“I don’t know. It’s dangerous, and I hardly know what I’m doing myself. Anyway, it’s not going to happen today, so just go out there and get to work. I’ve got marmalades to check on.”
“Open jar, insert spoon,” Lucy said, smiling.
“Smart aleck,” and I chased her with a dish towel, but she raced away from my mighty whipping.
My smile went out of the room with her. Before I had turned around, Kashmir was already out of his hiding place, and pacing on the counter.
“So we’ve got trouble,” I said to him, leaning down.
He tapped claws on the counter. “Big trouble, I think.”
I nodded. “Yes, that was what I thought as soon as I saw the parchment was theirs.”
Kashmir frowned. Yes, he can frown. You should see it.
“The Jiggs aren’t just doing magic,” he said. “They’re selling it. Getting it out and making it available without watching what they’re doing. Things like this get us all burnt at the stake.”
I grimaced. It was all exactly what people like my grandmother stood against — using magic to hurt people, letting it go out without taking any responsibility for how it was used. Monstrous, really.
“Just think what they could do if they found the book,” I said. The Grimoir of Circe, next to which my Grand-Mere’s spellbook was a little batch of cribbed recipes.
“It’s about time you saw how serious our situation is. There’s something else to consider — this Brent person used an illusion to cloud those men’s minds. I think he did the same thing to Lucy.”
I started, staring at the cat who looked at me, gravely. “What? What are you talking about?”
“When she cast that spell, making the shadow spy, I thought it was too specific a thing to blunder into. What I think happened is that Brent sneaked the spell into that fake book they were using, that he knew the kids were playing coven and used them, so as to throw Lucy into disrepute. It’s a tricky illusion, to convince people they are saying or reading something other than what they are actually reading or saying. It can hurt your brain.”
I shuddered, then suddenly felt furious. I wanted Brent double arrested now. I wondered quickly if there was any spell I had that could reach him in that jail cell…
But that’s exactly what the Jiggs would do. What I could not.
“Well, then there’s one thing that I’m not going to do, and that’s teach Lucy a thing. I’m keeping her out of this as much as possible.”
“Foolish,” Kashmir said. “You’re one against the two powerful Jiggs sisters. It’s not enough.”
“So I need Lucy?” I said, very doubtfully. There’s nothing he could say that would make me put my little sister in danger again. I clenched my fists.
“No, two is not enough.” He looked at me, levelly. “Three is the most powerful number in magic. All three Auclair sisters need to join together. Or it might be the end for all of you, apart.”
My heart was beating very fast. This was what scared me. This was what I had to face. And so did my sisters.
“All in good time,” I whispered. “All I good time.”
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Also by J.D. Winters and Dakota Kahn
In the Sister Witchcraft Series…
Sister Witchcraft: Bewitched, Bedeviled and Bewildered
Sister Witchcraft: Confessions of a Teenage Slayer
In the Moonhaven series…
Moonhaven 1: Even Witches Get the Blues
Moonhaven 2: That Old Witch Magic
The Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Series by J.D. Winters…
#1: A Ghost for Christmas
#2: Ghost On Duty
#3: A Ghost In Time
#4 Cloudy with a Chance of Ghosts
#5 Little Ghost Lost
#6 Mele’s Ghostly Halloween Caper & Sami’s Story
The Kate & Blake Cozy Mysteries by Dakota Kahn…
#1 Kate & Blake vs The Ghost Town
#2 Kate & Blake vs The Cat Heir
#3 Kate & Blake vs The Billionaires
About the Authors
J.D. Winters is a pen name for Helen Conrad, an award-winning, bestselling author of more than 90 romances published under various pseudonyms with Harlequin, Silhouette, Loveswept and others--as well as the extensive series, Destiny Bay Romances. Cozy mysteries are a new venture, less romance, but more fun!
JD Winters Website
Dakota Kahn lives and writes on the Central Coast of California, assisted by a large record collection and a meddlesome cat.
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Undercover Coven (Sister Witchcraft Book 3) Page 10