Collards & Cauldrons

by Bella Falls

  Mason and I left her to ponder my words. I stomped inside, not caring if the warden took notice of me. “I’m guessing she didn’t share enough for us to convince anyone she’d be a good suspect?” I asked the detective.

  “Other than having an argument with the lady, unless there’s evidence of Priscilla’s treatment or the being who witnessed the argument is willing to come forward, then it’s all speculation. Hearsay.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. “I think you should focus on talking to Peyton and finding the ring.”

  We entered the room full of tables and found the new woman in charge directing things like an experienced ringleader at a circus. She commanded authority and looked remarkably like her mother at the helm of the ship, except Peyton wore a genuine smile of appreciation rather than calculation. Meg stood right by her side, making sure those who took the requests fulfilled them.

  Checking her tablet, Peyton called out her orders. “Let’s put the pots of she-crab soup on the table with ladles and cups. Move the dessert table to the far end there on the left so it’s not in the middle of the buffet line. Can someone check with the chef at Magnolias to see if they can add their yummy fried green tomato and pimento cheese canapés to their order? They should be bringing in mini waffles and fried chicken bites, too.”

  I elbowed Mason. “We need to find the ring and fast. My stomach might crawl out of me in rebellion if I don’t eat some of what smells so delicious.”

  Meg caught sight of me watching Peyton and narrowed her dark beady eyes. She pursed her lips in displeasure, and I doubted whether or not we’d be able to get within a foot of Priscilla’s daughter.

  Peyton stopped directing the chaos and looked up. When she caught sight of me, she stopped what she was doing. Pointing with her manicured finger, she called out, “You.” Her smile faded.

  Swallowing hard, I gestured at Mason, hoping to change her intended target. She shook her head, refusing my alternative. “No, you. We need to talk.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Peyton stopped pointing and curled her finger, gesturing for me to come to her. Mason didn’t leave my side, and I approached in a less confident manner than I intended. Meg glared at me the whole time, her protective gaze burning a hole in me.

  “Yes?” I hated the meekness in my voice.

  “I was told you know something about a ring,” she accused.

  Holy unicorn horn, how did she know? “Who told you that?” I blinked my eyes, feigning innocence.

  “I did,” Abigail stepped out from nearby. “Weren’t you telling me that you heard someone say they found a ring at the Hyperion Hall last night?”

  I couldn’t believe my cousin would rat me out like that. My mouth gaped open as her betrayal hit me.

  Mason’s head nodded up and down in an exaggerated fashion. “Yes, I remember you saying that lost ring was found.”

  He bumped my hip with his and Abigail widened her eyes for me to pick up on the ruse. I prevented myself from smacking my forehead at my slowness on picking up the clues.

  “Oh, right. The ring.” I addressed Peyton with more confidence. “Are you looking for it?”

  Her shoulders dropped and she sighed with relief. “Yes. Oh, Meg, did you hear that? I think they found Mother’s ring.”

  “Yes, that would be a good thing, Miss Peyton.” Meg tried to sound happy, but her body language betrayed her.

  Priscilla’s daughter gushed, completely oblivious to the brownie’s trepidation of us, “You are a savior. It’s belonged to the Ravenel’s for generations, and it was supposed to come to me.”

  Abigail moved to stand behind Peyton, mouthing words at me. She pointed at her ring finger, and said with no sound, “What kind?”

  “Right,” I declared, answering her out loud by mistake. “I mean, right, it sounds like an important piece of jewelry. It was a gold ring with a sapphire surrounded by a circle of small diamonds, if I heard correctly.”

  Peyton’s face dropped. “No, the family’s ring was platinum and had an emerald flanked by two diamonds.”

  Meg raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “It sounds like you heard about someone else’s ring instead.”

  Abigail gave me an excited thumbs up from behind Peyton’s back. When Priscilla’s daughter turned around, my cousin pretended to inspect an invisible mark on her hand to cover up her gesture.

  “I appreciate you organizing this dinner. The hotel food isn’t bad, but your potluck is a nice change for us.” I left out Tucker’s part in convincing her to put the whole thing together, allowing her all the credit.

  “I understand how inconvenient it all is. I’m not liking what I’m hearing about your grandmother either. I told the chief that she was nowhere near my mother when she collapsed. Isn’t it horrible, Meg?” She took my hand in hers, rubbing the back of my skin with her thumb in sympathy.

  Either she truly believed in Nana’s innocence or she could manipulate people with as much mastery as her mother had. “And I’m truly sorry for your loss. You are incredible to be helping all of us when you should be in mourning.”

  “Mother wouldn’t have wanted that. ‘Keep up appearances,’ she’d say. No matter what, things always had to look like they were going right.” Peyton cast her eyes down. “I shouldn’t say things like that. Awful words have been coming out of my mouth ever since…” she trailed off.

  Meg stopped protecting the young woman from us and wrapped her arms about her middle. “There, there, Miss Peyton.”

  Abigail tilted her head, indicating we should go, but I didn’t want to leave the grieving daughter without offering some comfort. “I’ve lost both of my parents. It’ll take time until your life balances out again. And don’t even hope for a return to what it used to be.”

  “I don’t think I want it to go back.” Peyton sniffed, patting Meg on the back and pushing her away. “But I hope when I move forward, things will get a little better.”

  “Give it time.” Meg gazed at Peyton with admiration and a deep love. Perhaps that strong emotion explained why she would never leave the family despite Molly’s insistence.

  Peyton rolled her shoulders back and grinned, although the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I’ll get through it. We all will. Now, if y’all want to fix yourselves some plates early while we’ve got a little bit of everything, I swear I won’t report you to the authorities.”

  I attempted to laugh but only managed a weird chortle. Thanking her, I walked away with Abigail and Mason, acting as normal as I could. We made it to a corner outside the room before I had to almost squeal from how close I thought we’d come to getting caught.

  “How did you come up with the idea to get the detail of the rings?” I asked Abigail, surprised to find my cousin had some tricks up her sleeves.

  Words tumbled out of my cousin in her excitement. “I didn’t know where you and Mason disappeared to, and I knew you’d want to talk to her at some point to try and pull the information out of her. Tricking her into thinking a ring had been found was the only idea that came to mind.”

  “It was a great idea,” Mason admitted. “Can you work with the details she revealed?”

  A little pride leaked into Abigail’s expression. “Having an idea of what it looks like is great. I can work from that. But since I wanted things to be a little stronger this time, I nabbed these to seal the spell.” She held up a couple strands of Peyton’s ice blonde hair.

  “Way to go, Abs.” Without her permission, I flung myself at my cousin and hugged her hard. When her hands wrapped around my body, I finally felt like we understood each other on a different level.

  “I’ll leave you both to it again and go check on the rest of our gang to see what they’ve found out.” Mason winked at Abigail, making her blush. He ran a finger down my arm, causing goosebumps to break over my skin.

  My cousin watched him leave. “I think the two of you should be together. There’s a strong connection between you.”

  “If you help me find the ring, then we’ll stay u
p tonight to have our first sleepover together, and I’ll give you the whole scoop. In the meantime, I can give you some space to work up your spell,” I offered.

  “I’ve got a better idea.” She held out her hand. “Let’s try to work this together. It might boost the magic.”

  My stomach dropped, and I hated repeating what she already knew. “I told you, my powers aren’t working right now.”

  “Or maybe you need a little boost yourself. Come on. I’ve even composed a rhyme.” She wiggled her fingers.

  A little charmed by her change in spirit and excitement, I accepted her hand. “Fine. I just hope I don’t drag you down like an anchor.”

  “Now who needs to stop acting like they’ve already failed? I have faith in you, Charli.” She gripped me a little harder. “Don’t laugh at my spell.”

  We both closed our eyes, and I waited for her spellcasting to start, trying to focus on supporting her rather than wallowing in jealousy.

  Abigail took a deep breath and concentrated. “I call on our magic through our lifeblood bond and bind it with hair from the snow-white blonde. Seek out the treasure, an emerald ring, to help out Charli’s kin, her freedom to bring.”

  I swore I felt a little tingle flow from my cousin into me when she activated her spell. Not wanting to lose it, I attempted to picture the ring in my mind and tested myself to see if I could feel any connection. A slight wave of power flowed through me, but I couldn’t detect a thread or anything.

  “Do you sense anything?” Abigail asked me.

  “Just your magic, I think. Why? Have you picked up on something?”

  My cousin squeezed my hand. “Open your eyes, Charli.” She waited for me. “Can you truly not feel the connection?”

  I checked my gut again but came up empty. “No. Maybe I should let you do this on your own.”

  She gripped me harder. “No, I was only wondering. Here, I’m going to tether the connection to me so I won’t lose it.” Staring off in front of her, she furrowed her brow in concentration. “There.”

  The second she declared the connection tied, I felt it and a faint golden thread stretched in front of her. “When you see whatever it is you tethered to yourself, what does it look like?”

  “I think you described it well. Like a glowing thread or thin rope. When I bond with it, it pulls me toward it. Like now.” She pointed in the direction I saw the link.

  A mix between a chuckle and a sob gushed out of me. I covered my mouth with my free hand to stop myself from losing it.

  “You see it now, don’t you?” Happiness radiated off of my cousin and warmed me down to my bones.

  I could only nod. Swallowing back my tears of joy, I lifted my chin. “Let’s go find it.”

  We walked through the lobby toward the elevators. Whoever had the ring held it somewhere upstairs. Too many people used the elevators to come down to the potluck, so we navigated the stairs, still grasping onto each other. Walking up the stairs in tandem proved more awkward as we passed each floor. The connection beckoned us onto the second to last floor.

  Abigail stopped moving and jerked me back. She stood next to the decorative table with a decaying bouquet of flowers in the middle of the hall next to the elevators and stairwell.

  “I think I’m wrong. We should stop here and try again later.” She attempted to pull her hand away from mine.

  I held on tighter. “No. I can tell we’re getting close.” I gestured to the hall to our right. “It’s clear as day to me that someone has it in a room down there.”

  “I’m stopping whether you want me to or not.” Abigail let the hairs drop from her other hand and pulled out of my grip.

  The golden thread wavered and disappeared. All sense of the tracking magic died. “Why’d you do that?” I exclaimed, anger and disappointment cooling the bond I thought we’d forged.

  “You don’t want to find the ring. Trust me, Charli, it’ll lead you down the wrong path. Let’s find another way to prove your grandmother’s innocence.” She backed away from me.

  “I don’t understand you.” I closed the distance between us, trying to get her to see reason. “One second you want to help, the next, you try to run away. What is it you’re not telling me?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Then let’s finish this. Please.” Without hesitation, I got on my knees. “I haven’t experienced that magic in so long and we were so close. Please don’t stop now. Please.” The last plea came out in a trembling whisper.

  Large tears poured down Abigail’s face. “I knew I would end up hurting you. I always disappoint everyone.”

  She held out her hand, and I took it, grateful she’d changed her mind. Helping me to my feet, she bit her lip and looked away.

  “Cast the spell again,” I commanded.

  Abigail squeezed me one more time and let me go. “No. I won’t be the one.”

  “You’re not making any sense. If you won’t do it, by all the gods, I will.” I closed my eyes and did my best to push down my anger and focus my intent.

  “Trust me, Charli. Don’t do it.” Abigail held up her hands in surrender when I glared at her.

  Wanting the extra luck, I pulled the mojo bag out from under my shirt and clutched it while I spellcast. “I have no time to stop and fight, bring back my power and make it right. No more in darkness shall I wait to fully accept and embrace my fate. The tracking magic to me I bind, and with it, an emerald ring I’ll find.”

  Like a lightbulb flickering on and off, the same connection from before appeared and disappeared in front of me. “I can still see it’s nearby.”

  Unable to capture it and tie it to me, I could only follow the unsteady path it blazed with slow steps. When the connection guttered and winked out of existence, it broke the spell, and I leaned over, gasping to catch my breath.

  The door opened, and a pair of painted toes came into view. “Did you bring me some food, Birdy?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  I straightened and faced the one person I hadn’t anticipated seeing.

  Nana glanced between Abigail and me. “What’s going on?”

  My cousin stood a few feet back, her face crestfallen. “I told you to let it go. I wish you would have trusted me.” She turned and raced off down the hall.

  My grandmother took a step out of her room, holding her door open with her foot. “What just happened?”

  When my wits returned, I panicked and ushered her back inside. Once we were alone in private, I grabbed onto both of her arms. “You know about the ring that Peyton asked the wardens to find? The one her mother was probably wearing the night of her murder?”

  Nana listened with keen interest. “Ben filled me in. Let me guess. They think whoever killed Priscilla took the ring. Find it and they’ll find the murderer. Sounds like lazy investigating.”

  “No, sounds like a perfect way to set someone up to blame.” I moved about her room, searching for places where the piece of jewelry might have been planted.

  My grandmother caught on fast. “You and Abigail were tracking the ring, weren’t you?” Without waiting for an answer, she cracked a tiny grin. “You got your powers back.”

  She had promised me my magic would return at some point if I would be patient. I think after so many months had passed, even she had lost a little of her faith. Although I would love to take her up on the offer to throw me one of her famous parties to celebrate, we first had to make sure she made it back to Honeysuckle at all.

  “Yes, but ignore that. Abigail figured out where the ring was before I did. And the connection I managed to make with it brought me to your door. Now that my cousin has run off, I have no idea where the thing is hidden since you haven’t discovered it on your own.” I opened drawers of the dresser and rooted around Nana’s clothing.

  “Whoever set this up wouldn’t have wanted me to find it, so they would have placed it in a less obvious setting.” She ran her fingers over the top of a framed print of a Charleston scene, managing to only wipe dust off it.<
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  “This is going to take us forever. Let me at least try to make my magic work again.” I closed my eyes, concentrating harder than normal, and mumbled a spell under my breath. A couple of tingles rushed down my arms and into my fingers, but the power dissipated like smoke in the air. “I don’t think I can do it again.”

  We checked every single surface in the room, under every piece of furniture, and removed all of Nana’s clothing from the drawers until we’d both gone behind each other three times with no success. In a matter of several flustered moments, we’d destroyed the room.

  “Maybe your senses were wrong,” my grandmother suggested.

  My anger at my cousin flared. “I don’t think so. She knew exactly where the tracking powers would lead us. She’d been cagey off and on about helping, but now I’m sure she knows way more than she’s let on. In fact, let me contact Mason to have him detain her.” I took my spell phone out of my pocket.

  “I know you’re angry with her right now,” Nana started. “But be careful how you handle her. You don’t know her side of the story and it would be a shame for you to burn your bridges with her out of a misunderstanding.”

  “Frosted fairy wings, the spell phones are blocked again.” I tossed mine on the bed. “At least the wards will keep her in. Unless she sneaks out when the dinner is over and the Charleston crew packs up to leave again.”

  “Then that will be her choice to live with.” Nana surveyed the mess we’d made. “We should clean things up and see if maybe the ring presents itself while we reorganize.”

  I picked up one of her shirts I’d flung on the bed and folded it into a tight rectangle. “I just don’t want the wardens to appear right when we find it.”

  Something rattled in the room. Nana and I stopped what we were doing and stood still, listening. When nothing else happened, we let our held breaths go and got back to cleaning.