A Charming Hex (Magical Cures Mystery Series Book 9) (3 page)

The Gathering Rock was a communal space where we held our village rituals and village meetings. It was a sacred place. It was my job to smudge the area clean of any evil.

The Mr. Sandman Sprinkles rolled and roared inside the cauldron until it came to an abrupt stop. I ran my finger along the empty bottles on the shelf, knowing the bottle that was meant for this potion would glow as soon as my finger touched it. A small, white, milk glass bottle with a simple cork top lit up.

“Perfect,” I whispered, grabbing the bottle. I took the cork off and held it over the cauldron allowing the potion to magically transfer from the cauldron to the bottle. It was a phenomenon that I didn’t bother trying to explain or understand, it was just accepted like my spiritual gift.

The smudge ceremony bag caught my attention when I grabbed a rag under the counter to wipe the cauldron. Happily, I smacked my hands together. Faith jumped.

“I’m so sorry.” I grabbed my smudge bag. All of my stuff for the trip needed to be smudged. I also grabbed a bottle with a generic potion in it.  It would help me feel better and help keep me safe along with the charms. My intuition that I relied on was going to be on high alert. The generic potion would be good to take on my trip as a base to any potion I might really need to make.

“Wait.” Faith stepped in front of me when I walked out from behind the counter with my Mr. Sandman Sprinkles bottle and smudge bag. “You aren’t supposed to take any potions or witchy things on vacation. Orders of Officer Park.”

“I’m going to take this to the meeting,” I lied. If I told her the truth, she would’ve told Oscar I was smudging our house and luggage. I had promised him no potions, no spiritual stuff, just me and him on the honeymoon.

I couldn’t help it if I had an obligation to my spiritual side. Even if I couldn’t put it aside for a week.

Faith gave me the stink eye. She closed her eyes. She sucked in a deep breath in her nose and released it in a slow steady exhale out of her mouth. Her onyx eyes opened.

“I don’t hear anything.” She had tapped into her spiritual gift of Clairaudience.

“Or the fact that you just broke the law.” I referred to one of the by-laws of the village. Spiritualists cannot read another spiritualist. The second by-law was that if you owned a shop in Whispering Falls, you had to live in Whispering Falls.

“Pish posh.” She flailed a limp hand in the air before I grabbed my black cross-body bag and flung it across me. “Like no one else does.”

She was right. Even though it was a law, it was unspoken that we did dabble in reading each other. Out of curiosity and protection of our kind.

“Now go.” She pointed to the door.

Mr. Prince Charming jumped off the counter. His long white tail dragged along the floor as he waited patiently for me.

“And I don’t want to see you in here again until you get back!” she shouted before I shut the door behind me.

I ran my hand down into my pocket and felt the charm. I looked down at Mr. Prince Charming.

“What on Earth does this mean?” I asked him, hoping he’d just open that little mouth of pointy teeth and tell me. He didn’t. He darted down the steps, out the gate and between A Charming Cure and A Cleansing Spirit Spa.

“Hi-do, June,” Chandra Shango waved from the stoop of her pink cottage shop’s door. She owned the spa where she did nails, hair, and massages. She was a palm reader and the spa was the perfect cover. She gave out advice like candy to her clients. They loved her. She was always booked. “Are you getting excited to find out your honeymoon destination?”

“Wanna give me a hint?” I elbowed her as we met in between our shops. “Hawaii?” I did a hula dance to each side. “Or Jamaica Man?” I asked in my best Rastafarian accent, which was not too good mixed into my southern, hick accent.

She wagged her blue painted fingernails with the little gold star in my face. She had on a blue cloak with yellow stars all over it. Her yellow turban had a blue jewel in the middle to match the cloak. “You know I can’t tell you, but you are going to love it. More relaxing then any old massage.”

We talked about this and that on our way up the hill to The Gathering Rock. She told me about her new adventure in acupuncture. I wasn’t sure I’d let her do that to me. I’d seen her go off track and I didn’t want to be a pin cushion.

The Gathering Rock was exactly what it was named after, a big, gigantic rock that was in front of a clearing that served as a communal area. The village council already had chairs set up in front of the rock that was believed in the spiritual world to have powers in itself. Hovering over the rock with long black cloaks dangling down from the air, legs crossed and black hats pointing to the sky were the Order Of Elders. The Marys to be exact—Mary Lynn, Mary Ellen, and Mary Sue. They were retired village presidents of other spiritual communities and they only came around when there was a problem, like when I was accused of killing someone, which I didn’t do.

My insides curled. I ran my hand over my pocket and felt the charm. Did they know what Mr. Prince Charming had given me?

“What are they doing here?” I whispered to Chandra.

“They are nosy.” She tapped her nose. “Always got to be in everyone’s business.”

“Hi.” Oscar walked over to us and bent down to kiss me. His lips were warm and soft. A calmness spread over me like wildfire. “I can’t wait to get away with you.” His eyes slid over to Mr. Prince Charming.

Mary Ellen had released her legs and floated down to the ground. She landed on her leopard-print boots. She bent down and picked up the ornery cat and stroked him. He purred so loud that you could hear him over the murmur of the council as they got ready to give us our honeymoon location.

Everyone’s eyes were on me, and my intuition kicked in. My mind and body flooded with the spiritual rights of the smudging ceremony. I walked up to The Gathering Rock and took the smudging kit out of my bag. The sage stick was filled with cleansing ingredients such as sagebrush, sage, sweetgrass, lavender, cedar, mugwort, juniper, yerba santa, and rosemary, each used for a different purpose. Most of them were used for cleansing, clearing negative, encouraging awareness, purifying and healing. I was looking more to the cedar’s component of deeply clearing negative emotions and replacing with positive energy to surround me and Oscar on our honeymoon to help negate the nightmares.

Once I lit the stick, everyone closed their eyes and bowed their heads. I walked around the circle of spiritualists and took a handful of the sage smoke and blew it toward each one of their hearts as I walked past each spiritualist. As each person took a deep breath to allow the healing smoke to fill their lungs, I waved the long feather to deepen their awareness of the healing power and whispered, “Breathe in positivity, courage and love.”

The chants that came out of me were not something I had come up with. The chants would come out of my mouth on their own as I went deeper and deeper into my intuitive spiritual gift. This particular chant seemed to be appropriate since the council was here to give me and Oscar our destination.

“And now we call on our ancestors and all the animals of the spiritual world to carry our love and light to the rest of the world in order of protection, healing and love,” my voice lifted into the air as I waved the smudge stick around in the middle of the group allowing the animals with wings to fly into the smoke and carry the messages from our spiritual world.

The feathered friends chirped and squawked before flying off into a deafening silence. Once the silence blanketed us, instinctively we all opened our eyes and moved to our rightful places in the council meeting area.

 “Order! Order!” Petunia Shrubwood called, smacking the gavel a little too loudly for baby Orin who cried out from the kangaroo pouch hanging down her front. She was the Village President and all too happy to be in her position. She was an animal whisperer and owned Glorybee Pet Shop. She and Gerald Regiula were married and had baby Orin. “I’m so sorry baby boy,” she whispered to Orin.

Gerald rushed over and grabbed Orin from the pouch to console him. He took the top hat off his head and fanned the baby. Orin loved the breeze and cooed with happiness.

The village council consisted of Gerald, Petunia, Isadora and Chandra.

“I’d like to welcome everyone to our special session today as we discuss the honeymoon destination for June Heal and Oscar Park.” Petunia motioned for us to come in front of the council.

We stood next to each other holding hands. He squeezed mine and looked down at me. The love and compassion in his eyes always amazed me. It’s hard to believe that I was married to my childhood best friend. He knew that Darla never gave me sweet treats and so would knock on my window in the middle of the night with a box of Ding Dongs. I knew then that I loved him. It wasn’t until we were grown and living in Whispering Falls did we give in to our attraction and the chemistry between us.

“The Order Of Elders is here to reiterate that there must be no magic performed outside of Whispering Falls.” Petunia looked back at the Elders. All of them nodded in agreement. “We know that Oscar understands, but we need to know from you, June Heal, that you understand the by-laws since it seems to be you that breaks them the most and gets herself in trouble.”

My jaw dropped, my eyes lowered. I couldn’t believe Petunia would say that to me. Nervously she looked away and bit her bottom lip.

“I get it,” I said in a flat tone. “Ouch.” I jerked my hand away from Oscar when he squeezed it a little too hard.

“Then we have picked your destination.” Petunia nodded to Isadora.

“We’ve picked the small island in the Caribbean, Tulip Island.” Petunia lifted the large crystal ball in the air, waving her hand over it. “Tulip Island is a very small American island that only accommodates a few tourists at one time. This will help you keep a low profile and help stay out of trouble.”

“Tulip Island?” Oscar stepped up. “I really wanted to go to Jamaica.”

“I put down Hawaii.” My confusion swirled around me.

“I’m sorry,” Petunia couldn’t even look at me. “Hawaii has the tiki legend and a spiritual community we’d like not to mingle with.” She sucked in a deep breath through her nose. “And Jamaica has voodoo that we’d like to keep at a distance.”

“It is certainly out of the question, with your wife’s history, that we send you just anywhere in the world when we have to keep an eye on her.” Elder Mary Sue pointed a finger at me. Her deep, brash voice boomed, “If you do not accept Tulip Island, you can honeymoon on top of the hill in your cottage.”

“No, ma’am.” Oscar stepped back in line. “We are more than happy to go to Tulip Island.” He nudged me. “Right, honey?”

Mary Ellen put a squirming Mr. Prince Charming down on the ground. He ran over and reared up on his hind legs, batting his front paws on my pocket where I had put the charm.

“What is wrong with your familiar?” Elder Mary Lynn squeaked from the air. She stroked her fox stole that was around her neck.

“Oh no,” Oscar groaned from under his breath.

“Why didn’t you tell me about the new charm?” Oscar stalked after me on our way back to the cottage. “You and I both know that, that, that,” he spat and stuttered before he stumbled over his own feet because he was so mad at Mr. Prince Charming.

“He gave it to me right before the meeting.” I stalked beside him.

“Then you should’ve told me before the meeting.” He wasn’t getting it.

“I didn’t have time, Oscar.” My words were bitter and to the point. “I had a smudge to do and not only that, but this was something that you and I should discuss in private. If the council knew about the charm, they wouldn’t let us go to Tulip Island, wherever that is.”

The fact that they said they had to watch me angered me more than thinking I needed some protection. 

“What am I supposed to do, Oscar?” I asked using his name which meant only one thing. . .I was mad. And at him. “He is my familiar. I can’t control what he sees and knows. I don’t even know how he knows it. All I know is that every single time he’s given me a charm it has been for protection.”

“Did this have anything to do with your dream?” he asked calmly.

I shrugged and turned around to head back to the cottage, putting distance between us. “You know and I know that I don’t remember all of the dreams. All I know is that there was a man drowning.”

“Fine!” he yelled after me because I was tired of listening to his lecture and wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. “We aren’t going to the island.”

“Oh yes we are!” I yelled back, my hands fisted at my side.

“June!” he yelled louder than I’d ever heard him yell. There was anger in his voice that made me pause. He caught up with me and put his arm around me. “We are not going. I will not have you anywhere near water if this is the case. We are going for relaxation, not work.”

“Then I will just go by myself.” I knew I sounded like a baby. But in my head I had reasoned with myself that if I didn’t hang around anyone else on the tiny island but Oscar, then we would be fine. All fine. I wouldn’t see a man. I wouldn’t see the spiral. All fine.

“I’m not going to work. I’m going to relax with some books that Ophelia has waiting for me at Ever After Books. While you work on your tan, I will sit happily under the umbrella and read.” I think I even made myself believe my own words. “If what Isadora says is true and the island is much smaller than even Whispering Falls,” I gestured down the hill over our village as we stood on the front porch, “then we won’t run into anyone.”

He looked at me for a moment too long and let out a deep sigh. He reached around me and opened the door to the cottage.

“We have a day to think about it.” We stepped inside. “I need to do some investigating about the possibilities of this happening. And I hate to even say it, but if Mr. Prince Charming and Madame Torres turn up something else in the next twenty-four hours that means you are going to be in the middle of some murder investigation, then we won’t be going.”

“Fine.” I crossed my arms in front of me, my fingers crossed underneath the fold.