A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

“I’m getting the scoop!”
    “She’d better get something to keep that paper alive.” Officer Gandolf stood with his arms crossed. The city budget was another issue we were going to have to discuss at the village meeting. Unfortunately, the Gazette would be the first thing to go since subscribers were down.
    I watched Officer Gandolf take his sweet time walking up to the front of the crowd as Faith darted in and out.
    Faith was in charge of the one and only newspaper in our little community, The Whispering Falls Gazette . She was the sister of Raven Mortimer, but they sure did have different jobs and completely different personalities. Faith was a Good-Sider and Raven was a Dark-Sider, which was rare for spiritualist families, but stranger things had happened.
    The Good-Sider Spiritualist, which was what I was, had an innate spirit to always do the good thing; to never do evil or harm to others. The Dark-Siders of the spiritual world had a tendency to be the wild children and did things to get themselves ahead of the game at anyone’s expense.
    Luckily, Raven was not that type of Dark-Sider. She was influenced by being raised in a Good-Sider family.
    Until recently, Whispering Falls only accepted residents that were Good-Sider Spiritualists. Right before Izzy stepped down as Village President, the community voted to accept all spiritualists, including Dark-Siders. Since I was new, I was still discovering new spiritualists and their gifts. According to the Elders, I was the chosen one to lead.
    “Watch where you are going next time!” Petunia scowled and before I could ask her to do anything, she stomped off in a rage toward Glorybee, the complete opposite of where I needed to be.
    Faith threw her hand up in the air, which was her way of acknowledging Petunia’s snide remark, but kept going. There was a story to tell and Faith was going to tell it.
    It was a wonder that Faith didn’t already know about Alexelrod. She was a Foreseer and was able to feel the community as a whole and report the news of any upcoming events, upheavals, or situations before anyone else could see or feel them. Most of the time Faith’s predictions were vague, but she knew something was about to happen. The Whispering Falls Gazette was audio, which meant that if you were a subscriber your newspaper was delivered through the air via Faith’s vocal chords in the morning. I didn’t hear it this morning, but I also was disturbed by one Alexelrod Primrose.
    I glared at him. He knew better than to act this way. He pranced back and forth, jabbing the sign up and down, marching in front of the bookstore’s door so no one could go in.
    “June.” He continued to protest without even stopping to talk to me.
    “What are you doing?” I asked in a “what in the hell are you doing” kind of voice.
    “I told you. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get this bookstore out of Whispering Falls.” His gaze left me and turned to Ophelia Biblio. She stood in the bookstore display window among the display of books, glaring at him. “We don’t want you here!”
    Ophelia was at her wits’ end. The bookshop door flew open. A gust of wind rushed out, leaving us with wind-blown hair. In an instant, she stood on the step near the shop gate and used the wooden broom in her hand to push the gate open.
    Ever so elegantly, Ophelia stepped out of the gate and pointed the broom handle toward Alexelrod.
    Her voice held no room for discussion, “Mr. Primrose, kindly step away from my store, or you will meet your demise.”
    The crowd gasped as they saw the fury conveyed deep within her eyes.
    It wasn’t so much the anger she had deep within her that caught me off guard, which was probably acceptable to me since the protest was not substantiated, but it was her entire appearance.
    Ophelia was not dressed in the jeans and shirt she had on earlier. The black button-up blouse was neatly tucked into a long black skirt, the hem hitting right at her ankles and