“I’m done,” he said. “You’re not the only one here that can cast, you know. So why are you the only one standing around?”
“Because somebody has to lead this group.”
“And that automatically means it should be you?” he challenged.
“Right now, yeah,” I bit back. I was through being Ms. Nice Witch.
“Well, I didn’t sign up for that,” he answered.
All activity in the yard had stopped, and the rest of the coven had become so quiet that I’d almost forgotten they were even there. Now they were looking back and forth between the two of us like they were witnessing a shootout in an old Wild West movie. And in a way they were. Only, both of us were waiting for the other to back down or draw our guns.
In the end I won.
Fallon rolled his eyes before walking inside the house. “Whatever,” he muttered before disappearing completely. I knew he was pissed and things had certainly gone too far, but there was too much to deal with right now without adding Fallon’s overactive ego to the list.
“Why don’t we all take a fifteen-minute break and then we’ll get started on counterspells?” I asked, forcing a smile. The vibe in the group was still uneasy and I needed a chance to cool down before trying to work any more spells. Wouldn’t want a bewitching incantation to go awry because my emotions were all jumbled.
Unless of course it ended up hitting Fallon, in which case, a little anger behind my spells might do him a bit of good.
Chapter Thirteen
I tried to get us through as many spells as I could over the rest of the afternoon, but everyone’s attention had left after the confrontation with Fallon. Reluctantly I called it a day and headed straight for the shower to try to wash away my stress. I had no idea it would be so hard to keep a bunch of teenagers in line.
And Fallon. I never should’ve let the twerp get to me like that.
I wasn’t sure why he was constantly challenging me… unless he was trying to destroy the Cleri from the inside, a fact that I hadn’t yet ruled out.
I placed my face right into the spray of the water and let the echo drown out my thoughts for a while. When I came up for air, I had to admit that no matter what Fallon’s motives were, this feud had to end. We needed to come together as a group and our constant bickering was affecting the others, too. I decided I had to find Fallon and institute a truce with him for real this time.
As I dried off and put on a black lace jumper and some oversize costume jewelry that I’d replicated from Tori Spelling’s vintage collection, I thought about what I’d say. But when I went looking for him, I couldn’t find him anywhere.
Asking around yielded even less information at first, and when I looked in the room he was staying in and saw that a bunch of his stuff was gone, I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach. Something wasn’t right.
“How could he have just left?” I asked, shaking my head. Sascha, Jasmine, Jinx, Emory, and I had retreated to my parents’ room after I’d discovered that Fallon was gone.
“Well, he did seem pretty mad,” Sascha said, in a much better mood now that she’d taken a shower and eaten something. “Emotions were definitely running high.” It felt almost like an apology for her outburst earlier and I appreciated the gesture.
“We all got a little out of hand,” I said, letting her know how bad I felt about it too. “All that matters now is getting him back home safely. He may be able to pull out a lot of spells, but he won’t be a match for what’s out there.”
“What a little brat!” Jasmine said, annoyed.
I shook my head, even though I was angry too. “It’s my fault. If I hadn’t reacted like that, he wouldn’t have felt the need to walk out. Besides, he’s right. He doesn’t have to listen to me at all.”
“So what are we going to do?” Jinx asked, twirling a strand of her hair.
“I’m going to go after him.”
Their eyes widened with shock.
“Hadley, you can’t,” Sascha said. “They’re out there.”
I sighed, knowing what I was suggesting. “As stupid as it was for him to do this, I don’t see any other options.”
“We could leave him out there,” Jasmine said jokingly.
“You know we can’t do that,” I said, without giving myself time to consider it.
“How are you even going to find him?” Jinx asked thoughtfully.
I started to answer and then realized I didn’t know.
“I guess I’ll start by driving around?” I said, grasping at straws. “He couldn’t have gotten very far. He left on foot, after all.”
“Unless he hopped a ride with someone,” Jasmine said. We all thought about what this would mean. “It’s what I would’ve done.”
“I’m gonna kill him,” I said, imagining him hitchhiking his way into town. Fallon was putting us all at risk by taking off and I wasn’t exactly happy about it. Even with the power of my lineage behind me, I knew it was going to be dangerous to go looking for him.
“I think I can help you find him,” Emory said suddenly. She slid off the bed and ran out the door, returning a few minutes later with a blue blanket and a watch. “Once, our next-door neighbor disappeared from the park near our house. She was only four years old and had managed to slip away while her mom was talking to another parent. My mom used this spell to find her.”
I was beginning to realize that Emory was full of surprises and I leaned forward, eager to learn the new spell. “What’s that stuff for?” I asked.
“We need an object with the person’s essence on it. Typically it’s something that the person owned, but the blanket from his bed should work,” Emory said, sitting down across from me. “The watch acts as a compass, showing us where to find him. It’s basically like a magical GPS.”
“Cool,” Sascha let out.
“And you think it’ll work?” I asked her hopefully.
“It should,” she said.
They all looked at me for confirmation as I weighed our options.
“Fine. Do it,” I said.
We all moved off the bed to give Emory room to cast the spell. She placed the blanket on the surface and then put the watch on top. Then she pushed her red hair out of her face and smoothed down her tulip-decorated dress. Finally, she settled and closed her eyes, muttering something I couldn’t quite understand.
Then she began.
The watch began to glow and then lifted up off the bed. Leaning in even closer, I could see that the arms of the timepiece were moving quickly in a clockwise motion. After several laps around the face, the tiny shards of metal stopped abruptly and pointed in the direction behind us. I glanced backward and realized it was pointing directly at the door.
“Emory, you’re a genius,” I said in awe.
“Why was the spell so wordy?” Sascha asked, confused.
“It was created by my great-great-grandmother,” Emory said. “Back then they took their time with magic.”
“Jackson mentioned it in one of our classes,” Jinx added. “He said as time has passed, witches have gotten more impatient and began to shorten the wording.”
We all paused at the mention of Jackson. We never had heard from him. Without saying it out loud, I knew we all presumed he’d suffered the same fate as our parents.
All of a sudden, Sascha broke through our thoughts. “Like texting for the witching age!” she said as if she’d just figured out the winning Jeopardy! response.
Emory giggled at the comment while Jasmine just rolled her eyes before looking back at me.