A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) Read online

  Praise for Tonya Kappes

  “Full of wit, humor and colorful characters, Tonya Kappes delivers a fun, fast-paced story that will leave you hooked!” Bestselling Author, Jane Porter

  “Fun, fresh, and flirty, Carpe Bead ’Em is the perfect read on a hot summer day. Tonya Kappes’ voice shines in her debut novel.” Author Heather Webber

  “I loved how Tonya Kappes was able to bring her characters to life.” Coffee Table Reviews

  With laugh out loud scenes and can't put it down suspense A Charming Crime is the perfect read for summer you get a little bit of everything but romance. Forgetthehousework blog

  "This book was fun, entertaining and good to the last page. Who knew reading auras could get Olivia in so much trouble? Sit back, smile and cozy up to Splitsville.com, where Olivia does the dumping for you. There's heap loads of humor, a dose of magical realism, sprinkles of romance, and mystery when someone ends up dead!" Author Lisa Lim

  “This book was funny and clever with a unique premise. I truly couldn't put it down.” Author Diane Majeske

  Also by Tonya Kappes

  Women’s Fiction

  Carpe Bead ‘em

  Olivia Davis Paranormal Mystery Series

  Splitsville.com

  Color Me A Crime

  Magical Cures Mystery Series

  A Charming Crime

  A Charming Cure

  A Charming Potion

  A Charming Wish

  A Charming Spell

  Grandberry Falls Series

  The Ladybug Jinx

  Happy New Life

  A Superstitious Christmas

  Never Tell Your Dreams

  A Divorced Diva Beading Mystery Series

  A Bead of Doubt Short Story

  Strung Out To Die

  Small Town Romance Short Story Series

  A New Tradition

  The Dare Me Date

  Non-Fiction

  The Tricked-Out Toolbox~Promotional and Marketing Tools Every Writer Needs

  A

  Charming Spell

  Book Four in the Magical Mysteries Series

  Tonya Kappes

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the permission in writing from the author or publisher.

  Edition: July 2013

  Copyright © 2013 by Tonya Kappes

  All rights reserved

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to publisher and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Acknowledgments

  This is for all the people who have supported me and encouraged me on this crazy, dream journey and believing in my imagination and ability to bring to out on the page. You know who you are.

  xo

  Chapter One

  “June, June, wake up.” My head bobbled back and forth on my pillow, because my neighbor, Oscar Park, was shaking the crap out of my arm.

  “Shh…” I mumbled with my eyes shut tight, even though seeing my blue-eyed, black-haired hunky neighbor was a much more pleasant sight then my dark eyelids. “You’ll wake Darla.”

  Darla Heal. My mom.

  Darla was not like every other mom. She was, well…different. She owned and operated A Dose of Darla, a booth at our local flea market in Locust Grove, Kentucky, where she sold her own versions of homeopathic cures that she concocted in the basement of our small Cape Cod home.

  And Oscar…well, he was a different story. Oscar and I had a lot of similarities. He was raised by his Uncle Jordan after his parents were killed in a tragic car wreck, while I was raised by my mother after my police officer father got killed in the line of duty.

  Anyway, Oscar always had a habit of sneaking into my room at night, but not without my all-time favorite treat, which Darla didn’t allow me to have, Ding Dongs.

  “I’ve got a present for you.” Oscar waved his temptation underneath my nose. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know it was my favorite chocolaty treat.

  Beep, beep, beep. My alarm woke me up, bringing me to my current situation.

  “No, no, no.” I begged and reached over to tap the snooze button. Mr. Prince Charming was curled up on my pillow, unaffected by the beeping hunk of junk. “I was having the best dream too.”

  I brushed my bangs out of my eyes so I could see the clock. I had a few more minutes, so I wiggled back under my covers. I closed my eyes, trying to remember the dream, but it only brought back memories, some of which I would like to forget.

  Oscar Park and I had come a long way since those days of him sneaking into my bedroom window. Especially now since I lived in Whispering Falls, Kentucky and he was living back in Locust Grove.

  Ah. . .the good old days, I sighed and closed my eyes.

  The good old days weren’t that long ago. Now, everything had changed.

  Chapter Two

  Knock, knock, knock. My heart nearly leapt out of my chest when I heard someone at my front door. Maybe my dream was coming true.

  “I guess we aren’t going to get to snooze.” Madame Torres, my cynical crystal ball, glowed red with swirling gold flecks. It was a sure sign she was not happy, which was not a great way to start my day.

  “No, I guess not.” I was sure my dream was just wishful thinking that Oscar hadn’t given up his spiritual powers and any memories of me being a spiritualist, just so he could help me out in the sticky situation I was in at the time.

  I threw the covers off me. The cold air hit me, sending a chill across my arms.

  Rowl, rowl. Mr. Prince Charming, my fairy god-cat, growled when my covers landed on top of him.

  “Oops.” I laughed and peeled them back. His white-as-snow fur was sticking up from a little static electricity.

  Bang, bang, bang. The gentle knocking had turned into an angry “answer your door now” knock.

  “I’m coming!” I screamed, reaching for a sweatshirt that didn’t match my pajama bottoms, but it was going to have to work.

  I wasn’t going to let anyone ruin my day. It was going to be great! After all, tonight was the village council meeting and my first time as the newly elected Village President.

  Bang, bang, bang.

  Geez. When did everyone get in such a hurry? I walked down the hall, flipping on light switches as I went.

  “This better be important and you had better have brought me a coffee,” I warned before I swung the door open.

  “June,” Alexelrod Primose, Whispering Falls’ only realtor pushed past me without an invitation to enter. “You have to stop the sale of the old building that is next to Bella’s Baubles.”

  He stood about five-foot-eight with his round-brimmed hat resting on his head. It dawned on me that I had never seen him without his hat or his long black overcoat.

  Alexelrod swung his briefcase in the direction of my kitchen table and proceeded to follow in that direction as if the briefcase was dragging him along. “We need to discuss this.”

  “I…” My hand was still on the door handle. Gently, I closed it behind me and crossed my arms in front of me. “It’s early. Can we discuss this later
?”

  “Later? Absolutely not.” His voice was firm and final. He slammed the briefcase on the table. “This could change how Whispering Falls does business…forever.” Lines formed around his deep-set worried brown eyes.

  “Forever is a long time.” I didn’t want to get sucked into a long debate over whether or not a new shop was going to destroy Whispering Falls. My intuition, which happened to be one of my spiritual gifts, never failed me. It wasn’t warning me at this moment, which meant that this conversation could wait. At least until I had my first or third cup of coffee. “What kind of shop is going in there anyway?”

  Not everything had been transferred over to me from Isadora Solstice, the last Whispering Falls Village President. Any deals made with new shop owners before last week was all her doing. We had plans to catch up before the meeting tonight to discuss anything new…like this.

  I walked over to the sink and looked out the window overlooking the meadow that bordered the village. I was lucky to have a house nestled on a little hill that overlooked the magical city I called home.

  The lush green grass was beautiful as it rolled down to the city. The sun was just making its first appearance overtop the mountains that surrounded Whispering Falls, putting off a faint light.

  “A bookstore of all things.” Thump! Alexelrod’s beat his fist, causing the briefcase to burst open. Papers flew out all over the place.

  Alexelrod didn’t care. He was deep in the large black case tossing out even more papers on the table. Mr. Prince Charming was perched on the couch behind the table in my family room.

  Ugh. Inwardly I cringed. Mr. Prince Charming had his back leg stuck straight up in the air as he bathed himself. That meant that I was going to have to clean the fur off my beautiful orange couch when he was finished.

  “A bookstore?” I questioned with an escalated voice. “I love books!”

  “You can’t be serious!”

  “Dead serious.” This entire conversation was giving me a headache and dose of liquid happiness was exactly what I needed. My new single-cup coffee maker was perfect for me. I picked out Java Jolt. That sounded perfect. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  “How could you even think about coffee when this is of the utmost importance? Urgent!” His eyes narrowed as he pumped his fist in the air.

  “Nothing is urgent at this time of the morning.” Well…almost nothing. The clock on the stove read six am.

  I had set my alarm early because I wanted to get to my shop, A Charming Cure, a couple of hours before it opened. There was a potion I needed to work on that was of the utmost importance. A spell to get Oscar’s memory back. His memory of why I had moved to Whispering Falls.

  I sat in the chair next to Alexelrod and pushed his papers toward him.

  “I understand this is important to you.” I had to make him feel somewhat comfortable coming to me since I was the Village President. “And it just so happens that we are having a village meeting tonight where you can discuss these issues with the community leaders.”

  He grabbed the papers. They wrinkled as he wadded them up and threw them back in the briefcase before he slammed it shut and locked it up.

  “Good day, Madame President.” He stood up, tilted his head, and bee-lined it to the door, his lips pursed tightly.

  “Alexelrod, please understand that if I allow one person to come into my home and suggest things for the community, then everyone will want to.” There had to be a line drawn somewhere. I just didn’t know where.

  Obviously, Alexelrod had no interest in what I was saying. He opened the door, and without turning back around, slammed it behind him, almost catching Mr. Prince Charming’s tail as he darted through right behind Alexelrod.

  “Where are you going?” I shouted toward the door, before glancing out the window.

  Mr. Prince Charming didn’t turn around either. He darted down the hill. I watched until his tail danced out of sight.

  Chapter Three

  A few minutes later, I was ready to tackle the day. I headed down the hill with Madame Torres deep in my bag and my cell phone in my back pocket.

  A Charming Cure was located at the far end of Main Street on the right side of the road next to A Cleansing Spirit Spa and across the street from the Whispering Hills Police Station. That is where I used to see Oscar every day until he made the worst decision of his life.

  He denounced his spiritual heritage to save me from a little incident I was accused of doing – which I didn’t do and had to prove. Regardless, Oscar lost his powers and his memory of why we had both moved to Whispering Falls. Now he was a police officer in Locust Grove with no memory of ever living in Whispering Falls or anything we had done here.

  He thought I moved here to open a brick-and-mortar store instead of staying in the flea market booth.

  The village was quiet, even though I knew Eloise Sandlewood had already walked the streets a few hours before, waving her incense burner in and out of every shop gate to bring fortune, health, and wealth to the community, just as she did every morning.

  There was a faint light coming from the opposite direction on Main Street from Wicked Good Bakery. That was the first shop on the right when visitors drove in. Everyone loved the baked goods that Raven Mortimer created with her magical hands. I was sure if I stopped for a brief moment and took in a fresh breath of air, I’d smell Raven’s baked goodies.

  But not today. There wasn’t time to dilly-dally. I had to get started on my cure that I could slip into Oscar’s food to bring back his memory and our newly blossoming romance.

  The awnings over each shop flapped in the morning wind. I glanced around, looking at each shop to make sure there wasn’t any funny business going on. All the stores had a beautifully ornamented gate that opened up into the pathway leading up to a shop door, but they all seemed to be locked tight.

  Creak, creak. The wooden sign that hung on the wrought-iron post outside of the shop and read A Charming Cure, slowly swung back and forth on the hinges.

  Mr. Prince Charming ran up out of nowhere doing his signature figure-eight move around my ankles and between my legs. He knew when my gut was unsettled and was there to protect me each and every time. This time was no different. My stomach gurgled with nerves.

  “I’m fine.” I bent down and rubbed my hand along his body as he arched to my touch. “I’m sure I’m just nervous about the ceremony, not to mention Oscar.”

  I stood up and bit my lip before taking one more glance around Main Street. Alexelrod’s plea was still swirling in my head, making me doubt the cautious feeling that was churning inside as I was about to take the reins as Village President.

  Shaking off the notion that something was wrong, Mr. Prince Charming and I unlocked the front gate and headed up the path to the shop. The purple and white wisteria vine grew beautifully around the two windows, one on either side of the door.

  A Charming Cure was everything that Darla and I had dreamed of. I only wished she were here to help.

  “Let’s get to work.” I unlocked the door and stepped inside. Mr. Prince Charming darted in and took his spot on the counter next to the cash register where he normally sat most of the day.

  I set my bag on the stool that butted up to the counter and took Madame Torres out and put her on her usual spot on the counter. She did like sitting there watching the customers as they came in and out all day. Not to mention, she gets her kicks from how they are in “awe” over her because they think she’s some sort of decoration.

  I walked throughout the shop, turning on all the little table lights, illuminating the inside. Several small round tables dotted the inside of the shop, covered in beautiful red tablecloths. Each table held different potion bottles for different cures.

  Flipping on my cauldron – that was hidden from the public behind a small partition on the counter – I walked back to the shelf where I kept all the ingredients I use for my special cures. Tapping each one, I read their names out loud, trying to tap into my intuition.
“Belladonna, Ferrum Phos, Sepia, Natrum Mur, Valerian Root.”

  My finger warmed when I touched the Valerian Root, which was my intuition telling me to pick that ingredient.

  “You’ve never failed me yet.” I said, referring to my spiritual gift of intuition. Gingerly, I picked up the hourglass bottle with the pink roses etched into the hazy glass that I kept the root in.

  After grabbing a few extra ingredients, for good measure of course, I placed them all on the counter.

  Tourists that shopped in the stores in Whispering Falls knew there was something mysterious about our small village, but they couldn’t exactly tell you what it was. There was magic at every turn. Every shop owner was a spiritualist and used their “gift” in their stores.

  As gifts go, there was no way I could speak for every shop owner in Whispering Falls, but in A Charming Cure I created and sold homeopathic cures.

  For instance, some of my clients believe they are coming to get a cure for a bad case of indigestion, but in reality, they might have a broken heart or financial problems. After being in their presence, my intuition gift kicks in and lets me know exactly what cure they really need. If they follow my instructions to a tee, their real problems will be gone.

  Today…I had problems of my own.

  The cauldron roiled at a low boil. With a couple sprinkles of Sage, a dash of Ledum, and a pinch of Valerian Root, the substance turned orange. Rose-colored bubbles popped in the air like little fireworks.

  I closed my eyes and held my hands over the swirling liquid. Moving my hands in slow circles, I whispered, “I am peaceful, I am strong. Though dark may seem so long. For day must follow every night. Everything is all right. I am always safe from harm. The Order of Elders holds me in their arms.”