The Witch Collector Part II Read Free Page B

coven, so she has no right to return.”
    “Isn’t that Evie’s fight?”
    Sandy’s eyes crackled with a dangerous energy. She took a step closer to me. “Seralina and I are forming a new coven. Evie will join us if your mother doesn’t stick her nose where it doesn’t belong anymore. She can’t repair what she’s broken, and if she tries, she’ll regret it. Now leave me be!”
    “Can’t we come in for a few minutes?” Shelley asked, her voice sounding sweet and young. “Breeda doesn’t know her aunt very well and has more questions. It’s a touchy subject with her mom. I’m sure no one means to disrupt your plans.”
    Sandy’s hand moved to the citrine stone hanging at her neck. “If you don’t leave right now, I will shroud your apartment in darkness until next week.”
    Since we weren’t staying there, it wasn’t much of a threat. “We’re harmless, Sandy,” I said.
    “I swear I’ll short-circuit the phones in your pockets,” she said coldly. “Go. Now.”
    Now, that we didn’t need. We left.
     
    “Well, clearly she doesn’t know where they are,” I complained to Shelley as we sat on a wood bench in the Friends & Neighbors Garden. “She doesn’t even seem to know they’re missing!”
    The garden looked the same as it did the night before. The same hard, unyielding soil, the same trees waiting patiently to bud. Only my life was completely different. What if I hadn’t stopped here? Where would I be?
    We’d listened at Evie’s door before we left, but the apartment was silent as a tomb. I decided not to risk using magic to open the door, and now I regretted it.
    “Maybe we should have checked the apartment again.”
    “Don’t worry about that,” Shelley said. “Vadim searched the whole building. Let’s see if we can glean anything from what Sandy said.”
    “An alchemist, a Romany witch, and a crazypants,” I said. “What a coven.”
    Shelley laughed. “If Evie and Ion are in the same coven, maybe she could scare him into beginning the transition.”
    “Ha! Yeah . . .” I said, distracted. Something gnawed at my consciousness.
    “You’re off in space,” Shelley said. “What are you thinking about?”
    “I’m not sure. When we were at Sandy’s apartment last night, I was too nervous to focus on much besides controlling my magic. I can’t help feeling like I missed something important.”
    “Then don’t focus on other people. Re-create what happened outside of yourself from the moment we walked in the door.” Shelley paused. “It’s kind of hard to do that, I guess. Maybe close your eyes?”
    I shut my eyes and allowed my mind to return to the night before, at Sandy’s apartment. I saw Sandy opening the door with her wild hair and wobbly bracelets. I saw Ion flicking the lighter on and off. Then I watched as Sandy touched the citrine talisman hanging from her neck and turned the television on.
    “Shelley!” I cried when it hit me. “I didn’t have a vision after I picked up Sandy’s gift with electricity! What does that mean?”
    She thought for a moment. “It could mean her magic is weak, or she is. And if that’s true, it gives her another reason to want to be in a coven with powerful witches.”
    I let that settle, trying to make sense of it all. “So, that gives Sandy a motive for getting my mom out of the way, but my dad is a big guy. Where would she stash both of them? And how would she move both of them?”
    Shelley seemed to deflate. “I don’t know. Every question brings another question.”
    “Maybe that’s not a bad thing,” I said. “Maybe we should keep asking until one of them has a clear answer.”
    “You’re right,” Shelley replied, straightening her posture. “Okay, I can think of one. What about Seralina? She’s Romany, so freakishly strong. What if she wants the coven just as much as Sandy? Maybe she helped take them somehow.”
    “I hate to poke holes in your theory, but what could she do? Read their cards until they did