One Potion in the Grave: A Magic Potion Mystery Read Online Free Page A

the bride and groom wanted something smaller, quainter, and that Gabi fell in love with the look of Mama’s chapel. The guest list was cut to a measly three hundred.”
    “Ain’t no way your mama’s chapel will fit more than two hundred,” Ainsley said. “And that’s only if they’re as skinny as fence pickets.”
    My mama would have found a way to squeeze them all in, but she didn’t have to. “The ceremony’s being held outside, around the gazebo.”
    “In this heat? Are they crazy?”
    “Very possibly. Because it’s a sunset wedding and with the rental of outdoor air conditioners, it probably won’t be the heat that gets to the guests; it’ll be the mosquitoes.”
    “Blessed be.” Ainsley laughed and shook her head. “Well, if anyone can pull it off, it’s your mama.”
    It was true. There was no stopping Veronica “Rona” Fowl when she had her mind set on something.
    Ainsley’s nose wrinkled again. “Why do you think Katie Sue’s dander is up with the Calhouns?”
    “I honestly don’t know.” It was hard to even speculate. I didn’t really know Katie Sue anymore, and what I knew of the Calhouns made me worry about her well-being.
    “What she said about giving them a taste of their own bitter medicine makes me think they did her wrong in some way,” Ainsley said.
    Poly hopped onto the counter and waved his tail under my nose. I rubbed his ears and scooted him out of the way of the computer screen. “Could be they did.”
    “But how does she even know them? She’s Katie Sue Perrywinkle from itty bitty Hitching Post, Alabama, and they’re”—her forehead scrunched as she searched for the right word—“famous.”
    “Well, she’s not Katie Sue anymore, remember. She’s Kathryn Perry, MD, and she has loads of money. Maybe she’s a political supporter.”
    “Even still.” Ainsley dragged the feather duster across a shelf. “Do you think the bitter medicine she talked about is literal? That it’s actually a hex? Maybe she’s been to see Delia.”
    Delia Bell Barrows. My cousin and former nemesis. We’d managed to stick a bandage on our broken relationship, but underneath old wounds ran deep. Because we practiced very different types of magic, I couldn’t fully trust her. And wasn’t sure I ever could. But that being said, we’d recently reunited and were trying to get to know each other as friends rather than rivals.
    Though we both called ourselves witches, the term wasn’t quite accurate but was used for lack of a better one.People around these parts didn’t care a whit what we were labeled as long as our magic worked when they needed it.
    Our family tree had been split down its middle by mine and Delia’s births. One side opting to use white magic for good (my side). The other choosing to practice black magic (her side).
    Fundamentally our beliefs were night and day. Healer versus hexer. Good versus evil.
    Delia sold hexes at her shop Till Hex Do Us Part, located across the Ring, the town center, and it was just the place for Katie Sue to scare up a bottle of revenge or a pox on the Calhoun family. “Maybe so, though the old Katie Sue would never touch a hex in a million years. She was all about healing.”
    “But you said she changed.”
    I couldn’t argue that. Maybe her transformation ran deeper than hair color and speech patterns. I called up my favorite search engine and typed in the Calhoun name. Loads of information filled the screen.
    “Find anything interesting?” Ainsley asked after a minute.
    “Not really.” Warren and Louisa had been college sweethearts, though rumors swirled of Warren’s various affairs throughout the years. Seemed to me Louisa turned a blind eye to his dalliances, whereas if he were my husband, I’d be poking his eyes out with my handy-dandy pitchfork, my favorite weapon of choice.
    The couple had two children. At age twenty-nine, Landry, the groom-to-be, was the youngest child and a classic ne’er-do-well. Three years ago, during