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"I don't know if we'll make curfew now," I told Eddie.
He gave me a sympathetic pat on the back. "I think if you show a police report at the dorm, they'll be lenient with you."
"Yeah, I hope that - ugh. The police." I hurried over to the passenger side and stared bleakly at the wall of foam.
"What's wrong?" Eddie asked. "I mean, aside from the obvious."
"I have to get to the glove compartment." I lowered my voice. "There's a gun in there."
He did a double take. "A what?"
I said no more, and he helped me dig through the foam. Both of us ended up covered in it by the time I reached the compartment. Making sure no one was behind us, I quickly retrieved the gun and slipped it into my messenger bag. I was about to shut the lid when something shiny caught my eye.
"That's impossible," I said.
It was my cross, the gold one I'd lost. I grabbed it and then immediately dropped it, yelping in pain. The metal had burned me. Considering the foamy substance was cool, it didn't seem likely it had heated up the cross. I wrapped my sleeve around my hand and gingerly picked up the cross again.
Eddie peered over my shoulder. "You wear that all the time."
I nodded and continued staring at the cross. A terrible feeling began to spread over me. I found a tissue in my purse and wrapped the cross up before adding it to the bag. Then I retrieved my cell phone and dialed Ms. Terwilliger. Voice mail. I hung up without leaving a message.
"What's going on?" asked Eddie.
"I'm not sure," I said. "But I think it's bad."
I hadn't yet developed the ability to sense magical residue, but I was almost certain something had been done to the cross, something that had resulted in Latte's foamy demise. Alicia hadn't been able to find the cross. Had Veronica doubled back and taken it? If so, how had she located me? I knew personal items could be used to track back to a person, though the most common ones were hair and nails. As advanced as Veronica was, it was very likely an object - like this cross - would serve just as well.
Veronica might very well have found me. But if so, why vandalize my car instead of sucking out my life?
The police came soon thereafter and took our statements. They were followed by a tow truck. I could tell from the driver's face that it wasn't looking good for Latte. He hauled my poor car away, and then one of the officers was nice enough to return Eddie and me to Amberwood. Against all odds, we made it back just in time.
As soon as I got to my room, I tried Ms. Terwilliger again. Still no answer.
I emptied out my bag onto my bed and found it had gathered a number of items today. One of them was a donut I'd picked up at the coffee shop. I put it and the quartz crystal into the aquarium and summoned the callistana. He immediately went after the donut.
I found the cross and discovered it was now cool. Whatever spell it had been used in was gone. The gun was near it, and I quickly hid that back in the bag. That left Ms. Terwilliger's envelope, which I'd neglected all day. Maybe if I hadn't been so distracted by personal matters, I could have saved Latte.
I pulled the latest spell book out of the envelope and heard something jangle. I removed the book and then saw another, smaller envelope inside. I pulled it out and read a message Ms. Terwilliger had written on the side: Here's another charm to mask your magical ability, just in case. It's one of the most powerful out there and took a lot of work, so be careful with it.
That same guilt I always felt about her helping me returned. I opened the small envelope and found a silver star pendant set with peridots. I gasped.
I had seen this charm before, this powerful and painstakingly made charm that could allegedly hide strong magical ability.
I had seen it around Alicia's neck.
Chapter Twenty-Three
FOR A MOMENT, I THOUGHT it had to be a coincidence. After all, what was so special about a peridot star? For all I knew, Alicia might have been born in August and was just sporting her birthstone among that mess of necklaces she always wore. And yet, if there was one thing I believed more than ever, it was Sonya's adage that there were no coincidences in the world of the supernatural.
I sank to the floor and tried to reason my way through things. If the charm Alicia had worn was like this one, then it meant she too was a strong magic user trying to mask her abilities. Did she know about Veronica? Was Alicia trying to protect herself? If so, then it seemed like she wouldn't have been so casual about Veronica staying at the inn. So, that meant either Alicia didn't know about Veronica's true nature - again, a suspicious coincidence - or that Alicia was covering for Veronica.
Could Alicia be in league with Veronica?
That seemed the likeliest answer to me. Although Veronica apparently sought out young, powerful magic users, it was totally possible that she'd seen the advantage of having one as an assistant. And, as we'd observed, Veronica had plenty of other victims to choose from. Alicia could therefore help and cover up Veronica's nefarious plans - like when a curious couple came asking questions.
I groaned. Alicia had been playing us from the beginning. From the instant we'd stepped through her door with stories about our anniversary and "friend" Veronica, she'd known we were lying. She'd known we weren't actually friends with Veronica, and she might have been strong enough to fight Adrian's compulsion a little. She'd gone along with everything - even being so helpful as to call me when Veronica had shown up again. I had no idea now what was true, if Veronica had ever left in the first place or returned from being gone. I did, however, have a sinking suspicion that my car wasn't the only one she'd incapacitated.
I could understand if she'd used the cross to find me, but how had she initially located the Mustang? I racked my brain for any identifying information. Adrian's spirit magic should have muddled our appearances, covering up any connection to us. Then I knew. Alicia had walked us out and admired the Mustang. A clever person - someone who was already on high alert because of our visit - could've made note of the license plate and used it to track down where Adrian lived.
But why slash the tires? To delay us, I realized. That was the night Lynne had been attacked. And we had arrived too late to warn her.
The more I began to sift through the events of the last few weeks, the more I began to think we had been very, very careless. We'd thought we were being so cautious about concealing ourselves from Veronica. No one, not even Ms. Terwilliger, had considered that she might have an accomplice we also had to watch out for. And the dreams . . . those had started the day Adrian and I had been on the velvet bed. The day my garnet had slipped and had possibly been enough for Alicia to sense a magic user in the inn.
