Ominous

  She pushed a silver shaker toward Ivy across the linen tablecloth. Ivy clucked her tongue. “It doesn’t work like that. I have to be angry.”

  “Oh, really.” There was a bang and Ivy’s face turned red. She gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath, reaching toward her foot. “Angry now?” Noelle asked, tilting her head with a smile.

  “Did you just stomp on her foot?” I demanded.

  “Just trying to help,” Noelle said angelically.

  “Ivy, I’m so sorry,” I said, appalled.

  “It’s fine.” She straightened up again and turned her chair toward me, away from Noelle. “Look, I just think that if we’re all going to go to this party and act as bait, we may as well say the incantation first. If all the girls can do stuff like we can do … maybe they’ll be able to protect themselves if anything happens.”

  I saw the logic of what she was saying. I just had zero confidence that we could convince any of them to do it.

  “Oh, please. That is so not why you want to do this,” Noelle said, taking a sip of her water. “You just want it to be true. You want to be a real witch. Admit it, Ivy. You spent your entire childhood watching Charmed reruns on TNT and hero-worshipping Rose McGowan, didn’t you?” Then she squinted and tilted her head. “Or no … you’re more of a bitchy Shannen Doherty type….”

  Ivy gritted her teeth and looked me in the eye. “Is it okay if I kill her?”

  I smirked. “I wouldn’t try. Goran’s packing.” We both glanced warily at the bodyguard and the bulge on his right hip. He sniffed and shifted his jacket to try to camouflage it better. “Besides, without her we won’t have eleven.”

  Ivy’s eyes lit up. “Seriously? You’ll do it?”

  “Oh, come on,” Noelle said impatiently. “You guys, just because some crazy faction of alums thinks this is real, that doesn’t mean it is.”

  I shot her a silencing stare and whipped out my cell phone. “I’ll start with Tiffany.”

  “I’ll call Portia,” Ivy said giddily.

  Noelle rolled her eyes and summoned the waiter with a flick of her hand. “I’ll have the salmon and they’ll both have the heaviest pasta you’ve got on the menu.”

  “What?” I said, lifting the phone to my ear as it began to ring. “Why?”

  Noelle crunched on a cube of ice and sighed. “Because maybe if I can lull you guys into a food coma, I can prevent this thing from happening.”

  “Somehow I can’t see Eliza and Catherine shopping for candles inside a Pottery Barn,” I said as we stepped through the huge glass doors, out of the frigid cold and into the warm, airy shop on Fifth Avenue.

  “Yeah, well, it’s the one place you can always guarantee they’ll have white candles,” Noelle said, standing next to me. She sighed and shook her head. “I still can’t believe we’re doing this.”

  “Come on,” Ivy said, breezing by with an empty wire shopping basket dangling from her arm. “They usually keep the candles in back.”

  Heaving another sigh, Noelle followed after Ivy and Goran trailed her, his head swiveling slowly from right to left as if it were on a timer. Noelle pulled out her iPhone to check her messages as she skirted a couple of little kids chasing each other with pillows. Sam and I tried to catch up, but a woman in a wheelchair cut me off and stopped in the middle of the aisle to inspect a mahogany desk. Glancing at Noelle’s retreating back, I hooked a right and started to go around a table full of plates and napkins, when I spotted a silver clock on a shelf, shaped like an old-school airplane. The face of the clock was the front of the plane, and the hands were the propellers. My father would love it. And after my conversation with Noelle’s dad the night before, I’d been feeling a lot of guilt about my dad, as if just talking to Mr. Lange were a betrayal.

  I picked up the clock and checked the price. There was a red slash through the bar code on the sticker and the scrawled note 1/2 off! Sweet. I always had a hard time finding gifts for my dad that weren’t Pirates-, Penguins-, or Steelers-related.

  Sam turned so that a middle-aged guy could get by us, and I felt suddenly uncomfortable. It was weird, being shadowed by someone I’d barely talked to.

  “What do you think of this?” I asked, holding it up.

  He frowned, surprised. “It’s a plane clock.”

  I blinked. “Yeah …?”

  “Why would you want a clock made out of a plane?” he asked, his brow knitting.

  “Because it’s cute,” I replied.

  “Never understand what people will spend their money on around here,” he said under his breath, shaking his head and looking off toward the door.

  My face burned, but I chose to ignore him. Glancing around the side of the towering display, I saw Noelle and Ivy pause near the back of the store. I grabbed one of the boxed clocks off the highest shelf, then went to join my friends. Actually, I probably shouldn’t have left those two alone for as long as I already had. Knowing them, they were probably fighting over whether we should get twelve-inch tapers or nine. A crowd of female shoppers in fur coats skirted right past me, one of them elbowing me aside as if I wasn’t even there, and I bit my tongue. I stood on my toes to try to see over their shoulders as they walked toward the stairs to the second floor. I spotted the candle section, but Noelle and Ivy were suddenly nowhere in sight.

  I paused near a basket of white votives and looked around. Where had they disappeared to?

  Then, suddenly, my heart lurched. Had they actually disappeared?

  But you didn’t dream about Noelle and Ivy going missing, a little voice in my head told me.

  Then I scoffed, unable to believe my inner voice thought that was a logical argument.

  Sam had stopped at the end of the aisle, but he didn’t seem perturbed that the others were gone. I supposed that as long as I was safe, he was doing his job. I scanned the store again, flipping my hair over my shoulder, trying to look casual. I didn’t see Noelle’s tall frame or Ivy’s dark hair anywhere. All we were supposed to do was buy some candles. What were they doing? Browsing the linens section?

  I tucked the plane under my arm and took off, walking the aisles at the back of the store one by one. Every time I came to a corner I told myself they’d be around the next one, but they never were. When I got to the kitchen section I paused to take a breath, and felt a sudden, foreboding tingle down the back of my spine.

  Someone was watching me.

  “Everything okay?” Sam asked,

  I jumped and nearly knocked over a precarious stack of heavy white dinnerware.

  “Yeah. I’m fine. I just … Where did they go?”

  “Hang on,” Sam said. He lifted his hand to his mouth and spoke into his wrist. “G? What’s your twenty?”

  He lowered his arms and waited. And waited some more. Then he took a few steps away from me and tried again. “G? Please respond.”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone slip into the next aisle. Slim frame, long dark hair, dark skin. My heart leapt to my throat. I took a tentative step away from the wall and peeked between two shelves. The girl’s back was to me, but I could see most of her profile. She wore her hair in a low ponytail, and colorful earrings dangled against her sharp cheekbones.

  Sabine.

  “Omigod,” I said breathlessly.

  Someone grabbed my wrist and I screamed, whirling around.

  “God! Jumpy much?”

  Paige Ryan stood before me, her auburn curls back in a plaid headband. I looked across the aisle again and came face-to-face with the girl I’d been ogling. She was Asian American, with dark brown eyes and a petite frame. She looked nothing like Sabine at all.

  “Are you all right?” Sam asked, coming up behind me.

  “I’m fine,” I said through my teeth. “Did you find them?”

  He nodded. “They’re waiting for us at the front.”

  I let out a relieved sigh.

  Paige looked me up and down. “What’re you doing here?”

  “Getting some air,” I replied. “
What are you doing here? I’d think that shopping would be the last thing on your mind, what with your cousin going missing.”

  “I needed a distraction,” Paige shot back.

  In her defense, she did look rather harried. She wore almost no makeup and had broken out across her forehead. Her gray cashmere sweater was pilly and she was actually sporting jeans, which I was certain I’d never seen her wear.

  “Well, good seeing you,” I lied, backing away.

  “Hope you get to go back to school soon,” she said through her nose, picking up a coffee mug to inspect it. “At this point you may have to do an extra semester.”

  “Thanks,” I said sarcastically.

  She took a step toward me, cocking her head. “And you won’t be doing any of it in the new Billings. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

  Then she placed the cup back down on the glass shelf with a clang and strolled away. It was amazing, how much she sounded like Missy. Those two seemed to be a faction unto themselves. With a deep, cleansing breath, I turned around and headed toward the front of the store, my bodyguard in tow.

  Noelle, Ivy, and Goran hovered near the door with their shopping bags. I gave them a quick wave as I joined the short line to buy my father his new clock. As the line inched forward I told myself to look on the bright side. Sure, there was a bodyguard tailing me, three of my friends were missing and possibly dead, and I’d just had a run-in with a bitch, but soon I’d have a Father’s Day present for my dad three months early, and at least Sabine hadn’t escaped from prison and started stalking me. Even on the worst of days, there was always a bright side.

  We sat in a circle in the middle of Noelle’s private living room. The chairs and the couch were shoved up against the walls, and several gleaming silver trays of pastries and fruit were placed at the center of the cushy, dark pink rug. We’d kept the lights bright, and Noelle’s current favorite playlist pumped through the speakers. Her theory was that if any of the girls realized why they were there before we told them, they’d bolt before we could ever get started. I saw no flaws in that logic.

  “Okay,” I said, sitting down between Noelle and Ivy, feeling nervous. We’d decided that making everyone wear full-on white was out of the question, but I’d donned my white roll-neck sweater and light jeans for good measure. I zipped the locket back and forth on its chain and looked around at my colorfully clad friends. “Let me tell you why we’re here.”

  “You’re gonna try to make us into witches, aren’t you?” Vienna asked, her mouth full of chocolate éclair. She looked at me over her fingers as she licked them one by one. She was wearing yoga pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt that stretched across her stomach. Stress eating was starting to affect her usually fit body.

  No one laughed or scoffed or moved. They all just gazed at me with varying expressions of expectation, annoyance, and fear. So much for them not knowing why they’d been invited.

  “I’m not trying to make you into anything,” I replied, glancing at Ivy. “We just … we figured that since there happen to be eleven of us—”

  “Left.” Kiki stared straight ahead, her hands pressed flat into the floor at her sides. Her earbuds hung around her neck and her hair looked limp and unwashed. “There are eleven of us left.”

  My heart was tight inside my chest. “Yes.”

  Suddenly the room felt very warm. No one breathed, it seemed, for an oddly long time.

  “We thought it might be fun,” Noelle piped up, turning a palm toward the ceiling.

  “And I thought it might help us protect ourselves,” Ivy put in.

  “So you really believe all this,” Tiffany said flatly, reaching for the fruit platter and dragging it toward her across the carpet. “You really believe that when you guys said this incantation, you developed some kind of power?”

  I took a breath and shook my head. “I don’t know what I believe, Tiff. I just know that if it is real … then Ivy’s right. We might have a better shot of keeping ourselves safe.”

  “I can’t believe you actually agreed to this, Noelle,” Portia said with a nervous laugh.

  “Yeah, well, I’ve already got a therapy appointment booked for tomorrow morning,” Noelle joked. “Maybe Dr. Markowitz can help me sort out why.”

  The other girls laughed and I felt my shoulders relax a bit. Noelle didn’t need any incantations. She was already so powerful. She had the ability to make everyone in the room feel chill, or turn them tense on a dime.

  “Really, though, I just thought it might take our minds off things,” Noelle said. “And besides, Reed would just not let it go,” she joked again, rolling her eyes.

  More laughter. I glanced at Ivy, who was clearly not amused, but I didn’t care. If Noelle’s tactic worked to get the others on board, I was all for it.

  “So, what do you guys think?” I asked, glancing around.

  Tiffany finished chewing her last bite of strawberry and closed her eyes. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but fine. I’ll do it—if only to prove this whole thing is a joke.”

  “I’m in too,” London said. She glanced at Vienna and blushed. “I think it’d be kind of cool to be a witch.”

  “Well, if she’s in, I’m in,” Vienna said, dusting powdered sugar off her fingers. She’d just downed another doughnut. “What do we need to do? There’s no blood involved, right?”

  “I’m not doing it if there’s blood,” Rose said, looking peakish.

  “There’s no blood involved,” I assured them, feeling a rush of excitement so sudden and fierce it actually made me nauseous. I nodded to Ivy, who grabbed a small stack of papers behind her and started passing them out. “All we’re going to do is hold candles and say this incantation.”

  Rose chewed on her lip as she read the words, kneading her hands together. Tiffany read it through once and put it aside, as if she’d already memorized it. Amberly’s page shook as she held it, and a line appeared between her eyes as she concentrated. I held my breath, imagining that this was similar to how Eliza had felt when she realized her friends were going to join her. They were going for it. They were really going for it.

  “This is never gonna work,” Noelle whispered to me, leaning toward my ear.

  I lifted one shoulder and bit back an unexpected grin. For the first time in my life, I was certain she was wrong.

  As I looked around the circle of my friends, candlelight casting their faces in dancing shadows, I suddenly felt like a complete idiot. Like the ringleader in some crazy endeavor to experiment with some new drug or base-jump off the Empire State Building or get everyone to shave their heads. This little undertaking was just as stupid, and potentially just as dangerous—at least as dangerous as the first two. Not that I would ever admit that out loud. Because I couldn’t take another eye roll from Noelle without knocking her on the head.

  Ivy returned to the circle after making sure everyone’s candles were lit. She stood to my left, Noelle to my right. Directly across from me, Rose stared into her flame as if mesmerized and Amberly seemed to be blinking in slow motion. Kiki’s jaw was set in determination, and Tiffany kept checking her watch. Portia toyed with her gold chains, her thumb hooked over the longest two as she ran it up and down the length of them. Vienna and London whispered, holding hands, and Constance just stared at me, like she’d follow me wherever I wanted to lead.

  Somehow that scared me more than any of my nightmares had.

  There was a round of deep laughter outside the closed doors of Noelle’s living room, which exited onto the same hallway as the now infamous double doors to her bedroom. The laughter reminded me that time was of the essence here. It had taken a lot of convincing to get all the bodyguards and security personnel to leave us alone in here—Amberly’s had pointed out that most threats came from “someone you know and think you can trust” (preaching to the choir, dude). I figured we had ten minutes tops before the whole army of them came banging down the door.

  “Everybody ready?” I asked.

  N
ods and murmurs rippled around the circle.

  “All right. Here we go.”

  “We come together to form this blessed circle, pure of heart, free of mind,” I began. I was surprised by the strength of the voices around me, and it squelched my nerves a bit. “From this night on we are bonded, we are sisters.”

  I glanced at Constance, feeling a stab of guilt so intense it nearly knocked me over. Once upon a time I had sworn to be her sister, and London’s too, and I knew how betrayed they’d felt when I’d formed the BLS and kept them out.

  “We swear to honor this bond above all else. Blood to blood, ashes to ashes, sister to sister.” I closed my eyes for the briefest moment, knowing what was coming. Or what was supposed to come. “We make this sacred vow.”

  I held my breath. A cold wind swirled through the room, and I heard a couple of people gasp. Amberly grasped Rose’s hand and whimpered as all the candles flickered out. I glanced at Ivy, and she gave me a sly, triumphant smile. Then I looked at Noelle. Her face betrayed nothing.

  The candles now extinguished, I waited. Then, slowly, they started to flicker to life again. First mine and Ivy’s. Then Noelle’s. Then Kiki’s, London’s, and Vienna’s. Portia’s glowed like a tiny pinprick, as if it were having trouble coming to life, but Rose’s popped up so fast, she took a step back. Amberly stared at her candle, but nothing happened. I blinked, perplexed, and looked at Ivy. Tiffany’s candle smoked for a second but didn’t light. Constance’s candle, however, was flickering merrily.

  “That’s weird,” Ivy said.

  “Nice trick, Reed. With the wind and everything,” Tiffany said, looking around at the windows. Finding them closed, she cast her glance at the various air-conditioning ducts overhead. “How’d you time that one?”

  “I didn’t time anything,” I said. “That’s what happened when I said the incantation the first time. The wind, then the candle. At the time, I thought the wind had come down the stairs when Noelle opened the door, but … ”

  “There was no wind when we did it,” Ivy said. “Just the cell phones.”