Entangled (12 page)

Mom didn’t meet her eyes when she handed her the bowl of oatmeal. “I can explain that.”

“Thank goodness.” Gray took a seat on a barstool at the counter and scooped a bite of oatmeal with all the goodies onto her spoon.

“The good news is I didn’t accidentally purge Charlene from existence.”

“And the bad news?” ’Cause of course there was bad news—probably horrible news. This was a resurrection spell, for freak’s sake, and Charlene wasn’t present.

Mom released the breath she’d been holding. “There’s just no easy way to say this. At the moment you and Charlene are sharing the same body.”

Gray dropped her spoon. “What?!”

Mom extended an arm toward Gray. “At the moment there’s only this one body—Charlene’s—and both of you are using it.”

“Like multiple personality disorder?”

“No, like fifty/fifty split. After you went to sleep Friday night, Charlene woke up Saturday morning in your bed.”

Gray got off the stool. She couldn’t sit any longer. “What’s today?”

“Sunday.”

“So you’re saying tomorrow I’ll be Charlene?”

Mom nodded.

“And on Tuesday I’ll be me again?”

A pot clanked inside the kitchen sink as Mom started putting in the dirty dishes.

“How did this happen?”

“Apparently I didn’t specify wanting you in separate bodies.”

Oh, those pesky little details
. Gray didn’t share this thought. She was beyond sarcasm. She wanted back inside her body pronto. Black magic had a way of coming back around and biting one in the ass. “Your contact needs to fix this!”

“It’s not that easy.”

“What do you mean?”

“In removing you from Charlene’s body you could be removed altogether.”

“What am I supposed to do—live half a life in someone else’s body?”

“We’re working on it.”

“And in the meantime?”

“In the meantime you need to pretend to be your sister. No one at school can know.”

“And the coven?”

“You know what would happen if they found out.”

“Banishment?” Gray whispered.

Mom nodded.

Gray studied her mom. “You’ll fix this, right?”

“I’ll do everything I can.”

“And for now I’m supposed to pretend to be Charlene?”

Mom pulled a notebook out of the drawer under the phone and brought it over. “Yes, and your sister left some notes to help you out.”

Gray stared at the notebook a moment before taking it. She flipped it open.

NO MORE PIZZA, YOU PIG!!! I GAINED
2 POUNDS
BECAUSE OF YOU!

No wearing your clothes in public. I will choose an outfit for you to wear to school on the days you’re me.

Hair must be worn down. No pig tails, pony tails, hair clips or goofy Princess Leia style buns on the side of your head.

No leaving the house without makeup. I have taped examples and tips in the following pages on how to create a smoky eye.

Gray flipped back to several pages of magazine print and step-by-step illustrated guides for creating a smoldering look. She flipped back to the front page.

No speaking to anyone at McKinley who isn’t on the approved list (see the following pages). Don’t even think about trying to visit with your old friends unless you want to get us committed to an insane asylum.

Absolutely no—UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES—having sex with Blake.

Ewwww!

Gray looked up, her face still contorted. “Did you read this?”

Mom was putting away the brown sugar. “No, Charlene told me not to.”

“And you listened to her?”

Mom looked directly at Gray. “She said it was private.”

More like psychotic.

No more sleeping in your room. I want to wake up in my own bed in the morning.

Yeah? Well, join the club.

Gray closed the notebook. “You’d think I’d feel happy to have a second shot at life.”

“Hang in there. I’ll get this sorted out.”

Gray glanced at the wall clock. “If it’s Sunday shouldn’t we be going to Gathering?”

“Charlene and I stopped attending after you died. How about you and I spend the day together instead? We can do whatever you want.”

“Except eat pizza.”

Mom raised a brow. Gray smiled suddenly. “Then again, Char didn’t say anything about a burger and fries.”

“You know what?” Mom said. “I haven’t had French fries in a really long time.” She grabbed her purse off the counter. “Where do you want to go? Driftwood Café has those homemade zucchini nut burgers.”

“Just so long as I don’t run into anyone from McKinley High,” Gray said. “Good luck to Charlene explaining the scene I made in Mr. Burke’s class when she returns to school tomorrow.”

Mom chewed on her lower lip a moment. “We should think of something.”

Gray raised a brow. “Temporary insanity?”

Her mom laughed. It was a beautiful sound. Gray followed her out of the house and passed her on the walkway. She stopped and turned slowly when she saw her mom with the key in the lock of the door. “What’s with the key?”

Mom looked pleased with herself when she got the bolt turned and clicked into place. “Call me paranoid, but I haven’t wanted to perform spells after partaking in something this big.” She glanced at Gray. “I was lucky. There was one kink, but I got you back. I’m afraid to chance anything else.”

Gray watched Mom’s fingers close around the keys.

It made sense that she didn’t want to tempt fate, but what could go wrong with a simple unlocking spell? And that was one big kink of a resurrection spell. Still, Gray was alive and she was with her mom. What more could she ask for… other than her own body back? They’d fix this. They had to. She wasn’t ready to think about the alternative.

The impossible part was accomplished: Gray was back from the dead. A body transfer should be a piece of cake in comparison.

Speaking of cake, for now Gray had every intention of doing the pigging out and letting Charlene work it off on her days. There was one positive.

Raj was waiting in the student parking lot early Monday morning. He flipped his Zippo open and closed. Friday night he’d driven by McKinley and spotted Charlene Perez’s lone car in the lot. By Saturday afternoon it was gone.

There was one space left in the front row of the parking lot. Several cars passed it as though it were taken. Five minutes later Charlene pulled into the spot.

Clever witch.

Raj grinned, snapped the Zippo shut, and stuffed it inside his pocket. He walked up to Charlene and pivoted to walk into the building beside her. “Hey,” Raj said casually.

Charlene’s eyes screwed up. She had on her standard miniskirt and tight sweater. “What do
you
want?”

“I never got a chance to express my condolences for your loss.”

Charlene’s eyes narrowed. “What’s it to you?”

“Losing your twin must feel two times worse,” Raj said without missing a beat. “Might tempt you to try a resurrection spell.”

Charlene snorted. “Yeah, right, there are only like three witches in the world who might have even the remotest chance of pulling that off.” She batted her long, dark lashes. “Not that I’m without talent.”

“So you’ve got connections?”

“I’ve got all kinds of connections—doesn’t mean I’d use them.”

“Still, must get lonely.”

Charlene stopped walking and turned. “Do I seem lonely to you?” she demanded. Before Raj could answer Charlene’s frown morphed into a wicked grin. “Why are you asking me about my sister, anyway? Do you have like some kind of weird obsession with her, ’cause she never mentioned you before.”

If Charlene was searching Raj’s face for signs of pain she could go on and look all day long. Insults rolled off Raj like water from a duck.

He raised a brow. “And I’m sure the two of you were super close.”

Charlene opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.

“Now, now, Charlene. If you can’t say anything nice…” Raj grinned. He wasn’t breaking any promises by performing a muting spell on Charlene. After all, Gray hadn’t asked him not to use magic on her sister.

Charlene’s eyes widened. If he weren’t so aggravated, it might have been funny to watch her try to scream at him. Suddenly she stopped. A look came over her face and she began to lift a finger toward him.

Raj quickly froze it. Whatever kind of whammy she’d been planning, Raj didn’t want to find out.

Rage flashed in Charlene’s eyes.

Raj clucked his tongue. “Careful, Charlene, you’re still in the coven’s good graces. As much as I’d enjoy being the cause of your expulsion, I think your mom’s had enough to deal with this year. Now I’m going to release you, but before I do I want to know why you pretended to be your sister on Friday. The truth, Charlene.”

Raj pulled out his Zippo and pushed the lid open with his thumb. When he snapped it shut again Charlene was free. She nearly stumbled forward. “You motherfucker!”

“Curse me all you want, but I’ll freeze you again if you don’t answer my question. Why were you pretending to be Gray?”

“I was under a spell!” Charlene screamed.

“Who did the spell?”

“No freaking idea! You are so going to pay for using magic on me, McKenna. The coven should strip you of your powers like they did to Adrian Montez. You shouldn’t even be allowed to pull a bunny from a top hat. No wonder your mom took off and left you.”

Raj fluttered his lashes and yawned. He turned and headed back inside. “Nice chatting.”

“Asshole!” Charlene called after him.

Her words barely registered in his mind. Why would someone want to make Charlene think she was her sister? It had to be an April Fools’ joke. That was the most likely explanation. Witches and warlocks could be brutal on the first of April. They had it in their powers to pull some pretty elaborate pranks.

Then there was the other explanation—the one Raj didn’t want to dare dream of. Maybe someone had managed to bring Graylee to life temporarily. It was a far easier feat to accomplish than a resurrection. Both were virtually unheard of. The girl he’d seen had certainly dressed like Graylee Perez. He had no clue if she’d behaved like Gray. All he’d caught was a fleeting glimpse of her running. She’d looked frightened.

Like she’d been awakened from the dead.

Raj had to face the facts—Gray was gone. Death was final. Even the death of a witch.

There was only one thing left to do: find the sick fuck who’d performed the spell on Charlene and make them pay.

The worst thing about being Charlene wasn’t the hair or even the slutty skirt—it was hanging out with her friends.

Don’t think of it as being Charlene
, her mom had instructed,
imagine yourself as an actress on
Glee
… without the singing and dancing
.

Gray reached around to her backside for the tenth time that morning. It felt like her pleated skirt was tucked inside her underwear, but alas, it was just really short. That was why she kept feeling a cool draft on her bare bronzed legs. Leave it to Charlene to come up with a tanning spell. Charlene hadn’t figured out how to make it permanent, though, and it had to be “applied” every morning—like putting on clothes.

“Oh my god, Char, you look great,” Kiki said.

Time for her lines and they didn’t include “Thanks.”

Gray put a hand to her chest—her pushed-up and firmly molded chest beneath a skintight top—and replied, “How else would I look?”

Kiki giggled.

Apparently being a bitch wasn’t just clever, but witty as well.

Brittany smirked. Her skirt was equally micro, but her legs were shorter, which made it less obvious.

“Hi, beautiful.” Blake approached from behind and wrapped his arms around Gray. Spiced clove filled her nostrils. She wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be deodorant or cologne. Blake’s arms tightened and he squeezed her against his torso and thighs.

Gray resisted the urge to swat him away or stomp on his foot. This became increasingly difficult when one hand slid down to her backside.

Thank god for Charlene’s No Sex with Blake rule or Gray might just throw herself at him. Gag!

Gray took a step forward. “God, Blake, can’t you keep your hands to yourself for one second?”

He grinned. “Not when you’re around.”