Spell Found (Blackmoore Sisters Cozy Mysteries Book 7)

by Leighann Dobbs

  Jolene wanted to pull her hand away, but she liked the way it felt too much, the warm tingle it sent up her arm and the way it made her pulse skitter. “I’m okay. That was freaky, though.”

  “I would have come myself, but Sarah is better at that sort of thing. I’m not good with vortexes.” Mateo squeezed her hand. “So now do you believe in witches?”

  “Witches? No. I’m not even sure Sarah is a witch. All she did was pull us out of the vortex. No spells. No charms. No bats’ wings or toads. She must have some sort of a paranormal energy gift that makes her immune to the vortex and allows her to pull people out.” Jolene wondered why he kept harping on witches, and why she was so determined not to believe in them. Was he a witch?

  Mateo’s smile was patient. “I guess you still need time.” He stepped closer, his thumb tracing her cheek, lifting her chin up so that she was looking into those deep, soulful eyes of his. “I was thinking maybe we could—”

  “So this is where we … Oh.” Celeste had run up to them but her eyes grew wide, darting between the two of them. “Sorry. Did I interrupt something?”

  “Yes,” Mateo said.

  “No.” Jolene scowled at him.

  “I can come back later.” Celeste started to turn around, but Fiona and Morgan came up beside her with their faces buried in their cellphones.

  “We were looking at the map and correlating the old Salem Village to the GPS here on Google. Clearly, we’re not in the right place or maybe Sam’s house is in the vortex.”

  “What makes you think it’s out here in the first place?” Mateo asked, turning his attention away from Jolene.

  “We found that his house was on West Great River Road, but when we went there in Salem, it was a pharmacy,” Celeste said.

  “But then we discovered that we were looking in the wrong place. We were looking in modern day Salem and we should have been in old Salem Village,” Jolene explained.

  “But the street we had for him didn’t exist on the map we had.” Morgan pointed to the 1692 map replica in her hand.

  “So, we went to the Ephemera Museum where they had more detailed maps and we found the street,” Fiona told Mateo.

  “That river over there used to be called the Great River.” Jolene pointed to the path they’d come back on. “That used to be a road that ran along the river. We figure it was West Great River Road, since it’s west of the river. According to our research, that is the road that Sam Gooding's house was on.”

  Mateo pursed his lips in thought. “I see, but there’s not really a road here. Just this narrow deer path. And there are no houses.”

  “I guess there was a road and houses three hundred years ago,” Celeste said. “It’s all overgrown now.”

  “Or you’re looking in the wrong place. I don’t think his house would have been near the vortex. This vortex is ancient. It’s been here forever.” Mateo pointed at the woods. “That’s why this piece of land has never been developed. People come here and they get a funny feeling, and then they aren’t so keen to go through with development plans. Even when they make plans, the plans always fall through.”

  “Well, if his house wasn’t here, then where was it?” Jolene asked.

  Mateo frowned at the map. “It looks like there is a road here on the other side of the river.”

  “But that’s the east side of the river,” Fiona pointed out.

  “Right. Here it is.” Mateo traced the windy river with his finger. “But here the river winds like a snake. It’s actually southwest from where we are right now, but the section of land inside this hairpin turn is dead west. I say we go look there.”

  Morgan shrugged and looked at the GPS map on her phone. “It does look like there is a road that used to cut through there. It’s worth a try.”

  “Yes, and we have plenty of time to do it. Sarah got rid of the paranormals that were following you buying you some time,” Mateo said.

  “Do you think the bearded guys she mentioned were the people who have been following us all along?” Jolene asked Morgan.

  Morgan glanced around. “Possibly. I don’t feel anyone following us now. I want to think it was always Sarah.”

  “There’s a bridge at the fork in the road. We could drive across the bridge then park in the woods and walk along the river.” Mateo glanced up at the clear blue sky. “It’s a nice day.”

  “What the heck,” Fiona said. “I agree with Mateo. Besides, we’re already here and we don’t have any other leads.”

  “Sure.” Jolene shrugged. “What have we got to lose?”

  19

  Mateo was right. On the other side of the river there was a much wider path. It was overgrown, but it was more like the width of a three-hundred-year-old road than the path they were following before.

  Jolene enjoyed the quiet peacefulness of the woods. Squirrels rustled in the leaves and birds flew between pine branches. The river bubbled alongside the road. It was a warm day, above eighty degrees, but the tall oak, maple and pine trees provided a canopy of shade which made the journey pleasantly comfortable.

  What made it even more pleasant was the way Mateo had easily grabbed her hand and laced his fingers through hers as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  Jolene struggled to keep the flush from her face when she spotted her sisters’ knowing glances. They all had guys in their lives—why shouldn’t she? Except she really didn’t have Mateo in her life, did she? She glanced up at him, his handsome profile dark and mysterious. Would he stick around long enough to actually be in her life? Did she even want that?

  They rounded a corner and, as if by magic, the woods cleared enough to reveal an old, sagging house. It was simple in style, two stories and clad in wooden boards, some of which were now hanging off. The windows were small, most of them boarded up. A brick chimney that stuck up from the middle of the house was crumbling. Bricks lay on the roof and scattered around the house along with slate shingles that had come loose from the roof. The yard had been reclaimed by the forest, giving the house the appearance of having sprung up in the middle of the woods.

  “This must be Sam’s house!” Jolene took off at a trot toward the house. Excitement bubbled up inside her. She was only twenty feet away from the house that might possibly have the scrying ball hidden inside.

  Twang!

  A bolt of electricity zinged through her body. The next thing she knew she was flat on her back on the ground.

  “Whoa. Watch out there, Jolene,” Morgan, who had jogged up behind her, teased. “Did you trip on something?”

  But she hadn’t tripped. It was more like she’d walked into an electrified brick wall. A force field. She held her hands out to stop Morgan. “Hold up. There’s something weird going on here.”

  Morgan frowned but kept walking. “What? I don’t—”

  Twang!

  Morgan jumped back. “Whoa! What the heck was that?” She reached her hand out tentatively to touch what looked like thin air.

  Twang!

  Morgan jerked her hand back and shook it. “That hurt.”

  The others had stopped beside them, eyeing the space between them and the house. Mateo helped Jolene up. She dusted dried leaves and pine needles off her jeans as she stared at the house. Now that she was looking, she could see a slight shimmer in the air.

  Fiona picked up a rock and tossed it. It sizzled for a split second as it passed through the invisible barrier and landed on the other side.

  “It looks like some kind of an energy barrier.”

  “I wonder if it goes all around the house.” Celeste walked to the left, along the edge of the invisible wall. When she got fifty feet along, she reached out a tentative finger.

  “Twang!”

  “Looks like it does,” Morgan said.

  “Well, that’s good news and bad news,” Celeste said. “The good news is that this is probably the place we're looking for and it is well protected. The bad news is that we can’t get in.”

  “And even more bad
news.” Fiona pointed at a patch of ground near the invisible wall where the leaves had been pushed away. Their eyes followed it—all along the wall the leaves and growth had been disturbed. “Someone else has been here.”

  “Someone looking for the crystal ball.” Morgan walked the length of the wall. “But it looks like they didn’t get in.”

  Jolene could see the scuff marks were only on their side, but someone had tried the same thing they were trying. That person had also walked along the perimeter to try to find a way in. Had they found it? She raised her energy awareness to look at the energy trail. “It’s the same energy signature that I saw at Amity Jones’ house.”

  “So, the person—or persons—that killed Nancy was here.” Morgan looked around nervously.

  “And they were possibly the killers of Opal,” Fiona added.

  “Hopefully, they were the bearded paranormals that Sarah did away with,” Celeste suggested. “It’s a safe bet they were sent by Bly and we know he is after the scrying ball.”

  “If it was them, he'll send someone else soon enough. But we do owe Sarah a lot since she got them out of the way,” Jolene said.

  “And don’t forget how she saved us from the vortex,” Morgan reminded them.

  “True. We should get her a nice gift,” Jolene said.

  “Meow!”

  The black cat, Raven, appeared on the other side of the invisible wall. She trotted over to the house and rubbed her cheek against a corner, then looked back at them smugly.

  “Hey, how did the cat get in there?” Fiona asked.

  “There must be a way in! A hole in the force field or something. We need to go all around the perimeter and see if we can find it. I’ll go this way. Celeste, you go the other way.” Jolene started to the right.

  Merow!

  Jolene and her sisters were surprised to see Belladonna come running out from behind the house. Their cat trotted straight toward them, her ice blue eyes sparkling. She was getting uncomfortably close to the invisible wall and not slowing down.

  “Stop!” Jolene put her hand out, as if Belladonna would obey her command. But the cat never took instructions from humans and this was no exception.

  Belladonna did not slow down.

  Jolene’s chest constricted as Belladonna reached the force field. “No, Belladonna, go back!” She held her breath in anticipation of the cat hitting the electric charge. She hoped it wouldn’t hurt her too badly.

  Instead of being hurt, Belladonna simply walked right through it as if nothing were there. She rubbed her head on Jolene’s ankle.

  “Hey, she went right through it.” Jolene bent down to pet her. “Maybe there’s a hole that we can get through right here.” She reached out to touch the area Belladonna had just passed through.

  Twang!

  “I guess not.”

  “Merowph!” Belladonna twitched her tail and trotted off back toward the house, passing through the invisible force field as if it had no effect on her. She looked back at the sisters as if wondering why they didn’t follow her.

  Fiona waved her hand at the invisible wall. “I guess cats are immune to whatever it is.”

  “There has to be a way to get through. This has got to be some sort of paranormal energy field.” Morgan turned to Jolene. “You’re the strongest. Why not try to tap into your energy gifts to see if you can break it or unlock it somehow?”

  Jolene scrunched up her face and, raising her awareness as high as she could, she focused on the wall. But nothing happened.

  Mateo had been standing back with his arms crossed watching the girls in silence. “Why don’t you just use the spell?”

  “The spell? What good would that do?” Jolene asked.

  “I think the force field is a charm. Someone put it on this house a long time ago so no one could get in,” Mateo said. “Clearly they made it only effective for humans.”

  Morgan’s eyes flicked from Mateo to the invisible wall. “But it’s energy. We can counteract it somehow with our paranormal powers.”

  “First, let’s make sure we are actually in the right place.” Fiona dug into her pocket. “Counteracting that could be a real drain on our energy. We don’t want to do that unless we really need to get in there. If there are other paranormals around, we might need all our skills to fight them. It would be just like Bly to let us use up our energy to break the force field and then take us in our weakened state.”

  Jolene could see before Fiona’s fist even cleared her pocket that they were in the right place. The alexandrite keystone was glowing so brightly that beams of orange light spread out from the spaces between Fiona’s fingers.

  And then the solution hit her.

  Jolene grabbed the alexandrite from Fiona. “We don’t need a spell.” Holding the stone between her forefinger and thumb she stepped up to the wall and thrust it out into the energy field like a key being thrust into a lock.

  Click.

  The air shimmered.

  The hair on Jolene’s arms tickled with static electricity.

  She handed the stone back to Fiona, and then stepped over the threshold of the invisible barrier and headed for the house.

  20

  Silenced weighed heavy in the air as the sisters and Mateo approached the house. It was as if the space near the house absorbed the normal woodland sounds, like they were hearing everything from inside a pillow.

  The house drew them toward it. The cockeyed pieces of wooden siding that hung from the front seemed to beckon them. The windows, or at least the ones that weren’t boarded up, stared at them like dark, expectant eyes. Most of the brown paint had flaked off the house long ago, but the large oak door with its giant cast-iron latch remained almost as good as the day it was made.

  Jolene got a sense that the house had been waiting for them for almost three hundred years. Not unwelcoming, but not welcoming either. Just waiting. Jolene was glad Mateo caught up with her and linked his fingers with hers. It gave her strength and made her feel powerful.

  Morgan was the first to plant her foot firmly on the old granite porch. She curled her hand around the latch. “I don’t suppose we'd be lucky enough to find the door unlocked.” She clicked the latch and pushed.

  The door creaked open.

  Jolene stood on her tiptoes to get a look inside over Morgan’s shoulder. Two of the windows on the side were not boarded up and they sent shafts of golden light into the dim room. Centuries-old dust floated in the air, illuminated by the slices of light.

  It had been a nice home. The inside still had the original moldings and fixtures which were much better preserved than the exterior of the house. Inside nothing stirred. The only movement was a flurry of dust that swirled in the air from when Morgan had opened the door.

  “I think it’s safe to go in.” Morgan stepped inside.

  They all followed her in and the wooden floor groaned, protesting the weight of people standing on it after three hundred years. Jolene could see the room they were in took up most of the front of the house. It was devoid of furniture. Had Sam moved out at one point? What had happened to Sam anyway? Jolene had never found the answer to any of that in her research.

  An opening on the far left led to what looked like the remains of a kitchen, though she could only see a few shelves. To the right of that was a stairway. Some of the stair boards were missing, but the wide baluster leading to a fancy newel post at the bottom was still intact. The newel post was unusually intricate for a colonial home and was adorned with mythical faces carved in high relief, culminating in a round orb at the top. But it wasn’t so much the stairs that caught her eye, it was the brick fireplace. It was the same exact fireplace she’d seen in Sam Gooding’s sketch.

  “That’s the same fireplace that’s in Sam’s sketch. The scrying ball must be hidden in the fireplace somewhere!”

  The sisters rushed to the fireplace, the pads of their fingers pressing on the rough bricks, looking for a loose stone or hidden compartment. Their fingernails chipped at the crum
bling mortar. Their activity released the smells of ash and cold air.

  “Where would it be? I don’t see any hidden compartment.” Morgan bent down to inspect the large hearth stone. “Do you suppose it’s up the chimney?”

  Jolene stepped back and looked at the blackened hearth. It was almost large enough to stand in and still had a black cast-iron pot hanging on a hook. The chimney would be a good hiding place. Sam could have made a compartment inside. But she didn’t relish the idea of going up there to find out.

  “Why don’t you point the crystal at it, Fiona, and we’ll see if it gives us any indication as to where the scrying ball might be.”

  Fiona stepped back a few paces and pointed the crystal at the hearth.

  It barely changed color.

  She waved it over the face of the fireplace, the glow turning from gray to yellow to blue to red. “It’s glowing more towards that end of the fireplace.” Fiona aimed it toward the section of the fireplace that was next to the stairs.

  “Wait a minute,” Mateo said. “Maybe it’s not in the fireplace at all. It glows hotter when it’s pointed near the stairs.”

  Fiona shifted position, gliding the stone past the fireplace and over to the stairs. It sparked bright orange.

  “It must be upstairs,” Celeste said.

  “But the sketch was of this room,” Jolene pointed out.

  Morgan pressed her lips together. “Maybe he made more than one sketch, to show a progression of where to go in the house. And maybe we only got the first sketch that leads us toward the stairs. We never saw the whole diary.”

  Jolene thought about the sketch. “You could be right. I thought it was the fireplace because that seems like a place where one might hide something, but the sketch does show the stairs as prominently as the fireplace.”

  “We might as well look upstairs. We can always come back to this.” Celeste gestured toward the fireplace.

  “Anything is better than climbing into the chimney.” Jolene started toward the stairs.