Thorn to Die

“Enough!” I stood on my tippy toes and waved my arms. “Give the man some space.”

Reluctantly, they backed away, but not before Blythe could squeeze in another bicep-feel. And they wondered why I never brought boyfriends home.

“He wants to learn about magic,” Momma Tula announced, stuffing another cookie in her mouth. “He came here to prove to Hazel he was alright with her being a witch.”

My aunts oohed again, making me want to shove their witch’s hats in their pie-holes.

“I can teach him some magic,” Blythe practically sang. A grin stretched on her face from ear to ear. She flipped her blonde hair and bumped him with her shoulder. “I know all sorts of things I could teach you.”

My lips pressed into a scowl that reached my voice. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Who did she think she was? Drake might have been my ex-boyfriend, but that didn’t mean he was free territory. Wasn’t there some kind of rule book about dating your cousin’s exes? It just shouldn’t happen.

“If anyone is going to teach the boy magic,” Grammy Jo announced as the others quieted down. “It’ll be me. Come on, boy, I’ve got a potion brewing. I’ll show you how we take care of those pesky garden gnomes. They’re not all little smiling ceramic collectables, you know? The real ones are as nasty as the nail fungus I’ve got on my right big toe.”

Drake gave me a frightened look over his shoulder as Grammy Jo led him away. I shrugged and laughed. If he wanted to learn about magic, who was I to stop him? My family would have him straightened out in no time. He’d be back on his way home before I even had to figure out what to do with him.

I dropped myself into a wooden chair and stared at the covered food waiting for our lunch. Drake’s sudden appearance had given me no time to consider how I still felt about him. A few months ago, I would’ve said I was in love. But, now? My heart wasn’t doing any talking and my head was numb. It was too early to be making any rash decisions.

“You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend,” Momma Tula said, sliding into the chair next to me. She watched Grammy Jo shake a bottle of rat tails at Drake and point to the cauldron on the stove. “He’s handsome.”

Impatience leaked into my reply. “I didn’t tell you because we were a bit busy running from your problems in Arizona at the time.”

She winced and immediately I wanted to take it back. She didn’t need reminding of that mess. We’d come so far in these five months. No need to dredge up the past.

“We broke up. It was done. I didn’t think you needed to know.”

She nodded slowly. “He still seems to like you, though.”

“Just because he shows up with some half-brained story about a charm that led him here, doesn’t mean we’re going to get back together.”

“Charm?” She shifted in her chair and her eyebrows raised in curiosity. “What kind of charm?”

“Not the good kind.” I dug in my pocket and pulled it out, displaying it on my palm for her to see. “I think it’s blood magic. Right?”

Her eyes grew wide and she shrunk into her chair, pushing my arm away. “Get that thing away from me!”

It tumbled to the ground between our feet, clinking as it hit the hardwood. She pulled her feet up as if it were a mouse running across the floor and swore.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. My heart pumped as if I’d just ran a marathon. “Is it dangerous?”

She nodded, her eyes glued to it. “That’s a cursed charm. The witches who invented it used them for revenge. I can’t believe someone was foolish enough to sell it to a boy off the street.”

My hands began to sweat, so I rubbed them together. “But, nothing bad happened. Maybe it lost its magic.”

“You said it brought your boyfriend here?” Her light brown eyes swept up to mine. “That sounds like it’s working, to me. If I remember correctly, this kind of charm sends you on a mission. It forces you to complete it. His mission must’ve been to find you.”

I gulped. Grammy Jo had taught us to never fight nature or human will with our magic. It was unnatural, she’d say. This sort of charm forced its will on its victims. Nothing good could come out of that.

“We’ll just destroy it,” I said. “Nobody will ever be affected again.”

I nabbed a floral kitchen towel and snatched the charm off the floor. Despite the heat, a small fire always burned in the kitchen fireplace. My aunts kept it going for charm work. If there was one thing they’d taught me, it was that fire was the almighty purifier. It could destroy the dark forces that held this thing together. I went to toss in the charm, but Momma Tula lunged from her chair and grabbed my arm.

“No, you can’t destroy it!”

I struggled against her tight grip. “Why not? We need to get rid of it.”

“You touched it. It’s bound to you.”