“He was recruiting me,” Riley answered.
“Recruiting you for what?” I gasped.
“For the Order,” Riley said solemnly.
I shuffled in my seat, blinking hard. “This might be the sort of question that I shouldn’t have to ask, Riley, but what is the Order?”
“You asked how Mr. Rickman knew about you and your family,” Riley reminded me. “The Order is how he knew. It’s also how I knew.”
“Get to the point,” I said from the edge of my seat.
“You think you’re the only people who have a secret world?” Riley said, looking not at me but at the floor of the gazebo. “You think only your supernatural people have double lives, but you’re wrong.”
“It’s not a double life,” I interjected, taking offense to the wordage. “I have my life. I just don’t opt to share every aspect of it with people who wouldn’t understand.”
“I would have understood,” he said. “I mean, I know I freaked out before prom, but if you’d have told me, if I’d have heard it from you, I think I would have understood.” He shook his head. “We’ll never know, though. I didn’t hear it from you. I heard it from Mr. Rickman. He told me about all of you, and then he told me what I could do as a person to ensure the entire community was safe, supernatural folks included.”
“What was that?” I asked, lost in the story.
“The Order is a task force,” Riley said. “It’s made up of baseline people, no supernatural folks, but its intention is to keep the peace between both the human and supernatural factions as well as among the specific supernatural groups themselves.”
“Really? Then why have I never heard of them?”
“Because we’re a secret task force,” Riley said. “We work from the shadows. Mr. Rickman was my recruiter. He was also my handler. When I went to Nashville, it wasn’t to chase my dream as a musician, though I totally have the musical chops to pull it off. It was to train to become part of the Order. When I did that, I came back here to take up my post. There can be no fewer than three members of the Order in any Class-A supernatural hub at any given time. Mr. Rickman was set to retire, and I was coming in to take his place.”
“That’s insane,” I said. “Is that why Mr. Rickman had a picture of you on his fireplace mantle?”
“Presumably,” Riley said. “I never went to his house. All of our interaction was done remotely.”
“Does that also mean that Fallon was a member of the Order too?” I asked.
“Maybe,” Riley said. “I hadn’t officially taken over for Mr. Rickman yet. So, I wasn’t cleared for the information that included the identities of the other two operatives.”
“Two?” I asked. “There were three, just like the three pictures I saw on Mr. Rickman’s fireplace, though one was empty, just like the three tarot cards.” I shook my head. “What if that’s what’s going on? What if whoever is behind this is targeting members of the Order, and what if they’re trying to make it look like I’m responsible?”
Riley’s eyes narrowed. “Then I suppose we’re going to need to find out who the third operative in Spell Creek Mountain is,” he said.
“I read the tarot cards,” I said. “They’ve been accurate so far. One was for the waitress. That was Fallon. One was for the high school guy. That was Mr. Rickman. The last remaining one is for family, but that doesn’t make any sense. None of my family members could be part of the Order. First off, they’d tell me about it. Secondly, they have to be human, right?”
Riley nodded.
“See. I must be wrong, because no one in my family is human,” I answered.
“What are you guys doing out here?” A familiar voice sounded from behind me. I turned to find Jasper, my cousin Dallas’s husband—her very human husband—walking up the path to the back door, a suitcase in hand. He shook his head. “You know what? Whatever it is, it’s going to have to wait until later. I’ve been driving all night to get back home, and I’m exhausted.” He patted his suitcase. “You know what they say, though. A good man’s work never ends.”
I watched wordlessly as the man my cousin loved walked right into our house.
“It can’t be,” I muttered, my mouth dry with shock. “It just can’t be.” I looked over at Riley. “Can it?”
He didn’t answer, but he didn’t have to. We both knew the chances of this, and we both knew they were better than either of us wanted to admit.
“Oh,” I muttered, my heart sinking. “Oh, crud.”
26
“You’re being ridiculous!” Dallas said, practically spitting fire at me as she paced back and forth across the floor of my bedroom. “I mean, think about what you just said to me.” She shook her head and pointed at her husband, who was now both way too tired and way too confused. “You’re telling me that my husband, a man I have known and loved since I was sixteen years old, is a conspirator in a secret organization built to keep us in check.”
“We’re not built to keep you in check,” Riley said, holding his hands out in front of him as a sign of surrender. “We’re here to make sure the peace is kept.” He sighed. “And conspirators is a strong word for what we are.”
“I think it’s rather tame, actually,” Dallas said. “From where I see it, you skulk around in the dark and manipulate the efforts of others without having to answer for any of it. What would you call that?”
“If I were doing all of that with magic, I’d call it being a witch,” Riley answered flatly.
Dallas’s face went white, the way it might have if she caught Charlotte wearing her favorite sweater without asking or Savannah teaching her kids her favorite swear words. Which was to say, she was about to blow her top. She looked over at me. “I think your boyfriend wants me to turn him into a llama.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I answered for the sake of clarification. “And I’m sure he doesn’t want to be a llama.” I looked over at Riley. “Tell her you don’t want to be a llama.”
Riley seethed. “If I were a llama, I’d spit on—”
“Tell her you don’t want to be a llama!” I yelled. “She will literally turn you into a llama right now. I’ve seen her do worse.”
Riley pursed his lips and looked back at Dallas. “Of course, I don’t want to be a llama. I also don’t want to fight with you. All I’m trying to do is point out that there are similarities between what you do and what I do.”
“What I do is teach elementary school,” Dallas said. “What I am is a witch. That’s the main difference between you and me, Riley. You chose to be what you are now. I never had that luxury.”
“I get that,” he said, his hands still in the ‘surrender’ position. “And I respect it. I respect it enough that you can be sure I’d never do anything to hurt any of you.”
“So what was with the board?” I asked, butting in. “You were investigating me and my family. You had been for years.”
“That’s not years,” he said. “It’s months. It’s been since I came back home. It’s part of the job. I keep tabs on you to make sure you’re safe. I do that with vampires, other witches, and wolves too.” He shrugged. “I do it more thoroughly for you guys because I care about you.”
“But Chicago,” I muttered. “You had pictures of me in Chicago.”
Riley blanched. “That wasn’t part of my job,” he admitted, looking down. “I came to Chicago. I was ready to tell you the truth. I wanted to put this behind us and maybe see if . . .” He cleared his throat. “I just wanted us to be close again. When I got there, though, you had already moved on. You had a fiancé and a life. You had everything you’d ever wanted. So, I left you to that. It didn’t seem right to mess that up for you. I did take a picture, though. I just hated the idea of not being able to see you.”
A shudder ran through me, causing me to shake. “That’s–that’s kind of amazing,” I admitted.
“I wish I could have always been honest with you,” Riley said. “It took me some time to get over the fact that you weren’t
honest with me, though. And I understand now. I get why you did it. I just hope you can understand why I did what I did, too.”
“This is great,” Dallas said, totally jumping into our moment. “Honestly, this is all very sweet, but you made an accusation that I have to disprove, for the sake of my sanity.” She looked over at Jasper. “Are you in the Order, Jasper?”
“Sweetie, I’m too tired to be in anything other than bed,” he answered groggily. “In fact, I’m pretty sure I dozed off during most of that. So, I’m only like thirty percent sure I even know what the Order is.”
“Be serious, Jasper!” Dallas yelled. “This is important. I know you. I know that if there was something this important, you would tell me. I have no doubt about it.” She looked over at Riley and me. “But they do.” She pulled Tawny up from the counter and tossed her to Jasper. “She should have enough juice for a couple of sentences. So, tell them, Jasper. Are you in the Order?”
“No,” he said plainly.
“Good,” she said. “And, just to prove that Tawny is actually working, what do you tell me your favorite movie is?”
“Schindler’s List,” he answered.
“But your actual favorite movie is?” she asked.
“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” he responded. Then, with wide eyes, he added, “Wait. What?”
“It’s fine, sweetie,” she said, grabbing Tawny from him. “I love your feminine side.” She looked over at Riley and me. Are the two of you satisfied now?”
“I guess,” I muttered. “But you know what that means.”
“Back to square one?” Riley asked.
“Back to square one,” I answered.
27
“I am confused about one thing,” I said, keeping pace with Riley as we strolled down the early morning sidewalk on Main Street. Charlotte and Savannah had come back with the handle of one of the doors the ghost of Fallon floated through in Mr. Rickman’s house, and Grandma Winnie was working on it, trying to pinpoint the source of the magic that was causing all of this. Since there wouldn’t be much for us to do until that happened, Riley and I decided to take a walk to kill some time. Besides, having people see me and the police officer walking around town would do a lot to prove to the new sheriff that I wasn’t responsible for killing him since, you know, he wasn’t dead or anything. Also, being seen with a respected member of the police force—even if that respected member also happens to be a superspy—might curtail any rumors that I was responsible for any of this.
“Just one thing?” Riley asked, smiling as he looked over at me. “Because if I were you, I’d be confused about almost everything.”
“I’m trying to look on the bright side,” I muttered. “But yeah. If you guys are all humans, how did you get your house spelled the way it was?”
“Oh, that,” Riley answered. “It’s part of the package when you become an operative of the Order. Just because we’re all human doesn’t mean we don’t traffic in magic. When we get our position, we’re gifted with a finite amount of magic. I can’t do spells or anything, but the magic is delivered in such a way that we can do small things like protect our houses and the like.”
“That wasn’t small,” I answered. “That spell was smart, especially how you made it so no one who had never entered a specific room could go into it.”
“Liked that, did you?” He grinned, looking down at me. “I did think it was kind of cool.”
“Don’t do that,” I said, shaking my head at him.
“Don’t do what?” he asked, grinning at me.
“You know what you’re doing,” I muttered, biting my lower lip. “You’re acting all cocky and stuff.”
“It’s not cocky if you can back it up,” he mused.
“Okay, mister,” I said, slapping his arm playfully. “Let’s see how impressive you are. Any idea of who the third operative could be?”
“I’m afraid not,” he admitted, sighing. “Like I said, I hadn’t been introduced to them yet, and unfortunately, operatives aren’t allowed to keep anything written down.”
“That’s a bad break,” I lamented.
“It is,” he said. “Though, maybe your grandmother can get to the bottom of it before whatever you saw in your tarot cards comes to pass.”
“Ugh,” I balked. “It never happens the way it’s supposed to. Things never come the way you think they’re going to.”
“I imagine,” Riley said. “Would you believe that I don’t have even one memory of your mother without those cards in her hands?”
He meant it as something nice, and it was. He remembered my mother. She likely meant a lot to him too. Still, hearing her mentioned brought up a lot for me. Though, unlike every other time it had happened, I could honestly talk about these things with Riley now. So I would.
“She adored you,” I said honestly. “She always thought of you as my protector or something.”
“She told me that,” he said. “She told me there would come a time when we’d have to lean on each other, that we’d have to be strong for each other, and that if we could do that, it would give us the greatest gift either of us would ever have.”
I blinked, looking up at him. There wasn’t much about my mother I didn’t know, but I hadn’t heard this before. It warmed my heart.
“I thought she was just giving me the sort of ‘world-weary’ advice you always get from your parents when you’re a kid. Who knows, though? Maybe those cards showed her something we haven’t seen yet.”
“They didn’t show her enough,” I answered. “They didn’t show her how to survive.” I took a deep breath. “Did you know that the first time I read those stupid tarot cards, they showed me her death?”
“What?” Riley asked, his eyes widening.
“We thought it was mine,” I said, thinking back. “We thought I was going to suffer the ‘untimely death’ the cards were reading. So, my mom made sure I was extra-careful. She kept me home from school. She made sure I barely left my room, and when it turned out the tires needed replacing on my car, she was the one who drove it to the repair shop.”
“And that’s when she died?” Riley asked, his voice shaking a little.
“Head-on collision,” I answered. “The whole time, I thought it was me. It never was. The cards lied to us. No. I’m being stupid. They didn’t lie. I misread them. It doesn’t matter, though. Either way, I lost my mother because of them.”
“I’m so sorry,” Riley said, taking my hand. “I know how much that must have hurt.”
“It did,” I answered. “It hurt so much that I left because of it. In fact, I think it’s the reason I got engaged in the first place.” I shook my head. “I knew, deep in my heart, that he wasn’t the right guy for me. I just wanted to be someone else so much. I wanted to be someone who didn’t hurt. I wanted to be someone other than the girl who lost her mother. So, I decided to become the girl who was engaged to the guy. Except it wasn’t the right guy.”
“Why would you do that?” he asked, looking searchingly at me. “Why would you ever want to be someone else when the person you are is so incredible?”
I swallowed hard, looking up at him. “Riley,” I said breathlessly, “I—”
“I thought that was you!” a voice shouted from across the street, tearing me from what was shaping up to be a perfect moment. Looking over, I saw Emily running toward us, waving like the big goof she was. “Riley! Izzy! Get over here!”
And I likely would have, except that she was running toward us.
“Emily,” I said, scooping her up into a big hug. ‘What are you doing up so early?”
“The Roundabout is trying breakfast now,” she explained. “Come on in, and I’ll get you some on the house. It’s the least I can do, seeing as how you didn’t get a chance to eat your food last night.”
“Or pay for it,” I realized, my eyes widening. ‘Emily, I’m so sorry.”
“Not at all,” she answered. “I wasn’t going to charge you anyway. How could I charge my best friend?
”
I took her hand and squeezed it. “She’s more than my best friend, actually,” I said, looking over at Riley. “She’s practically my sister.”
“And I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she responded. “Now, come on. I need to get you guys fed.”
Following Emily, we went into the completely empty restaurant. “Don’t mind this. We don’t officially open for another hour. Sit down anywhere you’d like. I’ll get your food cooking.”
With that, she disappeared into the back.
“This was really nice of her,” I said, sitting down at the same table Riley and I had sat at the night before.
“And very welcome,” Riley said. “I’m starving.”
“Me too,” I said. “It’s like I haven’t eaten in a—”
My phone rang, shutting me up. Seeing that it was Dallas, I answered. Only, it wasn’t Dallas on the other end of the line.
“Grandma?” I asked. “What’s up?”
“I got through the magic, Izzy,” she said. “It took a while, and all I got was a clue, but I got through it.”
“What clue, Grandma?” I asked. “What did you see?”
“It’s the strangest thing,” she answered. “All I saw was butterflies, lots and lots of butterflies.”
My heart sank as I realized what was going on. “Oh, no,” I said hurriedly. “Grandma, I think we might be in trouble.” A spark flew from the phone and it flung itself from my hand and went across the room, smashing against the wall.
“Izzy?” Riley asked with wide eyes. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Emily,” I lamented. “Emily is behind all of this.”
28
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Riley said, standing up from his seat. “You said she was like your sister.”
“And she is,” I answered, shaking my head. “In the end, I think that’s what the tarot cards were trying to show me. I thought they were telling me someone in my family was going to die, but they meant that someone I considered to be family was behind all of this.”
Mountains, Mystery, and Magic Page 12
