I narrowed my eyes at her, reaching out a hand, but Mee-maw was faster, snatching one from the tray and shoving the whole thing into her mouth, chewing furiously.
I tried to grab one, as well, but Zoe pulled the tray away from me. “We should see how invisible it makes her before eating these ones, I have some other batches in the fridge in case this one isn’t as strong.”
“What are the other effects?” Mee-maw asked casually, as if it’d been merely an afterthought.
“Nothing too bad,” Zoe said, shrugging, “but I want to see what you experience before telling you what I felt, to see if they line up.”
I found myself pacing, looking periodically at Mee-maw to see if the potion had taken effect. It started after a few minutes with a gradual fading but, at about the ten-minute mark, I looked up at a gasp from Patrick, looking around for where she’d gone, to realize that she was invisible. Not just kind of transparent, but totally and truly invisible.
“Whoahhh,” Mee-maw said, her voice sounding much softer than usual, “this feels strange. You guys look somehow fuzzy and out of focus, and it’s almost like my clothes are heavier.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. What a weird side effect for a potion to have. “You’re kind of quiet, too.”
“I noticed the clothes thing when I tried them, as well,” Zoe said, nodding sagely. “The body seems to become weaker in proportion to how invisible the muffin makes you, so it’s good to hear that you still have some strength. I thought about it for a long while but couldn’t figure out how invisibility and all those weird side effects are related.”
“I’ve read about this,” Mee-maw said, almost inaudibly. “I think the potion weakens the body’s connection to our plane of existence. That’d explain why I can still see my own body clearly while you guys seem a little blurry, as well.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Zoe said, nodding.
I rolled my eyes, feeling a surge of annoyance as I walked back over to her, grabbing a muffin. “Let’s all eat one so we can get moving once the effects set in. We can pack extras in case they wear off.”
Zoe nodded, her tired eyes growing more serious as she reached in, biting into a muffin of her own. “You’re right.”
“Great job, by the way,” I added, nodding appreciatively at her. She’d always been someone I could rely on and this was no exception. And she’d been clutch today when I needed her most.
Patrick walked up to the muffins, eyeing them with suspicion. “Are we sure it’s safe? It doesn’t sound like a good idea to weaken our connection to our realm or whatever you guys were saying.” I shot him a sharp glance, however, and he picked one up, taking a big bite out of it, shaking his head while we ate. We both knew he was in no position to refuse and he’d never have let the rest of us go without him anyway.
My palate exploded with cinnamon-y flavor as I bit into the muffin.
“This tastes really good,” Patrick said grudgingly, taking the words out of my mouth as he ate the last piece of his muffin.
Zoe nodded with a thin smile. “Of course th--” She turned her head, her eyes narrowing as another knock sounded at the door.
We’d put a big sign on the door saying that the bakery was closed, and all the windows were covered so you couldn’t see inside, so why was someone knocking?
I popped the rest of the muffin into my mouth and walked over, pulling the curtains on one of the windows a few inches to the side to see who it was. I swallowed, pausing for a second in confusion before turning to Zoe. “Phil,” I mouthed.
“Crap,” Zoe said, rubbing her temples. “He’s not even supposed to be back in town yet. If he finds me not here and not home, we’re asking for trouble. Let him in for a sec. We have at least five minutes before the muffins start to work.”
I walked over to the door, opening it slightly. “Hey, Phil, what’s up?”
“Can I come in? I need to talk to my wife,” he said, gesturing inside.
“Uh, sure,” I said, my mind racing. If Mee-maw’s test run was anything to go by, we only had a few minutes before the invisibility muffins kicked in, and Phil could not be here when they did.
“What’s going on?” Phil said, scrunching his nose as he looked around at the bakery, which clearly hadn’t been used for actual baking in some time. “I’ve been calling since last night.”
“My phone broke,” Zoe blurted. She still looked like she was about to collapse from exhaustion. “What are you doing home already?”
“Conference ended early. That’s why I was calling last night. And the shop?” Phil asked, looking around. “Why’d you close it?”
“It’s being fumigated,” Zoe said, pointing to Patrick, “he’s the exterminator.”
I cringed at the lie. Patrick was sitting down, muffin wrapper in front of him, and was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans.
“Fumigated for what?” Phil said in his normal impassive tone, like he really couldn’t care less about what was happening to the bakery but knew he had to ask anyway, though he did keep one suspicious eye on Patrick.
There was a short pause so I piped in to help. “Rats.”
Zoe glared at me, shaking her head and forcing a laugh. “Hahaha, rats. Like anyone would come back to a bakery that was rumored to be teeming with rats. No...it’s termites, actually, Cricket is just being silly.”
I cringed at the reprimand but nodded.
“Oh,” Phil said, his face lighting up as he looked at the muffin tray that was sitting on the counter, “any chance I could snag one of those muffins?”
“Uhh,” Zoe said, a look of pure terror coming across her face, “they’re really not any good, I was just testing a new recipe.”
Phil walked forward. “Let me try one, I’m sure they’re great.”
Zoe pulled the tray behind her defensively. “I need the rest of these for…a gift.”
“A gift of bad muffins?” he said, beginning to look very suspicious, though he stopped moving to grab one. “You’re acting very strangely. Speaking of that, what’s up with the house? I stopped home before I came here and it looks like nobody has been there in days.”
I could see the gears turning in Zoe’s sleep-deprived brain for a long moment before she came up with something to say. “Phil, I didn’t want to do this now, with everyone around, but I think we need to take a break. I’ve been staying with Mee-maw and Cricket. I just have a lot of things to think about.”
Oof. It was imperative that we get him to leave, but this felt a bit rough, even to me, and I hated Phil. On the upside, however, maybe she’d actually go through with it once this whole Organization mess was all over.
“A break?” Phil said, with a frown. “Is that the real reason I haven’t been able to get in touch with you?”
Zoe thought for a moment and her face went from blank to angry. “Yes, Phil, now get out. I need some time alone.”
“Alone? You’re alone all the time. We hardly even see each other,” he said, looking more confused than anything else. “Was it the whole anniversary thing again? I told you, I’m really sorry. I’m not good with dates...”
I shrugged, remembering when I’d been in a high school play as I threw myself into it. “Leave her alone, Phil! Zoe said she doesn’t want to see you right now, so get out of here!”
He blinked at me.“Okay, okay, I get it, but can we at least figure out some time to talk about everything?”
Sweat broke out on my upper lip as I began to feel my shirt weighing down on my shoulders. Was it just my imagination or…? I looked back to Phil and realized that we had very little time left. He was beginning to look fuzzy, almost blurry, to my eyes.
“No means no, Phil!” I shouted, stomping toward him and forcing Phil out the door.
“Wait, I--”
Patrick pushed him out, slamming the door in his face. “The lady said go,” he ground out, locking it behind him.
I let out a relieved sigh, though I did feel a little guilty.
“Phew,” Z
oe said after a few seconds, “good job, guys. It felt crappy to do that to him but it was the only way. I’ll have to make it up to him somehow once we’re done with all this.”
“Or, you could just, you know, leave it. Let him move on with his life,” I added with a hopeful smile.
She rolled her eyes and then stilled at the tapping at the covered window and I turned, confused. “You’re still here?” Zoe called, walking over to the window and peering out.
“Sorry,” Phil said, “I just had to ask...Are you still going to pick up my dry cleaning later?”
“This stuff is incredible,” I said, whispering as we slipped right past a pedestrian. We could all see each other perfectly but everyone else looked like you were seeing them through a foggy window. The potion’s noise cancelling effects were also quite useful and nobody had noticed us, even when we’d walked right in front of them.
“Thanks,” Zoe said, grinning.
“It’ll definitely come in handy,” Patrick said grudgingly, “assuming nobody ends up getting stuck in a different plane of existence or anything.”
Mee-maw glanced down at her compass, a deadly serious look on her face. “I really hope the item is somewhere in Rocky Knoll.”
“I have a feeling it will be,” I said. “Connie wouldn’t send it too far away and the compass is starting to seem like it’s moving a lot, even if we go just a little bit out of the way, so it seems like we’re getting close.”
“I can’t wait to see what it is,” Mee-maw said, rubbing her hands together. “Maybe it’ll be a knife or a sword or something cool like that.”
I laughed. “You have anything in the world to draw from and you’d want a magic knife?”
“It’d be sweet,” she said, turning her nose up at me and pointing for us to take a right. “Over this way.”
We turned the corner and a huge building popped into view, filling my field of vision. I read the name at the top and everything snapped into place.
The Rocky Knoll Museum of Local History
“Looks like we found your item,” I said, smiling. We’d be a hell of a lot closer to defeating the Organization and protecting my family if we could just use our invisibility to grab Mee-maw’s item and move on with our plan.
“Looks like it,” Mee-maw said, speeding up to march as she made a beeline toward the entrance.
I sped up behind her, quickly closing the distance to the stairs with Zoe and Patrick in tow.
“But how do we get inside?” Patrick asked with a look of pain on his face. I’d have to change the bandage again when we got back, there was no doubt that this much movement was bad for his wound.
“I guess we have to try to break in--" I cut off, my heart sinking as I saw the huge sign that sat next to the two doors. Closed to Public Access Until Further Notice. As we got closer, I saw the smaller text below it: Contact the office of Ethan Morrisey for information.
Ethan.
“I have an idea!”
Chapter 17
We had scooted off into a nearby copse of trees to make sure we were out of sight, as our potion had begun to wear off slightly, but Mee-maw hadn’t taken her eyes off the museum in the distance, like a kid waiting for the toy store to open. Patrick stood a few yards away, absently rubbing his chest and looking generally annoyed. I had a feeling his irritation was more due to my plan than it was about his wound. It wasn’t bleeding, as far as I could see, but his discomfort was obvious, and I felt a pang of sympathy for him. When we got back to the bakery, I’d talk to Zoe about trying to come up with a healing potion for him. He might not be willing to take it, but maybe if I played on his protective nature and told him we needed him at his strongest, I’d have a shot. As far as his feelings on the plan?
Tough tacos.
He was going to have to deal. Ethan was the path of least resistance and, as much as I hated using him, the close call at Greg’s house had lit a fire within me. We needed to get this coven bonded tight and strong so we could take down the Organization for good.
I pulled out my burner phone and dialed Ethan’s number. It felt like it weighed about ten pounds in my hand, no doubt due to the invisibility potion that was only just starting to wear off. Putting it up to my ear was like lifting a dumbbell, and took both hands.
The phone began to ring in my ear and I mentally ran through what I would say when Ethan picked up.
“How do you know he’ll even be available?” Zoe protested, her arm going fuzzy and then clear again and out of view. “Plus, you kinda ghosted him after he caught you snooping at his house.”
I waved her away as the phone rang again—four times, five—and I was starting to wonder if Zoe was right, when a familiar voice sounded on the other end.
“Ethan Morrisey.”
“Hi, Ethan!” I said, a rush of relief coursing through me. One obstacle down. “It’s Cricket.”
“Sorry, who?” he asked, a little louder. “Can you speak up. I’m having a hard time hearing you.”
Drat.
I should’ve waited until the potion had worn off completely before making the call.
Glancing at the others, I tried again, a little louder. “Ethan! It’s Cricket!”
“Cricket? Is that you?” He sounded confused. “I think our connection is bad. I can barely hear you.”
“Sorry, is this better?” It felt like I was basically shouting, which made the call all the more awkward with the others all listening in, but I could only assume if someone did happen to be in the vicinity, I’d seem quiet to them, as well.
“Yeah,” he replied. “Yeah, that’s better.”
There was a long pause as I shoved aside a surge of both guilt and anxiety. “So, ah…” I cleared my throat. “Sorry I haven’t called. It’s been a few days!”
“Yeah, it has.” He sounded guarded now. “I was starting to think I’d done something to offend you on our date.”
“No, no, not at all,” I replied quickly. I glanced over at Patrick, who was watching me with unabashed interest. “I promise it wasn’t that. Things have been kind of crazy lately.”
“Well, is everything okay?” he asked, his tone changing on a dime to one of concern.
God, I hated this. Once the Organization was ground into dust, I was swearing off lying for good.
“I tried calling you a couple times the past few days, and it went straight to voice mail. Then, I stopped by your Mee-maw’s just to check in on her and say hi. There were cars in the driveway, but no one came to the door. I was really starting to wonder what was going on when I went to the bakery to get lunch and found it closed. It didn’t sound like there was any renovation happening, as far as I could hear. No trucks out front, no one working inside.”
“Fumigation!” I exclaimed, a little too quickly, sparing a pointed glance at Zoe. “Termites. We had to shut the whole thing down before it got out of hand, and I’ve been helping her. You won’t believe this, but I actually sent my phone through the wash, so I had to get a cheap pay per call one until I can get around to replacing mine.” I raked a hand through my hair. “Listen, Ethan, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you high and dry like that. Everything has gotten out of control.” You have no idea, I added mentally, closing my eyes for a moment.
“It’s all right,” he said, sounding genuinely relieved, which just made my guilt worse. “I was worried something had happened to you. Or Mee-maw. How is she, by the way?”
“She’s still kicking,” I replied, glancing at my grandmother, whose eyes were still glued to the museum entrance. “Probably a little too well, all things considered.”
Ethan chuckled. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that. Tell her I said hello, would you?”
“Of course. So Ethan--”
“Look,” he said, “I’ve got some things to catch up on here but I can be done in an hour and I’d really like to see you. How about lunch and a movie? There’s this falafel place down on Main Street that just opened, and I’ve heard is excellent
. It could be fun.”
“That does sound fun,” I replied with a forced chuckle. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Patrick stiffening almost imperceptibly. “But I’m kind of in the thick of it right now at the bakery. Zoe and I are…um, handling the fumigating ourselves. And then there’s the ones that don’t die. Those little buggers are fast so it’s a lot of…wrangling. And stuff, too.” Weird how, despite the muffled voices, I could still hear Mee-maw’s and Zoe’s collective groan. “Anyway, until that’s done in a few days, I’m pretty much at her beck and call. Can I take a rain check for next week?”
“Okay,” Ethan replied. He sounded disappointed, but he was hiding it well. “But be careful. Those fumes aren’t good to be breathing in…”
“We have masks and all, so it’s fine.” I swallowed hard and pushed on. “I was actually calling for another reason,” I continued, feeling crappier by the second.
“Shoot,” he replied gamely.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Is your family still the primary benefactor of the Rocky Knoll Historical Society?”
“I mean…yeah,” he responded, sounding surprised. “Technically, at least. My parents let the whole project slide for years. I think they just liked having their names attached to it, but they never seemed to care much about the actual artifacts. I just took over for them recently. I’m in the midst of renovating. Why do you ask?”
“I have this friend,” I explained, the wheels in my head whirring. “She’s actually our local librarian, and she’s big on historical programs. She was hoping to collaborate with the museum for an exhibition and talk she’s doing at the library.” I crossed my fingers, praying he’d buy the hastily-crafted excuse.
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