A Charming Cure (14 page)

For
a moment, it looked like it was one of the ingredients I had gotten from
Potions, Wands, and Beyond, but the bottle was way too beautiful with the
swirls of colors and a cork top.

I
got on my belly and reached as far as I could. With a little luck, I turned my
head to the side and slid just far enough under the frame for the tips of my
fingers to reach it and roll it towards me.

With
the bottle firmly in my grasp, I pulled myself out and bringing it to my face,
got a closer inspection.

“Cimicifuga?”
I read the label phonetically. “Cimicifuga, cimicifuga!”

I
recalled the strange ingredient from spying on Raven that night.

Raven.

I
grabbed my Magical Cures book from bag and quickly thumbed through it.
Obviously Raven was the one who broke into my room, but why did she have the
ingredient with her?

The
ingredients were listed alphabetically as I ran my finger down each page,
turning them when I reached the end. Finally, I made it to Cimicifuga.

“Black
snakeroot.” I quickly scanned the notes until I found out what it was exactly
used for. “Ward off unwanted illness. Sprinkle on the floor for unwanted
visitors. Get rid of evil jinx.”

Meow,
meow.
Mr. Prince Charming tapped the bottle. 

Was
she trying to get rid of me? Or did she drop it when I unexpectedly came home?
Was the potion really for Faith? Was Raven on her way to finish Faith off after
she found what she was looking for here?

More
and more questions made my head foggy, only making me crave a Ding Dong even
more.

I
put the bottle in my bag for safekeeping. All my evidence was going to stay
with me at all times. I couldn’t risk anyone else coming in and ransacking the
place again.

I
quickly put everything back in its place, which didn’t take too long since
there wasn’t much there to begin with. After all, it was only four days. . .
right!

I
dragged the chair underneath the air conditioning vent and quickly unscrewed it
using the tip of my fingernail.

Luckily,
the intruder, who I was sure was Raven, didn’t think to look in the vent,
because Faith’s computer was still in there safe and sound.

My
intuition told me I was going to have to use more than my psychic ability to
solve this one.

Before
I dug too deep into the Mortimer family history, I wanted to see exactly where
Raven was and what she was doing. Maybe I could catch her fleeing from here. Or
did she realize she had dropped her bottle on the way out? She’d be back for
it, I just knew it. But when?

Madame
Torres was deep in the bottom of my bag. I pulled her out and gently tapped the
glass with my fingernail.

Nothing.

I
tapped again, this time a little harder.

Still
nothing.

With
both palms securely around the globe, I shook it.

“Whoa!”
Madame Torres gave off her ‘I’m mad’ red glow. “I’m not one of those toy eight
balls. And you can’t shake me until you get the answer only you will accept.”

“Flea
market!” I shouted back.

“Fine,
what do you seek?” She asked.

“I
want you to show me Raven.” That was it. I was sure she’d be running back into
the woods by now.

“No
can do.”

“Yes
can do.” I repeated back to her. “There is no time to be snarky, Madame Torres.
I demand to see Raven.”

“You
don’t understand.” Madame Torres’ demeanor had suddenly saddened. “Raven has
put a block up. She has figured out a way to void her of any tracking.”

Defeated,
I put Madame Torres back on the nightstand. “Dark-Sider,” I murmured, wishing
that I knew a little bit more about them.

There
had to be something on the computer that gave a clue to who had done this.

“Hmm.”
The computer started up quickly. “I guess when you have money, you can afford
the top-of-the-line laptop.”

I
scanned through her documents, but there were only notes from classes. Her
picture folders were empty as well as the other folders, which made me believe
that the University police had already swiped the laptop clean. No wonder it
was still in her room.

My
intuition told me to stick with what I was good at to solve this crime. .
.cures. Plus, I had to beat Raven on whatever potion she was working on.

So
I closed the laptop to focus on a new potion to help Faith come out of the
sleep and tell us what was going on. If she did wake up, she’d be able to tell
us that Raven was the Dark-Sider who wanted to find out the Ultimate Spell.

Thinking
about the reaction Faith had to the first potion, and since it only made her
nails come back to life, maybe I could bring her back to life potion-by-potion,
starting with her respiratory system. If she can breathe on her own, maybe her
other functions would start as well.

Chapter Seventeen

“You
are doing a lot of homework for only being in for two days.” The cashier at
Wands, Potions and Beyond slowly scanned the new ingredients.

“Umm,
hmm.” I tried not to look at her. She obviously knew the rule was that we
weren’t allowed to work on any potions that weren’t class related.

“What
class is it again?” The whites of her eyes were bright against her fair skin
and purple hair. Her fingers with black nail polish on the tips picked up the
last bottle and she read the label.

“Nux
Vomica. I don’t recall using that as a beginner.”

“Just
put it in the bag.” I ordered her. So what if it was the root of a poison nut.
It was used for all sorts of cures according to my Magical Cures Book.

“Whatever,”
she growled. Her eyes stared over top her heavily blackened eyeliner. “All you
Good-Siders are alike.” She dangled the Wands, Potions, and Beyond bag on her
finger. I went to get it and her finger curled around the handle. “Your
intuition is way off.”

I
grabbed the bag and headed straight out the door. That was the problem. My
intuition wasn’t working at all.

“Why
so gloom?” I jumped around flinging my sack in the air as Gus ducked to miss a
hit square in his pretty little jaw bone. “Whoa!”

“You
scared me! You can’t go around teletransporting yourself into my business or
life.” I stomped across the street to the cottage dorm. Gus followed. “You
can’t come in here.”

“Want
to bet?” He disappeared.

“Whatever!”
I yelled into the night sky hoping he could hear me.

Without
looking at anyone, I darted up the stairs and back into my room to find Mr.
Prince Charming nestled in Gus’s arms as they sat on my bed.

“Told
you I could get in here.” He stroked Mr. Prince Charming.

“Traitor,”
I mumbled under my breath when Mr. Prince Charming looked up at me.

I
threw the bag of ingredients on the desk and plopped down on the little couch.

“So
you
are
snooping?” His dark snappy eyes looked at me. “Your Aunt is not
going to like this.”

“Is
that so?” I reached for the bag and took the bottles out setting them next to
my little cauldron. “She hasn’t been so forthcoming with me either, and needs to
be; especially if she wants me to look into a few things.”

“She
what?” He darted up and Mr. Prince Charming shot off his lap. “What do you
mean?”

“She
gave me the key to the administration building so I could use my intuition
skills to figure out who had done this to Faith. Only. . .” I hesitated and
tapped on Faith’s laptop that was still on my desk. “Someone had already gotten
to the file and ripped out the important page.”

The
cauldron gave off a couple puffs of smoke.

“Come
on.” I waved my hand for him to follow me. I needed to go back over to Faith’s
room and get the pop can out of the trash so I could salvage any type of spit.
That would be great for a respiratory cure.

I
grabbed the laptop to put it back.

“You
can get kicked out for that too.” He gestured to the pink laptop.

“Not
mine. Faith’s. It seemed she broke a lot of rules and never got in trouble with
the University.” It was true. Faith had broken a lot of the University rules,
but her daddy’s money probably paid for a lot of people to overlook things.
Only someone didn’t overlook something and left Faith to die.

“Eww.
. .Why are we coming in here?” He drew back with a twisted look on his face and
pointed to Faith’s name on the door.

“I’m
the one who gave Faith the cure that made her nails come back to the living.” I
reached in the wastebasket and grabbed the can. “I can’t figure out a full cure
to bring her back, so I’m going to do it little-by-little.”

Amusement
danced across his face. He flipped his head to the side; his shaggy mop settled
into a mess on top his head. “You are a clever one.” He shook his finger at me.

Slipping
back out of Faith’s room, we went back to mine where I began Faith’s new cure.

“Your
Aunt is really not going to like this. It can get you kicked out.” Gus watched
as I threw in a pinch of the Nux Vomica, and then he quirked back when the
flames shot up in the air.

“It’s
fine. Just stand back.” I assured him. “Quite frankly I didn’t care if Helena
kicked me out or not. What is it going to do to me? Not let me take over Whispering
Falls Village Council President when Izzy retires? Whoop-dee-doo.”

“What
are your thoughts on who is doing it?” Gus asked.

“My
initial thought is Raven, but things don’t add up.” I told him about the
pictures of her and Faith, plus how they seem to be good friends. “I did find
this.”

I
threw the little potion bottle that Raven had accidentally left behind after
she ransacked my room.

A
shocked look crossed his face.

“I
think she was trying to send me a warning signal.” I shrugged. “Don’t get me
wrong. I care about Faith, but I really want to find Eloise.”

Recalling
her in the shackles made me work quicker on the respiratory cure.

The
thin substance that rose in the cauldron with gray oddiments smelled like mud
and a mixture of blueberries.

“Thank
you,” I whispered under my breath. There was a scent. A strange combination,
but still a smell. The last potion I made for Faith was odorless.

This
gave me a little hope that she was coming back to us and soon Eloise would be
too.

“This
is crazy.” Gus gushed as the liquid oozed out of the cauldron and dropped into
the small opening of the can. “They never let this cool stuff happen here.”

“If
you think this is nuts.” I shook the can in front of his face. “What until you
see what happens when I give it to Faith.”

“Cool.
I’ll meet you there.” Gus turned to disappear.

“Wait!”
I put my other hand out. “I want you to Teletransport and let me know if the
coast is clear. I don’t want anyone seeing us.”

He
nodded. Then he was gone.

Chapter Eighteen

The
coast was clear as I made my way into Faith’s hospital room. Gus wasn’t there
as far as I could tell, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be showing up at any
time.

Mr.
Prince Charming hopped up on Faith’s bed.

Meowl,
meoowl.
He touched Faith’s cheek with his paw.

“I
know, buddy. I wish she’d wake up too.” I rubbed my hands down his back while I
looked over Faith’s body. There was no change. Only her fingernails were
perfect, just like the old Faith. “Here goes nothing.”

Just
like I had done yesterday, I parted her lips with one of my hands and tipped
the pop can into the open space.

The
potion was thick like honey and it took me a few shakes of the can to get one
big drip out. I backed up shielded my eyes. There might be another crazy
explosion like the previous reaction and I wanted to be prepared.

Beep,
beeeeeep, beep, beeeeeep, blip, blip, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

“Oh,
no you don’t.” I ran over and looked at the monitor that was hooked up to her.
“No, no, no.”

I
grabbed Faith by the shoulders and jerked her up and down, before I heard
footsteps running down the hall.

Hiss,
hiss.
Mr. Prince Charming jumped down and took our rightful hiding place under the
hospital bed. Taking a cue from him, I threw myself on the ground and rolled
under. We were getting really good at this.

Please
no, please no.
I begged with my eyes squeezed shut. Did the potion kill her? The last thing I
needed was to be marked a murderer. . .again.

This
spiritualist lifestyle was proving to be very difficult.

“Get
the cart!” The nurse screamed out of the door when she noticed Faith had
flat-lined. “She’s stopped breathing!”