“These are delicious.” My words were muffled from the mouthful of goodness. “How did I get here?”
I sat down on the couch and laid my head on the pillow. There were small Chinese containers on the coffee table.
“What time is it?” Had I been blacked out for the whole day?
“I don’t know.” Oscar shrugged and pointed to Raven. “I just got here for our dinner and found her with you here. I didn’t know that you were still blacking out. Is it the nightmares again?”
I shook my head. I used to have nightmares that predicted the future, but since moving to Whispering Falls, those had stopped.
“Bella said you passed out when she told you about the curse.” Raven picked at her black fingernails and shifted to one side.
“Curse?” Oscar laughed.
“Oh that.” I laughed and waved her off. “Bella said that there had never been a shop that was prosperous in A Charming Cure’s location.”
Raven’s mouth flew open and quickly shut when I gave her the stink eye. She didn’t really know what was going on with Oscar, and I wasn’t about to tell either of them at that moment.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Sarcasm dripped from her mouth. “I’m out of here. Good seeing you again, Oscar. And June, don’t forget to send Eloise a Thank You Gram for running your shop today.”
“You too.” He didn’t pay her too much attention as she left the cottage. Mr. Prince Charming darted in before she shut the door and jumped on top of me, sniffing my nose. Oscar rubbed down his back and picked him off me, putting him on the floor.
Rowr! Hiss, hiss! Mr. Prince Charming gnashed his teeth and batted the air toward Oscar. They were never big fans of each other. Both were jealous of the other for two completely different reasons.
Mr. Prince Charming knew my innermost and deepest feelings for Oscar, and Oscar knew how much I wanted a cat when I was a little girl. When Mr. Prince Charming showed up when I was ten, I didn’t go anywhere without him.
“He’s so protective for a cat.” Oscar grabbed the chopsticks and snapped them apart and rubbed them together before he picked up one container of food. “You ready to eat?”
“I’m starving.” I glanced at the clock. I couldn’t believe I had passed out and stayed out all day. The news of the curse still made my head hurt, not to mention my heart. I sat up and reached for a carton of Chinese food.
“What happened to make you pass out? Were you working?”
He was throwing a bunch of questions at me that I couldn’t answer. All I gathered was that someone notified Eloise that I passed out and she came to keep the shop open, which was strange in itself. Eloise kept to herself in her treehouse deep in the woods and her morning cleansing of the community was enough involvement for her. But that could have been because of the past rules, which didn’t let all spiritualists live in Whispering Falls, and that included Dark-Siders which was what Eloise was.
“I was talking to another shop owner and that’s the last thing I remember.”
“It was nice of them to run the shop so you didn’t lose money.” He stuffed his mouth with a crab Rangoon.
I smiled and reached for another container to take a bite out of it. That was our thing. Oscar and I would order loads of Chinese food and take bites out of each carton.
“I wanted to know if you want to come over for dinner at my place tomorrow night. I have something very important to tell you.”
My insides tingled with excitement. My mind twirled with the idea of a romantic dinner for two. Candles, wine, champagne, and a little lip-locking included. The thought of being in his arms again sent sheer delight throughout my bones.
“Of course.” I immediately knew I would change any plans that I had, but at the moment my brain was too mushy seeing hearts to even think about my schedule. Go with the flow, I recalled Bella saying about the curse, and the…love thing.
The night went by too fast. There was no touching or kissing, which would have been my choice of dessert, but it was too soon for that. I was going to have to establish a romantic relationship like I had done a year ago and gently tell him about the spiritualist thing.
“Don’t forget tomorrow night.” Oscar didn’t need to remind me. That was the only thing on my mind. He opened the door. Like a spotlight, the moon beamed down on him giving him a mysterious glow, or maybe it was my imagination of his magical powers over me even though he possessed no magical powers.
“I’ll be there.” I leaned on the door, and reached out to touch his arm.
“Okay.” His brows lifted in surprise at my gesture. He backed away with a confused look on his face. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
I shut the door behind him and pressed my back up against it.
“You don’t know it now, but you are madly in love with me.” I looked over at the glow coming from my bag that was hanging on one of the kitchen chairs. I was glad to see that Raven had brought it home from the shop.
Madame Torres must have had something to say. It better be an apology. I reached in and grabbed her.
“I’m assuming you are going to apologize.” I held her up, but squinted to read the words that had replaced her face in the globe.
It was some sort of spreadsheet with names and numbers.
“Bill, 5553434, Joe, 5558903, Evan…” The list went on and on.
“These are your matches from Make-Me-A-Match.” Madame Torres’s voice could be heard, but she was not seen. “Who knew men were so desperate for a date?”
“You have got to be joking me?” My voice was harsh with frustration. Madame Torres knew how to turn a great evening into a terrible one. I threw her in my bag, knowing the mid-air flight would make her sick to her stomach. I took my bag and flung it over my shoulder.
“Let’s go.” I held the door open for Mr. Prince Charming and made sure to lock and close it after he darted out.
I stomped down the hill. I was sure there was steam coming out of my ears. Madame Torres needed to be put in her place, and I was too new to this spiritualist stuff to even know how to discipline her.
The fireflies darted in and out in front of me. They were the souls of teenagers, and like teenagers, they only came out at night and stayed up until the sun came up, sleeping all day.
“Go on.” I shooed them away. Surely, they had better things to do than bother me. But they wanted to tease Mr. Prince Charming who batted at them before knocking a couple of them down. Luckily, he didn’t hurt them, because Petunia would be all over me.
In a couple of minutes, I was in the gate and inside A Charming Cure. It looked like there were a lot of sales while I was gone by the empty tables and shelves, which meant I had a long night ahead of me.
Chapter Sixteen
“I wondered how long it would take you to get here.” A voice from the back scared me until the light flipped on. Eloise was sitting on the stool that butted up to the counter, drumming her fingers next to my cauldron.
“You scared me.” I held my hand to my heart. “I can’t thank you enough for taking over today.”
Mr. Prince Charming beat me to her. He was already in her lap giving her all sorts of nose bumps. He loved her just as much as I did. With Mr. Prince Charming between us, I still hugged her.
“How is my nephew?” Her voice cracked when she asked. Tears sat on the edge of her bottom eyelid. One big crocodile tear rolled down her face when she blinked. The hurt was so deep that I could feel her pain.
“He is good. In fact the same as before we knew we were spiritualists and before we were an item.” At least I got to talk to Oscar, where as Eloise can’t hug him or even tell him that she’s his aunt when he’d love to have family. Plus, Rule Number Six in the Whispering Falls Rule Book said that you can’t tell a non-spiritualist that you are a spiritualist.
“But…” She drew her brows up to the sky, and then glanced at the cauldron.
“So I miss him too and I’m going to find a way to bring Sorcerer Oscar back.” Now I felt like I was goin
g to cry. “I can’t live with myself knowing that he was truly meant to be someone else. Someone other than Oscar Park, Locust Grove police officer.”
A few minutes went by without either of us saying a word and I took the moment to gather my emotions and fill the tables back up with new inventory.
“It was busy today.” Eloise helped bring some boxes up front and restock some of the bath products. “Many of your customers asked for you.”
“That’s good.” It was always good to know there were repeat customers. “I can’t believe that I was passed out for so long.”
I straightened some of the diet supplements. I was a stickler about the front of the bottle always facing the front. It was a ghost from the past really. Darla was so messy and I was the complete opposite.
“It’s times like this that I miss your mom.” Eloise stopped and stared out the window. The full moon acted as a flashlight over top of Whispering Falls. It was beautiful the way the ornamental gates in front of the shops glistened in a magical way.
“Me too.” I smiled. Darla would have loved the fact that I came back to Whispering Falls and embraced my gift.
“Let’s stop by Ever After Books tomorrow and see about that book club I wanted to start.” Eloise grabbed the little feather duster I kept behind the counter and started to dust all the shelves and bottles. It was the last thing I had to do before I got cracking on the potion.
“Sounds great.” If I couldn’t have Darla, Eloise was the next best thing. I flipped the switch on the cauldron and then turned to my intuition as I went down the line of ingredients, tapping each one.
Crimson Nimroot was good for damaged health and it couldn’t hurt to add a pinch. The Nightshade and Skeeter Tail made my intuition radar go off, so I grabbed those.
The way I figured, I had nothing to lose. The more ingredients the better. And if anyone snitched on me for making the potion and I got banned, oh well, I could be happy living with Oscar for the rest of my life.
“It’s all clean.” Eloise turned a blind eye to what I was doing. “Come over and get some fresh ingredients from the garden. I have a new batch popping up.”
“I will!” I hollered out from behind the petition. I wasn’t going to waste any more time. I wanted the potion ready for tomorrow night. I knew I could slip some in the champagne I was dreaming about.
Chapter Seventeen
The cauldron was bubbling full force and I was just about to put in the Charred Skeever Hide that I knew was going to bring Oscar back his memory when someone knocked on the door.
Mewl. Mr. Prince Charming’s head turned and he jumped up and dashed to the door.
Tap, tap, tap. The knock was followed by a flashlight beam dancing around the window of the shop. Mr. Prince Charming darted around and pawed at the light as if it were a cicada.
“Who is it?” I rubbed my hands on my apron and looked up at the clock. It was well past ten pm.
“It’s Sheriff Lance,” the unfamiliar voice called out into the night. “Are you okay in there?”
I unlocked the door and pulled it open. The young officer that was with Gandalf earlier at Ever After Books stood on the other side.
“I’m fine, Sheriff.” I ran my hands through my bob. After fooling around with potions and bending over the cauldron, I was sure I was a mess. I noticed the light was still on at The Gathering Grove Tea Shoppe. Since Gerald was on my list of to-sees, I suddenly had a hankering for some sleepy time tea. All I had to do was get rid of Sheriff Lance. “Is something wrong?”
“Colton Lance.” Colton took his hat off, revealing a nice messy head of blond hair. He stuck his hand out. “I’m the Sheriff in training. We weren’t introduced properly in the bookstore.”
“You are the new sheriff in training?” There was something off about this whole situation. Who hired him? Oscar was going to come right back and claim his post as soon as I gave him the potion. “I’m June Heal, the Village President. Don’t you think I should know something about this officer in training thing?” I ran my pointer finger up and down.
“I guess you are going to have to ask Officer Gandolf about that.” He shrugged. His eyes glanced over my shoulder. “I’m patrolling at night to make sure that nothing funny is going on with the murder and all.”
I looked behind me to see exactly what had him mesmerized. There was smoke billowing out from behind the partition.
“Damn!” I dashed back to the cauldron. The potion had bubbled over, leaving the cauldron with very little potion left. I flipped off the cauldron switch and grabbed a roll of paper towels.
“Are you sure everything is okay?” Colton had stepped just inside the shop with his hand on his holster as though he was going to be involved in a showdown.
“Yes!” I yelled from behind the counter. “I was making new inventory when you knocked and didn’t turn down the temperature.”
I lied. There was no new inventory or temperature controls on a cauldron. The ingredients and intention of the cure were all the cauldron needed to know to magically make the potion. Besides, he probably didn’t understand cauldrons or wouldn’t even know what I was talking about.
“Come on in. I’m sorry, I’ve lost my manners.” I blew my bangs out of my eyes and threw a fistful of paper towels in the trash.
Colton came on in like he had nothing else going on. His six-foot-three or so frame looked like it was in good shape, and his big brown eyes turned down just a tad at the corner, giving him that sweet puppy dog look. Much different from Oscar. In fact, he was much bigger in size – not in height, but more muscular than Oscar.
“Are you a Homeopathic Spiritualist?” He asked. The bottle he picked up was for menstrual cramps. I smiled.
“I am.” I walked over and tapped the bottle in his hand. “Unless you are a woman, I don’t think that is going to work for you.”
His laugh was deep, warm, and rich. I brought my hand up to stifle my giggle, but it was too late, literally. I couldn’t stop laughing because he was laughing.
Mr. Prince Charming danced around Colton’s feet doing his signature figure-eight move. Colton bent down and picked him up.
My jaw dropped. Mr. Prince Charming didn’t like any guy around me.
“Hey, buddy.” Colton bent down and found Mr. Prince Charming’s sweet spot right behind his ears, giving him a good scratch.
Purr, purr. I swear Mr. Prince Charming grinned. I gave him the stink eye.
“What a great cat.” He gave him a few more ear rubs before Mr. Prince Charming was ready to get down.
“He is.” Sarcasm dripped from my lips. There was something strange going on here. I knew Mr. Prince Charming was up to something. “He’s a nosy old thing.”
“Aw,” Colton blew me off. “All cats are curious. I have one myself. So you are a . . .”
“Homeopathic shop.” I smiled taking in the atmosphere I had created. I was very proud of A Charming Cure and how well it had blossomed over the past year.
“My mom is going to love coming here.” He walked around picking up a few bottles here and there. “She’s an Intuitist and Curist?”
“Me too!” There was excitement bubbling inside. I had never met anyone else like me. “I hope she comes to visit.”
“As a matter of fact,” he pulled up the cuff of his uniform sleeve and glanced at his watch, “she will be here in about nine hours.”
“Very cool. Where are you from?” I followed him around as he browsed the shop. There were so many things that I didn’t understand about my gift and I’d love to pick his mother’s brain.
“We are transferring from the village out West.” He nodded like I knew where he was talking about, but I didn’t. “This job came available and I came out here to interview and put Officer Gandolf in place as an interim.”
That made a lot of sense. All of the swapping out of Oscar to Gandolf was around the time I was appointed Village President and Izzy Solstice was still in charge. She would be able to give me all the details of when Gandolf
was leaving and Colton would be taking over.
“I hope you like it here.” I ran my hand along a couple of tables as we passed. Eloise must’ve missed a little lint when she was dusting.
“I’m sure I will. It was great until the big murder.”
“What is the latest on that?” That wasn’t prying. I was the president and needed to know.
“Since you are authorized in the investigation,” he lowered his voice, “there was a trace of poison found on the ends of the darts. And the book that the poison instructions came from was from Ever After Books, which puts Ophelia Biblio as our number one suspect.”
“Oh.” Suddenly I was regretting getting Mac involved in the case. I walked up to the counter and shuffled a few things around. The cauldron was a mess and I wasn’t looking forward to cleaning it. On second thought, it hadn’t been working all that great since Ophelia put it back together and a new one would be nice. It would go on my list of things to get when I made it over to Wands, Potions, and Beyond.
“We checked out the records of all the books sold and no one bought that book.” He leaned up against the counter. Our eyes met. He smiled. I looked away.
Meow, meow. Mr. Prince Charming pranced around the shop with his tail waving in the air. I almost wanted to strangle him.
“There was one thing that didn’t add up.” He shuffled his feet.
“And what was that?” My intuition told me that he was holding something back.
“I shouldn’t say anything because I didn’t even mention it to Gandolf yet.” He bit the corner of his lip.
“I’m not going to say anything. We have to work together.” I encouraged him to tell me, not because I had to know, but because I was curious.
“Gandolf is old school Crystallamancy.” He referred to Gandolf’s spiritual ability to read crystal balls, which would tie the link between Izzy and Gandolf. I bet they were old friends from crystal ball school and she was in a pinch to have a new sheriff so she probably called on her old friend. “He sees things black and white.”
A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) Page 8