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

I sat on the bathroom floor. The song I’d been singing on the walk home continued to play in my head, the song that was also the ringtone on my phone. Was my phone ringing? I pushed to my feet and returned to the living room. Kyle stood beside the dining table, his hands on the surface, and his head bowed.

He glanced up. “You okay?”

“Cassandra and I signed the offer for the shop today. We went out to celebrate.” Ash wound around my feet, unsettling my precarious balance. I reached for the corner of the wall. “Did my phone ring?”

“You expecting a call?”

I released a sigh. “Can we not argue right now?”

He straightened and headed toward the door. “I’m going to walk Lisa home. You want me to come back later? Stay with you tonight? Make sure you’re okay?”

I sputtered. “Now you want to stay with me? I don’t think so.”

He let out an exaggerated sigh. ”Go to bed.”

Chapter 28

“Brynn, honey, are you okay?”

I opened my eyes to find Nora hovering over me, a look of concern on her face. I drew a deep breath that ended in a snort. “What time is it?”

“It’s nearly noon, and Ash made sure to let me know you hadn’t fed her yet. What’s going on?”

I wiped a hand across my face and blinked bleary eyes. I was on the sofa, still dressed in the same jeans and tunic I’d come home in last night. “The girls took me out to toast Windfall last night. I might have overdone it.”

“That’s not like you.”

“Nothing’s like me these days.” I heaved my feet over the side of the sofa to sit on the edge. My mouth felt full of cotton. “The magic doesn’t work, my business failed.” I stopped before I included my failed engagement—and thought of Ian. “I promised to call Ian when I got home.” I looked for my phone.

“I’m sure he can wait a few minutes more. Why don’t you get showered and changed. I’ll put on a pot of coffee.”

When I came downstairs half an hour later, Nora was at the table staring out the bay window, a cup of coffee in her hands.

“Sorry I’m such a mess this morning,” I said, walking past her into the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee.

“I’m not concerned about that,” she replied. “But I am concerned about the problem with your talents.”

I carried my cup to the table and sat across from her. “You and me both. I haven’t seen an open grimoire in days, and I couldn’t get to the one in the wall.” I cradled my head, my sinuses throbbing with the percussion rattling my brain. “If my magic is gone, it’s gone. I’m sure I can blend in with all the regular people.”

Nora frowned at me and crossed to the workroom. She returned with a steeping ball, carried it to the kitchen and microwaved a cup of hot water. She dropped the steeping ball in, set the cup in front of me and sat.

I shot her a veiled glance, feeling guilty about getting drunk the night before, but sipped the tea she’d brewed. Within minutes, I felt better. I raised the mug to toast her. “One of the many reasons I miss you.”

She reached across the table and clutched my hand. “You are in a pickle this time. What are you going to do about the spell that traveled to Kyle? If you don’t have the ability to send it back, his future is in jeopardy.”

“Something that haunts me every day. I still have to wonder if the interruption in my magic is a result. We both have to pay the price for me interfering with Madeleine’s spell.” I took another sip of the tea.

“What did she say when she was here the other day?” Nora asked. “She isn’t going to try to hurt you the way the woman who enchanted Kyle did, is she?”

“I hope not. She scolded me for interfering with her spell.”

“Oh, Brynn...”

I held up a hand. “She seemed sympathetic, even went so far as to say she’d consider helping me out, although I’m not holding my breath.”

I heard the faint melody of my ringtone. “Where did I leave my phone?” My purse wasn’t on the dining table where I usually left it. I had no idea where I’d deposited things when I’d come in last night. I looked around the living room, checked the kitchen and found my phone on the washing machine, in the utility room inside the back door. It showed a missed call from Lisa, no doubt checking on me. I looked at the history, saw Ian’s number and remembered—again—that I’d promised to call him when I got home. That was last night. I’d told him Nora would be visiting today. I trusted he wouldn’t mind if I didn’t call until she’d left.

Since Nora was here, I thought she might want to help pack the backroom at Windfall. We had two weekends left before we closed the doors. There might be things she wanted, and there were things other people shouldn’t pack. For that matter, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to access the recipe books inside the locked cabinets at the shop while my magic was on the fritz.

Cell phone in hand, I returned to the dining table. “People aren’t going to come when the recipes I mix don’t work,” I said. “I’m going to start applying for botanical jobs tomorrow.”

“It’s possible this condition is temporary,” she said. “Maybe when the spell is satisfied, your talents will return.”

“I can’t depend on that, can I?”

“Tell me how I can help.”

I chuckled. “I’m not going to ask you to reverse the spell for me. I asked Ian, and he reminded me of the hazards of interfering.” I took another cleansing breath to clear the remaining cobwebs, and proposed my plan to clear out the backroom at Windfall.

“Are you sure you’re up to it?” she asked.

“We’re closing the doors after Labor Day. As Cassandra