by Alicia Rades
We all piled into my mom’s car again. With the memory card still securely hidden in my hand, Emma drove us to the police station.
“Thank you all so much for supporting me,” Kelli said in the car. “I’m still scared to death, but after what you guys did and what your mom said, I think everything will be okay. I haven’t felt this confident in a long time.”
I felt prideful of her transformation, knowing full well that it was my translation of Olivia’s words that had changed Kelli’s mind.
We walked into the police station, and people were staring at us, probably perplexed by our costumes.
“Can I help you?” an officer who was walking through the main hall asked.
“We’re just looking for Teddy,” I said. “He’s my mom’s boyfr—I mean, fiancé.”
“Oh, right,” the guy said, pointing his finger at me in recognition. “You’re the girl who started his nick name around here. Teddy Bear. Classic! He’s at his desk.” The officer turned and continued on his way.
When we reached Teddy’s desk, he looked up from his paperwork, and his eyes filled with shock. “Crystal. Are you all okay?” His eyes shifted between each of us, searching for something that would indicate why we were here.
I set the small memory card down on his desk. I didn’t know if he could actually use the video in a case since we obtained it illegally, but I wasn’t sure that was the point of it anymore. Justine believed it was evidence, but Olivia wanted us to get the video to convince Kelli to get out of her relationship with Nate. I handed the card over anyway. “Um . . . this is evidence, and my friend Kelli would really like to talk to you about something. I need you to promise to keep her safe.”
“I can do that,” he promised. “What exactly is this about?”
“My boyfriend, sir,” Kelli said.
Teddy nodded in understanding. “Kelli, do you mind having a seat over there?” Teddy pointed her toward some nearby chairs.
“I’d like Justine to stay with me,” Kelli told him.
“Okay,” he agreed kindly. “And you two,” he pointed toward Emma and Derek, “do you mind if I have a word with my future step-daughter?”
Everyone left, leaving me to wonder what Teddy was planning to ask me. Was I in trouble? I took a seat across from him. He crossed his hands.
“Crystal, how did you get involved in this? You aren’t friends with those girls, are you?”
I was momentarily stung by the accusation, as if I wasn’t cool enough to hang out with popular girls, but I reminded myself how well he knew me and my friends.
I hung my head guiltily. “Justine asked me to help because she found out I was . . . you know.” I lowered my voice even though everyone within ear shot already knew my secret. “Psychic.”
“And did you use those abilities to help Kelli?”
I nodded. “I found the memory card.”
He didn’t ask where I’d found it like I’d expected but instead shifted through the folders piled on his desk.
I glanced back toward my best friends, who were waiting for me by the door.
Teddy opened one of the folders and pulled a photo from it, looking at it as he spoke.
“This girl went missing from her home recently. Her name is Hope Ross. Of course, we’re working with some larger departments on the case, but no one has made much leeway. The first 48 hours are crucial in an investigation like this, and we’ve already hit that time limit, but we still don’t know much. We don’t even know if she’s still alive, but we’re hopeful. I was wondering if maybe you could help us crack the case.”
He handed me the photo. When I took it, my heart fell to the floor because I recognized the girl. It was a school photo, probably taken at the beginning of the school year, of a young girl around six years old with brown hair, freckles across her nose, and big chocolate eyes.
An image of her face as it was at that very moment flashed through my head. Her cheeks were full of color, but her eyes drooped in sadness. It was just a flash of her face telling me she was alive, and then it was gone. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to give me any clue as to where she was.
My hands trembled as I set the photo back on the desk. My heart threatened to beat out of my chest.
“What?” Teddy asked. “What is it?”
I couldn’t answer him at first. “You mean, you believe me?” I asked, my voice wavering. I knew he had accepted the idea, but I didn’t think he actually believed it.
He paused for a moment as if pondering what to say. “Do you know why I’m a police officer, Crystal?”
I shook my head. He’d never told me why he entered the police force.
“I seem to have this strong sense of . . .” He paused in search of the right word. “Intuition. I’m good at solving cases. When I met your mother, I always suspected she had that same sense of intuition. It’s what drew me to her. That, among other things.”
I took in a sharp breath. Could Teddy have psychic abilities, too? My mom had said that the area had a rich history of psychics. I could hardly believe it, but that explained why he’d taken it so well.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “my intuition is failing me on Hope’s case. Do you think you can help?”
I paused for a moment, unsure. Then I nodded slowly. “I hope so. You’ll have to give me some time, but I can tell you that I know she’s still alive.”
28
Teddy thanked me, told me to enjoy the remaining few hours of the Halloween festival while he talked with Kelli, and sent me back to my friends. I asked Kelli if she wanted us to stay, but she told us we’d helped enough and that we should go enjoy ourselves.
Now that I had the issue of saving Kelli and Olivia off my chest, I felt like I deserved a good night out with my friends. I glanced back at Justine and Kelli as I exited the building, and I knew Kelli was going to be okay.
Emma drove us back to the park, and I worried about Hope the whole way. Emma noticed my nerves and encouraged me to just enjoy myself for one night. She was right. There wasn’t anything I could do to help Hope right now anyway.
We walked up and down the aisles playing games and listening to the band play. We even took a walk down the haunted trail while Emma and I clung to Derek for protection, which honestly made me feel a bit safer even though the zombies were just volunteers in costume.
Sometime during the night, I cracked a real smile as I realized how much I’d accomplished in the last few hours. Kelli was okay and free from Nate, and Olivia had crossed over, which I hoped meant that her mom could move on, too.
I veered off from my best friends for a few minutes to visit my mom in her tent. She was standing outside waiting for her next victim.
“Maybe I could get a reading,” I suggested.
“Or maybe I could get a reading from you,” she joked, pulling back her tent flap and inviting me in. I walked into the small makeshift room, which was lit by electric candles since the coordinators agreed real candles could be potentially hazardous. There was a round table placed in the middle of the tent, one chair at the far end and one chair close to me. The table was covered with an appropriate table cloth, and her tarot cards and a crystal ball were sitting on top of it.
“Are you going to tell me where you really were all night?” she asked.
Of course, I thought. She knows me far too well.
“Just, um, some detective work,” I managed to answer. It wasn’t a lie, at least.
My mother looked at me like she didn’t believe me.
I caved. “Okay, we didn’t actually end up with the video last night. We went and got it today.”
“You broke into Tammy’s house to steal it?” She was disappointed.
A wave of guilt fell over me.
“Well, Derek says that since the door was unlocked, we didn’t break in, and Emma says that since Olivia wanted us to have it, it wasn’t stealing,” I rationalized.
The look of disappointment was still painted on my mother’s face. “Crystal, you may
have fantastic abilities, but you have to learn how to use them responsibly. Being psychic doesn’t mean you’re entitled to things other people aren’t.”
She was right.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I understand, but I can’t say I’m sorry. I may have saved Kelli’s life.”
My mother sighed. I wasn’t sure if it was a sigh of defeat or because she couldn’t accept my excuse.
I dropped my head in guilt, and my eyes fixated on the crystal ball as it called out to me.
“Mom!” I scolded. “Is that my crystal ball?”
“Yeah,” she admitted as she took a seat across from me.
“But, why?” My face fell, hurt that she’d taken it from my room without asking.
She shrugged like it was no big deal. “I’m sorry. I figured that we owned one now, so I didn’t have to borrow one from the shop.”
“But it’s mine,” I said possessively, picking it up from its stand and pulling it close to me. It began glowing in my hands. I didn’t look up to see if my mother noticed it, too; I was too consumed by the swirling colors pulling me in. I studied it intensely as its energy wrapped around me. I never knew what I saw in it, but after a moment, I quickly returned it to its stand.
“What?” my mom asked. “What did you see?”
“I—I don’t know.”
I didn’t. All I knew was that it was about the little girl, the one with big chocolate eyes. I knew she needed help, and I knew she would be the focus of my next psychic adventure.
“Crystal, with everything I’ve seen you do, you have amazing abilities, which is surprising since just a few weeks ago I didn’t think you had any. You’re going to be a really amazing psychic.”
Yeah, I thought, but I knew that being psychic wasn’t ever going to be easy. I knew that from this moment on, I would never stop using my abilities to help people.
Acknowledgements
Fire in Frost is a book that was in the making for well over a year, but I couldn’t have done it by myself. My husband Paul deserves a huge shout-out for encouraging me to keep writing and working on this story when I wasn’t sure if it would turn into anything.
I am so thankful for Cara Stromness for helping point out plot holes and confusing character motives. She suggested some of the biggest changes that I made and inspired several scenes that really help the story come together. And, of course, thank you to all my other beta readers who offered feedback: Paul, Anna, Jan, Deb, Hayley, and Heather.
A huge thanks also goes out to Jennifer Mattern, whose suggestions helped inspire the story title.
I seriously can’t thank Clarissa Yeo enough for the fantastic job she’s done on the cover.
Also, thank you Emerald Barnes for catching my silly grammar mistakes.
I can’t forget to mention anyone who has encouraged my writing throughout the years. You know who you are.
Finally, thank you Linda Joy Singleton. Her stories and kindness are what inspired this book in the first place.
About the Author
Alicia Rades is a freelance writer, blogger, and editor. When inspiration strikes, she is also an author. Alicia has been captivated by the YA paranormal and supernatural genre since reading The Seer series by Linda Joy Singleton when she was 12 years old. Fire in Frost was born out of the love for the genre and is Alicia’s first full-length novel. In college, Alicia majored in professional writing. Alicia lives in Wisconsin with her husband and too many fish to count.
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