By
Sara Bourgeois

What happens when a dead body crashes your wedding day? Find out how Brighton and friends will handle this unexpected guest.

At the end of the last book, Meri convinces Brighton she has a far more important job to do. So, Brighton and Remy set their wedding date.

It’s the Winter Solstice, a perfect time for a witches wedding. Of course, Brighton is a nervous bride, but really, she shouldn’t be. Annika, her maid of honor is beautiful in red satin and Meri looks very handsome in his blue bow tie and just as snarky as ever.

Amelda joins them as they exit the back door, and Brighton is disappointed that her mother and grandmother didn’t show, even though they promised to be there. As she looks to the tree line, Brighton sees her Aunt Maude’s spirit, and wishes she could stay for the whole wedding. Amelda hears her and the entire coven joins to give Maude the strength to witness the marriage.

The day is perfect, well almost.

This is a favorite scene.

Despite it being December, the weather was perfect for the outdoor reception. I wasn’t sure if that was just a lucky break, it could be warm sometimes in December, or if the witches had something to do with it.

Remy was talking with Amelda when I walked outside, but he excused himself as soon as he saw me. I was about to say something to him after he approached, but he pulled me into his arms and kissed me.

“What took you so long?” he asked when our lips parted.

“I was only gone for a few minutes,” I said.

“Too long.”

He kissed me again, and before long the guests broke out into applause. Amelda made a comment I could barely hear, but it was something to the effect of us making her a great-grandmother sooner than even she’d expected.

A band had set up on a small wood stage near the garage, and they began to play.

“Shall we dance?” Remy asked me.

“I don’t know that you’re going to find my dance skills very impressive, husband.”

“Oh, I like it when you call me that,” he said and squeezed me tight. “You could always use magic to help you dance. If it can help you cook, then it can help you dance.”

“Then yes, we should dance.”

The next few hours went by in even more of a blur than the ceremony had, but it was a blissful whirlwind. We danced, ate delicious food, and received tons of beautiful gifts from family.

The reception was due to be over at eleven, and just before that, Meri came running out of the house like it was on fire. I checked, and it wasn’t, but something inside had upset him.

Most of the food had been cleaned up an hour before, and I figured he was inside looking for something else to eat. There were a few appetizers left out for guests to munch on, but he must have been in the kitchen bugging Coraline for more scallops or perhaps some bacon.

He ran straight up to me and tugged at the hem of my dress with his claws. I knew he wanted to speak, but he couldn’t because of the human guests around. I nodded my head, and Remy and I followed him.

I was about to ask him what was going on, but as soon as he led us into the kitchen, I knew. Coraline was face down on the kitchen floor.

Before I could even think of what to do, I heard a commotion going on outside. I went to the back door to look, and members of my new family were dropping left and right. I looked up at Remy, and his face was turning a greenish shade of gray.

I felt a wave of what I could only describe as dark sickness hit me hard, but from what I could see, all of the human guests were fine.

Given that Coraline was already dead but everyone else was just starting to get sick, the only thing I could think of was that someone had poisoned the food with a magical poison that only affected witches.

“We have to heal each other,” I said to Remy, “We’ve got to do it fast, and then we’ve got to help everyone else.”

“Okay,” Remy said through gritted teeth. “I’m fading fast, though.”

“We can do this,” I said and took his hand.

Meri joined me, and I felt myself grow a little stronger. While Remy was whispering a healing incantation over me, I envisioned a white light flowing from me into him.

His color started to look better, and I could feel the darkness starting to ebb away from me. “It’s working,” I said.

A few more moments passed, and we’d saved each other. “We have to get outside and save as many of them as we can,” Remy said.

“Meri, you weave your way around the human guests and get them to wander off. If the magic shield protecting Coventry works, they’ll wake up tomorrow thinking they had a good time and went home when they got sleepy,” I said.

“Good idea,” Meri said.

Remy and I went outside, and we started healing. As soon as one witch was better, we’d tell her what we thought was going on, and she’d move on to help heal someone else.

We acted quickly enough that we didn’t lose anyone else. Amelda had resisted most of the poison’s effects, and she was able to heal herself before turning her magic on more than one family member at a time.

“What is going on?” Amelda asked me as the coven gathered around.

“Coraline is dead in the kitchen, and I think it’s because someone poisoned the food with a toxin that only affected witches,” I said.

Amelda grimaced and walked past me. She made her way into the kitchen without another word, but Remy, Annika, and I followed.

I walked through the back door and Amelda was kneeling over Coraline. She had her hands over her body, and I could see a swirling mist between her fingertips and Coraline.

“She’s trying to figure out what the poison was,” Remy whispered to me.

We watched silently as Amelda worked. The only one who moved was Meri. He sat at Amelda’s side. I assumed he was assisting her magic. Since I was both a Tuttlesmith and Skeenbauer witch, he could act as familiar to both families.

A while later, Amelda stood up and turned to us. At first, I thought she was going to walk out without saying anything, but she finally did speak.

“We’re lucky you acted as quickly as you did,” she said to me. “If you hadn’t, I’d probably be left as a coven of one.”

“What was it?” Annika asked. “What was the poison?”

“It was a potion made of rose water distilled from black roses. Completely harmless to humans, but it allowed the witch who made it to amplify their intentions enough to kill all but the strongest of witches. It’s why I was able to fight it off and why Brighton and Meri were able to save the rest.”

“So it was another witch that did this to us?” Remy asked.

“Probably,” Amelda answered.

“What do you mean?” Annika asked. “How could it be anything else?”

“Are you saying that it could have been a human who bought the potion from a witch?” I asked.

“That’s possible too,” Amelda answered. “Either way, our coven was betrayed by a fellow witch.”

“What do we do?” I said.

“What are your thoughts?” Amelda asked me. To be honest, I was a little shocked that she’d asked me. She was the person who was supposed to make decisions for the coven. It was my first day as a member, and she was asking me what to do. I began to think it was possible that all of that stuff Meri had said about me and my future might have actually been true.

“As you know, Gunner knows about us. I do think we need to call him here. Let him and his deputies do what they need to do, and we’ll do what we need to do.”
Bourgeois, Sara. Wicked Witches of Coventry: Books One – Eleven. Kindle Locations (11318-1367). Kindle Edition.

Six months later and neither the witches nor human law enforcement have solved the crime of trying to wipe out the entire Skeenbauer Coven.

Amelda is traveling trying to find the witch who betrayed them, and witches are only eating things they prepare themselves, there are no gatherings or festivals either.

Remy notices Brighton seems a bit grumpy and when he mentions it her angry response surprises both him and Meri. This before she runs to bathroom and gets sick. It’s Meri who puts her mind on the right track to realize what’s wrong with her, but she insists on Remy going for a pregnancy test to be sure. While she waits she calls Annika and tells her she should come over. She arrives with Gunner just before Remy returns. She has a bit of a surprise herself, seems they got married, but they are planning to do a full wedding thing later.

Test confirms Brighton is pregnant and now more than ever she’s determined to find whoever poisoned the Coven at her wedding. There’s far more at stake now and she will protect her child at all costs.

It takes some doing but Brighton goes back to the beginning and begins her own investigation. It takes less time than I thought for her to solve at least part of it and this book fast forwards as well.

Only two more books left in this series, and I can start the Familiar Kitten Mysteries which is more of Meri.

5 Contented Purrs for Sara!

Sara Bourgeois

Sara Bourgeois is a Midwesterner through and through. She spends her time writing, reading, herding cats, and standing in her driveway during tornado warnings. (You can’t see them from the basement.)