Page 4 of The Magical Bed & Breakfast

“Imbues an object with power.” Lydia nodded sagely.

Kate glanced around at their faces, expecting humor, but they were all deadly serious. “And, uh, how does that work, exactly?”

They all spoke at once, and Kate struggled to make out what they were saying until both Lydia and Ivy clapped their hands.

“That’s the magic of Hazard,” said Ivy with a shrug.

Seymour nodded, his shock of white hair flopping up and then down, almost in slow motion. It was mesmerizing, that slow flop of hair. Kate blinked.

“Yes, magic,” Marjorie sighed her agreement.

Hazel added a decided, “Yes.”

They all beamed at Kate.

Okay, she thought,the members of the Hazard Historical Society are all a little bit eccentric.

Chapter Three

“You need tolay low.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong.” Frustrated by his manager’s proclamation and piercing stare, Rory Rollins rocked back in his chair and ran a hand through his ginger-brown hair. Nolan always looked so intense watching him, like he was gauging the reaction to his words.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Kyler, Endeavor Street’s blond, blue-eyed lead singer, whose muscular build and classic features made him look like he should have been the star in an action-adventure blockbuster. “Dude, you have a stalker. She’s nuts. She disrupts every event we have.”

“It’s noteveryevent.”

“Most of them.”

“If we wait it out, she’ll go away. She can’t manage to come to every single event. How is that even affordable?” asked Rory, determined not to be kicked out of his own indie band.

“Whatever, she apparently has unlimited funds. She showed up at our last three concerts.” Kyler held up a fist, shooting up his index finger as he began to count. “One, Cleveland; two, Philadelphia; three, New York.” He wiggled three fingers for extra emphasis.

Marco, the lean, dark-haired Puerto-Rican guitarist, took up the count, sounding peeved. “Four, she showed up in Europe.” Rory tensed. They needed Marco not to be upset. Lead guitarists could be temperamental, and good ones were hard to come by.

“That’s right,” said Kyler. “Four, Madrid, andfive,Barcelona.” He waved his now open hand in the air.

Their short, stocky manager, Nolan, spoke up, his gaze unwavering. “It escalates.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Rory shot to his feet. He towered over Nolan, who gave a pointed frown. Nolan was focused and unshakable, both good qualities to have in a manager.

“She gets worse every time,” Venkat, the tall, dark bass player said, adding his take on the situation. “Last spring she showed up on our bus. Weird, but okay. We escorted her off before you showed. Next event she tried to come backstage without a pass and created a scene—embarrassing, but security handled it. This last time? She made itonstagemid-concert. No one can even figure out how she made it past security and the stage crew. It’s like she had help.”

“She has superpowers, man. You should’ve reported the emails and the notes when they first started,” said Marco.

Rory shoved a hand through his hair again. “Ah, come on, they weren’t any weirder than half the stuff we see. It wasn’t until she started sending pictures.” He trailed off. Just thinking about the pictures made him cringe. They were like something out of a horror movie. Hearts and butterflies with scissors and a red pool of liquid ickiness.It couldn’t really have been blood, could it?

“Yeah, man, that was weird.” Dustin, the drummer, tossed back his dreads and shook his head.

“Worse, she knows stuff about you. Like where you live,” added Venkat.

“So I’ll move, choose another neighborhood in New York. You can’t kick me out of the band. I started this band.”

“We aren’t kicking you out. Our concert season is over for now.” Nolan was watching again and using his placating voice, like Rory was some temperamental music artist. He wasn’t. Despite just sounding like one, hewasa professional. He’d run away to join a rock band at nineteen, and after bouncing around for years, filling in with one lame band after another, he’d wound up starting his own. He had chosen every single one of these guys, including their manager. It was his business sense that got them this far. He was the one who held it all together. For this to happen to him was the worst.

He gave it one last shot. “We have appearances, promos. I arranged a PR firm to set them up.”

“No one will miss the keyboardist,” Nolan intoned in that placating, soothing manner.

---