“Like I said,” Josh spat back. “Micah was my future life’s happiness, and Pepper stole that from me. After everything I had given her. I was an idiot and a fool. She had to pay.”
“So you poisoned her and then suffocated her?” I asked. “That was all you?”
“I was trying to make it look like she got sick and died, but I got tired of waiting. I followed her that night. She and Micah were standing outside making fun of me before they went to their cars. Peppermint was bragging about getting more money out of me to pay her rent so she could buy some cocktail dress to wear for one of her many male friends. One that was going to take her out for the holidays. Some rich guy she’d allow herself to be seen in public with for once. So, I followed her to the Santa house, and when she went inside to drop off the cookies, so did I.”
“All right, that’s enough,” Thorn said. “Jeremy can you get this guy down to the station and get that confession in writing, or should I do it?”
“You take your wife home, sheriff. I’ll call you if I need you,” Jeremy said.
I had Meri in my arms, and he finally began to stir as Thorn helped me into the truck. “Are you sure you want to drive home?” he asked. “I can take you home in the cruiser and we can come back for the truck tomorrow.”
“I’ve got to work tomorrow,” I said. “I’ll be fine on a five-minute drive home.”
“What about the cat? Is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine. He’ll be fine,” I said “Remember, he can’t be killed until the last of the Tuttlesmith and Skeenbauer lines die. We’ll give him some extra dinner.”
“I can hear you,” Meri groused.
“Oh, good. Welcome back,” I said.
“What happened to your magic?” Meri asked drowsily.
“What does he mean?” Thorn asked as I laid Meri down in the seat and buckled in.
“He must be confused. Just waking up after being shot will do that to you,” I said and started the truck. “Anyway, I’ll see you at home in a few minutes.”
I was going to have to tell Thorn that something was wrong with my magic. It wasn’t something I could hide from him, but the truth was, I didn’t know either.
Chapter Thirteen
Christmas Eve…
It wasn’t going to be a Christmas like any we’d ever had before. It was my first Christmas with Thorn, but there was so much more than that.
The magical world was in an uproar. It wasn’t just me whose powers had failed them. Something had shifted in the balance, and every witch in the world found themselves with nothing more than a low-level hum of magical power. It was as if something had been reset, but nobody had any idea how or why.
Even gathering on the ley line in that ran through Coventry barely boosted our magic. Witches who had tons of power for decades now found themselves in their kitchens whipping up potions and spending hours relearning basic spells to give their charms and enchantments even a slight boost.
I was slightly alarmed by the change, but I also embraced it. I’d thought we should stop using magic so much, and now the universe had answered. I had to actually boil water to make tea using the stove. When I baked, the cookies took the entire bake time in the recipe. My elemental magic had been reduced to me being able to warm my hands up if they got cold.
We were still figuring out what was going on, but one thing hadn’t changed. Hangman’s House could still fill the fridge, and I found money lying around whenever I needed it. So, the house was still enchanted. It was just the witches who had lost a huge percentage of their powers.
There were whispers of some sort of upcoming witch Armageddon, but I told people to chill out. There was no evidence that anything bad was about to happen. If it did, we would deal with it when it came. Until then, everyone needed to stop freaking out and live their lives.
People also whispered that I was the cause. That somehow, I was blunting magic all over the world. It wasn’t me, though, but I did suspect it might be someone very close to me. That perhaps I wasn’t the witch in the prophesy would change the world. Maybe I was the mother of the witch who would change everything.
But that was not what I wanted to think about on Christmas Eve. I had my gorgeous husband, my snarky cat, and a roaring fire. I sat on a pillow in front of it with Meri purring contentedly in my lap. Peanut was kicking softly in my belly in approval of the fire’s warm glow. We were also waiting for Thorn to come back to the living room from the kitchen. He was fixing us some hot chocolate. Oh, and bacon for Meri. Always bacon for Meri. He got lots extra for the holidays too.
Thorn came back into the living room with the hot cocoa mugs and bacon on a tray. There was something else too. A small narrow box wrapped in sparkly red wrapping paper with a glittery bow.
“You got me present,” I said.
“How do you know it’s not for the cat?” Thorn teased.
Meri looked up and was probably about to say something sassy, but he remembered the bacon. Thorn put the plate down on the floor, and Meri jumped off my lap.
“It’s fine if it’s for the cat,” I said and played along.
Thorn had already gotten his present. I’d tried to make it a surprise, but he came home while my family was building and installing his new work bench out in the garage. He saw it and the new tools days before Christmas. He loved it, and
