When I pulled into the parking lot of a picnic area where Ashley had told me to meet her, I had a flashback to the Fidnemed park and suddenly felt scared. I didn’t think the head witch lured me here to kill me, but the woods in the dying light of the day felt unsafe. Her minivan was already in the lot. I got out, and Ashley’s powerful, young daughter ran over to meet me.

“This way! I’m to take you to your patients,” she said. She led me to the bathrooms. They were made in a faux log cabin style and were lumpy with a thick layer of brown paint and a bright green roof. Inside, the bathroom was drafty and smelled of bleach. Lined up in neat little rows were fairies, pixies, sprites, and all manner of woodland creatures. All of them were horribly injured. I could feel the taint of dark magic festering in their wounds. Ashley was at the sink, washing her hands.

“How did she get so many?” I asked. I couldn’t believe it. Pixies and fairies weren’t that easy to catch.

“I have no idea. They were all recent, too. I’d like to think she had just started, and we caught her right away, but that doesn’t seem very likely,” Ashley said.

“No, I suppose it isn’t. What a horrible woman. I hate taking away anyone’s magic, but she surely deserved it,” Ashley nodded.

I asked, “Who’s the sickest? I’ll start there. Then we’ll see what I can do for the rest of the room.”

Ashley didn’t say anything. She went over and picked up one tiny body and brought it over to me. It was a fairy. The small body fit easily in the palm of her hand. The fairy’s wings were missing. Where they should have been were only two large infected wounds. The fairy was dressed in her fall garb. A long brown dress suit of leaves held together with cobwebs and magic. Mr. Wasp flew over.

“You came. Good. That witch got so many. I don’t even understand how she caught them all. It couldn’t have been easy.” He flitted around my head. His tiny wings fanning my face as he fluttered by on his way back to Ashely’s daughter. The wee folk always had an affinity for magical children.

“Of course, I came. I’ll always come. My job is to heal those who need me,” I told him.

“It’s bad. I thought that when she died, the connection would be severed and that the magic would stop hurting them. But it’s too far gone. Most of them are still sick,” he said. Mr. Wasp fluttered near Ashley’s daughter. From time to time, he would come to land on her small, slim shoulder.

“It’s like she put a fail-safe in; even though she lost her magic, it continues to feed itself. I can’t tell where it’s going. I don’t think she has an accomplice. It may just be the nature of dark magic. That it likes to hurt even when there’s no higher goal to it or reward,” Ashley said, the tiny fairy still cupped in her hands.

“I can heal them and remove the taint. Can you pull the spell out of them? That would make it go faster,” I asked.

“No, I can’t. I pulled it out of all the ones I could. But on the older ones, it is too far gone, and the dark magic is too corrupt and deeply seated into their magic,” Ashley explained.

“Okay. I can get it out of them. It just may take a while.” I sat on the floor and started pulling magnetic hematite out of my pockets. The little stones joined with small metallic clicks. In my hands, they crackled with the energy the café charged them with to protect my life force. I had also brought along a mason jar full of saltwater, which I opened. Ashley placed the fairy’s delicate body in my hand. I slowed my breath and started counting. Soon, I could feel the outline of the fairy’s magic in my palm and the dark shadow of the black magic. I reached in and pulled out the black taint and held it inside my magic. The infection was removed—I used my powers to feed the fairy’s magic. She was much sicker than Mr. Wasp had been. I had to repair a great deal of damage to her body as well as regrow her wings. But after a while, she shakily sat up in my palm and looked around. I handed her to Ashley’s daughter, who was being assisted by Mr. Wasp. Then I forced the black magic into the hunk of rock I had brought along, taking the energy the café had charged the rocks with into my own body to bolster my powers. After the exchange, I dropped the rock into the canning jar filled with saltwater. The magic dispersed with fizz. Ashley handed me the next tiny body. And so we worked. On and on. Fairies and pixies, all with their wings torn off. I would repair them until they could move about and their wings grew back. Then I would hand them off and move on to the next one. It was good that they were also tiny and so much magic of their own. I don’t think I could have healed this many humans.

Finally finished, I sat down on the cold floor next to Ashley, our backs against the cinder blocks. It reminded me a bit of being in high school, hanging out in the bathroom like this. But unlike high school, pixies and fairies flitted and flew about the room, talking in high squeaking voices. They dressed mostly in brown, but it still had the appearance of some madhouse Disney movie.

“How will you get them all home?” I asked. I didn’t ask how the black witch had died. Maybe she had been dead the last time I saw her, slumped on the floor at the witch’s meeting.

“Most of them live within flying distance. I’ll drive the ones that don’t. Mr. Wasp will help. He has been great about all this. He would have been well within his rights to leave that first day, but instead, he stayed on and went out and talked to all the different pixie and fairy tribes. I don’t think we would have been able to help nearly so many if he hadn’t been there. I’m not sure if this debt has been repaid or not. We’ve done so much good with him here helping us. He believes in you. He didn’t want me to even try healing them. He wanted me to bring them all to you. Maybe I should have done that. I don’t know. We just kept finding more and more.” Ashley stopped speaking and sat watching the healed pixies and fairies enjoy their new working wings.

“Look at them all. It’s worked out great. You saved them and cleared your debt. Don’t let it get you down,” I told her.

“It did work out okay; you’re right.” She smiled and then asked, “How did it go with the hags?”

“Not so great. They came and got the body, which was creepy. But they won’t agree to let me work with them to find the killer. And, assuming the vampires aren’t looking, they have the best chance of finding him,” I told her.

“Did you ask to join the hunt? Were they offended by the wording?” Ashley asked me.

“Not particularly, no. They just thought that I would get in their way. Or stop them from catching the guy. Which I wouldn’t, even if I could, which I can’t. But I want to be involved. There are other magical families out there grieving and wanting closure. There may be more bodies out there. We have to do this right,” I explained.

“That makes sense. I’ll have to talk to them. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t work with you. They aren’t the easiest magical creatures to get along with, which is why they aren’t more active in the coven, but they aren’t usually territorial,” Ashley said.

“Don’t talk to them yet. They said they would call me in the morning if they were going to let me help. And maybe they will. I’m pretty sure that you telling them they have to play nice with me would be just about the least helpful thing you could possibly do,” I said.

“Are you sure? They have to listen to me if I make it an order. They aren’t far enough removed from the witches that they can easily disobey me,” she said.

“That may be and all, but just because you set a compulsion on them to cooperate doesn’t mean they are going to do so happily or willingly. I get the sense that they do what they want to do. They may even be planning on letting me help them, but maybe they want to make me think they won’t let me. I don’t know,” I said.

“A hag being contrary and manipulative? You don’t say. Next, you’re going to tell me they’re two-faced.” Ashley smiled. I watched the wee folks. They were all healed now, but they showed no sign of leaving; if anything, the celebration reached a new level now that the formally sick could join in.

“Are they planning on staying?” I asked Ashley.

“Looks like it. Are you okay to get home? You didn’t do too much magic, did you? she asked.

“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.” Ashley and I hugged and said goodbye. I walked from the strange little bathroom to my car. Before I got in, I looked around. Was he watching me now? Did the killer know I was the one who took his bodies? Did that piss him off enough to make him follow me? Suddenly the bright afternoon sun wasn’t nearly bright enough, and I got in my car in a hurry. With the car on, I texted Lily to let her know that I was leaving the woods and headed home to catch up on my sleep. With that, I pulled out of the parking lot and headed home. I hoped the next day would bring a break in the case.

I woke up the next morning to my phone ringing. I didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?” I asked.

“You want in on the hunt?” said a little old lady’s voice.

“Um, yes, I do,” I said. I assumed it was the hags. I wasn’t sure how they felt about the title “Hag,” so I didn’t ask.

She asked, “Will you arrange for the wolves and the vampires and all other interested parties to get their revenge?”

I explained, “I will act as a liaison. I can’t guarantee anything. I would like to put together a team for the hunt. But if that isn’t acceptable, I would like to organize a tribunal afterward.”

The hag replied, “We will not work with dogs or the corpses. A tribunal would be acceptable. Depending on the circumstances, we would welcome help with the extraction.”

I was suddenly very, very awake. “Do you have a location already?”

“We may, we may not. These things are magic, you know, not science,” she said.

“How do you wish to proceed?” I asked, scrambling to think of everything we would need to do. I wondered if Chris was still with Lily. That would make everything a lot easier.

“Two of us will take you to the site, depending on what we find, we’ll call the others, or not. Maybe we don’t call them at all. We will have to see,” she said.

“Can I inform them that we are going on the hunt now?” I asked. I wasn’t sure what I would do if she said no.

“Ya, you may. But they must not interfere,” she said.

“Okay. When do you want to leave?” I asked, assuming that she would want to go that very night. I hoped that Lily would be okay with working two dinner shifts in a row. I knew it cut into her time with Chris.

“Now. We can meet you at the guardhouse as soon as you are ready,” was her reply.

“Really? I can get there in twenty minutes—maybe half an hour.” I wouldn’t have time to shower, but that was okay. Their magic must be very strong to work this close to noon. The morning wasn’t a good time for spelling, or at least that’s what I had heard.

“Fine.” She hung up without saying goodbye. I rushed to get ready. I didn’t want to miss out on whatever the hags would find.