“She must have left,” Mom says. “She was probably anxious to talk to her father, and she locked the door to keep you from finding out she had left.”
“She wouldn’t do that, and she’d tell me if she did.” But I wonder if that’s true. Talia was hot to call her dad, and I stopped her because I was afraid. But maybe she wanted to call so bad she sneaked out and found a pay phone. After all, she’s already run away once.
I hear my cell phone ringing in my room. Thinking it’s Talia, I bolt out the door.
“Talia?”
“Dude, you’re in a big mess.”
Travis! Travis, calling from Europe.
“Where are you? Do you know anything about Talia?”
“I know King Kong and his goons tracked me down with the tour, and they’re trying to torture me for information. I keep telling them I don’t know anything. They finally let me use my phone, so I’m calling you. You’ve got to make her call home.”
“She’s not here.”
“She didn’t go with you?”
“No. Are you with her parents?”
“I’m with her dad in Brussels. It’s been a super barrel of laughs, let me tell you.”
“Sorry. She hasn’t called there? It’s been all over the television stations here.”
“Here, too. They all think she’s with you, but they don’t know who you are. They keep calling you ‘the American youth.’”
My sister Meryl comes in. She’s carrying something in her hand, two somethings. The first is Talia’s jewelry box. Her jewelry box! She’d never leave without that, so she must be coming back.
I can’t see what the other object is, on top of the box. I walk closer.
“Jack? Jack, are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. She’s not with me, Trav, honest.”
I’m standing in front of Meryl now. I pick up the object on top of the box. It’s long and slender and looks hundreds of years old, and even though I’ve never seen one before, I know exactly what it is.
It’s a spindle.
“I have to go, Trav. I’ll call you later.” I close the phone.
“What is it?” Meryl demands.
“She hasn’t called home,” I say. Now Mom’s joined Meryl in the kitchen. “I think she’s been kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped?” Mom says. “That’s impossible. I looked at the windows in that room, and they’re not broken. They haven’t even been unlocked. And we have alarms on the doors.”
“A witch wouldn’t need to break a window or, if she did, she could fix it.”
“A witch?” Meryl says.
I nod. “Her father and his goons aren’t going to be able to find her. We have to go to Euphrasia.”