Page 13 of The Accidental Witch

Marty sat back, pushing her long blonde hair over her shoulders. “Why was sheeliminated?”

NowGreer’slips thinned. “The coven discovered she was abusing her power, which is a complete no-no, but that’s not what sent this over the edge. They’d certainly have punished her, but they never would have expunged her completely. They discovered she was draining younger witches for their powers, leaving them nothing more than lifeless husks.”

Robbie snorted again, totally inappropriately, but incapable of keeping her derision on the inside. “Next you’ll tell me she was draining them for their youth, just like the Sanderson Sisters.”

“Then you’d be correct. It was their essence, to be precise,” he stated, his eyes capturing hers.

She was never going to watchHocus Pocusagain.

“So serial killer witch? That’s new. But if she’s dead, why the fuck are we digging her up?” Nina asked.

Greer inhaled and, if she wasn’t mistaken, it was a little shaky. “If Gwinnifer’s magic is still alive, she has to be, too.Checking her grave to be sure her earthly body’s still there is the first step in figuring out how this could have happened. It will eliminate the possibility she’s still alive. Yet, the notion makes zero sense. I saw her buried with my own eyes. But Ismelledher magic, Ms. Statleon. It virtually woke me from a sound sleep. If she’s alive, and she somehow stored her magic in that planchette for safe keeping, and it’s now in Robbie’s hand…she’s going to come looking for it.”

Which meant the angry serial witch-killing granny was out for blood—her blood.

That made Robbie hop up out of her chair in terror, her hands frozen, her feet blocks of ice. “Enough! Enough talk of vampires and werewolves and angry witches! This is cuckoo town, and I won’t listen to another word! I’m going home. I have cats that need to be fed and a job at the Dollar General that needs…needs…needs jobbing!”

Nina’s head popped up, her expression bright, the half of her glossy black hair still intact sweeping down along her chest. “Cats? You have cats?”

Instantly, Robbie was on guard, her mama bear instincts in overdrive. Didn’t vampires eat small animals? “I do, and if you think I’m going to let you anywhere near them, you’ve got another think comin’! They are not breakfast!”

Nina pointed a finger at her in an accusatory fashion. “Look at you, all feisty and ready for a fucking fight there’s not a chance in hell you can win. So FYI, I don’t fucking eat breakfast, Magic Fingers. Vampire, remember? We sleep all day in our coffins.”

Robbie’s eyes went wide, looking around as though a coffin would suddenly appear. Of course, that was ridiculous. But then…was it in light of everything she’d seen tonight?

Marty chuckled, looking at her in guilt. “Sorry, Robbie. I don’t mean to laugh. She doesn’t sleep in a coffin and if you knew Nina, you’d know that drinking your cats’ blood is the furthestthing from her mind She loves animals, and they all love her. We do a lot of work with a rescue from a former client, if you want proof.”

Robbie relaxed, but only a little.

Wanda nodded with a smile. “What Marty means to say is, you don’t have to worry about your cats. We’ll get them and bring them here so you can be with them while you go through this process.”

The process… That felt like a line from a sci-fi movie. Or likeDeadpool, when they turned her secret crush Ryan Reynolds into a crispy-fried version of his former self after he went throughthe processto cure his cancer.

“Please don’t leave, Robbie,” Greer said in a tone so deep and delicious, goose bumps ran along her arms despite her panic. “There’s no telling what could happen if you go out there on your own with a hand full of Gwinnifer’s magic. She was an evil woman and she did evil things, sometimes just for the pleasure of the pain it caused others. You’ve already seen what it can do just by the point of your finger. When the magic comes to fruition—and it will—without meaning to, you could cause some serious damage if you’re not taught how to properly use it. People could get hurt.”

Sure. Play to her decency.

“Miss?” Tottington said. “I, like you, am quite gobsmacked. However, you cannot deny what we’ve seen thus far. Knowing you as I do, I know you wish no harm upon anyone. Surely, our choice is obvious. We must listen and take precautions.”

Robbie made a face at him. “So you’re okay with digging up Grandma? Have I gone to an alternate universe, T? You, with all your rigid rules and decorum, want to dig up a woman’s grave?”

He lifted one eyebrow the way he always did when he thought her audacious. “Are you quite deaf, Miss? Did you not hear whata dreadful woman she was? Did you not hear your safety is in question? Yes! Indeed, we must unearth her.”

Nina winked at him. “I think I got a mad crush on you, Totts.”

T’s sense of propriety made him sit up ramrod straight. “The name isTottington,Miss.”

Nina cackled and slapped him on the back. “Wanna know what I’m hearing? I’m hearing you love the nickname and we’re gonna be BFFs,” she joked.

Tottington fought a smirk. “I doubt the veracity of your claim, however, if it helps Roberta, I shall do whatever need be.”

Nina winked again. “That’s the spirit, BFF.”

Tottington’s words had calmed her panic a bit, but not by much. She still wanted to run home and hide under her covers. “So my hand,thishand,” She held it up and looked at it as if she were performing some kind of Show and Tell, “has magic in it. Your grandmother Gwinnifer’s magic. Now lemme get this straight. She was an evil woman who’s supposed to be deader’n a doornail because she did evil things like steal younger witches’ powers and ultimately their youth. So your coveneliminatedher. Now we’re going to dig up her grave to see if she’s really there because if she’s not, she’s going to hunt me down like an animal to get her magic back. Correct?” She gave a nod to Marty and Wanda. “No offense to the two of you, who are actually half animal.”

Nina snorted. “Animals. You hear that, ladies, she called you fucking animals.”

“I didn’t mean…” Robbie shook her head. She didn’t know what she meant. If you were a wolf, didn’t that classify you as an animal?

---