Chapter 9—The Sorceress

"It feels like she's been here," Jesse said, panting. He glanced around the hideaway and held the torch light to the rusty lantern. Firelight filled the glass. Aimée and Juliette had already raced to the table and as Juliette was about to push down on the triangle, Aimée let out a screech from below. "Sacré bleu, the compartment is open. She must have come in after we left."

"I knew it!" Jesse cried. "Is the box gone?"

"Oui, it's gone," Aimée croaked as she crawled out. She and Juliette fell into each other's arms and sobbed inconsolably. Jesse and Daniel stared at each other in disbelief. How could they have left the crystals behind? What were they thinking?

"She is mean!" Juliette spit out, stomping her foot. "A wicked old witch. They don't belong to her." Her eyes filled up.

"We have to get them back," Jesse said. "Everything is at stake." He touched his temples. "Hold on. I'm going to try to contact the angel." He closed his eyes and concentrated hard on the psychic link. Please crystal angel, please, please help us.

Jesse waited and heard nothing. Then he remembered the candle on the table and grabbed a match and lit it. He had another hunch. "Let's hold hands in front of the candle and focus on her together. Maybe connecting with angels takes some kind of ritual."

They joined hands. Candlelight illuminated their faces, amplifying their emotions as they tried to make contact. Jesse opened his eyes to see the flame grow taller and dance around as it was hit by a sudden gust of wind. A mind-voice spoke: Tonight one of you will have a dream. The dream will show you what to do next. Now go; it's late.

At the word late, Daniel let go of the others' hands and pulled out a pocket watch, a gift from his father. "We have to go. Grand-père will be back any time. If he finds us in the m-mine, we will n-never come back."

The foursome made it home without being seen, but felt weighed down by the heaviness of their loss and sulked all evening, barely speaking to anyone. Jesse realized there were hard lessons to learn before taking possession of something as miraculous as the crystals.

Earlier, Jesse had shared the grim news with Nikki and Chaz.

"The witch took the crystals?" Chaz was morose. "That's insane. You'll never get them back now."

Nikki didn't skip a beat and instantly drew up a list of ideas for retrieving them.

"Appreciate that, Nik," Jesse said, "but if you don't mind, I'd rather not think about that right this second. Can't a guy be despondent without some girl trying to fix everything? And besides, there's always the dream," he added in an attempt to get her off his back.

"Yeah," Chaz said. "Let Jesse have his moment. I'm sure he'll pull out of it."

"Guys and their egos," Nikki said, not taking the least offense. "And don't depend too much on that dream. I mean really, how can something as flimsy as a dream help us now? What we need is a well-grounded action plan. Here are my ideas." And she went on to list them in careful order.

Jesse filed Nikki's suggestions and went back to sulking. Later, lying in bed with his eyes closed, he could see a clear image of the crystal chain surrounding the earth, all twenty stones shining brilliantly. But the image was darkened by a hissing, cackling creature flying in and around the chain, its long black cloak hiding parts of the circle. Much as he tried, Jesse couldn't push the sorceress out of the vision of the crystal chain. It was late when he started to doze off, and he hoped the dream wouldn't be a nightmare.