Rhinestone Way

by Addison Creek

  Hannah kicked her shoes off, but instead of hurrying onward she seemed transfixed, staring sadly at the shoes sitting alone and overturned in the corner of the staircase.

  “Let’s go,” cried Jackie, shoving her way to the front before Taylor could do anything about it.

  Then we were all running again, pelting down the stairs into the deserted cafeteria.

  “Where do you think the cooks went?” I whispered.

  The cafeteria was dark. The only light showing us the way was a green sign that read, “Food here. Eat well and cleanly. If chips count.”

  I remembered the sign from when I’d eaten there during my classes.

  A blinding flash made us all stumble. I felt heat hit my back.

  “At least the spells haven’t made it down here yet,” Jackie breathed. “Let’s get our defenses going. Kelly?”

  My friend was having a hard time breathing, still too shocked by what was happening to gather her wits.

  “I’ll do it,” I said. The one time my crackle spellcasting had worked, it had felt like perfection. Hopefully I could do it again.

  “You expect us to trust you?” gasped Taylor, oblivious to the streak of soot that ran down her pretty white blouse.

  I glared at her. “I don’t really care what you do.”

  With that I spun around on my heel. Time was of the essence. There was none to waste on idiots.

  The kitchen covered an entire wall of the basement, with a counter and one high window. Behind the counter were shelves upon shelves of pots, pans, and other utensils. That would mean a big spell, but big was exactly what I needed.

  I took a deep breath, listening to the sound of tables overturning behind me. The first bang as the side of a table hit the floor took me by surprise. The second and third were expected. Defenses were at the ready.

  Five straight fingers together, twist, and open my fingers.

  Nothing happened.

  “That didn’t work,” said Hannah’s dry and annoyed voice behind me.

  I tried again but still nothing.

  For a moment there was a pause, then I felt a prickle down the back of my neck. The upstairs had gone quiet. I forced my breathing to quiet, the better to listen for the tiniest sound.

  There was still nothing from above, no screams, no cries. Then I heard the click of a footstep, and the next instant something brushed against my arm. I turned to see Hannah and Taylor standing still, almost frozen, each looking disheveled in her own way.

  “Much better if we make a ritual out of it,” said Taylor quietly.

  The three of us joined hands. Just like during the earlier ritual, the witch connection was strong. Eventually I’d have to get over the realization that I had a close connection with Hannah, but now was not the time. Chocolate would be involved in my healing process and recovery, but that would come later.

  The three of us closed our hands. Hannah started to hum, a sound that came from deep in her diaphragm, a clear, strong noise. In spite of myself I felt comforted by the sound.

  We let go of each other’s hands at the same moment.

  My fingers came together and I twisted my wrist.

  The motion felt perfect.

  The next instant I heard a clang.

  The pots in front of us were glowing, the gray of each pan turning molten.

  Every utensil in the place flew forward.

  They were ready to go.

  “Cool. Glad that spellcast worked. Now can we get somewhere safe?” Taylor’s sharp voice cut into my thoughts.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” I muttered.

  The three of us hurried to hide behind one of the tables just as more clicks sounded from upstairs.

  Several Vixens were in the dance hall.

  They were looking for us.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Maybe they’ll just go away,” whispered one of the witches who was crouched with us.

  “Don’t be naive,” whispered Taylor. Her face was pale and bright in the dim light, the whites of her eyes almost glowing. She was utterly terrified.

  “All right, okay, we can do this,” whispered Hannah. She was having trouble crouching because of how tight her clothing was.

  “The Vixens . . .” We never found out what she’d been about to say, because a crash interrupted her. Something had been forcefully thrown against the doors that led from the dance hall to the lower level. We felt the floor shake and came closer together.

  The next instant the door at the top of the stairs opened and a click reverberated down the stairwell.

  The Vixens were coming for us.

  A sharp elbow to my ribs made pain blossom along my side. I leaned to that side and glared at Jackie.

  “You have to breathe. It’s the first step,” she whispered. I knew she had a point, so I forced myself to take a deep breath and glanced at the ritual. It was good to go. The pots were still waiting for whatever unfortunate Vixen came down the stairs first.

  So far it sounded like there was only one.

  She must think that either no one was down here, or we were a joke.

  As she came nearer, a mist floated along the steps and started curling into the room. A soft hiss like the dissipation of air quickly followed, and I went from hot nerves to cold fear.

  Suddenly there came a sound of running footsteps from above. Someone was racing confidently across the dance hall floor.

  For a split second the clicking on the stairs paused, then it resumed.

  “What is that noise?” Taylor whispered.

  “Vixens,” I said before anyone else could answer.

  “I thought they were stylish. Such pointed heels aren’t in right now,” Taylor whispered urgently to Hannah. Taylor thought she’d discovered a real clue about the identity of the attacker. For once Hannah glared at her to be quiet.

  “Now?” I asked Hannah.

  The clicking had resumed. At any moment, the Vixen who was looking for us would come into view.

  Hannah waited one more breath, then the Vixen came around the turn.

  She was dressed all in black. Her cape was black. Her boots were black, as was the almost slinky dress. She was also wearing a mask.

  Around us the cafeteria started to shift. Pieces of the building that shouldn’t melt sank to the floor. The nails in the walls started to fall, looking like gray rain.

  The Vixen halted. Focused on the overturned tables, she hadn’t noticed the pots and pans waiting to hail down fury on her head.

  Then she did.

  “Now!” Hannah cried. For the first time since I had met the difficult Carlisle, I saw a reason to respect her. Taylor and I joined her and the utensils went flying toward the Vixen.

  Just in the nick of time, the black-robed figure fell back toward the stairwell, then tripped and landed with a hard thud. Without thinking, I stood up and started to chase her, but a hand on my arm held me back.

  I glared at Jackie, who glared back. “That melting spell could kill you,” she said.

  I glanced at the floor in front of me and saw nails planted firmly at my feet, sticking upward. A dangerous metal field stood between me and the escaping Vixen.

  We all waited as the clicking sound raced back up the stairs. More noises of battle came from above. The tap-tap of running shoes increased in speed. On top of that, there was a rush of from overhead.

  Like the accomplished criminal that she was, the Vixen had gotten away.

  Just as the excitement seemed to die down, something came flying at us. A dark form headed straight for the table where we all crouched. I ducked just in time as the dark shape went flying past our heads. All of us turned to look at it thud against the far wall.

  It appeared to be an old suitcase, which flopped open as it landed. There was nothing inside it, and the sad piece of luggage just sat there, nearly coming apart from the force with which it had hit the wall. Had it hit one of us instead, it might have done real damage.

  “Must have been stored here and they
just used it as a cannonball,” whispered one of the witches next to me.

  Breathing hard, none of us moved for several moments.

  Meanwhile, as the Vixen retreated, the floor was cleared of nails.

  “Let’s go!” I yelled, and darted across the floor without waiting to see if anyone would follow. Hannah didn’t have time to stop me. She didn’t bother trying. The next instant I was barreling up the stairs, ignoring the acrid smell that filled the stairwell. At the top of the stairs I pelted around the corner and found chaos.

  The dark cloud that had come after Lowe and me in the hospital was filling the dance hall. Vixen Steam was dangerous, and here it was again.

  I didn’t want to call the Vixens a one-trick pony, but . . .

  Whoever had been here before was gone. There was no sign of Vixens and no sign of anyone wearing shoes, either.

  Someone slammed into my back and I nearly fell over.

  “Sorry,” Kelly breathed, looking furious. Her eyes were blinking furiously behind her glasses. “We can’t let them get away!”

  I couldn’t have agreed with her more, but what options did we have?

  I glanced around. The door to the upstairs was open.

  Now that we had a moment, I could hear the thudding of footsteps from above.

  “Let’s go,” I said, sprinting forward.

  We raced for the stairs, directly toward the sounds of battle coming from above. We heard a few yells and a scream as we darted up the stairs.

  At the top I nearly bumped into Quinn Merchant, who was standing with his back to us and glaring at a Vixen. Between the two of them was a vicious-looking black lizard. The creature’s eyes were bright yellow, with blue slits in the center. As we watched, the lizard’s tongue flashed out, black with yellow spots. He looked as if he’d gotten in a fight with a highlighter and lost.

  “Quinn?” I breathed.

  The sheriff didn’t move.

  Beyond the lizard was a Vixen. She dressed like the one who had come looking for us, but I couldn’t tell if it was the same one or not.

  Kelly moved to stand next to me, looking straight ahead and not blinking.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered.

  “The Vixen doesn’t want to face off against Quinn. She has no idea what a half-mermaid might have up his sleeve, but I promise you, she doesn’t want to find out.”

  Suddenly they were all moving at once. An explosion of cold seeped through the walls and ceiling. The floor started to feel unsure.

  Then it collapsed.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  We fell through the floor as it gave way entirely. In a crash of water, I was suddenly soaking wet. Whatever Quinn had done, it had worked. The Vixen Steam was cut in two by the crash.

  My ears were ringing and my teeth were chattering. I couldn’t see a thing in the cloud of bluish-gray water and mist. When I tried to breathe, I choked on the thick air. Kelly rolled onto her back and coughed.

  I had twisted and turned my body as I landed, not wanting to land on the killer lizard, but I needn’t have worried. It was nowhere to be seen.

  “Wow,” Kelly said, struggling to sit up. I took her arm and tugged, but I wasn’t in a much better position than she was.

  “You all right?” I asked her.

  “Yeah, the magic cushioned my fall. I think,” she said.

  “Where’s Quinn?” I asked.

  Kelly pointed behind us. The floor had broken near one end of the dance hall, and Quinn had landed in the middle. Somehow we had turned in midair, and he had ended up behind us.

  The sheriff was already on his feet. His sharp eyes scanned the room and landed on us. As usual, his expression was unreadable.

  “Are you okay?” he mouthed to me. For the first time, his face looked pained.

  “Fine. Water is soft.” I smiled a bit. He smiled in return.

  Without another word he pivoted and dashed away, sliding through the water like a fish. My mind flashed to how fast he was.

  “Let’s go!” cried Kelly. “There are more Vixens! He can’t catch all of them!”

  We spun around to see Hannah, Taylor, and some of the other witches standing there. I figured the rest were still hiding.

  “Let’s get them!” cried Taylor.

  The other witches darted off.

  “You ain’t going nowhere,” said a rough voice.

  Standing in the red doorway were the men I had seen loitering outside. With glowing eyes and everything from machetes to cleavers in their hands, they blocked the exit.

  “Move,” Hannah waved her hand dismissively.

  “Move she says,” said one of the men, mocking her with a dismissive hand motion of his own.

  Hannah bristled. “Clearly you don’t know who I am,” she started again.

  “Clearly I don’t care. Don’t worry, though. We can take this outside. Would hate to corner you in a . . . dance hall.” He said it as if he’d walked into a makeup store and it was terribly embarrassing to be there.

  Hannah liked this idea, probably because it got her closer to the Vixens. She nodded and started toward the door.

  The men hadn’t expected her to agree so quickly. There was a moment of confusion, then they turned around and rushed away.

  I was now alone in the dance hall, or so I thought. I was about to follow the others when something caused me to turn around.

  Jackie was standing rigidly across the room, her face pale. She shook her head slightly when she saw me looking at her.

  I turned to glance at the other witches, who were already racing out of the dance hall. I turned back to Jackie and motioned for her to come. We could catch a Vixen. Maybe we’d finally find out who belonged to the secretive organization.

  Jackie shook her head again. It wasn’t until that second time that I looked at her more closely.

  My friend wasn’t moving because she couldn’t. There was someone standing behind her and keeping her immobile.

  With one tentative step I moved closer to my friend. I saw her eyes widen in fear.

  “What is it?” I asked, though it should have been more like “Who.”

  From behind Jackie, Damien stepped forward

  I came to a halt, momentarily immobile from shock, definitely not from the fact that my shoes were squishing after Quinn’s water bath.

  Damien was holding a knife, which shimmered. A minute before she’d been just a nice baker around town. Now she had revealed herself as something else entirely. After a moment I realized that it was a bread knife. She probably carried it all the time, but so unremarkable was it that no one would even notice.

  As my eyes fell to the weapon in her hand, she let it clatter to the floor.

  “This is a magical fight,” she said softly, her eyes burning. There was no doubt in my mind that she’d have no problem killing Jackie.

  “I didn’t know we were fighting,” I said. It was the first thing that came into my head.

  “We are,” she assured me. “You’re going to do me a favor. While I have your friend here, I want you to go see Kyle. They’ll let you in. I want you to kill him. Then I’ll let Jackie go.” She said it as if it was the best offer anyone had ever received.

  For a minute I didn’t say a word. Was she really serious? When she shook Jackie and my friend whimpered, I realized that Damien was deadly serious. Emphasis on deadly.

  I frowned at her. “But then won’t you have to kill us? Isn’t the problem with Kyle that he knows who you are?”

  Damien held Jackie closer. She didn’t respond. “I’m trying to save my work with the Vixens. They’re doing great things. If they can just get the right ingredients, they’ll be amazing.”

  So what had happened was that Kyle and Henry had seen something they shouldn’t have, just as we’d suspected. They probably hadn’t even realized it at the time.

  The sky was still pitch black. Now and then flashes of lightning drew my eye, but I tried to focus on Damien and her threat to hurt Jackie.

&n
bsp; “I’ll be long gone by the time you come after me,” she said.

  Jackie locked eyes with me, and I saw her fingers straighten down by her side. She was going to try a spellcast. I subtly tried to shake my head. That was a terrible idea.

  Jackie didn’t care. She quickly brought her fingers together as she tried to shove out of Damien’s grasp.

  At the last possible moment, Damien realized what was about to happen and tried to reach around and perform a crackle of her own. Instead, the two witches ended up tangling. I felt like I was watching in slow motion as they both tumbled to the ground.

  “Get off me!” Jackie grunted.

  “You aren’t going to get away! I must serve the Vixens,” Damien hissed back.

  Then she spun and rolled and got the upper hand. She was much bigger than Jackie, and I gasped as she grabbed her.

  I rushed forward and tried to push Damien off my friend. Just as I did that, Jackie used her legs to make a final shove at her attacker. The three of us ended up bumping into each other and falling down again.

  I hit the floor hard. The water that Quinn had magicked had disappeared, so there was nothing to cushion my fall. I winced as pain blossomed in my hip, but Damien wasn’t injured and wasn’t finished. She flashed above both of us, her fingers coming together and her hand twisting.

  “Enough of this,” she hissed. “I’ll take care of you two and find another way to get at Kyle. There’s still Kelly, isn’t there?” Her eyes glittered maliciously.

  Just then a snowy white owl came flashing toward us, claws outstretched. When the owl screeched, shock turned me stationary. I had been thinking of owls as nothing other than feather producers; now I remembered that they were so much more.

  The great creature swung back around as Damien, who had tumbled onto her back, shot to her feet.

  Fear split through me. Something deep inside told me that I was missing something, but before I could process what it might be I saw movement just behind the owl, then a dark head darted forward.

  Damien lunged, but I was closer. Scanning the room had given me the moment’s notice that I needed.

  Inside my pocket was one of the potions I’d been working on with my grandmother. I lunged in front of Damien and threw it hard, directly at her.