Southern Omens (Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries Book 17) Page 4

  “She wanted a pointed spell, one that would redirect another.”

  Amelia’s eyebrow curled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Cordelia mouth twisted into a sour expression. “She’s talking about the death apple.”

  I stared at Betty in confusion. “But Misha said the apple spell wasn’t real. She said it was a ruse, a trick, just a ploy.”

  Betty shook her head sadly. “She only said that so you wouldn’t worry. It was real.”

  Cordelia brought her hands to her face and inhaled. Then she dropped her hands and spoke. “She asked you to volunteer for the redirection spell?”

  Betty nodded faintly. She suddenly looked so fragile, so brittle. I yearned to reach for her, to make all of this go away.

  “What are you saying?” Amelia asked.

  “Our grandmother is saying that she’s going to be the one to receive the apple,” Cordelia answered in a hoarse voice.

  My stomach plunged to the ground. “What?” I whispered.

  Betty, eyes misty, spoke. “It’s true, girls. Misha asked me to direct the apple to myself, and I willfully volunteered. Tonight, I will be the one the apple appears to.”

  My voice hitched. “You’ll…you’ll die?”

  Betty puffed out her chest. “Yes. Today is my last day on earth. As of tonight, I will be no more.”

  My knees collapsed, and I fell to the floor, shaking with tears. My cousins joined me, and the three of us wept for Betty.

  CHAPTER 5

  “There is no way that I’m going to let that happen,” I said, wiping my eyes. “You’re not going to take that apple.”

  Betty rubbed her hands. “You don’t have a choice. The spell is already in play.”

  “You can’t do this!” I wanted to shake some sense into her. Like, just take her by the shoulders and shake until she started speaking right. “Tell her that you can’t do it. Work a different spell,” I said through heaping sobs. “Reverse it. If you don’t, Axel will. I know that he can do it.”

  Betty exhaled softly. “What’s done is done. It cannot be changed.” She glanced from me to my cousins. “Now. We only have a few hours, so let’s make the best of it. Pepper, as soon as I’m gone, the heart fire will become yours. Cordelia, you’ll receive all my herbs and ingredients to work whatever spells you need.”

  Cordelia sniffled. “Okay. I’ll keep them safe.”

  “What about me?” Amelia said. “What do I get?”

  Betty stroked her chin. “You will get my kitchen supplies so that you can cook.”

  She frowned. “What about all the magical stuff? Don’t I get any of that? Like, you know, any amulets or magical books or swords or anything that you’ve been hiding.”

  “I don’t have anything like that. But,” Betty said, eyes sparkling, “there is a pot in the kitchen that when you cook a dish in it, until you tell it to empty, you’ll never run out of the food in it.”

  Amelia smirked. “So I can feed an army?”

  Betty poked the air. “Exactly. It’s a very useful tool. You never know when you might need something like it.”

  “I doubt I ever will,” Amelia grumbled.

  “Let’s not focus on that,” I said. “Let’s spend the rest of the day finding laughter.”

  “I agree,” Cordelia said. “Let’s chat.”

  So we sat in the living room, the four of us, talking and laughing, reliving old adventures—like the time Betty put a glamour on Amelia so that she’d look like Farah Fawcett, and another time when Betty was turned into a frog. We laughed so hard that my sides nearly split. All the laughter felt so good. I needed to purge the fear, needed to let it out of my system.

  I knew that once the last of the laughter ended, the tears would come, and I wanted to keep them at bay for as long as I could.

  Later that afternoon I walked home, my heart heavy. When I crossed the threshold, I found Mattie inside, draped over the windowsill, looking out at the backyard.

  “What’s out there?” I asked.

  She yawned. “Mr. Jingles and Grumpy are playing. He’s throwin’ her up in the air, and she’s pretendin’ that she’ll scratch his eyes out.”

  Sure enough, Grumpy, a large ogre, was tossing Mr. Jingles up, up, up. As the cat plummeted down, she scraped at the air, looking as if she would literally scratch out the ogre’s eyes.

  But then Grumpy caught her effortlessly and cuddled Mr. Jingles against his chest. I knuckled a tear from my lashes.

  “Sugar, what’s eatin’ you?” Mattie asked.

  It all gushed out of me in a big wave. I told her everything, and when it was all said and done, I sat limply on the floor, my arms hanging by my sides.

  “There’s nothing we can do. She won’t let us reverse the spell or change it. Betty’s decided that she’ll be the sacrificial lamb.”

  “She’s older than a lamb,” Mattie said.

  I couldn’t help but to laugh. “She is that.”

  Mattie jumped off her perch and stretched out her back legs. She padded over and rubbed her nose against my sleeve.

  “Betty’s lived a long life. She’s doing what she needs to. Otherwise, someone else’ll die. That’s just how it is. She doesn’t want you or anyone else to do this for her. She’ll do it alone.”

  I scratched behind her velvety ear. “That doesn’t make it any easier.”

  “Did I say that it did? It don’t. I know that. But it should offer you some comfort that at least she told you before it all went kaput. At least you’ve had some time to prepare.”

  “Not long enough,” I said.

  “It’s probably better that way.” Mattie slunk past me and moved to climb the stairs. “Now, didn’t you say there was going to be a dinner tonight? For everyone?”

  I nodded. “All the soothsayers and the family, yes, and some other folks.”

  “Well, good. We need to start getting ready for it.”

  “We?” I said, eyebrow arched. “What is this we?”

  “What? Do you think I’m going to let Betty die alone, without me by her side?” Mattie snipped. “Ain’t no way that I’d let that happen. Come on. I need a nice red ribbon to wear tonight. Can you find me one, sugar?”

  Even though my chest ached and my heart throbbed with pain, somehow through all that I managed to smile. “Sure. I think we can find something for you to wear.”

  “Well then, let’s get to it.”

  I TOLD Axel as soon as he got home. He listened quietly, his jaw set firm. When I was done, he exhaled.

  Concern flickered in his blue eyes. “And this is how she wants it?”

  “It is.”

  He wrapped me into a hug. “Oh, Pepper. I’m so sorry.”

  I fought tears and managed a muffled, “It’s okay. We’ll be okay.”

  He pulled back and squeezed my hands. “We’ll face this together, all right?”

  “All right.” I gave him a wobbly smile. “I suppose there isn’t anything that we can do about it anyway, is there?”

  “I don’t know that there is. I’d have to talk to Betty, but if she told you that this is the way things have to be, then…”

  His voice trailed off, and the lack of an answer told me everything that I needed to know. There wasn’t a way to change things, to make them different, to have a positive outcome.

  I would simply have to face the inevitable. Betty would get the red apple and her life would end so that my child’s could go on.

  “I know this isn’t the way you want things,” Axel said. “It’s not how I want them, either. But all we can do is enjoy the time we have left.”

  I nodded numbly. There wasn’t anything that I could say that would change the situation. All I could do was go along with it, ride the wave until it banked on the beach and slid away to nothing.

  I forced a smile. “I’m ready for dinner, and Mattie wants to come. You need to change.”

  Axel brushed his lips against mine. “I’ll be right down.”

  Wh
ile he was upstairs showering, I started to think that maybe Axel could change Betty’s mind. Maybe if he just had a chat with her, convinced her to reverse the spell, then she would live.

  But then someone else would die, I reminded myself. Someone else and we wouldn’t know who. Anger flickered through me. If Ignatius had never appeared, none of this would have happened. If Misha hadn’t come to Betty, my grandmother never would have accepted her plight.

  Yet all those thoughts were wrong, too. Wouldn’t all of this have happened with or without Ignatius showing up?

  Wouldn’t it?

  And why did I feel so guilty? Like this was all my fault? But that was an unreasonable thought, too. It wasn’t my fault. It was simply fate, and sometimes you had to accept what fate dealt you, no matter what card it was you received.

  By the time Axel came back downstairs, looking dashing in a white button-down shirt and slim gray jeans, I had gone over and over the situation repeatedly, trying to find a tear in the web. But there wasn’t one.

  He smoothed his damp hair back. “Are you ready?”

  I called for Mattie, who had disappeared into the living room.

  “I’m ready, sugar,” she said. “I ain’t never been more ready to have supper.”

  I gave Axel a weak smile. “Then I guess we’re all set.”

  He slipped on a jacket. “Let’s go have dinner.”

  My stomach knotted as we headed from the house. This would be the last dinner that I’d ever have with Betty.

  I wasn’t looking forward to it.

  CHAPTER 6

  Dinner was at the Magnolia Cove Country Club, an all-inclusive place where everyone was welcome. It was a nice change from the country clubs that I’d only ever seen from the outside when I lived in the human world. Those places looked expensive. If you couldn’t pay the dues, then you couldn’t play.

  But here, everyone could play.

  The banquet hall had been decorated lavishly with candles and ribbons and lots of little statues of witches, reminding me of the life that was to come out of me one day.

  People milled about, and I immediately spotted the soothsayers from earlier standing in a couple of small clusters.

  Mattie said, “Wow, look at this spread. Do you think they got any catfish in that kitchen?”

  I scoffed. “Is this the South?”

  She licked her chops. “That’s just what I was thinkin’, too. So I bet they got a whole mess of fish back there. I might go see.”

  Before I could remind her that she was here to talk to Betty, Mattie scampered off in the direction of the kitchen, her nose lifted in the air.

  Axel spied Betty. She stood off talking to my cousins. “Do you want me to speak with her?” he asked.

  “If you would. It can’t hurt, right?” I squeaked, my voice having lost its strength.

  “Do you want to come?”

  “No. You go.”

  As soon as he headed toward her, I pointed my attention back on the soothsayers. Misha, Freya and Katrina huddled close, talking quietly. I hated to interrupt them, but I needed to speak with Misha, see if there was anything else we could do.

  I know, I know. I’d already accepted that Betty wanted this, but just because I mostly accepted it didn’t mean that I couldn’t poke around and make sure.

  I kept my back to the wall as I slowly made my way over to the three.

  Misha was speaking to her sisters. They were so close together that they didn’t see me approach, and I wanted to wait to find a good time to interrupt.

  That was when I heard Misha say, “We’ve got her in the right position. Betty is going to do it. She’s going to take the death apple.”

  Freya clucked. “How did you get her to?”

  “Yeah,” Katrina added, shoving her glasses farther up her nose, “I thought you said that she’d never go for it.”

  Misha replied, “What the boy gave us was a gift—an absolute gift. If he hadn’t foreseen the omens and death, then we would never have been so lucky. But we are. She doesn’t suspect anything.”

  Katrina’s voice radiated worry. “But are you sure it will be so simple? People look happy here. They don’t look like they want a big change.”

  “Fool,” Misha snapped. “They don’t know what they want. That’s the point. With their leader gone, we’ll be able to walk right in and make this our new home. No one will be able to stop us.”

  Stop them from what?

  Freya laughed. It was a low, throaty sound. “With her out of the way, we’ll be able to move in all our soothsayers and lock this town down. Get rid of the half-bloods here and make it only for witches.”

  “I don’t know,” Katrina said. “I don’t think it’ll be so easy.”

  “We don’t have any other place to go,” Freya snapped. “Don’t you want a home, a place where we can do whatever we want? We are despised, sister. No one welcomes soothsayers unless it’s a special occasion. As soon as this day is over, we’ll be forced to leave, our powers feared. What Misha has done is create a path for us, one where we can stay. She has shown herself as powerful and will tell the people of this city if they don’t listen to us, then more bad will befall them. Then we can sit back and enjoy the fruit of all that we’ve sewn. Misha,” she gushed, “it is the perfect plan.”

  Katrina sounded unconvinced. “I don’t know.”

  “You know how hard it’s been to be homeless these past few years,” Misha growled. “Stick with the plan. Betty will receive the apple, I will say it was destined and that we will make sure no other harm befalls this town—but we can only do that if we are allowed to stay, if we can have a place of respect.”

  Freya said in a hushed voice, “You must be with us, sister. Otherwise we can’t protect you.”

  “Okay,” Katrina said weakly.

  The women moved off, and my heart fell to the floor. It was all a trick? A way to get into town? And they had used Ignatius’s foretelling to position themselves where they would be the heroes of the situation?

  Anger burned through my veins like lava. I had to tell Betty. I had to tell someone that this was all a trick, that Misha had leveraged Ignatius’s soothsaying for her own benefit.

  I started to walk off when a short body cut me off. Ignatius himself stood in front of me, arms crossed.

  “Greetings, Pepper of Magnolia Cove. I have wished to speak with you.”

  I groaned. “Listen, I can’t talk now. I’ve got something that must be taken care of.”

  “I saw you spying on the sisters,” he said sharply, eyebrows arched.

  Like seriously, this kid did think of himself as an evil genius—I was sure of it.

  “I wasn’t spying.”

  He leaned forward and motioned for me to bend over. All I wanted to do was kick him away, but I did as he asked.

  Ignatius whispered in my ear, “No one likes the sisters, least of all me. They are trouble wherever they go.”

  “I’ve figured that out,” I said. “Thank you for telling me, but I must be on my way.”

  I started to brush past him, but Ignatius grabbed my sleeve. Seriously, this kid was asking for a kick to the shins.

  “I know what I saw, and I saw death,” he said.

  “Yes, I know that. Thank you for coming and ruining my Presents Day.”

  With that, I stalked off toward Betty but was cut off once again, this time by Yates, who flew up, wings beating.

  “I’m so sorry about what happened today,” she said. “It’s just so awful.” She opened her mouth to say something else when Amelia approached, getting too close to the witch fairy. “Hey, watch where you swing those arms,” Yates snapped. “Do you know what a hand can do to me? It can hit me into next week!”

  Amelia cowered. “Sorry,” she mumbled before turning and heading in the opposite direction.

  Yates pinned her focus on me. “I’m sorry about what happened today.”

  “Yes,” I said quickly, wanting to brush past her and reach Betty. “It wasn’t
what I expected.”

  “Between you and me—”

  “What are you doing, Yates? Giving the expectant mother another fortune?”

  I glanced over to see Misha, her lips quirked in distrust, sliding toward us.

  Yates’s eyes narrowed. “No, I wasn’t doing any soothsaying. How could I top what you did back there?”

  Misha smiled but her eyes were cold as a reptile’s. A shiver snaked all the way to my calves.

  “I was only trying to help Pepper here,” Misha said. “We both know that the boy spouts off when he shouldn’t. I had no choice but to change the trajectory of what he saw.”

  Yates’s eyes narrowed. “And put it on one of us. That’s not fair, Misha. There are things that I have to live for—an ailing mother. You seem to think it’s okay to just wield your magic without considering the consequences for the rest of us.”

  Misha’s gaze flickered to mine. Contempt filled her eyes, and the cold shiver that I’d felt before became dread flooding every pore in my body.

  “Yates, if I were you, I wouldn’t worry,” Misha said soothingly. “Trust me, I doubt death would be very interested in taking away a witch fairy from the world.” She laughed. “Death, I’m sure, would rather take someone much more important.”

  “You mean someone like yourself?” Yates’s wings fluttered, and she sailed back a few inches. “Not that I want you to die,” she quickly added. “But you’ve put fear in a lot of people when you didn’t need to.”

  “Pepper isn’t worried.” Misha touched my shoulder, squeezing so hard that tears sprang in my eyes. I attempted to pull away, but her fingers sank in deeper. “Yates, like I said, you shouldn’t fret. The only soothsayer who should be worried is the little twerp who started everything to begin with. He should shut his mouth.”

  “So should plenty of other people—permanently.” The witch fairy started to sail off but stopped and spoke to me. “Be careful who you align yourself with.” Her gaze flicked to Misha. “Sometimes those who look like friends are actually enemies.”

  She sailed off toward the crowd of folks, leaving Misha, her grip still like iron, on my shoulder. As soon as she was out of earshot, Misha released me and whirled me toward her.