Lucky Charm (Spellbound Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 4)

by Annabel Chase

  I cracked open the door and looked around before stepping inside. There was no sign of Felix. Off to the right, the sound of footsteps stopped me in my tracks. I held my breath and waited. When the sound finally faded, I moved again. I passed the display of crystals and headed straight upstairs to the library.

  Despite my instincts, I was surprised to see the grimoire back on the stand. I suppose I hadn’t completely accepted that Felix was to blame. That maybe there was another explanation.

  I began to turn the pages, frantically looking for the relevant spells.

  "Come out, come out, wherever you are," he called.

  Uh oh. How did he know I was here?

  I stared at the grimoire. I couldn't take it with me because a floating book would give my location away. I'd have to leave it for now. Felix was smart to return it to his father's home. They wouldn't be able to tie the spell to him. Lots of people were in and out of the wizard's house during the wake. Any one of them could have looked up the spell or taken the book during that time. The house had been open to everyone in town.

  "Let's not drag this out, Miss Hart," he said. "I know you figured me out. That seems to be your special skill. If I had been smarter, I would have made sure you were already in the building at the critical time when I cast the spell.”

  I padded across the room, looking for something to use as a weapon.

  "There is no escape," he said. "I've warded every door in the house. You won’t be able to leave here alive. I am sorry for that. You’re new to town and people seem to like you. A shame.“

  Not everyone, I thought glumly. Not in the way I wanted. It was unsurprising that my final thoughts would be of Daniel. He was probably with Elsa right now, lavishing her with affection. I had so hoped that it would be me one day. If Felix had his way, no one would ever have the chance to fall in love with me. I would die the way I'd lived in the human world. Alone.

  I heard his footsteps approaching and moved to the other side of a bookcase. His attention went straight to the open grimoire and he crossed the room to inspect it.

  "I see you've been thumbing through here. Did you know I used the same invisibility spell on the grimoire as I used on you?” He laughed heartily. “Took it out of my house right under Astrid’s nose and brought it in here right under yours. Clever, huh?”

  There was no point in replying since he couldn’t hear me.

  “I suppose you were looking for the reversal spell, you naive girl. Do you think I'd be so foolish as to leave it in? I removed that page. I am not the lackluster wizard my father believed me to be."

  No, Felix had proven himself to be far from lackluster.

  Felix stood in front of the grimoire. "And now it is time for another spell. I've been getting quite adept since my father died. I do believe some of his power may have transferred to me during the funeral ritual. It has been known to happen on occasion."

  Another spell? Which one did he plan to do now?

  "I'm sure you're eager to find out what I have planned," he said. “I’m now going to turn you visible again." He removed a folded piece of parchment from his pocket and placed it on the open grimoire. "You can hide, but it’s only a waste of time. I will find you in due time. Although it is a grand house, it’s not so large that the predator cannot find its prey."

  “You don’t have to do this, Felix,” I said, knowing he couldn’t hear me. “It was just a youth spell. You didn’t kill anyone.” Yet.

  He squinted over the paper. "How I do love the sound of Latin. It saddens me that the coven no longer favors it."

  It didn't sadden me. I had enough time performing spells in English. Latin would be my undoing.

  As he began to recite the spell, I dashed through the open doorway and down the steps. I needed to get as far away from him as possible before I turned visible. If the house was warded, then I needed to bide my time and hope the cavalry arrived, not that anyone was expected. Maybe Sedgwick would come through for me, not that he would be able to communicate with anyone else. The most he could do was annoy someone to the point of following him. To be fair, that often worked.

  I traveled down another flight of stairs and into the cellar. It wasn't like the cellar in my home that Gareth had designed as his master bedroom. This was a true cellar, with dismal walls and a damp smell. It was the kind of cellar you expected someone to be tortured in. I shivered. I had to banish negative thoughts. I wasn't going to survive if I let my fears take over.

  I should have brought my wand. When would I learn to never leave it behind? Then again, it seemed that only my clothing was invisible along with my body. Anything else would have given me away.

  Across the room, I spotted another set of stairs that appeared to lead to the outside. What if he neglected to ward all of the doors? What if he only did the obvious ones? It was a large house. He could have missed a set.

  I bolted for the rickety wooden steps and tried to push my way through the storm doors. They refused to budge. I couldn't tell whether it was because of magic or because of the weight of heavy-duty steel. I tried again, using all of my strength to push the doors open and was rewarded with a sharp pain in my shoulder blade.

  Okay, if brute strength wasn't going to work, then I had to think like a witch. I knew from experience that I didn't necessarily need a wand to perform magic. Then the words of the Grey sisters flashed in my mind. I wasn't even an ordinary witch. According to them, I was a starlight sorceress. Dark magic resided in me—in my blood and in my bones. What would happen if I tried to access it? The mere thought frightened me. What if I conjured up something awful? What if the magic changed me or opened a door within me that I could never close again? I had to take the risk. If I didn't try, I would be dead within the hour.

  I closed my eyes and cleared my thoughts. I had no idea how to access the darkness within me. More than that—what if the Grey sisters were wrong? Now was not the time to discover I was the remedial witch everyone else believed me to be.

  A blast of air went through me and I knew Felix had completed the spell. I was visible again. The only good news was that Felix was still upstairs, probably going room by room to find me. If he believed there was no escape, then he wouldn't rush. I wondered how he intended to explain my death in his father's house. He probably would pretend to be the one to find me. What a jerk.

  I focused my will the way Lady Weatherby had taught me. I decided to try the Blowback spell first. Although it was meant for another person, maybe it would work on a set of doors.

  “Step on a crack/suffer blowback.”

  I flew backward, landing squarely on my bottom. One bruised tailbone coming up. I stood on shaky legs and concentrated again. This was a life or death situation. If I didn't find a way to open those doors, then I would die in this horrible cellar. Daniel would never know how I felt about him. For whatever reason, that fact bothered me more than anything else. It didn't matter that he didn't return my feelings. It only mattered that he was in the world, doing his good deeds and seeking redemption. I wanted his halo restored whether I was a part of his life or not.

  Tears stung my eyes and I straightened my shoulders. I wasn't ready to give up yet. Instead, I dug in. I didn’t know how to access the darkness within me, but I did know how to access the light. The love. I pulled every strong memory to the forefront. My sweet mother and her tender hugs. My father and his valiant attempt to rebuild our lives after her death. My grandparents who struggled to raise me. I even thought of Huey, my stuffed owl. The way he smelled. The way he felt, soft and loving.

  Huey.

  In that moment, I realized that I’d been wrong about Huey. We’d mistakenly believed the toy owl was a clue to my origin—a link to my coven—but it wasn’t really. I had no doubt that Huey was the reason Sedgwick and I chose each other. It was my love for Huey that summoned the spotted owl and it was my power that drew him to me. It was an unnerving and exciting revelation.

  “Come out, Emma. I have important matters to attend to.”
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  His voice echoed before I heard his footsteps above my head. He was coming.

  I took a long, deep breath and summoned every ounce of power in my body. There was no time for a rhyming spell. I simply threw out my hands and released a primal scream. It wasn't the piercing kind that female victims often had in horror films. It was a gut-wrenching scream, the kind that if you’d heard it, you’d weep for the source of the sound. It began in the deepest part of my soul and rumbled from my body in painful, soul-crushing waves. The doors not only blew open, they blew straight off the hinges.

  There was no time to stop and wonder at what I’d just done. The longer I lingered, the more likely it was that I wouldn’t make it out of the cellar alive.

  Chapter 18

  Thanks to the explosion of power, I was now too weak to move. Instead of running outside like I’d planned, I dropped to my knees and my palms slammed against the concrete floor.

  "How in Mother Nature's name…?" Felix stood on the stairs, frozen in disbelief. "You’re nothing but a remedial witch. How could you possibly have broken through my ward?"

  I didn't wait to answer him. I gathered my strength and crawled up the wooden steps and into the darkness. I didn't have much of a lead, but it would be harder for him to find me out here. I stumbled to my feet and ran. There were plenty of trees to climb or hide behind. I debated whether to climb the sturdy oak I saw up ahead. No, I was too weak to climb. Besides, it would have been just another trap. He would simply stand at the base of it until I came down or use his magic to break the branch I was on. Or, if he grew impatient, he’d simply light a match and burn it down. No, I had to keep running. There were neighbors, albeit not too close. Maybe I had a chance.

  "Give up, Emma,” he yelled. "You’ve lost. I have proven myself a great wizard and you are nothing more than a remedial witch." Again with the putdown. So he wasn't just a psychopath, he was a sexist psychopath. I wasn't sure which one bothered me more. It was then that I caught a glimpse of a shadow circling the air above my head.

  Sedgwick, is that you? I had never hoped more to see my familiar. For a moment, there was no response and I began to doubt my vision, but then—

  What's happening down there? Sedgwick asked. You’re visible again, but why are you running?

  I choked back tears. Sedgwick, I cried. You beautiful gift of an owl.

  You’re delirious, he said. Has he poisoned you?

  Felix is trying to kill me. I just used a bucket load of magic and I’m too weak to fight him off.

  Say no more, Your Highness, he replied.

  I didn't know what Sedgwick could do to help me. Somehow, I doubted pooping on Felix's head would be enough to save me. Hopefully, the owl had another weapon in his arsenal.

  Just to be clear, did I hear you say ‘great balls of a minotaur’ earlier?

  Sedgwick, I’m sort of in the middle of an emergency right now, I said. Can we not worry about expressions I blurt out in times of extreme stress?

  No need to be embarrassed. It just means you’re starting to fit in.

  I thought about my feelings of isolation during Markos’s party. Was I truly fitting in here?

  I felt fingers encircle my ankle and, before I could scream, Felix tackled me to the ground. The wizard moved like a panther. I didn’t even hear him approach.

  He straddled me, holding a wand in his fist and raising it above my chest like he was about to stake me with it.

  “I learned this spell in wizard camp and never got the chance to use it,” he said, his eyes ablaze with power and aggression.

  As he opened his mouth for the incantation, Sedgwick swooped down and snatched the wand from his grasp. Felix glanced up in surprise and the owl unloaded his next trick.

  “Ugh, my eye,” Felix cried, smearing the poop to his temple.

  It was enough of a distraction to allow me to punch him in the groin and push him aside. He grunted and doubled over.

  What spell was that? Sedgwick asked, observing Felix’s discomfort from the air.

  No spell. Just good, old-fashioned self-defense.

  I scrambled to my feet as Felix recovered.

  “Release my wand, you foul creature,” he bellowed.

  That’s f-o-w-l to you, Sedgwick taunted, not that Felix could hear him.

  Felix advanced toward me, a murderous glint in his eye. I was still too drained to summon any magic.

  “Stop right there, Felix,” a voice boomed.

  Felix scowled at the figure behind me. I turned around to see Professor Holmes, his wand extended, flanked by Sheriff Hugo and Astrid.

  “Drop your wand,” Sheriff Hugo ordered.

  Felix glanced skyward as Sedgwick glided toward the sheriff and dropped the wand at the centaur’s hooves. I ran over and plucked the wand off the ground, pointing it at Felix. Despite the presence of this powerful trio, I didn’t want to take any chances.

  “Disarm her,” Felix said. “Don’t let her use magic on me.”

  Astrid sauntered over to him, twirling a pair of magic handcuffs. “Cut the act, Felix. You were the one who was about to kill her. You didn’t look too scared when you had her pinned to the ground.”

  “She didn’t have a wand then,” he said.

  Professor Holmes chuckled. “It’s nice to know our witches have a solid reputation.”

  "You don't understand," Felix sputtered. "She broke through my ward. That's impossible."

  Little did he realize I didn’t have a wand then either.

  "Impossible indeed," Professor Holmes said. "I have no doubt that you failed to ward them all properly. Perhaps, in your haste, you missed one. It wouldn’t surprise me. You never were a very good student.”

  "I don't think I did," he murmured, more to himself. "I was so careful. Always so careful. It was why I was so angry with my father for not leaving the house to me.”

  “And you found the spell in one of your father’s grimoires?” the sheriff asked.

  “It fell on the floor when I was cleaning up after the wake and it opened to the page with the youth spell,” Felix explained. “It was kismet.”

  “Not quite,” I said.

  “All of his wonderful books and artifacts,” Felix continued. “I was his only living heir, but he wanted to donate his entire estate to that wretched animal rescue center! Like I wasn’t a wizard worthy of the inheritance.”

  "I'm afraid you won't be seeing this house again for quite some time," Sheriff Hugo said. "Attempted murder and casting a dangerous spell on the town council will cost you dearly."

  “Don’t forget the invisibility spell on Emma,” Professor Holmes said.

  Felix soured and jabbed a finger in my direction. "You need to keep an eye on that girl. Something isn't right with her. Don't you feel it?"

  "Sounds like a case of sour burstberries to me," Astrid said, and pushed him forward.

  I, of course, said nothing. Daniel was adamant that no one discover the truth about me and I trusted his judgment. At least on this matter.

  A flash of white in the distance caught my eye. Speak of the angel and he appears. He landed with his usual grace and rushed toward me, his expression tense.

  "Emma," he called. “Thank heaven, you’re safe." He sounded so relieved that I nearly burst into tears.

  "I am," I said. They were the only two words I could muster. He wrapped his arms around me and I felt the soft touch of his feathers brush against my skin.

  "I should have suspected Felix," he said. "I never cared for him."

  "No one suspected him," I said. "Not even me and I was the one who should have realized first."

  "How can you say that?" he asked. “You’re the newest person here. You know far less about everyone than the rest of us."

  I removed myself from his embrace and gazed up at him. "If there's one thing I've learned since I came here, it's that you don't know each other as well as you think. In fact, you don't even know yourselves as well as you think." It was the closest I came to mentioning Elsa and w
hat I knew. I wouldn't force the issue. I would wait for him to tell me when he was ready. As much as it would pain me to hear the words spoken, I needed the truth. I knew my heart would refuse to let go of the last shred of hope until it had no choice.

  The worst part was that this was not Daniel the player. This was Daniel's new leaf. If he was willing to enter into a relationship with Elsa again, it was because he’d decided to commit to her. Because he chose to love her, not because he was reverting to type. That fact hurt me most of all. I had believed his new leaf would lead him directly to me. Inwardly, I scolded myself for waiting. I should have told him how I felt, even if it changed nothing. Even though I told myself in the cellar that I would tell Daniel the truth, standing before him now, I no longer had the courage. I needed his friendship more than anything. I couldn’t say something that would risk losing it. And if Elsa knew, she would be sure to exclude me from his life. She didn't seem like the type of fairy who would be able to tolerate a potential rival’s love for her paramour.

  And what if he married her? What then? Oh no. I felt sick.

  "Emma," Astrid said. "You look like you might… "

  The vomit hit the ground and sprayed everyone's shoes within a two-foot radius.

  "I'm sorry," I croaked. "I think it must be the aftereffects of the visibility spell." A complete lie.

  Someone produced a blanket and tossed it across my shoulders. Daniel placed an arm around me and guided me away from the group. "Let me escort you home. We don't have to fly."

  Ever so gently, I shook him off. "Astrid will take me," I said. I couldn't bring myself to look at him. If I gazed into those turquoise eyes, I knew my resolve would crumble.

  "Astrid? Are you sure?"

  "I'm sure. Thank you, Daniel. I'm sure you have better things to do than worry about me."

  His expression was a mixture of pain and confusion. "Why would you say that? Of course I want to worry about you." He paused. “Wait. That came out wrong. I don't want to worry about you…"

  I squeezed his arm. "Stay on your path, Daniel. I'm sure ours will cross again."