spies and spells 02 - betting off dead (6 page)

Charmary was altogether different. She was a little freakier than the rest. She was six feet tall and very thin. Like two-dimensional thin. She had grey hair, a long face, and wrinkly neck. Her arms were longer than the average woman and her hands were built like a man. She was kind and nice, but out of all of Auntie’s friends, she scared me a little.

Lastly, there was Glinda. She was the grandmother type of the group. She had the middle age spread, caring eyes, and kept her hair cut nice and neat above her shoulders. She kept it parted down the middle and every time I saw her I wondered what it would look like if she parted it to the side.

All of them had on long black cloaks, pointy laced-up boots, and a pointy hat. They were, after all, witches that didn’t live in the mortal world. They still lived in covens. Auntie rounded out the Spell Circle of five.

“Maggie,” Pixie spoke in a soft tone. “We have a very bad feeling about this man and the positions we feel you are going to be in if you choose him as your mate.”

“But I. . .” For a second I was about to come clean, but then there was a knock on the door.

All of us turned.

“Blondie,” my stomach dropped. Not because I’d forgotten she was coming over to meet the fam, but because she was as white as a ghost, mouth nearly scraping the floor, eyes blank as she took in the Spell Circle in their full regalia.

“Who shall you be?” Charmary flung a finger at Sherry.

I jumped up and pushed her hand to the ground. A collective gasp filled the room. No one touched the Spell Circle women, including me.

“Sherry,” I ignored the major boo-boo. “Everyone,” I grabbed Sherry by the shoulders. Her appearance still a shell of who she really was. “This is my friend Sherry. She is going to be taking my job at The Brew starting tomorrow because I have a new job at Churchill Downs.”

Auntie Meme levitated above the chair. She lifted her arms.

“Oh, shit.” I hung my head in fear of what was going to happen. I took my hands off of Sherry’s shoulders and let my arms fall to my side.

“Virook, dremdee, jinxiel.” Auntie chanted as the sparks left her fingers. “Virook, dremdee, jinxiel,” her voice accelerated to rise above the thunderclap. The Spell Circle turned and they all chanted, “Virook, dremdee, jinxiel.”

Sherry’s body lifted into the air. Her eyes closed and her arms hung down along with her hair as she floated out of the kitchen and down the hall.

“Let’s eat. I’m starving.” Auntie floated down to the chair and brushed her hands over the table, magically creating more food.

“This looks delish.” Glinda took the seat next to mine.

“I’m starving too,” Flora scurried to the open chair across the table from Glinda. “Fae, I love the fall decorations.”

“You are so talented when it comes to decorating.” Pixie scooped two helpings of casserole on her plate. “I wish I was as creative as you.”

“Can you pass me a piece of the bread?” Charmary asked.

“Wait!” I walked over to the table, my finger pointing toward the hall where Sherry had floated down. “What just happened?”

“Dear,” Mom said in her sweet southern voice, “we don’t have time for tom-foolery.”

“Who is Tom Fullery?” Glinda asked in her sweet voice. “I thought she was Sherry.”

“Tom-foolery is an expression.” Auntie reached across the table and patted Glinda’s hand. “It means we don’t have time for Maggie’s fun and games.”

“Oh, it’s not fun and games.” I stalked over to the table and stood over Auntie Meme. A bold move, but somehow I’d mustered up enough courage to do it. I flinched when she looked up at me. “I am not going to be able to work at the diner in the morning. I’ve taken a part-time job at Churchill Downs and tomorrow I have to go for orientation. I invited my friend over for supper so you could meet her. She has work experience in diners and you are looking for someone to hire.”

The silence spread over the room like a heavy fog.

“Enough!” Mom smacked the table and in an instant all the food was gone along with all the plates.

“I was hungry,” Pixie squeaked. She looked at the piece of bread in her hand. Mom snapped and the bread was gone.

Charmary gulped and stuffed the piece of bread she had in her hands into her mouth. She looked like a chipmunk.

“It’s worse than we thought.” Mom talked as if I wasn’t even in the room. “There is no time to spare. You can eat on your own time.”

The basement door flew open and everyone stood. There was a purple haze oozing up from the basement steps. Everyone got in a line, prepared to go down the steps, leaving me and Lilith last.

“You’ve done it this time.” Lilith’s brown eyes haunted me. “I don’t know what you are up to, but you need to figure it out.” She dragged her hand down her shoulder-length black hair and drew it down to the floor. Just like that, she had on her black cape and witch’s hat with our family crest on it.

“It’s my life’s journey,” I whispered, swiping my hand down my body, changing into my black cape and witch’s hat with the same family crest.

“Then you need to convince them of that,” she whispered in my ear as she walked down the steps behind me.

“How do I convince them that I’m supposed to work with SKUL as an undercover agent?” I asked over my shoulder.

The sound of Lilith’s pointy toe boots stopped. I looked back. Something had come up behind her eyes that I didn’t recognize from her. Scared. Fearful. And fright held deep within, an emotion I didn’t know Lilith had.

“Boom, cha, ka, la, ka. Boom, cha, ka, la, ka.” Auntie Meme, Mom, and the Spell Circle chanted as they took each step down into the basement. “Boom, cha, ka, la, ka.”

Mom glanced over her shoulder when she realized Lilith and I weren’t chanting. She glowered at us and turned back around.

“Boom, cha, ka, la, ka.” Lilith and I joined in. The twinkling lights lit up the staircase and it reminded me of the sparkling nighttime stars.

Miss Kitty flapped her wings, creating a wind as she flew down the steps landing on Auntie’s shoulder. Riule slid past our feet as he scurried next to Mom. Gilbert squawked signaling Lilith to put out her forearm for him to land. Then there was me, with no animal familiar to comfort me. Everything was different about me.

My insides knotted. Not with the excitement I’d had the last time I’d come down, but with a gurgling of uneasiness. The last time I’d come down to the sacred basement was when my two worlds had collided and my Witchy Hour was upon me and my life’s journey was about to be revealed.

At the time I had no idea that my life’s journey included my little hiccup spell with Mick Jasper and SKUL and truly wasn’t certain of it until just now. A terrifying realization washed over me, stopping me in my tracks.

There was nothing wrong with me. What I had just said to Lilith was the truth. My life’s journey was to help SKUL with investigations. I might not have been a trained spy or know how to use self-defense the way the SKUL academy had taught Mick, but I did have a mean finger that could trump any of those moves. And my familiar was direct proof of it. I needed Vinnie to get me around, keep me safe, and spit out all the information about the investigations I would be on. Vinnie was a perfect familiar for my life’s journey.

At the end of the steps, we stopped at the cobblestone walkway. The basement wasn’t just any old basement; it was a portal that held all the secrets of our coven and our family.
We walked in a single-file line with Auntie Meme leading the way. Once we started to walk down the cobblestone walk, the twinkling lights disappeared and gas-lit sconces that were spaced three feet apart on the wall showed us the way.

The chant gonged in my ears making me dizzy as my inner thoughts took over. Everything romantically I’d been feeling about Mick was just a façade that my mind had created to cover my life’s journey. Obviously I was trying to cover up the gut feeling that my life’s journey was to be put in dangerous situations. But the thought of working for SKUL didn’t bother me one bit. Romantic thoughts of Mick sent my entire world into a tizzy.

“My life’s journey is to work for SKUL!” I blurted out just as everyone had stopped at the big wooden door with black hardware. A muted light flowed through the circular stained glass window causing the three-star design to glow. The designs matched the designs on Mom’s, Lilith’s, Auntie’s, and my hats. The stars were our family crest.

The first star represented family. The second star represented honor to the coven. The third star represented honor to thyself.

“I’m honoring myself, the family, and the Coven by accepting my life’s journey,” my voice echoed loud and clear as it bounced off the corridor walls.

No one turned around to face me.

I squeezed my eyes tight when I saw Mom’s arm lift into the air and her hand curl into a fist, anticipating a spell to be flung on me. I might be an adult, but she still scared the heck out of me.

I opened them when I heard her give the secret knock on the door. Two short knocks and one long, I watched her hand draw down the wood and the door open. If anyone did discover our secret basement, they couldn’t get into the sacred circle unless they had the knock.

Everyone walked into the room as if they hadn’t heard what I’d said. They formed a circle around the circular area rug with the family coven crest, the large gold chandelier dangled above the large black cauldron that was in the middle of the rug. The walls were red and the one hundred lit candles in the chandelier were also red.

The cauldron bubbled a green frothy mix and it was like my witchy sense took over. As Mom stepped up to take the oar sticking out of the cauldron, so did I. She looked at me with hard eyes, then as if something clicked, her eyes softened and she took a step back.

I placed both of my hands on the oar and stirred the large pot in a counter-clockwise motion. A part that I never knew existed in me took over.

“I have accepted with my glittery eyes my life’s journey.” The words tumbled out of my mouth. “My powers are being used for good and not evil keeping the promise I made when my Witchy Hour was upon me.”

The mix in the cauldron turned orange and then brown. Puffs of smoke floated out of the top of the pot and formed in the shapes of horses before they burst into little fireworks displays.

Auntie Meme stepped up next to me. She placed her hands on top of mine as the oar came back around. I was no longer stirring as the power of my life’s journey plunged deep within me.

“
Abrado, abrada.” The lights flickered as Auntie Meme chanted, gripping my hands as the oar swirled faster and faster. “As Guardian of Maggie, I accept her life’s journey and feel the need to carry her through. Ha!”

Auntie Meme hands flew off of the oar. The oar stopped and let go of my hands. My arms dropped as the cauldron went dark as one puff of smoke hovered over top. The cloud formed the exact image of Mick Jasper along with a skull and crossbones.

A collective gasp broke the silence.

Chapter Five

“I sure haven’t seen anything like that before,” Flora said, shaking her head as she walked out the kitchen door.

“I’ve been around three hundred and fifty years with many ceremonies under my cloak and I sure haven’t either.” Pixie waddled out behind her.

“This is when I think a father could come in handy,” Charmary said as she referred to the lack of father figure I’d had in my life. “I knew the Parks were unconventional, but this just takes the broom.”

“Mmm, hmmm.” Glinda hummed. “Poor Meme. She’s such a good witch too. What a shame.”

The back door slammed behind them.

My family sat around the table with their heads hung, not saying a word as if I’d just told them that our family secret had been let out to the world.

“If this don’t just boil my cauldron.” Mom jumped to her feet. Her clothes instantly changed back to what she was wearing before dinner.

With my hand palm flat over my hat, I made a circular gesture, transforming back into my clothes.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked. “I was given this life’s journey. It wasn’t like I went out looking for it. And Vinnie!” I pointed to the garage out back. “We all knew it was strange that I had a car as my familiar. And he’s perfect for my life’s journey.”

“I should’ve known as your Guardian when you told me your spells were off when you met that man.” Auntie Meme said “that man” as if she’d just eaten a bad rat.

After my dare spell had gone wrong a few months ago when I met Mick at The Derby, I’d thought my hand and spell technique was broken. No matter what spell I shot at Mick, none of them worked. It was as if he had a spell repellent shield around him. That was when the Witchy Hour came because when the two worlds collide, your magic didn’t work. Only my family didn’t know that Mick was the reason for the Witchy Hour, which did make sense to me now that I knew being undercover with SKUL was my life’s journey. And I couldn’t help but think that it also meant that I was supposed to be Mick’s partner.

“I knew it had something to do with Mick and I wasn’t sure what it was. I felt like the first time I helped them, it was a fluke. But now that they need me to work undercover at Churchill Downs, it tells me a lot.” I paced back and forth before I suddenly remembered Sherry. “God! Sherry!’

We all ran down the hall and into the family room where Sherry was still levitating above the couch.

“What’s her deal?” Mom asked. We stood over her looking down as she slept.

“Well, she’s Mick SKUL partner, but the last time and now this time, she’s not been able to help and that’s when they call me in,” I said.