“What happened?” I countered.
“I asked you—”
I cut her off. “What. Happened?”
“Bailey’s … upset,” was all she said. Her eyes flicked to my mystery girl (when did she become my mystery girl?), and I realized that there was a whole undercurrent to the situation that she wasn’t going to reveal in front of a stranger. That’s what you get for thinking you could have an afternoon free, I thought, actually able to feel my blood pressure rising.
“What did you do?” It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Jenna’s bad mood was her way of overcompensating.
“I didn’t do anything,” she said, her voice growing more shrill. In other words, she had
GUILTY written across her forehead in big black letters.
“Fine, then Bailey took something you said out of context. Just tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know what happened,” she snapped. “We were in the store trying things on, and Mal and I had this tiny little disagreement, and when I walked out of the dressing room, Bailey had taken off.”
“Taken off?” My stomach sank.
“Yeah, like gone. Ran away, planning on never coming back.”
“Well it’s good to see you’re not being overdramatic about it,” the girl suddenly chimed in.
Jenna whirled on her. “And who the hell are you?”
“Jen—” I tried to grab her arm, but she threw me off. “Leave her—”
“My name’s Ash,” the girl said. I probably looked like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel, the way I gaped. After struggling for half an hour, she offered her name up to Jenna in the first thirty seconds? As casual as can be?
Jenna didn’t understand the significance. “Better question, why are you butting into our conversation?”
“Because you’re making a scene,” Ash said. At some point during the conversation, she’d pulled out her phone and was texting casually, her eyes barely glancing over the screen. “I figured if you stop yelling at your brother for a minute, maybe you’d realize that.”
Jen whirled on me. “Who the hell is this girl?”
“We met at the bookstore,” I said. “And then we went out for coffee.”
”You’re drinking a milkshake.” Jenna made it an accusation.
“Going for coffee is a euphemism,” I explained patiently, carefully avoiding Ash’s eyes.
“There’s a smoothie shop across the street.”
Jenna’s hand flexed into a fist and then relaxed. “This wouldn’t be a problem if they’d show us
—” There were spells that could track the coven bond. Spells we weren’t allowed to know.
Truth be told, there were a lot of things we weren’t allowed to know.
I cut her off. “I know.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Jenna snapped.
“I’ll help you look,” Ash volunteered. She slid the phone back into the pocket of her coat, looking between us expectantly.
“Thanks,” Jenna said as snidely as she could manage. “But this is a family thing.” And just like that, I knew that Jenna and Ash would never be friends. Ash wasn’t the type of girl who backed down to Jenna’s attitude, and as a result, Jenna would never see her as anything more than a bitch.
“I know the area, and you don’t,” Ash smiled, a saccharine look that didn’t hold an ounce of sweetness. “I’m also an extra pair of eyes, and in case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of places to hide around here.”
“Justin,” my sister growled, “get rid of her.” Watching the two of them was like watching a pair of wolves circling each other.
“You’ll need all the help you can get,” Ash added, looking up at me.
“Ash can help me look. You should go find Mal and Cole,” I said, pointing back the way Jenna had come from. “The last thing I need is Cole doing something stupid, too.”
Jenna and I shared one last look, hers promising a conversation I wouldn’t want to have, before we both went in different directions.
“How old is she? Your sister?” Ash asked, while we waited for a gap in cars so we could cross the street.
“Bailey? She’s fifteen.”
Ash hmmed. “And what does she like?”
What does she like? “I don’t know,” I said, struggling. “Girly stuff? Makeup? Clothes?”
“Girly stuff,” she repeated, her lips twitching. “All right then, c’mon,” she linked her arm through mine, attaching us at the elbow.
“Where are we going?” I asked, essentially letting her drag me down the block.
“You have a lot to learn about girls,” she grinned, “whether or not you’re related to them.”
Bailey running away wasn’t what I was afraid of, not even close. Her particular talent was evocations, literally bringing things out in people and affecting their judgment. She still hadn’t learned that magic couldn’t solve everything. And her magic, much like Cole’s, had a tendency to take on a life of its own.
Like the time she stopped a fighting couple, pulling out their feelings of love and attraction for each other. A spell that quickly spread, enveloping everyone for a full city block who dropped what they were doing and hooked up with the nearest person. That had been … awkward. I’d never had to pair a “safe magic” lecture with a “safe sex” lecture at the same time.
When people talked about which of us had the most destructive potential, they always looked at Jenna, sometimes at me. My vote was Bailey—there was nothing scarier than the ability to change how everyone around you felt. What was worse was that she didn’t understand exactly how bad that was.
“It’s not far,” she promised as we headed back in the direction of the bookstore. We crossed onto one of the side streets, and tucked in between an art gallery and a Banana Republic, we came to the pet store, Unleashed Boutique.
“Seriously?” I asked, pointing up to the sign.
Ash sighed, shaking her head at me. She had her phone in hand and was typing something out as we talked. “Not a pet lover, nice.” Once again, I tried to open the door for her and she opened the other door instead.
“I like pets just fine,” I said, already canvassing the store for my sister. The puppies lined one whole side of the store. An older couple moved to the other side of the aisle, and revealed
Bailey.
“Bailey gets attached to things she shouldn’t,” I said quietly over my shoulder. “I’m probably going to have to pull her out of here kicking and screaming.”
Bailey looked up, the splotchiness in her face already starting to fade. “It wasn’t my fault,” she said preemptively.
I held up my hands. “Not here to judge. What’s with the running away?”
Bailey sighed. “I just needed to get away. Then I found the pet store, and the puppies were so cute and floppy and … ” She didn’t need to say anymore. One of the many flaws in Bailey’s life was that no one would ever let her have a pet. She wanted a dog more than anything.
“Aww, he’s so cute,” Ash said, crouching down next to her. “You’ve got good taste.”
“Thanks. Who are you?”
Ash grinned and looked up at me. “Come on, don’t be rude. Make the introductions.” So I did.
Bailey’s eyebrows raised as she looked up at me. I could only imagine the sorts of questions she was building up to.
“We should get going, Bails. You know you can’t run away.”
“Why not? You did.” She didn’t say it with any malice, just honest curiosity.
“I didn’t run away,” I said carefully, “I just wanted some time to myself.
“So did I,” Bailey said.
Ash started laughing softly to herself. “Well, as fantastic as this has been,” she said, “it’s after midnight and my pumpkin’s turning into a carriage.”