by Amy Boyles
I crossed to him. “Do you want us to come?”
Roman shook his head. “Stay here in case she comes home. I’ll have my phone handy, so call me.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
Roman kissed me on the top of my head and left.
“Okay, anybody got an idea of where she might be?” I said.
Grandma shook her head. “If I knew that, I’d know where she is. Like I said, I can’t locate her magically. It makes me think something is blocking me from getting through to her.”
Sera snapped her fingers. “I’m going to the bakery, just to make sure she isn’t hanging around there.”
I swept a stray strand of hair from my face. “Couldn’t you just call the shop?”
Sera shrugged. “Do you think she’s going to answer the store phone when we’re closed?”
“Good point.”
Grandma rose. “I’m going with Sera. Nan, you coming?”
Nan stroked her thumb down the edge of the sword blade. “I’d like to try this little darlin’ out. Mind if I bring it?”
Grandma shook her head. “Nah. We might find you a worthy opponent to fight. Bring it, too.”
I threw Sera my keys. “Here you go.”
Everyone left, pretty much abandoning me to the house. I sighed. Well, at least it gave me time to think, to figure out where Reid might be. I plopped down on a chair to do exactly that, but nothing came. I decided a fresh cup of caffeine might help, so I went to the kitchen to make a cup of joe.
Two minutes later the scent of coffee was trickling up my nostrils and I was staring out the back door at the house right next to ours—Rick’s.
Could Reid have gone there? She was super upset after she saw him leave Dewy’s. Did she confront him? Even if she wasn’t there, Rick may know where she had been going. I placed the mug on the counter and headed over.
Wintery yellow grass crunched under my feet as I crossed the yard. I shoved open the chain fence door and climbed the steps to Rick’s back deck. I knocked. No answer.
A loud thud came from the front of the house. It sounded as if something had fallen. Rick didn’t have any pets that I knew of, so I knocked again. Maybe he was taking a nap or something and had stumbled off the couch. Or onto his head. Rick was not my favorite person, not since he’d been such a douche to Reid.
I knocked harder and heard the thud again.
Okay, my spidey sense was tingling like mad. Something suspicious was up. I had to know what, so I turned the knob.
It was locked. Of course it was. I traipsed around front and knocked, this time hard so that if anyone was even halfway asleep, they couldn’t help but hear me.
No one answered. I turned this knob and it was locked, too. I had two choices—walk away or put my hand through the door and unlock it. Option number one left a queasy feeling in my stomach, and option number two wasn’t much better. The idea of sticking my hand through a solid surface really didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t even know if it was possible. Reggie said it was, but it had also taught me the illegal truth serum spell.
I decided to try something else. I imagined seeing the lock on the other side and watching it turn to unlock. I pushed all my focus to the forefront of my brain. Magic coiled in my belly. A second later the lock snicked.
Success!
I turned the knob and pushed Rick’s door opened. The sun was setting. Purple and gold washed over the living room walls, casting the lower half in shadow.
“Rick?”
I heard something muffled coming from the corner to my right. I swung my head in that direction.
Sitting with rope binding her wrists and her feet was Reid. A gag had been shoved in her mouth, and her lips were taped closed. I rushed to her.
“Oh my gosh,” I said, ripping the tape off her mouth. “Are you okay? Did Rick do this to you?”
She panted. “Hurry. We’ve got to get out of here before they come back.”
Adrenaline surged through my body, making my fingers about as agile as sausages. “Who? Rick? Why would he do this?”
“I’ll tell you when we get out of here. Just hurry.”
“Okay, but you could tell me now.”
Reid rolled her eyes as I freed her hands. “We need to get out of here and call Roman. Hurry, Dylan.”
I yanked on the rope around her ankles until it gave. I threw the last of the binds to the floor, hauled my sister to her feet and headed for the door.
It swung open. Rick stood on the other side, an evil grin on his face. “Well, well, well, looks like it’s going to be dinner for two instead of one.”
I stepped in front of Reid, shielding her. “What do you mean tying up my sister? I’m going to have you arrested, Rick. You’re going to jail for—for—whatever it was you were going to do.”
Rick laughed. It wasn’t a pretty sound. In fact, it was like cat’s claws scratching an old-fashioned chalkboard. I grimaced.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he snarled.
“Yes, we are.” I grabbed Reid by the hand and pulled her toward the door.
Dewy Dewberry stepped out behind Rick, blocking my path. “Sorry, but you’re totally not going anywhere but back inside. Mmm hmmm.”
“What’s going on? What are you two doing?”
“That’s what I tried to tell you,” Reid said.
I whipped my head toward her. “What?” I said.
“They’re in on it together. They killed Norwood.”
TWENTY-THREE
“Why do you have to say it like that?” Rick whined. “Like we’re bad guys or something?”
“Because you are,” Reid snapped. “You lied to me. You lied to all of us.”
My brain raced. Should I hit them hard with magic? Why shouldn’t I? My sister had been tied up, so Rick was obviously serious about this—and apparently dangerous.
And you know I never trusted Dewy.
I lifted my hand, felt the magic swirl inside me.
“Stop her,” Rick said. “Cut her off.”
Before I could even blink, Dewy zapped my arm with a stream of power. I glanced down and saw my hands encased in some kind of gauzy cuffs. The stuff basically glued my hands together, making them immobile. When I tried to use my power, nothing happened. No rush, no well of ability.
I was magic-less.
They were stupid if they thought that would stop me. I barreled forward. I would smash through the two of them and run to the house. My head hit Rick square in the chest. He wrapped his arms around me. It was like being stuck in a boulder. He squeezed so hard I could barely breathe.
“Now, now. Calm down. You’re not going anywhere. In fact, you’re going to join your sister back on the floor.”
I opened my mouth to scream. Dewy raised a finger, and some sort of magic clamped my mouth shut. Great. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t use magic. If I kept making moves, these idiots might even paralyze me. Rick walked me over to my sister and sat me down. He talked as he retied Reid.
“Yep, your sister here walked in on us talking about a few things—namely that we’d killed Norwood.”
I shot Rick an incredulous look. He shrugged. “I mean, why not go ahead and explain it? It’s not like you’re going anywhere. Dewy, are we sealed in?”
She nodded. “Tight as a button.” She looked at Reid. “You can scream as much as you want, little girl—it totally won’t make a lick of difference now. No one can hear you, and your sister can’t talk at all. To be honest, I’m tired of hearing her voice.”
Dewy shut the front door. “It’s totally so sad that you’re going to die, Dylan. I guess that means I’ll have your boyfriend all to myself. I’m sure he’ll be so overcome with grief that I’ll have to help him through it. Mmm hmm. Don’t worry. My breasts will totally be there too.”
I shot imaginary flaming daggers from my eyes at her. I’m pretty sure she didn’t notice. You know, being ditsy and all that.
She sighed. “We had to kill Norwood,” Dewy said. “For years he�
��d been on our side. He’d gone rogue, you see. That’s what a little taste of magic stealing can do—it turns even the best agents to the other side.” She giggled. “Had been on our side for years, but then something happened. We think it was Richard Bane reappearing after all these years. Norwood snapped, decided he was going to reveal all of us, take us down. Well, we couldn’t have that. I’d been following him, traced him to Silver Springs. I met up with Rick here, who’d been sent in undercover to watch you girls while Hazel was in her frozen state—we like to keep tabs on folks, you see.”
Dewy fluffed her hair. “Anyway, we tracked Norwood to town and followed him to the high school gym. He confessed he was waiting for you, Dylan. He knew if he stayed close to you, eventually Roman would show up and Norwood could tell him what happened the night Roman’s mother was murdered and everything else he’d discovered while being undercover.”
Dewy smacked her lips. “So we killed him.”
Rick ticked off the list. “First task, get rid of Norwood. Second task, find Boo Bane and get rid of him.”
“Why?” Reid asked.
“Because Bane could do real damage to us. He was there the night Queen Catherine was murdered. He saw what happened. That could be real bad for the master.”
“Why didn’t you just follow Roman home?” Reid asked.
Dewy rolled her eyes. “He would’ve known he was being followed, dummy. You totally can’t just go around following detectives who are ex-witch police. They’re smarter than that.” She sighed. “I admit, y’all helped us with some things, like finding Norwood’s house.”
I shot Reid a confused look.
She smirked. “They tapped my phone and were listening to us. That’s why it kept going crazy. That’s how come someone showed up to Norwood’s house that night, and that’s also how they knew we had the Registry.”
Rick walked over to the kitchen. I heard the refrigerator door open and shut. He entered the room holding two cans of Coke. He handed one to Dewy.
Dewy growled, “Stupid book. I tried to get my name off the bad list. I’m not bad anymore. Why’s that stuff in there about the unicorn? I served my time. It should be gone.”
I quirked a brow. Pretty sure killing Norwood meant she was bad.
Dewy blew a lock of hair from her eyes. “It was so hard to steal from you. Y’all know how to fight.”
Reid’s face crimsoned. “You’re the ones who attacked our home?”
Rick tweaked his eyebrows. “Not me. I don’t have any magic.”
Reid frowned. “Why didn’t you just break in and steal it during the day? You tried to kill us.”
Rick yawned. He stretched out on the couch lazily. “That didn’t occur to us at the time. Besides, someone’s always at your house, Reid. If it’s not your grandma, it’s that crazy lady, Nan. We couldn’t just break in during the day.”
“So what were you going to do? Kill us and then steal the book? All so Dewy could feel better about herself?”
He finished sipping his drink. “Pretty much.”
“I hate you,” she said.
“Ah, don’t feel too bad. Eventually Dewy put a glamour on me and I went in as the electrician to steal it. See? No one got hurt.”
Boy, were these two terrible at this. How the heck had Dewy managed to be a double agent? She couldn’t even find one man in a small town without attacking a houseful of women.
Reid glared at the two of them. “So you found out Norwood was a double agent and killed him. Then you needed to kill Roman’s dad because you’re afraid he might remember some key piece of evidence from the night his family was murdered? Basically your boss is afraid Richard could lead everything back to him.”
Dewy clicked her tongue. “You got it. That’s the whole she-bang. That, and delete all that bad stuff about me in the Registry, which I did.”
“So you moved into town just to do a little murdering,” Reid said.
I tried to talk but nothing came out. I grunted until Dewy lifted her finger, and I felt the binding over my mouth release.
“What?” she snarled.
“Rick, you’ve lied to my family. You’ve been on the wrong side this whole time?”
Rick grinned like the devil. “Of course. I was sent in ages ago to keep an eye on y’all—I was supposed to report when you started working your magic. I don’t have any magic, but my mom was a witch. Turned out I kinda enjoyed Reid having a crush on me. It made things easier. But then she got all serious and Dewy showed up and well, you know, a guy’s got to have his priorities.” He lifted his eyebrows at Dewy, who giggled.
I shot Reid a look. “Well at least you know sooner rather than later. He’s a jerk.”
Reid sighed.
“I knew something was screwy with you, Dewy. I mean, who tries to kill a baby unicorn?”
Dewy crimped her lips shut. Her eyes blazed in my direction. “I paid for my crime! I paid for it and now that those pages in that awful book are gone, no one will ever mention it again. Now I can focus on what’s really important—feeling better about myself by seducing men who don’t think they’re interested in me.”
I leaned back against the wall. So that was it. That was Dewy’s whole thing about Roman. He didn’t want her, so she had to try harder to get him.
“Good luck with that,” I said sarcastically.
She turned to me, eyes blazing anger. “I hate you, Dylan Apel. Hate you! You get away with everything. You never get in trouble. Well, all that’s about to end. Everything you’ve ever done that the council let slide is about to catch up with you.”
She shook her head. “I paid my dues and worked hard to become a double agent for the stupid witch police. I never would’ve been able to do it if I didn’t have inside help.” Dewy placed the Coke on the lip of the coffee table and dusted her hands. “Now all we need to do is kill Richard Bane along with the two of you, and we’ll be set.”
“Good luck finding him.”
Dewy pulled a magnifying glass from her pocket. She flashed me a wicked smile. “I don’t need luck because I have you, and you’re going to tell me exactly where he is, whether you like it or not.”
I pressed my body back against the wall as Rick and Dewy approached. She held the magnifying glass toward my head as Rick pinned me down.
“I’m not going to give it to you,” I said, trying to wiggle out of his hold.
Dewy smiled. “Not willingly. But you will give it to me.” She combed through my hair for a minute and then smacked her lips. “He’s at Castle Witch.”
Rick released me. “Great. Let’s kill these two and get him.”
I glanced at Reid. Her face had turned green.
Uh-oh. Time to talk fast.
TWENTY-FOUR
My mind raced. “You can’t kill us.”
Rick frowned. “Why not?”
“Because what if Richard isn’t at Castle Witch anymore?” I argued. “You’ll need me to figure out where he is. I’m Roman’s girlfriend. I know his secrets.”
Dewy and Rick exchanged glances. “She might totally have a point,” Dewy said. “We’ll take them along for the ride.” She shot me and Reid dark looks. “Any funny business and you’re both like deader than dead. Got it?”
“Got it,” I said.
“I mean, you’re dead anyway. Mmm hmm. But if you act up, you’ll get it a lot faster.”
“Get what?” I asked. “I mean, I’d like to know how I’m going to die.”
Dewy paused. “I don’t know, but I’ll think of something. It might be a knife or gun or even death by magic.”
Okay, so that meant they potentially had a knife, gun and magic to draw from. That did not help me. I was trying to figure out how to somehow gain any advantage I could. Yes, I knew my hands were tied and I was being held captive, but Dewy and Rick weren’t that bright—I might be able to talk my way out of a nasty death.
“Let’s go,” Dewy said. Rick hauled me and Reid to our feet and cut Reid’s leg binds.
Dew
y snapped her fingers. Rick’s living room dissolved. In a blink we were standing on the outskirts of Castle Witch.
The sun had nearly set. We stood on the lawn for a moment. I had high hopes here, waiting for someone to spot two tied up individuals with two obviously crazy people. Apparently Dewy wasn’t as dumb as I thought. She tweaked her nose with a finger, and my binds disappeared.
“You’re still tied up,” she said. “It’s just you can’t see the binds.”
“Then how do you know they’re there,” Reid said.
Dewy frowned. “Because I do.”
“So you say,” she added.
Rick jabbed something into Reid’s back. “Don’t even think about trying anything. I’ll shoot you in a blink.”
Tears came to Reid’s eyes. “But you used to care for me.”
Rick laughed. “Let’s go get this over with.”
Dewy wiggled her fingers. “Take us to him. One misstep and I’ll just take you out magically. So don’t mess with us,” she said.
A sliver of black magic whirled around her finger. She was powerful, there was no doubt about that. I didn’t know if Dewy stole extra magic or if she was just naturally talented. At this point I was pretty sure it didn’t matter. I didn’t want to risk my sister’s life or even my own. Of course, I didn’t want Boo to die, either. I needed to think. Stall them. Find a way to keep everyone alive.
We reached Roman’s house before I had a chance to come up with a brilliant plan. Dewy traipsed up and knocked.
Boo opened the door. When he saw the four of us, he said, “So you’ve come for me.”
Dewy smiled. “It was going to be sooner or later.”
Boo nodded. “Let me get my hat.” Boo grabbed his cowboy hat from the peg by the door. “Leave them here,” he said. “It’s me you want anyway.”
“Nah,” Rick said. “We’re taking all of you with us. We don’t want any witnesses.”
Dewy shoved Boo inside. We all crammed into the cottage. She waved her hands and nodded to Rick. “That should wipe anyone’s memory if they saw us here.”
“Great. You ready?”