Spells (Bayou Magic 2)

“Thank you. We’ve cast out the spirit and put a protection spell around her. She should be able to recover now.”

“Can she have her furniture back?” Daphne asks.

“Of course. We’ll return everything as soon as she wakes up and we see that she’s back to herself.”

The younger of the nurses hasn’t said a word. Her fingers shake as she takes Mama’s temperature.

“Are you okay?” I ask her.

“I’m new,” she replies. “Just out of school. Never seen anything like this before. Or most of the things around here.”

“She’s green,” the other nurse says. “It gets worse. And sometimes, it’s much better. Now, don’t you worry, we’re gonna take real good care of your mama. She’s in good hands.”

When we’re on our way out, Brielle stops in the middle of the hallway. She’s staring straight ahead, and her face goes white.

“What do you see?” Lucien asks her.

“There are always a lot of shadows here,” she whispers. “But this one is…different.”

“How?” I ask.

“I see him,” Daphne says, her hand on the wall.

I take Lucien’s hand and lower my shields. Standing there, at the end of the hallway, is our father.

“Damn it.”Chapter FifteenLucien“Why is he fucking with us again?” Millie asks as she paces around the parking lot. “We got rid of him years ago.”

“Who?” Brielle asks, looking completely confused. “It wasn’t a him at the end of the hallway.”

The sisters stare at each other.

“I saw a him,” Daphne says, “but I have a feeling it’s not the same him entity Millie saw.”

They’re outstanding to watch when the three of them are together. They have no idea how powerful they are when united, and yet the vast differences in their gifts, and even in the way they look, is startling. From Millie’s fair curls to Daphne’s fire-red hair and Brielle’s dark waves, they couldn’t be more different.

But they’re linked in every way that matters.

“Dad was there,” Millie says.

“I didn’t see that.” Daphne shakes her head.

“Me either,” Brielle adds. “I saw a dead woman, covered in blood and trying to speak to me. Exactly the way they did before.”

“What did you see?” I ask Daphne.

She swallows hard. “Jackson’s father.”

“Oh, honey.” Millie wraps her arm around Daphne’s shoulders. I don’t know the whole story of what happened between Daphne and Jackson, but it must have had something to do with his dad if Horace used him to fuck with Daphne.

“He’s doing this on purpose,” I say, getting their attention. “Horace is trying to scare you, distract you. He’s taunting you.”

“Distract us,” Millie murmurs. “From what he’s doing? That doesn’t make sense. The sick asshole has been proud of what he’s doing.”

“No,” Cash says, speaking up for the first time. “He’s distracting you from each other and from your inherent Power. If you’re not concentrating on the task at hand, catching and destroying him, you can’t do that. He wants your attention diverted, distracted, and he’s using scare tactics to do it while simultaneously getting a thrill out of taunting you or punishing you. It’s all a mind game for him.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Daphne mutters and paces away in frustration. “How does he know what messes with us psychologically? How could he possibly know that seeing Jack’s dad would make my blood run cold? It’s not like I took an ad out in the paper and made it public knowledge.”

“He knows pretty much everything about you three,” I reply, thinking it over. “For most of your lives, he watched you from just outside the windows of your house. Then, he made it his business to follow you, to keep an eye on you every day. He’s been stalking you for years.”

“And why didn’t we feel it?” Brielle asks. “Yes, we have shields, but we’re psychic for the love of Moses. Why didn’t we feel that he was near?”

“Smoke and mirrors,” I reply. “Horace is excellent at smoke and mirrors.”

“Stop saying his name,” Millie murmurs, just as darkness descends on us. I can’t see the others. I can’t hear them.

I only hear maniacal laughter, as if he’s having the time of his life.

Or his death.

I begin to chant the spell I taught Millie a lifetime ago. She’s doing the same because I can suddenly hear her in my mind, feel her as if she’s standing next to me.

Halfway into the spell, Horace snarls, the darkness disappears, and we’re left standing in the parking lot as if nothing happened at all.

“I think we should all learn that spell,” Daphne says.

“I’m happy to teach you,” I reply with a smile.* * *Millie collapses on the couch in our living room with a huff and pets Sanguine, who walks circles on her witch’s lap.

“Okay, I think we need to talk,” Millie says.

“You’re exhausted,” I reply.

“Yeah. The psychic stuff drains me.” She shrugs a shoulder. “I’m fine. I’d like to know how he defeated us in previous lives. In other words, what have we already tried that failed? I don’t want to use that again.”