Fatal Charm Read online

  “He’s coming at you again! Get down!”

  Josh’s shout set off Horse, who barked and sprung high, knocking against the table, sending plates and glasses tumbling to the ground. Mrs. DeMarco screamed as iced tea splashed in her face.

  I moved away and the bird followed me. He swished his wings and squawked, as if trying to tell me something. Although I couldn’t understand his squawks, I had a mental picture of a hand reaching in the air. While Josh struggled to get past his excited dog, I lifted my arm up and opened my palm toward the sky.

  Dagger’s sharp talons uncurled and a tiny object sailed down into my hand. I curled my fingers, capturing the object. The bird flew away with a final shrill cry.

  I glanced down at my palm—and saw a tiny glint of silver.

  The missing charm had been found.

  Josh and his mother were so focused on the falcon dive-bombing in their backyard that they didn’t notice me slip the small charm into my jeans pocket.

  After Dagger flew away, things settled down, although it took a lot of talking to convince Josh that the bird wasn’t vicious and hadn’t attacked me and please do not call animal control.

  “Too many wild creatures have lost their natural habitat to urban overdevelopment,” I appealed to his idealist side. “The poor bird was probably confused and more afraid of us than we were of him.”

  “But he attacked you!” Josh argued.

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “He dove at you with his claws.”

  “But he never touched me. See, no scratches.”

  I showed him my unmarked arms. Still, Josh and his mother were so worried, and I felt guilty for misleading them. But I couldn’t tell the truth about Dagger without explaining Dominic’s unusual ability to communicate with animals.

  The whole time they were fussing over me, I was thinking about the tiny charm hidden in my pocket. My quick look hadn’t been enough to tell the shape, only that it was rounded, with a flat side surrounding a hole. Leave it to Dominic to add mystery to this amazing moment by having Dagger surprise me with the charm. I could hardly contain my excitement and nearly threw my arms around Josh and shouted, “We have the charm! At last, we have all the charms! Nona is going to be okay!”

  How agonizing to pretend like nothing had happened. For so long this elusive charm had seemed like an insurmountable wall blocking Nona from getting well. If only we had the fourth charm, I’d thought so often, dreaming of this miracle moment. And now the tiny charm of hope was tucked into my pocket.

  All because of Dominic.

  So was he waiting for me back at the farm or hidden beyond the fence? Was he watching me right now?

  Dangerous emotions tingled through me. I reached up to smooth my hair, wishing I’d taken time to touch up my makeup. It felt like weeks since I’d seen Dominic. I imagined him reaching out for me with that arrogant grin which teased and challenged and made me want to slap him … or kiss him.

  I took a moment to glance away as if admiring the garden, although there were few blooms in November. Taking a deep breath, I turned back to Josh, relieved that he couldn’t guess my betraying thoughts.

  Bad Sabine, I chastised myself. Don’t you dare break Josh’s heart. That would be wicked and a terrible way to treat someone who has only shown you love.

  Reality splashed me with a harsh dose of shame. I reminded myself of all the wonderful reasons I fell for Josh in the first place: his honesty, humor, and kindness to small children and large dogs. I stared up at his handsome face, gentle dark eyes, and sexy dimples. He should be easy to love. Why I was making this so hard?

  Josh is your boyfriend, I scolded myself. Don’t forget it and ruin everything just because of some insane attraction to the wrong guy.

  Fine. I wouldn’t even look at the charm until later. For now, I was all about working things out with my wonderful boyfriend.

  We went back into the house with Horse at our heels. Josh’s mother stayed in the kitchen while we went into the family room and played computer games. Josh had quick reflexes, reaching high levels and gaining extra lives, but I was better at solving puzzles and uncovering hidden weapons. I whooped in triumph the fifth time I killed Josh with dragon dung bombs, but he had more life and retaliated by attacking me with an army of killer spiders. Game over.

  Mrs. DeMarco invited me to stay for dinner, but I shook my head, smoothing my fingers over the charm in my pocket.

  Josh drove me home, parking on Lilac Lane beside the large barn-shaped mailbox at the entrance to Nona’s long gravel driveway. We didn’t get out right away. A devoted girlfriend wouldn’t just hop out of the car and dash off. She’s supposed to say something sweet about having a great evening and hating to leave him. Then, if no one was watching, they’d make out for a while.

  I can do devoted, I told myself, unfastening my seat belt and leaning across the seat toward Josh—which was awkward in bucket seats with a cassette holder between us. But I managed anyway.

  He slipped his arms around me. His hands moved along my back and to my shoulders, pulling me even closer so I was almost sitting on his lap.

  This is nice, I thought as we snuggled inside, while outside the sun was setting and long shadows surrounded us. I rested my head against Josh’s muscled chest, inhaling a pleasant scent of lime shampoo.

  “Sabine,” he murmured huskily. “I want to tell you—”

  “Yes?” I lifted my gaze.

  He bit his lip, as if he was suddenly uneasy with me, which seemed odd.

  “Just say whatever’s on your mind,” I spoke quietly. “You can tell me anything.”

  He sucked in a deep breath. “Sabine … I love you.”

  Anything but that, I almost replied.

  Damn. Why did he have to go and complicate everything? Now I was stuck with having to make the expected reply of “I love you, too.” But I just couldn’t. I wasn’t sure how I felt, and even if I did love him, I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.

  So I just nodded—which seemed to be enough for Josh because he pulled me onto his lap and then we were kissing. I tried to relax and enjoy myself, but it was hard to with a steering wheel poking me in the back. And I kept wondering if I should keep my eyes open or shut them. And what about the whole tongue issue? Penny-Love once told me that guys were really turned on by deep kisses. I wanted to be deserving of Josh and not really bad at this. I thought about asking him to recline the seat, but that kind of implied I wanted to do more than kiss. So I scooted sideways and got jabbed by that steering wheel again. Damn. Someone should design cars with ample make out room.

  When our kiss ended (a perfectly nice kiss, really, I had no complaints), we made plans to go out to a movie Friday night. Josh said I could even choose a “sappy chick flick,” which was really sweet of him.

  Waving goodbye, I headed down the gravel driveway, gazing up in the twilight sky on the lookout for a flutter of dark wings. The sound of Josh’s car engine faded away, and I gave in to my curiosity, withdrawing the silver charm from my pocket.

  Turning the charm in my fingers, I studied its shape. It wasn’t bigger than my thumbnail; an elongated half-circle with an opening in the middle. There were some indentations that were too small to figure out.

  A half moon? A wishing well? No … a horseshoe.

  So what was significant about a horseshoe? Were we looking for horses or a ranch or a blacksmith? Not that any of the above would still be around after one hundred and fifty years. Horseshoes were supposed to be lucky, so maybe we were looking for a place with “Lucky” in the name. Like the Lucky Restaurant, Hotel, or Saloon. Of course, any saloon from that era would have been long gone too.

  The horseshoe was just one of four charms. What did it mean? Locating this last charm was supposed to solve everything, only so far it just added more to the puzzle. The horseshoe, cat, fish, and house combined equaled nothing I could guess.

  I hoped Dominic would know.

  He waited for me on Nona’s porch, sitting nonch
alantly beside my cat Lilybelle on the bench swing. He kicked the ground with his western boots, causing the swing to rock gently. Back and forth, back and forth, like my swaying heart. Just minutes after kissing Josh, my emotions lurched in the wrong direction.

  Against my will, I locked my eyes with Dominic’s, aware of every small detail about him. His curled light brown hair that fell across his forehead, his eyes as deep as oceans, the jagged hole in the knee of his jeans, the specks of mud crusted on his pointed boots, and that knowing half-grin that seemed to taunt me.

  “Your grandmother had a headache and is resting now,” he told me as he scooted over to make room on the swing. “Let’s talk out here.”

  “About what?” I sat as far from him on the swing as possible.

  “Your cat.”

  “My cat?”

  “Serious situation. Lilybelle is very disappointed in you.”

  “Why?” I avoided looking directly at him and reached for my cat, not so sure the blue-and-green-eyed cat was really our topic. “She’s purring, so she can’t be very upset.”

  “Don’t let her good nature fool you. She says that you’ve been ignoring her.”

  “Ignoring her?”

  “I’m sure it was unintentional,” he said in dead seriousness. “She puts on a brave front, but inside she’s very hurt. She said you didn’t give her any special treats this morning and she waited for you to come after school, but you didn’t.”

  “I had a lot of things to do.”

  “With Magic Boy?”

  “I doubt my cat called him that.”

  “Cat language is complex. I’m translating for her.”

  “Can’t you just say Josh’s name?”

  “I could, but what’s the point? It’s not my fault Lilybelle thinks he’s fake.”

  “Josh is the most genuine person I know. I don’t have to answer to my cat … or you,” I added accusingly.

  “Never ignore a cat. Felines are notorious for subtle revenge and have sneaky ways of getting attention.”

  “Do you mean stinky ways?” I knew full well the sort of revenge Lilybelle was capable of. There was still a lingering pungent odor on the living room carpet.

  Dominic nodded. “Give her extra treats tomorrow and all will be forgiven. I’ll tell her you’re sorry.”

  “When are you going to tell me?” I held up the silver charm. “About this?”

  “It’s a horseshoe.”

  “Already figured that out—but why did you send it with Dagger?”

  “So you wouldn’t have to wait.”

  “Are you sure it didn’t have anything to do with interrupting my visit with Josh?”

  “Would I do that?” he said with a wicked grin.

  Of course he would, but I didn’t say that. Instead I asked him how he found the charm.

  “Lucky,” he said with a shrug. “I went to the address that woman in San Juan Baptista gave us for her sister.”

  “And the sister just handed over an antique charm?” I asked doubtfully because we’d been warned the woman was far from the generous type. She’d stolen the charm from her own sister, so why would she hand it over to a total stranger?

  “I smiled and said ‘please.’”

  “That seems too easy. She didn’t ask for money?”

  “She didn’t ask for anything.”

  I didn’t believe that, but whatever. We had the charm and that’s all that mattered. Next step: decipher the clues.

  “What does this mean?” I gestured to the silver charm in my hand.

  “Don’t know.”

  “But you have to—you work with horses, learning that horseshoer stuff.”

  “The term is farrier.”

  “So how does the horseshoe fit in with the other charms?”

  He frowned and shrugged.

  “Don’t you know anything?” I demanded, stopping the swing from moving by firmly planting my foot on the porch as I faced him.

  “I know lots. Some things you don’t want to hear,” he added with a deep look.

  I looked away and focused on the charm, idly running my fingers over the rough silver. The silver was an older pure quality, so instead of being smooth it was uneven in places. My thumb paused over an especially bumpy part in the center.

  “I need a magnifying glass,” I said as an idea struck me.

  “What do you see?”

  “Nothing yet—but I feel something … like a faded inscription.”

  “Really? Great!” He jumped up and rushed into the house, then returned barely a minute later with a magnifying glass. Then he aimed the glass over the tiny charm in my hand and whistled. “You’re right. There are letters, but they’re slanted in a fancy cursive style. I can only make out the first three letters … an M … no, it’s an N. Then an E-V.”

  “Never?” I guessed.

  “Nevada,” he corrected.

  “That must be it. Silver strikes were big in Nevada, and the trail of charms led there before. But we still don’t know where in Nevada and what the shape of the charms mean.”

  I sank against the bench. Every clue resulted in more questions and no obvious answers. I’d thought the charms would solve everything. Agnes had left the four charms for her four daughters like a map to the remedy book’s hidden location. But even with all the charms, nothing was clear. A cat, fish, house, and horseshoe? Four charms equaled … what? This was like an algebra equation of 4 + X = Z. And there was no way of figuring out the Z without knowing what X meant.

  At least we had a starting place—Nevada.

  Dominic and I sat without speaking, the swing creaking rhythmically back and forth. Lilybelle stopped purring, as if she picked up on our disappointment, and jumped out of my lap and scampered off the porch into the darkness.

  What should have been a celebratory moment had deteriorated to frustrating. We needed to connect the charms—uncover the key to their secret. Even if we did achieve this, we still might not find the remedy that may have been lost decades ago.

  “Now what?” I finally asked.

  “We keep trying,” he answered.

  I gave a solemn nod. Nona hadn’t given up on me when I was a young girl afraid of visitors in the night and voices in my head. She’d explained how ghosts were lost souls who were afraid and she showed me how to guide them to the light. She helped me see spirits clearer and hear the garbled messages they brought. Nona had always been there for me. I would do the same for her.

  If Dominic and I couldn’t solve this by ourselves, we’d ask for help. We’d do whatever it took to stop the shadowy enemy who was stealing Nona’s memories.

  Time.

  Our worst enemy.

  And we didn’t have much left.

  Manny had an internal gravitational pull to computers. If it was too early for the computer lab to be open, there was a good chance he’d be in the library—which is where I found him the next morning. I’d come to school early specifically to talk to him, as he was the closest to an expert I knew when it came to digging up information. Besides, he owed me for all my help with his “Mystic Manny” column.

  I found him at a rear table in the school library, cozying between two dark-haired girls while he sorted through a pile of thick books.

  “Since when are threesomes allowed in the library?” I teased.

  “Everything’s allowed for me. I got an in with the assistant librarian, which is like a license for rule-breaking.” He winked at his bookend friends. “Besides, I’m doing research.”

  “Research?” I arched my brows, amused. “On twins?”

  “Oh, we aren’t twins or even sisters,” one of the girls said, blushing. “Just best friends, and everyone says we look alike. Some people even think we sound alike, which is just so cool. Maybe it’s because we do everything together.”

  “I’m all for that,” Manny said wickedly.

  I just rolled my eyes, refusing to rise to his bait.

  Then I asked Manny if I could talk with him alone, resul
ting in nasty looks from his friends. I almost laughed at their identical pouts and would have gladly assured them I had no romantic interest in Manny—but it was more fun to watch them act jealous. If they had the poor taste to lust after Manny, then they had better get used to disappointment.

  Manny was full of swaggering confidence and a self-acclaimed expert on everything. “Finding answers is as easy as falling in love … which I do at least once a week.” He glanced slyly at his girlfriends. “Sometimes twice.”

  “Love?” I said. “Sure you don’t mean lust?”

  “Same thing.”

  “Only if you’re a chauvinistic ass.”

  “Or irresistible to the ladies.”

  “You’re impossible.”

  “Yet here you are, ready to ask for my help. I’m right, aren’t I? Isn’t that why you came to school early? Does this involve the missing charm?”

  “Not missing anymore.” I quickly explained as I showed him the tiny horseshoe. “Any idea how this fits in with the others?”

  He squinted down at the new charm.

  “Intriguing,” he murmured. “It’s like holding a piece of history. After one hundred and fifty years, all four charms are back together.”

  “But what does it mean?” I asked, frustrated.

  “My theory is that at least one of them represents the town where Agnes hid her possessions. Last time I ran a search for you, I checked Nevada town names for any connection to the other charms. But nothing close to cat, house, or fish. The closest I came was Duckwater.”

  “Duckwater? I don’t see a connection.”

  “You know … ducks eat fish. And one of the charms is a fish—but I guess that’s stretching things.”

  “Could there be a town called Horseshoe?”

  “I can check.” He sidled up to the library desk and grinned at the student library assistant, who blushed and twirled an end of her streaked red-black hair. A minute later he led me to a computer and powered up.

  “No Horseshoe,” he announced a few moments later. “But there are town names with Silver: Silver Park, Silver City, and Silver Springs. Hey—what about this? There’s a city named Smith.”

  “So?” I asked skeptically.

  “Smith could be a reference to “blacksmith” —the dude that makes horseshoes.”