Page 22 of The Accidental Witch

Robbie swallowed hard, her hands clammy. “Can’t you do it?” If his grandmother had all this power, he must have some, right?

His eyes glittered in the deep of the night. “It’s not a skill I possess. If you’d rather, I’ll go back to the SUV and get the shovel and dig her up.”

If this was going to be her life from now on, if there was no changing it, then she had no choice but to embrace it.

Firmly planting her left hand in his, Robbie said, “Let’s do this.”

He gave her a short nod before he spoke. “Repeat after me: open to me, sacred earth, reveal to me, your grave’s worth.”

Robbie took a deep breath and spoke the words, her voice shaky.

Greer took her index finger and straightened it. “Now, point your finger at the headstone.”

She did as she was told, jabbing her finger at the eerie structure. The silence that ensued engulfed the space in deafening waves. The leaves on the trees froze in place, the wind ceased.

Robbie was about to open her mouth to mention it didn’t look like the spell was going to work when the ground beneath her sneakers began to moan and creak, shifting, making her stumble and fall into Greer.

He held her steady, his strong arms encircling her, and whispered, “Watch…”

Her eyes went wide when the hard ground began to cave inward, rumbling so loud it sounded like the world was ending.

The women gathered around her once more, pushing Greer back and standing in front of her in a clear effort to keep her safe, but she stuck her head between their bodies.

Robbie’s mouth fell open as the earth parted like the Red Sea, the soil falling inward, crumbling in large chunks.

On impulse, Robbie gripped Nina’s arm with her good hand, almost afraid to look but incapable of looking away.

Leaves kicked up, swirling in the air, multicolored sparkly particles twinkled and twisted over the grave, the roar of what felt like the universe groaning and giving way echoed in the clearing.

When the ground beneath them stopped moving, Robbie blinked to be sure she was seeing what she was seeing.

Holy cow, she’d done it. Or Gwinnifer’s magic had done it, because sure enough, there was a big deep hole in front of her headstone. A loud creak said the hinges on the door to her casket had opened.

Greer scooped her up and swung her around. “You did it! Well done, Robbie!”

She hadn’treallydone it. It wasn’t her magic, but knowing she’d had a hand in it—pardon the pun—made her feel good.

As he set her back on the ground, she heard one of the women gasp, making both her and Greer run to the edge of the gaping hole to see what they were looking at.

“She’s there,” Marty muttered, holding up the flashlight on her phone to reveal the casket, wide open.

She sure was.

And she didn’t look a day over twenty-five.

Huh.

Chapter

Seven

And she hadn’t decomposed. When you’d been underground for five years, surely you didn’t look like you were simply taking a catnap. And excuse me, when you were pushing one hundred and fifty, did you look like that?

Robbie didn’t even look as young, and she was one hundred and eleven years younger than Gwinnifer, give or take.

Man, she sure must have been a busy lady, sucking the youth out of women, because she looked amazing.

Robbie stared down into the grave along with everyone else, completely flabbergasted. Gwinnifer was wrapped in a decomposing, silky-looking violet blanket, her skin smooth and flawless, not a wrinkle in sight. Her hair, much the same color as Greer’s, fanned out behind her, without a single gray strand. Her hands were crossed over her belly, and there was a bouquet of now-dead flowers beneath them.

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