“Then don’t leave us,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Joe asked.
“Put her in the passenger seat, Joe. We’ll take her to my house and hide her in the basement. You can stay on the sofa until we get this all straightened out.”
I watched as Joe propped Amanda up in the passenger seat and buckled her in. The law enforcement side of him wouldn’t shut off even when we were stealing a not-so-dead body. Or, he really believed I’d crash the car.
“How are we going to get a body wrapped in a sheet into your house? Are your neighbors less nosy than mine?” Joe asked once we were in the car.
“We’ll pull the car all the way back to the garage and then carry her through the cellar doors. I’ll go inside and open them up for you. You’ll carry her down and we’ll get to work casting every protection spell I can think of on the basement.”
“Don’t you already have protection spells on the basement?” Joe asked.
“I do, but we’re going to do them again just to be sure,” I said. “I think I can strengthen my wards against dark magic too. It’s not something I usually have to worry too much about.”
“Have you noticed that it’s become something we have to worry about more and more here?” Joe said.
“One thing at a time.”
I went into the house and quickly made my way to the basement and opened the cellar door for Joe. He carried Amanda down the short concrete steps and I waited for him to put her on the disused work bench along the far wall.
“What if she wakes up and rolls off?” he asked.
“I don’t want to put her on the floor,” I said. “I think I’ve got a blow-up mattress around here. Let me find it.”
I looked around until I found the box that had an old camping mattress in it. I dug a little farther and found a bicycle pump to blow it up. Once I had them both, I handed them to Joe and then helped him unroll the mattress.
Once it was set up, Joe and I moved Amanda to it. I set to work placing as many protection spells and wards as I could think of around her. I poured a ring of salt around the mattress and set up a circle of white candles around that. After I lit them, I placed another ring of salt around them.
“You aren’t going to leave those candles burning, are you?” Joe asked. “That’s a fire hazard.”
“It’s not a fire hazard when they are part of a protection spell. Besides they are inside two salt rings in the middle of a concrete floor. I’m far more worried about dark magic than I am some candles,” I said.
“Well, okay. If you’re sure,” Joe said.
“I’m sure.”
When I was done with the rituals, we went upstairs and I locked up. I got some bedding out of the hall closet and made the couch up for Joe while he got a board, hammer, and nails from the garage. He nailed a board across the basement door.
“I’ll fix the door frame for you when this is over. I can put up a new one for you. It will be good as new.”
I knew he wasn’t going anywhere with Amanda in the basement. While I didn’t feel like I needed him there to keep me safe, it was nice to know he would do anything to protect me.
“What time is it?” I asked. “I’m going to call in some reinforcements for those spells if it isn’t too late.”
“Zoe, it’s only nine.”
“Well, that’s late for me, but hopefully my Mom and Glinda won’t mind. Joe, we’ve got to figure out who put her in that state, so we can release her. Then, we have to figure how we’re going to explain to the coroner and the non-magical world how she’s alive. But let’s get her awake first,” I said.
I called my mother and Glinda and asked them to come over. Just about the time that Glinda and my Mom arrived, Lupin dropped Ginger off. I interrupted their goodbyes.
“Lupin, I have something I need to show you,” I said. “Can you come in the house for a minute?”
“Let me get my toolbox,” he said.
“Oh, it’s not a plumbing thing. Just come with me. Ginger, you’re going to want to see this too.”
“What’s this about?” my Mom asked when we were all in the living room.
“Follow me downstairs,” I said and led them down to the basement.
Some part of me hoped that she’d be awake when we got down there, but Amanda still lay on the mattress in the middle of the protective circle as still as a corpse.
“Zoe, what have you done?” my mother asked when I flipped the switch and the light came on.
“It wasn’t me,” I said.
“Zoe, there is a dead body in your basement and…” she started to trail off. “Wait, I heard around town that she was torn to ribbons. There isn’t a scratch on her.”
“Okay, so I’ll catch everyone up,” I said. “What I believe happened was that someone cast an illusion spell on Amanda to frame Lupin for her murder. Who did it, I don’t know. It could even have been Amanda, but she’s in some sort of comatose state right now, and I can’t ask her.”
“So, we need to wake her up,” Glinda said.
“Yep, and we need to try and trace the magic in case she won’t tell us who did it,” I said. “But we need to be very careful. This is black magic. After the war, there hasn’t been much black magic in the world. It’s not like we’re used to dealing with it.”
“I’ve seen some,” my Mom said. “It was when I was a little girl, but my grandmother was a warrior against the dark. I can remember her chasing away evil spirits and bad spells with her potions and her magic broom.”
“A broom,” I said. “That’s a great idea. We can use an enchanted broom to sweep away the illusion. Do any of us have an enchanted broom?”
“I have one but it’s for cleaning,” my Mom said.
“Anyone else?” I asked, but I already knew Ginger didn’t have one and Glinda just shrugged.
“None of you have a magic broom?” Joe asked. “A bunch of witches and the only magic broom is for cleaning?”
“Hey,” I said. “You can’t believe every stereotype you see in the movies. Due to modern technology and higher population, we can’t really ride them during the full moon anymore, so most of us don’t have them.”
“So the stereotype is accurate, just outdated?” Joe asked with a smile.
“That’s not the point,” I said and poked him in the ribs. “Okay, well if none of us has an enchanted broom then we have to make one. Let’s go upstairs and get set up. I don’t want to do this down here. We should do the ritual to enchant the broom outside under the moonlight.”
Thanks to my mother, my supply closet was full of brooms. I had big brooms, small brooms, tiny handheld brooms, and a big push broom like janitors use. I wasn’t sure why she thought I needed that, but I had it.
Still, none of them seemed right. That’s when I remembered the ornamental, handmade straw broom stored in the attic.
“Hey, guys, I’m just going to go up to the attic real quick. I have the perfect broom for the job up there,” I said.
“You have a dozen brooms down here,” Joe said. “Why do you need to go to the attic?”
“Because I think that the spells will work better if the broom is something special. My intuition is telling me to use the one up there, and I’m going to listen,” I said.
“I’ll go with you,” he said.
“Okay. And, the rest of you, can you get the backyard set up for the ritual? We’ll need a circle, and why not start a cauldron of cleansing herbs? They will help us, and it will make the whole neighborhood smell lovely.”
The stairs to the attic were at the end of the upstairs hall. They were narrow and a little steep. I imagined that Joe’s broad shoulders would brush the walls on both sides as we walked up.
The attic was a full story. It was wide open in the middle, and there were stacks of boxes along the walls. The floors were a bit dusty and there were cobwebs in the corners. The smell of dried flowers and decaying paper hung in the air. It was dark, but there was some light streaming through a small window a
t the front of the house.
“It’s a good thing your Mom didn’t come up here with us,” Joe said. “She’d spend the rest of the night cleaning this up. I bet she could spend a week up here.”
“It’s not that bad, and I doubt it would take her that long,” I responded. “But I’m glad too. I’m sure it wouldn’t be her favorite place in my house. For some reason, she doesn’t come up here at all. Probably willful ignorance that leads to bliss.”
“That’s true. What she doesn’t know about, she can’t meddle in. So, where should we start?” Joe asked. “You want me to take one side and you can take the other?”
“Oh, we don’t have to search. I know where it’s at,” I said and pointed to the north corner. “Goddess great and Goddess wise, give me a light. Show me my prize.”
Light appeared under the broom as if a spotlight shone on it. The broom was as tall as me. It was made of broom corn and a large branch I’d found while exploring the woods. The bottom portion fanned out two feet across. The wooden handle was studded with ornamental acorns and a few crystals wound in metal. The acorns had been preserved in resin and magic. They glimmered in the magical light as brightly as the crystals.
“That’s a heck of a broom,” Joe said. “Why do you keep it up here? It seems like the kind of thing you’d have hanging over your mantel instead of hidden away in an attic. I’m not really into brooms, but even I can see that it’s a beautiful work of art. Someone spent a long time making that.”
“It’s funny that you said that,” I said. “The thing about hanging it over the mantel. That’s exactly why we made it.”
“Who?” Joe asked.
“Me and my father. We made it together. Usually a young witch makes it with their grandmother, but I didn’t have a living grandmother on either side. My dad said that he’d make it with me, and I thought that was the best thing ever. I was the only witch I knew who had a broom made with their father. The other girls were so envious, but that’s not why I loved it so much. He was really special. The last thing he ever said to me was that he was proud to have raised a daughter with such a good heart.”
“I’m sorry,” Joe said.
“You don’t have to be sorry. It’s good to remember the good times, but it can be hard to remember them too much. That’s why I told myself I was keeping it locked away. Or maybe I kept it up here because I was afraid of something happening to it. I don’t know. But, you’re right. It does deserve better than being stored up in an old, dusty attic. After tonight, I will hang it over my mantel,” I said. “Or, you know. I’ll get you to hang it there for me.”
“Zoe, you don’t have to use this broom to wake Amanda. We can find another one. You’re Willow’s daughter, I’m sure you have tons of options,” Joe said.
“No, this one is perfect. Besides, if we actually enchant it, it will finally be the magical tool he intended,” I said. “I owe him that. He put so much love into helping me make it, and I need to share that with the world.”
I walked across the room and wrapped my hand around the broom’s handle. In a flash, my mind was transported back to the day my dad and I put the broom together when I was eight. I could see us laughing and winding the little strips of metal around the crystals and then the acorns after the resin dried. I could smell his aftershave and hear the sound of his laughter as if it were happening right in that moment. He’d help me wind the metal around the crystals when it was too tough for my small hands.
But, I knew it wasn’t happening right then. It was an echo through time, but the broom had held the memory for me. “Thank you,” I said to it. “Now, let’s make you whole. We’ve got work to do.”
Joe and I were almost back to the stairs when I heard a rustling sound coming from one of the dark corners. A couple of boxes shifted and then I heard what sounded like tiny footsteps of some kind. Something was hiding behind the boxes. It sounded like a small animal, and I hoped that it wasn’t another demon. I’d had enough of those.
“What is that?” Joe asked as he took a step between me and the noise. “That sounded like scratching in the corner.”
“I don’t know what it was,” I said.
“Is the demon back?”
“I don’t feel a demon. Maybe it’s Lucinda,” I answered. “She doesn’t usually show up like this, but I don’t know everything about how ghosts work.”
“I’m not a demon, and I’m not a ghost either.” A small voice called out from behind the boxes. “So please don’t hit me with any spells, okay?”
“Well, who are you then?” I asked softly. “Show yourself.”
The boxes moved a little more and the voice came from behind them. “Okay, I’ll come out, but you have to promise to be nice.”
“What?” I asked.
“Just promise,” the voice pleaded.
“I promise. But you have to tell me who you are and what you are doing in my attic. Some serious things are going on right now. It’s not a good time to be lurking about in the shadows. Especially not in this house.”
“That’s why I’m here.” A small raccoon stepped out from behind the boxes. “I want to help.”
“Oh, it’s just a raccoon,” Joe said with a relieved sigh, but then it hit him. “Wait, it’s a talking raccoon. I don’t know how this could get any weirder.”
“You’re a familiar,” I said.
“I am, and from what I hear, you need a familiar,” the raccoon responded.
“I have Ginger,” I responded. “But I do appreciate the offer of assistance. Maybe we could use you for this one ritual. It couldn’t hurt to have more help.”
“You had Ginger,” the little raccoon said. “She’s a witch now. I imagine at some point she’ll get a familiar of her own, but that’s not my concern. I’m here for you. You’re about to take on some magic that no witch has had to deal with in a long time. I’m here from the Elder Forest. I think I’ll make a suitable helper. I’m quite handy against the dark forces of this world.”
“You’re an elder familiar?” I asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever encountered an elder familiar. You’re here for me?”
“I am. My name is Grimly. It’s Grim for short. I was retired, but you need a powerful familiar for your business. And, I heard there were cupcakes.”
Chapter Fourteen
We made our way down the attic stairs. I had the broom in hand and Grim, the raccoon familiar, in tow. I hoped that Ginger wouldn’t feel betrayed, but Grim was right. I did need a familiar. She would have to understand.
It meant that the Elders had seen what we’d done and approved. It also meant that Ginger was staying a witch. I guessed I’d already known that somewhere deep inside, but having the Goddess send me another familiar brought it home. It wasn’t really a loss. I’d gained a sister. That’s what I’d thought at the time, anyway.
We walked outside, and my Mom’s eyes beaded in on Grim like laser beams. Her hand went to her throat and fluttered there for a moment like a dying butterfly. She’d gotten over a lot of her germaphobia, but it seemed that all it took was one raccoon to bring it all back.
“What’s that?” she asked and took a step back.
“You mean who is that,” I said. “This is Grim. He’s a familiar. He was up in the attic.”
“Oh, great,” my Mom said with a dramatic sigh. “So you went from a rat to a trash panda. Excellent.”
“Mom, Grim is from the Elder Forest.”
“Oh,” she said. “My apologies.” That part she said through gritted teeth.
“You have a new familiar,” Ginger said softy. “So that means…”
“It means you’re staying a witch,” I said. “Congratulations. Grim here says that a familiar for you should be coming along soon. I’m so happy for you, and we’ll celebrate once this nasty business is complete.”
“That’s amazing, babe,” Lupin said and pulled Ginger in for a kiss. “Hey, now that you’re not bound to her anymore, we can get…”
“Hush,” Ginger said. “W
e’ll talk about that later.”
There were a million questions I wanted to ask them about what he’d just said, but we had important business at hand. It would have to wait until we woke Amanda and figured out what kind of black magic we were dealing with. We also needed to know where it was coming from. Whether it was demonic or a resurgence of dark witches, either way was troubling.
“All right, let’s call the circle. I want to talk to Amanda, and sooner is better than later,” I said.
The ritual to enchant the broom was short and simple. It was made even easier by the fact that I had other witches and a powerful familiar with me. Joe and Lupin stood off to the side since they weren’t witches. Joe kept a lookout for nosy neighbors. He figured he’d deflect anyone who came nosing around.
I was worried the light from the ritual would attract attention too, so I cloaked the back yard in shadow. You just never knew when a spell was going to send out a beam of bright light or a shot of shimmering, glittery magic energy.
We gathered around and spoke the words to enchant the broom. It took even less time then I expected because I had a new, powerful familiar, and it seemed as though Ginger still had both types of magic. I wondered if that’s why a familiar hadn’t shown up for her yet. In time her familiar powers would fade, and she’d be left with just her witchy magic.
“Are you ready for this?” I asked as we broke down the circle in the back yard. “I still have this feeling that whatever is keeping Amanda in that state is a trap, and we need to be prepared for anything.”
“We’re all together. Four witches to call the corners. There’s no need to worry,” Glinda said and gave me a hug. “We’ve all got your back.”
“If you two are sticking around, you’ll have to be inside the circle for this next part,” I said to Lupin and Joe. “It’s too dangerous for the two of you to be so close but outside the protection of the circle.”
We went down to the basement and set up another ring of protection around Amanda. It was big enough for all of us to stand inside. I didn’t know exactly what or who had cast the spell on her, but I had the bad feeling that breaking the magic would call it to us.
A Howling Good Time (Wicked Witches of Destiny Cove Book 3) Page 7