Chapter 10
“Zoey, wait!” Olive said as she ran to catch up with Faith and Zoey as they made their way to Faith’s SUV.
They both stopped and turned to Olive as she held out a canvas bag. “I brought this for you. It’s your stuff from the spa yesterday.”
Zoey frowned as she took the bag. “My stuff?”
“Yeah. Your towel and a sweatshirt and whatever else you had in your locker.” Olive brushed a dark curl out of her eyes. “I wound up with some of your stuff that was left in the changing room when we evacuated for the fire. I separated everything last night. This is your bag.”
“Thanks.” Zoey gave her cousin a genuine smile and then hugged her. “I didn’t even realize I’d left anything behind. So much happened that I just… You know. It was a rough night.”
“I do,” Olive said. “But it looks like your dad is feeling better, so that’s good.”
“He is.” Zoey frowned. “I just hope that Daisy is as good as new tomorrow. I hate that I flattened her.”
“Yeah, that was really weird, wasn’t it? It was like your feet just stopped working or something.”
Faith listened to the girls describe the accident and couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
It sure sounded like typical teenage clumsiness, but for some reason, her skin tingled the way it sometimes did when her intuition was telling her to pay attention.
Only what was there to pay attention to?
Zoey fell and knocked her cousin over. End of story, right?
“Hey, girls,” Faith said.
“I know, I know. We have to get going,” Zoey said, automatically reaching for the door handle.
Faith laid her hand on Zoey’s, stopping her. “No. It’s not that. I just wanted to ask if any magic was used. Or if you felt any.”
“When Daisy fell?” Zoey asked.
“Yeah. Or when you lost your balance,” Faith said.
“No, I don’t think so.” Zoey gave her cousin a questioning glance. “Did you feel or see anything?”
“Nope. It’s been a magic-free day.” Olive wrinkled her nose. “I think we all were happy to just forget about yesterday and relax. Until Daisy got hurt of course.”
“Right.” Faith nodded, though her unease did not fade.
It was strange. Like her skin was tight from a sunburn or a rash, but she had neither.
Maybe it was just the cumulative effects of the past two days.
She ordered herself to shake it off and said, “All right. Let’s get going.
And text your dad. Tell him we’re getting takeout and ask if he has any requests. ”
“Okay.” Zoey tossed her spa bag into the back seat and then climbed into the passenger side.
As Faith put the car into Reverse, Zoey got busy texting.
Her fingers flew over the screen, texting faster than Faith could type normally.
It amazed her sometimes how fast the kids took to modern electronics.
Though she had to admit that when it came to casting spells, most of them had a hard time focusing, and spells went wayward more often than they were successful.
A light bulb went off in her mind.
Was that what all the trouble was about?
Had the kids cast some sort of spell that backfired and were too afraid to admit it?
It wasn’t something she relished considering.
She hoped that they’d be honest with them and each other, but they were teenagers, and sometimes even great kids made mistakes they had trouble owning up to.
“Zoey, do you and your cousins ever practice your magic together?” Faith asked.
“What?” she asked, jerking her head up, obviously taken aback by the question.
“You know, try new spells or potions? I did when I was your age. Your aunts and I were obsessed with trying to master certain things. Especially if it meant terrorizing each other.”
“Are you trying to imply that one of us cursed dad?” Zoey asked, her expression cold.
Faith blinked at her and then turned her attention back to the road. She drove down the highway that led to Main Street, where she planned to pick up something for dinner. She just didn’t know what yet.
“Are you?” Zoey demanded, sounding angry now.
“Not exactly,” Faith said with a sigh. “I was just wondering if it was possible that what happened was simply an accident. We had plenty of those when I was your age. Hormones and magic don’t always mix,” she added, trying for some humor.
“I don’t appreciate you accusing us of casting dangerous spells. Especially after you saw how upset we all were yesterday,” Zoey said.
“Zo—”
“Look out!” Zoey cried.
Faith saw her life flash before her eyes as a white panel van nearly hit them straight on.
She swerved at the very last second, making the SUV fishtail.
She gripped the steering wheel with everything she had and did her best to steady the vehicle, but it was too late.
The road curved, and the SUV clipped the edge of the dirt shoulder, causing it to spin right into a tree.
Crunch!
Zoey let out a cry while Faith sat completely frozen, her hands still gripping the steering wheel.
The sound of the fiberglass buckling from the impact rang in her ears while her body seemed unable to move.
“Faith?” Zoey’s soft voice permeated her shock.
Slowly, Faith turned to look at her, praying her stepdaughter wasn’t hurt. There was a small gash on her forehead, and tears were streaming down her face.
Faith immediately jumped into action. She ripped her seatbelt off and scooted toward Zoey, pressing a soft palm to her cheek while she inspected every last hair on the girl’s head.
“Are you hurt anywhere else, Zoey? Is it just the cut, or did you bang your head against the dash or window? How about your arms and legs? Did they hit anything? Are you hurt?”
“Um… I don’t know,” Zoey said. She pressed two fingers to the gash on her forehead and when she brought them away and saw the blood, she promptly passed out.
How was Faith going to explain to Hunter that she’d broken his child?
She sat in the waiting room of Healer Whipple’s office and thought she’d lose her mind from worry.
Zoey had told her in no uncertain terms that Faith wasn’t welcome in the exam room.
She’d said something about Faith needing to chill out.
Chill out. Was she serious? Faith wasn’t going to chill out. Not then. Not ever.
She’d damn near killed Hunter’s daughter.
The young woman that Faith had come to love more than life itself.
She’d have gladly switched places with her.
It was her fault that Zoey was hurt, after all.
If she hadn’t been grilling her about practicing spells, she would have been paying better attention to the road and this never would have happened.
At least she was pretty sure it wouldn’t have.
If only Faith’s eyes had been on the road.
They were, the voice in her head said.
“Go away,” Faith ordered the voice, even though she knew it was her own subconscious that was talking back to her.
Had her eyes been on the road? It seemed unlikely since she hadn’t seen the van until Zoey had screamed.
But she had been watching the road. Faith was almost certain of it. She’d been carefully avoiding eye contact with Zoey because the teenager had been angry at her, and she didn’t want to fan the flames of her anger.
So then, where had the van come from?
She had no idea.
“Mrs. McCormick?” the receptionist called.
“Yes!” Faith jumped up.
“Right this way,” a woman in a white lab coat said, holding the door to the exam rooms in the back open for her.
“Is Zoey okay?” Faith asked immediately.
“Healer Whipple is still evaluating her,” the woman said as she strode down the hall with purpose. Then she opened an empty exam room. “You can wait in here. The other healer, Martin Whipple, will be right with you.”
Faith stepped into the room and then turned to ask more about Zoey, but the aide closed the door on her, and Faith was left alone in a sterile room with zero answers.
That would not do. It would not do at all.
She jumped up to head for the door to find Zoey, but suddenly her head swam, her vision turned blurry, and before she could grasp onto anything, her world went black.