Chapter Ten
I spent some of the morning decorating two of the high-top tables that I would use for the big trick or treat extravaganza tonight. One had a long, dark purple tablecloth with a black cat drinking tea while wearing a witch’s hat. I’d also managed to stitch a string of orange lights around the bottom hem for an added effect. This particular table would be used for my spiced pumpkin samples of hot tea for the adults wanting a bit of a warmup while their children went shop to shop collecting mounds of sugar to rot their teeth.
Speaking of something sweet, I’d decorated the second table with a black cloth, white spider webs, and greenish glowing spiders for the candy display. I had a matching large porcelain bowl to hold all the sugary, sweet candies that the little ones would be craving this very night.
“Perfect, Raven! Just perfect,” Beetle exclaimed after he’d reappeared from the back room. His habit of repeating words was very endearing. “You’ve outdone yourself.”
I’d yet to set the tables outside, keeping them just inside the door for easy reach, but at least the trimming had been done. I had an outdoor outlet next to the entrance that I could use to power my tea kettle and the decorations on my tables. All I had left to do was to go home between closing and when trick or treating began in order to change into my witch’s outfit, which freed me up to begin the list of known magical items that could possibly be responsible for the residents seeing their long-lost dead loved ones. I could then compare my list to an inventory of the items sold by the antique store over the past few months with the physical descriptions listed on the sales receipts.
“Thank you, Beetle.”
I was pretty proud of myself for how the displays had turned out, usually not one to go too overboard. Being in a small town like this brought out a bit of a competitive domestic expression in me that I hadn’t even known existed, and I was reveling in the close-knit community that I didn’t have living in the big city.
Glancing at the big clock on the wall behind the counter, I realized that it was already going on eleven-thirty in the morning. Beetle continued to restock the seasonal flavors that were the biggest sellers today, not looking the least bit concerned that my mother had left the shop an hour ago and hadn’t returned since.
“Where did Mom say she was going again?” I asked, hoping to trip up Beetle’s answer. I began cleaning up the fabric glue and extra spiders that I could save for next year. “I was happy to hear that she’s staying for my birthday celebration at the pub.”
“Regina walked down to the bakery to pick us up some bear claws,” Beetle said without hesitation. It was the exact excuse she’d given me when she’d left the shop, only she’d made a right out of the tea shop instead of strolling in the other direction. “Bree tried a new recipe last month, and she’s outdone herself this time. Yes siree! She’s outdone herself.”
I’d been keeping a close eye on the sidewalk, and my mother had yet to reappear and begin her trek to the bakery in the right direction. For a brief moment, I worried that my mother might actually be the one responsible for the ghost sightings around town. Then I realized that she and Beetle had been whispering earlier with their heads together. I’d heard the word birthday and present, although not immediately together. Still, Mom must have slipped off to finish wrapping my gift, and that filled my heart with joy.
“Beetle, I’m going to go into the back room for a bit.” I collected all the debris and extra decorations into the small box I’d confiscated earlier, and then began my way across the tea shop. It was time to finally solve a mystery. “I want to make sure I have Otis’ holistic blend ready for him to pick up on Friday.”
“I’ve got things covered, my dear Raven,” Beetle said with a pat to his chest. “All covered.”
It didn’t take me long to slip through the ivory-colored fairy beads that hung on celestial strings that kept customers from seeing or hearing anything from the back room. It was technically a storage room slash working area where I created holistic tea blends with a sprinkle of magic to help those patrons who needed a bit of additional health benefits. I guess I never thought about it before, but I felt an inner peace back here that was strangely comfortable.
There is no inner peace to be had on a day like today, Raven. The squirrelpocalypse has begun. It’s the beginning of the end. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
It was a good thing I’d already set down the box on my worktable, because it freed me to put my hand over my mouth so that I could stop myself from laughing too hard and upsetting an already upset familiar.
This is no laughing matter, Raven. You’re lucky you get to celebrate your birthday today, because we might not make it to mine.
“Leo, what in the world has happened?”
Similar to how Leo looked this morning with a bit of sway in his upper body, tufts of fur sticking out more than usual, and basically him looking like he’d been through a hurricane…let’s just say he looked even a bit worse for wear now. There were bits and pieces of what looked to be food or maybe shells of some sort stuck to his fur.
Crushed acorns is what happened. It was open season, and the target just happened to be yours truly.
“Skippy and his friends caught you digging through the sandbox, didn’t they?” I surmised, not able to contain my laughter any longer. “Please tell me that no one actually got hurt?”
An ordinary housecat might have done something regrettable, but Leo had more restraint. He’d never actually hurt another living thing. Well, my mother might be the exception, but he would only turn her into some form of reptile if he could ever find the missing spell from the family grimoire. I had a feeling that Nan had been the one to hide such a harmful incantation for the family’s sake in general.
Those ninja squirrels are hard to take on when it’s ten to one. I barely escaped with my life, and Skippy had a front row seat for the whole battle. Well, Operation Open Retaliation starts now.
“Operation Open Retaliation is going to have to wait,” I reminded Leo as I grabbed a pen and pad from one of the shelves. I settled on the stool to finally figure out what kind of occult item could be hidden in one of the houses in town. “Go ahead and clean yourself off while we make this list.”
Leo didn’t appear particularly pleased with the delay of his next battle of wills, but he didn’t fight me too hard on the change in plans. That alone told me that this latest mystery had him a teensy-weensy worried about the veil between us and the afterlife.
I’ll give you five minutes to ruminate, and then I’m going to go see what kind of edibles that Beetle brought me this morning.
“Agreed,” I said in approval, knowing that Leo would be able to list the items in under a minute. “I’m ready. I’ve already written down a crystal ball and a pentagram of some sort. Maybe a wooden one from a tree in Salem.”
You’ve been watching too many horror movies.
I did notice that Leo didn’t quite tell me that my thought process was out of line on the tree trunk theory. Wood had the ability to harness a lot of energy, so therefore anything made of a particular wood associated with witches would be able to summon spirits. At least, that’s what I rationalized in my thoughts.
A wooden planchette, those pesky fairies, and a simple mirror for starters. Then there is a—
“A fairy?” I asked, thinking about Strifle. She was the familiar who we’d helped cross over to the other side so that she could be with Mazie Rose Young. “Can a fairy really harness enough power to cause spirits to return to our side?”
Those irritating glitter bombers can do a lot of things that would horrify you, Raven. I can’t even bring myself to talk about the Feywild.
I had to wonder if Leo wasn’t giving the fairies a little too much credit, but I wouldn’t argue until I’d done more research on familiars. There was a lot to learn about the nuances of the supernatural, and I was reading up on it as fast as humanly possible while practicing my spellcasting.
“What about the mirror? You make
it sound like any old mirror would do,” I pointed out, uncomfortable with the idea that someone could simply look into a mirror and summon a spirit at random. “That’s downright creepy, Leo.”
I meant that a witch would be able to use a mirror if he or she had the right spell. If a mirror is being used as a portal and you aren’t the one summoning a spirit, we might want to consider the resident warlock as the culprit. Let’s face it, he’s been out to ruin our perfectly happy lives here in Paramour Bay since day one.
“Rye took all your money at the poker game last night, didn’t he?” I asked, chastising myself for not seeing where this conversation had been heading since Leo had agreed so quickly to clean off the acorn remnants of his earlier skirmish. “Leo, Rye has no reason to summon spirits and freak out the residents. Ivan isn’t going to kick him out of his seat at the table because of a theory you’ve cooked up.”
Whose side are you on, Raven? You’ll have to pick one eventually.
“Let’s get back to this list,” I said, purposefully steering the conversation in the right direction. “We have six and a half hours to solve this mystery. Technically, six hours. I’d like at least thirty minutes to change into my costume without fearing the we’re about to be invaded by a whole cemetery’s worth of the afterlife.”
Fine. Ruin my life, but you should know that it’s your money I lost last night. I lost the whole household sundries fund, so you might want to reconsider my grand plan. Anyway, a Ouija board. And that’s most likely the culprit after that stupid horror movie aired a few years ago.
Why hadn’t I thought of a Ouija board? It made the most sense, there were quite a few teenagers in town who would absolutely think that it was nothing more than a mere game to be played with at slumber parties.
“Leo, you’re a genius,” I exclaimed with excitement, reaching for one of the local maps that Nan had stored on one of the shelves. I’d always wondered why she’d kept a stack of atlases, but it all made sense now. The majority of the crystals that I’d inherited from Nan were at home, but she had more of the common ones stored in a drawer here at the tea shop. “Liam is on a call, but I told him I’d touch base with him if we finally located the item in question. He said something about the Abbotts being upset about some kids wrapping the oak tree in their front yard in toilet paper.”
Could have been Skippy and his ninja misfits. Come to think of it, I did see one of the minions running around with some toilet paper stuck to his back foot when I was ducking behind the slide.
It didn’t take me long to lay out the map and light two candles, though I did make sure that Beetle was still content in the main area of the tea shop perusing the shop’s account ledger. There was still no sign of my mother, but I had no idea where she needed to drive to in order to pick up my gift.
Oh, that reminds me…
I began prepping for the locator spell, waiting for Leo to finish his sentence. By the time I had everything ready, he still hadn’t said a word.
“Leo? What were you going to say?”
I was saying something? Well, it couldn’t have been very important.
I had been talking about someone TPing the Abbotts’ front yard, although I’d been thinking about Beetle and my mother. Nine times out of ten, Leo’s quip would have been about either Skippy and his merry band, my mother, or his supply of catnip. I was betting he’d been going to bring up something in regard to his edibles.
“Well, here goes nothing,” I muttered, holding the amethyst on a string so that it hovered over the middle of the map. “Close and near, never fear, the object I seek will appear.”
I softly chanted the rhyming verse a few times to clear my head and harness energy from the elements around me. My mind cleared until I was able to focus solely on an image of a Ouija board that had been used to open a path to the other side. The amethyst began to gracefully rotate counterclockwise. With my other hand, I began to sprinkle some absinthe on the map. Within seconds, the dried pinch of the herb began to collect together as if they were magnetized iron particles. Unfortunately, they began to separate into three tiny dots as they each traveled to different areas on the map.
Hey, Raven. What are you doing over there? I’m a bit nauseated for some reason. I mean, not nearly enough to prevent me from eating my edibles today.
Leo was obviously still in the middle of his short-term memory blip. I remained silent, carrying on the spell a bit longer to confirm there were indeed three houses where I could find a Ouija board that had been active recently.
Ouija board? Wait just a snake’s slither. Why are you…ohhhhh. Ohhhh, I just realized that the good ol’ sheriff’s home remedy for a hangover didn’t quite do all its own magic. No pun intended.
“Do you feel better than you did this morning?” I asked, memorizing the residences where the absinthe covered them on the paper. It was a good thing this particular map was enlarged to the point I could make out the individual houses. “Please say yes, Leo, because we have to pay a visit to three people this afternoon to see if their Ouija boards are the reason spirits are popping up all over Paramour Bay.”
I suppose, Leo begrudgingly admitted. Can’t you go gallivanting around town while I take a nap? Being the only one responsible for stopping this reoccurrence of squirrelpocalypse is utterly exhausting.
“Then go eat your edibles so that you have enough energy to get through the day,” I advised, not willing to let this spirit outbreak get out of hand before the trick or treating extravaganza. “It looks as if we need to pay a visit to Dee Fairuzo, Candy Hamilton, and…oh, wow.”
Let me guess—Harry. Our local librarian was at the game last night, you know. Who would have thought a werewolf would have a need for a Ouija board?
“Not Harry,” I corrected Leo, having mixed feelings about the third board. I mean, Dee and Candy’s daughters having a game like that didn’t surprise me in the least. But why in the world would an elderly woman in her nineties own a Ouija board? “It’s Gertie. She has a Ouija board at the inn, Leo.”
We are talking about the same crotchety old lady who can walk faster than me, conned your grandmother into teaching her a spell, and also stores pestles and mortars in her kitchen cabinets? Nothing to worry about there.
“We already ruled out the possibility of Gertie being a witch,” I pointed out, carefully picking up the map on either side so that it was easier to slide the absinthe back into its container. “She does take a strong interest in the holistic. What if she’s always just had a wish to be a…”
Go ahead. Say it. Our resident innkeeper has a wish to become a witch. There’s no shame in rhyming, Raven, but don’t you think it’s a little late in life to be wanting to switch up careers?
I quickly folded the map and slid it between the others on the shelf. Once the amethyst was stored away in the drawer, I quickly checked Otis’ order for Friday. I’d worked on some of the so-called holistic blends earlier this week in anticipation of the All Hallows’ Eve preparations and the time they would take.
“I’m ready,” I announced determinedly, pushing the stool back a bit so that I could stand with ease. “Let’s solve this mystery, Leo.”
Ease up there, birthday witch. My edibles are essential to my mental health, especially with the lingering side effects from this monumental hangover. Snacks over mysteries, Raven, and I’m not going anywhere without having my proper nourishment first.
Chapter Eleven
“Leo looks as if he has a skip to his step,” Liam said as we both walked down the sidewalk. The crisp air had a slight bite to it now that the coastal breeze was coming in off the bay, but it didn’t seem to bother Leo in the least. He was walking in front of us, deciding that maybe Gertie would give him some extra treats like she was prone to do with some of the other cats around town. “I take it he’s still feeling somewhat better than this morning?”
“He complained a little bit about nausea after I’d cast the locator spell, but Beetle’s edibles seem to have provided a remedy fo
r that problem,” I replied wryly. I couldn’t help but closely study those residents whom we passed on the street for any sign of distress. The scuttlebutt around town hadn’t indicated anyone other than Candy getting a glimpse of a long-lost loved one recently. “Eileen seems to have rationalized the entire ghost situation.”
When I’d called Liam to explain about the three Ouija boards, he had just been finishing up with the Abbotts. I’d told him my idea about speaking with Dee and Candy with the ruse of borrowing a Ouija board for tonight’s party. Of course, we had to pretend that we didn’t know that their daughters even owned one, but the excuse had been valid enough. We would conveniently forget to bring them with us this evening, but at least it would give me an opportunity to see if the boards held any residual energy.
“Trust me, sometimes it’s easier to find any excuse to hold onto rather than accept that there are unknown forces at play in our everyday lives.” Liam winked, having been sheriff in a town with a resident witch for a very long time without being any the wiser. “I have been meaning to ask you something.”
No. It is much easier if he doesn’t know anything he could repeat in the wrong company.
Leo had shouted from up ahead, having turned his left side toward me so that I couldn’t miss his disapproval. He only included his justification after seeing my facial expression.
No hand in marriage. Not happening. Your mother doesn’t even know that the good ol’ sheriff has been brought into the inner circle. Can you imagine if…
Leo came to a complete stop, interrupting whatever it was that Liam might have wanted to ask me. As a matter of fact, tufts of Leo’s fur were standing on end as if he’d just found out that the neighborhood squirrels had won in the battle of wills.
Didn’t the resident warlock say that the Wicked Witch of Windsor was in town?
“Keep moving,” Liam murmured encouragingly, lifting his hand in acknowledgement as Newt drove by in Otis’ vehicle. He’d complained about a rattling sound in the engine well before I’d moved to Paramour Bay, and I’d come to the realization that he took it in once a month to see if Newt could miraculously discover the reason why. “What’s wrong, Raven?”
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