Witches Just Want to Have Fun

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Ugh. I knew I shouldn’t have told you. This is going to be the worst thing ever.”

  “Oh, stop being a baby.” I pursed my lips. “You don’t know what kind of spell Selena cast, do you, May? Wesley might be able to put something together to counter it if you do.”

  “I have no idea. The thing is … if Selena cast the spell and she really is dead, it should’ve lifted when her soul was released from her body,” May explained. “The spell is still active. In fact, I can’t stay much longer. I’m weakening. I think that means Selena is still alive.”

  I didn’t know whether to be relieved or annoyed. “Okay, well … .” I didn’t get a chance to finish because the sound of someone banging on the front door drew my attention. “Who could that be?”

  “I don’t know,” Wesley said grimly, his expression a mixture of fury and disappointment. “May just disappeared. We need to figure this out … and fast. I don’t like the idea of knowing she can’t visit her own home.”

  I released his hand and stood. “We’ll figure it out … right after I see who’s at the door. We’re not done here. We’re just getting started.”

  27

  Twenty-Seven

  I was frustrated when I made it to the door.

  “I’m going to start throwing punches at whoever this is,” I muttered. “I mean … it’s like the worst timing ever.”

  Wesley, his expression forlorn, stared at the spot May had hovered in only moments before. “We’ll fix it so May comes back. I’ll … we’ll fix it.”

  Sympathy washed over me. “Of course we’ll fix it.” I meant it with all my heart, for his benefit as well as my own. “We’ll figure out what’s going on. I’ll do research and then you can … do whatever needs to be done.”

  I was frustrated when Wesley didn’t meet my gaze. Lilac, as if sensing my distress, made a tsking sound with her tongue and rested her hand on Wesley’s forearm.

  “We’ll find a way to make sure May can be here,” she said. “Don’t be sad. We’ll figure it out.”

  Whoever was outside pounded the door again. Hard.

  “I’m coming,” I grumbled, stomping my feet to make my irritation known as I reached the door. “There’s no need to get your panties in a bunch, for crying out loud. I mean … .” I was about to say something really mean, but it died on my lips when I saw the person standing on the other side of the threshold. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Booker immediately keyed in on my demeanor and jumped to his feet, his eyes going wide when he saw the disheveled woman standing on the front porch. “Hadley … .”

  He was going to warn me to step away. I was already doing it when Madame Selena swooped into the room, her gray hair poking out from beneath a messy turban. I was keen to keep distance between us, so much so that I almost tripped over the coffee table (which we’d moved to make room for the séance) and banged my knee hard against the corner.

  “Ow!” I dropped to the ground on the other side, grimacing as I held my knee tight.

  “You’re so graceful,” Booker drawled, causing me to scowl.

  “You have to save me,” Madame Selena announced. “I’m in danger of losing my life.”

  “I’ll say,” Lilac drawled. “We might all kill you now that we know what you did to May.”

  Madame Selena blinked several times in rapid succession and I could practically see the gears in her mind grinding. When she spoke, I wasn’t surprised by her words. “Whatever do you mean? I think there must have been some sort of mistake.”

  I rolled my eyes so hard I would’ve probably tipped over if I hadn’t already been on the ground thanks to my throbbing knee. “Don’t bother denying it.”

  “Really,” Wesley growled, slowly getting to his feet. His eyes blazed as he focused on Madame Selena. “Why would you do something so terrible to May?”

  Madame Selena balked. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Whatever she told you … well, it’s a lie. She never was very truthful. I guess she carried her lying ways into death with her.”

  Wesley moved to lunge at her, but Booker was clearly expecting an act of aggression because he caught Wesley around the waist and kept him from closing the distance … and potentially committing murder.

  “Simmer down, Wesley,” Booker ordered, his eyes keen and thoughtful as they landed on Madame Selena. “She’s not worth it.”

  “I don’t care if she’s worth it,” Wesley spat. “It won’t take long, and I bet I don’t even break a sweat. I’m not a proponent of hurting women, but she has it coming.”

  I decided to be practical as I rubbed my knee. “Wesley, you can’t kill her. We might need her to help bring May back.”

  “Oh, I’m not bringing back May.” Madame Selena’s face remained impassive even as she wiped her sweaty brow. “I didn’t spend two days coming up with the perfect spell to keep her gone just to bring her back.”

  I was floored. “What?”

  “Let me go, Booker!” Wesley growled as he doubled his efforts to escape.

  “I can’t bring her back.” Madame Selena was straightforward. “I mean … I just can’t. If she’s here she’ll try to stop me, and there’s nothing more annoying than a ghost who tries to act as your conscience.”

  “I’m guessing you don’t have a conscience,” I shot back. “You knew I wanted to spend time with my grandmother, learn from her, and then you cast a spell to keep her away.”

  Madame Selena didn’t bother to deny it. “I needed time to work without May breathing down my neck. If she knew I was in here she would’ve told you, and that would’ve made accessing the lighthouse all the more difficult.”

  Something occurred to me. “You’re the one who broke in.” I wanted to get to my feet so I could look Madame Selena in the eye, but my knee was throbbing. “You let yourself into the lighthouse but hid your features under a hoodie so May couldn’t recognize you. Then, when she made noise, you bolted.”

  “I heard she was hanging around,” Madame Selena said, making a face. “It didn’t surprise me. I mean … the woman never recognized when it was her turn to step back and let someone else shine. This is my island now. She’s gone. She won’t let me have my moment to shine.”

  “Ugh.” Now I was sorry Booker didn’t let Wesley kill her. “Why did you even come here? I don’t understand. If your goal is to be more famous than May, why not just perform some magic and worry about yourself?”

  “Because I don’t know how to perform magic,” Madame Selena shot back. “I’m not a born witch. I’m a learned witch. Everything I can do I had to train myself to do … and it took a long time.”

  I had no idea what that meant and looked to Lilac for help. Her expression had turned thoughtful as she looked Madame Selena up and down, but she didn’t look particularly worried.

  “Some witches are born with magic, like May, Emma and you,” Lilac supplied. “Others have to learn from books.”

  Books? Hmm. “Like the ones on the third floor?”

  Lilac nodded, her eyes never leaving Madame Selena’s face. “Exactly like that. But not all power can be taught.”

  “No, it can’t,” Madame Selena agreed, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment under Lilac’s glare. “Can you please not stare at me like that?”

  Lilac ignored the request. “You came here because you thought there was a secret in the books to boost your powers. You thought May might know a cheat, didn’t you?”

  Madame Selena, refusing to show embarrassment, merely shrugged. “She was always keeping things from me. I tried to learn from her, but she told me I was limited. I didn’t believe that. I knew I wasn’t limited and that she only wanted to keep me down. That’s when I knew she was an enemy rather than a friend.”

  “You didn’t tell her that, did you?” Wesley challenged. I swear he looked as if his eyes were about to catch fire and shoot laser bolts in Madame Selena’s direction. His fury was palpable, taking over the room to the point it felt hot enough to infringe on brea
thing. “You kept pretending you were a faithful student even as you plotted against May. She knew you’d turn on her, by the way. She knew what you were. She tried to help anyway, believed she could change you. That was one of the few things she was wrong about.”

  “She lied to me!” Madame Selena barked. “I am not limited. I’m just as powerful as May.”

  “If that’s true, you wouldn’t need May’s books and supplies,” I pointed out. “You were in the attic moving things around. You changed the order of the herbs and looked through the Book of Shadows.”

  “I was certain she was hiding a spell that could help me.” Madame Selena didn’t even bother looking at anyone else. She focused on me, probably because she thought she could snow me. That was my guess, anyway. “The problem is, May cursed the book so it can’t leave the lighthouse. I wanted to grab it and go, but I couldn’t break the spell. I had to read it here.”

  “Is that why you cast the spell on the beach?” I asked, my frustration growing with every word the woman uttered. “Did you want to distract me so you could find a way to steal the book?”

  Madame Selena narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?” She wasn’t a particularly good actress, so I could tell right away that she was thrown regarding how much we knew.

  “Oh, don’t do that.” Lilac wagged a finger as she slowly stood. I’d never seen her look as angry as she did now. “We know it was you on the beach. We know you wanted to distract Hadley to the point she wouldn’t remember what happened, so when she was accused of killing Gus … well … she really wouldn’t know if it was true.”

  “You tried to glamour her from afar,” Wesley supplied. “You thought because she was a new witch you’d be able to control her. She’s stronger than you, even though she doesn’t realize it. She slipped the spell before you could get what you wanted.”

  “Is that what you really wanted?” I couldn’t help being confused. “It was the book all this time? Gus died for a book?” That made absolutely no sense to me.

  “Oh, good grief.” Madame Selena tilted her head back and pinched her nose as she stared at the ceiling. “I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation. I mean … how did you even know?”

  “About the spell?” I shrugged. That was a good question. “The world turned shimmery. I realized something was very wrong.”

  “But how did you break the spell?”

  “I don’t know.” That wasn’t a lie. I’d given it a lot of thought, but I had no answers. “I just did.”

  “Hadley is gifted,” Wesley said. “She’s May’s granddaughter, so she would have to be. She’s a born witch who had no idea what she was until two weeks ago – and she’s still stronger than you.”

  Madame Selena made a face. “Yes, well, that won’t be true if she’s dead, will it?” Madame Selena drew a small handgun from her pocket and pointed it in my direction. “Everyone back up.” Her voice turned deadly cold. “I’m not kidding. If you don’t give me some room, I’ll blow Hadley’s brains out.”

  Wesley was furious as my breath caught in my throat. For once, I believed every word that came out of Madame Selena’s mouth. She wasn’t kidding. She had no qualms about killing me.

  “What are you doing?” I was dumbfounded. “How do you think this is going to work?”

  “I have no idea how it’s going to work but I have to try,” Madame Selena replied. “I’m in real trouble here. You’re right. I did cast the spell on the beach. I didn’t do it to steal the book. I wanted the book – don’t get me wrong – but I didn’t intend to steal it right away. I had other things on my mind that day.”

  I furrowed my brow. “You were helping someone all along,” I surmised. “Galen was right. You were working with Henry or Barbie, though I have no idea which one.”

  Madame Selena narrowed her eyes to glittery slits. “What does Galen know? Don’t mince words. Don’t lie. I’ll know if you lie. What exactly does he know?”

  “He knows enough to lock you away,” Booker answered. He remained calm, his face unreadable, but I could sense the anger radiating from him. We were separated by a coffee table and a crazy woman with a gun, but I had no doubt he’d make both disappear in an instant if he thought it was necessary. “He’s out at the beach looking for Henry right now. Someone saw him near the Elks lodge.”

  “Oh, that would be Mary Dardin,” Madame Selena said. “I put a suggestion in her head and told her to call. I thought that would leave Hadley here alone. I had no idea she’d have so much company. There are no vehicles in the driveway.”

  “I drove the cart,” Wesley said. “I need to call for a ride from one of my men when I leave.”

  “And I left the van down the beach,” Booker added. “She’s right. It looks as if no one is here.”

  “But I didn’t get that lucky, did I?” Madame Selena’s frustration was obvious as she heaved out a sigh. “I’m in trouble here, people. It’s your job to get me out of it. I know you didn’t sign up for this task, but if you want Hadley to live you have no choice.” She waved the gun in my direction. “Figure out a way for me to get off Moonstone Bay within the next hour or I’ll start shooting.”

  “You won’t do that,” Booker shot back. “If you kill Hadley, you have absolutely no leverage.”

  “Don’t push her, Booker,” Wesley warned, fear apparent. “You have no idea what she’s capable of.”

  “I know what she’s not capable of,” Booker argued. “She’s not capable of killing all of us. If she hurts Hadley, there’s nothing that will stop the rest of us from tearing her apart. She knows that.”

  Wesley glanced to me and swallowed hard. “I’m not willing to risk Hadley’s life on a hunch.”

  I pursed my lips and then offered a small smile. “Thanks. But you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

  “Did you hear that?” Madame Selena’s eyebrows migrated north. “She’ll be fine. She’s got stones the size of … um … boulders. She’s going to help me figure a way off this island and then everyone will be able to return to their regularly scheduled lives. Doesn’t that sound terrific?”

  It sounded unlikely, but I kept it to myself. I was a much better liar than Madame Selena, and she didn’t know me well enough to realize I was about to start telling tall tales. I only hoped Booker, Wesley and Lilac realized what I was doing and didn’t contradict me when it started happening.

  “First, we have to know who you’re running from,” I prompted, doing my best to appear outwardly calm even as my heart rate ratcheted up a notch. “We can’t help unless we know which enemy we’re fighting.”

  “Enemy?” Now it was Lilac’s turn to be confused. “Which enemy are you talking about?”

  I remained where I was, basically sitting on the coffee table as I continued to rub my sore knee. I had two choices, but one made much more sense than the other. “Barbie Conner,” I said finally. “She hired Madame Selena to help her cover up two murders.”

  Madame Selena flicked her eyes to me, something dark lurking in the depths as she stared. “How can you possibly know that?”

  “Because Barbie is keeping a secret,” I replied calmly. “She has something she doesn’t want anyone else to know. I’m pretty sure I know what that something is.” That was a lie. I was guessing.

  “Oh, really?” Madame Selena drawled. “Why don’t you enlighten the class?”

  “It doesn’t really matter.” I meant it. “She killed Trish. I’m guessing because Trish found out the truth and confronted her. Barbie needed to keep her quiet, so she killed her. The mistake she made was using a knife from a set that probably got dispersed among her family throughout the years. She also had the rotten luck to pick a day when Ashley and Trish fought, which was unusual. She probably had no idea her daughter would be the prime suspect.”

  Madame Selena forced out a hollow snort. “No. She definitely didn’t think that would happen.” Her look turned appraising. “How did you figure it out?”

  “It wasn’t hard on
ce I really looked at the facts.”

  “Well, she’s essentially crazy,” Madame Selena supplied. “Once I realized that the spell didn’t work on you at the beach, I knew she’d be coming for me. I was a loose end she needed to tie up. I was the only one who knew everything she’d done.”

  “You faked your death, didn’t you?” Booker asked. “That’s why the scene was so perfectly set on the road.”

  “I faked my disappearance,” Madame Selena corrected. “I wanted people to talk about my disappearance for years to come, lift me to lofty mythological heights. I’m not sure that’s still possible but I’m going to try. To make it happen, you need to get me off the island. You have to start thinking.”

  I could do nothing but stare at her. “We don’t have control of the ferries and planes. We can’t get you off the island, for crying out loud. Why would you possibly think we could?”

  Instead of answering me, she turned her gaze to Wesley. “Because your grandfather has ways on and off the island the rest of us don’t have access to. How do you think he managed to get you that fancy new cart in the driveway? That’s divine, by the way. I’d be totally jealous if I were staying here.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Smuggling a person is different than importing a golf cart.”

  “Wesley can do it,” Madame Selena pressed. “He’ll have to if he wants to keep you alive.”

  Wesley glared at her. “Don’t threaten my granddaughter.”

  “I’ll do what I want,” Madame Selena fired back. “This is my last chance.”

  I sensed a new player entering the room from the kitchen before I saw her, my internal danger alarm going completely wonky at the exact moment Barbie Conner appeared behind Booker. She, too, was armed. Her gun was three times as big as Madame Selena’s weapon.

  “You’re out of chances, Selena,” Barbie drawled. “You gave it a good try, but there’s no way out of this for you. I’m sorry. That’s simply the way it is.”

  And just like that, I realized the game was about to shift again.