“Scrying,” Josh replied. He set a dark red pillar candle on one corner of the black cloth. Isaac already had a few others around his room.
“Why aren’t we using a crystal ball?” Kaylee asked.
“Don’t have one,” Isaac said. “My parents always preferred to use a scrying bowl to see past events.”
Isaac raised his hands, and the pillar candles around the room ignited along with the white ones in the iron chandelier above us.
“And we need the candles because?” I asked.
“It’s best to scry by natural light.” Isaac snapped his fingers, and the lamp on his dresser went out. “Did you bring something of hers?”
I held up a lavender hair band. “Lauren said she borrowed it from Natalie.”
“That’s perfect. Set it on the cloth.”
Josh placed the picture of Natalie next to it. “Isaac and I think with our combined powers we’ll be able to narrow in on her aura. We’ll know if she’s alive by the energy it gives off. We might even find out where she is.”
I bit my bottom lip, hoping this worked and bracing myself for what we were about to see.
We raised our arms over our heads.
Kaylee began to close our circle, naming the element she represented: “By the power of earth.”
“By the power of air,” I said.
“By the power of water.” Josh’s eyes narrowed as he focused on the bowl. A moment later, water flowed in from the bottom until it threatened to spill over the lip.
“By the power of fire,” Isaac said. The flames of the candles around us reached several inches into the air then settled back to a flicker.
Together we said, “We shall cast with the powers of three times three.”
Our circle closed with a faint snap.
Magic was best practiced within a protective ring. This had been one of the first things Isaac and Josh had taught me. It kept our energy in a controlled area while protecting us from outside forces. The latter wasn’t as important when we were indoors, though, especially in Isaac’s room, which had been built by the original owners of his house decades ago to provide a safe haven from all things supernatural. From the stone floors to the iron hardware, his room was a fortress to those with powers.
Isaac took my and Kaylee’s hands and said, “Concentrate on the last time we all saw Natalie.”
Josh grabbed our free hands. I closed my eyes and pictured Natalie sitting on the stone bench near the fire pit in Ben’s backyard, strands of brunette hair peeking out from underneath her grape-colored hat. When I was sure the image wouldn’t disappear on me, I looked at the bowl. The water was no longer still. It swirled clockwise as if it had been stirred.
We must have sat in silence—hands linked, watching the water twirl hypnotically—for a good five minutes.
Isaac grunted. “It shouldn’t take this long.”
“Maybe it’s me.” Kaylee’s shoulders sagged forward. “Maybe it won’t work with someone who isn’t a natural witch.”
She went to stand, but Isaac and Josh tightened their grips on her fingers.
Josh spoke first. “You’re part of our coven. You have a bond with each of us. There is another reason this isn’t working.”
Isaac nodded. “Josh is right. We can’t afford for you to start doubting your place in the circle.” When Kaylee opened her mouth, Isaac quickly added, “We’ll prove it. Focus on the first night we all met.”
It had been a warm fall evening. A large group of people from school had met at Wingaersheek Beach. Isaac had just moved to Gloucester, and he’d come to the gathering with Josh.
The water in the scrying bowl stilled, and there we were, standing on the shell-littered beach. Josh’s black hair fell around his face much like it did now. I had been wearing a cream tank top and white hoodie with my pink plaid sneakers because Kaylee hadn’t warned me I’d be meeting someone new. Isaac had his brown hair spiked and wore an olive green jacket. The setting sun glistened red off the sea next to us. We watched the exchange of small talk, not hearing what had been said. Then Josh scooped Kaylee up and jogged down the beach ahead of Isaac and me.
“Our combined memories recreated that night down to the smallest details.” Isaac gave a nod to Kaylee. “Josh is even wearing the necklace you now have around your neck.”
I squinted at the image of us in the scrying bowl. We were sitting around the bonfire now. The flames made the dark metal cross glow crimson.
“Convinced yet that you’re not the problem?” Isaac asked as we all released our hands.
Kaylee touched the leather chain. “Yeah, that’s proof enough.”
“What if we try to focus on Caden?” Josh suggested. “See if he was telling Madison the truth?”
Isaac raked his fingers through his hair. “We don’t have anything of his.”
“I do.” I jumped up, grabbed my jacket, and dug the cigarette butt out. “I stopped him from throwing it in Mrs. Taylor’s bushes. I meant to toss it in the fire pit.”
Kaylee grabbed her phone from her purse. “And we were messing around.” She scanned the pictures. With a triumphant smile, she held the screen so we could see it, revealing a shot of my back shoulder and Caden’s smiling face.
Isaac rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “That could work. Try focusing on Caden and Natalie. Let’s see what happens.”
We joined hands again.
I alternated my thoughts between Natalie’s excitement that Caden had come to the party and Caden’s easy smile when we’d been talking. The water swirled clockwise in a mix of foggy white and dark red. When it stilled, Caden, Natalie, and Lauren were talking outside school.
“Do you think that’s the present?” Josh asked, but a second later he and Isaac walked by Caden and Natalie in the scrying bowl. “Guess not.”
Kaylee leaned in closer to the bowl. “That had to be this past Friday morning. I bet Natalie’s asking him to the party. Look how she keeps tucking her hair behind her ear and how she keeps looking from her shoes to Caden’s eyes. She’s totally crushing on him.”
“This is good. Focus on the party,” Isaac said.
The scene in the bowl was swallowed by a swirl of the water. A few breaths later, we were watching Caden and me talking near the edge of the yard. I felt Isaac’s eyes on me.
My gaze met his. “Natalie was too shy to go talk to him. I was trying to coax him into joining us.”
He bobbed his head, and we observed my double’s conversation end with a slight wave goodbye to Caden before I walked to the edge of the bowl and out of view. Shortly afterward, we watched Caden walk around to the front of the house, where he stopped to talk to Isaac and Josh. He got in his car next. Nothing exciting happened from there, unless you count him almost taking off a car door when the driver of a red Neon swung it open right as Caden drove by. Then the scene went black.
“That’s it of him at the party,” Isaac said. “Show us what Caden’s doing now.”
I realized he was talking to the scrying bowl, so I began to think,
Caden then lounged on a worn leather couch, holding his half-drunk beer in one hand and the television remote in the other. By the way the light flashed around him, I guessed he was flipping through channels on the television. The last scene remained constant.
Isaac’s fingers slipped from mine. “I don’t think he’s our guy.”
“I have to agree,” Josh said.
