Christmas and Curses

by Amanda A. Allen

  The one they’d made in Spokane when they burnt her ex’s stuff didn’t count. That one was just…natural consequences of being a cheating jerk.

  Scarlett’s lips twitched and she walked to the front of the car. Harper had a favorite lighter that she kept in her pocket, but she kept a spare in her glove compartment.

  “What are the chances of Harper burning my house down?” Lex asked conversationally as he lit the first torch Scarlett made, while she made a second.

  “I’d give you a fifty-fifty chance unless you break my heart,” Scarlett said. “Then you should probably get extra good fire insurance.”

  Scarlett lit her torch off of Lex’s and then almost jumped down into the creek. Rational thought hit her. It was dang cold outside, and this was pretty stupid to do without waders. The least she could do is strip off of her coat, and hoodie, so she’d have something warm to put on after she got out of the water. She took off her shoes, took off her socks and put her shoes back on. She had Lex tuck her socks into her shirt to keep them warm, handed him her phone, and took a deep breath.

  “I don’t like this,” Lex said.

  “It’ll be fine,” she replied, knowing she was going to regret it the second her feet hit that water. She was thankfully wearing mom leggings, so she just dragged them up to her knee hoping she could keep them dry. In and out, she told herself. In and out, fast, fast. It’ll be fine.

  She didn’t believe it for a second, but she jumped into the creek despite her better intentions.

  The first shock of cold stole her breath. Her legs were being jabbed with a thousand needles of coldness and she only noticed after she was wet how the edges of the stream were flirting with freezing over. Chunks of ice were floating in the water.

  ‘Don’t look at them,’ she told herself, trying to hide how her teeth were chattering already.

  Count your blessings, she thought, if it were frozen over, Petra probably would have flushed the evidence.

  “Scarlett?” Lex sounded worried. “Come out. We’ll get waders and go in smarter.”

  Scarlett bit back the whimpers and tried to look brightly at Lex. “Stay there, I’ll be back in a flash.”

  Chapter 12

  The culvert wasn’t too scary when you were standing on the creek bed. It was a lot more alarming when you were bending over to keep from giving yourself a concussion and holding up a homemade torch. She took a deep breath and pretended she wasn’t a little bit freaked out. This was Maine—she wasn’t going to find a crocodile or piranhas. And sure, the knowing led her here. Normally that would have provided comfort, but the knowing had led her to a dead body just that morning, so it was on her list.

  “Be careful,” Lex said. He straddled the creek and cursed as he saw her teeth chattering. Her eyes were probably wide and freaked out, so she turned away from him, but his curse followed her into the darkness. “Hurry up. You’re going to get so sick.”

  “Nah,” she said through her teeth. “M-m-mmmayb-bb-e, I’ll get one of those witch brews that help you not get sick.”

  She listened to his voice as the torch threw terrifying shadows on the side of the culvert and in the water. She gasped at the murky scent, knowing it wasn’t something dead but somehow still certain.

  “St-st-stop it,” she told herself. “Ya-ya-ya-ya w-w-wuss.”

  “What did you say?” Lex asked. “Just come back.”

  Scarlett closed her eyes tight, trying and failing for a bright voice as she said, “Oh n-n-n-nothing.”

  Her gaze was caught by a doll, but it was an old child’s toy. She could almost feel the haunting flavor the child’s sorrow at losing the thing. It was better left here. She tried and failed for the knowing. The spookiness of the inside of the culvert, the cold, and the anger she felt about even being here was making it difficult for her to find her magic.

  Puffy cloud thoughts, she thought. She closed her eyes and tried for nature thoughts, but they weren’t working. She promised herself that she’d go home after this, curl up with Lex and cocoa, and get warmed through, and the thought of Lex holding her tight helped her to find the magic. There was almost a string that led from her soul to the voodoo doll, and she walked right to it.

  She should have paid more attention because she slipped and landed on her butt in water. The torch landed with her and the light snuffed out. Lex shouted and started for her, and she said, “No, stop. I’m fine.”

  She pushed onto her knees and decided to just crawl forward.

  “Scarlett come back,” Lex shouted. “Get out of the water like that.”

  “I got this.” She shouted her lie and pushed forward. “Just hold your torch higher.”

  Her fingers were going numb, and she crawled over a glass bottle. It cut into her skin, and she gasped.

  “Come back!”

  “No,” she said, never wanting to go in here again and refusing to let someone repeat the trip. She pushed through the darkness until her magic more than her physical senses found the voodoo doll. She touched it, and it burned her hand. She yelped and then pulled out her t-shirt to make a basket for the doll. The hate that came from it was overwhelming but getting away from it gave her the strength to push through the numbness and towards the light.

  He pulled her from the culvert the moment she was close enough and took the voodoo doll from her throwing it on the bank of the creek. He stepped up out of the water, pulling her leggings and tee off in seconds. She was in her underwear on the bank of the creek, shivering and bleeding as Lex cursed and rubbed her dry.

  He put his own shirt on her, followed by her things and then lifted her shivering body. Carrying her to the car, pressed against his bare chest. She wished she wasn’t as cold as she was—this was one of those romance novel moments that few people got to enjoy in real life. But she was freezing, they’d left the car running and the heat on full blast. He put her inside, moving the seat as close as possible to where the hot air was a blowing. She almost cried as she felt it hit her skin.

  “You’re bleeding badly,” he said, lifting her leg. He was examining where the bottle had cut in her the cold water.

  Scarlett didn’t want to examine it too closely, it was too easy to imagine some horrible growing in there.

  “We need to go to the clinic and get you stitches.”

  “No,” she said, instantly, shaking her head.”

  “Scarlett…” He wanted to insist, but she was so cold, she couldn’t hold back the tears, so she decided to use them to her advantage.

  “I want my mom and a bath.” A slow tear tipped down, over her face.

  “The clinic,” he said. There was almost as much begging in his tone as there was in hers.

  “Won’t give me a bath. P-p-please.” She let another tear fall and then added, “I need a bath. Please.”

  He scowled. Leaving her long enough to grab one of Harper’s rags from the back of the car and hold it pressed against her leg.

  “I’ll be ok,” she said, cupping his cheek with her popsicle fingers. “I promise. It’s not that bad.”

  Considering she hadn’t looked at it, she hoped she wasn’t lying too badly. It was burning pretty bad even with her numbed legs.

  “Hold this here,” he ordered as he pressed the rag against the bleeding. “Hard.”

  She nodded, doing her best to hold it tightly against her shin.

  “Are you ok?” He asked, hesitating as he looked down at her.

  “Sure,” she lied. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  And get moving, she thought. She needed that bath as soon as possible, or she was going to be making a liar of herself, and he’d remind her whenever she wanted to do something slightly stupid. He kissed her forehead and ran for her wet clothes, their phones, and the voodoo doll.

  Lex drove as fast and crazy as Harper back to the apartment, talking to her mom the whole way. The voodoo doll was on the floor in the back of the car, and her mom was getting a bath ready, tea made, and bandages good to go.

 
When he squealed to a stop outside of the bakery, the door was held open by Gram. Lex scooped Scarlett up and carried her inside. She shivered against his chest and wished that she didn’t feel quite so crappy from cold water.

  “Got it,” Scarlett called to Gram. “It’s in the back of the car.”

  Lex didn’t wait to see if Gram took care of the voodoo doll. He carried Scarlett up the stairs, into the apartment, and straight to her bathroom.

  The water was steaming and stung when he put her in it, but she gritted her teeth through it. Scarlett sighed as it burned through her skin and returned feeling to extremities she wasn’t sure she’d feel again.

  Ella and Luna were at the door of the bathroom watching with wide concerned eyes.

  “Mommy?” Luna asked. “Did you go swimming?”

  Scarlett laughed through her chattering teeth and shook her head no.

  “You have clothes on in the bath,” Ella said.

  Harper walked into the bathroom with a steaming cup and said, “It’s one of Tessa’s concoctions. She said if you drink several mugs tonight and several over the coming days, you should ward off the illness you deserve.”

  Scarlett took the mug in her hands and Harper said, “Get out stinkers.”

  “Is mommy ok?” Ella asked. She was worried and Scarlett tried to call out that she was fine, but her teeth were chattering too much.

  “She’s just cold,” Harper said. “No big deal.”

  Scarlett closed her eyes as the door closed and sank deeper into the water. Barely keeping her cup of tea above water.

  “Give me your leg,” Lex said. He’d taken the first-aid stuff that someone had left on the bathroom counter and she slid it out of the water.

  He disinfected it with witch salve, taped it with witch tape, and after a few minutes, she could slide it back into the water. Her teeth had stopped chattering, but Lex let out enough water to fill it with even hotter water and said, “We shouldn’t have done that.”

  “But we have the voodoo doll now,” Scarlett replied. She had sunk down so low that her face was barely out of the water.

  “Drink the tea,” he said. “It doesn’t work if you don’t drink it quickly.”

  She sat up enough to down the tea and guzzled down the hot drink. As soon as she was done, he called for another mug and said, “I let you railroad me into doing what you wanted.”

  Scarlett laughed and said, “I’m fine. And I’m an adult. You don’t get to choose for me.”

  He took her chin in his hand and kissed her. “I know.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said soothingly. Her teeth weren’t chattering anymore and she could feel all her limbs.

  “If you’re ok…I doubt your Gram is waiting for me to help to dismantle that voodoo doll.”

  “I’m fine,” Scarlett replied. “And Gram is definitely not waiting for your help with druid magic.”

  She rolled her eyes at him, but he ignored it to ask, “Stay in there until you’re hot?”

  She nodded. After he left, she drank the next mug of tea, chucked off the wet clothes, and washed herself several times to ensure she’d gotten all of the grime of the culvert off. Note to self, she thought, never do that again.

  Chapter 13

  Scarlett appeared in her own living room where Gram, Henna, the druid circle leader Eleanor, and Mom were standing around a voodoo doll. Lex was at the head of the circle, but the others wouldn’t let him help.

  As Scarlett watched, he reached forward and Henna smacked his hand.

  “It’s a druid creation,” Mom said.

  “It’s a voodoo doll,” Lex countered.

  “Made by druids, idiot,” Gram snapped. “Back off or we won’t let you play at all.”

  Scarlett peeked in at her daughters. They were playing Candy Land with Quinton who didn’t seem to mind the inanity of the game at all. They were all laughing as Quinton ended back at start. She didn’t say anything as she stepped back into the kitchen and poured herself another cup of tea. Her head was a bit fuzzy, but the tea was helping.

  Lex had noticed Scarlett and left the druids who weren’t letting him help to wrap her up.

  “Where’s Gus?”

  “The voodoo doll makes him sick, so he and Harper went over to her apartment to call for food. No one wants to cook and Harper is craving pizza and ice cream.”

  “Pizza maybe,” Scarlett said, shivering at the idea of ice cream.

  Lex wrapped his hands around her mug and nudged it to her face until she drank several more mouthfuls.

  “How’s your leg?”

  “Good as new,” she lied. The witch stuff must be doing its job because it was stinging hard. She assumed because it had something to…work against.

  “You’re a terrible liar,” he told her.

  He turned then, so he could see Gram and the others. Eleanor had decided to open the windows to the apartment and the door to the balcony. The wind had been invited in, but it was leaving Scarlett be.

  The east wind ruffled the hair of Eleanor and Lex but left Scarlett, Gram, and Maye alone. Scarlett laid her head against Lex’s chest and let him keep her warm.

  “Did Briët get Amelie?”

  “Yes,” Lex said. “She’s excited to spend the night with Rebel and Phoebe.”

  “Mmm,” Scarlett breathed in the scent of him, a little awed that he’d come into her life. Even when she was furious with him like she’d been earlier that day that he was in her life gave her joy.

  “You’re really ok?”

  She nodded and smiled and this time she wasn’t lying. She thought she’d probably catch a cold given the way her head was still fuzzy after three cups of the witch tea, but that was a small price to pay if Gus were free again.

  Gram snarled something to Eleanor and then Mom snapped at Gram and the darkness from the voodoo rose in the apartment. The east wind did what it could, but the magic was a powerful thing.

  Scarlett crossed to her cupboard and grabbed a couple of peace candles. She lit them and hoped the witch magic embedded in them would take the edge off. As she and Lex watched, the east wind lifted the voodoo doll between the druids. Henna reached out with a small knife and cut the string that had been tied around the neck of the voodoo doll.

  Mom’s knife plucked apart several stitches that were holding the side together and the doll fell to pieces. As it did, there was the sound of a pop, and the east wind rushed through the apartment carrying the dark magic out. All that was left were pieces of a dark spell.

  Gram reached through the mess that had landed on the table and found something that she threw in the fire.

  “Was that what linked Gus?” Scarlett asked.

  Gram nodded.

  “So he’s safe now?”

  Gram considered and then said, “He should be.”

  I crossed to the remnants of the voodoo doll. The darkness was gone from the apartment and it was nothing more than so much rubbish. I ran my fingers over it and asked Eleanor, “Who can do this? In the circle?”

  She made a face and considered. Her dark brown eyes squinted and her lips pursed. She wasn’t as old as Gram, but Eleanor still held the match in power and stateliness. If there were druid princesses, Eleanor would be one. Gram, however, would be one of those shady politicians who manipulate and try to control people. It didn’t mean Scarlett loved Gram any less, but Scarlett was pretty aware of Gram’s faults.

  “Betty could. Petra too?”

  “Mmm,” Eleanor nodded. “Really…I would have hesitated on Betty. She’s pretty delicate and after that flu—”

  “The flu?” Scarlett asked.

  “Betty was pretty sick when Herbert died,” Eleanor said. “She was trying to keep away from him to protect him from the flu. But…he passed.”

  “Oh my stars,” Scarlett said. She hooked her fingers into Lex’s arm, to hold him closer. She couldn’t even imagine losing her love while she was ill.”

  “It’s recent, of course, but Betty…even before she got sick,
she was saying that the nurse wasn’t taking good care of Herbert.”

  Scarlett could guess where this story was going, and it was making her sick. She pressed her face into Lex’s bicep for comfort as much as to feel him breathing.

  “Then she got so sick…”

  “And,” Scarlett finished, “Herbert died and suddenly Betty’s complaints about the nurse were validated.”

  “Yes,” Eleanor said. “Petra is concerned about Betty’s mental health. Petra is one of those young people who assumes that because you’re old you’ve somehow morphed into a child again. She…dismissed a lot of Betty’s complaints.”

  “Oh my stars,” Scarlett said, imagining the guilt if you realized your grandmother was right and your grandfather had died. “I would kill over that.”

  Scarlett wasn’t even surprised to hear the words come out of her mouth. There was a fire of fury in her at the mere idea of what Betty could have experienced.

  Scarlett considered the idea of killing someone and couldn’t quite go there in her head, “If…if…Betty was right…I might kill over that.”

  “There you are again,” Lex said shaking his head. “You might think you’d kill. But you wouldn’t.”

  He glanced at her Mom and Gram as if to say, Can you believe this?

  “Change the scenario in your head to Ella or Luna,” Gram suggested to Lex.

  “I’d rain down destruction on the nurse,” Scarlett said instantly. “I’d destroy the nurse, her home, I’d sow her ground with salt and drain the area of nature magic.”

  Lex looked at Scarlett with a little shock.

  “Herbert and Betty were married for over eighty years. He wasn’t doing well, but he could have lived for another ten with good care,” Eleanor said. “Betty…he was her world.”

  Scarlett ran her finger over Lex’s arm, thinking about how much she loved him and they’d only been together for a short time. After that long how would she have felt if she lost her love? She’d have wanted to curl into herself and die too.

  Scarlett couldn’t help but remember the way Betty had run that cigar along her face and smelled the scent of smoke—the way she’d sucked it in deep as if she needed the smoke more than she needed air.