by fox, angie
Annabelle hugged me back. “I’m sorry if I worried you.”
She should have known that I would worry. There was no way to avoid that. Jon was standing beside her. Why hadn’t he called me?
“I found this note in my car,” Annabelle said, handing me the piece of paper. “I went back to the club to find you, but you weren’t there. Anyway the paper gave this address and said that I should come here. It’s from the woman who accused me of messing up the potion. I figured if I came here I could figure out what had happened. I didn’t want to cause any more problems for you. You already have enough to worry about.”
“You’re my best friend and I don’t like that you didn’t feel you could turn to me. I don’t care how many other problems I’m dealing with, my friends and family always come first. Promise me you will never do that again.” I warned with a wave of my finger.
“I promise.” She crossed over her chest with her index finger.
“Where did you go when you left the club?” I asked.
I looked at Jon and he shrugged, waiting for Annabelle to give me the answer.
She shrugged. “I stopped off for ice cream. I needed comfort food.”
I knew what she meant. I could go for some chocolate right about now. “Now that you’re here we have to find Superman. Then maybe we can find the woman who claims she got a bad spell. We still don’t know if what she said was true or not. She could have been making all of this up.”
Of course I didn’t know why she would do something like that. I had never met her and neither had my mother.
“So we have Annabelle now, but where is Superman?” I asked.
Annabelle frowned. “Who?”
“You know, my mother’s date. He was at the Bubbling Cauldron,” I said.
“Oh, right. Now I remember he was wearing the Superman costume. So what happened to him?” she asked.
I blew the hair out of my eyes. “Apparently now he has disappeared for the second time tonight. He keeps coming up missing. I don’t know where he is sneaking off to.”
When I looked back at the house I recognized the face peeking out from behind the curtain. The witch who had accused my mother of giving her the bad potion was staring out the window at us.
“The witch we are looking for is in the house with Misty.” I pointed at the window.
“What? Let’s confront her right now.” My mother marched toward the front door.
I looked at Nicolas and Liam. “I guess we’d better go too.”
They nodded. “Remind me never to anger Hallie’s mother,” Liam said to Nicolas.
We all marched back toward the door behind my mother. Once in front of the door we stopped and looked around at each other.
“Do we know what the plan is from here?” my mother asked.
I chuckled. “Do I ever really have a plan?”
“That’s okay, we don’t need a plan,” Annabelle said, coming to my defense.
“Well, it’s a good thing we don’t need one because I don’t have one.”
“What will we do if she doesn’t answer the door?” my mother asked.
Again, I didn’t know what I would do. Now that I knew that the witch was there I wouldn’t let Misty close the door in my face.
I rang the doorbell. We all stood there staring at the door and waiting for something to happen. No noise sounded from the other side of the door and I wondered what was going on in there. Misty had to know that we’d seen the other witch and that now I suspected her of being the man who’d been in my mother’s shop. It would make this a whole lot easier if she would just answer the door. But Misty never wanted to make things easy.
Since she wouldn’t answer the door, then I would have to take matters into my own hands.
“I am going to cast a spell that will make her answer the door. I can handle this,” I said.
I positioned my hands in the air, pointing toward the front door. I recited the words and focused all my energy on the spell. I felt the energy leave my body and move toward the front door. Could this actually work? I’d made the spell up at the last second.
Without warning the door fell to the ground. The crash hurt my ears. My mother groaned. Okay, that hadn’t gone exactly as I had planned. Misty was supposed to come to the door. Instead the door was now on the ground. I would never hear the end of this. And I couldn’t say that I blamed them. It would be funny if we ever got out of this mess.
The witch we’d been looking for stood in the foyer, glaring at us. Right before our eyes she began to change. She no longer looked like the witch who had confronted us at the Bubbling Cauldron. Misty had been pretending to be the witch all along.
I should have known that Misty would do something like this. I didn’t know what she had planned with this caper, but she had a lot of explaining to do. She had better not be trying to get back at me. I’d only taken away her coven leader position because I had to. I didn’t like being the mean witch in town, and that was exactly what Misty had been telling everyone since I’d kicked her out of the coven.
“I can’t believe you did this,” I said.
“Not cool, Misty,” Liam said.
“What is the problem?” Misty chuckled nervously. “It was all a joke. I was only having a little fun with you all.” She waved her hand. “Can’t you take a joke?”
“I can take a joke when it’s a good joke, but unfortunately this one wasn’t funny. You really had Annabelle upset. She thought she had messed up one of the spells. Do you know how bad you made Annabelle feel? Or do you just not care about anyone other than yourself?”
“It was just a Halloween trick.”
“I’d rather have the treat,” Annabelle said.
Just then someone moved out of the corner of my eye. Superman walked out from the kitchen.
My mother stared at him and placed her hands on her hips. “So you were involved with this all along.”
He shook his head. “No, I promise that was not my intention. I really enjoyed the brief time we spent with each other.”
From the look on his face I almost believed that he was completely innocent.
“So our date was all just a game to you?” my mother asked.
“No, I promise I had no idea what Misty was up to. I would never have been involved with her trick if I had known.”
“So you were the man in my mother’s shop? I know you were trying to do something to the potions, and if I find out you will be in serious trouble with the Underworld board members.”
She placed her hands on her hips. “I was not messing with the spells. I was just playing with you all.”
“Whose shop did you take us too? What did you do to the owner?” I asked.
She flashed a devilish smile. “That’s my shop. I own the bookstore now.”
“You own the store?” Liam asked.
Now I’d have to find a new bookstore to frequent.
“Yes, I do. Uncle Wade, you know I was just having fun. Tell them.” Misty gestured toward us.
“You’re on your own with this one, Misty.” He looked at us. “She kept tricking me with a spell. That’s why I kept disappearing tonight.”
I wasn’t sure if I believed him. And I couldn’t tell if my mother believed him or not. That would be up to my mother, but I didn’t think I’d agree to go out with him again if I was her.
“Misty, I will have to contact the board about what you’ve done. They will likely give you some kind of fine.”
She picked up her purse and stormed out of the house.
“That went well,” I said. “Is this your house?” I asked Superman.
He nodded. “Yes.”
Liam and Nicolas had lifted the door and placed it back on the hinges.
“Sorry about the door. But why didn’t you tell us when we were standing in the front porch?”
He stared down at his boots. “I was afraid to. I’m sorry.” He looked up at us. “Can I convince you all to go back to the party with me?”
I looked around the room.
The night was still young, and I had left the club before hearing my favorite Halloween song, Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra.
“Come on, give the guy another chance,” Liam said.
My mother nodded and Superman rushed to her side with a swoosh of his cape. Nicolas looped his arm through mine and we all headed back to the Bubbling Cauldron.
Some witches claimed my life was now charmed because I’d found the Book of Mystics, but I knew it was charmed and dangerous.
Rose Pressey’s Complete Bookshelf (click title to preview/buy)
A Haunted Tour Guide Mystery
Book – The Haunts Are Made For Walking
Haunted Vintage Series
Book 1 – If You’ve Got It, Haunt It (coming December 2, 2014)
Book 2 – All Dressed Up and No Place to Haunt (July 2015)
Maggie, P.I. Mystery Series:
Book 1 – Crime Wave
Book – Murder is a Beach
The Halloween LaVeau Series:
Book 1 – Forever Charmed
Book 2 – Charmed Again
Book 3 – Third Time’s a Charm
Book 4 – Charmed, I’m Sure
The Hadley Wilds Series:
Book 1: Dead Girl’s Guide to Style
The Rylie Cruz Series:
Book 1 – How to Date a Werewolf
Book 2 – How to Date a Vampire
Book 3 – How to Date a Demon
The Larue Donovan Series:
Book 1 – Me and My Ghoulfriends
Book 2 – Ghouls Night Out
Book 3 – The Ghoul Next Door
The Mystic Café Series:
Book 1 – No Shoes, No Shirt, No Spells
Book 2 – Pies and Potions
The Veronica Mason Series:
Book 1 – Rock ‘n’ Roll is Undead
A Trash to Treasure Crafting Mystery:
Book 1 – Murder at Honeysuckle Hotel
Book 2 – Honeysuckle Homicide
The Haunted Renovation Mystery Series:
Book 1 – Flip that Haunted House
Book 2 – The Haunted Fixer Upper
About the Author
Rose Pressey is a USA Today bestselling author. She enjoys writing quirky and fun novels with a paranormal twist. The paranormal has always captured her interest. The thought of finding answers to the unexplained fascinates her.
When she’s not writing about werewolves, vampires and every other supernatural creature, she loves eating cupcakes with sprinkles, reading, spending time with family, and listening to oldies from the fifties.
Rose suffers from Psoriatic Arthritis and has knee replacements. She might just set the world record for joint replacements. She’s soon having her hips replaced, elbows, and at least one shoulder.
Rose lives in the beautiful commonwealth of Kentucky with her husband, son, and two sassy Chihuahuas.
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