“Oh, I bet he will,” Charlotte chimed in.
“Charlotte!” I winced.
“For real, though, I can’t leave,” Charlotte said.
“What?” I balked. “Why? Does he have one of those fancy TVs with Netflix on it? Just open the door and walk out.”
“No, Izzy. You’re not getting it. I can’t,” she said. “Whatever spell is stopping me from getting into the other rooms is also stopping me from leaving this one. I can’t use my magic in it either. I have Savannah working on trying to get me out from the front yard, but if we depend on that, I’ll be spending Christmas in this stupid room.”
“Seriously?” I muttered. “It must be a holding spell, something to keep you there until the owner gets back.”
“And if the owner gets back and sees me here, what then?” Charlotte asked. “How are we going to explain that to Riley?”
“We’re not,” I said. “He hasn’t gotten here yet. I’m just going to slip out, spring you from the prison that is his living room, and get back here. He’ll think I’m just being fashionably late.”
“Well, hurry up,” Charlotte said. “It smells like ‘man’ in here.”
“Man?” I asked.
“You know, feet and leather,” she answered. “Whatever. Just get over here!”
“I’m on my way,” I said, closing the call and turning toward the door. As I did, though, I slammed right into someone.
Looking up, I saw that it was, of course, Riley.
“Hey there,” he said, staring at me with those bright eyes and that sickeningly beautiful face. “Going somewhere?”
13
“Going to find you,” I answered nervously, looking up at the police officer and smiling. I was trying to sneak out of the restaurant before Riley got here. I could leave now, sure. I could tell Riley there was a family emergency or even that I wasn’t feeling well, and he’d probably buy it. But that would only serve to send him back home immediately, and going back home meant finding Charlotte magically trapped in his living room and Savannah fruitlessly trying to help her escape. No. I was going to have to find a way to keep him here at the restaurant while I popped over to his place and freed Charlotte from whatever spell was holding her in place.
The idea of that struck me as odd, of course. Riley Davis was a mortal. He was as hot as a sidewalk in July, but he was a mortal nevertheless. Whatever magic he had surrounding his property didn’t come from him. So, that meant one of two things was true. Either Riley knew more about the actual goings-on of Spell Creek Mountain than he liked to admit, or whoever was responsible for what had happened to Fallon was, in fact, going after Riley. Maybe the spell holding Charlotte was meant for Riley. Maybe it was the thing that would send him to an early grave, the same as what happened to Fallon earlier. A spike of worry rose in my gut. If that was the case, it meant Charlotte and Savannah might be in more trouble than I thought. I was going to have to move fast, but I was also going to have to make sure Riley didn’t suspect anything.
“Sorry I’m a little late,” he said, waving at Emily, who was motioning us to a table and winking at me as I passed by. “I had some paperwork to fill out in regard to what happened to Fallon today.”
“I bet that’s a pretty boring part of the job,” I said, though I wasn’t sure why I even made that comment. Of course, paperwork was boring. Paperwork was always boring. Still, diving into a mess like the one that happened at The Lunch Pale earlier had to be the worst, creepiest kind of boring I could imagine.
“I hope you haven’t been waiting long,” he answered. “Wouldn’t want you to think I was standing you up again.” A sly smile crept across his face.
“Really?” I balked. “You’re gonna make jokes about prom night with me right now?”
“Too soon?” he asked, though he was still smiling.
“It’s always gonna be too soon,” I said.
“Then I guess I’ll have to change the subject, then,” he said, crossing to the table Emily directed us to and pulling out my chair for me.
“No, no,” I answered, wagging my finger at the man. “None of that ‘date’ stuff. I told you this isn’t a date. It’s a—”
“Please don’t say that again,” Riley said, grinning at me. “I get it. It’s not a date. Does that mean I can’t be nice and gentlemanly? Come on, I totally crashed and burned out in Nashville. I can’t even lean on that whole ‘tortured musician’ thing anymore. My uniform and being a Southern gentleman are basically all I’ve got working for me.”
I smirked at him, rounded the table, and relented, sitting in the chair he pulled out for me. “You’ve got more than you think,” I said as he moved to sit across from me. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out for you in Nashville,” I continued. “I know how important that dream was to you.”
“I’m not, actually,” he answered, looking over the menu, though both of us knew the only real selection at The Roundabout was The Pioneer Platter, since it had ribs, fried chicken, just a little country ham, and unlimited cornbread. “Sorry, that is. I’m not sorry that particular dream didn’t work out.”
“Really?” I asked. Because Emily knew both of us, and because five years away from it was far too long, my old friend placed a couple of glasses of sweet tea in front of us and took our order. I took a large swig. The sweet concoction was like nectar on my lips. My family and I might have been capable of magic, but this stuff was magic too. Why they didn’t have it above the Mason-Dixon Line was a mystery I knew I’d never be able to solve.
“Here’s the thing,” Riley said, taking a drink himself. Though, because he had been back home for a while, he seemed much less affected by the sheer bliss that was this sweet tea. “I think that was a false dream.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that,” I admitted. “What’s a false dream?”
“You know.” He shrugged. “Like, when you’re a kid and you want to be a cowboy or an astronaut. Then, you grow and you realize that cowboys are basically farmers now and it takes fifteen years of college to be an astronaut. That’s kind of like it was for me in Nashville. I spent my entire life thinking that if I just got out there and made it, if I heard my songs on the radio, then it would make me happy. The longer I stayed away, though, the longer I realized that I was already happy. I was happy in Spell Creek Mountain, with my friends, with my family.” He looked up at me from over his mason jar of tea. “With you.”
My heart jumped a little, but I pushed it back down. This wasn’t what I was here for. I was here to figure out if, in fact, Riley Davis was in danger. To do that, I couldn’t let him dazzle me with those eyes, that smile, and the rest of that face, a face that had held so many of my hopes and dreams before I left town. If I did that, I’d lose myself. I couldn’t afford that, not with so much at stake.
Clearing my throat, I tried to drive the conversation into a more productive place.
“How’s life been since you came back to town?” I asked, looking down at the salad that Emily had set down in front of us just seconds before. While I could attest to the fact that it was an amazing salad, I didn’t have much of an appetite tonight. As such, I picked at the lettuce and waited for Riley to answer.
“It’s been good,” he said, though there was a catch in his voice. “I think I’ve finally found where I’m supposed to be and what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“The cop thing?” I asked, looking back up at him.
“Among other things,” he said, beaming a little.
My ears pricked up. That could be an interesting lead to follow. “What other things?” I asked.
“I volunteer at the school on weekends,” he said. “I coach baseball on Saturdays and run a music class on Sundays. It’s really fulfilling, actually.”
I blinked at the guy. As if I wasn’t having enough problems ignoring his amazing face, now I was going to have to do so knowing he had a heart to match it. Could this night get any more complicated?
“Plus, you know, I have Trapp,
” he said.
“Trapp?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the guy. “Who’s Trapp?”
“My dog,” he said, smiling widely. Riley pulled his phone out of his pocket and presented me with the screen with all the pride one might have if he was showing you a picture of his kids. Across it was a picture of an adorable but huge black lab with his tongue hanging out. Instantly, my heart melted.
“He’s gorgeous,” I said, feeling a smile spread across my face.
“Thanks,” he said, pulling the phone back. “He’s a rescue dog. He had a bad upbringing, but he’s coming around. Still, he can get a more than a little prickly around people he doesn’t know.”
“Really?” I asked, my eyes widening a little. “And where is he now?”
“At home,” he said as Emily set the Pioneer Platter in front of us. It was a heaping mound of the most delicious-looking down home food, food that I had been missing for five years. I had something else on my mind, though, and that something else took shape as I received a text from Charlotte. Looking down at my phone, I read it to myself.
Where are you?!!!, the message read.
Then, right behind the text, I received a picture sent from Charlotte’s phone. It was of a dog, of Trapp. He was right in front of her and looked really upset, with bared teeth and angry eyes.
“Wow,” Riley said, looking at the sheer amount of food Emily had just placed in front of us. “I think we might be in over our heads here.”
I swallowed hard, looking back down at my phone and the picture splayed across it. “You have no idea, Riley,” I said. “You have absolutely no idea.”
14
My heart jumped as I thought about Charlotte, trapped inside Riley’s living room without access to her magic and being chased around by Riley’s huge (but admittedly adorable) black lab.
“Will you excuse me?” I asked, standing before Riley had the chance to answer.
“You okay?” Riley asked, looking up at me from over a mountain of chicken, ribs, cornbread, and mashed potatoes.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I just need to run to the little witch’s room.” The words escaped my lips before I could stop them. It was what the bathroom was called back in Lockheart Estates—at least, among the family.
“The what?” Riley asked, his brow furrowing.
“The powder room,” I said, tossing a thumb in its direction. “I just need to freshen up. I’ll be right back. Try not to eat all the white meat before I get back.”
“No promises,” he said, already plucking up a breast of the fried chicken. I looked at the feast for a beat too long. I had to admit that my mouth was watering for it. People came from all around the Smokies just for a taste of what The Roundabout had to offer. It had been far too long since I had tasted it myself, and I could really go for a mouthful of Southern-fried goodness. My family was in trouble, though, and you always put family first. Mostly because if you don’t, Grandma Winnie will tan your hide.
“Be right back,” I said, turning quickly and rushing toward the back, where the bathroom was. As I rounded the final corner in The Roundabout, I found a line stretching six people deep for the ladies’ bathroom. I couldn’t wait that long. By the time I got in there and spelled my way to Riley’s house to help Charlotte out, that dog would probably make her puppy chow. I had to think fast, and since I was too rusty to pull one of those ‘time freeze’ spells that Charlotte performed back in The Lunch Pale, I was going to have to improvise.
A smirk started on my face as an idea crept into my head. Sticking both of my pointer fingers into the air and crossing them, I cast a mental spell. Suddenly, the men’s and women’s rooms switched places respectively. What, a second before, was a line of ladies standing outside the appropriate bathroom, was now a bunch of confused women, watching me scurrying into a room with a girl on the sign.
I slammed the door shut and locked it, hearing a lot of the women wonder aloud about how they all could have been foolish enough to mistake the signs like that. It was kind of a nasty trick to play. I wasn’t the sort of girl who didn’t wait her turn, but these were extraordinary circumstances, and I liked to think that if the ladies involved knew all the details, they’d forgive my little touch of dishonesty.
All by myself, I pulled a tube of lipstick from my purse. Oh, no. It was Estee Lauder’s Deep Red, my absolute favorite, not to mention the most expensive tube I owned. I looked around for a cheaper substitute but found my purse lacking in options. “You’d better thank me for this, Charlotte,” I muttered, shaking my head and twisting the tube.
I leaned forward, making a huge red square on the mirror and totally wasting half the tube.
When I finished the square, it started to glow and shimmer. Soon, I saw Charlotte in front of me. In fact, I saw the entirety of Riley’s living room, and that wasn’t all. This didn’t just serve as a magical two-way mirror. This spell was more complex than that. What I was peering into also allowed me to move through it, effectively making the ladies’ room in The Roundabout a teleportation device.
Witchcraft was such a trip.
The lab had Charlotte on top of the couch and was barking up a storm at her.
“I have to do everything around here,” I muttered, taking a couple of steps back and leaping through the mirror. I found myself jumping into Riley’s living room through his own mirror.
Charlotte’s head jerked over at me, but the dog kept his attention pinned on my cousin.
“The Alpine Mirror?” Charlotte balked, referring to the spell I’d just cast. “That’s pretty inventive.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “You didn’t leave me much choice. Riley came in the instant you hung up with me. If I’d have left, he’d have hightailed it over here and our cover would have been blown.”
“I guess it’s a good thing that you—wait. Are you still on your date?” she asked as Trapp barked loudly at her.
“It’s not a date,” I answered. “It’s a plan—”
“Don’t you dare!” Charlotte said. “I’d rather let this dog maul my face off than hear you say that one more time.”
“That can be arranged,” I muttered again. Walking closer, I spoke to the dog in a soothing tone. “Here, Trap. Here, boy.”
Digging into my pocket, I pulled out a vial of crushed rose pedals that, even though I had spent the last five years basically living as a mortal, I still kept in my pocket for emergencies.
Trapp turned to me, and spilling the contents of the vial into my palm, I blew it into the adorable pup’s face. It wouldn’t hurt him, of course. He hadn’t done anything wrong. We were the ones who had broken into his house, after all. Still, even if he had attacked unprovoked, I would never use magic to hurt anything, especially an animal as adorable as Trapp. Instead, the crushed rose petal did its job of calming the animal down. In fact, the dog practically smiled as me as he plodded over to a mat on the floor and lay there, drifting off into an almost instant snoring sleep.
“You still have your magic here?” Charlotte asked, hopping down from the couch and running a hand through her hair. “That’s not fair.”
“And I’m missing out on the first Pioneer Platter I’ve had in years. No one said life was fair,” I said, shaking my head. “Now stand still.”
I splayed my hands out in front of me, wiggling my fingers a little and feeling the magic in the room. Twisting my palms, I moved through the magic, untangling it like a huge knot. Within seconds, I had done enough to allow Charlotte to leave.
“There we go,” I said. “Now scat!”
“What?” she asked. “If the magic is down, then I can help you search.”
“I only took out the magic in this room,” I said. “I don’t have time to do it for every room in the house, and since I’m the only one of us who can move around this place freely, I’ll just do a quick search. Riley is probably already wondering where I am.”
“Really?” Charlotte asked, waggling her eyebrows. “I assume that means the date is going well. Ten minutes
and you’ve already got him yearning for your return.”
“Shut up, Charlotte,” I murmured, rolling my eyes at her. “It doesn’t matter what he’s yearning for, not that he’s yearning for anything. If he was, though, it still wouldn’t matter.” I walked to the door of his bedroom and put my fingers on the handle. “This is a one-time thing, especially since—if—this ‘not date’ has taught me anything, it’s that Riley is definitely not the Ace of Cups. There’s nothing to rekindle. Nothing could be new or exciting between us. Five minutes in and I already know everything there is to know about him.”
I pushed the door open to reveal not only his bed and dresser, but a huge board pinned against his back wall. On the board, under our names in cursive, were surveillance pictures of my entire family, including pictures of me in Chicago. He had been watching us. He had been watching all of us, but why?
“Five minutes and you already knew everything about him?” Charlotte asked from behind me, looking through the open doorway and seeing the weird board as well. “Maybe you should have stayed for ten.”
15
“He’s watching us,” I said, mostly to myself, as I walked through the doorway and toward Riley’s bedroom. The board against the back wall was, at once, straightforward and a complete mystery to me. It was obvious, what with the pictures of my entire family posted in rows under our respective names, that Riley was investigating us. The question I had, of course, was why and to what end? What did he know? What was he looking for, and given the fact that he had pictures of me from my time in Chicago, how long had he been looking for it?
My head was spinning. My brain was a mess of things that I couldn’t quite put together. It was obvious that Riley had been playing me. I just didn’t know to what end. A troublesome thought crossed my mind as I pushed the pieces of all this together. His house was secured, spelled to a degree that I had never seen before. Add that to what I was looking at now, and I began to get less concerned that Riley was the Ace of Cups and more concerned that he was the person behind all of this.
Mountains, Mystery, and Magic Page 7
