Magician's Muse (5 page)

My world had cracked, splintering into brittle pieces. As I walked back to the farmhouse, my feet sloshing on the same path I’d taken a zillion times, everything around me looked different. The cloudy sky seemed darker, too, boiling with angry clouds and whipping out a biting cold wind that pierced my skin.

Dominic wanted to be with me and I wanted to be with him—wasn’t that enough? Why did that horrible PI have to show up? Dominic hadn’t meant to kill his uncle. But could he prove it? Running away and changing his name would look suspicious. He’d need a good lawyer, and fortunately my father just happened to be one. But how could I convince Dominic to hire Dad?

Sunk in despair, the last thing I wanted to do was to listen to Penny-Love about who was dating/cheating/lying/playing someone else at school. But she had no idea I was going through a crisis and there wasn’t anything I could do for Dominic, at least not until Nona came home.

When I entered the farmhouse, a cocoon of comfort blanketed me. I didn’t exactly feel better, but I was less anxious. The living room was full of familiar friends—a collage of framed photos over the TV, a blue-gold afghan Nona crocheted for me, and the wooden coffee table that I’d carved my initials into when learning my ABCs.

The air smelled comforting, too—vanilla cinnamon tea—and I followed the sweet scent to the kitchen, where I found Penny-Love at the table. Her eyes were puffy and red as if she’d been crying.

So I poured myself a cup of tea, then pulled up a chair beside her. I slipped my arm around her shoulders and asked her to tell me what had happened.

“My life is over. Jacques dumped me.”

Her hurt cut through me, and I could feel her pain—I was close to losing the guy I loved, too.

“Oh, Pen! He’s a jerk and doesn’t deserve you.”

“He didn’t even tell me in person. He texted me.”

“That’s brutal! No wonder you’re so sad.”

“Sad? More like furious.” She thumped her fist on the table, drops of tea sloshing from her cup. “This is not the way things are supposed to go. I’m the one who does the breaking up, but he beat me to it.”

“Excuse me?” I reached for a napkin and wiped the spilled tea. “You mean you were going to break up with
him?
”

“Not until after New Year’s. He hardly ever calls and we don’t have much in common.” She paused to sip her tea. “Do you have any idea how humiliating it is to get dumped right before Christmas?”

“Josh dumped me after Thanksgiving.”

“Not the same thing. You immediately hooked up with Dominic. I don’t have a new guy lined up. The girls on the squad will pity me—which is just wrong.”

I tried to follow her logic but felt like I’d taken the wrong turn in a maze. “I’m sorry,” was all I could say.

“Sorry! Don’t you get it?” She glared at me. “Being the rejected object of pity is ego-damaging. I hear my brothers talk all the time about ex-girlfriends, and I’ve vowed never to be the dumpee.”

“Sometimes it just happens,” I said sympathetically.

“Not to me. That’s why I have a plan.”

“Put a hit out on Jacques?”

“As if there’s time for that.” She shook her fiery curls like I’d been serious. “I need him alive and by my side for the Booster Club New Year’s Party.”

“You still want to date him?”

“Only till New Year’s. Then, if he still wants to end it, fine. See, I have this theory that Jacques text-dumped me because he knew if he saw me in person, he’d want to be with me. I’m not bragging, it’s just a fact. I have an unusual amount of guy magnetism.”

I tried not to smile.

“I’ve decided to forgive Jacques and offer him a second chance.”

“You think he’ll agree?” I asked doubtfully. Penny-Love’s concept of romance could be a little unrealistic.

“Abso-posi-lutely.” She flashed me a confident grin. “The only hitch is I don’t know where Jacques lives.”

“You’ve been dating the guy over a month and haven’t seen his house?”

“He says a gentleman always picks a lady up at her home. I thought it was so old-world and sweet, I never thought to ask about his place. He mentioned living in an apartment on the west side. I’ll search online, then surprise him by going over.”

I was about to point out what a bad idea this was when I heard a car coming down our driveway. I knew, from the unique rumble, that it was Thorn driving up in her mom’s yellow VW bug.

Thorn and Penny-Love in the same room?

If Penny-Love was a whirlwind of drama, Thorn was a volatile black hole.

On the surface, my friends were complete opposites but stereotypical: Popularity-Plus Penny-Love and Rebel-Outsider Thorn. Yet I knew them better, and I liked them both. Penny-Love strived for perfection and popularity, embracing trendy fashions, but she mixed and matched things to suit herself. Thorn was anti-trends and anti-popularity, seeking independence from rules and society, but she was there for me in a crunch. And when it came to going after what they wanted, my friends were equally fearless.

When Penny-Love saw Thorn getting out of the VW, she took it better than I’d expected, merely lecturing me on how bad it was for my reputation to hang out with a “Goth freak.”

“Didn’t you say you had work to do in Nona’s office?” I asked tactfully.

“I get the hint. And while I’m working, I’ll Google Jacques to find his address.” She refilled her tea cup before heading down the hall. “But if I come back and find you wearing black leather or planning on getting your nose pierced, I’m not going to be happy.”

“No piercings,” I promised, smiling.

Minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

Thorn looked almost ordinary today, having replaced her usual black leather and combat boots with white sneakers and black jeans. It wasn’t until she brushed past me that I saw the barbed wire woven into her braids, the tiny rhinestones on her eyelids, and the dagger eyebrow-piercing.

“Thanks for coming over so quickly,” I told her as she took the chair in the kitchen that Penny-Love had just vacated. I stood up and went to heat the tea water, remembering Thorn’s preferred herbal flavor.

“I wasn’t doing anything better. Everyone else at my house was headed for church.”

“Well, your mother
is
a minister.”

“She practices her sermons over and over till I could give them myself.” Thorn rolled her eyes. “So what’s up?”

I quickly filled her in on the Josh situation.

“Impressive,” Thorn said when I was finished. “I didn’t think a prep like him would have the guts to cut school.”

“He didn’t cut—he’s missing and in danger.”

“And you know this
how
?” she asked, with a doubtful twist of her black-lined lips.

I hesitated, always embarrassed to talk about my visions. But Thorn wasn’t a stranger to psychic abilities and I knew she’d understand. So I described the strange place and cloaked people I’d seen in my vision. I shuddered when I told her about the knife.

“Intenseness.” The dagger in her pierced brow rose slightly as she studied me. “Still … I’m gonna pass.”

I hadn’t expected her to say “yes” immediately, but her quick refusal was disappointing. “Come on, Thorn. I’m not asking much. I just want you to touch something of Josh’s.”

“Do I look like a performing circus animal?”

“I never said you were.”

“I don’t have any real skill, not like your visions or how Dominic communicates with animals.”

“Sure you do. You’re a Finder, and I need your help to find Josh.”

“Why the obsession with Josh?” Thorn idly twisted the barbed-wire bracelet on her wrist. “He was so not right for you. Get over him.”

“I am over him,” I insisted.

“Then forget about finding him.”

“It’s his family and his dog who need him to come home,” I pointed out. And if I hadn’t hurt him so badly, he wouldn’t have left in the first place.

“Josh is almost an adult. He can go where he wants.”

“But his life could be in danger.”

“Since when did you get so overdramatic?”

I frowned. “I have this gut feeling that if I don’t find him soon, he may never come back. I wouldn’t ask for your help if I wasn’t really worried.”

“Like I can do anything—not.”

“I’m only asking you to try. Come on, Thorn. It’ll be interesting.”

She glared at me, then relaxed with a sigh. “Why do I let you talk me into these things? You’re getting to be as big a pain in the butt as Manny. So let’s get this done already. What do you want me to touch?”

I pulled out the wand. “This belongs to Josh.”

“How did you get it?”

Heat rushed to my cheeks. “I sort of took it from his room.”

“Stealing?” She chuckled. “You naughty girl.”

“I borrowed it. I’m going to return it.”

“Why waste your time? It’s cheap junk from a dollar store. Are you sure it belonged to Josh?”

“You tell me. Touch it.”

She sipped her tea, then pushed the cup aside and grasped the wand. As her fingers settled over the smooth plastic, the energy in the room changed; the small hairs on my skin shivered.

Thorn’s eyes closed, and a complete serenity settled over her soft features. Her aura changed, too, softening into pastels of pink and yellow. Without her prickly attitude vibes, she looked surprisingly vulnerable and pretty.

The rooster-shaped clock over the fridge ticked on, slowly.

Thorn’s glittery lashes fluttered open and she sat the wand down on the table. “Map. Now.”

I jumped up. After digging through three desk drawers, I finally found a road map of California. I rushed back to give it to Thorn.

She had a glazed look, as if part of her was still somewhere else—a feeling I knew too well from my own psychic experiences. If I closed my eyes and focused, would I slip into her world, leaving this body at home?

I didn’t try to find out, just tapped my foot while Thorn unfolded the map, spreading it across the table. She waved her arms, swaying oddly, and looked up rather than down. Then she reached out with her hand, her finger pointing as it aimed and landed on the map.

“Here,” she said.

I leaned over and saw her black-painted fingernail pointing to a dark green area of National Forest east of Auburn.

“That’s a large area. Can you pinpoint a town?”

Thorn shook her head, blinking as she came back to reality. “I don’t really know … somewhere close to where I pointed, give or take a hundred miles.” She brushed her fingers across the crystal star on the wand. “Weird thing is at first I wasn’t picking up any male energy—only female. Very strong female energy.”

I remembered the vision of the copper-haired woman I’d picked up from the wand. “A woman gave it to Josh, I think. I don’t know who.”

Thorn handed the wand back to me. “I got nothing else.”

“Can’t you try again?”

“I do what I can do, no promises.”

Frustrated, I stared at the map. “But that’s like a hundred miles of wilderness. I didn’t learn enough to start a search for Josh.”

“But I learned plenty,” someone interrupted.

There was Penny-Love standing in the doorway, grinning.

Thorn glared at me. “Sabine, why didn’t you tell me
she
was here!”

“Obviously Sabine is very good at keeping secrets,” Penny-Love said accusingly.

“I’m sorry, Thorn,” I said, the room now ridiculous with energy—and not the good kind. “I didn’t know she was listening. Pen, how could you?”

“It wasn’t easy. I couldn’t hear much until I cracked the door open. Then I heard enough to know that you can help me.” Penny-Love pointed to Thorn.

“Me, help you?” Thorn scoffed. “You’re delusional.”

“I could be on the phone right now, texting the video I just took of you doing that weird Finding thing with the map to all of my friends. It could even end up on You-Tube. Freaky news spreads fast.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, I would. But hey, I’ll delete the whole thing if you do one little favor for me. Afterwards, we can return to our mutual relationship of dislike and avoidance.”