Entangled

by Nikki Jefford

  “Tidy,” Raj observed.

  “Yeah, let’s get to work,” Gray said, standing in the middle of her room. Raj was still having a look about, and she’d rather he focused on her than her personal effects. “This spell is ridiculously easy. Have you heard of the graphic artist M.C. Escher?”

  Raj shook his head then shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Gray pressed the shift key on her computer to wake it up and bent over the keyboard, typing. She brought up a picture and stepped back so Raj could see. “I’m sure you’ll recognize his Drawing Hands.”

  “Oh yeah, he’s done a lot of cool stuff,” Raj said when he got a look at the black and white picture of two hands, each drawing the other.

  “I like to think of the invisibility spell in opposite terms—as you, the artist, erasing yourself from a 3D canvas.” Gray held up her hands. “I have this eraser in my mind and I’m moving it back and forth, picturing my hands disappearing and, as you see, my skin vanishes from sight.” Gray held up two seemingly decapitated hands. “Pretty cool. Now you try.”

  Raj held his hands out and stared at them.

  Gray watched his expression turn into one of steady concentration. She half expected him to peel back the layers of his skin right down to his bones. Yeah, a walking skeleton wouldn’t go over so well.

  “Stop concentrating so hard,” Gray said. “Staring at your hands isn’t going to make them disappear. I don’t even look at myself when I’m going invisible.”

  Raj closed his eyes as though that would work. When he opened them he looked surprised to see himself fully in the flesh.

  “Let’s try a different analogy. This is by far my favorite. Imagine yourself as a drawing on an Etch A Sketch, and then shake it back and forth. I find that’s the fastest way to make my entire body go invisible all at once. When I fill myself back in, it’s more like a wax mold or glass of juice I pour color back into, but we’ll get to that part after you accomplish invisibility.”

  Raj shook his body side to side.

  “No, you have to do that in your mind!”

  “I’m having trouble concentrating.” Raj attempted a laugh. “I feel like my brains have been sucked out.”

  Gray filled in her hands. If she couldn’t teach him to erase himself she wasn’t going to get a chance for Lesson 2: Making yourself re-visible. “I’m not surprised. That looked pretty intense back at the hospital.”

  “This isn’t normal. Usually I’m fine.” Raj moved to the foot of the bed, the place he’d been standing in Gray’s dream. A shiver ran through her and it wasn’t half bad.

  Gray cleared her throat. “What do you think Stacey’s chances are of coming out of that coma?”

  Raj pierced her with his gaze. “She’s not coming out.”

  * * *

  “He didn’t stick around long,” Mom said once Raj McKenna was out the front door.

  “See? No funny business.”

  “You could’ve invited him for dinner.”

  Gray rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right, like he’d want to have dinner with me and my mom.”

  “You never know.”

  Mom ended up ordering Chinese takeout. It was nice, just the two of them sans Charlene’s usual dramatics. Gray felt guilty thinking it, but it was the truth.

  “What have you and Raj been up to?”

  Gray dipped her spring roll in sweet sauce and gave her mom a look.

  “Not being nosy,” Mom said quickly. “Just making conversation.”

  “Raj helped me with something today so I’m teaching him one of my spells . . . or trying to teach him, rather. He couldn’t grasp it. Not so great on the male ego.”

  “We all have our areas of strength. Raj may never learn it. There are certainly spells I was never able to master.”

  Gray chewed and swallowed. “Well, we’re going to try it again Saturday morning. Whatever Raj did at the hospital sucked out all his energy.”

  Mom’s chair creaked when she sat up. “What were you doing at the hospital?”

  Oops.

  Gray looked at her plate. “I went to visit Stacey Morehouse. I thought Raj might be able to help her, or at least get through to her.” Even though her head was down she could feel her mother’s eyes boring into her.

  “Did he get through to her?”

  “No, but the most amazing thing happened. Her head opened up and this white light started shining out. I thought for sure they were communicating, but Raj said she wasn’t in there.” Gray stuffed another spring roll in her mouth.

  “That poor girl,” Mom said.

  “What happened to her?”

  “I remember briefly hearing about her car accident. I can’t recall much about it. You had just died. I was walking around in a fog at the time that happened.”

  Gray pushed her bean curds around with her fork. Did she dare say the words? “Do you think Charlene had anything to do with it?”

  Silence followed. Gray was afraid she’d angered her mom, but when she glanced up, Mom was studying the wall behind her thoughtfully. “She couldn’t have. Her powers are useless against Stacey. I made sure of that months ago.”

  “What about Ryan?”

  “I can hardly imagine Ryan Phillips capable of attempted murder.”

  Was that Mom’s way of saying she could imagine Charlene was? Gray jammed her fork into her bean curd and stuck it in her mouth.

  “No, I really don’t think she could have,” Mom repeated. “Charlene was distraught after she found you—tearing at her hair, screaming. I thought she was going to hurt herself.”

  That was sorta touching. Crazy, but touching.

  “I don’t see how she could have managed to do something to Stacey Morehouse’s car two days later. Charlene wouldn’t leave her room for a week after you died. Now that I think of it, she even refused to see Ryan when he came by to check on her every day that she missed school.”

  “Well, that’s a relief,” Gray said, though she wasn’t entirely convinced. Weird coincidences were entirely possible, but where there was a witch, there was suspicion. “I’m stuffed,” she said after polishing off the last of the noodles from her plate.

  “Save it for lunch tomorrow . . .” Mom started to say, then fell silent.

  Gray looked down at her leftover bits of mushrooms and bamboo shoots. “This sucks.”

  “I know, honey. I’m going to fix it as soon as possible and then I’ll have both my girls at the same time, all the time.”

  Right, until Charlene found out about Gray’s incident with Blake. Once she did, she might very well kill her. Then again, Gray might have cause to blackmail her sister for life.

  Did you do something to the brakes on Stacey Morehouse’s car?

  Gray wondered if Charlene would really answer that question. She tapped her pen against the open notebook. Gray was seated at the countertop, jotting notes before bed while her mom washed their scanty pile of dishes and moved leftovers to glass containers.

  Gray followed her mom’s progress then looked down at the notebook once more.

  P.S. There was a slight incident involving Blake at school today . . .

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Excuse me. Um, do you mind moving?”

  Raj didn’t realize the words were being addressed to him as he leaned against a locker across the hall from Charlene Perez and watched her arms fly around as she spoke to Blake Foster. Blake’s jaw appeared wired shut, as though he planned to give Charlene the silent treatment.

  “Can you please move over just a little so I can get inside my locker?”

  Raj blinked and noticed the petite brunette speaking softly through a mouthful of braces. He moved to the side.

  “Thanks,” she said and opened her locker.

  When the girl left Raj moved back. No sense going through the same conversation with the occupant of neighboring locker 324. Shay was hugging her text and notebook to her chest when she rounded the corner. She stopped beside Raj and followed his gaze across the hall.

>   “I wonder what she’s thinking,” Raj said by way of greeting.

  Shay’s eyes rolled up in her head. “I’m not breaking any vows for you.”

  “I didn’t ask.”

  “Please, I know what you were hinting at.” Shay planted a hand on her hip and looked at Charlene. “I don’t need to read minds to guess what’s going on. Her sister is no doubt messing things up with Blake. Blake is getting tired of the rollercoaster ride they’re taking him on and is pulling away. Now Charlene is afraid she’s going to lose him—thus the transparent black top and lace bra underneath. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s sent home to change before the morning’s out.”

  “Hmm,” Raj said, rubbing his chin. “And you got all that from body language?”

  “Like I said, people are so predictable.”

  “Nice skill.”

  “I call it the power of observation. Speaking of which, you’ve been going around wearing your heart on your sleeve. I hope Graylee Perez isn’t taking advantage.”

  Raj grinned. “If Gray wants to take advantage of me, I don’t mind.”

  “You’re impossible, you know. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  Blake’s jaw had relaxed into a lopsided grin. Whatever Charlene had said had convinced him to follow her toward the set of double doors down the hall.

  “What’s going on?” Max Curry asked as he walked up. His eyes followed Shay’s playful punch to Raj’s shoulder.

  Shay’s smile brightened when she looked at Max. “Raj is on stakeout.”

  “Stakeout?”

  Raj turned his head at the same time as Shay to the spot Charlene had occupied a moment earlier. She was gone now.

  “Charlene Perez,” Shay clarified.

  “Excuse me,” Raj said.

  Just a quick peek, he told himself. He wasn’t going to be late to first period.

  Raj paused in the alcove outside the double doors and looked into the student parking lot. Charlene and Blake were getting inside her car. There you had it—they were taking off. Blowing off school. Not that Raj blamed them. He might as well turn around and head to first period.

  But the car never rumbled to life. A minute later it was still parked.

  Didn’t matter. There was nothing to learn from Charlene in a parked car with Blake. It wasn’t like she’d do any nefarious plotting with Blake the Mortal Jock. Raj looked sideways at the double doors. If he hurried, he could get to class just as the last bell was chiming.

  He stepped toward the parking lot instead.

  “Time for a little Etch-A-Sketch-erasing action,” Raj said under his breath. He was a good visualizer. A bloody brilliant visualizer according to the personal coach his mom had hired once she realized he knew more magic than all the peer leaders at Gathering combined.

  Just do it. Real quick.

  Particles of Raj briefly floated in the air like specks of dust before disappearing altogether.

  Awesome!

  So he hadn’t gone all at once, but he’d get there.

  Raj took his first step forward, the familiar feeling of unsteadiness returning when he looked down and saw no foot. He couldn’t wait to show Gray on Saturday morning. Maybe he’d knock at her door `a la invisible mode. Then again, Mrs. Perez might answer, and on the other hand, if Raj already knew the spell there’d be no reason for him to stick around as Gray gave him his tutorial before she dashed off on whatever mission she had planned.

  The corner of Raj’s lips turned down. He continued walking toward the Beetle. The driver and passenger seats were empty. As Raj stepped closer, he saw Charlene and Blake sucking face in the back seat.

  Raj grabbed his left wrist—the fist that wanted to slam right through the window. It’s not Gray, he reminded himself. Not Gray. Not Gray.

  Charlene could make out with the entire basketball team for all he cared. Still, the sight was disturbing. Raj moved away.

  Now he really was going to be late.

  Gray was right. The first opportunity he had, he used the spell to play Peeping Tom. But he had done it for her. Lately he felt like everything he did was for her.

  * * *

  Raj was deciding between a frozen pita pocket, canned spaghetti, or starvation when there was a knock at the door. Both he and his father stared at one another.

  “Go on and answer it,” his dad said.

  No one, besides religious crusaders and solicitors, ever knocked on their door, but when Raj opened up he was dumbfounded to find Gray’s mother, Mrs. Perez, standing outside.

  “Good evening, Raj,” Mrs. Perez said. After greeting him she stared into the house.

  His father’s footsteps filled the narrow hallway as he advanced toward the open door. The smell of smoke moved with him. Raj was used to it, but with the fresh air hitting his face it suddenly felt overpowering in his nostrils.

  Mrs. Perez shifted her gaze to his dad. “Hello, Richard,” she said in an easy voice.

  “Marney.” He nodded. “How have you been?”

  “Taking one day at a time.”

  Raj was grateful that his father was in the security uniform and not his usual white stained cotton T-shirt and worn jeans. Still, he shifted and longed to block himself, his home, and his father from Mrs. Perez’s sight.

  “I’m actually here to see Raj,” Mrs. Perez said.

  “Oh? And what do you need from Raj?” His dad took a step closer. Raj inched away.

  “I need his help with a rather bothersome migraine I can’t seem to shake. I’m afraid it’s beyond my abilities and I remember Raj had something of a talent for the healing arts.”

  It was silent a moment and then from the corner of his eye Raj saw his father’s shoulders sag and his face lift into half a grin. “Lord knows he didn’t get it from me. Please, come in.”

  “No!” Raj said. “I find the best warm-up to a migraine disposal spell is breathing in fresh air. Let’s take a walk around the block.”

  Raj’s dad frowned. “At this time of night? In this neighborhood?” He glanced at Mrs. Perez.

  His dad clearly wasn’t using his head. If anyone had the bad idea to attack a witch and a warlock they were in for a world of trouble.

  “We’ll be fine,” Mrs. Perez said before Raj could speak. “But thank you for your concern. Raj?”

  Raj came out of his fog. “Right, be back momentarily.” He stepped out of the house into the company of Gray’s mother.

  Their nearest neighbor had toys littering their yard—and not the bright, cheery kind. A wheel was missing from a rusty tricycle turned over on its side. Dolls missing various body parts stuck out of the muddy patches dotting the overgrown yard like quicksand. The next yard wasn’t much better, with paint peeling from old lawn furniture and chipped potted plants that had toppled over. It looked more like an abandoned neighborhood in Chernobyl.

  Raj walked briskly. Mrs. Perez matched his pace down the street, not that the scenery improved further down. Even if he hadn’t read her aura already, Raj would have known the woman didn’t have a migraine. It wasn’t as though she’d come to his part of town if she did. Mrs. Perez had to have access to her own treasure trove of potions.

  So what was this? Come to warn him away from her daughter? Of course Gray’s mom would see Raj as riffraff not even fit for friendship with a member of her picture-perfect family. Okay, to be fair, the Perez family had problems, too. Nothing like what Raj had to deal with, though. At least Mrs. Perez cared about her girls. Hell, she’d gone to untold lengths to bring one back from the dead. Would Raj’s own mother even visit his grave if he died?

  “Gray told me she confided in you.”

  Raj waited for the shoe to drop even though he hadn’t picked up on any hostile energy radiating off Mrs. Perez. For all he knew she had placed herself under a masking spell. It wasn’t as though Mrs. Perez would drive over in the dark to wish Raj good luck in his pursuit of her daughter.

  “I appreciate the support you’ve shown her during this difficult time.”

>   “How’d you do it?” Raj didn’t mean to be so abrupt, but he couldn’t stop himself.

  “I contacted the right entity.”

  “I can’t imagine that came cheap.”

  The headlights from an approaching car lit Mrs. Perez’s face momentarily. Raj saw peace in her expression. There wasn’t an ounce of shame or guilt in those eyes. And he couldn’t blame her.

  The vehicle slowed as it approached them. Raj’s jaw tightened then slowly relaxed after it passed.

  “I gave up all my powers to get her back.”

  Raj instantly knew he hadn’t misheard Mrs. Perez. What struck him wasn’t what she’d confessed, but, like her expression a moment earlier, the complete lack of regret in her voice.

  “You gave up your powers for life?” he asked. It was unheard of. A witch without power was like a whale without a tail.

  “For life,” Mrs. Perez confirmed in a serene voice.

  Raj stared sideways at her. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “I can’t protect her, but you can.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  Mrs. Perez smiled. “Because you like her.”

  Raj shrugged.

  Mrs. Perez’s grin widened as though she could see right through him, even though she was now as powerless as any non-gifted person. “I want to ask a favor of you, Raj. I want you to look out for Gray—protect her. As soon as I get word from my contact I must go. I might not get the opportunity to tell Gray. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Mrs. Perez stopped suddenly and looked at him as though possessed. “I might not be around to watch out for her.”

  “I understand,” Raj said. He turned away, afraid Mrs. Perez would once more use her powers as an observant mother to see he not only understood, he cared more than he wanted to admit. His feelings were a personal matter, not something to be discussed with Gray’s mother. Still, he wanted to reassure her. She’d gone to the trouble to come to him for help. Crazier still, she trusted him.