Night World 1 (49 page)

She stepped away from a staring Kishi on her left and a dismayed Nat on her right. She could feel every pair of eyes in the place on her.

“What is it?” she said, trying to look surprised.

Aunt Ursula's eyes met hers directly, as if to say,
You know.
But she didn't say anything, which was almost as bad.

“Dani Naete Mella Abforth.”

Oh,
Eileithyia.
Not Dani, too….

Dani was stepping out of the circle. Her small head was held proudly, but Thea could see the fear in her eyes. She walked, linen swaying around her ankles, to stand beside Thea.

Dani, I'm sorry….

“That's all,” Aunt Ursula said. “The rest of you go on with your Circle. Good Samhain, everybody.” To Thea and Dani, she said, “You need to come outside.”

They followed her silently. There was nothing else to do.

When they were out in the cool night air, Dani said, “Is—something wrong?” She looked from Aunt Ursula to the other woman, who was short but had considerable presence.

And seemed familiar to Thea…and then she had it.

It's Nana Buruku. From the Inner Circle.

This isn't a Harman family matter. The Inner Circle itself is calling us.

“There are some things we need to talk about. Come on and let's get it all cleared up fast,” Nana Buruku said quietly, putting a cinnamon-colored hand on Thea's arm. Gran's ancient Lincoln Continental was sitting at the curb. Nana Buruku took the wheel herself.

Dani and Thea held hands in the backseat. Dani's fingers were icy cold.

The car wound up and down streets lined with human trick-or-treaters, to a big ranch-style house with high block walls screening the backyard. Selene's house, Thea realized, seeing the name Lucna on the mailbox.

It must be where they're having the maidens' Circle Midnight meeting.

Aunt Ursula got out. Thea and Dani sat in the car with Nana Buruku. In a few minutes, Aunt Ursula came back with Blaise.

Selene, dressed in silver, and Vivienne in black, followed as far as the driveway. They looked sober and scared, not like wicked witches at all.

Blaise did. Barefoot and apparently indifferent to the cold, little bells ringing, she looked flushed and angry and proud. She opened the door with a jerk and sat down hard beside Thea, who scooted over.

“What's going on?” she said, almost out loud. “I'm missing the moon cakes, I'm missing
everything.
What kind of Samhain is this?”

Thea had never admired her more.

“We'll get back in time,” Dani said, and her voice was steady, even if her fingers were still cold.

They're both brave, Thea thought. And me? But however much she wanted to, she couldn't get a word out through the tightness in her throat.

She half expected Nana Buruku to get on the freeway and head out toward the desert, toward Thierry's land. But instead the Lincoln headed down familiar streets and pulled up in the alley behind Grandma Harman's store.

Thea could feel Dani's questioning eyes on her. But she had no idea what was going on, and she was afraid to look Dani in the face.

“Come on,” Aunt Ursula said, and shepherded them through the back door, into the shop, through the bead curtain that led to the workshop.

All the chairs for Gran's students had been pushed into a rough circle. People were sitting in them, or standing and talking quietly, but when Thea stepped through the curtain behind Nana Buruku, they all stopped and looked.

Thea's eyes moved from face to face, seeing each in a sort of disconnected, dreamlike flash. Grandma Harman, looking so grim and tired. Mother Cybele, who was
the
Mother of the Inner Circle, just as Gran was
the
Crone, looking anxious. Aradia, the Maiden, her lovely face serious and sad.

Others she recognized from two years ago, people who were so famous she knew them by their first names. Rhys, Belfana, Creon, Old Bob.

Aunt Ursula and Nana Buruku made up the last two of the nine.

They looked like ordinary people, working men and women and still-sharp-as-a-tack retired seniors, the kind you'd see any day on the street.

They weren't.

This was the biggest concentration of magical talent anywhere in the world. These people were the witch geniuses, the prodigies and the sages, the far-seers, the teachers, the policy-makers. They were the Inner Circle.

And they were all looking at Thea.

“The girls are here,” Mother Cybele said softly to Aradia. “They're standing in the middle.”

Gran said, “All right, let's get this thing started. Will everybody find themselves a seat.” It wasn't a question, it was an order. Gran was senior to all these celebrities.

But she wouldn't
look
at Thea. And that was the most terrible, nightmarish thing of all. She acted as if Thea and Blaise were strangers.

Everyone was sitting, nudging their chairs into a more evenly spaced circle. They were all wearing their ordinary clothes, Thea realized: business suits or uniforms or pants and tops. In Aradia's case, jeans. In Old Bob's case, dirty overalls.

Which means they never even started their own ceremony tonight. This is important enough to skip Samhain over.

This is a trial.

Red-haired Belfana pushed Creon's wheelchair to an empty spot. She was the last to sit down.

I'm centered, Thea thought numbly.

It was her worst fear, the very thing that had driven her away from Eric in the desert, the first time she'd felt the soulmate connection with him. And now it was
true.

She could hear Dani breathing irregularly, and the faint tinkle of bells as Blaise shifted from foot to foot.

“All right,” Grandma Harman said, sounding tired but formal. “By Earth, by Air, by Water, and by Fire, I call this Circle to unity.” She went on, reciting the age-old formula for a meeting of deliberation.

For Thea, the words blended into the pounding of blood in her ears. It was strange, how terrifying it could be to be surrounded in all directions by people. Everywhere she looked, another grave, unreadable face. She felt as trapped as if they had been humans.

“Thea Sophia Harman,” Gran said, and suddenly Thea was listening again. “You stand accused…”

There seemed to be an endless, empty pause, although Thea knew it was probably no time at all.

“…of working forbidden spells in direct disobedience to the laws of Hellewise and of this Circle….”

All Thea heard for a while was
“working forbidden spells.”
It seemed to hang in the air, echoing. Part of her kept waiting to hear the other, more terrible charges of betraying the secrets of the Night World and falling in love with a human. But they didn't come.

“…summoning a spirit from the far places beyond the veil…binding two humans with a forbidden love charm…”

And then Gran was reading Blaise's name.

Blaise was charged with fashioning a necklace out of forbidden materials and binding humans with a forbidden charm. Dani was charged with aiding and abetting Thea in the summoning of a spirit from the far places—which was wrong, of course, Thea thought dizzily.

Her whole body was tingling, from the soles of her feet, to her palms, to her scalp. With fear…and with something like relief.

They don't know. They don't know the worst part of it or they would have said so—wouldn't they? And if I just keep quiet, why should they ever know?

Then she focused on Gran, who had finished reading the charges and was now talking in an ordinary voice again. “And I have to say that I'm disappointed in all three of you. Especially you, Thea. I'd expect this from
her,
of course”—she nodded at Blaise, speaking to the rest of the Circle—“that descendant of mine there who's dressed up like Hecate's bad daughter. But I honestly thought Thea had more sense.”

She
looked
disappointed. And that—hurt. Thea had always been the good girl, the golden girl, youngest and most promising of the Hearth-Woman line. Now, as she looked from face to face, she saw disappointment everywhere.

I've failed them; I've disgraced my heritage. I'm so ashamed….

She wanted to curl up and disappear.

Just then, there was a silvery ripple of bells. Blaise was tossing her dark head. She looked defiant and scornful and very proud and a little bored.

“What
I
want to know is who turned us in,” she said in an almost inaudible but definitely menacing whisper. “Whoever it is, they're going to be
sorry.
”

And suddenly, somehow, Thea was less frightened. The disappointment didn't mean so much. It was possible to shock the Inner Circle and still be standing up. Blaise proved it.

It was then that irony struck Thea. She'd spent her life getting in trouble because of Blaise, and now here they were, in the worst trouble imaginable—because of her.

And Dani was in trouble, too. Her velvety eyes were filled with tears. When she saw
that,
Thea found the tightness in her throat easing. She could talk again.

“Look—excuse me—but there's something you need to know. Before this goes any further—”

“You'll have a chance to speak later,” Mother Cybele said, her voice soft and firm, like her little dumpling-shaped body.

“No, I have to say it now.” Thea turned to Gran, speaking, for just these few seconds, to her grandmother rather than to the Crone of the Inner Circle. “Grandma, Dani shouldn't be here. Really.
Really.
She didn't know anything about the summoning; I did it all. I
promise.
”

Gran's expression gentled slightly, the creases on her face shifting. Then she was impassive again.

“All right, all right, we'll see about that later. The first thing is to find out just what
you've
been doing. Since you seem to be the instigator here.”

It was when she said “later” that realization hit Thea like a tsunami. And everything changed.

Later…time…
what time is it?

She looked frantically around for the clock. There—behind Old Bob's gray head…

Ten minutes to ten.

Eric.

Somehow, in the stress she'd felt since Aunt Ursula came to get her, she had completely forgotten that he was waiting in the desert.

But now she could
see
him, the vision in her mind's eye as clear as if she were standing there with him. Eric watching the clock, minutes going by, and Thea still not arriving. Eric looking at the bonfire and at the three black-clothed dummies tied to their stakes.

And the party. The Halloween party at school. Blistered metal doors being opened and people flooding in. Shoes walking across the scuffed wooden floor, costumed kids standing underneath the dangling witch figures. Kids shrieking with laughter, handing over goblin money, crowding into the torture booths.

While something lurked around the exposed pipes on the ceiling. Maybe invisible, maybe looking like a white figure and feeling like a blast of arctic wind. Maybe like a woman with long mahogany hair.

Lurking…then suddenly sweeping down…

She's going to
kill
them. They're completely defenseless….

Fear tore into Thea like jagged metal.

It was all happening right now, and she wasn't doing anything to stop it. It had been happening for almost an hour, and she hadn't even given it a thought.

“
T
hea.” Dani was shaking her arm, “They're
talking
to you.”

The visions were gone. Thea was standing in Gran's workshop, seeing everything as if through a distorting lens. People's faces seemed to stretch; their voices seemed to drag.

“I
asked,
how did you learn the invocation for summoning spirits?” Gran said slowly.

Eric. He won't wait; he'll start without me. Or will he? I told him not to. But he'll be worrying about the party….

The party. All those kids…even
little
kids. Humans, but
people.
Like baby chicks with a hawk up above. How many of them will end up like Kevin?

“The invocation for summoning spirits!” Gran was shouting, as if Thea were hard of hearing.

“I…we…
I
heard you at Samhain two years ago. In Vermont. I saw the summoning the Inner Circle did.” Even her own voice sounded weird and distorted.

“
We
saw you. Both of us. We were hiding behind the trees and you never even noticed,” Blaise said clearly, and the bells rang again.

Dimly, Thea felt appreciation. But most of her mind was reeling from horrible thought to thought.

Eric…but if I try to get to him, if the Inner Circle finds out he's involved…
that
will get him killed. A human who knows about the Night World. Immediate death sentence.

But Suzanne. If he burns those dummies, Suzanne will kill him the way she killed Kevin.

No matter what happened, Eric was going to end up dead.

Unless…

“Which…of the spirits…did you call?” Gran was shouting, as if Thea was now not only hard of hearing but slow of understanding.

Unless…

“That's what I want to tell you,” Thea said.

She could see the way. It would mean the end for her, but she might possibly save Eric. If there was enough time, if they would let her alone, if Eric wasn't right now trying to be a hero….

“I
want
to tell you about it,” Thea said again. And then the words were tumbling out in a rush, faster and faster, as if some dam had broken inside her. “And I'll tell you everything—but
please,
Grandma,
please,
you have to let me go out now. Just for a little while. There's something I have to do. You
have
to let me go, and then I'll come back here and you can do whatever you want to me.”

“Hold on a minute,” Mother Cybele said, but Thea couldn't stop.

“Please—
please,
Grandma. I've done a terrible thing—and I'm the only one who can take care of it. I'll come back—”

“Wait, wait, wait. Calm down,” Gran said. She looked agitated herself. “What's this rush all of sudden? Try it slowly. What do you think you have to do?”

“I have to put her
back.
” Thea saw that she was going to have to give some explanation. She tried to speak clearly and slowly, to make them understand. “The spirit I let out, Grandma. Her name is Suzanne Blanchet and she was burned in the sixteen hundreds. And she's out, out
there,
and she's already killed a human.”

Everyone was listening now, some leaning forward, some frowning. Thea looked around at the circle of faces, talking to all of them. She was still terrified, but what did that matter? Eric mattered.

“Last week she killed a boy at my high school. And tonight she's going to kill more people, at the high school Halloween party. I can't explain how I know—there isn't
time.
But I do know. And I'm the only one who can stop her. I called her; I'm the only one who can put her back.”

“Yes, but unfortunately it's not that easy,” a low voice said. Thea turned and identified Rhys, a wiry man in a white lab coat. “If the spirit's at large—”

“I know about that, but I have a way to trap her. It's all set up, and I…” Thea hesitated. “I've tricked somebody into helping me,” she said slowly. “And he's in danger right now. Which is why you have to let me go, let me take care of this.
Please.
”

“You want to go to the high school, where the party is,” Aunt Ursula said. Although her lips were as thin as ever, she didn't sound angry. More—astute.

Thea opened her mouth to say no, and then stopped, confused again.

The party—or the desert? If Suzanne was really killing people at the party, she should go there. But only if Eric wasn't doing something to attract Suzanne to the desert. He was still more important to her than anyone else. But if he
wasn't
doing something—and if Suzanne was at the party—she might kill before Thea and Eric could lure her….

I'm going crazy.

She felt, literally, as if she might faint. Her head was swimming. There were too many possibilities. It all depended on where Suzanne was right now, and there was no way to know that.

Thea began to shake violently, black dots dancing in front of her eyes.

I don't know what to do.

“I'm sorry…could everybody listen for a moment? I'm seeing something.”

It was Aradia's voice, quiet and gently self-possessed. Mature, even though she was only a little older than Thea. Thea tried to see her through the black dots.

“I think it's something important, something about what we're talking about,” Aradia said. Her beautiful face, with its smooth skin the color of coffee with cream, was turned toward Thea. Her wide brown eyes looked straight ahead without focus, the way they always did.

Aradia couldn't see with those eyes—but then she didn't need to. She saw with her mind—and saw things that were hidden to most people.

“I'm seeing a boy—he's dressed in some old-fashioned costume. He's beside a fire, inside a circle of stones.”

Eric.
…

“He's got a stick—an ember. He's looking around. Now he's going to…it looks like a scarecrow. I can't see it well. There's a pile of sticks underneath it. He's bending. He's lighting the sticks.”

No.

“I have to go,” Thea said. She wasn't asking permission anymore.

Aradia was still speaking. “Okay, the sticks are catching fire. Now I can see better…and it's not a scarecrow; it looks sort of like a witch. A doll.” She stopped, her lovely blind eyes widening. “It's—and it's moving—no, there's something moving it. I can see it now—a spirit. A spirit is moving the doll. It's coming out now—toward the boy—”

“I have to go,” Thea said. And then she was moving, pushing her way between Rhys and Old Bob, breaking out of the circle. The beads of the curtain struck her face, clattering as they fell back behind her.

“Thea, wait a minute!”

“Thea, come back here!”

“Ursula, you go get her—”

The jeep. My backpack's in the
jeep.
I have to get it first.

The keys to the Lincoln were hanging on a nail by the back door. Thea grabbed them.

She pushed the back door open just as three or four people came hurrying through the bead curtain. She slammed the door in their faces.

Get to the car.
Fast.
Now drive.

She backed out of the alley, tires squealing. She could see light spill as the door to the shop opened, but by then she was turning onto Barren Street.

Eric…

She found herself driving at some new level, squeezing through the tail end of yellow lights, recognizing shortcuts in the dark. In just a few minutes she was at the Night World club with the jack-o'-lanterns on the porch.

There was no place to park the Lincoln. She left it in the middle of the street, with the keys still in the ignition. She pulled the key to the jeep out of her belt and jumped in.

Hurry. Hurry. She burned rubber again getting the jeep moving.

Hurry. The freeway.

Eric…

Just let me get to him. And let it not be too late. That's all I ask, after that I don't care.

Would you give up everything?

The voice didn't seem like a stranger this time, didn't seem menacing. Just curious. And Thea had an answer.

Yes.

If I can just get there, in time, I can send him away. I can tell him some story, make him go somehow. Make him hide. I'll tell the Circle I tricked him or enchanted him into helping; I won't even tell them his name. They can't make me.

Whatever they do to me, he'll be safe. That's all I care about. That's all I'm asking.

But even that was a lot, and she knew it, so she kept her foot mashed down on the gas pedal.

Freeway off ramp. Side road.

She drove crazily fast. The pounding inside her head kept saying hurry, hurry, even as she was careening off curbs.

Desert.

Now the road was bad. It was hard to see; the moon was almost down. The jeep lunged over bumps and lurched into potholes.

Eric, be doing something. Be talking to her, be running. You're so smart, please, please, be smart now. Keep her distracted, keep her hair away from your neck.

How strong was a spirit? Thea didn't know.

Please, I see everything so clearly now. I've been selfish, only thinking of me, what would make me happy. All that “encased in ice” garbage. I should have been dancing in the street. As long as Eric is all right, I don't care if he lives on Mars, I don't care if I never see him again. As long as he's well I'm happier than anybody has a right to be.

A jolt rattled her teeth. She was off the road now, driving by landmarks. Through forests of dead yuccas that looked like skinny gray Cousin Its.

It's taking so long, it's too long. Hurry.
Hurry.

She could see red sandstone in front of her. Pillars in the headlights.

That's it! Go, go!

The jeep rocketed over clumps of blackbrush. She could see fire in the depression between the pillars. She drove straight toward it.

Fire—movement—the top of a silhouette…

“Eric!”

She was yelling even as she slammed on the brakes. The jeep ground to a shuddering stop a few inches from a misshapen sandstone tower.

“Eric!” She had the backpack in her hand. She tore the door open and jumped out, running.

“Thea! Stay out of here!”

She saw him.

The light of the fire cast an eerie glow onto the already lurid sandstone. Everything seemed red, as if this place were bathed in blood. The roar of the jeep's engine and the roar of the fire merged to sound like the flames of hell.

But Eric was alive and fighting. Fighting
it.

Thea threw herself at it, even as her brain was registering impressions.

A wraith shape that looked at one second like a woman, and the next second like tattered clouds. Part of it seemed to be coiled around Eric, and he had both hands at his throat. Bits of the pine-needle amulet Thea had made for him were scattered around his feet. Useless.

“Get away from him! I'm the one who set this up!” Thea screamed. She reached Eric and grabbed wildly at the wraith, at the part of it around his throat. Her hands felt Eric's hands, felt cold air.

“No—Thea, watch out—”

She saw the thing come free of Eric, who staggered. She saw it re-form, gather, then dive straight for her.

“Thea!” Eric knocked her sideways. Cold air rushed by.

She and Eric fell in a heap.

She gasped “Eric, go,” even before she got up. She tried to shove at him, looking around for the wraith. “Go—get out of here! The jeep's running—get in and just
drive.
I'll call you later.”

“Stay back to back,” Eric said breathlessly. “She's incredibly fast.” He added through his teeth, “You know I'm not leaving.”

“This is witch stuff, you jerk!” she snarled, standing back to back. “I don't
want
you. You'll just get in my way!”

It was a valiant effort. She even managed to inject something like hatred into her voice. And Eric wasn't perfect. He turned around, grabbed her by the shoulder, and yelled,
“You know I'm not going, so don't waste any more time!”

Then he shoved her sideways again and freezing wind streaked by her cheek, leaving her ear numb.

“Sorry,” he said in his normal voice. “You okay?”