“Holly!” Sweets hollered and took a step forward to block her from falling to the floor.
“Holly, you saw something, right?” I asked her.
Holly nodded her head, but was so weak that she could barely speak.
“Get her juice,” I commanded Alba who was standing behind me.
Alba surprisingly obeyed my command without snipping back at me and got Holly a juice from our tiny fridge. “Here.”
I opened it for Holly and put it to her lips, helping her to drink it. “You alright?”
She took a deep breath after her drink and sat back, resting for a few long moments. “Saw Jax,” she was able to manage to croak out cryptically.
“You did? Good, is she alright?” I asked immediately.
We all watched her closely, waiting for any sign that she was still alive. Holly managed to nod. “Alive.”
Alba, Sweets and I let out a whoop and holler, excited to hear that our friend was still alive. Holly reached out and grabbed my hand. “Jax. In trouble.”
{Chapter Sixteen}
I took a deep breath and nodded. We all knew she was in trouble. We could only hope for the best and cross our fingers that she wasn’t in immediate trouble.
“Sleep,” Holly murmured with her eyes lids slowly getting heavier and heavier. The reading had worn her out and it was obvious she would need rest before we could continue. We helped her to my bed and Sweets covered her up with the quilt my granny had sewn for me.
I sat down on the floor next to my bed, crossing my legs in front of me like a pretzel. Sneaks immediately jumped off the bed and curled up in a ball inside of the little nest I had created.
I scratched the top of his head and behind his ears and he looked up at me earnestly. “Meow,” he said as if telling me that felt good.
“Oh, does that feel good?” I asked him as I scratched his other ear.
He nodded. This time, the fact that he nodded in response to a question registered in my brain. “Guys, I swear, Sneaks just nodded at me.”
“Dude, he’s a cat,” Alba said, dismissing me immediately.
“But he nodded at me.”
Sweets patted my head. “I think you need some sugar, Mercy.”
I swatted her hand away. “Sweets, everything in life can’t be resolved with snacks.” I looked at Sneaks more intently this time and rubbed his chin. He closed his eyes as I scratched. “Do you like to have your chin scratched, Sneaks?”
This time Sneaks opened his eyes. Looked me clearly in the eye and with a pleasant expression on his face, he nodded his head pleasantly.
My eyes nearly shot out of my skull.
Alba shot out of her seat and towards the door. “Dude! The cat totally just nodded his head at you!”
“That was crazy!” said Sweets excitedly.
“I told you!”
“Yeah, but this time I saw him do it. Ask him another question,” Alba suggested. Her nerves were jittery.
“What should I ask him?” I asked, perplexed. “He’s a cat.”
“I don’t know!” Alba countered.
“Here, ask him if he wants a snack,” Sweets suggested and offered me a fish cracker from the box on Jax’s desk.
“Seriously? You think he wants a fish cracker? You realize it’s not made of fish, right?” I said with a chuckle.
Sweets nodded. “Of course, silly. Ask him anyway.”
I rolled my eyes and looked at Sneaks who was sitting up attentively, actively listening to our conversation. “Sneaks, do you want a snack?” I asked and handed him the fish cracker.
This time he shook his head from side to side and lifted one soft furry paw to touch my hand and gently push it away.
“Oh my god,” Alba’s eyes were huge. “He can totally understand you.”
“This is so bizarre,” I said with a huge smile. “I wish I could understand him.”
“You’re taking Animal Spirits class aren’t you?” Sweets asked me.
I nodded weakly. “Yeah, but it’s only been a week. We haven’t gotten to familiars yet.”
“You have your spell book from class though, right?” Sweets asked.
“Yeah.”
“Ok, there should be a spell in there somewhere that could help us out. Where’s your book?”
I pulled my backpack out from the side of my desk and unzipped it, pulling out the thick Animal book. I handed it to Sweets and watched Sneaks as she flipped through the pages. His soft furry face seemed to watch the three of us intently, as if he were waiting patiently for us to find a spell.
“Wouldn’t it be crazy if all this time Sneaks was able to understand me?” I asked Alba.
“Crazy is putting it mildly,” she said.
“Animal protection spells, animal love spells, animal transformation spells,” she read off as she flipped through the pages. “Here it is, I found it! Animal familiar spells!” Sweets said and shoved the book in my lap. “We need three black candles, three hairs from your head and three hairs from Sneaks’ head and a crystal bowl.”
“Jax might have the candles, look in her cupboard,” I instructed Alba to look in the cabinet behind her.
“I’ve got a crystal serving bowl in my room!” Sweets declared. “I’ll run and get it.”
Sweets left the room while Alba and I searched through Jax’s cabinet for her candle collection. Tucked away in the back in a little plastic tote was an assortment of candles that I had seen her drag out earlier in the week while she was doing her homework.
“Awesome, she’s got black ones,” I said and plucked three short votives from the tote.
Sweets came back, having quickly changed out of her bathrobe and slippers into a more appropriate pair of leggings and a long t-shirt, with a small smudge of pink frosting visible just above the right side of her lip. She brought with her a small round crystal serving bowl.
“I won’t even ask why you have pink frosting on your lip,” I said with a laugh.
“Fair enough,” she said with a nod. “Now, the book says we light the candles and pour the wax drops into the crystal bowl. We let the wax firm just a smidge and press the hairs of yours and the hairs of Sneaks together into the wax all the while chanting the spell in the book. Then you transfer your energy to him and bam! Talking cat!”
Alba quickly lit the candles and set them each one by one onto Jax’s desk.
“Sounds easy enough,” I said with a big smile. I looked at Sneaks with a crooked grin. “You up for this buddy?”
Amazingly Sneaks nodded again and I actually thought I saw him smile.
“This is so amazing,” I said as Alba plucked three auburn colored hairs from my head and Sweets plucked three black hairs from Sneaks’.
Carefully Alba dropped the melted wax into the bowl from each of the three candles and as they began to firm up I gingerly pressed our hairs together into the wax. Focusing my energy as I’d been taught in class, I concentrated on Sneaks and his aura.
“Spirits above I summon thee, bless me with this familiar cat bound to me. Spirits above I summon thee, bless me with this familiar cat bound to me. Spirits above I summon thee, bless me with this familiar cat bound to me.” Over and over I repeated the chant until I could feel the energy building inside of my body. Inhaling one more deep breath I said the chant one more time. “Spirits above I summon thee, bless me with this familiar cat bound to me!” Then I exhaled blowing the energy from my body towards Sneaks.
I opened my eyes and looked at the cat. He was sitting upright with his eyes closed. He appeared to be trying to absorb my energy.
“Sneaks? You ok, little guy?” I asked him nervously.
Quietly he opened his eyes and looked at me. “We should start this off right, I’m not a little guy, Mercy, I’m a female cat. You’ve been calling me little guy all week long and it’s been driving me bananas!” Sneaks said casually while Sweets, Alba and I stared.
“MOM?!” I asked, my eyes huge. The voice was unmistakable, it was my mother’s voice!
“Yes Mercy Bear, it’s mom.”
“Mother! I told you to stop calling me that. How in the heck are you inside of Sneaks?” I demanded, peering closely at the cat.
Sneaks sort of tilted his head to the side and appeared to shrug at me. “Eh, it’s a spell. No big deal.”
“No big deal, this is crazy!” I told her animatedly.
“Took you long enough to figure out I was trying to talk to you,” she quipped. “I’ve literally been trying to communicate with you all week.”
“I had no idea! Are you trying to spy on me or something?”
“Not originally. I just wanted to be able to see you and talk to you, you know, while you’re away.”
“Hello? Ever heard of Skype?” I asked.
“Yeah, I have. Consider this Skype. For witches. We could call it Skitches. Or Wype. I think I like Skitches better now that I hear it outloud.”
“Mother! Focus!”
“Right, sorry, sorry. Anyway, I hadn’t meant to be hanging around so much, but with this Hartford girl murder and now with Jax missing, I’ve just been so worried about you girls.”
I looked back at Alba and Sweets who were standing back quietly watching me interact with my cat. “Can you understand them too?” I asked my mother.
“Yes, I can understand all witches. Except Jax, for some reason I couldn’t understand Jax,” she added.
I nodded my head sadly. “It’s because Jax isn’t a witch, Mom. She’s been pretending.”
“Pretending to be a witch? Whatever for?”
“Long story, but the shortened version is, she just wanted to be a witch.”
“Now I understand why she’s been over compensating with all the overdone witch apparel.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. Then I turned to look at the girls. “Can you guys hear her?”
They both shook their heads.
“Nope, but I can see Sneaks’ mouth moving, just cat noises come out though,” Alba said. “And obviously we can hear your end of the conversation.”
“Ditto,” Sweets agreed. “Oh. My. GOSH. It worked!” she cheered excitedly. “It worked! It worked! It worked, it worked, it worked!” She danced around the room.
“This is so bizarre,” I said with a little chuckle. “I never thought I’d be able to communicate with an animal.”
“You’re doing really well, Merc, I’m impressed. You’re powers must be growing already. That’s what happens when a witch becomes a woman. It happens very quickly. What until you turn 20. You’ll have your full powers by then. I’m thankful you’re in a place that will teach you to focus your powers on good, not evil.”
“Mom, I’m worried about Jax. I don’t know what to do,” I told her honestly.
“Having Holly do a reading is a smart idea, but sweetheart, I’m worried about you and your friends. You must be extremely careful. All of your lives are in danger. I’ve been getting strong readings all week,” Mom told me anxiously. “
“Ok, Mom. We’ll be careful. I don’t suppose you saw who took Jax did you?”
“I wish I had, but I didn’t see anything.”
“Ok, as soon as Holly wakes up, we’re going to figure this out. But you can’t stay here mom. We aren’t allowed to have pets and we’re already on very thin ice with Sorceress Stone.”
“I understand, leave the window open. I’ll go for now, maybe I can do some digging around campus and see what I can find out,” she added and hopped up onto the windowsill.
“Ok, thanks Mom.” I gave her a little smile and suddenly I realized that I’d missed her badly over the past week. I wished she were standing in front of me so I could give her a big hug and tell her how much I loved her. Realizing I had the next best thing in front of me, I took a step forward and gave Sneaks a hug and whispered in her ear, “Love you Mom.”Then I opened my dorm window.
She whispered back, “Love you too, Mercy Bear. Be safe.” Then Sneaks jumped out the window and across to the fire escape next door.
“That. Was. AMAZING,” Sweets hollered as soon as Sneaks was out the window.
“So it was your mom this whole time?” Alba asked. She was astounded as I was.
“Yeah and she said she’s been getting strong readings this week and that we need to be careful, our lives are in danger,” I repeated what my mother had told me to the girls.
“Our lives are in danger?” Sweets asked, biting at her fingernails nervously. “Did she say anything about Jax’s life?”
“It’s in danger too,” said a voice from behind us.
We turned around to find Holly sitting up on the edge of my bed. She had a hand to her head and was rubbing it with squinted eyes.
“Holly!” Sweets cheered.
“You alright? You don’t look so great,” I told her as I knelt down next to her on the floor.
“Ugh, I feel like I have a hangover,” she admitted. “I didn’t feel this bad last time I did a reading.”
“Two in one day must be too much,” said Alba.
She put her arms out for us to take. “Help me up? I want to go sit in a chair.”
Alba and I each took an arm and helped her to the desk chair she had sat in earlier. Once she was seated comfortably we all stared down at her.
She looked up, her eyes panned across our faces nervously. “Gosh, I feel like I’m being interrogated!”
“We’ve just been waiting anxiously for you to come to so we could find out what you saw!”
“I saw Jax,” she began slowly. “She was lying on a hard, cold surface. Like a stone altar or something. Her hands were bound by her side. Her legs were bound to the table. Her mouth was taped shut.” Holly’s body shuddered as tears began to fall down her cheeks.
Sweets, who also had tears in her eyes to hear of Jax’s predicament, wrapped her arms around Holly’s neck.
“Oh, girls, it was so horrible to see her like that.” Holly’s body shook as she talked.
My heart immediately sank. “This is all my fault. I feel terrible that I was so bad to Jax. If it hadn’t been for me, she’d be safe and sound right now.”
“You don’t know that,” Sweets said quietly. Though I knew what she was thinking. I knew what all of them were thinking. I was right. It was my fault. I had to do whatever it took to find Jax and bring her back safely.
“What else did you see Holly?” Alba asked her.
“It’s kind of fuzzy, like an old black and white TV with lots of static. I know I saw candles flickering on the walls in the room, it felt like she were being prepped for a ritual or an offering or a spell or something. I’m not really sure.”
“Could you see anyone?” I asked.
Holly shook her head, “No. I didn’t see any faces, but I could see someone in the corner working at a table. He…he…he had on a ring! I remember now, I recognized the ring! It was the boy I met at the social last night. Evan! It was Evan’s ring!”
Alba and I looked at each other. Finally a break in the case! Jax was at the boys’ camp. Finally, we had a place to focus our energies on. “We need to go.” I glanced down at Holly. “Are you going to be ok? Maybe you should stay here. We can help you to your dorm and you can lie down for awhile.”
Holly stood up energetically. “No, I’m fine. I’m going to help you find Jax and bring her back!”
{Chapter Seventeen}
The sun was shining brightly in the courtyard when we burst out of the Winston Hall glass doors on a mission. The air smelled fresh and new, as if it had rained in the night. We started towards Warner Hall, the mens’ dormitory, when Sweets grabbed my arm and stopped me on the outskirts of the courtyard barrier.
“Are we just going to walk in there with no plan?” she asked nervously. “I’m not even sure if girls are allowed in the wizard’s dormitory.”
“Houston let me inside last night,” I said.
“Who is Houston?” Alba asked in confusion.
“Oh, you missed a lot of last night. He’s a cowboy wizard I met.”
“A cowboy wizard?” She looked perplexed.
“He’s a wizard from Texas and he wears a cowboy hat and boots. I know – kind of weird,” I said.
“But he’s super hot,” Sweets chimed in.
I couldn’t deny her accusation. He was super hot. “Anyway, I was allowed in. If we get stopped I’ll say I lost my bracelet last night or something.”
“Ok, so we go in. How will we know where to go?” Holly asked.
“Intuition,” I said and tapped a finger against my temple.
“Seriously? This whole operation is based on your intuition?” Holly seemed skeptical.
“The closer we get to Jax, the better my senses will be. It’s like playing the hot/cold game. I promise. If we get close to her, I’ll know it.”
“Fine, let’s go,” Holly agreed.
We crossed through the low stone wall surrounding the courtyard and the sign that read Warner Hall, Paranormal Institute for Wizards, Men’s Dormitory. Several men were milling around in the lobby as we entered, and quite rightly so, we found ourselves the objects of quite a bit of speculation. Just like we never saw guys on our side, they likely never saw women on theirs.
“Hello,” I said, nodding at the first curious onlooker that looked like he might approach us and ask us what we were doing in their building. He nodded back and we kept walking.
Nothing seemed to spark my senses, so we just began walking towards a set of stairs next to their lounge area. A tall man wearing a long robe approached us. His hands were buried in the sleeves of his robe and he bowed over them as a gentle greeting to us. “May I help you find something ladies?”
“Oh, no, thank you,” I said politely, hoping that he would just go away.
“Our dormitories are up this way, we don’t allow women up there unless they are escorted by one of our students. Are you here to see someone in particular?” he asked, looking down his long thin nose at us, reminding me almost immediately of Sorceress Stone.
“Yes, uh – we are,” I said without thinking. “Houston. Houston Brooks. I met him last night at the social, and oooh-ee, did I fall for that man,” I quipped. My natural instinct to lie in a sticky situation returned without a second thought.
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