The Shadows of Dark Root (Daughters of Dark Root Book 5)
Page 34
“I make the most of what I have.” She sat up fully, her lips puckered as she gave me a thorough once-over. “It wouldn’t kill you to cut out the muffins, though, Bay Leaf. Men like slim women. It’s a subconscious thing, left over from the caveman days. Slim women are easier to hunt for. It’s biology.”
“Mother, you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I do, too! I read it in a book. Or maybe I saw it on Discovery. I don’t know, but it’s a fact.”
“And who are you to talk about indulging in muffins?”
“What, this?” Mom patted her plush belly. “It’s my winter weight.”
She prattled on while I half-listened, wondering how I could gracefully leave the conversation. While she had been doting in life, she was positively smothering in the afterlife. There was no place in the farmhouse I could hide now that she didn’t need sleep and could move through walls. I was constantly subjected to her pearls of wisdom, whether I wanted them, or not.
“You never know when I’ll cross all the way over,” Mom reminded me. “I need to spend as much time with you as I can. I don’t want to leave with any regrets.”
Regrets.
Now there was a subject I knew plenty about, and none of them involved not kissing strange men or dancing naked in the moonlight.
“Baylee…” Mom tapped my wrist. It felt like a cool breeze brushing against my arm. “You aren’t listening to me.”
“I was listening.”
“What did I say?”
I lifted my hand, raising a finger with each point. “Let’s see. Why haven’t I remarried? Why won’t I give you grandkids? Why do I wear my hair long when short would be ‘much more becoming to my angular face?’ Did I miss anything?”
Mom studied me with narrowed eyes. Then a wide smile crossed her face and she laughed, sending her entire body shimmying. “You had me going until you mentioned your hair. That’s what we talked about yesterday. I knew you weren’t listening.”
I sighed. It was impossible to argue with a spirit. They had endless time to make their point and nothing better to do. I cupped my chin in my palm and cast a jealous glance at Alex, who was wiping the table beside us. He neither heard nor saw our mother. What I wouldn’t give for a Freaky Friday moment. “I don’t mean to sound insensitive, mom, but I really wish you’d find someone else to haunt.”
“Now why would I want to do that? You’ve been gone ten years. We have lots of time to make up for.”
“You talking to Mom?” Alex asked, pulling the fake rose from our faux crystal vase and replacing it with a fake sunflower.
“Do you see any other ghosts around?”
“Nope, but I don’t see her, either. Send her my love.”
“Mom, Alex sends his love.”
“I’m dead, not deaf! But please, tell him the new yoga teacher next door is cute, and probably vegan, and very bendy, and…” Mother paused, wondering what other qualities might entice her perpetually single son into settling down. “She doesn’t know about his legal problems,” she whispered, as if that alone should settle it.
“Mom sends her love too.”
“Ask her if she took my keys?” Alex said, patting himself down.
“I didn’t take his keys! Why does he always blame me when his things go missing?” She exhaled a loud “Humph,” sailing a paper napkin into the air, where it glided to the hardwood floor.
“Hey, I saw that!” Alex gave Mom’s chair a thumbs-up as he plucked the napkin from the ground.
“What are you going to do this afternoon?” Mom asked me.
“Oh, I thought I’d organize the shot glass collection, or maybe restore the glass eyes on the creepy clown doll that’s been taking up shelf space since the 1950’s. If I’m lucky, someone will dump off a Hefty bag full of used clothes that should have gone to Goodwill.”
“You need to get out and find treasures, Baylee. You can’t wait for people to bring them to you.” Mother reached for my teacup, frowning as her hand passed right through it. “The point is - this job is what you make of it. Reed Hollow isn’t London, or New York, or even Seattle, but it’s home, and if you give it a chance I know you’ll come to love it again.”
I offered her a wry smile, the most I could muster at the moment. Vivi Bonds loved Reed Hollow, but I didn’t share her views. “I promised you I’d make this business a success before I go, Mom, but I can’t stay here forever.”
“You just need to get out more. Have you tried joining a group? There’s a drum circle on Fridays at Lake Crystal.”
I sighed, ready to launch into the myriad of reasons why I was not going to join a drum circle, when the doorbell chimed inside my office. Odd. Most people entered through the cafe doors. Though I wasn’t particularly enthralled with interacting with anyone new at the moment, it would get me away from Mom. I excused myself and hurried into the small antique shop that took up the east side of the restored farmhouse.
The cozy room was empty by the time I stepped under the arch. But there was a strange new energy inside the room I couldn’t trace. I hurried to my office window and caught sight of a woman’s long, silver braid tick-tocking down the busy sidewalk. By the color of her hair, I would have guessed her to be an older woman; but her gait suggested someone much younger.
Hmm, probably just someone trying to sell us something.
Yet something felt out of place. I looked around the jam-packed room. Sure enough, perched on the corner of my mahogany desk was a black velvet case the size of a pencil box that had not been there before. The case was open and five opulent rings glittered up at me. “My stars,” I said, making my way over. They were beautiful and looked quite old, though I doubted they were precious stones.
I resisted touching the rings, even as they called out to me from the case, flickering like stars against a dark night. Objects, like people, retained their memories. The older an object, the greater the likelihood it had gathered a few scars during its life.
My hand hovered an inch above the case, feeling a pull that was hard to resist.
There was more to this collection than met the immediate eye.
I caught my breath, my emotions vacillating between excitement and fear.
Magick was present – an ancient, earthy magick I hadn’t sensed in a very long time.
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About the Author
April Aasheim learned to love magic at an early age. Her mother was a fortune teller who always had books on magic and the occult in the house, which April devoured. April fell so in love with the paranormal world, in fact, that at age eight she declared herself a witch and wore a pointed hat for nearly an entire summer. It was at that time that she also discovered books (written for kids) about witches and April hunted them out in libraries and supermarkets. Her favorites were always the ones where witches and ghosts ‘could be real’.
April continued her love of the supernatural into her adult life, studying the occult, spirituality, and world religion. She also loved writing but never thought of combining her two pastimes, until the day she accidentally wrote the sentence “If I were a real witch…” and The Daughters of Dark Root series was born.
April currently lives with her husband and family in Portland, Oregon. When not writing she enjoys dancing, reading, hiking, crafting, and binge netflixing.
@aprilaasheim
AprilAasheimWriter
aprilaasheimwriter.com
amaasheim@gmail.com
Also by April Aasheim
Want to read more by this author?
The Daughters of Dark Root Series: (Click Link to Buy)
The Witches of Dark Root
The Magick of Dark Root
The Curse of Dark Root: Part One
The Curse of Dark Root: Part Two
The Shadows of Dark Root
Children of Dark Root (Coming Summer 2018)
Dark Root Companion Novellas and Short Stories: (Click Link to Buy)
The Council of Dark R
oot: Armand
A Dark Root Christmas: Merry’s Gift
A Dark Root Halloween: The Witching Hour
A Dark Root Samhain: A Lesson in Magick (Coming Fall 2017)
The Reed Hollow Chronicles (Click Link to Buy)
Touch of Light: A Baylee Scott Paranormal Mystery
Touch of Shadow: A Baylee Scott Paranormal Mystery (Coming Winter 2017/2018)
Other Books by April Aasheim (Click Link to Buy)
The Universe is a Very Big Place (A humorous look at second chances)
The Good Girl’s Guide to Being a Demon (A Woodland Creek Urban Fantasy)
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