Witchslapped in Westerham

When violent crime increases in Westerham, Lily and the PIB agents have to step in to sort things out. But nothing is quite as it seems, and danger lurks in every shadow.

Just when Lily thinks she can figure things out, everyone turns against her, including those she loves most. It doesn't help that the person instigating the hate is one of the most powerful witches at the PIB—the love of Will's life: Dana.

Can Lily use her magic to get to the source of the violence before things escalate to the point of no return? And will her friends see the truth about Dana, or will Lily lose them forever?

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I returned Olivia’s grin as the gangly teen checkout boy scanned our chocolate choc-chip four-litre ice cream tub and put it in the bag. Our mini-grocery trip was almost done. The checkout guy’s hand hovered over our bunch of bananas.

A man’s voice came from behind us. “Hey, boy! Don’t touch those.”

Angus—his name tag proclaimed it so—froze. He looked up through his lank fringe at the scrawny old man whose grey trousers appeared to be trying to devour him like a giant python. The pants had managed to swallow his entire lower body up to his armpits. Impressive high pantsing.

The old guy shook his walking stick at the sign above him. “It says ten items or less.”

Olivia and I looked at each other, and she shrugged. I turned back to the old man. “We only have nine items. I’m not the best at math, but last time I checked, nine was less than ten.”

He reached across the conveyer belt and bashed my bananas with his cane. “There”—bash—“are”—bash—“five”—bash—“bananas”—bash. “That makes thirteen items, missy. You need to get your groceries and go to that line over there.” He nodded to the register next to ours.

What in fresh hell was this? Now my bananas were probably only good for putting in a cake. I was going to have to go get another bunch. I folded my arms. “I’m pretty sure that the whole bunch is counted as one item. Isn’t that right, Angus?” I turned to the teenager, eyebrows raised.

Angus stared at me, then at the old guy. “Um.” He swallowed. “Yes,” he squeaked, before leaning back, away from us. Pfft. Scaredy cat.

Angus edged his hand towards the bananas again, his eyes warily on our adversary. The old man shuffled forward and slammed his cane down. Poor Angus only just snatched his hand out of the way in time. Part of the cane squished the bananas some more, but the end hit the plastic edging on the conveyer belt. The loud crack attracted notice. Two cashiers down the line from us turned to watch. A few shoppers swivelled their heads to rubberneck as they wandered past. Keep walking. Nothing to see here, people.

If only that were true.

“You young people have no respect.” The old man gritted his teeth as he spoke. “Now get out of this line. Ten items or less. Less!” He scowled, and his bushy white eyebrows came together like two hairy caterpillars kissing. I would have giggled at the visual if anger hadn’t been radiating off him. His face glowed red. Yikes. His circulation was quite good for an old person.

I turned to Angus, to check if he’d put our bananas through. His gaze darted from me to python pants to the bananas, then to me again. “I think I’d like to get another bunch. These look ruined.”

“Lily, look out!” Olivia’s eyes were wide.

Thwack!

“Ouch!” Sharp pain lanced through my shoulder.

Thwack!

I turned and threw my arms up, and the cane that had hit my shoulder came down on my forearm. Jesus, that hurt. This was ridiculous. I sized up the crazed man, waiting for his next blow. The cane descended. I grabbed it and held it with both hands. “Are you nuts? You can’t just hit people like that.”