The Witch Within

by M. Z. Andrews

  “In the past?”

  Reign nodded. “Yeah. Don’t you remember? We were on the back lawn, waiting for the Council meeting to resume, when you had the allergic reaction. We didn’t know what to do, so we took you to the nurse’s office. That was when you stopped breathing.”

  Holly’s eyes widened. It was obvious she had no recollection of any of that and was shocked to hear how serious it had become. “I stopped breathing?”

  “Yeah. I had to give you CPR.”

  Her eyes widened even further. “You gave me CPR?! You mean you saved my life?”

  Reign lifted a shoulder uncomfortably. “Well, yeah. You would have died if I didn’t!”

  “Wow.” Holly sat back against the sofa back, speechless.

  “So then, SaraLynn showed up and was all you’re not supposed to be here, so Alba and I created a diversion so that Mercy and the girls could get you out of there. Libby froze you to keep you from dying.”

  Holly’s head snapped around to stare at Reign. “Libby froze me?! Is that why I’m so cold?”

  Reign hopped up to get the blanket back around her again. “Are you still freezing? Here, let’s get this around you.”

  Holly pushed the blanket away. “No, it’s okay, thanks. Now that I’m awake, I’m warming up. I just can’t believe Libby froze me. Like she did Sorceress Stone?”

  Reign shrugged as he stood in front of her. “Not sure. I didn’t see her freeze SaraLynn. I assume it was the same.”

  Holly shook her head as she looked at her arms in awe. “Wow. And I’m still alive. That’s amazing.”

  Reign nodded and sat down next to her on the love seat. “It is amazing. I’m thankful you’re okay.”

  “Thanks. And thanks for watching out for me. That was sweet of you.”

  He grinned at her and threw an arm over her shoulder. “No problem. We’re all just thankful you’re alive.”

  Holly leaned her head on Reign’s shoulder. “Me too.”

  Suddenly, the door burst open. “Reign, is Holly oka—” began Sweets breathlessly. Seeing Holly seated and awake on the small sofa caused her to stop in her tracks. She smiled from ear to ear. “Holly! You’re awake!”

  “Yeah.” Holly tried to get to her feet but stumbled backwards slightly.

  Reign caught her around the waist. “Whoa. Slow down. I got you.”

  Holly smiled up at him. “Thanks.”

  In a panic, Sweets beckoned them forward. The smile had completely disappeared from her face. “Come on. We have to go. Something… umm… changed.”

  “Changed?” asked Reign curiously as he helped Holly to the door. “What’s going on?”

  “You’ll see. Come on, we have to go. Now!”

  “Are you sure you really have to run off so soon?” asked Elodie. She looked at her watch. “I wish you could stay a little longer and meet my daughter, Victoria. She should be back any minute. I know she’d love to meet you.”

  When Reign emerged from Elodie’s backroom with his arm slung around Holly’s waist, but her walking on her own two feet, my heart lifted. I let out a sigh of relief. Oh, thank God. We needed to get out of there immediately, before Elodie’s daughter showed up, because the second Elodie had mentioned “the nasty Witch Squad,” the pieces had begun to fall into place, and I knew exactly who her daughter was.

  Tori Decker. The girl that Sorceress Stone had expelled because of her lies and manipulations, and her involvement in framing Brittany Hobbs for the murder of our school lunch lady, Denise. Tori had been a horrible girl, causing nothing but trouble. Not only had she made solving Denise’s murder harder than it needed to be, but she’d also been the cause of numerous problems in my relationship with Hugh. Ultimately, those problems had resulted in our breakup. It didn’t shock me one bit that she’d gone home and blamed all of her problems on us.

  I hitched my thumb over my shoulder and edged towards the exit. “Yeah, so sorry, Elodie. We really need to get going. Our friend’s little emergency has already derailed our plans for far too long. Come on, girls. Let’s get going.”

  Alba led the pack towards the door. She was as completely aware of the sudden sense of urgency as I was. “Thanks a lot, Mrs. G. We, uh, really appreciate everything.”

  “Anytime, girls, anytime. Oh, and sweetie, I sure hope you get to feeling better,” she said to Holly as Reign helped move her towards the door.

  “Thanks, Elodie,” said Holly with a smile.

  We’d all barely managed to file out the door when a silver car came tearing around the corner and screeched to a halt next to the old pickup. My heart dropped. Before she’d even gotten out of the vehicle, I knew who it was.

  “Oh no,” breathed Alba.

  “What?” asked Libby.

  “It’s Tori Decker,” I said through a clenched jaw and tight lips.

  “That girl that got expelled from the Institute at the beginning of the school year?” asked Cinder.

  Libby shook her head in confusion. “Wait… is she—”

  “Yup. Elodie’s daughter. We need to get outta here ASAP.”

  Single-file, we turned stiffly down the sidewalk to head back in the direction that we’d come, but before we could get far, the car door opened.

  “You have got to be kidding me!” screeched Tori Decker’s familiar voice. “I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The Witch Squad is here? In Norwalk? What are you people doing in my mother’s shop?”

  Alba turned around. Her face was beet red already. “You people?” She sneered. “You people? How dare you. You insignificant little fly.” She flicked her finger towards Tori, and the girl stumbled backwards on the sidewalk.

  Enraged, Tori ripped off the black sunglasses she wore and threw them down onto the pavement before charging Alba.

  Alba slid out of her thin zip-up windbreaker. She pressed it into my arms. “Hold my jacket!”

  “Alba, stop!” screamed Sweets. “Now’s not the time for this!”

  “Alba don’t,” barked Reign with one arm still around Holly’s back, holding her up against his side.

  But Alba and Tori had already closed the distance between themselves. Alba’s fist flew towards Tori’s face.

  But before she could land the punch, Reign threw out his free hand, and a streak of red electrocharged energy flew out and wrapped itself around Alba like a lasso, forcing her arms down next to her sides.

  Tori laughed and was just about to land her own punch on a now-defenseless Alba, when Libby threw up a shield of ice between the two women.

  “You’re coming with us,” snapped Reign gruffly, tugging on the red energy lasso. “Come on. We need to get out of here before Libby’s ice shield spell wears off.”

  “Let me out of this,” shouted Alba, trying to shrug out of the energy’s tight hold. “I can take her!”

  “No!” said Cinder. “We do not have time for this. That girl’s mother is on the Council. We must go now.”

  Libby and Cinder took off towards the water tower that we’d seen when we’d first gotten to town. Sweets followed next.

  As Alba dug her heels into the ground and fought the lasso, I put my arm around Holly’s back. “I’ll help Holly. Reign, you keep Alba moving.”

  I did my best to keep Holly from falling as we sprinted back towards the wormhole we’d left alongside the creek. Reign had to fight Alba tooth and nail not to go back and pound Tori Decker into the ground, but finally the seven of us made it and slipped into the steam sauna vestibule to make our next move.

  Alba fumed as she shook off the lingering charges of red static electricity that clung to her clothes. “I could have taken her, you know.”

  Reign rolled his eyes. “I’m sure you could have.”

  “No, I’m serious. I’ve got older brothers. I know how to fight.”

  “Yeah, well, do you really think getting into it with that girl is a priority for today?”

  “No, but it woulda felt good.”

  “So will a warm bath,”
said Holly, rubbing her arms. “But we don’t have time for that either.”

  Reign nodded. “See? Even Holly gets it. Now, come on.” He spun a finger in the air. “Do your little… thing, and get us out of here.”

  Feeling a sense of urgency, I looked at Alba curiously. “So, where are we going next?”

  “I don’t know,” she muttered, still salty about her run-in with Tori.

  Since she wasn’t thinking clearly, I knew I needed to step up. “Okay, well, who have we already visited? We know Elodie had a grudge against Sorceress Stone because she expelled her daughter. Gemma didn’t like her because they were in competition for the same grades and the same boy. Poppy’s got to be sore because Sorceress Stone bought the Institute essentially out from underneath her. Who’s left to investigate?”

  “Stella and Daphne,” said Sweets.

  “Stella and Daphne it is,” I said, nodding at Alba. “We need to find out about their past with Sorceress Stone.”

  “Fine,” muttered Alba. “Get into position and let’s get this done.”

  26

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” I said, my chin jutted out and my eyes wide.

  Holly shook her head. “Not again!”

  “Well, at least those two were telling the truth. Now we know,” said Alba with a sigh.

  “Yeah, I guess we do. So now what?” I asked, looking out at the auditorium in front of us. The scene was so familiar that it didn’t even warrant watching. Alba’s spell and the magical wormhole had brought us back to Monday’s graduation meeting in the auditorium. I found it odd to see myself sitting on the bleachers next to Alba and the rest of the girls.

  Alba shook her head. She looked like she was at a loss. “I don’t know.”

  Reign peered out into the auditorium and then pulled his head back into our hiding spot. “I think we should talk about this somewhere where we aren’t going to be seen or heard.” His head bobbed towards the back door.

  Minutes later, we sat beneath the very same tree we’d had lunch under during Holly’s allergic reaction. Only now the tree was taller and the branches spanned a wider distance overhead.

  “This is getting ridiculous,” said Cinder. “It feels like we’re walking in circles.”

  Her sister nodded. “Exactly! I don’t think we’re going to be able to figure out who killed Sorceress Stone, and obviously we aren’t going to be able to bring her back to life. Let’s just get back to the present. I have a graduation project to work on.”

  Cinder’s head bobbed in agreement.

  “Now wait just a darn minute,” said Alba. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Now, I know things seem bleak. But we can’t just give up!”

  “I agree with Alba. We have figured out a few things,” said Sweets. “Like, Elodie Goodwitch lied to us! She told us her daughter hadn’t had any issues with Sorceress Stone. We know firsthand that she did, and she ended up getting expelled over it!”

  “She wasn’t the only one that lied. Poppy and Gemma weren’t honest either,” I added.

  “But what about Daphne and Stella?” said Alba. “We should keep researching the two of them.”

  “But where do we go? We asked the time machine to show us their drama, and this is where we were delivered. They were the only ones telling the truth! They’d never met Sorceress Stone before Monday!” I said.

  “It could’ve been Daphne,” said Holly. “Remember, Sorceress Stone knew that secret and was threatening to release it to her employer.”

  “She explained that away,” said Alba with a shrug.

  “Fine, then what about Stella? Maybe there’s something she’s not telling us,” I said.

  Alba sighed. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s possible she’s keeping something from us. But how do we find out? I don’t even know where to ask the wormhole to take us.”

  We all leaned back in the grass, lost in our own thoughts. I racked my brain trying to think of a way to find out if Stella was hiding anything like the rest of the women had been, but nothing came to me. My mind finally wandered, and I began thinking about Jax and the fact that all she wanted for her eighteenth birthday was to finally become a witch. Now it looked like her mother had stolen that from her. If only Sorceress Stone hadn’t gone off and died! Then we would’ve had time to use Alba’s magical wormhole to go back to the day Auggie Stone had accidentally killed my granddad! Then none of this would be happening right now! Jax would be a witch. My granddad might still be alive. Heck, Sorceress Stone might even still be alive!

  That thought made my breath catch in my throat. A little raspy breath escaped me.

  “What?” asked Alba, looking up at me.

  I swallowed hard. “I just had a thought.”

  Alba nodded. “I thought I felt the earth move.”

  “No, I’m serious, Alba. I think I had a really big thought.”

  “Like I said, I—”

  I cut her off. “This isn’t time for snarkiness! I’m serious.”

  “Then spill already!”

  “I was just thinking how it sucks that we haven’t had time to work on getting Jax’s powers for her—”

  Alba sighed. “Because we all agreed that saving her mother was top priority.”

  “Yeah, I know that. That’s not my point. I’m just trying to explain my train of thought. So, I was thinking it sucks that we haven’t had time to work on the Stone curse, and then I realized that if that curse had never been placed on Jax, she’d have her powers now and my granddad might be alive.”

  “Red—”

  “Hear me out!” I bellowed.

  Everyone’s eyes widened as heads began to turn, looking around to see if anyone else on campus had heard my little outburst. But no one said a word.

  “As I was saying. My granddad might still be alive if we stopped Auggie Stone from killing him back then. Jax would be a witch. And it occurred to me—Sorceress Stone might still be alive. If we change that one tiny bit of history, it would change so many things for the Stone family, and it might mean that she would still be alive.”

  “There’s no way to know that, Red.”

  “Of course there’s no way to know, but at least Jax would have her powers. And if by changing that one little thing, Sorceress Stone is still alive, then it’s a win-win. And if my granddad is alive…” A huge smile covered my face. “Then it’s a win-win-win.”

  “And if it’s not a win-win?” asked Sweets.

  “Then we just wasted a bunch of time that we could have been investigating,” said Alba with a frown.

  I stood up and brushed little pieces of cut grass off my knees. “Yeah, then we wasted some time, but guess what, Alba? We don’t know where to go from here. We’re at a standstill. We’re stuck. We don’t know where else to start investigating. None of these women are from this area. It’s not like we can go ask someone in town a bunch of questions. They all showed up for this singular event and now Jax’s mom is dead. What if this can fix everything?”

  Reign, who had been silent through all of my suggestions, finally leaned forward. “You might be on to something.” He raised his hand. “I vote we try.”

  “Yeah?” said Alba. “And since when do you get a vote?”

  “Since I kept you from getting your butt handed to you by that scrappy-looking Iowa girl,” he said with a cocky smile.

  “Are you kidding?” bellowed Alba. “I would’ve had her on the ground in a second if you’d let me take care of business.”

  “He gave me CPR,” added Holly. “He tried to save my life. He gets my vote.”

  “Well, there’s a shocker,” snapped Alba.

  “And he carried Holly all the way to Elodie’s apothecary,” added Sweets. “I agree. Reign definitely gets a vote.”

  “Big deal. He used his magic to carry her,” she scoffed.

  “Magic takes a lot out of you. It is a big deal,” said Libby. “Trust me, I know. I agree with Mercy and Reign. Let’s get this curse lifted. Maybe then Sorceress Stone will
be alive and my sister and I can get back to working on our graduation project.”

  Cinder nodded in agreement. “I’m in favor of that too.”

  I studied the faces of all of the girls. “Okay, all in favor?”

  All hands went up except Alba’s.

  “It’s gonna be a waste of our time,” she grumbled. “But if that’s what you all want, I guess whatever.”

  “Good. Alright, let’s get to the wormhole!”

  A fatal potion was concocted,

  And soon thereafter a murder plotted.

  Take us back to the place and time

  Auggie Stone committed her heinous crime.

  After making our way through the spinning tunnel of lights once again, we exited near a small brook situated in a shady spot at the bottom of a hill. The sweet scent of lilacs spiked the warm spring air. At the top of the hill, a split-rail fence surrounded a cottage-style house with a small detached garage. In the backyard, laundry pinned to a clothesline blew in the wind and a little wooden swing set provided entertainment for four small children. It was a picturesque scene, one that I was sure I’d seen in storybooks my mother had read to me as a child.

  “I wonder where we are,” said Holly, looking around.

  “We gotta assume we’re exactly where we asked to be,” said Alba. “Maybe this is where Auggie Stone killed Red’s grandfather.”

  “No use speculating. There’s only one way to find out.” My eyes narrowed in on the small house, and I couldn’t help but wonder who would be inside. Would my granddad be in there? I’d never met him, and I rarely heard my grandmother or mother speak of him. Of course Mom had been very young when he’d been killed; therefore she didn’t even remember her father. Not only had I never met my granddad, but I’d never met my father either. It seemed to be a Habernackle curse, I guessed, to grow up without a father. So to have the opportunity to finally meet one of the men in my family made my hands tremble with nervous anticipation.

  No sooner had we taken steps towards the house than a woman emerged from the back door. One of the little girls’ voices screeched with excitement. “Momma! Push me!” The young mother busily tended to the children in the yard, giving each of them pushes on the swings and helping one of the smaller girls climb the slide.