needed to be doing more to find Michelle. Inside my apartment, I found my phone and checked for messages. Fortunately I had not missed any communication from Michelle or Rodriguez.

  There was not much for me to do except wait and funnel my nervous energy. Given the limited options, I went to the sunroom. About a week ago, the lodge had added a sunroom onto my apartment. I had not wasted any time setting up a small garden of plants that were not suited to the university and would not grow in the gardens around the lodge.

  It had quickly become my favorite room, with ample light for greenery. Several of the plants were magical, but the rest were ordinary—if you could call an organism as complex as a plant "ordinary." Today their cheerful colors and steady energy did little to calm me.

  Settling cross-legged on the floor, I began a meditation exercise designed to help me determine the source of the push. In recent times, the Call had been so strong that I had been forced to follow its pull. The itchiness between my shoulders and my accelerated pulse were enough to be noticed but not enough to give me an idea of what I should be doing.

  I deepened my breathing and coaxed the pertinent thoughts to the forefront of my mind. Michelle was dependable, steady, always there to help, and never one to let her loved ones worry. The fact that she was not answering attempts at communication was alarming, but my Call gave no indication that the situation was dire. It could still become serious, but at this point, the problem was not a type of danger that my Call considered urgent.

  While I would dearly love to know who or what was at fault for her disappearance, the more important question was how I could aid her. For the time being, there was nothing I could do. The police would get back to me, at which point I could formulate a better plan. If my Call gave me more information, perhaps a direction or sense of alarm, I would be able to pass that information on to the police and take action on my own.

  With my thoughts settled, I found a task that would give me peace of mind as well as occupy time. The demon's bane starts were ready to plant, and having recently encountered a demon, I felt it was prudent to have an ample supply of the flower on hand. I made the short trip to the work shed to fill several small pots with the appropriate soil mixture, then I carried them back to my apartment and set them in the sunroom. I retrieved the small starts and tucked each of the five demon's banes into its own pot.

  Against my chest the medallion warmed, and I felt a buzz of energy. Brushing off my hands, I pulled the moon-shaped piece of metal out from under my shirt. It was glowing, the symbols seeming to give off more light than the rest of the metal.

  I rubbed my fingers over the markings, but I could feel nothing more than the ridges and warmth. Metalwork wasn't a skill of mine, and though I did my best to get a sense of what it was doing, my powers found nothing more than what my eyes and hands had told me; it didn't react to my magic. This object was determined to hold on to its secrets.

  That shouldn't have been a surprise considering its origin. The medallion had once belonged to Varro, a very old fey. At his funeral, a forest spirit known as Leshy Apalchen had removed the medallion from Varro's body and given it to me. Michelle had the medallion's sister—a circle that fit inside the crescent, turning it into a full moon—and she was as mystified by its abilities as I.

  I tucked the medallion back under my shirt and picked up a spray bottle to mist the plants. The medallion's temperature increased.

  Spritz.

  It was almost hot.

  Spritz.

  It was now buzzing with enough energy to make my chest hair stand on end. I dropped the spray bottle, unclipped the necklace, and held it at eye level. I wasn't a witch, but I could see swirls of magic flowing across the surface. This wasn't the day for it to be unpredictable. There was simply too much going on for
me to give this thing the attention it required, especially if it wasn't going to provide any answers about its abilities.

  I growled at it. "Explain yourself or cease."

  It did neither, continuing to emit energy and irritate me. The phone started ringing, and I picked it up with one hand while still glaring at the ornery metal. "Elron speaking."

  "Hello, this is Officer Rodriguez. Have you heard from Michelle?"

  There was something about the way he said those words, as if he was trying to determine just how bad things were. "Neither Landa nor I have received communication from her. I do not believe her parents have either, or we would have been informed. Do you know if she is on a case?"

  There was a long pause before Rodriguez spoke. "I have been unable to reach her, and my associates in Pickens, Gilmer, and Union Counties have not been in contact with her."

  For a moment, I couldn't breathe. She had gotten lost or hurt, and I hadn't been there to prevent it. She depended on me, and I was failing her, unable to help in her time of need. This was just like last time. When my wife was captured by trolls and a demon, I'd been too far away to do anything about it, and she'd suffered for hundreds of years.

  Logic broke through the panic and wash of memories. This wasn't like last time. The Call would be more than a tingle if Michelle was in that type of trouble. Wherever she was, she was alive and mostly unharmed. This time, I would be there to help my love. "She's missing."

  "Today's the wedding, right?"

  "Yes."

  Rodriguez sighed. "When was the last time you heard from her?"

  "Approximately four hours ago when she left for the wedding. She was headed to her father's house."

  "Do you know if anyone else has heard from her?"

  "To the best of my knowledge, she has not contacted anyone since she left the lodge."

  "Was she driving her car?"

  "Yes."

  "I'll get things started here, then I'm coming over to get a full report from you and Landa."