Crystal closes her eyes and the candles flicker to life. She unclasps her necklace and places the quartz shard in her hand. “Now, focus on this piece of the crystal. Direct all your energy toward locating the rest of it.” She reaches her hands out to Fox and Griffin, who are on either side of her, and the three clasp hands. Fox reaches for me with his free hand, and I reach for Bridget. When Bridget and Zane connect, a current of energy thrums through me, tingling my palms. A smile touches Crystal’s lips and Griffin curses under his breath.
Fox squeezes my fingers. “Damn, girl. Crystal was right about you.”
My cheeks flush at the compliment. This spell will work. It has to. We’ll find the rest of the crystal and I’ll be able to save Jodi.
“Find the crystal,” Crystal murmurs. “Find the crystal.”
The others join in her chant, then I do too. I stare at the map, unsure exactly what I’m waiting for. The tingling sensation grows where my skin touches Fox’s and Bridget’s, and heat begins to fill my core. I focus the magic rising inside me on locating the rest of the stone.
The map explodes in flame and I gasp. The others seem unfazed and I struggle not to jump back from the heat. Just when I’m sure my face is going to burn, my hair singe, the fire dies out entirely, leaving just a small scrap of paper behind.
The candles extinguish and Crystal releases Griffin’s and Fox’s hands before leaning forward to look at the remnant of the map. When she pushes herself back, disappointment is evident on her face. “Exactly the same as before. It’s the house, but there’s nothing more specific than that.”
Griffin snorts, standing. “What did you expect? For writing to appear giving you step-by-step directions or something? I told you before, this is a waste. You’re obsessed with this crystal, and I get why, but we’re never gonna find it. We’d be better off finding another rock to anchor ourselves to.”
Crystal shoots back a comment but I don’t hear it. Something about the map grabs my attention. It appears to be shimmering. For a moment I wonder if the edges are still on fire, but that’s not exactly what it looks like. I tug on Fox’s sleeve. “Do you see that?” I ask, nodding toward the scrap.
Fox looks down before turning back to me. “See what?”
“Does the map look strange to you?”
“What, besides being a charred scrap of paper?”
I press my lips together. Maybe if I could see it more closely. I reach across the floor and pinch the piece between my fingers.
That’s when it happens.
My body goes icy and I can’t move. A bright flash of light obscures my vision before I’m plunged into darkness. Crystal and Griffin’s argument fades, the room disappears, and I’m surrounded by blackness.
By degrees, the world comes back into focus. But I’m no longer in Fox’s basement. I’ve never seen this place. The furniture is heavy and ornate, the style old-fashioned and stuffy. The walls are painted pale yellow. There are features similar to Jodi’s house—the crown molding, the shape of the room—but it’s not Jodi’s house.
Footsteps thunder down the staircase and I crouch down, not wanting to be seen by whoever is moving toward me. I scan the room for a place to hide. But before I can move, the person reaches the bottom of the stairs.
And looks right at me.
My heart thunders in my chest as I look into her dark blue eyes. My mind gropes for an explanation for my presence in her house, but it comes up empty. How do you tell someone you were doing a magic spell and suddenly found yourself in their living room?
The girl’s eyebrows cinch together. She’s pretty in an elfin sort of way, with a chin that comes to a gentle point. Her dark blond hair is pulled into a ponytail high atop her head. There’s something familiar in the lines of her face.
“Mom,” she calls.
Adrenaline courses through my body. Is she going to have her mom call the police?
“Mom! Can you hear me?”
A woman emerges through a doorway behind me and I’m boxed in. There’s no way I can escape from here now even if I wanted to. I watch her, but her eyes don’t land on me at all. Instead, she looks at her daughter. “Yes, I hear you. What is it?”
“I’m going out. Can I borrow the car?”
Relief sweeps through my body, followed by confusion. Why are they acting like I’m not here? Unless I’m not really here. Unless this is just a vision, like the one I had of my dad in my room at Jodi’s house. I take in a deep breath.
The mother rolls her eyes. “What did I say about taking the car on a school night?”
“Please, Mom. I’m just going to run out for a little bit. I’ll be back way before curfew.”
“Who are you going out with?”
The girl shifts, digging the toe of her left foot into the hardwood floor. “No one...”
“By ‘no one’ do you mean Dave?”
A blush rises in the girl’s cheek and she doesn’t deny it.
The mother shakes her head. “I know if I ban you from seeing him it’ll just make you want to see him more, but you know I don’t trust him.”
“Come on, Mom. It won’t be just him. Shelly will be there too. And Jodi.”
My heart begins hammering in my chest again. Shelly? Jodi? Dave? Can she mean who I think she means?
The mother sighs and holds her car keys toward her daughter. With a squeal, the daughter scurries over to her mother, placing a kiss on her cheek as she takes the keys from her hand.
“Thanks, Mom!”
“Just... Promise me you’ll be careful, Crystal.”
Crystal Taylor sighs. “I will, Mom.” She offers a smile and as she turns toward the front door, she tucks something into the back pocket of her jeans. As she reaches for the doorknob, the crystal glints before it disappears.
The blackness is complete as it envelops me again, but I’m ready for it this time. I hold my breath until the sounds of Fox’s basement start to tune in once more. Crystal and Griffin are still sniping back and forth. My eyesight comes back and I look down at my fingers, still pinching the tiny scrap of map. I release it quickly.
“Did it burn you or something?” Fox asks. “You sure let go fast.”
I stare at him. Didn’t he notice I’ve been still for minutes? Didn’t anyone notice? Then again, maybe time didn’t elapse the same out here as it did for me. But why did it happen at all? Why would I have a psychic flash about Crystal Taylor triggered by the charred piece of map? Unless it was part of the spell. Maybe it never worked for them before because they needed someone who could access time, not just magic.
Fox narrows his eyes at me. “Krissa, what’s wrong?”
“I know where it is.”
The room falls quiet and the eyes of the circle turn toward me.
Crystal claps and pumps her fist triumphantly. “I knew this would work!”
“You did not,” Griffin murmurs.
Crystal ignores him. “Where is it?”
I bite my lower lip, not sure how to explain. Fox nods encouragingly and I take in a breath. “I think it’s in Crystal Taylor’s old house.”
Griffin throws his hands up, exasperated. “We already knew that. That’s very helpful, thanks.”
“No, you don’t understand. I think it’s in Crystal Taylor’s house back before she died—before the fire.” I press my lips together, turning to Crystal. “It’s not the where your spell was missing. It’s the when.”
The silence in the room is absolute. Bridget is the first one to recover. “Wait, you’re saying the crystal we’ve been looking for was destroyed? How are we gonna get it, then? I’m fresh out of time machines.”
“Shut up, Bridge,” Crystal says absently as she presses herself to standing. She walks over to the dresser, opens a drawer, and pulls out a worn-looking journal. It’s open and she’s leafing through it before she takes a seat on the couch. “I think I saw... but I guess I never thought...”
I look at Fox to see if he has any idea what she’s mumbling about. He s
hrugs.
“Here it is.”
I take a seat beside her. “What is that?”
“It’s my aunt Crystal’s book of shadows. Well, not just hers—it’s been in the Taylor family for generations. It’s also part journal. And at one point... It didn’t register with me before, but now...”
“Will you spit it out already?” Griffin asks.
Crystal casts a death glare at him. “It’s a spell for traveling in time. For going back to a specific moment. But she was never able to do it. She couldn’t get it to work for some reason.”
Zane sighs. “If she couldn’t get it to work, why do you think we can?”
Crystal’s eyes are alight when she turns to me. “Don’t you see? Because we finally got this location spell to work. Krissa able to see back into the past when she touched the map. Maybe my aunt wasn’t strong enough, or she didn’t have enough people in her circle. But if Krissa can see the past, maybe we’ll be able to go there.”
I shift, rolling my shoulders. It’s not just that Crystal has added another person to help with the spell, it’s the person she’s added. Me. As a psychic, I can access time. That’s why the locater spell finally worked. And that’s why the spell we have to cast next will work. “So, we’re gonna go to the past to get the crystal?”
“No,” Griffin says, standing. “No. We can’t do that. I mean, let’s just set aside the fact that it’s not possible. Even if we could somehow work a spell to go back in time, you have no idea what the consequences for going back and changing the timeline could be. I mean, come on. Haven’t you ever seen any movie about time travel ever?”
Crystal waves a hand at him vaguely. “We’ll just have to be really careful. I don’t know why I didn’t see this sooner. My dad says this shard I wear was found in the remains of the house after the fire. They never found the rest of it. So, that’s when we need to go back to: the night of the fire. Clearly it was there. We’ll just have to steal it before it gets burned up.”
Griffin crosses his arms over his chest. “This is possibly the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.”
“Shut up, Griffin,” I snap.
Bridget nods appreciatively while Griffin gapes at me. The plan sounds ridiculous, but with all I’ve experienced today, it doesn’t seem like it’s too far outside the realm of possibility. And if it’ll save Jodi, I’ll do it. I look at Crystal. “Okay, let’s get started, then.”
She looks slightly taken aback. “We can’t do it right now.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t have everything we need.” She runs her finger down the list of items on the page. “I don’t even know what some of this is, let alone where to get it.”
“Let me see it.” I reach for the book and, reluctantly, she hands it to me. I skim the list. “Yeah, I recognize these names. Jodi’s got all this stuff at her shop. I can go pick it up right now and be back here in half an hour, tops—”
Crystal squints as she reads the spell. “We still can’t do it until tomorrow. It looks like you have to let the quartz sit covered with the herbs to charge or something.”
An icy wave of dread courses through me. “Tomorrow?” I look at Fox. “Tomorrow might be too late.”
“We’ve been looking for this thing for months,” Zane says. “What’s another day gonna hurt?”
Fox presses his lips together, but he doesn’t answer Zane’s question. He sits on Crystal’s other side and looks over her shoulder at the spell. After a minute, he looks up at me. “She’s right. The herbs and the quartz need to infuse with each other for twenty-four hours. Tomorrow’s the earliest we can do it.”
I pull my phone from my back pocket and snap a picture of the spell. “I’ll go get everything from the shop and I’ll come right back so we can get things started. Let’s plan to do it at noon tomorrow.”
Everyone nods in agreement and I waste no time climbing the stairs and heading for Jodi’s car. I can only hope twenty-four hours from now won’t be too late.
Chapter Thirty-Two
David and Millie decide stay the night, along with a man named Ryan Alcott, who drove up from Ohio. These are the remaining members of Jodi’s circle.
They must be using magic, because no matter how I try, I can’t hear what they’re talking about. Anytime I poke my head into the sitting room, the four of them go quiet. They don’t want me to know what they’re discussing.
Jodi looks worse than ever in the morning. There are bags under her eyes, and I’m sure she was up coughing half the night. She tries to smile when I bring her a mug of tea, but I can feel the guilt radiating off her.
She knows she’s going to die.
I don’t ask if she’s made arrangements for me. If the spell works and I’m able to locate the crystal, neither of us will need to worry about that.
At eleven-thirty, I leave the house. I don’t bother telling anyone; they’re all avoiding me anyhow. I expect to be the first one to arrive at the park near the river where Lexie and I once spent an afternoon swinging, and I’m surprised when Fox is already there.
I get out of Jodi’s car and sit next to him on a bench overlooking the river.
“How’s she doing?” he asks.
I shake my head. “It’s bad.”
“This is gonna work,” he says, bumping his shoulder against mine. The gesture is so reminiscent of Owen, my heart aches. He called me yesterday afternoon to see if I wanted to go out, but I didn’t feel right leaving Jodi. I told him she was sick, but I didn’t tell him how bad it is. It’s with a pang I realize the only one outside of Jodi’s circle who knows the truth about what’s going on is Fox.
The rest of the circle arrives before noon and I’m thankful for their punctuality. Crystal leads us all along the river, away from the playground, to a clearing out of sight of the park.
“Why are we out here?” I ask.
“We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves,” Crystal explains. “If this works, I don’t want to end up in the middle of a street or in someone’s basement. Much safer this way. Besides, flowing water is good for drawing energy.”
Zane sets a large canvas bag on the grass and Crystal begins pulling out a half dozen silk pouches full of herbs and stones. Under her direction, we remove the quartz crystals from the bags, leaving the mix of herbs inside them. Once we’ve formed a circle with the small stones, Bridget steps back and squints at it.
“It’s not very big,” she says, wrinkling her nose.
“It doesn’t need to be,” Crystal says. “Only one of us will be inside it.”
My ears perk up. “Wait—what do you mean? I thought we were all going.”
Griffin snorts. “Yeah, because that doesn’t sound like a recipe for disaster. It’s dangerous enough sending one person back in time.”
Zane crosses his arms over his chest. “Man, if you’re so worried about it, why’re you even here?”
Griffin’s mouth twitches, but he says nothing.
“Because, if we do this, if we get the crystal and anchor our magic, he wants in on it.” Crystal rolls her eyes before turning her attention to me. “This spell is gonna take a ton of magic even to get one person back. There’s no way we can get all six of us there and back, and I, for one, don’t particularly want to get stuck in the past.”
A chill courses through me. “If we can’t all go back, who do you propose we send?”
She looks at me like the answer is obvious. “Me, of course.”
I bite the inside of my cheek. “Why you?”
Her eyebrows hitch upward. “It’s my family’s old house. I’ve heard all the stories about the little hiding places. I know which room was whose. I mean, I guess I could tell all this stuff to someone else, but I was under the impression time was of the essence.”
Anger boils in the pit of my stomach. She could have mentioned all of this yesterday, when there was still time to learn all these things, but she didn’t. Now, she’s right. It’s too late. “I’m going too.”
; She shakes her head. “No. No way.”
“I’m going.” I can’t stand the thought of sending Crystal to take care of this. What if she doesn’t find the crystal? I know she wants it so we can anchor the magic, but if that doesn’t happen, it won’t be the end of the world for her. If we don’t find that crystal, I’ll be an orphan by morning.
“Don’t you trust me?” Crystal asks, her eyes wide and innocent.
The heat builds within me and out of my peripheral vision I see a fallen log begin to rock back and forth gently.
Fox claps a hand on my shoulder. The heat dissipates and the log stops trembling. “I don’t think this is about a lack of trust. Krissa’s stronger than you—stronger than any of us. You might need magic like hers to get you back.”
Crystal’s mouth twitches for a moment before she nods. “Okay, fine. But just the two of us.”
I turn to Fox and smile. “Thanks.”
“Why is it that when you say thanks it sounds like an accusation?” He chuckles but quickly sobers, reaching out and squeezing my upper arm. “I want you to be able to save Jodi.”
A prickling sensation gathers in the corners of my eyes and I’m glad when Crystal clears her throat, moving to the center of the circle.
“I think we should get started,” she says. “Krissa, come stand next to me. The rest of you, spread out around us. Lift your arms out toward each other.”
Fox, Zane, Bridget, and Griffin follow Crystal’s directions. She turns to face me, closing her hand around the pendant that hangs from her neck. She holds her other hand out to me and I take it, squeezing firmly.
Crystal closes her eyes. “We need to focus on a specific moment in time,” she says, her voice low. “The day of the fire. It was a Saturday night. My grandma was out of town for the weekend.”
I’m not sure exactly how to do what Crystal is asking us to do, so I just clear my mind, trying my best to connect with the energy flowing between our interlocked fingers. She probably knows the details of this day better than anyone. Lexie says she’s been obsessed with her aunt since before freshman year. In that time, I’m sure she’s found out as much as she can about the day Crystal Taylor died. I direct the swell of magic rising within me to Crystal, hoping she knows what to do with it.
Crystal Magic (Clearwater Witches Book 1) Page 21