Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (books to read fiction .txt) 📕

instructions are in there. I suppose if we are talking about white and dark magic, it’s closer to dark than white, you get me?”

“No,” I answered honestly.

“I shouldn’t really be doing it, that’s my point. Anyway, if the whole book is missing then we have a problem. That has centuries worth of my families magic in it. If someone else has their hands on it then they could do some real damage!”

“Maybe we should look again, where else could it be?” I offered.

“It doesn’t leave this house. Kate and I both agreed that we never take it outside of this building in case we lost it. I know I didn’t take it anywhere,” she huffed. We heard the sound of footsteps bouncing up the metal staircase outside. A few moments later, Kate bounded in through the front door.

“Oh, Effie. There you are,” Kate panted. She was out of breath as if she had sprinted the whole way here from the restaurant.

“Kate,” Effie acknowledged. I could sense a tension between the two of them, but still had no idea what was going on.

“I thought I would come and…just…phew I’m really out of shape…I was thinking you don’t need that spell anyway…maybe just a nice herbal tea?” Kate wheezed.

“Why shouldn’t I carry out the ceremony, Kate? Huh? Is it because you lost the spell book?” Effie sassed.

“Whaaaaaaat?” Kate said, dragging out the word. “Nah, that would be, why that would be terrible!”

“Where is it?”

“Okay, look. I don’t know when it went missing but I went to get it a few months back and it wasn’t on the shelf. I looked everywhere and it was just gone. I didn’t want to get into trouble with you, and I figured it would show up eventually, so I didn’t mention it,” Kate said, trying to smile at her scowling sister.

“Why would you be in trouble with me? What did you do?” Effie replied. “Kate!”

“You won’t like it, so I’ll just blurt it out like ripping off a band aid, m’kay?” Kate grinned. “So about six months ago, or something like that, Max came round when you were out and said that he had left some of his stuff here. I just figured that he was telling the truth because, I dunno, why lie about it? Right? So he went into your room and left with a box of stuff and I saw that he had some CDs and a big pair of headphones and whatever.

“My point being, he was taking his stuff, so no big deal. I didn’t mention it because I thought if you knew he’d been in the house you would go crazy and you haven’t wanted to hear his name out loud since y’all broke up, so I kept it to myself. At some point later that week I needed the book for a spell to fix a hang-nail. Long story short, I couldn’t find it and had to get my doctor to fix it. But now you know!” Kate smiled.

“Hold up,” Effie said. “Let’s rewind. You are telling me that my ex-boyfriend came into this house, went into my room without supervision and then left with a big box of things around the same time you lost track of the book?”

“It’s probably unrelated. Right, Sadie? The book is probably under a sofa cushion or something,” Kate said.

“Kate!” Effie shrieked.

“I know!” Kate said, throwing her hands up in the air. “I was hoping that I was wrong and that maybe it would just show up, but I think I accidentally let your boyfriend steal the family book. I would like you to know that I have felt bad about it ever since, if that helps.”

“Dude, you know that doesn’t help. Why wouldn’t you just tell me? Why wouldn’t you have tried to get it back?” Effie exclaimed.

“I was worried that you would be angry, which I now recognize is not as problematic as a human getting his hands on a book of dark magic. But hey, hindsight is always 20-20, am I right?” she chuckled in my direction.

“We need to get that book back, Kate,” I said.

“What if the clearing is something to do with page 89?” Effie asked. Kate suddenly looked very somber. What was on page 89?

12

There were probably multiple points over the thirty minutes that preceded this moment where I could have said something. Even a whimper of protest would have been useful. But no. I had followed Effie and Kate out of their house and all the way to the shrubbery in which we were now hiding.

“Go over the plan again, because what is sounded like was that we were going to break into a man’s house,” I said. “You know I’m the peacekeeper, right? I don’t think it’s a good look for me to be flagrantly disregarding the law.”

“First of all, no one is making you do anything,” Kate smirked. “Secondly, it is probably going to be a real pain in your butt if some random human is casting dark magic spells over the islands. This is a preventative break-in! This is happening in the name of law and order!”

“I feel like that makes sense, which is what worries me. I think I’ve been hanging around with you two for too long,” I sulked.

“Just imagine what Sheriff McHotty is going to say when he hears that you swooped in and saved everyone in Hallow Haven from a human with a death wish. He’s gonna be real pleased with that,” Effie said.

“I know you are trying to butter me up, but I’m already hiding in a bush with you guys. Part of me is clearly convinced that this is a good idea,” I replied.

I wondered how long we needed to stay knelt in the dirt. It didn’t look as though anyone was home, and the driveway was empty. We had been looking at the house and hadn’t seen any movement.

“You guys are up to no good,” Greta mumbled as she appeared beside us. “No one hides