by Martha Carr
Spellbound Magic
The Witches of Pressler Street™ Book Three
Martha Carr
Michael Anderle
This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2019 Martha Carr and Michael Anderle
Cover by Fantasy Book Design
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US edition, 2019
Version 1.01 January 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-695-5
Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-696-2
The Terranavis Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2019-2020 by Martha Carr and LMBPN Publishing.
Contents
The Spellbound Magic Team
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Free Books
Author Notes - Martha Carr
Other Books By Martha Carr
Books by Michael Anderle
Connect with The Authors
The Spellbound Magic Team
To the Early Readers Team
Kathleen Fettig
Michael Robbins
Debi Sateren
Michael Baumann
Special shout out to Grace Snokes, Lynne Stiegler, Judah Raine, Kelly O’Donnell and Stephen Campbell for their general badassery behind the scenes to keep everything running so smoothly.
Dedications
From Martha
To all those who love to read, and like a good puzzle inside a good story
To Michael Anderle for his generosity
to all his fellow authors
To Louie and Jackie
And in memory of my big sister,
Dr. Diana Deane Carr
who first taught me about magic, Star Trek,
DC Comics and flaming cherries jubilee
From Michael
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
To Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
To Live The Life We Are
Called.
Chapter One
Emily Hadstrom sat at the kitchen table with one hand wrapped around her coffee mug and the other clutching her phone. She’d played through the news clip twice already and now hit the reply button for a third viewing. “I can’t believe this,” she muttered.
Her older sister Nickie shuffled into the kitchen from the small dining room, blinking the sleep from her eyes. “Morning.”
Emily just nodded but couldn’t take her eyes off the screen.
“What are you watching?” With a yawn, Nickie headed across the kitchen toward the freshly brewed pot of coffee.
“The news…”
“Really?” Nickie poured herself a cup and brought it up to her mouth. “I thought you pinned down local TV news as a waste of time.”
Emily blinked at her phone and tilted her head. “Yeah, well, it’s just a little different when the news has to do with me.”
Her sister nearly choked on her first sip. “You’re on the news?”
“Not exactly.” Emily paused the clip and turned in her chair. “More like something I did.”
“Okay…” Nickie raised an eyebrow and moved with a lot more purpose toward the table. She scooted a chair next to Emily’s and sat, cupping her mug in both hands and glancing back and forth between her little sister and the paused video. “You really only have two choices, Em. You can either explain why you look like you’re about to be sick, or—”
“Yeah, I’ll just let you watch it.” Blinking quickly, Emily pressed the play icon in the middle of her screen and let the reporter do all the explaining.
“Yesterday afternoon, both the staff—and no doubt a few guests—at the five-star restaurant in downtown Austin experienced quite the surprise at Meadowlark Tavern. I’m here with Ben Calder and his wife Anita, who have a unique take on an even more unique dining experience. Mr. and Mrs. Calder, can you tell us in your own words what you experienced yesterday at Meadowlark Tavern?”
A balding man in his late fifties grinned into the camera while the thin woman beside him gripped his arm, batted her heavily-mascaraed eyelashes, and giggled. “Sure, sure. Anita and I are… well…”
“In the lifestyle,” his wife added.
The reporter offered the camera a confused smile. “‘In the lifestyle.’ Does that mean you’re swingers?”
“If that’s what you want to hear, sure.” Anita shook her maroon-dyed hair out of her face.
“And did you know you were walking into a…well, for lack of a better term, swinger party at Meadowlark Tavern yesterday?”
“Of course not!” Ben’s eyes widened. “That was the best part. There we were, enjoying our late lunch. And halfway through the meal, everyone just started to…really get to know each other, if you know what I mean.”
“Well, not everyone.” The man’s wife rolled her eyes. “A few people got really uncomfortable and left. Without even paying for their food. Can you believe that?”
“But boy, what a time we had. You know, we’d heard of these secret little get-togethers at private clubs or conferences at big hotels. Never managed to make it to one, then bam. There we were, right in the middle of it, and we had no idea.”
“Just perfect timing, I guess.”
The reporter blinked at them. “Okay, then. And you said you still don’t know who this… group is?”
Ben shook his head. “Not a clue—”
“Oh, but if any of them are watching…” Anita gripped his arm tighter and leaned into the camera with an excited grin. “We would love to be invited to the next one. Just find us on Facebook or something. Ben and Anita Calder—”
“Thank you, Mr. and Mrs.—”
“Whatever we need to do to be a part of it again!” Anita shouted as the camera panned away from her and husband.
The reporter walked away in the opposite direction. “The Calders are the only participants in yesterday’s unlikely
event who have been willing to speak with us on this story. It seems the waitstaff and kitchen staff were also completely unaware of the little convention their guests held at the restaurant. As of yet, Travis Macklen, owner of Meadowlark Tavern, and the head chef of his five-star restaurant, Henry Ansler, have both declined to comment. Back to you, David.”
The clip ended, frozen on what looked like the reporter trying not to crack up laughing. Emily stared at her phone.
Nickie tilted her head and frowned. “What… did we just watch?”
Her sister set the phone on the table and slid it away. “Feel free to watch it again. Took me a few times too before it really sank in.” Emily blew out a long sigh. “I think it’s sinking in.”
“What does this have to do with you, though?”
Emily shot her sister a pointed glance and folded her arms.
“Okay, yeah. That’s where you work. But it’s not like you were a part of this…weird party or anything. I mean, all you do is cook the food…” Nickie knew the minute her sister blushed that she’d hit the answer. Then it sank in for her too. “Oh…Wait, that was you?”
“Yeah?” Emily shrugged, wincing. “I just got a little carried away.”
“A little? Em, you literally cooked up one giant lovefest. For strangers. At your work—”
“I know! I know. It’s totally awful.”
“And totally hilarious.” Nickie folded her arms and smirked. “Honestly, I’m surprised you’re not cracking up laughing right now.”
“Please don’t, Nickie. I’m already embarrassed enough.”
“Well that’s a relief.” Nickie shook her head. “Whatever’s going on with you, it would be a really good idea to figure out how to control it. Or at the very least tone it down a little.”
“Yeah, I know that too.” Emily pulled her dark hair back from her forehead with both hands and stared at the frozen news clip on her phone. “I just don’t know how, yet.”
“Huh. Puts you in a pretty sticky situation, doesn’t it?”
The youngest Hadstrom sister rolled her eyes. “Don’t.”
“Come on, Em. That was funny, and you know it.”
“I’ll laugh about it later when I stop feeling like I wanna go crawl into a dark hole and never come back out.”
Nickie snorted. “Hey, it’s not like anybody knows your magic put a giant dose of free-for-all love potion into the soup…” Her eyes widened. “Did you tell Laura yet?”
“Are you kidding? No, I didn’t tell Laura—”
“Tell me what?”
They both turned quickly in their chairs to see the oldest Hadstrom sister standing just inside the kitchen. Laura yawned, and the only sound among them was Emily’s gulp. “Morning.” Her chair scooted across the floor as she stood and walked around the table. “Coffee?”
Laura smacked her lips and ran a hand through her unbrushed hair. “You read my mind, Em. Thanks.” Her youngest sister was already on the other side of the kitchen, banging the cabinet door shut and all but slamming a fresh mug onto the counter beside the coffee pot. “Maybe bring the noise levels down a little, though, huh? And then you can tell me whatever you haven’t told me yet.”
Emily started humming at the kitchen counter as she poured Laura’s coffee, and as she pulled the creamer out of the fridge, and as she stirred it all in.
Laura glanced at Nickie while taking a seat at the table. “What’s she doing?”
“Trying to ignore her life, most likely.”
“It’s freaking me out.”
Nickie shrugged. “Em, I’m gonna show her—”
“Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Here.” Emily approached the table, set the coffee in front of Laura, and stepped away like the table might light her on fire if she got too close. “I, uh…I have to feed the dog.” She disappeared through the mudroom at the back of the house and into the living room.
Laura frowned. “But our dog’s immortal. He doesn’t actually need food.” She took a slow sip of her coffee, which was just the way she liked it and blinked at Nickie. “So, what’s going on?”
“Just…watch this.” Nickie pulled Emily’s phone toward them and hit the replay icon on the screen. This time, she watched her big sister’s expression morph from confusion to shock to dawning, mortified realization. And she tried not to laugh.
When the news clip ended, Laura swallowed and took a deep breath through her nose. “Oh, my god, Emily.” She stared at Nickie. “How long did you know about this before I did?”
Nickie shrugged. “A couple minutes.”
With a sigh, Laura closed her eyes and took another sip of coffee. Then she stood. “Em?”
Her shout made Nickie lean away, and their youngest sister’s small, muffled voice returned from the living room. “I didn’t mean to!”
“I sure hope not,” Laura muttered and headed through the mudroom. Shaking her head, Nickie stood with her own coffee mug and followed her.
Emily was curled into a ball on the couch, huddled over her knees as she pressed her face into the cushion.
“What are you doing?” Laura asked.
“Trying to disappear.”
Nickie chuckled. “Well, that’s gonna be a little hard when the entire city’s talking about the surprise swinger party that was actually your out-of-control magic.”
“Nickie.” Laura frowned at her. “This isn’t funny.”
“Hey, taken out of context, it’s hilarious.”
“But right now, we can’t really take anything out of context, can we?” Laura sat on the couch beside her youngest sister and pulled Emily by the shoulders out of her ball of shame. “We have a lot on our plates. All of us separately.” She twirled her finger in a circle and caught Nickie’s gaze. “And all three of us together. I would say the highest thing on our priority list is dismantling nine other energy cores so the Gorafrex can’t power them with other witches’ blood magic…”
Puffing out a sigh, Nickie lowered herself into the armchair across from the couch.
“But we can’t focus on that like we should if something’s making our magic go haywire at work and we’re feeding customers what might be the strongest love potion I’ve ever heard of.”
Nickie bit back another laugh. “Please tell me you think it’s just a little funny.”
Laura leaned forward to make Emily look at her, and when her little sister gave her an apologetic grimace, she couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, yeah. It’s a little funny.” The oldest Hadstrom sister shrugged. “But it can’t keep happening, Em.”
“I know…”
“So what’s going on?”
Emily grabbed a fistful of her own hair and tugged it away from her face. “I don’t really know.”
“Em…”
“I mean, I was standing in the parking lot, about to start my shift, and John showed up hours early just to say hi and basically ask me out on another date…”
“This was before Nathan’s party last night?” Nickie asked.
“Yeah, it was before Nathan’s party.” Emily shot her a confused glance. “I’ve been with you guys literally every second since we got there.”
Laura leaned forward to catch Emily’s attention again. “And?”
“And…” Emily sighed. “I really like him, okay? And Chef Marino basically told me I had to act like I don’t even know John at all, because everybody’s business is Chef Ansler’s business if it’s in his kitchen. So I was trying not to act like anything was happening, but apparently I can’t keep it together, because then this thing happened, and all our customers started… freaking out on each other.”
“Or just getting’ freaky.” Nickie grinned and sat back in the armchair, crossing one leg over the other.
“Seriously?” Emily’s shoulders slumped, and she closed her eyes. “So trying not to think about John just made me think about John. And it… I dunno. Went into the food. Again.”
“What?” Laura leaned away from her.
“What?”
“
This isn’t the first time?”
“Uh… Laura you know it’s not.”
“Yeah, but I mean…at the restaurant?”
Emily raised her hands in surrender. “Okay, I get it. You’re pissed. I’m reckless and irresponsible. Awesome.”
For a few seconds, the living room fell silent. Then Laura burst out laughing. Emily looked at Nickie in confusion, but her sister only shrugged. “Em, I’m not mad.” Laura’s laughter died down, and she grabbed her youngest sister’s shoulder to shake her just a little. “I wish you’d told me about this…mass, emotional-magical exposure you’re feeding people at work…”
Nickie laughed too.
“Come on, guys.” Emily glanced back and forth between them. “I mean, yeah, I see how it’s funny, but it really doesn’t feel funny right now.”
Laura grinned. “That might be a first.” Emily stared at her until she gave a small, tense chuckle of her own. “And I think it’s an easy fix, right? At least you know what’s going on. Kind of. You like John, he likes you, your magic does weird things when—”
A loud thump came from above them, and all three Hadstrom sisters looked up at the ceiling. “What was that?” Nickie asked.
Emily rolled her eyes. “I mean, Speed sleeps in my room. Hey, Speed? What are you doin’ up there, you—” The jingle of their chubby, immortal, constantly-farting bulldog’s collar came from the mudroom. The dog door clicked back into place as Speed trotted into the living room and toward his witchy owners. “Um…okay.”
