The Rhinestone Witches Omnibus: Books 1-3

by Addison Creek

  “Sorry I’m late,” Jackie breathed, bustling up to the table looking downright harassed. She collapsed into the open seat and stared with delight at her food.

  “Thanks! I was really hoping you’d order for me, and you did!” She grinned and dug in while the rest of us watched her eat and waited for an explanation. When she finally noticed us staring, she mumbled an apology. “Sorry! Work is crazy. Mom is getting several planning applications from the trolley company. They want a new route. It’s been going on for years, but some of the plans were due. I should say proposed plans. It’s madness.”

  “Lowe and Jade were just about to tell me how their court appearance went,” said Kelly.

  Jackie dropped her fork, then quickly picked it up again. “No need to be both shocked and hungry,” she explained with a crooked smile.

  For someone who had so desperately wanted to rebel against her mother, Jackie certainly was getting sucked into life at the town hall.

  “It was ridiculous. My grandmother is terrifying,” I said.

  “I could have told you that,” said Jackie.

  “Just tell me before I die of curiosity,” said Kelly, slamming her small fist on the table. Displays of emotion were rare from Kelly, so I hurried to tell the story.

  Lowe and I alternated while our friends listened with rapt attention. Kelly interjected a couple of times, once to say that there was no way she’d ever want to work in the courthouse.

  When we finished Jackie said, “The Rhinestone name still holds a lot of sway. Even I’m surprised by how much. It explains why every time my mom runs for re-election she seeks your grandmother’s permission first.”

  My jaw dropped open. “You’re kidding me.”

  “No, definitely not,” said Jackie, looking entirely serious. She also didn’t look like the outcome of the court case had come as much of a surprise.

  “Oh, wow. I lost track of time!” said Kelly after a glance at her watch. “If we don’t hurry, we’re going to be late for the meeting.”

  After that we stopped talking and ate fast. In the rush to leave, any further talk of the murder, the arrest, or the courtroom got pushed to some later occasion.

  “What are you planning to do while we’re at the meeting?” I asked Lowe. We had agreed that she shouldn’t go home alone. The cats were plenty of defense for the unicorns, but with angry trailer park residents nearby, Lowe needed company when she returned to Midnight.

  “Just shop a bit. Might pick up some odds and ends for dinner,” she said.

  We agreed that she’d wait for us outside of Flying Steps when the meeting was over, and she went off to do her shopping while Kelly, Jackie, and I headed for the meeting.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Just before we walked into the building Kelly said, “Do you think the sheriffs would have discovered anything important if they had searched the cottage?”

  “Plenty of things, but probably not related to the murder. At least, I hope not. I don’t want to keep them from doing their jobs. I just wish they’d release Lester,” I said.

  “Who do you think pointed the finger at him?” she asked.

  “No idea. Quinn doesn’t think he should share that particular bit of information with me.”

  The idea that it might have been his ex-wife, Cynthia, floated into my mind. I imagined her whispering into his ear and Quinn listening attentively. Then I imagined getting a bucket of neon yellow paint and dumping it over her head.

  Satisfied, I followed my friends and fellow younger witches into the latest Hannah and Taylor show. Hopefully this time Hannah wouldn’t be arguing with anyone.

  The Young Witches meeting turned out to be rather strange this time. Very unusually, neither Hannah nor Taylor was present when we arrived. Simmer was sitting with her friends, a few of whom I recognized from the party and greeted. The next few minutes were taken up with gossip. Everyone wanted to know what was happening with the murder.

  “Not that we wanted someone to die, but our party is going to be legendary now. Remember that time the Rhinestones threw a party and someone was murdered? It’s crazy,” said one girl.

  “I just hope it’s legendary enough that the killer will have been caught,” I said.

  “I heard there was Vixen vapor beneath the body. Seems like an open and shut case to me,” said another girl.

  Fine, but who were the Vixens, anyway? No one seemed to know, or maybe more accurately, no one would admit knowing.

  After few minutes of chat, we settled down and started comparing notes on our latest assignments.

  Then we waited.

  And waited some more. Ten minutes after the meeting was officially supposed to begin, we started getting concerned. There was still no sign of our fear-inducing leaders, Hannah and Taylor.

  A girl who had a frog living underneath her collar turned around and looked straight at me.

  Caught off guard, I reacted as if I was sitting in an electrified seat. I stiffened and opened my eyes wider.

  The girl raised her eyebrows. The frog peered around from under her collar.

  The girl talked to the frog sometimes, at least more than she spoke to anyone else at the Young Witches meetings.

  “Are we here at the right time?” she asked at last, sounding perfectly normal. Several other witches turned around to see what my response would be.

  I had no idea why they were all looking at me, but I answered anyhow. “I think so. Right?” Everyone else nodded their heads. We were all present, and we had all arrived at the time we thought was the right one for this meeting.

  We waited.

  I fidgeted.

  Lowe would be waiting for me. She expected the meeting to end on time. I didn’t want to leave her out there alone.

  “I’ll just go see if they’re around,” I offered, sliding out of my seat. Several of the others gave me looks that said I was crazy. Sometimes I couldn’t disagree with them.

  I decided that if Hannah and Taylor were in the building at all, they wouldn’t be in the upstairs offices. I decided to try the cafeteria downstairs first. When I got there I found a couple of individuals eating, but they were not the leaders of the Young Witches. It wasn’t hard to tell. The people currently in the cafeteria did not look like opportunistic, horrible people.

  I sighed and climbed back up the stairs, but instead of returning to the meeting room I went to the door opposite it.

  I had never gone through that door before, but I knew it was one of the ways to get from backstage to the front of the building. I pushed it open and found that it led to a back hallway, which then led to the dressing rooms.

  I rounded a corner where there wasn’t much light, only an eerie red glow. I was just about to go back through the door I’d come in from when I heard a snuffle and then a wail.

  I spun back around, headed for the door that said “Exit,” and pushed it open.

  Only then did I remember that Hannah sometimes came in through the back of the building.

  The exit door led to a back alley, which was mostly bare and empty except for a set of stone steps next to the entrance. There, to my total shock, sat Hannah Carlyle, the expensive teal green suit she was wearing getting filthy from contact with the pavement. It wasn’t something mere mortals would care much about, because we wouldn’t be wearing expensive teal green suits in the first place. But I was surprised that Hannah didn’t seem to care either.

  She looked up at the sound of the door opening. I had literally half a second to see her with tears streaming down her face, then she performed a spell. Her hand twisted and flicked so quickly that I barely kept up. She moved far faster than I possibly could have, and also more delicately than I ever had.

  Her face was transformed from a blotchy, red mess back to its usual perfect self. Her eyes met mine with a steely glare, the only thing that could possibly have given her away. They were still a bit red. She might be able to perform a spell to make herself pretty, but she couldn’t spell away her emotions.

>   “Hi,” I said. I stared up at the sky and pretended I was looking at the birds and talking to someone who wasn’t terrifying. I tried to close the door, but she stopped me.

  “Where are you going?” She gave me a bright smile and I swayed indecisively.

  “I didn’t want to interrupt you,” I muttered. Silently I said, “Slash be anywhere near you at any time in case Crown snobbery was catchy.”

  “What did you want?” she demanded, stopping me from closing the door a second time.

  “We’re all here. The meeting was supposed to start ten minutes ago,” I told her. I tried to sound confident, because everyone waiting for Hannah had agreed we had the start time right. That didn’t change the fact that if she told me the meeting was supposed to be at the top of the clock tower with fairies, I’d be terrified to argue with her.

  “Where’s Taylor?” she asked with a frown.

  I involuntarily glanced at the sky again. Had she really just asked me that? Like I would know the answer? These witches were getting more mysterious by the minute.

  I tried to think of a polite answer for her. I really did. All I came up with was, “Hopefully drop kicked into pumpkin trees never to be heard from again.” But once again I kept my real thoughts to myself. Out loud I said, “She’s not in the Flying Dance Hall.”

  Hannah’s face brightened considerably. “Oh, no?” she asked in a singsong voice.

  “Was she supposed to run today’s meeting?”

  “No,” said Hannah firmly. “Let’s go.” She brushed past me, heading inside. If I wasn’t mistaken, one more tear dropped from her eye before she was entirely through the door.

  I had hoped for a silent walk back to the meeting, mostly because anything I said to Hannah she was liable to kill me for.

  “How was the party?” she asked.

  I nearly tripped. She had asked me a question about . . . me! What sort of insanity was that?

  “Good. Except, I assume you heard,” I said.

  “I heard about the party,” she said cuttingly.

  “No, I mean, about the murder,” I tried. Now I was contradicting her. I was totally doomed.

  “Oh, that. Of course there was a murder. Bethel Rhinestone leaves town? How is anything else going to survive?” said Hannah. She breezed through the door in front of me once again, leaving me utterly dumbstruck and confused in her wake.

  “Hello, everyone,” she said. “Jade, please take your seat and stop holding up the proceedings.”

  I saw Jackie clinch on my behalf, but we both knew better than to open our mouths.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  After that the meeting was as uneventful as usual. Hannah just wanted to hear about our assignments; she wasn’t prepared to hand out new ones. I had a feeling she wouldn’t do it without Taylor handy to write everything down, but Taylor was absent, the only witch who had ever missed one of these delightful gatherings.

  At first, Hannah didn’t like most of what she heard about our assignments. Then she started to change her tune. Suddenly everything sounded wonderful. By the end of the meeting everyone was totally confused.

  “What did you do to her? Some spell? She’s being pleasant. It must be a mistake,” Kelly whispered.

  “If I knew a spell to make witches pleasant I’d have used it on her a long time ago,” I muttered back.

  Kelly covered her mouth with her hand to hide her snigger.

  “Maybe you just recently perfected the skills to perform it,” Jackie suggested.

  “Maybe,” I agreed.

  At the end of the meeting Hannah started toward a small group of us, then stopped and headed back in the direction from which she had come. Then she changed her mind a third time and came toward us again.

  “Sorry, I mean, are any of you doing anything this evening?” she asked. We collectively turned our heads to see who she was talking to.

  When we realized that there was no one behind us and that she was speaking to us I said, “I’m headed home. With Bethel out of town the unicorns are a lot to manage. I don’t like to leave them alone for too long.”

  Hannah nodded her head. She started to turn to another girl, but quickly changed her mind yet again and said, “Bye.” She spun around on her heel and rushed away.

  “What was that about?” Jackie asked, mystified.

  “Oh, come on. It’s obvious,” said Kelly.

  “No, I don’t think it is,” Jackie argued. “Just because you’re brilliant and see everything does not mean it’s obvious to the likes of me.”

  “Can you say that again?” Kelly asked.

  “It’s not obvious to the likes of me.”

  “No, the part about me being brilliant,” said Kelly.

  Jackie just laughed and rolled her eyes. She had to leave, but Kelly lingered. When we emerged outside the sky was gray and overcast, promising a storm. Lowe was leaning against a fence talking to someone. I did a double take when I saw who it was.

  Michael was sitting on the fence chatting with Lowe, while at least eight owls hovered nearby, either perched on the fence or wheeling through the cloudy air.

  Kelly stopped dead. “Is that Michael Fieldcorn?” she whispered. I had already gotten a few steps in front of her and I looked around to see where she’d gone.

  “Yes,” I said.

  Lowe and Michael hadn’t noticed us yet, so I watched them for a few moments without being seen myself. Michael was comfortable with Lowe, I realized. She was a known entity to the reclusive feather dealer, and someone who put him at his ease.

  “I forgot you knew him,” said Kelly. “I missed him at the Vixen fight that time.”

  “Want to meet him?” I offered, surprised that she didn’t already know him.

  Kelly nodded and we made our way over to my cousin. When Michael noticed us coming, he immediately took on a more guarded look.

  Lowe saw us and grinned. “What the blazes took you so long?”

  “Hannah was missing,” I said.

  “She was late?” Lowe looked surprised. She knew that Hannah ruled the group with iron control, and that she wasn’t going to allow anyone else an opening to take over. Her being late might certainly lead to that kind of rebellion.

  “She was,” I said. “I had to go find her. Get this, she was in the back of the building, sitting on the steps and crying.”

  “She didn’t look like she’d been crying when you came back,” Kelly said.

  “No. She cast a spell to make herself presentable as soon as she saw me,” I said.

  “That’s difficult spell casting,” said Kelly in surprise.

  “I’m shocked,” said Lowe. “What could possibly upset someone without a heart?”

  “Might have something to do with Taylor. She wasn’t there,” I said.

  Lowe looked ready to continue, but Michael had had enough. “No offense,” he said, “but the affairs of women bore me. Gossip is for those who don’t breed unique owls.”

  “You could put that on a card. You just wouldn’t be able to give it to many people,” said Lowe.

  Michael gave her a look that said he didn’t understand that, either.

  “What can we help you with?” I asked him.

  He glanced around. “I wonder if I might invite myself over to your abode? This is not a conversation that should happen in public.”

  “Sure. By the way, this is Kelly, a friend of ours,” I said, making introductions and giving myself a pat on the back for remembering to do it.

  Michael swept his arm upward in a high arc, then dipped his head. “It is a pleasure to meet so accomplished a younger witch. I read your paper in the Farming Journal of Strange Twinkleford Entities. Your mastery of the subject matter and edible scum plopped plants was a true joy.”

  Given what Twinkleford considered normal, I thought that journal must really be something.

  He looked around as if he expected us to continue that as a topic of conversation, but we did not. Three pairs of eyes gazed at him in total shock,
Kelly’s most of all. It was like watching a flower quickly bloom as a blush spread over her cheeks.

  “Th-thank you,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone read that journal. There are only three subscriptions,” she added.

  Now it was Michael’s turn to falter slightly.

  “That explains why when I tried to talk to my dentist about it he didn’t know what I meant,” he said dubiously. He cleared his throat when the three of us continued to stare at him awkwardly.

  “Yes, please come over. “ I managed.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “I bought baking supplies. We can feed you,” said Lowe.

  He frowned at her. “I can feed myself. I say, what kind of witches are you?”

  “No, I mean, never mind. Let’s catch the trolley. Are your owls going to be all right?” she asked.

  “Certainly. They can fly. They don’t have to ride a bumpy trolley,” he said.

  The four of us made our way to the trolley station. The car that came was black and gold and looked rather like a bumblebee.

  “This is fascinating,’ said Michael, climbing on. “Motorized transport.”

  “Have you not been on the trolleys before?” I asked as we made our to our seats. There were a few other passengers, but they ignored us.

  “No. My parents said it was easy to get trapped on them. Lots of people want our feathers, you see. I figure you three are here and I brought extra owls, so I should be safe. The owls needed to get out anyway,” said Michael.

  “What are they going to think of the unicorns?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I think they’re going to be delighted. Unicorns and owls are two of the rarest and most important animals in Twinkleford. The owls think rather well of themselves, as they should. The unicorns will be interesting.”

  Michael’s head kept rotating on his neck as he talked. He was looking around at everything as if he hadn’t seen a lot of Twinkleford before. It wasn’t until we were halfway home that I realized how odd it was that Kelly had come along. That hadn’t been the plan, but I figured the pull of Michael Fieldcorn was too strong for her to resist. Besides, I was happy to have the company. Not that I was afraid to go home to the cottage under present circumstances, but I was a little afraid to go home to the cottage under present circumstances.