A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) Read Free

decision to stop being a spiritualist to help you.”
    “He did it without asking me first.”
    “He is a big boy.” Mary Ellen tossed a braid over her shoulder. “And a mighty fine specimen at that.”
    I eyed her, letting her know that I didn’t like her comment.
    “What is the potion for?” Mary Ellen changed the subject and peeked into the cauldron. She looked at me with a cautious eye.
    Did she know what I was up to? I’d take my chance and lie.
    “I need something to settle my nerves.” The bitter taste still lingered in my mouth. I grabbed the little jar of honey off the shelf and squirted a little in the cauldron. Stirring the mixture I said, “This should do the trick.”
    Normally, I didn’t like to do chants in front of people. This wasn’t a normal situation. Mary Ellen wasn’t leaving and I had limited time before the shop opened.
    It was already eight thirty and there was only a half hour until it was time to open.
    With my hands back over the cauldron, I waved them back and forth, chanting, ““I am peaceful, I am strong. Though dark may seem so long. For day must follow every night. Everything is all right. I am always safe from harm. The Order of Elders holds me in their arms.”
    The roiling mix came to an abrupt stop, letting me know it was ready.
    “That doesn’t look like any ole calming potion to me.” Mary Ellen’s brows rose significantly. She stuck her finger in the hot mixture. The entire pot solidified like concrete causing my cauldron to shatter into pieces all over the counter and floor. “Ha! I knew it!”
    “My cauldron!” I cried as I dropped to the ground to pick up the pieces that had crashed to the floor. Luckily, what was left was mostly on the counter.
    “June Heal,” Mary Ellen stated sharply as she floated in the space between my head and the ceiling and waved a wand over me, “consider yourself on probation! You cannot go against the elders and their rulings. Oscar Park’s powers were taken away once and for all!”
    She snapped her fingers. A puff of pink smoke filled the air before Mary Ellen disappeared.
    Cough, cough. I put my hand over my mouth careful not to breathe in the pink smoke. I rushed over to the window and pushed it up to let in some fresh air. I couldn’t let the customers think I had a batch of bad cures brewing.
    “Probation? Whatever!” I fanned the air as I made my way back to the counter, but stopped when I heard an unfamiliar sound in Whispering Falls.
    Construction.
    I went back to the window and looked across the street. There was a woman wearing a pair of jeans with a white tight-fitting sweater and black wedge sandals. Her honey-blond hair tumbled down her back in beautiful loose curls. She was pointing something out to the man in the hardhat standing next to her. He used all his might to hammer something into the brick. When he was finished, they stood back and admired the sign.
    “Ever After Books.” I smiled at the name. It was a very enchanting name and the store would certainly draw the tourists.
    I pulled back when the woman turned my way and looked directly at A Charming Cure, and more specifically, at me.
    I flipped the sign to OPEN , taking a quick peek across the street.
    The woman was gone, but the crew was still there putting the awning over the door as the final touch. It rolled down in place, right above the windows.
    “Ever After Books.” The purple lettering stood out on the khaki-colored canvas.
    “Ophelia Biblio: five-foot five-inches with curly honey-blond hair. Very nice.” Madame Torres read off the new owner’s stats. “From a spiritualist community in Ohio. Single and ready to mingle.”
    “Single and what?” I snickered at Madame Torres’s sense of humor. She was sometimes off-handed, but at other times very entertaining.
    “That is what her old match profile said.” Madame Torres’s globe glowed with the Make-Me-A-Match dating site for spiritualists. Something I had recently heard about, but