Bewitched Bigfoot: An Abaddon's Gate Witch Mystery Novella (Witches of Abaddon's Gate Book 3) Read online

  Bewitched Bigfoot

  An Abaddon’s Gate Witch Mystery Novella

  Tegan Maher

  #© 2021 Tegan Maher

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, by any means electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system currently in use or yet to be devised.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or institutions is entirely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal use and may not be re-sold or given away to others. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase a copy for that person. If you did not purchase this book, or it was not purchased for your use, then you have an unauthorized copy. Please go to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting my hard work and copyright.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Note From Author

  Marked by Fate

  Chapter 2

  Connect with Me

  Chapter 1

  "Excuse me, miss.” A young woman in a pink polka-dotted bikini top and denim shorts stood perusing a rack of medicinal herbs in my shop, Potions & Lotions. “Do you have any headache powders? My husband and I are here on our honeymoon. We spent all day at the beach, and now we both have a bangin' headache. I'm not sure why, because we haven't even had our first margarita."

  Her pink-tinted lips curved up in a small smile before she winced. The petite young woman looked a little out of sorts. She had that fresh-faced Midwestern look with blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles sprinkled across her upturned nose, but as she rubbed her temples, I had a good idea what the problem was.

  "I sure do," I replied, "but I suspect I have something that will work better than any headache tonic will." I reached behind me and pulled two bottles of my special hydration drink from a small cooler I kept there. "Do you like orange flavor?" I asked.

  She nodded, her eyes scrunched together in pain. "At this point, I’d drink it if it was spinach and dirt flavored. Anything that would make this headache go away. It's hard to be romantic when it feels like somebody's settin’ fireworks off behind your eyes, and not in the good way."

  I smiled at her in sympathy. I had at least a few people a week come into my shop looking for a headache cure when all they really needed was hydration because the Florida sun had sucked all the moisture from the bodies.

  I pulled two bottles from the cooler and set them on the counter, and she placed a couple bottles of sunscreen and one of my special after-sun moisturizers beside them.

  The newlywed picked up the bottle and twisted off the lid, then drained half of it in one go. Though the base of the drink was water, I'd added in some herbs and electrolytes along with a special blend to help the body absorb it almost instantly. I couldn't take credit for that part, though. A friend of mine had come up with a hangover cure—which I also sold—and she'd discovered the delivery system on her own. As a result, she'd made a fortune because people would pay anything the day after they'd had too many rum runners just to feel human again in under thirty seconds. It had cost me the recipe for my super-secret anti-aging serum, but I considered it a good deal.

  Within just a few seconds, the girl's cheeks already had some of their color back, and she smiled. "Wow. I don't know how much you charge for that, but it's worth every penny. Is it okay to drink them just for hydration, or are they only a cure?"

  “You can drink a few a day, but you also need to be drinking at least three or four bottles of water, too. The heat and humidity down here is brutal, and you need to replace that water you’re losing. I promise, if you do that, you won't have a problem with the headaches." I smiled at her. “Unless, of course, you have too many margaritas. I have a cure for that, too, though.”

  She motioned toward the cooler. "What other flavors do you have? Please tell me you have tropical punch or lime. If not, I’ll just take a dozen of whatever you have.”

  Grateful that I’d made a larger batch than usual, I pulled twelve out of the cooler and rang her up. "That'll be thirty-eight dollars even. I threw in the first two bottles for free. I know how those headaches feel, and it was my pleasure to make you feel better."

  She handed me the cash, and I was happy to see that she'd lost the pinched look she'd had when she first walked in the door. "Thank you so much! We were afraid our whole honeymoon was going to be ruined."

  I put her stuff in a bag and wished her well, then made a note on my inventory sheet to restock the hydration drinks. The bell above my door tinkled, alerting me that I had a new customer, and I smiled when I saw who it was. Colette, a witch who ran the bakery a few doors down, rushed toward me, her face glowing with happiness. She thrust her hand out toward me and twisted it so that the light caught on the giant rock in the ring on her finger.

  "Oh, Mila! You're never going to guess what happened."

  I quirked the corner of my mouth up and reached out to take her hand so I could see the ring. "Uh, you got a part in a wedding ring commercial? Or no, you're going to become a hand model."

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head, smiling. "All right smarty-pants. I guess I walked right into that. No, though now that you mention it, I wouldn't mind being a hand model. I hear they make good money. Daniel proposed!"

  I raised a brow. "The ring is gorgeous, but I didn't realize you guys were that far into your relationship. Haven't you only been dating a few months?"

  I wouldn't normally be so forward and nosy, but Colette was a friend. I'd expect her to ask the same questions of me if our roles were reversed.

  She slid onto the stool in front of my makeup counter and scrunched her nose as she examined the ring. "So, it's not just me? I thought maybe I was jittery because it's such a big decision. It does seem awfully fast, doesn't it?"

  I wobbled my hand from side to side. "Just a little. But hey, if you know he's the one, then maybe it's not too fast. You're the only one who can really answer that question. Can you see yourself with him for the rest of your life? Do you love him?"

  She sighed. "Yeah, or at least I think I do, but there's still a lot I don't know about him. For instance, I just found out last night that he hates spaghetti. I've made him spaghetti at least once a week since we started dating, and he’s never said a word. He said he didn’t wanna hurt my feelings."

  I pulled a stool from the other side of the counter around and joined her, propping my elbow on the counter. "That doesn't sound like the best way to run a relationship, but then again, it's only been three months. You know what they say — it's not the first kiss that determines the success of the relationship, it's the first fart."

  She laughed. "Leave it to you to put it that way, but you're right. I don't think he was being deliberately deceptive, but it does tell me that he's not comfortable enough with me yet to even tell me that he hates something I'm forcing him to eat once a week."

  "Well, I suppose that's fixable," I replied, trying to find the positives. "There's nothing wrong with a long engagement, you know. That'll give you ti
me to get to know each other. I mean, you say you love him and can maybe see yourself spending the rest of your life with him, so just take that little bit of extra time and use it as a chance to get over your misgivings."

  "That's a terrible idea." My little black-and-white Arctic fox, Calamity, hopped up onto the counter and wrapped her tail around her black-tipped toes. "You don't get engaged and then get to know somebody. You've got it backwards."

  I scowled at her. Though I personally appreciated her brute honesty, it could sometimes come across as a little harsh.

  "No, she's right," Colette said before I could get onto her for being so rude. "As bad as I hate to say it, I feel the same way. In fact, I'm not even sure why I said yes other than he seemed so happy, and I hated to crush him. Then I got caught up in it, too. Maybe my subconscious dragged me here for a reality check.”

  "I didn't mean to come across as mean," Calamity replied. "I just hate to see you make a huge mistake. This is one of those times when it's a whole lot harder to get the cat back in the bag than to keep it in there to begin with. If I didn't like you, I would've just said congratulations and kept on going."

  Colette smiled at her, then reached over and ran her hand over Calamity's head and down the crooked black stripe that zigzagged from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail. "I know, and I appreciate it. Really, you didn't do anything other than confirm what my gut was already saying. The confusing part is that I didn't even see it coming. I mean, we've talked about marriage in the frame of others. He's even mentioned one of his friends who rushed into it, then had to go through a nasty divorce. It doesn't make a lot of sense, which is maybe why it took me by surprise like it did. And he doesn't want to wait. He's all for eloping this weekend, which is terrifying."

  I stood and pulled two energy drinks from my cooler, then handed her one and slid back onto the stool. "So, what are you going to do?"

  She sighed and dropped her chin in her hand, fiddling with a cup of makeup brushes with the other. "I'm not sure. I guess I'll stew on it for a couple of days, but we definitely need to talk about it. At the very least, I'm going to tell him I'm not ready to do it immediately."

  Calamity licked one of her paws then smoothed the fur down over her ear where Colette had ruffled it. "You just need to give the ring back, is what you need to do. Don't take two or three days to think about it because the longer you wait, the worse it’ll be. Just rip off the Band-Aid when you get back."

  I pressed my lips together and gave her a look that would've singed her fur if she wasn't immune to anybody else's opinion. "Now I think you're taking it just a little bit too far. That's a decision she needs to make, not one that anybody else can make for her." I reached across the counter and laid my hand over Colette’s. "You'll do the right thing. Just look to your heart and follow it."

  Calamity turned on the counter and laid down, then blinked her mismatched eyes at Colette. "And if your heart tells you to stick this out, tell it to shut up, then listen to your brain. Again, not trying to be bossy, but you know I'm right."

  I pulled in a deep breath and released it. She might not be a poet, but in this case, I couldn't say I disagreed with her. I gave Colette's hand a sympathetic squeeze, silently hoping she would take my little fox's advice.

  Chapter 2

  The rest of my day was more of the same. I had a steady flow of customers but was never overwhelmed, which was how I liked my days to go. The only strange thing about it was that I heard of two more engagements. Since I didn't know either couple, though, I didn't pay much attention to it. Ten minutes before closing time, Ms. Beatrice, the little old witch who owned the flower shop next to me, popped over. Since she usually closed at the same time I did, I thought maybe she'd just had a slow day and decided to roll up the sidewalk a little early.

  "Ms. Beatrice," I exclaimed, smiling and looking up from counting the money in the register. "Early day?"

  She flapped her wrinkled hand as she bustled to my sitting area. "Crazy day, more like it. I booked more weddings today than I've booked in the last month, and I honestly don't know where I'm gonna get that many roses and carnations in such a short period of time. Even Timothy can't supply me with as many as I’ll need.”

  Timothy was a leprechaun friend of ours who lived in the caretaker's cottage of an old church on the outskirts of town. He had an amazing garden, and one of his specialties was roses. He had numerous varieties and copious quantities of each.

  I blinked in surprise as I motioned toward a loveseat and two wingback chairs situated around a coffee table in the front of the store. "Wow, that is a lot of weddings. I heard a few different people talking about getting engaged in here today, too. I didn't think much about it except for Colette is one of them."

  She glanced up at me, surprise crinkling the corners of her faded blue eyes as she sank into one of the chairs. "Haven't they only been together for a few months? She seems to be a levelheaded girl, so that surprises me."

  "It surprised her, too." I waved a hand and summoned a serving tray with a teapot of hot water, cream and sugar, two cups, and my box of teas. Ms. Beatrice did enjoy her afternoon cup, and it was kind of a tradition for us at least a couple of times a week.

  "She's actually concerned and not sure what to do,” I replied. “She said yes more because she didn't want to hurt his feelings than because she thinks she's ready to get married."

  My elderly neighbor huffed an indelicate breath through her nose. “That’s not a good reason to hitch yourself to somebody else’s wagon.”

  Calamity hopped up onto the loveseat beside me. "I told her she needed to call it off right now before things get out of hand. The guy wasn't even comfortable enough to tell her he hated her spaghetti until recently, so they're not exactly ready to face the complications that come with marriage." She glanced up at me with a brow raised in sarcasm. "Not that I'm a pro or anything."

  Ms. Beatrice plucked a spiced orange teabag from my selection and dropped it into her cup, then poured hot water over it. "No, I should think if he's not even comfortable enough to tell her he hates her spaghetti, they're certainly not to the point where saying I do is a good idea."

  I followed her lead and made my own cup of tea, then dropped in a couple sugar cubes and a blurp of milk. "No, I agree. And the more I think about it, it's more than a little strange. Not just her, but why so many in one day?"

  She leaned back in the armchair, resting her cup and saucer on her knees as she dipped the bag in the water. "Yeah, I agree. I was delighted when I booked the first three, but after that, it was just bizarre. A dozen total in one day. I'm pretty sure that's a record. I'm also positive it's not normal. Something's going on."

  She studied me for a second, her expression thoughtful as she dunked her teabag. "Do you think maybe it has something to do with that side project you're working on?"

  I thought about that for a second. A lot of not-so-nice souls had escaped from where they’d been serving their afterlife sentences in Abaddon's gate, and I'd been in the position a couple of times where I'd had to deal with the situation myself. "I don't think so. It doesn't really make sense. I mean, the souls that escaped aren't exactly all about love and light. The two I've dealt with so far were, to put it mildly, less than pleasant. I can't imagine that the powers that be would've locked somebody up for spreading love and sunshine."

  She thought about that for a moment as she sipped her tea. "Yes, but are they spreading love and sunshine, or is there an endgame that we haven't seen yet? After all, making that decision before you're ready will lead to nothing but strife more often than not."

  She had a point. "I'll give my friend Kira a call. She's getting a decent handle on the scope of the project, and her aunts have been collecting data on each soul individually. If there's one out there who matches the description, they probably know about it by now.”

  She sighed as she sat her teacup down in the saucer with a gentle clink. "Wouldn't it be nice if we could just take all this at face value?
You know, just assume that all these people really are in love and just want to get married and live happily ever after?"

  I laughed, but there wasn't much humor in it. "It sure would be, but I suppose that wouldn't be realistic in any world, now would it?"

  Her shoulders sagged a little more than they usually did. “No, I suppose it wouldn't be. But still, it would be nice if love was in the air."

  I paused with my teacup halfway to my mouth. "Love might not be in the air, but what if it's in the water, or in a potion? I don't know if Kira has any souls that might be using something like this for no good, but we can surely agree that misguided witches have used it before. I wonder if this is just a matter of a spell meant for one gone wrong?"

  Ms. Beatrice rubbed a spotted hand over her face. "Who would do that? Everybody knows they don't really work."

  "No, they don’t,” I replied. "But that hasn't stopped people from trying before. They don’t work long-term, but they can have these sorts of side effects. Do you know any of the people who booked a wedding today?"

  She shook her head. "I don't know any of them well. I did recognize a couple of the names, but for the most part, they were all strangers."

  That made sense, since Ms. Beatrice ran with the older set, but Colette, who was already directly in the line of fire anyway, was young and had her finger on the pulse of the millennial crowd. She might be able to shed some light on the situation. She baked a lot of cakes for baby showers, graduation parties, and wedding showers, and she offered free WiFi in her coffee area, so she heard things. Plus, she had a vested interest in helping me get to the bottom of this.