Read A Witch Before Dying: A Wishcraft Mystery for Free Online Page B

melancholy in her voice that told me she suspected Roger did more than just help around Patrice’s house.
    Had he cheated on her with Patrice?
    Was that why Patrice and Yvonne had stopped being friends?
    “If only we hadn’t let Patrice leave the Sorcerer’s Stove alone that night,” Yvonne said.
    Stunned, I rocked faster. “You were at the Stove with her the night she disappeared?” Neither Ve nor Marcus had mentioned that little fact.
    Missy loped up the steps and jumped onto my lap. I petted her head as she sniffed Yvonne’s arm.
    Her rocker came to a stop. Yvonne stretched out her legs and nodded. “A double date. Me and Roger and Patrice and Mr. Macabre.”
    For a second I thought I heard her wrong. “Mr. Macabre?”
    Yvonne smiled mischievously. “My pet name for Andreus Woodshall. He’s a Charmcrafter, and one of the most popular vendors with the Roving Stones. Every time the fair was in town, Andreus wooed Patrice. But he was only interested in her for one thing.”
    “Sex?” I asked in a whisper.
    “Worse,” Yvonne said.
    Worse
? What kind of marriage did she and Roger have?
    “All Mr. Macabre wanted was the Anicula.”
    Missy barked, one short yap. I rubbed her ears and realized what Yvonne was saying. Charmcrafters. The Anicula…She knew about the witchcraft in the village.
    There was no way to tell at first sight if someone was a Crafter. The only ways of knowing were from word spread among Crafters about who was who, or if their powers were revealed through the double twitch of the left eye—a sure sign a spell had been cast. And since revealing powers to a mortal, even accidentally, could cause Crafters to lose their powers forever…people didn’t tend to talk about it openly.
    She must have heard through the Craft grapevine that I was a Wishcrafter. Which meant that Yvonne had to be some sort of Crafter, too.
    “I can see your thoughts spinning,” Yvonne said, eyeing me carefully. “We’re Halfcrafters. My husband, Roger, used to be a Geocrafter before he married little ol’ mortal me. I’m president of the neighborhood association of Halfcrafters as well.”
    She’d taken quite a risk in telling me. The punishmentfor a Halfcrafter who revealed anything about the Craft to a mortal was to be turned into a frog.
    When a Crafter married a mortal, in accordance with Craft Law he or she had two options. One was to reveal the Craft to the spouse. In that case, the Crafter forfeited his or her powers (the Craft really frowned upon such unions) and became a Halfcrafter (the loss of powers essentially turned a Crafter into a mortal). My mind automatically filled in the blanks. In this case, Connor had to be a full-fledged Geocrafter like his father had been since his mother once had been fully mortal.
    The other option was, of course, to keep the Craft a secret from a spouse, thus leading a difficult life of lies and magical subterfuge, but retaining the ability to perform magic. The clueless spouse in that instance did not become a Halfcrafter, and held no knowledge of the Craft at all.
    Within the Craft community, Halfcrafters were still treated as Crafters. They still had to attend Craft meetings (and apparently held their own), had to answer to the Elder, and were held to Craft laws. And when the marriage ended for whatever reason (death, divorce), the Crafter could petition the Elder to have powers restored. That request wasn’t always granted, however.
    The Craft-mortal marriage laws were a bit harsh, in my opinion. But I supposed there was a reason why our heritage had been able to thrive without exposure all these centuries.
    I was still trying to process the fact that there was a neighborhood association of Halfcrafters—and wondering if Nick was part of it—when I spotted, across the street, a stretcher being brought into the house from the ME’s van. Elodie and Connor still hadn’t come out. And now Nick was nowhere to be seen.
    “I’ve said too much, haven’t I?” Yvonne