Fire & Ice

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Journal entry:

Something strange is definitely going on, but I can't put my finger on it, exactly. I can't see anything magical happening, but Shelly waltzes in and out of places, and no one seems to pay any attention to her. It's like they don't realize she's under age, or if they do, they're turning a blind eye to it. It all seems so . . . suspect to me.

I've written a spell to help reveal Shelly's true colors and see if that will show me anything.

Items needed:

A colored rose

Candles in red, yellow, and green

Desert Sage incense

Light the candles and the incense, allowing the incense smoke to fill the air and drive away any bad spirits or influences. Take the rose and wave it slowly through the smoke, allowing it to become saturated with the smell. Carefully remove the petals of the rose while repeating the following spell:

With candles red, yellow, and green.

(Insert name) reveal thy true colors to me.

Show me what in thy heart lies,

Let no more bad influence compromise.

Thy intentions be made plain for all to see,

Again I command, reveal to me.

***

Taking the crumbled rose petals, I placed them in a small organza pouch. Anyone who saw them would think it was a tiny bag of potpourri to freshen the air. Now I only needed to get close enough to Shelly to place it somewhere personal. It didn't matter where, really. It could go inside her car, her purse, in her bedroom—it only needed to be part of her existence—against anything that belonged to her personally. Then I needed to watch and wait for what the spell might reveal. It was going to require me to follow her around, though, something I wasn't too excited about. But I knew Portia was worried about her and I wanted to help.

The opportunity easily presented itself at school when she set her large bag on the floor beside her. I carefully tossed the gift into it, hoping she wouldn't discover it any time soon, and continued on my way to class.

"It's planted," I whispered into Portia's mind.

She sighed audibly. "Good. Let's hope it works now."

"I'll try to keep an eye on her as much as possible. You do it too. Let me know if you see anything unusual."

"Okay. Thanks for your help."

"Anything for you, baby. I love you."

---

Sadly, I was sitting in my "usual" spot, a dark corner on the far side of the bar I'd been haunting for the last couple of weeks as I followed Shelly around. The spell I'd done to reveal her true colors had shown no change. Either it hadn't worked, or she'd found it and destroyed it. I hadn't ever been close enough to her again to check the bag for it.

I was frustrated. I'd been able to get into this bar by using magic and trying to stay beneath the radar of anyone who'd want to check my ID. Looking older was working to my advantage as well. Shelly, on the other hand, was not trying to fly under the radar. She was laughing, flirting, drinking, and doing pretty much whatever the hell she felt like. After dumping all her old friends, she'd started hanging with the party crowd at school and they spent a lot of their nights here, together. I'd begun to think that this bar catered to them, but even the business patrol had passed through here and didn't give them a second glance. Things weren't adding up.