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Murderous Matrimony(29)

By:Joyce Lavene


Chase and I followed Pat outside.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” Chase whispered to me. “We gave up the only place we know of that Wanda can’t go.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Maybe we could sneak in here for an hour or so while Pat is working. We could block off time on a calendar.” I smiled and touched his face. “It’s not that I don’t miss having time alone with you.”

“It’s okay.” He kissed my fingertips. “We’ll find a way. She can’t be everywhere.”

Wanda decided to join us as I struggled to lock the museum door. It had a tendency to stick which was probably why it wasn’t locked properly. “How touching. I love lovers, don’t you? What is my stupid, ex-husband doing now? Honestly, the man is completely hopeless.”

“Why don’t you leave him alone?” I said to her.

“Is Wanda here now?” Chase searched the night around us.

I dropped the key and had to find it. “She’s here.”

“Now lover boy believes in me, eh?” Wanda chuckled. “Wonder what happened?”

“Polo’s Pasta,” I told her. “I think you convinced everyone. Of course that encouraged everyone to figure out ways to get rid of you too. You should’ve been a good ghost and you could’ve hung around.”

“You can’t get rid of me.” Wanda laughed in that evil maniacal manner reminiscent of cartoon characters. She floated up into the night air, getting larger and even scarier, if that was possible. Her eyes glowed with phosphorescent brilliance. She spread her arms and the stadium lights came on for a moment. Then they crackled, and exploded into sparks.

“I can’t see you, Wanda, but if I find you, I’m going to wring your neck!” Chase took out his radio to call his security team. “Meet me on the Village Green for damage control in ten minutes.”

“Hide me! Hide me!” Pat wailed as he tried to run back inside the museum.

I’d finally locked the door. I wasn’t going through it again that night. “You’ll be fine. Stay with me until we get to Madame Lucinda’s tent.”

We walked around to the front together, Shakespeare clinging to my arm.

Madame Lucinda limped out of her tent, belting her robe closed. “What’s going on out here? Oh. It’s you again. Be gone. I’m trying to get some sleep.”

Wanda disappeared in the middle of a loud cackle that echoed around the Village, and brought several residents out on the cobblestones to see what was going on.

“That’s better.” Madame Lucinda sighed and started back to her tent.

“Wait!” I ran after her. “You have to help us. This is Wanda’s ex. She won’t leave him alone.”

“Lady Jessie.” She inclined her head. “Wanda’s ex.”

“Shakespeare, Madame.” He struck a pose. “William Shakespeare.”

“Interesting.” She shook her head. “As we’ve discussed, there are only two lasting ways to get rid of Wanda Le Fey. The first, you have refused. The second has not come to pass.”

“What are you talking about?” Pat kept his eyes on the sky around us. “What is she talking about, Jessie?”

I briefly explained. “I’m not wishing Wanda off on some poor, unsuspecting person. We’ll have to see about the sorcerer.”

“There’s a sorcerer? My goodness!” Mrs. Potts, in a pink mob cap and matching robe, had wandered out of her apartment in the Herb and Honey Shoppe. “I hope he’s handsome. He is a man, right?”

“He is, according to Wanda,” I said. “I haven’t met him. At least I don’t think I have.”

“Are you saying all of this that’s been happening in the Village is a result of dark magic?” Brother Carl had left the Monastery Bakery without his sandals.

“I’m not saying anything one way or another.” This was getting out of hand.

Madame Lucinda was leaving. Dozens of residents were discussing magic and ghosts. There were many more people than I’d realized who’d seen Wanda in the last two weeks.

I didn’t want to get involved in creating more gossip. Instead I followed Madame Lucinda into her tent. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Pat grab Mrs. Potts and hold on tight.

When the tent flaps parted, I saw something I thought I would never see.

Madame Lucinda was a human woman from the waist up. Her legs, which she had so much trouble getting around on, were something else. Only one word came to mind.

Dragon.

Her legs were squat and thick, covered in scaly, green skin—just like Buttercup who was perched on the shelf over the table. There were claws on her large, non-human feet. She had a large green tail too, also covered with scales. No wonder she had such a hard time sitting in a chair.