Cadenbury Town Does Halloween (Cadenbury Town #7)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

L unch was fun and after we finished we drive to the farm to help sort the house out.

I’m surprised to see so much wood and building materials piled up outside. I turn and look at Adhan. “I thought we were using magic to make it bigger?”

“You are. This is so we can set up secret passages and the like,” he tells me. “We love building the haunted house, but knocking this down and making it bigger will take too much time. I just need you to make the house bigger, then we can do the rest.”

“Do you have a picture of what you want the house to look like?” Tie asks, from next to me.

Adhan nods. “I do,” He pulls his phone out and flicks through his photos, then finding the one he wanted he turns the phone and shows us.

“Oh, I like that,” I say. It looks like an old abandoned manor house, with vines going all over the front. I look at Tie. “Ready?”

Tie nods. “Yep, on the count of three.”

“One .. two .. three,” I say and push my magic out. Titus does the same and our magic surrounds the current farmhouse and soon the house from the picture is in front of us. It is more than triple the size of the original farmhouse.

“It looks perfect,” Kean says, looking at it.

“It does. Thank you, sweetheart, Tie,” Adhan says.

Just then the front door flies open and Ben and Cam all but stumble out and down the front steps.

“Really?” Ben shouts, glaring at us, and stomping over, Cam at his side.

“Ooops, we probably should have checked the house was empty first,” Tie comments.

Pretty sure I’m not the only one who snorts out a laugh.

“I thought it was as neither of their cars are here,” Adhan says.

“Okay, so that was freaky,” Cam says when he is standing in front of us.

“Sorry,” I say looking at them. “We didn’t know you were inside.”

“What did that feel like?” Kean enquires.

“Really weird. Everything just started moving, getting bigger and changing,” Cam explained.

“Except us, thank goodness, but yeah, weird,” Ben added. “Please don’t do that again.”

“Where’s your car?” Adhan asks.

“Jude dropped us off, then he went to collect Connie,” Cam says.

We’re saved from replying by the arrival of Jude. He pulls up and gets out, before opening the back door and getting the baby seat out.

“House looks good,” he says, walking up to us.

“Thanks, we just did it,” Tie answers.

“While we were inside,” Ben complains.

“Wait, you were inside?” Jude asks, sounding surprised.

“Oh please, you’re still alive, so what’s the problem?” Kean asks grinning, not caring that his younger brothers had been inside a magically changing house.

“I’m gonna sic Nora on you,” Ben says, scowling at Kean.

Kean takes a step back, the smile falling off his face. “That’s just mean.”

I ignore them and bend down to see Connie, who looks to be just waking up. “Hello, princess, did you have good dreams?” I ask stroking her hand.

She grabs my finger and smiles.

“Do you want Uncle Ernest to pick you up?” I ask her.

“You can hold her,” Jude says, setting the car seat down on the ground, so I can get her out. She is wearing the cutest jeans and a top printed with the word Princess that has a crown above the word. I swear she thinks her name is actually Princess as we all tend to call her that.

I pull her out and as I lift her up, I blow a raspberry on her cheek, and she smiles. I’ve never really been into children, babies especially, but little Connie and Nora are the exception, and probably whatever other children join our family.

We all walk inside so the brothers can discuss what still needs doing, and there is a lot. We could use magic and have this done in seconds, but they want to do it the non-magic way and have family bonding as they do.

Molly is always talking about building bonds, so we now try to do that as much as possible together. Except now I’m bored with walking around and looking at walls. “Connie and I will meet you outside,” I say, as Connie chews on my finger.

“There’s milk in her bag. She’s due her feed,” Jude tells me. “Her bag’s in the car.”

“Then I’ll feed her,” I look at her as I walk away. “Now, do you fancy; fish and chips, pizza or Chinese?”

She just grins and doesn’t reply. Not that I expect her to, even I know babies this young don’t talk.

“You better not answer me anyway, otherwise you’ll hear me scream and everyone will come running, especially my Adhan and then they’ll all laugh at me, especially my darling Adhan,” I tell her as we walk outside.

“We really would,” Titus agrees from behind me.

I turn around and smile at him.

“I got bored.”

I laugh. “Me too. Here you go, hold Connie while I get her bag,” I say handing her over, and going to the car.

Tie happily takes her and holds her close, talking quietly to her. He’s going to make an amazing father one day.

When I first met Titus he was a bit pompous, well more than a bit, but he changed, especially when he started dating Kean and his brothers entered his life. Mind you, his upbringing was horrible. I internally shake my head at what happened to him when he was a child. Now, however, he laughs, jokes and has fun.

Titus works for the Witches Council. One of his jobs is looking after us true witches and making sure we don’t go off the rails. He got the shock of his life on his last birthday when he became a true witch himself.

Emilia Porter, one of the original lines of light witches died and having no living relatives she gifted her magic to Tie. To say he was shocked was an understatement, but it’s fun having him as a true witch as well.

I carry the bag back to them, open the front porch and pull out the bottle, I take the lid off and hand the bottle to Tie.

He looks at me in surprise.

“What? You do that better than I do,” I tell him.

“I’m not sure I do, but thank you,” he replies, taking the bottle.

As he feeds her, I put a cloth over his shoulder.

“Have you felt anything weird in the air today?” I ask him softly.

“Yeah, it’s nothing nasty. There is always a weird feeling in October, maybe because I’m a true witch. I'm feeling it more, but I’ll catch up with Molly later and see what she says.”

“What would we do without Molly?” I ask him, grinning.

“Muddle through and find the answer eventually. It’s just quicker with Molly around.”

I laugh at that. “You do realise we’d just come to you right? After Molly, you’re the one we would all turn to.”

“Goddess help us all then,” he says, grinning. He hands me the empty bottle and lifts Connie to his shoulder and gently rubs her back.

“What are you getting Temp for his birthday?” I suddenly ask him.

“Some books. I ran into Elaine yesterday. I wanted to get something he needed, she gave me a list of books and equipment that would be helpful. What about you?”

“I have no idea and he won’t tell me. He keeps saying he has everything he needs,” I say.

“I can send you the list of equipment if you want. Plus you could always get him a witch costume,” he suggests, with a quick grin.

I smile, remembering the Scarlet Witch one I brought Titus. “Now that’s an idea. I’ll have to look and see what I can find for him and yes please for the list.”

We don’t have to wait long for the others to come out of the house, laughing and joking as they do.

“We can get a few hours in later if you want. The witches have defence against dark magic lessons tonight,” Cam says.

I clutch my chest in shock. “You mean you’ll trust us witches to play with magic without adult supervision?”

Adhan snorts. “No, I’ll come with you and the others will work on the house.”

I look at Titus and shake my head. “One day.”

“Not in this lifetime, sweetheart,” the love of my life tells me, smiling like a madman.