The Witch Within

by M. Z. Andrews

  “Neither did we,” I said to Reign. “We just thought she didn’t like it.”

  Alba sighed. “It’s sorta my fault. I might have harassed her into eating it. I probably shouldn’t have done that.” For once, Alba actually looked remorseful about giving Holly a bad time.

  “No, you shouldn’t have,” said Reign, his nostrils flared. “You really need to work on your attitude around your so-called friends. I mean, if this is how you treat your friends, I’d hate to see how you treat your enemies.”

  “It’s pretty much the same way I treat you,” snapped Alba.

  Reign’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I’m just trying to help clean up the mess that you created.”

  “You’re the one that gave her avocado, not me, buddy.”

  “Alba! You just admitted that you harassed her into eating it!”

  “Yeah, well, you didn’t have to run with it. I already feel guilty. I don’t need you making it worse.”

  I palmed my forehead. This wasn’t happening. “Can you two not? Please. We need to help Holly.”

  Elodie nodded. “Yes, please. Arguing doesn’t help. Plus it’s giving me a headache, and I need to think.”

  Reign’s lips pressed together tightly, and he clenched his jaw.

  Alba crossed her arms over her chest and sealed her mouth as well.

  “Thank you,” I said before looking at Elodie again. “Can you help us?”

  Elodie tapped a finger against her top lip. “Hmmm. Avocado allergy. I’ll be right back and see what I have.” The small woman disappeared through the doorway she’d just come out of.

  When she was gone, Alba let out a breath and strutted away, pretending to inspect the potions on Elodie’s shelves.

  Sweets gnawed nervously on her bottom lip. “Oh, you guys, what are we going to do with Holly if Elodie can’t help her?”

  “Sweets, you need to think positively,” said Libby. “Elodie will be able to help.”

  I worried about the same thing. We certainly couldn’t go back to Aspen Falls telling Jax that not only hadn’t we saved her mother or reversed the curse, but also one of her best friends had died while we’d tried. But I didn’t want to contribute to the panic that Sweets was feeling, so I kept my mouth shut and silently hoped that Elodie was going to be able to help.

  I glanced up at my brother’s face. He looked upset. His face was long and his body looked tense. I’d seen him like that before. It was his worried face. He was worrying just as much as I was. Silently, I sidled up next to him, wrapped my arms around his back and gave him a little squeeze. He looked down at me and slung his arm over my shoulder. “This isn’t your fault.”

  He took a deep breath and then looked away. “Yeah.”

  “It’s not, Reign. You didn’t know. None of us knew.”

  “I know. I’m just worried about her.”

  “We all are,” said Libby.

  We were all quiet until Elodie reappeared a few minutes later carrying a small glass beaker filled with a green substance.

  We all pounced.

  “Is that an antidote to her allergic reaction?” asked Libby.

  “What is it?” asked Sweets.

  Alba looked at her curiously. “It looks like avocado.”

  Elodie smiled at us all kindly. “It is avocado peel extract combined with several other ingredients.”

  My mouth gaped. “But she’s allergic!”

  “Yes, yes. I know that.”

  “But won’t it kill her?!” I interjected before Elodie had a chance to explain.

  “Yes, I understand that’s what one would think, but in this particular potion, it will actually save her life. Have you ever heard the expression, ‘the hair of the dog that bit you’?”

  We all nodded.

  Elodie adjusted her glasses. “You see, that expression actually came from a witch. Way back when, there was a witch by the name of Cybil Timberwolf. She discovered that a human that’s bitten by a rabid dog could be cured by making a potion that contained hair from the very dog that bit them. It was a revolutionary discovery that has led to many medical cures since then.” She tapped the beaker she held in her hand. “This contains avocado, but I can assure you, it’s been blended with additional ingredients that will counteract the originally ingested allergen.”

  I looked down at Holly sadly. We had little other choice. “You’re sure?”

  “Quite sure.” She looked at Libby. “Now, if you’re ready? I’ll just need you to unthaw her and then I’ll have her drink this.”

  Reign frowned. “Before she was frozen, I think her esophagus was completely constricted. In fact, I’d just begun to attempt CPR on her.”

  Elodie touched her top lip again. “Oh my. Yes, that will make this more difficult.” She sucked air in quickly and held a finger up. “But I have just the thing!” Before we could ask her anything more, she disappeared into her back room again and then reappeared just as quickly carrying a syringe. “I ordered these when I first opened the shop and have rarely needed to use them, but I’m sure glad I have them for emergencies such as this!”

  Libby tilted her head from side to side and then rolled it around on her shoulders. “Stand back.”

  “Wait,” said Elodie, holding a hand out to stop Libby. “Is this going to leave a puddle on my floor? Because if it is, I think I’d like to move her.”

  Libby smiled. “This is a puddle-free process.”

  “Good. Okay, go ahead.” Elodie turned her back to Libby and began to draw the green liquid into her syringe.

  While Elodie prepared the syringe, Libby exhaled as much as she could and then slowly sucked in her breath over the top of Holly’s cube of ice. The breath she sucked in gradually became frosty. Breath after frosty breath, Libby sucked in, shrinking Holly’s ice cube until the only thing left was Holly, shivering on the floor. A weakened Libby fell back against the counter.

  Cinder caught hold of her sister. “Hurry, Elodie, you don’t have much time now.”

  Elodie and Reign squatted next to Holly. Reign took hold of Holly’s hand while Elodie injected the magical elixir into her thigh muscle.

  We all stared at her lifeless body.

  “How long will it take?” he asked, looking up at Elodie with concern.

  Elodie shook her head sadly. “I really don’t know. I haven’t seen any of these freezing spells firsthand. I’ve only heard of them. I’m not sure how long that will set back the antidote’s effects.”

  Reign scooped her up in his arms. “Do you have anywhere we could lay her down? Somewhere more comfortable than the floor, until she’s woken up?”

  Elodie nodded, beckoning Reign to follow her.

  Elodie reemerged from the back room alone.

  “Where’s Reign?” I asked.

  “He asked to stay with her until she wakes up.”

  “So,” said Elodie, busying herself by wrapping the needle she’d used in some newspaper. “May I ask where you girls are from? Norwalk is a small town, and there aren’t many witches nearby. I’m sure I would have heard about you if you lived in town.”

  Alba and I exchanged uncomfortable glances. We couldn’t very well tell her that we’d come through a time-traveling wormhole. We didn’t even know what year it was, though I was fairly confident whatever time period we were in was close to present day. Elodie looked exactly the same as she had a day ago.

  I smiled at Elodie. “You’re right. We’re not from here. We were just visiting some family when this happened,” I lied.

  “Oh, so where are you all from, then?”

  “All over the place,” said Alba. “But we all attend the Paranormal Institute for Witches in Aspen Falls, Pennsylvania.”

  I eyed Alba in shock. Alba! What are you doing?! I hollered at her in my mind, hoping that she would read it as she sometimes did.

  Elodie’s eyes widened. “Oh! You’re all students at the Institute?!”

  “All of us except Reign,” said Alba, pointing at the doorway. “He’s her br
other.”

  “I can’t believe it! I’m an Institute alum myself and my daughter attended for a short time!” Her tone seemed to change slightly as she mentioned her daughter attending. It was like a dark shadow had passed across her face.

  Alba caught it too. “Only for a short time? Why’s that?”

  Elodie grimaced. “She had some issues there, I’m afraid.”

  “Really? What kind of issues?”

  Elodie sighed, glancing at all of our faces uncomfortably. “Oh, I really shouldn’t speak of it. I’m not one for gossiping.”

  “It wouldn’t be gossiping,” said Alba. “Think of it as swapping stories. We’ve had some issues at the Institute ourselves. Maybe if we tell you our story, you’ll tell us yours?”

  “Maybe,” said Elodie with a shrug.

  Alba pointed at Libby and Cinder. “Well, I don’t know about those two, because they’re in the grade above us, but the three of us and Holly, the girl you just helped, we’re sort of in Sorceress Stone’s LVS club.”

  “LVS?”

  “Least Valuable Students.”

  Elodie smiled. “Is that right?”

  I nodded. “She’s one hundred percent right. Ever since we started at the Institute, she’s seemed to have a grudge against us. We’ve been locked in a tower, she’s turned her powers on us, yelled at us…” I took a breath and then whisper-hissed, “Once, she even tried to turn us into snakes! But my mom and grandma happened to step in and save us.”

  Elodie touched her heart, her eyes wide. “You’re kidding?”

  “Nope, they’re not kidding,” said Sweets, shaking her head sadly. “Sorceress Stone wasn’t very kind to us from the very beginning, and all we’ve ever done is try to help her. I ended up dropping out early.”

  “Because of Sorceress Stone? Oh, you poor thing!”

  Sweets shrugged. “It’s alright. I got a really good job offer that I couldn’t pass up anyway. That was the main reason I quit. But Sorceress Stone not being very nice made my decision easier.”

  “My sister and I have also been locked in the tower many times,” said Cinder with a knowing nod. “During our first year on campus, she was especially hostile.”

  Libby shook her head sadly. “We never understood it. She was never like that with the rest of the students. Mostly just us.”

  Elodie looked behind her and then lowered her head slightly. “Well,” she said in a hush, “since we’re swapping stories, my daughter experienced some of those very same things!”

  “She did?” I asked.

  Elodie nodded. “Yes, and also at the hands of Sorceress Stone. She was cruel to my daughter. She had a horrible time there.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “So am I. Of course my daughter’s father, my ex, wanted to turn her in to the authorities for kidnapping and get the Institute shut down.”

  Wow. This was getting interesting. Maybe Elodie Goodwitch had a motive to kill Sorceress Stone after all! “But he didn’t call the police?”

  Elodie shook her head, her curly brown hair bobbed. “No. I told him that eventually karma would come back around again and she’d pay the price for her actions.” Elodie sighed and toyed with the cardboard box in front of her. “Of course, it wasn’t just Sorceress Stone’s fault that my daughter left that school.”

  “Oh, did something else happen?” asked Sweets. “Did she not get along with one of the teachers?”

  Elodie gave us a tight smile. “No. Actually, there were some students, some of the other witches, that gave my little girl a hard time. I wish she would have met some nice girls, like all of you. Then maybe when that nasty group of girls they called the Witch Squad got in her face, she would have had someone else to back her up.”

  25

  Reign slid Elodie’s office chair over to the small love seat Holly slept quietly on. He’d tucked a plush throw blanket tightly around her shivering body. Her usually glossed lips were dull and pale, as was the rest of her face. Even the blush she wore on her cheekbones only managed to accentuate just how sallow her complexion had truly become.

  Reign took hold of one of her icy hands. His head hung low between his shoulder blades with his eyes trained on the blanket that covered her breasts. It wasn’t for the reason that Holly would have liked, but simply because he was anxiously watching the methodical rising and falling of her chest. It meant she was still alive and breathing on her own.

  Reign scanned the smooth lines of Holly’s face for any sign of consciousness and gently pushed back a strand of blond hair that fell across her forehead. He couldn’t deny it she was a beauty. But despite Holly’s silly attempts at impressing him with her killer body or her pretty face, Reign had never bitten. Pretty girls had been a dime a dozen since he’d started attracting them, around the tender age of thirteen. His own good lucks and charming ways had proven to be a hit with the ladies, even back then. But he’d found those girls, the ones who knew they were pretty and flaunted it, to be especially unappealing. Those were the ones that Reign kept his guard up around. They moved from man to man like butterflies moved from flower to flower.

  Reign was decidedly too somber for a flighty woman like that. While he wasn’t necessarily looking for a wife at only twenty-five years of age, he preferred serious relationships to the kind that “those types of girls” offered. Holly had only seemed like one of those busy, beautiful butterflies to him. Bouncing from flower to flower.

  So, despite her being one of Mercy’s best friends, he’d never really taken the time to get to know her. But that didn’t mean he didn’t like her. She seemed like a nice enough girl. He liked the fact that she’d made a fool of herself in an effort to make his cousin feel better. There was no doubt it had put a smile on both his and Jax’s faces. He liked the fact that she always went out of her way to greet him with a smile at Habernackle’s, and unless she and Alba were clashing, Holly almost always was in a good mood. Plus, Holly seemed to be the underdog of the group, always getting picked on by Alba, and after seeing it firsthand, he almost felt bad for her.

  So, because he was beginning to see Holly more as a person and not just as one of “those types of girls,” she’d become more human to him—more real and less like the wooden, two-dimensional character she had portrayed herself to be. And now he truly felt horrible about what had happened to her.

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered with a bowed head, guilt riddling his voice. “This is all my fault.”

  “Reign?” breathed a barely-there voice.

  Reign’s heart lurched. He lifted his head. “Holly?” With her eyes still closed, he searched her face for signs that his name had come from her lips.

  “Yeah,” she whispered with her eyes still sealed. “I-I’m c-cold.”

  “I know,” he said, tucking the blanket in tighter around her shoulders. “How are you feeling, besides cold?”

  “I-I’m okay,” she stuttered weakly. “Thirsty.”

  Reign stood up and rushed over to the small watercooler in the corner of Elodie’s office, grabbing a paper cup and filling it with water. In three long strides he was back at Holly’s side, helping her to take a drink.

  “Thanks,” she whispered. Her eyes fluttered open slightly then. “What happened?”

  “You had an allergic reaction to avocado.”

  “Oh yeah.” One of her hands made its way out of the blanket to touch her lips. They’d already lost much of their puffiness. “I remember that. Where are we? Why am I so cold?”

  “Well, it’s kind of a long story, but we’re in Iowa, at Elodie Goodwitch’s Magical Apothecary.”

  “Iowa!” Holly’s blue eyes opened wider. She struggled to sit up so she could look around. “How did we get to Iowa?”

  After helping her sit upright, Reign tried to explain. “Through the wormhole. We’re back in time, but we’re not sure how far back. Elodie saved you from your allergic reaction.”

  “Elodie saved me? Where is she?”

  Reign’s head bobbe
d towards the door. “Out there. With the rest of the girls. We were just waiting for you to wake up and feel better before we left.”

  Holly shook her head as if she were trying to clear the cobwebs. “Oh. What day is it?”

  Reign shook his head. “You know, I really don’t know. We’ve been time traveling so much that I’m not sure what day we’ll go back to. It was Wednesday when we left.”

  “It’s still Wednesday? Where’s Jax?”

  “In Aspen Falls with Char. Remember?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Holly scrunched up her nose and looked up at Reign. “Wait. Why are you sitting over me and not one of the girls?”

  Reign let out a heavy sigh. “Well, I sorta feel responsible.”

  Holly rubbed the pads of her fingers against her temples. She still looked to be a bit dazed and confused. “You feel responsible? For what?”

  “For your allergic reaction. I made the wraps that had the avocado in them.”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said quietly. “But I didn’t have to eat it. I knew I was allergic. I just thought if I ate around the avocado I’d be alright. I haven’t had an allergic reaction since I was a little kid.”

  “That’s probably because you avoid eating it.”

  Holly grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, probably.”

  “Why didn’t you just say you were allergic?”

  She shrugged and shifted her eyes off of his. “I just thought it was nice that you’d made us all lunch, and I didn’t want to seem ungrateful by being overly picky.”

  Reign gave her a half-smile. “By telling me that you were allergic to one of the ingredients? I’d hardly view that as being ungrateful.”

  “Yeah.” She smiled at him. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. We’ve all been really worried about you. Even Alba.”

  Holly let out a snort. “Ha, funny.”

  “No, I’m serious! She was just as worried as any of us. We were afraid we might lose you.” He shook his head. “And then SaraLynn came after us, and we didn’t have much time.”

  “Wait, hold up. Sorceress Stone came after us? When?”

  “When you were having your allergic reaction. We’d just taken you to the nurse’s office.”