The Rhinestone Witches Omnibus: Books 1-3

by Addison Creek

  Suddenly wide awake, I pelted downstairs. This was the color Quinn had described seeing in the woods! It had to be an important sign, even if these feathers were used for protection. Had Michael lied to us? Was Professor Burger a good suspect after all?

  “Don’t get too excited,” Bethel cautioned as I stuffed my feet into the shoes I’d left sitting by the back door.

  “Why not? It’s the same color!” I said.

  “That could be a coincidence. There are a lot fewer colors than there are potions. Some have to share,” she explained.

  I knew she was right, but I still wanted to hope that this was a clue, even though I didn’t really want Michael to be involved. I had liked him and wanted him to be on our side, or at least his own side. I definitely didn’t want such an impressive owl feather trader to be on the side of the Vixens.

  We made our way into the field. When we reached the corner where the cauldrons sat, Bethel shut off the fire under hers and examined her potion. “This is perfect. A very difficult potion. Again, the exact ingredients are crucial.”

  Lowe and I peered into the cauldron and saw that the only thing left was a tiny drop at the bottom. The color was bright blue. With care, Bethel produced a jar and handed it to me. “Now scoop it out. You can take the jar to Bara and see what she thinks.”

  My arm could feel the heat coming off the cauldron as I stuck my hand inside to follow Bethel’s instructions.

  The next morning I woke up bright and early and ate breakfast quickly. Lowe didn’t have attend any silly meetings, so she was still asleep. Bethel had already headed out to the pasture to tend to the unicorns.

  Now we had to find time to return to the lab, but in department of everything getting more complicated I still had to attend the Young Witches meeting before I could do anything else that day.

  The fun never really ended here in Twinkleford. Somehow I had thought that once I became a witch I would see less of Hannah. That was kind of true, since I wasn’t seeing her every day, but if she ran the Young Witches group, and I was expected to participate, I couldn’t get away from her entirely.

  I headed out, caught the trolley, and arrived at the dance hall right on time, the first time I’d returned there since Nancy’s arrest. The day was crisp and cool, with mist swirling around me and the first hints of fall in the air, quite a different feel from the days when I’d come here for debutant classes,

  “Hey,” said Kelly. She and Jackie were talking in the entrance, standing next to the crystal balls. I had coveted those crystal balls when I’d first arrived in town, and now I knew that of the three witch disciplines we had learned, my best realm was crystal ball reading. That probably explained the way I’d reacted before I knew a thing about being a witch.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “How are you?” Kelly asked.

  “Good. We did some experiments last night with ingredients that Professor Burger gave us,” I said.

  Kelly brightened. “Anything?”

  “Maybe, we’re not sure yet,” I said. “What about you?”

  She nodded. “My brother told me what he knew. He just swore me to secrecy.”

  “I can’t hear any of this. I work in an official capacity. Find me when you’re finished,” said Jackie. We watched her wander off and then kept bringing each other up to date.

  “Lowe is going to meet us for lunch at Robin’s,” I told Kelly. “We can talk there after this fun-filled morning.”

  She nodded. We knew better than to try and talk here. Even if you couldn’t see Hannah and Taylor, their presence was definitely felt. I was having chills already.

  The red doors to the dance hall were open and Kelly and I headed that way. For some reason I was expecting to see just the witches who had graduated with us, but this time there was a much bigger crowd.

  Young Witches apparently meant anyone who had graduated in the past ten years. There were about thirty young witches in the room. Some debutante classes were smaller than others, of course, and there had to be at least a few witches who had simply chosen not to show up.

  Most of the faces I had seen around town in the past few months, but a few were new. One in particular stood out, a witch I had seen at the ritual. She had jet black hair and a tattoo winding up her forearm, which I had a feeling her mother wouldn’t like. Bethel would certainly be furious if I ever did such a thing.

  So far there was no sign of Hannah and Taylor. I was grateful for few more moments of reprieve, but on the other hand I was eager to get the ordeal over with.

  Kelly and I went to join Jackie, who was helping a few other witches set up chairs for the crowd. My friends and I sat down to wait while other witches wandered in. There was still no sign of Taylor or Hannah.

  After a few minutes of light chat, I heard the unmistakable noise of high heels from outside the hall. At the next instant, both red doors opened and Hannah Carlisle and Taylor Newtonville strutted in. They had never looked so blissfully smug as they did at this moment. I was utterly positive that I could never dislike them any more than I did right now.

  Something had changed with both of them since I had last seen them. They looked even more polished, more put together, and more full of themselves than they had while we were doing debutant classes together. They were both wearing pencil skirts, Taylor’s a bright red and Hannah’s yellow. They had both chosen white tops to go with the colorful skirts. It was very close to a uniform.

  The other thirty or so waiting witches watched them come in silence.

  Holding a black clipboard and a pen and looking as official as she possibly could, Hannah came to a stop in front of the seats and smiled at us all. Taylor went to stand nearby and stared at the floor. One of the witches jumped out of her chair to get another one for Taylor. She was obviously not going to get one for herself, but when one was provided, she sat down in one smooth motion and made a show of opening the leather bound notebook she was carrying.

  Hannah glanced around the room. Her nose went an inch higher in the air. “I so appreciate all of you attending the first Young Witches meeting of the year. It is here that we will make decisions for ourselves and for the direction of the club. As its leader, I will be in charge,” she said.

  Jackie raised her hand. Hannah blinked at her several times, then said, “What is it?”

  “Who made you in charge?” Jackie asked.

  “Does that matter?” Hannah asked.

  “Definitely,” Jackie confirmed.

  The other witches were watching with interest. Jackie was no shrinking violet. Though her mother was the mayor, Jackie still had less standing than the likes of Hannah, but she still wasn’t going to let herself get railroaded into anything by a self-appointed superior witch.

  “The queen witches decided that I was the very best choice to lead. As someone with the best score through our debutant training, I was the natural choice,” she said.

  Taylor gave a little cough. “Taylor had the second-best score, so she is naturally my second.”

  Jackie glanced at Kelly and me. “There were no scores issued.”

  Before Hannah could reply, a woman who looked a couple of years older than I was asked, “Also, if there were scores issued, then someone got a best score from each year. Shouldn’t we all be considered together?”

  Hannah was getting slightly flustered and consequently short in her replies. “Everyone was considered and I was chosen. The queen witch cannot be argued with.”

  Kelly leaned over and whispered to me, “She did just admit that her mother chose her, right?”

  I nodded. That was in fact exactly what had just happened.

  “Now if we could move on to something productive?” Hannah asked.

  “Sure. Let’s do something productive. I love productive,” said Jackie.

  “Yes, let’s get on with it. Some of us have jobs,” said the black-haired woman.

  “That’s Damien. She works at the bakery,” said Kelly.

  “I would love to get on wit
h it,” Hannah shot back. “So, as this is our first meeting, we are going to issue assignments. These are temporary assignments. Over time we will shift witches and tasks around Twinkleford, so that each witch is exposed to each borough. Well, maybe just for four of them. I don’t know that we will subject anyone who doesn’t already live in Misdirect to go there.”

  At this, Kelly, Jackie, and I glanced at each other, but Hannah just kept going.

  “I’ve gone around talking to shopkeepers and the like and they’re all very excited to meet us. I know some of you who graduated a few years ago have already made your mark in town, but this is an opportunity to form new alliances and relationships. We are going to be the best Young Witches club ever. I know it.”

  She clutched her clipboard to her chest and looked around at all of us with delight. Even Kelly, who was the most subdued of us, was trying to hide a smirk.

  “Let’s get on with it, then,” said Jackie.

  Hannah glanced down at her clipboard and started calling names and issuing assignments. Some of them actually sounded quite interesting. There was a shoe store in town that apparently was going to reopen soon. There was also a cobbler; I found that information surprisingly intriguing. There was the woman who ran the farmers market. People didn’t just appear and buy things, it required coordination. Hannah and Taylor also had several dress designer shops on the list. Unsurprisingly, they had given themselves those assignments.

  As we moved down the line I started to notice something. The best assignments went first. As there were fewer witches left, the good assignments disappeared. Now the tasks became things like feeding the stray birds, which of course was nowhere near as glamorous as dress design. Finally, only Jackie, Kelly, and I were left.

  “Let me see, what did I give you three? Oh, yes, your assignment was in Misdirect. I knew you’d be fine with that since Jade already lives there and you two are friends with her. I’m sure you’re familiar with . . . the type of place that it is.”

  I wondered for a brief moment if she was going to assign me to work with unicorns. That I actually wouldn’t have minded doing. The only problem was that there was no way my grandmother would have ever agreed to such a thing.

  “What’s our assignment then?” I asked. Just get on with it, I wanted to add.

  “The swamp beyond the trolley stop is rather filled with toxic waste. I thought it would be best if you could go out there and clean it up,” said Hannah.

  “How are we supposed to do that?” I asked.

  If Hannah had at any point climbed down from her very high horse throughout this meeting, she was now climbing back up, and I had the distinct impression that the horse was taller than ever.

  “It’s not for me to tell you how to do your assignment,” she said, talking very slowly and enunciating each word.

  Kelly, Jackie, and I exchanged looks.

  I had been wrong. I could definitely dislike Hannah and Taylor even more than I had before.

  It’s good to admit our faults. Someone should have told Hannah and Taylor that.

  Chapter Twenty

  We had agreed to meet Lowe for lunch after the meeting. By the time it was adjourned I was thinking about canceling, but I knew Lowe would never forgive me. The swamp would take up a lot of valuable time, but it was important that we keep snooping, too. An added bonus to the latter was that it would give us a chance to see Gill again and fill him in on the awesomeness that was Professor Burger’s lab.

  For once Jackie agreed to come with us. “I told people at the office that Hannah was a terrible taskmaster, and I wasn’t sure when I’d be back. They were all sympathetic. The Carlisle family is famously terrifying even in the town office. And I need to eat something either way. Should we go look at the swamp after lunch?”

  Kelly and I agreed that Jackie’s plan made a lot of sense, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do after the swamp excursion. I just wasn’t sure how to go about it.

  After Michael’s feather had produced orange steam, I knew I needed to speak with him again about Kyle. The only trouble was, speaking with him meant going into the Bleak Area again, walking through the cemetery, and once again approaching the fortified house of a possible murderer.

  Just your average day in the magical town of Twinkleford.

  Robin’s restaurant was pretty busy when we arrived. The clatter of plates, the sound of laughter, and the smell of spaghetti meeting us when we walked in. Luckily, Lowe had already arrived and saved us a table, and when we walked in she was chatting happily with Gill. I could have told her that it looked as if she’d stuffed her face with a bunch of red flowers and come away with the color, but I didn’t want to embarrass her. Anyhow, it was nice to see her so excited.

  Gill waved to us as we arrived. When we sat down at Lowe’s table he said, “There are already a couple of appetizer orders in with the cooks for you. I brought four waters. Anything else you need at the moment?”

  When we told him there wasn’t anything else, he shuffled away with a wink. “He asked what happened with Professor Burger. I told him to let you get settled in first and then we’d tell him all the details. He’s going to come back in a couple minutes to hear them,” said Lowe. The color in her face was dissipating, but she was still bright red.

  “What did happen?” Kelly asked.

  We relayed all the information we had as quickly as possible, because I was impatient to get to the part where she’d tell me what her older brother had said about Kyle. Since he worked in the sheriff’s department, if there was any new information he should have it.

  As eager as I was to hear any news, I also didn’t want to be unfair to Kelly, so I made myself take my time describing Professor Burger’s lab and the advice she had given us. I also told her about the potions we had tried the night before and how promisingly Bethel’s had come out, especially with the orange smoke that had appeared in the cauldron. Turned out I was more excited about that news than my friends were. Like Bethel, they thought the orange smoke wasn’t necessarily all that important.

  “Your grandmother is right. It’s the most common color. I’m not sure it means anything,” said Jackie.

  “It’s all we have to go on at the moment,” I said.

  “We have a lot to go on! We just don’t have a lot of time. Every minute Kyle is out there in the woods, he’s in more danger,” said Kelly.

  Then she fell silent, realizing that what she’d said might not even necessarily be true. We didn’t know that Kyle was still in the woods. In fact, the most likely scenario was that he had been kidnapped and taken far away.

  “What did your brother say?” I asked Kelly.

  “James said there were no new leads on Kyle’s disappearance. The sheriffs have been canvassing the area where Kyle went missing, and the sheriff is treating the disappearance and the murder as connected. I guess Quinn did think that Henry wanted to tell him something, but he never got the chance. But James doesn’t think it had anything to do with Kyle’s whereabouts. We all agree that if Henry had known where Kyle was he would have said so right away. I guess the only thing James said that was interesting was that there was a strange residue on some of the trees around where Henry was found. Maybe it was from the orange steam, or maybe it was from something else. It’s going to the lab to be tested, but I’m not sure we’re going to hear the results any time soon,” said Kelly.

  “The lab is usually pretty backed up, but maybe Quinn asked for a rush job on these tests,” said Jackie, tapping her finger to her lip.

  Gill came back just then and said, “Now, tell me everything. I have a few minutes. All tables are satisfied. That means one of them will want something in about thirty seconds.”

  He looked around among us eagerly.

  I gave another quick recap of Professor Burger’s setup at the university and Gill marveled at the extent of the lab.

  “I’ve heard her name whispered reverently on campus,” he said. “She’s apparently brilliant. I can’t believe she gave yo
u packets to play with. Maybe it’s because of your grandmother, but it’s still very impressive. There’s no one better than Burger. I’m so glad I got to tag along on that adventure.”

  “We are too,” I said.

  “If you end up on campus again, let me know,” said Gill. “I’m there quite often and I could use a bit of excitement.”

  “Oh, yeah. Have you said that before? I had no idea,” Lowe teased.

  Gill gave her an awkward grin. Then another table really did want his attention, so he hurried away. We tried to continue our conversation about Henry and Kyle, but it became impossible. The restaurant had gotten very crowded and noisy, so we would have had to shout, but none of us wanted to be overheard.

  Kelly was getting more frantic about her brother, I could see it in her eyes. On the one hand we were doing all the snooping we could, but on the other her brother was still missing. The toll it must be taking on her family was unthinkable.

  Jackie didn’t have long to linger, and the noise defeated us. We finished eating quickly and headed out the door. It was time to go to the swamp.

  “Do you think Hannah’s trying to foil your snooping?” Kelly asked.

  The four of us were now walking toward the trolley, having decided that we might as well get this over with as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, none of us had any idea how to fix the swamp. For my part, I hadn’t paid any attention to it all summer. And anyhow, what did Hannah mean by saying it was toxic? It was difficult to tell.

  For now we had agreed that we should go take a look. That meant the whole day would be wasted on Hannah’s assignment. How she came to be assigning me tasks I didn’t know, and I finally said so out loud.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Kelly.

  “I don’t know. It feels suspicious. Like she’s trying to keep us busy or something,” said Kelly.

  “I would like to say that she isn’t that conniving or smart, but unfortunately I think she’s both,” said Jackie.

  The trolley was almost empty at this time of day, and it didn’t take us long to reach Misdirect. We disembarked and made our way over to the swamp, Lowe included. She had decided to come with us even though she wasn’t part of the coven yet. “I’ve wanted to get a closer look at this one for a while,” she said. “I think there are some great bases for potions out there.”