Bizarre Love Potion: A Witches of Holiday Hills Cozy Mystery (The Witches of Holiday Hills Cozy Mystery Series Book 19) by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

Author:Carolyn Ridder Aspenson [Aspenson, Carolyn Ridder]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magnum Grace Publishing
Published: 2024-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Eight

Later that night, Stella, Alex, Pony, and Gabe came by for pizza and to dig into the case. It went against human law for Gabe to spill the beans on an investigation to citizens, but in the magical world, we played by a unique set of rules—and they usually trumped the human ones.

“Vincent’s visit to his family doesn’t completely exonerate him,” Gabe said. He grabbed a slice of pizza loaded with toppings, including Cooper’s favorite fish ever, anchovies.

Cooper was right there, perched on the back of the couch like a fluffy overlord, eyeing Gabe’s slice. “Care to share?”

“No.” Gabe set the slice on his plate then magically created a small serving of anchovies for Cooper and placed the saucer on the floor near his feet.

“Oh, he’s my favorite witch for sure,” Cooper said.

“I’m telling Bessie,” I said.

His eyes widened. “Second to her, obviously.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“You know you can do that yourself, right?” Stella asked. Apparently, Cooper was allowing everyone to understand him, a not-so-rare treat lately.

“It’s not the same as being served by someone,” he said, donning the air of a true “aristocat.”

“He likes the royal treatment,” I said.

“Darn straight,” he replied, his mouth full of stinky fish bliss.

“Anyway, what do you mean by doesn’t completely exonerate him?” I asked Gabe.

“He went to visit family, but he didn’t get there until the evening, and according to Ethan’s parents, he’d already received the necklace, which doesn’t matter anyway,” Gabe said. “Since it’s confirmed the necklace arrived in the mail, alibis won’t do us much good.”

“Then what do we do?” I asked, the weight of dead ends piling on top of my motivation.

“Work on motives and opportunity.” He eyed Alex. “Want to tell them what you found out?”

“Sure. I did some research on the curse, and the demon only attaches itself to people who open the book.”

“Babe, old news,” Stella said.

“Right, except this demon can be easily fooled, though nothing I’ve read explains why.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“We’re not sure, but it’s possible Lily got ahold of the book,” he said. “The book’s hundreds of years old. The average demon would get bored waiting to inflict its terror for that long, but the demon used for the book’s curse is said to be the laziest one around.”

“Does this demon have a name?” I asked.

He smiled. “Slumborax, but he was pegged as so lazy that magicals called him Slumborax the Lackadaisical.”

“In the past,” Gabe added, “he tried to inflict curses but often ended up just causing minor annoyances because he didn’t bother to put in the full effort.”

“So the demon cursed them through the necklaces as what? A matter of convenience?” Stella asked.

“We think so,” Gabe said.

It would have been funny if Ethan hadn’t died. “So the demon has latched on to Lily because she opened the book as well, but she no longer has the choker, so what does that mean?”

“Stella got the choker to me,” Gabe said, “and it’s locked up in magical evidence, but we can’t assume that’s going to keep her safe.

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