Free Bewitched by Cambria Hebert

 
     
     
     
     
    Acknowledgements
     
     
    I would first like to acknowledge the people who told me (to my shock and dismay!) that the character I am most like in this series is Kimber. I still don’t know if I believe you—ahem—Shawn Hebert and Amy Eye, but since you two seem to know me best, who am I to argue? (Well, I won’t argue in these acknowledgements, but in person that’s another story.) Kimber is an interesting kind of gal who I both love and not love all at the same time. She can be quite maddening to write. No matter what is going on, lake bubbling, betrayal or BFF drama, she always comes back to her hair and shoes… (I mean really, I am SO not like that. Did I mention I dyed my hair red to match Kimber’s? It looked terrible—think Ronald McDonald as a girl. Kimber would be horrified.)
    I wasn’t really sure where I was going with this novella (or, frankly, these acknowledgements). I just knew I wanted it to be entertaining and maybe a little creepy in time for Halloween. I wanted it to be something I could dedicate to my late father in honor of him and his birthday, which happens to be on Halloween… and also, did I mention when I was born my social security number had 666 in it? Yes, my mom had it changed, but still… perhaps that is why I’m allegedly like Kimber.
    Anywhoo, I would like to acknowledge my father, Edward Witt, who gave me the creativity I use today so freely. I hope he looks down on me with pride the same way Heven’s dad looks down on her. Also, to Shawn, my husband, for putting up with me and my “Kimber” ways. For telling me not to quit when I say I want to, for listening to me say bad things to the computer at midnight when it won’t do what I want, and for beta reading all these books even though you really don’t like to read. I love you.
    Thanks to Amy Eye, my superhero, cape-wearing editor who takes my calls (after she wonders if she can ignore them), listens to me babble on and on and on about these characters and helps me figure out where the plot is going and what they are doing (because I usually don’t know!). This novella, I think, will hold a special place in our hearts because we will always remember the phone call where we had to look up the decomposition rate of a body in a lake, and the call where you reminded me I couldn’t use “Double, Double Toil and Trouble” because Shakespeare might get offended (really, once he saw my hair and shoes, he probably wouldn’t mind). 
    To Cally Nicole, Amy Eye’s beautiful daughter, who lends her beauty to Kimber and traipsed through a graveyard and stood in a pool fully clothed so we could get the perfect cover shot. I hear you might be like Kimber too… Text me and we will talk shoes. lol
    To myself, because I moved up the East Coast, rewrote Tirade , wrote Bewitched and republished this entire series under my own name all in a matter of two months, and I am still standing (okay, I might be lying. In my pajamas.).
    To my children who are ever patient and to my street team, Team Heven and Hell, you ladies rock my socks off! Thanks for all the enthusiasm you bring every day. It is the Team and my fans that keep me going and don’t let me give up, so I thank you all for that. And finally (but not leastly – is that a word?), to Regina Wamba, my cover designer. Keep up the great work in making my books look pretty!
    Now, if you will excuse me. I have to go fix my hair and put on something stylish. (I really have no idea why they think I am like Kimber.)
      

Kimber
     
    I made it my business to look good at all times.
    Even when I was spying on people.
    Like I was now.
    But I wasn’t just spying on anyone. I was spying on my boyfriend.
    I knew— knew —there was something going on between Cole and Heven, my BFF. Heven and I had been friends forever it seemed, just as it seemed I had been forever in her shadow. I hadn’t minded it when we were young because I always knew that I would grow up to be the