Southern Conjuring (Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries Book 13)

by Amy Boyles

  “We’ve got Flower,” I said. “We’re heading back, but we had a stop to make.”

  Betty glared at me. “Well get on back to the house. Someone there will tell you where to go next.”

  “Okay. We’ll be along shortly.”

  She stared at our surroundings. “Are y’all at Syl—”

  “Okay, that’s fine. We’ve got to go,” I said loudly, hoping my grandmother understood that she wasn’t supposed to talk about the fact that it was Sylvia’s house.

  I really, really hoped she wouldn’t say anything. I clapped my hands, and my grandmother’s head faded away.

  I inhaled a deep breath. “Oh crap. We’d better hurry. There’s no telling who all heard her.”

  “Not to mention she might say something now that the connection’s broken,” Amelia said.

  Cordelia walked past me. “Let’s get this over with and find out the truth one way or another.”

  I looked at the critter. “Where is the hat, Flower?”

  The possum shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know it’s here.”

  “Well, that should narrow it down,” I griped. “Let’s start looking.”

  We searched through the house quickly. It appeared that Sylvia Spirits kept all her hats in—you guessed it—hat boxes in her closet.

  “There are some really cool hats in here,” Amelia said after pulling a golden one out of a square box. “I wish I could own this many hats.”

  “People don’t run around wearing hats anymore unless you’re royal or you’re going to church,” Cordelia pointed out.

  Amelia nodded sadly. “I know. It’s a shame.”

  We opened box after box. A mountain of boxes lay behind us. We’d stripped the closet bare, leaving only clothes hanging like deflated husks of skin on hangers.

  I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes in frustration. “What a waste of time. Just another lie in the sea of lies that has been this entire situation.”

  Flower nodded toward the very back of the closet. “Wait. There’s one more box. That must be it.”

  Cordelia plucked the box from its spot high on a shelf. I held my breath as she opened the lid. She tipped the bowl toward us.

  “Empty,” she declared.

  I shook my head. “Let’s go deliver the possum to them.”

  “No,” Flower shrieked. “It’s here.”

  We started to leave. I reached my hand toward the door when Flower yelled at me, “It’s there. The hat. That must be it.”

  Sitting on a chair, a golden pointed witch’s hat gleamed in the lamplight.

  “How’d we miss that?” Amelia said.

  “We weren’t looking for it,” Cordelia answered. “We figured it was hidden away.”

  I moved to the hat. It was gorgeous—a real work of art. Sequins lined the sides, and the shape of it was perfect. Just the sort of hat you’d want for a Halloween party.

  My fingers itched to wrap around it. I decided not to stop myself. I plucked it from the chair and smiled. “Wow. This is beautiful.”

  Cordelia eyed it skeptically. “How does it work?”

  “Yeah,” Amelia said to Flower. “Now that we have it, how do we make it work?”

  The possum shrugged. “How should I know?”

  “You’re the one who told us about it,” Cordelia exploded. “If anyone should know, it should be you.”

  “Maybe you ask it,” the possum offered.

  While they were talking, I was mesmerized by the hat. It was truly gorgeous. I brushed my fingertips over the gilded edge. The hat itself seemed to tempt me to put it on, like it was calling me to wear it, but I didn’t give in.

  We needed to stay focused.

  But then a light went on in my head. “I will ask it.” I cleared my throat. “Hat, can you tell us about Sylvia Spirits and Snow Wigley? Every part of their relationship?”

  My body stiffened in anticipation but nothing happened.

  “You probably have to put it on,” Amelia suggested.

  I swallowed a knot in my throat. “You’re probably right.” But I was hedging because I could tell the hat had a lot of power—a lot. If I put it on, would I then be able to take it off? Or would I succumb to a force stronger than myself?

  I licked my lips.

  “I’ll do it.” Cordelia held open her hand. “I’ll put the stupid thing on. Give it to me.”

  But with all her angst and anger, I thought it was a possibility that those emotions in her would be amplified. That Cordelia wouldn’t do well to put on the hat.

  “I’ll do it,” I said. And before anyone had a chance to argue, I plopped the hat on my head.

  I was sucked into a whole different world. The question I had asked lingered within the hat. I saw images of Snow and Sylvia when they were much younger, talking.

  “This will make us the saviors of Magnolia Cove. We will be heroes,” Sylvia was saying.

  “By causing a blight?” Snow said in disbelief.

  Sylvia reached for her. “By causing it and then removing it from the town. Please, I need you. I can’t do this without you.”

  Snow shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Sylvia took her hand and squeezed it. “I’ll be right beside you. Neither of us will get into trouble. I wouldn’t let you take the fall for anything I’ve done. If something goes wrong, I’ll be there to help.”

  Snow slowly nodded. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

  The next image showed the two women in a whirlwind tunnel.

  “You have to channel the blight into something,” Sylvia was explaining. “It isn’t stable!”

  “But what?” Snow asked.

  Sylvia’s eyes glittered. “A familiar.”

  The next image was the day of the party. Snow was confronting Sylvia.

  “You used me as your pawn. All these years I thought you were good, but you’re not. You used me. I will not go to my grave with that knowledge. You will pay for everything you’ve done.”

  Sylvia glowered. “Rethink that.”

  “I will not,” Snow replied. “I’ll make sure everyone knows it was your fault all that happened.”

  Then later, when Snow convinced Flower to help.

  “All I need is for you to slip a paper into her pocket. Simple. Can you do it?”

  Flower nodded. “I can.”

  The images melted away, and I was left standing wide-eyed in front of my cousins.

  “Well?” Amelia said. “Did Sylvia do it?”

  My fingers trembled as I removed the hat. “She did. Told Snow that she would regret what she’d done and even pushed Snow to call the blight. She wanted to make it happen, but Sylvia didn’t want to be the one who looked guilty.”

  I shook my head sadly. “How could all this time—how could we have been duped?”

  Cordelia glanced sadly at the hat. “I don’t know. I feel the same way. That we’ve been taken advantage of. It’s a horrible feeling.”

  I squeezed her shoulder and looked at her sadly. “We’ll make all of this right. If it hadn’t been us who summoned the magic eater, Sylvia would’ve found someone else to do it. This is not your fault.”

  She nodded. “I’m beginning to understand that, but it doesn’t make it any easier to accept.”

  “Well start accepting it,” Amelia said. “Because that’s how it is. If you don’t accept it, you’ll go crazy. You’ll always blame yourself, and what good will that do any of us?”

  Cordelia snickered. “When did you become all wise and stuff?”

  Amelia hiked a shoulder. “I’ve always been wise; it’s just that you don’t like to notice or pay attention. I have all kinds of good advice to give. Like for instance, don’t let the past keep you from having a future.”

  I smirked. “That sounds like a refrigerator magnet quote.”

  Amelia nodded enthusiastically. “It is. Isn’t it great?”

  “No,” I said. “It’s cliché and silly.”

  Amelia’s expression fell.

 
; I wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I’m just kidding. It’s awesome. Now,” I said sternly. “We need to get out of here. We’ve got to take this hat and get it to Betty ASAP.”

  “Agreed,” Cordelia said, tucking the hat under her arm. “Let’s go.”

  We headed to the front door, and I was about to open it when a gust of wind blew it open for us.

  Leaves and small twigs hit my face. I shielded my eyes, blinded by the gunk filling the atmosphere. I sputtered and spat, spitting out dirt that coated my mouth.

  “What the…?” I managed to say before the wind subsided.

  The leaves died down. Looming in the doorway stood Sylvia Spirits.

  I smoothed the frantic look I knew I had on my face. Had to play this cool. Had to assume that maybe Sylvia didn’t know that we knew anything.

  “Sylvia,” I said quickly. “Thank goodness you’re here. My cousins and I had this idea that if we grabbed one of your hats that we’d have the perfect chance to get rid of Erebus.”

  “Yeah,” Amelia took over. “So we came here. We knew that obviously you wouldn’t keep the best hats in your store. The most powerful witch’s hats you own would be here.”

  Amelia’s gaze darted to Cordelia, who cleared her throat. “Yep. That’s right. So here we are. But we didn’t find what we were looking for, and we were just about to return to the house. In fact, we were on our way out the door right now.”

  Sylvia studied each of us in turn. I felt her gaze on me and did my best not to let my emotions take over. I was scared to death. My knees shook and my stomach quivered.

  Sylvia was an incredibly powerful witch. I was powerful, too. I was confident in that, but Sylvia also had an advantage.

  The hats.

  She knew how to use them at will, and that wasn’t anything I had mastered.

  Sylvia smiled kindly. “Of course. Come now. We need to get to Betty and everyone else if we’re going to stop the magic eater. Here.” She reached for Flower. “I’ll take the possum.”

  A sick feeling invaded my stomach. It felt like a hundred beetles were crawling around, trying to reach the surface. If I handed Flower over to Sylvia, everything would be lost, I knew that in my gut.

  I glanced down at Flower. The little fur ball’s eyes glittered with sadness. I dug my fingers into the balloon.

  “I’m afraid I can’t give her to you. We’ve got to take Flower to Betty.”

  Sylvia smirked. “I can help you, Pepper. You can give her to me. We can all go together.”

  I nodded. “Okay. We can all go together.”

  Sylvia shook her head. “You know I can’t let you leave.”

  Amelia audibly gulped. “What do you mean? We can all go.”

  Sylvia shook out her head of red hair. “I know the three of y’all know my secret. I can’t let any of you leave. Alive.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  “We don’t know what you mean.” I shook my head. “We can all go.”

  Sylvia clapped her hands, and the book of creatures appeared.

  Then the other words of the spell clicked into place. Chained double back and be the twixt, the one who controls you is the mistress.

  Then I understood. Sylvia was the original person who had us summon the creature. Double back. That meant the spell would double back from the blight back to her.

  We were so screwed.

  Sylvia sneered. “What were you going to do, get me to return Erebus? I’m not the one who summoned him, remember? It was the blight, that little creature right there.”

  “But you summoned Erebus because you didn’t want anyone to know it was your fault,” Amelia spat. “You got rid of Snow; why hurt everyone else?”

  Sylvia stroked her fingers down the book. “For so long I’ve kept my secret, and Snow kept it for me, too. But if I was going to get rid of her, I would have to get rid of everyone; otherwise they would suspect that maybe Snow wasn’t behind the blight in the first place.”

  “What?” I scoffed. “Couldn’t have your reputation ruined? You helped me. Before—you helped this entire town. Why would you now decide that things are different? That you have to hurt people?”

  Sylvia flipped through the book. “Because I have my reputation, and wouldn’t it be even greater if the amazing Sylvia Spirits saved the town from a magic eater? A magic eater that I also happen to control?”

  She laughed at the looks of surprise on our faces. Her eyes glittered with malice. “Yes, you thought the blight controlled it, but I do. As soon as the magic eater arrived, I worked more magic to control him. He only appears when I need him to.”

  She rolled her eyes. “That horrible Forbes Henry would already be dead if he hadn’t escaped the first time. Really that was a miracle.”

  “And you escaped,” Cordelia said.

  Sylvia threw her head back and laughed. “I didn’t escape. The creature never appeared.”

  My stomach twisted. How stupid I’d been. How absolutely completely stupid not to have seen what Sylvia was—someone who lived for themselves and did every selfish thing to help her. She didn’t care about Magnolia Cove or any of us—she cared about how she came out in the end after all this.

  I felt like I’d been taken for a ride. From the sour expressions on my cousins’ faces, I had the feeling they felt the same way.

  “So what do we do now?” I said.

  “Now we have a moment where the magic eater’s brain goes a little haywire and he kills the three of y’all.”

  The hair on the back of my neck rose. “You wouldn’t. We have a history—all of us.”

  Sylvia shrugged. “It’s every woman for herself.”

  With that, she clapped her hands and a mist appeared in the center of the room. Erebus rose, his twisted face making horror course through my veins.

  Sylvia pointed a bloodred fingernail at us. “Take the three women.”

  I shot a look to my cousins, and that was when all hell broke loose.

  I tucked Flower under my arm and the three of us scurried for the door, but Erebus was too fast. The magic eater cut us off. He towered in front of us, his grotesque expression a dark reminder of the horror the magic eater offered.

  “The back,” I screamed.

  We turned to run, but Sylvia slammed the door behind us closed. She cackled. “You can’t escape, girls. There is absolutely no way to escape the fate of the magic eater.”

  I glowered at her sick excitement at our predicament. “You were our friend. You were a friend to Magnolia Cove and to all of us. You lied.”

  “Yeah,” Amelia said. “You spent your entire life lying to us about who you were. That’s an absolutely horrible thing to do.”

  Sylvia shrugged. “Just because I’m a great actress won’t save your lives.”

  “Won’t it?” Cordelia shouted.

  Her foot lashed out and kicked the book from Sylvia’s hands.

  “No,” Sylvia screamed.

  The book flew through the air toward Amelia. “Grab it,” Cordelia shouted.

  This entire time we hadn’t known who’d actually summoned Erebus. Now that we knew, so many other things clicked into place.

  The reason why Erebus wouldn’t return to the book before was that we didn’t know who was controlling him. Only the person controlling him could get him back in the book—pure and simple.

  Now we knew who had him, but we also had the book.

  “Get that book,” Sylvia screamed.

  But Erebus had still been commanded to kill the three of us—and he was headed straight for Amelia.

  “Let me out of the bubble,” Flower shouted. “I can help.”

  With a single thought I popped the bubble, and Flower scampered across the room and launched herself at Sylvia.

  “Throw me the book,” I shouted at Amelia.

  “Gladly.” She tossed it to me, and I caught it in one hand.

  Erebus whirled toward me. We had to have enough time to figure out a way to take control back from Sylvia. If we even could.
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  Right now Sylvia fought off Flower, who was biting at the witch’s shoulders.

  “Get off me,” she shouted.

  My brain couldn’t work on too many problems at once. The most important obstacle was Erebus and staying alive. As the magic eater closed in on me, I turned to Amelia.

  “Catch!”

  She nabbed the book from the air. We couldn’t keep this game up all night. There was no way. At some point one of us would stumble, and that would be the end.

  “Throw the book to me,” Cordelia yelled.

  Amelia tossed it to her, and Erebus whirled on my cousin. I was about to shout that I was open when Sylvia’s voice broke over the chaos.

  “That’s enough,” she yelled.

  Everyone stopped, even Erebus. Sylvia stood by the closed front door, claw marks streaking down her cheek, anger flashing in her eyes.

  She held Flower by the scruff of her neck. “Y’all thought you could defeat me, really? I’ve been at this game for too long and have fought too hard for everything to go sour now.”

  Sylvia extended her free hand to Cordelia. “Now, give me the book and this will all be over quickly. Before you know it, really.”

  Cordelia hesitated. She glanced at each of us. Amelia seemed not to notice. Instead she opened her backpack and pulled out a mason jar.

  It was one of the jars she’d been tasked with cleaning.

  It was now spit shined and practically gleaming. “You know, for days now I didn’t think these had much power. I didn’t think they did anything helpful.”

  Sylvia glared at Amelia, who continued, unperturbed. “I asked myself why Erasmus Everlasting would make me take them home—why would I have to polish so many of them? It took me a while, but I finally figured out the best way to use them.”

  “What’s this got to do with me?” Sylvia asked.

  “Oh,” Amelia said, doe-eyed, “it doesn’t have anything to do with you. I never thought it did. The only thing this would affect is Flower.”

  The possum’s face lit up. “Me?”

  Amelia nodded. “Yep. You. You see, this jar separates things—egg whites from yolks, oil from water—whatever you put inside.”

  Amelia slowly unscrewed the lid. “But the other thing I’m pretty sure it would separate is a spirit from a body. Like I said, it took me a while to figure that out, but I think it could be done.”