Reaching for the bag, Tori said, “Good thinking, Jeff. Keep at it.”
We also nixed any idea of Beau coming along since we couldn’t risk Chesterfield getting possession of the Amulet of the Phoenix. Festus pulled rank on Chase.
“I’ve got old business with that Creavit scum,” Festus said as a wave of glittering energy passed over his form leaving a massive mountain lion, graying at the muzzle, reclining on our hearth. “Don’t even think about telling me I can’t go, which means you have to stay here and guard Kelly. No arguments.”
Chase wisely chose not to offer any.
In the end, we decided our group would include me, Lucas, Greer, Barnaby, and Moira. Gemma didn’t want to leave Mom, and Tori didn’t want to leave Gemma, so that settled that.
Greer flew us all to the portal, and then from the portal into Shevington proper. At Barnaby’s house, Moira showed us a highly believable facsimile of a branch of the Mother Oak. The counterfeit even emanated a degree of power that felt like the great tree herself.
“When we emerge in Kent,” Barnaby said. “We won’t have long. Irenaeus may be fooled by this ruse at a distance, but once he touches the fake branch, he will know it does not come from the body of the Mother Oak.”
“Don’t you worry about the Creavit,” Festus said. “I took him down once, and I can do it again. Just get the kid clear and leave the wizard to me.”
Greer spoke up. “Lucas and I will remove Connor out of the line of fire. I will use the flight of the baobhan sith to carry him to safety.”
Barnaby nodded, “An excellent plan. That leaves me, Moira, and Jinx to bind Irenaeus.”
It was a good plan — or it should have been.
We made a series of portal jumps that brought us out in the fallen ruin of an ancient home. The portal opened in the remains of an enclosed garden filled with rose bushes.
Chesterfield was waiting for us, holding the end of a rope tethered to a hooded figure. “Hello Barnaby,” he said pleasantly. “Pity how Adeline’s garden has gone to ruin.”
“Do not speak her name,” Barnaby said coldly. “It was you, wasn’t it, brother? You killed my wife.”
The Creavit’s laughter floated across the distance between us. “Has it truly taken you all these centuries to come to that conclusion?” Chesterfield asked. “I thought I was supposed to be the magically defective in the family.”
“For as much as I might relish trading insults with you,” Barnaby said, “we are here for the boy. Hand him over.”
Chesterfield made a clucking sound. “Tsk, tsk,” he said. “Mother would not appreciate the disintegration of your manners, but very well. I will send the boy forward, and you will instruct the witch to do the same with the ransom I have requested. She will place the branch on the ground and back away with her brother. If any of you so much as moves, I will kill them both.”
It was a classic hostage exchange. One that created no advantages for us, but it was all we had. I took the oak branch from Moira and started walking. Chesterfield gave the hooded figure a shove, and he moved as well. When we came even with one another, I said, “It’s okay, Connor. I’m your sister, Jinx Hamilton. You’re safe with us. I’m going to take hold of you and lead you the rest of the way. Don’t be afraid.”
The only response was a frightened whimper that almost broke my heart. We began the slow walk back to Barnaby and Moira. I kept my eyes on my grandfather. When we were within ten feet of reaching his position, he yelled, “Now!”
I pushed Connor to the ground and shielded him with my body, which is why I saw little of what happened next. Twin streams of energy from Moira and Barnaby’s outstretched hands shot over us, and Festus charged past me, covering the ground in bounding, three-legged leaps.
They were all fast, but Chesterfield was faster, leaving the old werecat to close his claws around open air. Although his physical form was gone, Chesterfield’s fading voice lingered. “You will live to regret this day.”
I rolled away and hastily removed the hood only to find that the boy I had shielded was not my brother at all. He was just a confused, frightened human with wide, terrified eyes. He knew nothing about Chesterfield or Connor and after Moira had mumbled the kind words of a Forgetfulness Incantation, the events of the last few minutes disappeared from his mind as well.
We had gambled with Connor’s life and lost. I had no idea if my brother was alive or dead, and I dreaded returning to Briar Hollow to give my parents that news, but I had no choice.
Irenaeus Chesterfield checked into a small, private hotel in Raleigh under an assumed name. He still burned with irritation. First, that idiot alchemist in the White King facilitated some type of escape for himself and the Endicott boy, and then Barnaby Shevington had the gall to attempt an ambush.
If his meeting with the good Mr. Smyth went well, Chesterfield would soon be in possession of the Amulet of Carorunn and all the insufferable fools would pay for their perfidy. Preoccupied with his thoughts of revenge, Chesterfield forgot to return his fountain pen to its habitual spot in the breast pocket of his coat when he changed clothes for dinner.
He remembered when he reached the lobby, but there was no time to return to his room. The business he planned to transact with Smyth would not involve the signing of contracts or the issuing of receipts. Confident that he had no need of the writing instrument, he stepped into the crisp evening air and strode down the sidewalk.
Back in his room, the pen on the desk began to vibrate slightly. The intricate spiderweb of copper glowed briefly, and then Connor Endicott found himself standing in a bedroom with a short, graying man in something like a monk’s habit at his side.
“We did it!” Gareth cried. “We’re free.”
“No,” Connor said, “we’re not. We’re just out of the pen. Chesterfield will be back. Come on.”
Cautiously opening the door, Connor surveyed the empty hallway. When he felt certain they would not be seen, he slipped out, with Gareth following behind. At a doorway marked “Stairs,” they nodded to one another and started down, ducking through the lobby and out into the street.
“Now what?” Gareth asked. “I have not been in the human realm in more than 200 years, and you have never been here.”
Scanning the signs up and down the street, one stood out for Connor.
“Look!” he said. “The shop of a soothsayer. Miss Shania Moonbeam’s Divinatory Emporium. We must consult her for the best course of action.”
“Do you have coin to pay her?” Gareth asked as they began walking again.
“No,” Connor said, “but perhaps she will take pity on us.”
“Is this Mr. Chase McGregor?”
“It is,” Chase said. “Who’s calling, please?”
“Miss Shania Moonbeam, Glory’s friend. We talked in Raleigh a few days ago. You left me your card. You remember?”
“I do, Miss Shania,” Chase said, purposefully using her name so the others in the lair would know the identity of the caller. “What can I do for you?”
In her Divinatory Emporium, Miss Shania turned partially away from her visitors and lowered her voice. “You remember how you told me to call you if anyone came in here talking about Mr. Chesterfield?”
“Yes,” Chase said. “Is someone asking about Chesterfield?”
At the wizard’s name, Jinx and Tori both sat up, and Jeff took his eyes away from the fire for the first time in hours. Gemma put her hand over Kelly’s. Chase quietly switched the phone on speaker.
“Two someones,” Miss Shania said. “Odd ducks. One of them is dressed like some kind of monk, and the other one looks like an escapee from a Renaissance faire. Says his name is Connor something or other. They claim Mr. Chesterfield was holding them prisoner. Just between you and me, I don’t think either one of them is right in the head.”
At the sound of Connor’s name, Kelly gasped, her eyes instantly filling with tears. Jeff reached for her free hand.
“Thank you, Miss Shania,” Chase said. “W
e know both of them, and you’re right, they are a little simple so don’t pay attention to anything they say. Can you keep them entertained? I’m not far away. A friend and I can get to you in an hour or so.”
“Oh, sure,” Miss Shania said cheerfully. “I just took a bunch of cookies out of the oven. Both of them are sniffing the air like hungry hound dogs. I can keep them busy for you, Mr. McGregor.”
Chase thanked her and broke the connection.
With tears now streaming down her face, Kelly turned to her daughter. “Norma Jean?"
"Yes, ma'am?" Jinx said
"Please go bring your brother home.”
Epilogue
Introducing my brother to our parents was one of the most incredible moments of my life — well, that and the way Connor looked at me shyly in Miss Shania’s shop and said, “I have a sister? I always wanted a sister.”
We all cried oceans of happy tears, and we haven’t stopped talking in days. Connor is everything I thought he would be and more — a sweet combination of both of our parents. When our mother asked his forgiveness for giving him away, he asked, with perfect innocence, “Why would I forgive you for saving my life? I’m just sorry about how you and my father have suffered.”
Every time Connor says “Father” dad’s chest swells a size larger. I suppose I should be jealous, but I’m not. More and more it feels like the four of us have never been apart, and we’re all anticipating spending the holidays together.
Of course, there was a lot of other leftover business to get settled, starting with Gemma’s divorce. She and Mom took care of putting a spell on Scrap by themselves.
Gemma said she didn’t feel right asking Tori to work magic on her own father. I think she was secretly afraid Tori might get a little carried away. My bestie isn’t very happy with her dad, and may not be for a long time.
As for Scrap, he’s the soul of cooperation, and Gemma has already signed a contract on the old hardware store.
The news about my folks moving over to Briar Hollow and Gemma coming along came as a surprise, but a welcome one. If I have my way, my family will never be separated again.
After Connor and Gareth told us the whole story about their escape, the GNATS drones went back into the cavern with improved navigational software. The pilot couldn’t get any closer, but he didn’t crash, and he was able to see that Chesterfield cleaned the place out with one exception. The chained caskets.
Awful as they are, none of us like to think about Seraphina and Ioana chained up for eternity, but we have no way to reach them and put them out of their misery.
When I finally got around to asking Tori and Beau about the baseball ghosts, I could not believe their response.
“Hold on, hold on, hold ON!” I said. “Was I not clear? I asked you two to make this baseball thing go away, and now you’re helping organize something called the Dead Majors?”
Tori already had her counter argument formulated. “Jinksy,” she said, “things have a tendency to get pretty serious around here. The baseball thing will be fun. You remember something called ‘fun,’ right?”
“This is November!” I protested. “Baseball is a spring sport.”
Yeah, I know. It wasn’t much of a retort, but I was running on empty, and Tori knew it.
“It never snows around here,” she said reasonably, “and all the players are dead, so you know, not really caring much about the cold? And then there’s the contingency clause.”
“What contingency clause?” I asked suspiciously.
“We’ve made it very clear that Briar Hollow has been rebranded as a paranormal location and all apparitions will be strictly regulated,” she said.
My eyebrows went up. “We have regulations?” I asked.
“We will,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “That’s beside the point for right now. The big thing is that this is a ‘pay to play’ scheme. We let the ghosts organize the league, and in exchange, they’re our eyes and ears around Briar Hollow or anywhere else we need them to go. Think about it, Jinksy, we have our own spectral secret service!”
As much as I might have liked to shoot that one down, the idea had merit — a lot of merit. If we were going to be spending our time amulet hunting — which would seem to be the agenda for the new year — more metaphysical boots on the ground sounded pretty good.
In the end, they won me over. For one thing, we could pass Mindy, Nick, and Kyle, our intrepid ghost hunters, over to the ghosts themselves for management. Tori and I have already agreed we’d keep Mindy through the holidays and then let her go. Having a non-magical person on the premises cramps our style too much for anyone’s tastes.
But for right now? We are declaring Briar Hollow a crisis-free zone. Unfortunately, we’ve already agreed to spend Thanksgiving at Uncle Raymond’s with the extended family. Since everyone thinks Connor died in infancy, we can’t take him along. We’ll have a second dinner in the lair later in the day, but Christmas?
We’re all going to be together in Shevington. Our first Christmas in the Valley. I can’t wait.
About the Author
Juliette Harper is the pen name used by the writing team of Patricia Pauletti and Rana K. Williamson. As a writer, Juliette's goal is to create strong female characters facing interesting, challenging, painful, and at times comical situations. Refusing to be bound by genre, her primary interest lies in telling good stories.
Six of Juliette's series are currently available. The Jinx Hamilton Mysteries opens with Witch at Heart, a lighter paranormal tale featuring a heroine who possesses powers she never dreamed existed. Jinx has been minding her own business working as a waitress at Tom’s Cafe and keeping up with her four cats. Then she inherits her Aunt Fiona’s store in neighboring Briar Hollow, North Carolina and learns that her aunt has willed her special “powers” to Jinx as well. They say admitting you have a problem is the first step and Jinx has a major problem. She’s a new witch and she has no earthly clue what that means — until she’s given the opportunity to use her magic to do a good thing.
In Book 2, Witch at Odds, Jinx accepts her new life as a witch and is determined to make a success of both that and her new business. However, she has a great deal to learn. As the story unfolds, Jinx sets out to both study her craft and to get a real direction for her aunt’s haphazard approach to inventory. Although Jinx can call on Aunt Fiona’s ghost for help, the old lady is far too busy living a jet set afterlife to be worried about her niece’s learning curve. That sets Jinx up to make a major mistake and to figure out how to set things right again.
By Book 3, Witch at Last, A lot has changed for Jinx in just a few months. After the mishaps that befell her in Witch At Odds, she just wants to enjoy the rest of the summer, but she’s not going to be that lucky. As she’s poised to tell her friends she’s a witch, secrets start popping out all over the place. Between old foes and new locations, Jinx isn’t going to get her peaceful summer, but she may just get an entirely different world.
Book 4, Witch on First, has Jinx walk out the front door of her store in Briar Hollow on a Sunday morning only to find her werecat neighbor and boyfriend, Chase McGregor, staring at a dead man. Under the best of circumstances, a corpse complicates things, but Jinx has other problems. Is her trusted mentor lying to her? Have dangerous magical artifacts been placed inside the shop? Join Jinx and Tori as they race to catch a killer and find out what's going on literally under their noses.
Book 5, Witch on Second, opens just a week before Halloween. Jinx and Tori have their hands full helping to organize Briar Hollow’s first ever paranormal festival. Beau and the ghosts at the cemetery are eager to help make the event a success, but tensions remain high after the recent killings. Without a mentor to lean on, Jinx must become a stronger, more independent leader. Is she up to the task in the face of ongoing threats? Still mourning the loss of Myrtle and her breakup with Chase, Jinx finds herself confronting new and unexpected foes.
Six volumes of the best-selling Lockwood Legacy ar
e currently available. The story chronicles the lives of three sisters who inherit a ranch in Central Texas following their father's suicide. The titles include: Langston's Daughters, Baxter's Draw, Alice's Portrait, Mandy's Father, Irene’s Gift, and Jenny’s Choice. The seventh, Kate’s Journey, will appear in 2017.
Descendants of the Rose is the first installment of the Selby Jensen Paranormal Mysteries. The second book, Lost in Room 636, will also be available in 2017. Selby's business card reads "Private Investigator," but to say the least, that downplays her real occupation where business as usual is anything but normal.
And don't miss the hilariously funny "cozy" Study Club Mysteries, a light-hearted spin off of The Lockwood Legacy. Set in the 1960s, this series takes on the often-absurd eccentricities of small town life with good-natured, droll humor. The first book, You Can't Get Blood Out of Shag Carpet, is already listed in the Amazon store with You Can't Put a Corpse in a Parade will be coming in 2017.
Juliette has also made forays into the arena of short fiction arena with Before Marriage, a light, sweet romance and Langston’s Ghost, a short-story companion to The Lockwood Legacy books.
Fermata: The Winter is the first in a four-novella post-apocalyptic survival series. Five years after an unknown virus divided the world into the living and the dead, four survivors stumble into a winter sanctuary. Brought together by circumstance, but bound by the will to stay alive, a concert pianist and a girl from South Boston forge a friendship and a purpose to cope with their new reality.
For more information”
@jharperbooks
www.julietteharper.com
[email protected]
Also by Juliette
This book is the sixth book
in The Jinx Hamilton Mystery Series.
The next two books in the series will be
the novella, Christmas in the Valley
Witch on Third (A Jinx Hamilton Mystery Book 6) Page 24