To Hex With It

  “Good, that’s...thank you.” Alizia hugged her daughter. “I’m so proud of you. I’m proud of the witch and woman that you’ve become.” Lilith hugged back. The two of them wanted to milk this, their last hug for as long as they could.

  “I love you mom.” Lilith was in full sobbing mode again.

  “I love you little monster. Now, If you’d excuse me,” Alizia separated herself from her daughter. “I have a lot of crimes to make up for. And I need to start with this.”

  “I don’t want you to go,” pleaded Lilith.

  “That makes me happier than you can ever know.” Alizia turned to Aunt Rose, Sir Kain and Eve who stood in the kitchen, far enough not to be interrupting a mother and daughter’s moment but close enough to keep an eye on her. They still didn’t trust the Blackward matriarch. “Take care of her better than I ever could. Please.” Aunt Rose nodded.

  “I can use the spell again. Go back further. Stop all of this from happening,” Lilith was desperate. Now that it was go time, she didn’t want her mother to go. She’d lost so much recently, she couldn’t lose her too. “I can’t lose you too. You’re all the family I have left.”

  “Don’t be stupid honey. You still have them,” Alizia pointed at Aunt Rose, Sir Kain and Eve. “Good bye. Be better than I ever was. That’s all I ask. And be happy.” Alizia kissed Lilith on her forehead then stepped out into the snow.

  Alizia kept walking ignoring her daughter crying behind her. She couldn’t stop herself from doing the same. When she reached the family graveyard she looked up in the sky.

  “Emit fo sdnas eht ni kcab spets owt.” Alizia lifted up high into the sky after she recited the spell. Light shined through her eyes, nose, mouth and ears. For a brief second she was a child again, lying in bed next to her own mother. She opened her eyes and saw her mother’s smiling face.

  “It’s okay Lizzy. It’s okay,” said Alizia’s mother.

  Lilith watched as her mother floated up into the air. Then she exploded into a starburst of extremely bright light. That light turned into a ball that shot up fast, higher in the sky, through the atmosphere and sped through space towards the sun.

  A VERY BRIEF EPILOGUE

  Lilith Blackward sat on her bed in her childhood bedroom. She held her journal in her hands and was thinking of what to write on the last page. From outside she could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. It was almost time.

  Someone knocked on the door.

  “Yeah?” answered Lilith.

  “Lilith?” It was Sir Kain.

  “Come in,” replied Lilith.

  Sir Kain came in, appropriately somber and sat down next to Lilith. He was silent for a second. Then he broke that silence.

  “I would say I am sorry and give my condolences but I somehow think I do not need to.”

  “You’re right you don’t. And I’ve heard them enough. I’ll probably hear a lot more when I come downstairs.”

  Sir Kain smiled and put his stone hand on Lilith’s knee. “I have something to admit. Something I should have told you a long time ago.”

  “That I, like my father before me, am a descendant of Morgan Le Fay?” Lilith did it for Sir Kain.

  “How did you-?”

  “Inquisitor Torrance. When he helped me exorcise myself, when we were connected, he felt it. Told me. I’m guessing, given your age and past as a knight, you knew this and probably knew her. The original Morgan Le Fay? Don’t have to be a detective to figure that out.”

  “I did. I was assigned by a great King to guard her. And her lake. But that’s...that is a story for another day. Again, sorry about that kid. Know that the oath I made to a King centuries ago, still applies today. I will protect you until this stone turns to dust.”

  Lilith turned to Sir Kain. “I know. I love you Sir Kain.”

  “I love you too.” Sir Kain got up and was about to leave. He stopped at the door. “Just a forewarning. Your Aunt Rose, she is very drunk.”

  Lilith gave a little laugh. “Of course she is. See you down there. I need a few more minutes.”

  “Of course.” Sir Kain left.

  Lilith looked down at the blank last pages of her diary, still not knowing what to write. A few minutes later there was another knock on her door.

  “Yeah?”

  “Hey, you ready Lil?” It was Winter Krueger on the other side of her bedroom door.

  “Yeah, just gimme a second. I’ll be right down.”

  “Take as long as you need,” said Winter before going back down the stairs to join the rest of the attendees.

  Lilith got up, diary still in her hand and walked over to the window. She looked outside. Inquisitor Torrance had just finished digging her mother’s grave the old fashioned way. And it was hard work. There was still snow on the ground and that ground was frozen. The reversal of Heinrich Talon’s spell worked but it wasn’t instant. It would take a couple weeks for everything to return to normal.

  Other attendees of Alizia Blackward’s funeral were gathered outside, nearer to the kitchen, mingling. Lilith couldn’t help but find it funny that when this all started, when she decided to use Red Wolf’s Folly as her judgment spell, she stood at that same window and looked down on her own funeral. But what she found funnier was the fact that the spell was named because in the end, Red Wolf discovered that he couldn’t change fate, only the details getting to the end of the road. She couldn’t either. Unlike him though, that didn’t defeat her.

  Feeling that her story had just begun, Lilith threw her diary onto the bed. She took a deep breath and looked around her bedroom. Then she opened the door and went downstairs to say goodbye to her mother and start her new life with her family, Aunt Rose, Sir Kain, Winter, and Eve.

  Don’t miss the first book in the Happy Blendings Cozy Witch Mystery Series:

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  Catalog of Books

  Lilith Blackward Cozy Witch Mystery Series

  What the Hex

  Hex to the No

  To Hex or Not to Hex

  To Hex With It

  CALAMITY CORNERS COZY Witch Mystery Series

  Calm Before the Witch Storm

  The Witch is in the Details

  Better the Witch You Know

  A Witch Axe to Grind

  TRIPLET WITCH SISTERS Mystery Series

  Two’s Company, Three’s a Coven

  Resting Witch Face

  Bewitched and Bewildered

  Triple Toil and Trouble

  WITCH DETECTIVE SERIES

  Payback’s a Witch

  Come Witch or High Water

  Witch Boots on the Ground

  THE WITCH SISTERS OF Stillwater

  Hoodoo and Just Desserts

  A Shade of Murder

  That Ol’ Black Magic

  A Whole Lotta Witchin Goin On

  The Beast Cometh

  Secrets and Sorcery

  THE LUCKY DILL DELI Mystery Series

  A Yuletide Wallop

  Haunted Homicide

  The Leprechaun’s Loot

  THE SINISTER CASE SERIES

  Mirror, Mirror Murder Them All

  A Wicked Enchantment

  A Scorching Spell

  THE GRUMPY CHICKEN Irish Pub Series

  A Frosty Mug of Murder

  Treachery on Tap

  A Highball and a Low Blow

  Cursed With a Twist

  A Whiskey Sour Wipeout

  OLD SCHOOL DINER
COZY Mysteries

  Murder at Stake

  Murder Well Done

  A Side Order of Deception

  Murder, Basted and Barbecued

  Murder Ala Mode

  The Candy Cane Killer

  The Blue Plate Slayer

  THE CURIOSITY SHOP Cozy Mysteries

  The Curious Case of the Cursed Spectacles

  The Curious Case of the Cursed Dice

  The Curious Case of the Cursed Dagger

  The Curious Case of the Cursed Looking Glass

  The Curious Case of the Cursed Crucible

  WITCHY WOMEN OF COVEN Grove Series

  THE WITCHING ON THE Wall

  A Witching Well of Magic

  Witching the Night Away

  Witching There’s Another Way

  Witching Your Life Away

  Witching You Wouldn’t Go

  Witching for a Miracle

  TEASEN & PLEASEN HAIR Salon Series

  A Hair Raising Blowout

  Wash, Rinse, Die

  Holiday Hooligans

  Color Me Dead

  False Nails & Tall Tales

  CAESAR’S CREEK SERIES

  A FROZEN SCOOP OF MURDER

  Death by Chocolate Sundae

  Soft Serve Secrets

  Ice Cream You Scream

  Double Dip Dilemma

  Melted Memories

  Triple Dip Debacle

  Whipped Wedding Woes

  A Sprinkle of Tropical Trouble

  A Drizzle of Deception

  SWEET HOME MYSTERY Series

  Creamed at the Coffee Cabana

  A Caffeinated Crunch

  A Frothy Fiasco

  Punked by the Pumpkin

  Peppermint Pandemonium

  Expresso Messo

  A Cuppa Cruise Conundrum

  The Brewing Bride

  WHISPERING PINES MYSTERY Series

  A Sinister Slice of Murder

  Sanctum of Shadows

  Curse of the Bloodstone Arrow

  Fright Night at the Haunted Inn