Welcome Back Witches: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery (Season 2 - Book 1) #10 Read online

  Welcome Back Witches

  A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery: Book 10

  M.Z. Andrews

  Welcome Back Witches

  A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery

  Season Two - Book One

  (Book Ten in Series)

  by

  M.Z. Andrews

  Copyright © M.Z. Andrews 2019

  ISBN: 9781088935958

  VS: 08132019.01

  Cover Art by: Arrigo Verderosa

  Editing by: Clio’s Editing

  All characters herein are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Also by M.Z. Andrews

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  A warm late-August breeze blew in from the north, making the wind chimes on my new front porch spin like a marionette ballet dancer gracefully pirouetting in time with the delicate musical tinklings. A pair of robins flirted loudly in the branches of the large sugar maple tree behind me and the midday sun warmed my face as I stared up at the magnificent house in front of me.

  It was a three-story Victorian at the end of a quiet, dead-end gravel road on the outskirts of Aspen Falls, Pennsylvania. Across the road, rows and rows of cornstalks stood proudly, the wind encouraging their grainy tassels to wave an exuberant hello. Next door was a simple two-story ranch-style house, and beyond the alley behind our house was an entire row of houses. But with ours being the last house at the end of Blue Spruce Lane, we were the most secluded.

  All of this was quite the upgrade from move-in day only one short year ago. While the dorms at the Paranormal Institute for Witches had served their purpose, mostly introducing me to my four best friends, I was more than thankful that for our second year of witch school, we’d now be living in style and comfort. Not only did having our own place afford us the luxury of our own bedrooms, but there would be no more sharing a communal bathroom with a floor of hormonal female witches. Which, if you’ve never had the pleasure of doing this, I’d highly recommend avoiding at all costs. Now it was six bedrooms and three bathrooms just for the five of us girls.

  As I stood staring up at my new house, feeling a deep sense of awe and truthfully a spark of excitement for the year to come, a deep voice carried in behind me. “Where do you want this one to go, sis?”

  I gave the box I carried a little bounce, wedging it up onto my hip, and glanced over my shoulder at my brother. Reign was tall, dark, and handsome, inheriting his height and his features more from his father than our mother. He’d grown his hair and beard out over the summer, and now his dark curls clung to the back of his neck and he had to toss back long locks of hair from his onyx eyes.

  “Need a ponytail?” I teased, tipping my head sideways to read the words I’d scrawled, almost illegibly, across the side of the box he carried in permanent marker.

  “So funny.” Pausing beside me, he shifted the weight of the box in his arms. “Come on, Merc, this box isn’t exactly light.”

  That was all it took for me to remember what I’d packed in that one. “Oh. Yeah, that one’s books. I think I saw some bookshelves in the living room.”

  Reign looked down at me. “You really want to mix your books up with all of theirs?”

  I swished my lips to the side. They were textbooks the Institute’s bookstore wouldn’t buy back the year before—Ghost Sciences and Kinetic Energy—books I’d probably never crack open again. Did I really care if they got mixed up with my landlord’s books? “I don’t know. Just put them in the living room. I’ll figure out what I wanna do with them later.”

  “Got it, boss.” He gave me a wink as he walked past me and up the porch steps.

  “Mercy, can you help me with this?” called a small, squeaky voice from the driveway.

  I turned to see Jax Stone, my roommate and best friend, struggling to pull the desk she’d bought at a yard sale out of the back of Reign’s truck. “Hands are sorta full here, Jax,” I hollered back at her. “Why don’t you try using your magic?”

  Jax stopped pulling and looked at me. With hands on her narrow hips, she jutted her chin out in my direction. “Mercy! Is that supposed to be a joke?”

  JaclynRose Stone, known to her friends as simply Jax, was a small girl with a big personality. Slim and short with tiny features, she barely looked all of her eighteen years. Today, she wore striped capri-length spandex pants that she referred to as her “bouncy pants,” a baggy racerback tank that said We’re Getting Pizza After This, and a pair of sneakers. Her hair had been freshly died a pale, silvery shade of blue and was knotted in a bun on top of her head.

  I turned around and looked at her. “No, I’m serious, Jax. You’re never going to get your magic to work if you don’t practice using it.”

  Jax considered me for a moment and then turned her eyes back to the desk. Frowning, she squeezed her hands into fists and bore down, making her face scrunch up into a little red constipated snarl. She was trying to move the desk with her mind, but as I’d told her a hundred times, she was doing it all wrong.

  I groaned and, holding the box on my hip with one hand, I released the other hand, wiggled my fingers in her direction and lifted the desk up off the truck bed, floating it carefully to the ground.

  Jax’s eyes opened to the size of saucers and her jaw dropped. She turned to look at me, a huge smile pouring across her face like slow-spreading honey. “Mercy! Did you see that?!”

  I smiled. “Of course I saw that, Jax. I saw it because I did it.”

  Jax’s big blue eyes narrowed on me. “Mercy!”

  I giggled. “Sorry, Jax. I was only trying to help.” I pivoted to walk up the front porch’s wide white steps.

  “No, you weren’t!” I heard her call behind me, her voice following me into the house through the screen door.

  “What’s Jax yelling about?” asked Reign as he came around the corner, meeting me in the foyer.

  “Oh, who knows.” I paused beside a bookshelf. “Hey, thanks for helping us move. In case I forget to tell you later, I really appreciate it.”

  “Duh? What else are big brothers good for besides free moving services?”

  I made a speculative face and tapped a finger lightly on my chin. “You know, I ask
myself that same question every day, but I’ve yet to come up with a good answer.”

  He chuckled and reached out to tousle my long red hair, bouncing out of reach before I could kick him for messing up my braid.

  “Reign!”

  He laughed and as soon as the screen door slammed behind him, I could hear Jax tattling on me. Rolling my eyes, I walked through the foyer to the back of the house, where the kitchen was located. I dropped the box of groceries my mom had given Jax and me onto the counter, and just as I’d started unpacking the box, Reign came breezing back inside carrying an overstuffed garbage bag.

  He held it up. “Where’s this go?”

  “Oh. That’s my bedding. That goes in my room.”

  He looked towards the stairs at the other end of the kitchen. “Which one’s your room?”

  “Actually, I don’t know yet. Jax wouldn’t let us pick our rooms without the rest of the girls being here. So, until they get here, I guess we’ll just put our stuff in the hallway on the second floor.”

  “Got it.”

  When Reign disappeared, I began to unpack the box of food into the pantry behind me. I’d just pulled out a box of instant mac ’n’ cheese when Jax’s wild scream tore through the air, making me jump.

  “Ahhh! Merrrrrrcy! They’re here, they’re here! Mercy! Hurry!”

  My adrenaline shifted into high gear. I dropped the box onto the counter and raced out the front door and down the porch steps. A little four-door Ford Taurus had pulled up to the curb. The roof was loaded down with luggage, and I could see three familiar faces inside.

  The engine shut off, and a second later, an extremely tanned blonde bombshell emerged from the backseat. She wore a red-and-white-striped scoop-neck top, white linen shorts, and red espadrille wedge sandals.

  Closer to the car than I was, Jax beat me to her and already had her arms wrapped around the blonde’s neck by the time I got there.

  “Holly!” Jax squealed into the blonde’s ear while bouncing up and down. “You’re finally here! I missed you so much!”

  “Okay, okay, Jax,” laughed Holly Rockwell. An oversized leather purse was slung over one arm, and with her other arm, she had to brace herself against the side of the car to keep Jax from tipping her over. “You’re breaking my eardrums.”

  “Oh, sorry.” Jax giggled and unhooked herself from Holly’s neck.

  “Thank you.” She brushed a hand down the front of her outfit as if Jax had mussed up her look. “Thanks for the warm welcome. I missed you too.”

  While I was just as excited to see my friend as Jax was, I took a much more relaxed approach in greeting her. “Hey, Holl.”

  “Mercy!” Holly extended her arms to me. “Omigosh, I missed you so much.”

  “I missed you too.” Even though I wasn’t much of a hugger, it had been a long, boring summer without her, and I was thrilled to have her back. After a quick embrace, I took a step back, nearly toppling over Jax, who was hunched over in front of the car’s passenger window. Knocking on the glass and fluttering her fingers, Jax’s bottom bounced up and down, looking like a little kid who had to pee.

  The door opened and a hand popped out, shooing Jax back. “Get outta the way, Shorty,” muttered a familiar gruff voice. As the door pushed open, a pair of white Nike sneakers emerged from the car.

  Jax scooted backwards, letting out an excited ear-piercing squeal as she clapped her hands. “Alba!”

  Still seated in the passenger’s seat, but with the door wide open, Alba Sanchez shoved her fingers in her ears, wincing. “Come on. You’re killin’ me here.”

  I shook my head, grinning. “She’s been like this all day.”

  Alba groaned but pushed herself out of the car.

  The second she was vertical, Jax tackled her midsection. “Ahhh! I missed you so much!”

  Alba threw her hands in the air as she looked down at the tiny imp clinging to her middle. “I’ve been gone three months and already she forgot rule number one. No hugging,” she said loudly.

  Without letting go, Jax hollered up at her, “The no hugging rule doesn’t count on move-in day.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. It was sort of fun watching the girls annoy Alba. Especially because we all knew the truth about our gruff friend—she might be hard on the outside, but she had an oozy-gooey caramel center and she loved us just as much as we loved her.

  Alba grimaced, pretending Jax’s hug burned her skin, and patted her back awkwardly. “Okay, okay. You did your hugging.” She wriggled out of Jax’s arms. “Now get off me, Shorty.”

  Jax let go, but not to be deterred from her duties as chair of the roommate welcome wagon, she asked brightly, “How was your summer?”

  “Hot,” said Alba, her face serious. “Jersey City in the summer is like swimming in hot coffee while standing on the sun. Plus you gotta chew the air before you can breathe it, so that’s always fun.”

  Jax stood back and blinked at Alba seriously. Then she nodded. “Ohhh. Sounds—nice? Well, I’m glad you’re back. I really missed you.”

  Even though it looked like it pained her to say it, Alba muttered back, “I missed you too, Shorty.”

  The five words lit Jax up like a birthday candle. She clasped her hands together and raced around to the other side of the car while I took my turn giving Alba a hug.

  “I see you didn’t lose your sparkling personality over the summer.”

  Alba patted my back the same way she’d patted Jax’s, like I was a puppy and she was allergic. “What would I be if I weren’t fun?”

  I chuckled and let her go. “Glad to have you back.”

  “Glad to be back. I had to get outta that town before it ate me alive.” She sucked in a long, deep breath through her nose. “Plus, I almost forgot what clean air smelled like.”

  I leaned over and peered inside the car. Sweets Porter, the last of our witch squad five, was sitting behind the wheel on her phone. “Hey, Sweets. Thanks for picking the girls up from the airport.”

  Alba rolled her eyes. “Don’t interrupt her. She’s texting her boyfriend.”

  “Because Alba wouldn’t let me text and drive,” Sweets retorted without looking up from her screen.

  “I’m not gonna die because you’re goin’ gaga over some douchebag guy.”

  “Corey’s not a douchebag, Alba,” snapped Sweets. “And you’re not allowed to call him that from here on out.”

  “Oooh, she told you, Alba.” I grinned.

  Alba rolled her eyes and leaned into me. “All she could talk about on the ride here was Corey this and Corey that. You’d think the girl had nothing else in her life.”

  I waved a hand in the air. Hearing Sweets talk about Corey was nothing new. I’d heard it all summer. “Meh, she’s smitten. And they haven’t seen each other all summer. Give her a break.”

  “His plane just landed,” Sweets said while her thumbs danced across the phone screen.

  “And you didn’t wait for him?” asked Jax, with her elbows propped up on the side of Sweets’ rolled-down window.

  “Where was I supposed to put him, Jax? There’s not even room on the roof!”

  Sweets had a point. Holly had carved out just enough space for her to sit in the backseat. The rest of the car was completely stuffed full of luggage.

  “So how’s he getting to Aspen Falls, then?” I asked.

  “One of his friends is picking him and a couple of the other wizard school guys up at the airport.”

  “Is he living in the dorms this year or did he get an apartment off campus?” asked Holly.

  “He’s going to live in the dorms. He said it’s just easier that way. Then he doesn’t have to worry about furniture and grocery shopping and all of that.”

  Smiling impishly, Jax waggled her eyebrows. “So do you two have plans to meet up tonight?”

  “Nothing formal, but I’m sure we’ll figure something out. Three months is much too long. You girls have no idea how much I’ve missed him.” Sweets let out a weary sigh.


  “Oh, Jax and I know all right,” I said with a laugh.

  Holly leaned over and peered through Alba’s open door. “Sweets, can you pop the trunk for me?”

  Alba pushed past me. “I call dibs on the bathroom.”

  Jax straightened. “We’ve got three bathrooms, Alba! You don’t have to call dibs.”

  Alba paused to look at me, clearly surprised. “Three bathrooms, Red? I’m impressed. Where’d you say you found this place?”

  “Gran and her friends own the place. One of their friends died and left it to them in her will.” It had been a stroke of luck that I’d overheard Gran and her friends talking about it at my family’s B&B over the summer. Otherwise, we would’ve been stuck crammed up in some small apartment or something.

  “As long as the old broad didn’t die in my room, I’m cool,” said Alba.

  Dropping the luggage she’d just pulled from the trunk to the ground, Holly straightened. She pulled her red-framed butterfly sunglasses off her face and slid them back into her hair. Looking up at the house, she wrinkled her nose. “Eww, Mercy, you didn’t tell us someone died in there.”

  “No one died inside, Holly.” I turned my head, muttering the rest of it under my breath. “She died in the garden.”

  “Mercy!”

  “Cosmo. The place’s got three bathrooms,” said Alba from the front porch. “Think about our options here. You’d rather go back to the dorms and have to share with a whole floor of girls again?”