Looking for Mr. Good Witch

by Joyce

  I searched my brain for information about Irish mythology. “In the Mabinogion, they mention a sea god by the name of Manannan MacLir. But why would an Irish sea god live in the cemetery on Oak Island?”

  “They did say he was a lesser sea god,” Elsie quipped with a smile. “Maybe that was the best gig he could get.”

  CHAPTER 20

  A water witch I was born to be,

  A water witch I shall always be

  I dropped Elsie off at her home. It had been a very exciting day.

  Joe’s SUV was in the drive when I got to my house. I couldn’t wait to tell him about my amulet—even though it was still only a theory. What Georgia had said hit close enough to home to make me feel it was real.

  First I’d have to explain about Selkies, and the Bone Man. I hoped Joe was ready for that conversation.

  But it didn’t matter. Suzanne was there with him. They were going over aspects of the serial murder case they were working on as they finished a late lunch.

  I was disappointed. I’d looked forward to sharing these things with Joe, since he knew I was a witch. I couldn’t make an enchanted bubble with Suzanne there. Maybe it was safe without it, but I wasn’t secure with that yet.

  “Molly!” He called out as he got to his feet. “I’m glad you got home before I have to leave again. We have some new evidence on the killer. We’re hoping to follow up while the leads are still fresh.”

  “Good news,” I agreed with a smile that hid my disappointment at not finding him alone. “I have a meeting tonight. I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”

  I didn’t do as good a job hiding the way I felt as I’d thought. Joe followed me into the bedroom and closed the door behind us. “Let’s do this. You’ve got something to say, right?”

  “What about Suzanne?” I asked.

  “Is that what’s bothering you?” He put his arms around me. “It’s okay, Molly. Really. You don’t have to worry. This will be over soon and she’ll be gone.”

  “I’m not worried about Suzanne and you.” I searched my heart and realized it was true. She’d been gone a long time. I knew Joe didn’t have any feelings for her. Seeing her had produced a crazy jealous reaction on my part, but common sense had prevailed.

  “What, then?” he asked. “Is it that other thing?”

  “Yes.” I smiled and kissed him. “We can’t talk about it now. I’ll be fine. We’ll talk later. What about this new lead?”

  “Someone saw our suspect when the victim was killed in Southport. We’ve convinced him to come forward. He’s looking through mug shots right now. I think this is going to be our big break.”

  I hated to disappoint him. “The chances are good the killer isn’t in one of your mug books. He or she is a member of my club.” I emphasized the word “club” with my eyebrows. “You understand?”

  “I know, but even members of your club could be picked up from time to time by the police, right? We could get lucky.”

  “Maybe,” I finally agreed. This was what he knew. It was what he’d done for more than thirty years. I couldn’t expect him to understand right away. I hoped for the sake of the witness that the killer didn’t find out that he or she had been observed. It could mean another death, if that was the case. “Be careful with your witness. Members of my club can be dangerous.”

  “We’ll keep that in mind.” He kissed me. “I love you, Molly. I’ll see you later.”

  When Joe and Suzanne were gone, I took a quick shower, cleansing my body for the ritual to come. I dressed carefully in a blue gown that I liked to wear for spell casting. It was the color of the sea on a sunny day. The amulet around my neck seemed to like the color too. A thousand lights danced inside it.

  My hair was damp from the shower. I piled it on my head and secured it with a silver comb that had been a gift from my father. He hadn’t been a witch either, like Joe. I wondered if he’d understood what was going on. My mother had never told me that she’d taken my father into her confidence about being a witch, but it was possible.

  When I was done dressing, I looked around for as many pieces of my history as I could find. There was Great-Aunt Mary’s shell bracelet. She had several spells in the book. I had a beautiful coral necklace that had belonged to my great-grandmother. I brought my mother’s wedding band, which had a dolphin carved into the gold. I also found a blue scarf that had belonged to my Aunt Sylvia. I added my grandmother’s wristwatch to the blue velvet jewelry bag, and I was ready to go.

  I slipped my feet into sandals in case accomplishing the spell required taking my shoes off or getting my feet wet some other way. I looked at myself in the mirror and wondered again about Georgia’s story.

  If it hadn’t mimicked the dream I’d had, I might have ignored it. But I could feel its truth in my soul. I believed the first person to wear this amulet had been the auburn-haired woman who’d been the sea god’s lover. He must have passed the amulet to my early ancestor, whose name had been lost in time.

  If that had all happened on Oak Island—which would explain the abrupt loss of the early colony there four hundred years ago—that would mean the Bone Man had stayed there after the loss of his wife. I didn’t understand what would have kept him there, but it felt true to me.

  I had a few minutes to look up Manannan MacLir in my Welsh book of mythology. The book said he was the son of Lir and rode in a chariot that surfed the waves. He was always accompanied by dozens of white horses that swam through the water behind him.

  I looked up and tried to imagine the Bone Man being this sea god. What had happened to him? Maybe it was involved with him being trapped or for some other reason stuck on the island instead of returning to his native Ireland. Maybe it was some kind of karma for wiping out the colony.

  Looking closely at the amulet, I wondered if he’d loved my ancestor who’d first owned the amulet. It seemed a little secondhand to give it to someone else after she was dead. I decided to find that missing ancestor no one could recall.

  I put the book away and loaded everything into the car. It was still early, so I baked some brownies and got them ready to go. Elsie called and said that she was too excited to wait to go to Smuggler’s Arcane and was wondering if I was ready to go.

  I had a text from my son, who had run out of money—again. I added some to his bank account. Normally we would have had a discussion about it. I didn’t like him to use up everything he had before the end of the month. I understood that this was different—he’d had car problems. A car could break down out of the blue but it wasn’t a completely unexpected expense.

  The calendar was circled for his next visit home. I sighed, missing him like always, and then went on to Elsie’s house.

  “I wasn’t sure how much to bring,” she said as we hauled two boxes of her personal possessions out to the car. “I’m assuming we’ll need part of each thing to do the attraction spell. I didn’t want to bring anything that might be destroyed by the spell. I hope I have enough.”

  “I’m sure you do.” I closed the trunk and we got in the car. “Joe says he has a witness in the death that happened in Southport.”

  “I hope you told him to be careful. A witness like that could end up dead.”

  “Exactly what I told him. The witch is getting careless if she let herself be seen killing someone. Not that I’d wish this on anyone, but I wish she’d move on to the next town. Hopefully it will be one with a larger police force.”

  “Not that the size of the police force matters. They won’t catch a witch no matter what.”

  “I’m afraid you’re right.” We passed the empty docks. I thought about Georgia, back in her sealskin and swimming free in the river. The transformation from woman to seal had been amazing.

  “You’re thinking about the seal woman and her story again, aren’t you?” Elsie asked. “Me too. I’ve hardly thought of anything else since we heard it. Do y
ou still think it really happened, Molly?”

  “Yes. I can feel it. You must too. I’m sure it’s part of the amulet. It’s been very active since we heard the story.”

  “It’s affected you, the amulet. Your magic is better. You hardly ever make a mistake anymore. I’m worried that it really came from the Bone Man. No wonder he offered to help you use it. His magic probably created it. Does that bother you?”

  I steered the car down the empty street. “Not really. I didn’t bargain for it. It was a gift freely given, I assume. But no wonder the council wanted it. We may not understand the magic, but it’s powerful.”

  Elsie giggled when she saw Dorothy’s brown Beetle in the parking lot at Smuggler’s Arcane. “I guess we weren’t the only ones excited about tonight.”

  I parked next to the car and smiled. “I’m glad she’s been able to get into the excitement of creating a new spell book and looking for the old one. At least it’s something to take her mind off Brian.”

  Elsie and I grappled with our accumulated ancestors’ wares. When they were out of the trunk, I decided to test my amulet’s magic by moving everything into the shop. It was a good time to do it, since it was dark and all the other shops in the Cotton Exchange were closed.

  “Do you think you should?” she asked with a worried expression. “What if you try to move them with magic and they fly out all over town?”

  “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.” I closed my eyes and muttered the spell Dorothy had used yesterday to bring the books into the shop. I could feel the magic pumping through the amulet and into my spell.

  “It’s working!” Elsie clapped her hands. “Good show, Molly.”

  As if on cue, Dorothy opened the door to the shop. Elsie’s boxes flew in through the doorway, barely missing her head. I brought my jewelry bag in with me, very pleased that the spell had worked.

  “I hope we’re ready to get this spell going and find our book,” Elsie said as she strolled past Dorothy.

  “About that,” Dorothy said, twitching nervously. “I’m afraid something bad has happened, and I’m not sure what to do about it. I hope you can help.”

  I took her hand as I met her in the doorway. “What’s wrong?” I glanced at the empty space around her. She was holding Olivia’s staff. “Where’s Olivia?”

  “That’s it.” Tears were sliding down her cheeks. “Remember when we talked about putting her into Harper’s body? Well, I kind of did that. But now I can’t get her out.”

  CHAPTER 21

  Wisdom I seek,

  Bring it to me.

  Wisdom I take,

  So mote it be!

  “That sounds bad,” Elsie said. “Harper? Where are you, kitty? Or is that Olivia now? Here kitty-kitty.”

  Dorothy and I watched her try to locate Olivia’s Russian blue cat. He wasn’t very big, not like Barnabas or Isabelle. He also wasn’t very friendly, even when no one had put a spell on him. He was still grieving for Olivia. That didn’t help either.

  “Any ideas?” Dorothy asked.

  “Not right offhand,” I admitted. “Let’s find him first. Why did you try the spell alone?”

  “I don’t know. Moving the boxes went so well, I thought I could do this for my mother. You know she was uncomfortable at the celebration. If we could transform her when we needed to, it would be great, wouldn’t it?”

  “Transformation spells are extremely difficult,” I told her. “It’s very rare for a witch to manage one on her own. Glamour is one thing. Actually effecting a real transformation is another.”

  Dorothy started sobbing. “What if I can’t get her out of Harper? She might be stuck in him forever. I know she wouldn’t like being a cat for a hundred years. Wait! Could she live that long as a cat? What would happen when Harper dies?”

  “Here he is,” Elsie called out from the supply closet. “He looks exactly the same.”

  I put my hand on Dorothy’s shoulder. No point in going into how the change wouldn’t be long and Olivia wouldn’t remember being anything but a cat and would probably die for good when Harper passed. There was no reason to elaborate on how bad this could be. “Let’s see what we can do.”

  We took Harper into the cave. Dorothy moved the boxes as Elsie and I checked out Harper.

  “I’m looking in his eyes, but I don’t see Olivia,” Elsie whispered while Dorothy was busy. “Just Harper.”

  The cat agreed, and asked us not to get so personal.

  I stared into Harper’s blue eyes. With the proper concentration, it was possible to see elements of the soul that dwelled within the body. I concentrated as hard as I could, but I had to agree with Elsie. “There’s no sign of her in there.”

  Elsie sat down hard in her chair near the fire. “What are we going to do, Molly? We can’t get her out if she’s not in there.”

  “She’s not in Harper?” Dorothy asked. “Are you sure? I did the spell to transfer her energy into the cat. Shouldn’t she be there?”

  “As I said, transformation spells are tricky.” I tried to remain calm even though I was sick at the thought of losing Olivia again. It had been so tragic to lose her, only to have her reappear as a ghost. I knew she was tied to Dorothy with a strong wish to remain on earth to help her daughter. I’d been so happy to have my old friend back again in any shape.

  “What can we do?” Dorothy was a quivering wreck.

  “What spell did you use?” Elsie took out her sword.

  “I can get it for you. Mom and I came back and talked to Harper. He was happy to have her inside him. I found a spell upstairs in an old book. Mom looked at it and said it was a good one. I used it.”

  “Get it,” Elsie commanded.

  Dorothy scampered upstairs.

  “Good grief.” Elsie looked at her sword as she raised the fire under the cauldron. “Young magic can be as bad as old magic. I’m not sure there’s anything we can do.”

  We were silent again as Dorothy brought the book.

  “Here it is. Transform energy,” she read aloud. “Do you want me to read the whole thing?”

  “No!” Elsie and I both called out at the same time.

  “Let’s take a look at it without any more mishaps,” I said. “Sit down, Dorothy. Hold Harper. He doesn’t like it down here.”

  Elsie and I read the spell. It was an ordinary transformation spell. I noticed one important aspect of it at the bottom, in the fine print, and pointed it out to her.

  “‘Only transforms things to inanimate objects,’” Elsie read. “What?”

  “Inanimate?” Dorothy hugged Harper close to her. “You mean she could be in anything in the shop? How are we going to find her?”

  “It shouldn’t be that general.” I considered the possibilities. “The spell shouldn’t have fanned out into the whole room. You’re better than that. Otherwise you might have moved the cars into the shop with the boxes yesterday.”

  “I don’t feel better than that. I feel horrible. How could I do this?”

  “Feel bad later,” Elsie suggested. “The consequences of putting a living spirit into an inanimate object are even worse than putting that spirit into an animal. At least Olivia would have been a cat. Now she might be a box or a piece of wood with no consciousness at all.”

  I frowned at her description even though it was accurate. “Let’s think about this. Where were you when you did the spell?”

  “I was right here. Mom said it would be better in the cave.” Dorothy glanced around.

  “All right.” Elsie got up and started poking the sand and rocks that surrounded us. “Let me know if you hear anything.”

  I closed my eyes and held my amulet. At first all I felt was the rushing of water, millions of gallons of water. It reminded me of the night Joe had accidentally called me his little witch.

  Then, suddenly, it came to me. I opened my eyes an
d went to examine the beautiful amber stone on the collar that Harper wore. I’d been with Olivia when she’d bought it at a bazaar in Istanbul.

  “What about the stone?” I asked. “Olivia might be in the stone.”

  Dorothy yanked the collar from Harper’s neck, which resulted in him scratching her, yowling madly and running upstairs. “Sorry!”

  Harper didn’t care about her apology. He just wanted to be left alone.

  “Can you see her in the stone?” Dorothy asked.

  “A stone isn’t a living creature.” Elsie stopped poking things with her sword and came back to us near the fire. “Let’s try a spell to free her. Maybe there’s one in that book. I didn’t even know we had that book, did you, Molly?”

  “We have hundreds of old books that we haven’t touched in years.” I separated the stone from the velvet collar. “Take a look, Dorothy. See what’s in there.”

  There was no spell in the book that reversed or freed a spirit that had been transformed.

  “Of course.” Elsie sat down. “Isn’t that always the way? Were those brownies I smelled in the car, Molly?”

  “Let’s try to focus,” I suggested. “Maybe we could do something simple. It seems like I remember a small spell we learned when we were children. Maybe we could make that work.”

  I repeated the spell several times for Dorothy and Elsie. Then we repeated it together. I hoped that I remembered it correctly. I felt as though it might be our only shot to keep Olivia from being trapped in a rock forever.

  We stood around the fire that burned under the cauldron. The amber stone was in my hand. After we’d repeated the spell together and I could feel the magic flowing, I dropped the amber into the fire.

  I opened my eyes in time to see a flash of yellow light. Olivia’s ghost sprang from it, flying to the ceiling of the cave before she looked down on us.

  “That hurt. What were you girls thinking? You knew I was in there, and you threw it into the fire. Ghosts have feelings too.”