If the Curse Fits

by Kennedy Layne

  If the Curse Fits

  A Hex on Me Mystery

  Book One

  KENNEDY LAYNE

  IF THE CURSE FITS

  Copyright © 2019 by Kennedy Layne

  Kindle Edition

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-943420-75-9

  Print ISBN: 978-1-943420-76-6

  Cover Designer: Sweet ’N Spicy Designs

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  Dedication

  Jeffrey—In our story, it would be “If the Love Fits”…and it certainly does!

  Cole—Always remember…you can succeed in anything with enough determination.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  About the Book

  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

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  About Cursing Up the Wrong Tree

  Books by Kennedy Layne

  About the Author

  USA Today Bestselling Author Kennedy Layne brings a completely different twist to her brand new cozy paranormal mystery series that you won’t want to miss!

  Have you ever heard of a cursed witch? Well, that’s exactly what Tempest “Lou” Lilura has become, and she’s willing to do just about anything to rectify her desperate situation. Unfortunately, the consequences of being hexed by the only immortal Lich Queen has kept Lou a little too busy to find a solution to her problem.

  What’s the hex, you ask? In Lou’s tragic case, her curse gives her the foresight of murders yet to be committed. It’s the ultimate race against time—can she discover the culprit prior to the actual deed or can she save the victim and catch the murderer in the act?

  This poor hexed witch is going to going to need all the help she can get. Unfortunately, her help comes in the form of a warlock who is obsessed with conspiracy theories, an overly optimistic yet naïve healer, and a rather pretentious familiar who has an obsession for proper etiquette. Come join this traveling mystery band while they try to solve another murder as they’re faced with powerful druids, two odd magical hares, and a mysterious man who definitely knows more than he’s willing to saying.

  Chapter One

  “I bet you’ve never heard this one before—a cursed witch.”

  I usually loved the initial reaction I received upon someone hearing of my unique paradox. Unfortunately, I didn’t experience any satisfaction when the petite blonde barista handed me the black coffee I’d ordered without a second glance.

  I mean, she didn’t even seem to blink twice.

  It had me wondering if she’d heard me at all. She’d literally had absolutely no outward reaction.

  “Piper, I know what you are,” I murmured, attempting once more to entice any type of response at this point. “Can you please take a break so that you can hear me out?”

  Of course, I’d kept my voice low so that none of the other patrons could hear our one-sided conversation. It wouldn’t do to have someone inadvertently hear me talking about the supernatural as if it were more than a television show for teenagers to drone on about in between their high school classes.

  Nothing I did seemed to matter, though.

  I got nothing from her.

  Piper set another to-go cup underneath a spout that began dispensing hot milk as if I’d already walked away from the counter. I struggled to garner her attention one more time with a genuine desperate plea.

  “I really need your help.”

  Trust me, I wasn’t beneath begging at this point.

  I’d basically been forced into a corner.

  “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Piper replied with a look of innocence I’d never quite been able to master. She even went so far as to give me a small apologetic smile as she continued working the machine in front of her, causing steam to billow up from one of the hot beverages she’d gone back to concocting. She’d beat me at my own game. The shock value of my public approach only left me wondering about my tactics. I wasn’t going to be able to stand in front of the pickup counter for much longer without someone noticing that I’d already received my drink and been dismissed. “You must have me confused with someone else. You’ll have to excuse me. I’m working here.”

  Well, so much for my offensive strategy.

  I had no choice but to walk over to the side counter that contained the various types of sweeteners and creamers after Piper had called out another customer’s name. She’d essentially snubbed me, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about her obvious brushoff.

  It didn’t take me long to add two packets of sugar and a short pour of half and half into my coffee. I then stirred the mystical ingredients together before walking over to where my other recruit sat at a small table in the back corner with his mass of electronic gadgets plugged into practically all the nearby outlets.

  Recruit might have been a bit of an exaggeration.

  Okay, it was a total embellishment.

  To put it bluntly, I was paying Orwin Cornelia a rather hefty amount of cash to help me with my current—and for the foreseeable future—hugely colossal problem that had been bestowed upon my most unlucky self.

  Don’t get me wrong.

  He did have a slight personal stake in my dilemma, but that was something we didn’t talk about…ever.

  “Did she say yes?” Orwin asked, using his index finger to push up the black-rimmed glasses that had a tendency to constantly slip down the bridge of his nose. His dark gaze had been hopping around to all the different customers like a caffeinated jumping bean ever since we’d entered the quaint little coffee shop. “Did she even respond? She didn’t, did she? Can we go now? I told you this would happen.”

  “No, Orwin, we can’t go,” I replied softly, wishing I could cast a calming spell over him to keep him from acting so suspiciously odd. Given that he was one of the best wizards of his generation and that he’d seen what had happened to me firsthand, he’d made it virtually impossible for anyone to do the same to him. Trust me, that type of spell hadn’t been easy to pull off. If only I’d been that smart to begin with, I wouldn’t be in this totally unbelievable and completely unjustified dire situation. “Piper Allifair won’t give me the time of day…yet. We can’t leave here without her help, though. It’s just another brick wall before us that we’ll figure out how to go around, climb over, or dig under.”

  There was nothing I could do about Orwin’s apprehension, but he’d be the first one to notice if something was amiss in our current surroundings. He was a bit of a conspiracy theorist, and his situational awareness was now dialed up to a ten plus. You know, aliens and such. I’d have thought dealing with the supernatural was enough, but he apparently liked to take things a bit further down that road to crazy town.

  It wasn’t that I expected anything else to happen. Today had been quiet given some of the more recent events we’d had to deal with. I guess in the grand scheme of things, what’s worse than being cursed by an immortal Lich?

  In case you
weren’t familiar with the meaning of the word Lich, it was basically an ultra-powerful undead witch or warlock whose powers were so transcendent that they became immune to the grasp of death. Liches bound their intellect and what was left of their souls, as they were known to exist, to a physical object known as a phylactery or magical amulet.

  Interesting tidbit, huh?

  Not even death could claim them, which was where their form of immortality came into the picture. Their physical form suffered the normal degradations of the dead; however, most of those exceedingly rare creatures were known to disguise their outward appearance so that they could move about freely and without notice.

  Not that I’d ever witnessed such a thing myself, but the old witch’s tales believed that Liches tended to disintegrate into skeletal figures after a couple hundred years. It was even said that their flesh fell off their undead bodies once they tired of dragging their corpse around the mortal world.

  “Death.”

  “What?”

  Orwin had definitely caught my attention.

  “You asked what was worse than being cursed by an immortal Lich.” Orwin shrugged as if the answer was obvious. “Death.”

  I shot Orwin an agitated glance as I sipped my coffee, loathing the fact that he could read my thoughts as if I’d spelled them all out for him in my diary. As I’d mentioned before, he was one of the most talented wizards at the extremely young age of twenty-one. Most wizards needed decades of study to perfect their art. Unfortunately, his mindreading skills unconsciously came into play when someone was within six feet of him.

  I purposefully scooted back my chair, but it wasn’t nearly far enough to be outside of his extrasensory gift’s area of effect.

  “Curse would be more accurate. Gift would imply someone else’s opinion…wrong as they might be.”

  “Would you stop that,” I snapped, irritated that he couldn’t shut off his annoying habit. That didn’t mean it couldn’t come in handy, especially in a circumstance like this. “Orwin, why don’t you go and order yourself a cup of coffee? Actually, make that a nice green tea. It should calm your nerves. See if Piper is showing any curiosity at all to my unsolicited plea of help.”

  I reached into the pocket of my favorite black leather jacket and handed Orwin a five-dollar bill. After all, I was technically his employer and this was a work assignment. He arched a thin black eyebrow at the money in my hand.

  “Then I need a raise,” Orwin declared with a frown, snatching the green piece of currency out of my fingers. He took a fortifying breath before standing from his chair. “And a new laptop. Oh, and preferably one with a one-terabyte solid state drive and a decent clock speed.”

  “I just bought you a new one three months ago,” I complained, but he was already out of earshot and…mindshot? That probably wasn’t even a word, but I’d go with it for the time being.

  I sat back in my seat while keeping an eye on Piper and our overall surroundings, wondering what it would take to get her to listen to my plight. She’d never once paused in her task as a barista, and she continued to smile at each patron who gathered their post-workday sample of liquid sanity in a cup.

  Had I made a mistake?

  Had Piper not come into her power at a young age like us?

  It wasn’t unheard of, but that would mean I’d come all this way for nothing but disappointment.

  No, I couldn’t doubt myself or Orwin’s research. Piper Allifair was definitely a witch, of that I was certain.

  Orwin and I had spent a great deal of time searching for someone in the Allifair family line who could do what the great Warlock Allifair had done back in his time—heal a witch with the simple touch of his hand. Such powers were normally reserved for arch druids or priests of immense power.

  It stood to reason there was a chance the Allifair gift could dispel the hateful magic created by a curse. Their family lineage contained such an amazing and rare talent, and I needed all the help I could get in lifting this wicked jinx that had been bestowed upon me for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  I might have been a little bit on edge, as a round of laughter that rose from a nearby table had me startling just a bit.

  Four young women had been sitting a couple feet away ever since Orwin and I had walked into the café. One of them had disappeared, probably to the restroom, leaving three behind to say a few things that told me the fourth wasn’t well-liked—and that explained why they had foregone the time-honored need to use the facilities in pairs.

  What was so wrong with this world that people couldn’t even be nice to one another anymore?

  I’d rather know who my enemies were than have fair-weathered friends like that.

  On second thought, I’d rather have no enemies at all, given the fact that the current one at the top of the list had powers and abilities that were completely beyond my reach and capability to conceptualize.

  I sighed impatiently, noting from the clock hanging on the back wall that it was going on seven o’clock in the evening. Most of the patrons had placed their orders before quickly leaving with their drinks in hand. They were undoubtedly headed home to wind down from their day.

  Orwin had wanted to come back later, claiming this wasn’t the time or place to corner Piper with our offer. He’d thought we should wait until closing time. Maybe he’d been right, but I wasn’t one to waste precious time.

  Full disclosure—I wasn’t the most patient person in the world.

  I had once had the world by the tail and longed to be there once again so that I was in control of my own destiny.

  Besides, allowing Piper to think things over while mindlessly completing the task of making lattes wasn’t such a bad thing. The shock of my admission would most likely have worn off by the time she was ready to sit down and talk with us later.

  I was completely prepared, and I had my speech all laid out as to why she should help.

  I’d tell her that my name was Tempest Lilura—Lou to my friends—and that I’d been cursed by the queen of all Liches for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was completely innocent of any wrongdoing and blamelessly cursed for only my proximity to the real culprit.

  It wouldn’t take long after that to explain to Piper that I was here to seek her help to rid me of the resulting hex. If her gift didn’t extend to the hexes of all hexes, the next phase of the plan would be to have her join my little team to either hunt down the Lich in question or to find a cure to rid me of this curse.

  Simple, right?

  I did another scan of my surroundings, something I’d grown used to doing in the last three months. Trust me, you’d have that tendency too if you’d been hexed. I didn’t like corners, shadows, or basically not knowing what was headed my way without a bit of forewarning.

  Nothing seemed amiss, though.

  A man sitting next to another outlet was staring at his computer as if he were hypnotized, two college-aged girls were studying in one of the few booths available, and an older couple was reading the evening paper at a table near the door. Nothing out of the ordinary indicated that this night couldn’t end on a good note.

  Apparently, I spoke too soon.

  I barely caught my coffee before it fell off the table. No magic involved, either.

  Someone had bumped into my elbow, most likely coming back from the restrooms down the small hall. The man immediately muttered an apology, complained about a cat, and made his way to an empty table where a drink and a backpack had been left to save his spot.

  Well, wasn’t he a trustworthy soul?

  In most larger cities, his backpack and possibly his drink would be highjacked by now.

  I vaguely remembered the man being in front of me while I’d been standing in line, but I’d thought he’d left the café. I didn’t think it was possible to be rusty in the three days it had been since our last case, but I guess I was mortal, after all.

  I’d like it to be known that my interest in the man had nothing to do with t
he fact that he was roguishly handsome. His short-cropped hair was as black as mine, his chiseled features gave him an air of dominance, and the five o’clock shadow gave him a mysterious vibe. Oh, and the brown leather jacket he was wearing couldn’t hide that he kept himself in fine shape. Cut was the term I would use.

  No, his looks weren’t the reason he’d caught my attention. It was that he had the appearance of an apex predator, and the fact that I could have sworn I’d seen him before.

  “Knox Emeric.” Orwin had returned with what looked like hot chocolate, having completely ignored my suggestion of tea. He reclaimed his seat, but I clearly didn’t have his full attention. “He was at the gas station we stopped at right before pulling into town. He didn’t like the gas prices. They were more expensive than his previous stop. He’s just a harmless fellow traveler.”

  I loved it when Orwin provided me with information without the need to lift a finger. It didn’t sound like he’d picked up on anything about Knox Emeric for me to worry about, so I tore my gaze away from the stranger to focus on what Orwin found so interesting, and it wasn’t as remarkable as I would have imagined.

  What in the world was a domestic white short-haired cat doing in a café?

  I’d heard of those cat cafés that were taking over the Midwest, but I hadn’t seen any sign to indicate this was one of them. Considering that Orwin was allergic to basically anything with fur might have had him staying outside in my Jeep. He tried his best to stay away from anyplace that had animals in close quarters to humans.

  “She really doesn’t like you, does she?” Orwin asked, clearly referring to the sleek white cat that was the apparent reason for Mr. Emeric’s apparent stumble. “Look at the way that cat is glaring at you with those green eyes of hers. Did you step on her tail or something? It’s almost like—”

  Orwin stopped talking when he attempted to fend off a sneeze.

  He wasn’t successful.

  Three sneezes later, I was holding out a napkin from the dispenser.