magical cures 07 - a charming fatality
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Authors: tonya kappes
TONYA
KAPPES
A
Charming
Fatality
Magical Cures Mystery Series
Book seven
CONTENTS
The list of June Heal’s charms and what they mean:
- Turtle Charm = Be Sure and Steady On Your Journey
- Silver Owl = Wisdom, Mysticism, Secrets
- Purple Stone In Mesh = Clarity and Awareness
- Angel Wing = Guidance From Above and Protection
- Dove Sitting On a Gold Circle = Devotion and Hopefulness
- Third Eye Charm = Peer Past Illusions
- Small Potion Bottle = Harm To None
Chapter One
“Are you sure you have all of this under control?” Without making eye contact, I unscrewed the top off the Strychnos Nux-Vomica and held the bottle of the liquid substance over the boiling cauldron, silently counting one, two… ending in eight. I watched as the drops expanded into the mixture.
Immediately the substance began to bubble, turn murky and become a thin fluid turning rose in color.
Faith Mortimer stood next to me. Her onyx eyes focused on the cauldron. She brushed back her long blond hair behind her shoulder, her voice rose an octave, “Are you going to drink that for a stomachache?”
“I sure am.” The boiling subsided as I stirred the potion with my ladle.
“I think I’d just run over to The Gathering Grove and let Gerald fix me up something a little more appetizing.” There was a trace of laughter in her voice.
Only I wasn’t amused.
“Listen.” I set the ladle down next to the cauldron. I looked at Faith. My face grew still. “If you don’t think you are going to be able to handle running the store while I’m working the couple of days a week at Head To Toe Works headquarters, I’ll gladly find someone else to do it.”
“Not at all.” Faith stuck her head over top of the cauldron and took a nice long sniff of air. “Smells so good and looks delish!”
“You are so full of it.” The cauldron shut off, telling me my homemade potion for the case of the nerves was ready.
It was my first day at Head To Toe Works, a national chain owned by Tiffany and Burt Rossen. They had been tourists in the magical village of Whispering Falls, Kentucky where Tiffany stumbled into my shop, A Charming Cure, needing a special cure to deal with her mother-in-law over Christmas.
Homeopathic cures were my specialty in our special little village. We might as well call a spade a spade. I am a witch—spiritualist was really how I liked to refer to myself—and I made potions. To the customer, I referred to my potions as homeopathic cures so it wouldn’t scare them away. In fact, our whole village referred to each other as spiritualists and used our quaint shops to cover up our true witchy gifts.
“You are going to do awesome.” Faith clapped her hands together. Her eyes sparkled. “You are the first to ever go outside of our village to expand your product.”
“Yeah.” I dipped the ladle down into the cauldron and took my first sip.
Faith was right. I was the first spiritualist who was actually going to sell products nationally and if not done the right way, I could expose our heritage and secret to the world. Only the world wasn’t ready to know that real witches existed. They were content with reruns of
Bewitched
and
I Dream of Jeannie
.
It was such a big deal, the Village Council called the Order of Elders in to make sure the deal was legal and our heritage was kept a secret. To make things go smoother, I was going to give some of the profits back to Whispering Falls to help boost the economy. A lot was riding on my shoulders and the gurgle in my stomach let me know it.
Something had to calm my nerves and the Strychnos Nux-Vomica was just the herb I needed, along with the little extra dose of magic I had added to the cauldron. “That puts a lot of pressure on me.”
Meow, meow
. Mr. Prince Charming, my fairy-god cat, or some would say, my familiar, dotted his tail in the air toward the clock on the wall.
My eyes slid down the wall and focused on the framed photo hanging beneath it. The photo inside the frame was the only photo I had of my parents holding me as a little child. It was the only photo I had of all three of us. Just looking at it made my stomach settle a little more. I was determined to make them proud, even from the great beyond. For a split second, I thought I saw my dad’s lip curl up into a big smile. I blinked, bringing my gaze back to the photo. Nope. No big smile. Just the smirk that was always there.
“Every bottle is filled and the shelves are stocked.” I moved from behind the partition at the counter where I kept my cauldron hidden from the customers. “All the bottles have clear labels on them, so you should be good for the day.”
I walked over to one of the many tables positioned around the shop floor, ran my hand over the red tablecloth and smoothed out a wrinkle.
“Make sure you. . .”
“Keep the tablecloths nice and make sure to fill up any empty spots on them with the bottles in the back room and those.” Faith pointed to the wall where there were shelves filled with more bottles. “Don’t forget about the shelves. Even though they aren’t in your face like the tables, they get picked over and need to be filled too. And sometimes the bottles get moved around and you like the labels faced out.”
“I’m glad to see you were listening.” I tugged on the edges of the black and white polka dot dress I had decided to wear for my first day. “Are sure you don’t need to get your work done first?” I asked, referring to her job as the editor of the
Whispering Falls Gazette
where she used her witchy gift of Clairaudience to communicate the news of the spirit world.
Clairaudience was the ability to hear things that are inaudible, making Faith the best candidate for the job. She could hear upcoming events in the whisper of a breeze or the rush behind a summer wind. She would then translate it and put it in the headlines of the Gazette.
“I have already recorded the paper for the day and it will go out around ten this morning.” She pushed her shoulders back. Her face gleamed with pride.
“I’ll let you know if I get it.” I couldn’t help but wonder if I would be able to hear the paper from the other side of Locust Grove, the town where I grew up, but also where the Head To Toe Works plant was located.
The Whispering Falls Gazette was not delivered in paper form. Only audible. Whoever subscribed to the Gazette got it delivered through sound, that way there was no trace of our little village secret to the rest of the world.
The knock at the door caused us both to look up. Bella Van Lou furiously waved from the other side of the window in the door. When our eyes caught, her lips parted into a big grin exposing the gap between her two front teeth. Her cheeks balled on each side, making her eyes squinty.
I rushed over and opened the door. The fresh smell of the summer wisteria vine that covered the front of my store wafted in, giving me a little extra calm to my stomach. The vine smelled especially potent today and I couldn’t help but think it was Darla, my mother, looking down on me. She had planted those many years ago and I made sure I took special care of them. It was one of the last things living I had that she created. The other was a vial filled with wisteria vine oil that I had never been able to extract, so I kept special care of it as it was the special ingredient in my Gentle June’s stress free lotion Head To Toe Works had contracted me to make for their national chain.
Other things, like some of the herbs she used when she owned A Dose of Darla, were still alive and well in the back of A Charming Cure. Those were my little secrets not to share with the world and I could duplicate those if I really needed to, unlike the wisteria vine oil.
Bella rushed in and I took one good deep inhale of the sweet fragrance before I shut the door behind her.
“I’m so glad I caught you!” Excitement filled her five-foot-two frame. A satisfied look came into her smoky eyes. “Here.” She stuck her hand out and uncurled her fist.
Nestled in the palm of her hand was a tiny glass charm shaped like a potion bottle. Mr. Prince Charming darted in and out and between my legs in the pattern of a figure eight. His white hair was falling out all over my black heeled shoes with each turn around my ankles.
“You stinker,” I said to him and took the charm out of Bella’s palm. I held it in the air to get a good look at the liquid inside. “Look at the tiny liquid.” I shook it and it filled with smoke. “What’s in it and what does it mean?”
“It’s my secret blend of Red Devil Smoking Hot incense, mugwort, myrrh, mandrake and witch hazel, a dash of bat blood and snake oil.” She tapped the small bottle I held between my fingers.
“All in this little bottle?” I asked.
She nodded. “Collectively it means harm to none.”
“How did you know what to put in there?” I questioned her ability to put together potions when her witchy gift was an astrologer.
Bella owned Bella’s Baubles, the only jewelry store in Whispering Falls. It was interesting how she interacted with customers. They might come in for a fancy diamond, but it would enhance their life if they owned a different gem, so she’d talk them into the right gem to enhance their life.
“Him.” She pointed her long finger down to Mr. Prince Charming.
He was sitting next to my feet, his tail swinging back and forth. I should’ve known. He showed up on my doorstep in Locust Grove on my tenth birthday. It was a dream come true. Darla and I didn’t have a lot of money and the cake she had gotten me from the deli of the Piggy Wiggly had
HAPPY RETIREMENT
written in icing because it was on sale (the manager’s special sticker was also a good indicator). Plus it took everything in Darla’s soul to get me a sugary treat since she lived a holistic life. A treat was a rare occasion.
Mr. Prince Charming was snow white. He had a turtle charm with one green gem eye and one missing that dangled from his collar. Years later, I found out that Mr. Prince Charming was actually my fairy-god cat or familiar, who was sent by the Village Council of Whispering Falls to keep me protected because I was a descendant of Otto Heal, my spiritualist father and the sheriff of Whispering Falls who was killed in the line of duty.
Darla was not a spiritualist. But she had this shop, A Dose of Darla because she was married to my father. After he passed, she moved me to Locust Grove, the city next to Whispering Falls, to protect me. She moved the shop to the local flea market. She concocted her homeopathic cures in a greenhouse in our backyard where she grew her herbs.
It wasn’t until long after my mom had died that the Village Council came looking for me, and told me about my past and how I belonged in the village of Whispering Falls where I could take full benefit from my heritage and create the real potions I was destined to create.
“Thanks, buddy.” I bent down and picked up Mr. Prince Charming. I ran my hand down his fur before he jumped out of my arms. “You always know just the right charm.”
“Yes he does.” Bella confirmed and grabbed my wrist. She unclasped my charm bracelet and took it over to the counter, attaching the new charm to it.
My bracelet was filled with charms Mr. Prince Charming had given me. When we first moved to Whispering Falls, Mr. Prince Charming had dropped an owl charm in front of me. I had thought he had stolen it from Bella’s shop. Only I found out that he and Bella had a little understanding that I didn’t understand, but it was their witchy thing and not mine. I just went with it. As long as it protected me, I was good.
“You especially need protection since you are leaving the boundaries of our village and taking Gentle June’s to a whole new level.” She clipped it back on my wrist. She wrapped her hand around my forearm and shook it.
The bracelet jingled. Nothing fell off so we were good. But my stomach rumbled. Everyone was counting on me.