Chapter 89: Chapter Eighty-Nine - 1 Purple Wire + 1 Turquoise Wire = Forever

I might as well have been wading through sludge by the time I made it back to my apartment. My mind was only firing on one sugar-glazed cylinder with everything that had happened today. I fell into bed and dozed.

“Oh…Victoria…” a dreamy, ethereal voice called.

“Shh, I’m sleeping,” I told it.

“I…know. That’s…why…I’m…here.”

“Here?” I drifted along, unsure what was happening. “Wait, where’s here?”

“In…your…dreams. It’s…Lucy.”

She appeared in front of me, a beautiful snow-white cat with big sapphire eyes. Like that one time in real life—actually several times due to time travel—she sat in front of the store once called Eleventh Chocolate that had never opened. Then Lucy stood and walked backward along the side of the store, as she always had before.

Dream Me followed. Lucy belonged to Forever, a witch friend who looked like Cass.

“Not that I’m upset, but what are you doing in my dreams, Lucy?” I asked.

“Helping…”

“Because you have a crush on Studmuffin?” Because he sure had a crush on her. When we’d all gathered on Sunray’s rooftop for the time-travel spell, he’d barely spared me a glance.

A little rosy tint colored her cheeks, and it was the cutest thing ever. “I…plead…the…fifth.”

Dream Me chuckled. I was pretty sure Real Me did too in my sleep.

We stepped into the alleyway, which was supposed to be dark according to my memories, but was as white as Lucy. White with snow, I realized, but warm and cozy like my bed.

“So why are we here? Where are you taking me?”

“I…don’t…know. You…tell…me.”

Lucy’s voice came from behind me, and I turned to look. Oh. Suddenly I was leading her. But where were we going?

“There must be something important around here. But what? Is Studmuffin being held captive in one of these buildings?” Hope pumped through my broken heart. I tried to run back to Eleventh Chocolate to peek inside its frosted windows, but dream running is utter nonsense. So is the real kind, if you ask me.

“Can you visit Studmuffin’s dreams, Lucy? Make sure he’s okay? Or do you know how to establish a psychic link so I can…”

My words faded. So did the snow, the alleyway, and Lucy’s rear end as she followed after me.

I blinked into my bedroom’s darkness and then looked over at my alarm clock on the bedside table. Three o’clock sharp. It was like my body had anticipated a head-dive from above at exactly this time.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I missed my familiar. A lot. So much that I threw back my covers a little too vigorously, spilled them to the floor, and realized I’d done so too late when I slipped on them. Talk about dancing in the dark. I didn’t go down, but just barely.

Apparently not falling made the ground angry. Once I dressed in my winter gear and drove Bernadette to Eleventh Chocolate at three thirty in the morning in the middle of a July blizzard, I slipped again on the snow-covered sidewalk. That time, I did go down.

It was as though the ground was reminding me: if you fall, I’ll be there.

Thanks, ground. Good to know I could count on you!

I hauled myself up and searched through the falling snowflakes for Lucy. Why had I led her here in my dreams? Using the sleeve of my coat, I brushed some of the snow from the front window, then the sides and back, of Eleventh Chocolate. Still as empty as ever. Even the brick of a book that was the Chilton’s auto manual that propped open a door inside hadn’t been moved.

It was too cold and slick to stay outside for long, so I drove to Safe-Mart to see if Forever happened to be working. As soon as I skated across the parking lot, another voice popped into my head. They’d sure been doing that a lot lately.

Hey. Pssst, the voice said.

“Is that you, Forever?” I asked the snow out loud. Or it probably looked like I asked the snow, if anyone was crazy enough to be spying on me during a blizzard. Okay, yes, I also talked to snow when I wasn’t being spied on too. I had questions for all kinds of precipitation.

Yep, it’s me, she answered.

Forever was psychic to an extent. She had to touch something near and dear to someone's heart for her to see things about them. Not long ago, she said she’d given Studmuffin a belly rub because she couldn’t resist. Who was nearest and dearest to his heart? Little old me, it turned out. Just thinking about it wrecked my heart and my tear ducts, so I tried not to.

I heard you coming, Forever told me.

“Because of my ice-skating skills?”

No, because of your thoughts. They’re very loud.

“Oh…thanks?”

She laughed. Meet me behind the store.

“Not inside the store?” I grumbled, but she must’ve hung up on our psychic link or disconnected or something because I didn’t hear an answer.

I briefly debated driving Bernadette to the back of the store rather than do my gravity-checking-on-ice routine, but decided against it. The brisk wind and pelting snow helped clear my thoughts, and maybe even lowered their volume some.

By the time I made it behind the store, I’d turned into a Popsicle. This whole blizzard-in-July thing wasn’t working out. I wasn’t a fan—until I saw Forever wearing a Santa hat while waving a wand. The second orangish bubble I’d seen in—well, forever—enveloped her, and she waved me inside.

No need to tell me twice. I slid toward her, hoping I didn’t pop the bubble once I touched it, but nope. I passed right through, instantly warming, and the bubble didn’t so much as waver.

So amazing. Magic would always impress me, no matter what.

“Okay. I’m convinced,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “I definitely need a wand and a blizzard bubble.”

Forever pulled another Santa hat from thin air and held it out. “And a Santa hat?”

“Oh, always! Thanks.” I took it from her and balanced it on top of my coat hood. “Christmas in July?”

“Absolutely. Safe-Mart brought out all the Christmas items that didn’t sell last year and marked them half off, given this crazy weather. So far, they’re selling like, well, half-off Christmas items.”

“Makes sense.”

Forever was a witch in her twenties with long black hair like Cass’s, but with bright blue eyes that weren’t like Cass’s. Underneath her black puffy coat, she wore her green, wet-looking Safe-Mart apron, a pink sweater, and black leggings with donuts all over them. Tucked into her non-wand hand was a green spray bottle, which she used to spritz herself in the face.

Even though I was dying to know, I didn’t ask why she always did that. If it were my business, she’d tell me.

A rare frown pulled at her mouth as she patted my arm. “I’m really sorry about Studmuffin.”

“Lucy told you? She visited me in my dreams.”

“Yes…” Forever nodded slowly, making the white ball on her Santa hat blot the water speckles from her face. “Something like that. She’s very worried, and so am I.”

“Yeah. Same.” Although worried didn’t quite cover it for me. “In my dreams, she was showing me the store Eleventh Chocolate.”

“Really?” Forever’s eyes widened as she absently rubbed at her donut nail polish on her nails. “I heard that store’s for sale. Not that I’m looking to buy or anything, but it’s already got a kitchen in the back and new black and white tile flooring and an area in the front that would be perfect for outdoor eating… Sorry. Anyway. It’s strange though. I wonder why Lucy would show you Eleventh Chocolate.”

“She didn’t tell you? Because I was kind of hoping you knew.”

“With Lucy, I’m on a need-to-know basis, and I seldom need to know, according to her.” She threw her hands in the air and laughed. “Cats, am I right? You can’t live without them—”

“And you can’t live without them,” I said with a chuckle that made my heart hurt. “Yeah, Studmuffin used to not talk to me ever, so I know how that is.”

“So, you need my help to create a psychic link, but if it’s all right with you, I’d like to try reaching out to him first. It’s easier for me, being a psychic and all, to filter out all the radio static.”

“Radio static?”

“It’s just what I call it. Think of psychic links as a tangle of different-colored wires. Studmuffin’s is— What’s his favorite color?”

“Purple,” I said without hesitation. “The color of royalty.”

She laughed. “Studmuffin’s wire is purple, and yours is”—she pointed to my hair underneath my coat hood and Santa hat—“turquoise.”

“This wire has excellent taste.”

“It definitely does,” she said with a chuckle. “So the purple and the turquoise wires do touch, but they’re also touching lots of other wires.”

“The others who were once near and dear to them?”

“Exactly. Like Studmuffin’s mom or siblings, for example. Those other wires produce what I call radio static, and it can be really, really loud. Which is why I’m offering to establish the connection for you.”

“Cool. So what do you need to do? Rub my belly like you did Studmuffin’s?”

She grinned, making the freckles on her face dance. “Um, I think it would be less awkward for everyone if I just took your hand.”

“If you say so…” I said in a teasing sing-song voice and then gave her my ungloved hand.

She laughed and took it in hers, and as soon as she did, her smile slid right down her face. Had I not washed all the car grease off? Did I have chapped skin? Rough, chewed-off fingernails? All of the above?

Sweat broke out over her forehead, and she spritzed herself in the face with her water bottle again. “Whew, it’s loud!” Her voice echoed deafeningly inside our little orange bubble. “Lots of static.”

Ohhh, so it was the static that made her spritz herself in the face? Could she tell who the wires touching Studmuffin’s purple one were? He never talked about his mom or any siblings, and I suddenly wanted to know every single detail about his life pre-January of this year. I didn’t want to ask Forever, though, because she was sweating rivers now in the middle of a July blizzard. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and she seemed to be vibrating with concentration.

“Stinky, sweaty, noisy work,” she shouted. “Sorry!”

“So are cars. You’re fine.” I said it loudly, but I had no idea if she could hear me or not over the radio static I sure didn’t hear.

Was this even working?

Test, test, one, two, three. Is this thing on? Hello, Studmuffin, are you there? I thought at him.

A great burst of magic erupted out of our joined hands. It was so big that it yanked us out of the bubble and flung us backward. I landed in a snowdrift by a dumpster. Boy, if that didn’t sum up my day, I wasn’t sure what did. At least it had been a soft landing. My muscles only screeched a little when I hauled myself up, and my cracking joints and bones sounded like they were made of celery sticks.

Now there’s an image I probably shouldn’t celery-brate.

“Forever,” I called. “Do psychic explosions always happen, or is Studmuffin’s purple wire just special?”

“Ugh.” Her voice came from farther away than I expected, and I followed the sound of it through the falling snow. “That’s never happened before. There’s something blocking his wire. Something strong.”

When I found Forever, she was lying like an upside-down beetle in a Santa hat in a snowdrift. Her arms and legs scrabbled at the air while she tried to turn herself over in her puffy black coat.

I took her arm and helped her up, and she immediately waved her wand to surround us in her warm orange bubble again.

“Something strong is blocking his wire, huh?” I said. “So we can’t establish a psychic link?”

“No.” Her shoulders drooped. “I’m sorry, Victoria.”

“Thanks for trying,” I said, somehow able to keep the disappointment from my voice. “Two ladies from The Crow and Switch coven said they’d help me too. But if I can’t find him before midnight, I might just have to meet his catnapper and do the exchange.”

“The exchange?”

“Exchange Studmuffin for this heirloom the catnapper wants. The two ladies I mentioned are trying to come up with a way to duplicate this heirloom so I don’t have to give the catnapper the actual heirloom. They explained its power to me. It would be very bad to just hand the real thing over.”

Forever winced. “Do these ladies know how to duplicate heirlooms?”

“Uh, maybe? They said they’d try. I know duplicating jewelry is real because this”—I fished out my Duplicitous Dragonfly necklace from under my coat—“is a duplicate. It didn’t glow when the catnapper showed up like it was supposed to. And my stepmother’s engraving isn’t on the back.”

Forever leaned in to study it and lifted her hand hesitantly to touch it. “May I?”

“Sure. Dragonflies don’t bite.” At least I hoped not.

She held it gently between two fingers, turning it this way and that. “Did you notice anything strange when you put it on?”

“No, nothing, but I wasn’t at my sharpest when I put it on because it was early morning, pre third cup of coffee. Why?”

“That’s powerful magic indeed if you were wearing the real one and then suddenly weren’t. How did they make a duplicate so fast? And how did they do it with the real one hanging around your neck?”

“So what you’re saying is this catnapper is crazy powerful.”

Forever sighed heavily. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, yes.”

Yay. And I had to be the one to go up against them. Me, the witch who’d made a habit out of falling out of the sky and who didn’t even own a wand or a cauldron.

“But that’s not all I’m saying,” Forever continued.

“Oh?”

“If this catnapper gets their hands on this heirloom, the real one, what’s to keep them from duplicating it? Only instead of giving it no magic like your dragonfly here, what’s to keep them from also duplicating the heirloom’s magic?”

I blinked hard, having never considered that. With more than one Ring of Everlasting Night, there could be more than one ruler of the night. The sun could vanish anywhere across the globe as quick as a flipped switch. Maybe, if there were enough duplicated rings, the ring bearers could spread across the planet and bring night…everywhere. For good.

Trees and plants would wither. We’d probably freeze eventually. Unless the night rulers allowed a sliver of sun to the highest bidder.

Oh, wow. This was so much worse than I thought!

I nodded slowly. “That would be very, very bad.”

The question remained though: how was I going to stop it?

Basically, I had three choices: find Studmuffin before midnight, somehow trick the catnapper, or exhaust them with car puns. Like that one!

Okay, yep. Unless I came up with a fourth option, we might all be doomed.