Hexes and Ohs

by ReGina Welling

  “What?”

  “No on in their 20s wants to be called ma’am, Q. You’d use the same term for Gram.”

  “Um, I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “Makes it even better,” she told him. “You didn’t even notice that she was all dressed up for you? She dressed up for you and you looked at her as if she could be Gram’s buddy.”

  “She was just wearing…well…I mean…I noticed.”

  Harper made a face and he stuttered, “I have eyeballs. It doesn’t mean I wanted to…I mean…Lex would have noticed too.”

  “You’re using Lex as a defense? Do you know how often he’s in trouble with Scarlett?”

  “Even Mr. Jueavas would have noticed,” Quinton said frantically. Maybe he was a little on edge because hormones had upped Harper’s usual moodiness to terrifying levels or perhaps it was how she’d cried about 112 times since she’d found at she was pregnant.

  “Listen Quade,” Harper said. She was going to tease him, but he took her face again and his eyes glinted up to the brightest levels. He seemed to be finding the words to say something. Anything. To somehow convey that he loved her. Lately it had been as though they could feel that link between them that made identified them as soulmates. If there was a red thread that led from his soul to hers, it wanted to be felt.

  “Interesting word choice you made. Did you even catch it?” Gram said as she walked into the storage area and then yanked her thumb back to the front of the store. Harper had no idea what she was talking about and couldn’t even remember the last thing she’d said before Quinton had hauled Jessie out. Gram glanced Harper over, shaking her head. “You and your sister really are blind. But… let’s see here…this is clearly a love potion. It’ll probably fizzle out given how it’s burning so hot. You could just road trip out of its influence.”

  “Yes,” Quinton said, “Let’s go to Niagara Falls. How far is that? We’ll take a long week and I’ll avoid Amelie. We’ll never speak of this again. Ever.”

  “No,” Harper said instantly. “If we don’t find who did it, they could do it again. Gram and I will find them. You can hide.”

  “Mmmm,” Gram said. “Love potion victims can get…aggressive. Especially if they are already a little aggressive. Like Jessie. Similar things happen with other charms. Pluralities. Like parasites.”

  Quinton stood up at that and actually put Harper behind him as though, of the two of them, he was somehow more dangerous. “Aggressive?”

  “What?” Harper asked trying to follow her Gram’s thought process, but her phone rang and she glanced down to see Lex’s name.

  “Heya, devil,” he said when she answered. “I hear your boy is having some love trouble.”

  “From your daughter?”

  Lex’s curse told Harper that he hadn’t heard about Amelie.

  “Mabel told me that two women bought pies from her, slapped them on plates, and then ended up fist fighting over who loved Quinton more and which one got to pretend they’d made the chocolate cream pie. What does that have to do with Amelie though?”

  “She’s making something for Quade with glitter.”

  He cursed again and then asked, “Quade?”

  “They don’t even know his name,” Harper laughed and then cupped Quinton’s ear as it flushed brilliant red again. It was actually hot against her fingers. She laughed with Lex as Quinton re-flushed. Her poor love. He really didn’t deserve this.

  When Lex sputtered out he said, “Amelie must be why Scarlett suggested I take Quinton with me when I go to Boston. I have to pick up somethings from…anyhow.”

  “Your parents?”

  Lex cursed and said, “I try not to talk about them with Scarlett and her hormones. She threw a knife at me the other day.”

  Harper laughed and turned to Gram, “Did you know Scarlett threw a knife at Lex?”

  “I lied…Scarlett’s my favorite,” Gram said rubbing her hands together. “Now if you let me go with you potion-maker hunting…”

  “Only if you don’t hold me back,” Harper countered. She said to Lex, “Quinton will come.”

  Gram was 80 if she was a day, and looked to be about 55. She’d dyed her hair a pink that had faded to a sort of watered down blood color. Her eyes and her mouth were sharp and she was as likely to bite someone as help them. The utter impossibility of knowing what would happen next with Gram made her a spunky companion for Harper and uncomfortable for others.

  “Q,” Harper said. “You have to avoid little Amelie, so Lex doesn’t murder you for his daughter molesting you. And we’ll make it safe for you, my damsel, while you’re gone.”

  Quinton moaned as Lex cursed and then laughed. Gram simply crossed her arms over her chest and grinned at the madness.

  He stood, shoved his fingers through his hair, and then grabbed her by the shoulders. “You will save me, I will flee, and then afterward, you’ll pick a name that isn’t a weapon for our baby and quit calling her a parasite.”

  “Well…”

  “It’s not a negotiation,” he said firmly. His ears were still red, so it took away from trying to put his foot down, but she had to admit she liked it all the same.

  She grinned up at him, and tucked some of her brilliant red and black hair behind her ear. “What if I…”

  She whispered into his ear, just to make him blush again, and then laughed when he coughed and then what he whispered back made her blush—something she hadn’t thought she was capable of before Quinton.

  “You two are making me sick,” Gram snarled and smacked the back of Harper’s head. “Save it for when Scarlett is around, so you can torture her instead….or I’ll abandon you to these fools.”

  5

  Harper watched Lex drive away in his SUV. It was a police one and when Jessie and her corset top threw herself in front of the car, declaring undying love for Quinton, Lex had to turn on the sirens and roll forward slowly until the stupid cow crawled out of the way. She had a wardrobe malfunction given that her top had to have been purchased in slimmer days, but Jessie didn’t seem to care when she lay down on the sidewalk and cried.

  “Too bad Lex left,” Harper told Gram as Harper pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of corset…what did you call a shirt that didn’t cover the girls? Or extend to her waist? Whatever the name, that pic was going on facebook until it got flagged. “He could arrest her for flashing the entire town.”

  Jessie curled into a ball and her breasts were covered by hair and arms. Gram and Harper stared for a moment and then looked after their boys. Lex sped out of Mystic Cove as though the very demons of hell were chasing him. Who could blame him? His daughter was love-potioned into believing that she was in love. No Dad needed to see that.

  It wasn’t demons that chased those boys out of town, though, it was women, and Harper thought that was worse. The one with the flowy dress was back and her eyes were blazing with magic. She looked at Harper and she had to admit she felt something of a chill. Then flowy dress ran at unnatural speed at Harper.

  “Is that Jenny Parker?” Gram was totally unconcerned when Jenny leapt at Harper, claws out. Harper sidestepped at the last second and let Jenny slam into the cement of the sidewalk. Two them were down now—crying on the sidewalk. Flowy dress may have broken her nose with how she fell. It was spewing blood and didn’t look quite straight. “I think it might be Gracie Parker. The younger one. Isn’t Jenny bigger than this?”

  “I don’t know,” Harper said. “You know I don’t like people. Why would I learn their names?”

  Gram laughed so hard she coughed and then said, “Idiot sirens. They’ve probably never been turned down in their lives.” Gram poked Gracie with the toe of her shoe and the woman flopped over. “You have a bloody nose.”

  “It’s staining your…are you wearing a negligee under that dress? You think that unbuttoning your Sunday school dress and showing your undies is going to help you? With Q? Have you even talked to him? Ever? They have no idea who they’re dealing with.”
/>   Gracie moaned, holding her bleeding nose, “He’ll want me. They always do.”

  Gram laughed again at that and then harder when Harper leaned down and grabbed Gracie by her ear, hauling her up and then said, “Why are you after Q?”

  “He’s mine,” Flowy dress snarled, “You can never love him like I do.”

  Harper blinked and then pulled Gracie forward to slam her against the wall. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what? Tell you the way it’s going to be? He’s mine. You can’t win against a siren.”

  Harper pulled Gracie forward and slammed her back again. The problem was that Gracie was claiming Harper’s freaking soulmate. Plus baby daddy. Nope. No freaking way.

  “The way it’s going to be is that you’re going to go home and repent. And when you see me again, after I’ve ended this…curse…you’re going to apologize abjectly or something you love will burn.”

  Gracie’s eyes narrowed and the two of them faced off. She tried to wipe the blood from her face, but Harper didn’t let go.

  “He’s mine,” Gracie tried again, trying and failing to sound adamant.

  Harper slammed her against the wall again and leaned in, “Don’t confuse me for the other Oaken women.”

  “Harper?” Amelie was walking down the sidewalk with Harper’s sister, Scarlett, chasing after. Scarlett had a bloody nose too and was shouting at Amelie who only asked, “Where’d Quinton go?”

  Harper took Gracie by the shoulders and shoved her down the street away from Amelie and Scarlett.

  “I think we’ve reached the point of the spell where the escalation has occurred,” Gram said with genuine humor in her tone. The stupid crone was enjoying this. “It’ll burn out quickly now. Quit playing around or we’ll lose our chance until the next time they mess with you. How many trips is your Quinton going to have to take?”

  Harper tilted her head at Gracie and said, “Don't forget to apologize, little siren.”

  Then Harper turned to Amelie and before the girl could say something, Harper wrapped her hand around Amelie’s mouth and snapped a charm off the bracelet Harper wore. Crushing it between her fingers over Amelie’s face, the girl dropped into a sudden sleep.

  “Lex would kill you for that,” Scarlett said, holding her bleeding nose.

  “He’d kill her for that,” Harper said, nodding at Scarlett’s nose. “Daughter or no. She take off the binding on her magic?”

  “When I wouldn’t let her come over to the bookstore,” Scarlett admitted. “Lex called me after he called you and asked me to keep her away from Quinton. So when she asked, I said no. She got so mad, so I sent her to her room. She must have stewed for a while, but the next thing I knew, the binding was off, I tripped on something tiny, and slammed my face into the counter. It’s gonna bruise. Having a hobgoblin mad at you is no joke.”

  Harper winced for Scarlett. Not for the bruise. She’d be fine. But for the reaction Lex was going to have. It wasn’t Amelie’s fault that she’d been hexed or love-potioned or whatever this was. But it was Amelie’s fault that she’d taken off the binding on her magic when she wasn’t working on gaining control. She’d made a solemn promise not to and Lex wasn’t going to let her use a hex as an excuse.

  Scarlett and Lex hadn’t been together that long when their apartment building had been fertility hexed. Harper and Quinton had been together an even shorter amount of time. The fact that both Harper and Scarlett were victims of the spell didn’t help. They seemed to feed off of each other. Harper had actually cried into her tea this morning after puking as long as she had. Scarlett refused to eat anything other than tuna with capers and sweet pickles for 3 days straight. Lex was a bad boy who’d fallen for about the homiest, sweetest woman Mystic Cove had to offer, and he was fumbling whenever she flashed her inner hormone-crazed shrew.

  “Let’s not tell Lex,” Scarlett said, grinning through the blood and then gagging at the scent of it. She leaned over and puked into the road before she turned and said, “Being knocked up bites.”

  “It’s karma,” Gram told us both. “Because you are torturing your mother so much about being knocked up as well. I’m about over all the puking and crying though.”

  “Shut it,” Harper said. She might deserve the karma, but Scarlett probably didn’t. “Now….who would hex Quinton?”

  “They didn’t hex Quinton, you idiot,” Gram snarled. “Being knocked up has seriously affected your capacity for thought. They hexed you.”

  “Well damn.” Harper helped Scarlett lift Amelie and admitted, “That really widens the field.”

  Gram’s cackle was Harper’s only reply.

  “You probably should have thought about vengeance when you screwed with so many witches and warlocks and…sirens.” Scarlett hefted Amelie higher and they moved her into the bakery, up the backstairs, and to the apartment that Lex hadn’t fully moved into.

  “I mean…this really opens up the possibilities,” Harper said when she came back down to Gram as though she hadn’t disappeared for too long. “I…well…how do we narrow them down?”

  “Who are the three who hate you the most?”

  “Wally,” Harper said instantly. “Wally….Old Mrs. Lovejoy—for reasons unknown…and….I mean…there’s probably a tie for last place.”

  “A tie of how many,” Gram asked.

  “Maybe. Um. Five?”

  “Really? Reasons unknown?”

  “Gram she hates me. Even I don’t mess with old ladies….Mom would torture me if I went after some old lady. But to be honest, I’ve been pretty good since Scarlett has been home. Good-ish. You know…for me, I’ve been a saint.”

  “Old Mrs. Lovejoy is three years younger than me,” Gram said, eyes narrowed.

  Harper laughed and said, “See this is what I’m talking about. You can’t go after the crones. They’re nasty.”

  “Wally is too stupid for this. But this does have Lovejoy’s flavor all over it. I always hated her.”

  Harper grinned at Gram and then said, “That’s probably why she hates me. Since I’m your favorite.”

  6

  “By the stars…” Harper said as she got into Gram’s massive car. “She told me…”

  Harper was clawing at her memory, trying to figure out what it had been. Lovejoy had said something. Something about Quinton. What had it been? She couldn’t quite remember the gist of it, but she remembered Lovejoy had told her to leave him.

  “Now what are you going on about?” Gram asked.

  Harper shoved Gram’s massive purse aside and strapped on her seatbelt before Gram ran down some poor fool or took out an offensive mail box. All of it seemed too possible.

  “Mrs. Abercrombie. That day…that day that I had those terrible dreams.”

  “You mean back when you had your little ghost experience?”

  “Um…” Harper didn’t like to think of it like that. Freaky dreams were far more comfortable. Some sort of kick in the head from the druidic knowing. Anything but receiving a message from beyond to get over her issues. “The DREAM. Geez, Gram.”

  “Quit being such a wuss. I know you’re ignoring the knowing again.”

  “How do you know that?” Harper glanced at Gram apprehensively. Gram knowing something Harper didn’t made her bones feel achy.

  “Because I know things about you that you should know. Again. What’s this about Agatha?”

  “Who?”

  “Agatha Lovejoy.”

  “So…” Harper glanced at Gram and then admitted, “Thinking of running. But trying not to. You know.”

  “Like you do.”

  “Mmmmm,” Harper said. She didn’t want to admit it, but yeah…she ran. After her mother, Maye, had taken Harper in, she’d run away 11 times in 2 months. After Scarlett had left with her boyfriend just after graduation. Harper had run away again. 17 times. After Quinton arrived—she hadn’t run once. But her feet were itching. It wasn’t that she didn’t love him or he her. It was that everyone left her. Everyone except the Oakens, an
d Harper half-expected them to.

  She knew they wouldn’t, but she expected it. It was a rational thing it just…was.

  “So what did Agatha say to you?”

  “She told me to let Quinton go,” Harper admitted. “She made me feel like…like…I don’t know.”

  Gram glanced at Harper and then said, “Yes you do. Spit it out.” Her tone was steel and she was slowing the car. The last thing Harper wanted was to say it out loud, but the look on Gram’s face said she’d be talking or they’d be sitting.

  “Like I was hurting him to stay with him. Because of all my…baggage. He had been waiting for me, and I ran from him.”

  Gram simply pulled back into traffic without a word. She drove past the turn-off for Mrs. Lovejoy’s and said, “Do you have any idea how many single grandchildren Agatha has? Eleven.”

  “So,” Harper replied. The need to run was hitting her. But combined with it was underlying nausea. She needed some more tea and Quinton was gone for the day, and it just made her…sad.

  “So, she’s trying to steal your boy? Please. Quinton would never leave you. But you know who this would hurt?”

  I laid my head back. It had started pounding. If the parasite-slash-baby weren’t a factor, would Quinton be better off without me? I flashed back to my dream about him…I’d dreamed of him alone, but he wouldn’t be. Some sweet young thing would come along and heal his heart.

  “It would hurt Scarlett.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about Scarlett. With the baggage of a cheating husband. With the little girls who might not understand. With…”

  “But she didn’t do it to Scarlett,” Harper said feeling sick at the sheer idea.

  “Yet,” Gram said grimly. “Scarlett is good about a lot of things. But not this.”

  Gram u-turned and headed back to the Lovejoy place. She was silent and determined. Harper had something of a haze of fury to her.

  “Agatha Lovejoy,” Gram called using magic. Her voice rumbled through the neighborhood and Harper could see curtains twitching in windows as Gram faced off with the ancient Lovejoy.