Page 25 of Strike It Witch

“It appears my lunch date’s been postponed.” I tossed some money on the table, including a tip for Gladys. “Be back in a couple hours.”

“You look a little pale. You sure you’re okay?”

Well, I nearly passed out saving a giant carnivorous plant, after actually passing out last night, after banishing a demon to Limbo, but other than that…

“I’m fine,” I said.

Ronan leaned his forearms on the bar and eyed me with an intensity that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I countered his stare with a you-couldn’t-handle-this-much-heat-with-two-potholders-and-a-pair-of-crucible-tongs look, and he seemed to snap back to himself.

“I await your return with bated breath.” He again toasted me with his coffee mug.

“See ya later, Betty,” Gladys called.

Water bottle in hand, I exited Ronan’s Pub and jumped into the orange Mini. I needed to get home to check on the Siete Saguaros’ protection spell. If this client had been able to enter the park to spy on me, the spell was weakening. I’d have to bump up the schedule again. Instead of every four months, I’d be renewing it every three.

Great. I already couldn’t afford the spell.

But I couldn’t afford not to do it, either.

The Siete Saguaros wasn’t just a senior mobile home park. It was a place for elder paranormals to exist safely. Mom’s idea to start the place had come after a retired shifter client of hers had been murdered in her home by the pack she’d run away from years before. She’d wanted to protect people like her client. I’d thought it was strange that a Lennox witch would choose to tie herself down to one place in such a way.

But Mom had been unpredictable like that.

At the time, I’d appreciated her staying in one spot because it meant I could attend a real high school instead of homeschooling. A failed experiment. I’d stuck out like Wednesday Addams at a Jesuit Catholic school—and not in a cool way.

I parked the Mini and walked the short path into the Siete Saguaros. There was only one entry point, and it was beside my trailer. To get in, you needed a key. All residents had them, including me. My “key” was a flat, pink stone I’d found in the gravel lot by my tire a few months ago. It wasn’t anything special—at least, not until I infused it with magic and made it special.

I took the stone out of my pocket and dropped it behind the spell's outer barrier, by the mailboxes near my Airstream. Because I was the park owner, it would eventually allow meentrance, but I'd feel the spell if the stone wasn’t on me, the same way I’d felt the spell at Ronan’s Pub today—with a pulling sensation.

I let the air out of my lungs and walked through the barrier. Turned around and did it again.

A third time.

The spell was up and working. Good news.

After retrieving my key from the mailbox and dropping my things off at my trailer, I headed toward the garden room. I needed to let Fennel and Cecil know to watch their step. Although, I second-guessed telling Cecil. He was already paranoid about strangers. This might push him over the edge into being openly hostile toward people he knew, too.

Best just to tell Fennel and let him keep an eye on the gnome.

I stopped twenty feet from the garden room door, at the spot where the biggest saguaro in the park, Red, had once grown. He’d been a majestic nineteen feet tall with two massive arms, one pointed up, the other pointed down.

Mom had named the cactuses the colors of the rainbow, and they’d died in order—Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Except for Red. He’d been the first saguaro to sprout, and the last to wither.

The day he died came back to me in technicolor glimpses.

Hands bloodied, nails broken.

Furious digging, burying myself beneath the saguaro, sending my life force into the taproot.

Ida and two of my tenants, digging me out three days later, when I was near death and too weak to fight them anymore.

Crying for a week straight, in terrible pain, unable to eat or sleep.

“Red is dead. He’s gone. She’s gone. They’re all gone.”

Ida holding my hand, bringing me protein shakes, silently letting me know she was there, sharing my pain, loving me.

I snapped out of the moment and swiped the tears off my cheeks. Old memories were getting the best of me today. Gods, I needed to rest.

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