Night World 1 (48 page)

She
was
trembling now, and her eyes had filled. But her hands were balled into fists and she wouldn't look at him.

“Thea—”

The tears spilled.
“I won't be your death!”

“And I can't forget you! I can't stop loving you.”

“Well, and maybe that was just a spell, too,” she said, sniffling. Tears were falling straight off her face and onto the rock. Eric looked around for something to give her, then tried to wipe her wet cheeks with his thumb.

She whacked his hand away. “
Listen
to me. You did miss something when you were adding up what I did. I also make love spells for
me.
I put one on you, and that's why you fell in love in the first place.”

Eric didn't look impressed. “When?”

“When did I put the spell on you? The day I asked you to the dance.”

Eric laughed.

“You—”

“Thea.” He shook his head. “Look,” he said gently, “I fell in love with you
before
that. It was when we were out here with that snake. When we just looked at each other and…and…I saw you surrounded by mist and you were the most beautiful thing in the world.” He shook his head again. “And maybe
that
was magic, but I don't think it was any spell you were putting on me.”

Thea wiped her eyes on her sleeve. Okay, so the yemonja had nothing to do with it. Anyway, love spells just seemed to bounce off Eric—even the dolls hadn't worked….

She bent suddenly and picked up her backpack. “And I don't know
why
this didn't work,” she muttered. She took out a quilted makeup bag, unzipped it, and reached inside.

The dolls came out as a bundle. At first glance they looked all right. Then Thea saw it.

The male doll had turned around. Instead of being face-to-face with the female doll, it had its back to her.

The scarlet ribbon was still wound tightly around them. There was no way that it could have slipped, that this could have happened by accident. But the dolls had been inside the case, and the case had been inside her backpack all day.

Eric was watching. “That's Pilar's ring. Hey, is that the spell on me and Pilar? Can I see it?”

“Oh, why not?” Thea whispered. She felt dazed again.

So it couldn't have been an accident, and no human could have done it. And no witch could have done it either.

Maybe…

Maybe there was a magic stronger than spells. Maybe the soulmate principle was responsible, and if two people were meant to be together, nothing could keep them apart.

Eric was gingerly unwinding the scarlet ribbon. “I'll give the ring back to Pilar,” he said. He reduced the binding spell to its constituent parts, put them gently back in the makeup bag.

Then he looked at her.

“I've always loved you,” he said. “The only question is…” He broke off and looked like the shy Eric she knew again. “Is, do you love me?” he finished at last. His voice was soft, but he was looking at her steadily.

Maybe there are some things you just can't fight….

She made herself look at him. The image wobbled and split.

“I love you,” she whispered. “I don't know what's going to happen, but I do.”

They fell—slow as a dream, but still falling—into each other's arms.

“There's a problem,” Thea said some time later. “Besides all the other problems. I'm going to be doing something next week, and I just need you to give me some time.”

“What kind of something?”

“I can't tell you.”

“You have to tell me,” he said calmly, his breath against her hair. “You have to tell me everything now.”

“It's magic stuff and it's dangerous—” A second too late she realized her mistake.

“What do you mean, dangerous?” He straightened up. His voice told her the peaceful interlude was over. “If you think I'm going to let you do something dangerous by yourself….”

He wore her down. He was good at that—even better than his sister—and Thea was no good at refusing him. In the end she told him about Suzanne Blanchet.

“A dead witch,” he said.

“A spirit. And a very angry one.”

“And you think she's coming back,” he said.

“I think she's been here all along. Maybe hanging around the old gym, which hasn't done her any good since nobody's been there assaulting dummies. But if they open it to have the Halloween party…”

“It'll be full of humans, all visiting those booths, all reminding her of what she hates. She can pick them off like ticks off a dog.”

“Something like that. I think it could be bad. So what I've got to do is quietly lure her somewhere else and then send her back where she came from.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“I don't know.” Thea rubbed her forehead. The sun was dipping toward the cliffs and long afternoon shadows had fallen across the desert.

“You've got a plan,” Eric said matter-of-factly.

Not you, Thea thought. I promised myself I wouldn't use you. Not even to save lives.

“You've got a plan you think is dangerous for humans. For me, since I'm going to be helping you.”

I will not use you….

“Let's make this easy on everybody. You
know
I'm not going to let you do it alone. We might as well take that as given and go on from there.”

This is the crazy guy who ignores snakebites and attacks people with punch, she reminded herself. Do you
really
expect to talk him out of helping you?

But if something were to happen to him…

The voice came back again, and Thea didn't understand it and she didn't like it at all.

Would you give up everything?

A
week passed more or less quietly. Grandma Harman came home, her cough better. She didn't seem to notice anything different about Thea.

Night came earlier, and everyone at school talked about parties and costumes. The air got colder and there was an announcement that the old gym would be opened for Halloween.

Thea heard that Randy Marik had been moved to a psychiatric hospital and was in intensive therapy. He was making some progress.

Thea and Eric worked every day on their plan.

The only real excitement came the night when Thea walked in, sat on Blaise's bed, and said, “Bullets won't stop him.”

“What?”
Blaise looked up from creaming her elbows.

“I mean, spells won't stop him. Eric. They just bounce off. I'm telling you this because you're going to notice that he's not with Pilar.”

Blaise snapped the tube of cream shut. She stared at Thea for a full minute before she said tightly, “What are you saying?”

Thea's humor drained away. She looked at the floor. “I'm saying we're soulmates,” she said quietly. “And that I can't help it. There is really, truly, nothing I can do about it.”

“I can't believe, after all that—”

“Right. After all that work. And after me trying and trying to stop, because I'm scared to death. But there's no way to
fight
it, Blaise. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I've got to find some way to try to live with it.” She looked at her cousin. “Okay?”

“You know it's not okay. You know it's completely not okay.”

“I guess what I mean is, okay, will you please not kill him or turn us in? Because I can't stand being in another fight with you. And I can't stop breaking the law.”

Blaise tossed the cream jar in the direction of the dresser. “Thea, are you all right?” she said seriously. “Because you're acting very…”

“Fatalistic?”

“Fatalistic and generally scary.”

“I'm okay. I just…I don't know what's going to happen, but I am sort of…calm. I'm going to do my best. Eric's going to do his best. And beyond that, nothing's guaranteed.”

Blaise stared for another minute, her gray eyes searching Thea's face. Then she shook her head. “I won't turn you in. You
know
I would never turn you in. We're sisters. And as for trying to kill him…” She shrugged, looking grim. “It probably wouldn't work. That guy is impossible.”

“Thank you, Blaise.” Thea touched her cousin's arm lightly.

Blaise covered Thea's hand with her own red-nailed fingers, just for a moment. Then she sat back and straightened her pillows with a little jerk.

“Just don't
tell
me anything, all right? I wash my hands of you two and I don't want to know what's going on. Besides, I've got worries of my own. I have to decide between a Maserati and a Karmann Ghia.”

Halloween.

Thea looked out the window at the darkened world. There weren't any kids in the alley, but she knew they were flitting around the city. Goblins and ghosts and witches and vampires—all fakes. Real vampires were sitting inside at fireplaces, or maybe at exclusive parties, chuckling.

And real witches were getting dressed for their Samhain Circles.

Thea put on a white shift, sleeveless, made out of one piece of material. She pulled a soft white belt around her waist and made a loop pointing up with one side of the tie, then wrapped the other end around the base of the loop three times. A thet knot. Witches had used them for four thousand years.

She took a breath and looked outside again.

Enjoy the peace while you can, she told herself. It's going to be a busy night.

Eric's jeep pulled into the alley. The horn honked once.

Thea grabbed the backpack, which had been stuffed under her bed. It was full of materials. Oak, ash, quassia chips, blessed thistle, mandrake root. The hardened residue from the bronze bowl, which she had painstakingly scraped off with one of Blaise's art knives. A wooden seal, also carved with Blaise's tools. And an ounce vial with three precious drops of summoning potion stolen from the malachite bottle.

She started for the stairs.

“Hey, are you leaving already?” Blaise said, emerging from the bathroom. “You've got—what?—an hour and a half before Circle.”

Blaise looked gorgeous, and more herself than at any other time of year. Her shift was black, also sleeveless, also made in one piece. Her hair hung loose to her hips, woven with little bells. Her arms were pale and beautiful against the darkness of hair and shift, and she was barefoot, wearing one ankle bracelet.

“I'm going to run out and do something before Circle,” Thea said. “Don't ask me what.”

Blaise of course didn't know what Thea and Eric were planning. Not even Dani knew. It was better that way.

“Thea…” Blaise stood at the top of the stairs and looked down as Thea dashed out. “You be
careful
!”

Thea waved at her cousin.

The back of the jeep was full of wood.

“I thought I'd better bring some more, just in case we need it,” Eric said, throwing her backpack in. Then he added in a different voice, “You look—amazing—like that.”

She smiled at him. “Thanks. It's traditional. You look nice, too.”

He was wearing the costume of a seventeenth-century French soldier at Ronchain—or as close as they could get from looking at woodcuts in old books.

They drove into the desert, past the huge bare cliffs, off the main road and far out among the Joshua trees, until they found the place. It was tiny, just a dip in the ground almost enclosed in red sandstone pillars. The pillars didn't look like the monoliths at Stonehenge—they were knobby and squished sideways, like towers of Play-Doh that some kid had smashed—but they served the same purpose.

They'd found this place all by themselves, and Thea was very proud of it.

“The fire's still going,” she said. “That's good.”

It had been burning for the last three days inside the circle. Thea's hope had been that it would keep Suzanne interested—and away from the people setting up in the old gym. And it seemed to have worked.

Not just the fire, of course. The three dummies lying on the ground tied to stakes were supposed to be interesting, too.

“These guys all look okay,” Eric said. He picked up the smallest dummy and dusted it off. It looked something like a scarecrow when he thrust the stick into a hole in the ground, standing it up.

A scarecrow dressed in a black shift tied with a thet knot. With a sign hanging around the neck:
LUCIENNE
.

The other small dummy had a sign that said
CLÉMENT
. The big dummy's sign said
SUZANNE
.

“Okay,” Thea said when they had unloaded the wood, leaving her backpack in the jeep. “Now, remember, you don't do
anything
until I get back, right? Not anything. And if I'm a few minutes late, you just wait.”

He stopped nodding. “The Halloween party starts at nine. If you're not here at nine exactly, I might—”

“
No.
Don't touch anything, don't do anything.”

“Thea, we might lose her. What if she decides that nothing's happening here, so she might as well go to the party—”

“I won't be late,” Thea said flatly. It seemed the only way to win the argument. “But do
not
burn those witches before I'm here to cast the circle. Okay?”

“Good luck,” he said.

He looked handsome and mysterious in his exotic clothes. Not like himself. They kissed under the half-full moon.

“Be safe,” Thea whispered, making herself let go of him.

“Come back safe,” he whispered. “I love you.”

She drove the jeep back to the city, to the maidens' Circle Twilight meeting.

It was being held this year at a Night World club on the southern edge of town. There was no sign on the door, but the doormat, between two grinning jack-o'-lanterns, had been painted with a black dahlia.

Thea knocked and the door opened.

“Dani! You look great.”

“So do you,” Dani said. She was dressed in white, in a pleated sheer gown that hung to her ankles and looked Egyptian. Black braids clasped with silver cascaded from a sort of crown at her head, falling over her shoulders and back and arms. She made a beautiful Queen Isis. “You didn't wear a costume,” she said, making it a question.

“Blaise and I are sort of going as Maya and Hellewise,” Thea said. The truth was that she was most comfortable in her ordinary Circle clothes, and that Blaise knew she looked best in
hers.

“Well, come on down. You're the last one,” Dani said, taking Thea's hand.

They went down a flight of stairs to an underground room. It had a makeshift, thrown-together look, with crates to sit on, and white fairy lights strung between concrete pillars. Metal chairs had been pushed to the periphery.

“Thea! Hey, there! Merry meet!” people called. Thea turned around and around, smiling and getting hugs.

“Good Samhain,” she kept saying. “Unity.”

For those few minutes, she forgot about what was going to happen tonight. It was so good to see them all again, all her friends from summer Circles.

Kishi Hirata, dressed as Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess, in gold and orange. Alaric Breedlove—the sophomore from Lake Mead High—as Tammuz the shepherd, son of the mother goddess Ishtar. Claire Blessingway as the Navajo goddess Changing Woman, in a dress decorated with red flower petals and turquoise. Nathaniel Long as Herne, Celtic god of the hunt, in forest green, with stag's antlers.

Humans put on costumes to disguise themselves tonight. Witches put on costumes to try to reflect their inner selves—what they were inside, what they wanted to be.

“Here, taste,” Claire said, handing Thea a paper cup. It was full of a thick red herb drink spiced with cinnamon and cloves. “It's hibiscus—my dad's recipe.”

Someone else was passing around shortbread cakes in the shape of crescent moons. Thea took one. Everything here was so bright, so warm—and she would have been so happy if all she had to do tonight was enjoy it. Have a normal Samhain Circle. Celebrate…

But Eric was waiting out there in the dark and cold of the desert. And Thea was counting the minutes until she could leave.

“Okay, people, it's time to get started.”

Lawai'a Ikua, a pretty, sturdy girl with hair like black nylon, was standing in the center of the room. She was wearing a red shift and lei—Pele, the Hawaiian fire goddess, Thea guessed

“Let's get our circle, here. That's good, come on. Chang Xi, you're the youngest now.”

A little girl with big almond-shaped eyes came shyly into the ring of people. Thea hadn't seen her before—she must have turned seven since the last summer Circle. She was dressed in jade green as Kuan Yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion.

Still shy, she took a sprig of broom—real broom, the plant—and swept the area inside the ring.

“Thea, you do the salt.”

Thea was surprised and pleased. She took the bowl of sea salt that Lawai'a offered, and walked slowly around the perimeter of the circle, sprinkling it.

“Alaric, you take the water—”

Lawai'a broke off, looking toward the stairway, seeming startled. Thea saw other people look. She turned around.

Two adults, mothers, were coming down the stairs. As the light shone on the first woman's face, Thea felt a jolt.

It was Aunt Ursula.

In a gray suit, her expression as bleak as Thea had ever seen it.

Nobody in the room made a noise. They all stood still as Joshua trees, watching until the women reached the bottom. Interrupting a Circle in the middle of casting was unheard of.

“Good Samhain,” Lawai'a said faintly.

“Good Samhain.” Aunt Ursula was polite, but she didn't smile. Like a displeased teacher. “I'm very sorry to bother you, but this will only take a minute.”

Thea's heart had begun to pound, slow and hard.

It's just guilty conscience, she tried to tell herself. This doesn't
have
to be about you.

But it did. And something inside her knew even before Aunt Ursula looked the Circle over and said, “Thea Sophia Harman.”

As if she doesn't know what I look like, Thea thought dazedly.

She clamped down hard on a wild impulse simply to brush past Aunt Ursula and head for the street. Now she knew why rabbits were so stupid as to leave a good hiding place and run blindly when a dog came near. Just panic, that's all.