Page 48 of Herbs & Hex-breaking

Glancing down I saw that she was right. So, I shut my mouth, sat on the end of my bed, and let her patch me up.

She put fresh antibiotic cream over the worst parts of the wound and some new gauze pads. Then she taped the whole business down with Self-Adherent wrap tape.

“Thank you,” I said after she finished. “I do appreciate you helping me this morn—”

“Kate!” Circe’s shout cut off the rest of my word.

“Here we go,” I muttered, before I called out, “I’m back here!”

“I called her this morning,” Lorna explained.

My apartment door slammed shut. “What the fuck, Kate!” Circe demanded. “Why didn’t you call me last night?” She stomped over to my bedroom, and as soon as my cousin caught sight of me, she went quiet. “Oh, Katie,” she said, in a completely different tone.

“Don’t you dare cry!” I said as I watched tears shimmer in her eyes. “If you cry, I’m gonna cry.”

A tear slid down my cousin’s cheek anyway. “Oh honey, I had no idea it was this bad.” Circe went straight to me and gave me a careful hug.

Lorna spoke before I could. “The scrape to her arm isn’t severe, but I’m sure it hurts. The bruises on her side will probably look worse before they start to look better.”

Circe released me, running her finger over the bandage that Lorna had wrapped my arm in. “This is a nice, neat job.”

“Happy to be of service.” Lorna gave her a salute.

“Hmmm,” Circe said. “I’m going to ask an off-the-wall question. Did Hattie break her right wrist or her left?”

“Her left,” I answered, caught off guard by the question.

Circe laid her hand on my arm. “And now you have also sustained an injury to your left arm.”

“Hell’s bells,” I whispered. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Circe’s eyes narrowed. “Whoever did this to you, and to Hattie...I’m going to go after them so hard.”

“First we have to figure out who is the culprit,” I reminded her. “You can’t start tossing around magick. It’ll only cause more chaos.”

“Quite right,” Lorna said. “I have put some feelers out into the community. A few practitioners that I trust to be discreet. While they may have different magick traditions...each one specializes in tracing magick back to its sender. I imagine we’ll have a short list of possible suspects by this evening.”

“Good.” Circe nodded. “If anyone can find out, it’s our friendly neighborhood Magistra.”

“Honestly, ladies, I’ll admit that I’m not feeling particularly friendly after getting a close up look at our Kate’s injuries,” Lorna grumbled.

“So, I’m not the only one who wants to go medieval on the Witch that cast this hex?” Circe grinned at Lorna. “I knew I liked you.”

Despite myself, I chuckled at that.

“The truth is,” Lorna said. “A curse or hex or this magnitude is not a simple thing to break. It has to run its course. When I worked on the situation last night, I was surprised to feel the resistance that was still in play.”

Circe’s jaw dropped. “You’re telling us that the Magistra had trouble counteracting this hex?”

“Not trouble,” Lorna explained calmly. “I said, I was surprised at the amount of resistance…or opposition if you prefer.”

“Whoever cast this hex must have been incredibly angry,” I murmured, thinking it all over.

“Anger, envy, or jealousy is often the fuel for a hex,” Lorna agreed. “In this case, the curse’s maleficence built slowly over time, beginning subtly with everyday annoyances.”

“Things that could be easily explained away,” I said. “The debit card, the car troubles, mortgage paperwork.”

“Right.” Lorna nodded. “I figure that Johnny’s anaphylaxis episode was when the curse hit its peak and really took hold. Then Kate started protection work for the couple, and things settled down for a few weeks. However, the energy of the hex wasn’t broken...only diverted.”