A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series)

by Kappes, Tonya

  “Not for Ophelia,” Madame Torres cautioned me. “Her profile says ‘MATCHED’ in big bold red letters.”

  Matched? Did Ophelia have a man in her life? Was he here with her?

  “Then for who?” A niggling suspicion told me she was holding something back.

  “Don’t get mad, but we think you need to find someone.” Madame Torres paused before she spewed words out like a volcano. “I made you a profile on Make-Me-A-Match.”

  Swaying a bit, I leaned up against the counter. “You what?” I put my finger in my ear and wiggled it. I thought for sure she said something about me.

  “Please don’t make me say it again.” Her voice was tight as she spoke. I could tell she was a little uneasy about saying what I thought she said…again.

  “I don’t think I heard you correctly.” If I did hear what she said, then we’d have an entirely different situation on our hands. I put my hands on my chest. “I thought you said you signed me up for Make-Me-A-Match.”

  I laughed, knowing I had completely heard her wrong. After all, I had Oscar, even if he didn’t remember it. That reminded me to get back to my potion, because he would remember when he drank my little concoction.

  “I didn’t use those words exactly, but something to that effect.” Her lips turned down in a grimace.

  “No you didn’t!” I grabbed the ladle off the counter and jabbed it toward her.

  Madame Torres’s shoulders rose and her eyes squeezed shut. “You aren’t going to shatter me with that are you?” Skulls floated in the globe around her head, and the funeral march chimed out of the base of her ball.

  Gently, I lowered the ladle onto the counter, flipped on the cauldron switch and decided to take a few deep breaths.

  “June, you have been so bummed and you need to go out and find someone like…like…” Her globe shined like the sun.

  “Like Oscar?” I asked.

  “No. Like you,” she warned.

  “I have Oscar,” I reminded her.

  “No you don’t. He doesn’t understand who you really are now.”

  “He will remember.” I started to pluck different ingredients off of the shelf. Most of the items I wouldn’t use, but I had to keep my hands busy or I’m afraid I would have picked up Madame Torres and smashed her against the wall.

  “No he won’t.”

  “Shut up!” I rushed over to her ball with my hands full of bottles and screamed. “He loves me! He told me!”

  “He told you that when he was a spiritualist. He denounced his heritage for his entire life.” Madame Torres’s lines creased on her forehead as her brows dipped, causing her purple turban to tilt forward. I secretly wanted it to cover her nose and mouth so she couldn’t breathe.

  Heat rose in my throat. I felt like I was going to be sick.

  “June, are you okay?”

  I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. A loud knock echoed and the door flew open.

  “Don’t you have a meeting to get to?” Raven Mortimer stood in the door way with a plateful of June’s Gems. I put the bottles on the counter and rushed over to grab one of the delicious treats that she named after me. “I thought you might need a stress relief before the meeting.”

  I stuffed it in my mouth. All I could do was chew and nod.

  “I didn’t realize how stressed you really were…” She moved across the floor and put the rest of them on the counter. Mr. Prince Charming jumped up to get a good scratch from her. Raven had the best nails in town. “Until I was baking my new batch of Gems and I saw a few things that might be of interest to you.”

  That got my attention. I swung my head around, gulped, and licked my lips. Nervously, I asked, “What did you see?”

  I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to know, but Raven could tell a lot of things without being caught by Rule Number One. She was a Dark-Sider who practices Aleuromancy. Forms appeared in the baking dough she used. Most of the time she would see a form and just the right customer would come in for that exact baked good or pastry, and with her fantastic spiritualist skills, she was able to know it was for them.

  “I wasn’t sure until now that these were for you.” She smiled, folding her hands in front of her as though she knew I was going to devour another one. She was right. I grabbed another June’s Gem but took two bites instead of one this time.

  She pointed to the door. “You really should lock your door when you are closed.” Her features hardened. “You never know what can happen around here.”

  I walked over to lock the door so no one else would disturb me, but Ophelia Biblio caught my attention. She was putting a glass box on the steps of Ever After with a chalkboard sign that read: Free Library. Take One, Leave One.

  That’s a good idea, I thought.

  Raven came over to see what I was looking at. “I had some doughnuts come up with the book forms in them.” Her voiced drifted off to a distant place.

  “What?” I asked. It wasn’t my intuition that caught me off guard, it was Raven’s odd behavior. She saw a book. Big deal.

  “It wasn’t just a book.” Her eyes made contact with mine. There was a red ring around her pupil. “There were some sort of daggers or arrows stuck in them.” She bit her lip.

  When I looked at her a little longer, Raven was not with me. There was a faraway look deep in her eyes as though she was seeing the image again.

  Her words and her actions made my stomach drop down to my toes. Instantly I thought of Alexelrod, but knew he would never hurt Ophelia.

  “What does that image mean?” I asked, but there was no response, like she didn’t even hear me. She sat straight as a stick with her hands neatly placed in her lap. “Raven?”

  Her body shook, bringing her back from wherever she was.

  “I’m sorry.” She smiled. “I have no idea what just happened.”

  Raven picked around the items on the counter and didn’t respond to any of my questions. She obviously didn’t want to discuss what she had seen, just like Gerald. It was strange that both of them saw something very disturbing and neither of them wanted to discuss it.

  “Oh!” Raven jumped out of her seat. “That reminds me. Your Gems were very specific today.”

  “In what way?” I eyed the free library, wondering if there were any potion books over there. Spell books were rare and hard to come by. That was why I had to see Aunt Helena at Hidden Hall A Spiritualist University and get the concoction for Oscar’s cure. I had one shot and one shot only. I brushed my hands down my apron and went back to the cauldron. There wasn’t any time to dilly dally with Raven when my heart was on the line.

  My eyes zeroed in on Madame Torres. Anger was deeply rooted in my soul from her match-making skills that were not needed. I grabbed the bottle of bitter cucumber and threw it into the boiling cauldron.

  “I have to think it was Darla trying to come through again.” Raven picked up different bottles and looked at the labels before setting them back on the counter. “Some sort of broken heart with a rope around it trying to keep it together with a “D” printed on it. Maybe she needs to see you?”

  If only, I thought as I stirred the pot before sticking in a small piece of Blue Darlwing. Once I had overheard that, the Blue Darlwing would bring back lost powers. On second thought…I reached over and grabbed another piece.

  “I think it has to do with Oscar. I’m sure she is trying to tell me to move on just like the rest of my spiritual guides.” I dismissed the forms because I wasn’t ready to give up on Oscar just yet. Haven’t they seen all of those articles that stated a person had to be ready to move on?

  I was nowhere near ready.

  “Could be.” Raven threw her long black hair behind her shoulder before grabbing an apron off the hook. She took the bottle of Thistle Thorax off the shelf. “Here. I heard this helped with restoration.”

  She winked when I took the bottle. Without even having to tell her what I was going through, she understood.

  It hadn’t always been this way with Raven. We met
at the University and had an immediate distaste for one another. Her Dark-Sider ways couldn’t be trusted, and I was the Dean’s niece who had a target on her back as the “new prodigy” in the spiritual world.

  Strange events brought us together and we were fortunate to realize we were more alike than not. That was when she and Faith decided to move to Whispering Falls and set up a new life since we had just become an open spiritual community.

  I glanced over at her. She still had the empty look in her eyes.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  She shrugged, and then walked over to see what I was doing.

  The liquid in the cauldron twirled, creating a mini-tornado in the air. Sparks flew up and a display of fireworks filled the space above the swirling wind before the pot completely stopped.

  “That was weird.” Raven stood back. She had the ends of the apron covering her face as though she thought I was going to let something explode.

  “Really? You think I’m going to blow up the place?” I asked and stirred the mix.

  “Well…” she laughed, “with your history and all. But it’s not every day I see a potion made.” She did have me on that one.

  “It’s not every day a man would give up his entire future for me.” My heart ached to think about what Oscar had done and that someone loved me that much. It was my duty to do everything in my power to reverse what the Elders had done to him.

  “I’m sure you’re right about the image, but I wanted to make sure that I told you and let you know what I saw.” Her lips curled into a half smile. There was something telling me that she didn’t buy into my reasoning, even though she said she did.

  The potion needed a little breathing room, so I walked from behind the counter. The length of the meeting would give it just enough time to settle. By that time, I’d know if it worked or didn’t.

  Some chattering outside of the shop was getting louder and louder. It was almost time for the meeting. The cure was going to have to wait a little longer. Raven and I watched some of the villagers pass by A Charming Cure on their way to the Gathering Rock, which was a neutral and spiritual place where all the meetings convened. It was located on the hill between my cottage and the village.

  Petunia was talking to someone outside of the shop. Her hand flew up in the air. It looked like a heated conversation between Petunia and Patience Karima.

  Earlier, I had told both of them to steer clear of one another in fear they would argue and fight, and it looked like neither of them took my advice.

  Petunia’s face crinkled and she turned on the heels of her shoes, stomping off in the direction of the meeting. Patience crossed her arms over her housedress staring at Petunia as she walked away.

  “If looks could kill,” I murmured under my breath.

  “What?” Raven asked from across the room.

  “Tell me about the images you saw for Ophelia.” I wanted to give Raven one more shot at telling me about the books and daggers. “I feel like something bad is going to happen and I can’t put my finger on it.”

  I wanted my prying to be on the QT with casual conversation, so I milled around the shop gathering all the stuff I needed for the meeting, which included getting some items for a pre-meeting smudging ceremony together.

  I figured I would do a quick smudge to create harmony since we had a lot of things on the docket that could create an uproar. Heading it off at the pass would bring the meeting to order and might bring some peace before the fallout.

  Raven sat on the stool that butted up to the counter. She planted her elbows on the counter and rested her head in her hands. She talked while I gathered the smudging sticks and ingredients and put them in my bag.

  “I’m not sure the images are for her, but there were several images of books that were ripped to shreds. Those daggers gave me the willies.” She lifted her brows. “And it’s not a coincidence that Ever After Books appeared right after I made the doughnuts.”

  “Hmm…” I grabbed a few Mojo Bags and stuck them into my satchel. If what Raven saw was true and it represented what was to come, I’d like to give one of the Mojos to Ophelia to keep her safe.

  Mojo Bags were my little creation in a drawstring bag that customers could take home with them to create a sense of wellbeing. Some of them are custom-made, but a general one for Ophelia would be good until I got to know her.

  “Did you know she is a witch?” I asked.

  “A witch?” Raven gasped, lifting her head off her hands. “Has there ever been a witch in Whispering Falls?”

  Raven hopped off the stool and followed me to the door.

  “Not to my knowledge.” I shook my head and flung the pack over my shoulder. It was time to go. There was a flurry of activity on the street from people rushing to the meeting and stopping to greet one another. “Now that we are an open community, I bet there will be all sorts of spiritualists coming in and out of this place.”

  The bowl of crystals on the table to the right of the door caught my intuition. Crystals were used for many things in the homeopathic world. I grabbed the bowl and dumped them into my bag. They would make a great gift to give out for the villagers who came to the meeting, not to mention, I could rub them with some cedar or sage before I gave it to them. That way they could put the crystal in their store or in their home with the purifying agent to help with any evil that tries to come into our community. And the way things were going, I didn’t doubt that something was on the horizon.

  I locked the door and pulled it shut.

  “Lucky for us, you are in charge,” Raven said as we made our way into the crowd and up the hill to a waiting community.

  Yeah, lucky for us. There was a nagging doubt in my gut.

  Chapter Ten

  “Good evening,” I greeted everyone with a smile and raised my arms to the sky. It was my way of letting everyone know that the meeting was about to begin and they could stop gossiping about Alexelrod Primrose’s strange behavior.

  The cloak that I had borrowed from Izzy was too long in the sleeves and torso, but it was going to have to do until I went shopping at Wands, Potions, and Beyond.

  I reached into my bag, grabbed a couple of handfuls of crystals and stuck them in the pocket of the cloak.

  Everyone stood around the Gathering Rock, forming a circle. They were shoulder to shoulder. I had never seen such a big crowd for a village meeting.

  I laid the bundle of sage, sandalwood, cedar and Frankincense on the rock and lit it. I blew on the flame to create the smoke that was needed to fill the air around us.

  Petunia Shrubwood stood next to Gerald with a scowl on her face, never once taking her eyes off of Patience.

  Patience wrung her hands in front of her with her eyes closed as though she were praying.

  I wasn’t sure who she was praying too, but I sent up a little extra whisper because I was sure Petunia had created a very strong case against Patience and wanted full punishment, which would allow Patience to stay in the community, but strip her from ever performing her spiritual powers in Whispering Falls.

  “Good evening, Petunia.” I greeted her and pointed to her messy up-do with the eagle feather sticking out from the top of it. “Is that for me?”

  She plucked it out of her hair and a little chipmunk scurried out and perched on her shoulder.

  “I’m ready to get this over with and get rid of those animals.” Petunia handed me the feather that she was so gracious to give me for every smudging ceremony from the bald eagle that lived at Glorybee.

  With the bundle lit, I walked along the inside of the circle and fanned the smoldering bundle with the eagle feather. I started from the head and worked my way down to the feet on every single person who attended the meeting. After each personal smudge, I took a crystal out of my pocket and rubbed it on the bundle before handing to them. Then I took the sage side of the bundle and gave them a quick wave with the feather.

  The sage would help drive away any bad spirits that might be trying to hurt our little com
munity. I made sure to look in everyone’s eyes to see if my intuition gave me anything, but it didn’t. Not until I got to Ophelia.

  “You can pass me up.” She politely stepped back out of the circle and clicked her heels together. For a brief moment, our eyes met. I was determined not to blink or look-away, like the strategy I had when I was on the elementary school play yard in a mean game of stare-off. Ophelia didn’t budge. The only reason I quit was because I had a meeting to hold.

  Once around, I stood in front of the Gathering Rock and waited for some of the community leaders, Gerald, Izzy, and Chandra, to take their places on the bench-style seating so everyone could be comfortable.

  “Where’s Faith?” I mouthed to Raven. Faith was supposed to take notes and give a brief synopsis of the meeting in the morning paper.

  Raven shrugged the old “I don’t know.” With or without her, I had to start the meeting.

  The Marys floated on the outskirts of the meeting with their legs and arms crossed, taking everything in.

  “Wow, this is a big crowd.” I didn’t want to be too formal. They knew me for who I was, not for someone I felt like I needed to be. “I would like to bring our first order of business to the forefront.”

  Petunia fidgeted in her spot while Patience whimpered into the handkerchief in her hand.

  “Petunia Shrubwood, can you please come forward and state your claim?” It was very difficult to sound so professional when it was in my nature to make everyone happy. Including the always crabby Karima sisters.

  Petunia stood up, running her hands along the front of her skirt. She tugged at the hem of her shirt, pulling it down before adjusting the sticks in her hair. She walked forward to the small podium. A white dove flew down and rested on her shoulder.

  I couldn’t help but wonder if it was a soul from the past. That was the thing with animals. When people died, their souls can sometimes came back in the form of an animal. A dove symbolizes love and peace, so I was sure that the soul that possessed the dove was a decent, caring soul who was looking out for Petunia.