CHAPTER 1
I let out a bloodcurdling scream as soon as I saw the figure looming in the door to my bedroom. Adrenaline coursed through me. The hair stood up on the back of my neck.
Willow and Hawthorn ran out of the room in terror.
But it was only Alder, half naked, towelling off his hair. “What’s wrong?” he shouted, the towel around his waist dropping to the ground.
“I forgot I was married for a moment.” I lay a hand over my thumping heart and sighed with relief.
“I’ve got to tell you, Amelia, most men get a little offended when their wives scream upon seeing them naked.” Blushing a furious pink, he scooped his towel off the floor and wrapped it around himself once more. “Two years ago I’d been shot and was in a hospital in Melbourne, and last year I was distracted because I was plucking up the courage to propose to you, but this year I’m not going anywhere, mentally or physically.”
I yawned and stretched. “What do you mean?”
“Two years ago when Marina Mercer came to demand her spell, I was away and someone tried to murder you. I won’t be away this year.”
“Well, it wasn’t Marina two years ago. It was someone pretending to be Marina’s sister,” I pointed out.
Alder pulled a face. “You’re beginning to sound like Ruprecht.”
I waved one finger at him. “You should be pleased about that because he’s on your side about this whole Marina Mercer yearly spell thing.”
Alder grimaced. “I just don’t like it, Amelia. Something terrible happens every year and it’s all because of that spell. There must a way you can get out of it.” He swiftly crossed the room and kissed me thoroughly. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said for the umpteenth time, before walking to the door.
“Where are you going? I thought you said you weren’t going anywhere.”
Alder frowned. “I didn’t mean it like that. I have to go to work.”
I rubbed my forehead. I hoped Alder wasn’t becoming as strange as my other friends. I had to get some caffeine into me. That would make everything all right.
I yawned and stretched again, pulled on my bathrobe, and staggered into the kitchen. I hurried over to give my Nespresso coffee machine a big hug and a kiss. As much as I enjoyed drinking coffee when I was out, there was nothing quite like the way I made it myself. I switched on the machine and listened to my favourite sound in the world.
When the light stopped flashing, I made to pour the coffee, but a loud knock on the door forestalled me.
“Not Marina Mercer already!” I said to myself. “Isn’t it a bit early?”
Both cats fixed me with a glare and blocked my way. “Oh all right then.” I topped up their bowls with dry cat food and then hurried to the front door just as another knock came.
I flung open the door. There, on my doorstep, was a giant pumpkin. A terrifying face was carved into the front of it.
