Cursed at First Sight (Cursed Coven Cozies Book 1)

by J. C. Kilgrave

  I didn't want to win but losing to her made miserable. The only upside to the night was that Aunt Misty won one thousand dollars on a scratch off ticket that she found in the yard.

  “Why do you make that weird face when you space out?” she asked, giggling.

  I was in no mood to deal with her. If she was going to bug me than she was going to answer my questions.

  “Do you know anything about the glowing symbol etched into Mrs. Abernathy’s attic wall?”

  She looked down at wrist and pretending to check her nonexistent watch. “See ya!” she said before disappearing into thin air.

  She was totally doing that on purpose.

  “Why do you look so angry, Suzie Q?” Daniel asked, turning into my driveway.

  I had never been so happy to see that house in my life. I couldn’t wait to take a bubble bath, put on pajamas, and try to find the symbol in one Aunt Misty’s books.

  “Because you haven’t stopped talking. Not once.”

  He put the car in park and unbuckled his seatbelt. Watching him get out of the car, I had no idea what was running through his mind. "What are you doing?" I don't need you to walk me to the door if that's what you're doing," I said, getting out of the car and slamming the door as hard as I could.

  “I was not walking you to the door. I’m staying for dinner,” he said, making his way to the front door.

  “Oh, no you don’t. I don’t remember me inviting you to stay for dinner,” I told him, running to get in front of him and blocking the doorway.

  He looked at me with humor in his eyes. I knew what he was thinking; he was thinking that he could move me out of the way without breaking a sweat. He was much taller than me, I mean his shadow was even bigger than me, but he didn't know that I was a witch and I could have taken him down with my pinky finger and a spell.

  "I never said that you invited me. Your Aunt Misty did because unlike you she's a people person and very kind. You, on the other hand, are vicious," he said, knocking on the door behind me.

  “Malady Norwood! That is not how we treat our guests,” Aunt Misty exclaimed, pushing me out of the way without even touching me.

  Daniel smiled at Aunt Misty as he walked past me.

  He wasn’t my guest he was Aunt Misty’s and that meant that she was the one that had to put up with him.

  I wondered if everyone would notice if I didn’t show up for dinner.

  Chapter 14

  “Do you hate me?” Agnes asked, peeking her head in my room.

  I ignored her as I went over the paperwork for Mason’s case. She didn’t deserve for me to talk to her. I wasn’t upset with her for leaving me when we found the symbol (even though I could have died) I was upset with her for making me suffer through a horrendous car ride with Daniel and Alison.

  “Listen, I’m sorry. I was scared,” she said, sitting on the edge of my bed. Peeking up at her, I saw that she was looking down at the floor.

  It was so hard to stay mad at Agnes because she was so sweet. She looked miserably guilty and it was starting to make me feel bad. It was so much easier to have stayed mad if it would have been Abigail instead of Agnes.

  Sighing, I scooted over to her and hugged her. “It’s fine. I forgive you.”

  Lifting her head, her eyes met mine and she smiled with everything she had. “Really? You’re not mad at me anymore?” she asked, bouncing on the bed causing it to squeak.

  "I'm not mad anymore, Aggie. Being around Daniel just puts me in a very bad mood," I told her, tossing myself back on the bed. She followed after me. "After dinner, I need you to help me find that symbol in one of Aunt Misty's books."

  “Okay.”

  Heavy footsteps stomped down the hall and stopped in front of my room. The white door flung open revealing a livid Abigail. She charged toward the bed and shot Agnes a look so terrifying, Agnes roll off the bed and hit the floor.

  “What do you want?” I asked, throwing my pillow at her. She napped her fingers and it hit me across the face. Pillow fights in our family were brutal.

  She tried to mouth something to me. I knew what she was saying; she wanted Agnes to give their voice, but I couldn't help but mess with her.

  “I can’t read lips, Abby. You know this,” I told her, looking as serious as I possibly could.

  Agnes got up and brushed herself off. “What are you trying to tell us?” she ask her sister, pretending to strain to read her lips.

  Her facial expression read that she was as angry as a hornet. She once again tried to mouth to us what she wanted. We already knew, but it was funny watching her break a sweat.

  She clenched her hands and stomped her foot before walking out of the room. I knew it wouldn’t be long until she got the voice back and wanted to argue with me, but I didn’t care. I was a seasoned pro in dealing with the wrath of Abigail.

  "That was hilarious," Agnes said, tears running down her face and holding onto her stomach.

  Laughing, I heard something hitting my window. Getting up to investigate, I saw Christopher in the form of a hummingbird. That was a new one.

  Sliding the window frame up, I watched as his wings flapped until he was inside. He landed on the floor before transforming into his human form.

  “Why do you guys look so happy? Have you been messing with Abby again?” he asked, trying to appear like he disapproved of us joking around with Abigail, but his smile gave him away.

  Abigail tortured him when we were children.

  “Dinner is ready,” Sadie said, smiling at us as she passed by the door. And she did it perfectly.

  “Why did she get the good curse? I strongly dislike her,” Christopher said, narrowing his eyes at the spot where Sadie stood only seconds earlier.

  I wasn't aware there was anything considered a "good curse," but I didn't dwell on it too long. I had to figure out what the symbol meant and why Alison was haunting me, but first I had to make it through a dinner with Daniel.

  Abigail popped back in the room and pulled Agnes down to their room. Christopher gave me a look letting me know he was thinking the same thing I was. We both wanted Agnes to keep the voice, but we knew it wasn’t going to happen.

  Walking down the stairs, we walked into the dining room.

  Daniel was sitting at the head of the table like a king on his throne. “Why is he sitting in your seat, Aunt Misty?” I asked, already aggravated with Daniel and he hadn’t even spoken yet.

  That was the thing about him he didn’t have to do anything to get on my nerves he just did. He was infuriating.

  “Because he is our guest and I told him he could,” she said, her tone scolding me like I was a five years old. I admit that that’s how I was acting, but I didn’t care. I didn’t like him.

  “He’s your guest,” I corrected her, sitting in my usual seat beside Abigail. I never talked back to my Aunt because she was the person I looked up to the most. It had always been that way.

  Her eyebrows shot up and she pursed her lips. She wasn’t happy with me. “And that’s my chair.”

  “She told you,” Christopher said, stuffing cornbread in his mouth.

  “Christopher Norwood! Quit acting like an animal you are a human boy,” Aunt Misty screeched, popping him on the back of his head causing cornbread to spray from his mouth.

  “Oh Aunt Misty, you know he’s always wanted to be a real boy,” Abigail said, dodging the flying cornbread.

  Christopher wiped his mouth and glared at his sister. “Why are you in such a sour mood? Bobby break up with you again?”

  "We had a fight, but he'll be back. I bet he's on his way here right now," she said, sticking her nose up in the air. In fact, her nose had taken up-res

  “Doubt it. I saw him with Maggie Prescott on the way here,” he said, enjoying it way too much.

  He was lying like a dog on the floor. I knew that because his voice always got higher when he was telling a lie and his voice could have broken all of the glass cups at that table.

  She folded her arms and tr
ied to blink away the tears.

  “He’s fibbing, Abby. Bobby is crazy over you and besides Maggie is out of town,” she said, making Abigail smile from ear to ear. Once again Sadie saved the day.

  “So, Daniel, how do you like Cat’s Cradle?” Christopher asked, washing down his food with sweet tea.

  “It’s, um, quaint. Very charming,” he said, nibbling on the fried chicken on his plate. He was eating a leg of chicken with a fork and a knife. That made me trust him even less than I had before. I mean seriously who eats chicken like that?

  He was sarcastic as usual. Must have been an Atlanta thing.

  “And by quaint do you mean boring?” I asked, trying to reveal the real Mr. Daniel Price, not the pod person he turned into when she was around, to my impressionable aunt.

  “I meant exactly what I said, Suzie Q. I find Cat’s Cradle to be very charming,” he said, smiling at me.

  He knew what I was trying to do. It was the worst family dinner in the history of Norwood family dinners and we had some doozies.

  I should have stayed with Mrs. Abernathy because that pimento cheese was beginning to look pretty good.

  Chapter 15

  I thought Daniel was going to move in. I was expecting at any minute for him and Aunt Misty to playing truth or dare and giving each other makeovers. Seriously I didn’t think he was ever going to leave, but as soon as he did. I called a family meeting minus Christopher because he was already back to bird form and flapping around outside of the house.

  “I hate family meetings,” Abigail complained, tossing herself on the couch.

  “Quit complaining. I’m starting to think that’s all you know how to do,” Aunt Misty said, rolling her wheelchair in the corner. “Why did you call this meeting?” She asked, looking at me.

  Aunt Misty treated family meetings as if they were the top secret government meetings they held in the white house. We tried to tell her many time before that the Norwood family meetings were not that important, but she would always tell us they were important to her. The only memory I had of her not freaking out over a family meeting was when Abigail called one for us to help her pick out a dress for a date. Needless to say, Abigail didn't go on the date

  “Where should I begin? Well, Aunt Misty, you see Mrs. Abernathy told me that Rex was stalking her,” I started off, trying not to laugh.

  “The German Shepard or the used car salesman?” Sadie asked, crossing her ankles and sliding her hand over the hem of her dress.

  I had completely forgotten about Rex, the creepy cars salesman. He always wore a ton of gaudy gold jewelry and he had so much grease in his hair you could have cooked with it. Oh, and he had one of those handlebar mustaches that only added to his creepiness factor. He was a walking talking Law and Order episode waiting to happen.

  “The German Shepard,” I told her, pacing back and forth.

  Aunt Misty just stared at me as if I had lost my mind. “Is that the reason why we’re having a family meeting?”

  “What? No, just listen, okay?” I asked, running my hands through my hair, “I asked Agnes to talk to Rex and see why he was always in Mrs. Abernathy’s yard. He tipped us off that he was getting bad vibes from the house, so we had Sadie bake up some lemon bars and put a sleep spell on them.”

  Aunt Misty gave me a disapproving look and my response was a shrug.

  "A witch has got to do what a witch has got to do." That response got me an even more disapproving look. "As I was saying we had to spell Mrs. Abernathy to sleep so that we could check out her house. I used the locator candle and it led us to the attic where we found a symbol etched into the wall. It was a circle with an eye in the middle of it, and it was glowing like it was on fire."

  “A glowing symbol on the wall?” Aunt Misty asked, staring off into space, “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “Right? Then Agnes left me at the house alone and Alison Talbot paid me a visit,” I said, using a lot of hand gestures that didn’t even make any sense.

  “Stop flapping around you look like Christopher. Malady, Alison Talbot is dead, so there is no way on earth that you saw her,” Abigail said, biting her nails.

  I didn’t have time to bicker with her, so I turned my back to her.

  “Hush, Abigail. If you saw a picture of the symbol would you recognize it?” Aunt Misty asked me, concern causing her eyebrows to arch.

  “Definitely. There’s no way I could forget it,” I told her, picturing the symbol. I could remember the fire like glow and the heat that came from it. I could remember how deeply it was carved into the wall and the feeling I got when I looked it.

  "Let's go check out my books. It we are going to find it anywhere it would be in those stacks," she said, rolling out of her room and into her study. It was actually a big closet, but she preferred to call it her study. We just went along with it.

  "How is she going to fit her wheelchair in there

  “I really don’t feel like spending my night scanning through books with you losers,” Abigail said, her tone was bored.

  “You have no choice, Missy,” Aunt Misty said, snapping her finger and lifting Abigail

  The door was enchanted and completely invisible to the human eye. Waving her hands in front of the door and the knocking on the door causing it to creak open. The room was filled wall to wall with countless books. Floating candles lit the room, for humans that would have been a fire hazard, but not for us. You know because we were witches and the fire was enchanted.

  "Abigail and Agnes you two start on the stack on the couch. Sadie, you start on the books on the purple bookshelf and Malady you help me with the books scattered on the floor. Surely we will find something. Oh dear, where did I put my glasses?" Aunt Misty asked, patting the top pf her head and looking at her shirt. She was wearing them.

  “Aunt Misty?” Sadie asked, picking up a book without touching it.

  “Yes, Sweet Sadie?” she asked, still searching for her glasses.

  “Your glasses are on your face,” she said, pointing at Aunt Misty’s face.

  Touching her face, she laughed. “Oh heavens me,” she said, snapping her fingers causing a book to fly up in her lap.

  Finding a blood red leather bound book on top of the awful sunshine yellow shag carpet, I picked it up and held my hand over it until it opened up to the section on symbols. That book was a complete dead end.

  I looked through so many books my eyes began to hurt. Reading glasses were in my future because every word in those books were microscopic. It was like the witches who wrote the books wanted to punish anyone who read them.

  Just as I was starting to give up, Abigail jumped up from her spot and ran to me. Feeling the book slam on my lap, I looked down and saw the symbol staring back at me. "There. Happy now?" Abigail asked her hand on her hip and a bored expression on her face. Basically, it was Abigail being Abigail.

  “Ecstatic,” I replied, running my hands over the symbol.

  “I’m happy to see that you’re good for something other than picking fights,” Aunt Misty said, rolling over to me and taking the book from me. Her eyes lit up with recognition as she looked over the symbol.

  “Have you seen that symbol before, Aunt Misty?” I asked, scooting closer to her.

  "It's the symbol of the Blackwater coven in a cold creek," she replied, keeping her eyes on the book.

  Every town small southern town had their coven of witches. They were usually the kooky family that lived in the weird house that smelled like sage.

  “That’s like three towns over,” Sadie said, leaning over Aunt Misty’s shoulder to see the symbol. Agnes did the same. She stole a glance at me before looking back down at the book.

  She was right. Cold Creek, Georgia was only a two-hour drive. We had driven there many times to pick up ingredients for Aunt Misty's potions from the underground witch garden. It wasn't really underground, so I had no idea why they called it that. It was in an enchanted small shack. Only withes could see it.

  “Road trip?” I ask
ed, looking up at my family.

  I needed to go full Nancy Drew and figure out what was going on, but I need my team with me to do it.