Page 37 of Herbs & Hex-breaking

A short time later, Dex pulled up to the emergency room and dropped me off at the entrance. While he went to go and park, I headed straight for the front desk, texting Johnny that I had arrived. I got in line, as there was a group of people ahead of me asking about their relative, and told myself to be patient.

While I waited, I mentally raised my shields. The people in front of me were all sobbing; clearly whatever had brought them there was bad. In fact, as I surveyed the waiting room, a sense of despair seemed to settle on me and I shivered. To combat the energy I was picking up on, I visualized my aura growing bright and my shields growing thick and green like an impenetrable hedge.

A moment later the shivers went away and I felt steadier and grounded. The ER department doors swung open with a loud click and I saw Hattie’s fiancé, Johnny, in the doorway.

“Kate. Glad you’re here. Come with me.”

With a nod, I followed him back to a treatment room.

“We told the staff you were family and so they’re letting you in to the room,” he explained.

“How is she?” I asked.

“The doctors say she’s lucky,” Johnny said. “It could have been a lot worse.”

Hattie, he explained, had sustained a broken wrist and a mild concussion from her fall. She also had a few cuts and nasty scrapes. Once I stepped into her room, I saw the beginnings of a black eye from where she’d hit her cheek bone on the edge of one of the stairs. They’d put butterfly bandages on the cut. It looked painful.

As I sat in a chair beside her bed, Hattie explained that she had a temporary cast and was waiting to be sent upstairs. She was being admitted for at least an overnight observation.

“Sweetie, I’m so sorry,” I said. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“It all happened so fast,” Hattie told me. “One minute I was standing at the top of the steps with my bridesmaids, and the next, Bam! Something hit me in the back, and I went flying down the stairs.”

“And no one bumped into you?” I asked carefully.

“No,” Johnny answered for her. “We know for sure because her friend Shelly was taking photos and videos of them all posing outside the bridal shop. The bridesmaids had just all picked up their dresses—and Shelly sent me a video of what happened.”

Johnny tapped on his phone screen, cued it up, and handed it to me. There was Hattie and three of her bridesmaids all standing together, with Hattie at the top and the other girls two steps down. Shelly was laughing and filming the group, encouraging them to pose in silly ways, holding up their dress bags like they were trophies. Without warning Hattie went up—violently shoved forward—hard enough that her feet left the riser. She tumbled past her friends and went down the steps, hard.

The camera swung, blurring, obviously from being dropped, and the frightened cries and shouts of the bridesmaids ended the video. I watched it again, checking to see if anyone had appeared behind Hattie before she was pushed, but there was no one there.

It was chilling. “Be sure and save that video,” I told him.

“Oh, we will,” he said. “The damn bridal shop is already saying Hattie and the girls were horsing around and being careless, so they are not responsible for the fall or any injuries.”

I made a mental note to ask Nash Ellington if he could get access to the bridal store’s cameras to see if there was a different view of the incident.

“I promise, I’ve been keeping that protection sachet with me,” Hattie insisted, her voice slurring a bit from the pain meds she’d been given.

I patted her leg gently. “Hattie, I believe you.”

“It’s still in my bra,” she said, feeling around her chest for it.

“Babe.” Johnny stilled her uninjured hand. “They cut you out of your bra when they put the hospital gown on you, remember?”

“They did?” She frowned up at him. “Oh no! My protection is gone!”

Reaching for my own pendant, I said, “Hattie, take this.” I unclasped the chain from around my neck and stood. “This is a protective pendant; my grandmother gave to me. I want you to wear this. Don’t take it off.” Then I slipped it over her head and secured the clasp.

Hattie squinted down at the pendant. “What is it?”

“It’s called a Hekate’s Wheel. It’s an ancient Greek symbol of the triple goddess Hekate. It’s very protective.”

“But it’s a gift from your grandmother,” she said. “I can’t just take it.”

“The pendant is yours now,” I told her. “Wear it with my blessing.” I pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head and sent her some healing energy. “Get some sleep,” I told her and then smiled when she sighed and dropped right off.

Johnny turned to me. “When Hattie first floated the idea to me that she thought maybe her wedding gown was cursed, I didn’t want to believe her. But with everything that happened, me having anaphylaxis out of nowhere, and all the problems with getting the house, I started to take the whole situation much more seriously.”