Witchy hot spells, p.1
Witchy Hot Spells, page 1
Witchy Hot Spells
A PARANORMAL COZY MYSTERY
MIDLIFE POTIONS
BOOK TWO
C. A. PHIPPS
Witchy Hot Spells is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Witchy Hot Spells Copyright © 2023 by C. A. Phipps
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Copyright © 2022 by Melody Simmons
bookcoversbymelody.com
For all the mid-life women out there.
💜
Witchy Hot Spells
Jessica Lavender is a witch!
Her ghost of a mother, and Maestro, her cat familiar, have high expectations for this unhappy ex-baker.
The potions Jess makes can heal or hurt and she still has her training wheels on when another death draws her into the mystery around it.
Can Jess solve the crime and help a friend prove her innocence without revealing her talents for sniffing out murderers?
Midlife Potions
Witchy Awakening
Witchy Hot Spells
Witchy Flash Back - preorder now!
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
Witchy Flash Back
Recipes
Also by C. A. Phipps
Books by Cheryl Phipps
About the Author
Chapter
One
The smell from the cauldron wafted over Jessica Lavender, who sniffed appreciatively. This was a good batch. Making potions couldn’t compare to baking, but she was beginning to enjoy it.
Maestro curled around her ankles and jumped up on a chair, specifically set at a height so he could peer over the counter.
“Did you know that mint can ward off evil?”
The cat’s fancy tone always made her smile. His superior and often bossy attitude was another matter.
“I do, but that’s not why I made it today. Daphne Dennison has been complaining about her stomach again.” She snuck a peek at him.
He smirked as she knew he would. “Remember when you thought she ate the roadkill she collected?”
Jess chuckled and shook a finger. “Don’t pretend that you didn’t think so too.” After a couple of months back in her home town of Good Fortune, she was beginning to get to know the people in her mother’s life. It had been reported that Daphne ate roadkill when what she really did, due to a soft heart, was take the poor dead animals home and bury them in the large plot of land she owned.
Maestro snorted. “Well, it did sound rather—eccentric.”
“Name one of mom’s friends who isn’t just a little eccentric?”
“Jenny Winter.”
“Hmm.” This was her go-to answer when she couldn’t think of something appropriate and didn’t want to be rude.
“Surely you don’t still suspect her of nefarious undertakings?” he grumbled.
Jess decanted the potion into a glass bottle and stoppered it. “Look, I like Jenny. Her sweetness sets my teeth on edge occasionally, and maybe it is all genuine, but if I hadn’t stayed in Good Fortune she would have inherited Lavender Lotions and Potions, as well as this building, which includes her apartment. Doesn’t that strike you as a little too coincidental?”
He tutted. “We both know that Lissa’s next-door neighbor, Gerald Urwin, killed your mother with a slow-acting poison that was undetectable until it was too late. Jenny had nothing to do with that or Gerald’s untimely death. Besides, your mother wouldn’t have been put in that condition about you selling if she hadn’t been worried you would leave town the minute she was buried. You know that would have seriously impacted your witchy abilities.”
“I know that now,” she huffed, “but I still don’t get how Gerald could have drugged Mom. She refuses to discuss it, but Mom knows smells. So how did he manage to get her to drink a potion?”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
“Hah!” Though her mother was dead, Lissa Lavender was not exactly gone. Due to a mix-up with a life-restoring potion, her ghostly presence stayed at the family home and couldn’t leave. It was a sad situation, and Jess was mainly responsible, thanks to a lack of knowledge and power. This was an ongoing battle. “You and Mom are still keeping secrets, and apparently this is one of them.”
“It’s not exactly a secret, but there are all kinds of ways to make that happen,” he said with a mysterious air.
Jess gave him a side-eye as she created a label for the bottle. “Fine. You know more, but I’m obviously not ready to hear it.” When Maestro didn’t care to discuss something, Jess was learning to be patient, which wasn’t easy for her. Besides, she would simply ask her mother again—whenever she decided to grace them with her witchy ghost presence.
That was another thing. How could her mom only appear at the cottage and still know everything that was going on in town?
“Isn’t Officer Fine stopping by this morning?” the cat said, casually dropping the reminder.
The swish of his fluffy tail told her how much he relished flustering her. Also, she suspected it was a ruse to move her train of thought along. The sooner she managed to train her mind not to let him tap into her thoughts and feelings, the happier she would be.
She glanced up at the clock. “Darn. He’s probably here already. Before she realized she was doing it, a hand went up to smooth her auburn hair, which had grown well past her shoulders. She caught a knowing glance from Maestro. “Stop that.”
He chuckled and waited for her to open the window to let him out. Animals were not permitted in the kitchen, but Maestro was more than a cat. As her familiar, he was in charge of her training wheels and had a great deal of knowledge of her talent in potions. Therefore he was an exception—in every way.
He turned just before he jumped outside and winked. “Yes, I am.”
“That’s not exactly what I thought, and I told you to stop reading my mind,” she scolded.
“Then hurry up and learn to control it.”
She sighed. “I’ve tried, but just when I think I’ve got the hang of blocking you out, you pop in my head like an annoying fly.”
“Charming. Try harder.”
Jess poked out her tongue and closed the window, narrowly missing his tail. She’d bet he was the bossiest familiar alive. That made her chuckle. A few short months ago she would have laughed in the face of anyone who told her she was a witch or that witches were real. It still bothered her that she hadn’t figured out that her mother was one.
In the store, Officer Fine was leaning on the counter chatting to Jenny. He certainly was fine. Tall and dark-haired, he often kept a serious manner, but when he smiled he was downright handsome. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Officer.” He’d told her to call him Brodie, but it didn’t seem right when he was in uniform.
He turned and smiled broadly, causing her heart to flutter. Darn that smile.
“No problem. Do you have time to go for coffee? It’s a lovely morning.”
“Is this business or pleasure?” She immediately regretted her comment when he raised an eyebrow and her cheeks pinked. It had been years since she had felt attracted to a man this way or thought one was interested in her.
“Well, I know we both find a decent cup of coffee pleasurable, but there is something I’d like to discuss.”
“In that case, coffee it is.” She retrieved her bag, trying not to look too delighted about spending time with him.
“Have fun, you two.” Jenny grinned and waved.
Her assistant was already ensconced in the store and in the apartment above it when Jess came home for her mother’s funeral. It was part of the conditions of her inheritance that Jess kept Jenny employed and let her stay in the apartment. It still irked her that Mom used blackmail to persuade Jess into staying in Good Fortune—but not as much as it had. Slowly, she had begun to fit into the world she’d run away from twenty years ago.
Her midlife woes of loneliness and working at a job she hated were suddenly swept aside by her mother’s death. Thrust into her new life as a trainee witch, shop owner, and employer, the only thing that had remained the same were the annoying hot flashes. She was only forty-five, and until the cat mentioned this was her midlife and a normal age for witches to gain their power, she hadn’t considered she was anywhere near middle-aged.
According to Maestro, hot flashes should be welcomed as they heralded her powers gaining strength. Of course he was not only a cat but was also a male cat. Therefore, he had no concept of how debilitating a hot flash could be—and certainly no empathy.
They walked the few yards to the diner , and she chose a table away from the front window. From experience, Jess knew that Officer Fine got a lot of attention, which could be annoying when she wanted to chat in private. She had to admit to being curious.
“What’s up?” she asked him casually after he’d ordered their drinks. She liked that he remembered what she drank. No other man she dated ever had. Not that there were many of those—men or dates.
He clasped his hands together on the tabletop. “I just wanted to give you a heads up that we’ve closed the case.”
“On my mother?” she asked carefully.
He looked nonplussed. “Your mother? I meant Gerald Urwin.”
She blinked. Of course he meant Gerald. The next-door neighbor was found buried in her mother’s garden after Lissa died, and the how of it had never been uncovered.
“Sorry, I was confused because you never found out how he got into the garden. So how can the case be closed?”
He twirled the salt shaker, which sprayed white granules over the crisp white table cloth and absently brushed them onto the floor. “That is true. With no tire tracks and no evidence of another person being nearby, for the first time in my career I’m truly lost how or why he was buried there.”
The why was easier—an aneurism, the coroner said. Jess knew that wasn’t entirely the truth, but it meant that technically there was no murderer running loose. Having no idea that Gerald had in fact killed her mother with a slow and apparently undetectable poison, the police understandably had other things to deal with.
“I guess sometimes a case never gets solved, and you can hardly blame yourself when you’ve been so thorough.” Unfortunately, Jess couldn’t tell him the truth without exposing her witchy beginnings. Not then and not now.
Rubbing his fingers through his hair, he sighed. “Thanks for the pep talk. I know you’re right, but you have no idea how frustrating it is. Plus, my boss likes to throw it in my face every now and again. It’s ruining any chance of a promotion.”
Jess’s heart sank. Now she started to feel responsible for Brodie’s dilemma? It was too much, and she looked away from his despair.
A young man sat to her left. He had the local paper open on his table but was watching them. She had seen him a few times around town with another man, and he had always smiled in a friendly way. Now he looked troubled.
Suddenly she had an urge to talk to her mother that was too strong to ignore. Jess cut short the coffee break, thankful that Brodie had ordered takeout cups.
“Thanks so much for letting me know about the case being closed. I better get back and do some work, and don’t let your boss’s attitude get you down. You’re good at your job, and he can’t but help notice that.”
Smiling, he stood and saw her out, his hand on the small of her back. She fancied that he was disappointed the coffee break was over, and she couldn’t help being pleased.
“Excuse me, Officer?”
They turned to find the young man behind them.
“I’m sorry to intrude, but could we talk?”
“Is it a private matter, sir?”
“Well…” The man shook his head firmly. “My father didn’t return home last night, and I’m worried about him.”
“Is he in ill health?”
“Not that I know of.”
“I’ll leave you to it, Brodie,” Jess said, sorry for the man who did look upset.
Chapter
Two
Jess hurried right by the shop and went home. Luckily the cottage was at the other end of Main Street from the diner.
Lissa Lavender appeared as soon as the cottage door was shut. “You look a little upset, darling girl.”
“I’ve just been talking to the police. They’ve closed the case on Gerald Urwin. What do you think about that?”
Her mother’s ghostly body flickered a little, and she pursed her lips. “We should probably move on from that and concentrate on who we can help.”
The hot, clammy hand of a hot flash crept over Jess. It seemed to happen more regularly these days and even more so when she was stressed. The funny thing was she hadn’t felt overly stressed until that meeting.
“Don’t you care that someone buried him in your garden?”
“Since I’m already dead, none of that sorry business can hurt me now.”
This was an outright lie, so obvious it made the flickering get worse.
“Look, I get that you feel guilty about Gerald’s death, but he died from an aneurism that could have killed him anytime.”
“It wasn’t anytime. It was after an argument with me.”
“You have to let that go, Mom. Concentrate instead on the fact that the body in the garden could tarnish the family reputation and therefore your store’s reputation.”
Her mother laughed softly. “I doubt that. Perhaps a handful of people might consider it unsavory, but most of the town won’t give it a thought. Besides, it’s your store now.”
“Hmm.” Not wanting to upset her mom further, she didn’t bring up Brodie’s issues.
“Goodness, you are in a mood. I have just the thing for that.” Lissa floated down the hall and into the kitchen. “Take a look in the cupboard above the counter.”
Jess did so and found a wicker basket filled with potion bottles she had never seen before.
“There, that pink one. Take a tablespoon of that three times a day and you’ll feel like a new woman.”
“Shouldn’t we be able to make something to stop hot flashes all together.”
Lissa tutted. “That’s not a good idea. This is a light potion to elevate your positivity. Anything more will interfere with your transition from mere woman to witch.”
Jess wasn’t sure if she was offended by the “mere woman” thing or excited at being something more than a middle-aged woman. “About that. Why is it that witches come into their powers at midlife?”
“This is when you are mature enough to cope with the responsibility and strong enough to learn how to harness your powers.”
Trusting her mother, Jess swallowed a spoonful of the liquid and immediately felt better. “I guess some people could abuse their powers.”
“Unfortunately, they do. It is a very sad situation when that happens. Their familiar must step in and remove their powers—for good, if it’s warranted.”
Maestro was curled up on a rug by the sink, and he shuddered. “It is not pleasant for either party.”
Jess recalled him saying that if she died, he died. He was older than she could contemplate and had many Lavender women to train, but she had no children, which meant the line died with her. The weight of another responsibility hit her and made her skin heat again. She tried to focus on their conversation instead of what was expected of her.
“If potions are my thing, what other kinds of witches are there?”
Her mother floated to the back door. “There are seers and elemental witches.”
“Elemental?”
“Earth, wind, and fire. Come, let’s go down to the shed and you can try creating a few potion spells.”
“You mean different to the ones we sell in the shop?”
Her mother shrugged. “Those are harmless but helpful. Anyone with a knowledge of botany could produce them. Obviously, without a witchy hand in making them they wouldn’t be as quick or as potent.”
Jess laughed. “Obviously.” Witches used a cauldron, which heated instantly, and with a wand the spells perfected in seconds.
Her mother dissolved, but she felt her presence as they went to the shed. Inside it was clean and tidier than any normal shed in a backyard should be. After the door was shut, Jess pulled out the cauldron from the back of the counter. It resembled a plant pot so no one would ever guess what it was, which was a good thing when her mother had so many nosey friends.
