Cursed Brides and Alibis

by Amy Boyles

  I dropped my purse on the table. “I don’t actually care. As long as it’s sweet, I’m game.”

  She laughed.

  “I haven’t had breakfast,” I explained.

  Blaire’s eyes widened. “Then let me cut you a thick slice of coffee cake.”

  “I’d love that.” I leaned forward and said conspiratorially, “Do you have coffee?”

  She winked. “Come back here. We’ll sit and chat. The bell will ring if someone enters.” Blaire’s gaze flickered to the wall clock behind her. “It won’t get busy for at least thirty minutes.”

  Five minutes later I sat elbow-deep in cake and coffee and wondered if I’d be able to walk out of the shop without having to be rolled like a barrel.

  Blaire’s green eyes sparkled. “It’s so nice to have a girlfriend who doesn’t talk about men.”

  I laughed. “I don’t talk about them because that’s all I do. Besides, I’m not very good at relationships.”

  Blaire topped off my coffee from a pot settled in the middle of the table. “Neither am I. I guess that’s why I’m not very interested in pursuing one right now.”

  “I was wondering,” I started.

  “Yes?”

  “Hypothetically, if you cast a Sleeping Beauty spell on someone but placed a safety on the spell so that only the true love could break it, but the true love is afraid to kiss the person to start with, what would you do?”

  Blaire stopped chewing. She twirled her fork between her fingers. “That’s a tough one. Well,” she said slowly, “I guess I’d try a mannequin.”

  I shook my head. “It doesn’t work.”

  She grimaced. “Hmm. This is hard. And he doesn’t want to kiss her? I suppose you could wait until the spell wore off.”

  “What if it doesn’t wear off?”

  Blaire dug her fork into her cake. “If only a true love’s kiss will break it, then I don’t think there’s a way around. You have to do that.”

  I sighed sadly. “I know. That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “Cheer up,” Blaire said soothingly. “It’ll all work out.”

  By the time I finished my dessert for breakfast and headed outside, I wasn’t sure where to go. I strolled back to my car but found it blocked by May Little.

  You know, the more I looked at her, the more she reminded me of Hildegarde, the swamp witch. They were both very crone-like with scraggly hair. The only real difference being that Hildegarde dropped water everywhere she walked.

  She also smelled like swamp.

  But as I neared May, who was covered in crows, I realized she smelled rather like bird.

  “Have you realized anything about yourself?” she asked.

  I clicked the button to disable the alarm on my phone. “Yes, ma’am. I’m mean. I’ve realized I’m a hateful person. If it was raining right now while the sun was shining, the devil wouldn’t be beating his wife, as the saying goes, he’d be spanking me.”

  May chuckled. “Fear is a dangerous thing. It can also be useful. But plenty of times it’s fear that stops us from succeeding in life.”

  “Thanks for that.”

  We stared at each other. I waited for her to say something else, but she didn’t.

  “I’ve decided to be nicer, so we’ll see how that goes. Have a good day, May.”

  She waved deliberately as I drove off, reminding me more of a spirit than a real person. I decided to hit the mayor’s office and check in with her, but when I arrived, there was a ruckus around her office.

  India guarded the door, arms splayed wide. “I’m sorry, y’all, but you just have to calm down.”

  “But there’s something wrong,” Cap, a man I’d recently matched with his soul mate, argued. “With our magic.”

  “Yes,” shouted a woman I recognized as Autumn, an air witch. “Our magic was fixed, but now it’s gone. Something’s wrong! The mayor’s plan isn’t working!”

  Someone spied me and pointed. “There she is! The matchmaker who’s supposed to save this town!” The witch’s face twisted in disgust. “She’s cursed us. She isn’t saving Witch’s Forge! She’s killed our magic!”

  All eyes turned to me. I started to raise my hands as the crowd, in unison, surged forward, ready to attack.

  Me.

  Chapter 17

  Fear pitched up my throat, choking me. My instincts kicked in. I raised my arms, and before I knew what had happened, the earth underneath the crowd lifted like a wave and pushed them back.

  The sight couldn’t have been more unnerving if Superman himself had landed in town and smashed his hand to the ground.

  The witches and wizards cowered, staring at me. “She’s supposed to be a water witch.”

  I couldn’t have them thinking I possessed earth powers as well as water powers. Witches weren’t supposed to harness more than one element. Those who did were freaks.

  “I used the water beneath the earth,” I said quickly. “That’s what happened.”

  A low murmur swept through the crowd, and I wondered if my lie had worked. As their faces darkened, I quickly realized it hadn’t.

  “She’s to blame,” someone shouted.

  Next thing I knew, Thorne threw himself in front of me. “I want all of you to back up nice and slow.”

  The crowd shivered in fear before him. They moved slowly, their eyes locked on the vampire.

  When Thorne was satisfied with the distance, he said, “Now. Will someone who’s even-tempered tell me what happened?” He pointed at India. “Mayor’s assistant. Let me hear it.”

  India explained about the powers and about me. I didn’t have to see Thorne’s face to know he was scowling.

  Part of me didn’t want to.

  When she finished, Thorne turned his ire on the crowd. “Your powers aren’t working right? I’ll look into it. But in the meantime, no one touches a hair on Miss Calhoun’s head. Got it?”

  Low murmurs of agreement filtered from the crowd.

  “Now everyone, scat.”

  They dispersed. Some of the witches threw me disgusted looks that sent a chill straight to my bones.

  Thorne turned. I knew I was supposed to be nice, but I simply felt miserable. I’d used earth powers on the crowd, and the people thought I was to blame for all this.

  Thorne took one look at my sad face. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  My face bunched up in confusion. “Where to?”

  “My place.”

  I did a double take. “Why’re we going to your place?”

  “So that you can have a glass of wine.”

  I shook my head. “It’s just after breakfast.”

  “It’s almost lunchtime,” he argued. “You look like you need it.”

  “I don’t need—”

  “No arguments. Besides”—his fingers curled around my arm, and he steered me away—“I need to put you out of their sight. No one ever goes to my house.” He studied me from the corner of his eye. “Unless they have a death wish, that is. And the only person I know who has a death wish is you.”

  “Ha ha. Very funny.”

  But I didn’t argue. I slumped into the seat and let Thorne drive us—in his pickup, by the way—to his manor.

  He settled me in the sunroom and threw a blanket over my legs. “I’m not in shock. I just…I don’t know what happened back there.”

  Thorne poured me a glass of white wine and settled in beside me.

  “Why not red?” I asked.

  He sat with the precision of a karate master or a ballet dancer. Every movement specific and unique to him.

  “I figured you like white.”

  I smiled. “You figured right.”

  “What happened back there?”

  I thumbed the rim of the glass. “They started to attack me, blaming me for the magic going wrong, when we both know it’s Rots.”

  Thorne raised his hand. “Before you blame him, I went to his house this morning.”

  My heart pounded in my throat. “You did?”

&n
bsp; He nodded. “It was empty. The device that you saw wasn’t there.”

  “Then he’s moved it,” I said. I took a small sip. “Mmm. This is good.”

  “It’s old,” he replied as if that explained it.

  “At the mayor’s office I saw air and earth witches.” My eyes widened. “He’s moved it. I bet it’s someplace centrally located.” I snapped my fingers. “Did you see their hair?”

  He cocked a brow. “Their hair?”

  “Yes. The men’s hair was cut short so I didn’t see what it was doing, but all the women wore scarves because the machine screws with your hair. Not yours, obviously, yours is perfect.”

  Thorne’s cheeks reddened. His gaze darted out the window before settling back on me. “But what about your power?”

  Ah yes, the real reason why we were here, I suppose. “I have earth powers.”

  He tipped his head in interest. “You lied to them.”

  I licked my lips and tasted the hint of wine remaining on them. Tart apples with a touch of oak. I closed my eyes, trying to figure out how best to explain everything.

  When I opened them, my gaze met Thorne’s. An emotion I couldn’t place passed over his face before Thorne tucked it safely away.

  “I tell you something about me, and you tell me something about you.”

  He nodded. “Okay.”

  “I get to ask the question, and you have to answer it. Nothing is off-limits.”

  His eyes narrowed. His chin tightened. Thorne didn’t like not being in control, but he couldn’t always have things his way.

  “And what you’re going to tell me?”

  “Is worth its weight in gold.”

  I calculated the odds that Thorne would play to be 26,347 to 1. The numbers were not in my favor.

  He chuckled. “Okay. I’ll play.”

  “There’s a prophecy about me,” I began. “One that says that after I arrive here, I will be the fall of magic. When I first came to Witch’s Forge, I was barely magical at all. A watered-down water witch, as it were.”

  He eyed me steadily, never allowing his gaze to wander. The intensity of his stare made heat flame on my neck. I picked at the rim of the wineglass to keep from having to hold his gaze.

  “My mother never told me about it, so I had no clue, which was why I accepted a magical broom from Belinda Ogle in Air Town and a pig from Cap Turner in Earth Town. The night we chased down Emily when she was a Bigfoot, my powers became active and I quickly realized that through this town—the pig and the broom—I had gained the powers of air and earth. I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know why.”

  I clapped my hands and said with mock cheer. “That’s when my mother decided to tell me about the prophecy—after I’d already gained two of the four powers. When I come into all four, that’s when everything bad is going to happen.”

  I pointed outside. “Those people weren’t wrong. I did use earth magic on them.” I rubbed my face. The frustration of the moment built inside me. “I’m sorry I did. I’m sorry I used my magic, but they were going to hurt me. At least, they looked like it.”

  I shot Thorne my most pleading look. “Anyway, I’m sorry and if you want to put some cuffs on me for using magic on them, I understand. But in my defense, it happened before I had a chance to stop it.”

  I watched him, wondering what he would do. I’d just admitted using magic against others, and even though I didn’t know if it was a real crime in this town, I figured it probably was. I mean, right? A witch can’t just walk around spewing magic on people. That’s not good.

  You could hurt somebody.

  It seemed similar to an angry mob raising pitchforks and torches, ready to hurt the new witch in town.

  Thorne relaxed his spine and sank back onto the chair. “Is the prophecy true?”

  “It’s supposed to be. We called the swamp witch who’d given it, and she proclaimed it to be true.”

  He scratched at stubble peppering his chin. “I’m sorry. I don’t know much about prophecies or how to change them.”

  I hiked both shoulders to my ears. “I told my mother I’d stop accepting gifts. Somehow it seems to be linked to that.”

  “Seems like you have all the advice you need.”

  “As if.” I rolled my eyes. “Try being the daughter of the most magical witch to have lived in the past fifty years and being burdened knowing that somehow, even though you’ve never had a lick of magic your entire life, you’re going to be the one who destroys it. Doesn’t make much sense, does it?”

  He shrugged. “I lived through things that were supposedly prophesied. When it came right down to it, do you know what happened?”

  Interest flared in me. “What?”

  “Nothing. Not one thing.”

  “But this is different,” I argued. My life was different than a pedestrian prophecy or a false preacher proclaiming the end of the world on a specific date.

  “Maybe.” He flicked a bit of lint from his pants. “But I don’t think you should worry about it.”

  The sincerity in his voice made my heart clench. My gaze fluttered to his, and that clenching became a seizing.

  An emotion I couldn’t place flourished in his eyes. I felt the pull of Thorne. I didn’t know if that was vampire magic or simply himself, but my entire body reacted to the emotion swelling in his eyes.

  “You can’t do anything about the future or the past,” he said. “All you can do is live in right now. You can prepare for the future, yes. But you don’t know what’s coming.”

  He smiled at me and I smiled back and I wondered if his words from the night before still held their same weight.

  “Now”—his voice boomed, breaking the spell—“what is it you wanted to know about me?”

  My chest constricted and I almost felt bad asking, but he’d said I wasn’t ready, not mature enough. I suppose I wanted to show that I was mature. That I could hear things that might be uncomfortable and still be able to deal with them.

  I inhaled a deep shot of air, filling my lungs and myself with courage. “I was told someone very close to you died once.”

  His shoulder twitched toward his ear. “Many people I’ve been close to have died. I’m a vampire. There are two things you get used to being a vampire. The first is change—nothing ever stays the same long enough—and the other is death. There’s a lot of it in my world.”

  I licked my lips. “This person was a woman you loved.”

  Thorne froze. His voice dropped to a whisper. “Who told you?”

  Should I say? Was I being a tattletale by admitting what happened? Had I just made the entire situation a thousand times worse?

  “Last night. In the tavern. One of the vampires.”

  “They had to tell you, didn’t they?” He drummed his fingers on the armchair and stared at me.

  The weight of his stare was like a thousand arrows piercing my flesh. I shifted to the wineglass and took a deep sip.

  “It’s true,” he admitted. “There was a woman I loved deeply. A long time ago. Before you were born. You’ve asked, so I will tell you some but not all of the story.”

  Thorne radiated anger. Not at me, I assumed, but at whoever had confessed his private life.

  “You don’t have to tell me anything,” I said.

  He jutted out his chin. “No, I’ll tell you. It’s the game, right? It’s only fair.”

  He inhaled deeply, inflating his chest. “I loved Angelique until I discovered she had betrayed me, betrayed my father’s family. She’d done it knowingly and had used me for her purposes. That’s what happened.”

  The air chilled. I extended a hand toward him as a peace offering. “I’m sorry she hurt you.”

  He leaned forward but didn’t take my hand. “You and I come from different places. I gave my heart to the wrong woman, but I was ready to give my life for her. You shield yourself and turn away from those who could care for you, using your sarcasm and wit as a defense.”

  I shook my head. “No. You’re right.
I thought about it last night. Everything you said. I’ve acted like an idiot. The flowers, the way I speak to you. I’ve been horrible. I’m sorry.”

  He cocked his head, looking like someone reading an instruction manual and not quite understanding how A and B were supposed to fit together.

  “Did you kill her?” I said.

  Thorne’s expression turned icy cold. I didn’t know what made me ask it. Curiosity, I suppose. Plus, the way Peek had told me, he’d insinuated as much.

  Thorne rose. “Are you feeling better?”

  I set the wineglass on the table. “Yes.”

  “Let’s get you back to town.”

  Wow. I’d really blown it. I’d had a chance to actually speak to Thorne, to let him know that I was trying to be mature. That I was attempting to be his friend, and I’d gone and pushed the alarm button on him.

  He drove in silence. Can’t say I was surprised. I didn’t attempt to speak, and neither did he.

  When we reached my house, Thorne exited and came around, letting me out. He eyed the surroundings as if to make sure no one was going to jump out and attack me.

  “Be careful,” he said stiffly.

  I nodded and brushed past him to the sidewalk. I felt like a walking lump of sadness, each footstep fatigued from the weight of our conversation.

  I didn’t know where Thorne and I were going from here, but I had a feeling it was downhill.

  His voice surprised me. “Charming.”

  A fissure, bright with light, zipped down my body. My bones fizzed as I slowly turned to face Thorne.

  “Yes?”

  “Have a good night.”

  He said it stoically, but the sly smile on his face suggested our conversations weren’t over, that he only needed a moment to breathe.

  A bubble of unexpected hope buoyed in my chest. I forced myself not to take the steps two at a time as I rushed into the courthouse.

  Chapter 18

  My phone rang as soon as I stepped inside. “Hello?”

  “Is this the woman who called a few days ago—called the Duvall store?”

  I recognized the raspy voice instantly. My spine zipped to attention. “Yes. This is her.”

  “Sorry to get off the phone with you so quickly, but since the robbery, things have been crazy,” she explained. “We had a valuable piece stolen. But anyway, you were asking about Corley.”