CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

After I left Isaac and the Bean I headed to my shop, closing and locking the door behind me. I still had time before I had to open and I needed to think.

Isaac had tried to be casual, but his aura had told me everything I needed to know. He wanted to be more than friends with Nicole. And he definitely didn’t like Chris Strand. I wondered if Isaac had tried to date her, or if he’d suffered in silence. If he had tried, maybe she’d been freaked out about it—either because she was afraid of what Chris would do, or because she wasn’t into him as more than a friend. Either of those reasons would’ve made for a difficult conversation and a strained friendship.

I also got the sense that he wasn’t a fan of Sylvia Townsend, although that could’ve just been because Nicole had left him—as he probably thought of it—to go work for her and it sounded like they hadn’t been as close since that happened.

I pulled my phone out of my bag and called Gabe. “I just met a friend of Nicole’s at yoga,” I said without preamble.

“Yeah? And?” I could hear a lot of noise behind him, like he was in the station with cops all around him.

“And I’m wondering if there was something between them. They worked together at the firm she recently left.”

“Name?” Gabe asked. He was all business today.

I gave him Isaac’s name. “You’ll check him out?”

“I will.”

“Any other news?”

“Nope. I gotta run, Violet. Thanks for the info.” And he disconnected.

“You’re welcome,” I said to the empty line, then sighed and tossed my phone onto my desk. I surveyed my store, not exactly sure what I was looking for. Then my eyes landed on my giant crystal quartz sphere. I kept it in the store, but it wasn’t for sale. I loved it and used it to help me tune up my aura-sensing powers. I went over to pick it up now but was distracted by something on the counter next to it. A perfectly smooth, flat, circular black stone on an ornate brass stand.

I picked up the stone and studied it. I knew exactly what it was—an obsidian scrying mirror—but what I didn’t know was how it had gotten into my shop. I’d never ordered one. It was something I wanted to explore but I hadn’t felt equipped to do it yet.

Scrying mirrors had a lot of history and beliefs attached to them. People in ancient Mexico were said to have used them for black magic. I’d heard it referred to as “seeing into darkness.” Once the scryer reached a higher level of concentration, visions would appear. Some said that it was more than a powerful psychic tool, and was actually a portal into the astral plane. Others said it was simply another crystal that could be used as a charging plate for other stones.

I believed a little bit of all of it. And I wondered again how it had gotten here.

I glanced around, but I was still alone in the shop, although I suddenly felt a presence. “Is someone there?” I asked.

Nothing. Not that I’d expected an answer. But I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being watched.

I snatched up the mirror and held it close to my chest. A warm feeling flooded my body. I closed my eyes and set an intention, asking my angels and guides of the highest truth and protection to keep any dark forces away and help me find what I needed to know, then picked up the stand and headed out back, drawing the curtain. When I reached my desk, I wasn’t surprised at all to find Xander sitting there, tail swishing, regarding me with those all-knowing eyes. I had expected as much. Maybe he was the presence I’d felt.

“You here to help?” I asked.

He blinked.

“Okay then. Let’s do it. We need to figure out where this woman is.” I sat down, placed the mirror on its stand, and eyed it. I was a little nervous about this—between the stone itself, and what I was attempting to do. Fiona had said many times that there was a line that should never be crossed when it came to witches interfering in mortal world happenings. I wasn’t sure what that line was. Maybe this was okay.

If it wasn’t, I wondered what would happen.

“Well, guess we’re going to find out,” I said to Xander.

He slunk over and laid down, wrapping his body around the mirror. I wondered if that was his way of helping.

I closed my eyes and focused on Nicole’s face, like I’d read in my grandmother’s book. When I had a vision of her in full view, I called in images of Isaac and Sylvia. I had Googled Chris Strand and found one grainy picture of him online, but it was enough to call that in also. Then I opened my eyes and focused on the black depths of the mirror. I could almost see myself staring back at me, the stone was so smooth and shiny.

I must’ve fallen into a meditative state because I lost track of time as I sat and held the space, hoping for something to show up. I sat for what felt like a long time, staring into the black, but nothing appeared. No images of someone kidnapping Nicole. No picture of one of my suspects with a guilty sign flashing across their forehead in neon.

I muttered a curse, blinking my eyes to clear them. Xander opened one eye—guess he’d been napping—and looked at me, then closed it again.

“Well, that was useless,” I said. Just as I started to stand up, an image appeared in the mirror. An outline of something cylindrical ... a bottle, I realized as the image filled in. Fascinated, I sat back in my seat as Xander also sat up, snapping to attention.

As I watched, the colors in the bottle turned pink, then green, then faded into a rainbow of purples, greens, and blues that reminded me of...

Mazzy’s hair. I jumped back in my chair, startled. Xander’s gaze was fixed on the mirror too, which made me think it wasn’t just me. I stared at the stone as the colors continued to morph together, fading into black again. But now I could see a face in the midst of the blackness. Mazzy. I felt it with absolute certainty. But then her face faded and another took its place—Nicole’s, I realized. It stared back at me, but something about her eyes ... the picture shifted again and there was a building, with large, arched windows. I knew I’d seen it before but couldn’t place it. Why was I seeing this? I stared, unable to look away, as that same feeling of claustrophobia that had squeezed me when I was doing Nicole’s reading creeped in, holding me in place. I literally couldn’t look away. The shadow was moving through the mirror, obscuring the building, and I felt fear.

Only this time, I couldn’t tell if it was mine or someone else’s.

Someone else’s. The thought came to me unbidden, as I realized I didn’t feel like I was even in my body anymore. I could feel a scream bubbling up in my throat but nothing was coming out when I opened my mouth. I raised my hands to my throat, an unconscious effort to remove whatever chokehold was on me, but nothing was there.

But I couldn’t breathe.

I actually thought I might pass out.

And then, suddenly, the mirror disappeared from in front of me. I heard a crash, felt Xander scrambling to hide, and then I was jolted back to the present moment, to my own body, to find Blake standing in front of me.