Crystal Cove (Friday Harbor #4)(69)

Finishing the beer, Cletus crumpled the can and tossed it off the roof. “The curse follows all the Fiveash females. I hope you’re not sweet on Priscilla.”

“No, sir.”

“That’s good. Keep it that way. You don’t want to end up like Clive. Or Granny’s husband, Bo, neither.”

“How did he die?”

“Struck by lightning on the Toad Suck ferry landing, back when there was still ferries.” Cletus paused reflectively. “A week before it happened, Bo told me that wherever he went, clocks stopped ticking. His watch froze. Hell, even the kitchen egg-timer hourglass shattered when Bo got near it.” He pulled up the stay-tab on a new can of beer. “Strange thing was, Clive told me he had the same problem, right before his accident. Showed up on time to work every day of his life, but started punching in late, ’cause every clock in the house had stopped. A week later, Clive was gone.”

Jason stared at him alertly. “They each died a week after the clocks stopped?” His gaze lowered to his stainless-steel watch. Relieved to find that it was still functioning, he let out a controlled sigh.

Before he looked up, he heard Cletus say gently, “Boy, you’re in a mess o’ trouble, ain’t you?”

* * *

After keeping company with Clive for about an hour, Jason climbed down and went back into the trailer. The three women concentrated intently on the Triodecad.

“How’s it going?” Jason asked.

“This book is unbelievable,” Priscilla said. “There are spells for nearly everything you could imagine.”

“Did you find anything to counteract the witch’s bane?”

Priscilla shook her head. “Nothing specific. Which makes no sense, because through all the generations of natural-born witches, someone must have tried to fix this problem. Why didn’t any of them write something down?”

“Bean and me tried to save our husbands,” Granny said. “When it didn’t work, I figured our magic was too weak, since we never got educated in spell-casting. But I thought a book like this would have the answer.”

Jason focused on Priscilla. “What about pitching the bunker shot?”

“We found a longevity spell,” she said. “A powerful one, from the looks of it.”

He kept his expression neutral. “Any drawbacks to a longevity spell?”

“None that we could think of. Everyone wants to live longer, don’t they?” She frowned. “But you’re asking the wrong person. None of us have been trained at this level of magic. Basically you’re asking someone who only makes Hamburger Helper to whip up an entrée from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

Jason hadn’t forgotten Justine’s warning about the longevity spell … that someday he could end up begging for death. At this moment, however, longevity was the answer to everything. It would allow him to be with Justine, and it was his best chance at being spared from the witch’s bane.

“There’s another spell we want to add to it,” Priscilla said.

His brows lifted. “I thought the rule was only one spell per person.”

“The second one isn’t for you. It’s for Justine.”

Jason was silent, listening closely.

“We want to bind a geas to her,” Priscilla said quietly. “As close to the original as possible. It wouldn’t be quite as good, but we think with the three of us—”

“No.”

“She’d be better off. And so would you.”

“Not open for discussion.”

“You’d have what you wanted at the beginning,” Priscilla persisted, turning red. “You’d have more time to live and you’d be safe from Justine.”

“If the fate of the whole earth hung in the balance, I wouldn’t have a geas bound to Justine again.”

“You’re still young,” Bean said. “You could find someone else.”

He shook his head. “It’s Justine or nothing.”

Priscilla glared at him. “You’re acting as crazy as a sprayed roach. You haven’t known her long enough to make that choice.”

Jason met her gaze without blinking. “Of course I have. Someday your life will change in one second flat. Something you never could have expected will hit you like a two-by-four. And there won’t be enough time to figure out how or why it happened. You’ll just have to go with it.”

“No, I’ll remind myself that some things are over before they start,” Priscilla said.

Jason glanced at Granny’s and Bean’s sober faces. “Give me your best shot at the longevity spell, and I’ll double the price we agreed on. But leave Justine out of it.”

“I don’t think—” Granny said.

“Triple,” Jason told her.

Granny and Bean looked at each other.

“Let’s git’r done,” Granny said briskly. “Priscilla, you’re in charge of casting the circle. Bean, we’ll need the chalice and altar cloth.”

Bean went to the windowsill to retrieve a thick-walled mug printed with the Budweiser logo.

“That’s a chalice?” Jason asked blankly.

“Sure is. We’ve done some of our best magic with it.” Reaching into a drawer, Bean pulled out a dish towel and spread it on the counter.