Page 27 of Love’s a Witch (The Scottish Charms #1)
“Great, that’s you two off, then. I’m sure the rest of us can handle the little book issue together.”
Why, why, did she need to speak about my issues like that? This “little book issue” might solve this curse of the snow, and I felt my back go up as I opened my mouth to speak.
“Stand down, soldier. Just get this done so we can see what the book wants you to know.” Nova squeezed my shoulder as she stood. “I’m going to drop my jacket in the car. Tam, do you have an extra hat and gloves?”
“Aye. And a windbreaker for over your jumper.”
“Perfect. See you back home later.” The two gathered the bundles up and walked out, chattering about pacing and elevation. I turned back to the table and glared at Mandy Meadows.
She smiled at me, sweetly some would say.
Others would say she bared her teeth.
Challenge accepted.
I wasn’t sure what challenge I was accepting, but as I spent more time with these women, I was starting to track the subtle underpinnings and power plays in the group.
I wasn’t necessarily yet sure how to navigate it, but I knew a woman who was determined to keep someone in their place when I saw one.
Too bad I was used to not staying in my place. Or any place, really. Metaphorically and physically.
“Shall we deal with this?” Mandy Meadows gestured to the book I’d put in front of me. I wanted to throw it at her face.
Not to harm her, of course.
But just to see her hair fall out of place.
She must have gauged my intention from my expression, because the book slid across the table to her. I narrowed my eyes, annoyed she’d taken it from me, but when she picked it up and it refused to open, I smiled.
It was my book.
“This is old magick.” Mandy Meadows turned the book over in her hands, tapping a shell-pink nail against the cover. “Heavily charmed.”
“Can I see?” Raven held out her hand, and Mandy passed it over.
Bending her head over the book, her beautiful hair curtaining her face, Raven closed her eyes and ran her hands over the cover.
“It wants to tell Sloane its secrets. It has waited to be found. For years now. I sense it’s excited to finally be with her.”
“A family grimoire?” Deidre glanced up from where she typed rapidly on her phone. I had no idea who was buying real estate at seven in the morning, but Deidre had been constantly checking her Apple Watch and her phone since we’d arrived.
“It might be. Hard to say. It opens for you?” Raven handed me back the book across the table, and I was relieved to have it back in my hands. It seemed to warm under my touch, happy to be with me, and I smiled gently down at its beautiful cover.
“It does, yes.” I easily opened the cover. The words still swam on the pages in front of my eyes.
“It just shows blank pages for me,” Lyra said, leaning close to look at the pages over my shoulder.
“Definitely a grimoire of sorts, then.” Mandy Meadows nodded. “One of the first spells used when making one is to conceal the interior from anyone it wasn’t meant for. It’s an easy enough protection spell to circumvent, but it does take some concentration.”
“Wait, why would she have to remove the protection spell from this? Isn’t it more about helping her to read it? We don’t need to see it, right?” Lyra pointed a finger between the women and the book.
“If you’d prefer a simple translation spell, that’s also an option.” Mandy Meadows studied a nail like she didn’t have a care in the world. But I wondered, too, why she wanted to take the protection off my book. Filing that thought away for later, I smoothed a hand over the pages.
“Let’s start with a translation spell. If that doesn’t work, we can look at removing the protection.”
“If you insist.” Mandy Meadows returned to her shelves and studied them for a moment.
Again, why did she have to phrase it like that? I wanted to snarl at her, but Lyra squeezed my knee sharply, and Raven winked at me over the table. It pacified me somewhat, so instead I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the bitchiness that was Mandy.
I definitely was going to spill a drop of my coffee on her rug on the way out.
“A sprig of juniper and a sacred water from the enchanted burn outside Briarhaven.” Mandy placed the branch in front of me, as well as a small jar of water.
“Open the book, trace the juniper in a clockwise circle around the book, and then dip your finger in the water. Dab some water on your brow and then repeat after me.”
“Why juniper?” Lyra piped up.
“Juniper helps with visions as well as protection. Shall we?” Mandy Meadows lifted her hands, mumbled a few words about protection, and then dropped them. “The circle is cast. Onward.”
Picking up the sprig of juniper, the scent crisp and refreshing, I gently circled the book as instructed, and then dipped a finger into the water. Surprised, I glanced up at Mandy Meadows, who just nodded at me to continue.
The water was bathwater warm.
Dabbing it on my brow, I turned back to the book.
“By the gift o’ Seer’s sight,
Grant me now the ancient light.
Tongues long gone, words long veiled,
By this rite, let truth prevail.”
I gasped as the words clarified in front of me.
There was a certain section highlighted, as if the words simply hovered over everything else.
Had the book chosen what I needed to see and only shown me that part?
I wasn’t sure if this was a temporary spell or something that would always be available to me, so I hurried to read out the passage it wanted to share with me.
“To break a curse that harms your bloodline, perform the following ritual.
In a sacred circle marked by hematite stones, prick the fingers of those involved in the curse.
Let their blood drip into a single cauldron with honey and whisky.
Stir the mixture and place your hands over the chalice. Repeat the following three times.
“By blood that bound, by love now freed,
Let this curse be undone in word and deed.
Honey sweet, whisky strong,
Upend this heartache to right a wrong.
“The cursed must drink from the cauldron, and the ties of heartbreak will dissolve, allowing the cursed to move forward in peace. Remember, three fragments mended, a heart restored, let curse unwind, its chains no more.”
I tried to turn the page, but the book wouldn’t let me. I looked up, and Raven nodded at me, pen in hand.
“Got it.”
“That’s all we can do, then.” Mandy Meadows quickly closed the circle, and I patted my fingers on the book, silently thanking it. The cover warmed in response.
“That’s grand, isn’t it?” Felicity, who had been surprisingly quiet all morning, bounced in her seat. “We can do the ritual and free you of the curse. No more snow! Except, you know, we’ll want snow for a white Christmas.”
“It seems too easy.” Lyra worried her bottom lip.
“It’s not easy at all.” Deidre stood, tossing her phone into her leather tote bag and hitching it over her shoulder. “Unless you’re still friends with the family who cursed you, that is.”
“Oh no.” Lyra looked at me, stricken, and my heart fell.
The house witch had a point.
How was I supposed to track down the family of the person who had cursed us? As far as I knew, they’d disappeared from Briarhaven after the witch had been thrown into prison.
“Good luck.” Mandy Meadows’s tone indicated she wished anything but, and I’d had enough of her attitude this morning.
“Thanks and all that. This has been enlightening. Lyra, shall we?”
“Yup, I’m good here. Thanks, this was fun!” Lyra beamed at Mandy, whose face softened as she looked at my sister. I’m telling you, nobody can bring themselves to be rude to Lyra. It just wasn’t possible.
“Sloane, pop by the shop after if you’re heading into town. We can make a list of people to ask for more historical information. Maybe we start at the Silver Quill?” Raven gave me a reassuring nod.
“Or with Knox. His library would hold records,” Felicity added.
My cheeks heated.
“Yeah, Sloane. You could go to his library. Again.” Lyra snickered as I turned and beelined from the room, even though Raven’s eyebrows had moved to her hairline.
“I’m going to kill you.”
“Oh, stop, it’s just a bit of harmless fun,” Lyra muttered at my back as I hustled through the ice queen’s front room and out to our car. I was so annoyed I even forgot to spill my coffee on the way out.
An opportunity missed, for sure.
“The last thing I need is people to think we’re an item.”
“?‘An item.’?” Lyra laughed so hard she clutched her stomach, and I glared at her as I started the car and waited for the struggling heat vents to kick in.
Our car had been shoveled out of the snowbank this morning.
I didn’t have to ask who had done it. And I was certain it wasn’t our perpetually scowling neighbor.
“What’s wrong with saying that?”
“You sound like you’re ninety. ‘An item.’ Like the gossip blogs are going to be writing about you on Instagram.”
“Have I ever told you you’re my least favorite sister?”
“It’s not possible.” Lyra preened for me. “Everyone loves me.”
“Have I mentioned you’re also incredibly annoying?
” Pulling away from the curb, and Mandy’s ice palace, I headed toward town.
“Come on. Let’s stop at Mystic Munchies to get Broca a surprise, and then we’ll go to the apothecary to see what Raven has to say that she didn’t want to say in front of the group. ”
“And maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll run into Knox.”
“Why would that make us lucky?” I glared at a gritter that passed on the street, shaking my car as it spread salt. Sir Salter Scott. Not bad, as names went.
“I don’t know, Sloane. Why do your cheeks go red and you squirm in your seat every time he is mentioned?”
“I can’t hear you,” I shouted, turning the radio up, as Alanis Morissette raged about irony.