Bright Young Witches and the Merry Dead: A Short Christmas Novel: A Bright Young Witches Cozy Historical Mystery by Beth Byers

Author:Beth Byers [Byers, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2019-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

HADLEY BERTRAND ALDER WODE

“Margot,” Hadley hissed later that evening. “What is the matter with you?”

She glanced up from her compact and lifted a brow before she snapped it closed.

“You know exactly what I mean,” he growled at her silent question. “You are deliberately alienating Ariadne and her sisters.”

“They stole our inheritance.”

“We didn’t earn it,” Hadley reminded her. “We have the same nature witch gift, but while Ariadne Wode was cultivating hers, you were flirting and shopping and I was drinking too much. She’s a better witch than either of us.”

Margot sniffed and then muttered, “Delilah Wode was half a witch.”

“Delilah Wode knew that none of us could handle the magic and she followed the advice of Grandfather and reverted to the ancient way, which is why Ariadne is the Wode instead of either of us.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Margot said.

She scowled at him with that sour expression that he’d come to know so well. Her bowed mouth twisted into a frown, her blue eyes narrowed on him, and she pushed back her fringe. She had shingled her hair with a precision she’d never used in anything other than her lipstick and the way she drew on her brows.

Hadley scowled. “You are making it impossible for me to form a relationship with them.”

“A relationship?” Margot asked with an arched brow. “What is it that you are wanting?”

“I want a cousin, Margot. Must you always be crass? We don’t know anything about those sisters, but we do know that they’re witches, they’re Wodes, and they inherited.”

“You know,” she mused, pursing her perfectly made-up lips at him and examining him. “A little Christmas romance is what this situation needs. Those sisters are locked down, but the holidays tend to soften anyone up. Add in that Circe is desperate for love and Ariadne is well aware she isn’t suited for this job, and you have a chance even you couldn’t flub up. Once you get one of them, you’ll have all of them. They’re tight knit. For now anyway. I’m sure we could loosen that up once you have one for your own.”

Hadley stared at his sister and then muttered to himself, and he left her bedroom before he strangled her. Instead, he focused on the holidays. He went down to the grove. Yes, it was haunted, but George and Martha didn’t seem so bad. And Ariadne had tamed the wild magic, so what was there to fear?

Hadley moved through the wood with the machete that Grandfather had used when they’d gathered boughs so many Christmases ago. He started with the holly bushes and worked with gloves, piling stacks of boughs. They’d need some good pine boughs as well, but he did enjoy the colors of holly.

He worked until he felt eyes on him. Hadley glanced back, wondering if Margot had come to apologize. She needed to. He was no more a commodity than she was, and he wouldn’t break the trust of Ariadne and her sisters by trying to creep into the family with a pretense of love.

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