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Pumpkins and Potions
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Pumpkins and Potions
A Paranormal Cozy Mystery Halloween Anthology
Tegan Maher
Elle Adams
Jenna St. James
Ava Mallory
April Aasheim
K.M. Waller
Stephanie Damore
Leighann Dobbs
Nikki Haverstock
M.Z. Andrews
Samantha Silver
Amorette Anderson
Constance Barker
Misty Bane
Mona Marple
© 2020 Tegan Maher
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, by any means electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system currently in use or yet to be devised.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or institutions is entirely coincidental.
This eBook is licensed for your personal use and may not be re-sold or given away to others. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase a copy for that person. If you did not purchase this book, or it was not purchased for your use, then you have an unauthorized copy. Please go to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting my hard work and copyright.
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Contents
Pumpkins and Potions
An Enchanted Halloween
Tegan Maher
An Enchanted Halloween
1
2
3
4
5
Connect with Me!
Old Ghost with New Tricks
Elle Adams
Old Ghost with New Tricks
1
Scene 2
2
3
4
5
About Elle Adams
Secrets, Soul Cakes, and Murder
Jenna St. James
Secrets, Soul Cakes, and Murder
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Want to Read More?
Beswitched
Ava Mallory
Beswitched
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Want to Read More?
The Pumpkin Problem
April Aasheim
The Pumpkin Problem: A Dark Root Holiday Short
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Epilogue
Want to Read More?
All’s Fairy on Halloween
K.M. Waller
All’s Fairy on Halloween
1
2
3
4
5
Want to Read More?
Semisweet Surprise
Stephanie Damore
Semisweet Surprise
1
2
3
4
5
The Case of the Purloined Pumpkin
Leighann Dobbs
The Case of The Purloined Pumpkin
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Scene 2
8
Want to Read More?
The Case of the Foretold Fatality
Nikki Haverstock
The Case of the Foretold Fatality
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Want Red More?
We Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts!
M.Z. Andrews
We Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Want to Read More?
Scaring the Potion off Her
Samantha Silver
Scaring the Potion off Her
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Want to Read More?
Gone with the Grimoire
Amorette Anderson
Gone with the Grimoire
1
2
3
4
5
Halloween Hanky Panky
Constance Barker
Halloween Hanky Panky
Thursday, Oct. 15
Friday, Oct. 16
Saturday, Oct. 17
Monday, Oct. 19
Wednesday, Oct. 21
Thursday, Oct. 22
Friday, Oct. 23
Saturday, Oct. 24
Monday, Oct. 26
Tuesday, Oct. 27
Saturday, Oct. 31
Untitled
The Curse of the Headless Horseman
Misty Bane
The Curse of the Headless Horseman
Dru
Granny
Dru
Granny
Dru
Want to Read More?
Apple Bobbing Horror
Mona Marple
Apple Bobbing Horror
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Want to Read More?
Pumpkins and Potions
A 2020 Halloween Anthology
Are you ready for your annual dose of Halloween hijinx, magic, and mystery? Then brew up a cuppa, give your cauldron a stir, and carve out the time for some witchy fun in this holiday anthology.
Inside these pages, you’ll find loads of spooky tales brewed up by 16 of your favorite paranormal cozy mystery authors, including:
Tegan Maher, Misty Bane, Regina Welling and Erin Lynn, Leighann Dobbs, Samantha Silver, Ava Mallory, Stephanie Damore, Constance Barker, M.Z. Andrews, Mona Marple, Elle Adams, April Aasheim, Jenna St. James, Nikki Haverstock, K.M. Waller, and Amorette Anderson.
We hope you have a Spooktacular time reading!
An Enchanted Halloween
Tegan Maher
It’s time for the annual Halloween party at the Enchanted Coast Resort, but when tempers flare and tensions rise, Destiny starts to worry that her soiree is going to go up in flames. As always, there’s more to the situation than meets the eye, and the Enchanted Coast crew adds a new friend to their ranks who helps bring everything back to normal, spooky fun.
1
“Hurry, Destiny! We’re going to be late,” Tempest, my fox familiar said, her fluffy black-and-white tail twitching.
“We’re not gonna be late,” I replied, slipping on the big hoop earrings that completed my fortune-teller costume. “What do you think?”
“I think you couldn’t have been less creative if you’d tried,” she said, her expression critical, “but for what it is, it’s great. Now can we go?”
I laughed. “You know Mila and Calamity aren’t going to be there for another half-hour, right?”
Mila was my cousin, and Calamity was Tempest’s sister. They’d agreed to come to the Enchanted Coast’s Halloween party after she closed up her potions shop in Abaddon’s Gate, a paranormal city not too far from the resort.
“No, I don’t know that,” she said, tapping her toe. “Calamity just told me they were on their way.”
No matter how much distance was between them, Tempest and Calamity had an open mental communication channel. That didn’t mean she wasn’t bluffing, though. Still, I was as eager to get to the party as she was.
“Let’s go, then,” I replied, grabbing my beaded drawstring clutch bag from the coffee table.
It was a kitschy little piece I’d picked up in Abaddon’s Gate and went perfectly with my colorful bohemian dress and red peasant blouse. I smiled as the little bells on the scalloped hem of my skirt and charm bracelet tinkled. I wasn’t typically a dress kinda girl, so even though it was Halloween, I still felt gussied up and pretty.
“Are you gonna wear the turban?” she asked, skeptical.
I shook my head. “Nah, I think the costume and makeup gets the point across. It’s too hot for the turban.”
She tilted her head at me, approval in her blue eyes. “You know, you look kinda nice with your eyes rimmed in black like that. It sets off the green in your eyes.”
“Thanks,” I said, a little taken aback by the compliment. She offered them so rarely that when she did, I knew she was sincere.
“You’re welcome. Now hustle. We’ve got people to meet and candy to eat.”
Ah, finally, the motive behind the rush. Or at least the second motive. Tempest’s biggest motivator was food, but I knew she was excited to see Calamity, too, not that I could blame her. I loved a good candy bar myself and couldn’t wait to hang out with Mila. It had been far too long.
The heat was intense when we stepped out of my cottage, but at least there was a sea breeze going that tempered it a little. That was one of the million things I loved about living and working at a paranormal beach resort. The water witch in me reveled in being close to the ocean, and the beach addict in me was appeased by the rest.
Tempest hopped onto my shoulder, and I headed toward the path that led to the tiki bar. The white sugar sand beneath my bare feet was warm but not hot. I curled my toes in it and ran my fingers across the top of the wheat grass as we walked.
“Why don’t you just port us there?” she asked, impatience lacing her tone. “It’s hot and I don’t want to walk.”
“One, you’re not walking,” I said, adjusting her weight. “And two, no, I’m not. If I teleported everywhere, I’d never get any exercise. Besides, sometimes getting there is half the fun. You can teleport ahead if you want, though.”
She huffed out a breath. “No, I’ll stick with you and do it the hard way, slowpoke.”
I smiled. Even though she grumbled and complained, she loved me as much as I loved her. Truth be told, I was as excited about the party as she was. Halloween was one of my favorite holidays.
I’d spent all morning decorating the tiki bar for the party and was pleased to see that none of the streamers had fallen and all of the pumpkin table pieces were still in place. I’d strung orange twinkle lights over the tables and around the bar and hung life-size plastic skeletons on the large pole braces on either side of the open entrance. I sent a little zap of magic toward them and charmed them to dance whenever somebody walked past them.
“You want your usual?” Dimitri, the bartender on duty, asked.
“Sure,” I said, and he reached for a chilled glass.
He was dressed as a Na’vi from Avatar and had gone all out. His entire body was painted a sky blue with striking dark-blue stripes, and he was wearing a realistic leather loincloth. Colorful beads and feathers adorned his long dark wig, and his eyes glowed gold.
“That’s an amazing costume. How long did it take you to do that?” I asked.
He grinned at me. “Not as long as you’d think, sugar. The wig’s one left over from a Cher lookalike contest last winter, the contacts took about two minutes, and the blue, well—” He closed his eyes and shifted back to his natural light skin tone. “It’s just a glamour.”
I raised my brows as he shifted back into his costume. “That’s impressive! I mean, I never even thought to use a glamour.”
He flapped a hand at me as he slid my beer across the bar. “Sweetie, if you think I was gonna wear face and body paint while workin’ in ninety-degree weather, you need your head examined. And by the way, you should wear eyeliner more often. It really sets off your eyes.”
“Told you so,” Tempest said, jumping on the bar to retrieve the pineapple wedge Demitri held out. As soon as she had it, she scurried down and darted toward where Bob, our Bigfoot friend and fellow bartender, had commandeered a table for his wife and kids.
His wife Jolene beamed from beneath her tiara, and I grinned when I saw her costume. She stood and gave me the ta-da stance, arms out and a big grin on her face as she waved a star-tipped wand. She was wearing a ballgown—sort of. It had been cut off and hemmed with a jagged edge just above the knee, and the bodice was daringly snug and low-cut, showing off her impressive—and slightly furry—cleavage.
“Lemme guess—slutty fairy godmother?” I asked, laughing. “Lucinda’s gonna have a kitten.”
She grinned and spun around so I could see her wings. “Yup. I figured I’d poke her a little since she thought it was hilarious to magic up the drum set for Michael for his birthday this summer. Unfortunately, she just messaged and said she wouldn’t be able to make it.”
Lucinda was an actual fairy godmother with a wicked sense of humor and a heart the size of Texas. She was also one of Jolene’s best friends.
“I’ll be sure to send pics. I’m sure she’ll get a kick out of it,” I said, smiling and pulling up a chair to join them. “And she’ll also assume that you’ve officially declared war. I would not want to be in your house Christmas morning.”
“She can bring it,” Jolene said, her brown eyes shining. “My mother is the queen of taking things to the next level, and I’ve learned a thing or two from her over the years.”
I shook my head, half-amused and half-terrified of where the one-upmanship would lead. One thing was for sure, though: I was glad I’d have a front-row seat to the mayhem.
“Hey, beautiful,” a deep voice said from behind me.
My heart gave a little skip and I turned to find Colin, my werewolf boyfriend, wearing a Peter Pan costume.
“Hey, yourself! I thought you weren’t going to be able to make it.”
“Yeah,” he said, motioning to Dimitri for a beer, “I didn’t think I would, but my client decided to take the deal, so here I am.”
He bent down and gave me a quick kiss, then pulled another chair to the table. “So, when do the festivities start?”
“Not ’til seven,” I said. “Mila should be here any minute, and she was going to help me finish setting up.”
“That means we have time for a burger, then,” he said, and my stomach growled at the thought.
“Definitely,” I replied. “That’ll help distract me from all the candy. Not exactly a healthy replacement, but probably better than huffing down twenty bite-size Snickers.”
Elena, one of our waitresses, brought Colin his beer and I grinned when I saw her Dracula cape. “Ah, a vampire. Clever.”