Realization hit me. “And I bet I left a comb or brush in there. That’s how she got my hair to key that spell to me.”
Many of our friends only knew bits and pieces of the story and the chase Alicia had led us on, so I took a moment to catch everyone up and give a full rundown. Eddie was glowering by the time I finished.
“It’s been driving me crazy being in town, knowing I might be so close to Alicia and not able to do anything,” he said. “But Ms. Terwilliger insisted we search with the other witches.”
“You could’ve shaved in your downtime,” suggested Adrian helpfully.
“I understand,” I told Eddie, ignoring Adrian’s snark. “I haven’t liked the delay either, but getting them to help us will give us an extra layer of protection against Alicia. There’s no telling what magical traps she might have laid.”
“Are you sure she wants you to come to the Salton Sea?” asked Dimitri. “You think that clue was meant to be taken literally?”
“All her other clues were very specific,” I said. “So, yes, I think that was her initial plan . . . however, we’ve delayed a few days by keeping me away. That may have undone whatever she originally wanted, which is good and bad. It means she’s been thrown off . . . but it also means she may just come up with something new that we aren’t expecting. Our hope is that we can find some clue at Salton today that might put us on the right track.”
“I don’t even know her, and I hate her already,” remarked Rose.
I glanced at the time. “Let’s hope we can find her so you can tell her in person. It’s time to go.”
Our group mobilized and set out in two different cars, off to meet Ms. Terwilliger and the other witches at a Salton Sea state park. The sky was overcast with gray clouds, hinting of a rare rainy summer day ahead. When I saw the group that Ms. Terwilliger had assembled, I was awestruck. At least two dozen witches stood before us.
“I feel bad,” I murmured to Ms. Terwilliger, stepping away from the others. “Getting all these people involved.”
She pushed her glasses up and smiled at me. “It’s like I told you in the Ozarks: This is a problem for the entire magical community. You have nothing to feel bad about. It’s Alicia’s fault, not yours.”
I sighed. “I just hope waiting to come here was the right course of action.”
“While you were magically exhausted, just like she wanted you to be? No, Sydney. All you would’ve been doing is giving yourself to her. Even if we don’t find her today, at least you’ve had a chance to rest and prepare for what’s next.”
I simply nodded, certainly not about to tell her that my last few days with Adrian had been anything but restful. Maybe I was no longer magically exhausted, but I was certainly mentally drained. Hopefully that wouldn’t hurt in the hunt for Alicia.
Coven members I’d met at my initiation had all turned out, dropping whatever it was they’d had planned today in order to track down Alicia. Maude, Trina, Alison, and others whose names had slipped my mind in the last several months. Equally astonishing was that members of other covens had also come to join us, verifying Ms. Terwilliger’s insistence that this was indeed a problem for the entire magical community.
“We’re certainly not going to leave a mess like this for a newcomer like you to deal with alone,” snapped Inez Garcia, coming up to me as I started to turn from Ms. Terwilliger. Inez was perhaps the most surprising addition of all today. She was a venerable old witch notable both for her powers and her refusal to join any coven. She was the witch Ms. Terwilliger had gone to about the wooden box. Her acerbic wit was also legendary, though she’d taken a mild liking to me (which was about as much as she liked anyone). Catching sight of Rose and Dimitri chatting near Trey, Inez gave a small snort of amusement. “No surprise you’ve got dhampirs with you. What happened to that Moroi boy you had in tow last time? The one with the nice cheekbones?”
“Oh, he’s over there,” I said, flushing slightly. “I, uh, married him.”
Inez’s pointed eyebrows rose. “Did you now? Well, good for you.”
Maude, one of the senior witches in the Stelle, called everyone to attention. We gathered in a big circle as she cast a spell that created a miniature map of the Salton Sea on the ground in front of us. The plan was simple, for now, mostly because we didn’t know for sure what to expect. Between Ms. Terwilliger’s magical recruits and the “muscle” I’d provided with Trey and the dhampirs, we had nearly thirty people. We were going to divide into smaller groups to investigate as much of the shoreline as possible. Some parts were easier to get to than others, so today’s goal was checking out the public areas. Theoretically, Alicia would’ve had the same limitations. The groups were divided up based on those who had strong affinities to detect magic in general and those who were good at casting spells to detect hidden enchantments. The dhampirs were distributed among the groups, just in case physical force was needed. Ms. Terwilliger wanted Adrian and me to stay with her, and Eddie insisted on remaining with us as well. Although Jill was his main priority, he still felt responsible for us.
It looked as though Ms. Terwilliger’s predictions were spot-on, that Alicia might very well have abandoned her plan when I didn’t immediately take the bait. If she had left a magical trap around, she’d also done a great job of eradicating all trace of it. Our search parties scoured all the public areas we could, checking some of them twice, without finding anything. Undaunted, we took a small break for lunch and then reconvened to explore the less accessible regions around the lake. Even getting into those areas required magic—mostly invisibility spells—and that took a fair bit of coordination. As evening rolled around, however, those clandestine searches proved as fruitless as the easier ones. No sign of Alicia or magical traps.