Rhinestone Way
Page 3
All of Glory’s family’s possessions were now burning, until my entire view of the gathering was consumed by flame. A imprint of the firelight covered my eyes. The other witches around me were all staring forward as intently as I was.
As the flames reached higher, my grandmother stepped back. She took my hand and bowed her head. Her fingers were icy, even though they were so close to the fire. This cold deed had turned her very body cold.
I bowed my head and closed my eyes. With my right hand, which was still free, I performed the crackle motion that I had so recently learned. I closed my eyes and willed it to work, and finally it did. My fingers warmed like they barely had before. This coven ritual was too powerful an event.
The cold and the black evening surrounded me, but I saw none of it. On the inside of my closed eyelids there was only flame.
A hum and a chant went up around the circle of witches. We cast out one of our own. Together. It was the most sacred of duties: to protect ourselves.
The family was gone from our ranks.
Back home, my grandmother muttered goodnight and tried to walk away from me. All the way home I’d followed her silently, the heavy cape flapping at the ankles of my witch shoes. Now I lifted my eyes before she left. I had a question for her that couldn’t wait.
“Bethel, is there any way for someone to rejoin the coven once she’s kicked out?” I asked.
Bethel stopped to glare at me through the thick darkness of the quiet house. “I need a drink,” she declared, and then she was gone.
The house reminded me of the Twinkleford witch I still was. My journey was only just beginning.
Chapter Five
We didn’t talk much the next morning. I was still mulling over my question from the night before. Oddly enough, the fact that my grandmother hadn’t actually answered it gave me hope. I knew that wouldn’t thrill her if she knew, but I couldn’t help it.
It was a gray day, the smell of smoke giving a clinging feel to the air. When I first came downstairs to get tea, Bethel was puttering around the kitchen. All she expected of me at that point was a murmured good morning. She was like a storm cloud until she’d been productive on any given day. The rule was: get in her way at your peril. I had learned that rule quickly. Instead of lingering, I went back upstairs to shower.
When I came down a second time, she had disappeared outside.
Relieved, I grabbed a quick breakfast of toast and jam and headed out into the day. I wanted to get to the hospital and speak with Henry as early as possible.
There were no sign of Lucky and Lisa, our neighbors, when I left the house. Bethel had said that they liked to make themselves scarce during the expulsion ritual. Apparently they still hadn’t returned. I also had to wait longer than usual for the trolley. I must have just missed one before I got to the landing.
A couple of other people joined me as I waited. We didn’t speak, but they gave me curious looks. I knew they must know I was a Rhinestone. Since we had just ejected Glory’s whole family from the coven, I couldn’t really blame townsfolk for not wanting to speak with me.
The trolley today was gray and blue. Given that I was going somewhere I had never gone before, I tried to pay more attention to my whereabouts. The Twinkleford Memorial Hospital was within the Merigold Borough, which was a more industrial neighborhood than some of the others, and driven by small kitschy markets. There were a few homes near the hospital, but as far as I could tell they were all inhabited by medical staff.
Twinkleford had five boroughs in all; ours was Mountain Misdirect. Crown was the one where the rich kept away from the riffraff. Cobalt Midnight and Greely rounded out the list.
I didn’t think I had met anyone who worked at the hospital, and I was nervous as I made my way there. If Quinn was visiting Henry, I knew he’d be angry with me for butting in.
We had yet to run into each other since the kerfuffle at the dance. If I got lucky I’d never have to see the man again. But Twinkleford wasn’t that big a city. I had never been one to have a close relationship with luck, and anyhow, if I was going to dip my tiptoe back into the realm of snooping, that hope seemed a bit like pie in the sky.
Lowe had described the hospital as being not very big, but unmistakable. I hadn’t believed her on the latter point; I could get lost in my own house if I wasn’t careful.
When I disembarked at the Merigold stop, though, I saw what she was talking about. The hospital was easy to pick out. It was made of brick, but the bricks were painted a rainbow array of colors. Gold, silver, blue, green, and red, not to mention purple and pink—they were all there. I couldn’t believe anybody had gone to so much trouble. Maybe they’d been drinking Fermented Fairy Flame while they designed the building, and the effect of the potions had lasted long enough for them to carry it out to the fullest.
In any event, it was perfectly easy to find my way after I got out of the trolley. I passed a few other townsfolk on the way, but none of them took any notice of me.
As I was nearing the entrance to the hospital, I paused as a familiar figure caught my eye from about twenty feet away. It was Lowe, shifting from foot to foot and looking unsure of herself. The wind had picked up and was blowing her blue-streaked hair in every direction.
We spotted each other at the same time and I started walking again. When I came to a halt next to Lowe, she frowned.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I responded.
She sighed and we stared at each other.
“Let’s each say it on three,” she suggested suddenly.
“Okay. Let’s do that,” I agreed.
“One . . . Two . . . Three,” said Lowe.
Then, at the same time and in a jumble, we both said that we were visiting Henry.
“Oh, why are you visiting him?” she asked, just as I wondered the same thing in reverse. She frowned at me again. I explained that I was visiting because Kelly had asked me to do it as a favor to her.
“I’m surprised Bethel let you out of the house,” she said.
“She was preoccupied,” I said.
Lowe nodded. “That’s true. I didn’t think I’d get away with it either, but she didn’t notice when I left this morning.”
“You know Henry?” I asked.
Lowe nodded. “We went to school together. He’s a good guy, but I think he’s fallen in with a bad crowd lately.”
That was almost the exact same thing Kelly had said. I wondered who this bad crowd consisted of.
“What about Kyle? Did you know him?” I said.
“Everyone knows Kyle. He’s that kind of guy,” said Lowe. “He was also really nice. He and Henry are best friends.”
“So it’s not surprising that they went missing together. Do you have any idea where Kyle might be?”
“Definitely not. He probably punched Henry and Henry doesn’t want to admit it, or something stupid like that,” suggested Lowe.
Several hospital staff people and visitors were walking past us. Not wanting to linger in such a public spot any longer, we looked at the doors at the same moment.
“Shall we go in together?” I said.
Lowe brightened. “Yes. I’d like a chance to introduce you to Henry. He’ll like you,” she assured me.
With that we headed inside. The nurse at the front desk informed us that Henry’s room was on the third floor, and we headed for the stairs.
The hospital was a warm and pleasant place, with pastel walls and friendly people. I found myself relaxing in spite of myself.
“I think I can help with the interview, too,” said Lowe in a quiet voice.
“How so?” I asked as we passed the second floor.
“Quinn doesn’t think you should be here, right?” she mused.
“Right,” I said.
“So, I’ll go in first and scope it out. If he doesn’t see you, then he can’t be mad that you’re investigating. He won’t be as suspicious of me,” she explained.
I wasn’t so sure, myself.
Really, though, I wanted something—anything!—to take my mind off of the coven ritual from the night before. If I thought about it too much I’d get upset all over again, so I was glad to have something a little mysterious to dig into. Maybe I wasn’t a real investigator, but I sure was nosy, and as far as I was concerned that was half the battle. If I could just look into this and help Kelly, maybe I wouldn’t have to keep on feeling so sad about Glory.
We rounded the corner into another hallway. The next instant, I went stumbling backwards into the safety of the previous corridor.
Lowe took a moment to notice that I was no longer next to her. Meanwhile, I pressed my back to the wall and tried to make myself invisible. Quinn had been standing at the nurse’s station, in effect guarding Henry’s door.
With a fake smile on her face, Lowe came back around the corner to where I was waiting.
“You saw the sheriff?” she asked, her lips barely moving.
I nodded.
“I’ll go say hi to him and explain that I’m a friend of Henry’s. Maybe wait for me down there?” She pointed toward the far end of the hall, to an empty lounge we had just passed. It was big enough so that even if Quinn walked by, he probably wouldn’t see me in the corner.
“Okay. Don’t let Quinn push you around,” I whispered. “See what you can find out from Henry and let me know if Quinn leaves.”
“I really wonder what you would do without me,” said Lowe with a grin. She went back around the corner. She looked so smug she was nearly floating. I hurried to the lounge to hide myself as best I could.
Waiting was going to be agony. Try as I might, I was too far away to hear what Lowe was saying, so I composed myself to wait with as much patience as I could muster.
Maybe ten minutes later I heard footsteps and quickly pressed myself into a corner. Then I heard a noise, a sort of hissing sound like a pierced pipe letting out steam. It was strange, but I didn’t dare move into the open to see what it was. I kept my back pressed against the lone chair in the corner, sure that if Quinn walked by he wouldn’t see me, nor would anyone else.
The footsteps were quick at first, then slower. They didn’t sound very heavy, so I had to think it was a woman coming near. Meanwhile, the hissing seemed to come complete with a smell, kind of like rotting vegetables. The hospital looked to be in good shape, but maybe it was older and more broken down than I had thought.
I scrunched down further into the corner and waited for the footsteps to pass. Then I waited some more, but I heard no one else walk by. I just sat there wishing for Quinn to leave so I could speak with Henry myself.
After what felt like forever, I heard Lowe calling me. I sprang to my feet and raced for the door. “What are you doing?”
Lowe looked relaxed and happier than I had seen her since we had found out about Glory. “Quinn went down the back stairwell. He said he was going to get a bite to eat. You have a few minutes to talk to Henry now. We have to hurry!”
We both headed quickly toward Henry’s room. “Did he say anything helpful?” I asked. I could barely contain my excitement.
“I couldn’t ask him anything with Quinn there. I had to pretend I was visiting for his well-being,” said Lowe with a wry smile.
“Okay. We can ask now,” I said.
Lowe led the way into Henry’s room with me following quickly behind her. The room was big for a hospital room, bright and airy and mostly white, with a few cherry accents thrown in. There was a large window that overlooked the front entrance.
On the bed lay a guy who looked about eighteen. He was pale, but even lying down he looked like he was very tall. He gave me a goofy smile as I entered. “I didn’t realize I’d have so many pretty girls visiting me this morning. If I had known, I would have been knocked unconscious in the woods a lot sooner.”
Lowe rolled her eyes and smothered a giggle. “Don’t be ridiculous. This is my friend Jade.”
“You mean your cousin? The one who saved the Rhinestones and all of the rest of us? That’s awesome,” said Henry.
“Don’t pretend you pay any attention to town politics,” said Lowe with a grin.
Henry shook his head. “Not usually. But that bit of town politics penetrated even my brain. Everybody was really worried that the Rhinestones would be thrown out. If that happened, there would be no one to check the other witches’ power. A Rhinestone resurgence is what a lot of us want.”
He apparently paid more attention to Twinkleford coven dynamics than Lowe gave him credit for.
“Glad I could save the day, then,” I said.
“It’s always nice when that happens,” Henry agreed.
“Can I ask you a few questions about what happened in the woods? Kelly’s been wondering,” I explained.
At this Henry became more serious. His eyes went from bright to dull. “Yeah, I figured she’d be worried. Unfortunately, Kyle has been worrying his family for years. I always tell him not to do it, but he can’t seem to help himself. He wasn’t meant for school or anything like that, you know?”
I didn’t know what it was like not to have a family that worried about me. Even my dad worried about me. All the same, Kyle had officially caused an awful lot of trouble.
“The sheriff doesn’t seem that worried,” Henry went on. “Apparently he’s been under the impression that Kyle will turn up soon. It was only this morning, when I woke up and told him I wasn’t so sure of that, that he seemed to get a little more serious about all of it. At least that’s what my family says.”
“What did you tell him that made him think it might be serious after all?” I said. We might as well start somewhere, and that seemed to be as good a place as any.
Henry shrugged and then winced. “I told him we had gone out to the woods to make a trade. We had gotten a message about supplying some pearls and feathers, not usually something we’d respond to. Most of the time we’re very careful about who we meet up with. Let’s just say this was an offer we couldn’t refuse, so we didn’t. It’s only now that I’ve realized that whoever took Kyle made the offer because they knew we wouldn’t be able to refuse.”
Lowe looked worried. I knew my cousin well enough to know that she was trying not to yell at Henry for his foolishness. “You’re trading in pearls?” was all she said.
Henry rolled his eyes. “A lot of us do a little of that. Not serious trading, obviously. We’ve only been able to get our hands on a few of them so far. Someone has a lock on the market, and it isn’t us.”
“And what exactly did this message offer you in return for the pearls?” I asked.
Henry was looking down at the bed, twisting the sheet in his hands, not wanting to say any more. “I can’t tell you. If Kyle comes back that might be different. At the moment I just can’t.”
“You have to tell us. How are we supposed to find out what happened to him if we don’t know where to start looking?” Lowe demanded.
“Look, it will get us in big trouble. If he still hasn’t come back tomorrow, then I’ll tell you,” Henry said.
“You’ve only been awake for a few hours and you’re already being difficult,” said Lowe, shaking her head. “Fine. I accept your terms. I don’t agree with them.”
“You don’t have any choice but to accept them, so I suppose that’s a good thing,” said Henry with a smile.
Just then my hand twitched with the kind of crackle of magic in my fingertips that I had felt at the coven gathering. I couldn’t believe the renewed sense of magic power that still stuck with me in the aftermath of all of us getting together. My grandmother had been right: we derived power from each othe
r. I might have become a witch just recently, but I felt more powerful than I ever had before. I was very careful how I moved my fingers, not wanting to create any unintended or counterproductive magic.
Just then there was a rumbling outside the room. At first we all ignored it, but it sounded like a particularly heavy object was being rolled down the hall. Since this was a hospital, so it could have been a bed, or a wheel chair, or a cart of some kind. But the rumbling didn’t stop. Instead it got worse. Finally it was so loud that the three of us gave up trying to talk over it.
“What is that?” I asked Henry, as if he would know.
The young man shook his head. “I’ve never heard it before.”
Beads of sweat had broken out on his brow, and I knew we had been there long enough. Even aside from Henry’s condition, I knew that Quinn would return soon, because he always had the worst timing. But I wanted to squeeze in one more question.
Time was now vital!
“Do you remember anything strange about that night?” I asked quickly.
“I remember fog,” said Henry, shaking his head as if to clear it. His eyes were distant. I was learning that he was not one to hurry. “I know it’s often foggy around here, but this was different. It was thick. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but it felt like it was alive, and it had a prickling quality to it. It was terrifying. I tried to convince Kyle to turn back, but he was having none of it.”
“Nobody said anything about fog. It had probably dissipated by the time anyone went out to look for you,” I mused. Maybe it was the fog that had left the orange residue.
Henry nodded.
“Okay, thanks. We’ll keep all of that in mind,” said Lowe.
I stepped out into the hall first, but I was so preoccupied with processing our conversation that at first I didn’t notice the strangeness all around me. Then I woke up and realized that the hall was empty, and a sort of metallic smell hung in the air. I took a few steps with Lowe behind me, then turned and asked her, “Does something feel off to you?”