Deep in the Heart of Hexes

by BA Tortuga

  Deep in the Heart of Hexes

  A Cowbell, Book and Candle Story

  By BA Tortuga

  Resplendence Publishing, LLC

  http://www.resplendencepublishing.com

  Resplendence Publishing, LLC

  2665 N Atlantic Avenue, #349

  Daytona Beach, FL 32118

  Deep in the Heart of Hexes

  Copyright © 2012 BA Tortuga

  Edited by Darlena Cunha and Liza Green

  Cover art by Les Byerley, www.les3photo8.com

  Electronic format ISBN: 978-1-60735-464-2

  Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Electronic Release: February 2012

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.

  Dedication

  To my Lily. I miss your face.

  Prologue

  “You’re taking a business class? You? Lily, are you ill?” BJ reached over, put one hand on Lily’s forehead.

  Lily smacked it away, rolled her eyes. “Shithead. I need something to help me run Granny’s store, at least for a while after graduation.”

  “Listen to that foul mouth, little princess.” Sara May tossed a handful of popcorn across the dorm room, hitting her in the belly.

  “You ruin my new sweatshirt, I’ll kick your ass.” Lily brushed the crumbs off, her curves filling out the Texas State logo perfectly. Sara May didn’t look scared at all. Of course, Lily was the one of them voted least likely to actually get into it with someone. She was a lover, not a fighter.

  BJ turned over, hand dangling over the edge of the bed. “I still think you should have a heart-to-heart with your grandmother, Lily. Just tell her you’re an artist, not a…a…shop girl.”

  “Yeah, but…” But she’d tried that, and it hadn’t worked. At all.

  “I think you should go in, screw it up terribly and have her fire you.”

  “Yeah, like that would happen.”

  Sara May shrugged at her and went back to fiddling with her makeup for some play she was in near Georgetown. It obviously required her to look like a painted whore. Oddly enough, it was a good look for her. Lily wished, not for the first time, that she was a blonde like Sara May. Hell, she’d be happy being a redhead like BJ—so long as she didn’t have to rock the tomboy look. Anything but looking like every other girl in the Stregha line, from cousin Alessia to Aunt Giada. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Dark skin.

  Everyone thought she should speak Spanish.

  “We should drive out there tomorrow, see your granny, talk to her.”

  Lily looked at BJ. “Every answer isn’t just that straight forward. Granny’s made her mind up. She’s come through with the tuition checks, hasn’t she? Every time?” Not all of them could be a scholarship queen, for heaven’s sake.

  “Yeah.” BJ sifted through a stack of DVDs. “Still, we could go and see the shop, get some stuff for the Halloween party that Tim and Gina are planning. Granny has the greatest stuff in the Cowbell. It’s like…” BJ’s bright red eyebrows scrunched together in a frown. “…the best sale barn plus a goofy shop from SoCo.”

  Like Cowbell, Book and Candle could be on South Congress. Austin folks were chi-chi.

  “It’s more like the Magic Box in Buffy mixed with that huge flea market down on 79.” Sara May grinned over.

  “Oh, y’all! Did I tell you Granny was talking about getting a booth there? Can you imagine? Granny and her spells and tarot cards and knick knacks slammed in between the Mexican import cable guy and that dude who puts the gold grills on people’s teeth?” They all stopped for a second, looking at each other, horrified.

  BJ’s lips twisted. “I bet Mikey would like it…”

  “Oh, man! Mikey! I can’t go out to Granny’s tomorrow. I promised Momma and Daddy that I’d run down to Austin and pick him up at the group home, take him to lunch and shopping.” She never missed a chance to hang with her older brother. Mikey cracked her up and he told all his friends at the home about his sister who could drive and went to college and made pots on big wheels.

  “Can we come?” Lily wasn’t sure whether BJ or Sara May spoke first, but she nodded. Either or both, they’d all grown up together.

  “Sure. We’ll run out to the Cowbell Monday. I’ve got a bye in live drawing class.” She’d let BJ rummage and chatter while she visited with Granny and looked at the shop that she was supposed to run after she graduated. She had plans, though. She’d go to that weird little store in Dripping Springs and make it a real gallery, not just a crafty-antiquey-witchy oddity. She’d sell her sculptures, and get other people to put theirs on consignment. Maybe read a few tarot cards and pretend that she'd inherited some psychic mojo from Granny.

  It was going to be amazing.

  It was going to be hers, and she was going to make Cowbell, Book and Candle something to be proud of.

  Damn it.

  “Well, I guess it could be worse,” BJ teased. “You could be a prison guard.”

  “Bitch. Like my nails would go with a uniform.”

  “But you’d look awesome with a nightstick and a can of mace.” Sara May giggled like a loon.

  “Dork!” They laughed, all three of them, then she turned back to the online catalog. She needed one more class. One that didn’t start at eight in the morning…

  Chapter One

  “Granny? Are you sure these…wooden squirrels deserve a spot in the window?” Lily picked them up gingerly, holding them with the tips of her fingers. Good night, look at the dust.

  “Of course they do. The nutcracker is a Texas antique, and every nutcracker needs a few squirrels.”

  “Granny…” She shook her head. “There’s a lovely piece of stained glass that would catch the light…”

  A year she’d been working here.

  A whole year after graduation, just like they’d agreed to when Granny forked over her college tuition, and Granny had been like…like a boss instead of family. They’d tied it up about the inventory, the ancient pointless cash register, and buying every piece of worthless junk any old man brought in, saleable or not.

  Lily had to spend one Saturday a month at the spa just to make sure she didn’t smell moldy. Or like chamomile. Or the weird-assed sage bundles Granny had in the old apothecary cabinet. Smudge-sticks, she called them. Lily still had no idea what was supposed to smudge. And then there was that stupid grandfather clock, ticking and ticking.

  “Lilith Streigha…”

  She closed her eyes and counted to thirty. Twice. “Granny, they need to be dusted at least.”

  She could do it and drop them. Step on them. Hard.

  “Gently. With a feather duster.” Granny waggled a finger at her, the green eyes that didn’t look anything like hers just dancing. Granny sure had her number. Sometimes it was like she just plucked thoughts out of Lily's head. Half the time she didn't even notice.

  “Of course.” She stuck her tongue out at Granny, winked. “Bossy old bat.”

  “Silly whippersnapper.” Granny eased down into the old wooden desk chair she’d lined with egg crate foam.

  “Uh-huh. You forgot uppity.” She headed over to Granny, kissed her cheek. “I really think you should let me change the window display.”

  “No. Not yet, baby girl.” Granny’s lips set in that thin line she was getting to know well and those eyes stopped twinkling. She was in stubborn mod
e. “You need to do a little reading this afternoon. Research some of the books, so when people ask questions, you can answer and sound like you know what you’re talking about. You’re taking on a big job with this place. Bigger than you understand.”

  “But…” She wasn’t sure about all this witchy stuff. At best it was complicated, goofy and generally pointless, like Momma had always said. At worst, it was dangerous and she’d end up hurting someone. Granny had hundreds of books, pieces of paper, bottles and jars filled with weirdness. She knew some stuff—where to buy herbs, which vendors to buy candles from, which tarot cards were going to sell.

  She’d even designed a neat altar piece—a triple goddess with a place for a stone in the center—that had sold out in only a week. Five of them. One set was ordered over the Internet from Dallas.

  Still, it was weird, interacting with the more esoteric customers and…

  Granny patted her arm, distracting her from her thoughts. “No. No buts, Lilith, my girl. You will do it. All I have will be yours someday, and I need you to educate yourself. There are things out there you don't understand.”

  “Okay.” She sighed softly. One day. One day she’d be able to make the window classy, get rid of the old truly weird stuff. The junk. The pendulums and the crystals and the dry, dusty herbs. She would. Well, maybe not the crystals, those were pretty. “What do you want for lunch today, do you think?”

  “I think we should grab pizza. I’m craving pepperoni.”

  “Good deal.”

  The bell over the door rang and Hedda, Granny’s best friend and fellow witchy woman, came in, followed by a pair of teenage girls dressed in altogether too many black clothes for the month of May. The temperature outside was already well into the upper 90s and would hit the century mark by late afternoon.

  “Hedda! Come here, girl! How’ve you been?” Granny waved Lily over to deal with the customers, greeting her old friend, who looked worried or constipated or something. Not good at all. Sometimes she wondered what all those two got up to in the back room.

  “Hey, y’all. How can I help you?”

  One of them—who was obviously going for the look of the dark-haired girl in The Craft—smiled at her. “I. My friend. We heard that…I need to do a spell.”

  Goodie. “What kind of spell, honey?”

  “I…There’s this guy. He’s…”

  God, she hated love spells. “I have a few good books on relationships…”

  The teenager teared up. “You don’t under…”

  “I told you she wouldn’t get it, Amy. Come on.” The other girl, who looked like a bucket of tar had been poured over her head, grabbed her friend’s arm. “Y’all are just posers.”

  “No. No, wait.” Lily sighed. This kid was really upset. “Tell me what’s up, huh?”

  “I don’t want him to…I just want him to leave me alone.” One stick-thin arm was held out to her, and Lily winced at the bruises. “Please. I just need some help.”

  “Have you talked to your folks?”

  “Her folks are just going to tell her to go to church, lady. We need real help.”

  “Okay. Okay. Let me see what we can do.” She turned to ask Granny what to do, but the sneaky old broad was gone, along with Hedda, damn it. Personally, she thought they should call the police, but it hadn’t been that long since she’d been a teenager over at Dripping Springs High. She grabbed Granny’s big book and was incredibly grateful that the little Post-It tabs hadn’t been taken off.

  Love spells. Having babies. Preventing babies. Health. Money. Depression. Protection.

  That was it. The white tab right before the red one with ‘scary shit - don’t look here’ written on it.

  Lily opened the book and looked quickly. Okay. White candles, a mojo bag with sandalwood, angelica, camphor, and bay laurel. One piece of onyx, one piece of jade. Some salt. No problem.

  “We’ve got everything you need, honey.” No. No, Granny said names were important. “Amy, right?”

  The girl nodded. “I’m Amy; this is my best friend, Roxy.”

  “Hey. I need to put you a bag together. You’ll need to give me a few, okay?”

  Amy had pretty blue eyes. “You think it will work?”

  Lily nodded. “I do. I think it will work. We’ll make it work.”

  Especially when she called to the school and talked to the principal, damn it. Kids shouldn’t be hurt like that.

  She put the mojo bag together, anointed the candles with blessing and protection oil, and gathered the stones up, handing them over to Amy. “Okay. I want you to repeat after me now, then, when you get home, you light the candles and repeat the spell, every day until Saturday, okay?”

  The girls looked at her, wide-eyed.

  “What’s his name?”

  Amy blinked. “What?”

  “His name. Names are important.”

  “Ricky. Ricky McAlister.”

  She’d remember that. Asshole. “Okay, now. Love and light, surround me and my home. Let no one who wishes me harm come close. If Ricky comes with harm in his heart, turn him away. Protect me from harm. So will it be.”

  The girls repeated it, twice, then she rang them up. Six dollars for two stones. “Come back on Saturday; let me know how it worked.”

  “We will. Bye.”

  “Bye, girls.” As soon as they headed down the street for the coffee shop, Lily dialed the number for Stella, the counselor at the high school and left a message. This shit was going to cease, now.

  When she hung up the phone, she heard applause, Granny and Hedda standing behind her, clapping nice and slow.

  “Oh, stop it, you two old biddies. You could have helped.”

  “You didn’t need us, Lily-girl.” Hedda beamed. “That was beautiful. We’re so proud.”

  Granny nodded. “Perfectly handled. See, Hedda?" Granny tapped Lily's head like it was a melon. "I told you, it’s in there, it’s just trapped.”

  Hedda’s lips twisted drolly, and Lily had to fight to not roll her eyes when Hedda spoke, “The key will show up. No worries. Now, come help me with my problem, hmm? I'm pretty sure it's trapped.”

  "You shouldn't play with things. Hedda. It's dangerous. I'm always telling Lily she needs to learn to deal with things. I'm not going to be around forever."

  "Yeah, because I'm a psychic powerhouse. Guys, that's what Mikey does."

  Hedda nodded like one of those dolls. "You wait. You'll find the right key and, boom, things will make sense."

  “The key? To my head? Come on, guys. Did you want to share a pizza with us, Aunt Hedda?” Lily had given that little girl the confidence to believe she might not be a victim and then called the school to make sure an adult intervened with the abuse. That wasn’t magick. That was just common sense.

  “Sometimes common sense and magick are the same things, Lily.”

  “Quit it, Granny.” Nonsense. She shut Granny’s book maybe a little too hard, and grabbed a weird little black mirror that Hedda had brought in to show Granny as it started to teeter on a little stand. She needed to run a Swiffer over the mirror, too.

  “Lily! Don’t—” Granny startled her so bad that she turned and banged her elbow on the shelf next to her. Her hand popped open, the mirror sliding toward the floor.

  She caught it between her knee and the wall, the edge cutting through her skirt, into her leg. “Damn it!”

  “Oh, hell.” Granny hopped up to come help her, and all hell broke loose. Granny’s ancient cat, Bruja, jumped across from the cash register to the long glass display case, using Granny as a springboard, before launching herself onto Hedda’s head. Granny flailed, and slipped, crashing into Hedda, and they both went down in a mess of limbs. Lily went to try to help Granny, and the mirror crashed to the floor and broke, catching the sunlight from the window and blinding her for half a second.

  She swayed, and it was like time stopped. It wasn’t real, she knew it, but it felt like she couldn’t move, and she swore she saw some weird, shiny film wrap
around Granny and Hedda, like a cloak, settling over them before disappearing. What a weird illusion.

  Then time started moving again, faster than before, and she reached for somebody’s hand.

  “No! You clumsy girl!” Granny pulled away from her, slapping her hands. “Clumsy worthless girl! Why do I even have you here?”

  She pulled away, the words stinging much more than the swat. “Hey! Let me help you up! Hedda, you okay?”

  “I…” Hedda swayed, hands over her face. “Lily.”

  She winced. “Man, I need to get you a towel. Is it bad?”

  “Of course it’s bad, you little bitch.” Granny’s voice snapped at her and she blinked, stumbling back, feet crunching on glass as Hedda gave Granny a horrified look.

  “Sorry. Sorry, Granny. Let me get Hedda a towel, and I’ll clean it up.”

  “Don’t bother. You’ll just end up unleashing some more trouble. You always have. Ever since you were little.” Granny was just snarling at her, eyes holding a crazy kind of glow.

  “What?” She wasn’t…she wasn’t clumsy. Accidents happ…”

  “You heard me. Everyone was so grateful when you were born normal, but I knew. All the goodness in this family went to your brother. You’re a menace.” Granny’s eyes were bright green and her hand shot out again, catching Lily right in the face, and this one hurt. Enough to make her eyes water. “Get out, you worthless little bitch. Get out and go away!”

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Lily blinked, her mascara making her eyes water. “You hit me!”

  “I’ll kill you, if you don’t get out of here. Do you hear me?”

  She shook her head. That wasn’t right. That wasn’t her granny. She didn’t know what it was, but she had to do something.

  Hedda shoved Granny over as the woman reached for her. “Lily. Girl, run.”