by Tonya Kappes
Before I slipped down the stairs, my intuition told me to look around. I took a quick glance into the black night. Everything was still and just as it should be. The faint light coming from the guts of Mystic Lights was made by a few candles with Gerald, Izzy, and Chandra gathered around.
“I’m glad you made it safely,” Izzy said and wasted no time drawing the ceremonial book up to the candle’s wick. Gerald and Chandra didn’t look at me. Their hands folded in front of them. Silent.
“Seriously?” I questioned, breaking the silence between us. “You can’t possibly think I had anything to do with Gwenie’s death?”
“Please get on with this. Petunia is already upset that her husband has to make a special tea as they are having a private family ceremony at Two Sisters.” Gerald kept his head down, talking about himself in third person.
“Gerald.” I had to get him to look at me. “I did not set my own building on fire. At least believe that.”
“Oh, honey.” Chandra reached out and touched me. “We know you wouldn’t hurt a flea while in your right mind and we also know you love your shop.”
“What does that mean?” I drew back, ignoring the comment on how I love my shop. More disturbing was the in my right mind comment. “I am in my right mind.”
“I think what she is saying is that you weren’t raised a spiritualist and sometimes we see those types use their gifts for evil.” Izzy did a poor job of reading Chandra’s words because it set me on fire. “I think we can all agree something evil is lingering in the air and the only way to get things done while you are in Locust Grove is to give Petunia the presidency she was going to get before all of this happened.”
“I’m glad you feel the evil too because that is what is behind the fire and Gwenie’s death. I just know it, but as far as me not being raised as a spiritualist. . .” I put my hand on my chest and sucked in a deep breath. “You are the one who dragged me here and I’m a Good-Sider.”
Good-sider!
I gasped, trying to get in some air when my intuition socked the breath right out of me. Spiritualists are classified into two categories. The Good-Siders and the Dark-Siders. It was a hard concept for me as a spiritualist to segregate the two so I had proposed a new law to include everyone and it had passed. Whispering Falls became a community for all.
In the old days, Dark-Siders were more on the darker side of magic. A dash of spells with a little kick to it. While the Good-Siders only used goodness for magic. Eloise and Raven were perfect examples of good Dark-Siders.
But what took my breath away was the Full Moon Treesort. Was Amethyst a Dark-Sider? Was that why she had to put her shop in the forest? That was why Eloise lived in the woods. Was it the same for Amethyst? Did she have something against Gwendolyn? Did she have something against me?
These were all valid questions to explore and I knew the only way I was going to get answers was to snoop around Full Moon. Maybe I would take Eloise up on her offer to come visit. Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.
“Did you hear me, June?” Izzy’s voice boomed in the under girth of the building. “I asked, are you freely giving up your duties as Village President and passing them along to Petunia Shrubwood?”
“Yes,” I stated.
Izzy raised her hands to her mouth. She licked her finger and thumb before she used them to smoother the light of the wick. Her eyes turned to me. They lowered, putting a chill into an already chilly cellar.
“You may excuse yourself now.” Izzy’s finger thrust toward the cellar steps.
I bit back tears and bitter words and went as I was instructed. At the top of the steps, there was a pink and green box. I looked over at the backside of Wicked Good Bakery where the lights were on. It wasn’t unusual for Raven to be in there baking and doing her thing, getting ready for the morning rush.
Quickly I picked it up. She had obviously seen me duck into the cellar and it was just like her to leave a treat for me when I was stressed. I’m sure she saw it in the dough.
Goosebumps traveled up my legs and trickling up my arms, telling me it was time to get out of Whispering Falls. With the box tucked under my arm, I followed the shadow of the cloud only it didn’t take me to the Green Machine. It took me to the steps of A Charming Cure.
Chapter Eighteen
“No. I shouldn’t,” I whispered while biting the inside of my lip. “Oh, but I should.”
I didn’t let anything hold me back. I tiptoed up the steps and turned the knob. I was happy to see it was locked, so I pulled my set of keys out of my pocket and unlocked it, slipping in.
Even with the smell of burnt wood, the smell of the shop came flooding back. My heart fell to my feet. The realization of Gwendolyn’s death set in. Someone had come into my shop and used it to plan out their crime.
Who would do such a thing? The question rolled in my thoughts. Before I walked toward the back to where the pull-down attic stairs were, I plucked my picture of me and my parents off the wall and held it tight to my chest. It was the only picture I had of us and there was no way I was going to leave here without it.
Along with the picture, I grabbed a bag from behind the counter and ran my hands down the ingredients bookshelf. Every bottle that lit up, I placed in the bag. There was no use in leaving them. I could definitely use them at the flea market booth. And something told me I might need them to help solve the case. But how?
I would not try to figure it out. My intuition would tell me when it was time.
“I suggest you get out of here.” Eloise appeared inside of the shop. She stood next to the front window with her finger pulling back the curtain. She bobbled her head back and forth looking out into the street. “I think someone knows you are in here because Colton and Petunia are crossing the street.”
“Crap.” I held the bag and picture close to me. “How in the hell are we going to get out?”
“Well,” Eloise sucked in like I was annoying her. “Help me.” She rushed back to my storage room in the back of the shop where I kept a refrigerator and a small living room.
I’m guilty of taking naps during the day or even late at night while I was up making and creating new potions. It was there when I took over the shop that it reminded me most of Darla.
I hurried behind Eloise. She stood next to the wooden table, which had never been moved. Underneath it was an old wool rug. It was definitely Darla’s taste in using the natural elements to decorate.
“You get on that side.” Eloise bent down and placed her hands under the table. “We will move the table over there.” Her head nodded to the wall on the other side of the room.
I did what she said. The bell over the shop door dinged.
“Is anyone in here?” Colton called out, echoing into the storage room.
Eloise placed her finger over top her mouth, signaling me to not say a word. She flipped up the edge of the rug, uncovering a trap door. Slowly she pulled it up, exposing a set of stairs and some lights. With magic, she tapped the first candle and all of them lit up.
She pointed for me to go down there. I didn’t protest. I went. I stopped a few steps down and looked up. She had pulled the edge of the carpet as good as she could so it would cover the door once she shut it behind her.
She shooed me with her hand to go once she had closed the trapdoor. I cleared thick cobwebs on my way down and stopped at the bottom. The candles lit up a long cobblestone hallway, giving me the creeps.
“Go on.” Eloise put her hand on my back.
“Where does this go?” I questioned. “Wait! I forgot my June’s Gems.” I had set the box on the counter when I filled the bag with the herbs.
“Move. And forget the gems.” Eloise pushed in front of me. “It is how Darla and I use to hang out when she lived here.”
“Really?” I stayed on Eloise’s heels and continually looked back. As we walked, the candles behind us burned out.
“In case you forgot, I’m a Dark-Sider and I wasn’t too welcome in the community. Since Darla and I were best
friends, and she needed my magic for the shop, I magically made a tunnel for us to go from her shop to the tree house.” Eloise’s cloak swished with each turn and curve as we made our way closer and closer to her house. “It was a lot of fun too. You know.” Eloise stopped and turned to me. “She would be so proud of you. And she would have loved to show you this tunnel.” She reached down and grabbed my hand, rubbing her finger over my engagement ring. “Every time I look at your hand, I see hers.”
“I’m so grateful I have you to tell me about Darla.” I gave a half smile. The best I could muster up since I was currently in a stressful situation. “I really do wish I remembered when we lived here.”
“You were just a baby.” She turned and headed on down the corridor without looking back until we made it to another set of steps leading up to a door.
Eloise used the flat of her hand and pushed the door up over her head. Light pierced the dark steps from above. I squinted, trying to let my eyes adjust to the darkness. One by one, I planted one foot on a step and then the other, doing it all the way up into the green house of Eloise’s garden.
“Shoo.” Eloise ran her hands down the front of her cloak, brushing off the dust and cobwebs from the tunnel. “That was a close call.”
She picked off different flowers, making her way to the door of the greenhouse. Before opening the door, she picked up the spray bottle and gave a couple sprits to a wilted-looking potted plant, springing it back to life in an instant.
“I really should come in here more often.” A look of satisfaction was on her face. She put the bottle back in its place and opened the door.
We walked through the rows of her garden; the twinkling lights in the tree branches brought the happy, magical feeling back into my soul. These were the times I felt everything just might turn out okay.
The small wooden signs on the garden were painted with the names of the herbs: Rose petals, moonflower, mandrake root, seaweed, shrinking violet, dream dust, magic peanut, lucky clover, steal rose.
“Fairy dust.” I bent down when my intuition stopped me in my tracks. “Do you mind if I pick a few because I want to put some in my dream potion.”
“Of course.” Eloise twirled her hand in the air and clapped twice.
Two one-inch purple fairies twisted and turned, gathering the dust on the plant. With their tiny hands, they blew, sending the dust up to me in little cubes. I picked the floating cubes out of the air and stuck them in my bag.
“Thank you.” I had to stop the nightmares and I was willing to do anything to make it happen. Regardless, they did prepare me for the future and what might happen, but at this point, nothing could get worse.
Meow, mewl. Mr. Prince Charming darted around my ankles doing his signature figure eight.
“Now you come.” My mouth twitched. He darted toward the gazebo in the garden where Eloise was seated at the small café table. She motioned me over.
“Let’s have a midnight snack.” The three-tiered stand held finger sandwiches and tarts. She picked up the pink china teakettle and evenly poured the liquid into a teacup in front of her and one in front of the empty seat to which she gestured me to sit down.
I did, putting the picture frame of my family and the bag of herbs on the ground. I kept my bag strapped across my shoulder.
“So, tell me.” Eloise pushed the food toward me. She picked up a tart and popped it in her mouth. “Why are you here when Oscar clearly told you to stay in Locust Grove?”
“Yes. I told you to stay put.” Oscar walked down the lighted pathway from the front of the house. “I went back to Locust Grove because I didn’t want you to stay there alone and the fact you insisted I stay in Whispering Falls tonight did give me the idea you had something up your sleeve. So I called Aunt Eloise and sent her to look for you.”
“Oh.” I folded my hands in my lap. “I was summonsed here by Aunt Helena to give up my presidency in a ceremony in the cellar at Mystic Lights. I wanted to get the picture of my family and bring it to Locust Grove. That was it.”
Oscar’s brows rose. “That is the only reason you went to your shop?”
“Fine.” He wasn’t buying it. I said, “When I made it into town, I couldn’t help myself. I looked into Two Sisters where they were having the final cremation for Gwenie. Then I wanted to check out the shop for any evidence because I didn’t do it.”
“Let the law handle it.” Oscar stepped up into the gazebo and stuffed a finger sandwich in his mouth.
“Plus I have my eyes and ears planted around the village.” Eloise put a little ease to my fears knowing I had someone on the inside watching out for me.
Eloise and Oscar finished off the food. I pulled my cloak around me. The night air was getting colder. The sounds of the night engulfed me. They were much different at night then the day. I wasn’t used to the crickets, the lightning bugs, croakers, and frogs, not to mention the bright yellow snake wrapped around the wooden spindle of the gazebo. The beady eyes didn’t stop looking at me.
Chapter Nineteen
“Did you see that snake?” I asked Oscar the next day when we were having our coffee at the table back in Locust Grove. It was a great way to avoid talking about the night before and the situation I’d put him in since he was sheriff of Whispering Falls. “It was huge.” I shimmied, thinking of the big slithery thing. “I’m so glad I don’t have to stay up in the night for my gift.”
“I didn’t.” Oscar dropped the corner of the paper. His big blue eyes looked at me. “But, you know, anything in Aunt Eloise’s garden is not going to hurt you.”
“I know.” I picked up a couple of the bottles and placed them in the cardboard box I was going to use to take my cures to the flea market. “Still, I swear the thing was looking at me. Besides, I don’t like snakes anyway.”
“Is this your way of ignoring the fact you went against the law and making idle chit chat because you know you are putting me in a tough situation?” Oscar wasn’t going to let last night’s mess-up go away like I had hoped.
“No. But nothing happened. I did what I was told and now Petunia is the Village President.” I adjusted a few of the bottles in the box to avoid eye contact. “And if I hadn’t gone to your aunt’s, I’d never gotten these little babies.”
I picked up a couple cubes of the fairy dust.
“These are why I slept so good last night.” I exhaled a happy sigh. “No nightmare.”
“June Heal,” Oscar folded the paper and laid it in front of him. “You make breaking the law a no big deal in your own cute way.”
He reached out, dragging me into his lap, in a mini-make-out session until someone knocked on the door.
“Who is that?” His eyes slid toward the hallway. His brows furrowed.
“Ooh!” Excited I jumped up. “I forgot.” I darted down the hallway, calling behind me, “I went to see Adeline last night and she’s going to help me go to the flea market to set up my booth.”
“Great.” The sound in Oscar’s voice wasn’t so joyous. “You know she’s a mortal right?”
“Of course, silly.” I swung the door open. “Hi!”
“Good morning.” She stuck her hand out with a coffee. “I figured you didn’t do your morning yoga moves I showed you. Coffee is probably just as good for you.” She winked handing me the cup. “Are you ready?”
“Yep.” I held the door open for her. Mr. Prince Charming was on cue, darting across the radiator, his tail jutted out catching Adeline’s attention, waiting for a good scratch.
“You are a good kitty. Yes you are.” Adeline talked baby talk, turning Mr. Prince Charming off.
Growl! He hissed darting down the hall into the bedroom.
Adeline jumped back. “He’s not very nice.”
“He has his moments,” I called over my shoulder and played with my charm bracelet. It was the first thing Oscar made me put on this morning when we got out of bed.
I bent down and kissed Oscar one more time, knowing I wasn’t going to see him until later toni
ght after his shift at the station in Whispering Falls. “Have a good day. Find some evidence that isn’t against me,” I suggested in a half-joking manner.
I grabbed the box. Adeline got in her car and I got in the Green Machine. She followed me to the fairgrounds on the west side of Locust Grove where the flea market was set up.
Dust spun off the tires of our cars, creating a thin dirty layer on our windshields. The grass had already turned brown, waiting for Mother Nature and winter to set in. The dull weather made my soul hurt. Whispering Falls was always so colorful. Full of life. We told visitors it was due to being nestled in the mountainous regions of Kentucky when in actuality the magic flowed through the village, bringing everything full of life.
“It’s busy.” I noticed we had to park in the far lot of the fairgrounds.
Adeline had told me the flea market was now open seven days a week. Much different from the weekend only hours I was used to. The idea of me being busy in the shed and making new cures on a daily basis did help put the memories of the nightmares, and dead body, a little more at bay.
I grabbed the box, Adeline grabbed our coffees, and we headed in for the office to sign up. After a few signatures, everything was ready. They had even given me the same spot I had before moving to Whispering Falls.
“I’m going to grab another cup of coffee from the trailer over there while you start to unpack.” Adeline pointed in the direction of the food trailers, which weren’t there before. “Then you can tell me what goes where.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
I waited until she was out of sight and no one was looking to do my thing. I had made a special potion for this occasion. A “do it” potion where I had visualized what I wanted the booth to look like. I uncorked the top and sprinkled it around the base of the booth. Before I could even dash the last drop out, the booth had already been transformed.