With her brows scrunched up high on her forehead, Holly’s fingernails made their way to her mouth. “You really think it’s safe to go through there? I mean, if there’s a murderer at the end of this tunnel…”
Reign pushed past all of us so he was at the head of the pack. “Maybe I ought to go first, just in case.”
Holly nodded in agreement. “Maybe that’s not a bad idea.”
Reign took several steps with Holly clinging to his shirttails. He threw a backwards glance over his shoulder at Libby, Cinder, Sweets, and me, who had yet to move. “Come on, ladies. No lollygagging today. We have work that needs to be done.”
“Who’s lollygagging?” asked Alba, pushing past Reign so she was back at the head of the line.
Sweets huddled behind me as we walked. “This is amazing,” she breathed, her voice muted by the swirling tunnel around us. “I really wish Jax was here to see this.”
“Me too,” I whispered back.
Not only did the lights spin around us, the tunnel also curved as we walked, making us feel like we were moving in a circle, but before we knew it, the tunnel ended and we found ourselves back in the steam sauna. One by one, Alba led us out of the circle of steam and into the bright daylight.
As the last to exit, I looked around to find that we were on a green patch of grass next to the same river we’d put the spell on. The sun shone brightly, and I could smell freshly cut grass, just as I’d smelled when we’d entered the tunnel minutes before. “Nothing’s changed!” I said in surprise. Had we even left the present? Or had we gone through all that trouble just to get ourselves back to where we’d started?
“Did we even leave?” asked Cinder.
Holly shook her head. “It doesn’t look like it!”
Alba frowned. “There’s no way that wormhole brought us back to where we started. We went back in time. I know it. Come on. We’re gonna find out.” Alba tromped off, leading the way back towards campus, leaving the steaming time portal behind us.
Cinder and Libby exchanged skeptical glances but took off following Alba nonetheless. When Reign and Holly followed, I grudgingly fell in line behind them.
As we closed in on our campus, Sweets caught up to me. “Mercy, do you really think we went back in time to yesterday?” She kept her voice down so Alba, who was several paces ahead, wouldn’t hear her.
“I don’t know, Sweets. I feel like Alba’s right. We had to have done something. I guess we’ll find out.”
Then my brother’s deep voice carried back to me. “What if we’re walking into some kind of a trap?”
Unable to tear her fingernails away from her mouth now, Holly stopped walking and looked up at my brother, wide-eyed. “A trap? What kind of trap?”
Looking pensive, my brother stopped next to Holly and shrugged. “I have no idea. Maybe the killer set some kind of trap for us to fall into.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Conspiracy theory much? If we went back in time, the killer doesn’t even know we’re onto them.”
“Are you kidding? They might. We’re dealing with paranormals here, not regular humans.”
I linked my arm through Holly’s and tugged her past Reign. “Don’t listen to my brother, Holl. We’re not walking into a trap.” I glanced back at him. “I had no idea you were going to be such a downer, bro. If I’d known you were going to be like this, I would have left you back at the B&B.”
Reign caught up to me. “A downer?! How am I being a downer? Because I’m cautious?”
“That’s not called being cautious. That’s called paranoia, and I’m not gonna lie. You sound like a delusional whackjob.”
“A delusional whackjob?” He chuckled. “Where’d you get your extensive vocabulary, sis? Urban Dictionary?”
“Can you two quit?” asked Alba, still paces ahead of us. “I can hear you, you know.”
“I didn’t know we were in class,” Reign snapped back.
I giggled.
“We’re not in class, but we also don’t know what we’re walking into. Wasn’t it you that just said that? If we’re walking into a trap, don’t you think we should be a little quieter about it instead of announcing to the murderer that we’re on our way?”
Reign groaned and rolled his eyes. Holly and I exchanged looks and fought back giggles.
As we neared the Canterbury Building, Alba pulled us off to the side. “Okay, we’re here. I think we have to assume we’ve gone back in time a day and the Council is meeting in that second-floor room this very second. Any ideas on how we’re gonna pull this off? We gotta be inside that room to stop the murder before it happens, but obviously we can’t let the Council or Stone know we’re watching.”
“Well,” I said, tugging on my ear, “I feel like we need eyes and ears both inside and outside the room. We need to make sure no one else came in or out.”
Alba nodded. “That’s a valid point. Any volunteers for staking out the hallway outside the lounge?”
Cinder raised her hand. “Yes. My sister and I will volunteer.”
“Good. Now we gotta get eyes inside that room. How are we gonna do that without the Council seeing us?”
Suddenly an idea hit me. “What if we could have eyes on the room without actually being inside the room?”
Alba lifted a shoulder, her brows knitted together. “Yeah? How we gonna manage that?”
I wiggled my fingers in front of her face. “Simple. How about a little magic?”
Minutes later, all of us except Libby and Cinder, who had decided to hide themselves in an empty classroom next door to the teachers’ lounge, stood on the lawn outside the Canterbury Building. All of our heads were cranked back, looking up at the second-floor window.
Alba nodded. “Yeah, I think this is gonna work. Good thinking, Red.”
I smiled excitedly. “So I’ll lift you up and Reign can lift Holly up.”
Alba shook her head. “Oh no, no, no. Reign can lift Cosmo, but I’m lifting you up.”
“Alba! This was my idea. I’ll lift you up. Come on, I need the practice! Finals are in a couple of days.”
“It ain’t happening, Red. You can practice on someone else in your free time. Right now, there’s too much at stake for any mistakes.”
I glanced over at Reign and the girls. Sweets and Holly both avoided making eye contact with me.
Reign sucked in a deep breath, flaring his nostrils and raising his brows. “I’m going to have to agree with Alba, sis. I’m sorry. I agree that you need more practice before your finals, but this isn’t the time. I’ll work with you when we get home.”
I knew I wasn’t that great at lifts, but I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t think I could do it. I’d only almost dropped Sweets because they’d all broken my concentration and I hadn’t absorbed enough energy prior to the lift. I crossed my arms across my chest and turned my back to Alba so that I was looking at the brick building. “Whatever.”
“Sweets, it’s your job to keep watch down here. We can’t have anyone seeing what we’re doing or interrupting, alright? Signal if you see someone.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Holly stood next to me, just a short arm’s length away. She turned her head to look at me as she bounced nervously. “So, what do we do if we get up there and see the murder happening in front of us?”
I had no idea what to tell her. I was just as clueless as she was, but I didn’t want to come off as being nervous. “We’ll play it by ear.”
That seemed to placate her enough to turn around and nod to Reign. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
I sucked in a deep breath and, closing my eyes, let it out slowly, trying to ease the nerves that had seemingly worked their way up into my throat. “Yeah, me too,” I croaked over my shoulder.
“On three,” said Alba. “One, two…”
The word three was replaced by Holly’s squeal as we suddenly shot up into the air. The energy Alba fired at me tingled my backside. It felt like tiny bits of electrically charged atoms were
crawling around in the pockets of my jeans. The ends of my hair suddenly became unrestricted by gravity and my hair fuzzed up around my face, a side effect of using kinetic energy that I hadn’t known about.
As we hovered at the base of the second-floor windowsill, I looked down at the grass below. My heart thundered in my chest. I’d flown on broomsticks before, but at least then I’d felt somewhat safe. Not only had I had something under me, but I was also controlling my movement. Now I had no control and nothing solid beneath me. I peered at the white windowsill again. I couldn’t see a single thing. I was too low. I gave Alba and Reign a signal to lift us higher.
A second later, Holly and I were nose to windowpane. My eyes widened as I saw Sorceress Stone standing erect, pacing in front of the table that we’d found her lying dead on a day ago. Just as shocked, Holly glanced over at me. We’d actually done it! We’d actually gone back in time. I glanced down at Alba and Reign and gave them a thumb’s-up. Then Holly and I concentrated on our mission. Spying.
I took note of the Council members. Poppy, Gemma, and Elodie sat side by side on the small sofa that was positioned just beneath our noses. Stella and Daphne sat beside them on a pair of folding chairs. Several of the women had pads of paper in front of them, taking notes as Sorceress Stone spoke.
I tried to hear what she was saying through the closed window, but only the dull murmur of her voice was audible. I watched her mouth move though. I saw the words graduation project spill from her lips, but as she paced, her head turned slightly and I lost sight of her lips.
“See anything?” hissed a voice from below.
Looking down, I merely gave another thumbs-up. I couldn’t risk being heard. I’d share the minute amount of details with them later. I turned my attention back to the room while my pulse pounded in my ears. I felt like at any second I was going to see someone get up and put a spell on the room. I couldn’t peel my eyes away.
Gemma uncrossed her legs and then crossed them again. Elodie cleared her throat and shuffled in her seat. Stella leaned back in her seat and readjusted her cane. Daphne doodled on her notepad, and Poppy scratched an itch behind her ear. Was it just me or did they all look guilty? I glanced up at Sorceress Stone as she stopped pacing. Now she faced the women with her mouth closed. It was as if she’d just asked a question.
Just a few short inches away from me, Gemma flinched, and in that very next second, I blinked.
It happened so quickly that I didn’t even realize I’d blinked. But when I opened my eyes from that split-second movement, Sorceress Stone was lying on the table just like each of the Council members had told us had happened!
A collective gasp escaped the glass pane and made it to my ears. “SaraLynn!” breathed Gemma.
Daphne was the first to her feet, with Elodie following close behind. Stella lifted her cane and dragged herself to her feet. Wide-eyed, Poppy covered her open mouth with her hand as she sat stunned in her seat.
I turned to look at Holly, who was also staring wide-eyed. “I blinked,” she whispered.
“Me too,” I mouthed back. We’d missed it! We’d missed the moment that Sorceress Stone had been killed! Had it been Gemma? I’d seen her flinch last! Had it been one of the other women in the room? Had it been someone new from the hallway? I couldn’t wait to talk to Libby and Cinder and find out if they’d seen anything.
As all hell broke loose inside the teachers’ lounge, the only cool-headed one seemed to be Daphne as she took Sorceress Stone’s vitals and then attempted CPR on her. I motioned to Alba and Reign. There wasn’t anything else to see. The deed was done, and we’d missed it!
20
Despite Alba’s annoyance, Holly and I refused to speak a word about what we’d seen inside the teachers’ lounge until we reunited with Libby and Cinder back at the time portal. Seeing Sorceress Stone go from alive to dead right in front of my very eyes and knowing that there was a murderer in that room made me nervous, and all I’d wanted to do in that moment was to high-tail it back to safety before even breathing a word of what we’d seen.
So when we were finally back to safety, Alba turned to face Holly and me with her hand on her hip. “Well? Are you gonna tell us what happened?”
Holly’s eyes flicked over to look at me encouragingly. She wanted me to speak first.
Leaned over slightly, trying to catch my breath from the brisk jog, I shook my head sadly. “We couldn’t save her.”
“You saw Stone?! And she was alive?” breathed Alba. “So the time machine did work!”
Holly held her stomach. “It worked alright, but there wasn’t anything we could do.”
Reign grimaced. “Yeah, I figured as much. It didn’t look like much happened from where we stood.”
Alba’s arms flailed out in front of her. “Cripes, Red. You had one job!”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand,” I said through shallow breaths. “We saw her alive, and then we saw her dead.”
Alba looked unimpressed. “Yeah, well, that’s generally how death works. First they’re alive and then they’re dead. At least tell us who did it, and how!”
“I know that’s how death works, Alba. But I’m not kidding. It happened just like the Council said it happened. She was pacing the room, telling them all about the graduation project. I couldn’t really hear what she was saying, actually,” I admitted. “But I saw her mouth moving a little and I definitely heard her talking about graduation.”
Holly’s head bobbed in agreement. “Yeah, I saw that too.”
Alba rolled her hand along in the air as if to prod our story along. “And then?”
“And then I looked at all the witches in the room. Everyone was chill. You know, minding their own business. Scratching their itches, shifting in their seats, nothing out of the ordinary. And then all of a sudden, I literally blinked and she was lying on the table.”
“You blinked?!” Alba hissed as if I’d just committed the most atrocious crime.
I stared back at her. “I was supposed to not blink?! It’s not really something I can control, Alba.”
“Yeah, what did you expect?” asked my brother.
Alba ignored my brother and looked at Holly. “Cosmo. Tell me you saw something that this moronic blinker missed.”
Holly swallowed hard and then shifted in her wedge sandals. “Well, Alba, I sort of blinked too, I guess. I mean, one second she was alive and in the next split second she was dead. I didn’t see anything either.”
Alba threw her hands up in the air. “Oh, for crying out loud! This is what happens when you send idiots to do a job you shoulda done yourself. Just like my father always said, if you want something done right, you should just do it yourself.”
I understood Alba’s frustration, but I didn’t appreciate the attitude. I frowned at her. “Look, Alba. I offered to lift you up. This is not Holly’s fault, and it’s not my fault.”
“Yeah, chill, Alba. That’s hardly fair,” snapped Reign. “Whoever did this must have put a spell on both of them too.”
Holly sucked in her breath and her head snapped up to look at my brother. “Put a spell on us too? You think they saw us?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t see anyone notice us, but it totally wouldn’t shock me if whatever spell the murderer did on the rest of the Council, they also did on us.” I looked at Libby and Cinder. “Did anyone go in or out of the room?”
Cinder shook her head. “Not a single soul.”
“So now what?” asked Sweets expectantly.
Alba dropped her head. She thought about things for a long minute and then slowly lifted her head. “We have no other choice. I think we have to move on to Plan B.”
“What’s Plan B?”
“Well, it’s obvious these witches aren’t telling us the whole story. Someone in that room is lying to us about their relationship with Stone. So, I say, we go back in time and learn more about each of their relationships with Stone.”
My mouth gaped. “Uh! But that’s going to take forever
! We don’t have that kind of time! Plus it might be dangerous!”
Alba shook her head. “We have no other choice. If there was another way, we would’ve done it. Come on.” She led the group back into the steaming sauna, where we surrounded the tear in time that she’d made.
“If you had to pick one of the women right now, based on our interrogation alone, who would your number one suspect be?” asked Alba, looking at Libby, Cinder, Holly, and me.
We all answered in unison. “Gemma.”
“For sure,” added Holly.
Alba nodded. “She’d be my number one suspect too. We’ll start with her.”
When we were all linked once again, Alba began the chant.
Relationships formed in the very distant past,
Don’t always work and don’t always last.
Arguments happen and conflicts arise,
Take us to when Gemma and SaraLynn had drama for the very first time.
I heard a whooshing noise as the wormhole began to spin again. Alba held open the slice in time, exposing the tunnel once again. We watched as it picked up speed, spinning, then it quickly reversed course and now pointed several feet in a different direction.
Our eyes all widened. To see a giant magic wormhole was one thing, but to see it shift directions was a whole other ballgame.
“Amazing,” said Sweets, wide-eyed.
Alba was less impressed. “This is it, guys. We’re gonna find out who told the truth in their interviews and who lied to us. We’re finally gonna get some real answers.” She pointed at the tunnel. “Come on. Let’s go.”
The group of us rushed through the tunnel, less cautiously than we had earlier. This time when we reemerged, I was once again surprised to see us back on the same grassy spot next to the river.
Holly looked bummed. “Back in the same spot again?!”
Alba shook her head. “We have a lot of ground to cover, there’s no time for sight-seeing. Come on.” She took off on a jog across the field headed towards campus. There we discovered that once again, nothing seemed to have changed. The buildings were all just as they had been when we’d left them.
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