Life's A Witch

Chapter Six

Mom wasn't at home waiting for me when I got there and she still wasn't answering her cell. She hadn't shown up by the time I started dinner, but I cooked for the both of us anyway, and eventually sat down to eat by myself. Desperately needing a distraction, I flipped through the channels until I found a movie starring one of those goofy guys from Superbad and forced myself to watch it. Ever try watching a comedy when you're just not in the mood to laugh? Apparently it has the opposite effect, or so I found out when I started to feel even more on edge than I'd been before.

Putting the leftovers in the fridge for Mom, I practically jumped out of my skin when my phone went off. My heart hammering in my chest, I flipped open my phone without even looking at the caller ID.

"Mom?" I asked. I hadn't intended for my voice to sound so hopeful, but I couldn't help it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't her on the other end.

"Hadley?" It took me a few seconds to place the voice.

"Jinx?"

"Yeah," she said meekly. I could feel the fear coming through the phone as clearly as if she'd expressed it out loud. It was more than just the hesitation in her voice, though. Right now it was as if I was feeling what she was feeling. And her emotions were overwhelming. For a second, this threw me off, because for as long as I'd known Jinx, she'd always been in control. She was never over-the-top; she was even-keeled. Calm and collected. Prim and proper, without being a total Stepford. Her easy-going attitude made it so that she got along with pretty much everyone. There wasn't a person who didn't like her—including me. So the fact that she was now acting a little unhinged set off red alerts in my head.

"What's wrong, Jinx?" I asked.

"Have you seen my parents? They left last night—said they were going to meet your mom and the rest of the Cleri for something—and, well, see . . ."

Her voice trailed off and I was left waiting on the line for a few seconds. I wanted to tell her to spit it out, but forced myself to take a deep breath before talking. "What happened, Jinx?"

"They never came home," she finally said. And with those words, my heart sank. It wasn't just my mom. "I tried calling Jackson first, but couldn't get a hold of him. So I thought maybe you'd heard from your mom and knew where they were? That you could tell me that they're okay? Are you still there?"

I'd only had a few conversations with Jinx before, and none of them had been outside of witch classes, yet here she was asking me to give her answers. Sure, I'd been the second person she'd contacted, but she obviously thought I could help. And I wanted so badly to do that.

After all, she'd always been kind to me—on the rare occasions that we'd said more than a few words to each other, at least. And despite the fact that Jinx had experienced a much more luxurious upbringing than I had, she'd never treated me or anyone else like we were below her. We might've even been friends if we'd gone to the same school and I'd been able to devote the kind of time that went into a friendship.

I wished I could shed some light on the situation that was clearly stressing her out. Unfortunately, I was just as in the dark as she was.

I must have gone momentarily catatonic because Jinx had to say my name a few more times before I responded.

"I'm here," I said finally. "I'm sorry, Jinx. The truth is, I haven't heard from my mom since last night either."

The line buzzed with white noise as neither of us said what we were both thinking. So I broke the silence. "Listen, I'm going to give the others a call and see if anyone else has heard from our parents, and then I'll call you back, okay?"