Out on the shop floor, I discovered all hell had broken loose.
Chapter 28
“What is going on?” I asked Bronwyn as she approached.
“The-there are bugs!”
Dozens of silverfish scurried around the crowded shop floor, light glinting off their little writhing bodies.
“Ew!” Starr cried out, and she and her foster daughters laughed and tried to step on them, as though it were a game. I heard one of them starting to sing “La Cucaracha” as she stomped.
Bronwyn reached out her foot to step on one, and for a brief second, she looked like her granddaughter, Imogen. I watched as Starr appeared to resemble her older foster daughter for a moment.
These were certainly no ordinary silverfish. But how did they get out of the shoe box?
As I looked around the shop, I saw people’s appearances changing as soon as they stepped on the slinky little bugs. One mother in a bright pink sundress took on a glamour of her daughter for a few seconds before changing back into her own likeness once again. The father-daughter couple each looked like the other for a quick moment, before regaining their normal appearances.
Some guests were laughing, others shrieking, and one young girl started crying.
I searched the crowd for Patience and Renna, hoping to find a magical ally to lend a hand, but either they were running late or they’d decided against coming altogether.
“It’s like Freaky Friday!” exclaimed Starr, smiling. “How did you manage this, Lily?”
“I . . .” What could I say? If I admitted I wasn’t orchestrating the mayhem, it would only frighten everyone further.
As an enchanted atmosphere took over the store, the antique dresses that had been hanging on the walls ripped free of their pins and started to dance in the air above our heads, like a Halloween haunted house. More people started laughing, oohing and aahing, believing it was all some sort of elaborate trick designed for their entertainment.
Then an iced cupcake—one of Renee’s—sailed across the room and landed with a plop on Maya’s back, icing side down.
“Hey!” Maya cried as she turned around, but there was no obvious culprit. Another cupcake, then yet another, flew across the shop.
Next the silver cutlery crashed to the floor, skittering across the wooden planks as the tea goers inadvertently kicked the forks and spoons. The lamps glinted off the silverware, casting orbs of light on the walls and the ceiling.
It was bedlam.
Xander came up to me; then the glamour slipped and he transformed into Wendy before my eyes.
“What can I do to help?” she asked.
“Just try to calm folks down,” I said. “These bugs aren’t going to hurt them, and the glamours don’t last. And if it doesn’t weird you out too much, try to corral these silverfish? They aren’t normal bugs.”
“Yeah, I got that impression,” Maya said as she joined us. “Come on, Wendy. I’ll help.”
“Hey, Maya, have you seen Selena?” I asked, searching the milling crowd.
“Not lately.”
“She was headed over to Lucille’s Loft for something, last I saw,” said Wendy.
Panic crept up on me. “Where’s Renee?”
“I was talking to her earlier,” said Maya. “But then she put out more cupcakes. . . .”
I pushed my way through the chaos. How could I have been so foolish? I had been so focused on Wind Spirit and her connection to Renee that I utterly failed to make sure Selena was safe.
“Dude,” said Conrad as he held the door open for me. “You know how to throw a heck of a party. Did someone spike the punch?”
“Did Selena come out here? Or Renee?”
“Didn’t see them, but I have to confess I was off duty for a coupla minutes. Nature called.”
“Where’s Oscar?”
“I thought he went back in with you. What’s wrong? Hey, where are you going? Want me to come with you?”
“No, thanks. It’s best if you stay here and watch over things.”
“Watch for what, exactly?”
“Just please try to make sure things don’t get out of hand, okay? And if someone who looks like Sailor arrives—”
“Don’t trust him. I got it, dude.”
I ran next door to Lucille’s Loft as quickly as I could. The lights were off, and the curtains drawn across the front windows.
I tried the door; it was unlocked. So I pushed it open very slowly.
“Hello?” No response. I tried again. “Anyone? Selena?”
I felt magical vibrations, but they seemed . . . off. It wasn’t Renee. Renee was driven and determined, but she was in control.
What I felt was entirely different.
The floor space was crowded with racks of clothing, cardboard boxes, and piles of dresses and blouses from my shop. A narrow passageway led to the worktables at the rear of the store.
I paused briefly and stroked my medicine bag before proceeding any farther. I started chanting, casting a charm for strength and focus. Unfortunately, I was more of a brewing witch than a battling witch. But when I was properly focused, I could send out a blast of energy, as I sometimes did when startled—as Aidan and I had when we last saw Jamie.
“I hate it when you guys do that weird mumblin’ thing,” said Jamie as he emerged from the shadows. He held Selena in front of him, his right hand over her mouth, his left holding a knife to her throat. As usual, Selena’s affect was flat. But her eyes were screaming.
I kept on “mumbling.”
“Seriously, you don’t shut up, and the chickie here is gonna get cut.”
I stopped chanting, but continued stroking the medicine bag. I could feel the outline of the lachrymatory within the fabric. The vial with the salts of my teenage tears.
“I’m surprised at you, Jamie,” I said. I glanced at Selena, trying to telegraph to her that I would take care of her, that I would make sure she was safe. “I mean, I knew you were working for Renee, but I guess I assumed you were sort of a ‘bad guy with a heart of gold.’”
“Yeah, I get that a lot, actually. Don’t know why, except I really am a nice guy a lot of the time. But the
