Ominous (Private 13)

There was something in Tiffany’s question that sounded like an admonishment. Like she was taking me to task for wasting their time. Like she half expected me to say no, because helping find Astrid wasn’t something a self-involved person like me would do.

“Yes,” I said firmly, even though I wanted to shake her for not taking me seriously. For not caring enough to listen. For not trusting me. “I’ll be there.”

“Good,” she said in a condescending tone.

She walked out and I wanted to slam the door behind her.

“If it’s any consolation, Reed, I believe you,” Ivy said.

I turned around. She, Kiki, and Noelle were the only ones left.

“I do too,” Kiki said.

“You do?” I asked.

She lifted her shoulders and walked over to my desk, where the book of spells sat closed atop my laptop. Carefully she ran her finger-tips over the embossed circle design. “There are a lot of things in the world no one can explain, and even more things no one ever talks about. I’m not about to claim witchcraft isn’t real, just because I’ve never seen it for myself.” She took a breath and hugged herself. “I actually think it’d be kind of cool to be a witch.”

I gave her a small smile. I wasn’t sure I was a witch, but at least she’d made me feel a little less crazy.

“Personally, I think you’re nuts, but I love you anyway,” Noelle said, picking up her Birkin as she headed for the door. “But I have to love you. You’re my sister.”

She smirked, lifted her hair over her shoulder, blew me a kiss, and walked out.

I stared out the window that night, watching one of the newly hired security guards make his circuit of the pathway outside the dorms. As the day had gone on, the police presence had thinned, replaced by private security personnel brought in by the school. The gossip was that with no ransom note and no evidence of a struggle, the police were hesitant to categorize Astrid’s disappearance as a kidnapping, or anything else sinister, until she’d been gone for more than thirty-six hours. As Astrid’s best friend, Kiki had been interviewed for longer than any of the rest of us, and she’d come out of the headmaster’s office red in the face and looking like she wanted to take a bite out of someone. Once we calmed her down, she told us that, just like Noelle had theorized, the police thought Astrid had simply split. Kiki told them that if Astrid had run off she would have taken her iPod, her favorite vintage Doc Martens, and her sketch pad, all of which were still in her room, but they’d simply told her not to go anywhere in case they wanted to talk to her again.

They’d called me in next, and I was so angry throughout the whole thing I spent the entire fifteen-minute conversation digging my fingernails into the underside of my chair. I told them I was positive Astrid hadn’t left on her own, but when they’d asked me what made me so positive, I had stopped short of telling them about the dream. I wasn’t that crazy.

Or maybe I was. Who knew?

The door to my room clicked open and my heart hit my throat. I whirled around to find Josh slipping through the door, looking relieved to have gotten there in one piece.

“Hey,” he said. He crossed the room and wrapped his cold arms around me.

Talk about relief. I sank into him, placing my cheek against his shoulder. “Hey. Thanks for coming. There’s no way I’m going to sleep alone tonight.”

“This is one favor you can ask for anytime,” he joked.

He rested his chin atop my head, and we both looked out the window again. The guard whistled as he strolled toward the front door of Pemberly. I couldn’t hear the tune, but I could see his lips were pursed, a thin stream of steam issuing from them in bursts and starts.

“Did he give you any trouble?” I asked.

“Me? Nah. I move with the wind,” Josh said with a smirk. He turned me around by my shoulders and gave me a long, soft kiss. “It’s getting late. Should we do what I came here for?”

“Absolutely,” I said.

I slipped into bed and he shed his shoes, coat, sweater, and jeans, tossing them all on my desk chair until he was wearing nothing but his white T-shirt and plaid boxers. I lifted the blankets and welcomed him in. He gave me another quick kiss and I turned around, cuddling back into his arms.

“Sweet dreams, Reed,” Josh whispered, his breath warm on my hair. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

He curled his arms around me and I drew his hands up under my chin, clasping them inside mine. As my eyes fluttered closed, I almost believed he was right.

“Reed? What do you think of this?”

I looked up from the book of spells. Lorna stood in the center of Sweet Nothings, the Billings Girls’ favorite boutique in Easton, with dozens of dresses slung over one arm, their hangers clinking together as she moved. Dangling from her hand was a gold chain, and on the end of the chain was a pendant. A locket.

My locket.

My hand darted to my neck and found it bare. My insides clenched with anger. Lorna had stolen my necklace.