Free Double Booked by CJ Anaya

hold it right there. I no longer pass along messages for witches. I’m not really a fan of them, you see.”
    The man puffed out his chest like a proud peacock and stood at attention. “Young lady, you do not seem to understand the gravity of our situation.”
    I sighed, curious despite my reservations on the subject matter.
    “Fine. Tell me what you need, but please note that I may not be in a position to help you.”
    “Very good of you young lady. The problem is this: I need you to guide my son to an important letter I intercepted during the war.”
    “Letter?”
    “Sí. You see, during the year in which Spain joined the war against Great Britain, King George III and Lord George Germain sent a secret missive to General John Campbell at Pensacola. This letter contained orders to organize an attack against New Orleans, but I intercepted it before it made its way to Campbell.”
    “Very sneaky of you. How on earth did you manage that?”
    He shrugged impatiently. “Those details are unimportant, and most likely you can Google the information if you really want to.”
    Google? Did the spirit of Bernardo de Galvez really just recommend I go Google something as if he’d been online and plugged in for years?
    “Okaaaay.”
    “However, what you will not discover amongst your history books and online research is that this secret missive also included a code, leading to a magical weapon capable of controlling the elements. A talisman of sorts that my coven had been attempting to recover for years, but there had been virtually no sign nor hint of it since it was stolen from us in the late seventeenth century.”
    I released an unhappy sigh. “Why do you people even have things like that?”
    He gave me a flummoxed look. “It was a part of our coven for centuries. My people used it to control the weather while they planted and harvested crops.”
    I held up a placating hand. “I get that you needed it for practical purposes, but it makes no sense to create a talisman capable of mastering the elements when it will most likely be stolen and used to hurt people. Supernatural powers like that are always coveted by tyrants and narcissistic fools who inevitably wind up with the damned trinkets in the long run.”
    He smoothed the lapels of his coat. “Well, you’re correct in that department. It was unthinkable that King George had discovered this talisman and planned on using it against us.”
    “I’m sure he had help, though I don’t suppose you know whom his associates were at the time.”
    “There were a few warring covens, but we don’t need to get into those details either. At any rate, once decoded, the message led me to believe that the talisman had been brought to the Americas, New Orleans to be precise, during the early colonization period.”
    “Then I take it you located the talisman?”
    “I did indeed. Used it to my advantage and helped Washington win the war.”
    My mind whirled with questions. If what this Spanish General said was true, the number of inaccuracies in our history books was mind boggling.
    “How...? Never mind. I don’t have time to find out how a talisman that controls the elements figured into winning the war against the British. What I do need to know is what this letter has to do with me. If you already found the talisman, what do you need the letter for?”
    “After the war ended, my coven and I agreed that the talisman was much too dangerous to return to Spain, where it could be located and stolen once again. The last thing our enemies expected me to do was hide it in the Americas. Once hidden, I created a code, a mapping system of sorts, one that would lead to the talisman. Once enough time had passed, it could safely be retrieved. It is extremely intricate, requiring certain spelled artifacts from the war to lead you to the talisman.”
    “Are you saying you created some kind of coded map, and the clues for finding these spelled artifacts and eventually the talisman are located