Beyond Your Touch by Pat Esden Page B

pinned to the center of the bowl, while the rest of the feather spun, slowing clockwise until it pointed northward—toward Bar Harbor.
    I sucked in a breath, my brain telling me I couldn’t have seen right. But I had. The feather had moved on its own accord.
    Selena rested her hand on her mother’s arm, bringing her back from the trance. “It worked perfect, just like a compass,” she said.
    Olya blinked and shook her head as if trying to straighten out her thoughts. “Phew. That wasn’t easy. There’s not much of a connection. I’ll have to go with you tomorrow or you’ll never find her.”
    Selena waved her off. “Don’t be silly. I’ve been practicing and I’ve been thinking, too.” She grinned. “Maybe we need to shake things up—give scrying a makeover. After all, Lotli is young.”
    Olya’s eyes bulged and her hand flew to her chest. “No. That is not a good idea. The Craft, she is about patterns and connections. Old ways work best.”
    With a flick of her hair, Selena plucked the feather from the bowl. “And who just messed with a magic oil that had remained unchanged since Methuselah’s day?” Before her mother could reply, Selena pivoted toward me. “Would you mind assisting me in an experiment?”
    â€œSure.” I had no idea what she was up to, but her point about the oil was right and I was as determined to prove she could do this as she was. Actually I was crossing my fingers that Selena would prove she could do it better than her mom—not only for Selena’s sake, but to increase our chance of finding Lotli as well.
    â€œCould you get me a bottle of cola from the kitchen? Any kind should work.”
    I dashed inside and got a soda from the fridge. Through the open window I could hear Olya lecturing Selena about the importance of witchcraft traditions and Selena obstinately not budging. Selena had caved to her parents’ demand that she take a year off before she went away to Yale for Premed. But over the last few weeks, Selena had made the cost of that surrender perfectly clear to them. She was going to have her way in every other area of her life: total Internet freedom, no credit card limits, no clothing restrictions, and especially her freedom to tinker with medicine and magic as she saw fit. The only place she’d failed to get her way was in their unwavering resistance to her dating and social life.
    Once the two of them quit bickering, I hurried back out to the terrace and set the soda on the table in front of Selena.
    â€œWatch and learn,” she said to her mother.
    Olya frowned. “Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work, sweetheart.”
    â€œDon’t worry about that. I may not have heard much of Lotli’s music, but I did see her.” She pulled a vintage compact from her jeans pocket. “Perfect for scrying on the run, huh?”
    She set the compact on the table, opened it, and poured cola on its mirror, turning it into as dark of a reflective surface as the silver bowl her mother had used. Then she pricked her finger with the knife, added the blood, and carefully floated the feather on top.
    Selena’s chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm. Her forehead wrinkled in concentration. She began to murmur. I shuddered when her head lolled back and her eyeballs rolled up until all I could see were the whites. It was gross, even grosser than when Olya had done it. The creeps rapidly faded though, as the feather zinged northward toward Bar Harbor in half the time it took for her mom to get the same reaction.
    I glanced at Olya. Her eyes glistened with pride. I was certain Selena’s desire to go away to Yale and her frustration at being delayed was real, but for the first time I wondered if maybe her parents were right to suggest she hold off. Selena’s gift for magic was clearly extraordinary.

CHAPTER 5
    Open minds with eyes on the