Page 7 of The Accidental Witch

Robbie’s tendency to ramble when she was nervous had kicked into overdrive. Thank God Tottington was around, he probably knew her better than she knew herself, and he knew she was struggling to put the words together so she didn’t sound like a grade-A nutjob.

Robbie jabbed her finger in the air. “Right. Anyway, Mrs. Campisi was bending over—backward, mind you—and yelling at me to hurry up and spin the spinny thingy because she was getting dizzy, so I did…and that’s when it happened. It felt like it zapped me or something, and then my left hand felt like rubber. It was the oddest thing, but I didn’t think a lot about it until…” She gulped hard again, her legs shaking.

“Until the party, if one can call it that, was over, and Roberta set her hair on fire. Then we gave great thought to her appendage.”

“And then…” Robbie used her right hand to point to Hervé. “Then he showed up out of nowhere and he was talking and it was like a Disney movie gone sideways.”

She could almost see Hervé seethe at her from where he had propped himself up by a medieval suit of armor, but he remained silent.

Wanda folded her fingers together and basketed her knees with her arms, leaning back on the fancy peacock-blue settee where she sat next to Marty. “Did anything else happen, Robbie? Anything else that was unusual?”

Robbie blinked. “Does it get any more unusual than fingers of fire and a talking broom?”

They’d briefly given her a quick synopsis of what they dealt with in terms of the paranormal, but come on. Theywere behaving as if her talking broom was a battery-operated Energizer Bunny.

But Hervé had no batteries, because she’d looked for some. How odd that these women weren’t at all fazed by her talking broom.

Wanda smiled again, her tastefully made-up eyes warm and reassuring. “You’d be surprised. Now, every small detail is crucial. Is there anything else you can remember?”

Now that she thought about it, the rest was a bit of a blur. She remembered spinning the planchette and then everyone leaving right before she set her hair on fire and her talking broom showed up, but not much else until they were in the Uber, headed here to Nina’s castle. The in between of it all was blurry.

Tottington cleared his throat, still standing, even though the women had offered him a place to sit. “There was the voice, Miss…” he reminded. “Lest ye forget the voice.”

“The voice…” she whispered. She had a vague recollection of T mentioning something about demonic tones or something. She couldn’t remember exactly.

Standing up straight, Tottington squared his shoulders as though remembering what happened was something he’d always have toendure. Like cleaning toilets or scraping gum off the bottom of school desks.

“Yes. There was avoice. When Roberta touched the planchette, she jumped back as though she’d been struck. Then, in what can only be described as an insidious incident, she said, or maybe it was growled, ‘By the power of the forgotten gods, give back what is mine. Snatched from me as long as time, return my magic, so entwine!’ in a tone that, for all intents and purposes, sounded as though she were possessed.”

Robbie shivered. She’d said that? It sounded like something out of a damn movie. What did that even mean, and did it have something to do with her hand?

Hervé shivered, too, his bristles scratching the brick floor. He shrank farther into the medieval armor, almost whimpering.

Nina sat upright and pointed at him before she zipped across the room in a blur and snatched him up. “You know some shit. I can smell it, you little motherfucker. What is it and where the fuck did you come from?”

Hervé quivered against Nina, the scent of his fear almost palpable. “Unhand me, you glorious beast!” he all but squeaked, despite his brave words.

Robbie was quick to approach Nina, putting her hand on the fierce woman’s arm, not thinking about the fact that she didn’t appear to mind threatening abroom.

“Please don’t hurt him,” she mumbled. Robbie didn’t know why she felt so protective of him, but some weird instinct to keep him safe kept rearing its head.

When Nina growled at her, she didn’t recoil in the typical way she’d react when confronted by a snarling, albeit gorgeous monster—or confronted at all. She hated confrontation, but Hervé, even though he didn’t have a face, per se, looked terrified.

Instead of showing her fear, as she held out her other hand, Robbie said softly but firmly, “Please.”

“Give her the broom, Nina,” Marty said, low and menacing, pushing herself to the edge of the settee.

“Please give her ze broom,” Hervé peeped again, a tremble in his voice.

Nina shoved Hervé at her, but she didn’t entirely back off. “What the fuck do you know about what’s going on and where the hell did you come from?” she sneered.

Hervé tucked himself into her body, pushing against her puffy jacket. Robbie wrapped her arm around him, whispering, “If you know something about what’s happening to me, I think you’d better fess. Because you know…scary lady.”

Nina growled again to reinforce her scary.

Hervé straightened a little as they all waited for an answer. “I do not know why I came to you, Robbie. The universe is my guide, and it has sent me to you…”

She couldn’t believe she was doing this, but Robbie gave him a slight nudge with a gentle finger to encourage him. “And?”

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