3 Conjuring (23 page)

“Light the candles.”

Jessica was standing in the same spot, her arms outstretched and her eyes closed as her face pointed toward the heavens. “It will take a few seconds for the potion to take hold. I want to be ready when it does.”

Laura and Matilda moved to the fire pit and started
lighting the candles on bamboo stakes planted in the yard around it. Once they were all ignited, I realized they formed the shape of a pentagram.

Great. That had to be a good sign. (That was sarcasm, in case you missed it.)

I kept watch on Jessica out of the corner of my eye but I gave the rest of my attention to Matilda and Laura. I was out of time.

“You can still go,” I offered.

Matilda glanced back at me but then went back to her task. It was hard to tell what she was doing, but it looked as though she was drawing items out of a small bag under the picnic table.

“It’s too late for them to go,” Jessica laughed hollowly
. “They’re part of this. Don’t you see that? They want to be part of my power.”

“Your power? You’re going to share? Somehow I doubt
that. It’s not exactly in your nature.”

Jessica glared at me. “Why don’t you keep you
mouth shut? You’re not magical anymore. You have nothing left to say here.”

“If that’s true, why not let us go?”

Jessica smirked. “I’m not done with you yet. That’s why.”

“Because you want to suck Paris’ power,” I replied
knowingly. “You’ve got another witch here to drain. It’s too convenient for you to pass up.”

“You’re smarter than you look,” Jessica said, moving
toward Laura and Matilda with purpose. I saw that there were only a handful of other sorority sisters present. Where had everyone else gone?

I glanced at Paris. We could try to run. We probably should try to run.
Neither of us made a move, though. We both stood and watched.

“Get in your positions,” Jessica instructed. She looked
over in our direction. “Paris, why don’t you join us?”

“I think I’ll pass,” Paris replied dryly.

“Suit yourself.” Jessica shrugged indifferently. “You don’t need to be part of the circle for me to steal your power. The boost I just got from Zoe has elevated me to the next level. I’m not bound by a circle anymore.”

“Good for you.”

The remaining witches took up positions around the fire. They each stood by the lit candles – so they also were situated into the shape of a pentagram. They stretched out their hands and clasped them with the witches to either side of them, creating a weird tableau that defied visual logic. With the candles flickering, shadows started playing over their faces, and they started chanting.

“That looks like the craziest Red Rover line ever,” I offered.

The witches ignored me.

“Now what?” Paris asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “We could leave?”

“I don’t think that will stop them from tracking us down.”

“No,” I agreed. “We don’t need to make it easy on them, though.”

“I kind of want to see what they’re going to do,” Paris admitted.

The truth was, so did I. So we waited – and watched.

The pace of the chanting picked up, and I could see br
ight tendrils of colored smoke start to waft through the grouping. Shades of purple intermingled with hues of green. Arms of red circled around lines of gold. It would have been pretty – if it weren’t so terrifying.

The power started to build and the colors mingled. T
he sight mesmerized me until a rough hand grabbed my elbow and jerked me out of my reverie.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Aric’s face swam
into view as I snapped back to reality.

“What?”

“What are you doing here?” Aric’s face was drawn with concern – and anger.

“Did you really think I would stay away?” I scoffed.

“I told you to stay away.”

“I had to come. I had to see.”

“Well, you’ve seen,” Aric said, pushing me toward the gate forcefully. “Now you have to go.”

I glanced around, still getting my bearings. That’s whe
n I noticed Aric wasn’t alone. He had a troop of werewolves with him – and they looked ready for a bloody war.

“You’re going to attack them with knives?”

“We’re going to fight them the only way we can,” Aric shot back. “Now go!”

“You can’t just kill them,” I protested.

“We can’t just let them live either,” he replied stoically. “You’re done here. Go.” Aric turned to the dark circle, motioning to his brethren with his right hand and silently instructing them to surround the witches. He didn’t glance back at me. He’d dismissed me – and he expected me to follow orders. He had a rude awakening coming.

“Jessica,” Aric said, his voice loud. “Stop what you’re doing now.”

Jessica glanced up, the power cloud never diminishing, and smiled evilly at Aric. “I’ll be with you soon, love. I have a few things to finish up here.”

“You’re done here,” Aric said. “One way or another.”

“Oh, don’t say that,” Jessica cooed. “You know we’ve got a lot of unfinished business to attend to. Both personal and professional. I’m just a little busy with other things now.”

“The only unfinished business we have is whether you
stop this on your own or I do it for you.” Aric’s voice was chilling. “Either way, this is over.”

“Oh, that’s not true, sweetie,” Jessica laughed. “Now that
I’ve stolen your girlfriend’s power, you’re not going to be able to stay away from me.”

Aric glanced at me. “She stole your power?”

I didn’t want to tip my hand. Not yet. “That’s what she says.”

“It’s been in the works for months,” Jessica laughed,
sucking in a tendril of smoke excitedly. “Matilda and Laura were working against her in her own room and she didn’t even know it.”

Aric furrowed his brow. “We’ve known what you’ve been up to for months,” he countered. “Why do you think we’re here?”

“It’s too late to stop it,” Jessica cackled. “I’m too powerful now.” She took a step away from the circle, unlinking her hands from Matilda and Laura, and facing Aric head on. “I am the power here.”

“I don’t want to kill you, Jessica,” Aric replied griml
y. “If I have no other choice, though, I will. You still have a choice here. Make the right one.”

Jessica let loose a loopy laugh. She was drunk on po
wer. “I have your girlfriend’s power. You can’t stop me.” Jessica raised her hand, pointing a finger in Aric’s direction. “I think you need me to kill her to prove exactly how powerful I am now.”

“If you take a step toward her, I’ll cut you down righ
t now,” Aric said, brandishing his knife threateningly. Under the glittering candlelight and still wafting power circle, I could see that it was adorned with intricate drawings. It looked ceremonial, which I guessed made sense.

“Why don’t you take your best shot and see what
happens?” Jessica suggested. I didn’t like the look in her eyes.

Aric shook his head almost imperceptibly. “I’m sorry,”
he said. “I really am. You’ve given me no choice. I can’t let you finish this.”

Aric stepped forward and drove the knife into Jessica
’s chest. The second before it happened, Jessica still looked confident, as though the magic would somehow stop the knife from ripping through her torso. When the knife made contact, her eyes widened in surprise.

She dropped to her knees in abject shock, Aric’s knife still jutting from her chest.

“How?” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as they found me in the crowd. “You ... how?”

Jessica finished her drop to the ground and when h
er body hit, the other witches looked up in unison. If they had been unaware of what was transpiring before – slaves to the magic coursing through the yard and them – that wasn’t the case now.

They broke contact and, for a second, the m
agic continued to swirl before dissipating. It was over. Relief washed over me. It was short-lived, though. I saw Laura move to the forefront of the witches, her eyes as black as the night. She reached up to the sky, as though trying to draw the remnants of fleeing magic back to her. The magic cloud started to pool again, charging back toward the Earth.

Instead of going into everyone, though, the plume of
smoke barreled into Laura with such force it lifted her a few feet off the ground.

Aric’s eyes widened in surprise. “Laura stop! It’s done! Let it go!”

When Laura landed on the ground, her attention was focused on me. “She doesn’t have Zoe’s power,” she said, her voice had gone low and guttural. “She never had Zoe’s power. She didn’t have the right potion.”

Uh-oh.

“I gave her the ingredients,” Laura laughed. “But I switched out the potions. I took Zoe’s power an hour before Jessica put on her little show. ”

“You knew,” I said, dread filling the previously empt
y pit of my stomach. “You knew what she was planning all along.”

“I did,” Laura agreed, although it sounded like a ch
orus of voices was singing out from inside of her. “I knew what Jessica was from the beginning – a pretender, a usurper to the throne.”

“You’re not a pretender, though, are you?” Paris
piped up from behind me. “You know how to handle that much power. Your mom showed you.”

“She did.”

“How long have you had this planned?” I asked.

“This exact plan? Only a few months,” Laura replied
, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “I’ve known for a long time that I would take what was yours eventually, though.”

I remained rooted to the spot where I was standing.

“I started thinking about it the day I met you,” Laura said chillingly. “I knew what you were the moment I saw you. I could smell it on you. All that power. It was emanating from your very pores. It was just sitting there and you weren’t doing a thing with it.”

“I don’t believe you,” I challenged.

“What? You don’t believe that poor little Laura, poor little innocent Laura, with her big eyes and unending social awkwardness, could outthink you? That’s exactly what I wanted you to believe, you imbecile.”

“But you were considering joining Blake’s monst
er hunters!” I was grasping at straws now, every moment I had spent with Laura over the past two years running through my mind. Had she been scamming me all along?

“I was curious exactly how much they knew,” Laura
said. “It wasn’t much, though. They’re such simpletons. Just like the members of this sorority. I was looking for information, and the best way to get information is to pretend you believe in a cause.”

Things were starting to click into place – and I di
dn’t like the picture that was starting to form.

“
Delta Omicron didn’t recruit you, did they?” Paris asked knowingly. “You recruited them?”

“Let’s just say I pointed them in the right direction,” La
ura said. “I knew the minute I met Jessica that she would give me what I needed. You wouldn’t believe the crap I had to put up with, though. I almost killed her several times. She was so annoying.

Thinking she was in control when I was in cont
rol. You have no idea how many times I dreamed of slitting her throat just to shut her up.”

“She’s always been the true power behind the sorority, Zoe,” Aric said, his voice low.

“She’s always been the real threat.”

“You knew?” I glanced at him incredulously. “You knew?”

Aric clenched his jaw. “I didn’t know. Not for sure.”

“But you suspected?” I could feel my heart hammering in my chest.

Aric’s eyes filled with worry. “I can explain everything.”

“For how long? How long have you suspected?”

“I told you, I wasn’t sure,” Aric said meekly.

“How long?”

“Since this fall,” Aric said grimly.

“How did you know?”

“I read the signs,” Aric said. “She was giving off too much power. Our spies told us that Laura was the one actually directing everyone in the sorority. That she was the one who seemed to know what she was doing while Jessica was taking credit for it. That’s when I realized that Jessica was just a pawn in all of this – even though she was dangerous in her own right.”

I could feel my heart breaking. “And you used me as bait?”

Aric looked crushed. “I did what I had to do. I told you to stay away from the sorority. I told you to try to extricate Laura and Matilda. I did what I could.”

“Except tell the truth,” I replied bitterly.

“Zoe ... I ... now isn’t the time for this.”

“He’s right,” Laura laughed. “He’s so right. I don’t
have time to watch your heart break while you realize you put your faith in the wrong person. Again. It’s just all so sad.”