Secret Of The Rose (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 2) (8 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

The day of Homecoming dawned bright, clear and cool. I had no classes that day, and I was secretly looking forward to seeing the parade— especially after being dragooned into helping out with decorating the cheerleader’s float. Honestly, I was looking forward to doing something normal. Like attending a local parade and the Homecoming football game... Not to mention my plans with Duncan
after
the game. I tossed on a faded denim jacket over my black lacy shirt. My running shoes seemed to glow with their neon green against my darker skinny jeans. I left my hair down. I tucked my sunglasses in my backpack style purse and stood in the foyer waiting for Ivy.

She had my jaw dropping in shock when she strolled down the main staircase wearing a Senior Homecoming shirt, her brown hair all twisted into a pretty up do. To keep her hair from looking too mundane, Ivy had added blue and yellow hair extensions that were artfully arranged in her hair.

“Festive,” I said. I had never seen Ivy display so much school spirit. She merely raised her eyebrows at me and looped her digital camera strap around her neck.

“It is Homecoming,” Ivy announced and pulled her cat eye sunglasses out and stuck them on her nose.

As luck would have it, the house Duncan was currently rehabbing was almost at the end of the short parade route. We drove over, and I pulled my truck in the driveway. We unfolded a couple of lawn chairs and sat at the end of the driveway, preparing to watch the local color. Duncan and his crew joined us— and they were sitting on the driveway or on overturned buckets. One of the men from the crew had his wife and toddler join us. The couple introduced themselves as Marshall and Felicia. They sat in the shade talking to each other while the other guys made faces at the little girl in her stroller to make her smile.

I watched people mill around, and noticed that most of the younger children carried plastic grocery bags. I was about to ask what that was all about, but then I heard the marching band. A police car came over the little hill to start the parade and to clear the street. The parade come rolling through. I heard the band before I saw them and noticed a shift in the excitement of the crowd gathered on the street.

“My kid brother is in the drum line,” Marshall said to me.

“That’s cool,” I said, grinning at him. Marshall seemed so proud.

I saw the flag corps leading the way and estimated there were over a hundred kids playing in the marching band. The band marched in perfect time, and in a coordination which made me envious. I smiled at the smart metallic gold and royal blue uniforms and watched dozens of proud parents and grandparents snapping pictures with cell phones and cameras. The crowd did indeed go wild.

Ivy stood up to take pictures. I watched her working, and Duncan put his arm around my shoulders.

“The marching band went all the way to the State Championships last year.” Duncan explained to me. The guys on the crew stood and cheered with enthusiasm as the drum line thundered past. Marshall called to his brother, Felicia waved animatedly, and I saw a drummer in the line nod his head in response. Obviously, the younger bother of Marshall.

I had to smile. In the little town I had grown up in, there weren’t any Homecoming parades. It had been a fairly rural area, and the students were spread out. This was a whole new experience for me. Looking around at the local people of William’s Ford, I sensed a huge amount of home town pride. It was sweet, actually.

The band moved onto a rousing fight song, and they sounded great. Ivy came back and was checking the photos as the Varsity football team rolled by. The team captains were being driven around in a slick convertible sport car. They wore their football jerseys and waved as they rolled past. The rest of the football team was behind them sitting on hay bales inside of a flat bed trailer pulled by a tough looking SUV.

To my surprise, the team threw little mini footballs and candy to the kids in the crowd. I watched the little kids scramble and realized that’s why they were carrying bags. I saw candy come winging my way and caught a piece of bubble gum on the fly.

“Hey, Ivy! Catch!” a hunky young man with curly brown hair called out from the football trailer.

Ivy lowered her camera and neatly snagged a little football that he had thrown. The football player grinned in response, and that had me looking at my cousin carefully.

“Is that a friend of yours?” Duncan teased her.

Ivy waved at the football player while his teammates tossed more candy. “His name is Eric; he’s the center on the team.”

“And?” I poked at her.

“I’m going to the Homecoming dance with him,” Ivy said casually. She handed the football to Marshall’s little daughter in the stroller. The toddler squealed in excitement.

“What? You never even said anything!”

“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Ivy said as she raised her camera and took more pictures of the team. “He surprised me a couple weeks ago and asked me to the dance,” she waited a moment then added. “So I said yes.”

“But the dance is tomorrow night. Do you even have a dress?” I asked her completely shocked that she was playing this so cool. Duncan shook his head at me and rolled his eyes. “Shut up, you,” I said to him.

Ivy lowered her camera. “Oh my god— are you playing mom, now?”

“Hey, a Homecoming dance during your Senior year is a big deal. Please tell me you have a dress,” I begged.

“Relax, I have a homecoming dress.” Ivy shrugged and turned her attention back to photographing the parade.

“Well, thank god,” Marshall said with a serious expression. “I don’t think I would have slept at all if she didn’t.” His eyes twinkled as he smirked at us.

Felicia swatted her husband’s arm playfully at his at teasing. “Ignore him,” she said. “Men don’t understand the seriousness of the situation.”

I laughed in agreement. “I want to see the dress when we get home,” I warned Ivy.

“Well, I could use an opinion on what shoes to wear with it,” she admitted as she focused and took more pictures.

“Done,” I said.

A group of cheerleaders marched along behind the players, and the banner they held announced them to be the JV squad. Their uniforms were different from the ones I had seen Holly’s varsity squad wear. A dozen girls wore white tops with royal blue and gold trim. Their skirts were short with more metallic trim. They were close enough to us that I could see the girls were all sporting matching manis. Good grief. I will never understand the need for people to color coordinate every little thing.

One girl with short dark hair in a pixie cut broke formation from the rest of the JV squad and took off running to an open section of the street. “Hey, isn’t that Leilah?” I asked Ivy.

“Yeah,” Ivy said and lowered her camera.

As we watched, Leilah did a roundabout, then started on a series of backflips while the squad and the crowd spelled out E-A-G-L-E-S. She landed her sixth flip with a controlled little bounce.

“Wow. She’s good,” Duncan said. “Somebody’s got major gymnastic skills.”

I watched her as she waved to the families along the sides of the street that cheered for her performance. “I’m surprised she’s not on the varsity squad with those kind of skills.”

“It wasn’t her talent that kept her off the varsity squad,” Ivy confided.

“Really?” I peered at Ivy over the top of my sunglasses. “I smell gossip. Gimme details.”

Ivy grinned at me. “Leilah’s got an attitude. Let’s just say that she’s not an easy person to be around.”

“Oh, really?” I thought back to when I’d met her while she’d been admiring the Halloween decorations. She’d been friendly enough. But there was no denying that she certainly seemed to be in her element now. Leilah walked several feet in front of the rest of her squad waving to the crowd in a way that made me think of a pageant girl.

As I watched Leilah wave to the parade goers, something caught my eye from directly across the street. Folks were jostling back and forth to get a better view when suddenly the crowd parted, and I saw Thomas Drake. My heart slammed against my ribs as I recognized him. He stood perfectly still directly across the street from us. He was wearing sunglasses, his salt and pepper hair was brushed back from his unsmiling face. It was the formal dark suit that had caught my eyes, I realized. That’s what had seemed out of place. As I stared at him, he inclined his head in acknowledgement. Our gazes held— for one heartbeat. Then two.

I jolted hard when Duncan and his crew started to cheer and whistle. I blinked. The crowd shifted, and he was gone. I shivered in reaction.
Why would he be here? Was he watching us? Was something else about to happen?

The trailer that made up the Varsity cheerleader’s float was being slowly pulled along by a red, heavy duty truck. I adjusted my sunglasses and told myself to relax as I waved to the injured Viviane and Kate as they sat on the sides of the colorful float. Several squad members rode on the float, but a few girls marched along side waving metallic pom-poms at the crowd.

As the float cruised slowly by, I noticed a large black dog walking through the crowd on our side of the street. His leash trailed behind him, and I looked to see if anyone was trying to catch him. As I watched the dog weave in and out of the spectators on the sidewalk, I had the weirdest feeling of déjà vu. My stomach turned over and everything else around me, the people, the floats, Duncan and Ivy, all blurred away.

It was like tunnel vision where all I saw was that dog. His head swept left, then right, and he gathered himself as if he was about to bolt.
The cheerleader’s float: Something’s going to happen to the girls.
I reached blindly for Duncan’s arm and heard myself say, “Something’s wrong.”

Time seemed to slow down as the dog streaked out into the middle of the parade, directly in front of the red truck. There was a sudden screeching of brakes, and then several screams. Duncan and the guys on the crew shot past Ivy before I could even take a step.

I shook myself out of wherever I had just been. With a snap, time seemed to re-set itself. The crowd pushed forward as one, and even though the float was only about ten feet away from us, for a few moments, I couldn’t see anything. Ivy grabbed my arm, and we started to work our way through the crowd.

“Is Holly okay?” Ivy shouted.

“I can’t see!” I called back
. Damn it! Gwen had said the dark magick had been contained!
Now something else had happened to the squad.
My heart raced as I broke through the people milling around.

I saw Holly and Cypress squatting down beside the float. They look unharmed, and Holly had her arm around a girl who was sitting on the street and crying.

“Holly!” I called to her.

She motioned us over. “I’m alright. Megan’s hurt, though.”

As I approached, I noticed a large bump in the middle of the girl’s forearm. My stomach turned over. Definitely broken.

The driver of the truck rushed over, and she knelt down next to Megan. “I’m sorry honey, I stomped on the brakes to avoid hitting that dog.”

“The trailer jerked hard. I lost my balance and fell off,” Megan cried.

“That’s the coach,” Ivy informed me.

I stepped back and saw that Duncan and his crew were helping the other girls down from the float. Duncan scooped Viviane up, and I went to the float and grabbed her crutches for her. He handed Viviane off to Marshall, and Viviane smiled at him, a little flustered.

Marshall carted her gallantly over to the sidewalk and out of the way. Kate climbed down with assistance from Cypress and a few other adults who had gathered to help. I handed Viviane her crutches and saw Felicia pass over a baby blanket to Ivy. The blanket was passed to the coach who tied it into a makeshift sling to stabilize Megan’s arm.

I helped round up the other girls while Holly checked with their coach, and, after getting her consent, we escorted the rest of the girls over to the sidewalk and off the street, keeping them all together. Someone from the crowd pulled the float over to the curb so the rest of the parade could continue. They handed the truck keys back to the coach as a police cruiser rolled up, and a male and female officer got out.

I recognized the female officer as Lexie Proctor from Aunt Gwen’s coven. She carefully helped Megan up, and Megan, along with the coach, got into the police cruiser. A few moments later, they smoothly rolled away to the emergency room, no doubt, while the other officer remained to get the street clear. The crowd quickly got out of the way, and the parade continued on.

“We need to get back to school,” Kate said as she stood there cradling her wrist in its blue brace against her chest.

“Are you hurt?” Duncan asked her sharply.

“Oh.” Kate scowled down at her wrist. “I don’t think so. Well, not anymore than I was already.”

“Once the last of the parade moves through, we could get the girls back to school easily. We have enough drivers.” I motioned to Duncan’s crew.

A bit later, Felicia and Marshall took Viviane, Belinda, Danielle, and Jayne in their minivan. The four girls were cooing over the toddler, and they all seemed to be in good spirits. I sent Kate and Lissa off with Duncan. Ivy volunteered to wait for us and promised to send texts to Gwen and Marie so they could contact the other girls’ parents. I took Cypress and Holly in my pickup, and we made a caravan to the school to drop the squad off.

I waited until I was alone with the two girls, driving towards the school. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked them grimly.

“That hex is still at work,” Holly said quietly.

“No shit,” Cypress whistled through her teeth.

A thought occurred to me. “I’m starting to wonder if this is like magickal revenge. Who did you girls piss off, anyway?”

Cypress pursed her lips as she thought about it. “I haven’t heard any of the other girls talking about a big fight with anyone.”

I stopped at an intersection and eyeballed them. “Did any of the girls on the squad steal somebody’s boyfriend?”

Holly crossed her arms over her chest. “Not that I know of.”