Read Online A Witch Before Dying: A Wishcraft Mystery by Heather Blake - Free Book Online Page A

low.
    Evan gazed at me. “That’s not the worst of it.”
    “No?” I said. “Because being attacked in the woods is pretty bad.”
    “Darcy.” Evan took my hand. “I think the person had been waiting for you to come home.”
    Missy growled.
    Panic fluttered in my stomach. I made an instant decision. “Come on,” I said, tugging Evan to his feet. “It’s probably going to be a long night, so let’s go inside and make you comfy. Then we’re calling the police.”
    Ten minutes later, as I poured hot water into Evan’s teacup, I said, “You can’t know for sure the person was lying in wait for
me
.”
    I was doing my best not to be freaked out. A village police officer was in the woods, sweeping the area with a flashlight, looking for any evidence. I had high hopes that Evan was mistaken, and that, in fact, no one had been watching the house at all.
    That he’d imagined a confrontation.
    That his huge goose egg was a figment of my overactive imagination.
    Closing my eyes, I wished it and everything. When I opened them again, Evan was still sitting across the kitchen island, solemnly stirring sugar into his tea with one hand and holding an ice pack to his head with the other.
    Damn it. I loathed my inability to grant my own wishes and suddenly completely understood the Anicula’s appeal.
    “You’re right, Darcy,” Evan said. “The person could have been lying in wait for Ve.”
    “Dear heavens!” Ve exclaimed. She was wrapped in a chenille robe, her long coppery hair pulled up in a twist. Dark circles drooped under her eyes and her cheeks were aflame with fever.
    I didn’t understand why Cherise Goodwin’s spellhadn’t cured her. When I’d asked Ve, she’d had no answers, either. It was very strange.
    Ve pressed her hands to her chest. “Who would want to hurt
me
?”
    Openmouthed, I stared at her. “Are you implying that someone would want to hurt
me
?”
    She sniffled and dabbed at her red nose with a wadded tissue. “Of course not, dear. But of the two of us, however…
I
wasn’t the one who stumbled across a dead body today.”
    Great. She had to go and bring that up. I’d been happily in denial about finding Patrice Keaton’s body, and now all those queasy feelings were back.
    Evan brightened, his blue eyes wide, his color high. “Do you think Patrice’s killer is after Darcy?”
    “Could be, my boy, could be,” Ve said, patting his hand.
    “Hello!” I cried. “I’m standing right here.”
    Missy had curled up in her dog bed by the back door and was watching us with drowsy eyes. Tilda, Ve’s Himalayan, eyed us warily from the top of the steps on the upper landing. It was late, and she wasn’t pleased that her beauty sleep had been disturbed.
    Archie had flown home. He lived next door with Terry Goodwin, who happened to be the ex-husband of both Cherise Goodwin…and Ve. To hear Ve tell it, the man had spent the last ten years living next door to her, trying to win her back. I’d yet to see him express any devotion. I’d never even met him as he was a bit of a recluse.
    “It only makes sense, dear.” Ve sneezed. “However, I am sorry if it upsets you.”
    Evan wrinkled his nose and patted her hand. “Sometimes it hurts to speak the truth.” He glanced at me. “And to hear it.”
    “Why would the killer come after me?” I viciously dunked my tea bag. “I don’t know anything.”
    Evan said, “Ooh, maybe the killer thinks you do!”
    Ve perked up. “That’s true. In my opinion, killers are very paranoid.”
    I stared at her. She was serious.
    “You two are impossible.” Cranky, I sipped my tea.
    Evan rolled his eyes and adjusted his ice pack.
    “You poor boy,” Ve soothed. “Do you need more ice?”
    “This one’s still good.” He held up the bag and looked at me with puppy dog eyes. “See, you can’t be angry with me, Darcy. I’m injured.”
    He was right. I couldn’t stay mad at him. Especially since that knock on the head could have been really bad if he