Well, hot damn! Now we were getting somewhere! A spell! I was privy to a for-real spell coming from a for-real witch!
Okay…for the record, I’m not sure Nicky’s Aunt Liza is actually a witch. But she definitely tries and takes her attempts at becoming one to rather extreme but fabulous levels.
Totally good with me!
I’d been waiting on an opportunity like this forever! And I was over the moon to finally have the chance to see it! Oooo…speaking of the moon, I wonder if the fact that it’s going to be a full moon tonight figured into her planning and preparation?
There’s just so much about all of this witchcraft that I can’t wait to explore. It’s not everyday that a fiction editor like me experiences more interesting action in real life than on the page. Come to think of it, I’m no longer just Samantha Aldredge, Editor Extraordinaire. I’m about to become a witch’s protege.
Well…if you’re allowed to job shadow a witch. Maybe I could be an apprentice of sorts. Kind of like on-the-job training. In the name of research of course. I mean, think about it this way…all great editors do their research. And they do everything possible to make sure their authors’ stories are authentic. It doesn’t get much more authentic than this, right?!
“So, tell us about these dolls, Liza. They’re actually Voodoo dolls? Or were Voodoo dolls?” I asked, thinking perhaps I should pull out my iPhone and record this so as not to forget one detail of awesomeness.
“Yes, that’s right. Voodoo dolls,” she said, sitting down on a wrought iron bench covered with snow.
She must have still been so damn dazed from the explosion that she didn’t care whether or not she was sitting on an ice cold seat. ‘Course, being as she was in the hot seat with Nicky and probably my Captain too, maybe the cold chill was a relief.
I followed her glassy stare, which was focused on what remained of the two Voodoo dolls.
Then it hit me. And oh my God did it hit me!
One of those extra-crispy dolls had to be representing my ex, Hank Aldredge!
What have I done?!
It wasn’t that I really believed Liza’s spells would work. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have given her Hank’s wedding band. But now that I saw his partially melted ring around one of the doll’s smoldering necks, what if her witchcraft was real? And what if it did work?
There was no mistaking that Hank was a total asshole, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to see him seriously injured or worse yet, dead. And isn’t that the kind of energy that’s spread using Voodoo rituals?
But she’d just said something with this spell had gone awry.
Oh shit! I didn’t know what the hell to think, let alone do.
A few days earlier, I’d had a conversation with her about our less-than-stellar ex-husbands. Her’s was a real doozy of a hot mess. Mine? Well, let’s just say there are princes and there are frogs. And he was the biggest frog of ‘em all.
Liza said she was planning to have a little fun with her former hubby, and she’d be more than happy to make it a two-for-one spell…if I was interested. Hell yeah, I was interested!
She asked me if I had any objects that belonged to or were associated with Hank. And I had just the thing. I’d kept his wedding ring. The bastard threw it at me right before storming out of our condo. I’d hung onto the absurdly expensive piece of broken promises with the intention of pawning it.
What could it hurt to let Liza play with it for a little while? So, I’d given her the ring.
Of course I thought she was more than a little off kilter, but what the hell. It wasn’t like I thought she was going to actually be able to do anything to harm Hank. Mostly, I just wanted to watch her at work. Who knew what kind of craziness she had up the sleeve of that hunting jacket.
As it looks now…she had quite a lot of crazy packed up in there. More than I ever imagined.
I don’t know much about Voodoo, but what I do know is giving me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Okay. What to do…What to do…
First, I had to get Liza alone so I could figure out what had happened versus what was supposed to have happened. I needed the details of what she was trying to do to our ex-husbands with her latest spell. And then, how exactly she’d screwed up the hexes on our exes.
The implications sent shivers through my already quivering body. I couldn’t imagine what the answers would do to me or to my nerves. Or…worse yet…what they’d done to our exes.