by Amy Boyles
“Because she’s Misery and it’s hers. Maybe she’s waiting to get it back before she unleashes her real revenge.” I clenched my fists. “I’ll tell you right now that I’m not giving her anything she wants.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Betty quietly rocked and hummed. “We need to let the bird go.”
Cordelia’s voice came out barely a whisper. “I get it. Then Misery will be upset, angry. We’ll have a better shot of overpowering her.”
I hiked a shoulder to my ear. “Yeah, that and she just won’t get what she wants.”
“I like it,” Cordelia said.
“Is the crow spelled to you?” Amelia asked.
I nodded. “I’m not sure how to break it.”
Cordelia rubbed her chin. “I can try. But I can’t do it inside.”
Betty’s words about what happened to each of us lit in my brain. I grabbed Cordelia’s wrist. “This is part of the nightmare. You go out there, there’s no telling what’ll happen.”
Betty’s voice crackled in the air. “Everything okay, girls?”
“Yes,” Amelia called out. “We’re just trying to get warm.”
“There’s a nice fire over here,” Betty said.
“We’ll be right there,” I said.
I focused my attention back on Cordelia. “I don’t think you should leave.”
She shrugged. “What other choice do we have?”
Ultimately Cordelia was right. What choice did we have? If we let this “Betty” know we thought something was up, there was no telling what she’d do to us.
“Grumpy is outside,” Cordelia reminded us. “He’ll protect me. Hopefully.”
Amelia and I reluctantly agreed. “First sign of danger, yell,” I said.
Cordelia gripped the door handle. “Promise.” With a flourish, she opened the door and disappeared into the snowy night.
A gust of wind blew inside the cabin and I shivered. I stared at Betty and inhaled a deep, fortifying breath. “Well,” I said to Amelia, “I guess let’s wait and see what happens.”
With slow steps we made our way to Betty. I watched my fake grandmother carefully, waiting to see what would happen.
“You girls want some cocoa?” Betty said.
We shook our heads. “No thanks,” Amelia answered.
I swear I could hear the seconds ticking by in my head. The crow adjusted itself on my shoulder, and I wondered if this was the right decision. The crow, once free, could easily join Misery and fight us.
But something told me the bird wouldn’t do that. I wasn’t completely sure it was loyal to Misery.
After a few minutes Amelia placed her mouth to my ear. “I don’t like this.”
I cringed. “I don’t either.”
“I’m going outside.”
“No,” I said harshly.
“No what?” Betty said, rocking and knitting.
I glared at her but my “grandmother” didn’t seem to notice. “Nothing,” I replied cheerfully. “Absolutely nothing.”
Amelia rose. Her mouth was etched in a firm line. “Be right back.”
I reached out to grab her wrist, stop her from leaving, but my cousin was to the door and out it in no time.
My stomach churned. I glanced around for a bathroom but didn’t see one. To be honest, I didn’t feel comfortable turning my back on this woman.
And so I waited. And waited. And waited. But no one returned. Just like in Betty’s dream.
“They’ve been gone awhile,” she said.
I nodded. “Yep. Sure have.”
Her eyes glittered with delight. “Want to go check on them?”
“No thanks. You?”
“No, I think I’ll just wait.”
And so we stared at one another. I wanted to check on my cousins, but I couldn’t turn my back on her. I knew that time was ticking and that every moment my family was gone meant that somehow Misery was winning.
I couldn’t let her win.
So I decided my only course of action was to flush her out in the open, so to speak.
“Really gorgeous crow, right?” I said.
She eyed the bird hungrily. I didn’t know if she wanted to eat it or take it from me.
Betty’s fingers flexed as if they itched to grab ahold of the crow. “You should let me pet it. Stroke it.”
“Hmm, I’m not so sure about that.”
I rose and stepped away from the circle of warmth the fire offered. “Seems like maybe I shouldn’t. Seems like there is a bad person who wants him.”
“Bad person? Who are you talking about?”
“Misery.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “But I’m Betty. I have nothing to do with Misery.”
This was where my choice became limited. Start a fight or keep playing cat and mouse.
Time to start a fight.
I raised my finger. Magic glowed on the tip. Betty eyed me with a crooked brow. “What are you doing?”
“This.”
I flung out my hand, and the magic zipped through the air, landing on Betty’s chest.
Magic bled across her chest and arms. Betty howled and rose, throwing the yarn into the fire.
“That was stupid, girl. Now you’ll pay.”
In a split second Betty transformed to Misery. Magic glowed in her palms, and the sneer on her face was enough to make me want to hide under a couch.
“Where’s my family?” I shouted.
“Gone! They’re all gone and you’ll never see them again!”
“You’re a liar!”
I flung magic at her but she dodged. Misery threw out her hand, and a magical palm circled me and started squeezing.
The crow fluttered into the air; it cawed and screeched.
“Quiet, you,” Misery yelled at it. She threw a line of power to the bird, hitting its tail. The bird howled in pain.
That was it. You could hurt me. You could hurt my family. But you couldn’t hurt an innocent creature.
With all the willpower I had left, which wasn’t much seeing as the giant hand was squeezing the last breath from my body, I threw my power to the bird and willed the magic that bonded us together to break.
A great snap filled the room.
Misery reached out with her magic. It was a line I could tell would wind around the crow and bring him back to her. I had to hope that by freeing the bird, I’d given it some of its power back.
“Come here,” Misery called.
Her magic coiled toward the bird as it fluttered around the room. The hand squeezing me tightened. It would crush my lungs.
As the rope of magic looped to nab the bird, it gave a great flap of its wings.
Misery screamed as the crow disappeared from sight.
Chapter 25
Misery’s grip tightened on me. “You little wench,” she shouted. “You let him go. You let my bird go! You don’t know what you’ve done!”
I wanted to say that no, I didn’t know what I’d done, but I didn’t have the energy to focus on that. The magical rope that coiled around me constricted, tightening to the point I could no longer breathe.
“Can’t think,” I gasped.
“Well, well, well.” She walked right up and glared at me with her beady eyes. Her greasy hair hung in thick ropes around her face, and her gnarled features were truly reminiscent of an evil cartoon villainess.
“Because of you I’ve lost that crow. He’d been in my servitude for years. Years! Serving me. Doing my bidding but now he’s free.”
She cowered. “Free to seek his revenge on me! Because of you.”
The oxygen left my brain, but I started to understand. Misery had kept that bird imprisoned, forcing him to do her bidding. Heck, I bet all her animals were imprisoned, spelled to do exactly as she wanted.
This woman was evil. Truly evil. If I died here, in Misery’s stranglehold, I would at least be glad that I’d managed to set one of her prisoners free.
As the last bit of air was squeezed from my lungs, I tri
ed for one last surge of power, but I was so tired that my magic petered out before it had a chance to flourish.
As my lids closed, a flash of light lit in the room. My eyes fluttered open, and there hovered the crow, just out of reach.
Something was hooked in his beak.
“The dream catcher!”
The dream catcher, the one piece of all this madness that could end the nightmares and take Misery’s power from her, dangled in the crow’s beak.
Misery saw too. She reached her hands toward the bird, her fingers extending like claws toward the dream catcher.
Just as she was about to snatch the object away, the crow tossed it in the air and pierced the very center of it with its beak.
“No,” Misery exhaled an earsplitting scream.
The magic holding me dissolved, and I fell to the floor. The cabin itself melted away; so did the snow, and the darkness became light.
Misery fell to the ground, scrambling to pick up the dream catcher. She grabbed the pieces of thread that had been severed and tried to mend them together.
My cousins appeared from the trees and ran to me. Betty suddenly popped up from behind a tall spruce. Her pipe dipped from her mouth. Leave it to Betty to be smoking away in the middle of a crisis.
“What in tarnation’s going on here?”
Misery wept. “My beautiful curse. My beautiful, beautiful curse. It’s all ruined. All of it!”
I expected her to say something about meddling kids, but she spared us.
Betty crossed to Misery. She grabbed a handful of her collar and hoisted Misery to her feet with superhuman strength.
“Look, lady, your curse is broken. You messed with my family, and now you’ll be dealing with me.” She glanced at Cordelia. “Cordelia!”
My cousin pulled a phone from her pocket. “I’m calling Garrick now.”
She moved away from the group, but Amelia, Betty and I surrounded Misery. Betty roped her hands with magic while Amelia and I made sure that Misery wasn’t going to escape. Not sure where she would go, but escape was certainly a possibility.
“What’s going on out here?”
Axel appeared from the forest. He was fully clothed and running as if he’d been chasing us for miles.
“How’d you get clothes on?” I said. “Last I saw you, you were a werewolf running off in the forest.”
Axel winked at me knowingly. “Magic,” he said mysteriously. His gaze wandered to Misery. “So y’all stopped her.”
I pointed to the crow. “With his help. Apparently Misery had imprisoned him and all the other crows. She was basically their jailor and refusing to give them their freedom. I gave him freedom and he brought the dream catcher.”
Axel cocked a brow. “You mean the one you looked for and didn’t find?”
I clicked my tongue. “That’s the one. In fact, the bird destroyed it, so I think we owe him our thanks.”
Axel extended his hand, and the creature swooped down to land on his arm. “Thanks, little guy.”
The crow cawed. Thank you, he said in my head.
Excitement filled me from head to foot. “He talks! He said something in my head. Misery must’ve cursed him so that he couldn’t communicate.”
I glared at the old hag. “You are a terrible person, did you know that?”
She snarled at me in reply.
“Before you get toted off to jail—because you will be—we need to make sure that every single crow or any other creature that’s in your house is set free.”
Betty lifted her chin. “I agree. We’ll get Garrick on it and make sure. That’s no good, Misery, what you’ve done. I’m going to make sure you’re never able to curse anyone ever again.”
I folded my arms. “How’re you going to do that?”
Betty winked at me. “I have my ways.”
Sure enough, Betty did. Within minutes Garrick arrived with his deputies and arrested Misery for cursing our town. Luckily none of the witches and wizards who’d been battling each other off Bubbling Cauldron had been hurt, thank goodness.
Before Garrick actually led Misery away, though, Betty worked a little spell on her. My grandmother aimed her good nostril at the witch, and sparkly magic zapped her on the rear end.
“Hey,” Misery griped, glaring at Betty. “What’d you do?”
Betty chuckled but didn’t answer her. I nudged Betty. “So what did you do?”
Betty lowered her voice. “I spelled her so that anytime Misery tries to curse someone, a sign will appear around her neck that say, I’M ABOUT TO CURSE YOU.”
I laughed. “You can’t be serious.”
Betty looked hurt. “Why can’t I be? That witch deserved it.”
I watched as Misery rubbed the sore spot on her bottom where Betty had zapped her. I shrugged. “Well, I guess she did deserve it. She deserves everything she gets.”
I wrapped an arm around Betty’s neck. “Come on. Let’s go make sure the rest of her animals have been set free.”
Betty whistled. Hugo suddenly appeared, his great wings kicking up leaves and debris.
“Hey,” I said in mock irritation, “that’s my dragon. I’m the one who calls him.”
She hiked a shoulder to her ear. “He likes me, too. Get used to it, kid. He’s big enough for us to share.”
I told Axel and my cousins I’d catch up with them later on that night and hoisted myself onto Hugo’s back.
“Wait,” I said to Betty. “What about Grumpy?”
Betty wiped a single tear from the bottom of her eye. “I guess, along with everything else, when Misery’s curse was broken, he went back to being a mound of clay.”
My heart ached. I didn’t want Grumpy to become a mound of clay. I liked him. A lot. He was becoming my friend.
As Hugo lifted us off into the air, I thought about Grumpy one last time and hoped that wherever he was, the creature was happy.
Chapter 26
“It’s only a few days until this wedding; where are those doves?”
Betty stalked into the living room with her shotgun in her hand.
I stared at her. “Why are you toting a shotgun and asking about my doves?”
“Because I’ve got to make sure they know who’s the boss, Pepper. Ain’t it obvious?”
“No,” I said calmly. I smiled at my grandmother. “Betty, I know you’re nervous about this wedding, but everything’s going to go great. Misery has been dealt with, the doves are here—at Familiar Place. All I need you to do is make sure they get released at the end of the ceremony. You don’t have to shoot birdseed into the air.”
“I was going to shoot buckshot.”
I slapped my face in frustration.
Betty chuckled. “Just kidding, kid. I wasn’t going to do that. I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly for you. That’s all.”
I smiled tenderly. “It will. I know it will.”
Cordelia and Amelia entered the house. Cordelia shucked out of her jacket and unwound her scarf before pegging it. “It’s getting busy out there. The guests are already starting to arrive.”
“Let’s hope the shields stay down so that all of Axel’s werewolf relatives can enter. I’d hate for the shields that keep non-witches out to suddenly start working at the wrong time.”
“Me too,” Amelia said. “But they never really worked that great when Rufus Mayes was always trying to break in.”
She shot a look to Betty, who glared right back at her.
“Speaking of Rufus,” I said, “I’m pretty glad that he didn’t go all psycho on us when Misery’s curse was in play.”
Cordelia nodded. “With everything else bad going on, the last thing we needed to deal with was a super powerful Rufus trying to destroy us.”
I slipped on my jacket and shouldered my purse. “Maybe he’s so much in love with Carmen that his goodness stopped the curse from working on him.”
Amelia smirked. “You realize by saying that, you’re saying that Axel succumbed to the nightmare for the oppo
site reason.”
I smirked. “He wasn’t going to hurt me. I mean, not until he got scared.”
“Okay,” Cordelia said, “let’s just go with that.”
Before I had a chance to respond, the doorbell rang. Axel stood on the other side holding a cup of hot cocoa. “You ready?”
“Yes. Take me away from here and my meddling family.”
Axel laughed tenderly. The corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement. “Oh, they’re not all that bad.”
“I disagree.” Betty threw the shotgun over one shoulder. “Do one round with me and you’ll change your mind.”
“Okay then,” Axel said.
I fished my hand through his arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Where are y’all off to?” Betty asked.
“To check out the new house,” I said. “Axel’s got a surprise for me.”
I said goodbye to my family and realized that I would only be returning to Betty’s house a few more times before Axel and I were married and I moved my things into the new house.
There was the wedding and then the honeymoon.
“You all set to go to Hawaii?”
“All set?” I answered. “Like, I’ve been ready ever since it got cold here. So yes, I’ve been ready forever.”
He laughed and pulled me close. As we walked through town, I noticed a crow alight on a pole.
I smiled and gave a little wave. Misery’s crow still hung around. I wasn’t sure why. Was it keeping an eye on me to see that I was safe? Or did it simply like our little town?
My guess was that it simply liked our little town.
Who could blame it? I liked our little town, too.
In a few minutes Axel and I reached the cottage. He let me in and showed me the few pieces of furniture he’d added. “You like them?”
I slid my hand over an antique buffet. “I love it.”
“If you don’t like it,” he said, “we can get anything else. Whatever you want. I just saw them and thought of you.”
I beamed at him. “They’re truly beautiful, but I do want to go shopping. Like, just the two of us, once we return from our honeymoon.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he joked. “I like a bossy woman.”
I laughed and playfully punched his arm. “Come on. Let’s go to the backyard and look at the fairy lights.”
