Halfway Hexed (31 page)

“No one sends me anywhere. I go where I choose to go.”

I folded my arms across my chest, thinking it was time for me to choose to go, too—away from Edie. I stood.

“What I said earlier was extremely crude. I wanted to shock you.”

“You wanted to hurt me.”

She sighed. “Look, I had far more lovers than you ever will. Some of them were dangerous, and those relationships cost me things.”

“Like your life?”

“Marlee and Melanie have also both made bad choices. What I’m saying is that you’re no different from us, but we’d rather that you learned from our mistakes instead of making your own. We do love you.”

“Will you help me then?”

“Help you do what?”

‟I’m going back to see Lenore.”

She was silent for several long moments. “If I can’t talk you out of it, then yes, though if something goes wrong, they’ll never forgive me.” She swayed and faded. “I’ve got to go back to the locket soon, but I’ll tell you some things before I go. If you are going to time-walk, the most important thing is to not allow yourself to get disoriented. Lenore had great power and control when it came to dissociative states, but you have to rely on knowledge to help you. Let me tell you about the house. It’s where you should go, and stay inside it until you return from the past. Whatever you do, don’t venture out and get lost.”

I nodded.

‟All right,” she said, and then described the house in detail. She might have forgotten the prophecy, but she hadn’t forgotten a thing about the place where she’d lived.

I sat listening until she grew too weak and disappeared, then I chewed on my lip, lost in thought for a while.

Mercutio’s sharp yowl startled me.

‟What?” I asked.

He darted into the house.

“Okay,” I said, getting up. ‟I’m coming.”

I trailed through the house after him and found him in the foyer with his paw resting on the front door. Since he could’ve gone outside and around the house on his own, this was a sure sign that he wanted me to go out with him. Considering that Merc always seemed to tear off when he was on the trail of trouble or magic or both, the paw on the door worried me as much as running out of chocolate chips the night before the Duvall bake-off would.

Chapter 30

I told Bryn that I was going out with Mercutio for a little while. Bryn only looked up for a second to tell me to be careful and then he was back to flipping pages and writing notes.

The security phone rang as I was starting out of the room.

“I got it,” I said, picking it up. “Hi, Steve. He’s working. Can I help you?” I asked.

“There’s a guy in a taxi at the front gate. Says his name is Andre Knobel. His name’s on the admitting list, but I don’t know what the guy is supposed to look like and with the way things have been, I didn’t want to take a chance. I thought Mr. Lyons might want to look at the monitor before I opened the gate.”

“I know what he looks like. I’ll go see,” I said. I wondered where the taxi had come from. We don’t have a taxicab service in Duvall. If someone’s car breaks down, he just walks or bums a ride from someone else.

Bryn wasn’t paying attention. He was using a ruler and one of those protractor things that I hadn’t used since high school geometry.

I slipped out of the room, checking my gun as I opened the front door. Mercutio darted over to the car, so, whatever he sensed, it wasn’t Andre.

“Hang on. Bryn’s got a visitor.”

I jogged down to the gate, checking the area for any suspicious movements. There didn’t seem to be anyone lying in wait.

‟Andre?” I said. “Get out of the car so I can see you.”

The back door opened, and Andre got out. He looked a little bedraggled and moved kind of stiffly.

I pressed the intercom button. “Open the gate, Steve.” To Andre, I asked, ‟Are you okay?”

Andre gave a wad of bills to the cab driver. “Thank you,” he said to the man and closed the car door. As the taxi pulled away, he said, “They were waiting for me. They ran the first taxi off the road. I had to run very fast. It was lucky that I had a good cloaking amulet and knew a simple spell that I could remember at such a time.” He exhaled, like it was an effort to breathe. “It gave me enough time to get out of the ditch and get away. Bryn always says I am not suited to fieldwork, but I was not quite so sure until tonight. My head is not so cool in a crisis. He was right about sacrificing power for simplicity with the spell.”

I put a hand out to steady him and drew him toward the house. ‟Who was waiting for you?”

“Conclave. Certainly.” He took a deep breath and exhaled, looking over his shoulder. “I should not have come here, but, you understand, I could not think what to do. I planned to come to America, but not to this town. I would just be close in case he should need my help. Instead, I have come straight here. No luggage. Not sure if I have been followed.”

“Well, where else would you go when you’re in trouble in a foreign country besides to your best friend’s? He’ll be totally glad to see you. He was worried about you because your dad said they hadn’t heard from you.”

“I did not dare call. I would have had to drop the cloaking spell to prevent the phones shorting out from the magic. Also, my parents’ phones will be tapped surely.”

I opened the front door and ushered him in. “Normally, Mr. Jenson’s here to welcome people, but he’s staying at another house. If you’re hungry, you can help yourself. There’s plenty of food in the fridge. Tea, coffee, or hot chocolate with marshmallows, if you want, in the cupboards. I’d make you some, but my cat says we’ve got to go out.”

I took him to the study. ‟Look who’s here,” I said.

Bryn looked up from the book and frowned. ‟Andre, what the hell? We talked about this.”

I interrupted sharply. ‟Andre came to help us, and he had some trouble getting here. Aren’t you glad to see that he’s okay?”

Bryn got up and rounded the desk. “It can’t have been too much trouble. I don’t see any blood,” Bryn said dryly, but I knew he was relieved to see his friend alive and well. Bryn put a hand on the side of Andre’s neck to draw him in for a hug. I smiled.

“I was run off the road!” Andre said as Bryn walked back to his desk.

“That can be really rough! Rattles the teeth something fierce,” I said.

“Well, you’re here just in time,” Bryn said, tossing the protractor to Andre.

‟Why? What are we doing?” Andre said, shrugging off his tweed coat.

‟A time-walk spell.”

Andre cursed in German, then he smiled. “So lucky I came then,” he told Bryn. “You’ll need this math to be perfect. I trust you to measure, but to calculate the angles, my friend? This will take a genius.”

I didn’t know what they were talking about, plus Merc was still waiting outside, so I said, “Okay, have fun.”

“You will go out alone?” Andre asked in surprise, looking from me to Bryn and adding something in German.

“Not alone. I have this cat—”

Andre spoke again in German, and I could tell by his tone that he was skeptical. Couldn’t blame him. He didn’t really know Mercutio. Bryn nodded, apparently understanding German just fine.

I looked at Bryn with raised eyebrows. ‟What do you have? The gift of tongues? How many languages do you speak?”

Bryn smiled and said, “A few.” To Andre he said, “Yes, she’s going out alone. Forces of nature don’t believe in fear.”

“Do they believe in strategy? Forethought?”

“Sure, as long as it can be done in the time it takes them to find their car keys.”

I clucked my tongue and glared at Bryn. “I’m not that impatient! I’d plan a strategy if I knew what to strategize about, but how can I plan ahead, if I don’t know where Merc’s leading me to?” I demanded.

“The cat is in charge?” Andre exclaimed, bewildered.

“We’re kind of equal partners,” I explained. “I’ll be back.”

“I have no doubt,” Bryn said.

“He always wants to get the last word in. It’s very annoying,” I said to Andre.

“I know,” Andre agreed gravely. I smiled at Andre, and as I passed him, he took my hand and then pulled me to him and gave me a hug. “I hope you will take great care. We have only just met after all, and I must know you better.”

“Well, I’ll do my best to get back in one piece.”

Merc yowled at me the minute I came out the front door.

“Sorry! That was his best friend, and I was curious.” I pulled up to the gate and gave Steve a buzz. ‟Andre’s nice. You’ll like him.”

I rolled the window down a crack for some fresh air.

“It feels kind of muggy. Think it’s gonna rain?”

Merc licked his paw.

“I didn’t bring an umbrella. Are we going someplace that’s outside?” I paused. “Or inside?”

Merc didn’t answer. He might’ve been kind of annoyed at having been kept waiting. As I drove he occasionally tapped the dash or the windshield when he wanted me to turn. Having an ocelot navigator is actually a lot better than you’d think. Those GPS devices are amazing, bouncing up to space and back in a few seconds, but they can’t follow a magical trail worth a darn.

I drove down Main Street, not sure what I should be looking out for. Then I saw Johnny Nguyen standing on the side of the street, flagging me down.

I swerved into the City Hall parking lot. “Hey, Johnny, what’s up?”

“Tammy, I try to call you. Where your phone?”

“Lost it when I got buried alive. What’s going on?” I asked, getting out of the car. Merc darted out, too.

“Shh!” Johnny said, glancing at the police station.

Uh-oh.
‟Why shush?”

“Come. I show you.”

I followed him behind the building to the courtyard, surprised to see that there were a bunch of new marble statues amidst the old benches, bushes, and flowers.

“Wow. When did they get those? They’re kind of modern, huh? Never saw any pictures of statues wearing cowboy boots or spiked heels.” I moved closer to the one of a man in a suit and tilted my head.

“Is that . . . ?”

“Yes, it the mayor!” Johnny whispered frantically. He ran a finger over the statue and put it close to my lips. “Taste.”

“Taste what?” I demanded.
Dirt? Dust?
Johnny wouldn’t bother telling me to taste dust . . .

I turned my head to stare at the white crystalline statue, then stuck out the tip of my tongue. Johnny touched his finger to it.

‟What in the Sam Houston?” I asked, my gaze darting around the garden.

“Yes! They pillars of salt, Tammy Jo. The mayor. The city council. Somebody want them out of the way. Who? Why? And who going to run our town now?”

“Oh my gosh!” I sure knew who wanted to run the town. “Hey, pillars of salt aren’t one of the ten plagues. That’s a whole other part of the Bible!” I snapped.

Johnny cocked his head in confusion.

“Okay, calm down. Let’s not panic,” I said, giving Johnny’s arm a squeeze. Then I felt a raindrop plop down on my cheek.
On second thought.

Mercutio yowled softly. “I felt it, Merc.”

‟What?” Johnny said, looking up. A raindrop hit him between the eyebrows and he jumped. “That not good, Tammy Jo. Salt melt in rain.”

“I know it. We’ve gotta move them inside. Help me,” I said, hoping they weren’t going to break apart. Together we tipped the mayor sideways, and each of us lifted an end. He was really heavy. We had to stop twice to catch our breath. “Wait a second,” I said, winded. “We’re gonna need help.” I hadn’t felt any more rain, but I knew the sky was threatening.

I jogged over to the police station and went in. Smitty looked at me and grimaced. Just past him I could see into Sheriff Hobbs’s office where Lucy and Boyd Reitgarten were sitting across from the sheriff.

Uh-oh.

Smitty walked briskly to me and grabbed my arm. “Now ain’t exactly a good time for you to be here,” he whispered, maneuvering us outside the building.

‟Why?” I asked innocently. ‟What’s going on?” As if I didn’t know.

“Lucy Reitgarten claims you kidnapped her sister-in-law.”

“That’s just silly. I don’t have time to go around kidnapping people.”

“Well, you have had kidnapping on the brain lately.”

I waved my hand. “That was at least a couple days ago. I do need your help though. Are there some other guys on duty or are you it?”