Life's A Witch

Chapter Thirteen

I tried to get us through as many spells as I could over the rest of the afternoon, but everyone's attention had left after the confrontation with Fallon. Reluctantly I called it a day and headed straight for the shower to try and wash away my stress. I had no idea it would be so hard to keep a bunch of teenagers in line.

And Fallon. I never should've let the twerp get to me like that.

I wasn't sure why he was constantly challenging me . . . unless he was trying to destroy the Cleri from the inside, a fact that I hadn't yet ruled out.

I placed my face right into the spray of the water and let the echo drown out my thoughts for a while. When I came up for air, I had to admit that no matter what Fallon's motives were, this feud had to end. We needed to come together as a group and our constant bickering was affecting the others, too. I decided I had to find Fallon and institute a truce with him for real this time.

As I dried off and put on a black lace jumper and some oversize costume jewelry that I'd replicated from Tori Spelling's vintage collection, I thought about what I'd say. But when I went looking for him, I couldn't find him anywhere.

Asking around yielded even less information at first, and when I looked in the room he was staying in and saw that a bunch of his stuff was gone, I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach. Something wasn't right.

"How could he have just left?" I asked, shaking my head. Sascha, Jasmine, Jinx, Emory, and I had retreated to my parents' room after I'd discovered that Fallon was gone.

"Well, he did seem pretty mad," Sascha said, in a much better mood now that she'd taken a shower and eaten something. "Emotions were definitely running high." It felt almost like an apology for her outburst earlier and I appreciated the gesture.

"We all got a little out of hand," I said, letting her know how bad I felt about it too. "All that matters now is getting him back home safely. He may be able to pull out a lot of spells, but he won't be a match for what's out there."

"What a little brat!" Jasmine said, annoyed.

I shook my head, even though I was angry, too. "It's my fault. If I hadn't reacted like that, he wouldn't have felt the need to walk out. Besides, he's right. He doesn't have to listen to me at all."

"So what are we going to do?" Jinx asked, twirling a strand of her hair.

"I'm going to go after him."

Their eyes widened with shock.

"Hadley, you can't," Sascha said. "They're out there."

I sighed, knowing what I was suggesting. "As stupid as it was for him to do this, I don't see any other options."

"We could leave him out there," Jasmine said jokingly.

"You know we can't do that," I said, without giving myself time to consider it.

"How are you even going to find him?" Jinx asked thoughtfully.

I started to answer and then realized I didn't know.

"I guess I'll start by driving around?" I said, grasping at straws. "He couldn't have gotten very far. He left on foot, after all."

"Unless he hopped a ride with someone," Jasmine said. We all thought about what this would mean. "It's what I would've done."

"I'm gonna kill him," I said, imagining him hitchhiking his way into town. Fallon was putting us all at risk by taking off and I wasn't exactly happy about it. Even with the power of my lineage behind me, I knew it was going to be dangerous to go looking for him.