Spell Booked (Retired Witches Mysteries Series Book 1) (27 page)

Olivia couldn’t wait. “Dorothy! Don’t you recognize me? I’m your mother.”

Dorothy took off her jacket and put down her purple bag. She walked to the bookshelves and thumbed through our old volumes.

“I don’t think she even hears me anymore,” Olivia mourned. “This is
worse
than death.”

I put on the kettle and crouched next to the bottom of the cabinet. “I think I know a spell to find missing items that might work.”

“Restore lost things!” Brian joined me. “I know that one.”

“That’s not for people’s brains,” Olivia complained. “You’ll mess with her head. She might be a zombie or something.”

Elsie came behind the counter too. “What kind of books do you want me to look for?”

“We’re not
really
donating books,” I whispered. “It’s a ruse until we can think of some way to restore her memory.”

“Really?” She looked pleased. “That’s a wonderful idea. I’ll
pretend
to find books.”

“You can’t do it, Molly,” Olivia continued. “There could be consequences.”

“There will be consequences if she can’t remember anything,” Brian said.

The kettle started whistling, and I took out the cups. I left Olivia’s star-shaped cup behind the counter.

“That’s my cup, Molly!” Olivia pouted. “I want some tea.”

“You can’t drink tea anymore,” I reminded her. “It’s okay to pretend when we’re alone. But if I put out a cup for you too, that might send Dorothy screaming into the street. She’s already not sure about us.”

“Oh, all right. I’ll hang around like an old tapestry until she remembers. You’d think ghosts would have more abilities than this. I miss my magic.”

I didn’t comment on her loss. I was sure there were other things ghosts could do. I’d never known a ghost, but I’d read and heard the stories. No doubt Olivia was still acclimating to her new existence. We’d have to deal with what she could do as a ghost later.

I put the tea, cups, honey and milk on a pretty flowered tray. “The tea is ready. I hope you’re thirsty.”

Dorothy stopped exploring long enough to join Brian and me at the table.

Elsie placed three books next to the tray. “Here are those books we promised you.”

Dorothy seemed surprised. “I thought you had boxes of them. That’s why the library sent me over to collect them.”

“Have some tea.” I shook my head at Elsie. Couldn’t she find more than that?

“Oh I love chai tea.” Dorothy sat down. “Do you have any sugar? I’m allergic to honey.”

“Yes.” It was the perfect opportunity for me to work on the spell while she was waiting. I stepped behind the counter and acted as though I were looking for the sugar as I murmured the restore-lost-things spell under my breath.

The door chime sounded again. I hoped it wasn’t a customer. This was a bad time to bag up herbs or hunt for a specific book.

Instead it was Mike—which was much worse.

“Hey, Mom,” he greeted me. “What’s up? I thought you might want to do lunch.”

Mike’s gaze found Dorothy’s, and the rest of us were forgotten. “Hi, Dorothy. I was hoping I’d find you here.”

She stared at him with the same blankness. “Hi. Do I know you?”

Mike’s smile went away. “We had coffee, remember?”

“No. I’m afraid not. You must have me confused with someone else.”

I needed more time to work on the spell. I couldn’t be distracted or lose my concentration if it was going to be effective. I ignored Elsie’s and Olivia’s beseeching looks. I put my hand on my amulet as I focused on the spell to find Dorothy’s lost memory.

Brian joined me behind the counter and covered my hand with his. “Let’s see if we can speed things up, huh?”

Elsie finally picked up on what was going on. “Mike, have some tea. We have some wonderful chai, and I love the mint.”

Mike put his hands in his pants pockets and hunkered down in his jacket. “I’m not thirsty, Elsie. Thanks anyway.”

“I’m sorry I don’t recognize you,” Dorothy said to him. “I’m sure I’d remember if we had coffee.”

“Is this some weird way of telling me you don’t want to see me again?”

“No. Really. I don’t know if I want to see you at all since I don’t know you.”

Elsie made a hurry-up gesture with her hands. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the drama. Brian did the same. I could feel his strength joining mine.

We’d gone through the repetitions of the spell twice. It didn’t seem to have any effect on Dorothy. We repeated it once more. I put one hand on the amulet and one on the cauldron around my neck. Brian tightly held his wand with both hands.

There was a popping sound that was followed by a rattling noise. I didn’t look to see what it was, still trying hard to make the spell work.
Come on. I need this. Work for me.

“Oh my stars!” Elsie said with a laugh. “So it was
here
all the time.”

“What’s this?” Dorothy bent over and picked up the old emerald cull she’d found by the river.

Hemlock howled loudly and ran to her.

“Oh.” Dorothy blinked a few times and peered around herself. “What happened? The last thing I remember was the witch grabbing me.”

“Witch?” Mike jumped. “You saw a
witch
?”

We managed to laugh off the part about a witch grabbing Dorothy. Mike seemed fine with it. I sent him off on an errand, with a promise that we’d all have lunch with him later.

When he was gone, Elsie, Dorothy and I hugged and exchanged stories about what had happened. Brian stood off to the side alone until Elsie noticed what he was doing and hugged him too.

“Honestly, it was like I was here one minute and went to sleep.” Dorothy shrugged. “I woke up when I picked up the emerald, and Scooter was howling.”

Her cat meowed loudly in protest.

“Oh, sorry.
Hemlock.
That’s going to take some getting used to.” She rubbed his back and he purred, twisting around her ankles.

When our jaws were tired of telling our stories and speculating on where our spell book could be, we decided to call it a day.

Elsie emailed Larry the werewolf to let him know it was safe to come home. Dorothy took the staff and her mother, and they went to explore their new house.

I went to my house, hoping Joe could fill me in about what happened after we’d left the witch’s apartment. I hoped he wasn’t wrong about trying to protect me from the police proceedings that would come with him killing Lisbet.

When I got back, Mike was searching for detergent so he could wash a load of clothes. “I’m going back to school, Mom. I’ve thought about it, and Cindy isn’t worth giving up my life for after all.”

I found the detergent and started the washing machine. “Cindy? You were leaving school because of a girl? You never even mentioned her.”

He shook his head. “Not just any girl. I thought she was the love of my life—until I met Dorothy. There’s something about her, right?”

I started putting his clothes into the washer. “Absolutely.”

“I don’t think she’ll care about our age difference, but I know she wants me to finish school. We talked about it. She even offered to come up and visit sometimes.”

I stared at my son. I loved him, but I hoped he would grow up soon. “I’m sure you’re right.”

“You mind if we have something besides pizza tonight?” He grabbed an apple from the counter. “I know you and Dad love pizza. I’m a little tired of it. How about some Chinese instead? My treat.”

“That sounds good.” I hid my smile behind the laundry room door. There were some things a witch just had to live with.

Joe was home early thanks to what had happened that day. His boss, Captain Phillips, had sent him home after the cursory questions into Lisbet’s death. He hadn’t been suspended, but he would be on desk duty for two weeks during the investigation.

His face was pale and troubled when we went to bed that night. I created an enchanted bubble so we could tell each other everything we knew about what had happened. If nothing else, it would give him a place to start to understand Lisbet and what she’d done.

After we departed the bubble to talk of more normal things, he put his arms around me. “I was more scared today than I’ve ever been. The idea of losing you almost stopped my heart. Let’s not
ever
do that again.”

I kissed him, and put my hand on his worried face. “Never again. But I’m glad you were there.”

“Me too. I’m exhausted. Let’s go to sleep.”

When we were snuggled up close together, I was so grateful for my family and my life. The spell book was important, but not as important as being with the ones I loved. Maybe my life had changed forever, but it was still good.

I kissed Joe’s cheek with my arm around him. “Are you asleep already?”

“
Mmm-hmm.
Feels good. You should try it.”

I smiled. “Good night, Joe.”

“Good night, my little witch.”