Witches on Parole: Unlocked

Chapter 22
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To: [email protected]

From: Vero Liantro <[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Elsie’s finest hour.

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Sweet Jennie,

Every witch needs her moments of folly, but we don’t believe this will be one of yours. The throwing off of chains is easiest when a person has momentum on her side. Your students are moving now, and giving them another push seems exactly right. Even my normally cautious husband has been known to do this a time or two.

That they are WitchLight for each other is an idea that has touched both of us deeply. Melvin spent the evening adding a touch of magic to their pendants—a small additional awareness of each other. He trusts it will serve whatever you intend to do today.

I believe he regrets not having done it far sooner.

WitchLight has long been one student assigned to one mentor. You are teaching us the value of doing things differently, just as Melvin expected you would. We are most grateful.

If there are more life savings required for Lizard’s project, please let Josh know we would be happy to contribute. Melvin mutters about our money just sitting in a bank somewhere and moldering. We would be delighted for it to see daylight for such a good cause, although from the sounds of it, Josh’s biggest problem is going to be a big enough table for all his investors.

Walk in the light—always, but especially today.

We’ll be waiting to hear,

Vero

~ ~ ~

Jennie waved at Caro as she strode up the walkway to Lizard and Elsie’s side of the duplex. Always good to have a fire witch hiding in the house next door in case things got messy.

I’m hardly hiding in my own house. Caro sounded amused. Mostly. Making fresh bread—feel free to stop by after if you want.

Got that covered. Jennie waved a mental version of her picnic basket in Caro’s direction.

Good luck. I’ll be on standby.

Jennie grinned. Caro sounded fairly hopeful that fireworks ensued. Given what she had in mind, that seemed entirely possible.

Elsie opened the door before she could knock. “Good morning—Lizard said you were coming, and to knock off whatever you’re planning with Caro over there.”

Unfortunately, responsibility for this plan rested on her shoulders alone. Jennie held up her offerings. “I brought brunch and a blanket, hoping I could tempt the two of you outside with me this morning.”

Elsie grinned. “We already have the blanket part taken care of. Lizard’s out back crumpling pages in her poetry journal.” She took the basket from Jennie’s hand. “Food is always good, though. The waffles I made for breakfast were a little funky. Apparently baking soda and baking powder aren’t exactly the same thing.”

Jennie laughed. “You’re asking the wrong witch.” Her waffles were bad enough that her husband hid the waffle iron on a fairly regular basis.

They walked down the dim hallway and out into the bright light of the back yard, eyes blinking to adjust. Elsie bent down beside Lizard and started unloading things out of the picnic basket.

Jennie stood back a moment and sent a light mindscan, hoping to know the lay of the land before she put her idea on the table. Or the blanket. Elsie was bubbly and happy. Lizard was really mad about some word or another that wasn’t behaving.

Well, one out of two was better than nothing.

She joined her two students on the blanket and started slicing baguette. Yes, she was stalling. It was allowed.

When she looked up, three slices later, it was clear the stalling was over. Two faces watched her suspiciously, two pairs of arms crossed. A kingdom and three slices of bread for her camera.

“Okay, what’s the assignment?” Lizard had clearly been nominated to find out what was going on, in that unspoken communication of sisters and close friends.

Jennie tried to gather her thoughts. “Well, as you know, WitchLight is about a personal journey. You remember back at karaoke night, when Melvin talked about locks and chains?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lizard waved a slice of bread. “First we found the keys, now we’re supposed to be dumping the chains.” She grinned at Elsie. “Or burning them.”

Elsie’s eyes were sharp. Never try to outthink a trained analyst. “I believe we’ve both already made some pretty substantial progress in that direction.”

“You have. And that’s the point of the next assignment.” Jennie buttered a hunk of bread and handed it to Elsie. “The journey doesn’t end with removing the chains—but it’s hard to take flight with too many of them in tow.”

“I’m good with not flying.” Lizard stabbed at grapes with a toothpick. “Feel free to leave whatever chains I still have right where there are.” Now the toothpick was aimed Jennie’s direction. “Especially if they involve clients, money, maps, or any other form of meddling not previously named in this sentence.”

The girl was spending far too much time negotiating real estate contracts. However, she’d left a loophole. “It’s not me that’s going to touch them.” Jennie waited until she had both sets of eyes pointed her direction. “You’re going to do it for each other.”

Lizard’s snorted. “I believe we’ve both already made some pretty substantial progress that direction.” She mimicked her roommate’s slightly snotty tone to perfection, much to Elsie’s amusement.

“You have.” Jennie paused, wanting them to read how much she meant that. “And you’ve come to know each other very well in the past few weeks. There’s love in this house.” Elsie’s cheeks flushed and Lizard squirmed, but neither of them denied it. Good.

Jennie smiled. “Now I’m asking you to be the final push for each other. Look deep into your friend’s heart and come up with an assignment that will help with the chains that are still hanging around.” She paused a beat, fingers itching again when the two of them just raised matched eyebrows and stared. “WitchLight brought you together. Now it’s time to be WitchLight for each other.”

~ ~ ~

It wasn’t a freaking assignment. It was a dare. Lizard was well aware of the difference. Words mattered, and Jennie hadn’t picked the right one.

This wasn’t about sweetly encouraging a friend. It was about getting in their face and making their life really uncomfortable.

She was tempted to tell Jennie to take her “assignment” and shove it. Really, really tempted.

But then she thought about Elsie dropping a gazillion-dollar check on the table. That had been a big, fat, elephant-sized dare. And Elsie Giannotto had never wimped out of an assignment in her entire life. So there would be a dare for Lizard Monroe, and damned if she was going to opt out and let Elsie off the hook—not when there was a hook coming straight for her own butt.

Besides—she knew the perfect dare.

She’d known for weeks. Every night when Elsie went to sleep, she had the same dream. Not the cowboy one. The other one—the one that made her soul fly.

But if she was going to mess with Elsie’s dreams, she needed help. And backup. And that meant visiting a new planet.

Lizard pulled open the door to Spirit Yoga and gingerly looked around. No granola on the floor—that was a start. It smelled kind of weird, but not in a bad way. She walked over to the small store display, attracted by a vivid swirled-orange tank top. And then snapped her hand back like it was hot. Or contagious, or something. Yoga was for people like Elsie.

“Don’t let my wife hear you say that.” Jamie stood leaning against a wall, looking amused.

Damn mind witches were always eavesdropping. “What are you doing here?” He didn’t seem like the yoga type either.

“When you’re married to a yoga teacher, you do yoga. It’s a rule.” He grinned. “And it’s not as bad as you think. Just stay far away from the hip-openers classes.”

She’d sign up for pole-dancing lessons first. “So, I have this thing. I’m supposed to come up with a dare for Elsie. Something to really mess with her soul and all that stuff.”

“Sounds heavy.” Jamie moved off the wall, reached through a door, and came back with his arm wrapped around his wife. “Lizard’s supposed to mess with Elsie.”

Nat wiped her face with a towel. “On purpose?”

Lizard didn’t want to know what kind of yoga could make Nat sweat like a pig. “Yeah. It’s our WitchLight assignment for the week.”

“How can we help?” Nat leaned against the wall next to her husband.

Man, in her old neighborhood, nobody ever agreed to help with anything without knowing what it was first. Witches were weird. “I have the idea and everything, but I need to know if you think Elsie’s up for it.”

“Isn’t that the point of a dare?” asked Jamie. “To push her to do something she might not be up for?”

“Hardly.” Nat tossed the towel in the general direction of her husband, who ducked and grinned. “The point is to make it something she can do, but believes she can’t.” She looked over at Lizard. “You want Elsie to succeed.”

Yeah. After she scared the pants off her. Fifty-three thousand dollars worth of oh-my-god. Lizard laid out her idea, taking pains to explain all the safeguards in place so that Elsie wouldn’t actually die. And then stopped and waited for a second opinion.

It only took a second. Jamie’s grin blazed. “Can I sell tickets?”

Oh, God. Elsie would kill her. Lizard eyed him, pretty sure he didn’t need her permission. “Can you keep it under a hundred people?”

“Not likely.” Nat chuckled quietly. “It’s a brilliant idea, and an audience just might help her. She’ll need all that love and support to keep her knees from buckling.”

Elsie was going to need a lot more body parts functioning than just her knees. Lizard eyed Nat, knowing her opinion was the one that counted. “Can she do it? Will she?”

“She can.” Nat’s eyes were solemn. “I don’t know if she will.”

Crap. That was pretty much the answer Lizard had started out with.

“It’s not a dare if you know the answer,” said Nat softly. “You’ve picked the right question. All you can do is wait to see if her heart is ready to answer.”

That sounded like yoga teacher hocus-pocus. “I suck at waiting.”

Nat pulled the swirled-orange tank off the hanger, and a pair of what looked suspiciously like yoga pants. “I have a beginner class starting in ten minutes.”

Lizard just stared. No freaking way.

Nat smiled. “Yoga’s a good way to wait. And you’ll need something to do while you worry about how she’s going to get even.”

Frack. Just. Frack. “I thought you weren’t a witch.”

Jamie’s chuckles rolled off the walls of Spirit Yoga. He linked his elbow through Lizard’s. “She’s got people totally fooled. Come on, I’ll help you pick out a mat.”

~ ~ ~

Elsie wiggled her toes, delighted with her new sandals. Cute, colorful, and she could hike ten miles in them, or so the sales lady promised.

They had to be better than four-inch heels.

It was definitely a different kind of world when the new Elsie had to go shoe shopping before she got to working on a high-priority assignment. Not that shopping had been an entire waste of time. She’d considered and discarded several ideas for Lizard, including handing her over to the nice sales ladies for a shoe makeover.

She had a sneaking suspicion that was a bit of transference. Elsie was pretty sure she was a shoe addict-in-the-making. There were so many kinds, and they were all so pretty.

“Awesome shoes,” said a voice behind her. Lauren grinned down at the shopping bags. “I guess I don’t have to ask where you got them. That’s a great store.”

Elsie laughed. “They’re having a sale. Buy three, get the fourth pair free.” It had taken all her willpower to limit her selections to four pairs.

Lauren’s eyes gleamed. “Excellent—I’ll go after lunch. Are you hungry? I was just dropping off files, and then I was headed to Romano’s. We can probably talk them into a buy-three, get-the-fourth-plate-free witch lunch special.”

Elsie shook her head, amused. “Do realtors negotiate everything?”

“Yup.” Lauren winked. “Wait until you see what I can do at the shoe store.”

“I could probably be talked into coming back with you.” Elsie held up her bags. “Can I stash these in your office just in case?”

“I hear you gave my assistant half your life savings.” Lauren’s smile held a lot more than humor. “The least I can do in exchange is help you get a better deal on shoes.”

Elsie blushed. “Did Lizard tell you about that? Is she still mad?”

“I’m not sure she was ever really mad.” Lauren took the shopping bags and dropped them down inside the office door. “You called her bluff, and you did it with a lot of zeros. I hope one day she thanks you for it.”

It wasn’t thanks she wanted. “I need to come up with an encore now.”

Lauren just raised an eyebrow and said nothing.

“Jennie handed over her guide hat. I’m supposed to come up with a WitchLight assignment for Lizard.”

Lauren’s eyes shone with mischief. “Are you wearing body armor?”

That wasn’t quite the advice she’d come looking for. “You’re a really good negotiator, right? If there’s an obvious deal on the table, is it smart to go digging for a different one?”

“Depends. Is the old deal off the table if you go looking? Is the new deal potentially enough better to take the risk?”

They walked out of the office into the street, Elsie blinking in the sharp sunlight. Then she looked up and smiled as her fire power welcomed the hot summer sun. After years hiding under hats and sunscreen, it was still a change she was getting used to. “The obvious assignment is to have Lizard seriously consider Josh’s offer.”

Lauren nodded. “You’ve already given that a good push. You could definitely lean on it again.” She eyed Elsie curiously. “What else are you considering?”

“Making it more personal.”

“With Josh?” Lauren grinned. “That’s definitely gutsy. I’ll buy you the body armor.”

“No, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure Josh can do that all by himself if he wants.” Elsie was chagrined, however—playing matchmaker had never even occurred to her.

They walked silently down the street for a bit. Lauren finally elbowed Elsie. “A good negotiator often uses silence, but you’re killing me here.”

“It started with my Silly Jar.” Elsie felt the need to lay out her logic—she’d been oh-so-wrong on her ideas for Lizard in the past. “Somebody put in that I should take a ride on Caro’s bike.”

“I’m pretty sure I know who that someone was.” Lauren pulled open the door to Romano’s. “And I’ve seen your sparkly new wheels, so obviously it was a good suggestion.”

“It let me be a little girl again and fall in love with my shiny new ride. A child’s first taste of freedom.” Elsie looked sideways at Lauren. “Nat would have known that.”

Lauren just grinned and led the way to a table.

“I got to go back and find a piece I missed—and then it felt like so many of the pieces attached to that one just kind of fell into place.” With a speed that still left her breathless.

“Nat’s a very smart cookie.”

Yes. And that was a debt Elsie would gladly spend her life repaying. Starting now. “I want to find that same thing for Lizard. The piece that went wrong way back at the beginning.”

“Ah. The deal you’d have to go looking for.” Lauren’s eyes sharpened. “No, wait. You already know what it is, or at least you think you do.”

Elsie nodded. She did.

Lauren looked at her for a long time. And then reached for the bread basket. “I think the owner of Gertrude Geronimo has very good instincts.”

Message received, loud and clear. It had better be the new Elsie making this call.

~ ~ ~

Jennie laughed as her phone buzzed with a message for the third time in ten minutes. She felt like a master spy, or the ringmaster at a circus—she still wasn’t sure which.

Lauren again, asking if she wanted a great deal on shoes. She shook her head, chuckling and replied. No, but Elsie could use some. Is she still with you?

Of course.

It was a strange day. Her interns had apparently switched placements. Jamie reported that Lizard was currently in Nat’s beginner yoga class, doing a passable downward dog and occasionally forgetting to scowl. And while he wasn’t willing to share any hints at all, clearly he knew what Lizard’s dare for Elsie was going to be—his glee was coming through even via text.

He also thought Lizard was right—“dare” was exactly the right word. Which didn’t reassure Jennie terribly much.

So Lizard was hanging out at Spirit Yoga, and Elsie was shoe shopping with Lauren, following the ingestion of copious amounts of noodles. No way that was coincidence.

And neither, she thought, looking up as visitors landed on her couch, is that.

“Good afternoon, my dear,” said Vero brightly. She stood up from the couch and kissed Jennie’s cheek. “We’ve come to offer our moral support.”

“Nonsense.” Melvin chuckled, still on the couch. “We’ve come to see all the fun of the Great WitchLight Dare.”

Only in Witch Central could a vague idea turn into an audience event in less than a day. “I didn’t give Elsie and Lizard any timeline on their assignment. It could take them a while to come up with their ideas for each other.” That didn’t sound convincing even to her—clearly things were already on the move.

Melvin touched his pendant and smiled. “I don’t think it’s going to take much more time at all.”

No one in their right mind argued with Melvin and his pendant. “Okay.” Jennie shrugged, rolling with the inevitable. “Has anyone invited us to dinner yet?” The better cooks in town would be eager to save her guests from her less-than-stellar cooking.

“Of course.” Vero went to the couch to give Melvin her arm. “Jamie’s ready to beam us up whenever you send him the bat signal.”

Jennie was pretty sure Vero had her pop-culture wires crossed, but nobody in their right mind argued with Vero, either. And Jamie could probably read bat signals as well as anything else. She paged her husband too—he’d be delighted with the reprieve from her cooking.