Witching Your Life Away: A Cozy Mystery (The Witchy Women of Coven Grove Book 5)

by Constance Barker

  The greenish, dirty aura had paused. Flashes of yellow and blue streaked through it here and there as whoever it was experienced doubt about what they were thinking and relief from the tumult of voices. Bailey kept at it, kept alleviating what she could, but she was growing tired. Whatever energy she was expending here had a limit.

  For just a moment, she lost her grip. Her sense of shape diffused, and she was a cloud again with no hands to grab with, and the shadows rushed back to their task. The aura bleached and paled, and then, very suddenly, rushed at the other.

  The brighter aura flashed red and yellow in fear, and then went tumbling down the staircase.

  The light didn’t go out, however. It began to move.

  And then there were others, pouring into the house. Four of them, all golden and flaring with intent. Two of them went to the fallen person, while the remaining pair rushed up the stairs.

  The shadows flared angrily, swirled several times, and then evaporated like smoke.

  Bailey sought out the connection with her body, and felt the tug in her belly as her astral presence flashed across the insubstantial town of Coven Grove, and then the sudden jerk of physical awareness as she landed, hard, in her body.

  Almost immediately, she passed out.

  Chapter 10

  Piper was pacing the living room, rocking William as he cried. On the couch, Riley was in time out after having kicked her in the shin. She’d come this close to spanking him, but her and Gavin had agreed that corporal punishment wasn’t the way they wanted to go. Up until now, though, Riley had never warranted it. It was a mystery what had gotten into him.

  Then again, maybe all parents went through this. She cast a glance his direction to check that he was still sitting quietly. He was, but he wasn’t happy about it and he shot her a petulant look before he turned away from her. It was even more difficult to discipline him so soon after the ordeal he’d been through a few weeks before; but that sort of thinking would spoil him eventually.

  And where was Gavin? Piper looked at the clock on the wall. He was almost fifteen minutes late. What did he think she did all day? How was she supposed to get dinner made on time if he couldn’t be bothered to get home on time? Maybe he didn’t realize they now had two children.

  “Hush, baby,” Piper sighed as William’s crying took on a more desperate tone. Riley hadn’t been the sort of infant who cried all the time. Until just recently, neither had William. She made soft hushing noises as she walked him back and forth around the room, almost absently.

  At twenty past, Gavin finally arrived. Riley left the couch immediately and ran to him, hugging him around the knees.

  “Riley,” Piper snapped, “you are still in time out.”

  “Is that so?” Gavin asked, looking down at his oldest son. “What did you do?”

  “Tell him,” Piper urged when Riley turned sheepish.

  “Mama wrong,” Riley said.

  “Riley,” Gavin said, sinking down to Riley’s level. “Why were you in timeout?”

  “Hit mama,” Riley muttered.

  Gavin whistled, and looked up at Piper. “Rough day?”

  “That doesn’t cover it,” Piper sighed. “Where were you? Why are you late?”

  Gavin rose slowly, eyebrows up. He glanced at the clock. “I hit some traffic,” he said. “There’s some kind of craziness going on up at the north side of town, they shut down an intersection and I got stuck going around. You okay, baby?”

  “I’d be more okay if you could get home on time,” Piper snapped. “I haven’t started dinner yet because you were late. You could have called. Plus William won’t stop crying, he’s been colicky all day.”

  “Alright,” Gavin said, both hands up, “I can see you’re stressed. Here, let me take this little guy…” he came close and Piper passed the baby to his father.

  Almost immediately, he calmed down.

  “Hey little guy,” Gavin crooned, smiling. “It’s okay, daddy’s here.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Piper asked.

  Gavin looked up at her, eyes a little wide. “Uh… it doesn’t mean anything, baby. Hey, are you feeling alright?”

  For some reason the words just hit her wrong. “You mean like am I on my period or something? Since I’m pulling my hair out raising our two children?”

  Gavin wisely didn’t answer. Instead, he rocked the baby a bit and glanced toward the kitchen. “How about… you let me make dinner, and just relax for a little bit. It’s been a long day, it sounds like. How’s that sound?”

  He was trying. Piper could see that. And as though some shadow had passed, she felt awful about snapping at him, especially in front of the children. She sighed, and sank onto the couch. “That sounds fine,” she said. Then she bit her lip, and staved off the tears that wanted to come. “I’m sorry, hon. I’m just… stressed doesn’t really cover it. I’m still sore from having a ten pound baby, I feel like I haven’t gotten more than two hours of sleep at a time, and… I just can’t stop thinking something terrible is going to happen. I’m jumping at shadows every time Riley zones out or doesn’t speak for more than ten minutes.”

  “I get that, Pipes,” Gavin said. “I do. I promise, this weekend I will be full time super dad. Just give it some time.”

  “I have given it time,” Piper groaned. “Gavin, I want to leave.”

  “This again,” Gavin sighed.

  “Yes, again,” Piper told him. “Riley almost… look, whatever happened to him, it could happen again. Or something worse.”

  “Baby, the doctors assured us, it was just an anomaly, a mass hypnosis kind of thing, probably something the kids all saw on TV—”

  “It was not a mass hypnosis event,” Piper said, spitting each word. She wanted to tell him, but at this point he’d just think she was losing her mind. Maybe she was. She adjusted the bracelet on her wrist when it felt like it pinched her. “I… I don’t know what it was but… it’s this town, Gavin. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  “Okay,” Gavin said softly, and settled onto the couch nearby. Riley, having apparently escaped his prison sentence, made like a quiet bandit to his room to avoid both his arguing parents and probably being remembered.

  Piper let him go; he probably hadn’t learned his lesson, but he’d at least served his time.

  “Listen, baby,” Gavin said, “maybe… maybe we can look around, okay? But I can’t just leave this job. I was lucky to get it, you know that. Until I’ve been there for another two or three years, the experience isn’t going to net me anything better; not without a degree.”

  “Well maybe you shouldn’t have knocked me up, then,” Piper sighed. She regretted it immediately, and looked up to see the hard edge of hurt in Gavin’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”

  “It’s okay,” Gavin muttered. He didn’t sound like it was okay, but he at least was willing to say the words.

  “You could do something else,” Piper said. She was trying to sound encouraging.

  “What?” Gavin asked, frowning. “No, Piper… look, I’m on track to get my certification as an architect in just a couple of years. I’ve put a lot of work into this, I can’t just switch careers. We have kids to think about, baby.”

  “Do you even really want to be an architect?” Piper pressed. “When we were in school you wanted to be a writer. And then an engineer, and then a police officer. You’re going to tell me now you’re suddenly looking forward to being an architect?”

  Gavin eyed her. “Not suddenly, Pipes,” he said. “We’ve talked about this before, and you were on board. What’s up? What’s changed?”

  “What’s changed is I want to move out of Coven Grove and I feel like I’m trapped here,” Piper snapped. “Like I can’t get away, like this town is… holding onto us and it’s going to take everything from us, and… and…” She couldn’t keep going. A sob wracked her, and her throat tightened too much to let any words pass. She put her face in her hands and cried.

&nbs
p; “Jesus,” Gavin said, “Piper I… baby, I didn’t know you felt like this. Why haven’t you told me this before?”

  “I have been saying it for weeks,” Piper managed. “You just haven’t been listening to me, Gavin.”

  “Okay,” her husband said slowly, “well, baby, I’m listening now. Okay? I hear you. I can… let me talk to my boss and maybe… I mean he might be able to get me into another firm somewhere else. Near your brother, maybe? It’d be good to have family nearby, right?”

  Piper nodded, but she could tell he was just assuaging her in the moment, saying what she wanted to hear. It wasn’t like him to do that. Had he changed? She glanced at him, and tried to look for some sign of guilt or subterfuge in his face. Did his eyes shift around just a little bit? Did he have a hard time looking at her? These and other questions whispered at her from the back of her mind until she had to look away from him.

  “Why don’t you go lay down?” Gavin suggested. “Let me make dinner. I’ll get Riley a bath later. Did you pump today?”

  Piper nodded.

  “Okay,” Gavin said. “Then you just… try to relax. I’m here, Pipes. Okay?”

  She nodded, and let him kiss her on the cheek, and then the forehead, and finally on the lips. After that, she left without a word and went to lay down on their bed like he’d suggested, her fingers finding the bracelet and tracing the shapes of the little charms on it. What was wrong with her? Or, what was wrong with Gavin? Did he even care what she was going through? Had he ever? She was pretty, she knew that. Was that the only reason he’d married her?

  Try as she might to banish them, the questions kept bubbling back up, until she shivered against a sudden cold, tugged the blanket over her, and turned the lamp off. Sleep. She needed to sleep. She’d feel better after a nap.

  And when she woke up, maybe she’d understand why Gavin seemed to insist on hurting her all the time.

  Chapter 11

  Bailey woke, barely, in her own bed at home. Her head was pounding softly, and her limbs felt heavy. If the memories hadn’t come rushing back to her about what she’d seen before she passed out, she would have turned over and gone back to sleep.

  Instead she rose, changed her clothes—she’d been sleeping in what she was wearing at the bakery—and walked downstairs to find Ryan and Chloe both deep in conversation.

  “They barely got there in time,” Chloe was saying. “If Frances hadn’t called the Sheriff’s department, she would have killed Nancy.”

  “That’s at least some good news,” Ryan said. “And Bailey? She’ll be okay?”

  “I suspect she will,” Chloe said gently, “but I can’t be sure what happened. Aria lost contact with her. It’s not usual, though. Her body needed sleep, even if her mind didn’t. When she finally came back to it, she had to catch up. She isn’t feverish, or too cold. I think she’s just exhausted.”

  “I suppose I would be as well,” Ryan said.

  “What happened?” Bailey asked as she left the stairs to join them in the kitchen.

  “You’re awake!” Ryan said, and rushed to her, folding her up in his arms. “I was so worried.”

  Bailey hugged him back tightly.

  “I was hoping to ask you that question,” Chloe said when Ryan let Bailey go. Chloe hugged her as well, and then held her at arm’s length and peered at her eyes, touched her forehead and cheek, and then sent a questing psychic touch over the surface of Bailey’s mind. Concern mixed with relief flowed across the contact.

  “I’m okay,” Bailey assured her.

  Ryan brought her a cup of coffee while Chloe opened a small box and passed Bailey a bran muffin that had a hint of pumpkin in it when she took a bite.

  “How long was I out?” Bailey asked between bites. She was ravenously hungry, she realized, the moment the muffin touched her lips.

  “Six hours,” Chloe said. “It happened a little past midnight.”

  “Chloe brought you home,” Ryan explained. “We stayed up.”

  That didn’t seem very long, Bailey thought, and didn’t feel like it either. Still, with some food and caffeine she hoped that would pass. “I heard you mention Nancy? Nancy who?”

  “You don’t know?” Ryan asked. “I thought you were there, that you saw something.”

  Bailey attempted and failed to properly describe the experience, at least to Ryan. Chloe understood more readily, and translated for her. “People you don’t know very well are difficult to identify in the astral planes,” she told Bailey’s father. “The body isn’t there, just the aura. Part of it, at any rate.”

  “I see,” he said. “Well… you must have found yourself at Candi Price and Nancy Partain’s house. Candi very nearly killed Nancy.”

  “Aria got a line on where you were,” Chloe said, “and came back to give us the address. She recognized the house. Frances called the Sheriff, and they got there just as Candi was coming down the stairs to finish the job.”

  “She pushed Nancy down the stairs,” Bailey said. She took a deep breath, processing details more clearly now that she was starting to wake up more. “It wasn’t her fault, though. I don’t think she knew what she was doing. Those shadows, they… sort of clustered up.” She went through it with Chloe, explaining everything she’d seen while her mother listened with an intent, distant look in her eyes.

  “And then I saw the deputies arriving, I guess,” Bailey finished, “and I couldn’t hold myself together. And then… I woke up here.”

  “We tried to wake you up at the bakery,” Chloe said, “but Aria told us to let you rest. She said your astral body was thin; insubstantial. It must have been from fighting with the shadows.”

  “Do you have any idea what they are?” Bailey asked. “I’ve seen them before. But this time was different. They were more solid, somehow, and I could sort of hear them.”

  “We’ve been trying to determine that,” Chloe said. “Frances and Aria are still working on it back at the bakery.”

  “And Candi?” Bailey asked, looking to Ryan. “She was arrested, right? Has anyone talked to her?”

  “I wasn’t able to find anything out on the phone,” Ryan told her.

  “We need to talk with her,” Bailey said. “As soon as possible.” She remembered the ballet slippers, a detail she’d left out of her account. “There was something about the slippers. I could see them, clear as day.”

  Chloe pursed her lips, thoughtful, and drummed her fingers on the counter. “It’s possible,” she said, “if they have some sort of enchantment on them. It would have to be very old, and worked into whatever they’re made of. If it’s deep enough, though… the shape of them could show up over there.”

  “We have to find out where she got them,” Bailey said, “and when. And what she was thinking; what her plan was. The first two murders took place at the Caves. This one almost took place at their house. So, either this incident isn’t connected to the other two—which I don’t think is the case—or we’re thinking about the place they happen wrong. Maybe it really was a coincidence the first two happened at the caves. It seems unlikely, but…”

  “I can take Ryan to the Sheriff’s department,” Chloe said. “You should get some rest.”

  “No,” Bailey said. “I saw the whole thing. I might better understand what she has to say. And I’m not really sure what to ask her… it’s hard to put into words. But if I can go, and see what’s going on in her thoughts, maybe even feel what happened from her perspective, I may be able to make more sense of it all.”

  “I can feel that you’re still drained,” Chloe told her. “If you don’t give yourself time to recover, how do you intend to act on whatever you find out?”

  Bailey sighed, and popped the last of the muffin into her mouth. After she swallowed she ran her fingers through her hair and realized it was messy from having slept. “I’ll figure it out,” she said. “It’ll be alright. I’ll be alright.” She stood from the kitchen stool. “After I take a shower, anyway.”

  Ultimately, Chloe
relented, and drove Ryan and Bailey both to the Sheriff’s department. At Bailey’s insistence, she waited in the car when they arrived. “It’ll be hard enough to get them to let us see Candi,” she reasoned. “The more people there are, the more resistant the Sheriff will be.”

  Chloe at least understood the limits of their shared ability, and conceded that it was potentially true. If Sheriff Larson did resist the compulsion, he’d be less vulnerable to it the next time. Better to keep the conditions the same each time they tried it.

  For the second time, Darla Simmons was agog as Sheriff Larson agreed to let them speak with Candi, and this time stared at Bailey until she and Ryan were around the corner and out of her sight. Bailey had to wonder at what point Darla might start raising questions. But that was a problem that hadn’t presented itself yet—whereas there were plenty that already had. Best to deal with the disasters of the moment.

  Candi had bags under her eyes and rather than staring helplessly into some inner abyss like Delbert and Michael had, she was pacing her cell when Ryan and Bailey were taken to her. She looked up at first hopefully, but when she saw her visitors her expression fell again. “Oh,” she said. “I thought… who are you?”

  “Ryan Robinson, Miss Price,” Ryan said. “This is my daughter and… intern, Bailey.”

  “Ryan Robinson,” Candi repeated. “The journalist. I see. You’re here to interview me for the paper.”

  The guard had returned to his post at the far end of the hall. Bailey lowered her voice and turned her back to him. “Actually, Miss Price,” she said carefully, “I have reason to believe that what happened wasn’t actually your fault.”

  Candi blinked. Her eyes teared up. “You do? Oh, God… I thought I was crazy. I thought… wait, why? What happened to me?”