by Raven Snow
Table of Contents
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
Epilogue
“Waterside Witchery”
A Supernatural Witch Cozy Mystery
Lainswich Witches Series Book 12
Raven Snow
© 2017
Raven Snow
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner & are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Products or brand names mentioned are trademarks of their respective holders or companies. The cover uses licensed images & are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any person(s) that may be depicted on the cover are simply models.
Edition v1.2 (2017.09.04)
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Special thanks to the following volunteer readers who helped with proofreading: Dick B, Claire Boland, Suzy Ostapower, Debbie Young-Danis and those who assisted but wished to be anonymous. Thank you so much for your support.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
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
Epilogue
Authors Note
Books by Raven Snow
Chapter One
The Greensmith family wasn’t big on water. They didn’t spend a whole lot of time in pools. They didn’t do beach vacations. Rowen Greensmith’s great, great grandmother had been the mistress of a fisherman. The wife was a witch, just like the Greensmiths. She had put a curse on Rowen’s great, great grandmother and all Greensmith kin that came after her. It was because of this that two great aunts had drowned. Rowen had even experienced it firsthand herself when she was a little girl and her bathing suit had gotten stuck in a public pool filter.
When Eric insisted they go to the beach during the summer, Rowen had resisted. “The beach isn’t even that nice. The sand’s dirty and the water’s all muddy,” she said. That hadn’t really convinced her husband to back off and so she relented. “Fine, but I’m not going anywhere near the water.”
Somehow Eric managed to recruit the rest of Rowen’s family too. Her cousins came, her aunts, and even her uncle. Lainswich’s Lake Taylor was popular with locals. Townsfolk didn’t leave Lainswich often so, when it got hot, Lake Taylor was the place to be.
Rowen noted that the parking lot was almost entirely full as she circled around it, searching for a free space. “Well, I tried. Maybe we should just come back a different day.
“Absolutely not.” Eric wasn’t backing down any time soon. “We’ll park in that empty lot we passed on the way here and walk down if we have to.”
“Fiiine.” Rowen was kidding anyway. After all the nagging Eric had done to set this up, they pretty much had to have a day at the beach. She finally found a parking space in the far corner of the parking lot. She got out and began to tote everything they had brought along toward the stairs leading down to the beach.
It was a hot and sunny day. The sand was packed with sunbathing women and screaming children. Rowen groaned. Even Eric looked a little disappointed. “Small place, huh?”
“I tried to tell you it wouldn’t be any fun,” said Rowen, though she felt bad about it a second later. She might as well try to enjoy herself now that they were here. “Come on. Let’s try to find a good spot to put all our stuff.”
“Can we just go home?” Willow’s voice came from a few feet behind Rowen. She turned to find her cousin standing there, looking like a bee keeper in her wide brimmed hat with mesh netting. Beneath that, she had on sunglasses. There was even a white cast to her face suggesting she had already slathered on copious amounts of sunscreen. “I hate this place.”
“Come on,” said Peony, approaching with her sister’s beach gear-laden boyfriend, Benji. “This’ll be fun. When’s the last time we all went to the beach?” Peony was a little more practically dressed. She was wearing a swimsuit with shorts pulled up over it. Her purple hair was pulled back into a ponytail.
“We don’t go to the beach,” Willow grumbled. “The beach doesn’t like us.”
“Oh, hush.” Aunt Lydia came up behind them. Her gray hair was tied back and she was looking very confident in her skintight swimsuit and wrap around skirt. Aunt Nadine looked reed thin standing next to her. “The beach doesn’t hate us. The water does.”
“Same difference,” Willow muttered.
“Just sunbathe.” Margo approached them, her father alongside her. She had sunglasses on and some gauzy beach clothing that was likely covering up a bikini. “That’s what I plan to do.” Tall, thin, bleach-blond Margo, was already plenty tan. Not that there was any point telling her that.
“I’m not setting any of this junk up here,” said Uncle Norman. He had on jeans, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes that were guaranteed to have mountains of sand in them by the end of the day. He cast a disapproving look out over the beach.
“We don’t have to,” said Lydia with a smile. “We’ll go set up at our spot.”
Peony frowned. “I like the sand, though.”
“Well then stay here.” Willow was already following Aunt Lydia as she walked to the left, away from the beach.
“Where are we going?” asked Eric, following because everyone else was going but awfully confused about it.
“We have a spot,” Rowen explained. “It’s an old pier. You have to go through the woods a ways to get there, but it’s worth it. No crowds.”
“Are you supposed to be there?” asked Eric. “Is it private property?”
“No,” Rowen said, quickly. “Well�
�� Probably not.”
“You never checked?!”
“It’s just a pier. How do you check that kind of thing? There’s no house nearby, and there’s no name on it. You worry too much.” Rowen swatted him on the arm and picked up the pace.
“I don’t see why we couldn’t just find a spot for ourselves on the beach,” Eric grumbled. “The sand is half the fun.”
Rowen was pretty sure that he just didn’t want to accidentally break the law. There was no way he liked the crowd. He’d grown up a rich boy. The only beaches he’d ever set foot on were likely private ones.
***
They got to the pier quickly enough. It was indeed deserted. Rowen was thankful for that. Once or twice in her childhood they had come here and found people fishing on it. It was nice to have the place all to themselves.
The pier was long. At this time of the year, it stretched a good thirty feet out into the water. The wood was old and rickety, but it had held up well over the years. There was even a covered area where people could park boats— not that Rowen had ever seen someone park a boat there. It had probably been private property at some point. There was a nearby clearing with the stone foundations of an old house. The pier likely belonged to them and, for whatever reason, the house had been torn down while the pier remained.
The Greensmiths marched out onto the pier and threw their stuff down. Willow and Benji set up in the shade of the boathouse, but everyone else was happy enough lounging in the sun. Margo started applying a low SPF sunscreen. Peony went to the edge and dangled her feet in the water. Lydia and Nadine lounged back on their towels. It was a nice, warm day. Rowen didn’t mind spending some time outside together with her family. It was relaxing.
Eric had different ideas. “Doesn’t anyone want to go swimming?” he asked, standing at the edge of the pier.
“I told you. We don’t go swimming,” Rowen reminded her husband.
“Because of that curse thing? Come on.” Eric had been around Rowen and the rest of the Greensmiths long enough to know that curses were real. “You don’t even have to come in deep. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on you. You’ll be fine.”
“I’d rather not risk it.”
Eric sighed but didn’t push the matter. His gaze turned instead to Benji. “You’re not cursed. Do you want to take a dip?”
Benji pushed his glasses up onto his nose and shook his head. “I’m not really big on swimming.”
“Of course you’re not.” Eric turned back to the water, eyeing its surface with a disappointed expression on his face. Rowen was considering braving the shallows for him when a familiar voice came from behind them all.
It was Rose. Lydia’s daughter stepped onto the pier wearing a t-shirt and flip flops. “I was wondering when you would show up,” said Willow. “Where’s Ben?”
Ben was Rose’s boyfriend. He was the police chief of Lainswich, and she had been living with him for a while now. “He had to work,” said Rose, kicking off her flip flops and removing her shirt. Beneath it there was a plain black one piece. “Besides, technically, outside of the designated area is illegal. I wouldn’t want to get him in trouble.” She took off running after that. She sprinted right to the end of the pier before leaping off. She tucked her knees, doing a cannonball into the still water.
“Hey!” Rowen’s aunts said in unison, raising their hands up to try and ward off the subsequent splash. Rowen and Peony just laughed.
Rose resurfaced. With one hand, she pushed her black hair from her eyes. With the other, she treaded water. “That felt so good. I haven’t gone swimming in forever.”
Eric motioned emphatically at Rose. “She’s swimming!” he pointed out.
“That’s because the curse is passed down by blood,” said Rowen. Rose was adopted. Her dark hair and Asian features sort of underlined that fact. It had long been a sore spot to Rose, since she couldn’t use magic. It wasn’t without benefits, though. For one, she could still enjoy swimming. Rowen had been very resentful of that as a child. These days, she was mostly just grateful Rose had some innate ability she could lord over them.
“Go on.” Rowen motioned her husband toward the end of the pier. “Swim. I know you wanna. I’m happy here. Seriously. Enjoy yourself.”
Eric dragged his feet a bit, but finally he did as Rose had done. He sprinted to the end of the pier, doing a cannonball in beside her. It resulted in a much larger splash than Rose’s. Rose laughed while Rowen’s aunts cursed.
“Not you too,” grumbled Aunt Lydia, reaching for an extra towel to dab the moisture from her body.
Rowen laughed and lounged back on her towel. She really was quite content just like this. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was warm on her skin. She had always been someone who tanned well. Unlike Willow and Peony, her skin didn’t burn all that easily.
“I hear those two men of yours are coming back into your life,” said Margo, pushing her glasses down on her nose to eye her aunts.
“Who did you hear that from?” asked Nadine, looking to Uncle Norman as if he must have told.
“Peony,” Margo said, candidly. Peony was the only member of their generation still living in the Greensmith household.
“I didn’t realize it was a secret,” Peony said in her own defense.
“It’s not really.” Aunt Lydia didn’t look too concerned. She was more open than her sister anyway. “I’m ready to shout it to the heavens I’m so happy. Reginald and Peter should be here this weekend.”
“I’m happy for you,” said Margo, smiling at her aunts.
“I’m not,” grumbled Norman. He also lived in the house with them. “I’m going to have to find somewhere else to crash until they leave. No way I’m sticking around for you and your boyfriends having a sleepover.”
“I’m thinking I should find somewhere new to stay, too,” Peony said, quietly, as if to herself.
Nadine frowned at her daughter. “Oh, Honey. You don’t have to move out.”
Peony didn’t look so sure about that. “Maybe I can stay with Tina for a few days.” Tina was her best friend. She’d once been her worst enemy, but these days the two spent a whole lot of time together.
“You really don’t have to go,” insisted Nadine.
“I hope they stay more than a few days,” Lydia said at the same time. “It feels like ages since I’ve had a man in my life.”
“That’s why I need to get out of the house,” Peony continued under her breath.
“I hear ya,” said Norman.
“I’d say you could stay with me and Benji-” Willow began, speaking to her sister.
“She could,” Benji interjected.
Willow elbowed him. “But there just isn’t room,” she continued.
Rowen was about to bring up the possibility of Peony staying with her for a few days before Peony spoke. “I’d rather stay with Tina anyway. It’s fine.”
Rowen considered extending the same offer to Norman. She decided against it. She loved her uncle, but he was the laziest of freeloading types. He would just lounge around the house and leave everything a mess. “I’m happy for you,” she told her aunts instead. She really was. Reginald and Peter were brothers that were both wealthy and into the occult. Her aunts and the brothers had met each other by attending an art show in town. The brothers had then visited the Greensmith-owned New Age shop, Odds & Ends. They had had to leave eventually to take care of business, so it was nice to hear that they were headed back to Lainswich so soon. Rowen’s aunt’s deserved happiness. They were some of the best people she had ever met.
“Hey.” Eric roused Rowen from her thoughts. He had pulled himself up next to her. Still half in the water, he folded his arms on the pier.
“You sure you don’t want to try coming in here with me?” he implored. “We can stay in the shallow water.”
Rowen had to admit it was tempting. Eric was looking particularly delicious with his blond hair slicked back and damp. His lean, muscular body was practically glistening. He was wet all over an
d sort of glistening in the sun. “I really shouldn’t,” Rowen insisted, but he must have heard the indecision in her voice.
“Come on. Please? I’ll make sure you’re safe.” He motioned toward the shore. “Your feet will be on the bottom the whole time. I know a little water won’t kill you. You take baths. We went in a jacuzzi once.”
Rowen followed her husband’s gaze to the shore. It was awfully warm out. The water looked beyond inviting. Still, there was an anxiety in her chest telling her that she probably shouldn’t do it. “Fine,” she said anyway. “But I’m going no deeper than my waist and reserve the right to get out at any time.”
“Deal,” said Eric with a grin.
Lydia turned to look at her niece. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, Sweetie.”
“I wouldn’t,” said Nadine.
“She’s not going in that deep,” Norman said in Rowen’s defense. “Besides, someone’s got to test out the curse every couple of decades so we know if it’s still a thing or not.” He laughed at that and caught glares from just about everyone.
“Be careful!” called Rose, still treading water out where it was deep.
Rowen walked from the pier onto the shore. Eric met her on the rocks and the mud. He even held a hand out to her so she wouldn’t slip. Slowly, she waded out into the water.
It was sort of exciting. As often as she and her family had come out here, she hadn’t given in to the temptation to go swimming in the lake. Not ever. It was a thrill to wade into the water now. What if the curse had worn off, she wondered. They weren’t something you could easily break, but sometimes they lost power on their own over time.
Rowen gave a small shriek as she slipped on a rock. Everyone on the pier jolted upright and looked in her direction. Fortunately, Eric had already caught and steadied her before she could fall. “Careful,” he said.
The bottom of the lake was mostly slick rocks and mud. She could feel her feet sinking into the stuff as she walked. It felt squishy and cold and gross. At the same time, it also felt a little nice. It was soft and the way it sucked on her feet when she lifted them was so weird. The water was dark with the mud which meant she couldn’t see very far at all into the water. Even so, she trusted Eric to guide her. “See?” he said. “It’s not so bad.”
