Chapter 1

Seven-year-old Peony nearly broke my heart the way she played with her fingers and sniffled so hard her shoulders jerked with each sharp inhale. My heart was safe with thirteen-year-old Clover, but she was trying her darndest to break my spirit. Leaning forward with elbows resting on her widespread knees and a glare on her face, Clover was as defiant a child as I’d ever seen.

I could have said no . . . No, no, I couldn’t have. My whole life, I’d never been able to say no to people. I did need to move this along, though. I had a shop to open and customers to tend to. Something to bake. There was always something to bake.

“We’re so sorry to bother you with this, Reeva,” their father, Alder, insisted.

“We didn’t know what else to do,” added Aster, their mother. “They say it takes a village to raise a child and well . . .”

“It’s fine that you came to me,” I assured with an empathetic smile. “As high priestess, I see my role as being both guide and rule enforcer. Before I say anything to your girls, however, I have to ask something from the two of you.”

They both froze, their eyes wide. If only they could be that in sync as parents.

“I need to know,” I continued, “that you’ll enforce whatever punishment I give. While it does sometimes take a village to raise kids, and you happen to live in one where the residents are always willing to help when there’s a need, ultimately your daughters are your responsibility.”

“Of course.” Alder gave a firm nod, eyes shifting from me to his daughters, issuing a silent warning.

“Whatever you say, Reeva,” Aster vowed, a beat too late. “We’ll follow it to the letter.”

I glanced at the girls perched on my patio bench. For an instant, they’d both become my daughter. Yasmine at seven after getting caught red-handed cutting into the cake I’d told her was for our neighbor’s birthday party that night. Yasmine at thirteen after sneaking in through the front door at midnight when she’d been told in no uncertain terms that she couldn’t go to that party. I didn’t like the authoritarian side of parenting any more than Alder and Aster Flowers did. But oh, what I wouldn’t give to have my girl sitting before me now, alive and well, anxious for the words about to come out of my mouth.

“First, let’s be sure I’ve got my facts straight.” I took a few steps closer to the girls. “Please correct me if I get anything wrong.”

“You’re wrong,” Clover sassed instantly.

“Clover,” Aster snapped, “I swear to the Goddess, if you don’t check that attitude, I’ll triple whatever punishment Reeva gives.”

The girl remained quiet but made a face at her mother. They should have named her Saguaro or after some other kind of cactus flower. The girl was prickly as a porcupine.

“My understanding,” I continued, raising my voice slightly, “is that you broke into a villager’s garden and helped yourself to several plants. And not just any villagers. You broke into the Barlows’ garden. The two most powerful green witches in Whispering Pines.” And the entire Midwest for that matter.

“W-we w-were h-harvesting,” Peony stuttered and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

I couldn’t wait, Momma. Your cakes are soooo yummy.

“I’ve spoken with Briar and Morgan,” I told Peony, using the voice that always made Yasmine cringe and me feel like a tyrant. “Harvesting would mean using a set of shears to carefully remove only as much from the plant as you needed. They say you pulled whole plants from the ground—sweet pea, lavender, mandrake, and rue. Doing so upset the other plants around them as well. Is that accurate?”

“W-what are shears?” Peony asked, her legs swinging, her feet not reaching the ground.

“They’re scissors for the garden,” Aster explained as though she was a gardening pro. Ironically, all four of the Flowers had thumbs that were far more brown than green.

Peony shook her head. “W-we didn’t use shears. C-Clover didn’t s-say we had t-to.”

Clover shrugged. “I tried to break off what we needed. Didn’t work, so I yanked.”

You can’t understand, Mom. You’re too old. I had to go to that party.

“I’m not sure that’s quite accurate,” I corrected both the girls before me and the one ever-present in my mind. “I think you yanked because you were afraid that either Briar or Morgan were going to come out and catch you.”

“Because that stupid rooster wouldn’t stop crowing,” Clover blamed.

Pitch, Morgan’s all-black pet, served as an avian version of a watchdog or scarecrow for the Barlow garden. If he spotted anything out of line, he sounded the alarm.

I shook my head. “By the time they heard Pitch, the damage had already been done. They showed me what you did. It was significant.” I set a chair in front of them and sat so I could look them in the eye. “Vandalism is punishable by law. Briar and Morgan could have reported you to Sheriff Reed and asked him to charge you. He probably would have sentenced you to community service. The Barlows left it up to your parents to decide your punishment.” Since Clover was the instigator, my gaze stuck to her as I said, “They seem to be at the end of their rope with the two of you, however, and asked for my help. I know your parents are raising you to follow the Wiccan Rede—”

“What’s a rede?” Peony interrupted, her sniffles finally under control.

“It’s a rule or guideline that Wiccans follow. It states that we are free to do whatever we choose to”—Clover sat taller at this pronouncement—“as long as our actions don’t harm anyone. The problem is that harm can mean different things to different people. Each of us has to decide for ourselves what that definition is.”

Clover, once again fueled by attitude, declared, “I decided that I needed those plants and the Barlows had plenty. We didn’t take them just to mess up their garden. We needed them for spells.”

Alder stepped forward and demanded, “What spells?”

“A girl at school is telling lies about me,” Peony wailed.

“That’s not very nice,” I empathized. “What were you going to do about it?”

“We did tons of research first,” Peony explained and nudged her sister. “Tell her, Clover.”

The teen sighed. “Peony needed sweet pea to make the girl tell the truth.”

Peony nodded. “The book says if you hold sweet pea in your hand, you have to tell the truth. So I was going to make her hold it and ask her why she lies about me.”

For that exact purpose, sweet pea could have come in handy a few times in my life. “And what about the other plants?”

“Clover wants to steal her friend’s boyfriend,” Peony announced.

“Peony,” Clover groaned and looked at me. “That’s not exactly it. He and I like each other, everyone knows that, but this other girl put a hex on me, and now he won’t even look at me. If you put rue in your bath, it’ll break the hex. Rub it on your floor, it sends spells back. If you use a sprig of it to sprinkle salt water, it clears negativity.”

I made a mental note to check my garden for rue. My cottage was full of negativity. “What about the mandrake?”

“Mandrake is good for both things,” she informed as though giving a presentation. “If you wear some, like pinned to your shirt, it attracts love. If you carry it in your pocket, it banishes negativity. Before you can use it, you have to activate it, so you’re supposed to set it someplace it won’t get disturbed. After three days, you put it in water and let it soak overnight. Then it’s ready. You can sprinkle the water in doorways or windowsills or, better still, sprinkle it on the person who’s bugging you. The book says demons can’t stay where there’s mandrake.”

Would it work on personal demons? I had a few of those to banish. Maybe I’d stop by the Barlow’s and get some mandrake. “And the lavender?”

Clover shrugged. “Guys like it. It works great in love potions.”

“Love potions?” Alder cried, and Aster patted his shoulder to calm him down.

I looked down at the girls long enough to make them squirm. “I have to say, I’m impressed with how much you know.”

Peony beamed, and one corner of Clover’s mouth turned up a little.

“Can you imagine, though,” I continued, “how chaotic things would be if everyone decided for themselves what did and didn’t constitute harm? There have to be guidelines for people to follow, and enforcing those guidelines, in this situation at least, falls to me. The two of you have broken the Rede by damaging the Barlows’ plants. That directly causes harm to them because they use those plants in their religious practice. And they sell them at Shoppe Mystique, so this affects their customers as well.”

All four of the Flowers stared at me, ready to hear my decision, but it seemed the girls needed a reminder of the basics first. It couldn’t hurt for Aster and Alder to hear it either.

“The Rede is backed up by something called the Threefold Law. Do either of you know what that means?”

Peony’s hand shot into the air. “It means that whatever you do will come back to you three times. If you do something bad, like run your bike into someone else’s bike, your bike will get a flat tire, you’ll lose your bell, and you’ll forget the code to unlock your bike from the stand. That happened to one of my friends.”

“A perfect example.” I reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. “While not one of our guidelines, we also do all that we can to live in harmony with nature. We respect what it has to offer, and in return, it provides us with many treasures. Food, shelter, water, and medicine for example.

“So, how many bad things are gonna happen to us?” Clover asked, a tiny tremor of fear laced into the defiant question.

“How many plants did you disrupt?”

Peony counted on her fingers. “Four.”

“Four times three times two Barlows.” I met Clover’s stare. “That’s a lot of bad. Since the two of you committed this infraction together, I want you to work together on your punishment. Under Briar’s and Morgan’s supervision, you need to clean up the mess you made in their garden. Since you enjoy doing research, I’d like you to learn how to properly care for each of the plants you harmed and then write a paper detailing those steps. As magical properties appear to be of special interest to you, include those too.”

Aster had taken a small notepad from her purse and scribbled every word I said. She tapped it with her pen and announced, “I’m taking notes, girls. Don’t think you’ll be able to say you forgot—”

I cleared my throat, and she stopped talking.

“To end the paper,” I continued, “I want you each to include a paragraph that explains why what you did was wrong. Make two copies. Give one to me and one to the Barlows. Before doing anything else, you need to apologize to them face to face.”

They nodded but didn’t say a word.

I turned my attention to the older girl, who seemed to have lost a bit of her bravado. For a moment, she was Yasmine again. Then she turned into my sister. Her attitude was so much like Flavia’s at thirteen it scared me.

“Clover, I’m concerned about the path you’re leading your little sister down. Your role with her is like mine with the coven. You should be guiding her in directions that will be helpful and positive. Right now, she looks up to you. Trust me, the day will soon come when she won’t anymore.”

Memories of growing up with Flavia skittered through my brain. Her wicked side first came out when she was old enough to realize she had to share our parents’ time and attention with me. If I’d done more to lead her down the right path when she was Peony’s age, things might have turned out better. For all of us. The guilt over that still ate at me.

“Clover, I’d like you to write an additional paper on the role siblings play in each other’s lives. I expect both papers to be well thought out with perfect spelling and punctuation. Think of it as a final exam that will allow you to pass on to the next grade at school. If you fail the exam, you’ll need to repeat it until you get it right.”

Peony looked excited to be working on this project with her big sister. Still so innocent and malleable. Clover looked miserable, which meant she would likely learn the most from this exercise.

“Aster? Alder? Any questions or concerns?”

Taking on a sort of tough-guy role, Alder crossed his arms and, in an all-business tone, asked, “What’s the due date on this assignment?”

“They need to clean up the garden, per the Barlows’ directions, immediately. They can take the time they need with the papers. I’m more concerned that they learn from this rather than getting it done by a specific date. Sometime before the end of summer is sufficient.”

“Did you hear that, girls?” Aster asked. “Head straight over to the Barlows and you can bet I’ll be checking with Briar later.” To me, she added, “This is so embarrassing.”

We watched the girls head to the dirt road that crossed in front of my cottage. It would take them straight to the Barlows.

The university is only two hours away. You’ll see me all the time, Mom.

I blinked away yet another memory flash and turned to Alder and Aster. “I’m glad you’re both behind me on this. Lessons learned this way aren’t easy, but they often have the greatest impact.”

“Cleaning up the garden is a must,” Aster began. “I’m a little surprised about the papers. That will certainly take a chunk out of their summer.” She paused as though thinking I might change my mind. “But, as you said, this lesson will really be driven home.”

Alder shot his wife a disapproving look. “Better than if Sheriff Reed charged them with a crime and made them do community service all summer. I agree with Reeva’s decision.”

“Well, I do too,” Aster insisted. “Just saying it’s a shame. Summer should be time for them to relax and play.”

Overall, Yasmine had been a good kid, but that didn’t mean parenting wasn’t a challenge. I empathized with the Flowers and was glad that they asked for help rather than giving up and letting their daughters run amok. Lately, though, they had been turning to others first when the girls needed disciplining. That needed to be their last resort rather than the go-to item on their list.

“Am I safe to assume you’re both committed to Wicca?”

“Of course,” Alder stated.

“Absolutely devoted,” Aster added.

“Great, because I also have a little assignment for the pair of you.”

Like a sunset fading beneath the horizon, the color drained from their faces.

“I’d like you to work together on a plan for how you will enforce the Rede and Threefold Law with your girls. Give me plenty of details. Tell me how you’ll teach them to be intentional every day. List activities you’ll do together, such as full moon or new moon rituals either with the coven or on your own at home. How you’ll celebrate the sabbats. Those types of things.”

I nearly laughed at their shocked expressions, but this wasn’t funny, and I was dead serious. The residents of this village had lived far too many years with Flavia thinking she could do as she pleased. I was determined to not let someone else pick up where she left off. This wasn’t the first time Clover had been in trouble. She was looking for attention and wanted it from her parents, not other people.

Aster’s jaw dropped. “I don’t understand, Reeva. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You didn’t, and I don’t want you to think I’m punishing you. Instead, look at it as another tool for your parenting toolbox. It’s an exercise that’s almost guaranteed to help your family. You came to me for help, and I’m happy to do so this one time, but it’s up to you as their parents to ensure that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. If it does, I doubt the next punishment will be up to me. Sheriff Reed will almost surely step in at that point.”

Worse, karma was waiting to see if they kept their promise to abide by my decision. The last thing I wanted was to get between someone and their karma. Never again.