Bound: A Doyle Witch Cozy Mystery by Kirsten Weiss

Author:Kirsten Weiss [Weiss, Kirsten]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: witch mystery, cozy mystery, female sleuth, amateur detective, woman detective, Fairy Tales, psychic, Occult, paranormal mystery, wicca, Witchcraft
Amazon: B01M4ROH89
Publisher: misterio press
Published: 2016-11-21T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

We arranged chairs around our aunt’s bed. Ellen seemed to have shrunk since they’d brought her from the hospital. Her eyes were half-closed, her flesh sagging between the bones in her arms and skull. She bunched the blue coverlet beneath her clawed hands.

“Not the overhead light,” she said, shielding her face.

“Sorry.” Jayce switched on the bedside lamp and hurried to turn off the overhead, casting the room into gloom.

“You three need to take care of each other.” Ellen’s words came in short gasps, her breath wheezing.

I rose, sat again. Ellen was saying goodbye, and I wasn’t ready. My hands were clammy. I rubbed them on the leg of my pants.

Jayce glanced at Lenore.

Lenore smoothed the stomach of her slip dress and shook her head. Ellen wasn’t dying yet.

I started to breathe again.

I took Ellen’s gnarled hand. It felt birdlike, insubstantial. “You don’t have to worry about us.” My voice broke. “We’ve always been close. That’s not going to change.”

“Everything changes. You three are the first… siblings in a hundred and… fifty years. Change is coming.”

Eyes tearing, Jayce took Ellen’s other hand. “You’ve done so much for us. You’ve taught us and loved us better than any mother could. We’ll be okay.”

“The spell book,” Ellen said. “Get it for me.”

“I know where it is.” I hurried from the room, dashing tears from my cheeks and suddenly unwilling for my sisters to learn what I’d been reading.

I raced up the attic ladder and to the antique secretary, snapped the book closed.

The cabinet’s glass door stood open. I moved to shut it, paused. The massive Bible, thicker than the spell book in my arms, lay on the bottom shelf. On impulse, I grabbed that as well and picked my way down the steep ladder.

I entered the sick room.

Lenore thumbed through a handful of papers. “If this is what you want—”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Ellen’s wishes for her burial,” Jayce choked out.

“I bought a plot years ago at Greenwood Cemetery, where your parents are.” Ellen wheezed. “Everything’s paid for.”

My vision grew watery, and I hooked my toe in a blue rag rug, stumbled. I didn’t want to talk about this. But Ellen did, and that was what mattered.

“Watch your step,” Ellen said. “I see you brought the spell book. What else have you got?”

“The family Bible,” I said.

“Where did you find that?” Ellen laughed, and the sound twisted into a cough. “It must be falling apart. I haven’t opened that Bible since...” She looked away. Since she’d recorded the deaths of her brother and sister-in-law and our births. “I regretted opening it then. I may have damaged the spine.” Ellen reached out, and I handed her the spell book.

Ellen’s arm thunked to the bed, the spell book sliding from her grasp.

Jayce grabbed the book before it could tumble to the floor. “Here, let me help you. What are you looking for?”

“There must be some… clue,” Ellen panted. “Something I missed, a way to break the curse.”

“Ellen,” Jayce said. “Forget about that damned curse.

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