The next cluster was holiday decorations. Christmas lights tangled into hopeless knots. A box of ornaments wrapped in tissue paper. A plastic jack-o’-lantern with a crack down one side.
“Kara.”
I looked up. Zane was crouched near the far wall, surrounded by open boxes.
“I think I found the high school stuff,” he called.
I picked my way across the attic, stepping over a stack of old picture frames and ducking under a low-hanging rafter. The light orb followed me, helping to make sure I didn’t trip.
Zane had uncovered a whole section devoted to what looked like Mari’s younger years. But it was the opened box on the floor next to him that caught my attention. Someone had written one word on the side in thick black marker.
“Secrets,” I said, reading the word aloud. “Makes sense why all her valentines were about secrets.” I peered down inside the box and sawdozens of diaries and journals. Different sizes, different colors, different bindings. Some were the kind you’d buy at a bookstore with a little lock on the clasp. Others were plain composition notebooks.I pulled one out and checked the date on the inside cover. Then another. Then a third.”These go as far back as middle school!”
Zane pulled a handful from the box and started flipping through one while I did the same. The early entries were exactly what you’d expect from a twelve-year-old girl. We worked through them methodically, scanning pages and dates, setting each one aside before reaching for the next. I was on my third journal, Zane on his fourth, when he spoke.
“I think I found it,” he said.
I put down the journal in my hand and moved to stand beside him. He angled the open diary so we could both see the page, and he started to read aloud.
“‘February twelve. We have all the ingredients we need to make the spell. I hate to admit it, but I’m a little excited. It’s about time Eliza was getting what she deserved. Rayna and I have checked and double checked to make sure the spell will enact jealousy and anger. Just the catalyst to get the girls to fight. I hope they do it right in the middle of the hallway. That would be epic.’” He flipped the page and continued to read.“‘February thirteen. We did it! Rayna and I enacted the spell and added it to the chocolate Sasha tempered. We then sprayed the roses with the last of the potion. There’s no way this won’t work. Hunter and Reed are getting up extra early tomorrow to deliver the valentine gifts. I hope I get to see the physical fight. Knowing those girls, it will probably be just a bunch of hair pulling and screaming, but it will be worth it.’”
“Hurry and turn the page,” I said excitedly. “I have to know what she wrote next.”
Zane flipped the page and continued. “It’s not even dated. And look at her handwriting. She was clearly upset. ‘I don’t understand what happened. Or maybe I do. I can’t believe Rayna did what she did! I’m so upset! I don’t know if I should confront her or not. Iknowthe spell we put in the chocolate and on the roses. I know it was enhanced. When the girls got into the fight in the parking lot, Eliza had thrown her rose in anger, and I picked it up. I immediately knew the spell was…wrong. Or had been altered in some way. I told Rayna, but she just brushed it off. She was too busy watching the girls fight in the parking lot. And then I saw it. I know I did! Eliza went flying through the air into the middle of the parking lot, and as she stood and tried to run, I felt it. The stir of magic. Not the magic that had been thrown at Eliza, but a different magic. Rayna had done some sort of binding spell or something on Eliza. I could tell because Eliza looked like she wanted to run but couldn’t. Joel Risso plowed right into Eliza. The ambulance had to come and get her. I have no idea how she is, but I could hear her screaming. I’ll never forget the sound of her screaming! I told Hunter, and he said we’d talk to Rayna at the dance, but when we all confronted her, she denied it! In fact, she said maybeIwas the one who’d manipulated the magic! I don’t know what to do. I’m so scared! I never wanted this to happen! I have to think. I’m so scared, but I have to be smart about this.’”
“I don’t want to minimize what these kids did,” I said, “but I can really hear her fear.”
Zane nodded and continued reading. “‘I’m hiding the rose I took from the parking lot inside the stuffed animal Hunter won for me down on the Boardwalk. Every witch or fairy leaves something of themselves in a spell. If Rayna added something to the spell behind my back, I’m hoping it can be distinguished between us. I’m a fire elemental, but Rayna is a water elemental. Maybe someone smarter than me can decipher that. I don’t know what to do from here. I’m too scared to go to school tomorrow. I don’t want to know what has happened to Eliza. We are responsible for what happened.’ That’s the end of that passage.”
“We need to find this stuffed animal,” I said.
Zane flipped the page again. “There’s some more in here. Mostly ramblings about how she can’t eat or sleep. She went to school and learned Eliza had broken bones and a broken hip. She says she can’t stop crying. Her parents keep asking her what’s wrong.” He paused and flipped a couple more pages. “It’s a few weeks later. She writes that Reed and Rayna broke up. When she talked to Reed, he said he needed to distance himself from Rayna. He told her even though he wasn’t going to be hanging out with them anymore, it didn’t mean they couldn’t still be friends. He just didn’t want the others to know they were still talking, especially Rayna.”
“We need to find this stuffed animal.” I bent down to dig through the box. “It has to be in here somewhere. Surely she wouldn’t want it out of her sight.” My hand fell onto a plush toy at the very bottom, and I pulled it carefully out of the box of journals. I held up the dragon and noticed the hand stitching on the stomach. Ripping it open, my heart nearly leaped out of my chest when I saw the dried petals stuffed inside the cotton belly. “Bingo!”
21
“Okay. Thanks, Barbie.” I disconnected my phone and slid it inside my pocket. “She said it will take some time to dismantle the spell, but she’ll let us know when she has something. Could be as early as tomorrow.”
Zane parked in the back lot of Bottoms Up and killed the engine. Through the windshield, I could see a steady stream of people heading toward the front entrance. The memorial was already in full swing.
“So,” Zane said, turning to me. “Are we going in as ourselves or glamoured?”
I grinned.”You know we’re going in glamoured.”
He groaned. “I was afraid you would say that.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make you look like the dashing husband of an avid romance reader.”
He arched an eyebrow. “And what does that look like?”
I closed my eyes and brought up the image in my mind. I whispered the glamour spell Bettina and Zahara had taught me, and opened my eyes. “Perfect.”
Zane leaned over and looked at himself in the rearview mirror. “Seriously?”
I laughed. “Yeah. You’re now a vampire with the clichéd widow’s-peak hairline and pale skin.” I gestured at the rest of him. “Hey, I let you keep the suit.”
He glanced down and shuddered. “Is this off-the-rack?”
