Boy had I been wrong.
Part of me desperately wanted Quinn to stick around, but another part wanted him to leave. There was a lot of snooping to be done, and I couldn’t very well get to any of it with him sitting there watching our every move. For that matter, Bethel would be another problem. She had mentioned where the cauldrons were, but she hadn’t invited me to go to the basement and get one. What she’d say when I asked about that I couldn’t begin to guess.
“I wonder if I might ask you a favor . . .” Quinn said, looking up from his plate.
Bethel met his eyes. “Somehow I know what you’re going to say. Excuse me.”
She had finished eating, and now she pushed her chair back and went out the back door without a word to Lowe or me. I didn’t know what Quinn wanted, but with Bethel out of earshot for a few moments I wasn’t going to waste my chance.
“What else do you know? Is there any news about Kyle?” Kelly’s brother also worked in the sheriff’s department, and I knew she was going to ply him with questions. Between the two of us we might learn something, but since we hadn’t had a chance to talk yet, this would have to do.
“Kyle is missing. You know that,” said Quinn. He looked conflicted. I knew he was relieved that I was speaking to him; that was a change. He also knew I was going to use his guilt against him. I mean, what was the harm?
“Yes, but no other news?” I demanded.
“We’ve been trying to track him from his last known location, without much luck. The way spellcasting is layered, the first spell is the strongest no matter what. Someone hid his or tracks well. The good news is that the longer we don’t find Kyle, the more confidence we have that he’s still out there somewhere.”
I mulled that over, then pushed. “Anything else?”
“We’ve been trying to find out why he was out there to begin with. Henry hadn’t wanted to tell me, and the doctors didn’t want me to push him. I hadn’t, because I had figured we’d have time to talk once he felt better.” Quinn shook his head at the memory of why that hadn’t come to pass.
I found myself wondering what it was like to be the only half-mermaid in Twinkleford. It must be lonely, not least because he wasn’t with his family any longer. Then I remembered his wife and got grumpy again.
“What are you thinking about?” Quinn asked.
Lowe looked between us, and Quinn was again watching me closely. I felt myself flush.
“I don’t like spinach,” I mumbled to him.
“We aren’t having spinach,” he said.
“It’s the principle of the thing,” I said.
He nodded slowly as if he understood and was humoring me. I knew perfectly I wasn’t making any sense. Probably because I’d been lying.
Anyway.
“Is there anything more you can tell us about this investigation?” I asked. “Like any substances that were found near where Henry was found?” We were going to conduct our own experiments, obviously, but it couldn’t hurt to hear information from the official source.
“There’s nothing I can tell you at this time,” Quinn said. “We’re confident that everything will be explained, that there’s going to be a simple explanation for all of this.” Was he not going to mention the orange substance? Apparently not.
“And what is that?” I asked.
Quinn was silent.
“That Kyle attacked Henry and then ran away,” said Lowe.
I stared at her, but she was looking at Quinn and not at me. “That’s it, isn’t it? That’s why you’re being so circumspect about all of this,” she said.
“Yes, that’s why. Kyle has a history of causing problems. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that he attacked his friend. Maybe Henry was double-crossing him, or maybe Henry was going to reveal secrets. It doesn’t really matter. The longer Kyle stays missing, the worse it’ll be for him,” said Quinn.
“Funny, but I remember you saying the same thing about a certain other fugitive recently,” I told him.
“That was different,” said Quinn.
“How? Sure, in one case the lady in question is a sparkling example of a witch and in the other there are some troublemaking guys, but the same principle is the same. You keep blaming others for what the Vixens are doing.” I was getting heated now.
Before Quinn could answer, the back door opened and Bethel came in. She glanced at Quinn only briefly before she went to the sink to wash up. Once she’d finished she said, “Would anyone like tea on the porch?”
“I have to get going. The calling hours for Henry are tomorrow and I need to be at work bright and early,” said Quinn. “Thank you for dinner. I’ve never had such good food before. It’s a wonder what ingredients grown in your own garden with love can do,” he added.
“Love and threats. Especially come April. Grow or else,” Bethel gave a crooked grin and shook her fist in the air.
“You don’t want chocolate?” Lowe asked.
Quinn shook his head. “That’s for all of you. It’s very good, though. You should try the milk rose.”
“We’ll be sure to check it out,” Lowe assured him.
Quinn stood, then hesitated. He really filled the space. All of us Rhinestone women were short, but he stood tall and imposing. I admitted to myself that I liked having him there.
He glanced at me and appeared to be on the verge of saying something.
“If you can’t spit it out in a timely manner. you’ll just have to come back,” said Bethel sternly.
For the second time that evening I flushed. Quinn ducked his head. He might not show as much embarrassment as I did, but I could tell that he was mortified.
“Sorry. Yes, now isn’t the time for all of that. I’ll come back soon,” he said.
“Any time,” said Bethel. “Now let me show you out, and we can have a few minutes alone.”
And out they went.
“Why did she want to speak with him privately? Doesn’t she trust us?” Lowe demanded.
“She’s giving him unicorn dung for emergencies. She knows he isn’t going to get it from the Board of Select Specimens in time,” I explained. “And no, I don’t think she does.”
Lowe’s face brightened. “That’s so nice of her! I didn’t think she had it in her.”
“I doubt she thought she did either,” I said dryly.
“What about tomorrow? The visiting hours?” Lowe asked.
“Yes. Do we wear black?” I asked.
Lowe frowned. “Why would we do that?”
I started to tell her, but she interrupted before I finished my explanation. “Yes, I remember something about that. No, we don’t. We wear our witch finery and preferably solid colors. Your cape should do the trick. Now, should we get going on a cauldron?”
“You want cauldrons now?” Our grandmother came striding down the hall looking back and forth between us, accompanied by several cats weaving between her legs. Why they felt the need to almost trip people in order to get from one place to another I surely didn’t know.
I was glad that Bethel knew we had to get going on the potions.
“Yes, you mentioned that they were in the basement,” I said.
“The basement is a terrifying place. If you thought the attic was bad, well, look out, because it doesn’t have anything on the basement,” said Bethel.
“We don’t really have a choice,” I told her.
“I know,” she grinned evilly.
Lowe groaned.
“We have a way around that. A spell,” said Bethel. “Let’s go into the study.”
There were no large rooms in this old house, but the study was still my favorite. When we got there, Bethel gave us an order. “Here, you two stand on the couch.”
Neither Lowe nor I moved to do her bidding. When she realized we hadn’t, she snapped, “What do you think you’re doing just standing there?”
“Um, you told us to stand on the couch,” said Lowe. The couch was old and blue. There was nothing wrong with our standing on it in
theory, except that we were adults in reality if not in practice. Even we didn’t stand on couches, whatever other mischief we might get up to.
“You have to get out of the way! Just do as you’re told! I’m your grandmother. I wasn’t supposed to be trying to raise children at my age,” she grumbled.
Apparently she was serious, so we hastened to stand on the couch. Bethel went and stood in the doorway, raised her hands, and then paused. “Jade, can you push the chairs and tables to the side of the room?”
I had climbed up onto the soft couch next to Lowe. Now we both climbed down again.
After we finished doing what we’d been told and returned to our precarious spot on the couch, my grandmother performed the special hand motion that meant a spellcasting. A huge rumble followed, and the entire house shook. Lucy, the bird who liked to ride in my grandmother’s hat, came shooting into the room. I heard nickering outside and knew that the unicorns were also expressing their displeasure at the noise.
But instead of lessening as the minutes went by, the noise only got louder. From below our feet I felt a sort of booming, as if the earth were being split in two. Bethel hadn’t done many spellcastings in front of me, for which I was now grateful.
With a loud popping sound and a cloud of dust, a collection of huge forms suddenly appeared in the living room. Lowe and I both fell backwards, then I couldn’t see anything for a few seconds. My mind was a worried jumble about whether to run away from danger or not.
The next instant Bethel’s voice rang out, “Take your pick!”
Chapter Seventeen
After several attempts at deep breathing, I gave up. There was too much dust in the room. That, and Bethel was taking up all the oxygen, cooing gleefully at having surprised us so effectively.
When the dust settled enough for me to make out what had happened, the sight I beheld took my breath away. There, crammed into the small study, were at least ten cauldrons, all old-looking and covered in dust. I had never seen such a collection before.
“Wow,” breathed Lowe, her eyes large. “That’s just crazy.”
“You’re telling me,” I said.
I pushed myself off the couch and went to examine what Bethel had produced.
“Are these all for me?” I asked.
“They’re all from the basement. After you choose one I’m going to put the rest back,” said Bethel with a gusty sigh. “They’re filthy, there’s no doubt about that.”
“You don’t say. Thank you for bringing them up,” I said, and she nodded once.
The cauldrons were all different sizes, but most of them were within range of the one I had been using during the training at the Flying Steps Dance Hall.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the cauldrons. My grandmother had a basement filled with treasure. Some were perfect circles, while others were more oval-shaped. The largest one had a chip in the lip. The colors ranged from steel gray to black. All of the vessels showed signs of wear except for two that still looked brand new. My eyes kept sliding among them and taking it all in.
After a few minutes I realized that I kept coming back and looking at one again and again.
“How about this one?” I asked, pointing to one in the back that looked older than the others. At first I thought that might be a negative, but really, that cauldron just stood out somehow as being of better quality than the others. Carved into the side of it was a collection of moons, stars, and suns. I liked it immediately, and even more as I looked at it for a while.
When I glanced over my shoulder at Bethel, she was smiling.
“Yes, that one. I should have known that might be the one you’d choose. It was my first cauldron, after all,” she said.
“Why don’t you still use it?” I asked.
She shrugged. “There hasn’t been much call for cauldron work from the Rhinestones in a long time. Besides, I upgraded to a slightly larger one. When you run a household you need to be able to make large batches of potions,” she explained. “You wouldn’t know.”
I was forming my witch arsenal. Someone better watch out. But who?
Bethel was the most subdued of us the next morning when it came time to go to Henry’s calling hours. Before we’d gone to bed the night before, she had said that Henry had a distant aunt, and that’s who we’d pay our respects to in the morning. After I chose my cauldron I wanted to start the experiments in the unicorn pasture right away, but shooed us off to bed, insisting that it was too late for that day. We all needed to rest, to be fresh for the calling hours the next day.
When I woke up and made my way downstairs I was craving yogurt. Luckily, we always had some on hand, so I added some fresh blueberries and had a fruit bowl for breakfast. The morning was slightly chilly, and it was only as I had finished eating that Lowe came wandering in. She was yawning, and at the moment she looked especially displeased to be awake.
“I’m not a morning person. If I die, have my funeral in the afternoon. Just because I’m dead doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be courteous to others,” she grumbled.
“That’s morbid,” I said.
She shrugged and grabbed some cereal while I went to change. Bethel had provided me with an old, solid-colored blue dress, a cap sleeve number that covered my knees. It was suitable for a funeral, while the color made it not completely dull. I picked up my heavy witch cape and slipped my feet into my pointed shoes.
Sometimes I still felt as if I were dressing up for Halloween.
Once I was ready, I glanced at myself in the mirror. All that was missing was the pointy hat. I kept my delicate shoe necklace tucked underneath my dress in a way that appeared to be the habit of most witches around here.
When I made it downstairs I saw that Bethel was already dressed and outside. She was at the gate speaking to our neighbors, the mother and daughter Lisa and Lucky.
“Lowe, you coming?” I called out to my cousin.
“I’ll be right there,” she yelled back.
Outside, the day was breezy and overcast. The fairies and pixies must have engaged in one of their half-hour truces, because at the moment they had retreated to their tomato plants.
Our neighbors were waiting for us in the road.
“Morning,” I said to Lisa and Lucky.
Both mother and daughter had flaming red hair. Lisa liked to dress very provocatively, but today even she had covered up. They both looked somber.
“Are you going to the calling hours?” I asked.
“Yes, we are. The whole town tries to turn out for these things. Jonathan’s was attended by everyone too,” said Lisa.
“Did you know Henry?” I asked. Since he hadn’t had any close family, it was unlikely that Lisa had connections from having gone to school with his sibling or something like that.
“We didn’t know him well. I saw him around from time to time,” said Lisa. “Sad business, especially with him not having any family to mourn him.”
Lowe came out of the house, closely followed by Spunk. The gray cat trotted along with us down the road for quite a ways, but when we reached the bend in Misdirect Way that meant he would have to cross into the trailer park, he turned around and went back.
As other townsfolk emerged from their homes, we all formed a small procession to the trolley stop. I wondered what colors it would be today. We were headed for the Merigold borough, and as Lowe explained it, they’d have extra trolleys running all day to accommodate the crowds.
Instead of looking around as we walked, I simply kept my eyes on Bethel’s back. She was speaking quietly with Lisa and Lucky, but Lowe and I weren’t talking. This would be my first Twinkleford calling hours.
We reached the trolley, and for the first time I didn’t notice what color it was until we disembarked. I noted the orange and cream sides as we made our way out of our trolley car, but my mind was still elsewhere.
Poor Henry was never going to find out what had happened to his friend Kyle.
Quinn’s theory that Kyle was involved in what had happened se
emed ridiculous; let’s get that out of the way right now. Sure, they were probably dealing in potion ingredients on the black market. But other than that, my gut told me they had done nothing wrong.
After the calling hours, I wanted to get home and try out my new cauldron. At least it was new to me, eve if I’d have to clean it up before I could use it.
We came to a stop and I looked up, but there were so many townsfolk in front of us that there was nothing for me to see.
“We’re at the cemetery?” I asked.
Lowe blanched. “Certainly not. We aren’t invited there. You saw what it was like. No, this is more the wake part, where we pay our respects. The undertaker is a very powerful vampire in town. Don’t do or say anything to get his attention.
I nodded. This was something I hadn’t heard of before. Mostly I’d heard of the Coven Council and the queens who were in charge of it.
“A powerful vampire? What is he going to do if I draw his attention?” I asked skeptically. Lowe could tend toward dramatics.
“Nothing good,” was all she said.
“Quiet back there,” Bethel ordered, only partially turning her head. Lowe and I stopped talking immediately.
We were on a street lined with old stone buildings, which I thought must have been terribly difficult to build. Then I remembered Bethel’s work with the cauldrons and decided that they might have been easier than I imagined at first glance.
The building we were headed for had the biggest front lawn in the neighborhood and a large sign out front. We joined an already long line of townsfolk waiting to get in. While we waited, I looked around to see if I could recognize anyone, but after a few minutes of studying faces I decided that so far no one I knew had shown up.
We took a few steps forward so that we were actually on the path to the house. Townsfolk were streaming slowly out of a side entrance, and the line waiting to get in moved forward at the same slow pace.
“Hey, there’s Jackie,” I said as my friend emerged from the house. She was wearing large sunglasses, which did nothing to hide her bright blue hair. She wasn’t with her mother, probably because when the mayor arrived there would be quite a commotion, and Jackie would want no part of that.
The Rhinestone Witches Omnibus: Books 1-3 Page 34