Hexes and Haunts (Witch Haven Mystery - a fun cozy witch paranormal mystery Book 2)

by K E O'Connor

  Hexes and Haunts

  Witch Haven cozy witch paranormal mystery series, Volume 2

  K.E. O'Connor

  Published by K.E. O'Connor, 2020.

  While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

  HEXES AND HAUNTS

  First edition. November 13, 2020.

  Copyright © 2020 K.E. O'Connor.

  Written by K.E. O'Connor.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 1

  Is it possible to kill someone with a cupcake? As I eyed the desserts in front of me with suspicion, I figured it most definitely was.

  “Those are the worst cakes I’ve ever seen. It looks like you’ve squashed a gnome and covered it in ghost goo.” Nugget, my cat familiar, was perched on top of a kitchen cabinet, looking down at me with disdain on his furry face.

  I frowned at the misshapen, sunken cupcakes covered in gray icing. “How did I get a simple baking spell so wrong? I can’t give these to Albert to sell in the bakery. His customers will think he’s trying to poison them.”

  My spider familiar, Hilda, ran up my leg and tapped the back of my hand with one hairy limb. “It’s the effort that counts. He’ll appreciate them.”

  “That’s not true in this case,” Nugget said. “You can’t take those things to the bakery. You’ll give Albert a heart attack, and he’s stressed out enough as it is.”

  “I’m trying to be helpful. I don’t know why I bothered.” I picked up the tray of a dozen ugly cupcakes and walked to the trash.

  Russell, my other familiar, soared over my head, flapping his wings and cawing unhappily.

  “You can’t want to eat these,” I said to him.

  He settled on the countertop and bobbed his head.

  I set down the cupcakes. They definitely weren’t something anyone in their right mind would buy, but they probably tasted okay. And I didn’t mind gray icing, so long as I closed my eyes and didn’t think of ghost slime.

  I glanced at the cauldron bubbling on the stove. It would be ten more minutes before the location spell was at full strength. That gave me enough time to have a quick cup of coffee and try my baking.

  I switched on the kettle and pulled out a mug and a tub of instant coffee.

  “You’re really going to eat one of those monstrosities?” Nugget said.

  “We all are. After all, you’re my familiars. It’s your job to protect me from anything potentially deadly.”

  “I’m not protecting you from your own terrible baking,” Nugget said.

  Russell bobbed nearer to the cakes, an eager look in his beady black eyes.

  “Russell loves my baking, don’t you?” I stroked his silky black wings.

  “He’s only interested in them because he thinks they look like giant toads,” Nugget said.

  “My cakes don’t look like...” When I squinted my eyes, they did sort of look like misshapen amphibians. “Okay, so baking spells aren’t my forte. I’m still getting the hang of all this extra power.” I lifted my hands and admired the sparkle shifting across the surface of my palms.

  It had only been a few days since I’d reacquired my full witch powers, and a little extra boost, and I was adjusting. And as the cakes demonstrated, my adjustment wasn’t going so well.

  I pulled out a plate and set a cupcake on it.

  We all looked at it. No one made the first move to take a bite.

  I grabbed a knife and cut it into four pieces. “Let’s do this together.”

  “Count me out,” Nugget said. “I don’t want to get sick.”

  “I’ll try some,” Hilda said, from her favorite position on my shoulder.

  “My cakes can’t be any worse than eating all those flies you love so much,” I said.

  “Flies are delicious,” Hilda said. “You can’t beat them. But I’ll try a bit of cake now and again. How about you, Russell?”

  Russell hopped from foot to foot.

  I lifted a piece of cupcake up to Nugget, but he wrinkled his nose and hissed at me.

  “You need to work on your familiar skills,” I said to him. “Hilda and Russell have gotten into the swing of it.”

  He stood, turned in a circle and settled back down so he was looking at the wall.

  I grinned, despite his crabby behavior. I still felt lucky Nugget, Hilda, and Russell had accepted me as their witch. After abandoning them for more than a decade, they had every right to turn their beaks and noses up at me and find someone else to support in her witching duties. But they’d stuck by my side and helped me in times of trouble. I’d be eternally grateful to them. Although I wouldn’t be baking them any thank you cakes anytime soon.

  I made my coffee, took a few sips, then lifted a piece of cupcake. I took a bite. It tasted of... nothing. It didn’t taste sweet or sour. It was just bland. I swallowed the cake.

  Everyone was looking at me as if they expected me to keel over and foam at the mouth.

  “It wasn’t that bad,” I said. “Go on, you two, you haven’t tried your pieces yet.”

  Russell grabbed his cake and swallowed it in one go.

  Hilda scuttled onto the counter and took a tiny bite of cupcake.

  A few seconds later, Russell heaved up a soggy lump of cake. He shook out his wings and backed away.

  “Oh dear! Was it really that terrible?” I said.

  He cawed mournfully, before flapping up to his perch in the corner of the kitchen.

  Hilda backed away from the rest of the cake. “Hmmm, the trash is the best place for them. Let’s forget about the baking. We can help Albert much more by finding Luna.”

  I pointed at the cauldron. “That’s what the spell is for. I needed a distraction whilst it was maturing, otherwise I’d have kept tinkering.”

  My best friend, Luna Brimstone, had been taken from her hospital bed while recovering from an attack by a malevolent ghost. I’d promised her Uncle Albert that I’d get her back, especially since I’d aggravated the ghost who most likely took her. But so far, I’d had no luck. This location spell was my latest attempt at finding out where Luna was.

  With a sigh of regret, I tossed the cakes into the trash, then headed to the large oak kitchen table where I’d laid out a huge map of the local area.

  The village of Witch Haven was a small place, home to six hundred and sixty-six magic users. That number always stayed the same. Although it had temporarily changed when I was seventeen, and was seduced by dark magic, alongside my wonderful stepmom, Magda. We’d wiped out ten percent of the population in a single day.

  I tried not to dwell on that too much. It wasn’t my finest hour.

  I studied the map of the village. The house I lived in was set along a quiet dirt track, close to the forest. It was a perfect, secluded location for a witch in hiding. And that was definitely my tag. Although
I was working on changing that.

  And one step to doing so, was to find my missing best friend and prove to the Magic Council I was no longer a black magic using witch, and had a positive reason for being in the village.

  “Check to see if the spell is ready.” Hilda was perched on my shoulder again.

  I walked over and gave the liquid a stir. It shimmered from orange to green. That was a sign the ingredients had mixed and the locator spell was active.

  I used a small ladle to decant the spell and headed back to the map.

  Russell hopped onto the table from his perch and stood to one side of the map. Nugget shuffled around to watch, then yawned and closed his eyes. I knew he was interested in what was going on, he just pretended not to care.

  I used a pipette to extract some of the spell and held it over the map. I took a deep breath and attempted to channel my power. The troubling factor in this spell casting game of chance was that it wasn’t entirely my own power I was using, so the channeling wasn’t always spot on.

  Before my stepmom had died, she’d left behind a number of magically charged items in this house. I was wearing her amethyst necklace, which supercharged my own ability to such an extent that I often sparked magic without even realizing what I was doing.

  I raised one hand, closed my eyes, and centered myself. I imagined Luna, her warm, mischievous smile and the way she always greeted me with a bone crunching hug.

  I was blessed to still have her as my best friend. Even after everything that had gone down, she was steadfast and loyal. And she was the first to come find me when I returned to Witch Haven under a cloud of darkness.

  Now it was my turn to help her.

  I dispensed three drops of the spell onto the map. I opened my eyes and watched as they rolled onto the paper like tiny pearls. Rather than sinking into the map, they shifted around, seeking out my missing friend.

  When the spell worked, the three drops would merge on the spot where Luna could be found.

  After ten minutes of waiting and watching, the drops of liquid stopped in opposite corners of the map.

  “Are you sure you mixed the ingredients right?” Nugget said.

  “Positive. You all watched me do it,” I said.

  “This is a good sign,” Hilda said. “If Luna was dead, the liquid wouldn’t have moved at all.”

  “Or it would have sunk into the graveyard,” Nugget said.

  The liquid hovered, as if it was about to move, but was uncertain where to go.

  “It’s showing you Luna’s not anywhere,” Hilda said.

  “That can’t be right. She must be somewhere. A witch doesn’t just vanish without a trace.”

  We were all quiet as we continued to stare at the map.

  “She could have been taken into a limbo-like place,” Hilda said. “The place ghosts lurk when they have nothing better to do.”

  “I get stuck there each time I die,” Nugget said. “It’s not that much fun.”

  I grimaced. He was still reminding me of the time I’d accidentally buried him when I thought he’d died. Nugget was magically charged, so could regenerate if ever something fatal happened to him. He was a cat with not just nine lives, but potentially an infinite number of lives, thanks to Magda’s magic that kept him alive.

  “You can’t take a living person into limbo,” I said.

  “Luna could be unconscious,” Hilda said. “That would give her a foot between two worlds. The ghost who has her—”

  “If it’s even that mean ghost from her apartment,” I said. “We still haven’t figured out who took her for certain.”

  “Yes, but if it is that ghost, he’s powerful. We barely survived when we went up against him. He could be holding her there. And it seems logical it would be him. Who else would want to harm Luna? She’s a sweetie.”

  I threw my hands up in frustration. A blast of magic shot out of one palm and smashed a hole straight through the ceiling. I ducked as plaster rained down on me.

  I lowered my hands and stared at them. “Sorry, house. I still don’t know my own strength.”

  The kitchen door slammed in response. It wasn’t only the residents of Witch Haven who had magic. This amazing house was a little special, too. And it didn’t like it when I blasted a hole through important things like ceilings.

  I hurried out of the kitchen and dashed upstairs to assess the damage. The magic had not only blasted through the floor, it had also gone through the roof. I could see daylight through the not insignificant hole.

  I stopped by the window and looked outside. My eyes widened, and I grabbed the window ledge. Olympus Duke, Head of the Magic Council, stood by the pile of rubble next to my house.

  Nugget hopped onto the window ledge and growled. “He’s still not leaving us alone. He’s been back every day since you escaped.”

  “He can’t know this house is still here,” I whispered. “The magic wards are keeping it concealed.”

  “Olympus is a strong magic user.” Hilda ran up my leg. “Maybe he can sense the wards, but can’t figure out where the magic is coming from.”

  “Or he can sense you,” Nugget said. “Especially if you keep smashing magic through the roof of a hidden house. We won’t stay hidden for long if you keep misfiring your spells.”

  I wrinkled my nose. The Magic Council wanted me for lots of reasons. I owed them money, and I’d escaped their custody after being arrested for the illegal use of magic. Plus, I was hiding in a house they thought they’d destroyed. They had plans to turn me into a shadow and remove my magic. But there was no way I was letting that happen. My life was getting back on track, and I wasn’t having it torn away because the Magic Council couldn’t see sense. Witches could change. I was living proof.

  And if that wasn’t enough of a problem, I had to get Luna back. I owed it to her. And I owed it to her uncle. If the Magic Council got in my way, things would turn nasty. But my friend’s safety meant the world to me. If getting her back put the Magic Council’s pompous noses out of joint, then so be it. I’d deal with the consequences when they finally caught up with me.

  “We need to give the Magic Council something else to worry about,” I said. “Surely, I can’t be the only witch they’re interested in. There must be some other badly behaving magic user out there they can target.”

  “I’ve got a plan to deal with Olympus and his minions.” Nugget hopped off the window ledge.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  “I’ve been meaning to try out some diversion magic. There are a few spells I’ve been studying in Magda’s books. They could be fun to use on Olympus.”

  “What kind of diversions are we talking about?” I said. “You don’t want the Magic Council chasing you, too.”

  “If they do, I can escape them. I’m fast on my furry paws. A few spells cast around the village will keep them busy, and they’ll forget all about you.” Nugget bounded down the stairs before I had a chance to stop him and learn more.

  I looked at Hilda. “Why’s he suddenly being so helpful?”

  “Because even though he doesn’t like to tell you, he’s happy you’re back and have decided to stay. He was miserable with no witch to claim as his own.”

  I smiled to myself. I could get used to this life. I’d only been back in Witch Haven a short time, but it already felt like home again, and I was planning on staying put. So long as I could prevent the Magic Council from stripping me of my witch abilities. Oh yes, and get rid of my debts, figure out a way to keep this house, and locate my missing best friend.

  I spotted Nugget out the window, scurrying away in the opposite direction to Olympus.

  Olympus didn’t see him. Instead, he knelt and placed something on the ground before leaving.

  “What’s he up to?” I muttered. Anything the Magic Council left for me to find was never going to be good. The last time he visited, he’d brought a list of debts I needed to repay.

  “Send Russell out to get it,” Hilda said. “He’s fast
on the wing. If anyone is watching, they’ll just see a black blur zoom past.”

  I headed back down the stairs with her and directed Russell out the front door to grab whatever Olympus had left behind.

  He sped back a moment later with a piece of rolled paper gripped between his talons.

  I extracted it and unrolled it. It had a single sentence on it. We need to talk.

  My gut clenched, and I shook my head. How did he know I was here? Everyone believed the house was gone, so why was he coming back and leaving messages for me to find?

  “This could be a positive thing,” Hilda said. “Olympus is softening toward you. And we need him as an ally.”

  “Olympus Duke won’t ever be my ally. He was the one who arrested me and locked me away almost as soon as I returned to Witch Haven.”

  “Maybe Albert has put in a good word for you,” Hilda said. “He must have told Olympus you’ve been helping to find Luna. And you did banish those ghosts from her apartment.”

  “I banished one.” I gestured at the ghost jar containing the trapped ghost that sat on Magda’s magic cabinet. “But I let the other go. No, I can’t trust Olympus. We don’t need him involved with this. He’ll only interfere. And there’s no way the Head of the Magic Council will bend the rules, and that’s what we need to do to get Luna back.”

  I headed back into the kitchen, finished my coffee, and then tried the location spell three more times. I got exactly the same results. The liquid zoomed around the map for several minutes, before the three separate drops hovered in the corners.

  I dispersed the spell and rolled up the map. “We need to try something else. There must be a spell to show me where Luna is.”

  A loud thudding on the front door had me jumping.

  Russell squawked and flew out of the kitchen.

  Hilda clung to my shoulder. “That sounds like someone is in a bad mood. If they keep thumping so hard, they’ll knock down the door,” she whispered.

  “It doesn’t sound friendly. But how has that someone found the front door to bang on in the first place?” I crept toward the door and peered cautiously through a window beside it.