Baby Broom Read online

  “I will actually be the first to go,” Amelda said. “For my gift, I give my new granddaughter and sister in the craft the gift of ancestry. She will always have the full weight of every Skeenbauer witch behind her, and from within she can call on our power to augment her own.”

  Amelda stepped back, and Luna Skeenbauer stepped forward. She kissed Kinsley on her sleepy head. “I, Luna Skeenbauer, give the gift of the power of moonlight. Whenever Kinsley walks at night, she will have its silver light to guide her way. And during those times when the moon is slight, it’s magic will be inside of her. She never need fear the dark.”

  Luna stepped back into her place in the circle, and Rowan Skeenbauer stepped forward. “I, Rowan Skeenbauer, give the gift of the forest. Kinsley will always be able to find what she needs in the trees. They will provide her with shelter from the elements and some will give food from their branches. Their energy will be with her whenever she is within their reach.”

  Rowan stepped back and Melusina stepped forward. She smiled down on Kinsley. “I, Melusina Skeenbauer, give the gift of time. Not only do I grant Kinsley a long, healthy life, but she will always have the space in between moments to make the right decisions.”

  Melusina stepped back and Farina came forward. “I, Farina Skeenbauer, grant Kinsley the gift of the kitchen witch. She will always have a place in any kitchen, a taste for fine food, and the ability to warm hearts with the love she infuses in her cooking.”

  Coral came forward next. “I, Coral Skeenbauer, give the gift of the ocean. Kinsley will know how vast the world is, but that she always has a place in it. She will be like water and able to move around obstacles with fluid grace, but should any obstacle present too big a challenge, she will move it with the force of the roaring ocean inside of her.”

  Gwendolyn was next. “I, Gwendolyn Skeenbauer, gift Kinsley with the magic of mischief. Not every spell has to be all white light and warm fuzzies. Kinsley will have the power of the gray witch and shadow magic at her disposal should she choose to use it.”

  When Gwendolyn stepped back into the circle, Rose came next. “I, Rose Skeenbauer, gift Kinsley the magic of flowers. She will be beautiful and sweet, but when she needs it, there will be thorns to protect her. Oh, and bees will love her too. May she never know the sting of any winged creature,” Rose said with a happy chuckle.

  Next up was River. “Since Coral has already gifted Kinsley with the power to flow like water, I, River Skeenbauer, gift little Kinsley with the magic of song. As long as she has music in her heart, she will never be alone. Her spells will sound like a choir to the goddess’s ears.”

  Before River was even back in place, Lilith took a big step forward. “I know that Luna has already gifted Kinsley with the light of the moon and that Gwendolyn has gifted her with the ability to use shadow magic, but I, Lilith Skeenbauer, gift Kinsley with all the forces of the night. She need never be afraid of the dark even when there is no light. Every creature and dark spirit that roams this earth will bow to her power. Even the dead can be made to serve.” I was about to protest, but Lilith raise a finger to shush me. She winked at me before continuing. “I’m not saying that your sweet little one will ever have to call on the departed to fight for her, but if she ever needs it, those things that dwell in the black can be at her command. If nothing else, she will have the ability to disappear into the shadows, and the frogs that sing at night will cover the sounds of her footsteps. The darkness and all of its domain will embrace her.”

  Lilith took a step back, and Norae stepped forward. “I don’t know that I can compete with the gifts that were given here so far today, but I, Norae Skeenbauer, give the gift of comfort. Not only will Kinsley be a comfort to those around her, but the love that surrounds her today will continue to surround her for the rest of her days.”

  Annika was last before me. She stood in front of me and held out her hands. Kinsley barely roused from her slumber as I handed her to Annika. “I, Annika Skeenbauer, give Kinsley the gift of sisterhood. No matter what she needs, we will always be there for her. When she does wrong, we will lovingly correct her, but it will never stop us from embracing all that she is. We will lift her up and celebrate whatever she chooses to become. If she ever feels like she cannot come to you, then I will be there to listen to her troubles. Knowing you, Brighton, that day will never come, but I promise to be there just in case. For this reason, and all the others, she will never be alone. The women in her life will do everything in our power to help her become the woman she is meant to be.” Annika handed Kinsley back to me.

  She gurgled and then nuzzled back against my chest. “I think I know what gift I can give her,” I said. “It’s one that I don’t know that I ever really had myself, but I will do my best to make sure that Kinsley has all of it she can stand. I, Brighton Skeenbauer, give the gift of a mother’s love. Everything that I have is hers. That includes my life. I would give that for her. I would go hungry for her. But most importantly, all of my power is hers if she needs it. I would give up my magic so that she could be who she is meant to be.”

  “All of us would,” Amelda said and stepped forward. “The thirteenth gift seals the covenant. If Kinsley should ever need of it, we will all give our powers for her to become what she is destined to be.”

  “It is so,” the other women said in unison.

  “It is so,” I echoed.

  Chapter Two

  The next morning, Remy was running late for work. Not that anyone really noticed when he got there or left, but he prided himself on being on time nonetheless.

  I figured that part of the reason he didn’t want to go was because of the basket from my brother. By the time Remy had gotten home from work the night before, the baby shower party was completely cleaned up, except for the stars hanging from the ceiling. I rather liked those, so I asked the Aunties to leave them up for a while.

  “How was it?” Remy asked when he walked through the door.

  “You knew,” I said and poked him playfully in the arm. “You knew your family was going to ambush me, and you kept their secret.”

  “Your family,” he said with a chuckle. “And, yes. I knew. Annika threated to turn me into a goat if I spilled the beans.”

  “Yes, they are my family now,” I said with a contented sigh. “It was lovely. The food was excellent, and I hadn’t expected the whole magical gifts thing for Kinsley.”

  “It’s a very special ceremony,” Remy said. “They don’t do that for everyone. In fact, I think Amelda was the last one to have it before Kinsley.”

  “So, it’s only for coven leaders? What about you?”

  “With Kinsley here being born, I doubt I’ll ever lead the coven,” Remy said. “Amelda is going to hang onto life with an iron fist as long as she can. By the time she’s ready to retire, it will be Kinsley’s turn.”

  “Will Kinsley be able to have a normal life?” I asked.

  “I mean, as close to normal as a powerful witch can have,” Remy said. “The only way for her to have a normal life like a human would be for her to leave Coventry and forsake her powers.”

  “Like the Tuttlesmiths,” I said more to myself than to Remy.

  “Yeah. Why? Is that what you want?” Remy asked.

  “No. It didn’t work out well for my family. It just feels like a lot for someone so small. She was just born, and there is already all of this responsibility hanging over her. It worries me.”

  “Of course it does, honey. You’re her mother. We will make sure she’s fine. Kinsley will play, laugh, and grow just like any other child. She doesn’t have to worry about all of that coven leader stuff until way down the road. There will be lots of boring normal in there.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” I said.

  “Speaking of boring and normal, are you feeling up to running an errand for me tomorrow?” he asked.

  “Sure, anything,” I said.

  It turned out that the errand was to take some financial documents to an accountant over in the b
usiness district. Witches may have been magical, but they still had to pay taxes.

  Remy had hired a new accountant to handle it for us since neither one of us really had the time or inclination to handle the task anymore. It freed us up to focus on Kinsley.

  “If you’re not feeling up to it, I can do it on my lunch break,” Remy said as he lingered by the front door.

  “Go to work,” I said with a laugh. “Kinsley and I can handle dropping some paperwork off at the accountant.”

  “He wants hard copies, but I could just send him scanned copies,” Remy offered.

  “Remy, seriously. Go to work. I can handle taking some papers to a building less than a mile away. If you don’t scram, I’ll turn you into a goat myself,” I said with a laugh.

  “What about your brother?” he asked solemnly.

  “Brody isn’t here in Coventry. He can’t be. Whoever he sent to deliver the basket, I can handle. I will not live like a prisoner in this house just because my brother is trying to scare me. Besides, maybe if he gets too close, we can catch him.”

  “You would be okay with that?” Remy asked. “You’d be okay with letting the coven handle him?”

  “Yeah, I would,” I said. “He made his own bed.”

  After Remy was gone, I made myself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table with Kinsley in the bassinet. The purple folder full of documents sat on the other side of the table waiting to be delivered.

  The accountant didn’t open his door until nine in the morning, so I was taking the opportunity to have a quiet cup of coffee and read a few pages of a book I’d been desperate to finish.

  As I turned the pages and sipped my coffee, Meri came sashaying into the kitchen. “I know Remy already fed you a double portion of breakfast,” I said without looking up from my reading.

  Meri surprised me when he jumped up onto the table and lay down on my book. He started to purr loudly and swish his tail across the table.

  “Hey,” I said. “What gives?”

  He just started licking his paw and then swiping it over one ear. After a few seconds, he looked up at me.

  “Seriously?”

  “What, it’s not like I’m going to get fat, and it’s not like you’re going to run out of groceries.”

  “What did you have for breakfast again?”

  “Bacon and salmon,” Meri answered and stood up from my book. He stretched and knocked it off the table.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You’re lucky you didn’t wake the baby.”

  He just stared at me.

  “Fine,” I said. “Fine. I’ll get you a can of tuna.”

  Meri jumped down and ran into the kitchen to wait by the pantry door. I got a can of tuna out and opened it. He waited patiently while I drained the water and then spooned it into a bowl.

  Just about the time I got him his breakfast, Kinsley woke up. She started to cry, and I knew right away that it was her hungry cry. Inside the fridge were some premade formula bottles. I grabbed one and used a little fire magic to heat it up to the perfect temperature.

  We sat on the sofa while she drank her bottle. When she was done, I burped her three times and then changed her diaper.

  “Okay, now that I’ve fed everyone, it’s time to run Daddy’s errand.”

  I put Kinsley in her playpen and pulled up a weather website. For it being winter, the weather was actually quite nice.

  “Fresh air it is,” I said.

  We probably could have had the papers dropped off and been home in less than fifteen minutes if I’d taken the car, but I felt a little cooped up. I figured that on such a nice day, a walk and some sunshine would do us both good.

  Still, I didn’t want Kinsley to get cold, so I bundled her up with an extra pair of socks and her warmest blanket. I had a fuzzy pink kitten hat that I put on her head. Its little flaps covered her ears, and I put mittens on her to keep her tiny fingers warm.

  When she was ready, I threw on a scarf and my jean jacket. I didn’t want to bundle myself up too much because I knew I’d get warm from walking.

  I pulled her stroller out of the entry closet and opened it up. The thought of putting her in it and trying to maneuver down the front steps filled me with dread, so I took it outside and placed it on the front walk first.

  Before we left, I grabbed her diaper bag and threw in another bottle of formula. With that slung over my shoulder, I scooped my little bundle up and we went outside.

  With Kinsley nestled into her stroller, I started down the sidewalk. I couldn’t help but admire how easy the stroller was to push. It was like almost nothing. I had to wonder if it was just a high-end brand, or if someone had put a spell on the thing.

  At first I was concerned that I would be too fatigued to walk as far as the accountant’s office. I’d just had a baby, after all. But I didn’t feel fatigued.

  The sun felt good on my face, and Kinsley cooed as we strolled down the street. Eventually, we got to the town square. It took the better part of an hour to get that far given the pace I’d been maintaining.

  The business district where the accountant kept his office was just on the other side. As we walked across the square, I couldn’t help but look up at the top window of the courthouse.

  At first, I thought I saw a shadow, but it quickly disappeared into the background. The thing that usually stalked me when I walked by seemed to want to have nothing to do with me. It was strange, but I had to wonder if it was because of Kinsley. There was nothing else that had changed since the last time I'd been in the square. That time, it had definitely been peering down at me with its black hole eyes.

  While I was searching the windows of the courthouse for the nasty specter, I hadn't been paying attention to where I was walking. I'd originally been walking on the sidewalk that ran around the outside edge of the square but as I moved toward the library on the other side, I'd drifted into the middle. As I walked over the ley line, the stroller that had felt like it was gliding on air suddenly felt like it was floating on air.

  Because it was.

  The stroller had levitated off the ground an inch, and it was slowly rising. I pushed it down as I looked around frantically to see if anyone noticed.

  Walking over the ley line had given Kinsley enough magical power to override Amelda's bracelet. She'd had a magical "hiccup" and begun to float away.

  It took great force for me to keep the stroller down and keep walking. By the time I got well clear of the ley line, my arms were shaking from the effort. Fortunately, as we passed the library, I was able to ease up and just push normally.

  The rest of the walk to the accountant’s office was uneventful. We arrived out in front of the large Victorian house that had been converted to an office space a few minutes later. The sign out front said "Jeremy Dyer, CPA".

  I pushed the stroller up the long sidewalk to the big beige house with blue shutters. Again, I wasn't sure about maneuvering the stroller up the front steps with Kinsley in it, so I took her out and held her with one arm while I sort of dragged the stroller up the steps behind us. I decided that in a small town like Coventry, no one was going to steal it. So, I left it out on the front porch when I went inside the office.

  Inside the office was silent. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it really felt like no one was there. There was no music playing, and that wasn't that strange, but there also were no sounds of anyone moving around. Not so much as the shuffle of papers or the clicking of a keyboard. I checked the hours on the door, and the office was open. That made sense though, because the door was unlocked.

  "Hello?" I called out.

  No one answered, and it was still as silent as the grave. In my mind it was still possible that Jeremy the accountant was watching a movie or something with noise-canceling headphones. I thought to myself that perhaps he was just having a slow morning or he could have been catching up on the news. I considered that he had storage up in the house's attic space and he was up there. I wouldn't have been able to hear it
because the building's second floor was between me and the attic.

  "Hello!" I called out again much louder.

  Kinsley started to cry, and the sound of it was long and mournful. It wasn't your standard baby cry at all, and the sound filled me with cold dread. Something was wrong, and my baby had picked up on it.

  I bounced her a little against my shoulder, but she didn't start to calm down until I began to walk toward a hallway off to the left. The further I walked into the house, the quieter she got.

  Eventually, I found myself in a large office with a huge mahogany desk in the center. The only thing that seemed out of place was that the chair was back from the desk and turned halfway around. It looked like someone had flung it back, and it just struck me as odd.

  Alarm bells in my head told me to leave, but when I started to leave the room, Kinsley began to wail again. "Okay," I said and gently kissed her. "You want me to look. I'll look."

  I took a deep breath and walked around the desk. I was shocked by what I found, but I was not surprised. It was as if I'd known from the second I walked into the office that something terrible had happened.

  A man, and I assumed at the time it was Jeremy Dyer, was lying face up on the floor with a knife sticking out of his chest. When I backed away from him, Kinsley didn't start to cry. For whatever reason, she'd wanted me to find him, and I had.

  We went back out to the front area that served as a lobby, and I called Gunner.

  "Are you still inside?" he asked.

  "I am."

  "Get outside now. Wait on the sidewalk for me."

  "Oh, right."

  "Go now."

  I hadn't been thinking that the killer could still be inside the house. It had been so quiet that I just assumed we were alone. There were only a few feet between me and the front door, and I dashed outside.

  After I dragged the stroller back down the steps, I put Kinsley in and pushed her out to the front walk. We were only there for a few minutes before Gunner pulled up in his cruiser.