5 A Charming Magic (3 page)

Oscar too moved to Whispering Falls the same time I did after taking the open sheriff’s position, but denounced his wizardry talents when I got myself into a little hot water and the only way he could help me was to denounce his gift, leaving him with no memory what-so-ever of spiritual nature or more importantly, when he told me he loved me.

“I...,” I stuttered and held the charm closer to my eyes. “I don’t think this is like any of the other charms he has given me.”

Slowly my eyes moved to the bottom of the table where Mr. Prince Charming’s tail swept the floor in a back-and-forth motion. It was true. Mr. Prince Charming and Oscar had never been the best of friends. Even after eighteen years of being around each other.

My breath quickened. My eyes widened.

“Are you okay?” Oscar asked taking another bite out of the chocolaty treat. “All of the sudden you got pale.” He stuffed the rest in his mouth. “You aren’t going to faint, are you?” he asked with a mouthful.

“No.” I smiled. Images of me in a wedding gown made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. “Far from it.”

Meow.
Mr. Prince Charming peeked his head out from underneath the tablecloth.

Yes. A wedding ring. No wonder Mr. Prince Charming was mad. Oscar and I were going to finally be getting together. Especially now after Oscar finally accepted he was a spiritualist.

Eloise Sandlewood, Oscar’s aunt and a local in Whispering Falls, and I told Oscar about his memory loss. We left out the part about our romance because I wanted him to fall back in love with me, not feel he was obligated. He was upset at first, but he has grown to accept it and that I too was a spiritualist. Luckily it didn’t hurt our friendship.

Like I said, Mr. Prince Charming was a little jealous of my relationship with Oscar, which led me to believe the charm was a protection charm for marriage. After all, Mr. Prince Charming was my fairy-god cat and he was not allowed to discriminate on who or what he protected me from, even if his judgment was off, way off, on this one.

Chapter Four

Oscar flipped the open sign around when he left. Happily I took another sip of my coffee and walked behind the small partition on the other side of the counter where I flipped on my cauldron.

A wedding.
I sighed. I looked up at the framed picture that hung on the wall of me, Darla and my dad and wished they were here to share in my good fortune. I rubbed the little dove charm while images of my dad walking me down the aisle played over and over in my mind.

They would have been so proud.

Bubble, bubble.
The rapidly-boiling green frothy mix bubbled to the top of the new cauldron I had picked up from Wands, Potions, and Beyond while visiting my great-aunt Helena who was the dean at Hidden Halls, A Spiritualist University. My father’s aunt. At least I had one relative still living.

In fact, I was still getting used to my new cauldron. It was like everything else. New and improved.

My last cauldron—my first cauldron—had a bad potion that shattered the darn thing into a million little pieces, leaving me without my magical pot to keep working on my love…um …memory potion for Oscar.

I reached over and rubbed my finger on the dove charm, making a metal note to take it to Bella’s Baubles so Isabella Van Lou, Bella for short, could put the charm on my bracelet. Even more so, I couldn’t wait to see her face, though I was sure that was where Mr. Prince Charming got the charm in the first place.

Sigh
. With the new turn of events, it wasn’t that I needed Oscar to remember, but it would be awful handy. I continued to stir the potion that I had started; a potion I was relying on to give him his memory back.

The thought of his dark hair and hot, hunky, well-built chest under Oscar’s cop shirt were enough to get my inner cauldron boiling. Lazily I stirred the bubbling substance eagerly awaiting KJ to bring my beehive husk, which happened to be the one ingredient I didn’t have on hand. The last ingredient I needed to finish my little concoction.

KJ blew in with the wind and out with the breeze, bringing me all the things I had ordered. Only this time he was about two weeks late. Which was not common. Once I put in an order, he was usually at A Charming Cure within a couple of days.

If I had to pick one thing about being a homeopathic spiritualist that kind of stunk, I couldn’t just drive to the Piggly Wiggly in Locust Grove, Kentucky, I had to put out a call into the night wind. Yes. I had to stand out in the night air, lick my pointer finger and try to determine which way the wind was blowing. Once I figured that out, I had to shout out into the wind the things I needed. Things like beehive husk, bear claw, charred skeever hide, Dwarven oil, Glow Dust, you know…the basics.

Can you imagine me standing out in the midnight air in my bat pajamas with my chin-length bob pulled back into the smallest ponytail you had ever seen and my finger twitching around in the air? I was sure I looked like a fool licking my finger at least twenty times and putting it in the air. I definitely wasn’t good at finding the wind, but somehow KJ always got my order.

The door of the shop flew open bringing in a couple of leaves rustling and dancing around before settling on the wood floor. The bell that hung over the door dinged back and forth several times before coming to a rest.

Meow, meow
. Mr. Prince Charming ran out from underneath the table, followed by some heavy footsteps. He jumped up on the countertop and took his rightful spot.

“I see you are working hard back there.” The strapping young Native American stood in the doorway of the shop with a bundle of sage, grass root, and beehive husks neatly tied up in the crook of his arm.

“KJ!” I took the ladle out of the cauldron and laid it down. I hurried around the counter to meet him.

I put my arms around KJ, practically crushing the bundle. The crackling dried leaves crumbled between us as I pulled him closer when my eyes caught sight of Oscar standing next to his car with Arabella leaning up against his door in a very provocative pose.

What the heck? He left a while ago.

My eyes narrowed as I watched Arabella hand Oscar a piece of paper. My stomach knotted when Oscar looked at the paper and a big smile crossed his face. Arabella ran her whole hand down his arm before she said goodbye and jogged off toward her store. Her hair swung back and forth. Oscar watched her the whole way.

KJ tried to pull away, but I grabbed him tighter. He patted me on the back. I could tell he thought I was crazy, but what homeopathic spiritualist wasn’t? Especially one that was getting railroaded by another spiritualist.

“Good to see you too, June.” KJ placed his hands on my shoulders and pushed off of me. He closed the door behind him and held the bundle out for me to take. “Beehive husk is hard to get this time of year. If you would have asked for Luna Moth Wings,” he snapped his fingers, “I could have gotten it like that.”

KJ continued to tell me the story of how he had to put several calls into the wind in order to get the beehive husk. And I only wished I had heard him, but I wasn’t paying a bit of attention to the feisty young man with long black hair and deep brown eyes. If only Arabella were as nice as KJ, I would have gotten some items from her. There was no way I was going to buy from her when she was bound and determined to get her thorns into my Oscar.

The beehive husk was a must.

I took a deep sigh and held the bundle close to my heart thinking about the charm and Oscar.

“June?” KJ waved his hand in front of me. “Did you hear what I just said?”

“Umm…” I shook my head. My short black bob swung side to side. “Yes.”

“Yes, you do? Or yes, you don’t?” KJ stared at me. He must have read my blank look. “The Luna Moth Wing?”

“Oh.” I looked over my shoulder at the row of ingredients on the shelf behind the counter to see if my supply was low.

“It’s the harvest time and I’m picking some up. If you need some, tell me now. That way you won’t look so silly standing in the dark with your pajamas on trying to figure out how to get in touch with me. It’s a very busy time of the year so I might be a few days late.” An ornery smile crossed his tan face, exposing the most perfect set of white teeth I’d ever seen.

“A few days?” I asked in a joking way.

“Yea, yea. I’m sure you are mad that I’m a couple weeks late.” He picked up a couple of different potion bottles sitting on one of the display tables in the middle of the room. He glanced up. There was a twinkle in his dark eyes. “By the way, are those bats glow-in-the-dark?”

“If you must know.” I whacked him with the bundle before I put it on the counter. “They are! I love my bat pjs. And no.”

“No what?” he asked. His brows narrowed and a puzzled look settled on his face, defining his strong jaw bone.

“No Luna Moth Wing.” Even though I had a pinch left, I didn’t see why I would need the unusual ingredient. After all, Luna Moth Wing was used in some sort of baby-making potions and there would be none of that around here at this time. Those types of potions were never on my mind so I really didn’t know much about them. It was always good to have some on hand and the small amount I did have was going to be plenty.

KJ and I both turned to look as the bell dinged over the shop door.

“Good morning!” Ophelia Biblio traipsed in, looking so fashionable in her pointy bootie boots, skinny jeans, and purple flowy blouse. Her curly honey hair neatly spilled over her shoulders and cascaded down the front of her five-foot-five frame. In a high-pitched voice she said, “Have you been to the new florist yet? Divine! Absolutely divine.” She brushed her hands in the air. “And that Arabella is so charming.”

“
So charming
,” a hint of sarcasm dripped out of my mouth. KJ and Ophelia looked at each other. “KJ, Ophelia Biblio.” There was an introduction to be made. KJ was a young man, Ophelia was a young woman. Both hot. Both sweet. Only Ophelia was taken. Smitten in fact with Whispering Falls’ newest police chief Colton Lance.

Who wouldn’t fall for Colton’s big, brown, puppy-dog eyes and messy blond hair that any woman would want to run their hands through?

I probably should have helped KJ pop his chin back in place, but I figured I’d let him drool a little bit longer. Ophelia was definitely a beauty. If I was a guy, I’d probably fall for her too.

“Nice to meet you.” Ophelia dripped with sexy. She held her hand out for KJ to take. He did the good gentleman thing and kissed the top of it, just like Oscar had done to Arabella, only Oscar wasn’t falling for Arabella’s beauty like KJ was falling all over Ophelia.

“How is Colton?” I decided to let KJ’s heart off the hook. I think his heart stopped. All the blood looked like it had drained from his face. I touched his arm. “Colton is the new sheriff in town and he’s Ophelia’s boyfriend.”

“Oh.” KJ’s brows lifted. “It was nice to meet you.” He nodded toward Ophelia, and then turned to me. I was so glad to see the nice olive complexion had returned to his cheeks. “If you need anything, June, I’ll be looking for the glowing bats.” He winked before a gush of wind blew the door wide open, rushing in to sweep him away.

“That’s what I call service.” Ophelia shut the door and dusted her hands off. “Now what do you need that for?” She pointed to the bundle KJ had brought.

“You never know when there is going to be a smudging ceremony.” I went about my business straightening the bottles on the shelf and using the feather duster to dust around them. Ophelia was prying. Trying to figure out what I had up my sleeve with the beehive husk, but I wasn’t going to tell her I was secretly making a potion to slip to Oscar to help with his memory loss. The issues between me and Oscar were just that. Between me and Oscar.

I picked up a jar that I figured KJ had left me. Inwardly I groaned at the sight of the jar of spiders. I didn’t order spiders but there was a note attached. I shrugged it off and assumed it was a thank you note and placed the jar on the shelf with the other ingredients.

I turned back toward Ophelia. “How is Ever After?”

Ever After Book Store was a welcomed addition to Whispering Falls a few months ago. Everyone loved a good book, including me.

“Everything is well.” She picked up the long thin green and blue glass bottle, Black of Night Potion. The cork popped when she took the lid off and sniffed the contents. “Oh, I think I need this.”

It was unusual for a spiritualist to need a potion, or at least I thought it was.

“Really?” I questioned her. She was probably returning the favor of buying something from the shop since I was spending almost every single extra dime I had purchasing books from her store. I could never resist a good
Potion Making for Dummies
book and Ever After had the best selection. “You don’t need a sleeping potion.”

“I don’t. But Colton does,” she quipped. “I’m not getting any sleep because he is snoring. This might do the trick.” She pointed to the label. “It says here that it helps with snoring.”

“It does.” In fact, I sold a lot of Black of Night to many wives. It seemed that every man had started to snore, keeping the wife up all night. Every household knows that when the woman didn’t get the sleep she required, you’d better watch out. I walked behind the counter and with my back to Ophelia, I dusted the ingredients shelf.

“Wonderful.” She saddled up to the counter where Mr. Prince Charming was and raked her long nails along his back. His body curved like a wave. “A word to the wise,” Ophelia drew in a breath. The shop lights flickered. An uneasy feeling gathered at the top of my stomach and at the base of my throat. “You should have taken some Luna Moth Wing.”

“How did you know he asked me about that?” I turned around with the duster waving in the air. Feathers flew all over the place. “Ophelia?”

I did a three-hundred-and-sixty degree turn to find her. Like KJ, she was gone. I walked over to the door and peered out the window to see if I could find her.

“She’s sure making her rounds.” I tilted my head to the side to see better around the curtains.