Page 26 of Love’s a Witch (The Scottish Charms #1)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Sloane
For some reason I expected everything to be pink,” Nova hissed in my ear.
“Somehow, this is worse.”
The house was white.
I don’t just mean white walls and furniture, I mean white, everywhere.
White statues, white wood carvings, white cushions, white rugs, white chandelier, white cabinetry and countertops.
It was sterile to the point of severity that I wasn’t sure if signified a mental break or a rigorous attachment to a very clean house.
Either way, Mandy Meadows could eat off her floor, and any offending speck of dust was likely destroyed with a ruthless efficiency to which I could only aspire in my own cleaning habits.
No wonder Mandy Meadows had been so obviously disgusted by the dust and dirt in our home.
She essentially lived in a sterilized laboratory.
It was the morning after my incident with Knox, and I hadn’t been brave enough to try out my magick yet today.
Instead, Broca had shooed us out the door for an emergency Charms meeting at Mandy Meadows’s house, and now I stood, clutching my to-go cup of coffee, terrified that I’d spill a drop and trigger some sort of magickal trap that would leave me missing a limb.
Mandy Meadows, not uncharacteristically, seemed to be wound a little tight.
It would be in my best interest not to push her over the edge.
For now, at least while we were in her space, I needed to hang to the back.
The sooner we figured out how to read this book, the sooner I could go home to curl up on the couch with Blue and badger Broca into doing her hip exercises.
“I think it’s chic,” Lyra murmured, glancing around the room. “But she could use a plant or two to soften the space. Some greenery. Maybe a disco ball in the corner.” Lyra slid me a cheeky look.
“A disco ball requires someone to have an actual personality,” Nova pointed out.
“But the light would be beautiful sparkling across all this white.”
“Can we please not talk about disco balls?” I hissed, wincing at the memory of glitter everywhere. Nova and Lyra had been made to strip out of their costumes outside the house last night and march directly to the showers, as Broca refused to deal with cleaning up glitter.
“Ladies.” We snapped to attention as Mandy Meadows ushered us from her living room through a door to a large back room.
The rest of the Charms were already there.
I had no idea how, as it was barely seven in the morning.
They were all put together and looked fairly alert given the early hour.
One would think they’ve all had their wake-me-up coffees too.
I was in an oversized cream fisherman’s jumper, leggings, and Ugg boots.
Raven looked soft and lovely in a cloud-blue floor-length velvet dress, Felicity was slightly rumpled in a pastel purple sweater set and jeans, and Tam rocked a neon-yellow-and-electric-blue running outfit, while Mandy Meadows clearly slept in her in pink fembot suit.
We were a discombobulated group, to say the least. If anyone were to walk back here, they’d get whiplash trying to figure out how one of us fit with the others.
And somehow, we were meant to solve a centuries-old curse.
Either way, this was our coven, and it appeared we were stuck with them. Broca was trying to get me to warm up to the idea of having the coven help me, but it just didn’t sit right with me. I simply wasn’t used to asking for assistance. With anything, really.
I wanted to refuse help.
Except I couldn’t. Not this time. I really did need the Charms. And it had been pointed out to me by Broca, not too kindly, either, that I was being a touch bitchy about accepting said help from this group, who had gathered at what felt like the butt crack of dawn to help me.
Pasting a polite smile on my face, I took a seat at the table and looked around the room.
It was more of a shed, really, an addition to the house that carried some of the white color scheme over, but here the shelves that lined the walls were piled high with what I was assuming was everything a modern-day witch needed.
Of course, it was all neatly labeled and stacked in glass containers and mason jars. Even in her magick, Mandy Meadows tolerated no messiness.
“All right, Charms, let’s crack on with business, shall we?
Since this is another meeting out of our regular schedule.
” Mandy Meadows slanted me a look, and I glowered at her.
Like any of this was my fault? I’d happily be ignoring my magick and galivanting across Europe if Broca hadn’t called us to come home. Did she think this was fun for me?
“Simmer.” Nova poked a finger in my side, and I dropped my eyes to the table.
“First order of business will be the Pinecones & Peppermint Fest. Knox has requested we work up a spell to help shroud some of what is really going on from the tourists.”
“But what about the book?” I gaped at Mandy Meadows.
The only reason I’d gotten out of bed this early was because I’d been told I would get help deciphering the language in the book.
And it had literally been Samhain the night before.
Were we really going to jump into a Christmas festival this fast?
“Not everything’s about you, Sloane.”
“Meow,” Lyra said, raising an eyebrow, but Mandy Meadows just rolled her eyes.
“Or in this case, it is. Because we have to fix this snow mess, which you’ve brought to the town.”
“You’re being a little harsh, Mandy. It’s not her fault some witch cursed them centuries ago,” Tam said, taking a swig from her water bottle.
“I’m simply stating the facts.” Mandy Meadows shrugged one pink tweed–covered shoulder. “I don’t have time to coddle her feelings as well.”
“I don’t need to be wrapped in cotton wool,” I said, annoyed that this witch was getting under my skin. “If you need to do the festival spell first, by all means, go ahead.”
“I wasn’t asking your permission.” Mandy sniffed and patted her perfectly coiffed hair, as though a strand would dare to step out of line.
“Now, my thought was we needed to do a concealment spell of sorts. Knox will be bringing in snowmakers to give the illusion that we are producing all of this snow, but it won’t necessarily explain away the snow falling from the actual sky.
Our job is to make it so the tourists just can’t see it.
Or, basically, that they only see what we want them to see. ”
“A glamour spell.” Deidre nodded. “I’d go with the fae for that one.”
“I was just thinking the same.” Raven leaned forward and gave Deidre a nod of approval. “They’re the best at trickery.”
Nova turned to me, both eyebrows raised.
“We’ll need fairy moss, quartz, and bronze rings.” Mandy Meadows clapped her hands together and strode to the shelves, pulling out containers of what she was looking for.
“Can you explain the ingredients to me, please, and the purpose for each?” Lyra asked politely.
There was never a recipe she met that she didn’t like, so this was likely just an extension of her baking.
Mandy Meadows glanced over her shoulder, a smile of approval on her face, and Lyra straightened a bit in her seat. A star pupil.
I wanted to be annoyed with her, but Lyra had always been that way. She wanted to please others, and it didn’t take a psychologist to figure out it came from having disinterested parents.
All three of us had reacted differently to our chaotic upbringing.
“The moss was gathered under a full moon from various fairy mounds around the outskirts of Briarhaven. With fae permission, of course.” Mandy Meadows returned to the table, containers in hand.
“Quartz to help charge and channel the spell, as well as direct the magick accurately. And bronze rings as an offering to the fae, as they’ll use any bronze for their tools or weapons as they see fit. ”
“Ah, and why does quartz channel the spell?”
“It’s an excellent conduit. Quartz, in itself, is your multipurpose stone. It can be used for many different spells and can help center intention. It’s a workhorse of a crystal, really.”
Mandy Meadows flicked her hand at the table, and a pentagram appeared.
In the middle, she placed a bundle of moss, the bronze rings, and several quartz stones.
She then lit a candle at the head of table, mumbled some words under her breath, and a ripple of energy moved through the air.
It called to my magick, and I felt that power rise inside of me, and my palms began to sweat.
I hoped whatever we were about to do didn’t make my magick misfire.
Broca had assured me that with the coven acting as a whole, I should, in theory, be fine to work spells.
It was when I was using my magick on my own that everything seemed to go haywire.
“By faerie sight an’ faerie grace,
Hide this snow in secret place.
To mortal eye, let naught seem wrong,
Let hearts pass through, nae stay long.”
We repeated her words three times, and a light flashed in the air. I gaped down at the table, where the moss now was bundled with the crystals, the bronze rings wound around them. Four complete bundles.
“Well done, ladies. Now, we’ll need someone to go to the four cardinal points around Briarhaven and repeat the spell there as well.
This, along with the fae help, should cause the tourists to overlook vital details.
If they do start to look or question too closely, they should be struck with an urge to leave. ”
“I’ll go,” Nova volunteered. “I’d like to see more of Briarhaven. It’s been a while.”
“You up for a run?” Tam asked, gesturing with her water bottle.
“I’d love nothing more. I haven’t gotten a chance to go out yet, and it’s making me itchy.” Tam and Nova beamed at each other, and I shuddered at the thought of running on snow and ice before I’d finished my first cup of coffee.
Who was I kidding? I wasn’t going for a jog even if I’d chugged ten cups of coffee.