Free Annette Blair by My Favorite Witch Page A

to.”
    “Seven crows can mean that a secret is about to be revealed. In some cases, it’s a sign of witchcraft.”
    The wind whistled eerily through the trees, like cheesy movie music when a dumb heroine descends a dark stair, candle in hand. Kira laughed.
    “You’re making that up,” Jason said, looking at the trees as the whirlwind calmed.
    Kira shook her head. “No, crow augury is taken seriously by some witches. I noticed right away that you keep four pairs. Four could mean the coming of a male child, or an event surrounding a son. Got anything you’re not telling me?”
    Jason barked a laugh. “No, no sons on the way.”
    Kira nodded, surprised by the odd flash in his expression as he denied the possibility.
    “If we count the crows upstairs as two sets of four . . .” she said, pausing to spook him.
    “Two sons? I don’t think so.”
    “No,” she said. “I mean if we count them as eight crows, we’re talking about a life-altering experience to the good, a glimpse of heaven.”
    “Heaven?” Jason scoffed. “Though I wouldn’t mind having someone return from there for a quick Halloween haunt, you know, to help our cause.”
    “It means heaven on earth,” Kira said. “A life -altering experience.”
    “Yeah, right.” Jason mocked her with his tone. “Give me a break. Wait. Is there a number of crows that portends the finding of a hidden staircase? Because I’ll go out and find more crows, if I have to.”
    “Calm down,” she said. “We’ve got weeks to look for the staircase and get Addie’s gravestone raised.”
    “Wait a minute, what makes you think it’s Addie’s?”
    “Hers isn’t in the cemetery, that I could find. She was the wife of the house’s builder, and since the fallen stone is the biggest monument out there, it has to be hers.”
    “Right.”
    “The cemetery’s perfect for a ghost tour,” Kira said. “And the house is quirky enough, with all its corners and gables, I’ll give you that. I can see why you picked the place, though not why you didn’t research it firs—”
    Jason bristled.
    Kira bit her lip. “Right. Been here, moving on. I’d like to create short stories about a couple of the characters beneath the cryptic headstones. You know, fictional pieces based on the epitaphs.”
    “Why the hell would we want to do that?”
    “To up the spook factor,” Kira said.
    “But people would think the stories were real.”
    “Not if we made it clear that they’re Halloween fiction,” she said, “based on a few sparse facts.”
    Jason wasn’t convinced. Kira could tell. “C’mon,” she coaxed, “it’ll be fun. After all this research, I feel as if we know the Rainbow’s Edge residents pretty well, except for old Nate, who built the place and wrote most of the history books. He portrayed himself as such a great man, bragging about his women, that I’ve started to wonder about him. Something tells me that your grandfather wasn’t the only philanderer in town.”
    “Gram always said there’d been rumors about Winthrop’s version of himself.” Jason chuckled. “You’re right, fictionalized stories, admittedly based on fact and hearsay, will add another layer of ghostly depth to the tour.” He picked a red-orange leaf from her hair, and grinned. “Same color. Almost missed it.”
    She snatched it from his hand. “That’s not funny.”
    Jason grinned anyway. “We have to find the staircase, hire caterers, a decorator, and heavy equipment to raise and replace the stone, but I feel as if we’re making progress.”
    “I’d like to decorate the house myself,” Kira said. “I’d love to get my hands on the place, and I think I can do it for the cost of flowers and supplies, and save the foundation money. I might even be able to get some of the supplies donated. What do you say?”
    “It would mean you’d have to put in more hours before and after the event,” Jason warned her, “whereas the decorators would normally be responsible for