To Spell With It
A Moonstone Bay Cozy Mystery Book Four
Amanda M. Lee
WinchesterShaw Publications
Copyright © 2019 by Amanda M. Lee
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Contents
1. One
2. Two
3. Three
4. Four
5. Five
6. Six
7. Seven
8. Eight
9. Nine
10. Ten
11. Eleven
12. Twelve
13. Thirteen
14. Fourteen
15. Fifteen
16. Sixteen
17. Seventeen
18. Eighteen
19. Nineteen
20. Twenty
21. Twenty-One
22. Twenty-Two
23. Twenty-Three
24. Twenty-Four
25. Twenty-Five
26. Twenty-Six
27. Twenty-Seven
28. Twenty-Eight
29. Twenty-Nine
Mailing List
About the Author
Books by Amanda M. Lee
1
One
“You can’t be serious.”
I cracked into my crab leg and fixed my boyfriend Galen Blackwood with a dubious look. He had an odd sense of humor sometimes and it was clearly on display now.
“Oh, I’m serious.” Galen dumped steak sauce over his rare steak to cover the pooling blood — he knew it gave me the heebie-jeebies — and took a swig from his drink. “It’s a big thing and it happens every seven years or so. They change locations.”
I stared hard at him. I was convinced he was playing with me. “A cupid convention. We’re actually having a convention for cupids in Moonstone Bay?” There was no way that could be real. “Does everyone whip out their bows and arrows for it?”
He regarded me with solemn eyes as he cut into his steak. “I’m not messing with you.”
“This is like the time you told me that trolls lived under the bridge, right? I went looking for a troll because I wanted a photo and it turned out that the only thing that lives under the bridge is some local guy who likes to drop his pants and flash women. I guess he was sort of a troll.”
Galen’s expression darkened. “I told you I would handle that. I didn’t know he was still doing that. No one purposely goes down there, so there haven’t been any reports for some time.”
“I don’t want you arresting him.” I meant it. “He just caught me by surprise. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking at until I saw him move his hand.” I mimicked the movement, causing Galen’s eyes to light with mirth.
“Stop that.” He reached out and slapped my hand down before scanning the restaurant’s waterfront patio to make sure nobody was looking. This was the sort of place men took women when they wanted to score, so absolutely no one was looking at us because they were too busy staring at their dates. “You can’t do stuff like that until we’re alone.”
I caught the double meaning of his words and rolled my eyes. “Please. I could make you back down from that super-fast if I wanted.”
“How do you figure?”
“I’d dress up like a cupid and wear nothing but a satin diaper and shoot arrows at you.”
He snickered at my roundabout way of bringing the conversation full circle. “I’m not lying to you, Hadley. We’re actually having a cupid convention. It’s a weeklong event and ... it often gets out of control.”
I narrowed my eyes and stared hard at him. I was determined to get him to admit he was lying. When he didn’t as much as blink I started to wonder if he could be telling the truth. “I don’t understand,” I said. “How does that work?”
It was hard for me to admit when I was confused. In fact, I, Hadley Hunter, was almost never confused. I was proud of that fact. Even if I ran off half-cocked in the wrong direction, I was rarely confused about it. That’s a good thing, right?
“Are you asking how the conference itself works?” Galen asked as he broke a breadstick and handed me half. In a moment of weakness I’d admitted that I believed the calories didn’t count in bread ... and pie ... and cake ... and candy ... if someone shared the item with me. He’d found my logic confusing, but embraced it all the same. Since then, he ordered the fattening item and gave me half. I didn’t feel healthier physically, but I did in my head. That’s all that mattered.
I nodded as I bit into the bread and moaned. “Oh, this is buttered goodness. I want to date this breadstick it’s so good.”
“I guess I know where I stand.” He offered me a wink to let me know he was joking and leaned back in his chair. “Do you really want to know about the cupid conference, or are you just digging your heels in because you like to argue?”
That was a loaded question. “I really want to know.”
He waited.
“And I might be digging my heels in a bit,” I added. “I’m curious. I can’t help it. What do cupids have to conference about?”
“Being a cupid isn’t what you think it is.”
“No?” I’d given this a lot of thought since I found out my new friend Booker — no last name — was a cupid. Moonstone Bay was full of paranormal creatures. Galen, for example, was a wolf shifter. My new best friend Lilac Meadows (yes, that’s her real name) was a half-demon who could turn her hair red and make her eyes shoot lasers. Okay, I’m making that last part up. During a fight several weeks ago, though, that’s exactly what I thought she was going to do. Her eyes turned red and fiery and she shot fireballs from her hands while fighting with a local cult. She was really impressive. But it was the cupid in my life that was cause for concern. “What is being a cupid like?”
Galen heaved out a sigh. He was used to me asking questions about paranormal beings. It had been happening since I landed on the island months before. He was usually open and honest about things because he figured that was the best way to placate me. The cupid stuff clearly had him on edge, though.
“Are you going to tell me?” I pressed.
“I don’t necessarily know all the ins and outs of being a cupid,” he admitted after a beat. “I didn’t grow up in that world.”
“There’s a cupid world?” This just kept getting better and better. I dug into the crab shell for meat and yanked it out with the tiny fork provided. “I can’t wait to hear about this.”
“I don’t know how much I can tell you. I don’t know much about cupids.”
“You’re friends with Booker,” I pointed out, enthusiastically dunking my crab in butter. “Did I mention how good the food is here? Yum.”
He smiled indulgently. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. I figured you would love the seafood.”
“Why haven’t you brought me here before?”
“Because it’s expensive and I’m a public servant.”
I slowed my chewing and frowned. “I can help pay.”
Instantly, the expression on his face switched from amusement to regret. “That is not what I want. I brought you here because I knew you would like it. Dinners on the beach are going to be harder to come by because our stormy season begins in a few weeks.”
I’d heard other people in town talk about the stormy season. I assumed that meant tourists stopped coming. The storms were apparently intermittent, so that wasn’t the case. Moonstone Bay was the premiere paranormal vacation destination fifty-two weeks a year. That was essentially drilled into my head now.
“Knock that off.” Galen made a face and inclined his chin toward my plate. “Eat your crab. I’ve got dinner covered.”
I made a mental note to think hard and long this week about exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I was having a great time on the island. It already felt like home. Just because I had a guaranteed place to live, though, didn’t mean I’d be able to slide by without getting a job. It was becoming more and more of a necessity. I simply had no idea what I wanted to do. “I’ll cook you dinner tomorrow to make up for this,” I promised. “We don’t have to eat out all week.”
“I’m sorry I brought it up,” Galen muttered, rolling his neck. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“I thought we were talking about cupids.”
“Right.” His eyes momentarily glazed over. “Like I said, I don’t have a lot of information regarding cupids. All I know is what they’ve made public and, frankly, that’s not much. They like to be mysterious.”
“You know Booker, though,” I pressed. “All you have to do is ask if you’re curious.”
“I do know Booker. He’s not the talkative sort.”
“He talks to me.”
“Only because you chase him around and pepper him with inane questions until he gives in. He basically agrees to answer them because it’s that or listen to you whine for hours.”
“I don’t whine.” I grabbed a new crab cluster and went to town. “I think that’s a horrible thing to say about the woman you spend every night with.”
His gaze turned sexy and his grin widened. “I have very specific plans for you tonight.”
“Oh, yeah?” I wasn’t surprised. Galen wasn’t always talkative, but he never hid his intentions. “I’ll happily play that game once you tell me about cupids. Why do they need to have a conference? I mean ... do they work? Do they really shoot people with arrows? Do they make people fall in love?”
“That was a lot of questions for one breath.”
“I can’t help it. I’m curious.”
“Well, I guess I can answer some of it though I’m not an expert by any stretch.”
“You’ve already mentioned that.”
“I just wanted to remind you.” He cracked another breadstick and automatically handed me half. “Booker and I weren’t exactly close in high school. You already know that.”
“Yes, you were in constant competition to see which of you could bang more cheerleaders. I’m well aware.”
He chuckled at my airy response. “I would much rather bang you, honey.” He made a face immediately after uttering the words. “That didn’t sound as bad in my head. I apologize.”
I waved him off. “Forget it. I started it.”
“Yeah, well, it was still weird. Anyway, our paths crossed a time or two. His mother and my mother had a lot in common.”
“You mean the mother I still haven’t met?”
He ignored the question. “Occasionally we would get stuck at island events together and I got to see his mother in action,” he continued. “Booker was never all that interested in being a cupid. Apparently there are classes you have to take — chemistry and psychology classes — and you’re expected to pass some big test.”
“So, it’s like becoming a lawyer,” I suggested. “You have to learn thirty million things and then pass the equivalent of the bar exam.”
“I ... well ... I was going to say that it was nothing like that, but it is kind of like that.”
“I’m smarter than I look.” I tapped the side of my head, causing him to laugh.
“You’re too smart for your own good sometimes. As for cupids ... they have a specific job to do. They’re in control of love. There would be no happiness without them.”
That sounded like a steaming pile of crap. “But ... how do they control love? I mean ... they don’t shove two people together and force them to have feelings.” The mere thought was enough to have my blood running cold as I regarded Galen. We fell for each other quickly. Some would say it was almost magical. I didn’t like the idea of someone else being behind that. “I mean ... we’re not together because they wanted us together, are we?”
He must’ve realized what I was worried about because he quickly covered my hand with his. “It doesn’t work that way. Cupids do influence emotions, but you’re in charge of your own destiny. Basically cupids smooth out the wrinkles. Most of them serve as therapists — I’m not kidding — and they help that way.”
That didn’t make much sense. “What did they do before therapists existed?”
“Caused wars.”
I knit my eyebrows. “What?”
“I shouldn’t have said that.” He held his hands up in a placating manner. “The truth is, cupids weren’t exactly beloved back in the day. You know that whole Helen of Troy thing? She was the woman who had an older husband and had an affair with a younger prince who happened to be his enemy. A cupid caused that because he was bored.”
I worked my jaw. “But ... I thought that was a myth.”
“Most myths are based in reality. Helen of Troy was a real woman. A cupid served as the king’s right-hand man and he counseled Helen and the king for years. Legend has it, one day the king ticked him off and he decided to ‘inspire’ another young prince because he wanted to see what would happen. What happened was that two sides warred and a lot of people died.”
“And that’s true? You’re not making that up to mess with me, are you?”
“You need to stop assuming people are messing with you. I like a good joke as much as the next person, but I’m only messing with you twenty percent of the time. The other eighty percent, well, I’m being perfectly serious.”
I didn’t have a ledger in front of me, but I was convinced he was messing with me a good fifty percent of the time. “So ... why are they having a cupid conference? Do they have it every year?”
“There is a cupid conference every year, but it hasn’t been held here in a long time. This is a special conference with mandatory attendance unless you have a medical excuse, and they only have those every seven years or so. I was trying to think about the last conference we had here, but I can’t really remember the exact date. It was a wild event.”
“Wild? Do they run around shooting each other with their bows and arrows? What? I could see that happening. It’s like when people chase each other with guns after bonfires. Oh, don’t look at me that way.”
His expression was stern. “I don’t know who you’ve been hanging around with, but that gun thing is not normal.”
“I didn’t say it was normal. It’s a Michigan thing.”
“Then remind me never to visit Michigan.” He rolled his neck and watched as I attacked my cheddar mashed potatoes. “Cupids are notorious for not getting along … with each other and outsiders. They can influence the emotions of others if they exert their powers in a negative manner. I don’t believe Booker does that — and I would arrest him if he did — but you might be in for a rude awakening if you decide you’re going to spend a lot of time with the cupids.”
“What makes you think I’m going to spend a lot of time hanging out with the cupids?”
“I’ve met you ... and you have time on your hands. What else are you going to do the next few days?”
I didn’t like his tone. “I’ve been considering getting a job.”
He didn’t immediately react, but I saw the flash of interest in his eyes before he shuttered it. “Oh, yeah? Where are you thinking of getting a job?”
“I have no idea. I’m not qualified for anything on this island. What do you think I should do?”
“Oh, I’m not answering that question. I’m not an idiot. You should do whatever you want to do.”
<
br /> I made a face. “I’m honestly asking your opinion. I need to do something. My savings will last only so long. Plus, well, I’d like to be a productive member of society. All I’ve done the past few months is wander around and get into trouble.”
“You’ve also snagged the most attractive man on the island,” he added. “Don’t sell yourself short there.”
“Ha, ha, ha.” I rolled my eyes. “I need to figure out what I want to do. There must be something I’m good at.”
“I’m sure you’re good at a lot of things.”
“I want a career, not just a job. But I might take a job simply to keep myself busy.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth as he regarded me. “May I make a suggestion?”
“Is it going to annoy me?”
“I hope not.”
“Okay. Lay it on me.”
“I think you should take a week to really think about what you want to do,” he started. “Make a list. Do that two-column thing. Have a list of pros and cons. You don’t want to be miserable while you’re here. I don’t want you to be miserable because that means you’ll be more likely to leave.”
I was taken aback. “I have no intention of leaving.”
“Not now. If you’re unhappy working, though, that might change. I would prefer keeping you happy.”
“Oh, that’s cute.” I offered him a saucy grin. “You can make me happy later.”
“Now we’re talking.”
“With a massage.”
His grin only widened. “I was thinking we could take a walk along the docks before heading home. It’s a nice night and we can burn off some of this food before calling it a night.”
To Spell With It Page 1