A Charming Hex (Magical Cures Mystery Series Book 9) Read online

  We were excited to find out which one they picked. Really either was good with me. Toes in the sand and a drink in my hand was how I was going to spend my much-needed week-long vacation.

  “You’re lucky.” She wagged her brows up and down. She and everyone else in the village had been raised by their spiritual parents, unlike me and Oscar.

  I gave a quick wave and out the door I went.

  “June! Whoo hoo!” the voice called from down the sidewalk. It was Isadora Solstice. She stood at the steps of Mystic Lights. Her lighting shop was a cover up for her crystal ball reading spiritual gift. It was where I had found Madame Torres. Or rather Madame Torres finally found me.

  Something else I’d had no idea about. The spiritualist didn’t have a say in their crystal ball, the crystal ball picked the spiritualist. Madame Torres had sat on the shelf in Mystic Lights for centuries like a big round snow globe until I walked in. That was when she came to life and only I could see her.

  “We moved the meeting time up so be there in an hour.” She pushed her long blond wavy hair behind her shoulder before wiping her hands down her black A-frame skirt with the red hearts all over it. Her black pointy-toed boots were laced up tight. “I picked my skirt for you.” She winked her big blue eyes and smiled. “For love.” She clasped her hands as a delightful sigh escaped her.

  “I’ll see you soon!” I hurried across the street where A Charming Cure was located. I only had an hour to talk to Faith before the meeting and I wanted to make sure she was prepared, plus get my Mr. Sandman Sprinkles.

  I stopped just shy of the gate that opened in front of the shop and looked down the street. Whispering Falls was so magical. The village was carved in the side of the mountain. The moss covered cottage shops were nestled into the woods and each had the most beautiful entrances. All the shops had colorful awnings with the shop’s name on it.

  The sidewalks on both sides were dotted with carriage lights with gas flames. Each shop had a special gate that led up to the shop steps, making the special village even cozier than it already was. There was already a line out the door of The Gathering Grove, the tea shop in the village. Tourists knew that they could go there for a nice breakfast before the rest of the shops opened.

  A calmness came over me. I was being silly about going away. I was sure everything was going to be fine and Oscar was right. I was just stressed about my first time being on a plane and first time at the beach.

  I opened the gate to A Charming Cure and a big whiff of the purple wisteria vine tunneled around me before I walked up the steps to the shop.

  I reached up and ran my hand over the wooden sign that hung off the front of my cottage shop. The words A Charming Cure had replaced the A Dose of Darla sign after I moved here and accepted my spiritual gifts.

  There were two shop windows and Faith was working in the right one. She was hanging beach balls from the ceiling. The ladder she was standing on teetered when I walked in.

  “How on Earth did you get that?” I pointed to the four-foot tall sand castle made of real sand and reached to steady her.

  “A little bit of magic.” Faith’s blue eyes sparkled. The teetering ladder didn’t phase her. “Your honeymoon has inspired me. And I saw the new line of sunscreen you left in the back. Mortals love going on summer vacations and if they can get something from here, we need to jump on it.”

  “You are so smart.” I took a moment to look at the shop. Tiered display tables dotted the shop’s floor. Each table had a long red tablecloth that grazed the floor. Different sized and colored ornamental bottles sat displayed on each table.

  When I had taken over the shop, I categorized the different potions for different ailments. I kept the big chalkboards that Darla had put on the wall with the daily specials. In fact, the chalkboard closest to the counter still had A Dose of Darla written on it in Darla’s handwriting, something I couldn’t erase.

  Another thing I moved was the inventory. Darla had kept her inventory and ingredients in the back room. I had made a couple of open shelves behind the counter to display them. It was neat to see the different bottles and ingredients and made the shop feel more organic. I had turned the back room into a little sitting room and while I did put extra inventory in there, I mainly used it for a place to eat lunch or relax while working late.

  Keeping the ingredients behind the counter was perfect for when a customer came in for something to help with what they thought ailed them, I would talk to them and immediately get a sense of what was really going on. My best seller was by far the antacids. Customers thought they had acid reflux or some other stomach ailment, when in fact the root of their issue was stress over money or heartache. It was then that I took the homeopathic bottle they had chosen from the sales floor and gave it a special touch to address what really ailed them. All of my customers returned because my homeopathic cures worked.

  Sunscreen was going to be a big one this year along with all the weight loss potions. I had made one that helped with hunger, changed bad thoughts about body image, and boosted confidence. Faith was right. The quicker we sold it, the word would get out and we wouldn’t be able to keep them in stock.

  After Oscar and I had planned to go on a honeymoon and set the date, I knew I was going to need to make up potions for Faith to have on hand. I had stored them in the back room, leaving her with plenty of stock while I was gone.

  “I have to go to the village council within the hour.” On my way back to the counter, I tugged and smoothed my hands over the display tables’ covers. It was very important to me to have a beautiful shop.

  I stopped shy of the counter and looked at the framed photo of my parents, Darla and Otto Heal, hanging on the wall. They would’ve loved this shop. I knew they already loved Oscar because they showed up in Madame Torres while Mr. Prince Charming was walking me down the aisle. It was amazing.

  My image reflected from the framed glass. My short black bobbed hair grazed my bare shoulders. My blunt bangs crossed my forehead in a perfect line. The white and blue striped bandeau top was new. I’d bought it from a shop in Locust Grove and paired it with white shorts and gladiator sandals. I was definitely ready for the beach.

  “Are you okay?” Faith called out over her shoulder. A sand pail dangled from her long finger.

  “I’m fine,” I said and picked up the chalk for the chalkboard. “I need to write the daily specials.” Quickly and in fancy cursive, I wrote the sunscreen specials on the board. “Tomorrow we can keep the same special, but change it to the weight loss special in a couple of days.”

  I took a step back and looked at the board. The smells of cinnamon, sage, dill and thyme swirled around my head. I smiled and took another look around.

  I walked behind the counter to get a good look at the ingredients on the shelf, and nearly jumped of my skin when Mr. Prince Charming leaped up on the counter next to me.

  Rowl. He barely opened his mouth. He dropped something and nudged it with his nose. I gulped after seeing the spiral-shaped charm he’d pushed toward me. Fear, stark and sheer ripped through me when the memory of the orange spiral from my nightmare jolted my insides.

  “You don’t look fine. In fact,” Faith glided toward me, “you look worse than when I asked you.”

  I put my hand on the counter over the charm, hoping she didn’t see it. I raked it into my palm and put it in my front pocket. There was no way I wasn’t going on this honeymoon and there was no need to alarm anyone that Mr. Prince Charming had given me another charm.

  “I’m fine.” A nervous laugh escaped me. “I think I’m just nervous about leaving the shop and home.”

  “It’s all good. I’ve got this.” She pointed to herself, then at me. “You need to go enjoy that hunk of yours.”

  My mind wasn’t wrapped around that hunk of mine; my mind was wrapped around the spiral charm. Mr. Prince Charming had been giving me protection charms since he showed up on my tenth birthday. The first one was a small turtle and anytime he felt I was in danger or go
ing to be in danger, a new charm showed up.

  I ran my hand over my wrist and curled my fingers around my charm bracelet. What if Mr. Prince Charming was trying to tell me something about my nightmares? Or what if Madame Torres was right about me having to take him with us?

  I looked back at the shelf of ingredients and contemplated my options. I could make my Mr. Sandman Sprinkles and take them on my honeymoon just in case I needed it or just take my chances. My thought processes lasted all of a second, at the most, and I reached for the Aconite, the first ingredient for my potion.

  I flipped on my cauldron and measured out 30 c of the Aconite, dumping it into the cauldron. I mixed in 6c Kali phos, 6c Nat suph, 3x passiflora and stirred it slowly. The liquid curled and bubbled, nearly flowing over the top of the hot cauldron. The frothy mix puffed a couple of smoke signals in the air. The smoke bubbles popped, sending the smell of fresh ocean salt air into the open space.

  My cures took on the favorite smells of the person it was intended for making it even more appealing for the recipient. In this case, I was the patient of my own cure.

  “You better get going,” Faith called out and nodded to the clock on the wall. “You have to get up to The Gathering Rock.”

  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 chan
ts 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.