I stood on the front porch with Mom and Tyler. The snow had stopped falling, but it was still bitterly cold with a biting wind.
“Hey, look at this.” I pointed to the footprints that started on the porch and led down the stairs. They were women’s footprints. Since Mom stood beside me, they had to belong to either Gail or one of my aunts.
Dominic’s Cadillac Escalade was missing too.
Aunt Pearl.
I ran into the living room and found Aunt Amber struggling to free herself. She was tied to a chair with a string of Christmas tree lights.
Earl walked in from the dining room at the same time. “What the heck—?”
My heart thumped in my chest as I scanned the room. Gail was now awake and sat in the armchair. But Dominic was gone.
Gail, unlike Aunt Amber, was unrestrained. She played a game on her phone, so engrossed that she didn’t even look up. Or maybe she was purposely ignoring us.
“What happened?” I quickly untied Aunt Amber’s hands and feet while Tyler, Earl, and Mom searched the house for any sign of Aunt Pearl and Dominic.
“Pearl tied me up, and now she’s on the run.” Aunt Amber glared at Gail as she rose to her feet. “Thanks for nothing, Gail.”
Gail shrugged. “Why would I help you? You knocked me out cold.” She turned back to her phone screen.
“Where did Dominic go?” I asked.
Aunt Amber shrugged. “I don’t know. He must be with Pearl. She knocked me unconscious before she tied me up, so I didn’t see what happened. Next thing I knew he was gone too.”
My mouth dropped open. “She kidnapped him?”
“Either that or he kidnapped her. Or maybe they’re in cahoots with each other.” Aunt Amber sighed. “I just don’t know anymore. Pearl’s acting so weird.”
It also struck me as odd that Aunt Pearl had used a string of Christmas lights instead of witchcraft to restrain Aunt Amber. On the one hand, it was probably more effective to tie up Aunt Amber than rely upon a spell she could potentially undo. On the other hand, Aunt Pearl always claimed she could out-spell anyone, including Aunt Amber. Her use of physical restraints seemed a little out of character.
Aunt Amber followed behind me as I headed back to the front porch.
“Pearl knows it’s her tea,” she said. “You saw her get sick from it too. She’s guilty as sin.”
“It was an honest mistake.” I couldn’t believe that Aunt Pearl planned to kill Merlinda on purpose, by accident, or otherwise. I flashed back to her milk thistle, or rather, mistletoe, tea remedy. She had hidden most of her symptoms, but the tea had sickened her too. “If it was a mistake, then why didn’t she just own up to it?”
“She’ll never admit that, Cen.” Aunt Amber sighed. “She’d rather be a fugitive from justice.”
Mom confirmed our worst fears when she returned to the front porch, breathless. “She’s gone. We’ve looked upstairs, downstairs, everywhere. We’ve got to find her.”
Aunt Pearl was AWOL. She had stymied the investigation, held us at gunpoint, and now she was a fugitive on the run.
It was a dumb move. Her negligence wouldn’t attract new students once the secret got out. Which it was sure to now that she was a missing person.
Instead, her incriminating behavior implied she had intentionally poisoned her own student.
Brayden joined us. “I checked the basement but there’s no sign of Pearl. She could be anywhere. Running away makes her look guilty.”
Brayden was right about that, but I was more worried about Aunt Pearl’s survival. She was still weak from the poisoned tea, and with hardly any body fat, she wouldn’t survive in the frigid temperature outside.
What really troubled me was how Aunt Pearl had tied up Aunt Amber. Was that a sign that her supernatural abilities had decreased from the effects of her tea? If she had resorted to using mortal restraints to tie up Aunt Amber, then her witchcraft was either compromised or possibly no longer worked at all. Or even worse, maybe the poison made her spells go haywire with serious, even deadly, unintended results.
I turned to Mom. “I don’t think Aunt Pearl is firing on all cylinders, if you know what I mean.”
Mom was frantic. “I’m afraid I do. Pearl isn’t being rational. Who drinks their own poison just to prove a point?”
Aunt Amber sighed. “That’s Pearl, I guess. She always has to be right no matter what the consequences. Even if those consequences result in her undoing.” She shivered and pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders.
Tyler and Earl stepped onto the porch. Tyler talked into his cell phone, providing details of Aunt Pearl’s escape to the Shady Creek Police. He put his phone back in his pocket. “I’ve alerted the Shady Creek police, though I doubt it will do much good. The roads are still closed, so she can’t drive anywhere.”
Earl slowly shook his head. “I doubt she took the Escalade. You know how Pearl hates driving.”
I had to agree with Earl. Aside from the impassable roads, driving wasn’t Aunt Pearl’s favored mode of transport. That’s exactly what worried me. Teleporting while impaired from the tea could have unintended results. The thought of her airborne and hell-bent on revenge was troubling to say the least. Aunt Pearl could be anywhere.
Tyler’s eyes met mine, his face tinged with worry. His sheriff abilities, no matter how good, couldn’t hold a candle to a desperate witch on the run.
“We’ll find her somehow,” I reassured him. As a witch, Aunt Pearl had plenty of travel options. That meant she was unlikely to freeze to death, but she could certainly get into a whack of trouble.
“Being on the run really complicates things,” Mom said. “I never figured Pearl would be a fugitive from justice.”
“Me neither,” Aunt Amber agreed. “What can we do?”
Tyler patted Mom’s shoulder in reassurance, but his expression remained doubtful. “I doubt Pearl planned ahead, so she probably won’t go far. We’ll find her. The Shady Creek police have an all-points bulletin out.”
“She could have an accomplice waiting somewhere.” Brayden’s attempt at helpfulness fell flat. He was trying to help in his own weird way, but his suggestion only upset us even more. He was already convinced of her guilt.
Earl’s face fell as realization dawned. Pearl had left him behind too. “I was supposed to be her partner in crime, but nothing turned out as planned.”
“Huh?” Tyler frowned. “What do you mean by partner in crime?”
“You think I wanted to wear that dumb Santa suit?” He shook his head. “Uh-uh. Pearl made me do it. She told me that everybody else was getting dressed up for the costume party. Except I was the only one. She tricked me.”
Mom nodded. “She’s good at talking people into things they would never do otherwise. Though I have to say, Earl, you really did look the part.”
Earl sighed. “Was it something I said? One minute she was here. Then the next…gone.”
Mom patted his arm. “It’s not you, Earl. She does stuff like this all the time. You’ll get used to it.”
Though Earl had farmed on the outskirts of Westwick Corners all his life, only recently had he kindled a friendship with Aunt Pearl. That friendship had quickly turned romantic. They made a strange couple. Aunt Pearl was ornery and dramatic, while Earl was calm, romantic, and easygoing. Maybe it was a case of opposites attract.
“She’s gone, all right.” Brayden pointed at the petite footprints in the snow that ended across the driveway.
The tracks didn’t stop where Dominic’s Escalade had been parked. They continued onto the other side of the driveway. Maybe the footprints, and the missing SUV, were all for show, a diversion tactic. While the poisoned tea had probably wreaked havoc with her powers, we couldn’t be sure of that.
As long as Aunt Pearl was functioning normally, she could go anywhere. She could transport herself through portals with a little effort and a bit of magic. I doubted she was far away, though. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if she were watching us right now.
I scanned the garden and the parking lot for any sign of her but saw nothing.
Gail, her phone game finished, joined us on the porch. She put her arm around Brayden’s waist and steered him a few feet away so they were a safe distance from Aunt Amber.
“Pearl knows that everyone makes mistakes,” Mom said. “She’s just incriminating herself by running away. I wish I could just talk some sense into her.” She spoke louder than usual. Like me, she probably suspected that Aunt Pearl was hiding nearby.
Brayden snorted at the thought. He jabbed his thumb in Tyler’s direction. “Too late for that. How could he let her get away like that?”
“You could have stopped her too,” I pointed out. “You saw her leave.”
Brayden shrugged. “Not my job. I’m not the sheriff.”
“Oh, for crying out loud, Brayden. Take ownership for once.” Aunt Amber said. “We’re all in this together.”
“No, we’re not, and don’t criticize me, Amber. I wish Gail and I had never come here in the first place. You and your crazy family…” Brayden threw up his hands before pressing his palm firmly onto Gail’s back. He steered her toward the door. “C’mon Gail. Let’s go inside.”
Brayden’s indifference was the final straw. His self-centeredness remained in full force, even after Merlinda’s death. He didn’t seem to care that Pearl was missing and possibly freezing to death. He lacked compassion for anyone but himself. He berated Tyler, criticized Aunt Pearl, and barely lifted a finger to help anyone. And to think I had almost married him. While I was glad to have dodged a bullet on that one, I was furious at Brayden’s thoughtlessness.
Brayden paused at the door. He let go of Gail and motioned for her to enter ahead of him.
I fought to contain my anger, but I was so enraged that before I knew it, I was whispering the transport spell under my breath. I just wanted Brayden and his self-absorption gone.
As in far-away gone, like Vanuatu. That would serve him right. I pictured him running frantically up and down the beach in a state of confusion, yelling for help.
I knew the spell by heart—I had practiced it for hundreds of hours without success. Reciting it was harmless enough since I wasn’t actually capable of enacting the spell. I often said it as a form of witch-swearing. I channeled my anger into an almost mindless incantation:
Make yourself scarce and go away
Don’t dilly dally, be on your way
Up, up, and away you go
Far from here to a place I know
Aunt Amber gasped. “Cendrine, what on earth are you doing?”
“Hey, what the—” Gail’s voice wavered before she went silent. Her lips moved but no sound came out.
My timing was a little off, because Brayden had still been touching Gail’s arm at the exact moment my spell was cast. The couple faded into transparent silhouettes before us.
Then…Poof!
They were gone.
Just like that.
“Oh no! It’s never worked for me before…” I stood trance-like and stared at the empty doorway where Brayden and Gail had stood seconds earlier.
I had practiced the spell hundreds of times without success. Now, when I hadn’t even tried very hard, it had worked flawlessly. Not only had it worked, it had taken two people at once. I was stunned.
Earl jumped backwards, surprisingly fast for a seventy-year-old. “Did you see that? Brayden and Gail just vaporized! Where the heck did they go?”
“Cendrine, bring them back!” Mom pleaded, but it was too late.
“I-I can’t! I don’t even know what I did. It’s never worked before, so I must have done something different this time. I just don’t know what it is.”
I was still so completely focused on the spell, so stunned that it had actually worked, that I repeated it as I tried to figure out what went wrong.
Poof! Poof!
The same sound as moments earlier, but no sign of the couple.
If I couldn’t figure out what I had done, how on earth could I ever bring them back?