The Rhinestone Witches Omnibus: Books 1-3

by Addison Creek

“Certainly. Pearls are the basis for the black market for a reason. Owl feathers are another level, but they’re much more difficult to get,” said Professor Burger. “You aren’t thinking of creating any of these dangerous potions, are you?” She said it with a slight smile, but we hastened to assure her that we weren’t. I certainly wasn’t. I’d probably screw something up and blow up the potion myself, and Bethel wouldn’t like that.

  “How about this? I have some practice packets of basic recipes. They only use trace amounts of some of these ingredients. We might not be able to do the experiments here, but you can take them home and see what they look like. Maybe that will answer the questions you’re wondering about. I’d suggest doing the experiments in the unicorn pasture if your grandmother is willing. Unicorns have the ability to fix problems like exploding cauldrons. How does that sound?” the professor asked.

  “That would be amazing. I’d love that,” said Lowe. “Why would you do that for us?”

  “I’m a curious lady. I’ll give you the recipes and you can see. Feel free to involve Bethel. She knows more than I do about unicorn dung. Feel free to come back and report to me. I might be able to help once you’ve done the experiments. Take copious notes,” she said.

  “Thank you. We’ll be sure to do that,” I said. “I hope it’s not too much trouble.”

  “Of course it isn’t. The more cauldron use I can get out of young witches, the better,” said Professor Burger.

  Taking one more sip of tea, she leveraged herself up off the bench and disappeared down the stairs. While we waited for her to come back, I looked around at the lab below us. There seemed to be more students than there’d been during the lunch hour. I saw the professor’s right hand woman examining the work in several cauldrons, and now Professor Burger was striding purposefully through the room as well, but no one looked at her or bothered her as she went. Eventually she disappeared through a set of metal double doors.

  “This place is amazing! I’d love to come here to school after I become a witch. Do all this good work? Can you imagine? It’d be glorious,” Lowe gushed.

  “She’s being awfully nice. I hope she doesn’t get too suspicious about what we’re doing, though,” I murmured. She might think we were up to no good. She might even tell Quinn, which would be a disaster.

  “She just seems interested in the science of it all,” said Lowe. “I love a woman dedicated to her cauldron.”

  I nodded my head absentmindedly. She did have a point. Professor Burger sure was dedicated.

  We waited for several minutes for the professor to return, then we saw her waving at us to come down to the main floor. When we rushed down she presented us with three packets, each in a see-through drawstring bag about the size of my fist. Through the thin material I could feel ingredients mixed together.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Try each of these. You can’t do them all at once, you’ll have to do them one at a time. Unfortunately, it won’t be quick, but you should get a pretty clear demonstration of what some of those ingredients can do. Now, be sure to add the common bases and of course the flame quota is written on each packet.” She handed them to me and I took the ingredients from her gratefully.

  “Let me know how it goes. I do love visitors at my lab,” she said with a smile.

  “We definitely will. This is the most magical place I’ve ever been, and that’s saying something, since this is a magical town,” said Lowe with a big smile.

  Professor Burger grinned. “I couldn’t agree more.”

  We headed for the door, where several students were waiting for the professor’s attention.

  Lowe made it to the door first after promising to wait to examine the packets until we were out of view of the professor. I glanced over my shoulder as we left the lab.

  The professor’s assistant was watching us go.

  Chapter Fourteen

  After that we went home. Despite Lowe’s fears about triggering some alarm when we’d followed Cynthia, no campus police showed up to kick us out.

  By now Bethel was definitely going to wonder where we were. We were apprehensive about telling her we’d gone to see Professor Burger, or that we were trying to get more information about what had happened to Kyle and who had killed Henry, but I didn’t know how long we’d be able to keep it a secret.

  Maybe at least Bethel would be happy that I was practicing using a cauldron. It was just that before I could use one, I’d have to dig it out of the basement.

  This time when we got home, we had to sneak past a particularly volatile skirmish in the tomato plants. Lowe lamented the fact that there probably wouldn’t be any edible ones left for dinner.

  Bethel was out in the pasture with the unicorns. We opened the back door and waved to her, but she didn’t look interested in talking to us right then. That gave me a welcome opportunity to go upstairs, shower, and get ready to start dinner. It was only mid-afternoon, and I was prepared to have a big evening meal. Bethel would probably want help cooking, and after that the only thing left to decide was whether I was going into the basement in the dark or not.

  When I got back downstairs, Bethel was in the kitchen. Lowe hadn’t come in yet.

  “How was your day?” I asked my grandmother.

  “Lots of unicorn work. Every year I think they’ll behave better when it comes to their yearly checkups, and every year they fool me. They seem to think that because they know they’re fine, I should as well. I want you and Lowe to look over my notes on their care. Maybe next year you can go around with me, although if Ethel is back by then you might be off the hook.”

  We both knew that Ethel was the real one who would take care of the unicorns in the future. That is to say, if she figured out why the Vixens hated her and we were able to fix it, that would be her task. Otherwise she would never come back in the first place.

  I shook that thought off. She’d come back. Maybe I could even help her out.

  Lowe and I had agreed that we needed to come clean with Bethel about going to the university. Much to my surprise, after I rushed through an explanation she wasn’t angry. I had been waiting for the roof to blow off, but all she said was, “Professor Burger must like you.”

  I sat at the kitchen table dumbfounded, wondering if my grandmother would ever stop being a mystery to me.

  “Let’s get dinner started, shall we?” Bethel asked. “I’ll wash up. Start peeling carrots.”

  She disappeared as I got going on the carrots. When she returned, we worked away on a vegetable salad. My grandmother’s salads were elaborate, in that she didn’t care for specific combinations or what tasted best with what. She crammed as many vegetables into her salads as she possibly could, then glared at them as if they were still missing something.

  Tonight was no different. To accompany the salad there was pasta. My job was to peel garlic and grate fresh parmesan.

  We were still working on our various tasks when Lowe wandered in.

  “Can you set the table, dear?” Bethel asked.

  Lowe went to get supplies. When she was halfway to the table, Bethel glanced up sharply and said, “With four place settings.”

  Lowe stopped short. Quite frequently we had Lisa and Lucky over for dinner. Sometimes we even had other guests who wanted to visit the famous unicorns and the Rhinestone matriarch. There were townsfolk who wanted to talk about this or that. The rumbling in the pit of my stomach told me that this was something else entirely.

  “Are we having company?” I asked carefully. I had started chopping broccoli and had to pay attention to that.

  “As a matter of fact we are. Sorry, it must have slipped my mind . . . well, never mind,” said Bethel.

  I swallowed hard. Bethel had a very self-satisfied expression on her face.

  Chapter Fifteen

  When I heard a knock at the door I didn’t have to wonder who it was, but for some reason the noise still surprised me. Neither Bethel nor Lowe moved. As I walked past my cousin I muttered, “Traitor.
” She just grinned at me.

  Quinn Merchant was standing at the door wearing a flannel shirt and jeans and leaning in a way that slightly favored his good leg. His broad shoulders filled the doorway and he hunched slightly, as if preparing to walk underneath the low doorframe. I tried to remember noticing him having difficulty chasing Nancy when she had tried to run, but I couldn’t. Then again, Nancy wasn’t exactly a high school track athlete.

  “Hey,” he said. He was holding flowers and what appeared to be chocolate.

  “Hi,” I said. Were those for me?

  “How are you?” he asked, still on the porch.

  Behind him two armies watched his back in fascination.

  “Good. Fine, still a little upset about Henry,” I added.

  “His calling hours are tomorrow. I imagine most of the town will be there,” said Quinn.

  “Right. I’m sure we’ll go,” I said.

  Over his shoulder I saw Spunk the gray cat eyeing something in the grass. Nearby Tiger lolled about, looking entirely uninterested in working that hard.

  “Let the man in!” Bethel’s voice yelled from the kitchen. I flinched. I hadn’t been consciously blocking the door.

  Or maybe I had. I stepped aside and said, “Come in.”

  He stepped past me, but made no move to give me the beautiful arrangement of flowers. I tried to sniff him unobtrusively as he went by, to see if he smelled like the sea. Whatever came over me that I thought I should do that, I didn’t know. He didn’t really smell like the sea.

  In the kitchen Bethel had nearly finished the dinner preparations. The back door was open, and it was through there that the cats came bounding in. At least six of them spread themselves out over the well-worn kitchen floor.

  “Here are some flowers for the table,” said Quinn, handing Bethel the bouquet.

  She took them and smiled. “Thank you. They’re lovely. So many beautiful flowers this time of year!”

  “I also brought chocolate for dessert,” added Quinn, handing the chocolate to Lowe.

  “I’ll take the important cargo,” she said with a smile.

  “Dinner’s ready,” said Bethel.

  The four of us sat down, with Bethel at the head of the table and Lowe at the other end. That left me across from Quinn.

  He smiled at me. He wasn’t trying to apologize any more, or talk about his wife. I tried to hide my confusion, but I couldn’t help feeling it. Why wasn’t he talking about his wife or apologizing more? The way I saw it, he certainly had a lot to apologize for. Like having a wife, especially one like the one I’d seen.

  Bethel got the conversation going as she passed dishes around. She clearly noticed and appreciated the fact that Quinn took a healthy heap of everything. Lowe and I were more measured. Quinn was here, and I wasn’t sure how it had come about. Had Bethel been calling him on the phone? Was she running into him when she was out and about? Why wasn’t the woman better supervised!

  Or had Quinn initiated this encounter because he’d found out about our snooping and wanted to chastise us? I had no idea, but I sure wanted to acquire one.

  Just then I happened to glance down at my ankles and saw Tiger sitting there looking up at me. I couldn’t understand cat, but I didn’t need to; his eyes were speaking clearly enough. I hastened to give him a scrap of chicken. He took it as if it were his due, ate it quietly, and then started to wash himself.

  When I looked up again, Quinn was watching me, his expression intense. My toes curled as electricity raced through me. Good thing we weren’t in the water, because . . . oh, never mind.

  “Pass the potatoes,” said Bethel firmly. The way she said it made me think she’d already asked several times. I hurried to do as she requested.

  “What’s the latest business on your murder investigation?” Bethel asked.

  Quinn nearly choked on his chicken. Several cat heads looked up hopefully.

  “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to discuss ongoing investigations with civilians,” he said.

  “I’m one of the coven’s founding members,” she countered. “There’s nothing you can tell me that I haven’t seen before. I might even be a good sounding board for information. For example, you tell me Henry was killed in the hospital. I take it that although you know he was murdered, you can’t yet figure out why.”

  Quinn’s facial expression changed at that. “How did you know that?”

  “Like I said, there’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” said Bethel.

  Quinn frowned as of he hadn’t had to deal with anyone like Bethel Rhinestone before. In that I felt for him.

  “Is there a law against your giving us information?” Bethel asked.

  “No, I am the law. Most of this information is in the public domain already. The amount of gossip that goes on in Twinkleford could fill a mountain,” he grumbled.

  “We do try and communicate effectively,” said Bethel with a smirk.

  “All right,” he said. “Fine, since you already know, I would say that we don’t know how Henry was killed. I was there, and we have other eyewitnesses who corroborate a Vixen attack. We of course blame them, but we don’t actually know how they did it.”

  “Before you ask,” he added, after a moment’s reflection.

  “No, it wasn’t a potion,” said Bethel. “Of course not. A potion would not be the way they’d go. Vixens want to expand their power. They must make it clear that they’re more than a one-trick pony.”

  “We’ve been looking at potions,” said Quinn, who had shed his hesitation and was now absorbed in the conversation, apparently as a worthy philosophical debate. “Given that it was a Vixen operation, we had to explore their most commonly used form of attack, which is potions.”

  “If it wasn’t potions, what was it then?” I asked, my dinner all but forgotten as I too got absorbed in the exchange. Even the cats were listening with fascination.

  My grandmother glanced at me. Not even Quinn cared that I had interrupted. We were all on pins and needles waiting for the pearl of wisdom to tell us everything.

  “Lizards,” she said.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Of course I was the only one at the table who did not have a clue why that was so terrifying. Truth be told, I’d spent almost no time at all in my life thinking about lizards. Lowe sucked in her breath and pushed her chair back, while Quinn looked grim.

  “Lizards are highly illegal, not to mention undetectable and deadly,” he said.

  “You think a criminal organization is worrying about using illegal lizards?” Bethel asked with bemusement.

  “That’s not the point,” sputtered Quinn.

  “What your problem is, is that you’re too good-hearted,” said Bethel, shaking her head as if she was very disappointed in him. “I’m sure Jade will break you of that soon enough.”

  I had made the mistake of rescuing my meal, and now I choked on a piece of garden lettuce. I glared at my grandmother and she glared back.

  “Lizards are undetectable?” I managed to choke out.

  “Yes, they are. You could perform a powerful spellcasting and determine that they were in the area, but the poison they release is undetectable,” Quinn said.

  “Is there an antidote?” I asked.

  This did not sound good. If the lizards could go unnoticed and then release an undetectable poison, those fighting against the Vixens—that is, us—were not in a good position.

  “Yes, there is an antidote,” said Bethel.

  “I didn’t know that,” said Quinn. “I thought there wasn’t one.”

  “That’s because you haven’t read the book on ancient witch healing,” said Bethel.

  “I guess I haven’t,” he said.

  “Can we borrow it?” I asked.

  “I haven’t written it yet,” said Bethel. “Why so impatient?”

  “You’re a mystery, that’s what you are,” I muttered. Bethel just smiled. Infuriatingly.

  “There is one way to stop a lizard bite from killing you
. It’s quite simple if you can get the ingredient in time,” she added.

  “What’s the ingredient?” asked Quinn.

  “Unicorn dung,” said Bethel. “When townsfolk say that it really does work for everything, they aren’t lying.” She smiled.

  Lowe rolled her eyes. “You’re way too gleeful when you say that. How did you find out that remedy worked?”

  “I’m saving that story for the book,” said Bethel.

  “How much do you charge for unicorn dung?” Quinn asked suddenly. All three of us ladies looked at him. At first I thought he might be kidding, but from his expression it was clear that he wasn’t.

  “I don’t just sell it,” said Bethel. She looked excited, as if she were suddenly in the middle of an intense chess game.

  “I’m aware of that. Your reputation as a hard bargainer is known far and wide,” Quinn said.

  “Exactly. Why do you want to know?” she asked.

  “It seems like something the sheriff’s department should have,” he said.

  “They will never put it in the budget. I’ve been telling them to add it for years,” she said.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Out of the goodness of my heart,” she said dryly.

  I kept frowning at my grandmother, but she just shrugged.

  “They’ve refused to put it in the budget?” Quinn didn’t like the sound of that at all.

  “Yes, that’s what they’ve done,” said Bethel. “The Board of Select Specimens is an unruly and foolish lot. Clearly they don’t care about your well-being.”

  “Maybe they can’t afford your prices,” said Quinn. “Or were you going to give us a discount?”

  “Don’t kid yourself. This town is wealthy,” said Bethel. This was the first sign of testiness this evening.

  After that we ate in silence for a long time, but the wheels in my head were turning. I couldn’t wait to get to my purple crystal ball and start to look into lizards. Why this sort of thing had started to excite me, I didn’t know. A secretive creature that would sneak in and out of places and cause destruction should not be something that interested me, but until now I hadn’t thought much about how Henry had died, I’d just assumed that Quinn already knew, and that the answer wouldn’t offer any further evidence of strangeness in Twinkleford.