by Evie Hart
If she weren’t already dead, I’d think she’d laugh herself to it.
“Whatever are you laughing at?” Angus asked. “You’re being very undignified.”
Grandma was so busy laughing she couldn’t even muster up the words to insult him back.
“What is she laughing at?” Aunt Rose asked me, narrowing her eyes.
I glanced at TJ. “If you think I’m a bad influence now…”
“TJ. Cover your ears.”
“But—”
“Now.” She snapped her fingers and his hands clapped over his ears. Try as he might, he couldn’t pull them away, and he scowled at her.
“I, um,” I paused. “He has a visible problem.”
Aunt Rose blinked at me.
“Most common in teenage boys.”
She blinked some more.
“Usually around pretty girls.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Avery!”
“What? He was being a jerk to me, so I simply got revenge in the same manner.” I folded my arms and leaned back. “Maybe next time he’ll apologize for bein’ rude when Ana-May tells him to.”
She sighed as the front door opened and Nicole walked into the hallway. She left the door open and watched as Dax Sanders walked into the invisible barrier my spell created.
“Why can’t he get in?” she asked, cocking her thumb.
“Avery Thorn! Get over here right now!” he yelled, fists clenched at his sides.
I ignored him and shut the door with one flick of my finger. “He’s not allowed. It’s his own dang fault and he will learn that his actions have consequences!”
Nicole blinked at me. “I missed something.”
Aunt Rose sighed. “Your cousin has cursed the man with a perpetual erection.”
Grandma, who was only just recovering from her laughing fit, actually fell over as a new wave of amusement hit her.
Nicole, torn between one unamused aunt and one hysterical grandmother, froze. Her lips twitched, but she knew better than to laugh.
“Hello? Are you done yet?” TJ asked.
Aunt Rose snapped her fingers and his hands were free once more.
“Avery! You have five seconds to open this door and remove this spell before I have you arrested for cursing a police officer!”
I sighed and stood up. “Man, he just doesn’t get the message, does he?”
Everyone watched from the door to the kitchen as I went to the front door and swung it open. “Detective Sanders! So nice to see you. Three times in one day. I’m so lucky.”
“Remove it. Now.” His blue-green eyes sparked with fire.
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
“No.” I folded my arms and stared him down defiantly. “Not until you apologize for being so publicly rude to me.”
He ground his teeth. “Apologizing to you for saying you have an attitude problem is against everything I have, especially since you do have an attitude problem.”
“I only set that curse for three hours. I can modify it, if you’d like.” I glanced down, and that was a mistake, because not only had he seen me look at his groin, but now I’d seen his groin.
And Goddess, I had seen his groin, if you catch my drift.
“Remove. This. Spell.” He pointed at me, eyes blazing with anger.
I batted his hand away. “I will not. You were rude to me for no reason. The first conversation we had you accused me of murder. You showed up at the library today. You showed up at the coffee shop. If I didn’t know better, despite your denial, I’d say you really are following me.”
“I’m not following you. I have a murder and an attempted murder to solve, believe it or not. Following a redheaded witch with an attitude problem and a real witch of a cat isn’t high on my priority list.”
“It’s ironic that you say I have an attitude problem, yet here you are, giving me attitude.” I glared at him. “You have two choices. Apologize, and I’ll lift the spell. Go away, and it’ll disappear on its own tonight. The longer you stand here on my doorstep runnin’ your dang mouth is the longer you’ll have your little problem.”
He ground his jaw, one fist clenching repeatedly as if he was trying to keep his anger in check. “I’m allowed to have an attitude problem. It’s my job to have one.”
“No, it’s your job to solve crime and protect the citizens of Haven Lake, not stand on my doorstep with your nonsense.”
“Touché,” Nicole whispered from the kitchen.
He took a deep breath and pinched the top of his nose. “I’m only doing this because Betty Lou is awake and I need to speak with her, and I can’t do that in this…situation.” He waved a hand over his groin. “I’m sorry.”
“At least pretend that you mean it.”
“You’re going to send me to an early grave, Avery.”
“Pick a good plot. They’re running out in the graveyard.”
The anger disappeared from his eyes, and a tiny smile twitched at his full pink lips. He ran his hand over his jaw. “I’m sorry. Lesson learned. Never insult you.”
I’d take it. Besides, I already had information I didn’t know I wanted—Betty Lou Harper was awake.
If she was accepting visitors, she’d get a key lime pie tomorrow morning.
With a sigh, I waved my hand and removed the spell. His own sigh was full of relief, and I knew it had already taken effect.
“Thank you,” he said, smiling. “And I’m really not following you. Although I do have a question before I go if you’ll answer it.”
I glanced over my shoulder at my eavesdropping family and stepped outside, closing the door behind me. “I’d invite you in, but yeah.”
He laughed, putting his hands in his pockets and stepping to the side. For the first time, I noticed he wasn’t wearing a uniform shirt anymore. He was dressed in a light-blue polo shirt that complimented his tan and dark jeans.
“I’m off-duty,” he said. “I was on the way to get takeout for dinner when the sheriff called and told me to get to the hospital.”
“No, I was just—” Staring at your arms. “Never mind. What did you want to ask me?”
He rolled his shoulders and glanced at the rose bushes before meeting my eyes. “You’re the only person—right now—who has read those articles on Amelie Vine’s pack.”
“Right now?”
He nodded. “They potentially hold the key to what happened to her. Dotty released them to me.”
I had to have a word with her about giving a handsome man information he wanted. It would get her in trouble one day.
“Something isn’t right about the behaviors the cougars supposedly exhibited.” He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Especially shifters. They’d run away from a human at the slightest scent, not toward them.”
His observation was a chilling echo of my own thoughts.
“And for humans to go back again and again to cougar territory? That’s weird, too.”
I nodded. “I thought the same thing when I read it. I can’t imagine a were actually running toward a human.”
“Exactly. They’re taught to avoid them before they can even shift. Safety is paramount for them.”
I expected him to continue, but when he didn’t, I said, “Do you think hunters are responsible?”
“There’s every possibility. The pattern dictates it. The killings weren’t in the same spot—they were spread all over the forest. Whoever killed them knew they were there and there was a lot of them.”
Hunters were humans who knew about the paranormal world. Much like witches, their knowledge was passed down from generation to generation, so unless someone decided they didn’t want to do it anymore, we were forever at risk.
They were why we had Havens. Places no non-magical folk could see. If a human followed the dirt track that leads into Haven Lake, they’d simply keep driving until they made it onto another road. A paranormal would enter town.
“How would the hunters infiltrate Haven Lake, though? Unle
ss…” I swallowed. The thought that one of our own could be a Hunter didn’t bear thinking about.
“I don’t think so,” he said, shaking his head. “It would be tough unless you know of someone going in and out of the town on a regular basis. Technology doesn’t cross the town wards, even though we share much of it with humans.”
That was true. I couldn’t call a friend in the human world while I was in Haven Lake, but a TV bought in the human world would work here.
I didn’t understand it, either.
“Can you check the wards and see if anyone has been in and out? If not, then there’s no chance Amelie died because of a hunter.” I wrapped my arms around my waist. “I don’t want to think that someone in this town is killing their own.”
“Neither do I.” His expression was grim. “I’ll see if someone can check. From everything I’ve heard, Mary-Jane Lawson is a tiger.”
That made me laugh. “Mary-Jane is one-hundred-and-eleven-years-old. She doesn’t like people. There are only a few she’ll talk to. Maybe talking to her family might help you get out to see her.”
Mary-Jane Lawson, ancient witch and Keeper of the Wards, was old, but she most definitely was not feeble. The Lawson family had assumed control of the wards around the town after the final Haven family member had died a few hundred years ago. When Mary-Jane died, they’d pass on to her next descendent, and so on.
“Maybe. I doubt she’ll speak to me, though.”
“So do I. She doesn’t speak to the police because she doesn’t care a lick about the law. Says she’s old enough to do what she wants. The last time Sheriff Bones showed up at her house she cursed him something chronic.”
“Do I want to know?”
I shook my head. “Just don’t show up unannounced or uninvited. Her curses are the stuff of legends.”
“Yeah, well, luckily for you, your curse showed up when I was already off duty.” His look was pointed. “You had a point and you made it well, but you’re lucky I didn’t arrest you.”
“You were never going to arrest me.”
“You sound awfully sure for someone who broke the law.”
I shrugged. “I’d have extended it to be infinite if you’d arrested me. That’d mess up your dating life.”
He chuckled. “It’s sweet that you think I have one.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh no. You’re not one of those ‘married to the job’ guys, are you? That’s so cliché.”
His chuckle became a laugh, and he shrugged. “Then I’ll tell you I’m not and hope you believe me.”
Rolling my eyes, I walked back to the front door. “Whatever. And stop following me.”
“I told you. I’m not following you. You just happen to be in the places I want to go.”
I turned and looked at him. “Again, whatever. Goodbye, Detective.”
“Goodbye, Avery.”
I stepped back inside the house. Five sets of eyes were on me—three living, one dead, one feline. I stopped dead in the hall, frowning at the peanut gallery that’d formed in the kitchen doorway.
“Y’all waitin’ for a show or what?”
Before anyone could answer, Snow popped onto the bottom step of the staircase looking as pleased as punch. Her tail moved gracefully behind her, and she looked at me like she’d just won the lottery.
I knew that look.
She’d heard what he’d said about her.
“Snow. What did you do?” I asked in a low voice.
She licked her paw and wiped it over her face. “I peed on his backseat.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
Wonderful.
That was exactly what I needed.
• • •
“Are you going to see Betty Lou?” Aunt Shelly asked, bustling about the kitchen.
I didn’t even know why she was here.
Why was she here?
“I’m helping Rose sort the greenhouse,” she said, reading my mind. “Bella is working today. It’s my day off, so I’m here to help Rose organize the plants and control Terrence.”
“Good luck. He won’t like you messing with his system.” I took the to-go cup of coffee she offered me. “You know how he gets.”
“Oh, pish.” She waved her hand. “He’s a menace, but he’s a lovable one. We’ll let him help.”
“You bought new pots, didn’t you?”
“Pots, soil, seeds. You name it, we bought it. Everything except a watering can, because he won’t give that old one up.” Her little dark eyes sparkled. “And you’re going to see Betty Lou, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “Detective Sanders said she’s awake. He didn’t say she couldn’t receive visitors, so I called the hospital earlier and asked. She can receive one at a time, and the nurse said her family plans to be there at around midday. I’m hoping to get there earlier to see how she is. I also need to know how to report Grandma without her in the office.”
Aunt Shelly nodded. “Messy business now. Goddess only knows that damn understudy of hers isn’t capable of tying her shoelaces, never mind logging a binding. Betty Lou may well accept a verbal notification for the time being.”
“That depends if she’s well enough to do the spell to accept it.”
“You can do it. She’ll trust you. Mama was a menace, but beneath their fightin’, they respected each other.”
“Don’t let Grandma hear you say that.”
“Say what?” Grandma appeared, perching on the table. Today’s questionable outfit consisted of a velour sweat suit and Ugg boots.
Aunt Shelly narrowed her eyes. “Lady Barnacles is shopping for a butler. I heard it from one of the ghosts out in the barn this morning.”
Grandma’s jaw dropped. “She sure won’t get herself a butler! I’m the lady of this house!”
Just like that, she disappeared.
“Is that true?” I asked, looking at my aunt.
She shrugged. “A magician never reveals their secrets.”
“You’re a witch.”
“All right, so a witch never reveals the truth. Unless you feed her a truth potion. Do you have one?”
I did not, and I told her so.
“There you go, then. Rose made the pie you asked for and boxed it up. Here you go.” She passed me a white pie box. “Send Betty Lou our love, won’t you?”
“You got it, Aunt Shelly. Thanks.”
And with that, I left to see the Head of the Council.
CHAPTER TEN
HAVEN LAKE HOSPITAL, much like the other old buildings, was stuck in the past. The walls, inside and out, were a stark white. It was cold and clinical, and the air was heavy and dark.
Not literally dark, but it felt it. There was a deadly tinge to the atmosphere as soon as I walked through the huge sliding double doors that gave entry to the main building.
Somber. Suffocating.
Those were but two words that could be used to describe the emotions I felt clinging to my skin in the air as I walked to the stairwell. The lines for the elevators were long, and I didn’t want to get stuck in conversation while waiting for one to arrive.
Betty Lou was on the fourth floor, and by the time I reached it, I was almost out of breath. Evidently, my fitness had gone down the drain lately, partly because the key lime pie in my hands was smelling good despite the fact it was cold.
I wanted pie more than I wanted oxygen. That wasn’t a good sign.
With a silent vow to get off my butt and workout, I pushed the door to the floor hall open and braced myself for the silent, sterile environment that was waiting for me.
It hit with a chilling vibe.
Someone on this floor had died.
Today.
And I hoped like hell it wasn’t Betty Lou. The witching community needed her, despite my grandmother’s insistencies otherwise.
I approached the ward door and pressed the buzzer.
“Yes?” came the friendly, warm voice from the other end.
“Hi. I’m here to see Betty Lou Harper? It
’s Avery Thorn.”
A buzz of silence, and then, “The door is open, sugar. Come on in.”
I did just that.
Compared to the hall, the ward was alive with noise. The air was light and breezy, barely a hint of darkness beneath it all. Laughter and chatter reigned supreme over the unbearable silence from the hall, and smiles greeted me as I reached the nurse’s station.
“Avery Thorn?” a fairy of obviously Asian descent asked with a beaming smile.
“That’s me.”
“Come with me. She said she’s expecting you.” She got up and fluttered along the hall, barely waiting for me to follow her at all.
I wasn’t surprised to hear that she was expecting me. Not much escaped her. You had to be incredibly powerful to get yourself past Betty Lou Harper.
“Mrs. Harper? Avery Thorn is here to see you, and if my senses ain’t deceivin’ me, she’s brought your favorite pie.”
There was a grunt from the room, followed by a low chuckle. “Those Thorns know my weak spot. Thank you, Clara. I’ll see her now.”
Even in the hospital, she was the epitome of professional. It was amazing.
Clara stepped aside, winking, and left me to see Betty Lou.
I stepped into the private room. She lay back on a bed, watching Friends on the TV. The table next to her was laden with grapes and candy and water, and she wore a pair of pajamas with avocados all over them.
Her dyed fire-red hair was pulled into a bun as she looked at me with her bright green eyes. “Avery Thorn. I was expecting you but at my office rather than here.”
I swallowed. “Yes, ma’am.”
“You found us, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
So did she. Slowly. “Thank you. You saved my life. Finding me when you did, allowed the wonderful doctors here to treat me.”
“Well, in that case, I’d thank Grandma. Pest or not, she was the reason I was there.” I let the door shut behind me. “Aunt Rose baked you a key lime pie.”
“Thank goodness, some real food. Would you set it on the table for me?”
I did as she’d asked and sat on the chair. “How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been better, Avery, I won’t lie, but I’m feeling good. Like I said—thanks to you, they were able to save my life. And Cherry, I suppose.” Her mouth curved into a smile. “I assume you came to see me to report her binding to the farm?”
