The Cursed Lantern: A Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mystery (Paranormal Artifacts Cozy Mysteries Book 3)

by Tegan Maher

  Table of Contents

  The Cursed Lantern

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Connect with Me

  Other Books by Tegan Maher

  About Tegan

  THE DEADLY DAIQUIRI CHAPTER ONE

  © 2020 Tegan Maher

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, by any means electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system currently in use or yet to be devised.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or institutions is entirely coincidental.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal use and may not be re-sold or given away to others. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase a copy for that person. If you did not purchase this book, or it was not purchased for your use, then you have an unauthorized copy. Please go to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting my hard work and copyright.

  Chapter One

  "Land ho!"

  I held onto the brace at the bow of the sailboat, one leg bent so I could rest my foot on the cooler, and smiled at Larry's pirate speak. Even when we hadn't lost sight of land all day, the swarthy captain always announced it anyway when we got close to shore.

  "Between the cocked leg and the bandana, you look like a rum commercial," my best friend Eli called over the ocean breeze, grinning as he navigated toward me using the sail lines to balance himself. With his dark, shoulder-length hair that he'd taken to wearing in a low ponytail, his deep tan, and the two days' worth of scruff he'd decided was sexy, he didn't have much room to talk.

  I shoved a chunk of purple hair that had escaped said bandana behind my ear, for all the good it did. My fingers hadn't even cleared my chin before the wind had whipped it across my face again.

  I bumped him with my elbow once he was standing beside me. "Or maybe you're just thinking about the pineapple fizz we're gonna have when we get back."

  Our favorite bartender had concocted the recipe just for us. It was sweet but not too sweet and had just enough rum to give you the fuzzies but not so much that you fell on your face after just one. It was the perfect cocktail to enjoy after a day on the water, or at any other time, for that matter.

  We stood together in comfortable silence for a few minutes enjoying the view of Marauder's Bay, our little seaside town, as we got closer. The Gulf of Mexico lapped gently at shores that sloped up to the boardwalk edging well-kept but weather-worn shops painted in bright pastels. In the background, the dome of the courthouse marked the center of town, and a few fluffy white clouds dotted a cerulean sky.

  "Trim the mainsa'l!" Larry hollered over the luffing sound of the giant white sheet of canvas snapping behind us, and we moved to lower it so that we could motor into the marina.

  "Not much of a haul today," Larry grunted after we'd anchored, his peg leg tapping on the fiberglass deck as joined us.

  He was referring to the handful of coins and sea glass Eli and I had gathered from the sea floor, a hobby we indulged in nearly every weekend. Though we rarely found much, what we did scavenge made for good souvenirs that drew people into Parker's, my family's antique shop.

  Scooping up the small bag of loot, I climbed over the boat's safety rope and onto the short gangplank that led to the dock. "Nah, but the few things we got will make for good souvenirs, and it was a great day to be on the water."

  The grizzled old man kissed the Saint Elmo's medallion hanging from a chain around his sunburned neck. "T'was, lass, and hopefully none o' the tidbits be cursed."

  I wasn't sure the patron saint of sailors had much say in that. Still, after the few months we'd had, I'd take a blessing from any deity he wanted to invoke if it kept us from dredging up any other magical uglies during our dives.

  "Me too, Larry, me too."

  After we'd helped tie off the Sea Urchin, Eli and I headed up the wooden docks toward the parking lot while Larry stayed behind to finish up the little things that needed taking care of. A familiar burst of longing washed over me as we left the docks. I always felt a little sad when I left the sea behind even though I knew it was always there whenever I needed to clear my head.

  I'd been doing that a lot more since Eli and I had dug up a treasure chest filled with cursed artifacts a few months ago. I wasn't much for superstition, but I also didn't believe in coincidences or accidents when it came to magic. I'd spent a lot of hours sitting on the shore wondering why Fate had seen fit to saddle me with the burden.

  She probably hadn't figured I'd be dumb enough to turn them loose on the community before I'd cleansed them of the curses, though, so I couldn't hardly blame her. Then again, she was Fate. Wouldn't she have foreseen that?

  "Hurry up, Sage. I'm starving, and haven't been able to stop thinking about a pineapple fizz since you mentioned it." Eli's voice snapped me back to reality, and I shook my head and turned my attention back to my surroundings. He was standing impatiently beside the passenger door of my mustang, brows raised and tanned arms crossed as I took one final look out to sea.

  I opened the trunk and dropped in the back of goodies we'd scavenged, then slammed it shut. "Untwist your knickers. I'm getting there."

  Once in the car, I kicked the AC on high and turned it toward my sweaty face. The thermometer had to be bouncing off a hundred degrees, or close to it. The dead of summer wasn't the best time to be a Floridian unless you had a pool—or an ocean—and didn't have to do anything outside. Thankfully, we had both, and neither of us had jobs that required us to work outside.

  Eli popped to attention and pointed at something across the lot. "Who's that?"

  I followed where he was pointing. A middle-aged redheaded woman in a cream linen suit was smiling toward the docks. Larry rushed toward her, smiling to beat the band, and my brows about shot off the top of my forehead when he leaned forward and kissed her smack on the lips.

  Though Larry played the part of a swashbuckling pirate to a tee, in reality, he was an educated man with a master's degree in astronomy. Rather than pursue a career in academia, though, he preferred to live the simple life of a fisherman. Not that I believed the woman was out of his league, but she didn't seem to be his type.

  I glanced over at Eli, who looked as shocked as I felt.

  "I did not see that coming. If I had to pick a woman for him, I'd have passed her right by." He squinted and leaned forward, then gasped. "The woman's wearing Louboutins for Pete's sake!"

  Not that I was a shoe aficionado, but even I recognized the red soles when she stood on tip-toes to give him another kiss. I waggled my brows. "Don't you mean for Larry's sake?"

  Eli rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Really? We catch Larry snoggin' some fancy lady and that's the best you've got? Besides, this isn't a joking matter. Who is she, and why didn't he mention her? We were out for almost five hours!"

  "Maybe he didn't want to face an inquisition." I loved Eli dearly, but he was as nosy as ... well, as I was. It was one of the many reasons we'd been best friends since grade school, though that hadn'
t been at the forefront in the beginning. We'd taken it to an art form as adults, though. "And snogging? Really?"

  He shrugged. "I just did an Austin Powers marathon."

  I crinkled my nose and cringed when it felt crunchy. I was both sunburned and covered in a fine layer of salt now that the sweat had dried. "Again? You've seen them all like thirty times." It wasn't that I didn't like them, but for me, they were one-and-done.

  I turned back to Larry and the mystery woman, who was following him back toward his boat. They were holding hands and laughing. Though I was insanely curious, I was also happy for him. He was a great guy who deserved to be happy.

  Eli pinched his lips together and shoved them to the side, watching for a few more seconds before they disappeared around the corner of the marina office. "So how does Larry have a girlfriend and we don't know about it?"

  "Who knows?" I put the car in first gear and headed toward the exit. "Maybe it's just new and he doesn't want to jinx it by talking about it."

  "At least he's going for it," he said with a knowing look. "You could be doin' your own snoggin' with a certain smokin' hot shifter we all know and love."

  My face burned hot as an image of Luther, the enigmatic man he was talking about, flitted through my mind, and I scowled as I turned onto the road that would lead us to town. "Zip it, Cupid. I thought you wanted rum, but if you'd rather talk about some dusty old fart with a God complex, I'll drop you off at home."

  "That's fine," he said with a knowing wink. "You may not admit it, but I see how you look at him. And how he looks at you."

  I ground my teeth together, barely resisting the urge to smack him. Sometimes I hated that he knew me so well. "And now you see how I'm looking at you. One more word—"

  "Fine, okay—I'll stop." He laughed, holding up his hands. "Just don't skip the rum. Anything but that."

  "Aye, matey," I replied, grinning back now that he'd agreed to stop nagging me about my love life. "It's five o'clock somewhere, so yo-ho-ho!"

  I did my best to shove thoughts of Luther from my mind. By the time we made it to the bar, I'd almost done it. That is, until I caught the flash of a raven's wing from the corner of my eye as we were walking in. That was one of Luther's forms, and I doubted it was a coincidence that he just happened to show up at the same time we did.

  Sighing, I shook my head. Some people just couldn't take the hint. I'd be sure to drop it a little harder the next time, maybe in the form of a bowling ball to his thick head. Some people just had to learn the hard way.

  Chapter Two

  Even though it was hot, I wasn't feeling like sitting inside. I whined about the heat as often as anybody—maybe more because, according to Eli, that was one of my superpowers. When it came down to it, though, I loved our summer weather, or at least, I didn't mind it. It was part and parcel of living on the Gulf of Mexico, and if putting up with a little heat was the tradeoff for living on the beach, eating fresh seafood year-round, and wearing shorts when everybody else in the country was in a parka, then I was all in.

  I pulled into the gravel parking lot of a tiki bar that catered to locals and tourists alike. Jaz, my favorite bartender and the owner, was shaking a cocktail, and my mouth watered at the thought of whatever fruity deliciousness was coming to life between those two frosty tins.

  He grinned and poured the foamy yellow contents into two glasses filled with ice, then topped them with club soda, dropped in a pineapple wedge, and set them on coasters in front of our regular seats. "Heard you comin' and figured you'd be thirsty."

  "You're an angel," I said, plopping my wallet on the bar and climbing onto my stool. That was one of the many benefits of being a regular—drinks came quickly and with a smile.

  One side of his mouth quirked up, and his blue eyes sparkled with humor. "How dare you? Most of those guys are wet blankets, and you can bet they wouldn't know a Mai Tai from a monkey. They wish they were me."

  Bentley, the Angel of Envy, was sitting across from us and scowled. "That's not fair. Our jobs aren't easy, and you get to work in paradise. It must be nice to just schmooze all day, then go home without a care in the world."

  I nearly choked on my drink trying to keep from laughing at the irony. The guy was the epitome of a wet blanket, which was why he was sitting alone in a bar full of people who knew him.

  Jaz turned to him, his expression mild. "Present company excluded, of course." He winked at us and mouthed, "Not really."

  Eli plucked the pineapple from his drink and bit into it. "So, speaking of working in paradise and schmoozing for a living, has Larry been in here with a lady friend?"

  "If, by lady friend, you mean Gina, then yeah, they've been in here every day this week." He glanced at the Sailor Jerry clock pinned to one of the round wooden beams that framed the bar. "In fact, it's about time for them to wander in."

  I nodded as a cool ocean breeze blew through the bar and sent cocktail napkins fluttering from the caddy in front of me. I tossed in one of the hand-painted rocks a regular made to weigh them down. "Yeah, we just left the boat and saw them. She was waiting for him at the marina. What's their deal?"

  Jaz raised a brow as he stacked clean beer glasses in the cooler. "Why don't you just ask him? You spent the morning on the Sea Urchin, right?"

  "Yeah," Eli said, sighing with impatience. "But that was before we saw them together. He didn't mention a word about her all morning."

  "You do know people expect discretion from their bartender, right?" The deep voice sent an unwelcome but pleasant shiver down my back, and I turned to find Luther, the guy Eli'd been hassling me about, pulling out the stool beside me. Surprise, surprise.

  The man was an enigma. The first time I'd met him, he'd been a stooped old butler barely able to shuffle through his mistress's house. Then when things had gotten hairy, he'd turned into this version of himself—tall, broad shoulders, and a way of looking at me that made me feel like a rabbit pinned beneath a lion's paw. He could also shift into at least one animal—the raven—a factoid I'd gathered when he'd admitted to spying on a private conversation I'd had with my ex, and he could read minds. To put it mildly, I had trust issues when it came to him.

  "Duh." Eli leaned forward so he could see around me, exasperation written all over his face. "But inquiring minds want to know, and our boy here has the beans to spill."

  Jaz cut him the side-eye. "If we could leave my beans out of this, that would be great. Your usual, Luther?"

  Mr. Tall, Dark, and Yummy, as Eli liked to call him, brushed a lock of dark hair off his forehead and glanced at our drinks. "Nah, I'll switch it up and have what they're having."

  "How do you know what we're having?" I asked just to be perverse. "This could be battery acid and soda." The man brought out a plethora of emotions in me, mostly because he was an unknown factor who'd just shown up in my life. I was both drawn to and irritated by the whole Man of Mystery thing.

  Luther laughed. "Then I guess that's what I get for being adventurous."

  His gaze caught mine, and my heart raced a little when he held it just a beat too long. His emerald eyes darkened and luminescent gold flecks appeared, and I ground my teeth together, irritated at the heat that pooled in my belly.

  I gave him a snarky, tight-lipped smile, crinkling my eyes and titling my head to really drive it home. "Okay, then, Jaz. One more pineapple fizz. Put the side shot of battery acid on my tab."

  Rather than take the hint, Luther laughed. "You're the most interesting creature I've interacted with in at least two centuries."

  I wasn't sure if that said something about me or him, but whatever. I took a long pull from my straw and focused on our view of the ocean. Seagulls drifted and dove, fishing for their supper, and a couple walked hand-in-hand along the waterline. I let the peace of the scene calm my churning emotions.

  While Jaz was making his drink, the strange yet familiar smells of Old Spice and Hawaiian Tropic drifted toward me. I didn't even have to turn around to know that Larry'd arrived. I did, tho
ugh, because I wanted to see if the redhead was with him. She was.

  Trying not to make it obvious, I elbowed Eli and lowered my voice. "They're here."

  I smiled as they took stools across from us but a few seats down from Bentley. Though the bar was decent sized, Jaz kept the tropical soundtrack low enough that conversation was easy. This was the place everybody went to hang out, chill, and catch up, not dance and party, at least during the day. The only noises you ever had to compete with were the squawking of seagulls and the whisper of the breeze blowing through.

  Eli jumped up and trotted around the bar, so I followed.

  "Eli," he said, introducing himself and shoving his hand out toward her, his generous mouth turned up in his most charming smile. He motioned toward me. "And this is Sage. We sail with Larry just about every weekend."

  She smiled back and took his hand. "Gina. I've heard a lot about you guys."

  That was funny considering we hadn't heard a word about her. Rather than say so, though, I tried to pick up any bad vibes from her. When I ran headfirst into a shield, it was all I could do not to react. Most people, even witches, relaxed and let at least surface stuff through in social situations. Not this chick.

  She arched a brow at me and curved one side of her mouth up as if she knew what I'd just done. "It's a pleasure to meet you, especially, Sage. Your family's reputation in the art world is impressive."

  "Oh, you collect?" I asked. My family—particularly my father—had an eye for art and connections out the wazoo and brokered several high-end sales a month. It was a big chunk of our income.

  "My husband did. He passed a few years ago, but he spent his life collecting rare art." She laughed. "That passion was all his. I learned a few tricks from him just because I supported him, but it wasn't my thing."

  "Oh, who was your husband?" If I could get a name, I could dig through our records for dirt.

  Before she could reply, Larry cleared his throat. "So, do you two need something? Gina and I were just about to order supper."