A Charmed Life (Halloween LaVeau Book 5) (19 page)

The energy at this place was thick. Someone was trying to stop my magic, but the magic wasn’t strong. I had to give it a shot. I would use a spell and see what happened. It was harder to get the spell to work correctly if I didn’t recite the words out loud. If the person heard me, it might be even worse than it was now. If I was caught I might end up in a shallow grave. I recited the words in my mind and tried harder than ever before. Now more than ever I needed the spells to work.

I felt the energy around me, so I knew that this spell had to be working at least a little. It was taking all the energy I had to break through the spell protecting the location. I guessed they’d forgotten who they were dealing with. My magic was stronger than anyone’s now.

I’d just finished the spell when the person walked back over to me. They touched the scarf on my head and then untied it. Fabric fell off my face and that was when I saw her
.
Cora wore the red velvet cloak.

“You’re the one who cast the spells.”

Cora shook her head. “You really trust your friend, don’t you? I thought if I set her up and left the cloak in her car you would get mad.”

“So you wanted to break up our friendship? You’re an evil person,” I said.

She cackled. The sound matched her personality well. I couldn’t wait to let Annabelle know that Cora had put the cloak in her car. I knew that the mystery had been bothering Annabelle.

All of this shouldn’t have surprised me. I’d suspected Cora had been up to something, but I’d never thought she was capable of doing this. If I’d known it was Cora I would have taken my chances on running. She would have never been able to catch me. “Cora, what are you doing?” I asked.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” She placed her hands on her hips.

“You can’t possibly think that you’ll get away with this. Why are you doing this? Is this just because I took away your magic? That’s no reason to kidnap me. That won’t make me change my mind. You have to be working with someone though. You can’t put a spell on this place. We took away your magic. Are you going to tell me who you’re working with? Is it Arthur?”

Cora gave me a wicked smile. “I can’t tell you that information, but wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Yes, I would. That’s why I asked. You won’t be able to keep this from me forever. Your ass is toast when I get out of this situation,” I said.

For a moment her smile faded as she contemplated her situation. Something told me she wasn’t scared.

“You’re not as strong as you think you are,” she said.

“We’ll see about that when I’m done with you,”I said
.

I had to get her to talk to me. Maybe then I would find out why she was doing this.

“Do you want the book?” I asked. “Is that the reason you’re doing this?”

She looked at me with a confused expression. “I don’t want the book, no.”

Now I was confused. If she didn’t want the book, then what? The spell had worked some, I just needed to give it another shot. But I couldn’t do it with her standing right in front of me. She would never allow that to happen.

“Are you going to tell me why you’re doing this?” I asked.

“I will tell you when the time is right.” She gave me a smug look.

“What better time than now?” I said.

“Oh, you’ll find out. I just can’t have you here alone right now. I’m waiting for my backup to show up.”

“You’re waiting for your partner in crime?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Sure, if you want to call them that, I guess.”

“Well, since you’re committing a crime, yes, I think that’s an appropriate name to use,” I said.

She briefly turned her back to me. “I’m not talking to you anymore.”

I didn’t particularly want to talk to her either, but I wanted an answer now. Just then we heard a noise.

“That must be my helper now,” she said with a smile.

I was almost positive that it would be Arthur who would come to the door. She went over to the window and peeked out. Then she moved to the door and opened it wide. No one was there. She gave me a cross look as if this was my fault. I had nothing to do with it. I couldn’t take credit for that trick.

“Maybe you’re hearing things,” I said in a mocking tone
.

Chapter 26

Now that Cora was distracted, it was time for me to try my spell again. She was standing by the door still looking for the person I supposed was helping her with this magic. Whoever was doing it wasn’t doing a very good job because I could feel the energy dissipate around me. At the same time my energy increased. I recited the words in my head again. This time I felt as if they were working. Cora really had no idea who she was messing with.

Just as my spell increased, the ropes holding my hands loosened and fell to the ground. Then the ones around my feet came off. Whoever was trying this magic would have to get up a lot earlier in the morning to get one over on me. It had been easier than I’d thought.

I pushed to my feet and went over to the door. Cora was still standing on the porch and she didn’t hear me. Wouldn’t she be surprised? 

Cora turned around and saw me standing in the doorway. Her eyes widened with fear. She knew she was in trouble now.

When I moved out onto the porch, out of nowhere the bat came swooping down. It zoomed past the porch, diving toward Cora’s head. She screeched out and I screamed a little too. That thing creeped me out. What was it doing here? Had it followed me here? It had followed me to the party. What did this thing want? I couldn’t let the bat distract me from stopping Cora. Now that it had vanished, I focused my attention on Cora again.

“What made you think you could get away with that?” I snapped.

She moved toward the steps, but I cast a spell her way, making her slow down so that I was able to catch her quickly.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked. I looped my arm through hers and guided her through the door with me.

“You won’t get away with this,” she said. “The person helping me will be here soon.” 

“Oh, good, I’m looking forward to meeting them,” I said as I led her over to the chair.

Cora reluctantly sat down in the chair.

“Are you going to tell me who did this?” I asked as I secured her hands to the back of the chair.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she said.

“As a matter of fact, I would.” I picked up the ropes and started securing her legs to the chair.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to a little old lady.” She sniffled.

“You did it to me,” I said.

“Yes, but I’m fragile, don’t you know?” She flashed me a sad-eyed look. 

“I saw the way you were dancing at the party. I don’t have moves like that,” I said as I backed away from the chair. “Now I know you’re working with someone else since you can’t do magic anymore, so it would be best if you tell me now. It would work out better for both of us,” I said with a big smile.

She glared at me. “That’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, I’ll figure it out, and then both of you will be in trouble. I’ll be back for you,” I said as I headed out the door.

I stepped out onto the porch to see if I could spot the person who was helping Cora. I had my suspicions that it was Arthur—I was just waiting for him to pop up. I was really going to let him have it when I saw him. I couldn’t believe he’d thought he could pull this off.

Nicolas and Liam must be wondering where I disappeared to. Nicolas probably thought I had taken off because of his question. 

I heard what sounded like footsteps, so I went around beside the house. I didn’t see anyone. He was probably playing games with me. I peeked in the window to make sure that Cora was still where I’d left her. She was fidgeting with her hands, but I knew there was no way she would get out of the ropes. The noise came again and this time I looked down to the tree line over beside the house and spotted something. I was sure I had seen someone.

I moved across the yard and reached the tree line. Silence filled the air except for the slight rustling of the leaves. It was hauntingly creepy. Movement caught my attention again and that was when I spotted Arthur. I’d known it was him who had helped Cora. He turned to the right and spotted me. I glared at him.

“Hallie, don’t come any closer.” He gestured with his hands.

Oh, he was afraid of my magic now that I’d caught him. I wasn’t about to do what he said. I moved into the tree area.

“Hallie, don’t come in here,” Arthur said again.

Why was he telling me this? Movement came from the right. Jolene appeared and stared me right in the eyes. The glare on her face looked as if she wanted to annihilate me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I came to get rid of you,” she said.

I looked to Arthur and he frowned. Now I understood why he’d told me not to come closer. I should have listened. 

“What’s happening?” I asked. I didn’t know who to trust. “Arthur, did you place the spell on the house?” Did I really expect either one of them to give me a truthful answer?

“He didn’t do it. I did it.” Her voice was filled with satisfaction.

“Why did you do that?”

“We want to get rid of you,” she said matter-of-factly.

“So you do want the Book of Mystics?” I asked.

She scoffed. “We don’t care about the Book of Mystics. We just want you gone.” 

That sent a shiver down my spine. The look in her eyes was chilling. I knew that she was serious. They wanted me gone.

“Why?” I asked.

“We want to eliminate the Underworld altogether and you’re the leader. With you gone that means the Underworld will be gone.”

“You’re with that coven. You’ve come back, haven’t you? That was why Cora had the bottle.”

“Nice detective work.” Jolene flashed a wicked smile.

“Why do you want the Underworld gone?” I said.

“Cora and I have set up our own Underworld.”

Oh, this didn’t sound good. And I was sure it wouldn’t end well.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “You need the book to be the leader.”

She shook her head. “We don’t need your silly book. Are you dumb? Did you not understand what I said?”

“I understand,” I said, placing my hands on my hips. “I think it’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.”

She glared at me, clearly unhappy with my comment.

I scoffed. “Well, the Underworld isn’t going anywhere, so you can just forget that idea.”

“That’s what you think,” she snapped.

Arthur had moved closer to me now. “I didn’t have anything to do with this,” he said. “I came to find you.” 

“How did you know I was here?”

“I was outside at the party and saw you when they took you. So I followed you here.” He attempted a smile, but under the circumstances, it was hard.

“Thank you,” I said softly. And I’d thought he was bad all this time.

She waved her hand. “That’s enough talk for you too. We must go back inside so that Cora and I can finish what we started.”

There was no way I was going to let that happen. “We won’t be doing that,” I said.

“You can’t stop us.” Anger filled her voice, sending a chill down my spine.

Her magic would be no match for mine. Jolene lifted her hand and gestured toward an old oak tree. The energy zoomed from her fingertips, whizzing through the air and then hitting a tree. The branch fell, barely missing my head.

I scoffed. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

She glared at me again, and then raised her hand, making the other branch crack and fall to the ground on the other side of me.

I laughed. “Your aim is terrible.”

A physical alteration wouldn’t be necessary in order to stop her. I would slow her movements just like I had with Cora.

“What’s the matter? Are you afraid to fight back?’ she said, teasing me. 

“I’m hardly afraid of you,” I said.

Just then someone grabbed me from behind. Just like before the scarf was placed over my eyes and I was being dragged away from the area. How had Cora gotten untied? Someone had to have helped her. Where was Arthur? Why wasn’t he helping me? Maybe he really wasn’t there to help me after all. The person must be taking me back into the house. Apparently they really were hell bent on getting rid of me and the Underworld. 

The more I tried to use my magic, the more someone was trying to block me. It wouldn’t work though. They couldn’t fight me off forever. I could last much longer than anyone. I cast a spell as the person was pulling me. Their movements slowed down considerably. I would do another spell and that would probably cause the person to lose their grip on me. I recited the words in my head again and the magic swirled through the air. 

The restraints dissipated by the second. I had to find enough magic right this second in order to get out of this. I broke through their spell long enough to get out of the grip that the person had on me.

“I can’t believe you made this pathetic attempt at stopping me. I guess you’re having second thoughts about that right now.” I yanked the scarf from my face. Being blindfolded was terrifying and I hated it.

I spun around to see who had grabbed me. Beth Sallee and Williamina Hamilton were standing behind me, the ones who claimed to have been poisoned also. So they were all in on this together? There had been no reanimation at all. They had tricked me, but now I was onto them and it was going to stop here. They looked stunned that I had been able to get out of the hold.

“So it was you two.” I pointed at the women.

“Cora made us do it,” Beth said.

“We didn’t want to,” Williamina said.

It was too late for that now. I needed to do more magic so that my spell would stop them from trying anything else right now. They were going to lose their witchcraft powers forever if I had any say in it—and as the leader, I did.

“What are you going to do with us?” Beth asked.

I recited the words. “Element of Earth, I call to you. Help me banish the wicked. Give me your power.” I pointed at the women. “Element of Air, I call to you to rid these women of their magical powers.” Energy zinged from my fingertips. “Element of Fire, I call to you for protection from the evil.” To complete the spell, I recited the words: “Element of Water, I call to you for strength to banish the evil.” Magic spun around them. “I’m going to stop you from doing any more damage.”

“Listen, we had nothing to do with this,” Williamina said.

They both shook their heads in unison.

“You expect me to believe that?” I said. 

I had to find out what they’d done with Arthur. I went back over to where Jolene and Arthur had been. Jolene was still trying to get up from the ground. Arthur had been subdued too. How did they think they would handle both of us? They wouldn’t be able to stop us both at the same time. Arthur was trying to get up from the ground. I ran over to him.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He got to his feet. “Yeah, I think I’m okay.” 

I needed to do more magic to get rid of the spell cast on this place.

“I saw that they had you,” Arthur said.

“You did that for me?” I asked.

“Why are you surprised?” Arthur quirked an eyebrow.

“You have to admit you were acting a bit strange,” I said as I looked over my shoulder.

“Okay, I’ll admit just a bit,” he said.

“You’re the bat, aren’t you?” I studied his face.

He didn’t take his eyes off me. “How did you know?”

“I finally put it all together. When I saw the bat earlier on the porch and then you were here… I knew that had to be you. Now I think I’ll call you Arthurbat.”

He grinned. “You wouldn’t be the first person to call me that. I hope I didn’t scare you too badly.”

“How did you get into the party tonight?” I asked.

He quirked an eyebrow. “Are you serious? I walked in the back door. It was too easy. No one even noticed.”

“What about the conversation you had with the other guest Ben? Who is he?”

“Remember I said I had a friend in Enchantment Pointe?”

I nodded. “The one you said wanted to open a witches’ bar. I guess that was a lie.”

“No, we do want to open a bar. I asked him to come to the manor because I was suspicious of Jolene and Cora. I thought he could help me figure out what they were doing and then I could stop them and prove myself.”

“That’s risky. What were you trying to prove?” I asked.

Before he could answer, the women had managed to push to their feet, although they seemed a little dazed as they rubbed their heads. Jolene was stumbling, trying to remain upright.

“We have to do another spell, this time to make them stop,” I said.

“You lead the way.” He gestured.

We joined hands and recited the words, casting the magic out from our fingertips and over to the women. “Element of Earth, we call to you. The power to stop this evil is ours. Banish the wicked.” We concentrated harder. “Element of Air, we call to you to block the supernatural force from the evil ones.” Continuing the spell, we recited the words: “Element of Fire, we call to you for strength and power to continue our magic.” To complete the spell, we recited the words: “Element of Water, I call to you peace and tranquility. The evil ones can do no harm. Bind them from doing harm.”