Chapter 20
Eliza Nordic lived on a busy street on the east side of town, in a small cottage that sat close to the sidewalk. A handful of kids were playing tag in the street as Zane slowly drove down. Some of them with magical abilities levitated themselves into the air while others hurried off the street.
I waved as we crept by. “I can’t help but think mothers everywhere have to hold their breaths every time their kid levitates themselves like that.”
Zane laughed and pulled to a stop in Eliza’s driveway. “You’re probably right.”
We exited the vehicle and strode up the cracked walkway. A ceramic pot with a plastic plant inside sat by the front door, and the welcome mat in front of the door had seen better days.
Eliza answered on the second knock. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her face had the tight, worn look of someone who’d been crying on and off all day. ”I had a feeling you’d be stopping by.” She stepped back and motioned us inside. “Come in.”
We stepped straight into the living room, and she gestured toward the couch.
Zane and I had talked about it on the drive over.
If Eliza played it like she didn’t know what was going on, confused about why Mari would name her trustee, we’d go with it.
No sense tipping our hand. We also wouldn’t mention whether or not she knew about what Mari and friends did to her fifteen years ago.
We sat on the couch and waited for her to sit in the chair catty-corner to us.
“And before you ask,” she said, “I have no idea why Mari would make me the trustee in her will. I just don’t understand.”
I nodded. “So you are aware you’re the trustee over Jayla in regard to the house and the royalties?”
“Yes.” She shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe it, though. I don’t understand why. I mean, we knew each other, but why me? Surely she had other friends she was closer to. Better yet, why not just have her husband in charge?”
“Are you going to do it?” I asked.
Eliza blinked. “Of course. It’s what Mari wanted.”
Zane leaned forward slightly. “Did you know they’re having a memorial for Mari tonight at Bottoms Up?”
“They are?” Her brow creased. “No, I didn’t know.”
“Hunter just found out himself about an hour ago,” I said, “so I’m sure you’ll hear about it soon. Some of Mari’s readers are putting it together. You should go.”
“You think?”
I wanted to see how the others would react to Eliza walking through the doors. “I do. It’s a little last-minute, but I’m sure Mari would have wanted you there.”
She bit her lip. “Do you know what time?”
“Seven o’clock,” Zane said.
“I’ll be there. Will you two be there as well?”
“I’m not sure,” I lied. “We have a couple things we’re still looking into.”
She nodded. “Of course. I’m sure you’re busy trying to find out who murdered Mari.”
Zane rose from the couch. “I think you told us what we needed to know.”
She looked up at him. “I did?”
I smiled. “Yes. We wanted to know whether you were aware of being in Mari’s will, and then whether you had any idea why she would do that.”
Eliza shook her head. “It’s a mystery to me.”
Iclosed my eyes and broke down the ward I’d placed on Mari’s house last night. The magic hummed against my senses as the protective barrier dissolved completely.
Zane opened the front door, and we stepped inside.
I conjured up a set of booties and gloves for each of us, and we slipped them on before heading upstairs.
“Where do you think the entrance to the attic is?” I mused when we reached the top landing. “I don’t remember seeing it last night, but I really wasn’t looking, either.”
Zane smiled and pointed up at the large wooden panel set into the hallway ceiling, an ornate pull string dangling from its center.
I laughed. “I hate when people hide things in plain sight.”
Zane reached up and pulled on the string. The panel dropped down with a groan of old hinges, and a folding ladder descended, each section unfolding until the whole thing stretched to the floor.
Zane motioned for me to go first.
I carefully made my way up the rickety rungs until I popped my head through the opening into the darkened attic.
Two windows sat on opposite sides of the space, their glass clouded with grime, letting in just enough light to turn the darkness into a murky gray.
Combined with the glow spilling up from below, I could just make out shapes.
I lifted myself off the stairs and stood.
Conjuring up a light orb, I tossed it into the air, and it drifted near the pitched ceiling.
The attic was massive. Nearly the full footprint of the second floor, with exposed rafters overhead and wide plank flooring underfoot.
Cardboard boxes were stacked along every wall.
A full-length mirror with a cracked gilded frame leaned against one wall.
Beside it, an old rocking chair sat draped in a white sheet that had gone yellow with age.
There was a wooden trunk, a set of mismatched dining chairs, a baby crib with one broken slat, and what looked like a rolled-up area rug.
Zane came to stand next to me, and I snickered as he brushed dust off his expensive Armani suit jacket. ”See, that’s why you don’t wear uber-expensive clothes to a murder scene.”
“Where do you want to start?” he asked, looking around the room.
“You take that half.” I pointed toward the far end of the attic, past the rocking chair and the trunk. “I’ll take this side.”
He nodded and picked his way through the maze of forgotten furniture as I turned to the boxes nearest me and started reading labels.
The first few were exactly what I expected.
One said “Jayla’s Baby Clothes.” Another read “Jayla’s Stuffed Animals.
” I opened that one just enough to confirm it was exactly what it claimed to be.
A pile of well-loved plush animals stared up at me with glassy eyes. I closed it and moved on.
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 saw dozens 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.
I know the 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 maybe I was 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!”