Interrupted Magic by Karla Brandenburg (best reads of all time .TXT) 📕

Or call my bluff? “However,” I went on, “since it was your spell to begin with, you might prefer to return it to Daria.”

“Do you have the ingredients you need?” she asked.

“I do.”

She waved a hand in the air and made a sound of dismissal. “I guess that wouldn’t matter if I decided to help you.”

If she decided to help? I sat silently, waiting for what came next.

She wandered toward my workroom and looked through the windows. Then she turned toward the woods. “You have the perfect setup here.”

She gave me another insincere smile. “I’ve been thinking of buying a house. Everywhere I go I tuck away ideas for what I might like. Room for a garden, a place to work, a comfortable home. I don’t need much.” She cast a glance at Edith Knight’s house next door.  “The people around here, they don’t mind what you do?”

I rose from the table. “As long as they don’t have to know for sure.”

She laughed. “Got that right.” Her eyes glittered. “I can see how you might have felt sorry for Daria, but she did bring it on herself.”

“Understood.” Was she going to help me?

“Let’s just see how this plays out, shall we?”

I frowned. Madeleine didn’t seem the type to care if Kyle’s future was at stake. “Why, exactly, are you here?”

“I don’t meet many people like me,” she said. “Call it curiosity.”

I sighed. With nothing to lose, I pressed on. “Look. When I disrupted your spell, it traveled to a guy who used to be a police officer. He was laid off and he’s looking for another PD to take him on. If he’s charged, that becomes more difficult. As you’ve mentioned, since you cast the spell, it would be easier for you to correct it. Am I right?”

She sent a bored look over my shoulder. “I’ll think about it.” Her gaze met mine. “Lovely to meet you.”

Wish I could say the same.

She started toward the side of the house to leave and then stopped. “Do you know other people? Like us?”

“I do.”

She lowered her head as if considering this. “I lived with Daria for a year. Trust me when I tell you you don’t know anything about her. She deserved what I did.”

“I believe you. If I’d have known, I might have acted differently.”

“What we do—it sort of isolates us, doesn’t it?”

She was looking for a friend? I shouldn’t have trusted Daria, which made me hesitant to trust Madeleine. “It does.”

“Sharing information makes us better informed, don’t you think?”

“I can give you the name of a Wiccan coven that meets regularly,” I said. “If you want a support group.”

She stiffened. “I don’t need a support group...”

“For lack of a better term,” I added. “They’ve been helpful for me. I met them at a solstice celebration.”

“Solstice celebration?” Madeleine echoed. “My aunt died when I was in junior high. She barely had time to teach me the basics.”

Another attempt at friendship? Since she’d shared, I figured I could offer some of my own history. “I didn’t learn about my talents until I graduated high school. My aunt didn’t take me to the solstice celebration until I finished college.”

She hesitated a moment longer. “I need more time to think about this.”

I raised my eyebrows. It seemed I had a bargaining chip. “You know where to find me, but the clock is ticking.”

Chapter 25

After I’d hastily packed a bag and gathered Ash, I headed to Ian’s castle-slash-folly. On the way, I used the Bluetooth to call Hannah Noonan, the head of the coven in Brown’s Landing. The call went to voicemail, and I briefly outlined my encounter with Madeleine.

As I disconnected, Nora called. “How goes your project?” she asked.

I relayed Kyle’s lack of faith, Yvonne’s eagerness to move me out of the boutique, Ian’s reluctance to help me with the spell reversal, and Madeleine’s unexpected visit.

“Then your magic still isn’t working?” she asked.

“The books aren’t laying out any recipes for me, and I can’t even summon a blouse from my closet.”

“This all started around the time you met that man at Gupta’s?”

Dread rippled over me. I pulled into the lot of a strip mall and parked the car. “You think this has something to do with Ian.”

“It’s entirely possible. It’s also possible you’re experiencing a side effect of reversing Madeleine’s spell. You didn’t ask her while she was there, did you?”

“I didn’t want her to know I’m currently at a disadvantage.”

“That’s probably wise.”

I breathed out a slow breath, considering my infatuation with Ian. “Nora, do you think I’ve been bewitched by Ian? He keeps asking me the same thing, though.”

“You know how Kyle responded when he was bewitched,” she said. “I suspect if Ian had bewitched you, you would have forgotten about Kyle, and forgotten your desire to correct the transferred spell.”

“Not bewitched, then. How else could he interfere with my magic?”

“Sweet Brynn, I didn’t tell you he was responsible, I merely pointed out his arrival around the same time,” she said.

“This is all happening so fast. In my willingness to let the magic lead me, am I sacrificing good judgment?” Tears welled in my eyes. “Now I feel like Daria. Why are all these bad things happening to me?”

“Which is why I also suggested the problem with your magic might be related to your interrupting Madeleine’s spell,” Nora said. “Are you sure you don’t want to hang onto the boutique until her spell is satisfied? Things might turn around.”

“I don’t think so. We’ve been struggling for a while. Cassandra and I agreed to give it a year. Our year is up, and Yvonne came in with a buyer right away when I suggested we might want to sell.” I sniffled. “I asked her to put us on the September agenda, but she didn’t even bother with an emergency meeting. Feels like the association meant to put us out of business.”

The world was closing in around me, the way it had when I’d first arrived in Hillendale, except this time Nora wasn’t