Haunted Hex (Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 10)

by Sara Bourgeois

  “I brought breakfast,” she chirped.

  “You don’t bake,” I said and stepped back from the threshold so she could come inside.

  “I wanted to learn,” she said. “Never too old to learn new things, dear.”

  “Thorn, Lilith’s here. She brought breakfast, and they smell divine,” I called out.

  He’d slept in and was just getting out of bed. I’d had Laney up for a couple of hours, and we’d even taken a walk down the street and back. I just wanted to be up and out of the house until Lilith got there. I’d slept on the sofa after spending most of the night in the kitchen. While I’d only had a few hours of sleep, I was energized by the task before me. Or I was terrified. Either worked.

  “Oh, those smell incredible,” Thorn said as he descended the stairs with a massive smirk on his face. “I’m starving.”

  That might have had something to do with the hunger dust I’d sprinkled in his bathroom cup that morning. The only time I’d gone upstairs was to sneak into our bathroom while he slept and put the powder in the bottom of the cup. It ensured that he’d ingest it when he brushed his teeth that morning. I wanted to take no chances that Thorn would skip the muffins.

  “I made coffee,” I said. “Let me pour you a cup. Lilith, would you like some as well?”

  “I would, dear. Thank you,” Lilith replied.

  We made our way into the kitchen. Laney slept in the bassinette in the living room with Meri snuggled against her. He hadn’t left her side since we’d returned home the day before.

  Lilith put the basket of muffins in the center of the kitchen table and took a seat. Thorn plopped down too and took a muffin.

  “Would you like a plate?” I asked as he began to peel the paper away from the muffin and get crumbs all over the table and floor.

  “No need,” he said.

  I poured his cup of coffee and set it in front of him. The sooner he ate the muffin, the better. He took his first bite while I got Lilith and myself coffee.

  Nothing happened.

  He downed half of his coffee in one gulp and took two more large bites of the muffin. “You two going to have any?” He asked with his mouth full. More crumbs fell on the table.

  I stayed at the kitchen counter and retrieved the mason jar I’d stashed in one of the cabinets. “I’ll be there in just a moment,” I said. “I want to go check on Laney real quick.”

  “That baby will be just fine. Why don’t you come eat with us?” Thorn said with a mouth still full of muffin.

  That was the moment his face changed. All the color drained out, and he dropped the muffin on the table where it rolled off onto the floor. Lilith scooped it up and threw it in the trash.

  “You feeling okay, sweetie?” I asked as I unscrewed the lid from the mason jar. I hadn’t left the room to check on Laney. It had only been an excuse to keep him eating. Not that he’d needed one.

  The pungent smell from the black potion inside made me wince. I swirled it gently, so the foul brew coated the inside of the bottom of the jar. Who knew if it needed to be spread out like that, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I’d made the concoction the night before while Thorn and Laney slept. Meri had wanted to help, but he was afraid to leave Laney’s side.

  I wanted to pull her bassinette into the kitchen with me while I worked on the potion, but on the chance that Thorn woke up, everything had to look normal. It had to appear that I didn’t know. Lilith had said that was the best way.

  How anyone could have not known that man wasn’t Thorn is the real mystery. I knew as soon as we walked into the house after the showdown with Zane. “Get me a beer, babe,” he’d demanded. Something about it just made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I felt stupid for not realizing it back at Samara’s house. But at that time, tensions were high, others were around, and we didn’t have much interaction.

  The dead giveaway was that he hadn’t held or so much as looked at Laney. So, I’d quietly enlisted Lilith to help me pull that thing out of my husband.

  I hadn’t wanted to ask my parents for assistance because they would have shown up with the entire Coven and surrounded the house. The matter required a more subtle approach, and Lilith was always willing to keep a secret… and yank souls from bodies.

  So, that’s what we were doing.

  “Chocolate chips,” Thorn barely spat out as he watched Lilith throw the rest of the muffin in the garbage.

  “Yep,” I said and stepped closer to him with the jar. “The cookie recipe was easy enough to modify. So easy, even an inexperienced baker could do it. We just said they were oatmeal raisin because you might have suspected if I’d come out and said we made you chocolate chip muffins. Couldn’t take that chance.”

  “You can’t do this,” he whispered.

  “Oh, but I can,” I said. “We can. You said yourself that dark magic still worked. I hate to tell you but ripping souls out of bodies and storing them in jars is… pretty dark.”

  “You can’t do this,” he said again. “You can’t put me in a jar.”

  “I can, and I will,” I said. “Unless you tell me what’s in those little black spell bags. If you tell me how to make them, we’ll consider it a fair bargain. I’ll let you go.”

  “You’re making a witch’s bargain?” He asked, but I saw his eyes light up.

  “I am,” I said. “Tell me how to make the bags, and I won’t put you in this jar.”

  He rattled off a list of common ingredients. It was stuff like belladonna and bark from a hangman’s tree. Things that were readily available in Coventry.

  “You see,” he said when he finished the ingredients, “It’s not really about the bags. It’s about getting under your skin. I was priming you with anxiety.”

  “I know that,” I said with a snort. “I’m not stupid. I opened the bag and looked inside. What I didn’t know was what they were for, but we cleared all of that up yesterday.”

  “Then why did you ask? You have to let me go now,” he demanded, but his face betrayed his concern.

  “That’s true. I have to let you go,” I said. “But the reason I asked was to give my Auntie Lilith time to finish casting a circle. See, she doesn’t have to let you go.”

  Lilith walked over to me, and I handed her the jar.

  “I’ll go into the child,” he hissed. “You wouldn’t dare risk this kind of magic with her.”

  “Do you really think I would bring my child into dangerous situations unprotected?” I asked. “Sure, it makes me nervous when you and your… friend kept talking about her like she’s a side of beef at the market, but you can’t harm her. Not really. Laney is wearing a witch’s bone amulet,” I said, and Zane… Thorn’s face fell. “My father procured it for her when all of this began, and apparently, if you even try to possess her, you’ll be destroyed. It’s powerful enough to protect her from many forms of magic and good old human violence too. And, since it’s technically necromancy and made with the bone of a dead witch, it still works too.”

  “It’s always good to know a few witches who are familiar with the dark arts,” Lilith said.

  “It is indeed,” I agreed.

  “Now, let’s put him in the jar. I really am hungry,” Lilith said. “That’s my third batch of those muffins. I didn’t have time for breakfast.”

  “Alright, what do I do?” I asked.

  “Spit in the jar,” Lilith said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You and Deputy Do-right have a baby together. You are of one flesh. So, spit in the jar. Unless you want to pee in it. That would work too,” Lilith said with a chuckle.

  “I think… I’m just going to spit in it. We can discuss some of this magic you know later,” I said.

  “That magic is saving your boring husband, and don’t you forget it,” Lilith said.

  It had protected my daughter too. So, I spit in the jar.

  A second later, the magic in the jar sucked that inky blackness out of Thorn. Zane, the dark smokey presence, funneled into the ja
r, and it had ripped every drop from Thorn’s body. Lilith put the lid on.

  “Let me see that,” I said. “I want to make sure that lid is on good and tight.”

  “You can’t,” Lilith said. “You made the bargain, remember?”

  “I’m not the one putting him in the jar. Hey, wait a minute. How am I not the one who put him in the jar? I spit in it, and that activated the magic?”

  “I was holding it, and I gave you the instructions. You were simply adding an ingredient. It’s all very technical and archaic. You’re right. I’m sure it’s fine,” she said and handed me the jar.

  “As long as he doesn’t get out,” I said.

  “He won’t,” Lilith said.

  After I made sure the lid was tight, we sealed the jar with wax and a dark sigil. Black magic could bind the dead too, and while I felt strange using so much of it in my house, I’d done what I had to do.

  I put it on the fireplace mantle next to another jar. I’d started quite the collection. Then, it was time for breakfast.

  Thorn, who’d been sitting in a kitchen chair staring out the window while we sealed the jar, started to come around.

  “Kinsley,” he called out to me like someone lost in a fog. He technically had been but in his body. I could only hope that it had been like sleeping while Zane was inside of him. I wished for him that he wouldn’t remember any of it.

  By then, Lilith and I were back in the kitchen. I made another pot of coffee, and she was busy getting a bottle ready for when Laney woke.

  “I’m over here, dear. Making some coffee,” I said. “Would you like a cup?”

  “Sure,” he said. “What happened?”

  “Coffee first,” I said. “I promise I’ll tell you all about it.”

  “These muffins smell delicious; can I have one?” Thorn asked.

  I looked over at Lilith, and she responded. “Sure, why not. As long as you don’t have any extra souls rattling around in your body, they’re just chocolate chip oatmeal muffins. Do you like cinnamon?”

  “Love it,” Thorn said and rubbed the back of his neck. He still looked confused but reached out for a muffin. “What do you mean as long as I don’t have any other souls rattling around in my body? Somebody, please tell me what happened. How did we get home?”

  “Go ahead then,” I said. “They smell delicious. I think I’ll have one too, and then Lilith and I will explain everything.”

  “Bacon for me!” Meri announced as he sashayed into the kitchen.

  “Is he getting bigger?” Lilith asked. “He really looks like he’s getting bigger.”

  Thank you for reading!

  Grab the next book in the Familiar Kitten Mysteries: Black Arts & Bones

  Sign up for my newsletter to get information on new releases and promotions.

  Follow me on Bookbub!

  Follow me on Facebook!

  © Sara Bourgeois 2021

  This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons alive or dead is a coincidence.