“Who?” I asked as if I was the only one who had no idea who this Conrad guy might be. He could be in on it.
“Councilman McCaffrey. If she’d wanted a spell book, all she had to do was peek at his.”
“Manny was taking a lot of heat from the council,” Janice said, swallowing hard. “He’d alienated most of them when he voted against the recent rules they wanted to add.”
“What rules?”
“The half-breed clause,” she answered.
“I’ve heard them talk about that,” Ryder said. “They wanted the ability to take a witch’s powers away if both parents didn’t come from magical parental lines.”
“They were trying to pass a bill that would make the magical lines pure without dilution.”
“That’s absurd,” I growled, not that it would hurt my sisters or me, but it could hurt some of the other coven members.
“Manny thought so too,” Janice said.
At the sound of approaching sirens, we cleared the scene to let the emergency personnel and detectives pass by. They had just taken our statement when Georgia’s boyfriend, Detective Carson Anderson, and Tess’s fiancé, my soon-to-be brother-in-law, Detective King Arthur, showed up on site.
They weren’t even fazed to see that we were at the crime scene. It was as though they expected us to be there, as if we were the ones attracting criminals to town. Maybe we were. I’d have to ponder that question when I could think clearly, which meant getting away from everything Andrew Gold.
News of the death traveled through the coven like poison ivy through an inexperienced Boy Scout troop. The group of onlookers was growing by the minute. Tess and Georgia were talking to their men as I stayed off in the distance with Andrew Gold next to me.
“What are you really doing here?” I asked.
“Me? You’re the one that said you didn’t care about Mildred.”
It was true. I wasn’t supposed to come to town. That was until everything changed.
“What changed?” he asked
I realized my mistake of letting my guard down and him infiltrating my thoughts. It had been years since I had to erect the wall in my mind, but just as I’d done before, I threw those bricks into place, shoving him out of my thoughts. “None of your business. So, do you know who killed him?”
Andrew’s lips thinned as his jaw hardened. “If I did, I would have chased the killer from the scene. Manny was the only council member willing to help break our connection. I want you out of my head just as much as you want me out of yours. It is the only reason why I came back to town.”
“So you knew this was a spell the entire time?” I asked and narrowed my eyes. How come my sisters and I were the last to be told anything as it pertained to our own lives? There was something perversely wrong with that. Maybe we needed to come up with our own spell to reveal things that cannot be seen and use it in our lives.
“I knew it wasn’t natural, and it’s the exact thing that I’d expect my mother to do. She’d been trying to manipulate our lives since the day we were born.”
I knew firsthand what that felt like.
“It wasn’t your mother who did this,” Auntie B announced. “It was Mildred and your grandmother. They knew your mom wasn’t the person who would run the coven. They placed the spell on both of you, and it was made out of love, not hate. It was to solidify the coven’s hold on you both and to enable you to govern in harmony.”
“You can’t tell me they weren't manipulative. They took away our free will. What if Andrew and I never came back? What if I’d gotten married…”
“Again,” he added.
I rolled my eyes, ignoring him. “He’d still be in my head, even when I’m thinking about my husband. How is that okay for anyone?”
“Yes, well,” she said. “There is much you guys don’t know about the spell. You two did not grow up here. Andrew left early on, and, Margo, you’ve visited here once before when you were two years old. You both had to be present when they cast the spell. It’s just a miracle that you two found each other when you were older, and we won’t even discuss how it is that you consummated the spell.”
“Are you telling me that my parents agreed to this and when we—” I cleared my throat, unwilling to finish that thought. “That we agreed to our predicament?”
“Yes,” she answered without blinking.
I couldn’t take anymore. I spun on my heels and headed for the woods in search of the magical tunnel of currents and the tree where we’d arrived.
I’d made it about twenty yards when Tess ran up beside me and wrapped her arm around mine. She turned me around back toward the coven. “King is taking us back home in his SUV so we don’t have to get sick again. You can ride with us.”
“I’m not going home. I need to go back to the antique shop to start searching through the books for something to break this connection,” I said, turning her around back toward the woods. I needed to be looking for more than that, but I wasn’t ready to divulge all my secrets.
She pulled me to a stop. “Margo, you don’t have to do this by yourself. You’re our sister, and we will help you figure it out. I’m sure between the three of us we can undo whatever those witches did to you.”
She was trying to make me feel better. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Tess; I did. She would try to make this right no matter what. The fact that she didn’t understand my urgency and anger was my own fault. I’d kept that little secret to myself. It was all that I had left. “I need to find the spell.”
“You can dig through centuries of books or”—she raised her brow—“or we can just find the councilman’s book and get it from there. One page and a bonus for catching a wanted killer or sifting through hundreds of books.” She held out her hands like a scale and balanced them.
She was right. The quickest way to fix this was in Manny’s grimoire. The only problem with that was we had no idea where it was. Not that I’d let that stop me. If I had to track this killer down to the ends of the earth to get that damn book, I would. But first…I needed to find what our father needed. Only then could I worry about this connection. If Manny’s grimoire was the jackpot of spells, I bet the one my dad needed could be located within that binding. “You’re right. We need Manny’s book to break this connection I have with Andrew.”
“We’ll help you find it.”
“Perfect.” A smile split my lips. “I need an empty canvas and my paints.”
Both of Tess’s brows rose. “You aren’t going to kill him with that symbol, are you?”
My lips twitched. “I promise, no death symbols. Painting helps me think.” Among other things I wasn’t ready to explain.
She exhaled a breath and grinned. “Fabulous, because I’d hate to have to stop you. That might put a strain on our sisterly love.”
Sisterly love. I rolled my eyes.
Chapter 5
I’d stared at the blank canvas for hours, racking my brain to figure out how to fix this mess. My muse had taken an unauthorized vacation. After a fitful night’s sleep, I stirred in bed, unwilling to get out from beneath my covers in hopes that it was all just a bad dream. I let out a long sigh and turned toward the canvas, and my brain froze like I’d forgotten how to breathe. The blank spot was gone, and the canvas was filled with a scene.
I rose up on my elbow and had started to rise when I noticed the array of colors covering my hands, my sheets, and my comforter. I rose from the bed and moved to the mirror.
The colors were smeared across my face like war paint. This wasn’t my doing. I’d only ever seen something like this once when my mother died. I’d painted that scene just like I’d painted Georgia’s mother’s death, and Tess’s. I hadn’t had the heart to tell them.
A tear formed in my eye as I reached for my cell phone. There was one person that could help me. One person that would understand. My cousin, Harley James, answered on the third ring. Her voice was groggy as she spoke. “This had better be good.”
“It happened ag
ain,” I whispered through the speaker.
The line went silent.
“You have to tell me what to do.” My voice was laced with panic.
“Margo, where are you?” Harley asked.
My cousin Harley had been raised by her grandmother, and even though she wasn’t in any way related to the Hexfords, Harley’s mother and mine were sisters. She grew up with the other grandmother I’d never met, and now both of them were dead. Harley and I both shared this mysterious ability that no one was taking credit for passing down the line.
“I’m in Canapoly Falls,” I answered and cringed for what I knew was coming next.
“Have you lost your mind? You knew what was waiting for you. Why in the world would you go there? Your mother would kill you if she knew.”
“You of all people know why I had to come.”
“Mildred doesn’t have your dad’s journal, Margo.”
“You don’t know that. Mildred was manipulative. She could have totally stolen my dad’s journal, and I need to get it back.” I growled. “Listen, I’ll let you go. I shouldn’t have called.”
Harley sighed. “Yes, you should have. Now pull up your Spanx like a grown woman and tell me about your unconscious masterpiece. Maybe I can help.”
I spun toward the painting and chewed my bottom lip as I approached. From across the room, the colors blurred until I got closer to the canvas.
My hand flew to cover the hitch in my breath. My eyes widened as it took in the scene and all of the colors of the forest. It wasn’t the greenery that concerned me. It was two figures hanging from a big oak tree.
Even when I painted unconscious, my painting skills could use some work. Burlap bags covered the heads, but I didn’t need to see the faces to know who they were. I not only knew those clothes I was wearing, but I knew the sweater Andrew had on. I’d bought it for him.
A dark figure stood with his back to Andrew and me. He had a book clutched in his hands. I stepped closer for a better view. It had to be one of the two missing books. My father’s journal or the councilman’s grimoire.
“Well, what is it?” she asked.
“I’m in a forest with two other people,” I answered. If I’d told her any more, she’d break her cover, dump her assignment, and hijack the first military flight to my location.
“What aren’t you telling me?” she asked when I stayed quiet for too long.
“Nothing. I’ve just never seen this forest before,” I lied.
I knew the forest, heck, I even knew the tree. It was the same one that we’d arrived at last night with Auntie B.
I shook my head and turned away from the painting. “Sorry, I overreacted. I should have taken a better look at the painting before I wigged out.”
“You’re sure? Because I can be there in four hours or less, and I have a whole bag of new arsenal I’ve been dying to take for a test run.”
The last thing this town needed was GI Jane coming in and running the show. “I’m fine.”
“You’d tell me? Because you know those painted predictions have a way of changing when even one thing is altered.”
“Of course,” I answered just as there was a knock on my bedroom door. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you later.”
“You better.”
“Margo, are you decent?” Tess asked from the other side of the door.
I hung up and hurried to the door, inching it open and blocking the room with my body. “Yeah.”
Her brows pulled together as she stared at my face. “Either you’re moonlighting as a clown and forgot to take off the face paint, or a color bomb exploded in your room. Which is it?”
“She probably has Andrew in there. She was up all night making noises,” Georgia announced coming up behind Tess. “Whoa…what did you two do? Did you get freaky with the paints?”
Even if my cheeks had pinked, they probably couldn’t tell beneath all of the paint on my face. There was no lying my way out of this one. I stepped back and gestured with my hand to the painting. “I painted last night.”
“Oh please tell me it’s not another death symbol.” Tess’s voice was tight.
“More like a death omen,” I answered and begin pulling the ruined, color-stained linens from my bed.
“Oh my…” Tess started.
“Is that you?” Georgia asked, glancing over her shoulder at me.
“Andrew and I,” I answered.
“And this other guy?” Tess asked.
I shrugged. “Maybe it’s the killer? He’s holding a book.” I glanced down at the paint on my arms.
“You do these types of paintings a lot, do you?”
I shrugged. They knew about the death symbol and this painting, but I wasn’t prepared to tell them about the others.
“Was there something you two needed?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. King and I have to run to city hall and apply for our marriage license, but how about we meet at the antique shop in two hours? We can start looking through the books for some way of breaking the connection spell.”
“I thought you said last night that it would be quicker if I find the missing grimoire than trying to look through all of the old books they’d kept for centuries in the basement.”
Tess glanced at the picture again and then back at me. “I changed my mind, especially if your hunting skills lead you to end up like that picture.”
“She doesn’t have to do it alone,” Georgia said. “That’s why I came up here. Andrew is out on the porch waiting for you.” Her gaze went down to my colorful body, and she chuckled. “I’ll tell him you’re going to be awhile.”
She’d turned to leave when Tess grabbed her arm. “Wait, she gets hung with Andrew in that picture. Why can’t you go with her?”
“Not a chance. If the voodoo killer is already in town, I’m going to have Carson’s half-brothers touch everything in that room, and when we get him identified, I’m going to hunt this guy to the ends of the earth,” Georgia said before walking out.
Tess and I exchanged a look. “I hope it works.”
“It worked last time,” I offered. If only we were that lucky and one of those teens could pinpoint the killer. We’d have the book, and our problem would be solved before my head even hit the pillow tonight. “I’m getting a shower. Do you think you can send Andrew back to wherever he’s staying?”
Tess’s lips twitched. “Sure, but let me warn you, he’s now listed in the inn’s magical guestbook as a dinner guest.”
Of course he was.
Chapter 6
I stood on the porch chewing on my nail as I stared at King’s house across the street. That is where he had lived when I first arrived, although now he’s living next door with his niece, Livvy, ever since her mom died.
I continued to watch King’s old home. I didn’t have to speak for them to know who I was watching as Andrew pulled a suitcase into the house. Looked like there was no easy way to get rid of him.
“Is he your boyfriend?” Livvy asked from the swing where she was sitting with Theo, the man who we’d freed from being a cat. Livvy was King’s niece who lived next door to our grandmother. She was also the little girl who now was sporting Mildred’s witchy powers in her tiny body. Livvy is gifted in a way that most children only dream of. Even without Mildred’s powers, Livvy would probably solve global warming before hitting puberty.
“No,” I answered.
“Not anymore,” Theo amended, earning my glare.
“Not ever again,” I added, plopping down on the banister with my back toward Andrew entering the home.
“He told Uncle King he isn’t staying long but that he’d be back for the wedding,” Livvy said.
I met Theo’s gaze, and we turned it to Livvy’s. “How does he know your uncle?”
“They’ve known each other since they were my age. He and Uncle King and my momma were best friends.” Livvy frowned as if the thought saddened her. She’d been good at hiding her feelings, even though we were all trying to help her work
through things. We’d explained it was okay to cry, that it made us human, and even though the days might get easier, there would still be a special place in her heart for the people she’d lost.
“It’s okay to miss your mommy. It’s natural for it to still hurt.”
“I miss my momma, but I’m not sad because of her.”
My brows dipped. “Then why are you sad?”
“Because of what Mildred just told me.”
Theo and I exchanged a confused look. We knew Livvy could see Mildred, but she didn’t talk about it much, if ever.
“What did she just say?”
“You and mommy’s best friend are going to die. I don’t want you to die.”
Why in the world would Mildred tell Livvy that? To scare her? There was no good reason for it, and if I could tell the old woman off, I would.
“I’m not going to die, sweetheart, and neither is your mommy’s friend.”
“Margo’s right, Livvy, She isn’t going to die,” Theo said, slipping his arm around Livvy’s shoulders and hugging her close. “Georgia and Tess aren’t going to let anything happen to her.”
“Maybe I should go ask Franklin. He knows everything before it happens,” Livvy said, hopping up from her seat.
Franklin was an interesting character. He lived in the basement, and just like the rest of the rooms in the inn, his was special too. He was a time traveler who’d been trying to get back home, and he’d fallen in love with Aunt Charlotte and ended up saving her life. He knew things that no one else knew, and he’d been suspiciously missing the last couple of days.
“I think that’s a great idea,” I said, following her into the house and letting the screen door slam behind me as it closed.
Livvy stood in the hallway, knocking on the door that leads to the basement. “Franklin. It’s Livvy, let me in,” she repeated over and over to an unmoving door. She wiggled the locked door handle, and her brows pinched.
“Maybe he’s busy, Livvy.” I offered the excuse while resting my hand on her shoulder. I had no idea what Franklin did during his days when he was locked downstairs. The only person that knew was Tess, and that was only because he’d led her down there to explain once before. We just had her version of the story, but we believed it.
Witch Hunt Page 3