Barbecue & Brooms (A Southern Charms Cozy Mystery Book 4) Read online

  The others congratulated him, but I understood the bigger struggle. “You need to familiarize yourself with how it feels. Every thread of connection is different. It acts different. It smells different. It feels different. It can sometimes even taste different.”

  “Now you’re sounding like Ginny,” Dash accused.

  Ignoring him, I stepped in front of them all and leaned into Mason. “You can’t walk around holding Lucky’s hand the whole time. You need to tether that connection between the jewel and him to you. Tie the bond strong.”

  “How? Do I have to recite a spell or something? Come up with a rhyme like you do?” he panicked.

  Laying a hand on his shoulder, I gave him a reassuring squeeze. “Everyone’s methods and needs are different. I rhyme because it keeps me focused and it’s fun. Try visualizing the thread you sense tying around your middle like you’re wrapping a present.”

  Mason shifted his stance. “I suck at wrapping presents. But I think I get what you mean.” He closed his eyes and bent his head. After a few tense moments, he let go of the breath he held. “There. I think I did it.”

  “Good. Because you’re going to have to use the sapphire as a substitute for having Lucky with you.” I didn’t want to take the time to explain all the ways it opened Mason up to searching for the lost luck. No need to remind everyone of how weak our situation was in our urgency or to give away all of my secrets.

  Mason placed an arm around me. “You know, you’re a pretty good teacher. You’ll make a terrific mom someday.”

  The compliment should have caused me to blush. But my stomach flip had more to do with Dash’s immediate displeasure than accepting the detective’s flattery.

  “We should get you back so you can rest,” the shifter murmured to Lucky.

  “So my gem will work?” the leprechaun asked, hope gleaming in his eyes.

  Forcing a smile on my face, I attempted a cheery response. “I think it will be the key and our best chance at finding where your luck went.”

  “Let’s go.” Dash escorted Lucky back to the road without looking at me again. His motorcycle roared to life, the sound slipping away into the distance.

  I pushed Mason’s arm off me. “I don’t like that you do that.”

  “Do what?” His attempt at innocence annoyed me further.

  “I think I’m gonna go back to join my team.” Beau backed away from the two of us. “Good luck,” he murmured before poofing into a bat and flying away. It was the first time I’d ever envied my roommate.

  “You know exactly what you did right then. Every time you’re around Dash, you both try to antagonize each other.” Real fury ignited in my veins. Wanting to avoid saying anything I couldn’t take back, I turned on my heel and headed toward my house.

  “Can you really blame me? He’s been gone for months, and the second he returns, the way you are with me completely changes,” he called out from behind.

  I stopped on the top step of the porch and whipped around. “Are you serious?”

  Mason stopped following at my sudden confrontation. “I’ve gotten to know you pretty well, Charli. I can tell how you feel about him. And what about how you reacted when your grandmother told us about the effects of tandem magic? Right in front of her, I declared my true feelings. You said nothing.”

  I bit my lip, embarrassed that he did know me well. I reached inside and grabbed onto my anger, letting it burn away my discomfort. “That’s two separate things. If you know how I feel about Dash, then I wish you’d tell me because the only thing I’m sure of is that he’s stayed away and I deserve to know why.”

  Not even the precious sapphire would be enough payment to make me admit the detective might be right. That more emotion than curiosity about the wolf shifter existed in my heart and mind.

  Mason took the first step up the porch stairs, closing the distance between us. “What about the other thing? Do you really believe any feelings you have for me is because of the tandem magic? Are you really going to deny what was already there?” He took another cautious step. “What’s still there?”

  With his fingers, he brushed a strand of hair away from my face, stroking my cheek. I closed my eyes and gripped his hand. It should be easier than this, but the same doubt I’d ignored in the tent with my grandmother reared its ugly head again. Even if it hurt Mason, I couldn’t give myself wholly to him until I trusted my feelings were real and not based on magic.

  “Don’t,” I whispered.

  Disappointment swam in the detective’s eyes, and my heart ached that I put it there. “So you’re choosing him?” He slipped his hand out of mine.

  “No, that’s not it.”

  “I think it is,” Mason pushed.

  I needed an exit strategy out of this conversation fast. “And I think there are more important issues at hand than a discussion about who I’m choosing. Like a friend’s life.”

  I jumped over the side of the porch and ran to my backyard. The first spell to open the shed failed, and I did my best to calm down enough to cast the lock open.

  “What are you doing?” Mason asked.

  “Choosing myself.” I rooted around until I found what I needed. When I laid my hands on the broom, I slammed the door shut, casting the simple locking spell over my shoulder.

  “Hey, that’s mine,” he protested.

  I rushed back to the front of the house and maneuvered the flying device onto the front basket of my bike. “Good observation skills, Detective.”

  Mason stood in front of the bike while I straddled it. “Where do you think you’re taking my broom.”

  Refusing to meet his gaze, I pointed in the general direction of the weekend’s event. “If you’ve got my magic, then I might as well make use of yours.”

  His jaw dropped. “You’ve got to be kidding. You don’t even know if you still have the ability to fly. Do you really want to risk testing things out in a real race?”

  His vocalizing the doubt swimming in the back of my head did nothing to calm me down. Willing some power down into the bike, I felt it hum under my touch. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Move,” I commanded, the desire to get far away from him motivating my questionable decision to ride the bicycle over the bumpy grass and through tall weeds.

  “You can’t do this, Charli.” Despite his words, Mason moved out of the way.

  With an arrogant smirk, I lifted the kickstand off the ground with my foot. “Watch me.”

  Chapter Twelve

  A bead of sweat trickled down the side of my face. Lots and lots of doubt swirled inside me, and I couldn’t help but chastise myself. No good could come from making a snap decision while mad at a man. Standing in position behind the white-chalked starting line, I shuffled my feet and considered whether to stay or bolt.

  A large figure cast a shadow over me. “My dear Charli, it is a wonder to find you here. I did not presume you to be a fan of broom racing.”

  Horatio wedged himself between the man standing to my left and me, towering over both of us. When the annoyed racer caught sight of the troll, he swallowed hard. No doubt the same surprise that popped up in my head ran through his.

  “I think I could say the same to you, Horatio.” I glanced at the twig of a flying device he held. “Where’d you get your broom?”

  He smiled wide and winked. “Lee magnanimously gifted me one of the first models he spellcast for non-witch use. He surmised that if I could fly, then anybody could. But my darling Juniper may have added a secret little extra boost.”

  “That sounds like cheating to me,” quipped the smaller racer.

  I leaned over far enough to notice his sour expression. “Not if the broom passed inspection like I’m sure yours did. If the officials deemed it fit to race, then I don’t see what the problem is.”

  The guy took a step forward to see around Horatio’s hulking mass, his toe coming close to crossing the starting line. “I think the problem is that racing is for those who should be flying on brooms. Witches only.”<
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  It wasn’t the first pro-witch statement I’d heard while milling around the event since the night I registered the teams. Our town council prepared all of us in Honeysuckle about the negativity we might run into from those who didn’t support a sanctuary town like ours. It was a different thing entirely to encounter such sentiment in real life.

  “What’s your name?” I asked the prejudiced racer.

  He smirked. “You’ll find out after they announce me as winner.”

  The need to beat this guy squelched all my jitters and second-guesses. Whether or not I still possessed Mason’s racing abilities didn’t matter anymore. I’d do my absolute best to win at all costs now.

  One of the officials in a black and white striped shirt with goggles hanging around his arm and a clipboard in his hand walked down the line to check us in. When he got to me, his finger drifted down the page until it stopped. “Charli ‘Birdy’ Goodwin?”

  I smiled as wide as possible. “That’s right.”

  “I hope you live up to your name.” He chuckled, taking a pair of goggles off his arm. With a quick finger flourish over them, he matched the number to my name and handed them to me. “Good luck with your flying.”

  Holding the goggles, I couldn’t figure out what made them special or necessary. But every contestant around me worked them over their heads. Fumbling, I did the same and felt the zing of magic as soon as I fixed them into the right place over my eyes. A flashing red line appeared in front of the starting chalk at the same time my name appeared on a board off to the side with the number thirteen.

  “Great,” I mumbled, wondering why I got stuck with that number. I ignored the rest of the names flashing across the board, determined to focus on the race itself.

  “I wish you good fortune and flying.” Horatio reached out his hand to give me fist bump.

  “You, too.” His massive mitt dwarfed mine, but the gesture increased my excitement.

  With all of us at the ready, the official stood in the front. “This race is for amateurs aged eighteen and older. You’ve all been given goggles spelled with the course path. Do not deviate from it, but if you do get lost, don’t panic. An additional spell will allow us to track your progress.

  “There can be no use of magic other than within the parameters of flying the broom itself. However, physical contact will not be penalized. Should you get injured, stay where you are and we will come to you. Are we clear?”

  My stomach dropped at the mention of possible injury. “What does he mean by ‘physical contact’?” I asked Horatio.

  “The top two racers will automatically make it into the next round,” the official continued, ignoring my panic. He held up his hand high in the air. “Mount your brooms.”

  Unable to get anyone to answer to my question, I kicked off the ground and floated in place, gripping the wooden handle even harder. It was too late to run away. The only path forward lay in front of me.

  “On your mark,” the official called out.

  The blinking red line my goggles revealed changed to yellow.

  “Get set. Go!”

  The line turned solid and green, and everyone around me took off. “Pixie poop,” I exclaimed and willed myself to go.

  Adrenaline rushed through my veins, and I leaned forward, pushing the broom faster. Soon, I caught up to the racers in the back. Without any extra effort, my instincts kicked in and helped me find an opening to pass in between the first two.

  I zipped around another few racers until I reached the middle of the pack. Checking ahead, I saw that the path through the field would close off when we entered a forested area. With no time to lose, I visualized the clear openings the racers gave me to move ahead.

  Wind rushed over and around me with each maneuver. The beginning to the path in the woods approached, and I took a chance to pass one more racer. My body grazed theirs at the last second, and whoever it was got knocked off the course, hitting a tree.

  “Holy unicorn horn!” I exclaimed, not sure if I should stop to check on them or not. Another racer got knocked off ahead of me and was getting up off the ground on my left side when I passed. Remembering this was all part of the game, I blasted forward.

  Once I made it around a big tree trunk and banked into and out of a tough turn, it wasn’t hard to spot Horatio, even through the brush and trees. Whatever Juniper had done to enhance Lee’s magic with the broom, it more than worked.

  The troll seemed to be zooming ahead in front of all of us with only two others right behind him, using his mass and the narrow forest path to keep others from passing. An opening at the end of the wooded section shone bright through the shade of the woods up ahead. Once we all hit open air, the chances of the troll staying in first dwindled.

  With sudden determination, I closed in on the three frontrunners. The person right in front of me swung back and forth to prevent me from passing. If I wanted to move around them, I would have to make contact.

  “Here goes nothing.” I stuck out my tongue and pulled up on their tail, waiting for my chance.

  The racer looked over their left shoulder, which banked their broom in the same direction, and I shot forward. My body barely scraped them when I passed, and I couldn’t help my grin of triumph. Only two left.

  The sun almost blinded me when the three of us burst out of the woods. A cheering crowd lined both sides of the path through the field, and the black-and-white checkered finish line blinked in my view through the goggles.

  Horatio couldn’t see the racer approaching him from behind, preparing to ram him. “Look out,” I yelled to my friend, knowing he wouldn’t hear me.

  Without any time to lose, I summoned all my strength and power to push into the broom. Wind whipped around me, and I leaned all the way over to make myself more aerodynamic. As I got close, I kept myself directly behind the other racer so they couldn’t see me if they checked over their shoulder. At the last second, I zipped around from behind and rammed my body into the racer. The impact caused me to bounce off of them out of control. With great effort, I managed to stay on my broom across the finish line, but crashed on the other side, tumbling on the ground.

  A voice boomed out of the nearby speakers, “Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like racer number fourteen takes first place. Let’s hear a round of applause for Horatio.”

  Standing up and brushing myself off, I cheered for my friend with a loud whoop. Too wound up and excited, I didn’t notice the few people rushing to get to me.

  “Charli, are you okay?” a concerned voice asked.

  “That was a fool thing to do,” complained another.

  Nana and a few of my friends crowded around me, hands checking me over for injuries and asking me questions my brain couldn’t comprehend with all the adrenaline and excitement buzzing through me.

  Mason shook my arm, calling my name until my eyes lit on him. I didn’t register what he asked me, but I threw my arms around him. “I can’t believe I did it.”

  His body shook under my touch with laughter, and he tilted his head to speak in my ear. “Yeah, you did. Came in second place, too.”

  I pushed him away. “No way. Second?”

  Whipping off the goggles, the world came into better focus. Horatio’s name was at the top of the list and my name flashed second on the scoreboard by the finish line. All of my friends waited to pass me around for congratulatory hugs.

  Nana placed her hand on my shoulder. “Birdy, sometimes you make me madder than a wet hen. I can’t believe you’d do some fool thing like this without telling me.” She pulled me into a tight hug and kissed the top of my head. “But I can’t lie. It fills me to the brim with pride to see you win.”

  “I came in second,” I murmured into her shoulder.

  “It means you move on to the next qualifying round.” Letting me go, she held my hands and sighed. “Guessin’ we should figure out how long the switch of magic between you and the detective will last.”

  Horatio, Lee, and Juniper interrupted our private
conversation, and my grandmother let go to give the troll her congratulations.

  Lee high-fived me first before delivering a message to my grandmother. “Miss Vivi, the officials are looking for you.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Nana promised.

  All of my friends surrounded the troll and me, asking us to pose for pictures with our fingers in V’s for victory. I told Horatio about how the last part of the race went since it all happened behind his back. Lee went on a little too long about how his spellcasting worked with Juniper’s magic. Mason stood close by, but kept quiet, allowing the others to gush around us.

  When Nana didn’t return, concern replaced my elation. Excusing myself, I went to find her, glancing here and there until I spotted a tight group of people in black-and-white striped shirts discussing something in low voices with my grandmother and a few others. The prejudiced guy from the starting line gesticulated wildly, and his raised voice echoed through the air.

  “You have to declare a disqualification,” he yelled.

  “For what?” I challenged, approaching the group.

  The racer pointed his finger at me. “You.” He spat a brown liquid on the ground in front of my feet. “You caused me to lose.”

  “Now, now, Earl, there ain’t nothin’ wrong with how this little lady competed.” A short and squat man patted the upset racer on the back, squinting his eyes at his friend. “What we want to address is the legitimacy of that monstrosity winning first. My friend here should be at least in second place.”

  My blood boiled. I didn’t need the special goggles on to see red. “Horatio won fair and square.”

  Earl turned and closed the distance between us, poking my shoulder with his finger. “He shouldn’t have been competing in the first place.” His indignant spittle bounced off my face.

  “If I were you, I would take a step back from my granddaughter,” warned Nana. “I’m here to mediate in an official capacity. Make any more disparaging remarks, and I’ll forget my Southern manners.”