by Lynn Cahoon
Christina shivered. “I’d move him out the door and down the street. Maybe the Lodge would want it.”
“You don’t like bears?”
“Not at all. And is that a picture of one of the students near the bookshelves?”
Mia frowned. She hadn’t seen any pictures other than the ones in the hallway, and she hadn’t taken pictures of those, had she? “Let me see.”
Christina handed her the phone, and standing between the bookshelves and the old desk was a young girl dressed in old-fashioned clothes. She hadn’t looked into the camera, but even from the poor quality of the pictures, Mia knew. She was a ghost.
“I don’t think that’s a picture.” Mia glanced up at Christina, wondering how much she really wanted to know. “I believe she’s a spirit.”
“Seriously? Maybe you should have built a business kitchen in town and rented a normal house to live in.” Christina glanced at her watch. “I’m running out for a while.”
“Spending some time with Levi?”
Christina shook her head. “No, just drinks with Bethanie. Levi and I—well, I think we’re on a break.”
“Is that what you want?” Mia could see the tears forming in Christina’s eyes.
She grabbed her jacket and a tote. “I don’t know what I want. Except a beer right now. I won’t be out late, so don’t finish cleaning the kitchen without me. I’ll be there first thing in the morning to work.”
“Everyone deserves some time off,” Mia reminded her.
Christina stopped at the door and turned toward her. “Exactly my point. You work too hard.”
“Go have fun.”
Mia grabbed her notebook and the phone and took them to the kitchen. Grans and Cindy were working with their heads down, studying the grimoire. “I guess you still haven’t found a reversal spell?”
“We haven’t found the spell she activated yet. We thought we had, but when we tried to replicate it, it had a different focus.” Grans looked over at Cindy.
Mia covered the laugh that came out with a cough. Cindy’s hair was a light pink. “Oh, I see.”
“Don’t laugh. It was deep purple a few hours ago. We’ve got it toned down a bit since then.” Cindy reached up and touched a lock. “I have to say, though, it feels softer. Maybe pink is my color.”
“I just don’t know if the spell will let you color it, so unless all your future acting parts are okay with pink hair, we might want to totally disperse the spell.” Grans pointed to the oven. “There’s a meatloaf and scalloped potatoes staying warm in the oven. Christina said she’d reheat some when she got back, so can we push back dinner to seven?”
“That works. I need to talk to you, though. Do you think we could carve out some time tomorrow?” Mia knew her grandmother. If she tried to talk now, Grans would never hear her. And she needed some answers: about the new library’s stored items, and a deeper talk about what her grandmother was keeping from her.
“Sure. Cindy’s a late sleeper”—Grans smiled at the woman so she would know it didn’t really bother her—“so we can chat during breakfast. I probably should head back home to check on things tomorrow for a few hours too. Maybe I have some books that will help us.”
“Oh, that would be awesome.” Cindy sighed. “It’s all so overwhelming. You would have thought that Father would have at least tried to train me in all this.”
Mr. Darcy let out a yowl that made Mia and the other women at the table jump. He took off from his spot on the window seat and ran to the back of the apartment. Mr. Darcy was having a bad day, but at least he’d returned and Mia didn’t have to worry about him.
“Oh my, I guess he had somewhere to be,” Cindy said, watching the hallway.
More likely he was objecting because he had tried to train you. Mia exchanged a look with Grans, who nodded. She’d been thinking the same thing. “Anyway, I’ve got some work to do, so I’m going to head to my room.”
“I’ll knock on your door if you’re not back out before dinner,” Grans said, then she turned back to the spell book.
Mia wondered as she wandered back to her room to do some sketching if Grans felt closer to Dorian as she paged through his spell book. It must be hard to grieve when the guy was sleeping on the window seat next to you all day.
Relationships were hard, as both Grans and Christina were finding out this week. On the other hand, Mia had a date with Trent to look forward to. A smile curved her lips. Trent was easy to be with. Funny and smart. Easy to talk to. She could do a lot worse—and had.
Mia stepped into her room and settled on the bed. It was time to plan. An hour later she had a reasonably clear sign that she liked. And a few alternatives in case her first option was too expensive to build. She wanted the sign in white, with the open hours on a removeable section on the top, if possible. She’d have to ask Trent about it. Then she wanted spotlights installed that would light up the sign at night. That would probably be expensive, but she thought it would look good. Classy. Like a Southern teahouse. She turned the page and started to draw out her new library, but the homeless man’s words kept circling in her head. The man, the man who lived on Drury Lane. Why did that sound familiar?
She pulled out the tablet she kept in her room for reading and watching TV shows and did an Internet search for the words. No Drury Lane in Magic Springs. Or in Sun Valley. She tried Boise too, but no luck. She was about to put away the tablet and go back to the library planning when she glanced farther down on the list and noticed a children’s rhyme.
She opened the link and nodded. That was why it had seemed familiar. It was a kid’s song about the muffin man. Did the guy who told him about the free money look like a baker? Or have a stomach that looked like a muffin? Or maybe smelled like muffins? Or—Mia froze—had he brought the guy muffins to pay for his time?
Mia nodded; that was probably it. Whoever had told him about the imaginary money being hidden in the kitchen had brought him muffins.
She texted Baldwin about her muffin man theory and the song, and then went back to thinking about her new library. The footprints had bothered her. Maybe Trent had gone into the room and that was why she’d seen the footprints. It had been a crazy afternoon. He could have forgotten to tell her.
She put away the thought for tomorrow when he picked her up. She’d call him, but he was at his folks’ for dinner. She didn’t want to bother him. Not for this.
She drew a floor plan of the library, using the pictures she’d taken. It would be a lovely addition to the apartment. And, if she was right, she could install a door between the back kitchen wall into the room. Maybe someday, when the business was stronger financially, she could expand the kitchen into the area as well. Just not now, not with her bank account. She was doing good keeping the lights and heating bill paid with the catering jobs she snagged. Soon the business would be busier. It took time. And the takeout portion was booming already. She might have to hire someone just for that sooner rather than later. At least someone to do the deliveries. As it was, she was stretched doing deliveries once a week.
She turned the page and started thinking about what she could make if she expanded that section of the business. She was knee-deep in calculations when a knock sounded at her door. She finished this one last note, then called, “Come in.”
“Dinner’s ready, dear.” Her grandmother crossed over to the bed, where she glanced at Mia’s notebook. “As quiet as it was in here, I assumed you’d fallen asleep.”
“No, I’m just daydreaming.” She turned the pages back to her sign drawing. “What do you think?”
“I love it. Lighting it at night would be amazing so if we did evening events here, people could see where we are.” Grans pointed to the top of the sign. “It would look more Southern if you added some flourishes on top and on the side.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Mia added some curls at the sides. “But I want to put a changeable Hours Open sign on top, where people can see it.”
“It could hang underneath if
you moved the sign up a little,” Grans pointed out.
Mia stood and left the notebook sitting on the bed. “I know, but I really wanted it at the top. I have to find someone to build it; maybe they can tell me if it’s possible. Oh, and we might have a ghost issue in the new library.”
“I can’t believe this place is so attractive to the other side. Why do you think there’s a ghost in the library?” Grans sank onto Mia’s bed as she gave her the phone, queued up to the picture of the library.
Mia watched as her grandmother studied the picture, then handed the phone back to her. “Well?”
“It’s possible. We need to get in there to see if we can call up anything. I don’t like dealing with spirits I don’t know. Let’s go eat, and Cindy can fill you in on what we found.” Grans left the bedroom and Mia followed.
The table was already set and the food had been served family style. Mia slipped into her seat and sent a big thank you to the Goddess for the meal. She turned to Cindy. “Grans said you had a breakthrough. What’s going on?”
“We think we found the spell. I’m going to try to break it tomorrow, and then I can finally go home. Magic Springs’s nice and all, but I’m missing my own bed.”
“Did you deal with the estate and property issues?” Mia dished up scalloped potatoes, one of her favorite dishes. She made a recipe just like this, but hers had a touch of sriracha for a little spice.
“I stopped by the real estate office of that low life Louis and told him to stop harassing me or any of mine or I’d sue him. We’ll see where that takes us. At least he knows now he can’t lowball us and get away with it. I’m not stupid. I shouldn’t have agreed to meet with him without Mike. Now he thinks we’re partners in crime or something.” Cindy took a bite of the meatloaf. “I’m really going to have to watch what I eat when I get home. I bet I’m up five pounds.”
“Stress will do that to you. You should go get a massage when you get home and wash away the emotions for a while.” Mia was long past what she considered her tune-up. She should schedule herself, Christina, and Grans for a spa day for the girls. It could be fun. Maybe next week.
“Earth to Mia. Did you hear my question?” Grans was staring at her. She’d only tuned out for a few minutes, but apparently that had been long enough to be caught.
She shook her head. “Sorry, no.”
“What are you going to do with that area? Maybe it would be better if you just kept it locked up.” Grans didn’t meet Mia’s gaze and she could tell she was hiding from something.
“Are you kidding?” Mia looked incredulously at her grandmother. “Even if we don’t use the space, we need to deal with the spirit. Whoever lived or died there is stuck between worlds. We need to help them.”
“Maybe someone’s tried before and they can’t get out? Isn’t trying again just cruel?” Her grandmother glanced at Cindy, who seemed to be on her phone. She shook her head, asking for Mia to let it go.
Mia let the subject drop and they finished dinner listening to Cindy’s boring stories about the ins and outs of a television actress. Stories that, apparently, she’d told before, because Grans corrected her when she went off the script from the version she had told her already. Mia wondered if Grans had blocked Cindy’s awareness of the ghost conversation.
When the dishes were done, Cindy disappeared into her bedroom. Grans nodded at Muffy and told the dog that she’d take him for a short walk.
“I’ll come with you.” Mia followed them out of the apartment, tucking her keys into her jeans.
“Oh, if you want to take him . . .” Grans started, but Mia pointed to the stairs.
“I’ve been trying to talk to you for days now. We have some time; you can tell me why the library is freaking you out. You want me to be protected, right? How can I be if I don’t have all the information?”
Grans didn’t talk as she made her way down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she clipped the leash onto Muffy’s collar and handed the lead to Mia. “You walk him, I’ll talk.”
They left the building and wound their way down the driveway to the county road. One way led into town, the other out to the riverbank. Mia let Grans lead. She took the river walk.
“I need to tell you a story about the house. First of all, I don’t think this has anything to do with the dead guy or the break-in.” Grans looked around the empty sidewalk as if she expected to see someone following them.
“Denny Blake. The dead guy’s name was Denny,” Mia corrected her. She needed to call Baldwin to see if he’d identified the homeless man who’d broken into her house. Names had power, and she needed all the information she could get in this situation.
“You’re right. Denny Blake, sorry.” Grans tucked her hands into the jacket she’d grabbed when they’d reached the front door. “This goes back before my time at the school. There was a death.”
“The girl who left through the tunnel?” Mia had heard that story before.
Grans shook her head. “No, long before that. I don’t think it was ever solved, and officially, no one ever talked about it. Which meant, of course, that everyone at school did. The girl was found in the library. She’d been choked. She was only fourteen. And she was a scholarship kid.”
“What, did that mean she wasn’t important?” Mia didn’t like where this was going.
Grans shook her head. “No, it was supposed to mean she wasn’t from a magical family. Most of the kids who attended the academy were from families who were in the coven. Daisy was just a normal girl. At least, that’s what people thought.”
“She had power?”
Grans nodded. “Enough to curse her killer. It’s said that the killer’s family would be stricken from magic forever. Now, there were several kids each year who didn’t pass the magical part of the exams. But that always happened. Even before Daisy’s curse. Now the story and the curse have been all but forgotten.”
“So why are we talking about this?” Mia was lost. She didn’t know why her guardian would want her to know this story. Maybe Grans had gotten it wrong.
“When Dorian and I started dating he brought up the curse and Daisy’s death. He’d done some genealogy, and he thought our family was tangentially related to Daisy. She was a great-great-great-aunt, according to Dorian.” Grans nodded to the bench where the river trail started. “Can we sit?”
“Of course, but Grans, what does this have to do with anything?”
Grans put her hand on Mia’s arm. “Because Dorian thought there was a faction of the coven that was trying to break the curse.”
“Okay, so how is the curse broken?” Mia figured she knew but needed to hear it from her grandmother.
“A descendant from Daisy’s line has to die. Dorian thought the coven might be going after you.”
Chapter 15
Mia sat on the bench watching Muffy sniff the grass while the river gently bubbled around rocks and waterfalls in front of them. She thought about what her grandmother was saying, but she couldn’t believe it. “Grans, there’s no way anyone thinks that killing someone will end a curse from years ago. If they even believed in the curse.”
“There are powers at work that we can’t control, Mia. I made a mistake bringing you here. After Dorian died I read his journal. He’s been studying our family for years. He wondered why we only dealt with the softer, home-based magic.”
“Why we call ourselves kitchen witches,” Mia supplied.
Grans sighed. “Exactly. What I’d been told by my grandmother was we were different for a reason. That we had turned our back on the darker magic that can eat at a practitioner. That our family was here to help the world stay in the light. To never be tempted by the larger spells that came with my grimoire. We have the spells and the power to do anything, Mia. We choose not to go there.”
“I just can’t see anyone holding a grudge that long.” Mia shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if their power had been taken away. If one of us paid the price for the
curse, it would mean the descendants of the killer would be unbound. That they could cast again.” Grans took a book out of her coat pocket. “This is Dorian’s journal. You need to read it before you try to talk to that ghost in the library. I don’t know if it’s Daisy or the witch who killed her, hanging around because of her guilt. But you need to be armed. And Dorian had a lot of information.”
“Do you think that’s why he started courting you?”
Grans laughed. “For the inside information? No, dear. Dorian could have gotten that just by asking. He and I had a strong bond. That’s one of the reasons he’s being stubborn about leaving poor Mr. Darcy.”
“He opened the door with magic a few days ago,” Mia told her.
Muffy came and sat at Grans’s feet, done with her wandering. Grans reached down absently and scratched behind the dog’s ears. “I was afraid that would start to happen. Dorian was too strong not to have a little magic left.”
The frogs began to sing from the riverbank, and Mia realized that dusk was settling in on them. “Maybe we should head back; it gets dark quickly.”
Grans stood and took Mia’s arm. “Now don’t you worry. Dorian felt like the chances anyone would come after you were slight, he just thought it was prudent for us to talk about it.” Grans paused for a minute before they crossed the street to follow the sidewalk back to the schoolhouse. She studied Mia’s face in the gathering darkness. “You’re a strong practitioner. I feel the magic in all you do, not just your discussions with the Goddess about food and community.”
“Is that a good or bad thing?” Mia asked her grandmother.
Before she could answer, Muffy started barking, and Mia realized there was a dark form walking toward them. And they would meet before the turn off for the driveway. Mia knew she could sprint to the house, but Grans? No way. She reached down to touch the can of pepper spray she kept on her keychain. It was a one-time-use type, but it would do the trick if someone meant them harm. As long as it hadn’t dried out or been damaged when she’d got it. Isaac had bought it for her because she’d worked long hours catering. It had been an easy way to seem like he was protective without doing something that would disturb his sleep. Like picking her up or even waiting up for her on those nights.
