Ominous (17 page)

Sucker.

“Hey, guys,” a female voice said.

Goran and Sam, our two escorts for the day, took a menacing step toward Ivy as she swung her bag to the floor next to the empty chair at our table.

“She’s cool, guys,” Noelle said, holding up a hand. They instantly backed off, like a pair of dogs on a leash.

“Hey, Ivy,” I said with a weak smile.

It was good to see her, good to be out, good to at least be pretending that everything was normal. Or as normal as it could be, with a former NFL linebacker breathing down my neck, supposedly trying to make me feel safe. Of course, the man’s neck
was
as thick as a tree trunk, so my guess was no one was about to mess with him.

“Sorry I’m late,” Ivy said, scooting her chair closer to the table.

“You should be,” Noelle said flatly. She touched each of her pieces of silverware, straightening them on the table. “You’re the one who called this little meeting.”

We both glared at her. Noelle lifted her shoulders. “What?”

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to Ivy. “So? What’s up?”

She waited for the waiter to lean past her shoulder and fill her water glass.

“Do you need a few minutes?” he asked, his tone clipped.

“Please,” Ivy said politely, casting a glance at the closed menu atop her china plate. He gave a nod and hurried off.

“I’ve been thinking,” Ivy said, placing her elbows on the table and clasping her hands. She leaned forward and lowered her voice to a whisper. “We should get the rest of the girls together and do the incantation before your party.”

“Check, please!” Noelle said, raising a finger and starting up from her chair.

“Noelle!” I hissed as the waiter glanced over, confused, from a nearby table. “We haven’t even ordered yet!”

Noelle lifted her sunglasses, pushing them back into her hair. Cell-phone girl finally snapped her picture, and Noelle shot her a look that could have knocked over a skyscraper.

“I’ll hit the hot dog cart on the way home if it means avoiding this conversation,” she said through her teeth.

“Just hear me out,” Ivy said, raising her dark eyebrows. She pressed her lips together before adding, “Please?”

That must have been a tough word for her to utter to her worst enemy. Noelle seemed moved that Ivy had put in the effort. She rolled her eyes but sat down again, waving off the baffled waiter.

“Okay, fine. I’m always up for a laugh. Why in the name of Prada would I ever want to do this?” Noelle asked.

Ivy took a deep breath and blew it out. “When Reed and I said the incantation, something happened,” she whispered.

“I know, I know. The lights went out and your cell phones rang,” Noelle said, waving a hand. “Spooooky.”

Ivy looked at me and I could tell she was starting to get agitated. I gave her what I hoped was a calming look.

“It wasn’t just that,” I told Noelle quietly, touching the locket. “It wasn’t until after I said it in the basement that night that I started having the dreams about our friends. And Ivy …” I looked at her and hesitated. We hadn’t talked about the things I’d seen her do, and I wasn’t sure if she wanted to.

“I think … no, forget that … I
made
that painting fall on Gage’s
head the other day,” she said quietly. “And when Missy was walking out yesterday … I saw the doors slam a few seconds before they actually did.”

I knew it. I
knew
it.

“You’re serious,” Noelle said, her chin tucked. “You think you can move things with your mind?”

Behind her, Goran shifted from one foot to the other, and he and Sam exchanged a look. They were probably thinking they’d been hired to protect a bunch of wack jobs.

“I know I can,” Ivy said.

Noelle’s eyes narrowed. “Okay, fine. Move this salt shaker.”

She pushed a silver shaker toward Ivy across the linen tablecloth. Ivy clucked her tongue. “It doesn’t work like that. I have to be angry.”

“Oh, really.” There was a bang and Ivy’s face turned red. She gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath, reaching toward her foot. “Angry now?” Noelle asked, tilting her head with a smile.

“Did you just
stomp
on her
foot
?” I demanded.

“Just trying to help,” Noelle said angelically.

“Ivy, I’m so sorry,” I said, appalled.

“It’s fine.” She straightened up again and turned her chair toward me, away from Noelle. “Look, I just think that if we’re all going to go to this party and act as bait, we may as well say the incantation first. If all the girls can do stuff like we can do … maybe they’ll be able to protect themselves if anything happens.”

I saw the logic of what she was saying. I just had zero confidence that we could convince any of them to do it.

“Oh, please. That is so not why you want to do this,” Noelle said, taking a sip of her water. “You just want it to be true. You want to be a real witch. Admit it, Ivy. You spent your entire childhood watching
Charmed
reruns on TNT and hero-worshipping Rose McGowan, didn’t you?” Then she squinted and tilted her head. “Or no … you’re more of a bitchy Shannen Doherty type….”

Ivy gritted her teeth and looked me in the eye. “Is it okay if I kill her?”

I smirked. “I wouldn’t try. Goran’s packing.” We both glanced warily at the bodyguard and the bulge on his right hip. He sniffed and shifted his jacket to try to camouflage it better. “Besides, without her we won’t have eleven.”

Ivy’s eyes lit up. “Seriously? You’ll do it?”

“Oh, come on,” Noelle said impatiently. “You guys, just because some crazy faction of alums thinks this is real, that doesn’t mean it is.”

I shot her a silencing stare and whipped out my cell phone. “I’ll start with Tiffany.”

“I’ll call Portia,” Ivy said giddily.

Noelle rolled her eyes and summoned the waiter with a flick of her hand. “I’ll have the salmon and they’ll both have the heaviest pasta you’ve got on the menu.”

“What?” I said, lifting the phone to my ear as it began to ring. “Why?”

Noelle crunched on a cube of ice and sighed. “Because maybe if I can lull you guys into a food coma, I can prevent this thing from happening.”

“Somehow I can’t see Eliza and Catherine shopping for candles inside a Pottery Barn,” I said as we stepped through the huge glass doors, out of the frigid cold and into the warm, airy shop on Fifth Avenue.

“Yeah, well, it’s the one place you can always guarantee they’ll have white candles,” Noelle said, standing next to me. She sighed and shook her head. “I still can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“Come on,” Ivy said, breezing by with an empty wire shopping basket dangling from her arm. “They usually keep the candles in back.”

Heaving another sigh, Noelle followed after Ivy and Goran trailed her, his head swiveling slowly from right to left as if it were on a timer. Noelle pulled out her iPhone to check her messages as she skirted a couple of little kids chasing each other with pillows. Sam and I tried to catch up, but a woman in a wheelchair cut me off and stopped in the middle of the aisle to inspect a mahogany desk. Glancing at Noelle’s retreating back, I hooked a right and started to go around a table full
of plates and napkins, when I spotted a silver clock on a shelf, shaped like an old-school airplane. The face of the clock was the front of the plane, and the hands were the propellers. My father would love it. And after my conversation with Noelle’s dad the night before, I’d been feeling a lot of guilt about my dad, as if just talking to Mr. Lange were a betrayal.

I picked up the clock and checked the price. There was a red slash through the bar code on the sticker and the scrawled note
1/2 off!
Sweet. I always had a hard time finding gifts for my dad that weren’t Pirates-, Penguins-, or Steelers-related.

Sam turned so that a middle-aged guy could get by us, and I felt suddenly uncomfortable. It was weird, being shadowed by someone I’d barely talked to.

“What do you think of this?” I asked, holding it up.

He frowned, surprised. “It’s a plane clock.”

I blinked. “Yeah …?”

“Why would you want a clock made out of a plane?” he asked, his brow knitting.

“Because it’s cute,” I replied.

“Never understand what people will spend their money on around here,” he said under his breath, shaking his head and looking off toward the door.

My face burned, but I chose to ignore him. Glancing around the side of the towering display, I saw Noelle and Ivy pause near the back of the store. I grabbed one of the boxed clocks off the highest shelf, then went to join my friends. Actually, I probably shouldn’t have left
those two alone for as long as I already had. Knowing them, they were probably fighting over whether we should get twelve-inch tapers or nine. A crowd of female shoppers in fur coats skirted right past me, one of them elbowing me aside as if I wasn’t even there, and I bit my tongue. I stood on my toes to try to see over their shoulders as they walked toward the stairs to the second floor. I spotted the candle section, but Noelle and Ivy were suddenly nowhere in sight.

I paused near a basket of white votives and looked around. Where had they disappeared to?

Then, suddenly, my heart lurched. Had they actually disappeared?

But you didn’t dream about Noelle and Ivy going missing
, a little voice in my head told me.

Then I scoffed, unable to believe my inner voice thought
that
was a logical argument.

Sam had stopped at the end of the aisle, but he didn’t seem perturbed that the others were gone. I supposed that as long as I was safe, he was doing his job. I scanned the store again, flipping my hair over my shoulder, trying to look casual. I didn’t see Noelle’s tall frame or Ivy’s dark hair anywhere. All we were supposed to do was buy some candles. What were they doing? Browsing the linens section?

I tucked the plane under my arm and took off, walking the aisles at the back of the store one by one. Every time I came to a corner I told myself they’d be around the next one, but they never were. When I got to the kitchen section I paused to take a breath, and felt a sudden, foreboding tingle down the back of my spine.

Someone was watching me.

“Everything okay?” Sam asked,

I jumped and nearly knocked over a precarious stack of heavy white dinnerware.

“Yeah. I’m fine. I just … Where did they go?”

“Hang on,” Sam said. He lifted his hand to his mouth and spoke into his wrist. “G? What’s your twenty?”

He lowered his arms and waited. And waited some more. Then he took a few steps away from me and tried again. “G? Please respond.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone slip into the next aisle. Slim frame, long dark hair, dark skin. My heart leapt to my throat. I took a tentative step away from the wall and peeked between two shelves. The girl’s back was to me, but I could see most of her profile. She wore her hair in a low ponytail, and colorful earrings dangled against her sharp cheekbones.

Sabine.

“Omigod,” I said breathlessly.

Someone grabbed my wrist and I screamed, whirling around.

“God! Jumpy much?”

Paige Ryan stood before me, her auburn curls back in a plaid headband. I looked across the aisle again and came face-to-face with the girl I’d been ogling. She was Asian American, with dark brown eyes and a petite frame. She looked nothing like Sabine at all.

“Are you all right?” Sam asked, coming up behind me.

“I’m fine,” I said through my teeth. “Did you find them?”

He nodded. “They’re waiting for us at the front.”

I let out a relieved sigh.

Paige looked me up and down. “What’re you doing here?”

“Getting some air,” I replied. “What are
you
doing here? I’d think that shopping would be the last thing on your mind, what with your cousin going missing.”

“I needed a distraction,” Paige shot back.

In her defense, she did look rather harried. She wore almost no makeup and had broken out across her forehead. Her gray cashmere sweater was pilly and she was actually sporting jeans, which I was certain I’d never seen her wear.

“Well, good seeing you,” I lied, backing away.

“Hope you get to go back to school soon,” she said through her nose, picking up a coffee mug to inspect it. “At this point you may have to do an extra semester.”

“Thanks,” I said sarcastically.

She took a step toward me, cocking her head. “And you won’t be doing any of it in the new Billings. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Then she placed the cup back down on the glass shelf with a clang and strolled away. It was amazing, how much she sounded like Missy. Those two seemed to be a faction unto themselves. With a deep, cleansing breath, I turned around and headed toward the front of the store, my bodyguard in tow.

Noelle, Ivy, and Goran hovered near the door with their shopping bags. I gave them a quick wave as I joined the short line to buy my father his new clock. As the line inched forward I told myself to look on the bright side. Sure, there was a bodyguard tailing me, three of my friends were missing and possibly dead, and I’d just had a run-in
with a bitch, but soon I’d have a Father’s Day present for my dad three months early, and at least Sabine hadn’t escaped from prison and started stalking me. Even on the worst of days, there was always a bright side.