Free Heirloom Magic: Every Witch Way by Megan Berry Page B

He might’ve just saved her from looking like a fool for months on end,
but it was obvious he wasn’t going to let her forget it anytime soon.
    “Of course not!”
Harper snapped, “I was going to say throw them in the garbage.” Jasper gave her
a wink, and she turned away with a huff of annoyance and went upstairs to
change.
    She settled on a
boring pair of sweat pants and a plain white t-shirt, just in case she
accidentally started anymore fires. She was passing her gran’s room when she
paused and stared at the door. It had been left open a crack and she felt a
draw, pulling her from somewhere behind her belly button. Her hand hovered on
the door knob and she thought about just shutting the door and calling it a
night, but for some reason, she couldn’t. Harper took a step into the bedroom,
her eyes coming to rest on a worn old trunk at the end of the bed. Something
inside was calling her name.
    Harper tip-toed
closer, feeling like a little kid who was sneaking into her gran’s room to
steal candy off the dresser. The trunk was old looking, made of thick and
sturdy wood with leather hinges that looked like they’d suffered a bit of
mildew in the past. Harper tried to pull the lid up, but it wouldn’t budge. She
brought her hand closer to examine the lock, tracing it with her finger, and a
golden light shot out of the moonstone ring, forming the shape of a golden key,
and inserted itself, as solid as smoke, into the keyhole. Harper heard a click
and blinked in surprise, startled.
    She stared at the
trunk, not sure she even wanted to see what was inside, not after the ring had
scared the bejesus out of her. The call was very loud though, like a tugging
insistence, and finally curiosity got the better of her. She opened the trunk
and winced when the lid let out a major creak. The inside of the trunk looked
like an episode of Hoarders . Harper plucked out a ceremonial looking
dagger and shivered. Who knew what her gran had done with the thing? She
gingerly replaced it, not liking the way the rubies on the handle fired to life
when her ring came near them. Harper pulled out a photo album and slowly
flipped through the time-faded pages, finding pictures of her gran as a young
girl, and then an older young woman, and her grandfather as well, whom she’d
never met. She saw pictures of her dad when he was a little boy, and her gran
standing next to a man wearing clothing from a different era. She had to look
twice, but it was definitely Jasper. They were both smiling and looked happy,
and it made Harper frown. There was so much she didn’t know about her gran.
    Harper picked up a
pretty looking purple and pink crystal that began to heat up in her hand the
second she touched it, and she dropped it wearily, wiping her hands on her pant
leg. She tucked the photo album underneath her arm and got to her feet. She
shouldn’t be messing with this stuff, and after setting the kitchen on fire,
she didn’t want to get burned twice—literally.
    Harper was shutting
the lid when a small book that looked like a journal caught her eye. It was
sitting on top of a manila file folder and, against her better judgement,
Harper scooped them both up before trudging back downstairs to the kitchen
table, ignoring Jasper, who had his eyes glued to the TV in the living room.
    The folder drew
her interest first. She flipped it open and winced, covering her eyes to block
out the blood-soaked pile of flesh that had been immortalized by a large 8x12
glossy photograph. Harper took a steadying breath and slowly opened her eyes to
look again. The picture was still there, and it was as gory as she’d thought.
She looked down at the woman who had been photographed on a damp sidewalk. Her
clothing suggested that this had happened sometime in the past, and her throat
was torn out.
    Harper gulped, her
hand making its way to her own throat as she flipped the page. More gore met
her every time she flipped the page, this time it was a man, lying prone on