“Should we wait for Dahlia and Vivi?” Jess asked, reaching for her cell as Scarlett stepped back into the circle of Ravens. “Do we need their power too?”
“We don’t have time. Dahlia wants to find Tiffany just as much as we do.” Scarlett crossed her arms and studied the girls ringed around her, one by one.
“In Kappa,” Scarlett said, “we put our sisters first. And right now, one of our sisters is out there in grave danger. If we can help, we have a duty to try. Are you still with me?”
For a moment, her voice echoed in the greenhouse space. Then Mei stepped forward, eyes locked on Scarlett’s. “I trust you,” she said.
Etta bowed her head next. “Me too.”
Around the circle it went, some people just nodding, others assuring her in words that they were on board. By the end, even Juliet, after flicking a glance at Jess, offered a gruff nod of her own. Jess twined her fingers through Juliet’s and squeezed once.
“Earlier, I was looking at the sky,” Scarlett said, “and I was thinking that even though we can’t see the moon tonight, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. It still exists; it’s just a shadow of itself.” A few girls nodded. A slow smile spread over Etta’s face; she clearly understood where Scarlett was going with this. “When something disappears, it doesn’t just fall off the face of the earth. It has a history. It leaves a trace. A shadow.”
When Scarlett was younger, Minnie had spoken often of old magic, of the ways things were before witchcraft was formalized into grimoires and covens and written spells. Spells helped focus the magic, but that narrowed focus meant you lost something—the feeling behind it, the desires that couldn’t be put into words. Everything in this world had an energy, an essential essence, and people left behind a little bit of themselves in everything they touched. Whoever had taken Tiffany had blocked every one of the Ravens’ commonly used spells to locate her physical body, but maybe the kidnapper hadn’t thought to block spells searching for her energy, that metaphysical, unnameable thing that made Tiffany Tiffany. In fact, Scarlett was betting on it.
She opened the bag in her hand and spread the items out on the floor. A pair of leather ankle boots. A tweed skirt. A cream silk shirt. And an emerald-cut ruby pendant she’d taken from Tiffany’s nightstand. It had been one of her favorite necklaces. It is one of her favorite necklaces, Scarlett corrected herself.
She arranged everything into the shape of a girl on the floor, the way Minnie used to lay out her outfits for her when she was a child, and then poured smoky black salt around the perimeter for protection and strength.
“Tonight, we seek our lost sister,” she said, her voice lifting. She felt a chill along her arms, the whisper of wind, despite the enclosed greenhouse. “By Cups, we call her.” The Cups witches echoed Scarlett’s cry. “By Wands, we call her.” The Wands witches followed, the freshmen looking to the older girls for guidance. “By Pentacles, we call her.” And finally, Tiffany’s suit. “By Swords, we call her.” Scarlett felt the rush of magic around her as her sisters called upon their power.
“Ravens, lend me your strength,” Scarlett commanded. It hit her with the force of a lightning bolt, power from all sides, of every suit, flowing through her. She had to grit her teeth just to stay grounded enough to speak again. “Reveal the shadow, show the path,” Scarlett recited. “Show us what is missing at last.”
The others joined in. At least, she thought they did. With the magic rushing through her veins, Scarlett could hardly focus on anything except the feel of Juliet’s and Etta’s hands in her own. She willed the magic to show her. Willed it to lead her to Tiffany.
“Reveal the shadow, show the path. Show us what is missing at last.”
The clothes on the floor rustled, moving as if in that same eerie wind. They started to sway back and forth, then expand, almost as if they were making room for a body. What looked like black smoke began pouring into the room, tendrils filtering in from the cracks in the floor, seeping in through the windows, whispering through the plants. It swirled around the sisters, licking at their ankles, curling up their legs.
“Reveal the shadow, show the path,” Scarlett whispered. “Show us what is missing at last.” The necklace shuddered on the floor. The smoke started whipping, suddenly becoming so dense that Scarlett couldn’t see the clothes on the ground, couldn’t see the faces of her sisters across the circle. It turned acrid, choking her, just like it had at Gwen’s apartment. That was when the magic started to burn in her veins. Scarlett could feel another will underneath hers, something vying against her. Something—or someone—did not want them to complete this spell.
Too bad. It was one individual’s willpower against the combined force of all of Kappa. Scarlett narrowed her eyes and pushed back.
Show me my sister, she commanded, and the smoke roiled, swirling together, spinning like cotton candy into a funnel in the center of the room. Suddenly, it shot to the ceiling like a geyser and then careened down toward the floor.
Hazel let out a shout. Scarlett braced for impact. But just before it hit the ground, the smoke stopped, hovering an inch off the tiles like morning burn-off. Then it gently dropped down and seeped into the clothes, filling them, a filmy body sculpted in the shape of a person. And that was when Scarlett realized it wasn’t smoke at all: it was a shadow.
The shadow-girl sat up, a wisp of a thing, a shaky afterimage of the sister who’d left them two nights ago.
Scarlett gasped. Juliet squeezed her hand so hard, she thought she felt something pop. Reagan’s eyes gleamed in awe.
“Tiffany?” Scarlett whispered.
The shadow-girl raised her hand. Then she pointed straight at the doors of the greenhouse, toward the back patio of Kappa House.
Toward the forest beyond. Scarlett glanced up, met Mei’s and Etta’s confused gazes. Trembling, she realized what this meant.
Tiffany was here. Somewhere right outside those doors.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Vivi
For the first time in her life, Vivi broke her rule about not using her phone while driving. Because, for the first time in her life, there literally wasn’t a moment to waste. Taking care to keep her eyes on the road, she called Scarlett. They might not be on good terms, but she was still Vivi’s Big and Tiffany’s best friend. The phone rang a few times and then went to voicemail. “Shit.”
Vivi hung up and banged her head on the seat back, then flicked on her turn signal and took the exit toward Savannah.
Of course Scarlett wasn’t answering. Vivi hadn’t just hurt her—she’d betrayed her. After all this talk about how much she valued the Ravens and sisterhood, Vivi had gone right ahead and stabbed her Big in the back. She would have to figure out the best way to apologize and make things right later. At this moment, all that mattered was returning the talisman and rescuing Tiffany.
Vivi tapped her phone again, one eye on the road, and hit a different number.
Unlike Scarlett, Dahlia answered on the first ring. “How did it go?”
“I got the talisman,” she said, getting straight to the point.
On the other end of the line, the normally unflappable Dahlia inhaled sharply. “So your mother had it?”