Bewitched (Betwixt & Between #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,82
tried every spell in the book. Literally.” She speared me with a hapless gaze. “Do you know how hard it is to find eye of newt?”
“You went old school. I’m impressed.”
“I did. I even asked the great mother for favor. My powers are simply gone.”
“They can’t just vanish. I’m sure they’re around here somewhere. Have you checked your pockets? Looked in your bra? Tried the crisper drawer in the fridge?” I listed off all the places I’d ever lost my keys. “Or what about the oven—”
“I don’t think it works like that, sweetheart.”
“Did you check in the sofa? I’ve lost things in sofas.”
“We aren’t talking about your virginity, cariña,” Dad said.
I gasped. “How did you know that?”
Ruthie shook her head. “I’m fairly certain my powers are not in the sofa.” When I opened my mouth, she said, “Or under my bed.”
I deflated.
The thing was, once I knew the problem, once she had the desire to tell me like those people who’d pounded down the door, I knew exactly where to find her lost object. She was right. It was not under the sofa.
The chief tapped me on the shoulder. “Did you know there’s a talking bird in your house?”
I grinned and leaned closer to my grandmother. “When you died, your power, your energy, didn’t go anywhere.”
A vertical line formed between her brows. “I don’t understand.”
“Now, there’s a twist for you,” I teased. “They’re still right where you left them.”
She shook her head before her curiosity got the better of her. She looked at me, her expression full of a careful hope. “Defiance?”
I nodded.
“You mean they’re—”
“They are. I can feel them.” A soft energy hummed nearby. I just couldn’t quite pinpoint the location.
She covered her mouth with a hand. After a moment, she stood and walked to the butler’s pantry.
“You died in the butler’s pantry?” I asked.
“The butler did it!” Annette shouted, stealing my thunder.
We looked at each other and giggled. Well, I did. Her laugh was more like the cackle of an evil crone. We could work on that.
“I rarely come in here,” Ruthie said. “This is where I keep a few old appliances and my canning supplies. I hadn’t canned in years, but I decided to can some apricots a friend brought over.” She stepped to the middle of the room, and a soft glow floated up and over her.
The energy was so strong, a mundane might think the spot was haunted. From where I stood, it felt like Ruthie’s powers had been hanging out, doing their hair and nails, just waiting for her to return.
She whirled around to me. “How did you know?”
“I think things are revealed to me when the person is ready to know.”
The chief, who’d finally found and collected his faculties, walked up to her. “You put me through six months of hell because you lost your magic?”
“When you put it like that . . .”
He glared.
She explained. “I didn’t want you to be stuck with me. I was giving you an out.”
“An out? Ruthie Goode, why in the world would you think I’d want or need an out?”
“Houston, I’m dead.” She crossed her arms.
He crossed his arms right back and loomed over her. “So?”
“I can’t leave this house. We’ll never have a life. We’ll never get to go anywhere.”
“When did we go anywhere anyway?” He stepped closer. “I just want to be with you, woman. Why is that so hard for you to understand?”
I had a theory. “Your sudden and inexplicable inability to leave the house?”
She caved. “Contrived.”
“What?” he asked, flabbergasted.
“I can’t go out into the world if I’m supposed to be dead. How would I explain my existence?”
I rolled my eyes and looked at Annette, who rolled her head in solidarity. I turned back to Ruthie. “Ye of little soap opera trivia. You’re . . . Rachael. Ruthie’s twin sister, mysteriously just arrived in Salem, lurking around to steal a piece of her fortune. But instead, you fall in love with her adopted brother, only to find out he’s really her son, which makes your love child—”
“Two-headed?” Ruthie asked.
“Okay, fine. But you have to admit, Rachael could work. It’s worked on every soap I’ve ever watched.”
“That does not instill confidence, Defiance.”
“Sorry, Gigi,” I said.
“We’ve been through the wringer and back,” the chief said. “Have I ever left you? Did I leave when you were possessed by that lizard?”
“You were possessed by a lizard?”
Ruthie shook her head.
“Or when Percy was infested with toads?” the chief asked. “Or when you took out that female serial