Casting Curses Read online

  Max decided to go up top and watch Dev, so Sandy and I curled up in the parlor, wine in hand and under microfiber throws as we waited for the verdict. Kelson had emptied the refrigerator of questionable food, and set out to see what she could find for dinner. I had thrown money at her and told her to buy whatever was hot and comforting, and make certain to get plenty of it.

  “At least this happened before Thanksgiving,” Sandy said.

  “Yeah, but for us, the holiday season starts this week. Business soars this time of year. We had to cancel three bookings for today and we have more scheduled later this week.”

  From his perch in the corner of the room, Lanyear let out a soft hoot. The owl had recently come into my life. He was a gift from Arianrhod, the goddess I was pledged to. Not only was the owl her totem, but as a familiar, he was exceptionally astute in the use of magic. We were still finding our way with each other, but he was definitely a member of the house now. It had taken some doing, but I had finally convinced Bubba that Lanyear wasn’t a toy. And I had promised Bubba a bright shiny new cat condo if he would keep Luna from going after the owl. While I had a suspicion that Lanyear would win out in a confrontation, I didn’t want to test out my theory.

  Lanyear was a barred owl, mottled brown that bordered on gray. Now, he flashed an image into my mind, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was supposed to be. The image was fuzzy, almost shadowed, but there was an ancient feeling to it, and while I couldn’t quite penetrate the origin, whatever it was made me feel queasy and unsettled.

  Lanyear hooted again, a warning in his voice.

  “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” I asked.

  He just blinked, then closed his eyes again and tucked his head under one wing.

  Sandy stared up at him. “How goes it with him?”

  “Slow. We’re finding our way. This isn’t like Bubba. Bubba’s my buddy and companion, but he’s not a familiar and he has his own mind about magic. Unfortunately, as you well know.”

  Bubba was a practical joker, as well as a cjinn. The combo could be lethal, but with Bubba, it just tended to be embarrassing. Rub a cjinn’s belly and they might grant you a wish, but like most djinns, they tended to twist it for their own amusement. And they could pluck a wish from your mind—you didn’t have to ask them.

  Bubba had saved my life with his magic more than once, but he also had a paw in encouraging me to dye my hair blond, even though I had known it was a mistake, and he had been responsible for a very bad fashion fail when I ended up buying a fuckton of leopard print.

  Lanyear, on the other hand, was fully owl, but since Arianrhod had sent him to me, he was a gift and a tool as well as a friend. I didn’t joke around with Lanyear. Bubba, however, I could play with and tease, as long as I could take his teasing in return.

  Max suddenly popped his head into the room. “Maddy, you’re going to want to hear what Dev has to say. He’s got an estimate for you.”

  Frowning, I sat down my goblet and followed him out, leaving Sandy to snuggle by the fire. I pulled on my jacket as I left the parlor. The old mansion was drafty and without the furnace going, it was as cold inside as it was outside, except for the areas directly around the fireplaces.

  Dev was waiting for me on the back patio. He motioned for me to follow him. We hiked over to the massive oak near the side yard.

  “The oak is fine. And so are most of the trees, though there’s one cottonwood I’d recommend taking out, given it will destroy your house foundations pretty soon. But it’s on the other side that you have to worry. The tree that branch came from? It has to come down.”

  He was talking nonstop, without giving me a chance to get a word in edgewise.

  “I think it was unstable to begin with. Now, the wind has almost torn up the roots. If you don’t take down the fir, it will topple, and if the tree goes down, so will your front porch and the side of your house. You’ll have more than just a hole in the roof to deal with.”

  “Crap. Okay, well, take both trees down. Anything else?”

  He nodded, sticking his pencil behind his ear as he motioned for me to follow him over to the driveway. “Here, you have two options. Most of the trees are fine, except for one of the cedars. It seems to be having problems. There’s not enough room for it, and the root system is very shallow. It’s small enough that if it goes down it won’t hit your house or the cars, but it will fall into the other trees.”

  “If it hits the other trees, will it weaken them?”

  “It could. So I can either take it down, or you can wait to see if it manages to grow deeper roots before the wind catches it.”

  I frowned. I hated taking down trees unless it was necessary. “How much is this going to run, for everything?”

  “Cutting up the tree on the van, taking the branch off your roof, taking down the cottonwood and the damaged fir, altogether you can plan for about two thousand dollars. If we take the cedar too, another five hundred.” He showed me the written estimate he had prepared.

  I really didn’t want to spend that much, but it made sense to bite the bullet and have it all done at once. “You say the rest of the trees around the house are fine?”

  “As far as I can tell, they’re all fit as a fiddle. We can have this all done by tonight, I think. We’ve got work stacked up for days, given this storm, so if you want to book us to take down the three trees, best to do so now, or you’re going to have to wait.”

  “Oof, you just hit me where it hurt, dude. All right, get to work. I’ll go call a roof doctor so they can get right in as soon as you’re done.”

  I glanced at my phone. It needed charging and it needed it soon. I texted Sandy to meet me at the car, and as I began to call roofers, hoping to find somebody who could get right to work, we charged our phones and drove around the neighborhood, trying to avoid the havoc that littered the roads and yards.

  We were almost back to the house when Max texted me.

  get back here now, maddy. we found something in the attic when they took the tree out and you’re going to want to see this. i guarantee it.

  With that ominous-sounding message, we pulled into the driveway and headed for the house.

  Chapter 3

  AS I GINGERLY made my way up the ladder and onto the roof, Max reached down to help me.

  “Why couldn’t I just come through the trapdoor? I don’t like climbing on the roof. I’m not all that graceful.” I grabbed hold of his hand and clung to the edge as he gave me a good yank, hauling me up and over the eaves. He walked back up the roof, but I wasn’t that brave. I decided to crawl up the slope to where the tree branch was being cleared.

  “Because they aren’t done removing the branch. Debris could fall on you. Come on, I won’t let you fall,” Max said, coaxing me to stand.

  I gave him a suspicious look. “Are you sure? I’m not exactly Miss Graceful here.”

  “I promise. Give me your hand and I’ll steady you. It’s dangerous for you to crawl. Too many splinters and possible nails.” He guided me to my feet and held onto my hand as he led me up the slope of the roof. I tried not to look over my shoulder toward the ground. Two stories and a crawl space high was two stories and a crawl space too many.

  “You’re doing just fine,” he said as I inched my way forward. We reached the place where the branch had impaled itself through the roof. I grimaced, seeing the wide hole it had left. Dev and his men had managed to extricate part of the branch, but there was still a massive amount of debris left in its wake.

  “What do I need to look at?” I couldn’t tell what the problem was, other than the gaping hole in the shingles.

  “Over here. Look.” Max led me to one edge of the hole. He pointed to the other edge. “That’s the attic, right?”

  “Right. And?” I still wasn’t seeing whatever it was he wanted me to look at.

  “Okay, the wall to the attic stops here.” He pointed a flashlight midway into the hole. “But there seems to be anothe
r room beyond the attic. That’s not just empty space. Do you have two attics?”

  I squinted, following the beam of the flashlight. I could see what he was talking about. There was the attic wall, all right, and beyond it, another open space and what looked like a finished wall on the other side.

  “What the hell? No, we don’t have a two-room attic. At least not that I know of.” I leaned forward, trying to make out anything I could, but Max grabbed my shoulder.

  “You’re getting close to a patch of the roof that was damaged by the branch. You don’t want to go tumbling in through the shingles.”

  “No, I meant what the hell is that space? There’s no door in the attic that I can remember. I’m going down to check.” I suddenly froze, unsure of how to get down without stumbling headfirst off the edge. When I was in an ecstatic state, I could sometimes levitate, but it wasn’t anything I could control, nor did I want to chance losing my concentration halfway down. “Um, Max…I don’t do well looking over the edge of anything high up. How do I get down?”

  He frowned. “I suppose you could try crawling, though it’s not safe. Or we could lower you into the attic crawl space, but that might further damage the roof.”

  “How much worse could it get? There’s a hole in the damned thing already.” I stared at the opening. “How do we do this?”

  Dev had been watching our interplay and now he walked over, holding a rope. “Let’s tie this around your waist and we can lower you in that way. But my company’s not responsible if you break a nail or get a splinter.”

  I gave him a long, hard look. “Dev, you’re good at what you do, but if you patronize me again, I’ll fucking show you just how much I care about breaking a nail. I used to be one of the most feared vampire hunters on the Continent, and it wouldn’t take long for me to get back into training.”

  He blinked, then adjusted his tool belt. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but I didn’t give a damn. “I apologize, Ms. Gallowglass. Let me tie the rope around your waist and we’ll lower you down.”

  I held out my arms, letting Dev and Max rig the rope up around my waist. Then, I dangled my legs over the edge of the hole, feeling the shingles beneath me start to cave in from where they’d been weakened. But before they could break through, the men lowered me down into the attic. I managed to find the trapdoor in the dark and opened it, dropping the ladder down into the hallway. I paused to text Sandy, then using the flashlight on my phone, made my way over to the wall that divided the attic from the secret area. Sandy joined me from the hallway, scampering up the ladder, bringing a larger flashlight with her. We began to comb the wall, looking for any sign of a door.

  “This paneling makes it hard to see anything,” she said.

  The wall was paneled in what looked like it had been white shiplap originally. We searched every inch, but found nothing. Up top, the noise continued as they finished removing the last of the branch.

  Max peeked through the hole. “Heads up, the hole leading into the other side is big enough for me to get through. I’m going down to see what I can find out. Dev will hold the rope long enough for me to get in and out.”

  I nodded, waiting. A few minutes later, a rapping on the other side of the wall alerted us. We could hear Max shouting.

  “Mark the wall here. There’s a door on this side that must have been covered up over on your side. I’ll tap around the edges so we can figure out a way to get in.”

  “Let me get something to mark it with!” I turned to Sandy. “You have a pen on you?”

  She shook her head. “No, but let me get one. I’ll be right back.” She hurried back toward the ladder, but Dev shouted through the hole into the attic and tossed her a pencil. She brought it over and we roughly traced the opening as Max tapped away on the other side. When we were done, we had two-foot wide, four-foot-tall rectangle marked out.

  A few moments later, Max joined us inside, dropping down from the hole into the attic.

  I glanced at him. “What’s over there?”

  “I didn’t get a good look, but it’s an odd room, I’ll tell you that. There are a bunch of things over there, and I’m not at all certain what they are. I didn’t want to touch anything until we get some solid light going in there. But at least we know where to look.” He stared at the shiplap. “Somebody wanted to cover it up, that much is for sure. I’m not sure why, but the energy feels very thick and cloistered. I felt claustrophobic.”

  “I had no clue there was a room back there. I wonder if it was there when Franny was alive. We should ask her.” I stood back, contemplating the roof. “Is Dev securing a tarp over the entire hole? I haven’t heard back yet from the roofer I called.”

  “Yeah, then he and his guys will tackle taking down the three trees. The tow truck’s on the way for Sandy’s van, now that the tree is off of it.”

  A moment later, the room went dark except for the glow of the flashlights. I glanced up and saw a deep blue canvas stretched taut over the hole. Another moment and we heard the sound of pounding as Dev tacked down the tarp. It was heavy enough to prevent leaking, and it did help to keep the wind from blowing through. I glanced back at the markings on the wall one last time before following Max and Sandy down the ladder, back into the hallway.

  “Well, that was interesting,” I said as my phone rang.

  Grateful to see it was Alpha-Pack Construction, I answered. While they weren’t the best company around, they were quick and usually efficient, if you paid them enough. Leonard Wolfbrane, the owner, promised they could come assess the roof as soon as we wanted, but I needed to make an appointment now before they got totally booked up.

  I debated whether to call the insurance company about it. They wouldn’t pay for a new roof, and if I only needed a patch, I’d rather not have the ding on my record. Aegis and I had already made the decision this was as good a time as any to have the roof redone, so I decided to just go with the flow. I glanced at the time. It was already two and the power still wasn’t back on.

  “What about tomorrow morning? Nine o’clock?” I decided I might as well just bite the bullet and get started.

  Leonard paused, then said, “It’s on the calendar. We’ll be there. Thanks, Maddy, for your repeat business. You’ll get a ten percent discount for being a returning customer.” He disconnected.

  I stared at the phone for a moment. I knew Leonard from the Bedlam City Council. He was punctual, that much I could say for him, and his company had done a decent job on renovating my bathrooms when I first bought the mansion.

  “Any idea on estimated time of restoration on the power?” Sandy dusted off her jeans. “I hope Alex gets here soon. We should really go home. I need to change. I hate wearing clothes more than a day.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. At least not until Aegis gets up. He’ll be waking in a couple of hours. Sunset is 4:36 today, and it’s almost quarter after two.” I didn’t want them to go. I hated the fact that there was a hole in my roof, and a secret room I had known nothing about. Without the power on, the mansion loomed large and echoing around me.

  Sandy took pity on me. “All right. Alex said it would be after four thirty before he could get here, anyway.”

  Kelson had returned with several bags of takeout. “The shops that have power and are open, are jammed. The sheriff wasn’t kidding when she said over sixty percent of the island was dark. I managed to get a big bucket of chicken, some pot stickers and egg rolls, and a couple dozen doughnuts. I figured that would hold everybody for a while.”

  “Save some for Aegis. Even though he doesn’t have to eat, he likes his food.”

  Sandy and I helped Kelson lay out the food. She had also thought to get paper plates. I knew we had some, but where they were, I had no clue. And in an emergency, it was just easier to buy new and know you had what you needed.

  Max washed his hands, then joined us as we gathered around the table. I asked Kelson to tell Henry Mosswood that dinner was ready.
r />   “He’s not here,” Franny said, interrupting as she walked out of the wall. “He asked me to tell you that he decided to go downtown for dinner and a movie, since the cinema has power.”

  Well, that was one fewer person we had to worry about feeding. Grateful, I changed the subject.

  “Hey, Franny, I have a question. When the tree busted through the roof, we found a secret room. We can’t get in there yet—it’s walled off. But there’s a door on the far side of the attic behind the shiplap. It leads to a private room. Do you know anything about what’s back there or when it was walled off?” I piled my plate high with mashed potatoes, fried chicken, pot stickers, and a couple egg rolls.

  A quiet look of contemplation swept over the ghost’s face. “No, I don’t. Not that I can remember. When I was alive, the attic did seem larger, now that you mention it. But I never thought to see if there was something behind the wall.”

  “Maybe someone who owned the mansion after your parents died walled off part of the room? If it seems smaller than when you were alive, that would be the most logical guess.” I paused, then asked, “What do you know about any of the owners between then and now? Do you remember any of them?”

  Franny tilted her head, absently stepping through the table till she was standing right through the mashed potatoes.

  “Could you not stand in the food?” I knew that she wasn’t really touching it, but it still gave me the creeps.

  She blinked, looking down. “Oh! I’m sorry. I know that bothers you.” She quickly stepped to the side, away from the table, and moved into the dining room corner. “Let me think. I’ve been here a long time, you know. That’s a lot of memories to go through.”

  “Not a problem,” I said, digging into my meal. The food was still hot and it tasted wonderful. Kelson looked exhausted.

  “You were in late. You should take a nap after dinner,” I said to her. “There’s not much we can do till—oh, I forgot to call to find out about the power.” I pulled out my phone and placed a call to Pacific Bedlam Power—PBP. The automated voice reported that we should have power back in our neighborhood by seven p.m. “Well, that’s better news than tomorrow.”