Hexes and Haunts (Witch Haven Mystery - a fun cozy witch paranormal mystery Book 2)

by K E O'Connor

  “I see something forming,” Ursa whispered. “Oh! It... can’t be. It looks female. It looks like...”

  My eyes flicked open. It took me a few seconds to process what I was seeing, but when I did, I was so shocked I forgot how to breathe.

  Standing at the other end of the table was the misty, ghostlike form of Luna.

  Chapter 15

  Odessa squeezed my hand as I continued to stare open-mouthed at Luna.

  I blinked rapidly to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. “Holy broomsticks! Are you both seeing this, or have I officially lost my mind?”

  Storm’s face was set in a grim expression as she nodded.

  Odessa swallowed loudly. “Luna, is that really you?”

  Luna floated closer, drifting through several chairs until she reached us. She smiled. “Wow! That was quite a ride. I’ve never been summoned before. You awesome ladies have power.”

  Disbelief made my heart race. “But... but you can’t be here. Not like this.”

  Luna tilted her head as her attention fixed to me. “Don’t be sad. I’m at peace. I have no problems now, and the ghosts have stopped bothering me. I have you to thank for that.”

  I shook my head so hard my ears rang. “No! You’re not real. You can’t be a...” I couldn’t even say the word ghost.

  “Let’s all take a breath,” Odessa said. “We need to figure out what’s going on. Luna, where are you?”

  Luna spread her arms out. “I’m free. I feel no pain. I’ve moved on.”

  “Where have you moved to?” Storm said. “We were trying to summon the spirit Indigo trapped in her ghost jar. The one from your apartment. We didn’t expect to summon you.”

  Luna laughed. “I’m still getting used to my new situation. Everything happened so fast. I’m not sure where I am, but it feels safe. It doesn’t feel like I have anything to worry about. Which means none of you need to worry either.”

  “Of course, we’re going to worry.” My voice was hoarse because my throat was so tight with emotion. “You got taken from the hospital while you were sick. And now this. Do you remember what happened to you?”

  She drifted slowly from side to side. “I... I don’t remember that. I remember you coming back to Witch Haven, and me asking for your help. I remember the ghost causing trouble. I got sick because it attached itself to me. Then I felt better. After that, it’s a blur.”

  “Who killed you?” Storm said. “Tell us who took you from the hospital, and we’ll make them pay.”

  “No! No one’s getting hurt. There’s no need. Not when I’m so happy.”

  “You can’t be happy. You’re dead!” I said.

  Odessa had tears in her eyes, and even Storm looked on the verge of crying.

  I was still too shocked to process all of this. I’d failed Luna. I was supposed to help her with her ghost problem and give her her life back. Instead, I’d contributed to her death. This was the worst possible outcome.

  “Please, don’t be unhappy,” Luna said. “You’re my closest friends and I love you all dearly, but I don’t need your help anymore. In fact, I’m here to help you.”

  “You want to help us?” I said. “With what?”

  “I heard you summoning a ghost, so I came to see if I could assist. Now I’m one of the ghostly gang, I can easily speak to other spirits. I don’t even need to use my magic to do it.”

  “Luna, I’m so sorry. I messed up. You weren’t supposed to die,” I said.

  “Oh, Indigo. This isn’t your fault. Accidents happen.”

  “Your death was an accident?” Odessa said.

  Luna floated about for a few seconds. “I don’t know. It may have been.”

  “If that ghost killed you, I won’t rest until it’s punished,” I said.

  “No! Don’t go revenge ghost hunting,” Luna said. “You don’t want any more deaths on your conscience.”

  I hung my head in shame. “You can’t kill a ghost.”

  “True, but your dark days are over. You’re a good witch. That’s enough revenge talk. Besides, I want to be useful. And helping you is the least I can do. After all, you risked everything when you stayed in Witch Haven to solve my problems.”

  “Which I’ve epically failed to do,” I said. “Luna, is this really happening? Somebody pinch me. I need to wake up from this nightmare.”

  “We all do,” Odessa said. “But I think it is happening. Luna, are you sure there’s nothing we can do for you?”

  “No, and it’s my turn to be of service to you. I can sense a mysterious presence in this house. I can take it away if that’s the problem.”

  “Yes! It must be the problem I’ve been struggling with. Do that,” Ursa said. “I want my house returned to normal, which is something your useless friends have failed to help me with.”

  “No! Stay here, Luna. We need to find out what happened to you,” I said. “Don’t you care that you’re dead?”

  Luna nodded at Ursa as if she hadn’t heard me. “It would be my pleasure to free this house from one of its many burdens.”

  “Many burdens?” Ursa scowled. “This house isn’t burdened.”

  “I disagree.” Luna patted a head of one of the dolls sitting on the table. “You have such pretty dolls. Evil, but pretty.”

  Ursa stared at her dolls. “Thank you, I think. Your friends don’t have such good taste.”

  “Oh, my friends all have great taste,” Luna said. “Now, give me a minute to look around. I’ll find the source of your latest trouble and deal with it.”

  I shared a stunned look with Odessa and Storm. This was too weird. Why didn’t Luna care how she died?

  “Luna, we really need to talk about this,” Odessa said.

  “I’ll be back in two shakes of a broomstick.” Luna vanished.

  “Hello, is there anyone here?”

  “Who’s that interrupting?” Ursa turned to the door.

  “It sounds like Albert,” I said.

  Ursa hurried to the dining room door and pulled it open.

  Albert Black stumbled through the doorway, his eyes wide, and his thinning hair sticking up on his head. “Oh, I’m so glad I found you. I heard you might be here.” He nodded at Ursa, but his attention was on me. “Forgive the intrusion, but I had to find you, Indigo. I’ve got news about Luna.”

  I glanced at my friends, guilt racing through me. “So have I. And it’s not good news.”

  “Oh! My news is excellent. I know what happened to her.” He hurried to the table and leaned his hands flat on it as he caught his breath.

  “You do?” I looked around for any sign of Luna’s ghost returning, but she had yet to make a reappearance.

  He nodded. “Yes! She’s dead.”

  My mouth opened, but I didn’t know what to say.

  Odessa took charge. She pushed back her seat and hurried to Albert. “Yes, she seems to have left us. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  He smiled. “It’s fine.”

  “Are you really okay?” I said. Luna had been his only family, and it was no secret how much he’d been struggling since she disappeared.

  Albert nodded. “It’s good news, like I said. It means—”

  Ursa gasped and her hand went to her chest. “Did you all feel that? The hex has been lifted. It suddenly feels much lighter in here. Luna must have neutralized the magic.”

  Albert looked around, his expression bemused. “Luna is here?”

  “Possibly. We’re still figuring out that mystery,” I said. “How did you learn about what happened to Luna?”

  He rubbed his chin. “She told me.”

  Ursa bustled to the table. “Luna’s done it. I never thought much of Miss Grimstone, she always had her head in the clouds and her baked goods were often questionable, but she’s succeeded when you all failed.”

  “It looks like it. But if Luna fixed your hex, she’d have come back and told us,” I said.

  “Why? She’s not bothered with you anymore. Luna has a new life. Well, a new death to ex
plore.” Ursa brushed away my comment with a hand.

  “She wouldn’t have left without saying goodbye to us.” I stared around the room, hoping to see Luna. I had so many questions for her. “We need to know how she died.”

  “And if anyone had anything to do with it,” Storm said.

  Albert chuckled. “Forget all about that. Everything is fine now. There’s no need to worry.”

  He sounded just like Luna, waving away concerns about her death.

  Ursa scooped up the dolls from the table. “Luna is my fairy godmother. She’s finally helped this house find peace.”

  Albert nodded, a smile on his face. “She always was a good girl. She liked helping other people and had a kind heart.”

  “Albert, if you don’t mind me saying, you don’t seem sad that Luna is no longer with us,” I said.

  “Why should I be sad? I know the truth. I don’t need to wonder about what happened to her,” he said.

  Ursa walked to the door. “Indigo, your work here is done. It’s time you all left.”

  “No. We should stay. Luna will come back,” I said.

  “Luna has done what she needed to for me. She discovered the hex and removed it.” Ursa arched her thin eyebrows. “Out you go. I’ve had enough of witches cluttering my home and making unacceptable demands.”

  “I don’t want to leave until we learn that Luna’s okay,” I said. “I mean, of course, she’s not. After all, she’s dead.” I was still struggling to get my head around this.

  Ursa walked over and snuffed out the candle with her fingers. “You’ve overstayed your welcome. And I have a mess to clean up.” She glared at Storm.

  I looked at Odessa and Storm. This felt horribly wrong. Had we really just seen Luna, or was something playing tricks on us?

  I stood and walked around the room. The house did feel different. The oppressive, stuffy atmosphere was gone, and the whole place seemed less tense.

  “What do you reckon, Nugget?” I stared out the window. “Is this case closed? Is my best friend really dead?”

  “All I know is something weird happened here. I can’t tell you what, but even the stuffed animals staring at us from the corner seem more relaxed. Maybe Luna did come to see us. It could have been her way of saying goodbye. She helped you out one last time.”

  I sniffed back tears. It still felt wrong to me.

  “Everybody out,” Ursa said. “And I shall be telling the Magic Council about this.”

  I turned from the window. “What will you tell them?”

  “The truth. The job was completed.”

  I glanced at the others. “So... you’re happy?”

  “Not particularly. There were plenty of problems.”

  “You have nothing to complain about,” Storm said. “The hex has gone. The methods used may have been unusual, but the outcome was what you wanted.”

  “That’s true enough.” Ursa walked to a side cabinet and pulled open a drawer, then headed over to me and handed me an envelope.

  “What’s this?” I didn’t take the envelope.

  “Your payment.”

  “Payment!” I grabbed the envelope and opened it. It was stuffed full of cash. I had no idea I’d get paid for this job. I’d only done it because Olympus forced my hand.

  “I’ve taken out twenty-five percent of the final fee so I can replace my destroyed dolls,” Ursa said. “I’m sure Olympus will understand. Make sure he gets it.”

  “Um, Thanks. Do you need a receipt, or something?”

  “No. Now, no more dawdling.” Ursa shooed us out of the dining room.

  Storm and Odessa walked either side of Albert, while he waved his hands around and talked. He was being far too animated and excited for someone who’d just learned a family member was dead.

  The front door opened by itself, and we hurried outside.

  “You don’t want to linger out there,” Ursa said from the doorway. “The gnomes don’t like people lurking around.” She shut the door.

  I stared at it for a second and shook my head, then turned to Albert. He was crying, but also had a huge smile on his face.

  I walked over and caught hold of his hand. “You must be in shock.”

  “I... really can’t tell you how I feel.” He gripped my hand. “Good, I think.”

  “Tell me more about how Luna came to you.”

  “She came through to me while I was in the bakery. I thought I was imagining it at first, but she appeared in the kitchen and told me not to worry about her.”

  “Let’s get out of here.” Storm was staring at the foliage, her bat held out in front of her. “We’re being watched by something that doesn’t feel friendly.”

  “Good idea.” I hurried the group away from the house and out through the gates.

  “Albert, what did Luna tell you when she appeared?” Odessa said.

  “She said she’d left Witch Haven and then died.”

  “How did she die?” I said.

  “I don’t know.”

  “And Luna just left the hospital voluntarily?” I said.

  “She must have done.” He rubbed his hands together as if he was cold. “I was worrying about nothing.”

  “You weren’t. We all saw Luna when she was sick. You don’t recover from something like that overnight, even if you have powerful healing spells being blasted into you,” I said. “Are you sure she mentioned nothing about how she died?”

  “All Luna said was that she was happy, safe, and not to worry. And I’m not worrying. I know what happened now. I can move on with my life.”

  “How? You only know half the story,” I said. “Aren’t you curious to know why Luna left Witch Haven? Or how she died? What if her death wasn’t an accident? There could be a killer out there.”

  “Luna would have said if something bad happened to her. I trust my Luna. She was a good girl and always wanted to do the right thing. That’s why she came back as soon as she could. She knew I’d be troubled about her disappearance.”

  This was making no sense.

  “I have an excellent idea. You must come back to the bakery with me,” Albert said.

  “That’s sweet of you, but you must need time to process this sad news,” Odessa said.

  “I already have. And I want to celebrate.”

  “What have you got to celebrate?” I said.

  “Knowing that my wonderful niece is content. You must come back with me. It’ll be a reward for your hard work. And I imagine you’ve missed my baking, Odessa.”

  Odessa blushed. “I have, but you don’t want the stress of us being around.”

  He patted her arm. “The three of you were close to Luna. She’d want this. And you did so much to help her.”

  I rubbed my forehead. I hadn’t done enough. I’d only thought Luna was missing. I didn’t think for one second her ghost would suddenly appear and tell us all was right with the world.

  “I’ll go on ahead and open up. Anything you desire, it’s all yours.” Albert raced off at a jaunty jog, whistling loudly.

  “That was super weird,” Storm said. “Does anyone else think Albert’s not behaving like himself?”

  I raised my hand, and so did Odessa.

  “It’s a front,” Odessa said. “He’s putting on a brave face because he doesn’t want us to be concerned about him. Men can be like that. They don’t enjoy opening up about their feelings.”

  “He’s failed. I’m doubly concerned about him,” I said. “How did Luna appear so easily? We weren’t even summoning her. I wasn’t thinking about her. I wanted to talk to the ghost from her apartment.”

  “Maybe she came through because they had a connection,” Odessa said. “That ghost attached itself to Luna. When we summoned it, we brought through Luna instead.”

  “I think we should stay close to Albert for now,” I said. “There’s something off about this whole setup.”

  “I’m happy to stick around, so long as he feeds us,” Storm said.

  “Let’s catch up with him
. I don’t want to leave him on his own, in case he has a breakdown all over the cream pies,” I said.

  We raced after Albert, but he was surprisingly fast on his feet and was already inside the bakery, pulling out trays of cakes, pastries, and brownies as we entered.

  He waved us over to the counter. “Take a look at what I’ve got for you. And I expect you all want hot chocolate with whipped cream on top. Luna loved that.”

  “Hot chocolate would be great. But we can help make that,” Odessa said.

  “No, you’re my guests. I already have a batch brewing. And you’re not paying for a thing. Go sit down and I’ll bring over a tray of treats for you to sample.” Albert walked to the door and flipped the closed sign to open. “And while I’m here, I may as well get things back on track. There’s no point in denying my customers any longer than necessary.”

  Odessa seemed determined to offer her help, but Albert was already striding to the door. I tugged her to a table with Storm and we sat down.

  “I have so many questions, I don’t know where to start,” I said.

  “Same here. It makes no sense, Luna’s ghost just appearing to us,” Storm said. “Was that really her?”

  “It looked like her,” Odessa said. “And it sounded like her. But I’m sure she wouldn’t be so calm if she woke up dead.”

  “And Luna avoided our questions,” I said. “She wouldn’t reveal how she died. She ignored me when I quizzed her. That’s not like Luna.”

  “Some ghosts never remember their moment of death,” Odessa said. “So that’s not so strange.”

  “Luna would be freaking out if she got turned into a ghost. It’s not her time to die. This is all wrong,” I said.

  “What are you thinking?” Storm said.

  I waited until Albert had delivered a tray of delicious cakes and hot chocolate before answering. “We’re being deceived.”

  “By who?” Odessa mumbled around a mouthful of triple chocolate brownie.

  “Or what?” Storm said.

  I took a long drink of my hot chocolate and wiped my whipped cream mustache away with the back of my hand. “I don’t know. Something that doesn’t want us to keep investigating what happened to Luna.”