I pause on my way past the cart. “Hey, if you don’t want to do this, we can just forget it. The curse can take over and steal your soul.”
“I’m here, aren’t I? Jack didn’t have to hold me prisoner in my own house. I could have spent the day with Taneea and met you guys here.”
“Look, I know you think we’re working against you, but it’s for your own good. Whether you like it or not, taking off the Protective Shield mojo made you vulnerable to the curse. And since you keep disappearing and won’t take our phone calls, we had to make sure you’d be around when we were ready to try a Break Jinx.”
“How do I know you’re not just using the curse as an excuse to try and get back with me?”
I roll my eyes. “We’ve been best friends for eight years. If you can’t tell when I’m being honest with you or believe that I’m looking out for your best interests, then maybe we’re too late. Maybe your soul is already gone.”
He steps out of the cart. “No, it’s not. I can’t know for sure, but I’m guessing if it was, I wouldn’t care about the curse. But I want to break it once and for all. What do you need from me?”
My heart skips a beat. Maybe the old Cooper is still in there.
“Your help. With a bunch of things. I ran into a little…trouble with a spell I tried to work for myself so I don’t have the strength I normally do. I need to rely on both you and Jack.”
“No problem. That kid’s a lot stronger than I gave him credit for. Though it was a lucky shot.” He rubs his swollen lip.
I smirk. “From the looks of his black eye, I’m betting you had it coming.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” His mouth pulls up into a half grin.
It’s nice to joke with him again, even if it is over Jack and him brawling. The important thing is that he’s on board, at least for now. If all goes well, I’ll only need his cooperation for a couple more hours. By then, hopefully, he’ll be back to the Cooper Beaumont I know. And maybe if I’m lucky, he’ll remember how much he used to care for me.
Cooper and I trudge to meet Jack among the wildflowers. He’s already cut long spires of mullein, the long, spindly weed that has soft, furry leaves and little yellow flowers. I gather a bunch of stalks and bind them together into six-foot-long bundles with the ball of twine I snagged from Dad’s workshop. Cooper and Jack cut as many plants as they can find, then help me create a stack of twelve knotted bunches that we can use as Magic Candles when we try to break the curse. When we’re finished, Jack and Cooper carry the mullein bundles to the deepest part of the cemetery, not far from the banks of the salt marsh.
While Jack runs to get the rest of our supplies, Cooper and I walk through the section that’s blanketed with kudzu. I point to the bright white headstone I uncovered earlier in the afternoon. It’s the only object sticking out from the bright green carpet of vegetation.
“See that?”
He nods. “Yeah.”
“It’s your mom’s headstone.”
“For real?” His voice is breathy as he drops the pruners and runs right for it. He turns to me. “I can hardly remember the day we buried her. Except that it was cold. Rainy. This stone wasn’t here then. There was just a bunch of dirt next to her casket.” Kneeling in front of the marker, he rubs his hands on the smooth marble surface and then traces his finger on the edge of the now-empty space that held his mother’s locket. His brow creases. “What happened here?”
I bite my bottom lip. “Um, I needed something that was in that compartment for tonight’s spell.”
He pulls his attention toward me for an explanation but thankfully, Jack walks up with two shovels and distracts him. “What do we do with these?” Jack squints at the gravestone in the dimming light. “Is that…?”
“Yeah. My mom. She’s right here.” Cooper pats the stone, then rises to his feet. Clearing his throat, he appears to force back the emotions that threaten to overflow and points to the shovels in Jack’s hands. “What’s next?”
I point to his mother’s grave. “You and Cooper need to dig twelve holes in a circle around the headstone and then plant each torch deep enough that it won’t fall over, but not so deep that it’s shorter than us.”
While they dig, I smear the ends of each mullein torch with tallow, rendered beef fat I snagged from Miss Delia’s to provide the fuel they’ll need to burn, and shake a Break Jinx herb mixture on the sticky surface. When the Magic Candles are in place, Jack and Cooper prune back the kudzu from around Clarissa’s grave and the rest of the circle, creating a little clearing.
As they work, I set up a little altar of sorts on top of Clarissa’s headstone with fresh fern leaves from the woods outside the caretaker’s cottage, a fat white candle, and a small clay bowl that I fill with a vial of holy water from Miss Delia’s shelf. After dipping some acacia leaves in the bowl, I sprinkle the altar with the water, then pull out another small bottle filled with althaea root and place it next to the water. These are the secret ingredients that will hopefully make all the difference to making this spell work.
As Jack and Cooper ignite the mullein torches, I light the candle and close my eyes. Taking a deep breath, I utter a silent prayer that Maggie, my intuition, my spirit guide, and research have all pointed me in the right direction. A recurring fear niggles at the back of my mind, reminding me that I don’t have the ancestors’ mortar, but I tell myself it shouldn’t matter. Miss Delia worked almost eighty years’ worth of magic without it after it was stolen from her great-gran. Hopefully I can get through tonight without it, too.
“We’re ready.” Jack’s voice fills the muggy night air.
As the lard and Break Jinx sprinkle heat on the torches, the scent of grilled meat peppered with apricots and curry fills the newly cleared space, making it smell more like an Indian restaurant than a Lowcountry cemetery.
I open my eyes. The tallow is on fire, spewing black smoke toward the midnight-blue sky.
It’s nearly time to start. I pull out my hunk of ruby from my pocket. It sparkles in the candlelight. “Do you each have yours?”
They dig out their own stones and show them to me. “You really think these will be useful?” Cooper asks.
“They have to be. When we broke The Creep, I knew the Beaumont Curse was in the ruby.”
“Yeah, but you threw it into the fire,” Jack says, needlessly reminding me of my biggest mistake ever.
“And it broke into three pieces,” Cooper adds.
“But the curse wasn’t broken. So logically that means it’s still in the ruby.”
Cooper looks around the clearing. “But Maggie said we needed ice. I don’t see any.”
“That’s because we don’t have any. Yet. It’ll be here.” I sound a lot more confident than I am. Because truthfully, I’m not sure how we’ll fill that important void, but I’m putting my faith in Maggie.
“Okay. So what’s different this time?” Jack asks.
“Well, for starters, we don’t have the mortar so we don’t have to worry about me throwing it into another fire. And then there’s this.” I step toward my messenger bag and pull out a soft piece of paper towel that’s folded into fours. Unwrapping it, I hold Clarissa’s locket out for them to see. “It was in that little round compartment in her headstone.”
Cooper sucks in a breath. “I remember that!” His pale gray eyes turn misty as he reaches to stroke its face with his finger. “I used to open and close it.” With a trembling hand, he pries his thumb between the two halves and clicks it open, then stares at the photos. His face softens. It’s the first time in more than two weeks that I’ve recognized him.