Heirloom Magic: Every Witch Way (12 page)

“This is a great
start,” Jasper told her, trailing off when something over her shoulder caught
his eye. “Irene,” Jasper called out, and Harper spun to find the crazy woman
with the wild, white hair from her gran’s funeral, hobbling up the walk.

“I tried to give
you time,” the old woman muttered as she dragged her stiff legs along. “I can’t
take it anymore. I need that elixir!” The woman hobbled up the steps and
stopped before Harper, planting her hands on her hips. “I won’t take no for an
answer,” she warned them as she tried to push her way into the house.

“Irene!” Jasper
tried to warn, but it was too late. The old woman hit the protection barrier
and went flying backwards with a scream. Harper let out a gasp and went running
towards the old woman, whose white hair was smoking a little at the ends.
“Phone 911!” she called to Jasper, who just stood there watching with his arms
crossed, a bemused expression on his face.

Irene sat up with
a cough and her face darkened as she looked at Harper. “What are you trying to
do, kill me?” she demanded, shoving her hand at Harper, and Harper hesitantly
pulled the old woman to her feet.

“You’re alright?”
Harper asked, stunned and barely able to believe that such an old woman was
able to fly twenty feet through the air, hit the ground, and still get up.

“No thanks to
you!” Irene snapped.

“Irene is a
fairy—a very old fairy,” Jasper explained, coming forward.

“That elixir had
better be on the house,” Irene grumbled as Jasper helped her hobble back
towards the house.

“Please come in,”
Harper invited, and the old woman shuffled through the door with a sour look on
her face. Irene followed them into the kitchen and didn’t even bat an eyelash
to see the couch in the middle of the wrong room.

Harper picked up
the spell book again, having no idea what she was looking for. “You said this
was for arthritis?” she asked, and Irene nodded.

Harper flipped to
the front of the book and began searching, starting with ‘Apples— Poison.’
Harper gulped and kept flipping until she found it near the start of the B
section. “Arthritis,” Harper read out loud. There was a small sticky note with
Irene’s name written on it and Harper grinned—this might not be so bad after
all.

“I’ll need a
cauldron,” she said, trailing her finger along the list of ingredients, and
Jasper went to the cupboard and pulled out a small, black cast iron cauldron.
Harper read off the ingredients, which disturbingly included eye of newt, and
Jasper found them for her and placed them in the pot.

Harper set the
book down and held her hands wide over the top. “Ancient bones, start to ache,
start to wither, start to quake. Mend the pain, and all the aches, stop the
aging, stop the quakes,” Harper read out loud, letting out a small giggle at
the wording. Light spread from her finger tips and the potion began to sizzle.
Jasper took a step back, just in case, and Harper wanted to do the same but
thought it wouldn’t look very professional. The potion went from black to a
brilliant emerald green, and Irene pushed her out of the way, giving the
cauldron a sniff.

“It’s a little
more green than usual, but it smells the same,” she said as she reached in the
cauldron with a glass and took a long swig.” Harper waited with her breath
frozen in her lungs. Irene stood there for several moments and then a huge
smile spread over her face. “This is stronger than your gran’s,” she crowed
happily as she threw her cane to the ground and started jumping around like a
much younger woman.

Harper beamed,
happy that finally something had gone right. “I will bottle the rest up for you,”
she told the old fairy as she rummaged around until she found a Tupperware
container.

“Maybe not so
fast,” Jasper said suddenly, elbowing Harper in the ribs and making her spill
some of the potion. Harper turned around and the smile melted off her face.
Irene’s wild, white locks were just as crazy as usual, but they were now a
vivid purple.

“Oh my goodness!”
Harper squeaked, slapping her hand across her mouth, and Jasper burst out
laughing.

“What’s the matter
girl?” Irene demanded sharply, and Harper was actually afraid to tell the
crotchety old woman what she’d done to her. Jasper had no such qualms though
and dug a mirror out of the drawer and held it up to her. Irene blinked as she
took in her new hairstyle, and Harper braced herself for the fury.

A weird sound
emitted from her throat, and Harper was afraid she’d given the old woman a
stroke. The sound came again, like a rusty old hinge squeaking after years of
misuse, and Harper realized in surprise that she was actually laughing.

“I don’t know what
you did to me girl, but I’ll wear this purple hair proudly if my old joints can
keep feeling like this!” the old woman laughed hysterically as she gathered up
the rest of the potion and strolled out, leaving her cane in the middle of the
kitchen floor.

“What just
happened?” Harper asked, looking at Jasper in confusion. Jasper laughed
uproariously.

“I think you
finally got something right,” he told her, sounding just as surprised as Harper
felt. His laughter was contagious, and Harper collapsed on the couch giggling
as she thought about crazy Irene and her even crazier purple hair. She was
almost mastering her magic. Now she just had to figure out how to deal with the
demons that were after her, and this whole being magical thing might not be so
bad.

“We’ll be okay,”
Jasper told her, like he could read her mind, and for the first time since
she’d heard her gran had passed, Harper started to believe it, just a little.

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