Phantom Blend (A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Book 12) Read online

  Hear, hear! I’m in full agreement. Shall we leave to fight another day?

  “Since when are you a chicken, Heidi?” I muttered, scanning the area with a sense of trepidation. “You’re usually the one to run headfirst into danger.”

  Which is why we should take it upon ourselves to be the responsible ones.

  “That’s only when I know the odds going in,” Heidi retorted with a shake of her head. “My odds here aren’t that good, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

  I noticed, my soulmate. Tell her that, so we all don’t die without her thinking I hung onto her every word.

  “I think our odds are better than that.” I glanced over to my mother, who was now frowning at the sight before us. “It’s like she reversed the spell, Mom. This isn’t Agnus’ house.”

  It’s not? Why didn’t you say that to begin with? Well, we came here for nothing. Let’s head back to town. I’m sure the walking, talking waxhead needs some help dealing with that cheating wizard.

  “Agnus Ritchie, we mean you no harm!” I called out, listening for the faintest sound that she might have heard me.

  Sweet angel of mercy, do you have a death wish? Don’t answer that. I already know you do, and you’re trying to drag me into the afterlife with you. I cannot, under any circumstances, cross through that veil and face my beloved Rosemary without having fulfilled my duty.

  “In for a pound, right?” Heidi muttered before taking a deep breath. “Agnus, we need your help! Please, just give us a moment of your time. You can help us save someone who desperately needs saving!”

  I’d like to point out that this ancient druid we are seeking to speak to is a hundred and two-years-old. We left the house after seven o’clock in the evening. Did any of you consider that it might be past her bedtime?

  “Let’s take a look around,” my mother murmured, taking a cautious step forward.

  I swear that woman ignores me. I’ll have you know that I have the cottage rigged at night, just in case the Mistress of the Dark decides to ‘look around’ past my bedtime. Waxhead set it off one time, but he only suffered minor damage to his suit. No worries. He didn’t even file a harassment claim.

  “We should all stick close together,” I advised quietly, stepping forward to mimic my mother’s movements. With Heidi’s tight grip on my arm, I didn’t doubt that she would be right by my side. There were even dead leaves beneath our shoes, crunching as we advanced toward the house. “I’m thinking that maybe we should have brought Liam with us. She seems to be aware of who knows of her abilities and who doesn’t.”

  The good ol’ sheriff knows now, so it stands to reason we’d still be facing what is archetype as to what we’re looking at now. Although, bringing him along as a sacrifice wouldn’t have been such a bad idea.

  “Leo, don’t even go there,” I cautioned, knowing that his self-preservation was strong in situations like these. “No one is going to be used as a sacrifice in order to—”

  “Raven, look.”

  My mother had reached the rotted wooden plank that was supposed to be the step up to the porch when she pointed to something near the screened door that was partially falling off its hinges.

  At first, I thought it was simply a welcome mat.

  Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was more of a sign.

  I’m relatively sure that was one of your biggest understatements of the year, Raven.

  “I think that gift was left behind to tell us that Agnus has no wish in working with us in getting Bernard across the finish line,” Heidi said softly, summing up what we were all thinking as we stared at the matching antique brush that went with the hand mirror currently sitting on my mantel at home. “I’d say it’s time to leave, don’t you?”

  One hundred percent.

  “Don’t you dare blip out on me, Leo,” I warned, monitoring my mother closely as she walked across the rickety porch to pick up the hairbrush. I was reluctant to head home. Somehow, this situation felt like a massive defeat. “We now know that Agnus’ mother was responsible for casting Bernard in that mirror. That goes a long way in helping extract his soul from an inanimate object.”

  Unless I’m missing something, I highly doubt that Helena or Agnus used that hairbrush and voluntarily left you their DNA. The odds of that are akin to a vampire purposefully walking out into the sun or me giving up catnip. Not going to happen.

  “Mom, are you sure you should pick that up?” I asked right when my mother was a single step away from the item in question. “What if it’s some sort of trap?”

  “I actually think it’s the opposite.” My mother slowly leaned down, somehow balancing on her sandals as she got a closer look at the hairbrush. “We might have had the facts of this mystery all wrong.”

  Is the Mistress of the Dark saying that we risked our lives for nothing?

  “What do you mean?” I asked, the tension gradually leaving my body the longer we were next to the rickety house. Even Heidi had finally released her hold on my arm when nothing alarming had occurred in our presence. “Is the hairbrush just a ruse or something meaningful?”

  “I’m saying that this might be Agnus’ way of telling us that Mabel had nothing to do with Bernard’s murder and subsequent imprisonment.” Mom reached out, much to our disbelief, and picked up the hairbrush as if it couldn’t have been riddled with dark magic. “Look at the engraving.”

  I don’t see anything. Do you? No? Good. We can leave. Turn around, Raven. Bring my soulmate with you. Your mother can walk home.

  “Is that…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence, because I’d seen the monogram before. The emblem hadn’t been on the mirror, yet there was no mistaking that the hairbrush was its match. “It’s the R from our family’s signet, Heidi. I saw it among Nan’s things in the boxes that she left behind.”

  The women in the Marigold family had all been named with the letter R.

  Raven, Regina, Rowena, Rosemary, and the list continued throughout the previous generations.

  I’m not sure where it had all started, but the specific letter was used as an emblem on many items that I’d come to find amongst Nan’s belongings.

  I found it hard to believe that the hand mirror and the hairbrush had belonged to someone in our family, though. Besides, what credible witch would use their own belongings to imprison a soul for all eternity?

  Not a very smart one, that’s for sure.

  “Do you think Agnus is trying to tell us that someone from your family is responsible for Bernard’s soul being sentenced inside a mirror for all eternity?” Heidi asked warily, clearly wanting a bit of clarification. I didn’t blame her, because I was having trouble accepting what was right before my eyes. “That’s ludicrous.”

  “I agree,” my mother responded with utter agitation as she stood and slapped the flat side of the brush against her palm to reinforce her emotions. “Agnus is playing us. She wants us to believe that the coven was involved all those years ago, but my source tells me that the council from back then never would have allowed it.”

  The so-called source my mother kept mentioning had texted her on the drive over, basically confirming the rumors of said druid, but only a handful of witches and wizards actually believed it to be true.

  Could one of our descendants have been included in that handful?

  I waited for Leo to respond, but he’d been unusually quiet for the past minute or so. A glance down at where he’d been positioned between me and Heidi revealed nothing but air.

  “Leo?”

  “Did he actually leave?” Heidi asked, turning in a complete circle. “He’s nowhere to be found. Maybe he went back to the car.”

  Leo definitely hadn’t gone back to my vehicle if the sudden commotion coming from inside the rickety old shack was anything to go by. I wasn’t even sure why he would have gone inside, let alone by himself. Leo purposefully didn’t put himself in dangerous situations ninety-nine percent of the time, and I couldn’t understand why this time would have been any diffe
rent.

  “Leo!” I called out, wondering what possible danger he could have been in since my hand was only slightly warm. It had been that way since we’d arrive, but I guess it was safe to assume that the elderly druid had taken away my ability to sense life-threatening danger. “Leo, are you okay?”

  Both Heidi and I had rushed onto the porch as my mother tugged on the screen door. Seeing as it had already been dislodged from its hinges, it wasn’t a surprise when it fell to the rotting wood with a bang. None of us expected to see Leo’s overweight body coming toward us after Mom was finally able to get the heavy wooden interior door open.

  “Watch out!” my mother exclaimed, immediately stepping back to avoid the collision.

  I wasn’t so lucky.

  Ahhhhh!

  Twice in the same day, I had ended up being the cushion for Leo’s fall.

  All I saw before we both hit the porch was a bulging left eye and a crooked incisor as Leo screamed in horror at whatever was behind him. The air came out of my lungs in a whoosh.

  “Leo, goodness!” Heidi called out, quickly scooping him off me as he continued to look back inside the house with sheer panic. “Are you okay?”

  Does it look as if I’m okay? You tell my soulmate that I just met a prehistoric crypt keeper who apparently doesn’t know that moisturizer exists. I’m not talking about our good pal, Ivan. This thing looked like a century-old vampire who’d been left out in the desert sun with no access to water!

  I managed to roll to my side and hoist myself up on my elbow, trying to peer into the house to see if what Leo said held any truth. His ability to dramatize was like none other, but his horrified expression pretty much said it all.

  “It appears as if Leo met Agnus,” I explained, going into detail about her appearance. My bet was that she literally looked her age, which was a feat considering a hundred and two-years-old was quite an achievement. I, myself, would be very proud of my appearance. “Leo, you’re constantly getting your tufts of hair in a twist when someone comments on your looks. You should be more kind, and maybe—”

  Kind? Kind, you say? I’ll have you know that prehistoric crypt keeper sucked me inside like a Dyson vacuum cleaner. She then had the audacity to say that she’s given us what we came here for, and that we should leave her alone. She wouldn’t even hear out my plan to stop the squirrelpocalypse, Raven. It was all a one-sided conversation. I, for one, am going to take her suggestion to heart and never set foot on this property again.

  “Agnus basically accused the Marigolds of murder,” my mother protested, holding up the brush as evidence. “She didn’t give us—”

  My mother abruptly cut off her statement, lifting up the brush in the sun’s evening rays to better inspect the object in question. She parted her lipstick stained red lips and gave a knowing whistle.

  “There’s a long strand of hair nestled inside the bristles,” she said in caution, stepping warily closer to me as she glanced over her shoulder into the dark recesses of the house. “We’ll be able to set Bernard free of his prison now.”

  Good riddance! I’ve got things to do and a squirrelpocalypse to stop, anyway.

  Leo began to clean a paw while Heidi shifted him in her arms. She was still eyeing the doorway with suspicion, almost as if she thought that Agnus might decide that she wasn’t done with my familiar.

  I should have gone with Ted, Leo complained, giving me an accusing sideways glance. I’m lucky that I didn’t end up with Bernard. Do you see any catnip on me? No, you don’t. I’m letting you know now that you’re going to see a charge on your credit card for a fanny pack made especially for cats. This will teach me not to carry around my most prized possession—an ounce of preparedness and all that.

  “Agnus wouldn’t have given us what was needed to free Bernard if she didn’t want to help us,” I pointed out, still attempting to put all the pieces of this puzzle together. I was coming up short on quite a few sections. “I just don’t understand why our ancestors were involved with Bernard’s murder. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Leo gasped, scrambling to get out of Heidi’s embrace. By the time she’d set him down next to me, I was already in a seated position. I wiped my hands to get any dirt off of them as we stared at one another, both of us thinking that maybe Nan’s excommunication from the coven might not have been because she’d just been fraternizing with a human.

  What if someone had discovered that the Marigolds had aided a druid several decades prior?

  Only you would go and ruin a perfectly good moment like that, Raven. That wasn’t what I was thinking at all. In fact, quite the opposite. I was thinking that any druid worth her salt would frame a lowly witch, if it meant keeping the supernatural attention off her…which is exactly what that prehistoric crypt keeper has gone and done. We’re dealing with a pro here, and we have only one move left…driving away from here as fast as possible without looking in the rearview mirror. I call shotgun!

  Chapter Ten

  “I have to agree with Leo on this one,” my mother said, standing next to my table the following morning with a cup of hot coffee in hand. She was wearing white shorts and a black and white t-shirt with matching sandals. Her hair was once again piled high on top of her head, and she was sending winks at Beetle who was currently across the street at a table bargaining for a better deal on a footstool. “I believe Agnus was trying to throw us off course.”

  “Off course from what?” I asked, tucking the money that Candy had just given me for some old hair clips that I’d set out this morning. I’d closed the teashop so that Beetle could enjoy the day with my mother, but I was coming to regret that decision. She was allowing Beetle to go off on his own while she stayed at my table. “Mom, you saw the R on the back of the antique hairbrush. It was just like our monogram. We can’t just let something like that go without looking more into it. If one of our descendants had something to do with Bernard’s murder, we need to know that.”

  “I’m just saying that the prehistoric crypt keeper could have purposefully put the letter R on there to place blame on a Marigold,” my mother pointed out, garnering an annoyed glance from Leo. He hated when my mother took over his infamous nicknames for others. He was currently in hunting mode and eyeing a random squirrel that had run up the tree over an hour ago. “Think about it. She gave us a strand of her hair, which means that her mother was responsible for cursing Bernard to the hand mirror. This could be her way of covering up the fact that her mother knocked him over the head, stabbed him, or poisoned him. We don’t know how Bernard kicked the bucket, so it makes our ability to solve his murder all that much harder.”

  For your information, that ninja squirrel up in the tree was sent by Skippy himself to monitor my every movement. You’ll thank me later when I give you the warning of his attack. I mean, you saw what his group did to your table yesterday. It was tragic, and Bernard is lucky that he can still get out of that mirror in one piece. As for the R, did you ever consider that it could stand for Helena Ritchie?

  “Yes, but the intricate way the R was carved into the hairbrush is almost exactly like that of our family’s emblem. As for Bernard, well, the hand mirror is exactly where he is going to remain until we solve this mystery,” I said, repeating Bernard’s claim last night word for word. He’d argued that he’d had time to think about his Mabel and her reaction, and he couldn’t bring himself to be free of his confines and walk through the veil without knowing the truth. My side of the argument was that he would know once he crossed into the afterlife, but he refused to take that chance. We’d come to an impasse, so to speak, and there was no changing his mind. “All I heard about this morning as I got dressed was how he wanted me to find a spell to uncover the truth. The last thing we should be doing is a spell that might counteract a druid’s incantation. That’s a dangerous recipe if I ever heard one.”

  Every one of your recipes are dangerous, Raven. Why do you think I stick with tuna out of a can?

  My mother would have answered my ques
tion had Albert and Eugene not started to walk up Heidi’s driveway. The two men had on their classic ivy style hats, causing both of them to look like golfers. I was surprised to see them out and about this early.

  Old geezers are usually up with the sunrise. It’s in their DNA or something.

  “Good morning, gentlemen,” I called out with a smile. Eugene had shuffled closer, lowering his reading glasses to get a better look at what was on the table. He reached for a box of teabags that I’d set on the end of the table for those who might be interested due to the shop being closed today. I’d left all of the loose-leaf teas on the shelves due to the humidity. “What catches your fancy?”

  “You didn’t tell us that you had one of those old-fashioned checkerboards for sale,” Albert grumbled as he reached for the black sack that held the black and red checkers. He inspected them thoroughly, counting each and every one to make sure they were all there. “How much are you asking? Remember, I’m offering all chess aficionados a ten percent discount.”

  He’s interested, Raven. Take back the ten percent discount and up the price to fourteen dollars and ninety-nine cents. That’s how much that fanny pack is that I found on sale through the boutique’s window. I won’t have to wait for it to ship that way.

  I’d written a price of five dollars on the sticker, knowing that I’d probably be haggled down to three bucks. I was okay with that amount, because I’d never really played the game. I’d found it in the bottom cupboard of the hutch cabinet.

  “I thought you two only played chess,” my mother asked, engaging in conversation with two individuals who she usually went out of her way to avoid. They’d known her when she was a little girl, and I think she was afraid they would spill the beans on how wild she’d been back in the day. The fact that she was talking to them now told me that she wanted something from them. “I remember walking home from school and seeing the two of you sitting out front of Monty’s hardware store. You played until dinnertime.”

  “Boards like this one bring back those good old days,” Albert responded, holding up the velvet black sack. For a split second, he looked young and carefree. It made my heart fill up with pure joy that I could give him back a piece of his youth. “So, Raven, how much?”