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place always smelled good when I burned those homemade candles of yours.”
    I took the paper, glancing at the list. Two vanilla bean candles - what I used to make for him because he liked the scent so much. The white sage house blessing kit was a surprise. “I have some of this in stock now but I’d have to mail you the candles.”
    He gave me the smile that used to melt all my good sense. “Or you could take a trip out to Blythe and bring them to me.”
    “You know I don’t go home.” I stirred the detergent then retrieved a pitcher to transfer water to the bucket.
    “You did last year. Why not visit again? Stay a little longer this time.”
    I focused on mixing everything into the bucket, wanting to get it done and have a cup of coffee myself. After working non-stop all morning, much of it magical work, I was tired and in need of a break. “What would I do there? Catch up with all the people who thought it was so clever that witch rhymes with bitch?”
    He didn’t answer. Really, what could he say? He did offer to help, so I let him dump water in the bucket while I poured and stirred ingredients. Then he carried the heavy container to the laundry room for me while I made our coffee. We sat at the tiny breakfast nook to drink and talk.
    “You planning on rebuilding?” He knew I’d lost my house in the flood.
    I sighed. “If I can ever get the money. I got a FEMA check but the insurance dicked me over.”
    “What about a loan?”
    I didn’t want to talk about my finances. “I’m trying to save as much as I can.”
    With forced casualness he said, “You still with that shady fella?”
    Just as casually I answered, “He’s out of town for a while.”
    “Everything okay?”
    I didn’t answer, which was answer enough. He wasn’t here to talk about my love life or my business, though. “Why are you really here, Ray?”
    He took a drink of coffee then looked away and rubbed his jaw. I remembered that move. Something was up and he was making a decision. After a moment he met my eyes. “There’s something going on back home.”
    “What is it?”
    Now he was all cop. “Britney Parker, twenty-four, found face down in the water down by the landing.” He meant Blythe Landing, the marina and state park on Kentucky Lake about a fifteen-minute drive from downtown Blythe. “Her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit and there was marijuana in her system. Empty beer bottles in her car, half a joint and a dime bag. The coroner ruled it accidental before I could do much in the way of investigating. He’s friends with her family.”
    “Her family? She one of the Parkers?”
    He nodded once, rubbing his jaw again. Something about this made him nervous and that wasn’t like him.
    I said, “I always thought those people were like something out of those Faulkner books I read the Cliff’s Notes to in high school.” A rich, powerful, small-town clan, I’d done my best to avoid them as much as my mother had done her best to curry favor with them.
    Ray took a long swallow of coffee in a manner that suggested he wished it were laced with something stronger. “I think she was murdered.”
    “Why?”
    “Because her ghost wrote the word murdered on my refrigerator with a can of whipped cream.”
    Taken aback, I raised my eyebrows. “Well, don’t that beat all?”

Chapter 7
     
    Growing up in Blythe, I never had any interest in who was rich and powerful or who was poor and powerless. We were middle class. I was never popular in school but it never bothered me either. I had too much else on my mind, like learning how to control my burgeoning ability to see into the auric field. Everything changed when magic entered my life, then changed again when I met my mentor Rozella. I won’t pretend I didn’t have typical teenager moments but a lot of that kind of stuff went over my head as I concentrated on learning spells, energy work, and not getting caught with white sage under the bed and it being mistaken for