The Contestant Flies Off the Handle: Moonchuckle Bay Romantic Comedy #7 Read online

  “What?” Mary sounded more awake already.

  “Stolen.”

  “When?”

  “In the last couple of hours.”

  “What happened?” Her sister sounded frantic.

  “I don't know. We just came back to the hotel and found out.”

  “We?”

  Cara paused. “Isaac Murphy and me.”

  “Well, that’s interesting, but not as urgent as finding the stones. What can you do there to find them?”

  “They’re calling in the Connolly Coven to cast a tracking spell. But the sheriff says it would help them if they knew what the stones could do.”

  “Did you tell them, then?”

  “I didn’t know what to do. We haven’t said anything about losing the stones or about these being our family stones. My job was to come here and win them back, not announce that they were ours in the first place.”

  “Let me get Mam and Da and Nana.”

  “Hurry.”

  A few very long minutes later, Mary said, “The whole family is here on speaker phone.”

  “Good morning,” Cara said. In return, she received greetings from her parents, Nana, and sisters Sophie and Ruby.

  “Okay, repeat what you told me,” Mary said.

  So Cara told them about the missing stones and then asked, “What do I do now?”

  Nana said, “I think you need to tell the sheriff. Ask him to keep the information quiet, but tell him. What do you think, boyo?”

  Da cleared his throat and said, “I absolutely agree. you must tell the sheriff what you know of the stones.”

  “And what of Isaac?” Mary asked. “Have you told him?”

  “Of course I have not!” Cara said, indignantly.

  “Well, while you're making up with him, you can tell him about your reason for being there, too,” Nana said.

  “I don't want to make up with him,” Cara lied. “He’s a jerk! Remember?”

  “Yes, I do remember,”Mam said. “I remember you've never forgotten him. Never stopped mentioning him. Never stopped loving him.”

  Cara was silent.

  Her mam said, “Go to him. Give him a second chance, sweet. Ask for your Isaac’s help finding the stones. We need all the help we can get.”

  There was a commotion at the elevator. The sheriff and Isaac turned to see the two security guards blocking the way — of Cara.

  The sheriff called out, “Let her come over here.”

  The two men stepped back, and the pretty little witch moved forward.

  They still stood at the reception desk, where the sheriff had set up his command center.

  Cara looked worried, and that pushed Isaac’s need to protect her to new levels.

  “What is it?” Sheriff Winston asked her.

  She said, “I need to tell you — both of you — where you can find someone who knows about the runestones.”

  Isaac tilted his head, glad to be included in the conversation. Did that mean she trusted him now? His level of hope edged upward. “Really?”

  Samuel did the same. “Tell us.”

  She shook her head. “It needs to be in private.”

  Isaac exchanged a glance with the sheriff, who said, “Come into the office here.”

  He led her around the counter and into a large office. Temporary desks and laptops had been set up there.

  When the door had been securely shut and they were all three seated, the sheriff motioned for Cara to speak. “Who is this person?”

  She took a deep breath and blew it out. “Sure and it’s me.”

  “You.” The sheriff said.

  “Me.”

  Much to his satisfaction, Cara turned to Isaac. “I need to help you both get them back.”

  Isaac nodded. “Tell us what you know.”

  “The runestones have belonged to my family for many years, and each of us had one. They amplify our powers. Without them, we’ve felt cut off from the source of our magic. We can still perform magic, but we can’t do the more powerful things without them.”

  The sheriff said, “Were they stolen from your family?”

  Cara shook her head, and puffed out another breath. “My grandda had dementia. Three years ago, he gambled them away to a warlock who we’ve never seen again and couldn’t track down.”

  Instantly, Isaac wanted to pound that warlock. “I can replace the value of the runestones to you.”

  Cara shook her head. “I don't care about the money. We need the stones back. That’s why I entered the pageant. I had to win them back.”

  “What if you don’t win?” the sheriff asked.

  “Then my family was prepared to try to buy them back from the winner. They would have gotten the money somehow.” She closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked determined. “I need to help retrieve them. This pageant is the only chance I have to take them home to my family, whether I win or lose.”

  The sheriff shook his head. “I don’t know, Ms. O’Sullivan.”

  “I do know, Sheriff Winston,” she replied. “I will help you and Isaac find them. I can feel the stones when I get close to them, so I’ll not be hearing any arguments about it.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Samuel chuckled, pointed at Isaac, and asked Cara, “You want to work with this vampire?”

  She looked into Isaac’s eyes and her expression softened. “He’ll do just fine.”

  Isaac’s heart flickered with hope. This was where he could shine. He was analytical. He noticed things. He could help her find the stones. She could depend on him. “All right.”

  Samuel’s phone buzzed and he held up a finger. “Excuse me,” he said as he answered it. A moment later, he said, “Send her in.”

  He looked at them. “Chicory Connolly is here to report on what the coven found.”

  As Chicory entered, she shook her head. “No luck. There’s no trail. Someone cast a concealment spell and we can’t get a lock on the stones. Sorry to give you such bad news.”

  “What if you had a witch to whom one of the stones belongs magically? Would that help?”

  Chicory looked interested. “Probably would, but we can’t cast another big spell until in the morning. This spell took all of our juice to do. And it got nothing. We’ll come back in the morning. Who’s the witch?”

  Cara raised her hand. “Here.”

  Chicory raised an eyebrow. “One of the stones is yours? Why is it here then?”

  “It’s not here,” Cara pointed out. “And it was here because my grandda got dementia and gambled it away, along with the rest of them.”

  “Ouch,” Chicory said, grimacing.

  Isaac put an arm around Cara’s shoulder — and she let him!

  That was a good sign.

  Thank Goodness for Jingle

  CARA AND THE OTHER WITCHES had already purified themselves by bathing, dressing in their ritual clothes, and taking time to breathe deeply. They’d made sure they wouldn’t be interrupted. All phones were turned off. The doors to this small hotel banquet room were locked, and security guards stood outside so no one would come in to disturb the ritual. The floor had been vacuumed.

  Chicory’s mother, Marigold Connolly, the head of the coven, used sage, thyme, and incense to cleanse the space.

  The local witches were there, those she’d met at The Bubbling Cauldron, and the contestant witches were joining them, too. The only exceptions were Miss London, who’d been too ill today — Augusta had looked a little greenish — and Miss New Orleans, who didn’t feel her voodoo magic would mesh easily with theirs.

  So the six witches in the room were Chicory and her mother Marigold, the kitchen witch Sugar, the pixie Dixie, Katherine Deakin from Salem, and Cara.

  Cara followed the others into the center of the area where Marigold was going to define the circle they were going to cast.

  Marigold sprinkled salt in a large circle around them all. When the circle was one continuous round, they all began to walk around it clockwise, and cast it, energizing it with th
eir magic.

  Then four candles were placed, one candle in each compass direction — north for earth, south for fire, east for air, and west for water.

  Since Cara was an earth witch, and since she was linked magically to her runestone, she set a rock to represent earth by the north candle. The others placed objects by the other three candles.

  When they were done, Marigold motioned to Cara to stand beside her in the center.

  As soon as she reached the other woman’s side, Marigold asked her, “Do you sense your runestone?”

  Cara extended her magical senses, hoping to feel it. After a long moment of searching, she shook her head. “No.”

  Marigold took her hand and raised it, and she and Cara raised their other hands, as well.

  Then Marigold said, “Watch over us and bless our rite. We wish to find the runestones that belong magically to the family of Cara O’Sullivan.”

  Cara felt the magic swirl in the air around her.

  Marigold released Cara’s hand and raised her wand, which was a signal for them all to pull out their wands. The only one without one was Dixie. Marigold said, “Keeper of what disappears, hear me now — open your ears. Find for me what I now seek, by moon, sun, earth, air, fire, and sea.”

  After a pause, Chicory said, “By the powers of moon, sun, earth, air, fire, and sea, what once was lost return to she.”

  Cara could feel the magic moving around her as Dixie said, “Earth, air, water, fire, help me find what I desire. Candle, cup, wind, seed, help me find what I need.”

  Katherine drew in a deep breath, and said, “I now invoke the law of three; what once was lost returns to me. Something she lost we need to find. By the power of three, this spell I bind."

  It was Cara’s turn. "Wolves and fairies, dragons and ghosts, help me find the thing I need most. My runestone is lost, cannot be found, whether lost above or below the ground. Bring it back to me, so mote it be!"

  The kitchen witch, Sugar, said, “What is lost must now be found. Take my luck and turn it around.”

  Another swirl of magic circled them, rose-colored, which symbolized many things. Birth and growth. Movement and unfolding. Love — both familial and romantic.

  And luck. They’d asked for luck — and here it was, symbolized.

  The rose-colored magic swirled first to point at Sugar — that was interesting — and then turned to the west candle.

  She exchanged glances with the others. The runestones were to the west.

  “All right, let’s ground the power,” Marigold said.

  Cara focused on how her body pressed into the ground, imagining all excess energy flowing into the earth.

  When she opened her eyes, she saw the others were waiting for her. “Thank you for helping us learn where to look.”

  The others smiled and repeated her words. “Thank you.”

  “Now we’ll close the circle,” Marigold instructed.

  Cara joined the others in visualizing the circle’s energy returning to themselves and to the earth. They walked counterclockwise around the circle in order to close it.

  She replaced her wand in her pocket.

  After sweeping and vacuuming up the salt, her sisters in thyme wandered toward the table set up with water pitchers and snacks to help them renew the energy it had taken to cast the spell.

  Marigold opened the doors and let in the deputies — and Isaac, who’d been waiting this whole time. Seeing him made her feel safer, an emotion she fought to resist.

  In Marigold’s Bubbling Cauldron van, Cara reached out with her senses, hoping to feel her stone. They were headed west on Make-Believe Boulevard and had passed the studio a mile or two back.

  “Anything?” Chicory asked.

  Cara shook her head. “No.” She wanted to cry because she was afraid the runestones were lost forever.

  Suddenly, Sugar cried out, “Stop!”

  Marigold pulled the van to the side of the road and turned back to look at Sugar.

  Sugar shrugged. “Sometimes I get feelings. I think we should get out and walk along the road for a while.”

  “That’s sort of random, isn’t it?” Katherine asked.

  “Sugar is a kitchen witch.” Chicory grinned. “A good luck charm, as it were. When she gets feelings, we all listen.”

  So they all climbed out into the August heat. At ten in the morning, it was already nearly eighty degrees. Cara said, “It’s fierce hot out today.”

  “Let’s split up,” Dixie said. “Some of us on this side of the road, and some on the other.”

  “And some headed in each direction,” Chicory agreed.

  Cara walked ahead, in the direction they’d been driving, following about ten feet behind Sugar.

  She studied the area around the asphalt, the tall wild grasses, the small bushes, and the bare ground. In the distance, she could see a barn. In the fields ahead, corn was growing tall and in the fields on the other side of the road, some cows grazed.

  After twenty minutes, Cara had given up hope. So much for Sugar’s “feelings” and luck.

  She opened her mouth to say they might as well give up when Sugar tripped, falling onto a bush with an “Umph!”

  “Oh, my gosh,” Cara said, running forward to help pull Sugar up. “Are you all right?”

  The other woman rolled over until she was sitting on the ground — and grinned, which surprised Cara. Sugar said, “Do you feel anything right now?”

  “What?” Then ... The stones! “Sure and I do feel them!”

  Sugar reached under the bush she’d fallen on top of and pulled out a velvet bag.

  Cara sucked in a breath, then whispered, “Our runestones!”

  Sugar nodded as the other women reached them, laughing and chattering.

  Cara gawked at the pretty witch in disbelief. “So you tripped and fell right on top of the stones, just like that?”

  “It’s my good luck,” Sugar explained. “Once I fell out of a moving van and got amnesia — and that turned out to be good luck, too.”

  Chicory said, “I’m calling the sheriff and Isaac.”

  Marigold said, “We told Sugar to enter the pageant and she’d win for sure, but she wanted to give the other ladies a fair shot at the title.”

  Still sitting on the ground, Sugar opened the drawstring at the top of the bag, then upended the stones into her hand.

  Seven gemstones glistened in the sunlight.

  Mary’s diamond, Sophie’s topaz, Ruby’s ruby, her mam’s sapphire, her da’s black opal, Nana’s amethyst — and her own beautiful emerald!

  The green stone called to her, demanding to be reunited with its owner.

  A yearning slammed into Cara, and she reached out her hand. She wanted to snatch her stone free and run with it. She longed to hold it again, to feel her power renewed. But she couldn’t. If she touched it, she would run with it, and that would dishonor her family.

  Plus she wouldn’t get ten feet before being taken down by the coven of witches. She knew they were sympathetic to her cause, but she also knew the stones didn’t legally belong to her family at the moment.

  She could tell from the look in Sugar’s eyes that the other witch understood her pain.

  Cara pulled back her hand. It was one of the hardest things she’d ever done.

  They may have found her runestone, so it wasn’t lost forever — but it was lost to her unless she won the pageant.

  A car pulled up beside them.

  Isaac.

  After watching the sheriff take possession of the bag of runestones, Isaac offered to drive the women back to their van. “I’ll have to make a couple of trips, though.”

  The sheriff said, “I’ll take half of them.”

  The women looked hot and sweaty and uncomfortable. Cara had the beginning tell-tale pink flush of a sunburn. He opened the door and said, “Climb on in. You ladies look like you need one of Jingle’s snow cones to cool you off before you go back to clean up for the rehearsal.” He checked his watch. “You ha
ve two hours until lunch and then rehearsal of the dance number.”

  “Plus tonight is when the top ten finalists are chosen,” Katherine said.

  At the van, Isaac said, “Anyone want to ride with me for a snow cone?”

  In the passenger seat, Cara looked dejected. When none of the other ladies got in his car, she reached for the door handle to get back out.

  “Please go with me,” Isaac said quietly.

  She turned her eyes to him and he saw pain there. “I haven’t been close to my stone, not close enough to touch it, in three years. It’s shaken me up. A snow cone isn’t going to help that.”

  “Jingle’s snow cone will. I promise.”

  She paused, staring into his eyes, then said, “All right.”

  He smiled at her. “Thanks. You won’t regret it.”

  He looked out at the other witches climbing into The Bubbling Cauldron van. “I guess it’s just you and me.” That had a nice sound to it.

  The sheriff pulled out first, taking the gemstones to the hotel safe. They wouldn’t be left in a display case again.

  The van left next, with the witches waving.

  Cara returned a half-hearted wave.

  “I’m sorry you can’t have your stone back yet.” He was quiet for a long moment. “What if I could arrange to buy the stones?”

  “You’d need a lot of money.”

  “I have a lot.”

  “I wish it were that easy,” she said. “But thank you for offering.”

  He drove past the studio and toward town, wishing he could kiss her better.

  “I appreciate everything you've done to help me retrieve the stones.”

  “I will do anything for you, Cara O’Sullivan. I hope you know that.”

  She was silent again as he reached Mane Street and turned left toward Town Square.

  He parked and walked her across the street. He took her hand, and she let him. In fact, she clung to his hand, which pleased him.

  When they reached Craved Ice, there was a line of three teenage werewolves — two boys and a girl. The boys were showing off to impress the girl.

  “You’re shivering.” Isaac put his arm around Cara and pulled her close.

  “I’m thinking it might not be a good idea to get shaved ice.”