A Charming Hex (Magical Cures Mystery Series Book 9) (16 page)

“Buried treasure.” Peter rocked back and forth on the side of the trail. I barely realized it was him. He had on a hoodie sweatshirt and the hood was pulled up over his head and the strings tightly tied under his chin. Mr. Prince Charming had curled up in Peter’s lap. Relief overcame me from seeing him alive that I almost wasn’t able to hold back the tears.

“Hi, Peter.” I bent down and spoke in a hushed whisper. I could hear some yelling coming from above but I couldn’t make out what they were saying due to Mother Nature’s angry turn. “You are going to be okay.”

“My daddy said the treasures are in there. Diamonds for life. Diamonds for life.” Peter repeated and stroked Mr. Prince Charming. There was a bottle of chocolate milk next to him and his calmness told me that the potion I had put in there had started to work.

“You stay here.” I patted Mr. Prince Charming and Peter.

I swear I saw Mr. Prince Charming nodding his head right along with Peter. I rubbed my wrist and felt my charms before I stood up. I needed all the courage and protection I could muster up to even take another step.

As much as I wanted to clear the air with a quick light of the sage stick and dampen down the lava flow, the beating rain wasn’t going to let me light it and keep it lit. Both the women were arguing and screaming at the other.

I took a step forward and the dried piece of lava rock caused me to slip, sending several more pieces down the side of the volcano with it. Violet turned. She glared at me with a burning, reproachful eye.

“June! Help me!” Juliette’s desperate plea echoed.

“Don’t you dare help her. She deserves what she gets.” Sudden anger lit Violet’s eyes. The darkness surrounded us. Red gas lifted from the volcano. The burning smell charred my nose hair.

“This is not the way to get even.” I kept my voice calm and tried to reason with Violet. “You have to come down and let the authorities handle this.”

“I will not sit back and let her enjoy her life after she took mine!” Violet screamed. She beat the palms of her hands on her thighs. The sky lit up with jagged bolts of lightning ending in a thunderous roar.

“He didn’t want you! What can’t you get through that head of yours?” Juliette screamed back. “He picked me! Me!”

“It’s not him that you wanted.” Violet’s teeth were gritted. Her eyes narrowed. “You only wanted the diamonds. He told me. He told me that he loved me!”

Juliette moved as the lightning took another swipe at the night sky. The edges of a knife writhed under her clothing. She pulled it out and closed her hand around the knife as if somehow she was going to complete the mission.

A slight twist of her lips, she said, “He never loved you or that child you claimed was his.”

“How did you know?” Violet couldn’t take her eyes off the knife and neither could I. “I just told him about Gene the other day.”

“Can we please go down to the lodge?” I gave one last attempt to be nice and play all mortal like.

“Shut up with your reasonable talk!” Juliette stabbed the air in front of her, blade down.

“And that’s when he told me that he was getting cold feet. That’s when I knew that everything I worked for over the past couple of years was going to come down to this.” She pointed the tip of the knife behind her and into the volcano. “Peter!” she called. With her free hand she grabbed a copy of Peter’s hand-drawn map out of her pocket. “Do you want to go get the treasure now?”

“You wouldn’t.” Violet gasped in horror. Confused, I looked between the two.

“What? You don’t understand?” Juliette taunted me in a whiny voice. “You see this little map holds the key to my wealth. Once Peter digs it up and hands me the diamond, he will accidentally, of course, fall into the active volcano, along with you two.” She waved the knife between us. “And the little map. Then I go back to living my life without the burden of a man that really never loved me or his homeless, parentless brother, who by the way was supposed to burn up along with his parents.”

“You killed them?” Violet shook. “You are the one who blew up their house?”

“How else was I going to shut Patrick’s father up from telling him who I really was?” She waved her finger across her neck. “First I slit their throats. Then I took the map before I turned on the gas stove. I set the perfect backdraft so when Patrick and I came home that night and opened the door, the house would explode.”

The thoughts of what happened entered my mind so quickly, it was hard to put them together. But the one thing I knew, I was wrong. Violet hadn’t killed Patrick, Juliette had, over some sort of diamond.

“It was all planned out. I had the map that Patrick thought his brother had drawn, but I knew better. I’d heard of the myth of the diamond at Tulip Island and I did a little research. You really shouldn’t put photos and names of your tourists on your site because I knew I could get my claws into Patrick. I moved across the states and made sure I was everything he wanted in a woman. Caring toward his brother and all too happy to take guardianship of Peter. Now that Patrick is dead, Peter will be sent off to an institute where he will rot forever. Or. . .” she glanced back. “Like I said, dig for the treasure only to slip and fall after the diamond is safely in my hands.”

“Why did you kill his parents?” Violet wanted all the answers while I just wanted to get out of there.

“Peter! Come on! It’s time to get the treasure.” Her voice echoed loud and clear as the rain stopped.

Off in the distance, the lightning and storm seemed to have blown off.

“It was really the father I wanted. I want the P&P stores and all the jewels. I want wealth. The money. But when he rejected my womanly offerings, he told me that he was going to tell Patrick about me trying to seduce him and that I only wanted Patrick for the money.” A smile curled on her lips. “He was a fool. He told me that I had twenty-four hours to break it off with Patrick and go away quietly or he was going to tell Patrick. Plus, it didn’t help that it was on camera where I’d been snooping around for the map.” She drew her hands in the air, the knife dangling. “The rest is history.”

Peter shuffled up past me.

“Don’t do this, Peter.” I glanced down at my cat in hopes he’d stop Peter somehow.

Peter stopped for a brief second.

“Come Peter.” Juliette encouraged him. “You can help me find the treasure.”

Peter nodded. The wet hoodie clung to his head. I could feel the panic rising from my gut to my throat. I rubbed my finger and my thumb together, trying to get my thoughts in order so I could cast the right spell from my finger.

Before I could even put a thought together, Peter was next to her. He grabbed her by the wrists and tried to bring her to the ground. She flailed. The knife went flying. Her nails ripped at Peter’s eyes, ripping the hoodie off of his head.

“Oscar!” I screamed and scurried over to the edge of the volcano. The lava shot into the air like a cannon, exploding into the sky. “Oscar!”

It was apparent that Oscar had seen Peter and switched clothes, but how was I going to save him. I couldn’t string two words together, much less a thought spell.

I shot a look back at Mr. Prince Charming; he was doing figure eights around Violet’s ankles. She lifted her arms in the air. A swirl of neon orange lifted out of the volcano. In the bottom of the swirl was the diamond. The treasure. Violet brought her hands together, a thunderous clap echoed, shattering the diamond into tiny specks of dust.

Juliette had let go of Oscar. He crawled to safety as she tried to grab the diamond dust out of the air.

“No!” she screamed out and leaned a little too far over the edge. The swirl circled her and she disappeared into the depths of the volcano.

“I hope you have enjoyed your stay on Tulip Island.” Mr. Victor stayed his pleasant self even after Juliette had killed Patrick and fallen to her death in the active volcano.

The sea was once again calm. The full moon was out and the stars once again dotted the amazing tropical sky. The tiki torches were lit and the food smelled divine.

“The past couple of days have been really nice.” Oscar was such a gentleman after nearly losing his life.

After we’d all come back down from the volcano, everything had made sense. Mr. Victor was like Darla. He’d met Violet’s mother who was a Fairiwick like Eloise. They’d lived in a village and Violet’s mother died during childbirth with Violet. She wasn’t built to have mortal children and her body gave out on her. Like me and Darla, the council from his village allowed him to move Violet out of the village as long as they kept an eye on him.

That was when he’d decided to live alone on Tulip Island. That was how the Elders knew to send me and Oscar there on our honeymoon, only they didn’t factor in that crime happens everywhere.

Mr. Victor had tried his best to shield Violet from the world, but a young Patrick had stolen her heart and given her a child. Only at an early age, Mr. Victor could tell that Gene was not mortal. He too had gotten his mother’s spiritual gift and was a wizard like Oscar.

Violet was unable to keep it a secret when she saw Patrick that they had a son. Patrick told her that he wasn’t going to marry Juliette and he and Peter were going to stay on the island with her, Gene, and Mr. Victor. Patrick told Juliette that he wasn’t going to marry her when he’d returned from the night snorkeling excursion. After he told her, he grabbed his scuba equipment to do a quick dive on the coral reef right beyond the shoreline. Juliette snorkeled her way over and cut the scuba tube, drowning Patrick.

But not before she’d stolen my brush from the beach and took out Violet’s red hair strands and planted them on Patrick. She had the perfect plan and thought she was going to get away with it.

The local police had recovered Juliette’s charred body from the erupted volcano and had taken Oscar’s statement about her killing Patrick to gain his fortune. The case was solved and closed.

Mr. Victor and the Order of Elders were nice enough to give Oscar and I a few days alone on the island while Violet and Peter recuperated. Constance and Patience, along with Mr. Prince Charming, were sent back to Whispering Falls. Tonight was finally our tiki dinner.

“We have very much enjoyed the last couple of days.” I reached over the table and placed my hand on top of Oscar’s. “You’ve made us feel very welcome.”

“I guess we are all sort of family.” Mr. Victor nodded, leaving Oscar and I to enjoy what little time we had left on the island.

Which wasn’t a long time. Our bags were packed and we were taking the red-eye straight back to Whispering Falls. It was by choice because I didn’t want Oscar to look out of the plane’s window and down into the ocean. And I couldn’t help but put a little Mr. Sandman Sprinkles in his dinner cocktail.

It might’ve been illegal to do in Whispering Falls, but not on Tulip Island and it was for the sake of our marriage.

“Are you ready?” Gene walked up to us. He held our bags in each of his hands. “The plane has landed on the beach and everyone is waiting to see you off.”

Oscar stood up and helped me out of my chair. He stood behind me with his arms around my waist and we looked out at the ocean. He rested his chin on top of my head. I could feel his heart beating on my back.

“Even though we had a little snafu, I still enjoyed our time.” He gave me a squeeze.

“Thank you for taking me to see the ocean and letting me put my toes in the sand.” I wiggled my bare feet underneath me, feeling the grain.

Hand-in-hand, Oscar and I followed Gene to the propeller plane where we’d make our connection to the red-eye once we got on the mainland.

Just like he said, Mr. Victor, Violet, and Peter were standing on the shore waiting for us.

“So all that potion and stuff was because you are a real witch?” Violet asked.

“It is. Just like you.” I ran my hand down her arm. “It’s an exciting time for you, now that Mr. Victor is no longer taking mortal tourists, you can use your spiritual gift.”

I didn’t know what her gift was and I wasn’t quite sure she knew. The one thing I did know was that Mr. Victor had promised her that he’d tell her all about her mom and make sure it wasn’t too late for Gene to learn about his true spiritual calling.

Peter was going to stay on the island with Mr. Victor who would adopt him like Madame Torres had predicted, only I was so caught up in finding something bad about Mr. Victor, I failed at using my intuitional gift of seeking out the good. I made a promise to myself that I was going to get better at that.

I buried my toes one last time in the sand before I stepped on the plane and put on my shoes. I had a sneaky suspicion that I wasn’t going to be coming back to the beach for a long time.

The faint ring of the chains brought me out of my sleep. Oscar was happily snoring away in our bed and it felt so good to wake up and be home. The Karima sisters had picked us up at the airport in the middle of the night and they were still fussing about nothing important.

After they dropped us off at our cottage, I loved on Mr. Prince Charming and decided to leave the unpacking for the morning. Only I didn’t want to unpack. I wanted to run down the hill and watch Eloise bless the town that I loved and missed so much.

I quickly put on a pair of capri jeans, a white tee-shirt, and slipped on some flats. I couldn’t wait to tell Eloise about our trip. I loved this time of the morning when the burnt orange sun was peeking over the mountains, the sunlight putting its first touch on Whispering Falls and when Eloise blessed each and every shop.

The sound of the chains connected to her incense burner echoed down Main Street and up the hill with each swing. The smell of lavender and sage filled the air. A cleansing smell. It was an elegant exciting smell that told me I was home and safe.

Mr. Prince Charming darted around the buildings before I even reached the back of A Charming Cure. I ran my hand along the side of my shop and felt the sheer energy go into my fingertips. My honeymoon might’ve started out a little stressful, but I was energized and ready to get back to work.