Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (books to read fiction .txt) 📕

“Who want’s chocolate puff-o’s?” Kate asked as she skipped towards the kitchen.

“Just say yes,” Effie chuckled.

“Yes!” I replied, slumping down onto the sofa and feeling myself sink into the cushions.

“So, this thing with you and Ryder is getting spicy, huh?” Effie asked. “I’ve seen that little eye-energy thing y’all have going. Jeez, Miller is gonna be heartbroken. And Greta… but she’s dead so I don’t know how much time you wanna spend worrying about her un-beating heart.”

“Miller!” I shrieked, sitting up. “I need to get to him.”

“Wolf stuff?” Kate said as she handed me a bowl with a mountain of chocolate shapes in milk. “Is he in a cage or something?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Look at the time,” Kate smiled. “We are only a few hours from sunrise. We are over the darkest part of the night and the sky is cloudy now on account of you and Ryder making heart-eyes at each other.”

“What?” I asked.

“Greta taught Ryder how to do some weather-control magic. We all saw the way he was looking at you earlier, it made the sky get weird and now the moon is hidden behind clouds,” she explained. “Ryder helped Miller out, kind of. I mean, making out with you in the woods isn’t helpful for Miller obviously…”

The two of them laughed and I couldn’t help but smile as I realized they were just poking fun at me again. I was one of the gang.

“Best thing you can do is finish your cereal, crash on the couch for a few hours and then go check on lover boy in the morning,” Kate said.

“Which lover boy?” Effie cackled.

“Knock it off, the pair of you,” I replied. My eyelids grew heavy. My day would be so busy from the moment it started, and I couldn’t do much if I didn’t get some rest.

I needed to make sure Miller was okay, make sure that there was no more murder on the islands that I was supposed to protect and then try to pull my plan together to stop Max and the band in their tracks. If we didn’t get someone else to win that stupid contest, then the whole of Hallow Haven would be at risk.

I needed to introduce someone into the Battle of the Bands at the last minute and pull the rug from under Max and his cronies. I needed Miller to help me find the one person that had a shot of helping us, Damon the busker.

18

I woke up under a blanket that was knitted from the brightest wool I’d ever seen. Whoever had put this over me during the night had tucked it underneath my body, causing me to struggle against it for a moment like I was trapped in a caterpillar’s cocoon.

“Wakey wakey, lazy bones,” Effie called from the kitchen.

“What time is it?” I asked, my voice croaky.

“It’s just after eight. I know we’ve all had less than four hours of sleep, but I made coffee!” She pointed towards the cauldron bubbling in the fireplace, the richness of the blend flooding my senses. “This will blow your socks off.”

She reached into the cauldron with a ladle and tipped a generous amount into a mug she had brought in from the other room. I wriggled my arms free from the blanket and wrapped my hands around the ceramic, the warmth seeping through to my skin.

“It will be the perfect temperature, it’s an old recipe from our grandmother,” Effie nodded. “She was the one that got me into baking in the first place. She made the perfect coffee and the best darn snickerdoodles you’ve had in your life.”

“Ahh is that Nana’s brew?” Kate shrieked, bouncing towards the sofa and jumping from a few feet away to land in a seated position beside me.

“You bet, I think we all needed it today,” Effie smiled, handing another mug to her sister. I took a sip and felt immediately energized. Ahh. Clarity seemed to simultaneously kick in and my thoughts about what needed to get done all slotted into order.

“I need to get to Miller’s house,” I announced. I stood up, casted the blanket aside and realized I was wearing fresh clothes that I was definitely not wearing when I came to the house in the dark. My magic must have dressed me.

“And you dressed up for the occasion, very nice,” Kate teased. I polished off the coffee, handed the mug back to Effie and made a bolt for the door.

“I’ll call you guys when I know what’s happening next,” I yelled. “Just, I dunno, stay vigilant?”

“As you wish, chief,” Effie laughed.

I hurried down the steps outside their house and through the metal gate in the fence surrounding the property. I still didn’t know what I would find at Miller’s place, the howling had sounded so close that I had feared he was loose on the island. I needed his help, now more than ever, and if anything had happened to him then it would be all my fault.

I knew I had to do whatever I could to interrupt the activity up in the clearing, but I was supposed to be making sure he was okay too. It was my presence on the island that had triggered this werewolf situation, this was all on me.

I ran up the hill sloping away from the lower ground, past the cemetery, and charged onward towards Miller’s home. The coffee was clearly something supernatural, I don’t think I would have been able to run this fast on a normal day, let alone after only a few hours of sleep.

Once it was in sight, it felt reassuring that the door to his house was still closed. A werewolf wouldn’t shut the door behind themselves after breaking free from a cage, right? I opened the door and walked through the house to the bare room where Miller had constructed his prison.

Inside the cage he lay, shirtless and sleeping. The cage door was dented