Hold Tight (The Embrace Series) (8 page)

A few seconds later, I got a second text:
Bring something that belonged to Natalie.

I showed Kaylee the messages and then replied we’d be there.

Kaylee and I arrived at Isaac’s at the same time he and his dad got home. Josh showed up five minutes later, and we headed down to Isaac’s room.

“What does
scry
mean?” I asked as Isaac dragged a large box from the depths of his closet.

Kaylee, Josh, and I moved to get a closer look.

“It’s a form of divination. Like a crystal ball, only with water.” Isaac opened the box and began to empty it. One black and one white cloth came out first. They had been neatly folded, but I could still make out the gold point of a pentagram on each. A miniature broom maybe two feet in length (for sweeping away negative energy, Isaac informed us when Kaylee called him Broom-Hilda), two black statues, and several quart-sized baggies containing dried green plants were next to be removed.

“Dude!” Kaylee said, examining one of the bags. “Is this what I think it is?”

Isaac gave her an
Are you for real?
look. “They’re herbs.”

She opened one and sniffed. “Oh, it stinks!”

Josh snatched the baggie from her. “It’s wolfsbane, and it’s deadly.”

“Good to know.” She grabbed a pillow from the chair behind her and hugged it.

“The police don’t have any leads?” Isaac asked as he spread the black three-foot by three-foot cloth on the stone floor.

“They found her car near Wingaersheek Beach,” Kaylee said, “with her purse and keys still inside.”

Ben Taylor’s search team had found the car, which left the screaming question: What had Natalie been doing on a dark beach in the middle of the night? I was willing to bet she hadn’t been there alone. I had begged Dad to call his friend at the police station to find out if there was any news. It had been good and bad.

“Police brought in a K-9 unit. The dogs didn’t find anything,” I said.

“Maybe she met up with someone,” Josh suggested.

I shook my head. “There was only one set of tire tracks.”

“It’s like she vanished into thin air,” Kaylee said.

“People don’t vanish into thin air,” Isaac replied.

No, but they did get abducted, and the perpetrator could have still been out there, waiting for a chance to snatch another girl.

“She could have been forced to drive to the beach,” Josh pointed out, pulling me out of my bleak thoughts and into his.

“Police said there was no sign of a struggle,” I said.

Kaylee’s eyes widened with worry. “What if it was this secret admirer of hers?”

“You think her secret admirer followed her home from the party?” Isaac asked. “How is that not a stalker?”

“It is, dude.” Josh cleared off the sphere chair and sat down. “Girls are too blinded by the gifts to see it.”

“Shut up!” Kaylee threw the pillow at him. She leaned closer to me and whispered, “He’s just upset that I find getting flowers and candy from a guy sweet.”

“I’ve gotten you flowers,” Josh declared. “I’ll get you more if it’ll make you happy.”

She rolled her eyes and spouted a reply, but I’d stopped listening. I thought about the possibility of Natalie going off with her secret admirer. If this were the case, the guy might not have followed Natalie home. He could have been waiting for her. And he would have had to be someone Natalie knew for her to willingly sneak off with him. Unless he’d had a gun. I played out the latter scenario in my head: a guy sneaks up on Natalie, forces her to drive to the beach, knocks her out with chloroform, and then carries her to his car. He could have left his car on the side of the road. That theory would explain why the police only found one set of tire tracks.

I tossed three pillows on the floor around the cloth, eager to see what our magic uncovered.

Kaylee grabbed the pillow she’d thrown at Josh and sat on it. She leaned in to me and said, “He’s a total romantic. He just doesn’t want his friends finding out.”

I already knew that about Josh, but I was too busy hearing the word
romantic
echo in my brain to comment on that.

“I didn’t tell him about the flowers and chocolate,” I said.

“Tell who?” Isaac asked.

“Caden. We ran into him at the gas station. I asked him if he was Natalie’s secret admirer, and he said he doesn’t do flowers and chocolates.”

Josh’s brow pulled together. “So?”

“I didn’t tell him that Natalie had gotten anything from the guy. How would he know?”

Isaac looked at Josh. “He’s the guy I met when we got back with the chips. Ben’s brother’s friend?”

“Yeah. Dan’s at college. Caden stops by every now and then. I think he’s keeping an eye on Ben while Dan’s away, making sure he doesn’t get into trouble.” Josh directed his next comment at me. “I don’t think he’s going to keep Ben on the straight and narrow and then go abduct someone else.”

Isaac set a midnight-blue bowl over the star. “We’ll know in a minute if she’s with him.”

We sat on pillows, boy-girl-boy-girl, forming a circle.

“What are we doing again?” Kaylee asked.

“Scrying,” Josh replied. He set a dark red pillar candle on one corner of the black cloth. Isaac already had a few others around his room.

“Why aren’t we using a crystal ball?” Kaylee asked.

“Don’t have one,” Isaac said. “My parents always preferred to use a scrying bowl to see past events.”

Isaac raised his hands, and the pillar candles around the room ignited along with the white ones in the iron chandelier above us.

“And we need the candles because?” I asked.

“It’s best to scry by natural light.” Isaac snapped his fingers, and the lamp on his dresser went out. “Did you bring something of hers?”

I held up a lavender hair band. “Lauren said she borrowed it from Natalie.”

“That’s perfect. Set it on the cloth.”

Josh placed the picture of Natalie next to it. “Isaac and I think with our combined powers we’ll be able to narrow in on her aura. We’ll know if she’s alive by the energy it gives off. We might even find out where she is.”

I bit my bottom lip, hoping this worked and bracing myself for what we were about to see.

Please don’t let it be Natalie’s body in a shallow grave. Please let her be alive.

We raised our arms over our heads.

Kaylee began to close our circle, naming the element she represented: “By the power of earth.”

“By the power of air,” I said.

“By the power of water.” Josh’s eyes narrowed as he focused on the bowl. A moment later, water flowed in from the bottom until it threatened to spill over the lip.

“By the power of fire,” Isaac said. The flames of the candles around us reached several inches into the air then settled back to a flicker.

Together we said, “We shall cast with the powers of three times three.”

Our circle closed with a faint snap.

Magic was best practiced within a protective ring. This had been one of the first things Isaac and Josh had taught me. It kept our energy in a controlled area while protecting us from outside forces. The latter wasn’t as important when we were indoors, though, especially in Isaac’s room, which had been built by the original owners of his house decades ago to provide a safe haven from all things supernatural. From the stone floors to the iron hardware, his room was a fortress to those with powers.

Isaac took my and Kaylee’s hands and said, “Concentrate on the last time we all saw Natalie.”

Josh grabbed our free hands. I closed my eyes and pictured Natalie sitting on the stone bench near the fire pit in Ben’s backyard, strands of brunette hair peeking out from underneath her grape-colored hat. When I was sure the image wouldn’t disappear on me, I looked at the bowl. The water was no longer still. It swirled clockwise as if it had been stirred.

We must have sat in silence—hands linked, watching the water twirl hypnotically—for a good five minutes.

Isaac grunted. “It shouldn’t take this long.”

“Maybe it’s me.” Kaylee’s shoulders sagged forward. “Maybe it won’t work with someone who isn’t a natural witch.”

She went to stand, but Isaac and Josh tightened their grips on her fingers.

Josh spoke first. “You’re part of our coven. You have a bond with each of us. There is another reason this isn’t working.”

Isaac nodded. “Josh is right. We can’t afford for you to start doubting your place in the circle.” When Kaylee opened her mouth, Isaac quickly added, “We’ll prove it. Focus on the first night we all met.”

It had been a warm fall evening. A large group of people from school had met at Wingaersheek Beach. Isaac had just moved to Gloucester, and he’d come to the gathering with Josh.

The water in the scrying bowl stilled, and there we were, standing on the shell-littered beach. Josh’s black hair fell around his face much like it did now. I had been wearing a cream tank top and white hoodie with my pink plaid sneakers because Kaylee hadn’t warned me I’d be meeting someone new. Isaac had his brown hair spiked and wore an olive green jacket. The setting sun glistened red off the sea next to us. We watched the exchange of small talk, not hearing what had been said. Then Josh scooped Kaylee up and jogged down the beach ahead of Isaac and me.

“Our combined memories recreated that night down to the smallest details.” Isaac gave a nod to Kaylee. “Josh is even wearing the necklace you now have around your neck.”

I squinted at the image of us in the scrying bowl. We were sitting around the bonfire now. The flames made the dark metal cross glow crimson.

“Convinced yet that you’re not the problem?” Isaac asked as we all released our hands.

Kaylee touched the leather chain. “Yeah, that’s proof enough.”

“What if we try to focus on Caden?” Josh suggested. “See if he was telling Madison the truth?”

Isaac raked his fingers through his hair. “We don’t have anything of his.”

“I do.” I jumped up, grabbed my jacket, and dug the cigarette butt out. “I stopped him from throwing it in Mrs. Taylor’s bushes. I meant to toss it in the fire pit.”

Kaylee grabbed her phone from her purse. “And we were messing around.” She scanned the pictures. With a triumphant smile, she held the screen so we could see it, revealing a shot of my back shoulder and Caden’s smiling face.

Isaac rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “That could work. Try focusing on Caden and Natalie. Let’s see what happens.”

We joined hands again.

I alternated my thoughts between Natalie’s excitement that Caden had come to the party and Caden’s easy smile when we’d been talking. The water swirled clockwise in a mix of foggy white and dark red. When it stilled, Caden, Natalie, and Lauren were talking outside school.

“Do you think that’s the present?” Josh asked, but a second later he and Isaac walked by Caden and Natalie in the scrying bowl. “Guess not.”

Kaylee leaned in closer to the bowl. “That had to be this past Friday morning. I bet Natalie’s asking him to the party. Look how she keeps tucking her hair behind her ear and how she keeps looking from her shoes to Caden’s eyes. She’s totally crushing on him.”

“This is good. Focus on the party,” Isaac said.

The scene in the bowl was swallowed by a swirl of the water. A few breaths later, we were watching Caden and me talking near the edge of the yard. I felt Isaac’s eyes on me.

My gaze met his. “Natalie was too shy to go talk to him. I was trying to coax him into joining us.”

He bobbed his head, and we observed my double’s conversation end with a slight wave goodbye to Caden before I walked to the edge of the bowl and out of view. Shortly afterward, we watched Caden walk around to the front of the house, where he stopped to talk to Isaac and Josh. He got in his car next. Nothing exciting happened from there, unless you count him almost taking off a car door when the driver of a red Neon swung it open right as Caden drove by. Then the scene went black.

“That’s it of him at the party,” Isaac said. “Show us what Caden’s doing now.”

I realized he was talking to the scrying bowl, so I began to think,
Show me Caden,
over and over. We got flashes of images: Caden standing outside talking to a tall, slender blonde in a field I didn’t recognize. Caden kissing said blonde. Him in a small kitchen chugging a bottle of beer. Between each image came a brief period of darkness that reminded me of the red slime Chase had gotten from our grandparents last Christmas. That stuff had stained everything, including my favorite jeans. It ended up in the trash three days later.