Rags To Witches Page 13

  At the mention of her best friend, Gloria broke down again into hysterics. “I would have gone over to see them. I wanted to. But…” she trailed off, her body racked from a bone-deep bawling.

  I stopped stroking her hand. “Honey, Azalea recalled something that has me a little worried, but it might explain your hallucinations.” As much as I cared for my friend, I needed to get to the heart of the truth. “When I asked her how she’d found Harrison when she did, she said that it was you who told her where to find him.”

  She rocked forward and held her head in her hands. “Then it’s true,” she murmured.

  If she was confessing what I thought she was, a part of me wanted to scramble away from her. But the wreck of a person sitting on my couch wasn’t capable of hurting me in her current state. Caught in limbo between wanting to comfort her and wondering if I should be calling the authorities, I compromised and patted her back, allowing myself to scoot just a couple of inches away.

  “What’s true?” I pushed.

  She lifted her head and held her dominant hand out in front of her, staring at it like it wasn’t her own appendage attached to her body. “I stabbed Harrison.”

  My pulse raced and my flight instinct kicked into high gear, but I forced myself to stay put and see this through. “Are you sure?”

  Gloria sniffed hard and wiped her nose with her other arm. “Yeah. I’m sure. I’m the puzzle piece that completes the picture.”

  I’d expected to gloat in victory when I uncovered the person who stabbed Harrison. Instead, I struggled to keep the wave of nausea at bay. Pushing off of the couch, I paced in front of her. “Why did you come here tonight?”

  She grunted low and long and sat up straighter. “I think I needed someone I know who cared about me find out the truth and actually execute the thing I haven’t been able to make myself do.” Pleading with her eyes, she clasped her hands together as if begging. “You have to turn me in.”

  It was the logical conclusion to the investigation. My spell phone still sat on the table next to my bed. But I couldn’t bring myself to fetch it and be the one who turned in my friend, no matter what she’d told me. “And what am I supposed to say? Hi, this is my friend Gloria, and she thinks she stabbed her best friend’s new husband. No, there’s no concrete evidence, just some visions.” Someone like Deputy Sheriff Caine might jump at the chance based on less than circumstantial evidence, but I wasn’t willing to make the call just yet.

  Gloria shrank into herself, her wits coming very close to their jangling end. “Then what am I supposed to do?”

  A rooster crowed off in the distance, and the natural alarm awoke a new idea. “Come on, get off the couch.”

  “Are you going to turn me in?” she asked, a little hope and fear mixed in her tone. “I deserve to be locked up if it all really happened.”

  Grasping her hands, I pulled on her until she stood. “I’m not your judge nor your jury. And I’m not making any promises as to whether or not law enforcement will have to get involved. But there’s somewhere I want to take you first to have you checked out.”

  I escorted her out of my house and found her car door wide open with the light from the inside piercing the early morning. A repeating ding meant her key was still in the ignition, and I supported Gloria to the passenger side and got her settled.

  “Where are we going?” she asked as I got into the driver’s seat.

  “To see a healer and get a second opinion.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Gloria tucked into a plate of more eggs, a drop biscuit, and some fried-up country ham while seated at our family dinner table. My ghostly great-grandmother and I kept a close watch while she devoured everything like she hadn’t seen food in a couple of days.

  “That girl was running on empty. No wonder she’s a little touched in the head at the moment,” Granny Jo stared at my friend with a mix of sympathy and wariness.

  “What do you think? Am I right that something is wrong with her?” I asked in a low whisper. Making a risky decision I might pay for later, I had withheld my friend’s confession from Granny in order to keep her from being too biased with her estimations.

  My great-grandmother harrumphed, and her corporeal figure shimmered in and out of focus. “I think you’re keeping something back from me because that girl there,” she pointed a bony see-through finger at Gloria, “is a walking, talking threat, and you brought her right up into our house.”

  I waved my hands back and forth in protest. “No, I don’t think she’ll go picking up a knife to hurt one of us.” The second the words popped out of my mouth, I regretted them.

  Granny Jo’s eyes bugged out of her skull. “So, that’s what this is about. You brought a child who’s practically smothered in unstable magic here because she’s done something wrong, haven’t you?” She didn’t wait for me to confirm her suspicions. “I could scold you seven ways to Sunday, but that won’t change that there’s a body hurtin’ in my presence and I’m not doing anything about it. Go upstairs to my room and fetch me that black leather bag that’s stashed underneath my side of the bed. And then check the pantry and grab a couple bundles of smudging sticks.”

  “Thanks, Granny,” I uttered in relief.

  She shook her head. “Don’t thank me yet. I may have been a strong healer in life, but I’m a little limited in death.”

  A mass of spectral energy and a few blobs of spirits clustered around the bottom of the stairs. Holding my breath, I pushed through the remnants of my departed family to retrieve what my great-grandmother wanted.

  Her room remained exactly as it had been after she’d passed. The quilt she’d made for her wedding night still covered the double bed. A fine layer of dust covered the furniture and all the items lying around, as if nobody lived in there. Which was technically true. I’d have to remember to come in and clean sometime soon. Kneeling down on the wooden floor by the right side of the bed, I lifted the lacy dust ruffle out of the way and strained to spot the bag.

  “What are you doing in here, Ruby Mae,” my father interrupted from the doorway. “It’s barely past five thirty in the morning. And why do I smell bacon?”

  My heart raced from being startled, but I stayed focused on my task, spellcasting a small ball of light. The bag lay a little out of my reach, and I laid all the way down on the floor, stretching to grab it. “I’ve got a problem and Granny’s helping me with it,” I said, my fingertips brushing against the leather.

  “Here. Let me reach it.” Dad waited for me to scoot out of the way before crouching and reaching his long arms underneath. He dragged out the satchel. “Before I give this to you, tell me what’s going on.”

  His stern expression left me no room to hold anything back, so with quick words and a few breaths, I filled him in.

  “You think Gloria’s the one who stabbed Harrison?” he asked. “If that’s true, why is she here in the house and not down at the police station?”

  “She came to me for help, and I don’t think she did anything on purpose. Plus, there’s not a whole lot of evidence from someone who says they’ve had hallucinations that make them think they committed a crime,” I defended. “I thought that maybe Granny could prove that something else is going on.” I held out my hand to accept the requested bag.

  “I’ll take it,” he insisted, shifting it into his other hand and gripping my shoulder. “But I need you to understand something and make me a promise. If your great-grandmother and I think she’s involved in any real way, you will involve the police without any questions.”

  I nodded, unable to give voice to a promise I didn’t know if I could keep.

  He lifted an eyebrow of suspicion but waited at the door for me to exit first. While Dad took the bag into the living room, I went to the pantry to retrieve the sage.

  Dried herbs hung from the ceiling in the small room stacked with canned and dried goods. Mason jars of various herbs and deliberate mixes sat on a couple of shelves. I pulled down a small cardboard box with no
lid and picked out a couple of tied bundles of sage from the large pile next to some loose dried herbs and some twine. About three or four times a year, we used them to cleanse the house and the rest of the property of any bad energy. Before I put the box back on the shelf, I thought better of it and took the whole thing with me just in case.

  At his grandmother’s bidding, Dad pulled out items from the bag and set them on the coffee table. Gloria sat on a wooden chair in the middle of the living room with her hands in her lap and her right leg bouncing with nerves, and concern for her overwhelmed me.

  Dani shuffled down the stairs in her bathrobe and pajamas to find me staring at our friend. “What’s going on?” she yawned, wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

  If everyone kept asking me the question, I’d spend more time giving explanations rather than helping. “Just get in here and help me assist Granny.”

  “I’m supposed to go meet Mom at the cafe to help out in about thirty minutes.” She gazed at Gloria with sympathy. “But I heard the commotion and had to come see what’s going on.”

  I breathed out a sigh. “It’s a long story.”

  My cousin kissed me on the cheek. “And one that will probably end in you helping your friend at whatever cost like you always do. You want me to stay?”

  I opened my mouth to tell her to go ahead, but her warm affection bolstered me and lessened my general worries. “Actually, yeah. It would be good to have you here, especially if things go wrong.”

  “I’ll call Mom and then come join you,” she agreed.

  As she scampered up the stairs, I called out to her, “Try not to wake up your dad.” Although Uncle Jo and his experiences could be useful at times, sometimes he could be like a bull in a china shop, and we needed a more delicate approach with Gloria.

  A loud snore echoed through the second-floor hallway. Dani giggled. “Don’t worry. He’s a hard sleeper.” She scampered up the stairs.

  “Child, you gonna bring me that box you’re holding or what?” Granny Jo hollered at me.

  “Yes, ma’am.” I hurried my behind into the living room and tipped the container for her to see.

  “Hmm,” she deliberated. “I’d usually go with just some white sage, but let’s tie some Amaranth and thyme. And maybe a sprig of lavender.”

  I did as she asked, picking through the herbs with care. “Which one’s Amaranth?”

  Granny Jo finished instructing my father in setting up crystals around the chair. She pointed into the box, “The one with the copper tufts of seeds. We’ll need that to help unblock her mind and hopefully help her mend a little.”

  While I tied the herbs together, Dani joined us in some regular clothes. She retrieved a large amethyst crystal from inside the bag and gave it to Gloria to hold in her lap.

  “Take that vial of golden liquid over there, Ruby Mae,” Granny requested. When I obeyed, she continued. “If you wouldn’t mind, could you warm the contents of it up a little?”

  Calling on my magic, I sent a little heat into my palm, letting it radiate through my fingers. “Exactly how warm do you want it?”

  “That should be enough. No need to scald her with burning oil.” My great-grandmother’s figure inspected all of the elements we’d put together. “I’d do this myself, but if I’m going to observe how she reacts, I need you to act as my hands. Now, if you would, pour a little oil onto your fingertips and draw a cross on top of her forehead.”

  Gloria didn’t flinch when the warm oil touched her skin. “What’s that going to do?”

  “It’s frankincense. I’m hoping it will help calm you a little, child.” She attempted to ease my friend’s worries with a smile, but the crease in her brow conveyed her own concerns. “Buckley, after you open that window over there, I want you to take your place nearby with that black tourmaline like we talked about.”

  “Yes’m.” My father opened the two windows of the room and a fresh breeze billowed the gauzy curtains.

  “Danielle Josephine, I want you to find the large smoky quartz I got wrapped up in my bag and hold onto it on her other side,” Granny Jo instructed. When she recognized the fear in Gloria’s widened eyes, she floated in front of her, her hands reaching out as if she could touch my friend. “Don’t you worry none, sweet girl. I’m just taking some precautions to protect all of us if something goes wrong.”

  “I hope it doesn’t.” Gloria’s voice shook with uncertainty.

  “Take a few deep breaths and let them in and out to ready yourself.” My great-grandmother hovered away to give the rest of us room to move as she ordered. “Ruby Mae, if you would light that stick, we can get started.”

  Placing my fingertips on the end of the bundle of herbs, I concentrated until smoke rose in the air and a small spark kindled under my touch. I made sure it was lit well before blowing it out, watching the smoke curl. Granny Jo observed me with great scrutiny while I started from the top of her head and encircled Gloria with the spicy with a hint of sweet vapor.

  In a steady voice, my ghostly great-grandmother started the ritual. “When you’re ready, take in a really deep breath and close your eyes for me.”

  For a cleansing, we usually repeated the steps seven times. But by the second circling, a slight sheen of a murky substance manifested on Gloria’s skin. It wrapped around her like sickly ribbons that undulated with life, although half of it hung in shredded tatters. “What is that?”

  Gloria’s eyes popped open. “What?” She fidgeted in her seat with renewed fear. “It’s all over me.”

  “It’s best if you don’t look, child. We’re doing the best we can, but your squirming could make things worse,” warned my great-grandmother.

  “Should I stop?” I asked, worried at my close proximity to whatever it was enveloping my friend.

  “No, keep going. Let’s see if smudging her will make things better.” Granny Jo paused. “But just in case, Buckley, why don’t you and your niece go ahead and place the stones around the chair. I’d rather be prepared than sorry.”

  My muscles tensed with anxiety, but I continued to wave the bundle of herbs and waft the smoke against Gloria’s body. Some of the murky ribbons untied and disappeared, but others drew in a little tighter. My friend whimpered, and a bead of sweat dripped down the side of her face.

  “I think I’m going to throw up,” Gloria announced, giving us as much warning as she could.

  Granny Jo held up her hands. “Then let’s stop. I’m not sure if we’re doing you more harm than good anyway. The bathroom’s around the corner and on your left.”

  My friend leapt off the chair, covering her mouth with her hands. Dani followed her to help, leaving me with my father and his grandmother.

  Dad sat down on the edge of the coffee table. “This isn’t working.”

  “If I had proper use of my body and could do things for myself, I might have been able to do more. But I can’t guarantee anybody’s safety.” Her figure wavered with her disappointment. “And as much as I love your big heart, Ruby Mae, I won’t risk our family.”

  I nodded, keeping my eyes on the floor so she didn’t mistake my frustration in the situation as anger with her. “What were those things wrapped around her?” I asked.

  Dad exchanged a knowing glance with our ghostly kin. “Nothing good. By my guess, someone has spellbound her.”

  “And did a shoddy job of it, too,” Granny agreed. “I thought it was her own magic gone awry. Whoever spellcast it must be pretty powerful. Or pretty dumb. Either way, she needs more help than we can give her.”

  “We need a skilled healer,” Dad suggested. “Like the one who helped you recover, butter bean. If you know how to reach her, I would call her right now.”

  Bringing someone else into the fold would mean one more person who would put everything together and possibly report Gloria to the authorities. I knew that might be the final outcome no matter what, but the whole situation required someone with more experience or who wasn’t a ghost of her former self in the truest sense.

>   “I think in order to have Dr. Tomasi keep things confidential, I’m going to have to bring in someone with a lot more finesse than me.” I glanced between my father and my great-grandmother with regret, having kept my bargain with the coven leader a secret from them. “I’ll call Ebonee and have her bring the healer with her.”

  Dani joined us. “I think you should call Wesley, too. At least someone from her family should be here with her.”

  The rays of daylight shone through the windows of the house. Our living room burst with all the extra people. Wesley ignored me, concentrating on staying by his sister’s side while Dr. Beverly Tomasi executed a more thorough examination.

  “You did good to reveal the bad energy through your work, Ms. Jewell,” she complimented my great-grandmother. “And I think you made the right call if you couldn’t be the one executing all the steps.” She brushed her fingers over the oil on Gloria’s forehead and sniffed them.

  “That’s frankincense,” I interjected, struggling to stay silent on the sidelines.

  “Nobody asked you,” Wesley grumbled with agitation.

  His sister scolded, “Don’t take your anger at me out on Ruby Mae. I’m the one who came to her. Not the other way around.”

  He crossed his arms. “Still. I don’t know why she or her family are even involved.” Kneeling next to Gloria, he had a hard time obeying the edict from the doctor not to touch his sister. “If you had said something right away, I could have gotten you help sooner.”

  “I’m getting help now,” Gloria insisted.

  Ebonee took a step closer. “Beverly, what’s your initial prognosis? She seems a little shaken but not in danger.”

  “You haven’t seen what we have yet,” I warned.

  The doctor and healer patted Gloria on her knee and stood. “Based on what they told us, I think their initial assessment is probably right. I’ve never seen a case myself, but I read about it in my studies. Someone probably spellbound her and not with very much care for the outcome.”