The Witching Hour

by Sara Bourgeois

  “Wait a second. Hold the phone,” Ginger interrupted. “Joe didn’t have vanilla? I so pegged him as a vanilla.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. I’d been as shocked as Ginger. “Nope, he had Mint Chocolate Chip, and he got sprinkles.”

  “Get out.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “So, what happened?”

  “We finished our ice cream and I hinted around about wanting to see a movie that was playing at the theater. He either didn’t pick up on the hint or he wasn’t interested. Either way, that was it. We ate our ice cream and left. He never brought it up or asked me out on anything like a date again.”

  “And, you didn’t ask him out again because you’re a chicken.”

  “That’s not nice,” I said, but she was kinda right. “Anyway, I don’t envy other people’s relationships. It seems like so much work. When the time is right, the universe will reveal my perfect match. Until then, I have to figure out who killed Regina before I get arrested for the crime, and I need to find my Cookbook of Shadows. I don’t have time for love.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “This is never going to work,” I said. “I’m just going to make the cupcakes and hope for the best.”

  “It’s your bakery,” Ginger responded.

  “I need to find my book. I should break into Regina’s house and get it. I know it’s there.”

  “You’re crazy pants.”

  “I need the book, Ginger. You should come with me. It will be safer for me to break into her house with my familiar with me.”

  “That’s a really dumb idea, Zoe,” she said. “I’m in.”

  “Good, we’ll go tonight while most people are eating dinner. That will provide an excellent distraction for our breaking and entering endeavor.”

  I was buzzing with excitement the rest of the day while anticipating getting my Cookbook of Shadows back. After I’d closed the shop for the day, I still had a few hours until dinner time. It was hard to sit still, so I put Ginger in my purse, and we went for a walk.

  Once again, I found myself standing in front of Morning Grove Cemetery. When I stopped, Ginger poked her head out of my bag.

  “What are we doing here?” she asked and scrambled down my pant leg to the ground.

  “I don’t know. I ended up here last night too,” I said. “I saw a ghost. It was a little strange.”

  “Is the ghost here now?” Ginger asked.

  “Do you see a ghost?”

  “I do.” I familiar voice said from behind me.

  Ginger squeaked and ran back up my pant leg to hide in my purse. I turned around and the ghost was there again. She wasn’t much clearer than she’d been the night before. The only new details I could make out were that she was wearing a long dress and had her hair tied up into a bun at the back of her neck.

  And then just like that, she was gone. Ginger poked her head out and looked around.

  “Well, that was no fun,” she said.

  “Yeah. I don’t get it. I have no idea what that ghost is up to.”

  “Let’s just go home,” Ginger said. “I don’t particularly like ghosts.”

  It was finally dinner time, but Ginger and I wouldn’t be eating. I’d already had a plate of mozzarella sticks and Ginger had a plate of sliced cucumber and yellow pepper. She was definitely the healthier eater of the two of us.

  I dressed for the occasion in black yoga pants, and a black tank top, and I piled my hair on top of my head secured with a black bandana. A black tourmaline protection amulet hung from my neck. I was ready for some ninja breaking and entering.

  Witch style.

  Ginger hopped into a black backpack, and I strapped it on. Along for the ride with her were a container of salt and my athame, that’s a magical knife. We were good to go, and I was ready to cast a protection circle if we needed it.

  I slipped my feet into black ballet flats, and we headed out the door. I walked along the sidewalk until we got about a block from Regina’s house. After that, I put a sneak spell on myself and crept through backyards until I got to her yard. I didn’t think anyone would see me, but just in case someone had their yard warded against sneak spells for security reasons, I ducked anytime someone had their curtains open.

  The fact that Regina’s back door was unlocked probably should have given me pause, but I was just thankful I didn’t have to try and pick the lock. I slipped through the door and locked it behind me.

  My search started in the most obvious room. I’d thought that if Regina was trying to use my Cookbook of Shadows to create her own magic, she’d have kept it in the kitchen. I’d been afraid that her kitchen would be a disaster. If no one had been there since her death, there might have been dirty dishes in the sink and food going bad in the fridge. But either someone had been there, or Regina never used her kitchen. It was spotless, and the refrigerator was completely cleaned out.

  I did find a rack of old cookbooks in the pantry, but none of them were mine. That would have been too easy. I looked on every shelf and then went through all of the cabinets. Ginger looked underneath all of the furniture in the dining room and living room while I went though the closets and the cabinets in the end tables.

  I’d been so excited about my book that I hadn’t realized how heavy the air felt in the house until I started to climb the stairs to the second floor. The house was darker than it should have been too. We couldn’t turn the lights on, but even the light from outside didn’t seem to penetrate the house well. It was still fairly early in the evening, and there should have been more light coming through the glass panels on either side of the front door, but it seemed as if the house had swallowed it up. The floorboards that made up the risers of the stairs creaked with every step, and it almost sounded as if someone was walking up behind me.

  Still, I had my protection amulet, and I needed to find my book. So I pressed on. There were a few rooms on the second floor, but only one of them had a bed. I went into Regina’s bedroom and began going through the dresser drawers.

  In the third one, I found a photograph of her and Jacob. They looked so happy, and I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to them. Why had they broken up?

  Ginger had looked under the bed and dresser. She climbed up my pant leg and sat on the edge of the bureau looking down at the photo too.

  While I was contemplating whether Jacob and Regina were one of those couples who fought all of the time but made up quickly, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

  I looked up, and Ginger’s little guinea pig eyes had gone as wide as saucers. There was something behind me, and it had Ginger so terrified that her little body shook with fright.

  When I turned around, Regina’s translucent spirit was right behind me. She was more formed than the ghost I’d seen outside of the graveyard. There was no doubt at all that it was her.

  She looked down at the picture in my hand and smiled a sad smile. She started to fade in and out as if she were losing the signal used to keep her visible to the mortal plane.

  “Regina,” I said. “Who killed you? You have to tell me who killed you.”

  She looked up at me and tried to speak. Her mouth moved as if she were saying something, but no sound came out. Regina’s ghostly hands flitted up to her throat and she grasped at her neck as if she couldn’t believe she couldn’t speak. Her eyes looked frightened and then she blinked out.

  “Dang,” I said. “Come on.”

  “We’re leaving?” Ginger asked. “That’s good. I’m all for leaving.”

  “I’m going to make tea from some dried Datura petals to enhance my psychic vision,” I said. “I’m going to go get the herbs and then come back.”

  “You’re going to come back?”

  “I am. If there is any way that Regina can tell me who killed her, I need to find it.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I had some dried Datura tea at my house in a small, brass container. After rushing home and retrieving it, I returned to Regina’s house.
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  If I’d missed the darkness looming in her home the first time, I didn’t miss it when I walked in the second. Ginger squeaked from inside my bag, and I regretted not leaving her home. I knew she hated ghosts, but I needed my familiar for what I was about to do.

  The last time I’d used the Datura tea was on my father’s birthday. I’d wanted to visit with him. He’d passed away several years ago suddenly of a heart attack, and sometimes the pain of missing him was just too much.

  I’d gone to his grave and used a Spirits Rising spell. It had been tricky to only pull him through the veil because I was surrounded by spirits in the cemetery, but most of them had been benign.

  The feeling I got in Regina’s house was that I wasn’t as safe. I had no idea what was drawing all of the angry souls to her home, but I didn’t have time to figure it out. I needed to talk to her and get out.

  I stopped in the kitchen and put a pot of water on the stove to boil. It wasn’t really necessary for the spell, but I was relieved when I found some sugar in the pantry for the tea. It was a powerful psychic enhancer, but it didn’t exactly taste good. Okay, it was disgusting.

  A little pinch of fire magic, and the water was ready. I made the tea and sat down at Regina’s kitchen table. I needed to clear my head for the ritual. It would have been better if I could have gone outside and drank the tea under the moonlight, but then I ran the risk of one of the neighbors seeing me. I could have tried a cloaking spell again, but I needed to save my energy for the summoning ritual.

  One cup of tea down, and I made another. The second cup I took into the living room and sat down on an end table. I moved the coffee table out of the way and dragged the end table into the middle of the floor. After casting a protection circle around it with the black salt I had in my bag, I laid my ceremonial dagger on the end table. Next to it I placed a small cauldron that I filled with herbs. I sat down on the floor and sipped the second cup of tea while Ginger sat in my lap scanning the room.

  As I swallowed the last dregs of sugary tea from the bottom of the cup, spirits began to appear at the edge of the circle. Some of them were decidedly malevolent. Two of them had pitch black eyes and gray mottled skin, and one looked like your average science teacher except that he held a ghostly machete in his left hand. Despite her fear, Ginger bravely ran around the edge of the circle using her familiar powers to strengthen the magical barrier between us and the ghosts.

  After several minutes of not seeing her, I finally called out directly to Regina’s spirit. She materialized in the corner of the room, keeping her distance from the malevolent ghosts circling me.

  “Regina, will you come into my circle with light in your heart and purity of intent?” I asked her.

  She floated across the room and into the protective circle. That seemed to anger the evil spirits, but they couldn’t get to us.

  “Regina, I’ve called you here today to ask you who murdered you. Can you answer me from within the safety of the circle?”

  “Thank you for trying to help me, but I’m afraid I don’t know what happened,” Regina’s spirit said. “One minute I was in my house and the next minute my spirit was being ripped from my body.”

  “You don’t remember anything?” I tried to mask the defeat in my voice.

  “I’ve been lost and confused every since. I can’t even remember seeing my body after I died. I think it was more than I could handle, so I just couldn’t see it. Now, I can’t rest until my murderer is caught. I can’t cross over to the other side. I’m stuck here with the things in this house. The things I attracted with my mistakes. I realize now that I never should have cheated and lied to people.”

  “I never expected to hear you say that.”

  “If I could get my life back, I’d do everything I could to make amends for what I did. I’d sell my house and everything valuable I own to help pay people back. I’d live in Sunny Acres Trailer Park and eat instant noodles until I paid them all back,” she said softly.

  I felt so bad for her. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to realize your mistakes too late to do anything about it. I wondered what it would be like for Regina if she couldn’t ever forgive herself and carried her guilt for eternity. My heart grew heavy for her. I could forgive her. That was a start.

  “I’ll find your killer, Regina. I’ll do whatever I can to help you, but could you please give me my Cookbook of Shadows back?”

  Regina smiled at me sadly. “I’m sorry that I took it, Zoe. It’s under one of the floorboards in the kitchen. I was hoping I could find a spell for unlimited money to pay the money back to the people I hurt, but all it would show me was spells for happiness.”

  “The book changes based on what you need most. It can be different every day. If money was what you really needed, the book would have given you a spell for that. It probably showed you happiness spells because you were so dissatisfied with your life.”

  “You’re probably right,” Regina admitted. “I hope you can find my killer and bring them to justice. If you don’t then I’ll be stuck here in the void between this world and the next forever.”

  And then she was gone.

  Chapter Sixteen

  When Regina was gone, I banished the spirits surrounding the circle. I knew I hadn’t gotten rid of them forever, but at least we could get the book and get out of the house.

  I walked around the kitchen looking for a spot where it looked like the floorboards had been cut. It would have been a lot easier if Regina had been more specific, but I couldn’t dwell on that. I was about to get my Cookbook of Shadows back.

  “What’s this over here?” Ginger asked from a spot near the stove. “It looks like this board has been cut in half.”

  I knelt down next to the board Ginger found and inspected it. I was sure my book was under it. I could feel it now that I was closer, but I had no idea how to remove the board. There wasn’t a handle or anything.

  “How do we pick it up?” I asked, trying to pry it up with my fingernails, but I couldn’t get any leverage.

  “I don’t know,” Ginger said with an eye roll. “Maybe try magic?”

  “Oh, right.” In my excitement I completely forgot that I could just levitate the board a bit.

  I waved my hand over the plank and got it to move up just enough to slip my fingers under. Levitation took a lot of energy, but I was able to manage moving the small item a short distance.

  And there it was. My Cookbook of Shadows lay in a metal tray under the floor. I scooped it up and held it to my chest.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said to Ginger as I felt the malevolent spirits closing in again.

  I was so happy to have my book back that I took it right to the bakery. It was getting late, but I really wanted to start baking. It helped clear my head. I could make some magical treats and come up with a plan for solving Regina’s murder. Baking also helped me decompress, and I needed to relax after dealing with all of those negative entities. I hadn’t realized how much it had taken out of me until I got away from Regina’s house.

  When we got into the bakery’s kitchen, Ginger sat on the edge of the counter looking at me expectantly. She wanted something.

  “What?” I asked as I placed the Cookbook of Shadows on the counter opposite my workspace.

  I would never dare get food on the book even though it wouldn’t be that difficult to clean it magically. Now that I had it back, I would take no risks.

  “I was just hoping you’d make some Blueberry Bliss cupcakes,” Ginger said quietly.

  “I could do that,” I said and started to open the book. “I don’t really need the book for those, though.”

  When I opened the book to flip to the Blueberry Bliss recipe, I didn’t need it but why not, there was a new recipe on the first page.

  “Peppermint Protection,” I said aloud. “That’s new.”

  “What’s that?” Ginger scurried down from her spot and up to the other counter to peer at the book.

  “It looks like a new
recipe. The book must think I need it,” I said. “Or maybe one of my customers needs it. If I make them, someone will show up because they’ve been drawn to them.”

  “Well, then maybe you should make them,” Ginger said. “I’ll get the candy canes.” She shimmied down the front of the counter and darted for the pantry.

  “Candy canes?”

  “Yeah, you’ve still got a bunch in here from last Yule. Hold on, let me check.” She went quiet for a second. “Nope, they’re not expired. You can still use them.”

  I looked at the recipe, and sure enough, it called for crushed candy canes. I unwrapped the candy canes and put them in a plastic bag. Ginger went to town rolling over them with rolling pin by balancing on it and rolling back and forth like she was in one of those exercise balls.

  “I’ll make a big batch and eat one in the morning. We’ll watch and see who comes into the shop drawn to the new flavor.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Ginger said before going back to pulverizing the candy canes into dust.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The next morning, I came into the shop at the regular time even though I already had a head start on my baking. It was going to be a busy day. I could just feel it.

  Since one row in my case would be taken up by the Peppermint Protection cupcakes, I decided to make Blueberry Bliss, Chocolate Cherry Cheer, Loud with Lemon, and Pumpkin Prosperity. I also baked a few dozen mini versions of the same flavors and boxed them up as prepacked baker’s dozens for the grab-and-go customers.

  My usual regulars were already outside the door when I turned on the lights in the dining area and unlocked the front door. I was on pins and needles with the anticipation of who would buy the first Peppermint Protection cupcake.